SYW145 – An Intentional and Rewarding Hobby

Kim Edsen 0:00

For a lot of people, if you could take that time to maybe think through those questions of what is most satisfying to you, what's worked well, what hasn't worked? Well, I think in the end, it will pay off so much because you'll have such a much more intentional and rewarding hobby in the end, because you kind of customized it, rather than just always being reactionary.

Jennifer Wilson 0:24

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 145. In this episode, I'm joined by Kim Edsen to reflect on the past month and explore what's new for December. We're also reviewing our plans for 2022. This is our monthly peek behind the scenes at Simple Scrapper.

Jennifer Wilson 0:58

Hey Kim, what's up?

Kim Edsen 1:00

Oh, my goodness, I have so much to talk about. So excited to chat with you today.

Jennifer Wilson 1:06

Yes, me too. I have been totally preoccupied the past two weeks because we just got kittens.

Kim Edsen 1:15

I know I saw on Instagram. They're adorable.

Jennifer Wilson 1:18

I know. So we have an orange tabby named Ron and a black, long hair name Hermione. And they are 11 weeks old now. And they're just they're growing fast or totally kooky and crazy. And somebody said like kittens go from like, playing to sleeping really quickly. And that definitely happens.

Kim Edsen 1:40

Are they littermates?

Jennifer Wilson 1:43

They are and so because they look so different. It's quite possible they have different dads.

Kim Edsen 1:48

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 1:51

But they are so there are siblings, and they grew up together, there was a litter of four. And so we took two of them, and they're super loving on each other. Ron loves to groom Hermione, which is always great. You know, it's always the shorthair cat that grooms the longest. And yeah, so we'll see how we do on the hairball situation as things go on.

Kim Edsen 2:12

Yeah, you might need to get Emily some cat grooming supplies for Christmas. I highly recommend the Furminator is like...

Jennifer Wilson 2:21

We have that.

Kim Edsen 2:21

Okay, get them well accustomed to that because my cats actually love to be brushed. And, and this summer especially I feel like maybe it's like the changing seasons if they like go through there. My cats are all indoors. So I don't think they have as much of the transition in their coat as maybe an outdoor pet that would with the seasons. But in the summer I was just give the girls a cat and say okay, you need to like brush her. And Grace especially can be very thorough with the brushing. It's like is there any hair left on the cat? But there is. Man we have one of our cats in particular, Daisy, she's our white cat she has. She doesn't have particularly long fur but it is exceptionally plush. There is a lot of it. So yes, get them accustomed to the grooming early for sure. But so exciting.

Jennifer Wilson 3:12

We have the Furminator and then we have like a smaller slicker brush and we're just kind of alternating. The Furminator seems so big compared to their little bodies right now.

Kim Edsen 3:20

Oh, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 3:20

We have like doing that a little bit. But yeah, it definitely gets that undercoat for like so much better than anything else.

Kim Edsen 3:27

Yeah, it's crazy. Um, we do the Furminator and then we follow with the slicker. Have you seen? I went to buy one, but I'm not, the Instagram ad for Leo's paw. It's like a Furminator type thing.

Jennifer Wilson 3:41

Yeah, I did. I saw that. And I started reading the reviews. It was on Amazon, too.

Kim Edsen 3:46

Okay.

Jennifer Wilson 3:46

And so I started reading the reviews and they were kind of mixed, some saying like it's amazing. And others were saying like, it doesn't really work. So we'll just we'll see how it goes. It's not very expensive. So no, maybe someday we'll try it.

Kim Edsen 3:59

That's how they get you.

Jennifer Wilson 4:00

So maybe we'll put it in their stocking.

Kim Edsen 4:02

Yes. So fun.

Jennifer Wilson 4:06

Yeah, so that's like taking up a lot of our energy right now. Just getting into even just the new routines of like, we have extra morning chores and you know, making sure we're keeping things tidy again. It's yeah, it's it's delightful. Really is what it is.

Kim Edsen 4:23

It is but it is a lot of work. Well just as they learn and adjust like we had a cat that liked to climb curtains that is not particularly good for the cat or the curtain. So you know, thankfully, she outgrew that. But at the time, it was kind of stressful.

Jennifer Wilson 4:39

Oh, yeah, for sure. I had commented to Steve like, gosh, our curtains, we bought these when we moved in. So they're like, seven years old now. And he's like, Well, let's just get into the kitten stage and we might find that we need new curtains anyway.

Kim Edsen 4:52

Yeah, Steve's a smart man.

Jennifer Wilson 4:54

Oh, the photographing I mean, as a Memory Keeper. I had my big camera out and I'm like, I'm gonna take all these really amazing photos of the kittens, but they don't sit still. So it's really hard to get a good picture of the cats. So I've gotten some that like sleeping in the basket. But it's been different than expected because they're so squirmy, which is very similar, I guess to when Emily was a baby, too.

Kim Edsen 5:20

Yes, for sure. I'm thinking back to when we had gotten kittens. And the girls were little, I think my favorite pictures were mostly of like the kittens interacting the girls, right? Like I have this really cute picture of Grace, like reading to the kitten with like the kitten in her lap, and she's reading her story. So maybe look for that perspective of more. Yeah, they're probably not going to get the perfectly posed still kitten, but maybe an kind of quiet moment in action would be more achievable.

Jennifer Wilson 5:55

All right, Kim, so what's new with you right now?

Kim Edsen 5:56

All right, so our members are gonna get probably very tired of talking about this. But have you listened to Brene Brown's interviews with James Clear on her Dare to Lead Podcast?

Jennifer Wilson 6:08

Not yet, but I'm excited to. So tell me why I need to do it. I want our listeners need to.

Kim Edsen 6:13

Okay, so Brene Brown has this podcast. And from what I understand is a Spotify exclusive. So but she also has the podcast or post on her website, so you don't have to sign up for Spotify to listen to them. And she has a two part interview with James Clear who's the author of Atomic Habits, which we read for Simple Scrapper book club, I want to say like January 2019, somewhere in there. And then this year, we've done a year long kind of study group every other month, kind of digging in deeper to some of the kind of components and things of that book. And so I'm a big James Clear fan, and have been for several years now. And I learned new things on this podcast. Like I've listened to several other podcast interviews, you know, I follow him on social media. But and I don't know if it's just a matter of time, and he's got new content or new approach. Like some of the stories that he shares, and some of the questions that she brings up are his content that I'm familiar with, but it's always really good to get the review of it. And then also, you know, Brene's bringing, like her perspective into things as well. So I think just the conversations that they end up having, I just feel like, you know, sometimes you hear something and you think like, oh, like, I'll take a few like pearls of wisdom away from this. It's just like, No, this was like a treasure chest, it was just everything like I forcibly downloaded to my husband's phone. So he would listen to it. And then I was telling my daughter about it. And we have some travel coming up for the Thanksgiving holidays. And I think I'm just gonna like trap them all in the car, lock the doors and like play this because I'm just so excited about, I feel like his perspectives on things are just so approachable. And it's so very applicable. I mean, it's not sometimes we read these books, and it's like, well, yeah, that'd be great. If, you know, my life looks like theirs. But I think they're how he teaches this information. Like there's almost always a way that you can like, figure out how to apply it to your life, no matter whatever habit you're working on, or approach you're thinking of. And I don't know, I just really like his perspective, obviously, because I think I've just gone on, like, you know, from minute to minute here, but Brene Brown Dare to Lead podcast, two part interview with James Clear. So Great.

Jennifer Wilson 8:34

That sounds awesome.

Kim Edsen 8:35

Yes.

Jennifer Wilson 8:35

Yes, we will include a link to that in the show notes for this episode. And I like the idea of trapping my family in the car and forcing them to listen to it on Thanksgiving. So I might be doing that as well.

Kim Edsen 8:47

Yeah. Well, usually I was teasing my husband that that's when he likes to get really in depth information about like the financial industry or whatever. I'm like, I don't, like it cuz I can't escape him. So the tables have been turned this Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Wilson 9:03

I love it. I love it. Yeah, no, he. And I agree with you that some sometimes you read these books, and it's like, Oh, that's nice. And you might be able to take away something. But it doesn't feel, it's much harder to connect to because it doesn't feel like that's your real life. And I 100% agree that his approaches to habits are so usable and flexible. And it's so easy, as you said, to be able to say okay, I can try this right now. For sure. All right, all about scrapbooking. What is exciting you right now in our hobby?

Kim Edsen 9:40

So I kind of inadvertently stumbled into this concept of the Thankful 30. I mean, there's different names whatever. I just found a hashtag and went with it. So my aim so far in the month of November has been to take a photo or I do sometimes like a screenshot if it's late or I haven't remembered to take a photo or what have you. But um, and I posted on my Instagram account something that I'm thankful for, for that day. And, one, I really like it as an exercise of looking for the good in each day because even like I was telling you before we started recording, like, I feel like I've just been very scattered lately I've like, been wrong on like appointment times. And you know, it always works out like I'm always like early, and then I was like late to pick up my daughter, like, I just feel like very scattered. So even on those days, you feel very confused about what day of the week it is and what's going on and where you're supposed to be. I think there's always something good in each day that you can find. So this, I like it as a gratitude project. And then I like it just for I've talked a long time about wanting to get back into more of like a photo taking habit of like looking for those moments. And so this kind of piggybacks those. And I have done a lot of December Dailies or December albums through the years. And I'm kind of thinking that this might transition well into approach to use for my December album, instead of just like this is a story of the day, something more of like a gratitude of the day. Because I think like throughout the month, I can incorporate different holiday specific things like I'm grateful for, you know, this heirloom Christmas decoration, or I'm grateful for time spent baking with my family or so I think those things would naturally get included, if I use that approach. So I don't know. I mean, what is it? I've got six days yet to figure it out. So we'll see. But like I said, I didn't really intend to do it. And it was just like November 1, I don't know if I saw something or that day was feeling like especially thankful for a particular item or whatnot. And I just went with it. And it's been a good practice for me.

Jennifer Wilson 11:49

I didn't intend to do October Daily either. So sometimes things just happen to us.

Kim Edsen 11:54

I know, I think where's the fine line between being like impulsive, and being spontaneous? Like where's like the line between shiny new things FOMO. And then also just like riding the wave of excitement? So I think for me, this one was the ladder. Sometimes they are the former. But this has been a win.

Jennifer Wilson 12:16

Well and I think that I mean, that could be a whole podcast episode conversation in itself is like, how do you find that balance? And how do you recognize the difference between the two? So I'll have to mark that down for a future conversation.

Kim Edsen 12:29

Yeah, I think the recognize part is huge.

Jennifer Wilson 12:33

One of the things that I love about this, whether you're talking about doing it in November, or December, is that you can create more of a habit around maybe the time of day that you're taking the photo, which also could optimize the light because one of the biggest concerns slash complaints that I hear and I have myself about December album projects is that you often take photos when there's really poor light, and so they tend to be more yellow influenced by the indoor lights. But if you are taking this gratitude approach, you could say take it at 9am every morning, when there is actually light available. And and just look for what is, what is the the symbol or the remnant. So you could have a story about baking cookies, but you're taking a photo of the flower or the actual cookie or the containers you're going to put them in and doing it at a time when you know you're going to get a nice photo if that's something that is important to you.

Kim Edsen 13:32

Yeah, that's smart. I have not taken that approach. And I should really find a way for a future. Or like last weekend, we went and had a holiday dinner with my husband's family and in my mind, it was gonna be like, oh, like his grandma always said such a nice table and it's all the bounty and I'll take a photo of that and no, didn't. Not a single one, like not the girls with great grandma, none of it like so obviously. It's still work in progress. I'm still not taking photos, I think as I once did, but I'll get there.

Jennifer Wilson 14:06

I don't want to like influence you on your One Little Word if you decide to choose one. But you said you've been feeling scattered and you wanted to have more of a photo habit. So something like focus might be able to combine some of those so maybe that will resonate with one of our listeners.

Kim Edsen 14:23

Maybe. I haven't done a One Little Word in years. I just found it ended up being it did not...

Jennifer Wilson 14:30

Something else.

Kim Edsen 14:30

Right, yes. It became like an additional chore rather than something to help guide me so actually just stressed me out.

Jennifer Wilson 14:37

Totally fine.

Kim Edsen 14:38

So yeah, I just gave it up.

Jennifer Wilson 14:41

I love that and I celebrate that because I think what if we could identify something that isn't working for us and being able to let it go and saying I love that that's like I love that for you. So yes, in the Alexis quote from Shits Creek, I love that for you. And to know that that's not for you personally.

Kim Edsen 14:59

Yeah, I know and every year when, like that's a, you know, Ali Edwards does her One Little Word and Gretchen Rubin talks about choosing a word. And they have all these awesome, like, symbols of whatever the word means. And I think, Oh, that'd be really nice. They're getting like jewelry made. And I'm like, Yeah, but no, I just know. And maybe someday it'll, it'll like, serve me once again. But it kind of turned into one of those things where I felt like the process wasn't serving me. It was just making more work. So gosh, I am just a bundle of joy today. Between.. What do you have that's exciting with scrapbooking?

Jennifer Wilson 15:40

So I just placed a too expensive, too large scrapbook.com order, because I had a coupon code and there was also a sale.

Kim Edsen 15:43

Ah, fun.

Jennifer Wilson 15:53

I know, I bought a manual die cut machine, I bought the Spellbinders Platinum 6. And it arrives on Saturday. And I'm so excited to just have just a fun new toy to play with. I don't need it, I can say I don't need it. I have an electronic die cut machine, I have punches. I have scissors, I have things that I can make a lot of these things manually. But there is something really special and different about a manual cut. The edges are soft, they're crisp, it, I'm excited about playing and trying some new things.

Kim Edsen 16:30

Okay. Have you purchased dies?

Jennifer Wilson 16:34

So part of this has come from the fact that I have, I keep acquiring them. Not through intentional purposes, like but they come with something else.

Kim Edsen 16:42

Kits or something. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 16:43

Yeah. And so I have this, I don't have a large collection, but I have a growing collection. And I'm like, Well, I'm either gonna have to give these away, or I'm gonna have to buy a machine to use them. So. so what does the good scrapbooker do? She buys the machine to use them.

Kim Edsen 16:57

No. So I had, I have both. And I still have both, even though I'm not really doing a lot of like paper crafting and more digital. But I really found the manual machine to be helpful. I got it originally because I liked I was making some cards and I liked where you'd have the stamp that would match the die and you could make your own embellishments. And that was all very fine and dandy. But then I found I just not really interested, it just seemed very fussy that whole process. And so I would do it sometimes. But what I really liked the manual die kit for when it came to scrapbooking was basic shapes. Like I got nested stars, I got nested circles, I even got like a tiny, like, I don't know, maybe they're like three quarter inch high alphabet. So it was things that I would tend to want to use multiples of. So I didn't want to have to cut out, you know, nine different circles in different shapes, or different sizes, or stars or whatever, it was easy to just run through a bunch through the manual machine. And then I could use it for embellishment. And then same thing with like the tiny alphabet. A lot of times they would use that maybe for like captioning or like, as part of a title. And the smaller letters can be tough to cut sometimes on electronic machines. So yes, yeah, I Oh, and I had numbers too, because I did use those in December albums, because I would always run out of all my twos or my ones. And this way, I could just cut as many as I wanted. So I, I definitely see that there's a case to have both.

Jennifer Wilson 18:32

Thank you for the validation.

Kim Edsen 18:35

Yep, no problem. I'm here for that. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 18:37

I also asked folks on Instagram about that, and what you said about letters and making titles was one of the most common comments that I received is that what they use it for the most. And I really like the idea of getting maybe larger numbers to use because like you, I run out of ones and twos and you know, maybe I mess one up like I like the ability to, I can create more.

Kim Edsen 19:02

And I will say one thing you can do with the manual machine is if you have any embossing folders or embossing plates, I like texture. So that's why I like stitching. And I like different types of materials and the manual embossing folders or dies or whatever you have. Plates are super easy and fun way to add a lot of dimension really quickly and easily without being bulky.

Jennifer Wilson 19:30

Yes, yeah. So I don't have any of those yet. But I'm excited. And of course this gives me a new category of supplies to look at.

Kim Edsen 19:37

Well, there you go. So...

Jennifer Wilson 19:39

I don't know. I think part of it is that I've been having so much fun with my December Daily project. You know this, I started this in November. And I'm just loving a more textured crafty approach to scrapbooking right now and I'm actually looking forward to doing that outside of December. I'm almost seeing this as a playground for techniques. And then that I want to acquire that I can use later in the year for different projects. So I'm just really excited right now about scrapbooking.

Kim Edsen 20:13

That's awesome.

Jennifer Wilson 20:15

Yeah, yeah. All right. Shifting gears to storytelling. Do you have any Bucket List Stories to tell? I see your one this time might fit one of our categories of of pets, grandparents or food?

Kim Edsen 20:28

It does. Okay, so oh, yeah, I forgot because I typed in my things, and normally I just write them out hand, by hand. So anyways, okay, this is one that has been on my list that I've thought about for a while. And I've never followed through which as a lot of times, these Bucket List Stories tend to be the case. I, our family, like I'm sure many families have kind of traditional holiday dishes that you will only see at Holiday, holiday time usually. And for my side of the family, specifically on my maternal grandparents side, we would have Waldorf salad, and celery with pimento cheese in it, which we never have any other time of the year. This really came to mind yesterday because I was, I'm in charge of veggie tray. And my brother specifically is the one who likes the pimento cheese, though. I mean, I will eat it as well. But I was like wandering the grocery store, like where would I find this? On the shelf? Like I this is just like the weirdest thing and it was by the crackers if anyone's looking, but anyways. And then Waldorf salad. Do you know what that is? It is like, yeah, celery and apples and like walnuts and there's like a nice Yep, walnuts. Yep. And then there's like a mayonnaise based sauce, which sounds so bizarre, but I really like it. And actually, that is one side dish that was like I said, Grandma, my grandma would always have it when we'd go to their house for holiday meals. But my mom, we don't make it anymore. And then when we had lockdown holidays, and I was in charge of doing like all the meals for us, like I actually made Waldorf salad just because I really like it. And honestly, I don't know why I don't make it throughout the year. Anyways. And then a newer

Jennifer Wilson 22:14

That's how I feel about green bean casserole like I love green bean casserole. I only make it like at Thanksgiving. And my family that's who doesn't like it. I could just make it for myself whenever I wanted. Yeah, it's I mean, it's like a $2. Dish.

Kim Edsen 22:29

Waldorf salad. Like, I usually have all those ingredients, maybe don't have walnuts, but usually have some sort of nut, like a pecan or something. Like I could throw that in there. We oftentimes Yeah, I mean, it's not like it's hard. And I can easily size that up or down like one apple a couple, right? Like, it doesn't have to be like pasta salad where you have enough to feed 25 people. So anyways, I could go on and on. But a newer one is my dad has this just insane raspberry patch, and he freezes all these raspberries. So my mom makes this like raspberry jello fluff thing. And she has this mold that she's always put into it or it into. And so like this last weekend, we went to my Dan, my Dan, Dan's grandmother's house, and I was supposed to bring some sort of side or a salad. And I said, Can I bring this jello salad? Because my dad has given us a bunch of raspberries. So it's all the traditions and then so that's like my view of it. And then like Dan's family has their own kind of traditions, like his grandma would always make these rolls for every holiday. So I think it'd be fun to kind of break down like those special holiday foods and highlight those. And then I find it interesting to think about, you know, like my memories of holiday meals and special dishes and how that compares to like, what my kids will remember like what to them, right? So...

Jennifer Wilson 23:48

I love the story so much. And I'm curious, will you or do you want to include the recipes as part of that?

Kim Edsen 23:55

Honestly, other than like the raspberry jello salad, I don't know that there's any, well the specific recipes that go with any of them. Like I don't have Dan's grandma's roll recipe and I don't know that she gives it out kind of thing you know. But...

Jennifer Wilson 24:12

Sure.

Kim Edsen 24:12

And I looked up the jello salad that was interesting because when I made that I think last year like Easter time it was just us, our little family. Like you know the grocery store is are so picked over. It was like cobbling together all the different like components like you need like a cook and serve tapioca. And then I was like substituting things and like, I don't know what that was part of the thing. So maybe for that one, there's actually a recipe to include, but you know, Waldorf salad like there wasn't like a classic family recipe when I've made that on my own. I've just used like my Betty Crocker cookbook or wherever like a internet resource. There isn't like the classic family recipe. It's more about the dish than the recipe itself.

Jennifer Wilson 24:12

Mm hmm.

Kim Edsen 24:13

Which is actually really interesting to include. I should make a note of that because Yeah, it's not like, like we have like a. That's another thing that's maybe like a sugar cookie recipe. And that is very much about that particular recipe and the flavor profile of those cookies, as opposed to just any sugar cookie. It's not, you know, so that story is about the recipe, whereas this one is not, it's more about the dishes themselves.

Jennifer Wilson 25:20

This could be like, a whole thing of whatever, whatever, like format could be multiple pages. It could be a smaller album. I mean, there's a lot of different directions you could do with it, that'd be really fun.

Kim Edsen 25:31

I have scrapbooked about the sugar cookies, though. I don't think there's a recipe on that one. And that is like an old like paper. So I could easily like, put up a little insert in there, whatever, but, and maybe, like, reference it in this like, see, you know, 2015 album, blah, blah, blah for more special recipes or something? I don't know. But yeah, well, or it's just kind of like how people do. It just could be its own little themed album. Though I don't, I don't see myself taking in that direction. But it would definitely be super cool to do.

Jennifer Wilson 26:04

I saw this post on Facebook recently, talking about noodles, like handmade noodles being a traditional, like, Central Illinois. dish on the table at Thanksgiving. And I'm like, I've never experienced this. I have no concept of this. I definitely did not have noodles at my Thanksgiving. We have a very like, with my family growing up with a very set like formula of things we were eating and Steve's like oh, yeah, of course, why wouldn't you have noodles at Thanksgiving?

Kim Edsen 26:34

Are these like egg noodles?

Jennifer Wilson 26:37

I think so. I think you know, like the wide really hearty noodles and like you cook in a broth and yes, you know like Amish style noodles.

Kim Edsen 26:43

That you put in chicken and noodles

Jennifer Wilson 26:44

Yeah.

Kim Edsen 26:45

Like rings and noodles thing.

Jennifer Wilson 26:47

Yeah that type of thing.

Kim Edsen 26:47

Like I make those for like chicken and noodles or whatever. But I've never had them a holiday meal my life. Interesting.

Jennifer Wilson 26:55

Yeah, like had them other times of the year. But I not as like a tradition at Thanksgiving. But, so...

Kim Edsen 27:01

But Steve has huh?

Jennifer Wilson 27:03

Yeah, it's a regional thing, apparently.

Kim Edsen 27:05

See, another story.

Jennifer Wilson 27:09

So my Bucket List Story's a little bit different, definitely a departure here. But I realized it's one that I haven't really captured. And I think there's kind of the modern era, the story and then the full history. And that's just like, being a business owner or being entrepreneurial. You know, I was the kid with like the lemonade stand and selling jewelry. And I was always like, trying to start a business when I was growing up. And then my dad owns the Batter's Box, which is like a vintage. He's a vintage baseball card dealer are all all sports, but, and he started that in like 1989. And that was a big part of my growing up was going to the shows with him and and working and and just being a part of that, you know, have your own business environment. And then of course, was Simple Scrapper. That's, that's my life right now. And so I just I think it's I need to capture that story and how this is a part of my history and my some of my lessons learned. And yeah, just it seems, it seems time for sure. Particularly, you know, we're well past the decade of Simple Scrapper now. And I think it was seeing that we have, you know, we have so many members that have been members for more than five years, and even a lot that have been members for like in that eight to ten year range, and it just blows my mind. And so that really reminded me, you know, that's a story that I want to include in my albums.

Kim Edsen 28:35

Yeah, I think there's a lot of layers to that, not just, you know, the fact of owning a business and all that entails, and, you know, the benefits and drawbacks of that. But also the link to your childhood and then to your Dad's experience of it. And how maybe he inspired you and kind of led you along the way so, yeah, that's definitely a huge story to get told.

Jennifer Wilson 28:57

Oh, for sure. Becuase I had this conversation with my mom recently about, you know, she was like, you can you know, you can call anytime. I think a lot of moms and daughters have this conversation. And she's like, well, you're always so busy. And I'm like, Okay, look at Dad, is he ever not busy? No, I will always be busy. That's just part of my, that's part of my DNA is to, you know, keep doing because I love what I do and never, or not say never, it rarely feels like work.

Kim Edsen 29:28

Well and it could just, it's personality too, right? Like if I don't have something to do, I will like make something to do. Right? Like...

Jennifer Wilson 29:35

Yeah.

Kim Edsen 29:36

Like yeah, what's more pro, pro project can we start now? So yes, I understand that 100% That's really sweet that your mom so like, let me know.

Jennifer Wilson 29:47

Well and I'm trying, I'm really trying to like pay attention to some of her feelings and so that as my relationship with Emily, you know evolves as she grows to understand both sides of that. You know, cuz I'm the one in the middle right now. And so I can, I can see both sides of it. And as I get older too. I don't know, so many feelings there.

Kim Edsen 30:10

Well you know, just create the space and the intention and you know any relationship's a two way street, so but yeah, sure.

Jennifer Wilson 30:19

All right, Simple Scrapper, let's think about the past month. So this is now the end of November, this month was all about the Planning Party. And this is our biggest event of the year. This one I really believe was our best yet. And in some ways, it was the simplest, the most streamlined and straightforward, but I think that's what made it so helpful to our participants. Just focused and created so much energy around it. I'm curious kind of what observations you have from, you know, having conversations with our broader community during the Planning Party.

Kim Edsen 30:58

So I think I have two kind of overall perceptions of it. And one is, I think, sometimes if you've not been involved in this type of approach before, like planning for your hobby, and kind of taking the time to kind of pause and go in depth into it, and what you want to accomplish and why and when that's going to happen. I think for some people, they think of hobbies like, Well, that takes away a lot of the fun and spontaneity of just like, I just want to sit down and create. And I think some of it does depend on your reasoning, why you're in scrapbooking, like and maybe it is just simply as a creative outlet. And for you, you don't necessarily want or need additional planning. But I think for a lot of people, if you could take that time to maybe think through those questions of what is most satisfying to you, what's worked well, what hasn't worked? Well, I think in the end, it will pay off so much, because you'll have such a much more intentional and rewarding hobby in the end. Because you kind of customized it, rather than just always being reactionary. So I think that is a huge part. And I think also along those lines, is it's, I do this all the time, it's really easy to think, like, well, I want to do this and I want to do that project, I'm going to Oh, and I'll just like slip this in there too. And pretty soon you have this mountain of projects, and there's no way to realistically achieve it all. But then you still end up feeling bad that you didn't do what you wanted to do. And so I think this is a approach that really can help you make realistic plans. And so then hopefully, between the tie, those two things like being realistic and being intentional, you end up like really just like loving your hobby, and it's not a source of frustration or guilt.

Jennifer Wilson 32:44

Yes, yes, yes. And I think that connects well with my big observation is that when you do look at that, the scope of a whole year and what you want to accomplish what you know 100% is on your plate and what may be some of the options are that you have to leave space for, the options that you don't know about yet. For the new products, the new classes, there's always going to be something else that kind of attracts your eye and but if you your plate is already full, you're going to be in that place of either overloading and possibly regretting it, or just just feeling frustrated, maybe even giving up because you're like, Well, I can't do all this. And part of it we do have, we do have control. But it also means we have to exercise a little bit of restraint, particularly at this really exciting time of year to say, these are the things I know for sure. These are the things I might want to do. And then but I'm holding space to make final decisions until I know exactly what's going to be on my, in front of me for the next maybe two month period. We do these two month creative journeys, which are really nice containers for staying focused and observing what what's, what the possibilities are, and then say, making choices and actually taking action.

Kim Edsen 34:04

It made me think about I mean, I do this in my day to day life, right? Like I have this giant to do list, and I'm gonna get all these things done. But if you actually sit down, it's like that time blocking exercise where you actually assign like, okay, it's gonna take me, you know, 45 minutes to do this task and probably 30 minutes to do this task. And once you add it all up, there's just not enough time in the day to do so. And it's kind of the same way with your creative hobbies, right? You can say you want to do all these things. But if you actually block it out either, you know, not necessarily specifically like from 7 to 8pm on these dates, but within those journeys. I think it makes it a lot more achievable.

Jennifer Wilson 34:46

Yes. So on that note, thank you for reminding me. I am excited Tuesday, December 7. I'm hosting an Instagram Live with Corey Huff. He's part of the Productive Flourishing team and it's going to be all about time blocking for creative people. And of course, it will be recorded and saved to our Instagram account later. But I hope you all come and ask questions because I know we've had so many conversations over the years about how maybe you've tried time blocking, and you can't quite make it work for you. And I think this conversation will identify some of the roadblocks or the common ways that maybe we're not adjusting it to make it work better for us. So I'm really looking forward to that. So it'll be Tuesday, December 7 at 7pm. Central. And I'll include the link to that information in the show notes as well.

Kim Edsen 35:36

Yeah, I'm excited for that. Sounds interesting.

Jennifer Wilson 35:39

Yes. So also coming up it just, this whole next year is exciting me so month, so much. During the Planning Party, we announced kind of a big picture overview of what we're doing. And I wanted to say that if you were not able to participate in the Planning Party live, you can still go back, listen to all three podcast episodes and watch all the recordings. It's all at simplescrapper.com/plan. The one change is that we only offer the new Your Way Workbook for free during the Planning Party, and then it is $10 The rest of the year. But that's just a really small price for a really amazing tool to accompany you through this experience. What did you think of the new workbook Kim?

Kim Edsen 36:28

I liked it. I thought it was good. And I really like how you paired the podcast episodes with the kind of as a guide to get you through the workbook. That was helpful.

Jennifer Wilson 36:39

Yes.

Kim Edsen 36:39

Because I think your, my default, is just like fill out the whole thing. And then I think approach it more gradually over a space of a few days, even like a few weeks. Well, actually, again, I come back to the whole like realistic approach and realistic intentions. But I think it takes time to really tease apart those intentions. And so I liked how it was spaced out to just lead you through it bit by bit.

Jennifer Wilson 37:09

Yes, yes, I think as much time as you can give it, you will really appreciate it. And of course, you can kind of do a quick pass through, jot things down, but then revisiting the guided audio over, over a week, over a couple of weeks, to be able to, you know, massage and really understand those ideas. So that it's not just okay, I'm gonna, I don't know, force myself into decision. It doesn't have to be that way. And it certainly shouldn't be that way.

Kim Edsen 37:39

Well, and I think that's, again, always comes back to why it's so nice to do it mid Novembers. Because yeah, you can do that first pass through and then revisit again. Because I think like every time you revisit it, or like as you kind of narrow in on that approach, you can kind of, you know, cut away the excess and just kind of get to the essence of what you really want from your hobby for the next year.

Jennifer Wilson 38:02

Yes, yes. So just kind of give an overview of some of the things that we are planning for next year, we're going to be continuing with our Your Way Workshop, but they are moving to bi-monthly. And we're doing this as kind of a, a lead in, like, Pep Rally type thing for each of our creative journeys. And so what that means is during December, we're actually going to have two just because of the shift in the schedule. We'll conclude 2021 with a workshop on December 1, and that's going to be on practical planning, so not about the creative aspects of planning, but how do you actually use paper or digital planner to get things done. And then on December 20, we're going to be talking about morning routines. And that'll be our first 2022 Your Way Workshop. And so you can go to simplescrapper.com/workshops to RSVP for those. Those are completely free. And I love this format, because we can break into small groups and have really thoughtful conversations. And so I'm just excited to continue it.

Kim Edsen 39:06

And I don't think you mentioned and I would, I'm sure if people have been around they know, but that those are held on Zoom.

Jennifer Wilson 39:12

Yes, yes. And we do we use the Breakout Groups feature to put people into small groups, it's always very, I would say everything that we do is very introvert friendly. But this one I could see might be a little intimidating, but I promise you, you attend once and you'll find your comfort with it and know that everyone here shares the same passion that you do for for crafting, for telling your stories, for taking photos. And so when we can speak that common language, it increases that comfort really quickly.

Kim Edsen 39:42

And I think it's a good way to dip your toe in the water because when you do those breakout groups, you're you're not actually interacting with like the group as a whole. Though they allow you to kind of get into deeper conversations with a group of like two or three other scrapbookers and then at the end when we come back to the wrap up. That's when kind of all the lessons learned can come together from the larger group. But if you are more hesitant to jump into such an event, know that the Your Way Workshop, definitely that smaller group atmosphere, I think it makes it a lot easier to share and to be comfortable with that.

Jennifer Wilson 40:17

Yes, yes, 100%. And then so kind of moving into some of our plans for members, we're going to be kicking each creative journey off with a member meeting and a full orientation. I just hosted an orientation session this week for all of our newest members. And it was so amazing. And I had a member say, you know, I was a member in the past, and I never quite found my footing. But this orientation session was so helpful. I now feel, you know, confident and excited to move forward. So we've been doing these all year long, we'll be continuing those next year. But kicking things off with a member meeting just for everyone to say, here's what's new, here's what we're excited about, let's, you know, Let's rally the troops. And then those that want to stay for that orientation, like the full on this is every part of the community, they can stay for the next hour to do that.

Kim Edsen 41:06

That's awesome.

Jennifer Wilson 41:09

And then I would say the two biggest things that I'm excited about, that everyone's excited about, our Stash Bash Saturdays and Finishing days. So Stash Bash Saturdays are going to be part of our Refresh retreats. We've always incorporated some sort of like decluttering organization, using your stash activity as part of Refresh. But I think making it really focused on, we're going to take this Saturday, and we're going to dive in, I think is creating some new energy around the experience.

Kim Edsen 41:40

Yes, that was, those were the two things. Well, I guess two of the things that I kind of zeroed in on that I'm excited about as well. As you know, we've had the Finishing Project in the past, and we have Stash Bash in the past. And while it is nice sometimes to have a longer duration, like have concentrated effort on different things. Realistically, those are not, you know, like one time a year type activities. They're ongoing. And so I think this is a way not that people can't dig in deep to the Finishing Project or a Stash Bash if they don't want to. But this kind of gives them an opportunity to just continually make progress. And I think it comes back to that whole concept of, you know, things that you do, you do like a little bit, frequently or more consistently, generally, that will give you a bigger payoff. Then, you know, a very short concentrated effort. But I think the need for both. But I call this is just ongoing.

Jennifer Wilson 42:37

Well, and it gives you a time on the calendar that you can look forward to. Because if you're feeling like I should do X, Y or Z, you know that the time is coming up to do that type of thing. And you can focus on creating new things, rather than kind of continually be either doing stuff like finishing the projects that you think you should finish, or doing some sort of organization type activity that may be distracting you from creating new things. So I think we're just trying to create these containers for things that that we want to spend time on but need to do it with intention.

Kim Edsen 43:14

Yes, otherwise, you find yourself very distracted. I feel like the organization one is one that we hear a lot is that people don't want to create until the organized but I mean, you can organize forever. So to have that set aside time, it's really helpful.

Jennifer Wilson 43:28

Yes.

Kim Edsen 43:29

And not to mention, you still get like the community aspect of it. Because I think that's where it's really nice. Because, you know, you've got like, how do you store your die cuts? Or how do you store your well now for you, your new manual, like, you know, dies? Like how do people store these thing?

Jennifer Wilson 43:45

I don't know where it's going to go.

Kim Edsen 43:46

Right? So you need, you need the opportunity. So I think that again, is another nice aspect of it. Is when you're doing it kind of concentrated with, as part of a community that you can, when you do have obstacles or things that you're uncertain about or questions that you have. Like, a lot of times you have members that are like hey, I want to create like a project oriented storage for like my December album or my October album or whatever my big travel album. Like what supplies or what storage products do you like? So I think there's a lot of give and take within that. And so I think definitely benefit to doing it as part of the group for sure.

Kim Edsen 43:52

And just to create some, just some excitement and momentum around it, I think is gonna really make next year something super special.

Kim Edsen 44:41

Yes.

Jennifer Wilson 44:42

You mentioned though that, like those longer periods of effort are also important. That's why we're also going to be doing these, we're calling them Create Your Own Immersion. And this comes out of the fact that we have so many classes inside of our community. And it's, it's it's impossible for me to teach them all live within a year. And so we're going to kind of facilitate small groups, basically working on what you want. But we're going to, within each container of each journey encourage you to say, okay, these are the two or three things we think you might want to work on. Of course, you're free to work on whatever you like. But we're going to create the member experience and support group around these particular things. If you want to do that, and kind of give you you know, a rough start and end time period to say, Okay, here's your immersion. If you want to figure out digital, learn how to do Trello, work on a particular project. We have, we have all the opportunities, and we're going to try to give you that Choose Your Own Adventure experience with it.

Kim Edsen 45:46

Along with the support and accountability. I think that's the key.

Jennifer Wilson 45:49

Yes, yes. Well, that really came up and through all these conversations is that that's what we do. We are a community that provides accountability. That's our specialty. With there's a lot of amazing classes and products out there. And we want to encourage everyone to find what works best for them. That's the whole theme of this show. And we'll do everything we can to support you and, you know, reaching those goals and learning more.

Kim Edsen 46:20

Well said.

Jennifer Wilson 46:22

Yeah, so it was, as we announced this, and I, it always it flusters me and humbles me when I see these comments. This was in Zoom, that Thursday night when we were sharing these announcements. Some of these comments were just like they just they warm my heart so much. Like if I wasn't already a member, I would join just for this. This is awesome. The Finishing Project is what got me most involved this year. Thank you for multiplying this experience next year. I have found my new scrappy home at Simple Scrapper. So just yes, so many amazing comments in, in just in the chat box during Zoom was so amazing to see. And I'm just so grateful that we can serve our community well with with our choices of activities.

Kim Edsen 47:06

Yeah, our members are awesome.

Jennifer Wilson 47:07

So what else were you excited about when it comes to next year's plans?

Kim Edsen 47:12

I like for book club that is still like one new book every other month. That's a change that we made this year. And I think that is helpful because otherwise I would feel like I would just like finish the book, attend the chat and then move on to the next book. And then it was just this revolving door. I think that kind of spreading out a little bit gives you more time to actually apply some of the principles from the book. And kicking off in January, it's Soundtracks by Jon Acuff and I have not read that. But it has been on my backburner that I would like to do that. And so I'm glad that it is or January book club book, because it will motivate me to actually run down a copy and get that done. Because I've enjoyed some of his past books. So I'm excited. I still I've always, I've always liked book club, still do. So I like the the new iteration of it. And I think it's interesting, not that you don't write amazing questions for the discussions. But I like bringing in different perspectives. I think that's always interesting.

Jennifer Wilson 48:09

Yeah, so we have six guest hosts next year. And it just felt after, this is the seventh year. And it felt time to just bring in new perspectives and voices to the conversation. And I will of course, be still contributing to that conversation. But I'm really looking forward to the change.

Kim Edsen 48:28

Yeah, those chats are always, even if I don't get a book read. Though, I've already said I will get this one, read. But even if for whatever reason, if I didn't have access, or time or whatever, I still think the chats are valuable to attend. Because you take away a lot from just everyone's different perspectives on something. It's always interesting to me how, you know, we read the same book, but what we take away from it is often very different.

Jennifer Wilson 48:52

Oh, yes, 100%. So you can see all of our selections for next year at simplescrapper.com/book-club. And of course, that link will be in the show notes for this episode, too. So this is definitely one of those episodes where you need to jump over to the show notes and check everything out. So one other thing I do need to mention is that, you know, this episode is going up November 29. And that means we have just a little more than a month until we will be increasing the price of membership for new incoming members. All of our existing members, as we've always done, their prices will be locked in as long as they remain members. We have grandfathered pricing. So we have members paying very, very low rates because they've been members for more than a decade. And it's just it's, it's this is kind of long overdue because our library has grown so large, it is time to make that shift. And I'm like I'm not super excited about it but it is it is an important step. And so the price will be changing on January 2. I didn't want to be sitting up at midnight. New Year's Eve have to like change the website. So I'll be doing that on January 1, to make sure that things get switched over.

Kim Edsen 50:08

I think that's a wise choice. Because will you be choosing your new subscription club plan on New Year's Eve this year? Isn't that your ongoing thing?

Jennifer Wilson 50:18

Oh, dear. Wow, good memory, Kim.

Kim Edsen 50:21

Oh, just had to dig in there, didn't I, no.

Jennifer Wilson 50:26

No, I definitely do feel like as we get closer and closer to the New Year, I feel that need to have plans set. And you know, that's why we do the planning parties. You said so early, because you can start thinking about it. And then by the time January hits, you can start implementing those plans. And so I have started and stopped more subscriptions that I can think of on New Year's Eve. Like, we're all just sitting around socializing, we usually have friends over watching whatever's on TV playing games, and I'm there on my phone, like subscribing to Studio Calico or Birchbox or whatever.

Kim Edsen 51:08

New Year, New Year, New you.

Jennifer Wilson 51:11

100%

Kim Edsen 51:14

But no back to you know, I mean, our library's insane. Like, there's a lot well, you know me and the sketches and the templates, right? Like, where are we at?

Jennifer Wilson 51:25

Going on 600 sketches. It's, yeah, I'm so excited about like technology right now is changing really fast too. There's some really fun things coming to just the structure of our community, we do use Mighty Networks. And we have absolutely love this community platform, because we can have our content and our community under one roof. And there's some great changes there. Some of the other tools we're using, they're making changes to and so I just think we're gonna just be able to continue up leveling, not only what we offer, but how we offer it, as things evolve. And so that just feels really exciting as well.

Kim Edsen 52:05

And I feel like a lot of the content that's in our libraries for resources, it's evergreen, right? You're able to update, make refreshes, right? Like this past year, you taught live versions Before Your Story and the Finishing Project. So you know, at that time, like you went back and reviewed and refreshed and updated. So it's not just like, you know, this is a 15 year old class, like you are getting update information. And like the sketches I use sketch 45 last week, so I feel like right, they have stood the test of time. It's not like, oh, I only really want like the newest ones for the past couple of years. Because, you know, the old ones aren't really like my style, like no, like I you know, they are all up for audition, when it comes time to choose my sketches and templates for sure. So...

Jennifer Wilson 52:52

I love that. Well and the you know, I always feel a little shy when we say we're not creating new story starter prompts right now. But we have more than 1000. And we did it for a really, really, really long time. And our creative team still works with those prompts for every issue of star, SPARK magazine. So it just we captured a really wide gamut of story approaches. And so that library is not being added to but it is so incredibly robust. And they're always giving you an opportunity to think about your stories in new ways.

Kim Edsen 53:31

Yes. And then like you said, they're working with them. And then they're highlighted within, you know, SPARK, but also the creative challenges as well. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, like you think like, Oh, my goodness, I could never like where would you even start with over 1000 story starters. Well, you don't have to start with everything start with, you know, these one or two specific months that we've highlighted or this topic and then start there, narrow that focus.

Jennifer Wilson 53:56

100%

Kim Edsen 53:57

You know, obviously, I work with you as part of it, but I do so because like I benefit from all the things that the membership offers, right? Like, I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case. So, I appreciate it personally.

Jennifer Wilson 54:11

Well you were a member before we started working together.

Kim Edsen 54:12

Yeah, for sure. So there's a reason I'm still here because, you know, all these. But I think it's like eight to nine years later, like I'm still getting benefit from the membership

Jennifer Wilson 54:23

Blows my mind when I think about that type of time passing. So but thank you, Kim, I always love talking to you. And I'm so excited about our next episode. So at the end of December, we're going to be kind of looking back at the past year and thinking of kind of what is the was the best of what we've done. But what are the best things that you've done? I asked on Instagram recently, what is the best thing that you've done for your scrapbooking this year? And I got so many amazing responses and we're going to be highlighting some of those and just building our conversation around. How can you make 20, take that experiences of others and make your 2022 even better.

Kim Edsen 55:04

Very fun.

Jennifer Wilson 55:06

All right Kim you have a great holiday and I will talk to you soon. Thank you. And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. Are you ready to start implementing the great ideas you hear on the podcast? The Simple Scrapper membership offers a welcoming space to connect with fellow Memory Keepers and find the creative accountability you've been craving. Visit simplescrapper.com/membership to learn more and join our community. It's the best it's ever been.