I haven't done a scrapbook in the way you are thinking, but I have done something similar. When I first started gardening, I bought a lot of garden magazines. I had a big stack of them after a couple of years and could never find something I wanted to reference. So, in an effort to whittle down the pile and be able to find information and photos that I liked, I cut out what I wanted to keep and put them into a composition notebook. I would add my own notes, want lists, and draw maps of the gardens, so I knew where everything was come spring. I loved my little inspiration books. Making them gave me something garden related to do over the long winter, plus I would get lost in the books when paging through them. Often times it felt as if the sun was shining even though it was cold and gray outside. One of the reasons I liked them so much is that they were small and lightweight. As my gardens expanded, I started to modify them from idea books to more of a garden journal. My first attempts didn't work out so well. The pages of the 8x10 composition books are bound, and I didn't have a clear idea of how I wanted to use the book. I was going to give it another try until I saw this software... http://www.plantstep.com/ If you want to preserve how your garden looks today, then I'm sure you will get a lot of enjoyment out of the process. If you want it to be part memory book and part journal, I'd reconsider the size and use a smaller book.

Wow! You have lots of really good ideas. Some of you seem a little overwhelmed, like I am! Too many good ideas (and getting more every day), not enough time! Luvs, I never thought of actually sitting down with a cup of coffee and looking through my Christmas files (duh) prior to the Christmas shopping season (although most of what I buy is second-hand still there's more selection nearer to the holidays)... Karen--you can fit all your Decor ideas in ONE file???! Dreamgoddess--I love the idea of having all my jottings in one notebook--but once I turn the page the old ones are gone from my memory! You probably (undoubtedly) have more discipline than I have... OA--I do something like you do with the recipes but I use scrapbook software. I'm pleased with that because I can add text and the software treats it like a graphic--lets me move it around, put it on top of pictures, etc., but it still stays editable for when I spot a typo (very irritating to me) or want to rearrange the page. You can also add arrows or circle items in the photo or illustrations, and fancy them up if you want. I save the pages to .jpg files after I'm done. Then I can just view them with the Windows viewer. The disadvantage is there's no way to sort them or search them. I have to put them all in individual folders like Christmas, etc. If I want to have an index I have to make one in Excel or some such. I love the idea of putting all the things for each room in their own boxes. We will be moving into our new home this winter and as I unpack (my very disorganized) moving boxes I'll keep that in mind. Have to go get tons of plastic bins... Minnie tx--Yes. I've organized my articles like that in the past and there's nothing like thumbing through those nice page protectors--makes your pictures look even better. But I have SO MANY! Once I almost completed a system like that and I had 21 3-ring notebooks full and more coming all the time. I've weeded out since then (HAD TO!) and of course since I was younger there's many more formats--dvd's (stuff I recorded off HGTV, for example), Internet downloads, how-to videos on the Internet, of course digital pix that I sneak sometimes in stores, etc. So much mixed media! dd50- you've hit the nail on the head! That's me, wandering around the store, getting ideas, and wondering if I already have the stuff at home. After this over-budget house is finished, I'm not going to be able to afford buying (even something cheap) twice! neesie--DH uses a pencil and notepad for anything he wants to remember, and it works for him, but he's an engineer. They're BORN organized. lynn--I scan pix from magazines and catalogs too (they can sure mount up). But your system sounds so organized. I just finished culling about 300MB of graphics files duplicates that I had propagated all over the disk. BTW, make sure you all have backups. DH made us a little network with a big hard drive so we can back up to it. But if you don't have that, I like the little thumb drives--I got a 4 GB one for Christmas last year. That holds a lot of files! THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS! Seems nothing is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm using scrapbook software which makes graphics and text very easy to handle (OA--if you want "freeform" pages the scrapbooking software is better than a database like Filemaker. Databases usually require you to have your data in fixed format (which you define). For example, at least when I was using databases, you would have to define the number of pictures you could allow in each record. Of course, databases may be a lot fancier now, but their search-sort functions should require some rigidity in the format of each record.) What I really need to find to augment this is a calendar-shopping list-inventory program that takes all those ideas in my brain and makes them usable! - Magpie

Dear Tandy, If you are worried about the images fading you could always color over them with your scrapbook pens. I like to use a lot of different supplies and images that are just not available on the market, so I have no choice but to either draw them free hand or scan and print them. I can also scan and print for example my brother's pictures from the newspapers (he is a police officer and is often photographed) which are printed on such high acid content paper that there is no way beside the archival spray ($40.00 a can, is not in my budget for one can of spray) that I could use them in my book and keep them in good shape, without scanning and printing them on acid free paper myself. Penny

Hi, I've been looking at Scrapbooking software. I've discovered that any pictures I save on CD can be played in my DVD player AND they play as a slide show. It's so cool! My aunt and uncle recently had their 50th wedding anniversary party and I took my digital camera and captured shots of everyone. My 70 something year old uncle is a computer nerd and he loves anything computer related. So I bought "Hallmark Scrapbook Studio" software and thought this winter, I'd take all those anniversary pictures and build him a scrapbook on CD. He and my aunt will just love it. My uncle is big-time into geneology and this will fit right in with that, I think. I really wanted "Scrapbooking Workshop" or whatever it's called. It's about $40, but the stores here aren't carrying it at the moment. So I'll work with this Scrapbook Studio and see how I like it. I've run across several sites that talk about scrapbooking on the pc. Just do a search and you'll find something. Good luck! NancyAnn