Today through one of my facebook page subscriptions I came across a project posted by Mary Ann Jenkins on her blog “i rock paper & scissors.”  She takes a simple frame, strings wire across the frame and uses adorable miniature clothes pins to hang yearly santa pictures.  Because of the structure of the project it’s easy to add a new photo each year and to dress it up with embellishments before it gets full.  It’s absolutely adorable and then once a year those treasured photos showing a glimpse of growing up can be featured and treasured.

A photographic tradition.

Check it out on her blog by clicking here.

Last month Shutterfly posted an article by Rachel B, “Inventive Ways to Display a Photo Book” which suggested using easels to display your books.

GENIUS!!

I was psyched… because as a rehabilitated scrapbooker who now has no time to scrapbook but still loves my pics in albums … I am the #1 fan of the digital photobook.

But… my photobooks sadly sit on a shelf beneath an end table in my living room yearning for someone to, just for a few minutes, come and flip through the pages to SEE all the love and memories captured inside.  But… not even my children seem to notice them on their designated shelf.

So I decided AT ONCE that I must buy an easel.  Then I went to clean the kitchen (rare… I know) and opened a cabinet to discover a large metal easel I had forgotten!  We used it to display a decorative plate at Christmas but it never made its way back into the Christmas storage boxes.  Hooray!  Then last week during a trip to Target I discovered a sturdy metal cookbook holder that works even BETTER than the easel… and well… I had to have that one too.  So here’s a quick peek at my newly displayed photobooks in my family room.  I change the pages every few days.

I found that this easel worked best with my thicker books – the one above is 100 pages on thick paper (from Apple through iphoto) and it sits open nicely on this style easel – where the thinner ones didn’t lay as flat.

By the way – if you’re a new mom and haven’t thought about glass tabletops yet – let me say it was worth the extra effort to get glass cut to match the tops of these end tables (which we discovered after all the wear and tear our old ones encountered with little ones).  We just called a local glass shop – provided the dimensions – asked for rounded edges and corners – and picked up our protective covers.  Now I don’t have to worry if a sticky lollipop is left behind or a coaster-less glass.

Here’s the cookbook holder from Target.  I love this one…

It holds open this smaller book nicely (I think this book is around 40 pages maybe and was purchased from mypublisher.com).  I should note the strategically placed pillows and the advantage of the blur on my way-too-beat-up-by-my-children-who-like-to-walk-and-jump-on-my-furniture couch.  Sometimes it’s great to know how to manipulate my camera settings to hide some of these imperfections! lol…

My favorite thing about this new display idea is, as soon as I put out the photobook on the end table (which was from our trip to Disney World/Animal Kingdom/Sea World) in 2009 both of my girls ran over to it and started pointing out pictures and talking about what they saw.  These memories will no longer hide on a shelf – but will come alive for my girls.  I hope they will know how much I value the time we spend together as a family and that they’ll treasure these memories as I do.

Today I got a mammogram.

Yep… sorry guys… I know it’s “too much information.”  But I had to share because it’s so important.  If you are old enough for a mammogram – please don’t forget to schedule yours for this year.  If you’re not yet old enough for a mammogram please don’t forget that monthly self-exam.  I can’t stress it enough.

And, no, I’m not a freak who loves to go to the doctor.  Actually… I rescheduled twice thanks to snowstorms and almost called this morning to cancel… “fight or flight” kicks in every time and I get to the morning of the appointment and think… well maybe I’ll just reschedule.  Because it’s scary to think about going there and possibly finding out something could be wrong.

But it’s even scarier to find out something really is wrong and not to know until it’s too late.  So when I called this morning in a panic to reschedule and got disconnected by accident (actually routed by the nurse to the wrong number) I took that as my sign that I needed to just suck it up and get in the car.  So… yes… it’s scary for everyone.  And not the most comfortable thing in the world.  But worth it.  And besides… I was quite amused by the mammo tech who kept referring to “them” as “righty” and “lefty” when she needed my assistance with positioning… silly lady.

Okay… so … a break from “oversharing”… what about the “print inspiration” I promised?  This week I decided to try out Shutterfly.com for some of my personal pictures because they emailed me a promotion to get 10 free photo notecards and I also had a $20.00 gift card left-over from our “Visit to Santa” package at the Dulles Town Center this year.  Both were set to expire Jan. 30 so… true to my procrastinating self… I sat down at 10:00 p.m. on Jan. 30 to place my order.

I choose a series of photos I took 2 years ago – just after I got my first DSLR.  These pictures just happened to be a series of pink ribbon pictures that I’ve been promising my mom I would print for her and, sadly, 2 years later still had not.  You see, my mom works tirelessly to raise money for the Komen Global Race for the Cure.  We’ve had a team for 5 years and have raised over $25,000 so far.  My mom’s specialty is crafting – she spends every second of her free time crafting pink ribbon items to sell to friends, co-workers and at a semi-annual Lions Club craft fair in Brandywine, Maryland.  She calls it her “Pink Obsession.”  And she’s truly making a difference.  So I thought a couple sets of pink ribbon notecards might be nice – she can use them to thank all the generous crafters that donate items to her table at each fair.  Shutterfly allows you to order every card separately so I went with 5 different photos in glossy finish and 5 in matte finish so I could compare.

The cards turned out very nice.  They’re 5 x 7 in size.  The matte cards are a dull/flat matte finish so I actually prefer the glossy style for these.  There is a Shutterfly logo on the back of the card but the inside is blank.  I think she’ll be very happy.

I also had that $20.00 gift card so I decided to try out a couple of their other specialty products.  One will have to wait for another post… but I’ll share one more today.  I had this small – wallet-sized magnet printed for just a couple dollars.  I LOVE it!  This one has a nice lustre finish (so it glistens a bit in the light), the color was great, the quality of the magnet and adhesion to the magnet is great.  And I’ve made my ugly file cabinet just a little bit prettier!

And how did the mammo turn out you may be wondering?  Well… I’ve been “lumpy” for years.  So I knew they’d find something.  Thankfully it all looks the same as what they have seen in the past.  So I’ll visit my surgeon who’ll take another look just to make sure – and who will compare these results to the previous.  What stood out as significant to me though was the fact that with the mammogram they could NOT see all the lumps that I felt with my self-exam.  The mammogram only found one lump.  But there are at least 2 (perhaps more) and the second was confirmed by the follow-up ultrasound.

So even if you’re getting regular mammograms – the lesson here?  Don’t forget about the self-exam.  They’re SO important because you may catch what the mammogram can’t yet see.

And the “print those pictures” lesson of the day?  Well – it’s 2-fold.  Look for free offers and try out new products!  Sign up for photo services like Shutterfly.com – they frequently offer discounts and free offers which allow you to both print your pictures and try out new products.  And more importantly… don’t limit your photo printing to albums and prints!  There are all sorts of fun ways to get your pictures printed and on display including products like photo magnets and notecards!

Now go print something – and then do a self-exam! (…my mother always did say I was bossy!)

I know that I am not alone in admitting that I have hundreds… scratch that… THOUSANDS of family pictures… cherished memories… JUST SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE!

Yes… it may be surprising given I’m a photographer and all… but it’s true.  I’ve been terrible about getting my own family memories printed.  In this age of facebook I upload, share, enjoy all the sweet comments of my friends and quickly move on to the next day of capturing memories.  Sadly… many of my walls are bare and most of our pictures exist only as digital files.  Yes – I have a photo collage here… a photo wall there… but they’re out of date and old.  I admit it… I gave up scrapbooking the day my twins were born because – really – who has the time??  I’ve created a few photobooks along the way but I’ve been inconsistent… and I find that I often only get around to making those photo books when I need them as a gift for someone else.

NO MORE!

It is my GOAL in 2011 to print my family memories – and to encourage and inspire you to do the same!

I mean… seriously… WHAT IF MY HARD DRIVES CRASH??? Yes… I have back-ups but I know that many people do not… and regardless… I would still have heart failure.  Thinking long term… and remembering the way of the floppy disk… what if one day we just don’t use CDs and DVDs anymore?  What if the .jpg file goes the way of the floppy drive?  Who knows what the technology future brings.  I want my most cherished memories printed out.

Besides!  Looking through my old photos makes me happy.  For one… I was skinny back then!  (lol… just kidding… sort of…)  Seriously though… I’ve spent some time this week looking through old Christmas photos and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve smiled – my heart has smiled - seeing my baby girls with no hair and huge grins posed on a pillow beneath the Christmas tree or looking at my husband all covered with flour the first year of our marriage when we decided to make our first batch of Christmas cookies together.  I want my children to be able to flip through our books and see the value I place on our family and the times we share together – and to see the love captured in those photos.

Good photo or bad… it really doesn’t matter… so long as it makes you smile.

So I will be spending 2011 searching for ways to get my family memories printed, organized and displayed and I’ll share anything I try here with you.

I started today with a gift given to me by my parents for Christmas.  They gave me a photo serving tray with slots for four pictures (I believe they purchased it at Bed, Bath and Beyond in case anyone would like to know – search for serving trays on their site).  Now in the past it probably would have sat at the bottom of a pile in my closet because I wouldn’t be able to decide which pictures to put in it or take the time to print them out.  But… thanks to my 2011 resolution I made it a priority to put this tray to good use!

I’m working on setting up a natural light newborn photography studio in my home and decided this would be the perfect accent piece for serving water and lemonade to my clients during those long newborn sessions.  I also hadn’t printed any copies of my favorite newborn portraits for myself yet… so I chose 4, placed the order and am so happy with the result.

A couple helpful hints: I chose black and white pictures so they would blend nicely together and with the surrounding rich wood.  You can often use the stock photos they come with as a guide for what to choose – this tray came with black and white pictures in it so I knew that would be a safe place to start.   I also printed about 7 images and then played with them until I finally decided on the four that I liked best together.  I’m thrilled with the results and can’t wait for my next newborn client so I can whip up a pitcher of lemonade and put my new tray to good use!