Yahoooo! We just (4/27/2006) went DTC for our second daughter. Now the long wait begins. We'll update with more details when we can, but until then, wish us well.
We're just a small, family company helping people with life books and other scrapbooking. We'll share much more in the coming months; not just our company goals, but also our escape from Silicon Valley to the Sierra Nevada Foothills, what it's like living in a town with no stoplights, our beautiful daughter, and more.
I come from a long line of photo/history album junkies. My grandmothers kept photos, notes and tons of memorabilia from their own lives, some from the turn of the century (the one 100 years ago, not the most recent Y2K one!) Greg and I were recently given all of this amazing history in the form of very old scrapbooks, that we will be scanning and preserving as best we can. We have become the "Tyson family history keepers."
I grew up in a home where both my parents were always shooting pictures and movies. In the early 1970's, my brother and I use to gather up all of the neighborhood kids and we would dress up in costumes and make movies. My mum is working on photo album #41, which tells you how important this whole thing has been in all of our lives.
Some would say I have been scrapbooking for over 30 years, as I started keeping my own photo albums in the early 70's before I was even 10 years old. I have always tried to tell stories with my photo selections, and am known for my "historical yet humorous" comments under most photos. In my freshman year of college (do I dare further date myself and say 1983) I met a gal, still one of my closest friends, who introduced me to the "magazine word collage." We would piece together words, pictures and phrases from various magazines that applied to our "state of mind" and then glue them all hodge podge onto cardstock. Then I came along and added the photos and funny comments and our own form of scrapbooking was born.
About six years ago I really started getting "into the scrapbooking groove" finding my own style and delving into the coordinating album, paper and sticker world. Over the last few years, I have taken many classes and learned many new techniques. I am currently a fiber, brad and ink junkie (with some vellum and slide mounts thrown in) and surprisingly have found myself to be teaching scrapbooking classes as well (Spring and Summer schedules coming soon.)
The biggest influence in the direction of this business came into our lives on June 10th, 2004, the day we met our daughter, Hope Xiao Ying, for the first time at the Civil Affairs Office in Guangzhou China. It was through this experience that we learned about lifebooks and the importance of documenting our daughters life before we met her. As she is from China, I work hard on finding Asian themed items. We still have many to add to our web site, but we'll get there soon. Also, I am always searching for new and unique Asian and adoption items. As we grow, I will be adding Lifebook and Scrapbook items for other countries as well.
This is a family business, my husband Greg has always been into photography and has become a photo editing genius!! (My biased opinion of course.) As with all of our creative endeavors, we work together as a team. I come up with page ideas, he tweaks them then edits the photos to enhance the page. Our daughter Hope, still a little too young to actually scrapbook, does very much enjoy sitting on our laps while we work on pictures or while I work on her lifebook pages. Over the next few months, as the Life's Journeys gallery grows, you will be seeing tons of pictures of our beautiful daughter Hope.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you might have, and we will always do our best to serve you.
With laughter,
Penny, Greg and Hope
