SYW239 – My Way with Dorothy Guinan

[00:01:44] Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 239. In this episode I'm interviewing Dorothy Guinan for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done. We're excited to have Dorothy as the November featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

[00:02:16] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Dorothy. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:02:18] Dorothy Guinan: Hi. Thank you for having me here.

[00:02:20] Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today. Can you start by sharing just a little bit about yourself?

[00:02:26] Dorothy Guinan: Well, I. am from Nova Scotia in the eastern part of Canada, and I've been living in the province of Quebec for most of my adult life. I came here to study French for one year, and 37 years later, I'm still here. So I met my husband here and we live just outside of Quebec City, uh, with our Siamese cat named Chester. We have two children. My daughter would've been 29 and my son is 27.

[00:03:03] Jennifer Wilson: I am sorry for your loss. We've corresponded a little bit about that this year.

[00:03:06] Dorothy Guinan: Thank you.

[00:03:07] Jennifer Wilson: Um, I hope you are finding some peace in your life.

[00:03:10] Dorothy Guinan: Well, I'm, processing it still.

[00:03:14] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:15] Jennifer Wilson: So Dorothy, what's exciting you right now when it comes to your memory keeping and maybe other things outside of scrapbooking?

[00:03:23] Dorothy Guinan: Well, uh, you asked in the outline for us to have one thing that's exciting us in scrapbooking? and that's really difficult for me because I've got two things that are burning me right now. So can I mention two things?

[00:03:36] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, go ahead.

[00:03:37] Dorothy Guinan: Okay. So The first one is Crop and Create. Now probably a lot of your listeners know about Crop and Create. It's an online paper crafting event sponsored by Scrapbooking Cards Today Magazine. Well, I've signed up for the fall one, which is in early November, and I'm right now waiting for a big box of scrapbooking material to be delivered to my doorstep. So I'm really, really excited about it. It's a three day event and all of the supplies are part of the, you know, the, uh, the fee that you pay. So they deliver to you all of the products. And as an added bonus, my sister is driving up from Nova Scotia, so she's gonna do it with me here in my dining room. So that's the first thing I'm interested in.

[00:04:30] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's so fun.

[00:04:30] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah, I'm really excited about that.

[00:04:33] Jennifer Wilson: I am really hoping to get, this is my stretch goal of getting 19 layouts done this weekend so that I can say I'm caught up before that box arrives.

[00:04:41] Dorothy Guinan: Really. Because you've done it and you have pages that aren't done from a previous event. Is that it?

[00:04:48] Jennifer Wilson: Correct.

[00:04:49] Dorothy Guinan: Ah, so what I did for the last time was, this is my second time doing one of these online Crop and Create events. And what I did the first time, it was basically a gift to myself. I took over the dining room and living room in my house for an entire week. And I basically did the event, but you know, you can't get everything done. It's really, really fast paced. So I left everything in my dining room and all that week I was kind of in and out there, and I ended up finishing everything in one week. So yeah.

[00:05:26] Jennifer Wilson: That's terrific.

[00:05:27] Dorothy Guinan: It was a gift to myself. Though I did have to permit myself the time to do that. So yeah, I'm very excited about it.

[00:05:33] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I ended up having an interruption where I was not at home at all that particular weekend, and so I kind of, I lost momentum on the last one, and that's where I have the bulk of my things to do.

[00:05:43] Dorothy Guinan: Uh, yes, that would definitely break the momentum.

[00:05:47] Jennifer Wilson: So what was your second thing?

[00:05:48] Dorothy Guinan: Uh, the second thing is this year in December, I'll be doing the Ali Edwards December Daily. And I'm really excited about it. Basically, this will be my fourth year doing a December Daily album. And in the past I've more or less followed Shimelle or kind of did it on my own. However, last December I started watching the Ali Edwards December Daily videos on YouTube, and I was absolutely enthralled with them. I absolutely loved the product, and I made the decision last December that this year I was going to do it. So when her products went on sale at the beginning of September, I, well, I dropped a mini fortune, I won't lie. However, at the same time. I don't regret it. I'm really excited about it. It's kind of like a, a Christmas gift to myself.

[00:06:47] Dorothy Guinan: It's a really nice way to enjoy December. And it's a different way of scrapbooking for me Because I don't typically do that type of scrapbooking in smaller formats. So it's just kind of a fun thing to do in December. 'Cause December's often a, you know, it's not always a great month for everybody, right?

[00:07:05] Dorothy Guinan: It's, you know, it's not all candy canes and, you know, all that kind of stuff, right? There's good stuff, but there's also a lot of stress in December. So I find it's a way of just having fun in December. So, yeah, I'm excited about that too.

[00:07:20] Jennifer Wilson: I love how both of these things are an opportunity for you to kind of press pause and, you know, find a bit of joy, um, amidst what else is going on for you.

[00:07:31] Dorothy Guinan: Yes. No, honestly, um, that's definitely part of it. I definitely have to look for enjoyable things to do, every day, every month. And that is definitely part of it. So I do have little plans each month, which help me, you know, see the joy in every month as well, despite the, um, despite the grief that I'm going through after losing my daughter.

[00:08:03] Jennifer Wilson: Have you read, uh, Tranquility by Tuesday?

[00:08:07] Dorothy Guinan: No, I haven't.

[00:08:09] Jennifer Wilson: So this is a book by Laura Vanderkam. We read it for our book club this year at Simple Scrapper. And it's, it's really about making time for what matters. But I think some of the structure in it in terms of, uh, activities to prioritize making time for yourself and going on little adventures like might give you some like tangible things to focus on.

[00:08:34] Dorothy Guinan: Okay. Well it sounds like I'm doing that already.

[00:08:38] Jennifer Wilson: That is very true as well. Yes. Yes. .

[00:08:40] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah.

[00:08:41] Jennifer Wilson: And then what was your non scrapbooking thing?

[00:08:43] Dorothy Guinan: Well, this may seem a little small to some people, but it's big to me. Um, right now I'm in the process of planning to go away to do a little get, get away with my, uh, siblings. With some of my siblings, and I'm really excited about that. We live all across Canada and you know, over the past we get together for weddings and funerals, but we've never really been able to manage in our adult life to just get together, to have fun. So that's what we're doing and we're planning a trip and I'm really, really excited about it. I'm extremely grateful that we are able to make this happen. It was just kind of a, you know, an off the cuff decision to do it and we're doing it. So I'm really excited about that.

[00:09:35] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, for sure. And yeah, another memory to scrapbook as well.

[00:09:39] Dorothy Guinan: Absolutely.

[00:09:39] Jennifer Wilson: So Dorothy, do you have a story on your memory keeping bucket list that you'd like to share? So this is, these bucket list stories are things that feel important to document, but for one reason or another, we haven't been able to do it yet.

[00:09:53] Dorothy Guinan: Well, I've been scrapbooking a long time, so I do have a lot of stories told already. And actually I'm kind of an anti- bucket list person. The reason being is that I, I have to be honest, I really do try to, uh, appreciate what's in front of me right now. So that kind of negates the bucket list idea. However, in scratching I, 'cause you asked me this in advance, you sent me a list and I was trying to think about something. So I keep a personal journal, writing. And the thought has crossed my mind to create a small, simple album with some of the excerpts from this journal. And accompany it with a simple photo. It would be completely different than my scrapbooking. It would be, I don't know, just a little bit more personal. The format would be much more simple and the focus would be on the words. Now, if I get that done, great. If I choose to do it, great, but if I don't do it, my words are already there. So that's the closest I can come to a bucket list, I think.

[00:11:10] Jennifer Wilson: Now, do you think if you went through that project, would you, uh, discard the journals because you've saved what you want others to read?

[00:11:20] Dorothy Guinan: Nope. Not at all.

[00:11:23] Jennifer Wilson: I'm just curious. I'm coming from the perspective that my grandmother burned all of her journals.

[00:11:27] Dorothy Guinan: Really? Okay. No, no.

[00:11:29] Jennifer Wilson: I'm, it makes me very sad.

[00:11:31] Dorothy Guinan: I can imagine. No, I have no intention of doing that. My, as far as I'm concerned, my writing is there and that is really what's important. However, I may decide to put a few of those, uh, in a little album one day, but I'm not sure.

[00:11:49] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I love that you can just, um, have a little, put a pin in that and have it something that you might wanna work on. And then sometimes things like that, they just all of a sudden come together. But it's just having that thought, uh, allows it to, to condense around it.

[00:12:04] Dorothy Guinan: yeah, it's just a, a thought that does cross my mind. Whether or not I'll do it. I'm not sure. Um, and if I. don't do it, I'm okay with it. But if I, I may do it one day, who knows?

[00:12:15] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. So you are our featured artist for November of 2023. And this is our My Way episode where we get to really go in depth into your process, your favorites, your not so favorites, and your overall perspectives on your hobby. I'd like to start with just kind of like a little icebreaker question related to our theme right now. Um, right now we're in our Planning creative journey, and so I'm curious what has been successful for you in looking ahead at your scrapbooking plans. And maybe this connects to your antib bucket list. Maybe you're not making plans.

[00:12:51] Dorothy Guinan: No, actually, um, I kind of make short-term plans. And I am actually all about planning my scrapbooking on a monthly basis. I have a YouTube channel, and on my YouTube channel, the first of every month, I share, my, what I call scrappy kit and plan. So what I do every month is I select material that I plan to work with for any given month. And basically what that does is it narrows down my selection and it prevents me from getting overwhelmed with a whole bunch of material. And I, it usually works for me. Basically, when I create these monthly kits, I use normally about five to eight collections. And I try to cover a wide range of themes or mood or whatever. Just in order so that I can have a choice throughout the month. And it also serves as a double purpose because number one, it reduces my selection, which keeps me from being overwhelmed. But when I put together these monthly kits, it really motivates me. It's like I get excited about scrapbooking every month. I happen to love scrapbooking material. So it's just kind of a fun process going through it. And these kits typically have new product in it every month. But I also bring in older product as well. But it just gets me excited about what I'm going to use for the month. So that's how I plan my scrapbooking and it really does work for me. I'm quite an efficient scrapbooker. I'm not bragging, but I am, am efficient.

[00:14:39] Jennifer Wilson: No, that sounds like a wonderful approach. So we will include links in the show notes to, um, your videos about that. I think that sounds like a, something that a lot of people could really find useful. Particularly those who are wanting to use more of their stash and create some more of those rails so that we're not always at that point of indecision.

[00:14:58] Jennifer Wilson: So I'd love to go back in time a little bit. How did you start scrapbooking?

[00:15:04] Dorothy Guinan: Well, um, I started scrapbooking in 2004 and I was invited to a Creative Memories party. So I was invited to my friend's garage and we had a, a few ladies in the garage and we were all scrapbooking. And I, I, I had tried scrapbooking before then, and honestly I thought it was way too crafty for me. It wasn't for me. I wasn't particularly a, I don't know, an arts and crafts type of lady. However, um, on, at the time my father had passed away about two weeks before that. So it was the first significant loss in my life. And of course I was totally, you know, blown away by this. It was horrible. And Creative Memories has this approach to documenting stories. And my father, well, when dad, when I was born, dad was 46, so he was really of a different generation. So the stories of his childhood were so different from what we live today. And the whole documenting and storytelling approach really appealed to me. Because I felt like I needed to document my father's story. I mean, he, I. Was run over by a horse and buggy. I mean, really? When does that happen, nowadays? And I really wanted to leave those stories for my own children. So it really appealed to me. Uh, and that started in 2004. I might've gone a little bit off the rails there. Did I, did I answer your question?

[00:16:46] Jennifer Wilson: Oh no, you totally did. I, I'm curious how. Your kind of approach to your hobby has changed since then? Um, I, I can't even count how many times that this question has been answered with I was invited to a Creative Memories party.

[00:17:01] Dorothy Guinan: I think so many people were. So true.

[00:17:04] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. But how have things evolved since 2004? That's 20 years almost.

[00:17:10] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah. Um, my storytelling approach and the importance of storytelling is still the same today. If I don't have a story, it's hard for me to scrapbook a photo. Um, you know, sometimes I'm out walking with my husband and he's saying, oh, take a photo here, it's absolutely beautiful. And I'll say to him, well, what's the story behind it? To me, I need a story in order to scrapbook a page. So that I would have to say is the same. It's was the same almost 20 years ago as it is today. Where I have changed is probably, I've evolved, I guess, with my style. Even though if I look back at my pages from 20 years ago, aside from maybe the first six months when I was all excited with the Creative Memories tools, that I could cut a circle and an oval, um, you know, and I had all of these wild shapes in my albums. But I quickly kind of moved away from that and moved more towards a linear graphic style. And if I look at my albums, honestly from 19 years ago or whenever, after I finally got over being able to cut a circle and oval. Um, when I got over that part of it, it's still very graphic and linear. Only today, of course, we have a lot more product to use and all of that. So yes, I have more layers and all of that kind of stuff on my layouts, but they are still very graphic and linear with a lot of white space.

[00:18:47] Jennifer Wilson: Now one thing kind of jogged a question for me as you were speaking in terms of the importance of having a story. I'm curious how your last experience with Crop and Create and how you kind of worked through normal process, but now with this giant pile of supplies and instructions in front of you.

[00:19:10] Dorothy Guinan: Well, what I did was I prepared in advance for that big time. I know a lot of people, um, . I mean, it's a very overwhelming event for a lot of people because it's very fast paced. There's a lot of material, and it's just, you know, how do you have stories for all of these pages that are, that you're supposed to create with material that's been preselected for you. What I did was when the material came, which was about three weeks before the event, I went through it, it comes with a book so you can see the pages that you will be creating. And I did go through my photos and I looked for photos that would go with the projects, and also in some cases, I, when I do a class, I like to definitely try to work outside of my comfort zone, but to a certain extent. I'm not gonna make something that I don't particularly like because I'm forcing myself outside my comfort zone. It's fun to work outside my comfort zone, but if I really don't like it, like if I really don't like the bright, printed paper used as mats behind a photo, I'm going to use navy blue or black or whatever works for me. So I will switch some of the material up with my own material if I have to. So I permit myself to do that. So that is how I did it. So basically for the other Crop and Create that I did. When the event started, I had my photos selected. Had I made those pages without photos, which a lot of people do, and if it works for them perfectly, but for me, I know myself, if I do these empty pages, they will sit unused in my scrap room.

[00:21:09] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. I think that it's something to really think about in terms of your existing process and then how you want to merge that together when you have an opportunity to participate in something else. So that you can get what you want and need from the activity, but still find success and, and finish what you want to finish from it. So I think you've done a great job with that and I'm excited to see, um, what you create. I'm eager to get those instructions as well so that I can start selecting photos and stories.

[00:21:39] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah, that's for me as well. I mean, for some people that may not be enjoyable and that's fine. Everyone does their own thing, but for me it's, you know, it's not cheap. It's quite an investment. So I definitely wanna do those pages.

[00:21:53] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. And some of them, especially with, um, Paige Evans creating a lot of layouts now, it's a lot of not just product investment, but time investment into cutting a lot of things that you wanna find, like the right photo and story to, you know, make it worth your time. To really honor something with it. So. So we've been talking here about primarily 12 by 12 layouts, double page layouts with Crop and Create. Is that the size that you're typically creating in, or do you create in other sizes and formats as well?

[00:22:24] Dorothy Guinan: I mostly do 12 by 12 layouts. But for example, the December Daily, the last few years I did six by eight. Which is a fun format also. Um, this year it will be 10 by eight, the Ali Edwards one, so that's gonna be new to me. And I have made other formats. You know, for gifts for people, typically smaller ones. I did a nine by 12, which was interesting as a gift for somebody. I had never worked in that format. But I don't do really tiny formats like traveler's notebooks.

[00:22:57] Jennifer Wilson: Do you have a, like, do you, uh, know why you make that choice?

[00:23:00] Dorothy Guinan: Um, probably because, I don't know, I've never tried a traveler's notebook. I can't imagine working on a canvas that's that small. The 12 by 12 is huge. I have a lot of albums. I've been scrapbooking a long time. It does kind of become a, a space issue, at one point. I must say. I have over a hundred albums done, so you know, there's gotta be room for that somewhere, right?

[00:23:30] Jennifer Wilson: So, whose products are you completely obsessed with? What is often in your shopping cart or arriving at your doorstep?

[00:23:36] Dorothy Guinan: Well, I love all products, so that's one thing. But I am really excited often with Simple Stories products. I love 49 and Market. I love Vicki Boutin products. I. Those are probably among my favorites, although I'm probably missing some. Like I said, I do love scrapbooking material. I'm particularly obsessed with paper. For embellishing, I often use tools. But I do buy a bit of embellishing as well, but I. definitely dig into my tools.

[00:24:09] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, interesting. So it with those three particular manufacturers like that very much kind of runs the gamut of style. So even if you just focus on those three, you always have something a little bit different.

[00:24:22] Dorothy Guinan: That's true.

[00:24:26] Jennifer Wilson: So is there something, if we were to look through your albums that we would notice that you use or do on most of your pages and, and maybe that's the use of tools.

[00:24:35] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah, there's definitely using tools. I often have a frame around my layout, though not always. I use a lot of white space. I use, I use um, straight lines. I like everything straight. I have a problem making things crooked on a page, though I do sometimes. What else can I say about my style there? Anyway. Yeah, I mean, I also like to have multi photos. Now sometimes I do single photo layouts. However, when that is the case, the page that accompanies it always has lots of photos. Like on a two page spread, there are typically five to seven photos.

[00:25:19] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Do you make more two page spreads than you do single page, or is it a, a good mix?

[00:25:25] Dorothy Guinan: I'm definitely a double page scrapbooker, but sometimes my pages, I create a single page and then I stretch it into a double page spread. And sometimes I create a double page, two pages simultaneously, so I do it. I do both ways and each one results in a very different looking layout. But, uh, in my album, you know, they're basically double page spreads. You know, sometimes one page.

[00:25:55] Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

[00:25:56] Dorothy Guinan: Isn't the same story, it's the second page. Usually it is, but not always. But I try to make my pages kind of coordinate one beside the other.

[00:26:05] Jennifer Wilson: And are you still using Creative Memories albums? Um.

[00:26:09] Dorothy Guinan: Yes, I am.

[00:26:09] Jennifer Wilson: Is that part of that strategy?

[00:26:11] Dorothy Guinan: Yes, I certainly am. The problem is where I live in Quebec, Creative Memories doesn't deliver to Quebec. So it's very complicated for me to get Creative Memories products here in Quebec. But what I end up doing is I have it shipped to my sister's place and then, uh, whenever I meet up with her, she lives in a different province. Whenever I meet up with her, I get my Creative Memories product, so I usually do about two big orders a year.

[00:26:40] Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. I'm, I'm glad there's a way to to go about it. Now, thinking about an average day or week for you, when do you typically find the time and energy for your hobby?

[00:26:50] Dorothy Guinan: Um, I would say energy's not a problem. I, , love to scrapbook. I scrapbook a bit every day. You know, some days I have more mojo than others and that's okay. So I will scrapbook more. But I have like a very humble, small, what used to be a bedroom in our home, that is my scrapping space. So it's a complete mess in here. There's nothing fancy here. But I can come in scrapbook a little bit and close the door when I leave. So I can leave the mess here. So, um, I scrapbook a bit each day. Usually, sometimes not if I don't have any mojo, but that typically doesn't last long. And if I'm ever missing mojo, typically what I would do is play with paper anyway. I just permit myself to make mistakes and ruin paper, and that's okay. Sometimes that gets me out of a little bit of a funk.

[00:27:48] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. I have certainly done some things like that where I'm like, I'm just gonna start gluing things together, and if something nice comes out, great. But I'm not anticipating that it will, and it's okay to even throw some of it away.

[00:28:02] Dorothy Guinan: I definitely do that.

[00:28:03] Jennifer Wilson: So Dorothy, is there something in scrapbooking, whether it's a supply, a technique, a size, we've actually, we've already identified, you know, those smaller sizes for you or format that you've decided is absolutely not for you.

[00:28:15] Dorothy Guinan: I am not a mixed media person. I don't like the mess. I will try it from time to time, and there is mixed media in my albums. It's typically very careful mixed media. I recently did some pages where I was using volume paste, but of course it's like bumpy and it warps your pages. And um, so what I ended up doing was I took the paper that I used volume paste on, and I also used a bit of watercolor. But I cut out the mixed media that I did and then I adhered it on top of a piece of flat white card stock, and I was okay, with that. So it was kind of like contained mess. And I was okay with that. And definitely outside my comfort zone. So it's fun to do that for me. In general, I'm not a person who is going to invest a lot time or money into mixed media. It's just not for me, even though I can definitely appreciate it when I see a beautiful page full of mixed media.

[00:29:20] Jennifer Wilson: For sure. Now, I'm curious with your December Daily projects, are you working mostly inside the page protector or do you do outside as well?

[00:29:29] Dorothy Guinan: Um, I, well, what I've done, I've done three of them in the past. And, I outside of the page protector, sometimes I have flaps that kind of hang outside of the protector. My December Daily albums are definitely different than my typical scrapbook albums in the sense that they are more chunky. Um, there's definitely, like, I'll, like I mentioned, there's flaps that come outside of page protectors. I have a lot more ribbons and tabs and things you can pull, stuff like that. It's more interactive than my regular 12 by 12 albums. And again, that's part of the fun in December, right? It's for me, doing something completely different.

[00:30:14] Jennifer Wilson: Now I'd like to shift gears for a moment and talk a little bit about organizing. Do you have any favorite tips or solutions? It could be from really any part of your hobby or even something in your home, but something that's really kind of worked well for you.

[00:30:28] Dorothy Guinan: I always laugh. People often ask me, oh, I want a scrap room tour. And you know, they ask me this on YouTube. Or can we see how you organize your project carts and stuff like that. And I always laugh because I really, I have the most unfancy scrapbooking room ever. I've got a, I'm very grateful for it. I'm very thankful for this humble little spot. But it's really, it's a complete mess in here. That being said, I know where everything is, and there's two things that I do. Because I really am efficient at using what I buy. Number one, I do not buy too much material. When I am purchase scrapbooking material, I am extremely aware of what I'm buying. I'm very aware of my style, my tastes, and all of that. So I'm not gonna buy something that just doesn't fit my lifestyle, even though it's enticing and beautiful. The other thing I do, and I buy a lot of tools. Is one thing before I actually put it away, I use it and I find that's a very good approach for me to remembering what tools I have in my stash. Now, a lot of people will go through the tub will do this. They will like catalog their tools so you know, if they need trees, they can look up trees and find whatever tools they have on trees. My approach is a little bit different. Basically, I, my tools are kind of stored all over my room. But what I often do is look through my tools. For example, if I'm about to embark on a layout and I'm doing an outdoorsy layout, I will take, honestly, it takes five minutes, say five to seven minutes to flip through my tools, to flip through my stamps, my dies my punches. Just to see if there's anything that I have that I can use for my project and I pull it out. But that does two things. It reminds me of the tools that I have in my stash, and that really helps for further projects. So I don't actually have them cataloged in any physical way, but they're kind of cataloged in my brain just because I go through them so often.

[00:32:48] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I think having that familiarity is so helpful and I like you, I enjoy it. And I, I do things very similarly. I, I know that if I were try to try to create an index, I would get so obsessed with it and then I would make it and it'd be perfect, and then I'd buy stuff and then never update it again. So I'd rather just flip through or maybe flag those things that are new and say, okay, I wanna make sure I use this for this particular project. Um, Yeah, but I think it's, it's part of the personalization of what your brain and what you really need in order to be productive.

[00:33:21] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah, I get, I'm envious when I look. I'm not envious. That's a big word. But I appreciate when I see these beautiful scrap rooms, it would be absolutely lovely, but that's just not my reality. So I work with what I have and I'm, I'm good with that. I'm very happy with that.

[00:33:37] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I think it's important to be content for sure. Um, was, were those, do you have any other tips that you wanted to share or was that it?

[00:33:47] Dorothy Guinan: That's basically it. You know, for me it's just not to, I shop very efficiently for products that I love. I have to love what I buy, and it has to fit into my lifestyle. And that means I don't do things like, for example, the Hip Kit Club was having a big sale last weekend. I stay away from grab bags. Grab bags are so enticing and so fun, but I always end up with material that I wouldn't necessarily select. So what I buy is material that I love. If I get it on sale, all the better, but I would rather buy fewer products at full price than more products just because it's on sale and it's pretty, but I'm not really gonna use it.

[00:34:36] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. That's a smart way to think about it for sure. I was, I marked my calendar for that sale. I already had stuff in my cart, and then I talked to myself out of it and I was like, oh, I really don't need it. . So, but since I have Crop and Create coming. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, they're, I love their supplies as

[00:34:55] Dorothy Guinan: Well, I, I bought a few things. I bought one of the collections. Oh yeah. No, I liked it. That's it. That's the, uh, that's what, you know, that's my criteria. I have to love it. And it was on sale, so it was an extra bonus.

[00:35:07] Jennifer Wilson: I think they do a really good job with color in particular.

[00:35:09] Dorothy Guinan: Yeah. It's beautiful stuff.

[00:35:11] Jennifer Wilson: So we have two kind of wrap up questions that are a little bit bigger picture. So where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years?

[00:35:20] Dorothy Guinan: Wow. Hopefully not a hundred more albums. Um, let's see. Uh, I dunno, I'm just gonna keep going with what I'm doing. I'm happy with that. Um, what I would like to do is I probably won't be living where I'm living now in our home for the next 10 years? So maybe in my next home, I would have a more dedicated space to scrapbooking. A more dedicated scrapbooking room. So I'm gonna change it from my scrapbooking to my scrapbooking room. Because I'm pretty good with where I'm going with scrapbooking. And again, I. Um, kind of like the bucket list mentality. I don't really look that far ahead, but I'll just keep moving the way I am moving. Hopefully not accumulate another a hundred albums because that's a little bit excessive. And maybe I'll have a nicer scrap room one day.

[00:36:14] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. That's a good thing to look forward to.

[00:36:16] Dorothy Guinan: Hmm.

[00:36:18] Jennifer Wilson: Now, what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

[00:36:22] Dorothy Guinan: I have to say that being a scrapbooker has made me appreciate day-to-day life more. Almost like the boring details of day-to-day life. I think that's what makes people the most interesting. I mean, we can all read someone's resume and what they've accomplished in life. But you know, the day-to-day details, what they like, what they dislike, their sense of humor, their quirks, all that kind of stuff. I think that's what really fascinates me about people. And I think that's really a kind of a wonderful legacy to leave to future generations, who people really are. So, and I would say scrapbooking has helped me focus on the day-to-day, mundane, boring details and really appreciate them.

[00:37:21] Jennifer Wilson: For sure. This has been a lovely conversation. Can you share where we can find you online, anything you might have new or coming up, um, towards the end of this year or the beginning of next?

[00:37:32] Dorothy Guinan: Okay, well, I have a YouTube channel, Scrapbooking Quebec. And in November I will have a, typically, I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing, which is have my YouTube channel. I start every month with a, a share of my scrappy kit and plans. And I end the month with a layout share that can be anywhere from 20 to 30 layouts. And in between there I do a few layout process videos. Um, I will be doing that in December as well, although typically in December I slow down a bit because it's a Christmas month. And in January, honestly, I have no idea. You can also, you can also find me on Instagram, it's scrapbookingqc, and I also have a Facebook page called Scrapbooking Quebec as well.

[00:38:24] Jennifer Wilson: Terrific. We'll definitely include those links in the show notes. Thank you for spending time with me.

[00:38:29] Dorothy Guinan: Thank you very much. I very much enjoyed our conversation.

[00:38:33] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.