Tuesday 20 January 2015

Precious things

Joining in with Sarah at Mitenska to celebrate some of our precious things.

There aren't many priceless heirlooms round here.  No diamonds tucked away in little velvet boxes, not much in the way of family silver and no fancy china or original artwork.  The most precious of my possessions are my photographs.  Most of them were taken in the past ten years, from the date I first had a digital camera.  Before than, there are very few.


From this last decade though I have lots.  Photos of all the big occasions.  The firsts, the bittersweet lasts and all of the events in between.  But the pictures that I love the most, the ones I come back to again and again, are the images of everyday moments.  They are things that might slip away otherwise.  Favourite books, invented games, little habits that stick for a year or two and then fall by the wayside.  Recipes we love for a while, drawings that I want to keep and those moments of happy interaction between brothers that are oh so brief but oh so sweet.


I make it a habit to print off pictures regularly and put them in albums along with a little journalling.  The narrative reminds me of the details I want to remember - a conversation shared, a funny story, sometimes a little something from the news to put our lives in a bigger context.


They are albums I'd hate to lose.  I hope they will survive me and be valued and pored over in the future.  I hope the boys will look at the images from their childhood and realise how much they were and always will be loved and how much fun we tried to give them.  Maybe one day their children will look at them too and learn a little about what their parents' lives were like.



I sometimes include the children's original artwork and sometimes photos of it.  I put in the odd birthday card and letters and notes.  Anything that is meaningful or interesting that I can fit in is fair game.



I sometimes use pre-printed cards to write on or I make my own from odd bits of patterned paper or old Ordnance Survey maps.  I have a special pen that I can even write directly on the photos if the fancy takes me.



Little by little, week by week I've built up a pile of albums that tell our stories over the years.  Sometimes we all sit round together and look at the pictures, and when I see the children laughing and remembering I'm so glad I took the time to put them together.  Just a few minutes every week have given us something very precious, captured memories and the stories of our lives.


If you'd like to read more Precious Things posts, pop along to the following contributors:

    Sarah at Mitenska

    Leanne at Today's Stuff

    Bea at The Linen Cloud

    N at Creative Academia

41 comments:

  1. These albums are wonderful, CJ. Your notes are so meticulous and interesting to read. Your boys will treasure these albums all their lives, I am sure. Good for you making the effort to put them together. I haven't done many albums and I kept meaning to do so. Yours are an inspiration.

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  2. I have some old albums that are treasures to me and hopefully will be appreciated by my 3 kids in the future when I'm gone. Yours are much better as mine are just the photos, no cards or drawings. Yours a wonderful and very inspirational.
    ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. What a fantastic idea - I'm astounded by how organized you are and more than just a little sad that I didn't think of it when my 2 were younger! Treasure indeed. x

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  4. These are amazing, CJ! I so want to do the same thing now. What a great idea and what a wonderful thing to pass on to your boys. I'm inspired to try this myself.
    Thanks so much for joining in.
    S x

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  5. How wonderful! What a great way to keep your memories and to use your photos too. I really like the way you add the little journaling pieces and the date stamp that you use too. I can totally see how these are incredibly treasured memories for you. Something you will keep forever! xx

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  6. What a great idea, I really love it. It must be so wonderful to go through them - it's a wonderful combination of words and photos. Do you have special dividers to place all the different sized pieces of paper in? xx

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    1. Yes, I get the ones with a row of smaller pockets across the middle.

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  7. These albums are truly wonderful. Everything is presented so beautifully, they really are very precious.

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  8. CJ that is such a lovely thing to do, what a lovely way to look back on past times x

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  9. A lovely, wonderful idea CJ and it's a history of your family in the making.... It would be nice if your children carried on with it over the years to come.

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  10. I don't have many precious things either, except memories which of course tend to get a bit faded over the years.
    Doing photo albums like that is a terrific idea, and I'm sure that you'll all enjoy looking through them in years to come.
    Flighty xx

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  11. I can see why these albums are so precious. It's something I wish I'd done when my kids were small but I don't think scrapbooking of this kind was common before digital cameras were about. I've always printed my photos off since I've had a digital camera though, I know many people keep them on discs but there's nothing quite like having an album in your hand rather than looking at a screen. I'm sure your albums will be treasured by your boys in years to come and will be passed down the generations.

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  12. Without sounding naff and OTT I am in total awe. These are amazing Just amazing. I've always meant to do something similar, you've really inspired me to actually do something about it, what a wonderful collection of memories.
    Jillxo

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  13. In love scrapbooking / using Project Life bits too. I let it slip last year, and I'm not sure I want to make that book up. But I was laying in bed last night, and thought that I would start again for 2015. Your albums look very creative. :) I'm sure your boys will treasure them always. Matt loves mine and even said he needs to marry someone who can record their life like I do! x

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  14. Keeping photos of precious memories. Just as precious as any diamond.

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  15. What a lovely post. Your albums are wonderful. I am inspired to do something similar. All too often my photos are left on the computer. Bee xx

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  16. I have memory boxes here full of bits and bobs in the way your albums are and I put together an annual photo book which I get printed. Your albums look lovely xx

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  17. Sometime in the distant future these are likely to become historical documents. A strange thought.

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  18. Hey CJ,
    Oh how I love your handwritten notes. You've spent so much time preserving your family adventures. I often see my blog as an archive of family life, but this is far more precious.
    Leanne xx

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  19. CJ, what a lovely idea, like a better version of scrap booking. It will make a fabulous keepsake heirloom...looking back through them must be such good fun xx

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  20. What a precious record of your family life you are making, I am so impressed. I took photos as our children were growing up but was nowhere as organised and diligent as you have been. When our elder daughter was twenty-one I gave her an album with a photograph of each year of her life and she declared that it was her most special present. I use my blogs as a form of visual diary - all so much easier than when I had to take rolls of film to the shop to be developed!

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  21. What a wonderful idea. I wish I had done the same when my children, adults now, were growing up. Oddly enough, now that I have been blogging for nearly eight years, my blog can do something a little similar for me but nothing beats something you can hold in the hand. Lovely.

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  22. You were so wise to start doing this when your children were young. Those are some of the nicest albums I've ever seen!

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  23. Your albums are wonderful and certainly will be treasured. I'm ashamed to say that most of our photos are jumbled up in a box. You have inspired me to try to do something similar for our tiny granddaughter.

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  24. It's a lovely idea CJ. Wonderful memories for you all to look back on as the years go by.

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  25. Your photo journals are so CUTE! Those books hold a lot of precious memories for sure!

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  26. How lovely that you've recorded so many special family moments in such a wonderful way. I'm sure your albums will be treasured by your boys in years to come. xx

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  27. These albums are great...very inspiring. I'm sure your boys will really appreciate them!

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  28. I really really love this CJ. I wish I had been one teenty hundredth as organized in my love as you with this. It's beautiful and it's so special. My mother had a couple of old albums that were books of me and my sister that we used to look at together when we all managed to be a my mother's place at the same time. Alas they were lost in one of her many military moves and my sister and I still mourn the loss of some of the best snippets (or snaps!) of our childhood and wish we could share them with our boys. xoxo

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  29. WOW this is awesome!!! I would love to start something like this of my own!

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  30. My dad annotated all the photos of holidays and the family growing up and these albums now get brought out and looked at time and again. I wish I'd made time to do that as my son was growing up - maybe you've inspired me to start putting something together, although I think a few minutes a week is the way to go. I've also kept all my son's art - either scanned, photographed or original - it's a lovely idea to incorporate it into journals. I love your little notecards as well, CJ, do you have a special cutter to make them? Caro xx

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  31. What a lovely way of holding onto such precious memories. I would say our pictures are our everything when it comes to holding onto something precious.

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  32. Wow what a lovely way of chronicling life, and I'm sure it will be treasured for many years to come. I think I have saved almost every piece of art work my children ever did (hence the boxes and boxes of stuff in the loft) but a friend suggested to me recently that I take photos of their work and make them each a photo book - a great idea but it will take some organizing!

    Caz xx

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  33. You have a wonderful way of capturing the beautiful memories you share with that beautiful family of yours.
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

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  34. Such a lovely way to treasure special times, it takes a bit of work , but so worth doing.
    Kate xx

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  35. I used to do this ... goodness it seems a long time ago. When number four came along I lost the plot a little on the memory keeping front, I think I was too busy just keeping them all alive and fed and clean and entertained. And of course my lot are old enough that I had to have a film in the camera. I'm sure your boys will really cherish these books, not just for the memories they contain but for the memory of sitting down to look at them together as children.

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  36. Your photo albums really are a 'treasure' dear C.J, lovely memories to look back on again and again.
    hugs
    xoxoxo ♡

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  37. Wow what a great way to look back on family moments, it's given me some ideas before pickle grows upxxx

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  38. Oh they are so so lovely CJ. You have totally inspired me with mine - I must get some photos printed this weekend. I love how you've incorporated the kids drawings and other bits in there too. I was looking through my scrapbooks the other day from when the kids were little and I'm so grateful for those bits of journalling I did. Things I would have definitely forgotten had I not written them down. Your boys will love looking back through them for years to come. xx

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  39. Now this is a kind of scrapbooking I can get on board with! Just beautiful! I'm very excited, I never got into the cutesy type scrapbooking that use to be popular around here, but this is perfect! Now to start digging through to see what stuff I still have of my older kids. We've lost so many photos and things over the years, but it will be so great to sift through and string some memories together. *sigh* Love it.

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