This was an interesting blog prompt on UKS on Friday, and it really set me thinking. I started scrapbooking in February 2005 and it has taken over from everything else I used to do. I still make the occasional card (when I can be bothered) and I have cross stitching patterns midway through, even the paints come out once in a while, but mostly my time is spent on CJs and digital LOs. I get excited over patterned papers and Bazzill, I drool when I see Primas and I can’t resist all those fabby embellishments that make scrapbooking such fun – even though I really only do digital still (yep I get excited about digital papers and bellies too!)
I originally only joined UKS so I could view my friend Valerie’s LOs, having no real idea about what scrapbooking even was and while I was there saw this thing called a cybercrop was about to take place (nope I had no idea what it meant, and had no clue about crops at this point). Having read that I could register even if I didn’t take part I had to find out whether I was a Sinner or a Saint – I am sure no-one who knows me would be surprised to find I was a Sinner! Once I knew that I just knew I had to take part. Not knowing anyone else on the board was a slight drawback but I latched onto the Sinners chat thread and asked a few well placed questions. Soon I had created my first masterpiece (the pre-crop challenge) – originally it was going to be paper scrapped. But once I started doing a basic LO on the computer I realised I didn’t have a hope of recreating it in paper format so stuck with the digital version. Of course I didn’t have a clue if I’d done it right, but just hoped and dove into the rest of the weekend between working. By the end of the weekend I had created 5 LOs.
After the crop had finished the Sinner’s thread kept going. There were a few others like me, who didn’t belong to a team and really had nowhere to go once the crop was finished. There were also some people who had enjoyed talking to different people, and so the Sinner’s daily thread was born, giving daily challenges and good chat with a cup of tea. As the weeks went on the numbers of visitors dwindled, leaving a core of about 20 people who visited on a fairly regular basis – chatting about anything and everything and generally skiving with a cuppa.
I am very shy and find it difficult to make friends easily and whilst I have many acquaintances, the number of true friends I had could be counted on 1 hand. I have 4 wonderful people in my life (Lynne, Andrea, Lisa & Lesley) who have helped me through some pretty bad times, but no-one can be there for you all the time. With the Sinners I suddenly found a whole new group of friends (although at the time virtual only) with whom I could share my bad times, my good times, my moans and my ravings, and of course, theirs with me. As time went on we realised that we all got on so well we really had to meet up. The first chance came at Bonanza 2005 where some of us managed to get together, followed by a trip to the Ritz with one of our American number and various meets since.
I count myself very fortunate to have met the Sinners, especially Am, Claire, Dolly, Fi, Jen, Kat, KJ, KW, Shazzer & SS. In them I have found some marvellous friends. I often think how it must have been fate that I should have joined the site when I did, had the cybercrop not been happening I would never have got involved and would never have met these very special people.
2 comments:
aw, wub ya, T! I had no idea that you were a shy person IRL
wubs ya back matey :D
Post a Comment