They arrived. 13 inches of pure photo goodness, ready to nag at me for a home. As if I need something more to add to my list of projects.
Even though the stack is huge, I am glad to have them. I decided a while back, when I started to develop a system that was right for documenting our lives (which before wasn’t much honestly,) one of my issues was that the majority of my photos lived deep in the computer. Big surprise? No.
The problem was that I was addicted to taking photos, and that’s where it stopped. Kind of like when you are addicted to a new fun outfit everyday and not addicted to doing the laundry? Yeah, a little problem arises.
So I started buying bulk print packages, which allowed me to get prints for 9 cents and because the print packages are only good for a specific amount of time, it forced me to print more.
I can say I have officially printed. I believe it works by forcing me to get it done. Sometimes I need that. Often I need that.
Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love Photoworks and for the first time I tried their matte photos and added the white edge too. I really like the results. Will use that again.
Have you printed photos lately? Do you have a system that allows you the opportunity to print regularly so you can enjoy your photos? I wish I had started my system when the girls were babies. But when I start to get frustrated about that, I just try to keep in mind that they are in elementary school, so it’s better than what it could be. I just started at present and worked forward trying to stay current and then I can work backwards from there.
I use my Epson Picture Mate to print everyday photos during the month, to use in my Family Photo Journal because it is truly the easiest and it’s instant photo gratification with amazing results. Then I also order prints online using my bulk prints about once a year for the things I want to have lots of photos of and don’t want to print by hand. Things such as birthdays, holidays, school activities, vacations, etc and these go in to Photo Albums with photo sleeves.
The majority of people I meet keep most of their photos in the computer and never print. I know the feeling. I was just like that. They might use a few in the computer, email a few, and give to grandparents for Christmas, but that’s about as far as it goes.
Been there, done that. I was overwhelmed and intimidated and yet even a photo addict. Once I made the change to digital, the only printing I did was the few photos I printed at home that were meant for a specific scrapbook project. You know what that meant? I printed less and less because I was scrapbooking less and less because I was numb and really didn’t know where to begin and so the cycle continued. I got overwhelmed with all the steps in the process and it really started eating at me. So then I stopped buying scrapbook products because they reminded me of what I wasn’t doing.
I knew I had to find a way, a way to change.
AND that is when I first made the decision to really get what I wanted out of my time and let go of all the RULES that I had somehow picked up along the way. I couldn’t be happier with the fact that I enjoy my photos and my kids and family enjoy them too. What better way to let your kids know that you love them and love your life, but with pictures showing them!
and you know what, having my photos around me and not in my computer makes me a better mom, wife, woman and person because it makes me happy. AND that is a good thing because I think there are days I need a little extra help.
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What works for you? Have you found something that works?
I’d love to hear what your challenges are in regards to your photos or what successes you’ve had.
How has it changed you? What do you want to change?
Wow! That’s a lot of photos all at once.
I must say that I was one of those people you described. I take thousands of photos a year and print some out to put in frames, give to other people, or use in projects (mostly to give to the kids’ Grandmothers). I like to scrapbook, but just didn’t have enough time. I was really behind - still working on my oldest son’s baby book (60 pages and 7 months in) and he’s 4 1/2! I also just couldn’t print them out and put them in albums … it felt like admitting defeat.
Believe it or not, discovering your blog and reading about your photobooks rather set me free. I took courage and decided it wasn’t cheating to create photobooks. So, I created one for every year before we had kids (not too many photos) and then a family one for every year up to 2007. I still plan to paper scrapbook baby books for each of the three kids and do layouts for the pictures I want to … but I’m caught up!!!
Danelle- thanks so much for the kind comments on my blog. I love your blog as well, and feel like we’re very much on the same journey in so many ways! Regarding prints- I use the Pioneer Albums from Costco.com, and group my prints quarterly. I pull photos from those albums when I want to scrap- so they are “working albums” but the kids can flip through them and look at the photos that aren’t scrapped. They are also 3 ring binder, so you can add extra pages, which I thought was unnecessary, but after having gone through 3 sets of albums- save yourself the time and buy the 3 ring ones first.
I am all set up for a “library of memories” a la Stacy Julian (have you ever taken the class? The organizational tips are life changing!) but I really have adapted it to my own needs after a few years of doing it now. The photo storage: key. I also have the yearly photo books, like you for 06, 07 and half of 08 (I took too many pictures last year and have to make 2 books!).
I do have my scrapbooks grouped in Stacy’s categories, and I basically tell my stories in whatever way I choose- actually multiple ways in some cases- books for the “general/short” stories, and pages for things that need more journaling. The books give me so much freedom, in my opinion. Also- this year I am doing a Project 365 for the first time. We’ll see how that goes too.
Another cool product I have (which you kind of have covered with your family journal) is a 10 year journal
http://www.harpgigs.com/store/journal_buy_now.htm. It’s really cool, because I have had mine since 03, I was pregnant with my son,and my daughter was one year old! I literally write about 3 lines each night about what we did/what was important that day. It is so cool to look at it when I have actually done all of the years (I was more flakey when the kids were babies)- what was I doing on any given day over the 6 years.
The other thing to make the prints less overwhelming, I do them monthly, so then I can slide them in the album over a TV show one night!
Oh yeah, I was going to ask you- when you order your CD’s from photoworks for the year…is there a limit on how many cd’s? I take a LOT of photos! I am starting to upload all of mine there as well as Kodak….Did January yesterday, and figure I’ll do them at the end of each month.
I am pretty good about getting mine printed.
I use Walgreens 10 cent sale and get about 500 done each time>
Sometimes it’s overwhelming to get so many, but then I think if my
computer crashed and I lost them all, I would probably die! LOL!
MY photos make me sooooooooo HAPPY too and looking through a HUGE stack like
that is so so FUN! I could sit and stare at photos for hours. I don’t print them all
because I would be broke, but I would LOVE to print them ALL! do you print them all?
I keep so many even bad ones. Cause I read one time that when people go digital and delete
the less than perfect ones, they are deleting their lives/memories and now i can barely EVER delete!!!
I love your stacks! those are gorgeous the ones that you showed!
I feel like I relate to you so well when it comes to the girls and the photos/memories, recording it all down.
we have a similar system. now I just NEEd to print some more from 2007-2008 . i have done about 1000 but that’s not hardly any compared
to how many i have taken! you should see when i do a weekend crop, i come with a HUGE ol’ stacK>!
but i get about 40 layouts done in a weekend>
I LOVE the photo books you get done too and need to do some of those. i have only done one but i LOVE IT!
talk soON!
tara
Oh, Danelle…you should sign up for Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It’s starting this Thursday. She has just the BEST method for keeping track of/sorting/using/looking at your photos I’ve ever seen. It’s a real light bulb class, for sure! If you can’t take the class, check out her book, Photo Freedom. She based the book on her class.
I usually save up a few and print when they run a sale or when I need them for a certain project. My problem is there are so many I print and then end up not using.. I certainly need to get better at that.. Oh.. I love the white borders.. I have used them for a while.. I was having sizing issues with my lab so the white borders helped solve my issues!
My kiddos hand-stamped valentines for their classmates - thankfully my 11-year old boy is still into it too!
I felt the same as you, not wanting to feed into the commercialism, so I made some sweet treats for my kiddos and my hubby made them each a card - you can see how they came out on my blog - super cute and they all loved them!