I am sitting here wondering how I actually got started on my scrap journey. My mother has always told me that I have had this crazy attraction to paper right from when I was a baby. She says I would abandon my toys and play with pieces of paper between my fingers. I know... it sounds weird - what can I say? At least something good came out of it. Looking back, I would have to credit my mother for initiating me into this passion that I have for scrapbooking. She made the cutest baby books for my brother & I when we were little. I was born in Osaka, Japan and so she bought the book from there.
I have always thought anything Japanese is just so beautiful in a way that I cannot describe. It was this book covered in some kind of embossed silk, in the softest, prettiest pink you can imagine. I say was because the book is no more (will get to that later). She filled the book with photographs and information and stories... even my first lock of hair - these precious nuggets of my past which I would read over and over and over. I can remember reading through it all the way back to when I must have been 7 years old. And I continued to go through it even after I was married and would come to Jakarta for vacations. I couldn't wait to be able to share it with my own children someday. Unfortunately, somewhere in the many moves, it got misplaced about 12 years ago. I can't tell you how heart-broken I was - so many memories lost. And of course - this was waaaaaay before anything digital so definitely no back ups. Still hurts. So that I guess is what gave me my start. It helped of course that having two very creative parents I was always surrounded by 'things being made'. What I mean by that is whether it was carpentry or painting or sewing - for as long as I can remember there was always something being 'created' around me. My father used to sew me the most magnificent dresses when I was a little girl. How could I not get my hands into something creative myself?
That is a dress my father made for me. Lousy photo I know... but the picture with my mother and I both wearing these matching dresses stitched by my father is lost with the book :(
It was my Aunt Lakshmi who actually introduced me to all the beautiful, wonderful things available in the world of scrapbooking when we were on vacation together in Ottawa. And that was it - I was like a kid in a candy store. I was fresh from a holiday in Hawaii with an amazing stash of photos to be scrapped. That was my first real scrapbook. Very amateur but its still beautiful to me. That was about 15 years ago and I have come a long way since then. What I love most is that I am STILL learning new things - it hasn't gotten old yet! Just like with all good things... the best is yet to come. Right?
Sincerely... Jenny
I have always thought anything Japanese is just so beautiful in a way that I cannot describe. It was this book covered in some kind of embossed silk, in the softest, prettiest pink you can imagine. I say was because the book is no more (will get to that later). She filled the book with photographs and information and stories... even my first lock of hair - these precious nuggets of my past which I would read over and over and over. I can remember reading through it all the way back to when I must have been 7 years old. And I continued to go through it even after I was married and would come to Jakarta for vacations. I couldn't wait to be able to share it with my own children someday. Unfortunately, somewhere in the many moves, it got misplaced about 12 years ago. I can't tell you how heart-broken I was - so many memories lost. And of course - this was waaaaaay before anything digital so definitely no back ups. Still hurts. So that I guess is what gave me my start. It helped of course that having two very creative parents I was always surrounded by 'things being made'. What I mean by that is whether it was carpentry or painting or sewing - for as long as I can remember there was always something being 'created' around me. My father used to sew me the most magnificent dresses when I was a little girl. How could I not get my hands into something creative myself?
That is a dress my father made for me. Lousy photo I know... but the picture with my mother and I both wearing these matching dresses stitched by my father is lost with the book :(
It was my Aunt Lakshmi who actually introduced me to all the beautiful, wonderful things available in the world of scrapbooking when we were on vacation together in Ottawa. And that was it - I was like a kid in a candy store. I was fresh from a holiday in Hawaii with an amazing stash of photos to be scrapped. That was my first real scrapbook. Very amateur but its still beautiful to me. That was about 15 years ago and I have come a long way since then. What I love most is that I am STILL learning new things - it hasn't gotten old yet! Just like with all good things... the best is yet to come. Right?
Sincerely... Jenny
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