Entertainment Value...In Mean Spritedness?!!

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"Such and such has such a big butt, she should really put down her paper cutter and rubons and take her truck butt to the gym a few days a week."

"So and so really shouldn't post close cropped pictures of herself until she gets a few laser hair removal treatments under her belt."

"I can't believe that whatsherface posted pictures of her and her fugly husband on the beach...you could almost see Green Peace in the background trying to get them to jump back in the water!"
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You would think that those comments came from a bunch of overly entitled high school girls or perhaps some Beverly Hills elitist right out of "Clueless" but they're not. Those types of comments are falling (left and right) out of the mouths of women who share my hobby of scrapbooking. They are often spewn for no other reason other than the fact that the "offending" party failed to come up with anything else to talk about.

What the heck has happened to this hobby?

I've read time and time again, the justifications that women who would say these types of things to and about people (most often not to their face, but almost certainly after every dose of Internet courage). The justifications are just about as ludicrous as the fact that a grown woman would allow such things to fall from her mouth without provocation.

It's all in the spirit of fun.
And somehow, that makes it alright to abandon some of the most basic of social norms; acceptance of differences between people? And that somehow makes it okay to hurt other people? I personally tack the fun label on activities that don't involve making someone feel
"less than" or determining whether others have a right to share this planet with me. It's not fun, it's malicious tomfoolery on the behalf of people with somewhat skewed moral compasses. You know, in the South, it used to be considered fun by the 'good old boys' to chase down blacks with their vehicles and string them up on trees. When the violence lost favor with the collective masses, it then became fun to call the darkies derogatory names for the sake of the good old chuckle. I don't think the "spirit of fun" is going to hold.

It's my opinion and I have a right to state it.
Hitler had an opinion too... I'm sure you've heard of it. I admit, sometimes some really crude things come to mind when I see something that I view to be offensive to me. Now, most of the time that revolves around 'deposits' left by animals or gratuitous displays on the television, but sometimes my offense does originate from someones personal appearance. Where the maturity comes in is when I decide (in an instant because somethings are ingrained) that I have no right to judge any person on this planet.
My granny used to tell me that "God don't make junk". I've tried to hold true to that as much as possible, though I have wavered under provocation. My point is this, yes, you have a right to voice your opinion, but you also have a responsibility for your voice and what results from the venom you spew. I think that this is where the anon blogs provide the courage in the form of lessened responsibility. It's so much easier to walk away from hateful, denigrating comments that you make when nobody knows who you are...I'll be there hasn't been much sleep loss (on the part of the offender) to date.

This isn't 2peas, this is the real scrapbooking world:
I don't know what a site has to do with a lackadaisical sense of social responsibility, but okay. I don't know what the 'real scrapbooking world' is either...someone break it down for me. I DO know that regardless of venue, civility should be the soup of the day. I don't see any breakdown in the industry that will result from a collective agreement to leave the superficial personal attacks out of the equation. I don't see any tangible benefit being derived from being socially irresponsible and oppressive.

If you put yourself out there, you should expect it:
Uh, no. If I put myself out there, I should expect to be subject to a degree of exposure. Once I left the juvenile school yard, I left the notions of juvenile behaviour behind. If I put myself out there, I will not expect my children, my family, my lifestyle or anything other than my craft to be subjected to criticism. Why? Because, frankly, nobody has a right to judge my worthiness as a human.
Sadly, it is the case that people in the public eye are subject to scrutiny, but it's a condition that we, as humans have created, nurtured, and allowed to destroy our world. It is your personal choice to do something that at least a small part of you must be telling you is wrong. I suppose for some, life would be grand if the world revolved around their Hitler-esc views of worthiness and entitlement, but I can assure you that for the majority, life is a lot better when we get along.

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The other side to this coin is the fact that while it's okay for someone to anonymously rip someone apart for failing to look a certain way or for having the audacity to possess physical 'flaws", it's never okay for that person to defend herself or her family. No... they are labeled as "pearl clutchers" and "hand slappers". Well, my granny would clutch her pearls whenever she saw someones child behave very badly, and my parents would slap my hands when ever I flipped out and lost control of common sense (i.e., painting with my mom's lipstick, and taking her wallet to school for show and tell). It's funny that those two terms are used on the anon blogs to refer to people who admonish the personal attacks that go on there. It's funny because those terms refer to actions which are often the consequential result of witnessed juvenile behavior. So the offenders know that they are behaving childishly and subconsciously call themselves on it.

What about the superficiality of it all? The focus on physical appearance...are people who say things like that in an attempt to spearhead a character assassination helping or hurting the struggle with personal image issues that our society is facing? I don't see how a person accepting themselves (even if it means not plucking that chin hair) is hurting anyone. Nor do I see why it is my right to judge them on the merits of how they look in a bathing suit or up close and personal. Let me state for the record, I'm no fashion-diva so I won't be dictating what anyone should wear.
What is all of this "fun" doing to the industry?

In my opinion, if you are going to rip someone apart for something as superficial as whether or not she tweezes her eyebrows in a way you like, or attack someone's children because they don't fit into a model that you've established for 'perfect children', then you need to learn to lay in the bed that you have made. Simply speaking, if you are going to dish it out, you'd better be able to take at least as much as you've given. After all, why shouldn't a person have a right to defend themselves?

It is really disturbing to me to think that this is the scrapbook industry. This is what women are becoming. Last I checked, we are still trying to fight through the glass ceilings of the world and the battle to reclaim that 25% earned wage differential from our male counterparts is still raging. We, as women have been oppressed for way to long and the majority are still suffering under some form of oppression. Do we really need to do it to ourselves as well? This is why women are often viewed as ill equipped to handle the rigors of running a country. Fortunately for us, those who would oppress women as a gender have not really caught on to the depth of disparity to which we've fallen. I can honestly say, as a woman, that if they did catch on, they would be much more successful in their endeavors because they could just leave us to denigrate and destroy our own senses of self worth in a nice bout of gender genocide. We really don't need men to tear us down, we can do it quite nicely amongst ourselves, thank you very much.

Whatever happened to women being representative of mother earth? Whatever happened to the ideology of the female being the nurturing force that helped maintain balance when chaos ran rampant? Was that all in my mind?
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I apologize if I've jumped around a bit...I have so much going through my head as it pertains to this topic; it's really hard to take all of those cerebral musings and put them into a comprehensible entry. TFR

Diary of a Scrap Hoar-der... *snicker*

**It's Monday and I'm well rested for the first time in months... bear with me and my silliness...**

If you refuse to provide a detailed inventory of the stuff in your scrap stash to your inventory for fear of someone finding out how much "expendable" income you blew on your hobby...
You might be a hoarder.

If the idea of opening one of 2 identical packs of rubons/embellishments results in you needing to self medicate your way out of an anxiety attack...
You might be a hoarder.

If the fire department on suggests you have them on speed dial simply because your home is "uncharacteristically combustible"...
You might be a hoarder.

If your local LSS has a picture of you in honorable mention for no reason at all other than the fact that you have been the main reason that they are still running in the black...
You might be a hoarder.

If you've ever tried to work out an alternate package delivery routine with your letter carrier (i.e., if it's a package, take tuck it behind the hedge on the side of the house) to throw the "dogs off your trail"...
You might be a hoarder.

If your spouse has been led to believe that you are a frequent major contest winner in the scrapbook industry despite the fact that you have yet to enter even the first one...
You might be a hoarder.

If visitors to your house think that you sell crafting/scrapbook supplies (at first glance)...
You might be a hoarder.

If LSS owners contact YOU to see if you have an item that a customer is looking for BEFORE they call the supplier...
You might be a hoarder.

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Trust me, she who dies with the most stuff does not win. She who dies with the most [insert your fav overstocked item] only leaves her family with an altered appreciation for her scrapbooking (and I don't think it's a good kind of altered either.

Hoarding has been a topic of jest for as long as I can remember becoming a card totin' members of Excessive Crafter Club. The jokes, the horror stories, the sad consequences some have had to face...it's all went hand in hand. For some scrappers, having excess is a way of life. For others, it's a been there, done that, addiction that they worked their way out of. Still for others, the idea never took hold.

There are some who find it easy to lump the excess accumulation of scrapbooking materials into one file and calling it all greed. But I think that that is pretty narrow minded when you consider that we are all individuals. The reasons for hoarding, in my opinion, are as varied as the types of items that are collected (for lack of better word).

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Type I: The Fatalist Hoarder
There are some who subscribe to the "they'll eventually run out/stop making it" philosophy when it comes to shopping for supplies. It doesn't matter that there are 50 items on the shelf, the idea that not everyone will love the item as much as she doesn't register. I've even heard women justify their exorbitant purchase by questioning the financial security of the company that manufacturer it. These women don't shop without the grey cloud of impending retail gloom hanging over their heads and because it it they treat their scrapbooking supplies like Ruffles potato chips... please don't make me expound on the slogan...

Type II: The Bargain Hoarder
This type of hoarder loves a good sale and has been known to flip out and lose touch with all reason when confronted by a clearance or store closing.

• There is the woman that used to frequent the LSS down the street (I don't so I don't know if she still does). When the store was closing to switch ownership, the new owner liquidated much of the existing inventory at 40-60% off. This woman brought both of her daughters into the store to each carry 2 baskets as she threw stuff into the baskets using some odd ordering system that I couldn't discern. I remember this woman because I stood in line for 20 minutes waiting to pay for my 4 $3 packs of MM Rubon Alphas. The store owner (who was teaching a class in the back) finally got her class to a point where her assistance could be redirected to the front of the store for a few minutes to check the waiting customers out. When I left the woman's total was reading over $500...and she still had 2 baskets on the floor to ring out.

I think that a big part of the justification for this behaviour is a combination of the inability to walk away from "such a good deal" and the poorly rationalized thought that those items will never be on sale like that elsewhere. In the case of the woman, I suspect, judging by the fact that she would literally snatch a package off the shelf in spite of the fact that you were obviously looking at it...barely missing your face if you were standing too close, I think that maybe a hint of scrap gluttony might have been present as well.

Type IV: The Unintentional Hoarder
This person, be it through poor organizational skills, limited easily viewable storage options or simple misinformation, simply doesn't have a good grasp of what she currently has in stock.

• I'm not all that ashamed (anymore) to tell everyone about the time that I bought a bulk lot of MM metals on Ebay and stuck the box somewhere out of the way. I don't even flinch (anymore) when I tell people that a few months later, after buying the 2nd such lot on Ebay later, I decided to get serious about reorganizing my stash only to discover that I'd acquired about 150 little packages of metal embellishments (many in duplicate). My problem was that I took SOME of the items out of the first big box and stored the rest away and... how does it go? Out of Sight...

The misinformed scrapper is usually new to the hobby and after seeing the pictures of the scrap rooms, scrap studios, scrap sheds, ateliers, and other representations of creative spaces of her peers, she adopts an idea that in order to do it right, she has to emulate their inventory accumulating habit.

Type II: The Trend Surfing Socialite Hoarder
This is the person who acquires a little bit of everything just for the conversation value in being able to say, "ooh, I have that!". Whether or not the woman buys all of this stuff is irrelevant if she is actually crankin' out the layouts to justify the purchase...BUT once it's used she can't really say that she "has" it...it becomes a "had" and anything past-tense is passe'...therefore the back up is ever present.

Type V: The Simple Trend-Surfer Hoarder
The primary difference between this hoarder and her social sister is the fact that this particular hoarder doesn't give a rats behind if anyone knows what she has...and often prefers that they don't. She buys because the industry has put it out and she likes it. She buys in excess for whatever reason tickles her fancy. She may buy more tried an true things in excess than other thing or she might just buy 2 or 3 of everything 'just in case'. The main thing to her is that she is doing what she wants and to hell with the status quo or peer opinions.

Type VI: The Empty Nest-er-not Hoarder
Er-not meaning that the empty nest could simply be a previously unused room that that has been transformed into a "studio" (or something). This person is trying to achieve a particular look...and that look is usually called "well stocked".
Perhaps she doesn't like going to the store too often (or at all) and therefore feels that anything less than 40 rolls of adhesive refills is unacceptably reckless planning and a danger to her minimal shopping mantra. Perhaps she just doesn't like the 'echo' in the room (real or imagined) and needs to fill up that dead air with product. Maybe she doesn't like the fact that some of those pretty penny storage items are sporting unused space (and where there is space, there is a need to dust?). What ever her reasoning, it appears that this type of hoarder has a goal oriented approach to her madness... does it make it better? Don't ask me.

Type VII: The Emotional Hoarder
Some people eat to release stress. Others exercise. Still others shop. Need I say more?

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On the serious side, I think that a large part of the need to hoard is the result of an external influence. Not to blame the industry for yet another scrapbooking ill, but do you think that if there wasn't such constant turn over of product available that hoarding would be as prevalent as it is? I don't think so. I started my hoarding addiction when I discovered CI Extreme Eyelets 6 months too late and couldn't find that in any store (online or otherwise). It was then that I realized that just because it's a hot item doesn't guarantee that they will be around when you get around to it. In the end, I guess it was a good thing that I couldn't find it, but I still get the occasional longing.**

I've found that I've been guilty(?) of being a combination of several types of hoarders, and I've even rationalized my habits into categories not listed here.
I'd love to hear hoarding stories, good or bad. I'd really love to hear about how the whole nasty dragon was avoided... or slain. Do think that with the steadily increasing consumer awareness and dissatisfaction with the rapid trend turn around, that hoarding will become less of a "common" occurrence? Reasonable prices? Less trend waves? Individual capacity sensors that shut off our credit cards when our scrap stash reaches dangerous limits?

**I am a hoard survivor and very proud of it.