Reference and comment page:

Caulton, R. (1994). Occupation and healing: at home, at work, at play. Occupation, 2(1), 8-20.

Caulton, R. & Dickson, R.  (2007). What’s going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy  (p. 87-114).  Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Christiansen, C.H., & Baum, C.M. (2005). Glossary. In Christiansen, C.H., & Baum, C.M. Occupational Therapy: Performance, participation, and well-being (p. 545). USA: SLACK Incorporated

Crepeau, E. (2003). Analysing occupation and activity: A way of thinking about occupational performance. In E.B. Crepeau, S.E. Cohn & B.A.B. Schell (Eds.), Willard and Spackman’s occupational therapy (10th ed., p.189-198), & (p.436). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Duncan, E. (2009). Skills for practise in Occupational therapy. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone: Elsevier.

Foundations for a better life. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.scrapbooking.com/quotes/doc/34233/

Hagedorn, R. (2000). Chapter 13 – Dyadic interaction: style and skills. In Tools for practice in occupational practice. a structured approach to core and processes. (p. 21). USA: Churchill Livingstone.

Hagedorn, R. (2000). Chapter 3 – understanding occupation. In Tools for practise in occupational practise. A structured approach to core and processes. (p. 98-99). USA: Churchill Livingstone.

Hamilton,T.B. (2010).Chapter 10 – Occupations and Places. In C.H. Christiansen & E.A.Townsend (Eds.) Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2^nd ed). (p.255). New Jersey USA: Pearson Education Inc.

Hopkins, H.L., & Smith, H.D. (1988). Willard and Spackmans occupational therapy. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Kimberly, A. B. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.scrapbooking.com/quotes/doc

Nisbet, J. (2009). Social and Health Polices in the United States. In E.B. Crepeau.,E.S.Cohn., & B.A.B. Schell (Eds.). Willard & Spackman’s  Occupational Therapy  (11^th Ed), (p.155). Philadelphia : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 

Reed, K.L., & Sanderson, S.N. (1999). Concepts on occupational therapy. USA: Lippincott & Wilkins

Toomey, M. (2003). Chapter 13 – creativity: access to the spirit through occupation. In M.A.McColl (Eds.). Spirituality and Occupational Therapy (p. 181 – 192). Ottawa, Ontario: CAOT Publications ACE

Comments:

Nicole's Identifying my need for Cross-stitching blog

Keryn said....

Hi Nicole, this sounds great and is easy to see cross-stitching is a big part of your life. It made me want to pick mine up again, and get it finished. :-)
Your quote from Tessa Bowden(2003) reminded me what it's like for me finishing a scrapbooking page. It's great being able to imagine the finished product before you even complete it, and really enthused me to keep going, so I can start my next page.
I love the pictures of your cross-stitches down the side of the blog. I thought maybe you could put captions with them of when you did them, and why those particular patterns where used.

26 October 2011 09:10am

Shilmoni's Cooking is inspirational blog
Keryn said....

Hi Shilmoni, the way you have reflected, and described the story of Julie, and her enjoyment of cooking with her pots and pans all around her reminded me of times when I have all my scrapbooking equipment and pages I am working on in front of me.  Ah, it is SO GOOD to be able to stop all the hectic, not so enjoyable parts of life, and just surround yourself with things you love and enjoy. It also made me very hungry, I love chocolate sauce, and the quotes at the bottom of the page, and they made me laugh. :-)

It made me wonder if maybe you could put some photos of food you have prepared down the side of the page, to illustrate it, and show us what you like to cook.

26October 2011 10:15am

Rachel's Botanical Gardens blog
Keryn said....

Hi Rachel, I love your photo's they are all really beautiful, and it is easy to see that you love taking pictures, and playing around with the different settings and apertures of your camera.

26 October 2011 10:29am

Judith's my needs blog

Keryn said....

Hi Judith, It is easy to see you get a lot of pleasure from knitting, and its so cool that you have knitting to keep your hands busy. I am the same and don't like just sitting in front of the tv, or anywhere with nothing to do, so I like to get my scrapbooking out if It's not going to disturb my flatmates, but if it will then i like to pick up my cross-stitch which is another good way of keeping my hands, busy while doing other things.
26 October 2011 11:51am

Another meaningful scrapbooking experience :

Hi everyone well I am on mid semester break this week, not that it feels like much of a break as I want to get SO MUCH assignment work done, so when we get to our study and assessment weeks I can concentrate on my exam study joy, joy :S

Today is Wednesday and I am feeling a little stressed with everything I want to get done study wise and finding it frustrating because I just get into it and then have to leave for a couple of hours work and then come back and get into it again. Argh it’s a bit of a pain so today I decided that I was going to do some scrapbooking cause I need to for this my last blog insert.

I set up all my equipment on the table in the kitchen cause I couldn’t be stuffed moving it into the lounge and, doing it in the kitchen meant I could use all the bench space as well, so had ample amounts of room to spread out. I was set as I had the equipment in front of me to use, the folder of different coloured scrapbooking pages sitting on a chair beside me on one side, and on the other side I had my filebox of photos which  I have organised into the different days, and stages of Toby’s life, so I was set. Now one last thing to do, I put some nice relaxing music on to listen to while I did my pages. 
Rosemary Caulton( 1994) in her article on occupation and healing states that "work is something which needs constant attention paid to it, it is a moving along - an active process, a constant concentration on where you are in relation to an end, an awareness of how what you are confronted with the result or the artifact, the object of your work, your transformations, your effort, you are embodied in it.  And even if it is about poetry and mathematics, the feeling is that work is fundamentally, or originally, grounded in the real, physical, environment we are part of - we are never far from the elements which are our surroundings."
I also pulled out my Berwick Outdoor Experience camp scrapbook to get some page ideas, encouragement, and motivation for my designs and all my studies, and everything else going on in my life. It is such a great source of inspiration to keep me moving forward, and not give up on what I am doing.

These are two of the activities, Mountain biking around the Berwick forest, and abseiling down the practise wall. This is when I was stuck upside down for 10 minutes till one of my teammates came down and cut me lose.

I felt much better after looking at it, and was able to get into it and achieve five more pages, which was great. The pages were all very different from each other. I tried to use lots of bright colours, because I want the album to be fresh and cheerful looking for my nephew Toby, so when he is older he can look at it and get as much pleasure from seeing his life history, as I get from remembering all the special moments in his life. When I look at the album, it gives me a real sense of peace and contentment, knowing I have produced something that can be kept as an heirloom of family history for both Toby and my future generations to see. When I reflect closely at why I enjoy scrapbooking, it is because I know my self esteem and self-worth are pretty low sometimes, but through my scrapbooking I can make something attractive and beautiful to show others, even when I am not feeling so attractive myself. Scrapbooking brings out the best in me and my creative expression lends a story to itself. I feel that I am in control of my creative side and that in itself is a gift, which is wrapped in love and selfless giving not just bringing joy, but also brining providence.... Therefore there is much more than meets the eye when I scrapbook. It is a unique part of me that I leave behind for future generations. It is a language of love and commitment.......

My last scrapbooking session

Yesterday I had the whole day off studies so i decided the night before I would do some scrapbooking. I awoke really early and was excited about my chance to get lots of pages done.

I got up and ready for my day and by this stage my flatmates had left for work, great I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way.

I brought all my equipment out into the lounge and set it out on the table. I then put the stereo on and paused to listen, yeah that channel will do, it seems to be playing good music.

I then started looking at all my photos that I had to use and the last page I had done, this album is of my first nephew Toby’s life – from birth till the present day, and I plan to keep adding to it over the years. 

The last page was of his fifth day of life with us, and it didn’t have many photos on it, but I’ve got so many photos of his sixth day, as it was the day that he went home, um how would I display them all, to get the full impact of the importance of that day?

I thought about it for a minute, and decided that I wanted to use all the photos.  I had about thirty, and would do them in a grid style, over two adjoining pages, with the title centred at the top of both pages and a photo on either side of it. The rest of the photos would be in a grid style underneath it. I decided the quickest way would be to use stick-on letters for the title, and would use blue card to display them on, as that was the colour seen the least in the photos, and would bring those colours out more, making it more dramatic and eye catching.

By this stage I had quite a little mess of scrap paper, and pieces of photograph going on all around me, so I went and got my rubbish bin, and got rid of the rubbish so I would have more space to work in, and wouldn’t feel so cluttered.  

The next step was to get out my grid page layout template, and start cutting the photos, so they would fit on the page, with little borders of blue, around each photo. I started by sticking one photo, on each side of the title, and then measured a small border pace between the title row, and the next line down where photos, would be placed. I started sticking all the photos on, working from left to right till I got to the other side of pages, and then started the whole process again of sticking photos from left to right with a little border of blue around each photo till the pages was full, and all the photos were used.  Wow that looks really great, and look how cute Toby is in all those photos, I like my page design, and the way I was able to use all the photos, and not have to waste any.

Something important to remember is that through  my scrapbooks I am able to show all the aspects that make my pages so meaningful.

M. Toomey states this well in the following quote -"To be creative and give full expression to the work, all aspects of the person must be engaged: the physical, the intellectual, the emotional, and the spiritual. Each aspect opens up a door to the other. Creativity makes the access through the doorway to the spirit easier" 

I put that page by the window so it would dry faster, and then went onto the next page.

Toby’s seventh day, what photos have I got for today? how will I display them?? I kept doing pages like this for the next few hours and a few more pages done which I was excited about and happy when my flatmates got home from work so then I could show off my creative efforts of the day.

Affordance continued

This week we will continue looking at affordance. The aspects we will cover are aesthetics, spirituality, and health.

Aesthetics:

Duncan (2009) defines aesthetics as being "a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature, creation, and appreciation of beauty, art, and taste." This obviously applies to scrapbooking. Because I am a person who enjoys doing crafts, and likes using bright colours to enhance what I am working on, scrapbooking is a great hobby as it allows me to use bright materials of different textures and forms to reinforce the depth of importance the in different photographed events. It also means I can make the pages visually and creatively unique to myself. This also emphasizes my preference for bright and clear colours.

Through making and storing my photos in a scrapbook it demonstrates that I like to present my photos safely and in a well organised way, so they are easily displayed in an attractive manner that will be more meaningful and rewarding, for myself and anyone else looking at them.

Spirituality:

I believe there are many aspects of spirituality involved in doing scrapbooking. Spirituality is defined by Crepeau(1991) as “The fundamental orientation of a person’s life; that which inspires and motivates that individual.”Collecting and storing photos is something that has been done for centuries in my family, and I believe that through doing my scrapbooks I am carrying on a cyclical occupation that gives me an ancestral connection, of what has been done in the past and hopefully will be carried on through future generations. It is also a way for me to preserve my memories of the different seasons of my life, the celebrations, and trials that I have been through. They are such a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to, if I want it enough. 

I wouldn't have believed it, if I didn't have the proof but I went on this. whoopie.

These are photos of me doing my first abseiling, and even getting stuck upside down on the abseiling wall. It was terrifying.

The photos show where I have come from, and will show, where I am going in future years. The photo displays give a sense, of my creative personality, and what is important to me. When I do scrapbooking, it is so relaxing and enjoyable; I get a real sense of well-being, and mindfulness through doing it. The process draws on basic instinctive abilities, which have been handed down from generations before. To do scrapbooking I need to slow down and not try to rush it, so I can do a graphically appealing job, not a rushed boring mess of my pages. Consequently, it requires patience and endurance to stick with it, but the final product is so rewarding to the soul.

Health:

The third aspect is Health, which is defined by Crepeau, Cohn, & Schell (2009) "As a state of complete physical, mental, & social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." For me life is very busy, I am doing my second year of Occupational Therapy training part-time because of the need for me, to do it at a more relaxed pace, because of previous internal head- injuries. But I also have three part-time support worker jobs as well, so for me scrapbooking is an effective means of relaxing and de-stressing as I find it very therapeutic doing craft work, and it is also very encouraging seeing the finished pages in my album. It is not physically taxing, and although it can require some cognitive input, it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Ambience:

Reed, K.L. & Sanderson, S.N.(1999) States “Ambience applies to the atmosphere of the surroundings, their mood, or tone, and can compromise the atmosphere or background against which something is seen” (p.160).

For me I think the meaning of ambience is describing the mood when I am doing my scrapbooking, and it changes every time.

On my last session of scrapbooking it was mid semester break, and I had lots to do, so felt rushed at the start, but soon relaxed because scrapbooking has a calming effect on me. The sun was shining in bright, and warming my back. I had some nice music on that I was able to sing along too. All my photo’s were on one side of me, in my file box sitting on the chair and on the other side I had my box of different coloured papers. Lying on the table in front of me was all my equipment ready to be used, it was the perfect setup for a great afternoons scrapbooking

Affordance

"J.J.Gibson a perceptual psychologist coined the term 'affordance' to refer to the particular arrangement of objects in the environment and to estimate the actions allowed by an object.... affordances do not have to be visible. known, or even desirable to affect behaviour." (Christiansen & Townsend,2004, p.255)
Affordance includes aspects such as communication, describing how I am feeling while doing my scrapbooking. Connection is another area and looks at the action properties, what is happening during the session. Moral Properties or the good and bad aspects of the session are the last area we will look at.

Communication:

Hagedorn (2000) states that  "communication can be either verbal or non-verbal... and that touch is one of the first means of communication which humans experience, and it remains deeply significant throughout life."This explains why when I went to my friend’s place this week for a scrapbooking session, it was so great because it meant, we could use each other’s equipment, and share ideas. We had lots of fun, and joked around talking about past memories, seen in the photos we were using. I always feel happy and excited about pages I’m going to create, but I did feel a little flustered getting all my equipment organized to take, and then having to carry it all into my friends place, and set it up on the table, making sure I didn’t take up too much space. I was on one side of the table, and Joan was on the other with all the equipment in the middle, so it was more accessible for us both. At the end of our 6 hours scrapbooking, I had achieved eight cool pages, and was looking forward to our next session.

Connection:

Working with my friend was great, and it ment we developed a really strong friendship connection as we swapped ideas and lifestories, while helping each other, consequently achieving more pages. Working with Joan, meant we could rehash old memories, and reminisce together. Being able to borrow each other’s equipment was great, but was difficult as, I didn’t want to mess up Joan’s lounge, or take up too much of her space, so couldn’t spread out as I would normally at home, and was very self-conscious of this all day. 

Spending the day scrapbooking lead to some very creative pages designed, because we both came up with ideas and used trial and error to emphasise page layouts better.

Through participating in scrapbooking with my friend Joan, and hearing of other people, including my Aunties and cousins who are also keen scrapbookers it is clear to see that we are all connected to a cultural group of people, who enjoy showing off their, tradionally acquired crafting skills, which have been handed down from generation to generation through doing scrapbooking. Hopkins & Smith (1983) wrote: "It is through our activities that we are connected with life and with other human beings.  Through the activities in which we engage, we learn about the world, test our knowledge, practise skills, express our feelings, experience pleasure, take care of our needs for survival, develop competence, and achieve mastery over our destinies." (p.296).  When I think about crafting people I think it is easy to see that there is some very deep connections with the past, and occupations that have been handed down from each generation, and that will be carried on into the future.
Working at Joan’s, meant that my flatmates did not have to cope with my equipment and pages everywhere, so did not get grumpy with me, and Joan's son was away for the weekend. :-)

Good and bad moral properties:

I don’t believe scrapbooking has any bad properties, although I am a bit of a perfectionist, so can get frustrated when a page doesn’t look the way I want it to. As a result, a few times I have actually done my pages twice. This has positives though, because when my scrapbook is finished it will look AMAZING.

"The values we live by are worth more when we pass them on...." 

 foundations for a better life. N.p.: organized memories, 2006. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. <http://www.scrapbooking.com/quotes/doc/34233/>.

In terms of good properties, scrapbooking allows me to leave a legacy for the next generation and shows off some important events that happened in my life. It is so rewarding sharing my life experiences through my scrapbooks with people.

Wow abseiling down the Mahinerang Dam, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have proof here in my scrapbook. What an AMAZING experience it was to do.

Scrapbooking is a great role-modelling tool, showing others that you can do things while watching television, and you do not have to sit staring at the screen and can achieve something worthwhile as well.

Scrapbooking is a good way to look back on life, it makes me realise how blessed my life has been in so many areas, even when it did not feel like it. 

The Bridge exercise at The Berwick Outdoor Experience camp.

What an experience, but I survived :-)

Ergonomics of Scrapbooking

Hi again, today’s blog is about the ergonomic factors of scrapbooking. Caulton and Dickson (2007) say that when thinking about 'ergonomics' you are "constantly making slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt it to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose."

The factors that affect a persons ability to participate in occupations can be divided into three groups:
Person -  Crepeau,Cohn, & Schell (2009,p.436) State a person is defined as "A unique and holistic view of the person acknowledges the mind, body, and spirit. Variables associated with the person include values and interests, skills and abilities, and life experience."
Occupation -  Kielhofner (1995,p. 21) defines occupation as" The dominant activity of human beings that includes serious, productive pursuits and playful, creative and festive behaviours. It is the result of evolutionary processess culminating in biological and social need for both playful and productive activity."
Environmental -  Christiansen & Baum (2005,p.545) State environment  is "The external social and physical conditions or factors that have the potential to influence an individual."
When considering the ergonomics of scrapbooking, it is important to think about the person-occupation-environmental factors, which will make it more meaningful.

Person:

For me scrapbooking is something I love, and set time aside to do each week. Scrapbooking allows you to design a page using your photos, memorabilia, and other resources to decorate it. The degree of intricacy depends on what you are trying to portray through your page.
Below are some examples of pages I have scrapbooked, and are all very unique and of different levels of intricacy.

The Berwick Ooutdoor experience camp pamphlet showing everything you take part in while on camp.

This was the challenging obstacle course.

This is from another scrapbook album of my trip to Australia. These photos are of when we spent the day at the Australia zoo.

We are about to go down the Yarra River, in Melbourne.

The proud parents with my little nephew Toby.

 

Having the cognitive ability to design a page layout, and then the physical ability to use scissors, or other equipment to achieve your design are the only skills necessary.

Scrapbooking is not an energetic occupation, but the ability to sit for lengths of time is important depending on how many pages you want to do.

The amount I spend on scrapbooking depends on my budget, but it is something I have done for years, so have built up many resources to use.

Activity:

Scrapbooking is a way of relaxing, de-stressing, and gaining more self worth as it allows me to use my natural crafting abilities, which I know are great to show off my memories in an attractive style.

The time it takes to do each page depends on the style, and layout used.

The equipment can range from cheap to more expensive, it just depends how much you want to pay?

Scrapbooking is something I can do while achieving something else, such as talking with people around me, watching tv, or listening to the radio.

Environment:

I do scrapbooking in the lounge, but it can be done in any room inside, that has a table to work on with enough space for me to layout all my equipment, and the page I am working on. that has a table to use, such as kitchen, lounge, bedroom, or you could go to a friend’s place to work on it together. Another good factor is that there is plenty of light to see clearly, and windows to open, to get rid of glue fumes.

Scrapbooking can be done in a busy environment, as long as people don’t mind drying pages spread around. 

If I had my dream home, this room would be in it, as it has ample space for scrapbooking, with a BIG desk, plenty of light and room for spreading out all my scrapbooking equipment. It looks like an AMAZINGLY fun room to be working in. :-)

  

My scrapbooking history

Hi, my first blog is all about my past experience of scrapbooking. When I think about my experience of scrapbooking, it started in primary school, when I would stick pictures – usually of animals I loved, or newspaper clippings we had to put in our school scrapbooks. I remember doing this type of scrapbooking right throughout my schooling years, although not so much in secondary school.

Scrapbooking is something I have been doing in some form all my life. When I finished secondary school scrapbooking for me was in the form of a normal old photography album, with photos of special moments or occasions that occurred. 

I am a crafter at heart, and saw a scrapbooking course, so went and learnt, many different styles of scrapbooking to display my treasured photos and memorabilia. I was hooked and wanted to do more. My first scrapbook was of, The Berwick outdoor experience camp which changed my life.

This was me on the Mahinerangi Dam wall, I did it. :-)

So it’s cool, having a scrapbook of my experience, to go back through, when I am not feeling so confident, because it shows, I can do anything – even abseil down a dam, and I have the scrapbook album to prove it. 
"A memory is a way of holding onto things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose."
Kimberly,Ann.B. N.p.: The Wonder Years,n.d. N. pag.Web. 4 Oct.2011. <http://www.scrapbooking.com/quotes/doc>.

 For me scrapbooking is great. I love it because I find it very relaxing and therapeutic designing and laying out pages that show my photographed memories in a safe way that is going to keep people looking at them for hours.

Some practical considerations about scrapbooking are that you need plenty of room, so you can spread out all your equipment and have enough room to work. Scrapbooking can be as cheap or expensive as you like depending on your budget.

Scrapbooking could be used as an Occupational Therapy process for assessing peoples cognitive processing, and physical abilities, such as fine motor body functions.