I know I’m supposed to design both pages at the same time. Everyone says that. The tutorials, the scrapbook forums, even common sense itself: “Think of your spread as one big canvas!” And I do! I really do! Most of the time at least. You know me, you've seen my gallery. But once in a blue moon… the inspiration decides to play favorites… and refuses to inspire...
This time, the left page came first… my usual jam of storytelling, warm tones, and travel memories from a trip we took together. Lovely and nostalgic… which revealed one tiny detail: there’s not a single photo of me. Not one. Because apparently, during the whole trip, I was too busy enjoying our time together and taking pictures of everything else. To the point where I completely forgot about our traditional selfie. Seriously??? Come on, Olga…
Then came the right page: bold, artistic, dramatic. A visual showstopper (even if I say so myself). Which, unfortunately, made the left side look like… well. Let's just say that when I placed them side by side… the flow was not flowing. Two different worlds awkwardly glued together... the very thing I switched to digital scrapbooking to avoid.
Enter the photo of me standing in the doorway… It says something. A threshold. A new stage of life. Also good lighting. Let’s not underestimate good lighting. My husband even offered to take it - big deal in my world. And with its quiet symbolism, it actually works. A doorway between two moods, a subtle transition in life and layout.
Sure, the dramatic artistry is gone — but so, thankfully, is the drama in our life. Which, come to think of it, might be exactly the kind of balance I was trying to capture all along. Because maybe double pages - like relationships - don’t need perfect symmetry. They just need a little space in the middle where both sides can meet.
For now, I’m keeping both versions because I can't decide which one is better... and also because life doesn’t always line up neatly either. Sometimes the transitions are clumsy, sometimes the stories overlap, and sometimes we forget to take pictures of ourselves along the way... ha ha... I still have a year or two before I print the album... But still, note to self: next time, create both pages together. Or at least make them talk to each other first.
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