Only In My Mind!

I have come to the conclusion that the perfect scrapbook page exists only in my mind. I keep coming up with these wonderful (I think, anyway :P) ideas for scrapbook pages but, when I try to create the page, I just can't bring my vision to life!
Usually it's the embellishments. I'll envision something only to discover that I don't have that embellishment after all or it doesn't look quite the way I remember it. So I make do. I adapt the design to what I have on hand or can make myself. Most of the time that makes me stretch my creative muscle and I still come up with something that pleases me.
A few days ago I was looking through an online gallery and read another scrapper's touching journaling about her handicapped daughter's lack of self-confidence. That made me think about my own daughter's fearlessness and how that has enabled her to overcome so much. I wanted to do a page celebrating her fearlessness. I have the perfect photo of her- all smiles and leaning toward the camera as if she is ready to take on the world. The problem? That photo is about seven years old and I've scrapped it at least twice already.
Another page I've been planning in my head for a few days now is for my older daughter. I have the journaling all written out about how her boyfriend is soooo much like her dad! LOL I wanted to use a phto I took of her and her boyfriend last fall from behind when they weren't looking where she is sitting on his lap and his hand is resting against her back. I wanted to inset a smaller photo of her sitting on her daddy's lap as an infant. So I went to print out the photos this morning and discovered that photo wasn't nearly as great as I remembered it and no amount of photo editing was going to make it usable. The 25 year old photo with her dad wasn't so hot, either.
So now I'm trying to figure out how to scrap these pages without those photos and without the "perfect" embellishments. Because I have stories to tell. And sometimes life doesn't come with illustrations.