Life & Leopard : pictures

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Weekend Getaway + Social Media Break

Jun 23, 2014

We took L camping for the first time this weekend with my in-laws and had a pretty good time. It was really nice to get out into the middle of nowhere and just be. We stayed at a family-friendly camping resort that had several things to keep little ones like L entertained. She got to ride her first horse and swim in a lake, when we discovered that she hated sand. However, that didn't stop her from being excited to be at a "beach" and hunting for "seashells." We got rained on Saturday night, but we had already had all of our fun for the day, so it wasn't really a big downer. It was so nice to snuggle into bed and read a book as it rained. I can't remember the last time I did that.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

When I found out we were going camping, I thought it would also be a good time to do a social media break. I wasn't sure if I could do it, honestly. However, the campground had really sketchy Wi-Fi, so fate must have been telling me to take a break. I couldn't even access the stuff if I wanted to! I didn't really miss it, which surprised me. When we got back on Sunday, I got caught up and realized I didn't miss much. I will probably do this again in a few months when I am here at home with accessible Wi-Fi. We'll see how it goes then.

I have three or four posts planned for this week and I am also getting ready for L's birthday party on Sunday. I've posted a few pictures of things on Instagram, but expect to see more because I am tackling a DIY project for it this week that I am pretty excited about.

How was everyone else's weekend?
Have you ever taken a social media break before? How did it go?

Labels:pictures,social media,summertime,weekend fun | 10 comments

How to Organize Your Photos

May 6, 2013

Do you take a lot of photos? Do you feel overwhelmed by keeping track of them all? Just after L was born, I realized that if I was going to keep taking photos of her at the average count of 10-15 a day, I ~~probably~~ definitely needed to get a photo management plan in place. So, I took some time, did a little brainstorming, and came up with a plan that works for me.

I'm going to share that plan with all of my overwhelmed readers today and even talk about the editing software I use, printing options, and saving those photos for the long-term.

MANAGING PHOTOS

1. Once a month photo dump. I take photos with my iPhone 5 only. At the end of the month, I sit down and pull everything off of my phone that I have taken that month and upload them to my computer into a designated folder.

2. Organized folders. My folders are labeled with L's name, the month, and the year. I upload photos once a month to their designated folder.

If there is a special occasion in the month, such as Christmas or Easter-those photos get their own designated folder and it is labeled, for example, "L Christmas 2012". If The Hubbs and I have gone somewhere without the kiddo and I took pictures, that gets labeled its own separate folder, too. For example: We took a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks in October of 2012. Can you guess what I named that folder?

I have one other folder that I have created and it is called "Favorites". These are photos that are my absolute favorite. Once a month, when I do my photo dump, I COPY any favorite photos from their designated monthly folder into the favorites folder after uploading. There are some months that there are one or two, other months there are more, and there have been some months that there haven't been any. Remember this folder! We will talk more about this later!

3. Upload photos to an online photo server. DO NOT EVER TRUST YOUR COMPUTER TO SAVE YOUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES! Once you have uploaded your photos to your computer, upload them somewhere online. I upload a monthly folder to Facebook and a monthly folder to Wal-Mart.com (I use WM to print.) I organize these photos online the same way I do on my computer. They each are titled with the month and the year.

EDITING

That's a scary word, isn't it? Yea, it was for me too, until I found....

PICMONKEY

Seriously, this is the best online editing place I have ever used. I used to use Picnik, but they are no longer working. I was sad to see Picnik go, but PicMonkey has become my new favorite. It is constantly open in my browser since that is what I use to work on the blog, too.

I do not sit down and edit a whole months worth of photos. If something needs to be lightened, darkened, tinted, cropped, I will do that. If I take a photo and think, "Oh that would look cooler in black and white!", I upload it to PicMonkey and change it to black and white. I also make collages in PicMonkey. Those can be really fun. If you need a tutorial on how to use PicMonkey, please go visit Danielle over at Blissful and Domestic and she give's a wonderful basic tutorial on how to use PicMonkey.

PRINTING

The coolest thing about adding some special touches to your photos? They can be printed that way! Yes, you read that right! If you add text, change a color, add a boarder; most of the time that stuff can be printed exactly how you have edited it. A lot of people don't realize that. I used to work in a photo lab and would see so many cool shots and I finally started asking the customers how they did it and usually it was a plain 'ole editing software or online photo editing page! BRILLIANT!! Make sure you ask your photo printer first to be sure. I know Wal-Mart does it, but I am unsure of others.

Here are some photos I have edited using PicMonkey and have had printed:

Don't be scared to play with your photos! You never know what you might uncover in a regular 'ole snapshot! If you follow Danielle's tutorial, you will be editing like a pro in no time!

1. Printing every three months. I do a major print order every three months from Wal-Mart.com. I go back through the last three months of photos and the favorites folder that I have previously uploaded to their on-line photo storage (this includes any edited photos I may have done) and I select what I want to print. I always hit the favorites folder first, select what I want out of there, then I go and check out the other folders. I get my cart full, make sure I have the number of copies I need (sometimes I print extras for others, frames, etc.), and I hit submit. Sometimes I have them shipped to the house or I go and pick them up later, it just depends on what is going on that day, week, etc.

2. Photo albums, frames, etc. Everything I print either goes in a photo album, L's baby book, a frame, or my awesome Hobby Lobby photo boxes. Frames are reserved for very special photos. For example, the one above where L is wearing the pink headband, was printed out immediately and several copies made. It is one of my favorite photos of her. Documented milestones go in the baby book, of course. Then I decide what I want to put in an album. The rest go in a photo box. Those photos are kept in the sleeves they come in and are labeled with the month and the year they were taken.

SAVING PHOTOS FOR LONG-TERM

I use flash drives to save my photos. Every six months I go in and pull my folders off of my computer and move them to a flash drive. Once that is finished, I delete the photos from the computer to clear up some space. I then start all over again with uploading photos to the computer. The flash drives are kept in our fireproof safe.

TIPS

*Be consistent. Upload your photos the same time every month. Whether you do it the last few days of the month of the first few beginning days of the following month, be consistent. Set an alarm on your phone to do it, use Google Calendar to send you an e-mail alert; whatever you have to do to remind yourself, just do it.

*There is no need to do all of the above in one day. We are busy people. We have jobs, kids, extracurricular activities, and emergencies that all need our attention. Break the steps up into two or three days'. Heck, sometimes, I take a week! Whatever works for you, do it.

*You do not have to print every photo you take. Be selective. I love my daughter and I think everything (well, most everything) she does is pretty darn cute and I take pictures of those cute moments, but I don't print all of them. You will overwhelm yourself by printing hundreds of photos at a time. Don't do it. That's why there is a favorites folder!

I hope some of these tips help you feel less overwhelmed. I have been using this system for a little over a year now and I am definitely not as overwhelmed as I was when I first started trying to figure out how to manage it all. Feel free to share, tweet, or pin this post so that others can feel less overwhelmed, too!

Labels:organization,photo management,photography,photos,pictures | 2 comments

Announcing The Month of 30: From Child to Mother

Mar 28, 2013

Hello readers! If you have been paying attention to Facebook the past day or so, you know that I am supposed to be announcing something BIG today. If you have no idea what is going on, click here to join our community so you can stay up-to-date on all the happening's with the blog. It will be worth it!

So, without further adieu, I would like to announce a new series on the blog for the month of April!

Here's the deal: I am turning 30 on April 18th. Yep, that's right. 30. I am going to embrace it. I am not "29 and holding" nor will I stop telling people my age nor will I run out to the nearest teenager store and start cramming my post child body into skinny jeans that I can't even get over my butt. I will be 30. It's a milestone. It's important. It means I have thirty years of life under my belt and damn it, some of those were some rough years. It's time to celebrate them, embrace them, and live my next thirty years out loud!

I wanted to share with all of you where I have been, what I have accomplished, and what I have learned on my adventure to 30. I want to erase the stigma of 30. I have discovered that, especially in women, 30 causes them to freak out. It's a number, girls. It really is. That's it. When you turn thirty, it means you have survived thirty years of what life has thrown at you. Pat yourself on the back, embrace it, celebrate it ; don't run and hide.

Starting April 1st, my readers are going to start seeing me peel away layers of myself and displaying them on the blog, for all the world to see. Don't get me wrong, I am a little nervous, but I am excited at the same time. I am going to talk about things that I keep close to my chest because I want to revel in what I have accomplished, what I have learned, and enter 30 to learn new things, face new things, and live my life.

Here is the breakdown for the next month:

In addition to my lists, (which will be chock full of things that some may not even know or realize about me) there will be posts and photos chronicling my last thirty years. I am also going to talk about my dreams for the future and the husband and I's one year wedding anniversary on April 14th.

If you really want to know the person behind this blog, pay attention to Facebook as I will be announcing new posts to the blog, photos from the past, and giving you all kinds of information to make you say, "So that's why she is the way she is!" HA!

Mark your calendar's for April 1st, set an alarm on your phone, write it on a Post-It Note and stick it on your fridge; whatever you have to do to remember to come here every week and read, do it! It is going to be something spectacular, I assure you!

I am very excited for our journey to start! Have a great Thursday everyone!

Until next time,

Labels:april,blogging,pictures,spring,the month of 30: from child to mother,turning 30,words,writing | 0 comments

Chocolate Pudding Fixes Everything

Mar 15, 2013

Well folks, here it is! It's Friday! We have (almost) made it through another week!

I had every intention of posting yesterday, but then decided not to. Eric actually took his day off yesterday, so we had family day and hung out around here. It was nice and much needed. I didn't do anything in the way of housework so I am catching up on all of it today before our crazy, busy weekend starts.

L and I kicked off the weekend with having her Spring picture's taken today. She has the cutest Easter dress, little white shoes, and an adorable hat (that she picked out herself). So, we got dressed up this morning and made our way to the nearest portrait studio to welcome Spring.

And then all hell broke loose.

L did not want her picture's taken today. At all. Not one bit. It didn't matter how goofy the photographer and I acted, she just wanted to cry, scream, clutch Ellie (her lovey), and look at me as if to say, "Why do you make me do these things you horrible woman!?"

(Oh because, dear child, when I gave birth to you, they made me sign a contract at the hospital stating and promising that I would always make you do things you hated.) <----That's sarcasm in case some of you don't know me in real life. :)

So, we got one good pose, which is totally enough for me. I just hated putting her through all of that for one picture. I'm sure it won't be the last time she freaks out on me in a portrait studio.

She was mad at me the whole ride home. Wouldn't smile at me, wouldn't answer my questions with her new found head nod's; she just stared out the window, clutching Ellie. I cracked the sunroof thinking she would like the wind blowing through her hair...nothing.

Nice.

My 20 month old is brooding like a teenager.

*sigh*

So, you know what I did to get into her good grace's again?

I fed my child chocolate pudding with her lunch.

I let her get super, duper messy. I let her wipe her hands through her hair, all over her face, the table, the chair...everywhere.

I just let her go.

For anyone that knows me, knows that I have let go a lot since she was born. I was a clean freak before she was born. Bad. Everything in it's place, turned the right way, etc. Bad. I drove people crazy. I know I did.

I just ate my own lunch and let her go.

She was having a blast.

She needed to feel like a 20 month old again and in control of her own existence.

L is a lot like me.

When I feel like something is out of my control or I am being made to do things that I don't want to do (and, yes, even at almost 30, this still happens) I get mad. I brood. I may even cry.

The only thing that makes me feel better is by doing something I want to do, to take back control of my existence.

My daughter just needed the same thing.

I would never deny her that. Ever. Within reason.

What about you?

Do you feel like your life, or a part of it, is out of control? Do you feel like you are dictated by some one or some thing?

If you do, go do something for you this weekend. Whatever makes you feel your best, whatever makes you happy, go do it. Stop living in the cycle, stop living under people's thumbs, stop living for other people.

Live for you.

And hey, if it's chocolate pudding that will make you feel better, L can attest that it works. :)

Have a great weekend all!