Scrapbook Frustrations

I love to scrapbook.  Give me a table, a pile of photographs, and a pair of scissors, and I can easily keep myself amused for hours.

Years ago, I was a consultant for Creative Memories.  I sold just enough product to pay for my own materials.  (Support my habit.) 

I haven't been a CM consultant for several years now, but I still order their product.

At the beginning of the month, I got a note from a friend who still is a consultant, letting me know that the company has filed for bankruptcy, and that they will stop selling product at the end of this month.

While I think I'm good to go with product, I had one... count it.... ONE... digital album from 2009.  I had worked on this several years ago, but never got around to printing it out.

So, yesterday began the most frustrating experience I've ever had with digital scrapbooking, ever.

I keep all of my photos and scrapbooks stored on an external hard drive.  The drive is next to the computer.  The problem is, I spent longer than I should have trying to find the cables.  How did the cables end up being removed from the hard drive, you ask?  Good question, and one that I would dearly love to find the answer to!

Finally found the cables, and got everything up and running.

Next problem, CM refused to recognize my software.  I had to go back and dig up the product codes in order to get the software up and running.  At this point, I'd already spent an hour on the project, but had yet to OPEN the actual scrapbook.

Scrapbook opened, I found I had about 14 more pages I needed to assemble in order to finish the album.  Two hours later, the album was finished, and I spent the next hour editing pictures, text, etc. to make certain that everything was spelled correctly and that the pictures were correctly centered.

At this point, I'd spent about 4 hours on the project, and was ready to order.

I began the upload... and the system crashed, dumped my project, and shut me out of the system.  The error notification told me that I was on too slow of a connection, but I am on a broadband connection, and I'm on the computer that is directly attached to the internet with a cable... I'm not on a wireless connection. 

So, the process began again.  The preview of the pages.  Uploading the pages... and DUMP....

I tried uploading in smaller batches.  Again... DUMP....

Finally, after 4 more hours of on and off attempts, I gave up the madness and quit.

I spoke with my friend late last night about my frustrations.

"Oh," she said.  "There are a whole bunch of product codes that are expiring tonight.  The system might be overwhelmed."

And there you go.  This morning,  in the time it has taken me to write this post, my pages have uploaded, and they have been ordered.

Less than an hour.

Still, in the time it took me to put the album together, and attempt to upload the photos, again, and again, and again, I could have finished the scrapbook by hand. 

There would be a terrific mess all over the floor, and I would feel as if I have accomplished something other than sitting on my behind in front of a computer for most of a day.

Even if I do have a completed scrapbook being shipped out to me sometime in the next few months,
I think I like the feeling of accomplishment that accompanies the old fashioned way a little bit more.