Why I Haven't Been Blogger Blogging

Although my computer and I are attached at the hip, I'm the first to mourn the passing of a simpler lifestyle, a lifestyle where folks sat on their porches in the evening and just talked, where friends visited each other face-to-face, a time when a real letter would bring news of a loved one, a lifestyle a lifetime ago before this frenzied pace of instant messaging, teleconferencing, and overnight delivery gripped this society. This recognition of the benefits of a more personal society, causes in me a reluctance to embrace the newest technological gadget. In fact, I've turned down my husband's repeated invitations to enter the world of the iPhone, and I'm sure I will have no idea how to work the new Blu-Ray player he just traded in some travel points for.

And, while I've been a member of Scrapblog for a year or so, I have resisted with all of my being doing anything with it. I have felt somehow that turning to digital scrapbooking would be cheating, that passing on actual bound, digitally built books to my children would make me a lesser mom than handing over "real" scrapbooks with actual scraps in them. But the other day I decided to give it a try...and that is why I am writing this:

Top 5 Reasons Why Scrapblog is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Di-cuts and, Yes, Even My Cricut (I hereby remove the "sliced bread" thing from my Favorite Cliches List because, honestly, are we so lazy that we can't get out a knife and slice our own bread??):

5. One of my favorite places in the whole world is a scrapbooking store. I'd say, in fact, that as far as stores go, a scrapbooking store ranks #2 right under bookstore. Problem is I never go to a scrapbooking store because, well, if you don't have children if you don't have four children, you do not know how difficult it is to browse all the Stuff in a scrapbooking store while simultaneously watching to make sure those four children aren't pulling things off shelves/trying out all the new gadgets/playing hide-and-seek behind all the shelves/running into other customers who have handfuls of paper and little doo-dads which go crashing to the floor when a little person collides with them. Plus it always seems that, while I venture to say the majority of the clientele in a scrapbooking store are mothers, the owners of the scrapbooking store do not really care all that much for children. They want their store to be run kind of like a library, so rules like No loud talking and No screaming, though unwritten, seem implied by the dour faces that get thrown your way when one of your precious children uses his outside voice. But with Scrapblog, you have a WHOLE SCRAPBOOKING STORE right there at your desk. You can shut the door--even lock it--while the children go crazy wild outside the door of your office, and you can peacefully shop through pages and pages of backgrounds and stickers and embellishments WITHOUT STEPPING FOOT IN A SCRAPBOOKING STORE WITH YOUR FOUR CHILDREN.

4. And you know how when you're at a scrapbooking store, you don't just buy one thing. Because, like, walking up to the cash register with one piece of paper in your hand? Well, that just makes you look like a loser, plus you spent all that money on gas for one lousy sheet of paper? Not the mention the fact that that sheet of 12x12 paper probably costs a couple bucks, so adding more sheets of paper just adds more couple-of-bucks on to the tab. At Scrapblog, many things are FREE!! And you can just select one background or one sticker at a time, and no cashier will frown at you as she makes change for your one-sheet-of-paper purchase. Of course, there are things you can buy at Scrapblog, but if you sort your choices by "Cheapest Credit", then you see the FREE stuff first. Even those things that cost? Not so bad.

3. Then you know how when you get home with all your loot from the scrapbooking store and set to work on a page and then look around at all the piles of Stuff and boxes of Stuff and you know that the red 12 x 12 sheet of paper you know you have and that's why you didn't buy it while you were at the scrapbooking store is in a pile somewhere but you just don't know where? Ta da! Scrapblog is on your computer! In one place! No more shuffling Stuff around and having to clean up the big, gigantic mess later.

2. I am hopelessly behind in my "real" scrapbooking. I have baby books at least started for each of the kids, and various family albums are started or were at some point at least a thought in my brain. But there's been this nagging thought in my brain tumbling around with my other thoughts about these family albums. What will happen when the children begin to leave my house? Sure, they head out with their suitcases and their baby scrapbook tucked under one arm (to be cherished and treasured for ever and ever for sure!), but what about those combined family albums? Who gets those? Well, with Scrapblog, you can make as many copies of a book as you please! And making those copies is as simple as typing a number and voila! Multiple copies.

1. And the number one reason why Scrapblog is the best thing even since the Cricut, is because, folks, it's just PLAIN EASIER!! I'm sure no other scrapbookers ever do this, but sometimes I'll have all my paper cut, my photos cropped, letters stamped, doodads selected. I'll get everything all laid out. And realize I. just. don't. really. like. how. it. looks. With Scrapblog, just a few clicks, and you can rearrange until you get it perfect. ALSO, Scrapblog is so much faster! If you've been lurking around here for awhile, you might remember the cruise we took in 2007. Those pictures have not even been printed, let alone scrapped. I wager it would have taken me about 6 months to get that cruise scrapbook completed. Guess what? It took me an afternoon to put it together on Scrapblog! And I venture to say it's quite good. Check it out:



By now you might be wondering exactly what Scrapblog is paying me to write this little post. The answer is nothing. This is just me sharing my enthusiasm with you. And it's just me explaining why I haven't been Blogger blogging. In case you haven't guessed by now, it's because I've been too busy Scrapblogging! If you need me, I'll be in my messy scrapbooking room on the computer.