This is some sample text.
Learn More
home decor 2

digital scrapbooking, paint, and a spot of tea

Hi friends!  First of all – thanks for your words of encouragement about Kole and his preference concerning transportation.  :)  Makes me feel better to hear about other late walkers.

I wanted to answer a couple of questions from my picture organizing post
Bindi asked if I have any suggestions for backing up photos?
We used to use an internet service called Mozy that automatically backed up our pictures.  But Mozy raised their rates around the time I got my new Mac, so we decided to just start saving our pictures to an external hard drive.  We use the Apple program (Time Machine) that came with my Mac and it has worked great so far.  
Andrea e-mailed me with this question:

Hey Erin!  I love your blog.  I saw today’s post about organizing pictures and that you have a folder for digital scrapbooking.  I am looking to do more with digital elements and would love to see a blog post on how you organize your digital elements and how you end up using them.  I have been following Ali Edwards and love her digital scrapbooking and want to start incorporating her elements into my Project Life album, but would love your perspective



Thanks Andrea!  Here is how I organize my digital elements.  First a peek inside my “digital scrapbooking supplies” folder:


And a peek inside my “specific elements” folder:

And a peek inside my “word art” folder:  (just to pick a random one)

Everything is organized just like my pictures.  Folders inside of folders.  At one point I was contemplating going completely digital with my scrapbooking, but at the end of the day, digital scrapbooking just isn’t as fun for me.  I love REAL supplies and REAL pictures and to be honest, I get tired of my computer!  It’s why I’m never on facebook.  I love to blog and to read other blogs, but I don’t enjoy being on my computer all day.  Digital scrapbooking felt more like a chore vs. the fun, creative outlet that paper scrapbooking is for me.  So I pretty much just use all of the supplies I’ve purchased/collected for other random things.  Here are a few examples:

{a stamp in the corner of a picture collage}

{some pretty brushes to add a little something to the bottom of pictures}
  (I so remember this trip!  I was pregnant with Kole and starting to really show and so bummed I couldn’t buy clothes.  Maternity clothes stopped being fun after child #2.)

{words and a frame}

{stitched frame around a collage}

{a frame, date, and stamp}

{frames and other little elements}

All of the above pictures and collages have ended up in my Project Life scrapbooks.  I use my digital supplies once in a while to jazz up photos/collages.

And of course, for all of my blog headers.  (Ok – that just made me SO excited for Christmas!)

Hope that helps Andrea!  



But lately I haven’t been scrapbooking.  Lately I’ve been painting!

I painted my black shelf!  Eeek!!!  It was an experience to say the least.  But it’s finished and I love the way it turned out and at some point I will get around to sharing pictures of it.  I painted it before our trip to Utah and returned to one MESSY garage.  I have to just say that my limited experience with spray paint has made me not a fan (remember my baskets?).  And I don’t think it’s as easy as every one makes it appear!  All of these “before and after” blog pictures that make it look like you just quickly spray a little paint and wa-la!  New beautiful furniture!  Not so.  At least for me.  I spray painted the outside of the shelf and hand painted the bead board backing and I had such a better experience with the regular paint and brush.  I feel more in control of what I’m doing and created much less of a mess with the regular paint.  Plus it’s easier for touch-ups.  But I’ve found that I paint about as well as I cook so who am I to talk?  Hope I’m not offending any spray painting digital scrapbookers out there by spouting off about my preferences!  ;)  Anyway.  The shelf is done and I’m happy with it.  Just wasn’t happy with the mess I made in the process.

So today after I unpacked from our trip, I pulled almost everything out of our garage…

and mopped up all of that spray paint dust!   And then I felt much better about spray painting.  And about life in general.  Because cleaning does that to me.

I mopped, Kole slept, and the girls enjoyed a little tea party on a towel.  It was a great afternoon.  

Cheers!  :)

xoxo, Erin
Kole

Mini va-cay (splash pad)

Back from a mini va-cay today!  The kiddos and I spent last week at our little retreat —

(aka mom’s house) in southern Utah.  We had a great trip.  It was HOT.  So we spent a lot of our time in the house or in the water. 
I hung out a lot with my sister-in-law Dayna – we always have so much fun together.  Here we are at the splash pad with our boys.  They were both SO excited to have their picture taken.  
My mom joined us on her lunch break.  Her lunch break ended up being a little longer than usual since it also involved running home to change her clothes.  (Click the above pics to see them better.  The look on my mom’s face is classic.)

Dayna with Addie and my sweet nephew Drew.  Every picture I took of Ellie was a total blur because she was running through the water so fast.  My girls LOVE the splash pad.  
Kole loves the splash pad too.  He even found a buddy this time.  A twin with matching hat and all.  Which one is my boy?  The one who STILL isn’t walking.  Yup.  That would be my Kole.  The one sitting on his little bottom.  Totally content to watch his twin do a happy we’re the same age and I’m walking dance right in front of him.  
Operation “get Kole walking” has been taking place for months now.  

As you can see, we’re making major progress.  

Major.  Lucky for him, his inability to walk doesn’t seem to slow him down much.  

He climbs like no one’s business…  
and has no problem keeping up with his sisters.  
So even though his younger cousin (and every other baby his age) is running circles around him, we’re not too worried.  Guess he’ll walk when he’s good and ready.  He’s just too cool for walking right now.  
In the meantime, he keeps grandma and the rest of us on our toes.  

Isn’t the tabernacle beautiful!?  I love my home town.  I have to repeat that last sentence to myself over and over when I visit in the summer and trade my usual 75 degree weather in for a nice and toasty 110 degrees.

BUT.

This beautiful carousel is a new fixture next to the splash pad and the girls and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

It was as delightful as we had anticipated.  Heat and all.

Good times. 

So – tomorrow will be a nice reality check.  Unpacking, laundry, groceries, cleaning… the day after a vacation is always a busy one.  But it still feels good to be home.

And back to 75 degrees.  :)
xoxo, Erin
Kole

Not Fashion Friday

I. am. exhausted.  This week has been crazy.  And fun.  Crazy fun.  I have so much to blog about and it is killing me that I don’t have time to do it!  If only I didn’t need to sleep.  But I do need to sleep.  (Clearly I need to sleep or I wouldn’t be rambling on this way…)

I know some of you asked questions about my last post and I will answer them.  Some of you requested more Fashion Fridays and I will get around to doing that and answering questions that were asked last week.  Some of you requested that I start modeling the clothes for Fashion Friday and that won’t happen.  Well.  Maybe it will.  I just feel like such a dork taking self portraits!  And Kenny isn’t around enough to take pictures of me.  Although he makes me feel like an even bigger dork so it’s not like that’s a great solution anyway.  So then it’s left up to Ellie and you may remember what happens when she gets a hold of my camera?  Fashion Friday content – to be determined.  But I do have lots to share!  Including some cute stuff I got this week.  I just want you to know if you’ve asked a question in the comments I will get around to answering it at some point.  I have a lot to post.  I’m just too tired to do much tonight.

Did I already mention that?

And did I mention that I was tired?

Summer camps ended last week.  My girls had SO much fun.  We don’t start school until the end of August so still a month left of summer for us!  Can I handle one more month of summer?  That’s also to be determined.  I am starting to think about back to school though.  I need to find my girls some cute backpacks.  Thinking about ordering these soon –

Pottery Barn Kids Fairfax Collection.  I can’t find anything I like better and I’ve been hunting in stores and on-line for a couple of weeks now.  Any other suggestions?

Well – that’s it for me.  I’m off to bed.  Before I know it, a certain someone will be up and going and full of more energy than I can handle!

Have a good weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
organization2

Organizing pics on the computer

Hi everyone!  I thought today I’d share how I organize my pictures on my computer.  You may remember that I ended my relationship with iphoto a while back.  As much as I have loved my new Mac, I just couldn’t ever figure out a system on iphoto that worked as good for me as the system I have been using for years.  And that’s the thing about organization.  It’s really just about finding what works best for YOU.  So I went back to my old system.  And I have fallen in love with my old system all over again because I had a chance to see what else was out there.  And it’s so true that you never really realize what you have until it’s gone.  {tear}

(I can just hear Kenny singing Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” right now.  He sings that song to me whenever I say anything even remotely sappy.)

Moving on.

I know this system won’t work for most (maybe even all!) of you, but it may give you a few ideas of how to organize your pictures – especially if you share a lot of your pictures on your blog.  Which I do.  :)  So here’s what works for me:

When I open the folder on my computer marked “PICTURES” multiple folders pop up:

(**If my pictures of these folders are hard to read, just click on them to make them bigger)  
I use a simple folder system for organizing all of my pictures.  I love folders.  My brain likes to see things laid out this way.  On the first row, I have a folder for each year.  Then under those folders, I have random folders for pictures that are grouped together for a certain purpose (Project Life pictures for the girls, Kole’s scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking supplies, etc.)
Now let’s click on the folder “2011” — 

Inside the folder for each year, I have a folder for each month.  At the top I also have a folder called “pictures to organize.”  When I download my pictures (I usually do this each night because I take pictures every day) all of the pictures go straight into this folder.  I don’t have time each night to organize all of my pictures, so this folder is a resting spot for my pictures, but not their final destination.  
Now let’s click on the folder “July” — 
Inside each month I have one folder for blog posts and one folder marked “randomness” which is basically just every picture for that month that I want to keep but don’t end up posting.  It works the best for me to organize my pictures by blog posts because that is how my brain remembers where my pictures are located.  If I want to develop a picture of Kole brushing his teeth for his scrapbook, I remember that I did a post called “copy cat” with pictures of my little man brushing in July of 2011.  If I can’t remember the exact month, I just pull up my blog and the date I posted will tell me where that picture is stored.  
Now let’s click on the folder “July Blog Posts” — 

Here I have a folder for each post I did this month (in order).  I try to be specific about what pictures are in each folder to help me find pictures in the future.  
Now let’s click on the folder of my previous post titled “Lots of Stuff” — 

All of the pictures from my last post!  And that is where my folders finally stop!  I know.  It’s folders, inside of folders, inside of folders… but this system has worked for me for so long.  I just love having my pictures so nice and tidy in their happy little spot where they belong.  :)

This system also makes things easy for me when I’m about to develop pictures for my kids’ scrapbooks.  If I’m working on Addison’s book for the months May through August, I just go through each blog post folder for those months and each month’s “random” folder and pull any pictures that I want for her book.  I move them to the folder on my main page called “PROJECT LIFE”, make any collages I need to and then send them off to be developed.

BTW – some of you have asked me how my albums are coming along since I haven’t been posting pics of them.  Well, they’re not.  I had great ambitions of getting so much done this summer and now I’m laughing at myself for even thinking that would happen!  This summer has been so busy.  But it’s ok.  I’d rather spend this time making memories with my kids.  I’ll record those memories later when they’re back in school.  I’ll also shower, prepare meals, and do laundry when they’re back in school.  A few other things that have also taken a back seat this summer!

So I’d love to hear your thoughts!  What works for you with picture organization?  Anyone do anything similar to what I do?  No?  Am I the only crazy folder lady out there?

I can live with that.  :)

xoxo, Erin
home decor 2

Lots of stuff

Just a glimpse of what we’ve been up to lately…

 Lots of coloring

Lots of lemon picking

 Lots of hot dog grilling
 Lots of climbing
Lots of decorating – 
by the girls…
and by their mom

Lots of painting (now that I’ve done the wall I’m kind of obsessed)
 Lots of organizing (always obsessed) – afters coming soon

Lots of curls cut off (don’t be fooled by the picture above – what’s left is still awfully curly!)

 Lots of fun in the sun
and of course…
Lots of capturing it all on camera
xoxo, Erin

Shop my instagram

View All Posts