B&MB's question of the week 9/22

[BernardandMissBianca]

Journaling

Do you journal?
If so how much?
If not why?

I am terrible at it, and I hate my handwriting. It's not very pretty and girlie. I was always jealous of the girls in school that had pretty writing. I also feel as though what I say sounds unintelligent. I will scribble down key phrases, feelings etc. But a lot of the time they are used as the title.

Has anyone figured out a way to improve their writing ability?

I hope ya'll don't mind the questions, I just want to give a platform for newbies to get questions answered and for us veterans to expand the creative outlet.

 

[kytiam]

I am really bad at journaling, so I don't tend to do it a lot. I never really know what to write. I didn't start scrapbooking until my kids were teenagers, so a lot of the pictures I scrapbook I don't remember enough detail to journal much. Sometimes I will put a poem or song lyrics that seem to fit the picture (PeaSoup on twopeasinabucket.com is a huge help there). I often put too much other junk (embellishments, etc.) on my pages to have room for journaling. Also, my handwriting really stinks so when I do journal, I almost always do it on the computer. People have told me, "handwriting it makes it so much more personal and your great grandchildren will be thrilled to see what your handwriting looked like." So I've handwritten enough places in my scrapbooks for my great grandchildren to understand why I mostly journal on the computer!

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Do you journal? Yes
If so how much? A little
If not why?

Yes, I journal.. Not much but I would like to start doing more.. I like hidden journaling the best since you don't see my handwriting.. For the most part I do computer generated journaling..

As for getting the handwriting neater.. I asked my kids.. they told me to practice... LOL Yeah, you try that with 5 kids, DH, and everything else I take care of and get back to me! Gotta love kids!!

 

[patchchild]

Do I? Yes. How much? It really depends. There are times when what I want to record is the story, other times it's the pictures. When it's the story, I usually go to work on my computer and use a handwriting style font, since I don't love my handwriting and I don't love the way handwriting looks on an otherwise neat and organized page.

 

[hopemax]

I journal as much as I can remember about the trip (haven't done much scrapping about life events). I don't worry about handwriting, I just do it all on the computer. I figure, I forget so much now, that if I don't write it down it will be lost to time. When I look at the pictures from my Grandmother's life, we wrote down the names of the people, but I wish we had written the stories down. Now she's gone and it's too late.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Do you journal? Yes.
If so, how much? Probably too much.

I always write everything down. I love to talk (go figure!), so it's like my way of telling the stories. I usually journal a paragraph on the page--just telling the stories--and then I caption the pictures. I know, I know--I'm a journaling freak! My mom always says, "Your books are pretty, but they have so much more writing in them than other people do!" I'm not sure why I do it, since DH & I don't have kids, but I figure I will force the albums on my brother if something ever happens to me. I know he will be thrilled!

 

[TonyS20]

Do you journal? Yes
If so how much? It depends

Most of my books are trips and races. I want to make sure I capture all the details from the races, so I download all the results and print them to include with my books. I also try to record any fun things that happen or stories to go along with it.

I add the story or detail behind the pictures/layouts for our trips. I like to pretend that I won't be there when someone looks at my book and see if they can understand what is going on by what is written. That's my tip.

I don't like my handwriting, but I find it easier to write it out. I figure it addes to the uniqueness and makes my albums mine. or it just says I'm too lazy to type it all out and print it!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

My dad says my cursive writing is better than my print but I tend to switch mid word so it looks funny. I do journal a bit with the computer but I'm not a very good at the words themselves. I'm not a natural born writer. DH is though, I guess he could do the wording for me. He has nice hand writing too but it's itty bitty

Also how the heck do you write in a straight line!?!? Mine goes down hill. I don't care for lined journalling so I usually use a fine lead pencil to make lines and then erase them after I'm done.

 

[Mickster]

I journal. I tend to write bullet point journal though. I'm not too big on paragraphs. I almost always handwrite my journaling. Sometimes (and I mean VERY infrequently), I'll use my computer. I don't know why I can't type it out.

 

[New England Eeyore]

I'm liking these questions of the week!

I try to journal whenever possible. Sometimes there's really just not much more to say than what, where and when (assuming the who is obvious). But whenever there is a story to go along with the pictures that goes in too. Those always seem to be the best pages.

I do like to write, I always have. My struggle is to keep it to a reasonable length. I have inherited the family tendency to be long-winded, especially when writing.

I probably do 50-50 between my own handwriting and computer printing. I'm not crazy about my handwriting, but it's part of who I am so I want it in there somewhere. Long stories I always print out - short things or dates or whatever I usually just write on there. I too have trouble keeping my handwriting in a straight line when it's more than a couple lines.

Who here was taught the Palmer method in school? I was taught by the nuns, so I tried really hard when I was little, but as soon as they stopped having penmanship be a graded subject (I think 5th grade) I developed this quirky mix of cursive and printing that at the time I thought was so cool - I actually practiced it! Now I still find myself doing that blend and I hate it! It must be a middle school thing - my 13 year old DSD has this atrocious habit of replacing all her "e"s with "3"s. What on "3arth"? Again, she does it to be cool but I keep telling her she's going to get in trouble with her teachers - after all, all those words are spelled wrong!

 

[latharia]

I journal. I journal extensively. I've come to the conclusion that if you don't know the story behind the photo, then it might as well just be slapped down in any old album! Two years ago, I had someone on another board challenge us to post a LO we did years ago and one that was recent. I had actually been to the same spot in 1999 and 2004, so showed pages side by side of the same location. The 1999 pages were not very "pretty", but had LOTS of writing that brought me back...the 2004 ones had just the location and the date -- visually much more pretty, but "dull"! So, now I try to do both!

I do a lot of computer journaling, but I also do a little handwriting. I find computer journaling MUCH faster, and sometimes having an artistic font just makes the page prettier ... but my husband points out that the handwriting has a whole different appeal for future generations!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

What's the Palmer method?

 

[New England Eeyore]

What's the Palmer method?

I don't really know how to describe it - it was a method of teaching cursive and there was only one right way to do it. It's definitely an "old-fashioned" thing - if you ever spend any time looking at elderly women's handwriting, you might notice they all look very similar- that's because of the Palmer method - very fluid and flowery. Going to Catholic school, we always did everything the old-fashioned way. One of my coworkers (a lot older than me) is classic Palmer method. The funny thing is she is/was left-handed but because the nuns would not let her use her left hand (!) she had to learn to write with her right, making her ambidextrous.

 

[party of 3]

My dad says my cursive writing is better than my print but I tend to switch mid word so it looks funny. I do journal a bit with the computer but I'm not a very good at the words themselves. I'm not a natural born writer. DH is though, I guess he could do the wording for me. He has nice hand writing too but it's itty bitty

Also how the heck do you write in a straight line!?!? Mine goes down hill. I don't care for lined journalling so I usually use a fine lead pencil to make lines and then erase them after I'm done.

that is me in a nutshell! i'm not a good writer at all. i wish i was. i working on it, because i don't want my books to be all pics and no stories to go with them. i only have one ds and i want him to know the stories behind the pics later on in life.
great ? by the way!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I don't really know how to describe it - it was a method of teaching cursive and there was only one right way to do it. It's definitely an "old-fashioned" thing - if you ever spend any time looking at elderly women's handwriting, you might notice they all look very similar- that's because of the Palmer method - very fluid and flowery. Going to Catholic school, we always did everything the old-fashioned way. One of my coworkers (a lot older than me) is classic Palmer method. The funny thing is she is/was left-handed but because the nuns would not let her use her left hand (!) she had to learn to write with her right, making her ambidextrous.

Lefty here too. I guess I learned the Palmer method because it said that the capitals are connected to the rest of the word. They do not teach that now, DS10 was taught to have the capital separate, it looks odd to me.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I am really bad at journaling, so I don't tend to do it a lot. I never really know what to write. I didn't start scrapbooking until my kids were teenagers, so a lot of the pictures I scrapbook I don't remember enough detail to journal much. Sometimes I will put a poem or song lyrics that seem to fit the picture (PeaSoup on twopeasinabucket.com is a huge help there). I often put too much other junk (embellishments, etc.) on my pages to have room for journaling. Also, my handwriting really stinks so when I do journal, I almost always do it on the computer. People have told me, "handwriting it makes it so much more personal and your great grandchildren will be thrilled to see what your handwriting looked like." So I've handwritten enough places in my scrapbooks for my great grandchildren to understand why I mostly journal on the computer!

I can't find PeaSoup can you point me in the right direction? Thankx

 

[party of 3]

I can't find PeaSoup can you point me in the right direction? Thankx

i think this link should work....


http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/peasoup.asp

 

[Lisa]

When I first started scrapbooking I would do my journaling on the computer (and I have fairly decent writing, I can do calligraphy) but all that changed when one of my scrapbooking friends passed away this summer. At her wake and funeral, there was a table of all her albums and she did all her journaling by hand. I stood there and ran my fingers over her handwriting. Just to read her stories, her way, and in her writing, it felt like she was still with us telling her stories. From that moment on I vowed to hand journal all my albums.

It doesn't matter how good you feel your writing is, what matters is that it is yours. In years to come, your friends and family member will see your writing and feel close to you.

 

[party of 3]

When I first started scrapbooking I would do my journaling on the computer (and I have fairly decent writing, I can do calligraphy) but all that changed when one of my scrapbooking friends passed away this summer. At her wake and funeral, there was a table of all her albums and she did all her journaling by hand. I stood there and ran my fingers over her handwriting. Just to read her stories, her way, and in her writing, it felt like she was still with us telling her stories. From that moment on I vowed to hand journal all my albums.

It doesn't matter how good you feel your writing is, what matters is that it is yours. In years to come, your friends and family member will see your writing and feel close to you.

very nice lisa. very true. sorry for the loss of your friend.

 

[laura&fam]

I hate to journal, I think I sound stupid and boring. However, I am working on it because I think journaling is so important. My scrapbook is the only place I cronical my life or my kids lives, and there should be more there than just pictures.

Also I think I will forget the everyday stuff unless I write it down. Like how my son likes to sit on big cans of rice or wheat and eat his crackers in the pantry, we call it his "cupboard above the stairs".

If my kids say something funny I will write it down on scratch paper and put it with my pictures. That has really helped me to journal more. As for sounding stupid, well, I'm still working on that.