This is Why I’m Not Beloved in the Scrapbooking Community

Filed under good times at everyone else's expense

When I was home at the beginning of the month, my best friend, Tracey, showed me her Project Life scrapbook. Designed by Becky Higgins to be used without a bunch of extra supplies, it’s about the most ingenious thing I’ve seen for the lazy cropper. You supply the pictures and the words, and the kit supplies the book, pocketed inserts for holding everything, journaling cards, and embellishments so you end up with effortless little pages like this:


Sorry, person I stole this layout from! I don’t remember who you were!

And it just so happens that the Amber Edition of the kit is covered with the brocade pattern I love so much!

Now, I’d usually write about the kit on our scrapbooking/cardmaking/general pretty things blog, but I have to tell this aside. See, Tracey’s taking a picture a day for hers, which seems like a great way to go for me, since I sometimes forget to document the everyday-to-me but totally-interesting-in-the-greater-scheme-of-things stuff here in NYC.

Well, I got off the bus near Kamran’s apartment the other day, and right in front of me was a little person! And I don’t mean a child, because you know I don’t consider children people, but a tiny adult in a well-appointed miniature trench coat and rain boots. I wanted to take her picture so badly, because there wasn’t a chance I was going to see anything cooler that day, but I realized there’s no quicker way to get yourself called an asshole than to snap a picture of a dwarf behind her back.

I thought, “Maybe I can use my extremely long and graceful normal-sized legs to catch up with her and ask to pose for me!” But then I realized that wouldn’t work either, because you know there’s not a chance I could’ve spoken to her in anything other than a baby voice.

So I played it safe and took a picture of myself instead. The only thing dwarfish about me is my sense of tact.

14 Comments

  1. Dishy says:

    Your friend Tracey is amazingly talented. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.

    I hope you took that photo of yourself TURNED AROUND, so the amazing little person can be seen over your shoulder. You did, didn’t you?

    • Tracey says:

      Thanks, Dishy! Katie happens to be an AMAZING scrapbooker. (And it doesn’t hurt that her photos are always interesting and badass.) She just has more of a life and doesn’t go on and on about it like I do.

      Except for this new one, she keeps all of her albums at my house, so I may have to start posting all of her pages without her permission.

      • Dishy says:

        I totally think you should, Trace — after all, you KNOW she won’t do it! Go ahead girl and toot your BFFs horn. LOL

      • You are sooooooo nice. But you know the only thing I do that I like is negative space, just because it’s so time-consuming and wastes the whole day so I don’t actually have to do anything productive.

    • Tracey and I had a phone conversation the other day about how dumb I am for not thinking of this idea! I actually saw her the next day, too, and she was wearing the cutest bright orange flats and black dress. I think she may be my style icon, although I feel like shopping must be even less fun for her than it is for me.

      Also, yeah, Tracey is the best scrapbooker ever, and it pains me every day that she doesn’t have a bigimportantscrapbookingblog.

  2. Ash says:

    Perhaps I can wear flats one day and skulk a bit you think that would be interesting enough? This reminds me of that angry person in ‘Elf’ haha

    • 1) I doubt you own flats.
      2) I’m afraid you’re not quite freakishly short enough, skulking or no. But when I do put a picture of you in my album, I’m going to label it “Ash, my non-white friend”, and my whole family’s going to be so impressed.

  3. Tracey says:

    Yeah, it’s probably jerky to take pictures of people who are likely hyper-aware of their conspicuousness. Maybe she would have been cool with it like the guy at the Pumpkin Show with the cool deer jacket, though.

    In related news, I got plenty of funny looks today when I stopped to take a picture of the outrageously ornate Easter display at Target.

    • It’s probably one thing to choose to look . . . different . . . by purposely putting on an embroidered deer head jacket and just being the way you were born to be and have everyone staring at you, anyway.

      Liking weird stuff is so hard when you’re by yourself! It’s like, “Yes, I’m taking pictures of your dog’s urine, but I’m with my good-looking boyfriend.” When you’re alone, you’re just strange.

  4. Cristy says:

    LOVE this: “I don’t consider children people.” :)

    • I appreciate that I have you to keep not having children with me. Although I’m not convinced you’ll hold out forever if all of our friends keep having cute babies.

      • Cristy says:

        I know, right? And now another of my sisters is pregnant. I’m about to do a whiny post about that, as a matter of fact, but not because I’ve changed my plans, so you’ll still have me. Tom and I are getting less and less qualified to be parents as we age, so no worries there. :)

  5. Cassie says:

    Bus fare: 5 dollars
    Camera: 500 dollars
    Not taking a picture of a little person to be full of tact: Priceless.