A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Or so someone said long ago. While it is true that a photograph can communicate so much, a picture plus a story can go so much further.

I had this snapshot that I'd come across every so often. It was taken long ago, and I don't remember the specifics of the trip, so it sat in my picture pile for a very long time, seemingly unscrapworthy.

Last month, when I was looking for pictures to use with the March kit, I came across this photo again, and I thought the colors were perfect for the Echo Park papers I wanted to use, so I stared at the photo trying to think of the details from that trip to Williamsburg decades ago. Instead, I started remembering other things, and here's what I came up with.

My journaling, which I tucked into that black envelope, reads:

Every so often, when I'm looking for pictures to scrap, I come across this old snapshot, and it gets me remembering. It was taken long ago, in the 80's, I think, in Williamsburg. It makes me remember how we used to go on day trips every weekend. We'd just hop in the car and drive somewhere new. We don't do that so much anymore, and it makes me long to start doing this again. I remember that coat. I loved it so much, but I outgrew it as I gained weight. My hair. It was so much redder, and I didn't have all this white hair that I have now. I remember going for perms every few months. Hamsa used to do my hair--I went to him for almost twenty years. I remember the very first time I got a perm. I was so nervous--afraid that it would turn out poodle-frizzy--but Hamsa took hours on it, and it came out beautiful. I look at this photo and remember how energetic we were in our youth. I didn't have bad knees back then and I hadn't gained so much weight. We still have fun, but it was a different kind of fun when we were younger. I'm not sure who took this picture, since we we'd usually go to Williamsburg just the two of us, but I remember we went there with Ana and Luis, and that makes me remember them and how we'd hang out and play spur-of-the moment daytrippers. It's amazing how one simple snapshot can make you remember so much, so I finally decided to scrap this old picture. {Journaled 2.26.11}

Trish packed some cool 4 x 4 envelopes into the kit, and I knew they'd be perfect for hidden journaling. Only problem is, when you scrap 8 x 8, like I do, you have to be strategic about where to place an element that takes up half your page.

I used a border punch on the flap and added the "take note" sticker to indicate that there was journaling inside. I stitched the envelop onto the polka dot paper on three sides and then stitched the text print paper over top of that, being careful not to stitch over the top of the envelope so I could slide in my journaling.

So, yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words (well, in my case 276 words), but the picture accompanied by a story is so much more interesting and meaningful, isn't it? Without my stream-of-conscious journaling, would an observer of my page really get the full story?
 
If you don't feel like a story has a picture, just take a few minutes. Stare at the picture. Bits and pieces of your life will come back to you, and those little pieces are important to document.
 
Okay, I'm stepping off my soapbox now. Thank you for indulging me. :)