Porch Ramblings

by Machelle Willingon June 19, 2022March 10, 2025

*This is a guest post written by my husband, Scott, about our experience with Media Conversion Services and why it is so important. This is also an affiliate post and if you sign up for an account or make a purchase, I will make a small commission at no extra charge to you. Please know that I only recommend products or services that I personally use & love.

Are your photos trapped in the past?

Have you thought about media conversion services? There are several companies that will do this; however, FOREVER not only will send you a USB drive of your memories, they will be stored in your FOREVER online account as well (keep in mind you have to have a large enough account).

My father passed away when I was quite young. The only picture I had of him was an official Air Force black and white. A few years ago my mom gave me a box full of old family photos Dad had taken on 35 mm slides. Of course there was not a working slide projector.

I tried the cheap ($35.00) DIY scanner that converts slides and negative to digital images; however, the quality was not great and the color balance was off. That was enough to prove I wanted the pictures done in a professional manner.

We sent several hundred slides and a video reel off to be converted several years ago. They returned all of the original media as well as DVDs of the digital content. The memories are priceless and now I can share them with my brothers.

That was several years ago. It is wonderful to have the DVDs, but we also have to consider how they will be viewed in the future.

Now we have our wedding ceremony recorded on a VHS cassette tape. What we don’t have is any way to view it.

I have a cassette tape that my best friend recorded of some of his songs as a graduation present. What I don’t have is any way to listen to it.

We decided now was the time to finish digitizing our old media types along with some pictures I took while in school.

Technology is constantly changing and we needed solutions to make sure our memories do not become obsolete. FOREVER has a guarantee to convert your content to the latest format & keep your memories safe.

How it works:

The first step is to choose your box. There are different sizes based on how much and the types of media you have. You can send in old photos, slides, home movies, VHS & cassette tapes as well as full 12×12 scrapbook pages to be scanned to digital. If you are not sure, please reach out to me or customer service on their website.
Next, just separate the types of media into the individual bags and adhere one of the labels to each bag. There are instructions in the box that walk you through what an “item” is for each bag.
Shipping is included with your box, so use the label provided and drop off at your local UPS store. The box will also include tracking information.
Once FOREVER receives the box, they will update you each step of the way in your FOREVER box center. You will always know where your memories are in the process.
If you have a paid FOREVER storage account, they will automatically put your digitized content into an album labeled FOREVER Box album for safekeeping. You may also choose to have everything put on a USB drive. Your original media will be returned to you with tracking information.

If you have pictures, negatives, slides, or videos that you inherited from a parent or grand parent consider having them converted to digital to share with Family, Friends, and future generations.

Digitize Once. Enjoy for Generations.

While most digital conversion services simply convert your family memories from one temporary format to another, FOREVER preserves your memories for generations online with FOREVER Storage. You can rest easy knowing that no one cares more about protecting your memories than we do.

If you have any questions about this process or how to get started, please let me know. I would love to help you preserve your precious memories to be enjoyed for years to come! If you would like to know why I choose FOREVER, you can read this previous blog post about why I became an Ambassador. If you would like to know how I categorize my photos once they are downloaded, you can read about that in this post about how to easily find your photos.

Come back soon to see where these memories are now!

As always, I am here to help you save, organize & enjoy your photos.

Machelle

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Blog News

by Machelle Willingon April 5, 2022March 10, 2025

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My Scrapbook Overhaul Update

It certainly took longer than I expected to get back to the project of re-doing my scrapbook albums so I wanted to update you on my scrapbook overhaul. You can read why I decided to change album sizes from 12×12 to 8×8 in this post. I started out with 15 very large, very heavy 12×12 traditional albums that had a lot of pages of extended family. There were many pages of school activities, sports, graduations, weddings, etc. The majority of these were pictures that my husband & I took, but I wanted the individuals they were about to have them to enjoy.

Since a lot of these albums were in chronological order, the pages had to be taken out (and in some cases, taken apart) and re-grouped into families. Some also had multiple family members together on one page. So for several weeks my scrapbook table looked like this:

This was certainly an extreme scrapbook overhaul and it took me about 3 months to sort through all the pictures and pages. Most of the time this level of upheaval is not necessary, though. I only did this so I could gift organized, complete albums to family members. For me, the time and effort were worth it. My family loved their albums and I know they will enjoy them for years to come. I was also glad I didn’t have to move them again!

Completed 12x12 Creative Memories Scrapbook albums; from my Scrapbook Overhaul blog post on Small Town Scrap

I did not get rid of ALL the 12×12 pages, as some of them were about my husband & I or our pets, trips, etc. So the next step in my scrapbook overhaul is to decide which pages I want to keep and/or are my favorites and make a 12×12 “pages I love” album. The rest I will decide if they need to be redone into 8×8 pages or maybe I am ready to let them go completely.

I am also still working on making a couple of digital albums from my Heritage photos and Family Tree style pages. Since I have not done much digital scrapbooking, this is also taking longer than expected. I will update on this in a later post.

Is a Scrapbook Overhaul for You?

If you have decided that you would like to make a change in your storytelling and do not want or need to downsize the amount of pictures or albums that you already have, just start from where you are now. Leave everything you have done intact. Then think about what is frustrating you – is it the size, or maybe you want to tell more stories? Maybe, like me, you like more project based albums. See if you can pinpoint the issue(s) with your current system and then look for alternatives. Some of those could be mini-albums, traveler’s notebooks, a different size or style (pocket-pages or even digital).

It might also be a different approach to your starting point. For example, maybe you prefer doing more event based pages; start with a story in mind instead of the pictures; start with a quote or a product with some word art. If you have a story, look for pictures related to the person, place or thing even if it is not at the same time. If you do not have a picture, look on the internet to see if you can find something that represents your subject. This works well with “currently” type pages: like what are you reading or watching.

For additional ideas about starting points, look at my previous post “3 Story Starter Ideas” and also download the handout. Don’t forget you can keep up with new ideas and inspiration in the Facebook Group or check in here again soon!

Thanks for visiting,

Machelle

by Machelle Willingon March 20, 2022March 10, 2025

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Story Starters

So I recently had an idea to start a series on my Facebook page & Instagram called Monday Memories (debuting tomorrow). The idea was to share one or more photos that represent a story and then tell the story behind the photo. This is just to demonstrate that sometimes the story is obvious, like a birthday, wedding, graduation, etc. But sometimes the story is something that happened at the event, something related to a person’s personality (maybe a habit they had or a special bond) or maybe it is a place that is special to you.

Take these three photos, for instance. All three were taken on the same trip at different times. My grandmother, aunt, cousin & I drove from Texas to Missouri to visit extended family one summer vacation.

Photo #1

So the first picture is somewhat obvious – a friend of the family is teaching me how to make a Jacob’s Ladder with string. Now that is the actual interpretation of the picture, but you could also tell a story about how different things are today with kids having cell phones, tablets and computer games versus playing with a piece of string!

Child learning to make a Jacob's Ladder with string; Monday Memories and Story Starter for Small Town Scrap blog

Photo #2

Now this photo is really just a picture of me and my cousin, Janet, with some of my grandmother’s extended family. I do have their names written down & have included this picture on a page about that trip. That takes care of the who, what, where and when, but what you don’t see from the picture is that during the time we were there, there was a carnival in town and the gentleman in the picture took us to play games & ride the rides.

Unfortunately there aren’t any pictures of us at the carnival but when I see this picture, that is the part I remember. For kids our age, that was a highlight of the trip.

Photo #3

Now for the final photo of this group. This is me & my cousin at the Texas State Line on the way home from this trip. I don’t remember how long we had been in the car at this point, but I know we were ready to be done. Now you could simply caption this with “We’re Home!”, but you could also say something about how it was the end of June (in Texas) and we were barefoot and the pavement was HOT!

But the story I think of to wrap up this trip was the fact that we had taken coloring books & crayons on the trip to keep us occupied. Well, it was so hot in the car, my box of brand new 64 count crayons melted. I know if you were a kid back then, that was traumatic!

Me & my cousin at the Texas State Line; Monday Memories and Story Starter for Small Town blog

If you love photos and want to try memory keeping or scrapbooking or even just want to post a couple of family stories on social media, remember that there are multiple ways to start. Anything can spark a memory; a photo, a quote, a place, the list goes on and on. These are your story starters. Every once in a while, try going beyond the basics and tell the story you don’t see.

If you are interested in receiving more memory keeping ideas, please subscribe to my blog. I will send you a handout with three more Story Starter Ideas now and you will also receive my newsletter to help you with saving, organizing and sharing your photos and family stories.

Story Starter Cover Page image

If you would like one-on-one help with your photos, please leave me a message on the Contact Us page for a free consultation.

Thanks for stopping by!

Machelle

Blog News

by Machelle Willingon March 2, 2022March 10, 2025

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While I am not “officially” taking the 2022 One Little Word class that Ali Edwards teaches, I am keeping up with my word in my planner. I use the Living Well Spending Less planner & there are sections in the front for yearly goals as well as sections at the beginning of each month to break those down.

I made a mood board for the year with my word “Accomplish” and love to refer back to it for inspiration. You can also read my original post about my 2022 One Little Word and why I chose it.

Mood Board for my 2022 One Little Word, Accomplish - Small Town Scrap

I wanted to have a main quote as well as monthly quotes for my word. I feel like the main one pretty much encompasses every situation: “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” I know a lot of the time we talk ourselves out of even trying because we have already decided “insert your project” won’t work. You never know until you try!

In addition to my 2022 One Little Word, I also recently won a membership to the Simple Scrapper community. There are so many resources and discussions to help you make your scrapbooking a priority, but she also has a book club that relates to each of the Journey topics that run throughout the year.

During the last two months, we were reading “Soundtracks” by Jon Acuff. It is a book geared to help you stop overthinking by using positive phrases to replace the negative ones.

This has paired perfectly with the monthly quotes I am using to keep my OLW front & center. My January quote was, “Starting is easy ~ finishing is hard.” (Jason Calacanis) So my new soundtracks for that are: “Start from where you are” & “One bite at a time”.

“Start from where you are” is a great one if you tend to get overwhelmed like I do. Just take a deep breath, don’t worry about the pile of papers, list of chores or whatever your current situation is. Just start from right here – one thing. Pick one thing & do that, then move on to the next. This sounds simple & is definitely not something new, but it seems really hard to do. Taking a breath, saying the phrase & focusing seems to help.

“One bite at a time” is just the next step of “Start from where you are”, do one thing at a time. Block out the voice listing the other 50 things that need to be done today – anyone else? – and just do one thing. Even if you don’t get all 50 done (spoiler alert: you won’t), at least you will have accomplished something.

I have been doing this for a couple of months now, and it is amazing how much better I feel about daily tasks. Instead of avoiding all the things, getting overwhelmed & worrying about all the stuff NOT getting done – I am focusing on what is actually getting accomplished. Then I feel good about that & it makes me get more done. A cycle of accomplishment – just from One Little Word.

Come back soon for some updates to what’s been going on in the scrapbook room.

See you soon!

Machelle

Blog News

by Machelle Willingon January 2, 2022March 10, 2025

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How many of you have heard of One Little Word or choosing a word for the year to live with, ponder or make a project around? Before I get into my One Little Word for 2022, let’s look at how well I did with last year’s word.

Looking Back

One Little Word 2021 - Create — One Little Word 2021 – Create

Looking back on my One Little Word for 2021 – Create. I really enjoyed my word last year. I liked that it was an action word as well as that it was so versatile. It could be used in so many different ways. You can read about why I choose that word in this blog post.

I did end up creating a good morning routine, we finished our remodel project and toward the end of the year I felt more creative in my hobbies. I still have work to do on the house as we are still trying to adjust to less space and therefore less storage. But we are making progress.

Looking Forward

Which leads me to my One Little Word for 2022 – Accomplish.

I usually don’t start thinking about my new word until the last half of December. As I started trying to come up with a new word I kept thinking of all the projects (crafty & home) that were still in progress and how much I wanted to finish them. I pondered that one for a few days, looked up the definition and decided I wanted something more versatile. (Create is going to be a hard one to follow!)

So then I thought about complete. So instead of just finishing something, making it feel complete as well as completing the project itself. I liked that one better, but it still didn’t feel quite right.

I finally settled on accomplish because you can accomplish something without actually finishing it. To me, accomplish means making progress or moving forward.

The dictionary definition of Accomplish is: to bring about a result by effort; to succeed in doing something or to succeed in reaching a stage in a progression.

In addition to choosing a word each year, I use a planner that guides me in setting goals for different areas of life. Unfortunately, I am okay at setting these goals but not so good at accomplishing them. Too many days I feel like I am running around in circles and never really accomplishing anything. There are usually so many household “to do’s”, I never get around to the things that I set as my “big” goals. So I definitely need to work on accomplishing at least one small thing that makes progress toward a bigger goal. I hope to do better this year with Accomplish being my focus word.

As well as the projects that I started last year that I would like to see finished, I also have some personal and professional goals I would like to succeed at. I would like to feel like I have accomplished something worthwhile at the end of the day and made some type of progress toward those goals.

One Little Word Project

You can definitely choose a word to ponder on without actually doing a specific project; however, if you are interested in having a prompt each month or prefer to follow along with a classroom community you can go to Ali Edwards website and sign up for her One Little Word Workshop.

I would love to hear from you! Do you make resolutions, set goals or choose a word for the year? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Thank you for stopping by, be sure to check in again soon!

Machelle