Porch Ramblings

by Machelle Willingon September 22, 2019March 10, 2025

I just wanted to check in to let you know I am still here & hope to be back soon with a project or something scrapbook related to share.

Since my last post, “Making Changes”, we sold our house & moved into a temporary rental while the job hunt continues.

Unfortunately, my supplies look like this:

Making changes (part 2) blog post; scrapbooking supplies still all packed up. — All packed up

While the supplies are packed up, my mind is still coming up with ideas for layouts, books & organizing I want to do.

I hope to get back to working on my Heritage photobook soon & will have more to share about that process.

I am also still trying to decide what to do with all the 12×12 scrapbooks and how I want to continue documenting going forward.

Thank you for your patience while I get my new schedule set up and please check back in soon!

Machelle

Scrapbooking Small Town

by Machelle Willingon July 8, 2019March 10, 2025

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So this first picture is the reason why I have been MIA lately. This small town girl didn’t last long in the big city. After so many years of living in my hometown, Scott got used to wide open spaces as well. Scott’s job is not living up to expectations and neither one of us is happy here, so we are selling our house and looking to move back to the Central Texas area.

We have been busy trying to keep the house clean with two shedding huskies and two long haired cats. It’s a full-time job!

Change of any kind is hard for me, whether it is moving or trying to re-do almost 20 years of scrapbooks. Trying to wrap my head around a new way of doing something takes some time. Below is the process I decided on regarding my current scrapbooks.

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** With everything being digital these days, it is always important to have a backup of your pictures. Taking pictures of the current layouts serves two purposes; to remember what the original looked like and also to have an additional copy of the pictures and documents. We also back up the entire contents of the photo organization program about once per year. We keep a copy and also take one to a relative’s house as extra precaution.

Speaking of making changes, this weekend I had four days off and finally got around to working on the 12×12 heritage albums. My plan for these albums is to take pictures of the current layouts, scan any pictures or memorabilia not already in my photo organization software and then re-do them into 8×8 photobooks. I will print a copy for myself but that way they will also be available for my family to print if they want their own copy.

I currently use Historian & Artisan for my photo management and digital software programs. They are from the same company, Forever, and very user friendly. I am able to upload my own digital content as well as purchase from their website. This will be the first time I have made a complete photobook as opposed to a single page or project. Stay tuned and I will be back with another update on my progress.

As always, thanks for visiting and stop by anytime! You can also follow me on Facebook or Instagram, too!

Machelle

Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon May 19, 2019March 10, 2025

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Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about organizing, specifically my rolling cart organization. I have found that people seem to either love organizing or hate it. I love it!

My job as a secretary almost demands it, but it also seems to come naturally to me. I’m sure a few of you out there are rolling your eyes at me now!

Unfortunately, the current state of my scrapbook area does not support this claim. It. is. total. chaos and I do not work well or feel creative in chaos. So my goal for next weekend (Memorial Day) is to dive in, clean and do some rearranging.

There are a few things that are working really well in the space, but several that are not. So today I’m going to show you one section that I am very happy with.

This corner sits right behind my table & is where I store a lot of my most used items. I like being able to turn around and just take whatever I need off the shelf or out of the cart quickly & easily.

Rolling Cart Organization

Let’s start with the top shelf. Most of my stamps are Close to My Heart sets that come in the small square envelopes as you can see. I can fit so many of these on just one shelf. I also have a few random stamps from Hobby Lobby and Michael’s to the left. My Kiwi Lane organizer with the border and accessory sets fits right in front.

Then on the middle shelf are my stamp blocks, embossing powders, blending tools and cleaning wipes. There is a small basket of rubber stamps with generic images and a rolling stamp with small phrases.

And finally, on the bottom shelf are small jars that have brads, buttons, small fabric flowers and clear gems.

I found a really cute idea on Pinterest to store ribbon in mason jars with holes drilled into the lid to slide the ribbon through. I also have some stored in Tic Tac containers (also found on Pinterest!) I do think the mason jars work better & will be moving all my ribbon to this type of storage soon.

On the right are 4×6 photo boxes where I store a few cut apart cards and die cuts.

I like the current storage I’m using for my stamp pads so I left them on the bookshelf shown in the first picture.

That holds several items and tools that I reach for frequently. Both of these sit within reach of my chair while I’m scrapping and I have found it to be very convenient which keeps distractions to a minimum. I don’t have to stop in the middle of a project to search for what I want to use next. It also makes it easy to put everything back where it belongs as soon as I’m finished with it.

I hope that this gave you some ideas for your rolling cart organization or inspiration for you to organize some of your most used products and tools.

If you have any questions about my work area or storage, please leave a comment or send me an email. If you have something that works really well, I would love to hear about that, too.

I’m glad you stopped by, please check back soon!

Machelle

Family Pets

by Machelle Willingon May 12, 2019March 10, 2025

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Mother’s Day is a wonderful tribute to all the Moms who sacrifice so much every single day of the year to take care of their families.

I grew up knowing my mother, but it was my grandmother who raised me. And believe me, she worked hard.

She had already raised four children. She made the sacrifice of her time, effort and money to make sure that I had everything I needed.

(For a funny story about my grandmother & growing up in a small town, check out my first blog post.)

She’s been gone 17 years now and there are still days when I think to myself, “I should call Maw Maw to tell her that.”

Mother's Day Post: me & my grandmother

Then there is my mother-in-law, Scott’s mom. Donna raised four boys who all grew up to be perfect gentlemen. We are blessed she is still with us & we had lunch with her today.

Scott & his mom on Mother's day 2019

However, not all women are Mothers and for us that makes this day a rather hard one.

If you go out on Mother’s Day, everyone assumes you need to be told “Happy Mother’s Day.” I have found that to be difficult, because if I tell them I’m not it makes them feel bad or awkward but if I just say “Thank you” then I feel bad. So mostly we just stay home.

While I do not have children, I do have furry kids that rely on me and give me lots of love. Sometimes I feel they are just as much work as children!

George the cat; photo used for Mother's day 2019 blog post. — George

So regardless of your circumstances on this Mother’s day, please take time for yourself and have a peaceful, beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Thank you for stopping by!

Machelle

Scrapbooking

by Machelle Willingon April 28, 2019May 22, 2025

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Since we are coming up on National Scrapbook Day 2019, I thought I would talk about crops & retreats.

There are lots of differing opinions on Scrapbook Crops. Some people absolutely love them (me!) and some do not, for a variety of reasons.

A few reasons for attending would be to have uninterrupted time to finish a lot of pages or projects, visit with others who love the same hobby or maybe just to have some “me” time away from the responsibilities of home.

Others do not like them because they prefer to scrapbook alone, do not want to have to pack & unpack their supplies or have had a bad experience previously.

Crops can be anywhere from a couple of hours to all day while retreats are 3 to 4 days usually over a weekend.

They can be held in someone’s home, a scrapbook store, hotel or dedicated Bed & Breakfast style house.

Sometimes meals are included or it is pot luck style and sometimes you are on your own.

Machelle scrapbooking at a retreat for blog post (inter) National Scrapbook Day 2019 — Machelle (Me)

My friend Janelle making a scrapbook page at our retreat — Janelle

Janelle & Machelle with our "Scrapbook Money" we won at a scrapbook retreat — With our winnings from all the games

I personally love going to crops and retreats. I get ideas and energy from having others to talk to and seeing what they are working on.

When I am at home, it is too easy to be distracted by all the “should do’s” and “need to’s” but when I am at a retreat there is nothing else I am supposed to be doing except scrapbooking.

(To see which program I use to organize my photos so it’s easy to find them & print them when I’m ready to go to a crop, check out my blog post “Picture Overload.”)

Of course it’s not always possible to find one close to you or the time to go, so a few years ago, I found a great alternative through a group on Facebook.

Online Crops! There are several companies and Facebook groups that do them now and I have tried a couple but the one I like best is Scrapbook Generation.

You get the benefit of cropping with others without having to travel or pack all your supplies! There are games, challenges and Bingo; lots to choose from but you only have to do what interests you.

National Scrapbook Day 2019

It’s always fun and the reason I am bringing this up now is because starting tomorrow they are having a week-long online crop to celebrate National Scrapbook Day 2019 (It’s always the first Saturday in May).

I will be participating and thought I would share the information in case anyone else wanted to join in. You do have to be part of their group page on Facebook, but I think it is worth it.

They also have other challenges and giveaways on the page. Here is a link if you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sgscrapsquad/.

One of the posts will tell you what to expect and there is a printable schedule of the games and challenges as well. (This is not an affiliate post or anything, I am just really excited to participate next week!)

I am lucky enough to also have a friend that scrapbooks and we try to get together at one of our houses from time to time.

It’s always challenging when we are at my house because I have a furry friend who wants to “help” hold the papers down.

My friend Amie scrapbooking at my house — Amie

My cat, Bo, helping with my scrapbook page — Bo (the helper)

If you haven’t ever been to a crop or retreat, I think you should at least try it once.

No matter where you scrapbook, I hope that you are able to carve out some time to enjoy your hobby next week.

Everyone have a Happy (inter)National Scrapbook Day 2019!

Machelle