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Today is my twin sons’ 14th birthday. I spent the morning looking through some of their baby pictures and other vacation pictures that are stored online.
Sean and Tim, age 4, Colorado railway vacation…
Today, age 14…
Today I also sent my two eldest girls, ages 10 and 7, to sleep away camp. It is the 10 year old’s third year; the 7 year old’s first. I am amazed how fast the time goes. Truly, as they say, but especially with parenthood…the days are long but the years are short.
Here is what I realized when I was looking at those photographs this morning:
I had such good intentions to scrapbook these (and when my kids were younger I was constantly scrapbooking, or making photo collages to hang on the wall, etc) but like many busy moms, most of my photos; my memories are trapped on memory cards and in online storage facilities. This is not the legacy I want to leave my kids. So I think one of my goals is going to be at least once a month to work on getting some of these photos out of said online storage and get them into books and or frames that we can enjoy. I also need to “catch up” on the kids homeschool portfolios. I have a great system for their homeschool documentation binders but the portfolios are where I keep more work samples, poems written, art projects, etc that I can one day pass down to them to do with as they wish.
Here’s some ideas for you when dealing with photo overload:
- Print off favorite photos in Black and White and make a striking photo collage on a wall in a dining or living room.
- Make 12 x 12 shadow box framed art from fave vacation photos, postcards and memorabilia
- Print out online scrapbooks that are made for you by companies such as Shutterfly.
- Order prints (or print out if you have that capability) one online photo album a week until you are “caught up” and have hard copies of your photos.
- AND BE SURE to transfer online albums on your PC to an online hosting service, whether its FB or Shutterfly or to memory cards in the event that your computer were to crash or get a virus, you still have your memories!
Here are some of my favorite things when dealing with my own photos:
PICMONKEY: PicMonkey is a wonderful user-friendly online photo editing site. It allows you to do everything from edit a single photo to making collages that are blog worthy. It includes easy templates for facebook timeline photos and more so you don’t have to guess sizes. I upgraded from the free membership to the royal last year and love it. All my pinnable images for my blogs, I make myself via picmonkey.
I started this project a few years ago of doing one of these shadow boxes for each vacation/family trip we did and I hang them together in our large hallway. It is fun to pass them each day and be reminded of adventures we took as a family. These are deep enough to include a few memorabilia in addition to just photos. When people visit my house, this is one of the areas I get the most feedback and compliments on!
And, if you want to take better pictures, here is the resource I used that helped me “up my game” in the photography department. Of course I wanted to take better pictures of my family, but I also write a travel blog, French Pemberley, so I wanted to be able to take pictures that captures the beauty of the places I was visited. If you have followed my blog very long, it is no secret I am a big fan of the Craftsy classes. They offer 23 for free and I have purchased about a dozen. So far through Craftsy, I have learned more about photography, container gardening, baking breads, sewing my own tote bags, how to make a felt Christmas village and more! If you haven’t checked them out, I highly recommend them!
Now it’s your turn to show me what you are working on!
Every Sunday on facebook and most Sundays here on the blog, I share a craft or sewing themed post. Sometimes, this is a photo of a project I am working on or trying to finish; other times it is a How To post for a craft or sewing project. Sometimes I share favorite books and online resources. Eventually, as we get going, it is my hope to do a project here on the blog that will include materials lists and directions so you can follow along and do the same one at home.
Each week, regardless of the Stitch Along post shared, you are invited to post a photo of a project you are working on to one of our facebook pages (or both!) The goal is to encourage and inspire each other to find time to finish those projects, try new things, and make friends.
Be sure and leave a comment of post to our facebook wall what you are working on! I would love to see!
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