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About four years ago, a neighbor invited Chris Brown to a home
show on scrapbooking, a relatively new phenomenon focused on
the creative display of photos and other items in an album
page. Chris admits she wasn’t really excited about attending,
but did it as a favor to her neighbor. And like untold others,
Chris became hooked on the hobby after that very brief
exposure.
Since then she has been creating beautiful pages to go into
books for each of her daughters -- Amanda, 15, Ashley, 13, and
Sarah, 11 -- chronicling their lives. "It’s a keepsake for
them, something they will always have," Chris says when asked
why she enjoys the time she spends scrapbooking.
And her daughters also help her design their pages. "It’s
something we do together; they think it’s fun," she adds.
Chris is a client service representative in 1st Farm Credit
Services’ Ottawa office, and previously served in that
capacity in the Morris office. She and her husband, Larry, and
their daughters live in rural Marseilles in east central
LaSalle County.
Slices of life
Chris’ other big scrapbooking project was an album she made
for her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Lovingly displaying
a lifetime of family memories, it was a focal point of the
celebration.
Chris says she probably averages more than several hours a
month
working on her hobby, although she admits with her family’s
busy schedule, several months can go by before she has time to
devote to her avocation. Then, she continues, she becomes so
absorbed that she’ll look up from a page she is working on and
realize it is two o’clock in the morning.
The biggest challenge Chris says she has faced is sorting
through and putting in order shoeboxes filled with photographs
from the past two decades. It’s a problem she thinks
discourages many people from getting involved in scrapbooking.
"Looking at those boxes can be daunting," she confesses from
personal experience.
To overcome this psychological obstacle, she says veteran
scrapbookers recommend starting with more recent photos – and
then work backwards. The secret, she reports, is "just do a
page; just get started," and things will fall into place.
It has become so second-nature now, that Chris says when she
takes the camera along these days, many times she already has
a page in mind that she wants to do and takes photos to fit
her design idea.
Inspiration all around
Another stumbling block potential scrapbookers can encounter
is the feeling they aren’t creative enough to tackle the
hobby, tells Chris. But you don’t have to be Rembrandt to
enjoy the satisfaction of designing pages that have real
personal meaning, she continues. "You don’t have to be real
creative to make nice pages. Anyone can do it."
 In addition to a myriad of books on the subject, Chris says
scrapbookers turn to each other for inspiration and ideas.
There are a number of scrapbookers who get together to share
ideas, techniques, tools and materials. Chris belongs to one
such group that meets monthly in a church in nearby Grand
Ridge. The meetings normally attract 20 to 30 people, she
states. A number of people are working on family trees and
their heritage, she adds.
Chris’ design flair also shows in her other hobby – gardening
– where the burst of colors from her flowers draws your eye
like a magnet. She started gardening when she got married 20
years ago. The garden, which was only vegetables then, was her
husband’s. But, she laughs, over the years it has become her
pastime and the vegetables have had to make room for the
addition of flowers.
"I enjoy it. I like flowers. I like to be outside. The
garden’s always changing, doing something new." Chris
particularly likes trading plants with relatives, friends and
her fellow 1st FCS client service representatives, adding
diversity and character to her garden.
While different in many respects, Chris’ two hobbies have a
common thread: taking a fixed space and creatively
transforming it into a work of art.
Title: Client Service Representative
Office: Ottawa
Farm Credit Service: 5 years
What do you enjoy most about working for 1st Farm Credit
Services?: "My past experience has been working in large
law firms in downtown Chicago where the clients have been
major corporations, so I find it refreshing to work with real
people. Our clients are always very friendly, and it is a
pleasure to serve them."
What does providing excellence in client service mean to
you?: "I think providing excellent service is not only
meeting our clients’ expectations, but exceeding them. I feel
that the camaraderie with my co-workers carries over to a
positive attitude with clients – which they appreciate." |
