Who's To Blame?

Today I was asked to provide the weekend's blogging challenges...so for the first one, I asked:

"Who's to Blame?"
Write about how you first got "hooked" on scrapbooking. Was there a friend, family member, local hobby shop or just the good ol' lure of the Internet that introduced you to this obsessive, wallet-draining, wonderful, time-hogging, albeit important hobby?

Easy answer: my daughter. Yup, I can definitely pin the "blame" on her....I can even remember that cold day in February, 2005. She came home from school raving about a girlfriend's "scrapbook" and asked if we can look into starting our own.

Now, I will admit, much to the horror of my fellow 2Peas ... years ago I had a negative impression of scrapbooking. But that was only because it conflicted with my then-current hobby of collecting Star Wars toys. "Huh?" you ask? Well, a local second-hand toy shop where I used to score great deals on collectibles was owned by a husband and wife. The hubby was interested in toys, but the wife was into a new fad (or so I thought at the time) called 'SCRAPBOOKING'. Soon the hubby was losing his war of store supremacy; the vintage toys were disappearing, and more and more square footage was being overrun by albums, paper and stickers.

"Who the heck would go to all that time, trouble and expense?" I thought. (Okay, I said it VERY loud, but as usual, no one listened to me). But I was just mad that my precious toys were being squeezed out. Sadly, it wasn't long before the store shut down completely, and I blamed "scrapbooking" as the reason.

Fast-forward to February 2005. Like a good mother, I take daughter to Michael's ... and drool over the, yes, you guessed it....albums, paper and stickers...

The rest is history; I was hooked from the start and now my scrapbooking collection is nearing the size of my Star Wars collection....yes, I AM that obsessed. There is no hope. Heaven help me if scrapbooking is replaced by yet another hobby that devours me completely.

"I KNOW you're not thrilled about it Luke,
but I STILL need a picture of Vader for my family scrapbook!"