Celebration (Project 365 -- Days 139 & 140)

Oy ... am I pooped.

Today was the graduation brunch John and I hosted for Ryan. Just a small group of family and friends getting together at a nice restaurant on the Delaware River. Everyone had a good time.

In preparation, I've been working on a special project for the past few days ... a scrapbook for Ryan to celebrate his graduation, with pages I created from input guests sent me. Weeks ago, I asked everyone to send me their answers to these four questions:

• What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were 21? (Ryan turned 21 in April).
• One book that's had a big influence on your life, and why.
• Your favorite quote.
• What do you feel is most essential for a happy life?

I planned to create a separate scrapbook page for each person, with their responses, their photos, and assorted motivational sayings, stickers, and doodads.

Then, I got the bright idea that instead of just making it about graduation, it would be nice to make it about his whole life, from the time he was a baby, with various pages built around themes, such as a 'sports' page, with some of his soccer, Little League, and basketball pictures ... or a Halloween page, with photos of some of the creative costumes he wore over the years (many made by yours truly). A page about his dog. A page about turning 21. A page about his artistic talents. The day he learned to ride a bike. Some of the vacations he's been on. Maybe a page with some meaningful song lyrics. On and on.

So, now I was looking at something like 24 pages ... and, if this is your first scrapbooking project (which this was for me) ... you naively say, 'no sweat,' and you head right off to Michaels with a smile on your face to load up on supplies.

Then you start in ... after spending most of a day half-comatose at Michaels trying to sort through all your options ... and realize how delusional it was to think you could whip out 24 pages in a couple of days, around other regular life things, of course, like customers who need jewelry, and dogs who need to be walked, and bills that need to be paid. Very delusional indeed.

To make a long story short, yesterday at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it finally became painfully obvious (... I'm slow to accept reality ... ) that I had to radically lower my expectations. That I would be lucky, in fact, if I could even finish a simple opening page (below) and a page for each guest who sent me material so they could see what I had done with it today. And indeed, even with getting up this morning at 3:30 a.m. for one final push, that's all I was able to do.

And that was enough. I mean, it had to be. I explained to Ryan that it was a work in progress, and that I ran out of time, but still plan to create all those other pages so he can have a complete book, and he was just fine with that. He loved it, in fact, and now he's happily anticipating all the pages that will fill his book over time.

For me, though, this was yet another reminder of how I take a small, simple idea, set off and become enamored with all the 'extra' possibilities I discover, blow the project up to gargantuan proportions, and still expect to get it done in 'a day.' When I'm excited about a project, I have no realistic sense of time whatsoever ... especially when it's something I've never done before. Learning curve? Hah. I laugh at the learning curve. Why? Well, because it looks easy, doesn't it? Almost everything does when viewed in its finished form, like a finished scrapbook page ... and hey, I figured, I've done a ton of layout and paste-up in my day. But the devil is in the details, my dears (as all the seasoned scrappers out there nod their head). I should have that tattooed on my forehead. I mean, really ... what is up with that?

Anyway, I survived. The book got started and has a few pages ... it was a hit ... and now I see why scrapbooking is so popular. Despite the fact that I turned my first foray into scrapping into a stressful experience, underneath it, I really had a lot of fun. I see more trips to Michaels in my future ...

As for yesterday's Project 365 photo, I was so deep into the scrapbook yesterday, that I had no idea what to take a picture of. But then the mail came, and as if by magic, I had the perfect subject for my photograph ... Summer Pierre's wonderful zine, The Artist in the Office: Living the Dream with a Day Job. She offered copies for FREE(!) a little while ago and I had already forgotten that I'd requested one earlier in the week. What a nice surprise ... and what a photogenic subject, as each page is filled with Summer's fabulous drawings and unique brand of expression. Such a yummy read.

I opened the book to a spread, snapped a bunch of photos at various angles, and put the camera aside to return to the scrapbook, figuring I would upload and post one later. Only later, when it was very late and I went to post, it dawned on me that I would be violating Summer's copyright. Even though I was only showing one page, and a partial one at that, it still didn't feel right. But, I wanted to stay true to the rules of Project 365 that the photo be shot that day, and I hadn't shot photos of anything else. So, what to do, what to do? Today, I decided to do a radical crop and show only a teeny tiny portion of it. A teaser, so to speak. I think Summer would be okay with that under the circumstances, and if she still has any left, I'm sure she'd be happy to send you one too. It's fantastic!

Woohoo! Lucky you. Looks like she does (have some left). Way to go, Summer!

 

Comments

[leah]

what an awesome project you've done for ryan!!! i'm sure it will be something he'll always treasure.

[Summer]

Maria!!

Congrats to Ryan! And how lucky is HE to get that beautiful package. You are SO SWEET to care about my copyright. I am, however, very much EASY, so would have felt totally fine with pictures. In any case, this post made my day.