Photo Books-The Nitty Gritty

In my last post I talked about listing out all the steps to complete a photo book. Today we will go through the nitty gritty of the actual 'putting together' of the photo book. 

Photo Books- Making a List

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

Isn’t this so true? I don’t know how your mind works, but I spend a lot of random time in my day thinking, “Oh, I need to remember to wash my jeans so they will be ready for tomorrow.” And then two hours later “ I need to remember to pick up that CD from the library” And other random things-the list just piles up to the point that I can’t remember any of it. I have a terrible memory and as soon as I get home I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. So the only thing I can do is to make a list. I know this isn't rocket science, but it works for me. 

Anthony and Viv Go to Prom {my photography}

I had the distinct privilege of meeting Anthony and Viv while they were on their way to prom. They look so good. Are you kidding me? I know I didn't look close to this good when I went to prom, and we certainly don't need to post those pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites from their mini-session.

Photo Books-Get Started Now

It's July 1st, so I thought it was time to take a look at my list of things I was hoping to accomplish for the year. The one thing I have actually been able to stay on top of this year is photo books.

Baby M- Age 1 {my photography}

So many little guys turning one this spring. Baby M is growing up so fast! He's such a charmer and I know he will be breaking a lot of hearts in the future. He had his session with his cousin and they are both on the move in a major way!

Baby J- Age 1 {my photography}

It's hard to believe baby J is 1 already! You can see his maternity shoot, birth photography and newborn photography.

This little guy is so serious! We had to work hard for our smiles, but he is so stink in handsome. Here are some of my favorites.

Cash- Age 3 {my photography}

Meet Cash. He's 3 and so sweet. Caroline loves to play with him and talk about him all the time. They are so cute together. He just turned 3 and so we headed out to get some photos. We started as a cowboy and then went to play on the playground. You can just see how happy he is!

Brianna- Maternity {my photography}

Well I'm behind on my pictures again. Shocker, I know. 
Here is my friend, Brianna and her adorable family. They recently welcomed their second son, Remi! He's probably close to a month old, but these pictures were taken less than a week before he was born. Such a special time in their lives and I am so happy for them.

DIY Spring and Summer Door "Wreath"

Last summer I made this 'wreath' for our front door. It was pretty quick and easy and i think it turned out pretty cute. 

Decorating with Pictures

This post was inspired by Kristen Duke's Yearly Series which taught me that something is better than nothing.

I love to go to other people’s houses and look at all their pictures. Our walls have been mostly bare for years and it drives me crazy. 

I have included some ideas here of ways to print and/or display your photos so you can cherish them for years to come.

Happy Birthday to one of the sweetest people I know

Here's a cute little gift idea for the person who has everything.
I put some brownie bites in a jar and attached a tag with some baker's twine. 
I probably have more baker's twine than what should be legal, but that's not the point of this post.
The point is, you can use what you have to make a cute gift for a friend, teacher, coworker--in this case--my mom..

5 Photo Projects I do Every Year

Getting pictures off of your camera and onto your walls, printed for family or doing anything other than looking at them on the computer --is sometimes asking a lot. 

I take a lot of pictures. I should probably be glad that I don't have a smart phone, because I would only compound the problem. But I have made a commitment to doing the following photo projects every year. Most of these get done during the holidays--when things are crazy, but they are important to me, so I make a concerted effort to plan ahead and get them done every. single. year.

1. A Christmas Card

2013-from Shutterfly

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream 4 Ice Cream

Thanks to Renee for reminding me that I had not posted these pictures yet. Caroline's party this year was so much fun. The theme was 'I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream 4 Ice Cream.' She was turing 4 obviously. And this worked perfectly because Caroline loves ice cream. A lot. 

14 things 'to-do' in 2014

As I stated previously, I generally just make a ‘to-do’ list of things I want to accomplish during the year. I generally make them to be more than I can actually accomplish. Most of the items on the list generally have to do with preserving memories-or making photo books. I have managed to stay up to date since Caroline has been born, but I am still trying to catch up on the past. It's a time consuming task that can start to pile up on you if you don't keep moving! However, I have finally figured out a system. In my next post I will tell you how I will accomplish some of these!

2013 in review

Well 2014 has snuck up on us (don’t all years). It is amazing to me how so often it seems like the days and weeks go by so slowly, but the years go by so fast! I cannot believe that Caroline will be 4 on Wednesday! Seriously, it boggles my mind. Anyway, I don’t make resolutions (most of the time). I tend to compile more of a ‘to-do’ list of sorts. There are certain things that I wish to accomplish each year and other projects that I try to ‘catch up’ on or things I wish to do around the house. Before posting the 2014 ‘to-do’ list, I like to look back and see how 2013 went. I try to review the list at least once during the year (probably why it doesn’t ever get done!) I should put it on my calendar to review monthly (ya think)

DIY Modern Art Baby Gift

Have you seen all the adorable modern art available on Etsy?

Caroline by the year

I thought I would share with you today a little ditty that I do every year for Caroline’s Birthday.

After her party is over, and she has had her yearly checkup with the doctor, I take the picture that I used for her birthday invitation and I ‘edit it up’ with all of Caroline’s favorite things for the year. It’s fun to go back even now when she is only 3 and see how much things have changed. It even reminds of things that I have slowly started to forget, like how much she loved her bunny when she was a baby.

When I started this project, Picnik.com was my editing site of choice, because it was fast and easy. Now that they have shut down, my editing program of choice is Picasa. You download it right to your computer, so you don’t even have to connect to the internet. That’s my favorite part of course, since I don’t have constant, reliable access to the internet. Now I can edit at my leisure.

*Note: I don’t use Picasa for photo editing, just for adding text, but you can do that too.

Caroline's 1st Birthday- Winter Wonderland

Here's a little blast from the past. I have blogged about Caroline's 2nd and 3rd Birthday parties, and then thought maybe I should go ahead and write about this one too.

This was the first party that I ever really did. I wanted to do a Winter ONEderland theme from the time she was born in the middle of the winter. The pictures are pretty terrible despite my attempt to re-edit them. These were the pre-DSLR days. It is crazy to me how much Caroline has grown and at the same time how much she has stayed the same.

Caroline is 3!

Here are a couple of pictures from Caroline's 3rd birthday. It was about 6 weeks ago, so I'm doing better than last year in posting! This year the theme was "Caroline is turning 3, Come and celebrate with me!" Ok, not really a great theme, but basically I got to do whatever I wanted...and that was awesome.
We had the party at our house this year. In the past it has been at my MILs house. Since our house is much smaller we only had our immediate families in attendance.

13 Goals for 2013 {Monday Me}