SYW222 – My Way with Holly DeVore

[00:01:26] Jennifer Wilson: 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 222. In this episode I'm interviewing Holly Devore for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done. We're excited to have Holly as the June featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

[00:01:55] Jennifer Wilson: Hey, Holly. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:01:57] Holly Devore: Hi Jennifer. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:59] Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today and getting to know you better. But can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

[00:02:07] Holly Devore: Of course. Um, so my name is Holly. I live in Northern California. I am a human resources analyst and I have three young children. um, Lucas, who is almost seven. Naomi, who is almost five. And then we have Mason, my youngest, who is almost three. Um, and I've been married to my husband close to a decade, so we're coming up on 10 years. And yeah, that's, that's the gist of who I am. Yeah.

[00:02:39] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I bet things are busy right now with three little ones and everything, so.

[00:02:45] Holly Devore: Yes. Yes. Very busy. Yeah.

[00:02:49] Jennifer Wilson: What's exciting you right now, both inside of scrapbooking and elsewhere?

[00:02:54] Holly Devore: Um, so inside of scrapbooking right now, I am really looking forward to Week In The Life. Um, it's coming up in a few weeks for 2023. Um, and just really excited for that. That's probably my favorite project that I do, um, each year. Um, and uh, another project I'm excited to work on is a Disneyland trip we just came back from, so excited to document that. And then for life in general, we are hitting spring right now. Um, and we have a lot of, a lot going on. All our, all five of our birthdays are during spring. Um, and just, just having fun and the weather's really nice. It's my just favorite time of year. So yeah.

[00:03:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. It's feeling so good to have some sunshine back.

[00:03:50] Holly Devore: Yes, I agree. it's good for the mood.

[00:03:54] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, a hundred percent. So Holly, what's on your memory keeping bucket list?

[00:04:00] Holly Devore: Um, so this is a great question. Um, it's something I have really never sat down and thought about. So, you know, this past week I've been really thinking about what's something I really want to document. Um, and something that's stood out recently is my relationship with my mother. Um, I've noticed these past few months kind of a reoccurring trend of meeting new people, talking about family, um, and meeting people who have lost their parents. And also meeting people that have strained relationships with their mother. And it's really kind of opened my eyes to, wow, you know, I, very, uh, um, lucky to have a strong bond with my own mom. And I kind of really just wanna document that throughout the years how our relationship has evolved and how we've al always been close since I was a kid to now as an adult. Yeah.

[00:05:01] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that so much. I think it's important to, to highlight that some of these stories that feel really important, they're not necessarily like huge things, but they are huge things. It's what, it's that whole quote about how the little things turned out to be the big things.

[00:05:17] Holly Devore: Yes.

[00:05:17] Jennifer Wilson: Um, and those relationships that we have in life. So I think that's gonna be amazing.

[00:05:22] Holly Devore: Yeah. Thank you

[00:05:25] Jennifer Wilson: So this is a My Way episode where we get to learn all about you. And I like to start off with a little teaser question because right now at Simple Scrapper, we're talking about storytelling. So how do you approach capturing stories for future pages or albums?

[00:05:41] Holly Devore: Um, so for me, um, I started documenting in 2020, um, by scrapbooking. And, um, something I really noticed is that I have a huge love for in realtime, documenting. Documenting the now. And I just really, I am very aware of what's going on and really wanting to capture those moments because I know how fleeting they are. And for me, I just, I think of my future self as well. Like if I'm in my sixties and I'm looking back on my albums, what do I want to remember? And for me it's honestly all the emotions I've felt. So whether it's sad, happy, anxious, excited, I wanna capture it all. So that's really the lens I, I focus on when storytelling.

[00:06:41] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's amazing. Now, you said that you started in 2020. That's relatively recent. Can you tell us more about that? I feel like I've known you for longer than that, but then again, the pandemic changed our whole like, perception on time and warped everything. But yeah. Can you tell us more about how you jumped into this and, and maybe you know, how you've evolved in the past few years?

[00:07:05] Holly Devore: Of course. Um, so I've been in the Instagram community for close to eight years. Um, I started off as a planner, um, and I saw a lot of it blending together. I started seeing

[00:07:19] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:19] Holly Devore: Scrapbookers and journalers and the documenters. And it definitely piqued my interest. Um, I was actually, it was January of 2020. I was pregnant with my third child um, I was realizing, oh yeah, I wanna try this out. This looks really fun, really exciting. Um, and it was interesting because the pandemic started a few months after I started documenting. So I feel like it just was meant to be, it was a really important time to document. So yeah, really grateful for it. Mm-hmm.

[00:07:56] Jennifer Wilson: For sure. And are you still doing the same things today that you were when you got started or what has kind of like piqued your interest or given you some shifts since then?

[00:08:08] Holly Devore: Um, yeah, I wanna say my document documenting is still the same. I still keep to certain projects. I realized early on that I just wanted to pick my favorite, most important projects, which I learned throughout 2020 what I really loved. Um, and, um, I'm still continuing that now. I just, with juggling things, um, focusing on a few projects a year, that meant a lot to me, um, was the most important thing. So, yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:43] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I would love if you went into more detail on exactly what those projects were that you tried in 2020 and what you learned which ones worked well, and maybe which ones didn't work well for you.

[00:08:53] Holly Devore: Yeah, of course. Um, so for the weekly documenting also Project Life, it's more known as, I, I'm keeping, I love that way of documenting, um, just capturing all the moments, little and big. Um, and then, um, more projects that I let go of were kind of, I wanna say more trendy projects where things would pop up and I would say, oh, everyone in the community is doing it, I need to do it. But I had no connection to it. So just becoming super aware of, oh, just because everyone in the community is doing it, that's wonderful for them. But realizing to say, no, I don't have to do at all. Especially if I don't feel a connection to a project, I know I will not follow through and I know it won't feel authentic for myself. So, um, just learning that throughout the years that it's okay to just keep the projects that you really love and put your energy and time into those.

[00:09:57] Jennifer Wilson: Hmm. Yes. So important. Now, what size of of Project Life weekly documenting are you doing?

[00:10:03] Holly Devore: Um, this year I decided to do a 12 by 12, which is completely new for me. Um, but I'm really enjoying it. Years prior, I actually did a nine by 12, but I realized, um, I filled out two albums, uh, last year with nine by 12. So I'm trying to keep to one 12 by 12. Um, just to be mindful of space, Yeah.

[00:10:30] Jennifer Wilson: I, I'm curious what strategies you're using to make sure that your year does fit in that one album?

[00:10:36] Holly Devore: Um, so for me, I was noticing I was printing a lot of photos, um, but not really using collages. So I do love a photo heavy week. And those always take priority to the journal cards and so on. So now I'm doing more collaging and, not putting extra page protectors between weeks, just trying to keep it to a two, two page spread. Um, is is the goal. We'll see if I, I can do it.

[00:11:09] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I, this is not the first time that I have heard this goal in our conversations here on the podcast. Because, you know, we we're all kind of mindful of the, I don't know, the physical footprint of our projects and we wanna create these things. But two, and, you know, even multiple albums, I've seen folks with very lots and lots of albums per year. And, um, it's, you know, it's something that's real that we have to deal with.

[00:11:34] Holly Devore: Yes, most definitely.

[00:11:36] Jennifer Wilson: So let's, let's talk about products a little bit. What are you completely obsessed with these days?

[00:11:41] Holly Devore: Um, so right, that's, I've definitely stayed consistent with products. Um, when I first started scrapbooking, I noticed a lot of Ali Edwards out there in the community. Um, I really love her lens and her, her projects and, and the community that comes with it. I think even that, uh, keeps me there as well. Just, um, the friendships we make. And um Studio Calico is another one I really enjoy as well. For me, which is funny. I, I know this is probably a little on the rare side. Um, I'm not, big into a lot of color. So, bright color, I'm more of, I love neutrals and soft tones. Um,

[00:12:23] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:24] Holly Devore: It's just for me more appealing. Um, and yeah, so I, I really gravitated towards, um, those two. Um, so yeah, those two companies right now. Mm-hmm.

[00:12:37] Jennifer Wilson: And is there something that you've noticed that you'd use or do on most of your pages? Like a signature flare or, um, even just, uh, a simple technique that really is important to you in as a foundation of things?

[00:12:54] Holly Devore: Oh, that's a good one. So for me, um, I, I consider myself more of a minimal, simple storyteller. So, um, I try include a little journaling wherever I document, whether it's in my traveler's notebook, or my albums. And another thing is embellishing. I love chipboard. I love word phrases, so I definitely include that in most of my, most of my layouts. Anything that's simple that I can just pop on there, is, is good for me. Yeah.

[00:13:27] Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Awesome. Now, I imagine with, you know, a job and three kids, you know, there's limited amounts of time and energy, so when do you typically find that for scrapbooking?

[00:13:40] Holly Devore: Um, yeah so definitely, uh, when I started scrapbooking, I, I had a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a newborn. And, um, I was realizing sitting at a craft desk and that wasn't gonna happen. Um, which was okay. It's just something I realized early on and accepted and then just kind of pivoted. So, um, I used Canva as a planner. I, I made kind of digital downloads and so on. So I ended up translating that into scrapbooking. I realized I could do a lot of the same things, um, on the Canva app. So really, whenever I have pockets of time, I'll journal. I will, pick and edit photos throughout the week. So that's either on my breaks or when I'm at the pickup line at school or at lunch, I'll do a lot of my scrapbooking. I wanna say actually 80% of my scrapbooking on my phone. And then on the weekends, I will get maybe a couple hours each weekend, so maybe an hour on Saturday, hour on Sunday to print everything out and embellish them. So just being really mindful of just how life is right now. Because, um, scrapbooking isn't my only hobby. I, I run, I read, I do other things. Um, so I, I really acknowledge that, okay, this is the amount of hours I can dedicate this week to scrapbooking and just making it work with, um, the schedule I have right now.

[00:15:16] Jennifer Wilson: It sounds like you have a kind of a truly, I don't know, modern approach to hybrid. In that, you know, during the week you're very much on your phone doing all the things that you can. So that when you do get back to your creative space on the weekend, you can print things out and you know, have that more tactile experience.

[00:15:33] Holly Devore: Yes. Yes. Cuz it's really, I would love to go all digital. I think it's amazing, it's beautiful, um, what people do all digital. But I definitely still need that, a little bit of that, um, physical aspect because I really do love embellishing and playing. I do love that part. Um, so it's a good way to keep it, to keep that during the seasons, so yeah.

[00:15:57] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. Now, how is your motivation? Does it stay pretty consistent? Does it ebb and flow over time? How do you kind of stay connected to your scrapbooking?

[00:16:08] Holly Devore: Um, so what's funny, I've noticed, um, I've been really tracking like my cycle and hormones and so on.

[00:16:16] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:16] Holly Devore: As I've been getting older. And, um, I noticed that it really goes with my cycle. So, um, I'll have a week where I'm very, tired, I need to rest. Not a lot's going on. And then I have about a week and a half of a very, like I wanna be very creative and I'm very organized and I wanna plan. So those are the weeks I really hone in on planning and getting things set up for the month. So it really ebbs and flows month to month, but there's definitely a, a cycle to it that I follow. And it, it doesn't feel forced, which is nice. So right now that's kind of the process I'm following with motivation. Yeah.

[00:17:02] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. I think that's particularly for those who, who have periods to observe that and how it affects our ability to not only do our hobbies, but the rest of things in life that we wanna do. And try to, to shift things around to, to better align that. So it's not always, so we don't have those, you know, trudging uphill in sand, uh, type of moments. So.

[00:17:25] Holly Devore: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:17:28] Jennifer Wilson: Now, throughout your experimenting the past few years, is there something that you found that is like absolutely not for you? You tried it, you're good, you're not gonna go back.

[00:17:37] Holly Devore: Oh, so for, for me, there's a couple things, um, I, I'm noticing now. for working outside the page protectors, I notice I love doing it only for December Daily and Week in the Life.

[00:17:52] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:54] Holly Devore: I was trying to do it in a six by eight album and just for kind of general storytelling, and I realized I just don't like it. I like turning the pages and it kind of felt messy and not contained. And these are. you know, still big stories for me and I wanna keep everything kind of clean and, um, and not lose anything. So I am kind of going back and redoing some things and getting it back inside a page protector. Um, I just realize it's, it gives me a little bit of anxiety. Um, and then, um, just also realizing, um, there was a period of time where I felt that I, I needed to be innovative with every kit or every scrapbook item I got. And I, I realized that it was kind of taking away the joy from scrapbooking. I had to really sit down and like tell myself, Hey, let's, let's just acknowledge that you like things simple and you do not have to go all out and be the most creative. That's fine. There's still space for being simple and that's still a wonderful way to scrapbook. And once I gave myself that permission, I in a way became more creative. I got to dig a little deeper my stories and, it gave me more time to really focus really on the storytelling and the memories I was documenting. And it took away that, that pressure to be the most creative, which I don't need to be. I, I can just be whom I am. So that was big.

[00:19:33] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes.

[00:19:34] Holly Devore: For me.

[00:19:36] Jennifer Wilson: That's so important and something that I've experienced myself, that the more that I let go of whatever perceived expectations there are, then I suddenly have this burst of energy to move forward. Maybe in a similar way, maybe even the same way. You know, there was certain, the other day, this was a work thing. I told a coworker, you know, I'm not gonna be able to get this done till Monday. And then just having. That weight lifted of that, I didn't have to get it done. I was excited to work on it and I got it done anyway on Friday, but there's something about that letting go.

[00:20:09] Holly Devore: Oh, yes. Oh yes. That's so good though. So good.

[00:20:14] Jennifer Wilson: Now let's talk about organization a little bit. Are you an organized person or not so organized person?

[00:20:21] Holly Devore: Um, I would say I'm in the middle. I, I'm not.

[00:20:24] Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

[00:20:25] Holly Devore: I've seen craft spaces that are amazing, like immaculate labeled, all of that. That's fantastic. Um, that, that for me, yeah, I'm more in the middle.

[00:20:38] Jennifer Wilson: Uh huh.

[00:20:39] Holly Devore: I do, um, one thing that helps with kind of keeping organized in the sense that works for me is, um, ever since I started scrapbooking, I told myself that I would only buy product in regards to projects I was working on or would work on in a few months. So, I never really had time to accumulate a lot of stuff, so, um, having kind of a minimal, to me, I don't, I honestly don't have a ton. So, um, it's easy just to keep that organized and keep it in a space and, um, not really get overwhelmed. So that's really what's helped me the most. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:24] Jennifer Wilson: And are there any particular kind of solutions that have

[00:21:28] Holly Devore: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:28] Jennifer Wilson: Really enjoyed to contain the stuff that you do have so you can access it easily?

[00:21:33] Holly Devore: Yeah. Um, so I get storage containers from Home Goods. They have pretty, it's, it changes. So, um,

[00:21:42] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:42] Holly Devore: They have a great storage systems, whether it's for like an office desk and so on. I usually, uh, pick those up and, um, whenever I get like new kits, I subscribe to two monthly kits. I refresh, I have kind of like a storage container for all my products, so it holds my most used tools, my journaling cards, stamp sets that I wanna use, and so on. And I will refresh that monthly. So I really just focus on that kit for the month. And then at the end of the month, I will, kind of bring everything out on the table and if I see things that I was just not really interested in, it wasn't my style, I put that into my donation pile. And then a product that I do love, but I just didn't use that month, I will put in a separate pile to use for the future. And that kind of storage and kind of organizing and donating system has really helped. Yeah.

[00:22:46] Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah, for sure. Like we all make better decisions when it's a smaller group of things. So having this rhythm I think could be really useful for a lot of our listeners.

[00:22:56] Holly Devore: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:58] Jennifer Wilson: So kind of stepping back here, Holly, where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years?

[00:23:05] Holly Devore: Um, so for me, I hope I'm, I'm still documenting. I, I, I think what's really nice and what I really am grateful for is that started documenting during probably one of the hardest seasons. And just want to continue to do that. I wanna continue to document happy, hard, sad, everything. Um, because looking back on years in the, even the last few years, um, I am really grateful that I wrote down what I did during those h hard times, and I can go back and look at.

[00:23:44] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:44] Holly Devore: It. Um, and I just wanna keep that going. I, I know there are many scrapbookers that like to just focus on the happy, which is wonderful. It, it's whatever that makes you feel your best and what you wanna remember. But, definitely for me, I wanna continue to document all the emotions. And I know it, it continues. We, we continue to go through hard times. We'll lose family members, people will get sick and hard things happen that will never stop. And, um, just having this hobby and having a way to document has been very helpful to acknowledge everything and also how strong we are as humans. When we do go through these things and we think we won't make it, yeah, we do. We, we kind, we come out stronger. So, I just hope to continue to document in that way. Yeah.

[00:24:38] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that sounds, that's, I mean, that's so meaningful and, and we, when we have these kind of underpinning kind of gut reasons for why we wanna keep doing this, I think it helps us keep coming back time and again.

[00:24:51] Holly Devore: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:52] Jennifer Wilson: If you know, so closing out here, you know, in your documented experience since January, 2020, what has that taught you?

[00:25:02] Holly Devore: Um, it has taught me, to really accept who I am. Uh, it's kind of hard to.

[00:25:12] Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

[00:25:12] Holly Devore: Explain. Just, um, sometimes I think we go through life thinking we need to be a certain way. We have to be this kind of person, this kind of mom, this kind of friend, this kind of sister. Documenting has shown me who I really am. You know, there's no there. I don't have to show up perfectly, I just have to keep showing up. And documenting has made me realize, you know, I love the person I am right now, with all the imperfections. And my story and who I am is reflected in my documenting. And it's just taught me to really just accept, you know, everything around me and just continuing life, living life the best way I can. So yeah.

[00:26:00] Jennifer Wilson: Hmm. So well said. Thank you so much. Holly, can you share what we can find you online? Anything you might have new are coming up later this year.

[00:26:09] Holly Devore: Um, so for online, I share on Instagram just my name, HollyDevore_. I love, that's probably my favorite area to go. um, YouTube, I do try to share Canva tutorials on YouTube. Um, and that is my name as well. Um, and then I do also have a Patreon for people that wanna learn Canva. Um, and that's just The Canva Crafters, which has been really fun. Um, and yeah, those are my main, main outlets. Yeah.

[00:26:42] Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. We'll include all the links to those in the show notes.

[00:26:45] Holly Devore: Okay.

[00:26:46] Jennifer Wilson: I appreciate you spending time with me today.

[00:26:48] Holly Devore: Thank you.

[00:26:50] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.