Chronicling the Journey

In many ways, my life in Belgium has been a sabbatical from my life in the U.S. Pulled out of the work place and a busy commuter life style, I’ve had time to pursue hobbies, something I never did at home.

In the U.S. it would be safe to say I had no hobbies at all, but since moving to Belgium, I’ve adopted scrapbooking, rubber stamping, and blogging. Not only have they been a wonderful creative outlet for me but also a way to record my experiences in Belgium and Europe. While blogging built on my long-standing life as a writer, scrapbooking is entirely new to me. I was inspired to scrapbook when I began collecting postcards from our travels here and wanted to present them in an album.

Even then, I didn't envision becoming a "scrapbooker," just a person who had a scrapbook, but this summer I’ve devoted time to reading articles and Web sites on papercrafts and my interest has kicked up several notches. I’ve begun to develop and fine tune my own artistic sensibilities and raise my standards. I love the way scrapbooking builds on photography, communications and graphic design—subjects I studied in university. As I look through the scrapbook pages I’ve created here in Belgium, I can see my layouts and techniques progressing. After months of dabbling and experimenting, I finally feel I’m getting somewhere in terms of creating a personal scrapbooking style and getting my books together. With time and practice, I’m hoping my pages will improve further.

Reviewing my work and sorting through the stacks of postcards and memorabilia associated with our trips has brought home how far I’ve traveled in every sense of the word. I can see how my world has expanded, and how my artistic and creative sensibilities have unfolded. I’ve caught a glimpse of how being an expat and stepping out of my comfort zone has remodeled my perspective inside and out.

I've been inspired by some of the "alternative scapbooking" sites that show projects that aren't built around chronicling events or family photos but capturing ideas, moods, or a expressing a single theme.  My next project is going to involve scrapbooking excerpts from my favorite blog entries—illustrating my very own “postcards from the edge.” I'm looking forward to taking a different approach than I did wth my travel postcards--starting with words and adding pictures and design elements rather than the other way around. 

August 18, 2006

Comments

[wordgirl]

I think that's a great idea. Scrapbooking is huge over here, and I have a few family members who are heavily into it. I've just never hopped aboard that particular train. I see the appeal, but I think it would take a lot of time that I don't have. Not that you do, of course. Maybe the time I've spent painting is the time I could spend scrapbooking. Hmmmm. I'll have to think about it.

[Char]

I see this as the beginning of your award-winning, best selling book that we have all known you will one day write.

[Nance]

yikes, v-grrrl, you are getting real worky. pretty soon, you'll be a PTA mom and begin making pralines and petit fours for the bake sales. then you and i will no longer be twins separated at birth.

seriously, after a few days in canada, i'm catching up on my blogreading. you've had some tough times lately. sorry, so sorry, to hear of it. are you in belgium now for the duration, or is there a return date on the horizon? use email if you'd prefer.

[V-Grrrl]

Hey Nance--you need to send me your e-mail address!

School hasn't even started, and yes, they're looking for volunteers to make a hot breakfast for the teachers on the first day they report back. You need to teach here in Belgium. The moms treat the teachers well! At least some of the moms do. I've heard about bad, bad women who are inclined to skip the whole hot breakfast thing and just serve coffeecake, muffins, yogurt and fruit. Those women are such UNDERACHIEVERS.

[Nance]

Hah! Our school system is so bereft and bankrupt that we don't even get coffee or tea at our 7am regular staff meetings unless the Army is there to give us their recruitment spiel. We have no PTA at the high school level, unless it stands for Parents Turning Away. Sigh. Coffeecake or fruit would be heaven!!

[Lynn]

We do get some continental breakfasts courtesy of the administration, PTA, Honor Society, SCA, and the Army! So, we have a full week of food provided for us from many generous folks - but notice they're all continental!! No teacher I know of expects any more than that either! We're grateful for anything we can get! And, don't they need some fruit, yogurt or muffin offerings to go with the eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits? That way people can contribute things according to their comfort level too - I wouldn't want to volunteer to go into the caferia kitchen and start pulling out all their utensils and cooking for a crowd!

[V-Grrrl]

I like the way the Army butters the teachers up. They figure after y'all have dealt with surly adolescents that dealing with Insurgents will be easy. They're not recruiting the students--they WANT YOU!

[amber]

That is a great idea! I might swipe it. LOL.

Two teays ago I asked everyone for scrapbooking stuff, so I could start doing it. None of it has been opened yet! Maybe now that Wyatt is in school, I can start. Thr whole thing really seems like something I would really like to do, and be good at.

I hope you post some of your work. I'd love to see.

:)

[Lynn]

Hey, they might be going for the teachers instead, huh? I think I'll respectfully decline right now! I did think your ideas for scrapbooking sound really cool - I think your blogs on the months and seasons would make a really cool scrapbook with photos and other artistic decorations.

[Cissy]

You're way too creatively ambitious for me. I have stacks of the pretty paper and goodies I bought more than a year ago when I intended to scrapbook. Maybe when I'm retired.

How do you find the time? I would have thought all the commuting woes would be a full-time job -- they would be for me! :) And I feel your pain on the taxes. That was a killer when we lived in Okinawa. Unfortunately public transportation wasn't an option -- it was there just incredibly unreliable not like Japan proper at all. Maybe it's changed since I lived there, but then it was still a mess.

[Nancy]

I just found this cool blog where the author features very simple journal/scrapbook designs around single themes: http://waterhalo.blogspot.com/. I like that these are theme-based rather than event-based.

[Javacurls]

It's awesome to read about how your scrapbooking has evolved and how you're developing your own personal style! So cool!! I just love scrapbooking; it's similiar to a personal diary yet you fill it with art and things that bring you back to those amazing memories/feelings you never want to forget!