Mother LOAD 12

Today's thought:
Today is Mother May I Monday. On Mondays, you're going to get permission to do things you may have thought were illegal in 47 states! (No, not THAT! Goodness sakes!)

We put a lot of rules and structure around our scrapbooking. In a way, that can be good - it lets us have rails to ride, without getting lost on the journey. But often those rules can stifle instead of inspire us.

If we think we always have to use the latest and greatest products…
If we think we can't use a particular patterned paper on a layout more than once (I actually heard of this one - someone who wouldn't use the same patterned paper twice!)…
If we think we have to mat all of our photos…
If we would never (ever!) scrapbook out of chronological order…

Put it simply, rules work. Until they don't. So on Mondays, we're going to break some rules.

Today's prompt:
Photography is a huge part of our pages, so it's natural that we want to become the best photographer we can. We want to get clear shots that effectively illustrate our stories, and that make our butts look small. Right? ;)

But what about those other photos - the ones we took with our finger covering half the lens, or that we snapped on our iPhones and are hopelessly overexposed? My tendency used to be to toss them in the virtual trash before they even made it to my hard drive.

Not anymore. Sometimes those shots are as good as it gets. Like when I forgot the "good" camera at my daughter's music performance, or when I went all the way to California with nothing other than my iPhone. Sometimes you just have to make do.

Today, use a subpar photo on your layout. Use two if you want to. Ansel Adams will not come back from his grave to haunt you. In fact, he just might applaud.

I took the photo with my phone so it's pretty blurry, but one of my favorites.