Pasting together a book of fond memories

As the vice president of internal auditing for Regions Bank's South Florida territory, Gracy Hart is far more than a bookkeeper. Her duties include overseeing the bank's compliance with assorted federal regulations and scrutiny of financial documents.

It's a full day, but after the bank closes each evening and Hart arrives at her Doral home, she assumes more bookkeeping duties. But this time her tools are scissors, glue, ribbon and other crafty items she uses to create scrapbooks documenting the lives of her three young daughters, ages one, nine and 11.

Over the past four years, Hart has created assorted family scrapbooks filled with photographs, captions and decorative flourishes.

Building personal archives is a passion for many area professionals. From traditional scrapbooks to digital notes in cyberspace, South Florida executives are preserving professional and personal milestones in various formats.

''It's something I can leave my kids. I've made an album for each one,'' says Hart. ``The day they get married, they can take their albums. It's really for them to remember everything.''

Susan Kidwell, client services director in the Fort Lauderdale office of Avenue A/Razorfish, says the process of creating family scrapbooks also has given her a new perspective on her workplace.

Now Kidwell -- an executive on the revenue side of her company, which creates websites for high-profile corporate customers such as Carnival Corp. -- has new insights into the process of generating websites, which are essentially digital scrapbooks.

''I'm not a creative person at all,'' she says. Creating a scrapbook ``has made me appreciate what a lot of our creative people do.''

Kidwell began making scrapbooks about seven years ago after her husband -- a passionate fisherman -- suggested that she acquire a hobby of her own. Around that same time, Kidwell's sister-in-law hosted a scrapbook party.

''I got hooked,'' Kidwell says. ``It's really evolved. I probably have 15 scrapbooks by now. We all encourage each other.''

SCRAPBOOK CLUB

During a typical monthly meeting, the informal scrapbook club works on projects from early evening to midnight. And once a year, the group takes over the Florida west coast fishing house used by Kidwell's husband. Scrapbook tools replace fishing poles during the annual ``girls-only weekend.''

The scrapbook process also generates family time for Kidwell. Her 10-year-old son Blake, for example, created a book to document a recent school trip. Sitting at the table, the mother and son typically work on individual pages while sharing supplies and ideas.

Family photos -- printed, organized and on display -- are important to the emotional health and self-esteem of children, according to Kenneth Condrell, an author and child psychologist.

And a recent Harris poll -- released to coincide with the celebration of May as National Photo Month -- points to the same conclusion. In a national survey of 3,021 consumers, 67 percent of the participants in the Harris poll reported that family pictures -- around the house and in photo albums -- are important to a child's well-being. The survey was commissioned by Pictures Matter.com, an affiliation of independent camera stores and photo labs.

AT WORK

Others like to use scrapbooks to document corporate events.

Recording the May 5 Miami Mercedes-Benz Dealers Corporate Run is high on the agenda of Leslie Press, an attorney with the Miami law firm Kluger Peretz Kaplan & Berlin. Press, who has created scrapbooks since her college days, plans to document the firm's participation in the race with a page-by-page collage of race numbers, photographs and other mementos.

''I could sit for hours and put all those different things together,'' Press says. ``The only way I'll look at these things is in scrapbook form. It preserves memories.''

Amy Brigham, a partner at the Miami law firm of Brigham Moore, has also created several albums documenting and recapping office retreats over the years.

And on business trips, Karen Unger, president and chief executive officer of American Document Management, uses video and digital scrapbooks to keep her Fort Lauderdale staff up to date on new equipment she encounters while traveling.

POINT AND SNAP

''When I am on an extended trip or investigating a new product, I just snap a picture so my team can see it. All I have to do is go back to the hotel and upload it,'' she says.

While traveling for pleasure, she creates digital scrapbooks with captions and photos that allow her home-based friends to virtually travel with her. Unger recently documented a three-week Mediterranean cruise. In 2004, she used an Internet website to document extended travel through Russia, Germany and other destinations.

In the digital age, many collages don't even make it to paper. For example, Gary Gold, co-president of Cambridge Diagnostic Products in Fort Lauderdale, creates electronic scrapbooks by compiling wacky and memorable highlight tapes and DVD recordings of National Hockey League games.

''I decided to keep all of the really crazy disgusting stuff that takes place in the NHL,'' he says. His tapes have found a receptive audience. Indeed, Gold's digital scrapbooks of mouth injuries and flying teeth have become very popular at industry gatherings for dentists who specialize in treating sports injuries.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.