SYW335 – Documenting Life in a Memory Planner with Kristine LeRoss

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Kristine LeRoss: I'm choosing to document. Having my phone with me and taking photos of something that I find beautiful, and then I go back and I write down what I loved about its beauty or what it reminded me of. So I think it's just an opportunity to pause, right? To stop how blurry everything can be, and step into your life.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 335. In this episode, I'm chatting with Kristine LeRoss about memory keeping and the Stop the Blur format.

Kristine shares how this approach to documenting weekly life became a lifeline during the transition to empty nesting, and what she's learned after two years of figuring out the format on her own [00:01:00] terms.

Hey, Kristine welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Kristine LeRoss: Hi. Thank you so much for having me, Jennifer. I appreciate it.

Jennifer Wilson: I think this is gonna be a fun conversation. I can't wait to learn more about you. Can you start by sharing some of the basics?

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely. Um, I have been, well, scrapbooking, an avid scrapbooker since the nineties. Um, I had a, a family member who, um, was a Creative Memories consultant, so back in the day, that was kind of my introduction. I think I've always been a memory keeper um I have loads loads of memorabilia from, you know, way, way, way back, even prior to high school. Um, and so when scrapbooking was introduced to me, it was just like this language that I loved. It was just... I'm very visual, I'm very creative. Um, I work in real estate, so I do-- and I do staging. It just all came together. And then, um, the process really honed in. You know, I stepped away from, Creative Memories, and that was at the [00:02:00] early, you know, two thousands when we had so much access to companies and scrapbooking kits.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Kristine LeRoss: And things like that. And so I have been a die-hard twelve by twelve scrapbooker of those years, and you know, little memory books and things. But, um, Stop the Blur was something I was introduced to a few years ago, I think twenty twenty-three was when I first started. And I'm in a completely different season of my life now. I'm empty nesting. My daughter's out of the home. You know, when you have young kids, you have constant content, um, of things.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, no doubt.

Kristine LeRoss: You can do. And so I think It made me sad that I didn't have these big moments to scrapbook anymore, like to go on my twelve-by-twelve pages. And so this concept.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: Came up, and it was perfect. Because it really just-- it fit into I was struggling in my life, I guess.

Well I can't wait to hear more about it when we get to that part of the conversation. Um, yeah, we are gonna be talking about memory [00:03:00] planning as an approach to scrapbooking today. So if you've been curious about that or wanting to get back into it, um, Kristine is a, a lover of this format. Um, but before we get there, I have a couple icebreaker questions that I always ask my guests.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have a favorite recent layout, spread, or project?

Kristine LeRoss: Um, you know, up on, on the, um, Simple Scrapper site, I just uploaded a, a recent, um, Stop the Blur planner page that I love. You know, sometimes I love my, my weeks and sometimes I don't. But I loved that particular one, and it all came together. So I had just put that one up. Um, I'm trying to think if I did... I did a layout, like a twelve-by-twelve over Christmas, and I really liked that one as well. But those are, are fewer and far between, I think.

Jennifer Wilson: So you said you don't always love the weeks that you do in your memory planner. What kind of... Are there any defining characteristics of you really liking it?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. What I love-- So there [00:04:00] is-- Well, there used to be. The format's changed a little bit. So there was a monthly kit that came out, and there's a kit with the class, and then there's a printable that goes along. And in the kit is all kinds of little things. And so I think to me, when I have a week where it's just not a, a basic, boring, everyday week, there's, you know, elements in it, um, I'll pull those out, and then I decide, like color-wise, what kit I wanna use, and then it just-- it all comes together. It's, it's fun. It's like a puzzle piece, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And so you're fitting the photos with kind of the verbiage that's on the printables and then the color formats, and it's just... It's this big design blob that all comes together, and I think, I don't know, that's-- I, I just find so much gratification in that.

Jennifer Wilson: I do find it is quite like a puzzle because there's so many smaller pieces, and you're trying to figure out how do we fit all the things we wanna fit.

Kristine LeRoss: And I'll-- Maybe we will talk about this 'cause it took me a couple of years, I would say two years, to try and to, to finally figure out the format [00:05:00] because it is so different than.

Jennifer Wilson: It is, yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: How my 12 x 12 brain works.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there something in scrapbooking or in your everyday life that you're excited to do, use, or try?

Kristine LeRoss: I love memories. I live in my memories. I love to look back in my photo memories. And so I think in general, I don't have, like, a particular, like, tool that I love, I don't think. Um, but I love to be able to document and put the memory on a page. And because when I go back and I look at that visual memory, I feel every single thing about it.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

All right, let's jump in. Um, you've already shared a little bit about how you got into scrapbooking. Tell me about the time at which you made this transition from 12 by 12 to a brand-new format. Was it gradual? Was it abrupt? Did you stop scrapbooking somewhere in there and realize you needed a different approach? Tell us about how that evolution came about.

Kristine LeRoss: I think I wanna say that I started Stop [00:06:00] the Blur in two thousand and twenty-three. And my daughter was graduating from high school. She's my only child, and she was leaving for college, and it was just this-- a kind of this abrupt change of season for me. And so I love, I, I love watching Heidi create pages, and so the classroom content was fascinating.

But again, I was a- an immediate subscriber, but I didn't get the kit initially. I started with just the class and the, eh, the monthly printable. So it was the ideas. And so it was kinda me, like, lurking for months, you know, to see what was going on and dabbling in it and can't figure it out. And, um, so I was still twelve by twelve scrapbooking, but it wasn't-- I wasn't spending a lot of time in my creative space. I would say, that season was a little sad for me, and so I was having a hard time emotionally to transition [00:07:00] sadness to a twelve by twelve, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: What I was called to then with Stop the Blur, it was-- it's more documenting. It's not a journal. I'm not a journaler. Um, I don't keep, you know, journals like lots of people do. Um, but it was a way to kinda bring in sadness and emotion and speckling that with, you know, other moments in life. And so I would say I was a, a big spectator for many months. Um, but I was gathering all of the, the resources and stockpiling my kits.

Jennifer Wilson: Why do you think that change in format was a better fit for this season of life? Was it just because it was a change? Was it because it was, uh, s-smaller, You were, you were telling maybe smaller stories?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, that's interesting. Um, I think like I said, it was, you know, I had so much emotion, and I didn't know how to translate that to a [00:08:00] twelve-by-twelve page. For me, you know, those twelve-by-twelves were always big, special moments, or it was, it was this weekend doing that, or my daughter was in an activity and doing that.

There wasn't a lot of me time. I think there was a lot of kids' activities. Um, and then, you know, everyday life going through, it can be very boring being an empty nester. You know, you wake up. You have my animals. I go to work. You know, I do the things. And, and if I don't stop for a minute and really, like, immerse myself in, in gratitude and noticing, and I think that's where, like, the Stop The Blur verbiage came into play.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: It was literally making me stop to appreciate and know that this season may be different, but it's not empty. I can still fill it, but it doesn't feel... I'm not drawn to create with twelve-by-twelve that way. I, I feel more drawn to the planner pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Are you still creating [00:09:00] 12 by 12 layouts?

Kristine LeRoss: I am. Yeah, I am. Um, but I did one at Christmas, and I've got Easter to do, and, and I don't want it to be just big things, but yeah, I do. It, it just depends on what the project is.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. Now, okay, so for those maybe who aren't familiar at all with what we're talking about, maybe, you know, they've primarily done traditional layouts. Can you give us kind of a, a visual description of how this is different from other types of scrapbooking?

Kristine LeRoss: Oh, yeah, and I think it's very different than other types of, like, weekly journaling. Lots of people have weekly planners. And I, I, I think, I, I don't know, Heidi's system is different. And I wanna call it a system, but the way that she visually creates pages, there's lots of interactive bits. So rather than just, you know, putting stickers on, weekly pages and then kinda journaling or documenting what your calendar is, um, [00:10:00] it's a two-page spread, and there's different page formats. Um, but it's essentially a Monday through Sunday. Um, so you can write down special events that happened or items or emotions or things or what you're currently reading. Um, and then you take those elements, and you start to lay them out on a page. Um, you can do chronological, or you can just, you know, do a, a weekly summary. Um, but you use photos, stamping, um, folders, flips, like flip pages, waterfall pages. It depends on how many photos you have. I have some pages that are super thick because there's lots of elements. And it's different than just sizing down from a twelve by twelve, and I think that's initially what I was trying to do, was just scrapbook on a smaller format. But it's not really that. Um, it's really [00:11:00] diving into your days. But again, not in a calendar, you know, um, I've got this going on type of way. For me, it's more visual. It's like if I'm out and it's, it's lilac season, so there's going to be pictures of lilacs or, or what's on my coffee table or, But it's how, I guess, I envision my weeks.

So you-- there's no wrong way to do it. Anybody could put their week down.

Jennifer Wilson: How would you distinguish it from something like Project Life.

Kristine LeRoss: So Project Life to me yeah, is like cutting down those cards. So you've got folders. Um, what, what do you call this, where you slip in the, um, the pocket pages? It's not pocket pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: It literally is, like, if I'm looking at a, a two by six space for a Monday, I'm not gonna slip in any type of pocket page. I'm gonna maybe write what the date and the day is, and then I'm gonna start to build elements on that day.

I might put a photo in there, or I might put a photo pocket, or I might put a [00:12:00] folder pocket or a flip for that particular day. And then I'm gonna dress up that day, and then I'm gonna move to the next day.

Jennifer Wilson: Are you rigid with trying to have something for each day, or is it sometimes you have three things for the week? What is your level of, I don't know, detail and desired precision, I guess?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. I am not at all rigid. So I have-- I really, really embrace that there are no rules. Um, Heidi has some format, like some general page guidelines. Um, I guess they'd be kinda like sketches in a way. There's two particular ones that you can use to jot down your notes. There's four things per day that you can jot down. And then there's another one where you can actually sketch your layout before you do it. I use those roughly. I definitely use the four things per day, to go in and just kinda label any highlights that there are. But I don't have-- I do not have a hard [00:13:00] and fast format. And part of what I love about their, switch to a new planner system is that there are pages now that you can choose from.

So there's three different page styles. So therefore my pages don't look the same every single week, and I prefer that. Because I like change. You know. And, it all goes with what's going on that week. But I also do not, um, journal every single day or every single week, um, at all. Because there are weeks that there isn't anything happening and I'm not going to sit and force myself to create something where I don't feel the inspiration. So I do try to go chronologically, but there are lots of weekly gaps in my pages and my pages are still very full.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Can you tell us more about the change in overall format and structure of the project? They moved from a bound book to something [00:14:00] new.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Um, the bound book was roughly like seven and a half by nine pages. And they were... It was essentially seven days. So over those two pages it was, it was the week of and then you would do a Monday through Sunday with some notes. And every single day was the same. It had a different color, um, but so every page, you know, could essentially look in that same format. What I found-- Well, I found this, I don't know if this had to do with why some of the changes happened. But as you're building your pages in a tiny little notebook, it's not tiny I guess, seven and a half by nine, but your pages get really thick

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: It becomes hard on one page to try to stamp and do all the things when there's a bunch of ephemera and things underneath it. It gets bulky. So one of the things that this new system does, the pages are all flat. [00:15:00] Um, and then they're hole punched and then there's a ring binder. Um- So it makes it so much easier to pull out two pages, and everything is flat. You can attach, detach, you can sew, um, you can put your brads on and then still put, um, like some, some tape or something over it to make it flat. So it's a lot easier. And then there was also the introduction to... there's dividers now that are more of a rigid plastic. So you can decorate or embellish, um, dividers between weeks or months. Um, there's also three different formats now. And so you can choose whether or not you still wanna have that original, uh, two-page Monday through Sunday plus the notes. Or there's different segments that you can add into. So they're just... For me, it actually felt more like, like a [00:16:00] December Daily album, like Ali Edwards does.

It felt like more of that format that you could now bring into Heidi's system. Because, again, Stop the Blur was very different to me than other memory planning that I see going on. Um, and so the closest thing I can, uh, relate it to is, like, what I do in a December Daily, where you've got choices on how you do your pages and how you bring things in.

And you don't have to use now, um, Heidi's pages, because if I have a ephemera or memorabilia from an event, I can put, um, a binder on it, and then I can also stick that in my, my planner and add that in. So it created so many more possibilities. And Heidi all the time, like, one of the things she says a lot is, "Possibilities are endless and expanding."

And I have that written next to my desk, and it's true. I mean, it's, it's endless. The creativity [00:17:00] and no wrong way, and everybody can create and add the way they want to. It's-- That's what I see this as.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think all of your pages for a year will fit in one album?

Kristine LeRoss: Oh, gosh, no, because I've already tried.

Jennifer Wilson: How many albums do you think you'll need?

Kristine LeRoss: My gosh, for one year.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, probably four, I would say. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Now, and one question I think we're gonna have from, uh, our audience, 'cause I know I get asked this a lot about other formats. How are you dealing with the backsides of your spreads? So you're pulling two pages out.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: And you're putting things on them that are three-dimensional. Now, in the old format you mentioned we don't wanna then stamp on the opposite side because it's hard.

How are you handling that?

Kristine LeRoss: So that's interesting. Uh, so in the old format, I still did it back to back to back to back because, your pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Were right in there. And so it just made more sense. And so now where I run into a problem is [00:18:00] that when I wanna switch, you know, I don't do the same layout every week, right? So then I have on the backside one side of what and one side of the other.

So, so far, because we're only in May, um, I'm able to kinda just... I haven't gone back to fill those filler pages. Because I still only wanna do the format I want for that week. So rather than force myself to use that backside at this time.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But what I will probably do with those backside pages is to go back in to do a one photo, you know, and, and paste that on.

Um, I will change up the format and do some fillers for those.

Jennifer Wilson: I also think it'd be a good use for some patterned paper that we might have stashed away.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes, exactly. All of my, my scrapbooking kits that I have, because I still have all my twelve by twelve kits, yep, you can pull those out and then, yeah, you can intermix. And isn't that great too? That there's, again, no format. You can add any [00:19:00] color or vision that you want to your pages. Absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned you are lightly using some of the products to help plan your spread. How are you keeping track of, you know, the, the documentation aspect in terms of, um, are you creating along the way or are you gathering things separately and then sitting down to do the spread in one, you know, one sitting-ish?

Kristine LeRoss: One sitting-ish. So it takes me probably two to three days to do one spread.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh-huh.

Kristine LeRoss: It depends on how many you know, like, how much time I have in a week. Um, but I will sit down, and I will pull out this, this rough outline that Heidi has. Uh, there's seven days listed and then four things per day. So I pull that out, um, and then I pull out my phone 'cause I have everything documented. I use my, my iCalendar as my, kinda my journal or whatever's going on. So I flip through my photos. I will, uh, copy all the photos from one [00:20:00] particular week and then put them in a folder so that I have easy access to print them. And then I go through my calendar to see what was going on that week, and I jot down notes for my week.

And at that point, I may decide I'm not gonna - to document that week. Um, but if I am, then I start to just, to write my rough, rough outline of, of what was going on on those particular days.

Jennifer Wilson: There might be weeks where you decide, "You know what? I'm just, I'm not gonna do this. I'm just gonna skip it and move on to the next one."

Kristine LeRoss: Heck, yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think that's a, an important permission? Like, are, are there other types of permissions that folks need to have, um, perhaps to feel successful with this type of project?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, I think that's super important. For me, I mean, I, I used to be a perfectionist. You know, I grew up as accomplishment and, and part of my big life learning lesson is that I need to live in the gray area. You know, everything is not black.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And everything is not white, and everything doesn't have to [00:21:00] be a particular way. And, uh, this has been huge in my life now to, um... Because Heidi's stamping isn't perfect. Um, someone asked me just the other day, I just posted one of my layouts on Instagram, and they were like, "But how do you protect your photos? Don't you have page protectors?" And it's permission to not have page protectors.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Because this to me, this is archival kind of, but it's not archival in the way that I think that I grew up learning about scrapbooking.

You know, everything has to be, um, archival safe and all of those things. And to me, this is a different format. And life is messy. Life is chaotic, and this is a way to bring a little bit more calm. But also to not have the rules unless you need them. I mean, if you're someone that needs to have chronological, and you need to have the rules to follow to make it all make sense in your brain, absolutely give yourself permission [00:22:00] for that. But it's really important for me to know that my permission is to create how I can that day. It's more important to me to be in my craft space, um, which is my safe space.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And have permission to feel peace.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that. I love that. You mentioned earlier that a Stop the Blur spread is not just a small layout.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: What other kind of lessons learned have you, have you had to learn along the way, um, to adapt to this format that might be different from, you know, the way we approach layouts?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Um, and, and that's why I say, like, for months I was a lurker. And I, in preparation.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: For this, I, like, brought out all of my past ones so that I could look through. And, and some of my past ones are so awful. Because I was trying to figure it out. And I think that, um [00:23:00] What I have learned is that I can screenshot ideas, I don't, uh, follow those like a sketch.

Like when I was 12 by 12 scrapbooking, I don't know if you remember Pencil Lines. Um, Pencil Lines was a site that had sketches that you scraplift.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Uh-huh.

Kristine LeRoss: We, in our, in our group for Simple Scrapper, there's, you know, sketches. And so you took a sketch and you created your 12 x 12 layout. And it was so, you could do whatever you wanted with it, right? To follow that general sketch. And so I think with Stop the Blur, it's, it's not really like that. I mean, for me, I can, again, I can watch Heidi's classes and, and she's got all kinds of photos in every, uh, monthly class that's out there, and I can screenshot ideas. But it's not mine if I'm just lifting somebody else's journal memories.

Because that's their life and this is my life. So I may look at a [00:24:00] pocket that they've done, and I can create that pocket, and I can put it in there. But I definitely do not look at somebody's week and do exactly what they did that week with my week. Because it doesn't feel like that's mine.

Jennifer Wilson: That makes sense. That makes Do you do handwritten journaling, typed journaling, or a combination of the two?

Kristine LeRoss: I really love to print journaling on vinyl sticker paper, clear sticker paper. But

Jennifer Wilson: also.

Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: You know, that takes time, and I don't always have extra time. So I do a lot of handwritten journaling. Um, but not like beautiful journaling that you see in some people's calligraphy pages either. I mean, it's just my handwriting, um, top of a lot of the elements that are already laid out for me.

So it's ri- my writing definitely is sprinkled in, kinda like puzzle pieces. I fill in, fill in gaps.

Jennifer Wilson: And how do you approach, um, selecting and printing your photos for this project?

Kristine LeRoss: I look back at that week, like [00:25:00] I said, I will look back and I will put everything, not everything, almost everything from a week into a folder. So that I, uh, then I can look at the folder and decide which ones I'm gonna pull out. Um, it depends on like what photo goes with the story versus like, it... I tend to also screenshot lots of like memes or, uh, motivational, um, sayings. And so things that I want to use to document that week. Um, that's how I'll put them in, in a folder and then pull them out that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there certain sizes that you typically print in? Or is it all over the place?

Kristine LeRoss: It's all over the place, and that's become, you know, kind of a learning journey too. It depends on, again, what, what, what particular pages that you're using. There are outlines on the pages, so they're not blank. So it gives you kind of a template. So there are photo sizes that I'll print that fit into the template, but I don't print [00:26:00] every single photo for every single page on the template either.

I will maybe use, if there's five templates, I may use three of them for photos and the other two for embellishments or journaling or a folder pocket. Um, there's a lot of 2 by, you know, 2 by 1s or 2 by 2s, uh, because that's how, the format is for the pages. So I I follow that as more of a rough outline, but again, that's the permission to print a full, you know, 7 by 9 page or, or whatever it is you wanna highlight for that particular week.

Or there's also photo inserts, so I've got some, I guess more like a pocket page that you can, um, put in there too so you can add more photos, um, as opposed to just sticking them into a photo pocket.

Jennifer Wilson: That's fun to be able to have those things. I know that I've used-- I subscribed to the kits for a little while. And I've used the various components, and I'm s- [00:27:00] I'm there with my, trying to see it as well w-with my ruler, trying to measure like exactly how many, how many little, um, millimeters it is, the, the height and width of this.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And then I make a little box on the computer that's exactly that size.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes. Yes. Okay, and then so let's talk about that for a minute too because that was part of me lurking. So I have, looking back, I've got all of these like random pieces of paper that I've, I put out like the templates or I measured and I bought rulers and I did all this, but all that did was make my brain so fuzzy. Because then it became.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: You have to do it this way. And you have to print it that way. And so I, I approach it differently now, but because I don't want all my photos to be 2 by 1, 2 by this, 2 by whatever.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But that's part of opening up the, the possibilities are endless and expanding. So they're not just in a 2 by 1 photo.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you include larger photos? I mean, you mentioned you wa- you [00:28:00] might wanna do that on the backside.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Yeah, I do. Um, like I did a, a spread a couple of weeks ago, and one side was a full seven by nine photo. And then the other one, um, just was documentation on what was going on in that particular photo. And actually, that turned out to be one of the ones I loved the most too. Because it was so different, um, but it still complemented all my pages.

Absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you say that one is more like a mini layout than your other spreads?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, that was... It ki- yeah, it's more like a mini layout, I would say. With a large photo and then the journaling on the right side. Yeah, that's definitely true. And I did some sewing on it, so that was more like a traditional, layout.

Jennifer Wilson: When do you find yourself working on this? You, you mentioned that you're in real estate, so you're working, and I'm, I'm assuming not necessarily consistent hours. You know, it's it's.

Kristine LeRoss: Ah,

Jennifer Wilson: All the time whenever the clients need you, right?

Kristine LeRoss: Totally.

Jennifer Wilson: When can we typically find you, [00:29:00] or do you just try to fit it in when you can?

Kristine LeRoss: Well, you know, because Simple Scrapper has all these designated hosted crop times, I often am in a lot of crop groups throughout the day just depending on my schedule.

Good.

Now I have friends that I can join in with, and so it's not just me coming up here at any particular time. But I ki- I, I do look at the master schedule to see when there are hosted crops, and then depending on what my day is, I'll pop in there and get things done. Um, often I'm up here at night. I mean, a big part of real estate happens at night as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But there's lots of flexibility in my schedule. Um, and so I will pop up here in the evenings too. I think it really depends on what goes on. Um, right now my life is revolving around the crop schedule.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. What made the difference for you in terms of deciding to become a member?

Kristine LeRoss: You know what? I had... I didn't know you... I, I followed you on Instagram. I didn't know there was a [00:30:00] membership thing. And so you sent me a Light Your Fire, um, questionnaire. And I loved it so much. And then I was like, "Oh my goodness, there's a group." Oh my... Uh, like it blew my mind. And that first week when I joined, I think I went to every single hosted crop, and I am announcing to everybody, "You know, I'm new here," and it's fabulous. I love it. I can't believe it's been going for so many years, and I didn't know it existed.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love hearing that so much, so much.

Kristine LeRoss: Loved it.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have any other tips that you would share with someone who's curious about this format? Are there just, like, things that you've pulled away that have really made the difference?

Kristine LeRoss: I think that the name of it, Stop the Blur, I think really Is so intentional. I think the intention behind what Heidi creates, and she talks about it all the time. Life is fast-moving. Our life is stressful. Our life is overwhelming. Things are always going to go on out in the world, and there's no ways. But this is a way to slow down [00:31:00] and stop and be intentional and be in your present moment in your life. And that is what I love about it. again, I could just say, "Gosh, my life is so boring," and I could, you know, be sad and, and just forget all of this. But, you know, I'm choosing to document. Having my phone with me and taking photos of something that I find beautiful, and then I go back and I write down what I loved about its beauty or what it reminded me of. So I think it's just an opportunity to, pause, right? To stop how blurry everything can be, and step into your life.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, beautifully said, for sure. Do you... I mean, I'm sensing that you do include maybe some messier stories, some more difficult stories in this, whereas that wouldn't be the focus of a layout for you.

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely, and that has been therapeutic. And, you know, it's kind of hard though too because I share these layouts publicly in my public Instagram, and sometimes I blur them out [00:32:00] before I post.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Them 'cause people read your journal and it is personal. Um, and I have struggled with not being a journaler, right?

I never carry, carried a diary or any of those things when I was younger. And so sometimes things I'm writing on a page, it's so personal. Um, and I wanna share it for me, but I don't necessarily want the world to read it. And, and sometimes I do. Because it's okay to be messy. And I, and I'm learning that as I am living life as well, that if we can talk about the messy things, we normalize it for other people because life can be sad. So I do use it, uh, therapeutically, and I actually just this week when I posted, um, my week, it had a lot to do with therapy and healing and where I'm at in my own therapy journey. And so those things are really important to me.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that you found this outlet and were able to, uh, embrace it at this particular time in life, which I, I will be going through in a couple years here, so I'm already kind of [00:33:00] thinking ahead, like learning from the, the empty nesters.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes. Yes. It is a different place in life for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, Kristine, this has been so lovely to chat with you. Can you share where our listeners can find you online and anything you know you might be sharing later this year?

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely. So, um, I do have an Instagram. Um, and it-- my name on Instagram is iamkristinefaith. And, um, I just share, you know, weekly layouts and, um, I share a lot of other content from other, um, makers. It's entirely only a maker account for me, so I, I don't follow politics on the account. I don't follow, you know, lots of doctors on the account. I only follow makers, and so it's a, a source of inspiration.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. We'll definitely include that link in the show notes for this episode.

Kristine LeRoss: Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, again thanks for spending time with me. And to all of our listeners please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.

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