Memories a la Mode celebrated its seventh birthday Friday "placing it among the oldest scrapbooking stores in Kentucky.

The store is co-owned by Lois Douglass and her daughter Mendy Douglass-Atchley, who realized the retail potential of scrapbooking when interest in the hobby boomed during the late 90s.

Douglass says it's something they enjoy, so when the opportunity to open their own business presented itself, it was "Why not?"'

"We just love to share this with other people," Douglass said. "It's just so much fun to watch their eyes light up. It's so neat. It's wonderful therapy."

Douglass took early retirement after 17 years as a state legislative assistant and has never looked back. Her daughter, who lives in Louisville, handles all the behind-the-scenes work like ordering supplies and Douglass works at the store full-time.

Memories a la Mode offers Frankfort residents the opportunity to express themselves creatively, Douglass said.
"We think that creativity is good for the soul," Douglass said. "People can come in here and there's always a page to make."

The scrapbooking center provides a Creative Caf where customers can come in, create pages and enjoy some snacks, Douglass said.

"We also do Wacky Wednesdays where we make crazy and fun pages and we celebrate and do pages for different holidays like national potato chip day and we did one for Johnny Appleseed's birthday," Douglass said. "Really, any excuse to be creative and have a little fun."

Most customers have more than enough to scrapbook " pets, trips, weddings and any special day in their lives, Douglass said.

"Scrapbooking is another form of journaling," she said. "People have the opportunity to make wonderful books of their lives. Then they can hand them down to their family so they can know their thoughts, dreams and hopes."

The scrapbooking store also features kits for bridal and baby showers and birthday parties. Douglass said that Memories a la Mode provides the samples and materials for everything.

"They can make pages as simple or as elaborate as they want," she said. "A lot of people are even making their own invitations and wedding announcements now."

Another trend the store is seeing, according to Douglass, is homemade gifts for holidays like Christmas. Beginning as early as July, Memories a la Mode will be offering classes to make Christmas gifts.

Douglass said people like to do homemade gifts because they are more personal and more economical.
She also said that her hopes for the future are to get more people involved in scrapbooking.

"We just want to continue scrapbooking," Douglass said. "And showing people how they can be creative in preserving their memories."