Not to alarm anybody, but as of today there are only 100 days left in the year! That means if you have certain projects you want to accomplish this year, now is the time to get going on them. It’s also a great time to start your holiday shopping a little early this year as experts are projecting that there will be shortages of many items, including toys.

For me, this is a great reminder to check in on my creative projects and goals and evaluate what I want the rest of the year to look like for me and my family.

The first day of Fall is on September 22nd this year. That also happens to be my daughter’s birthday and she is one of those ladies that lives for Autumn. It is my favorite time of year as well and I love the cozy feeling of slightly cooler weather. I’m lucky to live in a place where we are nearby to many canyons full of trees with changing leaves.

I also like the more settled feeling of Fall. With kids back in school, most people are on more of a regular schedule. Of course, this year isn’t exactly normal or settled in any way - but I guess we can still find ways to appreciate the season. Here are some fun links you might enjoy:

August 2021 was an unusual month (aren’t they all now?) full of tough news in the world and a few fun getaways for our family. We attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival after missing it last year for the pandemic. They required masks for indoor plays and we mostly saw outdoor plays. It still felt odd to be in such large groups.

Jeff, Alex, and I traveled to Hawaii and went to the island of Lana’i. We had an amazing trip there and we felt lucky to squeeze it in right before the Hawaii Governor asked tourists to stop their visits until the end of October. Everyone in Hawaii was really great about wearing masks. and the state of Hawaii has very strict protocols about requiring vaccines. We felt much safer there than we do at home in Utah.

I love to go to museums and other historical sites. I also enjoy any place with a great story. As I have visited many of these places over the years, I have picked up on a really great “cheat” to get great journaling for our scrapbooks and photobooks. Simply take pictures of the signs! Those signs are there to educate and entertain and give us meaningful background on what we are seeing and experiencing. How perfect is that? Instead of trying to remember all the important details, just snap a photo. Then you can include those photos as part of your page to give the photos context.

It’s almost the end of the month and that means it’s a great time to roundup your memories and document them before too much time passes. One of the greatest tricks we play on ourselves is thinking we will remember. We don't need to write it down, right? Does that even work for the grocery store? Don’t let yourself fall into that trap. Memories are important! That’s why I love taking a few minutes at the end of each month to do a roundup.

Managing scanned and digital photos can be a very overwhelming task! I’m always looking for helpful resources to find ways to get organized when it comes to photo management. This free video from Roots Tech 2021 has some really good information. It is a tad dry, but worth watching and the presenter has a charming British accent. The information on file naming, metadata, and tags is very useful so be sure to save this one!

It’s that time of year again for back to school and this one looks to be off to a rough start in many areas because of the Delta variant of Covid-19. I’m feeling grateful that I don’t have any kids in school this season. My son Alex will probably take an online class or two. My daughter Riley is trying to finish up her last few hours of massage therapist training (which has been quite difficult in this environment), but neither one of them is attending school in person. My heart goes out to parents and kids everywhere who are trying to navigate this difficult time!

I get asked questions about sizing matters with digital scrapbooking products all the time. I thought it would be best to show you the answers and share a really cool (and free) resource with you! Check out my newest tutorial here.

How about some super fun pink digital and hybrid scrapbooking supplies? I’m really happy with how this collection turned out and I’ve already had a lot of fun creating some darling layouts. Let’s take a look at all of these cute pink goodies.