scrapbooking

I've (finally) finished my latest scrapbook project. Well, kind of. I'll probably add to it as the year progresses. I've called it "Nancy's Scrapbook of Special People, Places, and Things." Exciting, eh? The concept was to create a compilation of images of, well, people, places, and things that are special to me. Things that I might like to recall when I'm far away in Colorado. Family, for example:

I've made a few pages dedicated to some of my closest friends, but I'll let them remain anonymous. Of course, I had to include some photos of the penguins at the Santa Barbara Zoo:

I even made a page with photos from our front yard, featuring my beloved succulents and some of my ceramic vessels:

Overall, I found this particular scrapbook project (and I don't do many) to be complexly affecting. Photographs are rich with meaning and layered with memories and emotions, however subtle, and I often found myself connecting with, remembering about, and reacting to them. Not always conciously, though. Many times, I think, my emotional reactions manifested in crankiness, mild depression, and irritation. Not sure why that is, except that I tend to sublimate my emotions. Basically, I'm a highly sensitive person who works darned hard not to be highly sensitive. Still working on that.

All that being said, I find scrapbooking and photo album compiling to be extremely therapeutic, creative, and productive. Much like blogging.