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Life Documentation.

I've always wished so dearly that I had more photographs of my parents when they first got married. Besides a handful of wedding photographs and one photo of my mother on their honeymoon, I don't recall ever finding any in their photo albums. This has got me thinking and realizing how important it is to document this chapter in our lives for our children. A kind of documentation you can hold in your hands. Not leaving it up to the internet to store, but printed photographs and written out stories. I've decided to start creating four notebooks, one every three months, every year for our children to have one day. There's no real rules, just documenting what our lives consisted of when we first fell in love and begin to create our life together.

For my first notebook, I purchased a hard cover book at a local thrift shop. I cut out the pages and binding and added my own pages of various papers, then attached them together with a thin rope.
It's still a work in progress, but I've began filling the pages with polaroids and descriptions of what was going on in each photo.

The most important element to me in writing these is being completely honest. I don't want to look back at these and everything seem so perfectly happy. I want to write about the good, the bad, the adventure, the unknown. The love and passion we shared for the world and each other. I think not only sharing this with our future children, but also being able to look back on it ourselves will be a great reminder of where we've been and how we got to where we are now. Knowing despite what comes our way, we were in it together.


Comments

  1. beautiful idea! I made a scrapbook of my dating relationship with my husband because I have always loved going through scrapbooks and old photos of my parents when they were younger and I wanted my own future children to have that same opportunity/experience. We have been married now for just over two years, and the only photos we have really printed since then are the ones in our wedding album. Thank you for the inspiration; looks like I know what my weekend has in store!

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  2. I've been meaning on doing something similar to this. Sad to say, most of my photos are online somewhere. I still need to have them printed.

    Your notebook is precious, by the way!

    XO Charlene Zale

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  3. Such a good idea. I need to get in the habit of printing out my pictures, I dont like the feeling I get when I realize all my pictures could disappear at anytime because of a computer malfunction.

    Jordyn
    theprettylovelyblog.blogspot.com

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  4. i feel the same way, i wish my parents had more pictures so i could look back on them and hear stories of what they were doing in the pictures and even to show my future family. this is so lovely :)
    -deana, @birdsandoxfords

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  5. very beautiful. i've begun to think this exact same thing. i want to leave my words and photos behind for any future children that i may have. i want them to get a feel of who their mother was, what i loved, how i lived, and who my soul was.

    -richelle
    indigobean.blogspot.com

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  6. This is an incredibly beautiful idea. I hope to do something similar someday. I've gotten so bad about keeping a journal...

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  7. Oh, it's gorgeous!! What a great keepsake. :) I used to do a lot of scrapbooking, but I'm thinking I'll do some photo books this year - of the trips weve taken and thoughts on our first 5 years and such, for the very same purpose. :) Love!

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  8. I love how documenting is the word now instead of scrapbooking. And I love how you're combining a structured approach with an emphasis on being real.

    Great job, Kinsey!

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  9. I really adore this idea. It's the reason that you've started that's kept me writing in a journal since high school. There will be a time in my life, my kids life, that I will want to have these moments.

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  10. I really love this idea. I need to start doing this. My mother kept so many photo albums and specific details to each picture I loved looking through them as a kid and I still enjoy looking through them to this day. And since my Dad passed away this year it is really nice to have SO many photos of him and my mother to look back on!

    -Sarah
    http://sarahvonspook.blogspot.com/

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  11. You're awesome! I love this idea. I wanna try it out someday. Thanks for the inspiration. xx

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  12. this is so amazingly beautiful you have inspired me. i admire you so much

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  13. That is so sweet. You will cherish this.

    Vintagehoneybee. Blogspot. Com

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  14. This is a great idea! :) Like a photo diary. I just made a photo album for my boyfriend with our vacations in it :)

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  15. I have always been interested in my family history and there's so little of it left, handful of photos and no written stories. I would love it if my parents and their parents etc would have left more behind. I am sure one day your kids will be very grateful for what you're making now!

    xx

    http://reindeertrails.blogspot.com.es

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  16. This is a great idea! :)

    http://marilovescupcakes.blogspot.com.ar

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  17. very beautiful idea! i've been doing the same thing for the last couple of years and i love looking back at all those memories i probably would have forgotten if i hadn't written them down.

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  18. This post is timed beautifully.. my niece and I were at the National Victorian Gallery today looking at paintings/portraits. My niece said how there aren't going to be any paintings of our generation as no-one gets the done anymore. I commented that we also take photos with our phones and digital cameras and upload them onto our hard drives etc, but will there be the technology to read them in the future. She loves to take film photos (as well as polaroids), I suggested that she gets them developed and put into a book or album...
    With my blog, I actually write everything in a book with pictures etc before I post them..

    stephanie
    http://steffykat.com

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  19. This is such a great sentimental item for your future children! Great idea! I feel like if I ever try to create my own journal it never turns out quite as put together and lovely as yours! :)

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  20. in this digital age, printed photos and handwritten ink on paper is such a lost art. your children will undoubtedly see the sentiment and importance of an album like this :)

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  21. This is a brilliant idea. My mother only has two photos of herself when she was on her early twenties. I would love to see more,and because of that -I started your tradition two years ago. I save all the photos I take on a folder in my pc, and order prints every four months.

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  22. THIS is a beautiful, wonderful idea. xoxo

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  23. This is gorgeous and a great idea!

    Kathy
    dreamersanddrifters.blogspot.com

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  24. Such a touching and thoughtful way to pass on your legacy through your kiddos. And a very adorable way of doing it may I add... then again everything you create is adorbs! You and your bloggy blog has inspired me in such a good way to think about how I blog, craft and be ME... especially lately :) THANK YOU!

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  25. I've been wanting to do something similar....how did you make the holes in the book cover?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sondra,

      I punched the holes with a Crop-A-Dile. I was worried it would be tough to punch through, but it was actually really easy!

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  26. Wonderful idea! There's something really special about looking through old photo albums. I'm pretty lucky because we've got boxes and boxes of photos that my parents took when they were just married and when my siblings and I were little.

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  27. This is so sweet, something to definitely keep in mind for the future. It makes me think of my grandparents. I have on my wall the only picture my family has of them and often wish i had more!
    ps found your blog through this post, and would like to congratulate you on doing such a great job with it! Its definitely inspiring to me as a new blogger. http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/05/how-to-start-your-blog-with-a-bang.html.

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  28. Oh wow, you are such an artist. This is beautiful. I've been wanting to do something similar. So special.

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  29. Oh wow, that is just beautiful and precious! I just found your blog and I really like your photography!

    Päivi
    http://howsheloves.blogspot.fi/

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  30. Your notebook is so wonderful !...
    Could you show us some other pages you made since january ? :)

    Thank you for your wonderful blog, full of creativity.

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