I was born and raised and went to college and law school in Miami, Florida, although I've lived for a few months in London and also in Atlanta, Georgia and for a few years in Tampa, Florida and in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I moved to Tamarac (Ft. Lauderdale), Florida in July 2007, after getting married in June 2007. I just moved my law office to Broward in January 2008.

I am relatively new to scrapbooking. I had never been to a scrapbook store until just after I got married. I was putting our wedding photos in sheet protectors inside of three-ring binders, using basically the office supplies I had used in trial notebooks. When I told my husband--without him seeing the results--that I was just putting the photos and mementos in a three-ring binder, he said they should be in a scrapbook instead. Little did he know what he was starting. He meant an "album," not the creative and embellished pages you see in scrapbook layouts. But, I took him literally, and, being very compulsively thorough in everything I do, I dove right into scrapbooking. I'm working on our wedding scrapbook and a travel/vacation scrapbook and a scrapbook of our pets. Now that I look back, I had created many scrapbooks on my own, just without matting photos or adding die-cuts or stickers or anything. I had just preserved the memories, including photos & mementos & sometimes even journaling, in three-ring binders.

I love my new hobby. I do so much thinking and focus on logic so much in my line of work that I have always wanted to develop my creative side. I am seeing a brand new creative side of me emerge, and I'm sketching layouts and putting ideas and colors and artistic touches together, and it makes me very happy. I love the scrapbook stores, too, and the sense of community in the crops. It's like the old quilting bees! I also like how it's developing more of my feminine side. I have always liked to cook, and I like to crochet, and when I was a girl I would do some crafts, but, I never was into regular girlie things that my girlfriends were into, like shopping. I never liked shopping. Now I *love* shopping! Originally I went from store to store to store shopping for bargains on scrapbook supplies, and I *loved* it! Now I just go to my local scrapbook store, Paper Niche, on crop nights.  I love the scrapbook-related websites, too. And, another great thing about scrapbooking is that I can give free rein to my love of organizing because there are all the embellishments and photos and ideas and supplies to organize!

Since I'm relatively new to the West Broward area and relatively new to scrapbooking, I would love to meet more scrappers in my area.