SYW230 – Moving from Idea to Action

[00:01:22] 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 230.In this episode Peggy and I talk about what it really looks like to make progress and finish projects. We highlight some of our personal experiences as well as share a peek behind the scenes of our membership community.

[00:01:53] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Peggy, how are you?

[00:01:54] Peggy Collins: I'm great. How are you today?

[00:01:58] Jennifer Wilson: I'm doing well. It is blue sky and sunshine, not too hot today, only in the, uh, low seventies and yeah, just feeling good and excited to get some things done.

[00:02:09] Peggy Collins: Yeah, it's been remarkably cool here. It's supposed to get warm this week, but it's been really modest, moderate weather here in Colorado so far this summer, which has been, been nice. A little rainy, a lot of rain, but, um, other than that. Which we always say we can use, but apparently we are now out of the drought.

[00:02:29] Peggy Collins: So I said to Doug, does that mean we can stop saying we can use the rain? So yeah, it's, it's good. Everything is very green, very green and lots of flowers. And so it's a lovely time of year here.

[00:02:45] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, for sure. Beautiful. Now you've been doing some traveling, right?

[00:02:49] Peggy Collins: I have. We went, we did the, the last time I was on, I listened to the very beginning of the last episode so I can remember what I talked about. Um, so we were planning that trip to the Bay area and we did that in late April and early May.

[00:03:03] Peggy Collins: And that was a lot of fun. We saw lots of art and we walked and walked and walked. We did a lot of walking around Berkeley and a lot of work walking around San Francisco. We saw these great steps that are like mosaic tiled steps, um, in San Francisco that were really pretty spectacular and walked all the way up them, which was also sort of spectacular.

[00:03:26] Peggy Collins: So yeah, it was a good trip. It was everything we'd hoped it would be. And we had kind of coolish weather, but not too terribly rainy there. So that was good. Um, they were, had been a little rainier than they normally have before we got there. So, but it kind of mellowed out. So that was good. Yeah.

[00:03:46] Jennifer Wilson: You know, San Francisco is just such a, an amazing place to walk. There were a couple of years where I was going to a conference there every December we were at the convention center which which is like,

[00:03:57] Peggy Collins: Mm

[00:03:58] Jennifer Wilson: Downtown ish, and I walked all the way up to the wharf, all the way west, all the way around, and then I think at some point I was like, oh, this is getting kind of crazy, maybe we should like, find a bus or something to get home, but.

[00:04:12] Peggy Collins: We're long ways from where we belong.

[00:04:15] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, but it was just so fun, and it was so accessible to walk everywhere too, and it felt, yeah, I was, I always felt pretty safe, and, yeah, I, it's just a great, it's a great city.

[00:04:28] Peggy Collins: Yeah. We worked our way through all the mass transit. We use BART and we use the MUNI, MUNI and we did all sorts of stuff that. And Doug hiked up around the Berkeley Hills and, and their marina. So he did a bunch of stuff while I was working. So yeah, it was a really, really nice trip. I need to, I'm, I'm a little worried. Cause I did a poor job. The thing I didn't do a good job of is making notes and taking, you know, journaling and things like that, which I have lately been better about on travel and didn't do it this time. So I'm kind of like anxious to get to the, the, the scrapbook of this, because I want to make sure that I capture some of these itty bitty details. So we're working on trying to get to that. Um, so.

[00:05:15] Jennifer Wilson: Can you, like, sit down with Doug and kind of, take notes through conversation about like just the flip through the photos and then just to be able to jog memories. And because I know that's what I'm doing with Steve about our Sweden trip because we, we do have some notes. Some of them are in different places, but really I'm just, we're sitting down talking about, you know, a day and the things that we did and what he remembers and what I remember. And that certainly helps a lot when you have even just not even great photos to jog your memory.

[00:05:48] Peggy Collins: Right, right. Yeah. I think we could do some of that. Um, he also was pretty good about texting me when he was out and about. So I, I think I have lot of cues available to me. I just need to sit down and kind of get some, some framework around. And I did part of this as, as the case study for the Planning Project, uh, immersion that last journey. So I do sort of have a roughed out like stories that I want to tell a piece. So I think some of that is in place. And then just the getting some more of the nitty gritty details. Um, I want to use my, uh, this kind of goes into our exciting right now, but I, I bought this, the Cinch Multi. So I've looked at Cinches and Bind It Alls for years and thought, Oh, I really, I think I'd really enjoy that and talk to myself out of it for years, just years and years. I've talked to myself out of it and this came out and they, I don't know if you know what this thing is, but it has these cartridges that punch different format bindings. So they have one for disc binding. They have one for ring binding. They have one for like this band binding that you can punch your, to put like a rubber band around something.

[00:07:09] Peggy Collins: There's a heart one that's just cuter than cute, but I just can't bring myself to spend 35 to punch hearts. Um, but yeah, so that came after we came home from Texas, but before we went to California. And it's just so fun to play with. And so I want to do a mini, I don't do a ton of minis, but every once in a while, I think it's fun.

[00:07:32] Peggy Collins: And I think this trip kind of lends itself to a mini. Um, and so I'm going to try to do a gatefold, ring bound album. Like in a six by eight ish. Well, outside of the protector six by eight size, because I want to use up some of my Ali Edwards quarterly scrapbook stuff. And that's all the protector size.

[00:07:52] Peggy Collins: So I'm hoping to do something with that. Part of I'm sort of wondering now, if I have enough to make it into a mini album. Like if it's going to have enough heft for the ring binding. Um, but I'll kind of burn that bridge when I get to it. I'll either put more fancy stuff in it, or maybe I'll make two trip, you know, maybe I'll decide that it's not enough and I'll hold, I'll do this and then I'll hold for another trip similar to this and add another trip to it or something.

[00:08:21] Jennifer Wilson: Well, they make, you know, a huge variety of ring sizes too.

[00:08:25] Peggy Collins: Yeah, I might need to, I bought the one size, right? So maybe it's a matter of me tracking down a smaller size.

[00:08:32] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Or using really chunky embellishments.

[00:08:35] Peggy Collins: Correct. That's, and maybe this is chance to do that, right? Like I can just, I can just put. Uh, foam adhesive behind everything, just make.

[00:08:45] Jennifer Wilson: There you go.

[00:08:45] Peggy Collins: Really chunky, which could be really fun. I kind of, I want this trip documented. Obviously we had a great time and I want it documented, but I also kind of was, when I was doing the Planning Project stuff, I was like, I want this to be fun. Because I've been sort of in the mode of get it done, get it done, get it done, get it done, get it done.

[00:09:04] Peggy Collins: And. It's like, well, that's, that's all well and good and it is good, right? There's, there's certain things that, yeah, let's get it done. And then, but sometimes it's not very playful to get it done. Right. So I was kind of looking at this project as an opportunity to play a little bit. So that could lend itself, right?

[00:09:23] Peggy Collins: The, the ability to do more dimensional things, to do more interactive things because those tend to sort of, um, bulk things up, I think that could be really fun. So that's, that's, uh, in line with kind of that goal. The summer hasn't got, I had hoped to start that already and I haven't gotten there at all. So that's a little bit of a challenge. It's just been little crazy.

[00:09:48] Jennifer Wilson: Well I mean that's just how things go. So, but you have, you have the plan, you know, that when the time comes, you, you know where to start. So, um, but I think you mentioned that, you know, you weren't sure you had enough to make a mini book, but I think that that's the exact type of story that lends itself to the fun experience of, let's see what we can do. Let's make it more interactive. Because it's when it's those epic ones that have, you know, more photos than we can possibly imagine. Those are the ones that make it really harder to do. Uh, the, uh, the more fun and delightful, uh, smaller projects like that.

[00:10:28] Peggy Collins: Right. Because you can take, you feel like you can take the time and I feel like this could be a project where I would just really sink into the joy of playing with all this stuff. Um, so I think that's, And I found, I found piece, I have pieces of the Away We Go collection from Echo Park that are remainders from another trip that I did.

[00:10:50] Peggy Collins: And, but I have a significant, a fairly significant amount of remainders from that. And then I found pieces of my Ali quarterly kits that court, the colors actually worked. Um, so I think that'll be a nice, because her, Ali's stuff is very word, right, story focused. And I can do story sorts of things around that. And then, uh, use that to kind of capture the words and then use some of this Away We Go stuff to, to play with and make, um, different interactive pieces and things like that. So I think it'll be fun.

[00:11:28] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I can't wait to see how that all comes together.

[00:11:31] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[00:11:32] Jennifer Wilson: Now, do you want to get that done before you travel again, or is the time kind of running out for that?

[00:11:37] Peggy Collins: I think running out. Yeah. I'm, I'm in the thick of, I've got, um, so I, when the last time we talked, I said that I thought I might be able to get me all caught up before we went to Switzerland and it's not looking good. Um, I am, I've got a good chunk. I've got all the photos printed and in the, I'm going to do pocket pages for, so I have two Utah national trips.

[00:12:02] Peggy Collins: National park trips and the second of them, I started with a second of them because I tend to try to go backwards, do the most recent thing first. Um, and I've got all of those photos in their pockets and I've got product in those pockets to do the journaling. So I think that will get done before Switzerland.

[00:12:23] Peggy Collins: Um, there's a chance I could get the 2019 trip photos chosen and in, you know, into Persnickety and get those taken care of before we leave for Switzerland. But I, I don't think that the California trip is going to happen before. I just don't have big enough blocks of time. I'm, I'm piecing it together big time this summer.

[00:12:45] Peggy Collins: It's 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Um, so that's okay. I'm okay on time. I'm, I'm, I'm not ahead, which is a little alarming in the middle of the year because I know that the end of the year, I tend not to have as much time. Um, but I'm holding, I'm holding the line. I'm just a little bit over my goal at the end of the end of June.

[00:13:08] Peggy Collins: I was just slightly over my goal. So it is what it is. It'll get done. It's, um, I'm not going to make myself crazy about it. And I think I'm, I'm focusing on all the right things, right? So it's, you do what you can do and let the rest go.

[00:13:25] Jennifer Wilson: Well, there's always has to be some sort of balance between the crafting that you would love to do all day long every day.

[00:13:32] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[00:13:33] Jennifer Wilson: Um, and you know, when we do get to do that, we find so much like flow and momentum from it, but then there's the rest of life too. So, we have to always like juggle between those different priorities and obligations and find whatever the sweet spot is in the moment.

[00:13:51] Peggy Collins: Right and I think those big blocks of time for me at least require a fair amount of preparation So I did host there was there's a small group of us in the Denver metro area that are Simple Scrapper members. And so I hosted, this is the second summer in a row that I've hosted an all day crop. And it was super fun. It's always really fun to see people and of course scrapbooking In person is such a treat now.

[00:14:15] Peggy Collins: Um, but I was not prepared. Like I just didn't, I didn't have the blocks of time ahead of time to get my ducks in a row, basically. So I, I had stuff to do. And so for me to really leverage those big blocks of time, require some time ahead of time to get ready for that. And it just didn't happen this time.

[00:14:36] Peggy Collins: Um, versus when I went to Paper Dollhouse a year, a few years ago, I had a lot of runway and I went and I, I just cranked stuff out at that because I had really carefully prepared and knew exactly what I was going to do and got going. So I got things done. I enjoyed myself. That's all, all that really matters.

[00:14:56] Peggy Collins: But I do realize that to, because later in the year, I would love to at least do an at home retreat. I was supposed to go away for a retreat and I've had to cancel it. Um, so, but I would like to do some, you know, one more weekend where I really just crank on stuff, but it's going to require me sort of getting stuff together.

[00:15:18] Peggy Collins: And that could be this travel stuff, right? You get it figured out and, and you know what you want to do. And then you just really crank it out. So we'll see, see what happens.

[00:15:27] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Well, I'm sure we're going to talk a little bit more about kind of how we do that. Um, when we get to Finishing Day later, because so much of finishing, whether you're doing it, you know, with us or on your own, it requires that, that preparation, the thought, um, and sometimes just, yeah, really getting in the mindset of this is what has to be my focus right now, and this was what's going to get put aside so that we can make progress.

[00:15:55] Peggy Collins: Mm hmm. Yeah, for sure. How about you? What's going on, exciting for you?

[00:15:59] Jennifer Wilson: You know, the summer has been more full than I expected, and I, I should have expected it, but.

[00:16:06] Peggy Collins: Me too.

[00:16:07] Jennifer Wilson: Emily's in all the things right now, volleyball and softball, and then piano and violin. And so and she like she's kind of a she's a quiet kid who likes to read and play Minecraft. So it's not like it's like noisy, that noisy and busy here. Even when she has friends over but there's lots of like transportation to things and since I have more flexibility being at home during the day, um, I do a lot of that transportation. And so as you were talking about, it kind of chops up the day a little bit, but it's, it's all good. And we're getting lots of, uh, lots of memories being made. Um, she's growing in her skills and, um, yeah, it actually has led me to, be thinking more about my photography, like a couple different things.

[00:16:57] Jennifer Wilson: So one is her getting more and more into sports and continuing on with multiple sports. I'm like, you know what? I don't have a telephoto lens. Um, and I never have had one and I'm like. I would like to better photos.

[00:17:13] Peggy Collins: Yeah, right.

[00:17:14] Jennifer Wilson: I mean, I tend to not take that many photos at her things because there's only so many kind of wide shots of, look, here's her at bat again. But, um,

[00:17:26] Peggy Collins: At the softball field again.

[00:17:29] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Here's me sitting, waiting for the game to start, again.

[00:17:33] Peggy Collins: Right, again. Yeah, right. Exactly.

[00:17:36] Jennifer Wilson: So I've been thinking about that. And part of it, we are in at the time of this recording, we're in our Photos Journey. Um, I, and I guess this is all kind of related. I had taken photos at my mother in law's 90th birthday party this past weekend, and I wasn't really asked about this in advance. So I was just there with my phone and I was pretty proud of what I could do with my phone in a, you know, windowless basement.

[00:18:01] Jennifer Wilson: Um, But then I'm like, you know, I, if I would have known I could have prepared and actually brought multiple cameras and, uh, maybe even borrowed a flash from somebody and, and I could have probably done even better job or even brought a tripod, who knows? But, um, it had me kind of get out all my cameras, charge batteries up, see what's working and what's not. Because some of them are older and I have one that's kind of damaged and so only certain lenses will work on it because basically I can't take scrapbook photos that require actual squares and rectangles because the, uh, it's off the mirror is off kilter.

[00:18:42] Jennifer Wilson: So everything looks a little distorted. Um, so I put my fisheye lens on that one thinking, oh, it's just going to add more distortion and you won't able to notice.

[00:18:52] Peggy Collins: That was good. That's smart.

[00:18:54] Jennifer Wilson: But, uh, yeah, I've just been kind of in the zone of thinking, okay, I really appreciate having great photos. Um, I, I'm not a professional, but I perhaps I'm a advanced amateur, let's say.

[00:19:11] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[00:19:12] Jennifer Wilson: And I want to, like, I want to do more. And I think the more I take good photos, the more I want to scrapbook them, and so there's like a snowball effect to that for sure.

[00:19:21] Jennifer Wilson: Um, and this time of year, for sure, because there's more light, uh, and light is going later, and earlier in the morning, there's just even more opportunities. So I've just been really kind of leaning into that, um, not letting it take too much time. Maybe dreaming a little bit about like, if I was going to upgrade to better equipment, what would that look like?

[00:19:44] Jennifer Wilson: How much would that cost? many new members do I need to get to, uh, to pay for that?

[00:19:49] Peggy Collins: It's my business goal to get that to happen.

[00:19:53] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Um, so it's, yeah, it's just, it's just been fun. Um, we also made these photo boards for my mother in law's birthday party. It was kind of a last minute thing that family members decided, Okay, we need to make these photo boards for the party that's tomorrow. Um, but we had done a special Mother's Day project for her.

[00:20:15] Jennifer Wilson: Oh gosh, it was like 2018, I think. So I already had a lot of photos in Lightroom. So between those and really old photos that Steve had scanned, we were able to pretty quickly put together a Walmart one hour photo, um, order. And then print those, and then we, um, adhered those to the photo boards. So we have three, you know, big tri panel boards now of photos from her entire life, which is, it's really nice. I'm glad we have them, and I'm glad we could share them at, at her party. So.

[00:20:45] Peggy Collins: Oh, nice. Yeah. It's a big win. There will come a more stressful time that you will want to have those, let's say. And you won't deal with that.

[00:20:56] Jennifer Wilson: Well, yeah, I have a photo, I have one folder that has all of them in it too, so in case we need to do other things with them, um, yeah, I mean, we recognize, she's, she's 90, so.

[00:21:08] Peggy Collins: There will come a day.

[00:21:09] Jennifer Wilson: Real life things, and I, and I'm glad we were able to, um, work together as a family, Steve even, we actually made the photo boards with her in the living room.

[00:21:19] Jennifer Wilson: And so he went through all the photos with her and helped sort them into like different categories and told stories about who's who in the photos. And yeah, it just, it made it, it was, it was really nice and I'm glad we can do that because, you know. She's not going to be around forever.

[00:21:38] Peggy Collins: Very often. No. Yeah.

[00:21:41] Jennifer Wilson: So.

[00:21:41] Peggy Collins: Sometimes it happens very fast.

[00:21:44] Jennifer Wilson: I know, I know. So, it's um, all of those things together from, you know, the across all seasons of life that I'm experiencing through my family, um, I'm definitely kind of feeling really connected to photos right now.

[00:22:04] Peggy Collins: That's wonderful. I love it when the photos are chugging away. I don't... I don't always have good success with that, but I did have good success in the Bay Area. I took a lot of photos there. I remembered some, I, I met up with a couple Simple Scrapper members. We remembered to take photos. That was good. Uh, so, so it was, you know, those sorts of things.

[00:22:26] Peggy Collins: And then we're hiking a ton right now. And I've been pretty good about balancing how many pictures I take, like, I want pictures of things, but I don't want 4000 pictures of hikes this summer. So I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job of getting representative stuff without just completely filling my camera roll with a zillion pictures of the Flatiron.

[00:22:47] Peggy Collins: So it's going good.

[00:22:48] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Yes.

[00:22:50] Peggy Collins: They're beautiful, but how many do I really need in my camera roll? Seeing as I can see them from my deck.

[00:22:56] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Wow. That sounds so nice. Yeah. Um, I was able to meet up with Alyssa recently to have, uh, lunch because both of our daughters went to the same Girl Scout camp the same week. They were in differrent camps, um, but because we had other people there, we had people to take photos of us. And so always forget to take photos when we're together. And so that was, that was nice.

[00:23:23] Peggy Collins: I had the presence of mind last weekend to ask Doug to take my picture. This is the other thing I always forget, like Peggy, you should actually have a picture of yourself. We, we do fairly well. He, he's actually really good about suggesting, do we, do we want a selfie? Like, oh yeah, yeah, yes we do. But then I was taking his picture and I'm like, oh, have him take your picture. That was good. That was a win as well.

[00:23:47] Jennifer Wilson: Um, we recently went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in the theater, and I don't, I've only seen a couple movies since, you know, 2019 in the theater, and, but we, this year, had watched all of the Marvel movies to get caught up to present day. And so I remembered to take, we actually took a selfie in the, in our driveway beforehand, that one was okay, and then we took another one in front of the movie poster, and it was late at night too, but there was enough ambient light and the phone was good enough to be able to take a nice selfie. And so I'm going to use that to scrapbook this journey of, you know, watching all these movies together and, you know, some TV shows too, as a family.

[00:24:29] Peggy Collins: That's fun. Cause she's finally old enough to really, it'd be okay for her to watch all that and catch it and everything. That's fun. Yeah.

[00:24:38] Jennifer Wilson: Well, when we watched last night, we watched the third Indiana Jones and I didn't realize that came out in 1989. And I don't know for sure when I first watched it because it was rated PG 13 at the time. And River Phoenix was in it and so like my whole like mental recollection of when things happened was kind of jostled. But Emily found that one far less scary than, uh, Temple of Doom because that one has like burning fire pits and all these things.

[00:25:12] Peggy Collins: Yes.

[00:25:13] Jennifer Wilson: Pulling people's hearts out.

[00:25:14] Peggy Collins: Uh, maybe that's why I haven't watched those movies. I think I saw the first one. Vaguely remember that maybe I was in high school, feel like that was my high school boyfriend I was with. So I don't think I've seen all of those either. Yeah, that makes me feel old. I graduated from college in 1989. So like, Oh my gosh, that was a long time ago.

[00:25:38] Jennifer Wilson: So we've already, you know, our personal catch up was very much memory focused. Which is really cool because that's I think it's it's lifestyle for us. We're, uh, making and keeping memories simultaneously and consecutively and always kind of the context, um, for what we're doing. But you mentioned your, um, your Cinch Multi and I guess I'm, I have a question for you is because I have, I have the old Cinch, like the original one. And then I have, uh, a Disc punch and I have a six hole punch and, Um, You know, I have a lot of different punches. Can I like replace all of those? Is it even worth it? Cause it still has to take up space, even with you have cartridges.

[00:26:25] Peggy Collins: Right. I probably would not be inclined. I mean, unless you find those hard to use. So I don't think the six hole punch, you mean that's to punch like the Studio Calico protector holes, right. To in the outside page protector. I don't think they have that.

[00:26:43] Jennifer Wilson: Oh.

[00:26:44] Peggy Collins: They don't have, all of them. They don't have skips in them, right? This is the one thing about you have, do you have the original Cinch that you can like turn off certain holes? So that they don't, yeah, you don't want to give that up. This, this pinches, so this is like the Cinch Mini. except that you can change the holes that it punches. So the Cinch Mini didn't let you do the turn holes on and off thing, which is really kind of cool. Um, this one only lets you punch everything. Um, and you could do wider than that narrow, you know, how the Mini works that it's, it punches like eight holes or something like that. And then you move it over and it punches some more holes and you, you do all these. Move this, um, guide to different spots, depending on what you're doing.

[00:27:37] Peggy Collins: So anyway, it's the same as the Cinch Mini without, but with the ability to swap out what kind of holes you're punching. So I don't you would want to give up your, if you've already invested in the original Cinch and you've already got a place to store that beast. I would not give that because it's, it.

[00:27:59] Jennifer Wilson: I really like turning the holes on and off.

[00:28:02] Peggy Collins: Yeah. I think that, that, especially if you're doing anything like a lot of mini albums and things like that, that's where you get kind of the fun things that you can do. Um, otherwise you're kind of sunk into this. So like the gatefold thing I'm going to do is the rings will be like in the middle, right? I won't run rings all the way, uh, top to bottom, but you're still, they would all have to be together, right?

[00:28:27] Peggy Collins: It would have to be a batch of rings or holes there in the center of the page. So yeah, I would not. And then I don't think you could do the six hole, so that wouldn't. And then the disc bound is kind of cool. But if you've got another way to do a disc, you've got a disc bound punch. That was the thing.

[00:28:46] Peggy Collins: That was what was really attractive to me because I've always wanted both things. I've always wanted a Cinch and I've always wanted a disc bound thing. And I was just wouldn't pull the trigger on the investment. So this brought the investment probably. It's not all that much cheaper, but it's a little less to store and things like that.

[00:29:05] Peggy Collins: So. And I don't know, it just captured my fancy and I pushed the button. You know, I had, I had gift money from Christmas. So I was like, this is what I want. So that's what I did. But yeah, I I wouldn't swap.

[00:29:19] Jennifer Wilson: Well that's good to know. Like, I, I didn't know about the limitations with holes, I just assumed that all the Cinches could do that. I haven't looked into it that, in that detail, and I only just bought the, the Happy Planner disc punch, but it's like the full size one.

[00:29:33] Peggy Collins: Oh.

[00:29:34] Jennifer Wilson: So you can. It's it's pretty handy and I've used it several times.

[00:29:38] Jennifer Wilson: I even actually deconstructed my Heidi Swapp memory planner. Um, you know, cut off like, uh, probably an eighth of an inch on each page because once I, um, de- threaded it, I guess. And, um, I disc punched, I disc punched the whole thing because I knew it was going to be chunky, and I wanted to be able to work on pages individually.

[00:30:00] Jennifer Wilson: Um, and I'm really happy with that, that decision in the end. So, yeah, it's a fun, it's a fun format. I was kind of resistant for a while, but I'm glad that I have that option now.

[00:30:12] Peggy Collins: Yeah, I think it's kind of fun to have the, I like disc bounding for planning sort of things because I like to be able to take things in and out. Um, and I have some smaller covers and things through the years that I've bought, but I didn't have a way to make my own pages basically. Um, so I think that'll be super fun to have that I, I made just to try it out.

[00:30:35] Peggy Collins: Right. The discs that they provide are pretty big, um, the, We Are Memory Keepers discs but I'm, I'm confident that if I got on Amazon, I could find smaller of everything, right? I just haven't.

[00:30:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, you can. I have, um, I've done many of those searches. I was just thinking how, uh, both of the additional punches I have are Amazon impulse purchases of, Oh, I won't really want this. And it could come like tomorrow. So I'm going to buy this now.

[00:31:05] Peggy Collins: Exactly, exactly.

[00:31:08] Jennifer Wilson: Uh, yes, Amazon is, yeah, we want to get into the debate on that. It's so bad and good at the same time.

[00:31:16] Peggy Collins: I did the exact same thing with, so I, for this, uh, national park trip that I'm working on, it's Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Park, Parks. Right? So that's what I want on the title page. And I was like, I need, I, I need to die cut letters. This is going to be insane. Right? Like that's 15 packages of stickers or something.

[00:31:39] Peggy Collins: That's like, I have to get all of those letters. And so I, um, pulled out this die set that I have from Tim Holtz and it's, it's all caps. I don't know why I did this to myself. So I only bought the caps. So, and there's no numbers in it. So I was like, I really need the numbers. Cause I want the year and I don't want the right so yeah totally impulse bought the lowercase letters and numbers and they came in two days and I'm really very happy about that, but.

[00:32:10] Jennifer Wilson: And are they like the coordinating ones from Tim holtz?

[00:32:12] Peggy Collins: There's the right, yeah, there's the right, yeah.

[00:32:15] Peggy Collins: I was able to find the same set, which is often the other problem. I need to not do that. Like, why do I do that to myself? I'm sure I bought those on some sale or on some impulse. And like to buy a die set without numbers is kind of stupid, Peggy. You're going to want numbers. Like it's, you're going to need numbers.

[00:32:35] Peggy Collins: So anyway, I need to be more mindful when I buy things like that, that I buy, cause I lucked out, right? There's complete possibility that I had bought that long enough ago that I wouldn't have been able to find the matching, easily find the matching lowercase and numbers. So I was, I lucked out on this one, but I need to be more, uh, conscientious about that going forward. I get, I get this cheap streak going that I'm like, Oh, I afford, I can't afford both of those die sets, or I'm going to do that later. And of course I never do. So, um, yeah, I need to be more careful. Makes them a lot less usable.

[00:33:10] Jennifer Wilson: You know, always a challenge with, yeah, with like, um, trying to like have this investment mindset of particularly of things, you know, you're going to use again, but then seeing like, oh, that shopping cart, that's.

[00:33:24] Peggy Collins: That's a big number.

[00:33:25] Jennifer Wilson: I need to take some things out of this. But then you end up spending all that money anyway.

[00:33:30] Peggy Collins: Right.

[00:33:30] Jennifer Wilson: Just, over time.

[00:33:32] Peggy Collins: Right, or doing something, you know, or and to some degree, my stash is big enough that something would have worked right. I could have certainly added numbers from something else or done something else and I can almost always figure that out. But to your point, Amazon could have it to me in two days and I could have it look exactly the way I wanted and I was out of time anyway.

[00:33:53] Peggy Collins: So it wasn't like I, stopped working when I could have kept going, waiting for the perfect thing. I was like, I can't get back to this till next week anyway, so.

[00:34:01] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:34:03] Peggy Collins: Well, I'm glad found a solution.

[00:34:05] Peggy Collins: Yeah. I think it'll, it'll be good. Cause that's a lot of letters. It's going to take me a while just to die cut all those letters.

[00:34:10] Jennifer Wilson: Oh yes, for sure.

[00:34:12] Peggy Collins: Yeah. Oh my gosh.

[00:34:13] Jennifer Wilson: But they will look nice. So.

[00:34:15] Peggy Collins: It'll look good.

[00:34:16] Jennifer Wilson: I am kind of outside of the photo. Um, I don't know. I'm in the obsession at the moment because like even watching YouTube videos. I got a mirrorless camera a couple of years ago and I'm like, Oh, I really actually need to know how to use this one because it's a little bit different than the DSLR.

[00:34:34] Jennifer Wilson: But I've really been thinking about organization and my space. And I've talked about this a lot on the podcast is that I used to have my filming lights up over my desk. So right where I sit in my computer and I felt like I was in a cave. I felt like there were people watching over shoulder.

[00:34:52] Peggy Collins: Right.

[00:34:53] Jennifer Wilson: And it was just it was just a really uncomfortable feeling and it made me not want to be in my space. Okay, so I moved them to the other side of the room. And now I'm like, you know what?

[00:35:04] Jennifer Wilson: I just, I don't like having them up all the time. I don't film that much over the table stuff. Uh, when I do it for a live, um, type of thing, like a member Zoom. I do have, I just have a small light and a clamp by my desk that I can, you know, it looks like a desk lamp. Um, that I could put my phone on and attach it to Zoom and say, here's what I'm working on, on my desk.

[00:35:30] Jennifer Wilson: So for that point, that works well. And then when I do want to actually shoot something that's well lit, I really think I want to set it up in the guest room, or maybe even the basement. Um, so that I don't have to have all these things in here that are taking up space all the time and making me feel like my room in my office is less than cozy.

[00:35:55] Jennifer Wilson: Like, I just want to feel, yeah, I don't know, it's like, it's, um. Definitely first world problem. Uh,

[00:36:05] Peggy Collins: Of course, it's because you have two other places you could put it, which is nice, um.

[00:36:10] Jennifer Wilson: Correct. Um.

[00:36:11] Peggy Collins: And is it way too much trouble to just put them up when you need them, or do you really need to set them up and leave them up somewhere?

[00:36:18] Jennifer Wilson: It's part of it is the configuration of my office that, um, to set them up when I need them in here requires moving furniture.

[00:36:27] Peggy Collins: Oh, God, no.

[00:36:28] Jennifer Wilson: Whereas, uh, there's just a little bit more space in the guest room.

[00:36:32] Peggy Collins: Oh, okay.

[00:36:33] Jennifer Wilson: It's just more practical to set it up when I need it somewhere else. Um, just because of, like, having the camera over the table. And, uh, like, I have a tripod with a long arm on it, and then the two, I actually have three lights that have stands, and so, um.

[00:36:54] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[00:36:56] Jennifer Wilson: I mean, it, it makes for really great, videos in the end. They're very well evenly lit and, um, I can set up, that's what I actually use the mirrorless camera more for videos than I do for taking photos. Which is why I feel like I can't, I don't know how to take photos with it.

[00:37:12] Jennifer Wilson: Um, but that's, I mean, it's talking about, it makes me feel a little silly. But it's, I want to have this goal that, you know, my this is my office. This is my creative studio. I want to do more non scrapbooking things like painting. I love painting, but I'm mostly doing it in kind of a confined little space.

[00:37:36] Jennifer Wilson: I want to make, I want to just expand a little bit. Um, my cats also take up a lot of room because they're sleeping on the desks too. And so I think arranging a little bit more would, would give them some space. And still have some left over for me.

[00:37:56] Peggy Collins: Right. Yes.

[00:37:58] Jennifer Wilson: Always least one cat in here. Like right now, Hermione is on top of my printer, sleeping.

[00:38:04] Peggy Collins: Oh, right.

[00:38:04] Jennifer Wilson: Which is one of her favorite spots. Because it's black and she's black and she blends in.

[00:38:08] Peggy Collins: Oh, she's hiding.

[00:38:10] Jennifer Wilson: Loves Uh, her camouflage.

[00:38:14] Peggy Collins: You have an introverted cat.

[00:38:17] Peggy Collins: So what's your hesitation? It seems like a slam dunk to me.

[00:38:21] Jennifer Wilson: My hesitation is, is the kind of cascade of steps. Um, you know, move one thing that means you move another thing. And ultimately I would need to clean out the guest room closet to be the place where the stuff gets stored when I'm not using it. And right now the guest room closet is, it's actually very tidy, but it is full of other things.

[00:38:44] Peggy Collins: Is that stuff.

[00:38:45] Jennifer Wilson: So that is my current hesitation.

[00:38:47] Peggy Collins: That came out of your Monica closet or it was always that full?

[00:38:50] Jennifer Wilson: Um, it is a much smaller closet than my office closet, than Monica closet, which has stayed completely organized since, you know, I finished it in what, early 2021? Or was it during 2020? I think it was 2021. And it has stayed totally organized for the past two years.

[00:39:11] Peggy Collins: Rock on. That's awesome.

[00:39:14] Jennifer Wilson: I, yeah, I, I feel like I finally found, the right amount of kind of structure and containers and flexibility, um, homes for things, uh, that it's been able to, to stay organized and without shoving stuff in there. So that's, that's really nice. I just need to do the other thing with the, the guest room closet. Uh, probably need to do some decluttering. Uh, there's a lot of clothes. Some of Emily's, some of mine, you know, way too many like blankets and beach towels and wrapping paper, like it's all the things that don't have another home.

[00:39:53] Peggy Collins: I have a whole closet in my bedroom. Like there's too much of this, but I don't know what to get rid of. Yeah. So how often would you have to take it down though? You would only take it down if you had guests right?

[00:40:05] Jennifer Wilson: That's correct. So I could in theory move the stuff even just into my bedroom if I'm having guests or whatever.

[00:40:13] Peggy Collins: Or your office, because if you have guests you're probably not spending very much time in your office.

[00:40:18] Jennifer Wilson: That is very true. So that's something else to think about. Um, that's a great idea, actually. You always have the best ideas.

[00:40:26] Peggy Collins: Thank you. I'm glad that helps.

[00:40:28] Jennifer Wilson: The other day I told you my salad was going to be too small. And you're have anything to add to it? And I have literally never added anything to a bag salad that wasn't just protein. Like I've never added more vegetables. And that's such a, a brilliant, duh idea. So.

[00:40:45] Peggy Collins: So glad it helped.

[00:40:46] Jennifer Wilson: Doubled the size of the salad, just adding like, six of those mini peppers. So.

[00:40:52] Peggy Collins: And it was yummy.

[00:40:53] Jennifer Wilson: It was. It was very yummy.

[00:40:56] Peggy Collins: Perfect. Yeah. I think maybe you could just store it somewhere else if you needed to. You're not going to take it up and down out of your guest room. Like you guys don't use your for anything else, right?

[00:41:07] Jennifer Wilson: We do not. It is, we do not have guests that often. It becomes mostly the place where we fold laundry. Which would still be totally possible doesn't Interfere with the bed.

[00:41:22] Peggy Collins: You're not going to put it on the bed, so I assume that's why you use the guest room for laundry. Yeah, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't let that stop you for now. Get your, get your office doing what you need it to do and then if you find you have somebody coming for four weeks, then maybe you have to figure out something else. But I don't, it doesn't seem to be the season you guys are in. So.

[00:41:46] Jennifer Wilson: No. No, I don't. Nobody's ever come for four weeks.

[00:41:50] Peggy Collins: Right.

[00:41:50] Jennifer Wilson: Other than when Emily was born.

[00:41:52] Peggy Collins: Right. Right. I mean, your parents come for a week or whatever, right? Like

[00:41:57] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:41:59] Peggy Collins: Yeah, you can figure out where.

[00:42:00] Jennifer Wilson: Well, thank you.

[00:42:01] Peggy Collins: The stuff.

[00:42:02] Jennifer Wilson: We have, we have Stash Bash coming up and I wanna like, get things going in that direction and then maybe do, continue some specific decluttering projects. Um, I'm still working on kind of getting all of my kits organized, and I really probably should get rid of a few things. I really struggle though because when I go through a kit, I'm like, oh, I really like it, which is why I bought it. And then I don't reach for it, but, um, sometimes we just have to start letting go.

[00:42:34] Peggy Collins: Yeah, I need to make a decision about my Ali Quarterly Kits. I'm they're starting to back up and I, I just, I don't love the outside of the protector. I've tried, I really have, like, I just, I've put it in a few different albums. I've used it for some travel stuff and I don't hate them, but I don't love them either. And unfortunately, most of them, I can't figure out how to trim them down.

[00:43:02] Peggy Collins: I mean, they're. There are some that have elements that I could fussy cut out and those certainly are usable in a different format. But some of them are, they just, they, not designed to trim them down to put them into protectors. And if they were, I would be able to use them better, but I can't figure out how to use them very well. So.

[00:43:23] Jennifer Wilson: Well, even at 12x12, like, they don't.

[00:43:28] Peggy Collins: No, I can't even mount it on a 12 by 12. They look dumb. Like it's not the right proportion.

[00:43:33] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I'm of like, of the 12x12 sheets, but even those, like.

[00:43:37] Peggy Collins: I've, I've had pretty good luck using those. Um.

[00:43:42] Jennifer Wilson: I'm a small floral pattern paper person.

[00:43:46] Peggy Collins: Oh yeah.

[00:43:47] Jennifer Wilson: So this is like, the opposite. It is large and graphic, geometric, and I just, I have a hard time, um, it, it's very different than my typical scrapbook style. It doesn't mean that I don't, as you said, like, it's not that I dislike it, but I don't find it necessarily easy to use.

[00:44:08] Peggy Collins: And I'm so bummed because I love that there's a 12 by 12 kit. Like that's I love that she's doing that. And I do like I like the way it triggers stories for me just like the Hello Story class is right. It's triggering me to, to tell different stories. And I like that. Um, it's just that outside of the page protector does not work very well.

[00:44:33] Peggy Collins: That size does not work very well for me. Um, I'm sort of excited because this mini album looks like it's an opportunity to knock some of that out, which would be great. Can we use some of this up, but it just, I'm not sure it makes sense to keep buying it.

[00:44:48] Jennifer Wilson: Do you ever do, like, hybrid in terms of, like, printing a paper, like a background?

[00:44:54] Peggy Collins: I don't because my printer isn't that great. Um, have a pretty basic printer cause I don't print my photos either. Um, so I think I would have to, make some sort of decision about, because are you thinking that I could use the digital kit to tweak the sizing or yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't, um, tend to do that.

[00:45:17] Peggy Collins: Although I have been known to send things to Staples to be printed. Um, So that's an option too. And those colors seem to come out okay. I don't often do color, color stuff. I often do black and white stuff, but like if I want some big block of print, uh, of journaling printed, that's really truly 12 by 12, I'll send something like that over to them. Or, um, yeah, but yeah, I don't do a ton of that kind of, my hybrid tends to be the other way.

[00:45:50] Peggy Collins: I like print some like print photos or something and then use. physical embellishments on those photos or something like that. So I do hybrid a little cattywampus, but.

[00:46:01] Jennifer Wilson: Well I think that this is an interesting challenge because I think we're not alone in, um, the people who, where that fits their, their style and approach. Like, they're using their stuff. So, those that aren't, we need to maybe figure out some different strategies. Like, how, what can we combine it with? Or... What, what's the shift in order to make it click for you personally, so I'm curious to, to play with that a little bit.

[00:46:29] Peggy Collins: Keep playing with it. I think I might let the, and then they sort of change the, the, the approach. So they feel more, like this last one was Go, uh, which was fine for me. Cause I do so much travel scrapbooking. So I'm sure I can use all of that stuff. I'm not worried about that, but I can't remember what the next two are, but there's sort of theme based versus the everything before that had been like circles and numbers and kind of more generic.

[00:47:00] Jennifer Wilson: It was very more design focused than story focused.

[00:47:03] Peggy Collins: Yes. And that kind of helped actually me that helped me be able to use them better. So I'm a little reticent also about that. Like what's, what's that going to be? Cause I always struggled to use the Story Stamps. That's why I stopped. I use them, but not in the way she intends. I use them all the time as embellishments and like that, but I don't use them in the way that I was never very successful creating layouts in the, in the spirit of what that content always proposed. And I don't know what that is. If it's just my reticence about, I don't have, I have all these other things I want to make, and that's not what I want to make right now. Or if that's just not. Yeah. Um, so I'm a little bit like, what are these kits gonna, like, is this gonna be really, is it gonna narrow the flexibility too far for me to really be able to use it very effectively? So between the sizing and that, I'm like, I don't know, but I really like to support because love, love, love, what does. So.

[00:48:10] Jennifer Wilson: The embellishments are always, like, those will get used no matter what. I think it's the paper that's a little bit more of a struggle.

[00:48:16] Peggy Collins: Paper is a bit of a struggle for sure.

[00:48:21] Jennifer Wilson: So we're, you know, we were talking a little bit about stories, but we should transition to here to what's on your bucket list right now.

[00:48:27] Peggy Collins: Yeah. So there's always a ton on my bucket list, but, uh, Doug retired. I mentioned this before Doug retired at the beginning of the year. And so he very carefully compiled a complete, uh, timeline of his career, the things he, where he worked and all this stuff. He has, uh, he spent some time in Saudi Arabia in his early career working.

[00:48:53] Peggy Collins: And so he gathered a bunch of stuff like his past, like they gave him a different passport while he was working there. He gathered all of this stuff up. Um, and so I'm really excited to look at doing some sort of his and her career extended stories kind of in the style of Stacey Julian. So a mixture of protector sizes and different, um, I think some of it will be pocket pages, some of it will be, um, 12 by 12 layouts, and then I would like to do something similar with my career.

[00:49:29] Peggy Collins: And so then we would kind of have this kind of mix, you know, his and her extended story thing. And I've got a couple things already, a couple of layouts already made for mine. I have like a layout that was about the choices I had when I first got out of college for my first job. And I think I have some stuff about my IT career.

[00:49:52] Peggy Collins: Um, so I have some pieces and I think I could see this coming together, maybe It might wind up being an entire album between the two of them. Um, so it'll be something I add to. Oh, and then I just use the one of the Hello Story, uh, story structures to the time one. So I had a text from exactly when he left the office on his last day. So I was able to use the date and time of that to make a layout about his last day at work and kind of how that all wrapped up.

[00:50:20] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fun.

[00:50:21] Peggy Collins: Yeah, it came out really fun. I use some of the numbers out of one of Ali's quarterly kits, which were these huge stencil numbers. Um, so it's, it's a really dramatic layout. It's got this, this huge. Uh, vertical title, um, that's the date and time with those big numbers. So it came out really cool. Uh, so that I think it's going to be, that'll be like an ongoing, perpetual project for a while, I think, um, to just kind of add to that. And my career is clearly not done yet. So there's, there's pieces of mine that will continue to get added in, but I kind of liked that idea of having both. And so that's what I'm playing with. That's one of them. And then I have a couple more from my parents that I'm stewing on, um, to see how those are going to shake out.

[00:51:09] Jennifer Wilson: It'd be really cool for this, uh, maybe even as, like, in the beginning and intro page, to do a timeline for both of you, but that's on one layout, like, one spread.

[00:51:21] Peggy Collins: That's interesting. Yeah. That

[00:51:23] Jennifer Wilson: You could be, like, top of the timeline, he could be on the bottom, and, and like here are the the big milestones. Um, that can be really neat.

[00:51:32] Peggy Collins: Yeah, that could be really fun play with the timeline story concept again. Um, I did one of myself this year for part of the Hello Story. And I definitely, it definitely calls for a time, both of them call for a timeline. So I liked that idea of layering them together though. I hadn't really thought about that, but that would be a great title page.

[00:51:53] Jennifer Wilson: I actually kind of want to that for me and Steve. Like, the end of my Before Your Story album, just because of we, because of our age gap as well, we're kind sometimes always explaining that to people. But I think it can be just like a cute, a cute way to be like, yeah, I was, I was three when he started working at the water survey, so.

[00:52:15] Peggy Collins: Right. Yes, exactly.

[00:52:17] Jennifer Wilson: Is really weird to think about, but we're only 16 years apart, which I realize is, is a, is a, is a gap, but it's not. The most massive. Um, but you know.

[00:52:29] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[00:52:29] Jennifer Wilson: When you tell stories like that though, it's.

[00:52:32] Peggy Collins: It's like, wow, yeah, exactly. Yeah. We'll have something similar, right? Like we're 10 years of art, so there's, there's definite gap there. So, yeah, that's a great idea.

[00:52:43] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:52:43] Peggy Collins: Fun title page I think.

[00:52:46] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I've like stories like that or ones that I've been thinking about. They don't really fit a specific category. There's not like one overarching story. It's kind of weirder. Um, small things that have happened to me in life that feel worth documenting, Whether it was like a, something special, something strange, um, just things that I've, I've jotted them down. I have a list, but I just, for some reason I don't jump into these because they feel like, well, I got to do that one really well because it's, you know, it's.

[00:53:23] Peggy Collins: Oh, no.

[00:53:24] Jennifer Wilson: Something more important than like the birthday or, you know, Easter or whatever, even just the, you know, daily life. Um, I love watching you grow type layouts that I make all the time about Emily.

[00:53:38] Jennifer Wilson: Um, but I need to like, I need to dive into some of these. A lot of them are from, I would say my early adult years. So, between college and, moving here. So my job before I, before, and when I met Steve, the job I was in then. Um, grad school, just like early adulthood years, I think there's, that part is kind of missing a little bit from my story, so.

[00:54:10] Peggy Collins: Ok, yeah.

[00:54:12] Jennifer Wilson: I have a, I have a long list and my mom helped me with this of all the concerts I've ever been to.

[00:54:17] Peggy Collins: My gosh.

[00:54:18] Jennifer Wilson: One on the list that I want to like.

[00:54:21] Peggy Collins: That'd be cool.

[00:54:22] Jennifer Wilson: Am not sure exactly how I want to do it yet, but I feel like that has to be using album covers, like more, probably more downloaded images than my own images because I don't have that many from these concerts, anyway. It's always been really hard to take photos when you're waiting for a concert to start at dusk.

[00:54:43] Peggy Collins: Right. I don't have, I don't have pictures like that either at all. I don't I could come up with that list. Honestly, I would have, I would struggle probably to do that, but yeah.

[00:54:54] Jennifer Wilson: You know, I, I, I had to, like, look through, um, like, touring dates to figure out years. Like, I knew I saw this band at this, like, around this time, but when did they come to my area? Um.

[00:55:08] Peggy Collins: That was smart.

[00:55:08] Jennifer Wilson: I, there's, fortunately there's a lot of, of that online. So, I know I don't have all of them, but, um, yeah, like it took a while and I keep, I keep kept adding to it as I remember things.

[00:55:23] Peggy Collins: Right. Yeah.

[00:55:23] Jennifer Wilson: But it's one page that I keep kind of putting off. So.

[00:55:28] Peggy Collins: I think that's one hard about those sorts of layouts. I have similar ones. Like one of them is like, you thinking I should talk about various foods in my childhood. Like, when do you know when you're done? Right. Like when, when have you gathered them all? Because they do come up. Like one recently, I was like, Oh, I totally forgot about that.

[00:55:48] Peggy Collins: Right. And so I have a, I have a similar list going for things like that. And it's a little hard to know. I try not to get bogged down in this kind of nonsense because it's just perfectionism. Right. But like, when do you know you've got most of them? And if you don't have them all, it's obviously not the end of the world, but it's just kind of one of those. So I think it is, it can be challenging to even know when to pull the trigger, even if you, yeah, even if you're ready. That's fun.

[00:56:16] Jennifer Wilson: Wow. Foods from, like, foods from childhood and

[00:56:20] Jennifer Wilson: not even my, like, my relationship with food, but my relationship with cooking. Like, I remember when I started watching The Frugal Gourmet on PBS and then, you know, Bobby Flay was originally on PBS like, I learned to cook from watching those shows.

[00:56:39] Peggy Collins: Oh, wow. Yeah.

[00:56:41] Jennifer Wilson: Um, I I was obsessed with watching those. So.

[00:56:46] Peggy Collins: Yeah, like my mom taught me to make tuna noodle casserole. I remember making tons of that. Like my mom taught me to cook. Yeah. What were those things? And when did, yeah, I don't, don't have a recollection of when either. Like, when did I start that? I have to see if I could figure that out.

[00:57:08] Jennifer Wilson: Maybe eventually we need, like, how about next year for the storytelling journey, we need to do, like, a food immersion and, like, talk about food stories.

[00:57:17] Peggy Collins: That sounds fun.

[00:57:19] Jennifer Wilson: And I think we'd both enjoy that.

[00:57:22] Peggy Collins: We could duke it out over who gets to lead it, right?

[00:57:26] Jennifer Wilson: No, we co lead it.

[00:57:27] Peggy Collins: We co lead it. There we go. I'm writing this down.

[00:57:31] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:57:31] Peggy Collins: That sounds so fun.

[00:57:32] Jennifer Wilson: So often we talk about these, like, bigger stories and, you know, bucket list stories, and, and bucket list stories don't necessarily have to be the most monumental. They can just be, like, meaningful and, um, maybe abundant, even if they're not necessarily always the big things. It's those little things that turn out to be the big things, as they say. Um, so many of our memories are attached to food experiences, for sure.

[00:57:57] Peggy Collins: It's the kind of thing I sort of wish my mom, I knew about my mom, right? We talk about this sometimes. There was a recent conversation in the community about what do you, what are you happy that you have recorded? And what, one of the things somebody said was, well, think about what you wish you knew about your parents or grandparents. And that it's the kind of thing that. I also think like some of the stories I want to tell about my childhood food is things like we went to these three places for lunch when we left school to high school to go to lunch. Like, I imagine that will change, right? That would, maybe that's something that I suspect McDonald's will be in place for eons, but you know, maybe their Pizza Hut isn't anymore, right? Like we would go and have personal pan pizzas that have sit down Pizza Hut. There, I, at least in Colorado, there is no such thing anymore.

[00:58:49] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, we have a sit down Pizza Hut.

[00:58:50] Peggy Collins: Oh yeah, we have no, nothing like that, and they're all take, if find, there's very few of them, and they're all takeouts. So it's kind of, you know, those sorts of things are kind of interesting in the context of, looking backwards, right? Like, what, what, what, what was a personal pan pizza, right? Like, what are you talking about? I think, you know, my, certainly my great niece won't know what the heck that is. So it's kind of, I think that can be fun to, even though yes, it's mundane, right? Oh, you went and had personal pan pizzas a lot in high school.

[00:59:23] Peggy Collins: Okay. There was also the, that kind of historical context that make them kind of fun stories to find. And even myself, right? Like, Oh, I can't go do that now because the, that Pizza Hut is long gone.

[00:59:38] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:59:39] Peggy Collins: Yeah, kind of fun.

[00:59:41] Jennifer Wilson: I think, yeah, I just think those stories bring out context.

[00:59:45] Peggy Collins: Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. Yeah. One of the last sit down ones burned down in the last year and they it. Yeah. So it's crazy.

[00:59:56] Jennifer Wilson: There's even one, I think it's, I want to say it's in Indiana because when we, uh, when we have to go to Cincinnati for work, we often drive because it's only four hours. And I'm pretty sure there's a sit down Pizza Hut that still has a lunch buffet.

[01:00:08] Peggy Collins: Really?

[01:00:09] Jennifer Wilson: In Indiana that we stop at to go there for lunch, so.

[01:00:14] Peggy Collins: That's funny. I don't think I can eat a Pizza Hut pizza anymore. It's way too heavy for me. But I sure loved them in high school.

[01:00:23] Jennifer Wilson: Mm hmm. So we should probably talk about Simple Scrapper a little bit.

[01:00:27] Peggy Collins: You know, a little bit.

[01:00:29] Jennifer Wilson: That's part of our days too, is not just our own projects, but helping others inside of the community. And so I'm curious, kind of, I just want to talk a little bit about the observations we have about what's been going on in the community, the projects we're, we're working on with the members. Um, and, you know, and kind of like takeaways of what's what's been happening and what's working well.

[01:00:56] Peggy Collins: Yeah. So I think summer is always a little bit quieter in the community. I'm certainly guilty myself as well. It's, it's a busy season for folks and it's summer in our part of the world anyway. But, uh, I think even when people do seem to be finding ways to stay connected, both with us and with their hobby and whatever small way they can. Which is always encouraging to me, because I think as we often say, it's harder to start again. Versus just, even if you can keep it on a low boil, it's easier to ramp, you know, it's easier to turn the heat up than it is to start from scratch.

[01:01:33] Peggy Collins: If you just totally check out for the entire summer, you're going to, it can be very challenging to get going again when the school year starts or whatever brings you back to the hobby. So it's always encouraging to me to see people doing that. Um, and it's certainly something I try to do too. I, I still check in every day and still do all of those things.

[01:01:55] Peggy Collins: Um, and always have, but that's definitely, I think it's a strong thing to see. And there's been some really sort of in depth conversations. There was the one I mentioned about the, the, what do you. What do you value? It was somebody coming to our group and saying, I'm, I'm struggling to know what to do. I know I can't do it all. And I don't know what to do. And what, and asking for folks, her kids were little, asking folks that had older children. What, what do your kids like to see? What, what. What are the things that people are coming back to and really enjoying having? And I thought that conversation was awesome. People really shared a lot of insights and really emphasized, I thought really great things about what, what's works and what doesn't work and and things like that. So that was good. And there was another one talking about how scrapbooking those quiet moments in your life is part of your story. And it's part of the way the story develops over time and that you don't need to only, you don't need to feel. Like that's unworthy or that that's inadequate that those, those times.

[01:03:07] Peggy Collins: And if you're, you're documenting those times that that adds more to the whole story as a whole. And so I thought that was a really insightful conversation and, and statement and things like that. So, yeah, I think there's not a ton happening, but what's happening is really, really good, um, solid product or good, solid conversations and things like that.

[01:03:31] Peggy Collins: And then Hello Stories chugging along. People are doing their, you know, each month we're doing a new lesson in that. Um, and so we're seeing, still seeing regular postings of people getting layouts done. And, um, those layouts are just beautiful. People do really, it really seems to inspire people to do really in depth or beautiful and or beautiful work that just really is a level above.

[01:04:00] Peggy Collins: It just levels up everybody's work. Um, I think that's a little bit of Ali's magic. It's a little bit of the kismet of being able to take a minute and do something, you know, do, do, I'm so glad we spread it out over the whole year because it really allows you to invest in that layout and not feel like, Oh, I've got to get this done this week.

[01:04:21] Peggy Collins: Right. You have a whole month to do this layout. And, um, so that's turning out really well as well.

[01:04:29] Jennifer Wilson: I'm so glad that we can provide that kind of accountability container, particularly for classes like that, that have been around for a while and, you know, have been, kind of lingering, languishing in, um, your past purchases and you want to make sure that you are actually taking advantage of that content and telling the stories that are inspired by it.

[01:04:51] Peggy Collins: And the, the content is so meaty, like there's just so much there and it's so usable. Like we just talked about, right. Timeline is going to come back. Numbers is going to come back. Right. I'm going to use that, that story structure over and over again, probably the time, um, this month is, uh, pie charts and I had the best to speak to the idea that it brings out stories that I wouldn't have necessarily considered, right? So she did this layout in the class about the reason she loves to go to her parents house on the coast. And it inspired me to make a similar layout about why I love hiking so much. And it's coming to pass that there's, there's going to be a hiking scrapbook.

[01:05:41] Peggy Collins: Like it's gonna, it's going to wind up being kind of the way Shimelle talks about a subject gets, um, what does she call it? She like, promotes a set of layouts to their own, uh, album. That's not what she calls it, but she will recognize that something, some theme or some subject is threading through her albums and she will decide to extract those and create an album out of those, and that's exactly what's about to happen for with hiking for me.

[01:06:13] Peggy Collins: I historically, I've never wanted to, like, document every single hike I take, but I'm really loving this, like, last year I made a summary layout of all the hikes that we did in Colorado. Um, and so I love that, like, it's two pages, it's a summary layout, I love that idea, um, it can fade the, the scope and the types of things that we did and it highlighted certain pictures. But it wasn't, I think I did, we did 12 or 14 hikes in Colorado last year.

[01:06:47] Peggy Collins: And I've, we've done well, well over that this year. So I don't want, even 12, one page layouts like that's no, no, no. But the idea of these kind of summer in this idea of a layout that talks about why I do this, that, that is really cool. So it's just so meaty. There's just so much good stuff. I think we, I personally could go through this whole class again and come up with 12 new layouts that I would probably love and adore again.

[01:07:18] Peggy Collins: Um, and then there's two more, two more classes with three lessons each. So there's six more I'm not I haven't even scratched those.

[01:07:28] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, um, it's, it's really actually incredible. So I think I've only gone through the first three lessons and that when it was when it was first released. So.

[01:07:37] Peggy Collins: Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, when you need some inspiration, it's a good place to go.

[01:07:42] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, 100%.

[01:07:43] Peggy Collins: And it's. So fun to do it together because then we get, cause I really, I thrive on seeing somebody else's example. Not necessarily because I'm going to copy it, but there's some sort of inspiration soup that happens for me when I start to see a bunch of different things in the same way. And Ali's, the actual classroom, so this originally ran on, um, Big Picture. And so her galleries on the course itself, they moved this course after Big Picture sold. And so it doesn't, the galleries have almost nothing in them. Uh, so the fact that we're doing it together really helps me because that gives me that sense of all of those different examples and all of the different approaches and things like that. So that's super fun. Um, and I'm so glad we can do that within our community.

[01:08:34] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. 100%. I'm yeah, always even curious about what folks want to do next. Um, we have this area of our community called Extended Family, where we invite members to talk about the other classes they're taking and support them through accountability challenges. To talk about projects and products that are specific to what else is out there. So we want to be your, your creative home because we recognize that you have a kind of a diverse toolbox of options out there, but we can help you provide that container so that you are moving forward and having fun and getting what you want out of it.

[01:09:18] Peggy Collins: Yeah, I think it's one of our best, best things. I was thinking this morning, I wonder what we're going to do next year. It's only June, Peggy, or it's only July, relax.

[01:09:28] Jennifer Wilson: Know, I know.

[01:09:30] Peggy Collins: We'll figure it out.

[01:09:33] Jennifer Wilson: Like, I try not to let myself think about next year until July, but now it's July and I'm okay, I start planning.

[01:09:42] Peggy Collins: Oh, it's such an impulse.

[01:09:45] Jennifer Wilson: So, so speaking of planning, um, you led a planning project, immersion, recently. How did that go?

[01:09:52] Peggy Collins: I think it went pretty well. It was, um, fun to see just the diversity of things that people were planning. Um, different kind of approaches to why they felt like they needed to do a little extra planning. Um, you know, maybe they were, they had certain products they wanted to use, or they had a certain deadline they want to meet.

[01:10:18] Peggy Collins: And so they want to manage the project so that they can meet that deadline. Uh, things like that. So I think that went really well. It was nice, at least for me, and I think it was good for other people to really isolate that planning piece from the implementation piece. I think that a lot of times we chase the inspiration, which I'm always an advocate for.

[01:10:42] Peggy Collins: But sometimes that gets us in a, for a bigger project that can get you in a place where you're like, Oh, how did I get down this blind alley? Um, and now I don't know how to get myself out of it. Or, or I start in a way that is so ambitious that I can't bring it. That's, that's my biggest crime is I start with something, I start, I'm inspired to do something so elaborate that I can't, but then I can't bring it to fruition for the entirety of the project.

[01:11:16] Peggy Collins: And so what I tried to do in the immersion was kind of address some of those things that encourage people to think about those from the context of planning it versus starting and then trying to, to recover. Which we have a class that does that as well. And I think that's valuable in, in itself in being able to recover when you do get yourself partway through and you're not sure what to do next, or you just need the motivation to get, get things all the way to the finish line.

[01:11:49] Peggy Collins: Um, but yeah, I think it was, it was well received. I think we had a, a nice balance of, we did it over, uh, essentially a six week period. And then we had a couple of weeks of, um, accountability. So we kind of, uh, had a nice workbook for that. And we, uh, worked our way through that in a gradual way. So it wasn't, didn't derail anybody from their other work, which is the other thing.

[01:12:14] Peggy Collins: I think if you're going to take the time to plan something, you don't want to have to stop everything else you're doing so that you can do some planning. But a little forethought, I think goes a long ways to making sure that you're not overbuying. That you're actually considering using your stash. I think, um, that you're able to, um, I don't know.

[01:12:39] Peggy Collins: I think if you just start implementing, it's easy to get overwhelmed. So if you've got a jillion pictures, one of the things I encourage people to do was actually, you know, look at your photos. How many photos do you have? What's, what's really realistic? And how do you want to approach that? So if you really, you know, many people really, really want almost all their pictures in there. Okay. Then you've got to make the plan to manage that and, choose your format so that that works. Right. If you, if you want 400 pictures in your project, you probably don't want to do a six by six. Right. You're.

[01:13:16] Jennifer Wilson: No.

[01:13:17] Peggy Collins: There's some things you're going to want to make a different decision about. So, uh, I think it went well, it was fun.

[01:13:24] Jennifer Wilson: You know what stands out the most for me is I can think of how many times I have basically planned the project in my shopping cart. So I'm like, well, I've, you know, I'm trying to envision it. So I need this and I need this and, you know, this coordinates and all that. And then I order it and it arrives.

[01:13:42] Jennifer Wilson: And then I don't really have a plan beyond of here's the stuff that I'm going to use and it can make it a really big challenge. It's not necessarily wrong, but the, all the steps that you put into the Planning Project really help it make sure that when that box of stuff arrives, you can hit the ground running and you know, what's going to go where and you can start the creative process rather than feeling like you're then starting from scratch with a big pile of stuff.

[01:14:11] Peggy Collins: The big pile of stuff that might be too big that you, the other problem with that is that, and I've done this so many times, this is totally the voice of experience, right? Like I overbuy that whole Away We Go kit that I have so many remainders for. I overbought. It's, it's because I didn't plan the other project before I started. So I was like, well, better to have too much, which is actually not better. It's actually not better Peggy. Because then what do you do with all these remainders? So then you're, then you're trying to shoehorn remainders into a project, which makes it really hard, really hard to shoehorn bits and pieces. You can do it if you have a big enough stash that you can mix things up together, but it's, it's definitely harder than just using what you need and being done with it.

[01:15:05] Jennifer Wilson: For sure, sure.

[01:15:06] Peggy Collins: As close as you can get. No, but we never get to, you know, every scrap is used, but it's better to not wind.

[01:15:12] Jennifer Wilson: I am working on that with my stickers though, with my planner stickers, I am trying to use every last one on every sheet, um, until they're all gone. Yeah, um, and I'm, I am I'm trying to make these commitments in multiple areas, like I am not going to buy more planner stickers until I use all of what I have, um, including the washi tapes. So, it might be a while, but I, I, it's, it feels really important. Um, to not even be a finisher, but be a completionist, to use my investments better. Uh, and maybe this is just wisdom with age. I just see the ways that I've wasted things over the years, um, in all categories.

[01:16:01] Peggy Collins: And I think there's some degree of waste in, in this, right? There's. There's just always some degree of that. I don't think you can get too, you could make yourself crazy trying to avoid that. But I think for me, the remainders give me a lot more heartburn, right? Like my scraps, my paper scraps make me crazy.

[01:16:23] Peggy Collins: Like I would probably be smart to go downstairs right now and pick up the four trays of paper scraps that I have and dump them in my recycling bin. Like I would probably be so well served and I can't do it. I just can't bring myself to do it. And it's.

[01:16:39] Jennifer Wilson: Actually, what you should do is you need to pick out, like, twelve that coordinate and plan to use that for Stash Bash and then go ahead and recycle the rest.

[01:16:47] Peggy Collins: Yeah, that would be good. Yeah.

[01:16:49] Jennifer Wilson: So that you can just, feel good a little bit about it.

[01:16:53] Peggy Collins: It's just terrible. Maybe 12 from each bin. I don't know. The neutrals I don't feel so bad about because I always wind up some way, shape, or form. But the, I have this ridiculous pile of solid color cardstock scraps and they are so hard to use.

[01:17:09] Peggy Collins: Like they're just, it's not really my style with the, and a lot of it's Stampin' Up card stock and those colors go with Stampin' Up stuff great. But they don't go great with anything else. So yeah, it's just this source of heartburn for me. So I think you're smart when you can avoid leaving yourself with lots of odds and ends that.

[01:17:33] Peggy Collins: If I can avoid that, that really serves me to not make me crazy. Cause I have a hard time just letting go of the odds and ends. I'm not a person that's going to throw out a package of four die cuts. I'm going to keep those suckers until probably the day I die. I would be much better served to just get to the end of them.

[01:17:52] Peggy Collins: Like just use them all up. Even if you have to plop an extra one on a layout or something, I should just target to just use them up. Because they, then they become an organization problem and they become a, Oh my God, I'm looking at this again problem when I'm pawing through stuff. It's just not, it doesn't serve me very well.

[01:18:11] Peggy Collins: I have found, so we, they put in a little art library. So, you know, like a little free light book library, they put in a free art library in my neighborhood. So I have had some degree of sense success with myself, putting together a little packet of coordinated stuff and then putting that in there and somebody scoops out. That's gone. it's gone in 12 hours gone. So somebody out there likes that.

[01:18:39] Jennifer Wilson: You should do a one of those every week.

[01:18:41] Peggy Collins: Right? Like, yeah, I, maybe I should put together the scraps in some way. So some little kid would love those solid color scraps. So.

[01:18:51] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah.

[01:18:51] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[01:18:53] Jennifer Wilson: I mean, there's I think there's always a way to give them another life, whether that's in your home or someone else's.

[01:18:59] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[01:19:00] Jennifer Wilson: Even before it reaches the recycle bin in the trash can. So.

[01:19:04] Peggy Collins: Hopefully.

[01:19:06] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. So I think a lot of that with, I mean, with this idea of kind of planning with more intention in advance, um. Whether it's for the whole project, or even just kind of being mindful of your purchases. Um, this all also leads to what we do with finishing. Um, you mentioned the Finishing Project this year. And, and did we do that last year too? I'm pretty sure we did. We've been doing Finishing Days. So this is one Saturday, six of them total across the year. Where we have check ins throughout the day, um, most, or a lot of our members are on Zoom at the same time, um, and we do some planning in advance to help you get ready for Finishing Day. And this most recent time, we made a little shift that I think really made a big difference. So, we moved our check ins to the, you know, typing, text based chat room inside the community. Because, yes, there is a good contingent of members that are on Zoom and happy to do so, some with cameras on, some are cameras off, but there are others who I know are following along and they often share what they're doing, but they're just not comfortable or able to be on Zoom at that time, and so having the chat room allows all of us to, to come together. And, uh, celebrate our Finishing Day wins, whether, whether you're on Zoom or not. And so I think that was a really important shift we made.

[01:20:34] Peggy Collins: Yeah, I liked that. It was good. That happened to be the day I was hosting the all day crop, so it served us really well. It wasn't easy for us to be on Zoom. So, um, yeah, it allowed me to check in a couple times and it seemed like people really, there was a pretty good groove of people that were reporting in on a pretty regular basis.

[01:20:55] Peggy Collins: So that was, that seemed really helpful.

[01:20:58] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think like we had to, we're doing it like 30 minutes past the hour. I think that part was a little bit harder. Like the having an exact time just like check in regularly. So we may tweak that a little bit, but, um, I think the intent behind it definitely was successful.

[01:21:17] Peggy Collins: I love Finishing Day. It serves our people so well, or our community just, I'm always, every time I'm blown away by how much people get done on that day, they.

[01:21:28] Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

[01:21:29] Peggy Collins: Settle down and get going and they just crank it out. So it's really always fun to watch that.

[01:21:34] Jennifer Wilson: And this summer I've been doing an extended immersion on Before Your Story. So this is an album project where you're capturing your Story or someone else's from birth to adulthood. And this has been fun. It's you know, it's a hefty project. It requires a lot of thought, it requires a lot of photos, that you may not even have possession of all the ones you want to use. But that's why we keep coming back to it. That's why we do these this extended immersion I think when we do this again, it'll be another extended one. Because it just requires a lot of nurturing to, to get the project done. Um, but it's so incredibly satisfying. Um, so it's just been fun to continue doing that. And even today as we're recording this, we have a classmate crop, um, this afternoon for a couple hours where. Uh, I'm available to ask questions, I can just, uh, hold space for members to focus on this project and, and keep making progress.

[01:22:41] Peggy Collins: That's awesome.

[01:22:42] Jennifer Wilson: And then, you know, by the time this episode goes out, this will, the vast majority of podcast listeners should already know about this or and even have signed up for it. Um, but the really the bulk of my energy recently has gone into a brand new free workshop called Sparked. And I will include the link in the show notes for the episode. The kind of the introduction to this episode probably mentioned it as well, but this is something that's really been a labor of love and something that's come out of the biggest question and challenges that I see scrapbookers have ever since I started Simple Scrapper. And that's how do we just keep showing up to this hobby and create consistently. You know, you were talking before about having, having your hobby on, you know, a quiet simmer in the summer if you need to, but not taking it off the burner completely. How can we keep that connection to it so that we're always able to jump back in and always kind of find the motivation behind it. So in this workshop, I'm sharing three specific strategies that we use inside the membership all the time that, um, are really practical ways to, just to make that shift and make your hobby work differently for you. We always talk about how, you know, simple isn't, isn't a style for us. It's not, you know, being a minimalist. It's about having a hobby that fills you up, fits your life and really works well for you. That's why this podcast is called Scrapbook Your Way because that's one of the fundamental principles.

[01:24:26] Jennifer Wilson: So I hope if you haven't checked it out yet, I hope you do. Um, this has been a, uh, a pretty massive project, but I'm excited to have it finally, uh, released to the world.

[01:24:39] Peggy Collins: Awesome. Congratulations. It's going to be great.

[01:24:41] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So just to wrap up here, what are you looking forward to, um, as we enter the last four months of the year?

[01:24:55] Peggy Collins: Yeah. So as this airs, I will be shortly after hopping an airplane to go to Switzerland. Uh, so it's had my full focus of a lot of my time, uh, hiking to train, to be able to hike in Switzerland and all sorts of things like that. So we'll be back mid, a little, almost mid September, probably by the time I recover from my jet lag, it'll be mid September.

[01:25:21] Peggy Collins: Um, and so I'll be looking forward to getting back to a little bit more routine with the weekend scrapbooking. I've not been able to, I, my favorite way to get a good chunk of my hours is to do them very first thing on Saturday morning, and that has not been an option for very many weekends this year, or this summer.

[01:25:42] Peggy Collins: So I'm hoping to get back to that, uh, really looking forward to that, and just finishing the year strong, making sure that I'm getting the time in and, and all of those kinds of things. I'm always, as we already talked about, always excited to think about next year. So we'll, I'm sure I will come back in full planning mode of what, what now?

[01:26:03] Peggy Collins: Uh, so we'll get going with all the planning things and then really focusing on bringing Hello Story and for a solid, I really want to have all 12 of those layouts, uh, in my books when the year ends. So I'll have probably, I think I'll finish number seven for sure. So I'll probably have three to four of those pending when I get back from Switzerland.

[01:26:28] Peggy Collins: So we'll make our way through those. So I think that's doing all the Simple Scrapper stuff with you. And that'll probably keep me pretty busy along with, you know, that full time job I have. Who will probably be anxious for my attention after two and a half weeks away.

[01:26:47] Jennifer Wilson: It'll all be good because it's still back to school and Labor Day weekend and all that stuff. So Um, you will be missed but also at the same time time goes really fast.

[01:26:58] Peggy Collins: Yeah. And I'll come back way fresher. It'll be worth it.

[01:27:02] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Yes. As I'm sitting there listening to your plan, it's just, it feels very doable and practical. And so I really appreciate that about you. Um, and maybe it doesn't always feel that way, but I, I feel like you've, you know, you've, you've worked at making plans that meet your needs.

[01:27:22] Jennifer Wilson: Um, you know, tracking time instead of, uh, um, finished projects, but you still also have goals at the same time of like, this is where I want to be. Um, and I'm going to invest this time to get there. I just, yeah, I'm excited for you.

[01:27:38] Peggy Collins: Yeah. It's going to be good. It's going to be a good year.

[01:27:42] Jennifer Wilson: So the second half of the year, and particularly those last four months are very, they go by so fast, I swear. Um, I always think summer is going to be like leisurely and no, no.

[01:27:54] Peggy Collins: Nope.

[01:27:55] Jennifer Wilson: We already bought some back to school supplies. Um, You know, fall school softball's already started. It's, I mean, it's early July, but we are well on our way to running through the rest of the year.

[01:28:10] Jennifer Wilson: Um, but I'm thinking about when this episode goes out, we'll have our next Finishing Day on Saturday, August 26th. So that will be really fun as always. I think there's going to be a lot of, you know, we have all these summer memories. We've taken all these photos. How, what can we do with them? Can we get them managed?

[01:28:29] Jennifer Wilson: Can we, um, start working on some projects and finish up the ones that we, that we got started earlier in the year? And then, like, after that, it is all Planning Party all the time. Um, as of this recording, I'm expecting that registration will open October 1st. Um, if there is any difference to that, then I will post that in the show notes for this episode, but that's my anticipation right now and the Planning Party will be in late October.

[01:28:57] Jennifer Wilson: Um, we did up a little bit. Yeah, we moved it up a little bit because I feel like once we get into November, it is just holidays, scrapbooking bonanza. Just total, um, not only kind of creative chaos, but then personal chaos as well as planning for the holidays and the end of the year. So I wanted to kind of take advantage of the slightly quieter time in late October, um, to start thinking ahead and then we'll have kind of a companion to it in January to book in that and solidify your plans.

[01:29:33] Jennifer Wilson: So all those details are still coming together. I'm at this point, I am excited about new ideas, what we can do differently, what we can continue to do well, and staying open to a lot of feedback that we received from our community survey that we completed in June. Um, I really appreciate all the, all the different ideas, um, positive words, um, helpful, uh, feedback, um, through that survey.

[01:30:00] Jennifer Wilson: And we are definitely listening closely to what our entire community, um, both members and non members are saying about how we can improve. Um,

[01:30:10] Peggy Collins: That was amazing. Was a lot of information there.

[01:30:13] Jennifer Wilson: It is, it's.

[01:30:14] Jennifer Wilson: To go like topic by topic rather than trying to digest at once.

[01:30:19] Peggy Collins: Yeah.

[01:30:20] Jennifer Wilson: Um, but we, oh, whenever we do the survey, we are always implementing things right away.

[01:30:26] Jennifer Wilson: Not just, okay, sit on this and, um, maybe do something with it later. We find the things that we can implement right away, and then we start planning for other things, and then we really incorporate this feedback into our big plan for next year. So, that's really just exciting right now, and I'm always trying to make sure that our, particularly our member experience is, stays fresh, tailored to our community's interests as, you know, as the, the creative world and the rest of the world changes, that we are, um, being a supportive container for scrapbooking consistently.

[01:31:04] Peggy Collins: Good stuff. It's going to be a end of year.

[01:31:08] Jennifer Wilson: I think so. Yeah, trying to figure out I have some ideas of new things I already want to create, but I will leave those for maybe the next time we talk, so.

[01:31:18] Peggy Collins: You have to clue me in.

[01:31:20] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. Alright, well this has been so fun.

[01:31:25] Peggy Collins: Yes.

[01:31:25] Jennifer Wilson: 30 minutes to eat lunch before I get on Zoom to do Before Your Story.

[01:31:29] Peggy Collins: Noticed what time it was. Sorry about that. Chitter chatter.

[01:31:33] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and for all of those survey participants who said you wanted longer episodes, Here you go.

[01:31:39] Peggy Collins: Peggy's there for you. Peggy is there for you.

[01:31:44] Jennifer Wilson: 100%. So.

[01:31:46] Peggy Collins: Thank you, Jennifer. This was a delight.

[01:31:49] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, as always, and to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.