SYW162 – A New Scrapbooker’s Experience

Franky Shanahan 0:00

I think it probably deepens your relationship with memory keeping or you see it through a different lens, maybe because you suddenly have that finite collection of photographs of that person or collection of memories or you know, letters or examples of the handwriting, things like that. I think that is partly why memory keeping is always been really important to me.

Jennifer Wilson 0:23

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 162. In this episode, I'm joined by Franky Shanahan, a newcomer to scrapbooking, but not to memory keeping. We chat about the importance of having just for fun hobbies, how to be a beginner and organizing with room to grow.

Jennifer Wilson 0:57

Hey, Franky, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Franky Shanahan 0:59

Hi, thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson 1:02

I think this is gonna be a fun conversation. You're a beginner, new scrapbooker. And I think we're gonna have some juicy things to share today. But maybe you can talk a little bit about yourself to kick things off.

Franky Shanahan 1:16

Okay, well, I'm 38. I live in Bristol in the UK, which is a city in the southwest. It's about two hours from London. I run a copywriting business called Love Audrey. And a lot of people sort of know me online as Love Audrey rather than Franky, which can be confusing, but I answer to both. I met my husband when I was 19. And we've been together 18 years, and we just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary about a week ago or a couple of weeks ago. We've got two children together. Isabel who's about to turn 17. And our son Jesse, who will be 13 this summer. So two teenagers in the house.

Jennifer Wilson 2:10

Oh, I bet that's fun and busy and a little bit crazy at times.

Franky Shanahan 2:13

Definitely.

Jennifer Wilson 2:15

Well, congratulations on your anniversary and what a what a amazing thing you've been with your husband basically for half your life. That's so cool.

Franky Shanahan 2:22

I know.

Jennifer Wilson 2:25

Now, so I'm curious, how did your business name come about since it is quite different from your personal name.

Franky Shanahan 2:32

So my business developed from. I had a personal blog that I started in 2009. And my business kind of grew grew from that. And the blog was called Love Audrey. And that was just kind of an online. And that was kind of my online moniker I suppose. In the days when we kind of, people sort of pretended they were going to be anonymous on the internet and slowly kind of went off the idea. But yeah, that was kind of the name I used. And it really it just comes from, I'm a really big Audrey Hepburn fan. And I have been since I was a you know, since my early teens. And so there was nothing, it's not very clever. It just came from that. And it's just kind of stuck. But it's I think there's a strong association. Between you know, for people who followed me online for a long time that I am just I'm Love Audrey and yeah, that's how they know me.

Jennifer Wilson 3:35

I love that, what a sweet story. And it's, yeah, that there was definitely a time when we chose usernames based on the things that we liked.

Franky Shanahan 3:43

Yeah. It could have been a lot worse, couldn't it though? It's up there. I know, my sister, my sister has still has an old email address. That would be very embarrassing now. But yes, it could have been a lot worse. Mine was fairly tame, I think in comparison.

Jennifer Wilson 4:00

So I love to ask our guests what is exciting them right now inside of memory keeping. It could be, you know, any product, an app, a class an idea, you know, a person that you're following? Just anything that's really just sparking your interest these days?

Franky Shanahan 4:15

Well, I'm so new to scrapbooking, that I really feel like, everything is exciting to me. So it's really, really hard to narrow it down because there's a novelty to everything at the moment.

Jennifer Wilson 4:31

Yes.

Franky Shanahan 4:31

But if I had to be specific, I'd say I'm really excited about sort of building my stash of supplies because I really don't have a lot. At the moment in comparison, I think to the impression I get from the people I follow online, they seem to have a lot more. And so I'm kind of excited about maybe choosing a subscription this year. I'm still exploring that. I keep, yeah, trying to narrow it down and work out what would be useful and what would be fun. And just learning new skills in general, I'd really like to take some online classes this year. Again, I haven't like chosen a specific one yet, but that I've never done that before. So yeah, I'm really excited to try that.

Jennifer Wilson 5:26

I love that phase of just being a beginner and being just really excited and ready to soak up information. Last year, I just I fell into watching videos and learning about live streaming, even though I done it for a while I didn't realize there was this whole other community. Often, like mostly the gamers, but I learned so much from just kind of diving into that and learning from the things that they talked about. And it just, you know, it lights you up. And so I think we all need to find that, that phase once in a while.

Franky Shanahan 5:58

Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 6:00

So one of the other things we always talk about here are Bucket List Stories. So these are, these are things often from our past, but they could be from the present as well, that feel really compelling to document. Important. Sometimes they're really deep and meaningful. Sometimes they're more lighthearted, but they feel like something that you really need to get down. Now, as a beginner, you might have a longer list, but is there something that comes top of mind. That I really need to make sure that I tell this story as part of my scrapbooking process.

Franky Shanahan 6:33

I think when I listened to episodes of the podcast, a lot of your guests seem to have come to scrapbooking when their children were quite small. And they've done an amazing job of documenting their childhoods and capturing lots of stories and lots of memories, while their children were growing up. And obviously, that's not the case for me. So, you know, my children are quite old now. And I feel like, I'd like to do something, maybe to make up for that at this point. So I kind of have this, this idea that with my daughter turning 18, next January, that over the next 12 months, I might work on some kind of scrapbook for her with sort of 18 stories or 18 memories from her childhood. And take the sort of go back and find photographs from the past. And I have got sort of memories and stories that are elsewhere that I could go back to and somehow kind of translate them into into this sort of scrapbook format. And I'd love to do that for her, I think.

Jennifer Wilson 7:51

Oh, I love that. And I love how you put some really specific boundaries on that sometimes, you know, you could have chosen, I'm going to catch up on scrapbooking her life from birthdate. Choosing 18 stories is going to be doable and super meaningful, and, you know, a way to feel like you can, you know, tie a little bow on that, as she you know, goes off into the adult world.

Franky Shanahan 8:20

Yeah. And and it's funny because I don't feel, I don't get particularly excited about the idea of going back and, and, and, and making scrapbooks from the about things in the past. So I think that's really key thing about it that it would be that that it would have those constraints. And that actually, I've already done a lot of the memory keeping just in other ways. So it would be about kind of putting it into a format. And I imagined it being quite small so that it could be something that she could take with her when she leaves home. But it wouldn't be you know, sort of burdensome. It's not you know, it could just be something that goes with her to, to university or wherever she goes when she leaves home, you know.

Jennifer Wilson 8:24

I love that and I can't wait to see how that unfolds for you. So I wanted to have you on because you are a beginner and to just hear some of your perspectives. And I can already tell there's going to just just a refreshing perspective that we can, no matter how long we've been scrapbooking, approach things with a beginner lens and with an eye towards what what do I need right now? What feels good? And what's what's interesting and exciting to me. But you've already mentioned that you kind of have done a little bit of memory keeping on your own, just not maybe any kind of formal scrapbooking. Can you tell us how your path went to this point where you said, hey, I want to be part of this community. I want to be a scrapbooker.

Franky Shanahan 9:51

Yeah, I'm new to scrapbooking but I'm definitely not new to memory keeping. My parents were are both amazing photographers. And I'm lucky that I grew up in a in a house where lots of photographs were taken. And there's an amazing record of my own childhood through photography. And my mom was really good at curating albums, and I loved looking through them when I was a child. And I still do when I go to my parents house, I still love to take them, you know, down off the shelf and go back through them. And my mom also always encouraged us to keep holiday journals when we were growing up, so if we ever went away anywhere, whether it was in the UK or overseas, she would always buy us a notebook. And we would just keep a diary while we were away, and collect, you know, lots of ephemera postcards and maps and ticket stubs and that kind of thing, and glue them into our, into our travel into our holiday journals. And that's something I've carried on with my own children as well. I also kept a diary or a journal from quite a young age, I think I was about nine. And I sort of kept, yeah, started keeping a journal, I did that all through my teens. And I always enjoyed taking photographs. And I kind of followed my mum's example, as well. And, you know, in the days, you know, my late teens, early 20s, it still wasn't, we weren't sort of fully digital, there were digital cameras, but it wasn't, you know, the same. So I was still kind of taking photographs, and then having them printed and making photo albums in that way. And then, when I was pregnant with my youngest, I discovered blogging, and that was 2009. And blogs were quite different back then. They were more like, digital journals or diaries. And really my blog for, you know, I'd say, almost a decade really was where I did a lot of my memory keeping. And I told you a lot of stories from my life from about my children, about motherhood, and kind of everything, all the things we went through over that period of getting married, I wrote a lot about getting married. I was at university at various points. And I wrote about that as well. And I also had a very popular series on my blog of weekend posts. So for about a seven year period, I documented every single weekend, just like it was just a very simple format. It was just a sort of a list of bullet points. And some photographs from the weekend just about what we've done what the children have done. So I have that record online.

Jennifer Wilson 12:59

That's amazing.

Franky Shanahan 13:03

I'm so tired on Sunday, I used to do it on a Sunday evening, and I'm so tired on Sunday evenings now I don't know how on it how I did it. Back then when my children were smaller as well. But yeah, every Sunday, I did that for about six or seven years. And so a lot of the stories from their childhood are there in that in that format. And I also, I lost my dad to cancer when I was 21. And I think that I'm sure anybody who's who's lost a parent or a loved one, particularly at a young age, it kind of it, I think it probably deepens your relationship with memory keeping or you see it through a different lens, maybe. Because you suddenly have that, you know, that very, that finite kind of collection of photographs of that person or collection of memories or you know, letters or examples of the handwriting, things like that. So, I think that is partly why memory keeping always been really important to me. And I did actually dabble in scrapbooking in 2014, I discovered Project Life. And I did buy some supplies, and I made a few spreads. But ultimately, I ultimately, I abandoned it. And I think it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't the right fit for me. It's funny because I can understand. Now that I've come back to it. I can understand why I think I found it quite overwhelming. And the idea of kind of it documenting every day and kind of never being finished, isn't a good fit for me.

Jennifer Wilson 14:47

Yes, yes.

Franky Shanahan 14:48

And I also chose quite a big album, I think and I found the big spreads quite, again quite overwhelming. And so yeah, and also it was quite hard to too, to get supplies in the UK as well. So I think there were a few barriers to it, to me kind of being successful with that. And so yeah, so I kind of I sort of, you know, passed on the things that I'd I'd bought and, and gave up on that one. And that was, yeah, that was 2014. But then if you fast forward to summer 2021. So last year, we were sort of what 18 months into the pandemic, and I was feeling really, really burnt out. The rest of my family had the we'd had, they'd had COVID, at the start of the summer holidays. So that was kind of July. And that had been a really kind of intense period for us as a family and the UK was really only just starting to sort of open up again. And yeah, it's just, you know, it's kind of exhausted and burnt out and feeling quite just, I think, quite depleted after.

Jennifer Wilson 16:05

Oh, most definitely. I think that's a very common feeling.

Franky Shanahan 16:09

Yeah. And I, I sort of just, I heard a pod, I listened to a podcast, it's actually the, it's another American podcast, the Beautiful Mess podcasts. And, and they had a guest on who did an episode was about the importance of hobbies in adulthood. And it was a really, it was a real lightbulb moment for me. Because I just realized that I didn't have any hobbies, that I didn't do anything, just for fun. And I felt like that might be, that might be the sort of the balance. You know, what would balance out this feeling of burnout and this feeling of having kind of given so much of myself over the last 18 months to everybody else around me. You know, whether it was kind of my family or my clients, work and things like that. That I really felt like I needed something that would nourish me, and fill me up, sort of fill my cup again. And I decided that it was yeah, that what was lacking was a hobby was doing something, just for fun. And around the same time, I saw this amazing quote, I think it was on Instagram. I can't, I can't remember exactly where I saw it. But it said, it's so funny how so much of finding yourself in adulthood is simply getting back to who you were and what you loved as a child?

Jennifer Wilson 17:45

Yes, yes, I saw that one too.

Franky Shanahan 17:49

And I just I found that so inspiring. And I really started thinking about the hobbies I'd had as a child and the crafts that I'd enjoyed. And you know how I spent my time when I was younger, I realized as well that I'd been doing a really, really good job of nurturing my children's creativity and their hobbies. And also my husband, and he, he's really good at doing things just for fun. He has, he has hobbies. And I think there was just like, a Saturday afternoon, and everybody was off doing their own thing. And I realized that I didn't have a thing to do, because I didn't have a hobby, and everyone else did. So yeah, I I kind of then treated it a bit like a project like, you know, Project find Franky a hobby, and I did lots of research. I remembered a brand that I had liked when I attempted Project Life. And that was Studio Calico. And I think I just typed that into Google and landed on their website and kind of fell down a rabbit hole and realized how much had changed since 2014. And how many different options there were and sort of discovered different approaches and also discovered this podcast, which again, was kind of a lot of very inspiring in terms of just finding a way to scrapbook that would suit me. And that yeah, that I could kind of do what I want with no rules really.

Jennifer Wilson 19:32

Correct. Definitely for sure. So I'm curious, are you more of that like you're gonna be you're gonna research all the things and go down all the rabbit holes so you can get a full lay of the land or do you kind of just jump jump right in with one thing? I kind of, I kind of guessed which one, maybe.

Franky Shanahan 19:48

Yeah, I mean, I think I definitely enjoy the research stage of anything. Like whatever I'm doing. I love that gathering information and inspiration stage. But I think one of my goals with this hobby with it, with scrapbooking has been to try and embrace being a beginner. It's not something I'm very good at. I'm quite a perfectionist. Not in a good way, I think. I mean, it can be a good thing. But I think I let my perfectionism kind of hold me back sometimes. So I don't enjoy feeling like I'm not doing something to really high standard. So I wanted to try and yeah, I wanted to try and not fall into that trap, and embrace being a beginner and not get too caught up in getting everything right. And I wanted to learn through doing rather than just watching other people's. So I tried really hard to have to have a balance. So I did kind of decide to Yeah, I did a bit of research. And then I decided to dive in. I think I managed, I think I had quite I managed to find a sweet spot. And yeah, I definitely lean that way.

Jennifer Wilson 21:07

Well, and I think that's just, that's something that happens as we mature in life and realize some of our own strengths and weaknesses. And we try to rein ourselves in to be able to make smarter decisions, so we don't kind of spiral down into inaction. And I love how, with this idea of dealing with our perfectionism, I've found that it's, it's sometimes a balance between, okay, what are the things I'm willing to let go of? And what are the things I'm willing to find workarounds or compromises for so that I can move towards the standards that I have? Because that makes me proud as well. Like, how can we indulge a little bit of it, while still knowing that we need to let go a lot?

Franky Shanahan 21:54

Yeah, yeah. And I think it's an ongoing thing, as well, because the perfectionism and the desire for things to be really good, can come back even, you know, at any point, during the project, or Yeah, so it's kind of constant. It's a continual process of reminding yourself that it's okay to be learning.

Jennifer Wilson 22:20

Yes, and just in that every single thing that you do, even if you don't like it, you don't think it's good. It's, it's worthwhile, and you learn, you can learn something from it. And it's just going to inform the next thing that you try.

Franky Shanahan 22:33

Absolutely. And it's funny, because, I mean, I, I've only been doing this, you know, I, I think I started my first project, and towards the end of September last year, and I can already I can go back and look at the first page, the first spread that I did. And I can already see in this relatively short amount of time, how much I've learned and how much I've improved and what I would if I was doing that now what I would do differently. And also, I think, being a beginner, it's not just learning the skills, but it's finding your own style as well, and what you enjoy doing. And, you know, I feel like every week I discover a different approach, or a different technique or a different material, or you know, and yeah, so you're just always going to be learning something new. For well, I certainly feel like I will be. Maybe there are people who are further along...

Jennifer Wilson 23:29

No!

Franky Shanahan 23:30

Who know, everything but...

Jennifer Wilson 23:32

I'm still learning new things, new techniques, new ways to look at things today, and I've been doing this for a long time now. So I'm curious, what's your favorite thing that you've bought or tried so far? Is anything stood out of ooh, I really like that. That's totally me. We're going to do more of that.

Franky Shanahan 23:50

Well, I think I one of the you know, the thing I discovered when I landed on the Studio Calico website, that first, when I first started Googling, I discovered traveler's notebooks. Which, as far as I can remember, they didn't exist when I was looking back in 2014, or they certainly weren't as widely available or. And I love, I loved using that format. And I found that really, really fun to to, I used a traveler's notebook to document our summer holidays. And I just I really liked it. I liked it. It was small, it felt manageable. But it was also you know, I really like working with like, the physical products and the paper and the ephemera, and stamps and things like that. So it I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed using that and it was very different to what I had attempted with Project Life. The first time.

Jennifer Wilson 24:53

Oh yes.

Franky Shanahan 24:54

Very different.

Jennifer Wilson 24:55

Project Life is very structured where as, there's a lot more freedom and flexibility. And I I can also see that it how, because you've kept travel journals in the past, there was a degree of familiarity with that type, not just the format, but the type of project. And so it sounds like a really natural entry point.

Franky Shanahan 25:12

Yeah. And I, I love notebooks in general. And I enjoy filling notebooks. I enjoy writing in notebooks. I'm a very pen and paper oriented person. So I think he appeals to me on that level as well. And I don't, I don't know if this sounds a bit silly, but I also received like a squeeze punch for Christmas, a Fiskars squeeze punch that just cuts out little circles. And who knew punching little circles could bring me so much joy. I just had no idea. I don't know. You know, it's been missing from my life all these years. I just love it. I love punching circles.

Jennifer Wilson 25:55

No, a circle punch was my first punch too. And it is still very joyful to this day.

Franky Shanahan 26:01

Very satisfying, isn't it? I think it's partly the process of using it. But also, the like circles are just quite satisfying aren't they?

Jennifer Wilson 26:12

Well and I only learned this technique recently of using a circle punch to create a notch on the side of something. Like say you wanted to make a pocket and or hide something behind it or, or just for decoration. I'm like, Oh, that's a whole new way to use my circle punches.

Franky Shanahan 26:26

Yeah, I did that over the weekend. Actually. I was making a little pocket in my December Daily. And I did that. Yes. Again, very satisfying semicircle.

Jennifer Wilson 26:36

Awesome. So is there anything that's been like surprising to you, as you've explored and experimented? And it can be something surprising about the industry or surprising about yourself?

Franky Shanahan 26:49

Um, I've been really surprised by how crafty I've been. I think when I thought about scrapbooking, I thought I would enjoy taking photos, journaling, telling stories. I didn't expect to be kind of making things with paper and creating more interactive elements. And I didn't, I just I hadn't done anything like that. Since I was Yeah, I mean, since I was a child. And I wouldn't necessarily have described myself as a particularly crafty person before this. I think the last time I did any sort of really significant crafting was for our wedding. Did a lot of sort of, sort of I made a lot of things for our wedding. And that's obviously that's 10 years ago. So I mean, I did you know, I I enjoy cooking and baking and things like that. And but I haven't Yeah, not. I don't, I don't I haven't really done anything crafty. So I was really surprised by that. Because, yeah, that's kind of I think, where my Yeah, that's take it. That's a kind of a passion that I didn't know, that I had, and it's kind of I'm taking, I'm sort of following my curiosity there. At the moment. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 28:05

What a delightful surprise. I think that's, I love how kind of the things you were comfortable with allows you to begin and then you were able to discover, you know, more of that the childlike wonder from it. And to find what you were looking for. I know that I was very, very strict and that I am not a stickers in my planner type person like I planners are for getting things done.

Franky Shanahan 28:31

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 28:31

And then the pandemic to me said, Oh, no, you need to use stickers, because you need something that's playful and joyful, and only for the fun and beauty of it and not and not productivity.

Franky Shanahan 28:44

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 28:44

So I think we all need that little bit of extra, especially right now.

Franky Shanahan 28:50

Yeah. And I think it's just been a really good reminder to me that creativity always breeds more creativity. So if you open yourself up a little bit, you'll always kind of go off on a tangent or down a path you weren't expecting. And find some find another form of creativity or, yeah, that's, and you kind of just have to go with it.

Jennifer Wilson 29:15

For sure. Is there anything that you're still like trying to understand? Like you'd like, you keep trying to learn about it, but you just don't quite get it? Or you're just, you're unclear what the point is how they do this?

Franky Shanahan 29:30

I mean, how long have we got? I feel like there's so much I'm still learning and I find myself Googling terms and trying to figure out what different techniques and what different machines are. And I think it's really interesting. It was really interesting to kind of discover the community around scrapbooking online. And it feels quite hard to find people in the UK. That are, that arescrapbookers. I found a few through the through this podcast. So that's been nice. But a lot of the people that I'm following online, are American. So there's already some differences in how we talk about things anyway, just from a, like, British English versus American English perspective. And then I think people who have been scrapbooking a long time, they use a lot of maybe abbreviations or they, they, you know, they just talk about things as if everybody knows what they're talking about, which is, you know, understandable. But yes, I've definitely find myself Googling things and trying to figure out what they're talking about. And I only just discovered what a crop was recently. Because I kept seeing people talking about them. And I kept thinking, what what is, you know, what, what are they? What do they mean, what they do when they gather for these crops? So, yeah, so I think, yeah, just figuring out some of the terminology, and, and then sort of filtering through it and figuring out what I need and what I want to what I want to try as well. So I feel like there's a lot of, I don't want to get, I don't want to accumulate lots of things, lots of supplies that I don't want or need. So it's yeah, it's kind of remembering that I don't, you don't have to have everything or do everything that you see as well. And I guess the other thing is just like the flow of projects through the year. So I feel like I, I didn't know about, you know, so when I started in September, I didn't know about it, October Daily. And then there was something November as well, like Thankful 30. And...

Jennifer Wilson 31:58

Yes.

Franky Shanahan 31:58

December Daily. And then it's, I think, it's just like, you know, there's all these different sort of collective projects that people join in. And I feel like, I don't know what that flow is through the year yet. So in terms of figuring out what I would like to join in with it, I don't know yet because I feel like I don't know, everything that's available or ever, like all the possibilities, basically.

Jennifer Wilson 32:25

Yes, yes. Well, I think that that does take some time to get a feel for what you might like, it might also take some Oh, I really committed to too much. And I probably should not do that again. And sometimes you don't know until you're in it, that it is going to be too much. I know at this point that almost the whole second half of the year is like December Daily for me, then I start thinking about finishing up all their projects, what I might want to do this year, buying the products making the plans, and you know, so basically, I spend six months of the year living in Christmas I guess.

Franky Shanahan 33:01

That's nice. Sounds nice, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 33:04

I'm also you know, still trying to do other things, but I learned that about myself. So I really try not to start other things in that time is a year because I know it's gonna be, I'm always gonna be pulled towards that. And I do my starting and my bigger things in the first half of the year. And so it just definitely takes time and experimentation to to figure that out. And, and I love your approach to just really trying to take it very intentionally trying one thing, and then, you know, slowly, you know, building up over time, I think that's really smart.

Franky Shanahan 33:40

Yeah, I think. I mean, I, I've been doing December Daily. So obviously my first time attempting that project, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to, I mean, I'm in awe of the people who completed in December. I think that's just amazing, who really do sit down every day and do it, that I knew that wasn't feasible for me. And so I set myself the goal of completing it by March. I'm not a big fan of winter at all. And in the in the UK, and it stays cold, and gray and pretty miserable until about the end of March. So yeah, for me, I know that I'll enjoy working on on that project up until the spring. And I think I was talking to another another UK scrapbooker this weekend. She has the same goal to finish by March and she was saying that if she hadn't finished it by March, she would put it away and come back to it in November. And I thought that's quite a seems like quite a good and good way to approach it but I am hopeful that I'll finish it by March.

Jennifer Wilson 34:51

Well and I think it's important to understand that we all have seasonal rhythms. And then some times in the year you're going to be making more memories when say It's not so grey and gloomy and you can get outside.

Franky Shanahan 35:03

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 35:03

And other times the year are going to be more for let's stay inside and cuddle up with our crafts.

Franky Shanahan 35:09

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 35:09

Sometimes quite literally. And and that's going to be the time of the year where you do those things. I call myself a seasonal knitter or crocher. I have no desire to knit in July. But you know, come winter, I pull some things out and maybe play a bit. And that's why I have a lot of unfinished knitting projects. But you know, it just it's, you know, it's, it's okay to respect those, those seasonal ebbs and flows. So I wanted to specifically talk about the supplies and how we go from not being involved in something to suddenly we're now acquiring things. And then that's, that's a whole mental process in itself. But then where did we put these things? How do we store them? How do we keep them organized? And so I'm curious what you've thought about in regards to, you know, the present storage of your supplies, and then maybe thinking towards the future of, you know, these, I probably will have more, and this is where I might put them?

Franky Shanahan 36:12

Um, yeah, I mean, it's, it was definitely something I thought about a lot before I purchased anything. Because I'm a very, I'm a very organized person. I'm quite a minimalist person. And I live with hoarders. There's a so I always say that there's more stuff in my house than there would be if I lived on my own. But I'm very grateful to live with the people that I I do live with. So I'm not complaining, much. I really dislike visual clutter. I like a clean, clear, and space. So it was a big, that was a big consideration for me. And I think also, because I had tried Project Life before and had quite a big, bulky album. And I did feel like I didn't, yeah, I sort of knew that I didn't want that this time. So I did give it a lot of thought. We, we already have, we do have quite a lot of sort of art and craft supplies in the house. My sister, my daughter is very artistic, very creative. So her bedroom is kind of overflowing with craft supplies, which are not as organized as I would have done, because she's you know, 17. And that's just not a priority when you're 17. But yeah, I sort of, I kind of I knew that. Yeah, I would, I would need to think about how I was going to organize them. Right now, like I said, I don't have much. So I've got a little caddy that I can kind of fit everything into. It's just one of those, like, soft ones kind of like felt Caddy with handles. And I've got everything. Well, yeah, almost everything in there. And it's got all my sort of December Daily stuff in there at the moment. And I packed away the stuff that used for my kind of summer projects. And yeah, it's very neat, and tidy and easy to move around. But I know that it will, you know, like you say I will accumulate more. And I think I'll have to continually revisit, maybe I'll have kind of graduated to a cart of some description by the end of the year. And I know that I like things to be kind of labeled and easy to find. And I know that if I can see things and acts have easy access to them, then I'm more likely to use them. So that will be important to me as I kind of think about how I'm going to organize them.

Jennifer Wilson 39:04

I think there's it with craft supplies, there can be a balance between particularly if you're a minimalist and you like clean surfaces, but you also want to be able to see and access things easily. How do we like find a happy medium, where it's, you know, pleasing to the eye and accessible at the same time?

Franky Shanahan 39:23

Yeah. Again, another consideration for me is that where I scrapbook is also where I work. So I have we have a an office in attic. That's the other thing, I think houses in the UK seem a lot smaller than houses in America. I don't know that's just the impression that I get from seeing pictures online and sort of like dedicated craft rooms and things like that seems amazing. But we're just in a little three bedroom terraced house In Bristol, so yeah, we do have an attic. That's kind of converted. And that is, it's a shared office. So both my husband and I work from home, we always did, even pre pandemic. And it's also our guest bedroom as well. So it has to kind of multitask a little bit. But yeah, so where I scrapbook is where I work. And so I need to be able to sort of easily clear things away. And so I can sit down and work the next day or the next opportunity or whatever. So yeah, that's the other consideration. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know, finding a balance, like you say, I think I like, I like to have a place for everything. Whether it's in a drawer or in some form of storage, that I guess clear storage helps you put things away, but still be able to see them. I kind of like the idea of maybe even if I did have more supplies, and they're spread out in other places that I would still use my caddy to just put the things in that I think I'm using. I'm going to use more in a project or, you know, an almost limiting, giving myself some constraints when I'm working on something. So if you do select, if you take some supplies from a larger group of supplies, if you narrow it down, you're kind of giving your creativity some constraints. And that can sometimes be helpful.

Jennifer Wilson 41:39

Yes, yes, I think you are well on your way, and you have a really, oh, what word do I want to use here, just a really great mindset for how you can make this hobby fulfilling to you and meet your needs and your lifestyle right now. Seems very, a very balanced approach. And so I really want to thank you for for being willing to come on and share your beginnerness with us, because I think you're a great role model for all scrapbookers who maybe want to find that sense of of peace with their hobby, no matter where they are in, in their, you know, season of life.

Franky Shanahan 42:22

Thank you, I felt very, I felt quite intimidated because I do feel like such a beginner. And I think when I first saw your email inviting me, I just thought, what why on earth would you want to listen to, you know, six months worth of experience kind of thing. But yeah, thank you.

Jennifer Wilson 42:44

Yeah. Do you have any particular goals for your scrapbooking this year, like things you you're trying you're aiming towards?

Franky Shanahan 42:53

So I definitely, I want to, I think yeah, my, my main goal is to continue to make it a priority. And by which I mean, I suppose to continue making myself a priority, my creativity, doing things just for fun. Like I was saying, and I've really felt the the benefits of that in terms of my sort of well being. So I definitely want to continue that. I want to take some classes, learn some new skills. Complete my December Daily. And I'd love to sort of Yeah, I have a couple of other projects under my belt by the end of the year. Like the scrapbook I mentioned making for my daughter. And I'd like to make some Yeah, holiday journals. And I sort of had an idea to do kind of an ongoing journal sort of travel journal, travel scrapbook with just kind of like mini breaks. So we go like we go away, you know, for weekends and things like that. We go to a coast we go to Dorset a lot. And I'd like to have somewhere where I could just put all those little trips maybe they don't, you know, they're not big enough to they're not substantial enough to need a whole scrapbook. But I just love to have one scrapbook there if I could open it and I'd have sort of all the little trips that we took throughout the year.

Jennifer Wilson 44:31

I love that. That sounds amazing. This has been delightful. I am so honored to get to talk to you. Can you share where we can find you online and I anything you have new coming or coming up this year.

Franky Shanahan 44:43

Well, you can find me on Instagram. I'm @LoveAudrey83. And I don't share a great deal of my scrapbooking on there. I do every now and then but part of this for me was to kind of not and turn it into content, to keep it a little bit for myself. But I do talk about creativity and storytelling and things like that, because that's relevant to what I do for my job. And...

Jennifer Wilson 45:16

I enjoy finding out what you're eating. So because you take beautiful photos, and your food always looks delicious.

Franky Shanahan 45:22

Yeah, yeah. If you don't like photos of people's lunch, maybe don't follow me. But if you do, yeah, then you should. Um, and yeah, if you're just curious about life in the UK, I share lots of that as well, I suppose. And yeah, and then I have a website as well, with my blog on there. And that's it. www.love-audrey.com. And I don't know I don't have anything particularly new and exciting coming up. I don't think.

Jennifer Wilson 45:54

It's all good. That's all good. Well, again, thank you so much. 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 that 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.