Our 2009 Family Album

As you can probably guess – since it’s just about May – I’ve been dragging my feet a bit when it comes to putting together our family album for 2009. There are a few reasons for this. 1.) I didn’t scrap very much last year. Certainly not enough to fill a small album, and not enough to have documented all of the pictures that I loved last year. 2.) I’m torn on the look I want for it. I love the sort of hodge-podge look of different layouts made with different kits, where each layout is created as an individual work of art. But I also love the look of an album that is cohesive from start to finish. How do I choose? 3.) Just time. And motivation. (Or lack thereof.) And 4.) I don’t want to “cheat” this year. Previous albums have been a mix of my layouts and quick Shutterfly layouts. This was a great solution for me at the time I was putting the books together since it was such a time-saver, but I have my mind made up that I’m going to put effort into every page this year. This is probably a direct result of my control-freakishness.Ultimately I decided to try a new look, which happens to be a cohesive, clean, and relatively simple album. Though, next year I might look back and wonder why I didn’t use more “stuff”. LOL! My tastes change quickly.Here’s a handful of pages that I’ve done so far and I’m really pleased with the results!

If you’ve seen layouts from me before, you’ll recognize that journaling is noticeably absent from most pages I do. Yet, surprisingly, I journaled on nearly every page above. By focusing on the photos and keeping the extras to a minimum I found that the words just came to me a bit easier. I’m still very guarded in my approach – it’s hard for me to express my feelings on a page knowing they’ll be there for all of time – but I’m excited to have had a little breakthrough, if you will. As I make more progress with this album I will continue to share. Thanks for stopping by!