tell my story Archives - Page 7 of 8

Uniquely awesome photo display.

The walls in my home are sacred space. Whatever goes on them is something we’ll see every.single.day. So I’m pretty choosey about what gets a spot on those walls.

Which is why many of the walls in our home are still bare. Just waiting for the perfect thing to hang on them.

The wall in my office is one such space. I spend a fair amount of late night hours on my computer. And I wanted something inspirationally awesome to go on the wall I see the most while in there.

I’ve held out. And I finally found the perfect thing.

It went from this:

To this:

It took a little longer than anticipated to get on the wall. And I didn’t finish during naptime (which created some challenges with a two-year-old who will remain nameless that was eventually banished from the room) or before my girls got home from school so they sat on the floor and watched me finish.

While I carefully selected photos out of my rather large pile, the girls commented on the photos. The things they said were unsolicited. I asked for no commentary on what was going on (because usually by that time of day, I’d like to give my ears a time-out). I was in full concentration mode to hurry and get those things on the wall before the previously mentioned two-year-old sabotaged the entire project.

Mya: “Whooooa. I can’t believe you put so many photos of just me. All by myself. I must be special.”

Jaida: “Mom, I’m really glad you can take such good photos of us”

And my favorite (and most gratifying since I have an intentional purpose for taking SO many photos of our everyday lives):

Mya: “Wow, Mom, you sure do take a lot of photos”
Me: “Why do you think that is, Mya”
Jaida: (without a pause) “Because you think we’re awesome!”

Intentional parenting for the WIN!

I got the photoclips at fotojojo.com

I went back about 4 years and looked through all our pictures, picking out some of my favorites. I printed them at Costco (I know, gasp–but when I’m only printing as a 4×6 and I’m printing THAT many, I just use Costco).

I started with a block of photos put together first. I taped those to the wall, and then added pictures one-by-one directly onto the wall.

There probably was an easier way to do it, but this worked for me. Eventually.

It took a few hours. But it’s my favorite spot in the house right now. The kids too. We’ve all spent a lot of time gazing at that wall, reminiscing about a lot of really good family memories in our home!

I ended up with 153 photos on the wall. At some point I may go down the wall further, but for now, I have to keep the pictures out of reach of certain little fingers who like to destroy things.

And the view from my desk now. I dig it.

Of course it looks cooler if the photos are good quality. So if you want to do this in your home, learn how to improve your photo skills. Not just the quality of the photo, but also the type of pictures you take. You won’t regret it. One of the best investments you’ll ever make.

Family friendly hiking.

In an effort to continually expose our kids to new things, especially in nature, and keep them (and us) active, we hiked to the Fifth water hot springs in Diamond Fork Canyon in Utah.

It is a MUST do for a hiking adventure.

Annnd because I had to heft a human child on my back, the big girl camera was left at home and these are all iphone pics courtesy of myself and my husband Mike.

It was more of a walk than a hike. Our girls, who were 8 and 6, easily made it with minimal complaining. Our 3 year old probably could have done it as well, but we didn’t want to go that slow.
So we packed him and our 1 year old in on our backs. I think it was a little over 2 miles each way.

We brought swimsuits and a change of clothes, as well as lunch to eat by the springs.

On the internet it said a lot of things about naked people being there. Mercifully, we didn’t see any.

The hike up was beautiful. Kind of reminded me of hiking in Hawaii. Seriously. Super green. Trees branching over the paths. Little stream running by.

As you get closer you can start to smell the springs. And the water in the river starts to get warmer. Our kids thought that was pretty awesome.

When we got to the top, we ate lunch, then played around in the different pools.

Definitely worth a visit. We’ll be going back. When the kids get a little older, I want to do it in the winter.

Why we have to get those pictures off our computers!!!

One of the greatest technological advancements and pure gifts in my generation is digital photography. Because it is accessible to everyone and allows us to document our lives and the lives of our families in an affordable and easy way.

Here’s the thing though. We take pictures. If you’re like me, you take a LOT of pictures. And then what happens? They sit. On our phones. On our card readers. On our computer.

And how crappy would it be if this gem just stayed on my computer where no one could see it and enjoy?!

I am guilty of this as much as anyone. But that’s changing. Right now. And forever.

Because truly, the photographs I take are among the most cherished things I have. Right up there with my husband, my kids, my boat, and my bed. 🙂 If there was only one material thing I could keep in this world, it would be my pictures. Because my pictures are the story of my life. Of my family’s life. It’s what we do. It’s who we are.

But my husband and kids have probably only seen about 7% of the pictures I’ve taken. Because they’re sitting on my computer. That my kids aren’t allowed to touch for fear of death. Or a broken leg. (I’m kidding. You can read here how he scored that cute little cast)

This is the year I have committed to stop thinking about things and start doing things. Starting with the things that are most important. Like photographs. And how to get all four of my kids to sleep through the night. Sigh.

So join me in this quest to get the pictures OFF the computer and OUT where they can make a difference!

Click here for STEP 1.

Humans of New York.

A friend of mine told me about this Instagram feed she was following. @humansofny
Said it was a “must follow”. So I checked it out.

She was right. It’s a must follow. I’ve spent an hour the past two nights scrolling through all the photos and reading the snippets of their stories. It’s fascinating. Captivating. Inspiring. Sometimes sad. Sometimes makes me laugh.

But the bottom line, it further emphasizes we ALL have a story to tell. And we’re all connected. We all belong to each other. And we’re similar in more ways than we’re different.

Some examples:

“What’s your biggest remaining goal in life?”
“Honestly, I just want to keep on. I’ve got a job with The City, and it’s hard to do much better than that. I’ve got a pension. I’ve got benefits. And there’s no better job security. You’ve got to fire yourself if you work for The City. You have to do wrong. If I work at that store across the street, they can tell me they don’t need my services anymore. The City can’t do that.”

“I pretty much only read fantasy because I’ve had more than enough of reality.”

“I wanted to be in the FBI, but then I found out that first you have to be a police officer for four years. And I don’t think I want to do that.”
“Why not?”
“I’m literally five feet tall. If I tried to arrest someone, they’d think they were being pranked.”

“I’ve got a whole stack of books in my cart. Most of them are advance copies. I know a place where they get thrown out.”
“How many books have you read?”
“Thousands.”
“So why are you homeless?”
“I’ve tried to work a job a bunch of times. But then I get sad, and then I get high, and things fall apart.”

That last one got to me. For so many reasons.

You can follow them on instagram or Facebook. Or check out the website at www.humansofny.com

Or buy the book with some of the pictures and stories featured in it. You can get that on Amazon here:

Humans of New York

What a brilliant project idea! I actually have had a somewhat similar project idea in the works in my brain for years now. Hoping one day it will become reality. But right now I’m in the business of saving lives of little human people. 🙂 And I’m happy to be in that season of my life.

Go check it out! Be prepared to stay there awhile.

Great gifts for the photographer in your life

Need some ideas on gifts for the photographer in your life?

Here are a few that would probably make them love you even more than they already do.

1. If they just have a point and shoot or are using their smart phone for pictures, consider getting them a dSLR camera. It will be the BEST investment your family ever makes. I promise that. Well, unless you buy a speed boat. Then that would be the best investment. But a camera would be second. Read here on what kind of camera I recommend.

2. 50mm 1.8 lens or if you really want to go all out, a 50mm 1.4 lens. Click HERE for an explanation on why these lenses are a MUST have for every photographer. These are anywhere from $100 to $350.

3. A camera coat. To keep that camera safe when you don’t want to lug around a huge camera bag because you’re already carrying a million other things (diaper bag, purse, kid, blankie, etc., etc.). Put one of these babies on your camera and you can put it in your diaper bag, stroller, purse and not have to worry about it getting hurt.

photo credit: Camera Coats

4. More SD cards for their camera. I fill my cards up all the time. It’s nice to have extra ones on hand. I recommend not buying anything bigger than 4.0 GB just in case the card fails. Then you don’t lose AS many pictures.

5. Speaking of losing pictures. If you aren’t already backing up your photos, you should be. Buy an external hard drive and maybe consider backing up online as well. Funny how when you ask people if there were a fire in their house, what they would grab. 99% of people would say their photographs. I have no idea what the other 1% would say. (And I completely made up that statistic. But I think most statistics are probably made up so it’s ok.)
Which to me indicates photographs are one of the very most important things in our home. And yet, some of us aren’t backing them up.

6. Buy or make them a custom photo strap. Just google camera strap and tons of options come up. There are also some options to get a camera coat with a matching strap. Or you can find them on Etsy.

7. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. This is the book I read to teach myself how to shoot in manual. It’s great for understanding all those terms that seem so confusing.

8. A portable tripod. These just screw into the bottom of your camera so you can take pictures anywhere. AND, so the mom can stay in the picture!!!

For the iphone camera users, you can get an iStabilizer.

9. Project Life for displaying all the photos they take. This is my newest obsession and an amazing solution to getting all of those photos off of our computers and sharing them with others. You can use 40% off coupons on Michaels or Hobby Lobby to get all the supplies. Seriously, these are AWESOME!!! I’ll be posting more about Project Life and my mission to help people get their photos off their dang computers and out where people can see them!!

You can also get the Project Life APP. Just buy an iTunes card and they can download the app and buy extra kits and do all their photo documenting straight from their phone!

10. A gift card to Persnickety Prints to print all the photos they’re taking!

11. Jewelry or clothing related to photography. If you go to ETSY and search for “photography necklace” or “photography t-shirt” you’ll find all sorts of choices.

12. Photo Editing Software. I recommend Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 13

And for some fun, quirky photo ideas, check out Photo Jojo.