organizing memories

how do you keep track of all the important events in your life?  photo albums, traditional scrapbooks, photo cd's, photo books, digital scrapbooks, blog books? 

for a few weeks now (in between mb projects) i've been trying to play catch up on getting five years worth of "photo memories" organized and ready to go into a traditional scrapbook.  scrapbooking is something i picked up a few years ago while making gifts for family.  then, it sort of transpired into a fun way for me to track things in my own life.  i quickly decided that one scrapbook per year would be a good way to encompass all the happenings of that year (i.e., holidays, birthdays, vacations, day trips, etc.)  however, i've learned that before you know you're falling behind.  

lately, i've put a lot of thought and research into digital scapbooking and blog books.  the more i learn the more i think i really like the idea.  since everything is computer based now, it only seems fitting that you design a digital layout with all the photos you just downloaded.  plus, it seems like it would be more time and cost effective than the traditional way, and....  maybe just as fun and creative?! 

i mean look at how great some of these pages are:

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and just look at what you can do with some of the photos - as creative as i am now with traditional scrapbooking i certainly can't do this.

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and i think my favorite part of the whole idea is...

it's like having your own mini storybook!

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{outside cover design}

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so, what's my decision?  i've still got five more traditional books at home that i want to finish first and then i'll probably start making the switch, but before i do that i would love to know: 

1.  what some of you are doing to catalog memories and which method you prefer?

2.  does digital scraping really save more time and money?

3.  do you have a fav software provider?

4.  do you like the end product?

5.  do you still find yourself doing both?

until tomorrow,