A new year means a clean slate and a fresh outlook. This is true for me personally, and also for my blog. I love the time of year when one calendar closes and the next one begins. So much to recap and savor. Even more to look forward to!

Can you believe we are almost done with 2019? Crazy! Roundup time is a great way to reflect back on the memories of the holidays and the entire month. I also love looking over all of the roundups for the year to do a full recap for our scrapbooks. This is when regular documenting really pays off!

This is a crazy time of year so I think it’s only fitting to share some funnies to lighten the mood. Hope you enjoy these!

It’s been at least a month since I’ve created any sort of scrapbook page and I felt a bit rusty when I first opened up Photoshop Elements. It only took a few minutes to get back in the groove though and I just added and subtracted layers until I ended up with this fun spread.

I've published gift guides in the past and those posts are always among my most popular. I've felt discouraged though when later on some of the products get discontinued or are hard to find from the original links I've included. That's why I'm really excited about my new approach to sharing my favorites using Amazon Idea Lists. All the links are included and you can see the price immediately and also see what I suggest to go along with the general theme. I already have 8 great lists in place and I'm working on a few more.

If you’ve been following my Instagram account, you will know that I went to Belgium last week and came back with a bad bout of bronchitis. That means I’m behind on everything - including own personal roundup of the month’s events. I didn’t even remember to post the prompt! That is the first time I’ve skipped that since I started this little routine in January of 2006! I hope the faithful roundup followers went ahead without me.

I’ve long suspected that having a sense of humor makes you more creative, but I’m always glad to find proof. Check out this article from Forbes to see why humor is good for your creativity. In the meantime, let’s have some laughs!

I recently purchased the iPhone 11 pro and I’ve been so happy with it. I usually will update my phone every other year and pass the old one on to one of my children. They are definitely the beneficiaries in my trickle-down-phone-economics plan! Then I usually trade in their old phone for Apple credit. I don’t need to upgrade as often as I do, but I like to use the excuse of needing to stay up to date on the latest photography technology for this blog. Sounds reasonable, don’t you think?

Before you get caught up in Halloween celebrations tomorrow, take a few minutes and start your memory roundup for the month. Just copy and paste my simple questions and you will thank yourself later! This is such a great way to keep track of your life. I refer back to my own roundups all the time!