So Many Pictures

I know... it has been a long, very long time.  Things were rough for a while after mom died, and we have had our ups and downs.  My latest endeavor was to sort, label, scan, label again, and organize to folders the photos that we had found.  It is just a photo... but the memories that each one stirs up is amazing to me.  I went to my dad's and started filling my car... a carload and a half later, I had them all at my house.  I assume that there were well over 50,000 because I scanned over 2,000 to an SD card to share with family.  I would never with that task on ANYONE!!!   Do your kids a favor... label and separate your pictures by family.   IF you can, go ahead an scan them, it will save your children so much time.  I am currently having my dad to write up some stories of his life.

Above... this is the machine that we purchased from Best Buy.  Was around $150 and worth every single cent!  It is really easy to use and you download to an SD card.  I did have to use double stick tape for pictures that were a different size.  I also had to cut down some negatives that were over sized to be able to fit.   Most of the over sized negatives were not of things that I wanted, so that worked out well.

Just a small portion of my mess... had this going on for four weeks.  Worked for hours on end.  I must say, this was so worth it.  We found so many gems and precious memories!  My mom had put back albums and envelopes from her mom, dad's mom and dad's aunt.   And then.... there were all of hers!

So, now all I have left to do is all the family homes, all my own families photos and then start on my husband's side.  Trying really hard to not leave anything for my kids to have to do.  I even plan to go ahead and scan in everything on the walls.  This doesn't mean that I am not making any albums!  This just means that I am saving everything first!

Now, for some pictures of what I have been doing the last few days... the fun stuff!!!!  The pay off of all the hard work!

 First of all... let me show you what I am using instead of the standard scrapbook or smash book...  Remember these old albums where you can slide in the pictures at the top and bottom and the negatives go in the center narrow area??  I have had fun working with these....  I really like how I can use that center negative area for documenting or putting in more photos!

Below... First page is my mom as a kid and single.  The great thing about doing this, I can add and move things around if I happen to find more pictures!

Next is dad.

Then, the wedding.  I cut a slit in the top right sleeve so that the wedding invite can be opened and viewed.

Last in this section is my parent's lives together.

I am going to do some dividers at each section and add some family trees to explain who is who.  My mom was adopted by her mom's second husband, so I want to add some stuff in there about that too.  I have already done my mom's siblings and my dad's siblings, though they will be in a different tab.  I will be doing their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents next.  Then, there are all the siblings families.... again, each new group will have a family tree and new tab.  IF you are in my family... do me a favor and facebook message me all the names, birth dates, weddings,... that you have in your crew... it will save me some time later.  Thanx!

Well, that is about it for now.  Most of you know that I am a decorative painter and do shows in the Fall... I am so far behind on painting.  I have over a dozen domed cake plates in the dining room just waiting for my paints to make themselves known.  I will get back to painting soon... but, for now, I am enjoying working with pictures and paper and making some new memories.

I do hope that it won't be too long before I have more to share.  Maybe I can figure out what kind of family documentation I will be doing and can post that next.  I hope that this posting has encouraged you to get your pictures scanned, sorted, labeled.