Ten things to do with your photos

Mar 15
Ten things to do with your photos

What can you do with all the photos you have on your computer or tucked away in a shoebox?

This week’s list is all about what you could do with them to relive those times, or show them off to family and friends.

One option is to talk with your photographer and think of a use for the photos before you take them. For example, for engaged couples, you could plan out a shoot well before your wedding, and incorporate those photos into your invitation or save the dates (see #1 below). Or, if you are expecting a child, plan a photo session starting with a maternity session, and ending with their first birthday party, then collecting those images in one album or photo book to treasure for many years to come.

There are other options that could be treated more as a crafty project to do with your family or your loved ones to relive those moments while you are making this, such as photo cubes, DIY framing, or having your photos made into a puzzle and building them together.

1. Save the dates: Planning a photo shoot with your photographer to use these photos in a Save The Date would be a easy way to have your personality shine through. The Broke Ass Bride blog just posted some great Save The Date ideas that incorporated photos here
2. Photo albums: moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas are excited to tell their friends about your recent wedding or your new addition to the family. Making a small brag book or a full album to share these times with them and their friends means that they can relive the moment, or cherish your newborn over and over. They can range in the very simple (printing out 25 photos and putting them into a small, off the shelf brag book, or customizing a full photo book through several online services like Blurb, Shutterfly, Photobook, or even hand making one to really personalize it would be a great gift to give.

3. Framing: The more traditional thing to do is to take your photos to a framer and have them framed and/or matted to give as a gift or hang in your own home. There are all kinds of framers out there to customize the look of these frames and mats to really help your photos shine. If you would rather do this yourself, to save money, or just because you like these kinds of projects, I found a do it yourself framer in Brookline, MA here

4. Photo puzzle: I visited a friend over the weekend who has a 2 year old, and a 4 year old named Hannah. She loves puzzles, and despite her shyness, shortly after I started working on the puzzle (conveniently located on the coffee table) she started talking to me and working with me to solve it. It was a wonderful way to connect with her, and because of that, we became fast friends. There are a variety of places to get a photo puzzle made, such as Piczzle, PuzzleArt, or check out photo puzzles on Etsy

5. Digital photo frame: If you’re like me, you find it hard to choose just one photo to display in a frame. There are a variety of digital photo frames out there, and choosing which one can be daunting. PC Magazine created a good list of pointers on how to find one that suits you here

6. Sharing your photos online: Families are spreading further and further out. Printing photos and sharing an album with friends and family that may live hundreds of miles away can be difficult. Posting your photos to an online album might be a better way to provide access to people who want to see all these significant times in your life. Some of the better known online albums are: flikr, picasaweb, and even your profile on facebook

7. Including the photos in thank you notes: I had a consultation recently with a bride and groom who were super excited that I provide a photo booth at their wedding. They had all kinds of ideas for props to have, then they had the idea that they should get in there at one point during the reception and get their photo taken while holding a “Thank You!” sign up, then use those for their thank you cards! Also, printing out the shots of your guests who got in the photo booth and including them in your thank you cards might be a great way to personalize the notes, as well as remind them of all the fun they had at your wedding!

8. Photo cubes: These are a great way to display your photos, and you can change which photo you can see very easily. Also, if these are on a desk at work, not only can you see the photos, but so can any visitor to your desk. There are some pre-made photo cubes around that only require that you trim your photos and put them in the frame. There are also wooden blocks for sale at craft stores that would work, and would allow further customization in any number of ways.

9. Wedding website: A great way to resurrect old photos of you and your significant other, or to use engagement photos if you took them, is to get them onto your wedding website. These sites are a great way to familiarize your guests with the area or of people in your wedding party.

10. Invitations, holiday cards, birth announcements, ornaments: Planning a photo session in time to use those photos for holiday cards, a birth announcement, or invitations to a first birthday party really help to show your personality, as well as update the recipients on how big your newborn is getting, or where you are living.

Have you used your photos in a creative way that I have not posted here? I would love to hear your ideas, so feel free to post your suggestions below.

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Mar 11
The Grace and Talent of Shirley Ballas

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Mar 08
Words Of Advice For Expecting Parents From Experienced Parents

Three weeks ago, I posted a list, generated by readers and clients, that offered advice to engaged couples from married couples about their wedding day (click here if you missed it).
I really like the idea that these lists are not always what I think, but rather a resource of collected information from people in the know, people that have been through these experiences and who have learned lessons. So, through my Facebook page, I posed this question: “What’s the best advice you can give someone who is expecting a child this year?”
Below are people’s responses. Thanks to all of you for your advice!!

1. “Go out to a nice dinner together at least once a month while you are expecting. It gets harder for mom to eat later in pregnancy but savor the moments anyways. It will be months before you can do it after baby comes!”
   –Tara, mother of two

2. “Save A LOT of money, sleep all you can and enjoy being with your spouse (take a trip, do something you have always wanted to do together, etc.) and get ready for the most exciting time of your life. Being a parent is the best experience in the world!”
   –Ben, father of two

3. “Save the cash people start to give you in a jar that is only to be used on the baby. You will be surprised how much you spend after you think you have everything, and this helps save you a lot of money. But, most importantly, cherish every moment you have as a couple and as a family. It goes fast. :)”
   –Tara, mother of one

4. “Commit your current lifestyle to memory. I can’t remember what life was like before kids – what did I do with all that free time, when I didn’t have all these expenses? :)”
   –Josh, father of two

5. “Sort of like what Josh just said, be ready for a radical change. Kids totally change your life in ways you can’t totally anticipate. That being said, know that after the craziness of the first year or so, life does settle down eventually.”
   –Laurene, mother of two
   
   
6. “The best advice I have is to relax. Don’t be afraid of childbirth – it’s not pain, it’s very hard work, but, like running a marathon, or completing any other monumental physical feat, it instills amazing self esteem and confidence for new moms. Embrace it and own it!
   Also, as soon as you can, start going out for coffee, lunch, wine, whatever with your partner. never forget that you are a couple. Kids are part of your relationship – they don’t take the place of it.
   And never feel bad about saying “no” to your child. You’re doing a service to your little one when you lay down boundaries and discipline. It’s ok to not want to be with your kid 24/7, and it’s ok to disappoint them, or make them mad. They’ll live and they’ll be better people for it. Adversity is good for kids. They don’t need to be raised in a cocoon of entitlement to feel secure and happy. When they face challenges and overcome them, they feel good about themselves.”
   –Adrienne, mother of one

7. “Sleep! Sleep! Sleep! Sleep!”
   –Sarah, mother of one

8. “Stay calm and live in the moment. Don’t stress over what might happen in the months to come or you may miss the special moments you can only experience in infancy. Also, resist the urge to smother your husband while he sleeps through the night time wakings.”
   –Kim, mother of one

9. “90% of the ‘must have’ stuff from Babies R Us is totally not needed.”
   –Nicole, mother of two

10. “I think the best advice I have is to be patient and don’t panic. Also, it’s important for new parents to understand that they have a new job that they will do 24-7, so they will be tired and will need breaks. It’s so important to take a break when you need one or a nap. It’s amazing what an hour break will give you. It will renew your patience, bring down your stress level and refocus your mood so that you won’t take precious moments for granted.”
    –Renee, mother of one

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Mar 01
10 Of My Favorite Quotes

10 Of My Favorite Quotes

I often look to the advice and wisdom of those that have gone before me (and who are much more eloquent than I am!). After highlighting, dog earing, and post it noting a wide selection of my library (and sometimes searching frantically for the perfect quote to use), I figured collecting these quotes in one place would be much easier! So a few years ago, I started consolidating my favorite quotes into one list and have been adding to it on a regular basis. I often refer to it to look for inspiration, to remind myself of the path I deemed to be the right one, and sometimes just to giggle.

Below is just a small sampling of the quotes I have collected. Do you collect your favorite quotes? Please, share some of them with us! Just comment on this post with a quote that moves you, I would love to hear it!

1. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
   –Unknown

2. “Step off the road and vanish behind a curtain of old growth fir: In that instant you will have traveled back a century, when all you needed to survive was what you carried on your back. The weight of all that madding urban ambition and enterprise falls away like armor, and your heart leaps up to meet the mountains. Walking, your life slows down, and all your senses flower and open.”
   –Sid Marty

3. “Everyone tells you what to do and what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.”
   —From the movie Peaceful Warrior, and a book of the same name by Dan Millman

4. Think of the ripple effect that can be created when we nourish someone. One kind empathetic word has a wonderful way of turning into many.”
   —Mister Rogers

5. There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew, and that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.”
   –From The Call of the Wild by Jack London

6. “All reality is a projection of what state of consciousness you are in”
   –Deepak Chopra

7. “People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
   Forgive them anyway.
   If you are kind, people may accuse of selfish, ulterior motives;
   Be kind anyway.
   If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
   Succeed anyway.
   If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
   Be honest anyway.
   What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight;
   Build anyway.
   If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
   Be happy anyway.
   Give the world the best you have, and it may not be enough;
   Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
   You see, in the final analysis, it is all between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
   –Mother Teresa of Calcutta

8. “Rubber Duckie, you’re the one!“
   –Ernie from Sesame Street

9. “A work of art is abundant, spills out, gets drunk, sits up with you all night and forgets to close the curtains, dries your tears, is your friend, offers you a disguise, a difference, a pose. Cut and cut it through and there is still a diamond at the core. Skim the top and it is rich. The inexhaustible energy of art is transfusion for a worn-out world.”
   –From Art Objects by Jeaneatte Winterson

10. “I am a new man.
    I snarl at her and bark.
    I romp with joy in the bookish dark.”
    –The last stanza of Eating Poetry by Mark Strand (click here for a link to the full poem)

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