SYW101 – The Master Recipe for Scrapbooking

Jennifer Wilson 0:00

2020 helped me see that if you can add a little bit of joy into the tools that help you stay on track, you're more likely to stay on track.

Jennifer Wilson 0:11

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 101. In this episode, I'm joined by Kim Edson to reflect on the past month and explore what's new for February. This is our monthly peek behind the scenes at Simple Scrapper.

Jennifer Wilson 0:38

Hey, Kim, how are you doing?

Kim Edsen 0:39

I am doing well and yourself?

Jennifer Wilson 0:41

I am hanging in. We have just gotten back into the school routine this week. Reminding my family that headphones are always appreciated as we're all trying to work at the same time. But yeah, it's pretty good.

Kim Edsen 0:57

Good. My girls just started back. So they've been hybrid this whole school year. So when they're in school, it's only about half the students. And then this week, they just started back Wednesday with everyone, which I think there's some learning curves, like I guess the first day they ran out of lunch, so they had to go and scramble like people are getting breakfast for lunch and they're bringing stuff in and they just didn't anticipate how many kids would be eating the school lunch versus home lunches, and then the whole pickup drop off thing like so they started at a new school location this fall. And my only experience has been with approximately half the students and so now that everyone's there, like that parking lot is... it's wild. So we're going to have to figure out like timing and whatnot to make it work but...

Jennifer Wilson 1:49

Yeah.

Kim Edsen 1:49

I hear you. We're rolling with it.

Jennifer Wilson 1:52

Well, and I think that I you know, I'm a I'm not a super go with the flow person.

Kim Edsen 1:58

Same here.

Jennifer Wilson 1:58

I know.

Kim Edsen 2:00

Amen.

Jennifer Wilson 2:00

But I think I'm growing in that skill. I'm like building that muscle because of this year and I'm just you know, waiting to be told what's what's next. And just you do that rather than trying to always fully anticipate and map out things.

Kim Edsen 2:17

Yes, I am very much aligned to that. Well I have something that you can try next with I don't know where you are with your dietary journey or whatever. I know sometimes you try some different things but so this fall, I came across this master muffin recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Have you ever made any of her recipes?

Jennifer Wilson 2:37

I have been to her website. I believe I even have something printed out. Yes.

Kim Edsen 2:42

Okay, so it is this concept or it's this master muffin recipe where there's like your base recipe and then you just alter your spices and your kind of add ins. And then she has all these different like toppings to mix and match glazes and streusel and crumb toppings and I am a loyal America's Test Kitchen person but I have struggled with muffin recipes in the past I feel like they were not always consistent in the results I was getting and I had always heard don't over mix and you know how do you fill them and I don't know like I just did not get consistent recipes and I feel like with this one they've been very consistent. And I get kind of like a it's odd how much joy I get out of the whole mix and match concept like it makes a kind of this adventure. And she has, I don't know 10 or 15 suggestions and then you can just alter from there so we made cranberry orange is like one of my favorites.

Jennifer Wilson 3:49

Oh yeah, that's a lovely combo.

Kim Edsen 3:52

Yes. And pear and apple. She has a cranberry apple. The girls like blueberry and chocolate chip. Well Grace likes the cranberry orange as well. Caroline is not such a fan but she has peach which I'm just waiting for peaches to be in season there. I don't know; it is been so much fun. And then they also freeze well. So I'm still tripping out to vaccine clinics a few days a week. So for better or for worse food very much is a treat for me, or comfort. So I like the idea of having a nice breakfast to take with me while I'm on the road. And so since these freeze well I've been able to bake up like a couple batches on the weekend. We can enjoy some now, put some in the freezer for later. And then it's always nice to have a quick tasty breakfast to grab and especially now that the girls are back in school like Caroline's been eating the chocolate chip muffins during the week. So I have super enjoyed these. So if you are in the market, try a new muffin recipe. I will definitely give you the links you can put it in the show notes and I would recommend that people try them.

Jennifer Wilson 4:55

I will investigate that because I've been trying to kind of I don't know, shake things up a little bit. And I have definitely struggled with muffins. They're always like, you know, the muffin top is kind of okay. And then the bottom is like, dry and not good. So I think maybe I've just been using too many box mixes not following directions or I don't know I need to I need I'm very bad at baking in general, but I think muffin is something that I'd like to master.

Kim Edsen 5:26

They are fun. See my daughter. I prefer the top because I think that's most people right? Like a muffin top. She actually likes the bottoms. So it's a match made in heaven. Because if she doesn't want her top, I'll eat that and I'll give her my bottom. But it doesn't like me, she eats them. But...

Jennifer Wilson 5:42

Yeah.

Kim Edsen 5:43

But I will also say years ago I got these silicone cupcake liners, but I use them for my muffins as well. Yeah, I have and that has been a big game changer as well, because you could use these paper liners and then you try to peel it off. And then like half the muffin would come with it. Yeah, it was always just very frustrating. So if you match Sally's master muffin recipe with silicone liners. I mean, we're in a good thing here. So recommended.

Jennifer Wilson 6:13

Have you tried the silicone like the muffin pan? Like and have you compared those?

Kim Edsen 6:20

I've not.

Jennifer Wilson 6:21

Okay because I have both. And I was just curious.

Kim Edsen 6:24

I think I always was concerned about the idea of like, popping them out. I didn't know how I felt like would you not mangle your muffin or your cake or whatever, as you were popping them out. But I suppose if they're cooled, they have a little more sturdiness to them.

Jennifer Wilson 6:41

They do and also because of the same reason you like the silicone liners and the fact that it doesn't stick at all. Like, they just literally come out.

Kim Edsen 6:52

Yeah, that's these like you go to lift them from the muffin pan to cool them. And they're coming out of the liner before I could even get them onto like the...

Jennifer Wilson 7:00

Yeah, but I will have to experiment because the only issue that I've had with the muffin pan is I just don't feel like they get as much loft.

Kim Edsen 7:09

Oh, okay.

Jennifer Wilson 7:10

Versus the metal. And I'm sure it's just like a heat distribution thing. But I think also that's the metal is what contributes to my overcooked dry muffin bottoms.

Kim Edsen 7:20

Well, this recipe she has, you start out at a higher temperature for five minutes, and then you drop it. And according to her if you read her description and explanation for why this muffin recipe works, that contributes to a nice rise on the muffin.

Jennifer Wilson 7:38

Nice. Okay, I will experiment I have not yet eaten breakfast yet. So I may have to. And we have some apples that I need to use up. So maybe we'll be going in that direction.

Kim Edsen 7:47

I will say I like all the streusel toppings and the crumb toppings, I don't get so into the glazes because at some point, I just want to eat my muffin. And that seems like a lot of work. But my kids prefer them just plain. They don't necessarily care for the fancy toppings. So I think, again, lots of flexibility depending on what you're into.

Jennifer Wilson 8:08

Sure. So kind of switching gears here, I have been into painting with Emily, we've just been you know, trying to make sure that she's staying engaged and not just on electronics, or she is playing a little bit of Xbox with friends and her cousin and stuff, which is great because they can just talk and they're always I don't know, I don't always understand what they're talking about. But they're super into it. But we went taking some time to do painting we did these little Baby Yoda paintings. I followed like a tutorial on YouTube and she didn't want to she just wanted an image to go from and I think hers was actually a lot better than mine.

Kim Edsen 8:46

So interesting.

Jennifer Wilson 8:47

She's... she's so good at being able to look at something and kind of capture the dimension and perspective. Like she's got the eye for it. So that's awesome. And then we did these abstract paintings. I guess sometime in the past week, maybe it was this past weekend. And it's just, you know, I've always loved painting. I've mentioned that in the podcast a million times. And just sharing that with Emily is so fun. But I had been inspired by a video from Felicitas Mayer, and now I'm just kind of addicted to seeing how she incorporates her painting techniques into her scrapbooking. And I totally... she, you know, it inadvertently enabled me and I'm like, I have this Dick Blick gift card from my birthday like a couple years ago, and I still had a lot on it. And I'm like, I'm just going to go and I'm going to refresh my paint stash. So I got some new acrylics, and I ordered some new watercolors, some, you know, a little tubes of watercolors, and I've never had those before.

Kim Edsen 9:45

As opposed to like pans?

Jennifer Wilson 9:46

Yeah, so I'm excited.

Kim Edsen 9:48

Clearly I'm so knowledgeable.

Jennifer Wilson 9:50

I'm excited for that. Those are actually backordered so I'm still waiting for those to come. But you know, it's fun to have new supplies. Also, I was kind of looking to maybe Emily really wants to dig into more of the supplies and as much as I want her to teach her how to use, I don't know the good stuff, if you will. But it's time that we kind of make sure we have a good stash and that I have the good stuff set aside while she's now she's been using my, I have several pans of watercolors. And we frequently have to just like rinse off the whole thing because the whole thing is now brown and muddied because of her explorations, which is awesome. But uh...

Kim Edsen 10:29

At the same point in time.

Jennifer Wilson 10:30

There there is we got it, we also have to learn to take care of our things and and she's growing and learning in that direction. But it's just yeah, it's fun to play.

Kim Edsen 10:38

I think brush care always seems to have been the challenge.

Jennifer Wilson 10:42

Oh gosh.

Kim Edsen 10:42

Grace was really into paint... doing the rock paintings. You've seen those?

Jennifer Wilson 10:46

Oh, yeah.

Kim Edsen 10:46

Well, there's those ones where you paint inspirational messages and leave them around. She's not interested in that. Thank you very much. She is more into she did a lot of these with her grandmother where like, you make it into a snowman or pumpkin or she had Halloween, she made like eyeballs, like, whatever. So she was more into that. But yes, definitely paintbrush care was something to work on. I noticed.

Jennifer Wilson 11:12

So those, the really fine paint brushes that you would use for that type of thing. Like, those can be even harder to take care of. Because they're so fine. Like, you got to rinse those out right away. Otherwise, it's gonna be crispy and dead. So yeah.

Kim Edsen 11:23

Well, cool. I'm glad that she's having fun.

Jennifer Wilson 11:26

Yeah, no, it's, she's always loved it. And of course, she loves creating with me. And yeah, we've been, we've been doing a lot of everything. My husband is the one who's doing really all this nesting. And I'm just kind of going with the flow with that. And so we're kind of shifting things around and taking our house from, you know, young child to you know, pre tween child and, and shifting things and getting rid of some things with that, too. So that's it. I don't know, it feels nice. It feels refreshing as we're continuing to be at home. So...

Kim Edsen 11:58

Well, and yes, especially post holiday, I always feel, especially when my kids were little you get this influx of toys and clothes and whatever for the holidays, it was nice to always to have to refresh what we were currently using and what we were not going to use and kind of start again. Oh, for sure.

Jennifer Wilson 12:18

So what's exciting you right now in memory keeping?

Kim Edsen 12:21

So for the last several years, I've done a year in review layout. And I like the past, especially probably the past week or two, I've been really thinking in my mind about what I want to include on that. And I know in the past, when I've shared them people have always asked, like how I come up with the list that I use. So and I don't really have an answer, I think originally I searched for examples of year in review layouts or year in review concepts, or there's always posts and things. And that kind of guided me. And then I also would just look back on what happened throughout the year. So like the very first year I did it was in 2010. And my grandmother had passed that year. So I had, you know, like saddest moment of the year, most exciting moment of the year, proudest moment a year. And then I'll mix in favorite book or music of the year or trip of the year, food of the year, whatever it comes to mind that kind of epitomizes that year for me. So I have been doing a lot of that where I plan it in my head, like I have my picture kind of picked out and I kind of know what I want to write, then it's just a matter of putting it together. So I hope to work on that this weekend.

Jennifer Wilson 13:35

That's so fun. I love you know, I think you're one of many examples, though, of taking a concept and doing it every single year and revisiting that. And it's not it's not always it's not this big thing. It's I mean, you're making a layout. But it's the it's so meaningful, because you've done it so many times in the past. And you can compare those and you have your own inspiration, as well as all the inspiration out there in the community to keep informing that and help you stay excited about it as well.

Kim Edsen 14:02

Yeah, I feel like they're fun to look back on. And they're just like you said it's one layout. So it's a little snapshot. Yeah. So I like that point of it. How about yourself?

Jennifer Wilson 14:10

So I am... I don't know how many times I've talked about my desire and quest to create more photo books and to do Project Life with a photo book. And I've had a lot of ups and downs, no doubt. Like I felt like it was going okay for a certain period of last year. Until it like it was oh, well actually not it's not and I'm like I was looking back on it. And I don't even know how to describe this. So let's just let's recap. I've always wanted to do more photobooks as kind of highlights over a year of more of a Project Life style, like here's all the ups and downs the little moments so that I can save a lot of my creative energy to talk about, you know, relationships and personality layouts and go a little bit deeper and also just have more like creative fun with it. But I never really found a groove. And then at the start of 20, that would be 2020. I'm like, Okay, I'm going to do a Project Life photo book, I'm going to start it with Adobe InDesign, because it's software that I know how to use. And I got it all set up. And it was like it was going, Okay, I got my Lightroom set up, which we've talked about here in the podcast as well, to organize my photos by week, and that routine was really kind of helping me feel more caught up with my photos than I had in the past. And then of course, we had the pandemic, and like, Oh, I'm not actually working on this anymore. Like, it's still a good idea, I still really like it. But I was feeling very disconnected from the process. And it still felt a certain degree of clunky because I would have to select my photos in Lightroom, and then export them and then bring them in to InDesign. You know, even though they're both Adobe programs, you can't just like, drag your photo from Lightroom into the box in InDesign. And like, that's the number one feature request out there that people have is why can't I just have that live link, so that if you then edit your photo further, in Lightroom, it updates in your book, like people will really, really want this, because there's a lot of folks across many industries that that use both of these programs in tandem. So that wasn't quite working. And I'm like, Okay, I need something else. And I really wanted something that was more mobile friendly, I wanted to be able to do a little bit on my phone and just be able to plop stuff in. But that didn't mean that I wanted to go to something like the Project Life app, that would be mobile only, because some at some point, I'm always frustrated that it's just too small, I want to be able to actually do my journaling typed out on the computer, so I can do longer journaling. And that's when I discovered Canva. And I believe I've talked about that here as well. And I experimented a lot with using Canva, which is really designed for web graphics, you know, social media, graphics and little web invitations. It's not, as it wasn't a concepted to create print quality, high resolution things. So you can do that with it. So I was experimenting, I liked that I could go back and forth between the web and mobile, and it would all sync up if you gave a little bit of time. And on the on the mobile app, I like that I could just pull a photo off my phone and put it on the page, type my journaling or paste my caption from Instagram and that page was done. But then I started experimenting with, Okay, what's this going to look like in the end? And can I properly export this? And so I checked, it does embed the fonts, it does embed the high resolution images, but I was having a lot of trouble with the actual size of the pages. Because when you're exporting a PDF, or any file size, for a photo book, you need to have certain resolution requirements and certain sizes. So for example, Canva cannot export a 300 DPI or larger JPEG. So I was limited to using only their PDFs, but I could never get an exact size PDF. So for example Blurb said your PDF needs to be these dimensions to make your book. And whenever I tried to take that PDF from Canva and import it into Blurb, it said Oh, sorry, this isn't the right dimensions. We can try to fix it for you. But that might not work out. Okay. And I'm like that's that's not that's kind of defeating the whole purpose of any of these here if my final product is not going to actually work out.

Kim Edsen 18:45

It's a little risky to put like a year's worth of work into something and then be disappointed.

Jennifer Wilson 18:49

Yes, yes. And so even though I had kind of the mobile flexibility there it I was struggling with that fact, I'm like, Okay, let's let's go back to the drawing board. I started playing in InDesign again, I'm like, No, this is still not good. And then I went back to what I had used for a photo book in the past. But you know, I always felt was a little bit clunky. And I think maybe I just didn't give it enough time. And that was the book module inside of Lightroom Classic. And so I'm in Lightroom... I can... my photos are here, I can drag them over. It's, it seems very, very easy. I already have 26 pages for my 2021 album. I have about, I don't know, I don't know about probably the same number for my 2020 album and I'm still bringing stuff over from my original InDesign and Canva projects for that one because I had to kind of see if I could set it up for 2021 and then I'm going to go back and finish 2020 but I feel like I'm I've got a new direction. It feels good. No, it's not very mobile. I can't make the book in the mobile app, but I can edit my photos, have the more prepped and ready so that when I sit down every single Wednesday for our noon time crop, you know that has helped me catch up. And so even though I had this like structure before with the organizing photos by week, it's really the accountability on my calendar, I'm going to show up at this time work on this project for one hour. To me, that's the difference maker, regardless of whatever, whatever software format I was going to choose, I needed kind of both, I needed the right thing that I was going to be working on. And then I needed the time set aside to do it.

Kim Edsen 20:37

Yeah, I could definitely see the pairing because if you didn't have everything kind of prepped ahead of time, you would sit down every Wednesday, and you'd spend your time doing that. So it's the match of those two things together, that seems to be really paying off.

Jennifer Wilson 20:50

Yeah, and I spend like the first, I don't know, 10 minutes or so kind of making sure all my photos are fully updated and bringing things over. And then I can spend another, you know, 30 40 50 minutes, like bringing it in. And at this point, I'm kind of caught up. And it's so easy. You know, I pulled, you know, a newspaper clipping the other day, and I added it last night. So it's so easy that I can just kind of pop things in when I think about it as well. So that, you know, I don't have that much to catch up on every Wednesday. And so I think that's time is also going to allow me to work backwards as well and finish that 2020 book, because I really want to get that done so that I can, you know, share the finished product with everyone. And and I don't know, just feel that sense of completion that Yeah, I kind of finally figured this out. So I'm feeling good. It feels like this epic saga of you know, Jennifer, how come you can't just finish a photo book? But I really wanted to find something that was a long term solution that didn't have any challenges. I guess I wanted it to be easy for me. And sometimes it takes experimentation to figure that out.

Kim Edsen 22:02

Oh, definitely. Okay, I have a question. Yeah. So of these 20, some pages you've done? Do you have a plan to follow any sort of template that you would repeat? Or would you have like 12 different templates? And then if they work great, and if they don't, that gives you a starting point? And if they don't, then you could just design from scratch? or How are you approaching the actual layout design?

Jennifer Wilson 22:27

Umm, I did the same thing in Canva, where I had about six different page layouts. And then in Canva, I would just duplicate those. And so in the book module, you can actually create a layout, and then assign it like, say make this a custom layout. So I can add new pages and select my custom layout. Because many of theirs aren't as text heavy as I would like my pages to be like, there's ones where it automatically adds a little caption. But they're mostly like it's it's very photo heavy. And so I've created about six or seven custom layouts that are photos and a lot of words. And so I just press that button and it creates the page and then I drag my photo in and type my journaling.

Kim Edsen 23:13

This also sounds to me a little bit like when Project Life came out with those new editorial templates, but you didn't have access to them based on your...

Jennifer Wilson 23:22

I still don't.

Kim Edsen 23:25

But this kind of gives you that feel?

Jennifer Wilson 23:27

Yes.

Kim Edsen 23:29

Which you wanted, so that's good.

Jennifer Wilson 23:31

And I'm finding I'm doing a combination of those words and photos pages and throwing stuff in there. So for example, the paintings that I did with Emily, the abstract ones, I had my husband scan those for me because the scanner is attached to his computer, I can scan but he has more proximity. And I put those as full page images. I, I've just various little like things like even like memes and just like fun little things that I find online I'm just so easy able easily able to bring those in. I've done a lot of looking kind of trying to organize all of my Ali Edwards story kits and other digital products. And so I've brought some of those in as full page images as well. And so it's a it's a very interesting combination of words and photo pages, like digital word art type pages, and then like other random stuff, I don't know I'm loving how it's coming together. It just feels really fun.

Kim Edsen 24:35

Well and it sounds like that was your original goal, to have this little snippet of everyday life and stories and for better or worse memes and newspaper articles and things like those are our everyday life. It definitely represents that.

Jennifer Wilson 24:51

I think I was very much inspired by by Shannan's kind of take on doing these photo books as well as it's like what more of a one thing or story per page, rather than a traditional Project Life where you're trying to incorporate multiple stories across a page or spread. I think my brain maybe doesn't always organize things that way. But I'm like, Yeah, I want to do this page, I want to add this thing. So this is another page. And sometimes that is very word heavy. And sometimes it is like one thing plopped on the page.

Kim Edsen 25:27

So that is your final plan is to have it printed by Blurb?

Jennifer Wilson 25:31

It is, it's getting bigger. And the main reason is because Blurb can do 240 pages. And so that averages you know, that's 20 pages per month, I know, it'll take taper off throughout the year. So I'm kind of not too nervous that I'm probably gonna end up having 30 pages for January. But that is something to think about. But Printique, which I knew, I know, is really the best quality service out there right now. They have a limit of 100 pages like that, you know, for a wedding, maybe even our Sweden trip, something like that, that's so like, precious, I can see limiting it to 100 pages. But for something like this, I'm really gonna need the 240 and probably butting up against it. volumes,

Kim Edsen 26:17

Or it could be two volumes. Right? I guess you could do like Volume One, Volume Two.

Jennifer Wilson 26:21

That is true as well, I have not considered that. Hmm. But yes, I am I am doing Blurb. And I think that, you know, when I had I had Shannan on the podcast recently again, as well. And she talked about how it's just so internationally accessible. I think that was another reason is I you know, I'm sensitive to the fact that while I'm certainly creating for myself, but because I'm also sharing those things online, I want it to be something that others have an easy chance of using as well. And because I talk about Lightroom so much. This actually seems like why didn't I come up with a solution over a year ago? But...

Kim Edsen 27:06

Well, part of it is you said right, you'd tried it in the past, it felt kind of clunky and not, did not have the ease that you were looking for. But as your it sounds like as your process has changed, and evolved? I'm sure they've I don't know, if they've made changes in their software. You know, as things are always changing, then maybe it just took that time to come back to have a second look, I guess.

Jennifer Wilson 27:32

You know, and I think that happens, like sometimes you're, you have you and the software have to cosmically align at the right time. And the first time you try, it might not be the right time, and you're, you can't quite get the hold of it or you can't you don't have the patience to know where to click, because sometimes can be frustrating when you're trying to learn it for the first time in you. You know, I still don't know how to use Illustrator because I'm always clicking in the wrong place. And it's not doing what I wanted to do. So it's Yeah, it's just one of those things that you got to, you know, don't give up on if you eventually feel redrawn to it. You... there's a reason. And maybe then this is the time it'll stick. So...

Kim Edsen 28:14

WellTrello was that for me, I guess, when you first introduced it, I was like, man, now this is... I don't need this. And now it's very much a part of my regular routines. Oh, and I feel like we hear that a lot within the membership as well. And we can talk a little bit about some of that later.

Jennifer Wilson 28:31

We will talk about Trello for sure. But like, what's on your Bucket List? What stories are you wanting to tell? I'm trying to like save these up, because like, Oh, I could talk about that with Kim.

Kim Edsen 28:42

I have so many like they just even this week, because I knew we were going to be recording. So these stories would come up and they're like, oh, should that be my Bucket List? Or maybe should be this, but I'm gonna go with one that I've actually talked about for a long period of time, so it's to me those the ones where they've kind of had the staying power, that this is definitely a story I want to tell. And can I just make this observation I feel like Bucket List Stories from listening to other guests. And when I feel like it's grandparents, partners and food that just seems to be you know, occasionally there's something that's outside of there. So I'm going to go with the last time I did grandparents, I'm going to go partner this time. Okay, so I guess the next time I'll be food, but so my husband whistles Oh, and he does not consciously realize he's doing this. So and he's done it for a year. So it used to be when he would travel for work. He would call in the evening and we chitchat and then it get to a point of time where you know, if he's gotten several days, at some point, we've kind of talked about what's going on. And there'd be kind of that silence or you know, like kind of wrapping up and then he was just he just whistle and not even realize he's doing it. I don't know if it's this space filler that he does. Well, so now and then that got better when we started doing video chats when he would travel, because I guess if he's looking at us, then he's not as apt to just randomly break into whistling. And he would even do it just when he's home around the house, you would just hear him whistling. So now he's working in our basement because of the pandemic. And we will hear him from upstairs whistling and the funny thing is, so he has a Bluetooth speaker down there. So when he's not in meetings, a lot of times have music going. And you will hear just like the muffled sound of the music, but that won't carry up the stairs, but the pitch of the whistling for whatever reason. So we're just like, Oh, God, dad's whistling again. So, and then the other layer of this is I was talking to his family about it last year, and do you guys whistle like, is this a thing in your family? Apparently his grandmother hums. So she's just puttering about. She hums and he whistles so I don't know, it's very much a part. Like sometimes it's kind of annoying. Like you're whistling, please, can you again, like stop with the whistling? But I also feel you always hear about those stories where kind of those little quirky thing family members do, like some day if I don't hear him whistle, like how sad would that be? Right?

Jennifer Wilson 31:23

Yeah, for sure.

Kim Edsen 31:25

I just find it very, it is fascinating to me, and he doesn't even realize he's doing it. So now I feel like whenever he gets back into the office, and someday there's some corporate event where we go and I can talk to his co workers. Because my other question is, do you do this at work? Like you don't even realize you're doing it here? Do you do this at work and your co workers notice? I don't know. It's just so interesting.

Jennifer Wilson 31:48

That's a great story. And I think that's such a wonderful example of how Bucket List Stories can be small. Like small but mighty or small but significant. Like that's a you know, that's a, you know, a pretty large, like personality quirk, that, you know, over a lot of time, you know, who knows how long he's been doing this? Maybe his whole life?

Kim Edsen 32:09

Yeah, I know. I can just imagine he and his grandma hanging out together. Come in and him whistlin'. Yeah. And it's interesting to me to how it's always been this quirk I've noticed and I would tease him about it. But now it's just really kind of come to the forefront this year. Now that he's, you know, basically living in my basement for work. Though, we all hear this whistling, So. I don't know. It's like, that's like you said it's a small story. But over time, sometimes those small stories grow.

Jennifer Wilson 32:42

Yes. Oh, for sure.

Kim Edsen 32:43

They have so much more impact. So how about yourself, a grandparent, a partner, or food?

Jennifer Wilson 32:49

It is neither is none of those, though, you did just remind me of a really fun story about my husband that he will he always he tends to get up right before me and takes a shower. And so I'm kind of like laying in bed trying to wake up while he's in the shower. And sometimes I'll hear him talking. And he's like, kind of having a pre meeting. Like he's figuring out what he's gonna say at this meeting that he's gonna go to like, as soon as he gets out of the shower. And I'm like were you talking, he's like, yeah, I'm just just like, hashing stuff out. So it's just, it's just very fascinating how people kind of process information and pre think about things. I definitely do that, but I don't do it out loud. Like I'm having these conversations in my head. And, okay, that has the opposite risk of like me saying, like, didn't I tell you that? And he's like, no, but I've had this whole conversation in my head and thought I was having it with the outside world and didn't.

Kim Edsen 33:40

So I've been paying attention to that recently. So I signed up for Headspace this year. So I built this meditation habit last year, but I was just sitting in semi silence or anyone's going around my house. So anyways, I'm doing more guided meditation this year, and I'm really enjoying it. But one of the things is the idea to observe throughout the day, like thoughts or feelings that you have, and I have constant conversations in my head, and or I'm replaying conversations in the past, or I'm thinking about conversations I'm going to have in the future, or send me like imaginary conversations, but it's just like, depending on what I'm doing throughout the day, so yesterday I had some errands to run. So I'm out driving around the car, and yes, it's just this constant commentary, I don't know. But yes, I do that as well, but not out loud.

Jennifer Wilson 34:26

When I think I've had some interesting conversations with others about like, why I like I watch a lot of YouTube videos while I'm doing other things. And like, what isn't that like, distracting or, you know, to multitasking like no, it's actually one of the only ways I can get my mind to silence itself is to have other media on even I'm not really like paying attention because I you know, I was watching like, makeup and skincare and haircare videos because it's just, it's a way that I can quiet my mind enough to feel like I'm not constantly on. It's very relaxing in that way.

Kim Edsen 35:06

So I think I, and yesterday, I did not have this point. I don't know. But I think that's where podcasts come in for me.

Jennifer Wilson 35:11

Yes.

Kim Edsen 35:13

Same concept.

Jennifer Wilson 35:13

I actually get distracted by podcasts. Because if it's scrapbooking, if it's business or whatever, they say one thing, and then my brain is like off on a tangent. And I'm like, I'm planning something big. And then I have to pause and rewind, like, 15 minutes, because my brain has been in a conversation. Like I've, I've joined the podcast episode, and I'm now having the conversation with myself. So I find it super distracting.

Kim Edsen 35:38

And I find it very interesting. Yeah. Because Yeah, I mean, like, what is going on in everyone's head? I don't know.

Jennifer Wilson 35:45

No, it is super fascinating.

Kim Edsen 35:48

Back to your Bucket List story, what do you got? Okay, not a grandparent, a partner food.

Jennifer Wilson 35:52

So this was on, it was sometime middle of Inauguration Day. And I was talking to Steve and I'm like, hey, did I ever tell you about the time which, in which I was in the vice presidential motorcade and it was like the most surreal experience of my life. So this is when I was at Trinity University for college. And I was news editor of our college paper. And the, there was someone that worked for Al Gore's, like, advance team. So whenever, you know, big political bigwigs go anywhere, they have an advance team that goes and like scout out the location. And, you know, obviously, some of that is like Secret Service, but there's like, the more logistical guys are just making sure that like, hey, these are the spaces we're gonna be in. And, you know, is everything all ready to go? And so he actually tapped some of his fraternity brothers to come and support as part of the advanced team. And because of that, you know, there was a connection to our campus and like, Hey, you know, we can get you a press pass, because we weren't, you know, sometimes we got invited to things, but it wasn't, we weren't getting invited to hear the Vice President speak at school. And so I got myself and my photographer got a press pass, and we went to go hear Al Gore speak at the school and talk about, you know, education funding, I don't even remember the, the the full scope of it at that time. But we didn't realize, well, you know, because we they started at like 7am at the airport, and we were all waiting for him to arrive on Air Force Two I guess.

Kim Edsen 37:29

Yeah, I don't know.

Jennifer Wilson 37:30

Yeah. But we were kind of we were in the press pool, like, and so we were in the, you know, the big black Suburbans. And so we went from a couple places. And then after the the school event, I was like, we got to go back to, you know, campus so that we can put the paper to bed because, you know, we always do that on Thursdays. And this was happening on Thursday. And we were kind of paired with this radio guy. And he's like, that doesn't that doesn't doesn't work like that. Like you're stuck here the whole day until the fundraiser is over tonight at like 10pm. And I'm like, nobody gave us that agenda. And we really have to go. And so we were like, trying to like, talk to the Secret Service about like, Okay, how do we get out of here, we need someone to come pick us up. And this was, this was kind of like a we didn't we maybe I had a cell phone in my car for emergencies type of place. It wasn't like I could really easily contact anyone. And so we were like, we're still in San Antonio. But we were trying to figure out how do we get back to campus because our cars were at the airport, because we've been shuttled about in the in the motorcade, you know, one of the big black Suburbans. And so we eventually we got out we were released, we had to have this escort, to make sure that we were safe and everything. But we eventually got back. But it was just, I don't know, I've never documented the story. And I need to go pull like the, you know, because we wrote, it was a whole full front page for the college paper. And I need to pull that in and make that part of the story too. And yeah, I don't know. I was in the vice presidential motorcade in San Antonio. It's, it's a crazy fun story. Yes.

Kim Edsen 39:08

And I think the fun part about that, it's one thing just to like, yeah, it was it's all those layers. So the story of having to get out of this situation is the same point in time. Right? Are all the parts that go into such an event?

Jennifer Wilson 39:23

Oh, yeah. I mean, it was so I didn't totally understand all the, the parts and how, you know, we kept being sequestered in these little rooms. And, you know, they're their job is to keep the Vice President safe. Right? So that means keeping all the people away and, you know, contained. And, you know, we had a guard every single, you know, little press bundle had a guard outside their door and the rooms that they were in and, you know, because we were the bottom of the totem pole. We were this with this like radio guy. And he was like, you guys clearly don't know what you're doing here. And like, No, we don't. So but yeah, it was fun. I was what maybe 19, I guess 19 or 20. So, yeah.

Kim Edsen 40:07

That's a fun story. You're part of history, Jennifer.

Jennifer Wilson 40:11

I can't wait to, I can't wait to document that. And it's, I think it's this, it's a big priority on my Bucket List now for this year.

Kim Edsen 40:18

Fun.

Jennifer Wilson 40:20

Alright, let's talk about habits. So we are now kind of almost halfway through our first journey. These are these kind of two month explorations of a theme. And, you know, it's, it's been really fun. It's been, it's been really cool to see how everyone's kind of getting what they need from it, I guess.

Kim Edsen 40:44

Within kind of the that journey, the Habits Journey Classroom area, we had people set intentions. So I was just reviewing those this morning, I feel like a lot of people, I saw a lot of people wanting to get into good habits with their photos, and a lot of people wanting to get into a good habit with consistent, creating consistently. And actually, interestingly enough, your whole photo book process is very much right, like you got into a good habit with your photos, getting that all prepped, and now you're into your accountability with your consistent creating. But then also we had a bit about kind of identity and like who you want your habits to kind of, I guess, help you become. And I was interested to see how many people talked about finishing projects, like I want to be a finisher, I wonder if all those things right those intentions to prepare yourself to once when the time scrapbooking into to have the photos and things easily accessible and ready to use will translate into helping people finish because it kind of removes some of those obstacles and hurdles that are in the way.

Jennifer Wilson 41:56

Well and you really... it's like almost a formula. In order to finish, you really need both of those advanced components, you need to have a handle on your photos so that you have stuff to scrapbook. And you need to create the, you need to have the right format that makes it easy for you to make the thing and the accountability of the time set aside so that you do it. So I mean, it's the same thing as our three F's formula to have focus, finesse and finish. I mean, you need you need all you need those layered in order to end up with a finished product.

Kim Edsen 42:29

Yeah, and I think it's really interesting to actually see that, like, laid out in front of us, right, by looking at other members experience, like it is very much coming to fruition, I think.

Jennifer Wilson 42:42

That feels really good. I mean, it really does. And, and the fact that you kind of highlighted that from my own photo book, it just it means that the the concepts that we're talking about the real, it makes, it makes a difference. And it's almost the point now, I am so excited about this photo book that I'm as much as I have all these ideas for other big layouts. I'm like, I'm all in with photo book right now. And I'm gonna ride this so that I can kind of use that momentum to finish up those past projects.

Kim Edsen 43:13

I'm excited about your photo book. It's not even my photo book. I want to see this thing. Like will you share pictures?

Jennifer Wilson 43:20

Oh, of course, I will. And, you know, I've always been very, like attracted to like, thick photo books. Like, you know, that's, you know, you know, it's a lot of effort that goes into that. And it just seems so I don't know, there seems to be like a literal weightiness. It has an emotional weightiness to it. So um, yeah, I'm excited too obviously.

Kim Edsen 43:43

Okay, so what have you observed so far along our habits journey?

Jennifer Wilson 43:48

So and we've talked about this a couple times, I've just been so fun to see the excitement about using Trello. I was, you know, very, I felt like I was a very late Trello convert. I used Asana for so long. I used Evernote before that Evernote really never quite worked for me. Asana did work until it was like, you know, this, I'm not quite, it's not enough anymore. I needed some of the visual maybe that's just reflects my own my own journey, leaning more into my right brain side for creativity. And, you know, we released this new class called The Trello Habit earlier this month. And it's just been so nice to see members go through that to set you know, again, set their intentions to figure out how they uniquely want to use Trello. Because I think that's, you know, it this isn't just like, here's how to use Trello or how you should use Trello. I'm really trying to provide advice on how do you figure out how a tool like Trello, or any tool fits into your life and supports what you want to do as a scrapbooker. Because that answer is gonna look so different. And so even though it's not a giant class, it's just this little smaller classroom, I'm just so excited to see what members are coming up with and how, you know, some have, I want to check in every single day, multiple times a day, I'm going to keep it open Trello is my kind of centralized dashboard for what to do and others, like, you know, I want to check in once a week as part of my planning, so that I make sure that I'm staying on track. And both of those are the right answer, because it's about what's right for you.

Kim Edsen 45:29

Yeah, I found it interesting just just to see the different ways that members use Trello. Not even beyond scrapbooking, and creative hobbies, even within like scrapbooking and creative hobbies, like how I use Trello is very different than how you use Trello versus how another member uses Trello. So I think we can learn a lot from each other's experiences of what's worked for other people. So if you're getting frustrated, or there's something that doesn't seem to be working, well, that's tripping you up. Chances are someone else has had that experience and possibly has a solution to try.

Jennifer Wilson 46:02

So... Oh, for sure. When I was, you know, messaging with a member about you know, she was teaching me something. She shared these screenshots, and I'm like, how did you get these little designs on your... I should say there were these little kind of like, there was a dot and a crosshatch pattern and a line, you know, like a barbershop, like striped pattern on her card covers and on her labels. And she's like, I don't really know, and so she investigates, she's like, oh, it turns out I actually had on colorblind mode. And, you know, I now have colorblind mode on too because it just adds a little extra zing, I don't know, to the to your boards, when you're using either colored cards or colored labels. And you know, they're recognizing they can't just shift the colors for someone who's colorblind. So they use some sort of other kind of these visual markers to help someone who's colorblind identify that between the different colors. And it's just it's genius. And it's not something that really changes the experience for someone who's not colorblind, it only enhances it more, in my opinion.

Kim Edsen 47:11

Well, and if it's a tool you enjoy using, then you're going to be more apt to use it as opposed to something that feels clunky or tedious or just not not fun.

Jennifer Wilson 47:23

Well and even, you know, I've talked a lot about my my planner and my Hobonichi Weeks with my Cocoa Daisy stickers. And I've, I guess I've I don't know, maybe I don't know where I was prior to 2020. But 2020 helped me see that if you can add a little bit of joy into the tools that helps you stay on track, you're more likely to stay on track.

Kim Edsen 47:47

Yes.

Jennifer Wilson 47:48

I would agree. And maybe I was just devoid of joy before? I don't know. But it was just that revelation.

Kim Edsen 47:55

I'm like practical too, right? I'm practical. This gets the job done. I don't need these extra flourishes or flounces or whatever. Right. But no, it does make a difference. If it's something that's fun and enjoyable. Well, it comes back to James Clear Atomic Habits, right? It's that final process of the habit loop? Where if it's rewarding, and it's satisfying, like the end, and they're more apt to repeat it.

Jennifer Wilson 48:23

Yes.

Kim Edsen 48:23

That very much comes into play.

Jennifer Wilson 48:25

Yes. And I've just I've I don't know, I we we drag on 2020 about the challenges that are very, very real and significant. But I think it also gave us an opportunity to pause a little bit and see about where can we add these little bits of things to our life that do make things more rewarding. And I feel very hopeful that there are some new things, new skills, new habits, that we've all learned that we're going to be able to carry forward into the future.

Kim Edsen 48:55

I think so too.

Jennifer Wilson 48:57

So we have a lot of things coming up. You know, we've always had a lot of things coming up. But I think laying out the whole calendar for the whole year has really allowed us to help us prepare the members, prepare ourselves, and to just really kind of just ride all the fun ups and downs most I mean, just ride the ups back to the baseline, I guess we don't have any downs. So to conclude our January, we have this new thing that we're starting, called the Community Orientation. And I'm in this is something I've thought about for a while and we had some conversations inside one of the crops and I'm like, you know, I just need to, I guess, rip off the band aid, pull the trigger, whatever colloquialism you want to use here and say, Okay, we're gonna start having these sessions, to give members a personalized tour, where I can give you kind of my lay of the land and then you could ask questions of what happens if you click there. How do you do that? This and, and really just kind of give that added layer of, you know, a tech introduction, if you will, to the community because we are using this Mighty Networks platform, that if you've not used another community there or really felt connected to it, it can be a little disorienting, as with any type of software that you use for the first time.

Kim Edsen 50:22

So I know this is something like you'd mentioned, we've talked about in the past, and we have like a member orientation and of track for people to take. So why do you think or how do you think this will be different for people?

Jennifer Wilson 50:33

Well, I think it's, it's both, kind of that optional first step of, maybe you're just not even sure where where to begin and how to navigate. And so I think if you're brand new, you can sign up for one of these orientation sessions. And I'll walk you through it kind of give you an idea of how I use the community, how I see other members use the community, how to kind of personalize thing like adjust your notifications. You know, where to click and what kind of your your habits and behaviors should be behind it. And then also, just to be there to answer questions. Yes, we do have that member orientation, I think this could be also be a kind of a follow up to that as well, if you if the member orientation class wasn't enough to really help you give you that confidence that you know how to use both the website and the app. This is an opportunity to really have our members feel more connected to the platform. And with that it will be more connected to each other as well.

Kim Edsen 51:31

Well yeah and then you like you are like their personalized tour guide to the whole journey theme, right? Literally, I imagine you as a docent in a museum.

Jennifer Wilson 51:43

I will have to lean on my college tour guide experience. But thankfully, I do not have to walk backwards, doing the Zoom orientations.

Kim Edsen 51:51

So you'll have this down. Easy peasy.

Jennifer Wilson 51:53

Yeah, so I think that'll be fine. We're gonna start with once a month and see where it goes from there. So um, but I'm excited to also to just meet our new members too, and help them meet each other. I think when you help cohort people who start at the same time they can develop their own connections. And that's always a really valuable attribute as well.

Kim Edsen 52:17

Well, yeah, like to have a shared experience with someone.

Jennifer Wilson 52:20

Yes.

Kim Edsen 52:20

Definitely.

Jennifer Wilson 52:22

And then also, next week, we're gonna have our first Book Club discussion of the year, we are rereading Atomic Habits, and then using this book as a little bit of a lens to look at additional books and to look back at previous books so that we can focus more on implementation of this, you know, we read so many brilliant authors, with all this different advice of how you do things. But because we were reading things at such a fast pace, I don't think there was ever a time to just exhale and see, okay, what do I want to bring into my life? What do I want to try and experiment with? So I think slowing our pace a little bit, and having that month in between is that is that opportunity to say, Okay, here's something that I want to try. I want to build this new habit, and how can we then use what James Clear advises us on about how you do build habits to make that happen?

Kim Edsen 53:17

Well, change takes time. So yeah, this just kind of built in a little bit of that, like you said, reflection time, and gives you an opportunity to make some experiments to see Well, if this worked for me or not work for me. And if it doesn't great and you move on, but if it does, then you've possibly had an opportunity to really enhance your experience.

Jennifer Wilson 53:40

Oh, for sure. And I think that's really what our Book Club is about... is taking these new ideas that 99% of them have nothing to do with scrapbooking, and seeing how we can apply that to making changes inside of our scrapbooking to make that experience more joyful and easy. And then also changes in our life that then support our scrapbooking. And sometimes that's even the more the more powerful and important part. Because you know, we always talk about not being able to carve out the time and take the time or giving yourself permission to devote time to yourself. And so some of those personal development tasks that we can take elsewhere contribute to being able to just connect with our hobby regularly.

Kim Edsen 54:33

Well, and I think even though we've read Atomic Habits, the past I'm rereading it now in preparation for next week. And I think it's interesting what I'm taking away this time versus what I took away the first time I read it, it feels like the first time I read it. I was very much interested in that concept of getting is this whole concept of getting 1% better each day. So just very small, incremental improvements and changes in your life and how that pays off. In a long time, or the long run, and this time around, I am super fascinated with this idea of how your habits form your identity. And how what your identity is, your beliefs about yourself how that translates into your habits like this two way street. And that is just like blowing my mind, like I was reading out loud from the book last night to my family, which I'm sure they very much enjoy. But I was just so I'm just looking at it through a different lens this time. So I'm still taking a lot away from it, even though we've read it before. And I've been a big James Clear fan for a long time. So...

Jennifer Wilson 55:38

One of the things that's the sign of a really masterful work, I think The Artist's Way is another good example, even though that's, yeah, that's quite extensive in the the various advice that Julia gives, but you will, whatever book you're talking about, if it's really that timeless, you'll be able to take away something different depending on what's going on in your life and kind of just to make those connections and support you where you are right now. And that's that's Yeah, that's what I love about it a reread as well. Yes. All right. So then we'll be shifting into February and I don't.... sometimes like this month, we keep talking about how months feel so long. I'm like, how is it still January? I feel like I've been, you know, working on January stuff for so long. But maybe that's because we started working on January back in like November. But we have a brand new Pop-Up Workshop. This year, we are releasing six Pop-Up Workshops. And these are kind of like little mini classes, sometimes it's like just took a one hour seminar. Sometimes it's a few small lessons, it's a kind of small taste of a topic to help you get your feet wet, decide if you want to learn more and to spur discussion about, you know, resources and opportunities and where you might want to go even deeper. It's just kind of decided to hold your hand to get into something new. And this topic for this round for February is using your Silhouette die cut machine.

Kim Edsen 57:23

This was a very popular topic. I feel like at one point in the past we had about learning like what would you like to learn and lots of Silhouette, digital die cut type wishes or our hopes for people... aims.

Jennifer Wilson 57:39

Yeah, and so my focus is really on helping those who purchased one on Black Friday or received it as a gift. And it's still sitting in the box. Or maybe they plugged it in, and then weren't really sure how to use the software or get started and never really kind of developed a clear vision for how they want to use it. And so just like we talked about that kind of the structure for the Trello class, you know, I'm going to be inviting our students to think about Okay, why did you get this to start with? what what was it that you wanted to create? and then what are the steps we need to take to create that? So it'll be a nice little dip in, I actually just got a new Portrait 3 for my birthday. But then I also have the original Cameo. And so I'm sure in some form, I'll share some commentary on any kind of differences I notice. I'm guessing it's mostly just gonna be in like, speed and noise level and maybe like crispness of the cut. But I think it'll be a very similar experience as the software is use the same software for both.

Kim Edsen 58:51

Well, I'm still plugging along in my little digital worlds over here. But and I talked about this, I think last fall, the idea of, I figured out how I could almost do like paper piecing with digital cut files, and I played with it, and then I never really did anything with it. So I think that for me, that would be a fun thing to explore. Because there are so many cool cut files and backgrounds and embellishments. And I know when I use my Silhouette in the past I did. I used a lot for title work or printing cut type things. Yeah. Not so much with like the paper piecing in the background. But that's what I'm really excited about. That's what I'm interested to explore.

Jennifer Wilson 59:33

Well, and I think that these little classrooms, we have it's kind of one classroom for all of our pop ups and then there are each individual modules in there but we have this whole kind of, you know, activity feed conversation area where we can have these extended discussions and you know, because we also have digital and hybrid classes in there as well this all kind of fits together where you can explore how how can you go deeper in this and and achieve that the What are the techniques that you want to do? So I just love how these kind of just open the door to a topic and get the conversation going.

Kim Edsen 1:00:08

And complement each other really.

Jennifer Wilson 1:00:10

Yes, 100%. Our last big release of the journey is a new class called Bucket List Bootcamp. Now this journey is, is a little bit different than all the rest of the year because we had both The Trello Habit and Bucket List Bootcamp as new self paced additions to our bigger course library, we're not going to always have that much new content at once. But I really wanted to have a special place where members could explore their Bucket List Stories, and to start capturing those brainstorm, go a little bit deeper, and also have some prompts to, to start flushing those out some starting points to try on and, and explore different types of Bucket List Stories. So I think that'll be really fun.

Kim Edsen 1:01:02

Yeah, so this is, how would you compare this to the Bucket List Bootcamp that you did last year?

Jennifer Wilson 1:01:09

So last year's Bucket List Project was this nine month experience that combined how to tell Bucket List Stories with doing all of this inside of Trello. And so that's really why that was the genesis of having these two classes, we need a Trello thing that was separate. And we need a Bucket List class that was separate. They do you pair really well together. But they don't have to be paired together. You don't have to use Trello to, to organize, document and tell amazing Bucket List Stories at all. So it kind of is an outgrowth of that I'm going to be taking the 12 brand new layouts that I created last year. And those are going to be kind of the 12 core prompts inside Bucket List Bootcamp. And then we had an additional I think, 24, kind of I don't know, like subsidiary prompts, and I will have those in a big list as well. And of course, these are all in addition to the amazing prompts we have in our Story Starters library. So we'll be referencing that as well, for additional inspiration.

Kim Edsen 1:02:12

Sometimes, I feel like people find it hard to get started. So this will hopefully give them a jumping off point. So that they can feel comfortable telling stories or identifying Bucket List Stories. Because and I know we've talked a lot about this on the podcast, too, as far as small stories and big stories and stories that cover the span of time or like one off stories, like there's no clear definition for what would qualify as a Bucket List layout for you. But hopefully, this gives people kind of an entry point, I guess, if they're feeling kind of hesitant about it, or maybe they're excited, and they've got a bunch going and they just want to keep that ball rolling, then this could also help them with that process, too.

Jennifer Wilson 1:02:56

Yeah, and some of the prompts are definitely like focused on picking this type of story. And some are a little bit more focused on kind of story structures. And here's how you could approach a story that's a little bit bigger. We have this timeline one, you know, we always talk about scrapbooking these like the big moments in life like those, those ones where you were glued to the news, and you will always remember where you were. And that's a really amazing concept. But how do you how do you capture that? And so my favorite layout of the whole selection is this timeline that I created of my you know, flashbulb moments, you know, when when Princess Diana died, and 9/11, and those really huge moments in life, and I still have those templates for those. And I just think the the example of that structure really helps you enter the story, even though maybe you've always wanted to tell it.

Kim Edsen 1:03:48

I think that is my biggest challenge with these types of stories is how to structure them or to get them on the page. And we've talked about that again, a lot as well. I use that timeline. I use that exact template, and I did a layout. I talked about it last fall about that Pumpkin Jack story. And I. So I translated kind of our experience with that story and how it kind of came to fruition in our lives. And I laid it on a timeline. So again, that's an example. Do you have that structure? And we told we both use that structure very, very differently?

Jennifer Wilson 1:04:20

Oh, 100%. So I think that if you are not yet a member and you are a podcast listener, though, I really want to invite you to our Your Way Workshop, which is happening the same day that the class will be released. Because we'll be talking about Bucket List Stories and how do you identify them and and how do you really dig beneath the surface to tell that rich, juicy story that that feels compelling and important? And I'll give a little preview of the Bucket List Bootcamp classroom that night as well. And so we'll have a link in the show notes to that workshop which you can find at Simple scrapper.com slash s y w 101 because this is Episode 101. Exciting. Yeah, no, I things are going good. I feel solid right now. And so I'm excited to continue to explore these different topics to kind of get these these new little babies out into the world because each class is a little baby, and to have our members really explore them and to see all the wonderful pages that they create, inspired by getting more organized with Trello. And digging beneath the surface with Bucket List Bootcamp and playing a little bit more with their silhouette. If that's something that sounds fun, or the habits that they're forming. Yeah, that that support everything.

Kim Edsen 1:05:42

Makes life easier or in making their habit more enjoyable. Yeah, it all comes full circle, for sure.

Jennifer Wilson 1:05:47

Yes, no and like, literally that habit of coming to that, to put that open crop time on my calendar, it is a non-negotiable. I can already tell this, that makes gonna make all the difference for this year. And I'll be able to share that much more of my own completed projects because of that, so. All right, Kim, I can't wait to talk to you again next month. I hope you have a great one. Of course we will see each other inside the community but wishing you all the best.

Kim Edsen 1:06:16

You as well.

Jennifer Wilson 1:06:17

All right, and to all of our listeners that please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

Jennifer Wilson 1:06:24

If you like the podcast, you'll love being a member. When you join you'll get access to weekly zoom crops, bimonthly retreats, and a huge content library. You can head over to simplescrapper.com/membership to learn more and join our creative community.