I am surrounded! It's boys boys boys everywhere I look!!! My two boys are 13 and 10 and while they are such amazing kids, I often get the itch to scrap something girly. We have two male cats named Jet and Bear, two male dogs named Bentley and Figaro, and ONE female dog -- Lola! She and I are the only girls in the house.

And what a "girly girl" she is!!! To me, she is the Zsa Zsa Gabor of dogs :-) Lola is a Great Pyrenees adopted from the Great Pyrenees Rescue. She was found on the streets, matted, skinny, and starving. I took one look into those eyes, and I knew she was for me! I called her "Lola" because to me, she is a showgirl!! Look at that gorgeous smile she has!!!

I also have the opportunity to scrap some of my cousins' beautiful girls, which I love to do! I find it's so much harder to do masculine pages, so when I get to go all "girly" it's a rare treat! Thanks for having a look!

Do any of you out there do this? Do you find yourself getting completely lost in your creativity? Sometimes I fall so far into the process, that when life interrupts (kids, dogs, doorbell) it feels so abrupt. Like I've completely forgotten about the world around me.

I guess that's why I love scrapbooking so much -- it's a complete and total escape from the mundane. It's a chance to jump off into something beautiful and almost magical. It's a chance to pour the love I have for whatever memory I'm preserving onto the page. Perhaps a chance to re-live that memory a bit?

I remember years ago on The Oprah Winfrey show, Oprah talked about keeping a "gratitude journal." The concept was that the more often we focus (if even for a few minutes a day) on all that we feel thankful for, the happier we humans will be.

I feel like scrapbooking the ones I love is like my own gratitude journal. It's a chance to take a precious memory and wrap it up in beautiful layers and surround it in lovely colors and textures. It's a chance to journal about why it was such an important day, or event.

Framing my finished scrapbook pages and hanging them on the wall is a little like a visual gratitude journal. Little pieces of the beauty in my life there to look at, reflect on, and enjoy whenever I walk down the hall.

So I think that's what brings me back to my crafting table again and again. I am looking forward to learning more about this art. I want to challenge myself with new techniques, and really push myself creatively.

I would love to know your thoughts.... What drives you to scrapbook your memories? And what are your creative goals for 2013?

Thanks for joining me!

Stephanie