Unexpected Result

I am taking the Library of Memories (LOM) 2009 class at BigPictureScrapbooking.com. And I am having a BLAST despite the tons of hard work. It's a very time and work intensive class, but I am already reaping unexpected results and benefits! How awesome is that?

One of the assignments was a "photo connection challenge." You were to go to one of your category drawers - or in my case, piles - and find a connection between two photos and post it on the message board. Well, I kept reading great account, after great account of connections people were making, most typically spanning generations. Well, most of the pictures I have are of myself, not leaving a lot of room for those inter generational connections at this point. And I was feeling a little bit bummed about this a few days ago.

Fast forward to last night. Picture me down in my cave, the basement hobby room (really, it's way better then I just made it sound). I'm sitting at my scrap table without a clue what to do. I'm not feeling inspired to create anything new. Nothing is speaking to me. So I look over to my wall of layouts (I have the most recent 6 layouts hanging on the wall to inspire me and enjoy them before they get tucked into albums) and notice a layout that needs the journaling fixed (it's a gift and I had the wrong name on it). So, I fix the journaling. Feeling good.

Notice another layout still awaiting journaling, so I journal on that one too! But I realize something is different. I had originally planned to just do a who, what basic type of journaling on the layout. Because of the LOM class and it's various exercises, particularly the photo connection, I changed my journaling. I sat and looked at the photo in the layout (and tried to ignore the artistic/cute embellishments on the layout) and said what is something interesting I can say about this photo that other people might not know? And this is what I came up with:

If you have stayed with me this long and actually read what I right, I want to thank you. It means a lot to me and I am really excited at this new way of looking at photos and stories to tell. Plus I think it's AWESOME that I can create simply for design/creativity/fun product (as I did in this case) and STILL tell a unique story.

And once I was on a roll, you couldn't stop me. Well, bedtime did, but I got two more unjournaled and therefore unfinished layouts done. It was EXHILARATING! This layout had no journaling or title before last night. Again, it would have been basic facts but after the LOM experience, I journaled about what my husband's dog really means to him.

Have you had any "ah-ha" moments you would like to share???