I too would like to see mogo's journal...how about posting a sample...I realize your original posting was some time ago... I have tried various methods from bound notebooks to loose leaf binders, the latter was the most productive as could easily add or delete items as needed... like the rest of you I receive many plant related catalogs and often duplicates within the same season...anyway I drool over them during the winter months and then decide which catalogs can be sacrificed..and cut out either plants I have so have an easy reference book...or add to my "I gotta have that list" for easy reference in shopping as local nurseries or catalog ordering...Those catalogs are worth many times their weight in gold as they are the latest and usually best compilation of information... My sister who was a dahlia master..always kept her notebook up to date with the actual planting order within each row of all her beautiful dahlias...this was helpful when she dug them in the fall and in planting them the next year as she only had to write a numeric row and placement on the brown grocery bags she over winter stored them, rather than her earlier method of actually writing the type and name on each bulb...(Probably why I don't grow dahlias...too much organization required...but then I always had all the beautiful dahlia in vases all season long from her efforts...I hope she has all the space she needs in heaven to keep her green thumb nourished! Anyway...would like to hear from more of you as to your methods of journaling...even if it is in an informal method. I aways start out keeping the tags and growing hints from actual plants as I purchase them....but often don't put that information to an efficient use...so any advice would be helpful and appreciated... Thanks!

I started back in 97 when my dd was born- today she turns 9! I did her baby book and it was ok. Then I discovered Creative Memories and all the stuff out there. I redid her pages- thanks to double prints- and it is much nicer. I used to use a 3-ring binder and page protectors from office supply store. I used solid paper as my page. I used some stickers and a little journalling. I have since taken all those pages and put them into CM albums. Now I use the regular white pages and use the colored paper for frames or accent strips. To organize and make things go faster I use an easy method. I have a binder with sleeves in it. When I develop film I separate in dated or event order. Then I divide by what pics would fit on a page. I drop those pics into sleeves. Then I take paper that matches the pics and drop it in the sleeve. I may put some stickers in there too. Then when I go to scrap, I just grab a sleeve and work that page. I have already picked out the stuff for the page, just need to assemble. Unfortunatly, I have a digital camera now. It was so easy to develop film and then sort out the pics. Now I have to download onto a CD, take to a place or use an online service. I have not done this yet, which explains why I have over 600 pics to print, and at least half I need doubles of- one for my dd and one for my ds albums. One nice thing about digital is that I can print only what I need, so I may print all my dd birthday pics for her album, but only print a few for my son to have in his. Hey soggy6- aren't you the one with the pool that had plaster then switched to ptec after a crack or something? Are you going to, or do you know about, the event at Newburg Hall down by Sac State on 4/29? My CM gal and her friends are having an all-day event. After spending last year doing the build, it will be nice to spend a day scrapping. I am taking all our vacation pics- the ones before we had kids- and getting them all into albums. Won't be super fancy like my kids books. The goal is to have them in an album instead of not.

no way the best out there by far is BH&G (better home and gardens ) scrapbook magazine the only place i can find it is the grocery store but they are gonna start subscriptions with this next issue i cant wait it has ideas and such in there that i have never seen before such as how to make the dancing letters (this are letters that move) this mag is just too much, you will love it and it aint one big ad like ck is.

Casey, I know how you feel (although I am not as organized as you and my photos are not all in albums). I've really only started scraping and love it. Once you get started, you may feel that you would rather have everything in a scrapbook. You don't have to crop everything (although I seem to be a big cropper...probably cause I take lousy photos) and can use the entire photo in your scrapebook. Do you have duplicates of (or the negatives for) your photos? I have an old habit of getting dups of all my photos so I wouldn't have to worry about "give aways." If you don't have dups, just the negatives, once you decide which photos you want to scrape you can have duplicates made and use those in your scrapbook. This way you can have the best of both worlds and not worry about it! I still cringe everythime I crop, but I generally have dups and if not, I have one made. It costs to have them made but I feel better knowing I have a copy of the "whole photo" somewhere..even if it's not in an album. Sorry this is so long...hope it helps. Karen