AYM/3

Finally, I'm getting these layouts posted. The month, the assignment was to scrapbook your purse, or a purse story. I just love to see the approach each one takes. Many of these girls are new to scrapbooking. I'm so happy that they've come to embrace the importance of telling their story---and they are quite good at it! Also, don't forget, you should be able to click on the photos to make them bigger. You might even be able to read the journaling.

This was Mary's "5 Memories at 5" layout from last month. She had a lot going on last month, but managed to get both layouts done this month.

For her purse layout, Mary chose the title: "If My Purse Could Talk." She told a story about her son's sleepwalking when he was little. He walked all the way downstairs and "peed" in her purse!

Linda N. chose "Bag Ladies 3" as her title. She told a story of how her husband reached in her purse for his cigarettes when they were at the mall. She yelled, "stop, thief" which caused quite a stir and included mall security. Her second story was about her mother working for Mavrako's chocolates in St. Louis. She put all the rejects in her purse and had a huge, melted mess when she got home. This story she had never heard before until she told her mother about the assignment.

Kathy's title is "My Purse---My Pocketbook" and compares her purse to her daughter's purse. We all thought that it was interesting that it was her daughter that calls her purse by the old-fashioned term---pocketbook.

Shara did a photo shoot with her purses and gave an overview of them.

Fran chose "Purse Mysteries---Lost and Found" as her title. She got her granddaughter to write a little thing about what her purse means to her. What a great way to get another generation's thoughts on the page.

Barbara made up an acronym for "purses." P-pretty and practical; U-useful; R-ready to go; S-stylish; E-everything in its pockets; S-(somehow, I missed what the last S stood for). She also did a little internet research and found that purses were carried by women as an extension of their nurturing nature---carrying what her family loved and needed.

Linda S.'  title: "I Hate Carrying a Purse" is appropriate for her. She says they are heavy and she always misplaces it. She's started carrying a smaller purse within her purse so she can just grab it and go. She told a hilarious story about losing her purse, but not even knowing it was gone until the "finder" called her.

Sherry also did some internet research on the history of purses that was very interesting. She featured many of her favorites on her "My Purses" page---from big, to everyday to hand made.

Jan told a hilarious story about her little girl purse on her "What a Girl Needs" layout. It really is amazing---all the stuff we carry. Jan could go on "Let's Make a Deal" with hers!

Linda M. actually made life-size purses on her page to hold her pictures. She told a story of their dog acting wild and crazy when she was little. Later they found that a thief had entered their house and stolen her mother's purse.

Beverly titled her page: "B's Bags" and told of her love of purses. She photographed many of them and explained why she loved each one.

"My Purse Diaries" was the title of Charon's page. She doesn't really like purses and carries them out of necessity---sometimes. When she was young, she carried one purse---when she had to---until it wore out. Recently, she's discovered a brand called "31" purses that she loves. Now she has a few.

Kathy T. chose "Some Girls Do---Some Girls Don't---(Love Purses). She tells about her momma's love of purses and all the purse "mistakes" she's made. Since Kathy doesn't really care about purses, she gets her mother's "hand-me-downs." She carries them until they fall apart.

Here's the purse layout I did 3 years ago. I titled it "Let me grab my purse." I told several stories about my purses through the years, but my favorite thing about the page is that I included some photos of my grandmother with her purse. I mentioned that one thing you could be sure of was that grandma always had a handkerchief in hers. Then I put her hankie on the page. What a great way to memorialize it.