No doubt about it, we love fall here in the Midwest!!

That being said, when your daughter is 16 and constantly on the go, your 'traditions' change a bit. No more pumpkin patches or apple orchard visits, no more dressing for Halloween. What she does still love though is our annual 'photo shoot' at the local metroparks to celebrate the return of sweater weather and crisp sunny days. I snapped this pic last year during our walk and other than the long sleeved sweater, it didn't feel like your 'traditional fall' photo...so I snagged the opportunity to feature colors other than brown/orange/yellow. :)







Sometimes when you love a photo, you have to just let it stand out. I kept the colors around the photo pretty simple, and stayed away from what most may consider the common palette for autumn photos. It fit my photo (and our twist on fall around here), but it's also to liven things up a bit!! When things start to feel 'stale' (like using the same colors for photos this time of year might), I typically look for a change. 







As always, I adored the little phrase stickers + die cuts in this collection...Simple Stories has such a knack for including little details! So much so that I often find myself wanting to use more than I have room for, so this time I used them within my journaling to incorporate as many as I liked. The phrases did all of the work for me: I opted for a rainbow color scheme when choosing them (notice they go from red to blue, top to bottom), and they acted as my jump start for my own journaling. I placed the stickers + die cuts along the right edge of the page and added my journaling lines in between...all I needed to do was fill in the blanks!







Along the left edge of the photo, I layered more die cuts + stickers...using the ampersand and 'grateful' sticker for my title. Those leaves are probably the only thing that kind of screams 'autumn' on this page, and I love that it isn't quite so obvious. I'm all for thinking outside of the box to make something work for me in a different way, rather than feeling stuck in a rut. ;)



Don't be discouraged if your family isn't hanging out at all of the familiar fall places that they used to...just opt to roll with it and use your items in a way that fits!!