The minute I started reading Chapter 5 of my book club's selection of A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion, I started thinking about cats. I’m not sure there is another creature that enjoys their idle time as much as a cat does. And sure enough, this chapter was filled with images of cats. Obviously, the authors agree!   Favorite Bits: “How to Recognize a Crowded Brain - If you’re feeling low-energy, aren’t getting anything done, aren’t achieving your goals, have no more creative ideas, are repeating mistakes, and feeling easily overwhelmed; These are all signs of a cr ..read more

If you don’t follow me on social media, you might not know that I have a brand-new grandson! Just 20 months after our wonderful grandson Calvin was born, his new baby brother Caleb joined the family. Mom and baby are doing great, and we are all having so much fun!   We are spending several weeks giving some extra support to Riley and her cute little family. We are soaking up all the baby and toddler snuggles possible. Both boys are at such fun stages, and it all goes so fast. I’m trying to focus on enjoying this time. I want to be present in this moment and enjoy every bit of it. So even ..read more

I finished chapter four of my book club's selection of A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion. This was my favorite chapter so far, and I feel like the content was so meaningful!   Favorite bits: “As much as we prefer to forget those moments when we mess up, reflecting on them can be very good for us and insightful.” page 94 I appreciate the encouragement to accept our stumbles and use them as opportunities to learn. I think this is a real difference-maker in life. I’m grateful that my husband believes in this philosophy and that we were able to raise our children with ..read more

I’m exploring chapter 3 in my book club's newest selection of A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion. This chapter is about loving alone time, which is really not a problem for me. I think because I was an only child until the age of 12, I feel pretty comfortable with being alone. I know that isn’t the case for everyone, though. My daughter doesn’t seem to like it at all. I had a friend in high school who always called and begged me to come over anytime her house was empty. Of course, there’s also a big difference between being alone and feeling alone. You can feel alone even w ..read more

I just finished Chapter 2 of my book club's selection of A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion. It's such a fun book because it’s filled with great advice and fun activities that you can pull out of the book and use for creative projects.   The chapter topic is Love Your Imperfect Body, and it was such a timely subject for me to explore. I had surgery a few weeks ago to have my ovaries removed. (I had my uterus removed many years ago because of some medical issues). I had a large and painful cyst on my right ovary that we had been watching for quite some time, and it nee ..read more

March is ending, and it’s a great time to do a monthly review and/or get caught up on your memories from this past month. Roundups. Recaps. Reviews. You can call them whatever you like, but the general idea is the same. Just take some time to write down what has happened recently, add some pictures, and call it good! That’s what I do at the end of each month, and I plan to keep going strong with this practice as long as possible.     You can do weekly or monthly recaps - it’s totally up to you. I like to ensure I don’t go any longer than a month without recording these details, or i ..read more

I finished the first chapter of my book club's newest selection, A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion. Diving into this beautiful book full of creative activities is so much fun. I included the introduction and chapter one for my first “assignment.” I removed some of the pages for a vision board project. I love that I can deconstruct this book!   Favorite Bits: Here are some of the things I read that inspired me: We believe that interacting with paper can help us balance the bigger things in life. Overthinking is your strength. The hyperactive jumps you make in your ..read more

March has been quite a month for me, so I haven’t been able to get around to my February roundup until now. That’s okay; it’s never too late to work on recapping memories. Sure, it’s easier when they are fresh in your mind, but my roundup prompts help me keep track of my daily life. I make good use of my calendar to jot down the things that happen each day. Here’s my layout: Layout by Katie. Roundup Grid template +  February Love paper pack + Monthly Memories Solids   The grid framework made it so easy to round up the memories of the month or any block of time that you choose to doc ..read more

Chances are, if you are reading this blog, you know of at least one of these four women. They were all extremely influential in the field of scrapbooking as it rose to popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. They each played a big role in bringing personal documentation to the forefront of creativity and memory-keeping endeavors. I still remember the first time I picked up a Creating Keepsakes magazine. I bought all of Becky Higgins's books. I loved the Simple Scrapbooking magazine and books. Those probably influenced my own style of scrapbooking more than anything. I’ve enjoyed seeing projects fro ..read more

We have an extra day this month because of Leap Year, but I wanted to post the roundup prompts now to help us all think about how we want to wrap up this month. Roundups. Recaps. Reviews. You can call them whatever you like, but the general idea is the same. Just take some time to write down what has happened recently, add some pictures, and call it good! That’s what I do at the end of each month, and I plan to keep going strong with this practice as long as possible.     You can do weekly or monthly recaps - it’s totally up to you. I like to ensure I don’t go any longer than a mont ..read more