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Tue., March 20, 2007

Cheryl-anne Millsap The Spokesman-Review

My most precious memories aren’t treated very well. Over the years they’ve been tossed into boxes that are now stacked in the basement or tucked away in drawers.

I feel bad about that, and I keep saying that one day I’ll take a week – or a month – and get everything organized and placed safely into albums. But that day never seems to come.

I’ve been on the fringes of the scrapbooking movement before. Years ago, I joined a group of women who met once a week to create clever pages for their scrapbooks.

I started working from that point forward so I wouldn’t get stuck trying to work my way back through the photos I’d inherited or the boxes of photos of my older children. I’ll get to that later, I told myself.

I didn’t.

Then, the first couple of years after we moved to Spokane, I sat down each Christmas to put together an album of my family’s adventures and travels the year before. A copy of the album was sent to the grandparents as a gift.

But then I sort of lost my momentum. I still took the photos; I just didn’t get them on pages.

For the past few years, thanks to my digital camera, I’ve added fewer images to boxes and more to my hard drive, but I still haven’t gotten around to putting them into albums.

No big deal, I told myself. I have lots of time.

The older I get, and the older my children grow, the less I can justify that attitude.

The amount of time each of us is allowed isn’t drawn from a bottomless well. We get only so much.

Making memories is easy. Preserving them takes a little work, but it’s just as important.

This week in Home

A woman in Liberty Lake doesn’t just stick photos onto the pages of her own albums; she inspires people across the country to scrapbook their lives.

Since moving into her stately Legacy Ridge home, Stacy Julian has applied the same creative techniques that make her a leader in the scrapbooking industry to each room. Our cover story about Julian will make you see the memory-making possibilities in your own house.

Shoes shine

Local arts leader Sue Bradley has opened a new shoe store in the Garland district of Spokane. As a bonus, this week Bradley opened her custom-designed shoe closet for readers of Home. If, like me, you love a pretty pair of shoes, you’ll enjoy reading about Bradley’s collection.

This week’s issue of Home is all about surrounding ourselves with the people – and things – that mean the most to us.

That way we’re never home alone.

Local journalism is essential.

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Meet Our Journalists

Jesse Tinsley

Meet Jesse Tinsley. As a certified drone pilot, this veteran Spokesman-Review photographer often can be seen capturing beautiful aerial photographs of our region. Sometimes though, the job requires getting down with the dogs.
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Jim Meehan is no stranger to Zag Nation. As the lead writer covering the Gonzaga men’s basketball team, he tells the stories behind the game and gets fans a bit closer to their favorite players.
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There is no artist in Spokane like Molly Quinn. Her whimsical style is instantly recognizable to readers of The Spokesman-Review. She has painted gorgeous illustrations that instantly elevate the journalism accompanying it. She brings to life the stories that defy photography. She makes our pages better.
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Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley loves to talk with people and learn about their lives, whether it's a best-selling author or a stranger he meets downtown on his walk to lunch. It's that inquisitive nature combined with a playful sense of storytelling that helps make our newspaper different than most.