Dionne Ruff-Sloan
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Project Past Life~ the journey of a thousand memories.

20/2/2012

 
Picture
'I really want to do something with these pictures, Mom.
It's making me sad that my memories of Papa and Grandmere are fading and I want to share them with Ian before it's too late.' my daughter confided to me as we threw yet another half full photo album into the box we designated for photo storage.

It's been several months since she returned from her trip
to Japan last summer. She came home burning with passion and motivation to simplify our belongings;
mostly the things we held on to from my parent's estate.

In doing so we found loads of pictures.

PictureMy mom and my son, Christmas 2006
My mom's greatest wish was to be remembered
especially by the youngest of her grandchildren, my son.  Even now over  2 1/2 years since her death,
I still struggle with how I can keep her memory and stories alive in a tangible way for him. 


And with getting all the pictures from my grandmother that Mom kept,
I've also been concerned with finding a way to share the pictures and
stories of our family.

Scrapbooking would be the obvious answer to this dilemma, right?
Here's the thing...the only craft I've tried and hated was scrapbooking.

All the cropping, laying out, and endless bells, whistles and do dahs that go
with it seemed like much too much trouble for me. I need something
simple that's not going to take time way from other things I do like to do.
And though I've kept journals off and on for years I rarely if ever add pictures
to my words.

Picture
Enter Becky Higgins' Project Life, a simple
scrapbooking system that lets me
pair my photos with beautiful pre-designed
journal cards to help me save the memories

This made my heart sing with a resounding 'YES!!"
as I shared with my daughter what this system
could be for us.

As we go through the process of putting together the memories,
I'll be sharing our progress here as a way of staying accountable to
the completion of what at the beginning feels like a monumental task at this point. 

Preserving the past while documenting the journey of a thousand memories.
We're calling our journey Project Past Life and I hope you join us.

gina link
20/2/2012 04:10:20

that sounds like a great project Dionne....I've struggle with the whole photo thing myself.....still have one bin in the garage I need to weed through.....thing is I'd rather just keep them digitally......although there are some old family photos I treasure.......I will get to it one day :).
thx for sharing your process......

Dionne the Tea Priestess
20/2/2012 06:21:00

@Gina apparently you CAN make a digital scrapbook which is what I'm considering doing with all the photos I have sitting on my external hard drives. That way instead of just taking up space they are actually out and being enjoyed.

Ninja Muslimah
20/2/2012 06:50:50

In case you ever decide to do dive into scrapbooking with all the cropping, laying out, and endless bells, whistles and do dahs I have all the tools, cutting, trims, papers, binders, etc in a box mostly new that I ever used or used for a couple of days before I decided it was too much work!!! HA HA HA Good Luck on your journey. Love you!

Camilla link
20/2/2012 07:11:27

It looks like a good system - much more manageable than "traditional" scrapbooking. I have bins and totes filled with photos and half-completed pages. And I've spent a small fortune on specialized supplies. It just got too complicated to keep up with. This might be a good alternative for me, too.

And with it being so early in the year, I could start with this year, and keep current, while gradually working on my backlog.

Petrea link
20/2/2012 08:58:55

What a wonderful family project Dion! I did some scrap booking with photos of my first child then have since just pilled them in boxes (once digital photos caught on we basically just have them on the computer) Kudos to you for taking this on. I think it's so important to document our families this way.

Loran link
20/2/2012 12:21:03

Oh, I took all our old photos out of albums that were ruining the pictures and got them into scrap books with all the bells and whistles up until about ten years ago. Now I am so far behind it's just overwhelming to try and catch up, not to mention digital pictures and all that. Good luck with your project!

Tanja link
20/2/2012 15:44:44

Beautiful project, Dionne! I love the idea of scrapbooking, but have never actually gone ahead and tried it... maybe one day?

Ashley Rae link
21/2/2012 02:53:10

That sounds lovely! Another thing you could do is write a children's story about an adventure your 2 year old had with his Nana, either a true story or an imaginative one, and use some of the pictures to illustrate it. Then you can read it to him whenever he likes. <3

Elinor @ ahamsa: being peace, serving beauty link
21/2/2012 08:16:24

Dionne, this is so beautiful. You are not the only one with boxes (and boxes, and more boxes!) of photographs without homes, their stories hidden away and silenced. I will certainly be looking into Project Life.

Hibiscus Moon link
21/2/2012 08:45:56

Oh, what an excellent project idea!! I too have boxes of the photos hidden away & it makes me sad whenever I see them. :(

Dionne the Tea Priestess
21/2/2012 12:35:50

@Ninja Muslimah ~ Well I know exactly who to come to if I get carried away with this!

@ Camilla~ I thought it looked way more manageable as well! And a great way to get me talking about family.

@Petrea~ If I continue to enjoy this process as much as I am now I may try the digital scrapbook in the same system

@Loran~ 10 years ago was about when I took the scrapbooking class and hated it. I don't so much look at this as being behind. This is just more organic timing at work

@Tanja ~ 'Do something with our pictures' was on my Goddess Year Planner 100 things list. Perhaps it will be something to go on yours for 2013?

@Ashley Rae~ Making it more of a story book is an excellent idea! Perhaps that's what I'll do for several pages especially for him. Now that he's a big guy at 7, he loves hearing stories from when he was a little guy.

@Elinor~ Funny you should mention the pictures being silenced. Since pulling them out I feel as though they are whispering to me. Of course that means they've been moved from my bedroom! A girl's gotta sleep!

@Hibiscus Moon~ It was making me sad as well and when my daughter talked about her memories fading, it felt even more urgent to get them in a place to be shared. I'm so grateful for this simplified system.


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    Blessings!

    I'm Dionne, a Natural Rhythms Creation Coach and Elemental Forces of Creation Oracle Reader.  I teach people how to tune into to the power of the elements and rhythms of nature to design a life they love 

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