I am fighting the urge to resist not doing a single, solitary thing that has to do with scrapbooking!  I know…that is a silly urge.  When you are talking about something that has become such a part of my life, why, you ask, would I not want to embrace the day just as I would my Mother on Mother’s Day, which by the way, is just the day after?  (I think a mother may have had something to do with the location of THIS day of remembrance!)

I know of many ladies that will scrapbook, or shop for scrapbooking stuff, all day long.  I have done this in the past…shop for scrapbook stuff, that is.  This year?  Perish the thought!  When I have been invited to go to a girl’s “crop” weekend, where all I would do is scrapbook, I recoil from the idea.  To me, that would be like asking a dentist friend to go away for a relaxing weekend of, say…filling cavities!  Nope, when I want to relax or do something fun, it has to be something different from the norm, like maybe go to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy or the Artichoke Festival in Castroville…if I want to leave the menfolk behind, I might venture to a quilt show or an art museum. 

Besides, I don’t do well while being watched…I think it goes back to being expected to perform when I was a little girl [performing not being of the singing or dancing sort, but rather calling the dentist’s office when I was three to schedule an appointment for my mother  – the “she’s such a capable little girl” sort of performing].  It would be terrible if I didn’t measure up to everybody’s expectations.  What if the object of my creative abilities took too long or I seemed indecisive about placement of any particular embellishment or journaling.  It is far too tedious to be considered fun or relaxing.

So I thought I would just blast to the past when I was asked to be on the 2004 Design Team for Scrapbooks, etc.  I haven’t done anything for them for years now, but back in the day, I was hot stuff…  
and I was always crazy about flowers!

 
This layout of my little niece, Marissa, was always a favorite, although I must apologize for the really bad photomerging – it looked much better when they photographed it for the article!

 
I was really happy with the torn vellum and the bits of sea glass used on the project.  That really was a long time ago.

Undoubtedly, I will probably need to make an “appearance”…no, not of the celebrity-type status (Helen who?) but just because I believe it is really important to support your local scrapbook stores and I really like the owners.  No one knows or cares about what I’ve done in the past.  Published names and designers of product are quickly forgotten.  I don’t really care, either.  I have always done scrapbooking because I love it and it fills a creative need.  It would take far too long to go through the magazine issues and books I’ve been published in, if I could even recall most of them (senility setting in) and make a list.  You would be bored to tears…I would be in a similar state!  In this industry, you’re only as good as your last layout…which would be this:

 
So, for National Scrapbook Day, I will leave it to all you enthusiasts.  For me?  I think I’ll spend it writing a long letter to my Mom…and if I can’t resist, maybe I’ll make a Mother’s Day card, specially for her!