Q is for QUOTES & CONVERSATIONS #AtoZChallenge

Hi and happy mid-week!

I’m participating in the A to Z Blog Challenge, where throughout the month of April I will be posting every day about topics that pertain to my theme of scrapbooking.

We’re making great progress – today we hit the letter Q! Isn't that crazy? Z will be here in a blink.

The topic assigned to this letter is particularly special to me – Q is for QUOTES & CONVERSATIONS.

While quotes are found everywhere, I only scrapbook the ones that hold meaning. When I’m going through a tough time, the quotes that help me understand my situation or offer inspiration and comfort, are the ones I keep in my books.

I currently I have “Secrets to Happiness” one-a-day calendar that gives motivating tips. I keep the quotes and advice from the days that I like.

The Quotes you come across can add character to your page and impact to your photos.

The next part of our letter really hits home with me – Conversations.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t start journaling and including conversations in my books until I was several years into my scrapbooking hobby. In hindsight, the little every day flashes of life are the most precious, and I so wish that I had documented them more diligently.

In a world where you have so many options in Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Vine, ad infinitum), it’s easy to believe that those remembrances are preserved, when in reality, it's just data shifting around in cyber-space (IMHO).

The other day my niece was describing Instagram to me, and she mentioned how the posts in the timeline for that social media site eventually disappear after a period of time. I gasped because being the save-everything, preserve-your-thoughts-for-future-generations, scrapbooking type, the idea of your feed (aka YOUR. LIFE.) evaporating into the ether boggles me.

Isn’t the purpose of Social Media to keep your timeline? Is there really a standard that if the news that isn’t “fresh” enough gets tossed onto the digital trash heap so quickly?

 

It may just be me. Then again, I’m the chick who stills owns all of my favorite books in paperback and favorite music albums on CD. The physical may take up space, but at least I know it’s there.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but this illustrates an important point – your scrapbook is much more than an just echo of your Facebook feed. And private conversations make up a majority of our happy memories.

In the same vein as journaling, conversations tell a story as it occurred, without any author exaggeration. They encapsulate a moment in time.

I dug through my original albums and found this gem of a conversation with my niece (the first of many).

I'd been given a Valentine that inflated when you hit it, which lead to a funny conversation.

A more current conversation example is from last fall that involved a unique, new Halloween decoration.

These daily connections happen so fast, but if they made you smile, then that's a conversation you want to scrapbook.

And conversations don’t have to be traditional:

Here’s a convo I had with myself.

And this is a conversation that I overheard in public.

It made me giggle, and I didn’t want to forget it.

And if the conversation relates to a photo, that makes for an attention-grabbing story. 

(A pic of the waffle undies. You’re welcome. J)

Other important interactions you can include are text messages and chats. I find these every day conversations to be so meaningful, and easily preserved with a screenshot.

This is a sweet “thinking of you” message to my Mom. 

(She's a sugar cookie girl.)

There’s many ways to hold a conversation, which in turn offers many options for you to scrapbook. I love getting inventive with it and finding new ways of capturing those moments.

Have you ever scrapbooked a conversation or quote? How did you do it?

Please feel free to leave a comment below with feedback, or just to say hi. I'd love to hear from you.

And that conquers our letter Q! I thank you for stopping by my blog. Tomorrow I shall be back with more scrapbooking madness – R is for Ribbon, Rope & Textures.

See you then!

-         SNG