10 Years in Two Days

It was cold this weekend. And windy, you know because it's January in the Midwest. So we stayed in almost all weekend and didn't put on real clothes until 4 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday both. It was heaven. I had big plans to hit the Nelson Atkins early on Saturday morning, so we could see their African Art exhibit that was closing on Sunday. But we didn't make it. Pajamas and coffee and blankets and books called my name and the idea of wandering around an art museum, one of my second favorite activities, just didn't win. But the laying around and reading didn't last long either, though the pajamas did.

By noon I was deeply ensconced in the project that would take up most of my weekend, digging through and choosing photos to use in my photo scrapbook project. Flipping through the last ten years of my very prolific husband's photography: files full of vacations, family, and events that I don't want to forget. So Saturday was sorting day. And I got to use my new toy to help, I mean tool, very handy, useful, totally fun tool, the iPad. Here's a sample of my work:



Because I had so many photos to choose from I went with a mosaic collage look. Mostly because I couldn't narrow my choices down. I'm entirely indecisive when it comes to photos, especially those involving babies or cool vacations. Thankfully all the photos are filed on a separate hard drive, by date and event, so it was really simple to set up my own file for each year and just copy the photos I liked right in. From 2002 to 2010, I ended up choosing about 300 photos. And since I don't want twelve hundred scrapbook pages or to spend $100 on prints, Joe suggested that I use the Diptic app on the iPad to format the photos.



It was perfect. Once I got set up on the Photo Transfer app, I simply loaded the photos I wanted onto the iPad from my laptop, in groups by year and then got to working on layouts. Diptic has multiple layouts with anywhere from 2 to 5 photos in each one. The size can be adjusted from 8x10, 5x7, down to 4x6 and nearly anywhere in between. You can adjust the size and color of the borders and it's just damn fun to work in. I made about 95 photo collages on Sunday, got them sent over to Costco to print, and by Monday night I was scrap booking.  I love this app so much.



Digging through the photos on Saturday for four hours, laying out montages on Sunday for four hours, Monday night four hours spent sticking mounting squares on the back of photos, paraphernalia and sorting photos, wedding invitations, ticket stubs and playbills by date, I was thoroughly in my element. I finished up to 2008 on Monday night, leaving the last two years, and the desperate need to order new photo pages. I still want to go through each page and write a little something for each event or trip. A short memory or quote to just capture the feeling of each photo or activity, so that in another ten years I won't have forgotten that when we went to see Fiddler on the Roof in 2005 in NYC we had amazing front row seats, or that we walked around Chinatown and Little Italy for an entire day and had tiramisu at a bakery that was on the Sopranos. I better start writing.



Taking the time to look through the last ten years of photos reminds me once again how lucky my life has been so far. So many wonderful and photogenic friends and family, some amazing trips to Cape May, Chicago, New York City, Italy, San Diego, Phoenix, Madison, Omaha, Memphis, Birmingham, and Florida, and a great partner to share it all with, I'm sorry, evidently scrap booking has made me corny. Though I promise not a single heart shaped sticker or bit of rick rack has been used in this scrapbook. The photos stand for themselves, without any extra decoration needed.

I'm glad I chose this project as my first of 52 creative somethings for the year. What better way to begin a new year, than by reminiscing about the past ten.  I need to get back to sticking acid free stickers on acid free paper. Because acid is bad. How's your 2011 going?