I'm graduating in 4 short weeks (AHHHHHH), and the only thing I think I'm looking forward to is the chance for (in theory) more free time. It's so frustrating to look at everyone's great new scrapbook pages and be inspired...and then have to go read a book and write a paper or work on a project. I cannot wait till my time is essentially my own and I can sit down in the evening and scrapbook some of my favorite photos instead of checking 6 syllabi to see what's due the next day. I'm already making mental notes of what  photos and spreads to tackle first.

I started keeping quote books about five years ago after a friend started one for me for my birthday. I've now completed several and they started to come in handy when I began scrapbooking. The concept of a quote book is quite easy--I just use journals and fill them with quotes that strike me as funny, profound, etc. Most of the time it's things friends and family say, that they don't even realize I've written it down. (I'm constantly finding scraps of paper in my purse and scribbles interspersed in class notes of funny things profs and friends said.) Sometimes I carry my quote book with me, but more often I have to transfer the quotes from other places.

When I was putting together my first huge scrapbook about a Mother-Daughter trip I took with my aunts, cousins, grandma, and mom, my quote book was a life saver. Nearly a year after we had taken the trip it was impossible to remember what people had said at various points in the trip. Thankfully I toted my book with my throughout that weekend and wrote the context of various quotes to remember later. Those quotes added the perfect personal touch to my pages. Not only did I have great pictures of the trip, but word-for-word highlights that was a blast to laugh over and remember together when I finally presented my completed scrapbook to the fam at Christmas this past year. And it was nice having voices besides my own to tell a more collective story of the trip.

Start your own quote book-- they're addicting!