Erin, Author at The Sunny Side Up Blog

Ellie and Addison

08.22.11

Pantry and Pajamas

Hi friends! Thanks for all of your sweet comments from last weeks’ Fashion Friday! You were all so kind and made me feel a little less silly for a post full of nothing but myself in front of my bathroom mirror. (That seriously makes me a little uncomfortable. It also seriously makes me want to mix up the paint in my bathroom!) :) Really though – I loved hearing from so many of you so thanks again for your kind words.

Sharing a few pictures of my mom’s pantry today. We have a deal that every summer when I come to visit she’ll offer plenty of free babysitting in exchange for a well organized pantry. It’s quite the win win for me since I love organizing so much…and not a bad deal for her since she’d spend time with my little ones regardless. So just like last summer I hit town and got right to work!

Before:

After!

Nothing too scientific about this pantry party. I just made sure that each item had a category and a happy place to call home.

Chips all together (don’t think you need to buy chips for quite a while mom), cereals/boxed foods together, canned goods together, baking foods together….you get the picture.

Aren’t these baskets great to hold food items? I’m working on a little pantry re-do at my house right now and have loved using similar baskets.

My mom has a big pantry so aside from food, she also uses it to store baking sheets, bowls, baskets, etc. I tried to use things she was already storing in her pantry to help corral things like these baking pans that are now holding pasta. And don’t stress – my mom cooks about as often as I do (although she’ll claim otherwise) so I don’t think she’ll be needing those pans anytime soon. (I’m going to get a phone call after that one…sorry in advance for ratting you out mom!)

Speaking of my mom calling, she called me the other day and said “I almost bought Lipton soup at the store today, but since my pantry is so clean I knew that I already have PLENTY of Lipton soup! You’re saving me money because I now know what I already have!” That really is one of my favorite things about food organization. It makes it so easy when it’s time to go grocery shopping.

Ahhh. Nothing like a clean pantry.

So we’re heading into our LAST week of summer!

What’s on our agenda???

Probably lots of un-done hair and mixed matched pajamas. Lounging and playing.

It’s what we do best around here. :)

Have a great Monday everyone!

**Linking up at Between Naps on the Front Porch

xoxo, Erin

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fashion2

08.19.11

Fashion Friday

Fashion Friday again everyone! Can you handle it!!?? I don’t know if I can. I’m getting a little tired of seeing myself in the bathroom mirror. Kenny has been working late so self portraits are all I’ve got this week. Take it or leave it baby.

Remember this gray cardigan from The Limited?

I had requests to see it on so this is a picture taken at night after Kenny and I went out last Saturday. Poor lighting, but a glimpse of the cardigan. I love the way this hangs. It’s perfect for cool San Diego evenings. (The necklace I’ve had for awhile and it’s also from The Limited)

I also bought this cute gray purse a couple of weeks ago. Found it in Christensen’s in Utah. It was CHEAP. Like 20 dollars cheap. Isn’t it cute for 20 bucks!? I figure even if I only use it a few times it will be worth it. Plus it has pockets on the side and I LOVE purses with side pockets. They are perfect for pacifiers. :)

And here’s one more pic so you can see the boots with it. I know this picture is terrible but I think I took it after midnight. Couldn’t wait to take the outfit off and put the pajamas on!

This week has been so humid here. I wore lots of summer tops…

(this purple one is also from The Limited)

and had my hair pulled up most of the time. You can tell the forecast by my hair. If it’s pulled up, it’s humid. My hair and humidity don’t really care for one another. They’ve tried to be friends, but it just never works out. Sad, really. Life would be so much better if they were besties.

And remember this combo? Wore it this week.

Here it is two different ways. On the left with my Citizens and wedges. On the right with my skinny Sevens and my boots from Italy. My Italy boots are a bit outdated (I’ve had them for over three years now) but I don’t care. I will wear them until I die. Or at least until we go to Italy again and I can replace them with something I like better.

A seven dollar belt from Forever 21. I love this one and wear it A LOT.

And with the beloved Anthro belt. Which do you like better with this shirt?

This is one of my favorite cardigans and I can’t for the life of me remember where I bought it! It’s hard to tell but the tank under it has ruffles around the neck. I like it because it’s easy to wear casually with jeans and boots, or I can pair it with a skirt and heels and dress it up.

These are the boots I usually wear with it. Nordstroms – two years ago.

Here is a fun black top I just bought (Urban Wear in So. Utah – love that store!). I lightened it on the left so you can see the ruffles at the neck and the way it’s fitted at the bottom. Very flattering style for anyone! It instantly makes your waist look small.

I love a simple black top because you can do so many things to accessorize and mix it up. Flower headbands are a favorite of mine. I can stick with black (Anthropologie).

Or add a pop of color. (Green is also from Anthro and the grey headband is from the Gap.)

If I’m running around with the kids, I’ll wear my black ballet flats (Dillards).

If I’m going out I’ll wear what I call my Gwen Stefani shoes (Nordstroms). I’m not the only one who adores these shoes.

I also love wearing these fun earings from Banana Republic with black.

Or the necklace Addison made me this summer.

It takes the cake, don’t you think?

So are we thinking Fashion Friday should be a weekly thing? I’d love to hear if you’re loving it or if you’re over it! Maybe twice a month??? I’ll leave it up to you. Until then, go forth and be fashionable!

And have a great weekend while you’re at it.

**Linking up at The Pleated Poppy!

xoxo, Erin

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Fun with Friends

08.18.11

Wrapping up the tour and our trip!

Sharing the rest of the pics I took of my mom’s house today!

First her beautiful kitchen – from a few different angels…

The cabinetry, moldings, door and window casings, fireplaces, fixtures…everything in this house is simply gorgeous. This is the kind of house that already looks decorated before anyone even moves into it!

I love the planked french doors. When you walk in the front door you see straight through those doors and into the beautiful back yard.

Lots of fun bead board.

I think the yellow kitchen aid looks especially nice on her counter top, don’t you? A little Christmas present to my mom from me a few years ago. My family knows better than to ever buy one for me. Although they do make nice decor…

Love her stove, range and hood.

A view from the laundry room.

A peek at the dining nook.

And into the laundry room we go! The laundry room is right off the kitchen and all of the cabinets are the same cream bead board. I love how it is so neutral that she can decorate with any colors and mix things up often. I also love all of the beautiful wood plantation shutters.

The wall opposite the washer and dryer. I’m so envious of all of her storage!!!

Cute little door holding her ironing board and a collage of family pictures to the right of it.

Heading into the family room. Aren’t her wood floors to die for!? I dream about them. Often.

This is a horrible, crooked picture because by this point of the photo shoot Kole was on my left hip trying to pull the camera out of my right hand so unfortunately, this is where the tour ends (for now anyway!). I did want to share this picture though because it shows a peek of the family room with the beautiful rock fireplace, the moldings all along the stairs, the pillars around the formal dining…such a pretty home. My mom and dad wanted to create a bit of a log cabin feel along with my mom’s cottage/country style.

They did just that and we all love their home!

I know this post is picture overload, but I wanted to add a few more for our family journal. The reason for our last trip to Utah was not only to visit grandparents, but also to join our friends in a special weekend.

Ellie’s best buddy Pierson turned 8 years old and was baptized a member of our church. His parents are our good friends Ryan and Josie and we were so excited to be there to support Pierson!

The following Sunday they blessed their new baby boy in church so we were able to also be there for that special day. (Fashion Friday pics were snapped before these lovely events!) The last pictures I shared of Josie were from our Maui trip when she was 7 months pregnant. I’m happy to report they had a healthy baby boy! And he is adorable. And very light. At least he felt light to me since I’m used to hauling around my big boy. Who I swear is refusing to walk because he quite prefers his mom to haul him around everywhere. We left Kole home with my family during the festivities so we could actually enjoy them. This is a fun picture of our two families minus my little maniac. {p.s. Ryan – sorry I chose the pic with your eyes closed. It was either you with your eyes closed, or the kids making strange faces and I sacrificed you to make the kids look good. Hope we’re still tight.} ;)

We had fun celebrating the weekends’ events with Ryan and Josie and their family and friends.

And it goes without saying that these three had a delightful time together.

Love this girl. So much fun Josie! Thanks for letting us share in your special weekend.

Wrapping up another great trip to our home away from home. :)

xoxo, Erin

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home decor 2

08.17.11

Best rooms at the Inn

Thank you for your kind comments about my shelf re-do! Since I’m on a home decor kick I thought I’d share a few pics from my mom’s house. A couple of months ago I shared a tour of the outside of her house and I promised I’d take some pics of the inside the next time I visited. This last trip was a busy one (mostly spent chasing Kole up and down my parents two flights of stairs) so I didn’t photograph as much of the house as I wanted to. But I did snap a few! The following pictures are of two of the bedrooms upstairs – the rooms where my girls sleep when they visit.

First up – the princess room! This is where Ellie sleeps. My mom bought this darling pink bedding…

complete with a crown pillow.

She also bought a castle shower curtain to cover a little nook in the room…

creating a secret spot for all of the princesses to play.

My girls and their cousin Claire have spent countless hours reading and playing in their “castle” – usually with the ~~shower curtain~~ castle door closed.

Ellie loves sleeping in her princess room. And so does her baby. :)

As for the rest of the grand kids, they share a small room at the end of the hall. The goal with this room was to fit as many sleeping little ones as possible! The room is complete with a crib…

a twin bed…

and a set of bunk beds (quilts were made by my grandma and are from my childhood).

And let’s not forget a sleeping bag for Addison’s baby.
Cause whatever Ellie is doing, Addison is doing too.

Most of the rooms in my mom’s house include a bookshelf and this room is no exception. Most of the books were removed by my girls and were spread around the house at the moment of this little photo shoot.

Last two pictures are sure signs that my girls are in town. :)

Oh – and in case you were wondering, Kole’s crib is in a different room.

Not that my boy can’t handle a pink butterfly now and then. Or a giant teddy bear who clearly needs his rest.

xoxo, Erin

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home decor 2

08.15.11

Kitchen shelf re-do!

I’m so excited to share my newly painted and decorated kitchen shelf with you all! I didn’t take many pictures along the way since this was my first time painting a piece of furniture and I was in total concentration mode. I did manage to take one picture of the shelf on a blanket in my garage before I started painting it…

And here it is after I painted the shelf white and the bead board the same color as the newly painted wall….

So are you ready for the final before and after?

BEFORE

and AFTER!!!

So what do you think!!?? Better? Worse? Something in between!? I have to say that I love the change because I am SO tired of all of the red and black in my house. I’ve been in the mood for something a little lighter and brighter for a while now.

Most of the shelf decor I shared with you earlier, but I’ll break down where I bought everything. These mini pitchers are from Home Goods.

Little spice jars are from Anthropologie. They were so small I needed something behind them. These yellow bird plates from Pier One were perfect!

White pitcher from TJ Maxx. I’ve been collecting white pitchers forever now. LOVE them.

Milk bottle measuring cups from Anthro. Blue bowls to the left of them are from Home Goods.

And the cups and bowls to the right are also from Anthro. I may switch out the blue/green bowls because they are so similar to the paint color.

Speaking of this paint color…. I get the biggest kick out of it! Sometimes it looks more blue.

And sometimes it looks like aqua. Either way – I’ll take it!

Now the only problem is that the rest of my kitchen doesn’t exactly coordinate with my shelf. My plan with decorating is always to first pick a color scheme I like and then slowly incorporate those colors into the rest of my house. It’s always fun to shop for things you love in your colors (or go nuts with spray paint!). I’m excited to make the rest of my house look more like this shelf!

But that’s a project for another day. :)

**Partying at these blogs:
Between Naps on the Porch
Tidy Mom
Sweet Little Gals
Perfectly Imperfect

xoxo, Erin

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fashion2

08.12.11

Fashion Friday

Alright! Here we go! Another Fashion Friday. Can I get a woot woot!!

First of all – these are my absolute summer staples. I think I’ve worn these yellow shoes (bought them last summer) and these earrings (Forever 21) at least 3-4 times each week. They just go with everything – dressy or casual – and they seem to call out SUMMER. Love them.

Here’s a random picture in a not so amazing outfit, but I’m once again wearing the shoes and earrings. These shorts are also a summer staple of mine and have been for the last few years. I need to update them, but they are True Religion and the most I have ever spent on any one article of clothing (if Kenny only knew! He’d die!) so I definitely wanted to get my money out of them! And I think I have.

And it’s about time to retire them. But I have loved these shorts.

Here’s my favorite fashion accessory lately. My cute friend Amy bought me this key chain for my last birthday (ordered from an etsy shop) and I have been so in love with it. First, I love the color. I’m always wearing this color – it’s a favorite. Second, this key chain makes it so easy to find my keys in my purse. Can’t miss them with this on! Third, it has come in so handy to have my keys on my wrist because I’m always holding Kole. I keep them on getting him in and out of the car and I always have my keys with me. Genius! Thanks again Amy!

Speaking of my favorite clothing color, here is a new dress I just bought from the Limited.

It’s simple. I like simple. Notice we are all three sporting our yellow sandals. Fabulous.

I also really like the ruffles and gathers at the top. What I don’t like is the lighting in this bathroom.

Found this cream top for Fall while I was in Utah last week. My sister-in-law saw it and said “oh that is so you!” And she is so right. I probably own 10 other tops just like this. I LOVE cream in the fall.

But wait — it’s missing something…

my Anthro belt please! Add some skinny jeans and Fall boots and this is perfect.

An Erin outfit for sure.

Bought this fun sweater at Down East. It’s cropped so I’ll probably wear it with a white tank under it. It was only 30 bucks! And I was so excited! But also ashamed…

since it is SO similar to this yellow sweater I bought from Anthropologie for our family pictures that was NOT only 30 bucks. I need to do the Down East thing a little more and the Anthro thing a little less. :)

Here’s my favorite thing I’ve bought lately. I’m so in love with this skirt! I’m sure you can’t guess why…um…it’s cream….and it has a belt. I’m nothing if not predictable.

And here I am modeling the skirt – only because several of you requested that I do so. The skirt is from a store called Urban Wear in sunny St. George, UT and the shirt is from Forever 21. The shoes are Guess and I’ve had them for years and I can’t live without them.

Another favorite thing about this skirt is the pockets. Because well. Pockets on skirts are just cool.

Grabbed my girl to pose with me. She was running around on the rocks at the time of this mini photo shoot.

And last but certainly not least, a new outfit I picked up for the main squeeze in my life.

I fell in love with these shorts…

and this shirt….(Gymboree)

and these tiny adidas shoes.

Who said buying clothes for boys isn’t as fun!!?

I’ll have to take a picture of my little dude in his new outfit.

I’m sure he’ll be SO cooperative to model it for me.

BTW – Did you all watch the season finale of SYTYCD? It was SO GOOD! I cried at the end!!! Kenny and I had the winner picked from day one. She was amazing. We’ve also bought our tickets to the live show and picked up two extra tickets to take friends.

Can I get a woot woot!!

Happy Friday everyone!

p.s. Linking up at Pleated Poppy today!

xoxo, Erin

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Food and Cooking...or lack thereof

08.11.11

Fun finds

I took a picture today of a few little things I picked up while I was in Utah. I’m still unpacking from our trip – and probably will be for a week because I’m such a serious over packer (but you just never know what you might need…right!?).

-Found this fun little owl plate for Halloween – isn’t he cute!? I can’t believe Halloween stuff is starting to appear in stores already. But here I am buying it. What a hoot.

-My trusty one-inch Conair curling iron. A whopping $9.99 from Target. Love this thing. I can’t guarantee that it won’t fry your hair and I can’t guarantee that at some point it won’t break. But it’s cheap to replace and it curls my hair better than all of my expensive curling irons that have been collecting dust ever since I bought this little beauty for our ten year anniversary trip to Italy.

-Also while in Target I stocked up on my favorite spray on tan (Neutrogena). I just spray a little on my legs every few days in the summer so they don’t blind anyone. Any other fair skinned friends out there?

This stuff is great. Doesn’t streak (I rub it in even though it says you don’t need to) and it looks for the most part like a real tan (not that I would know what a real tan looks like).

-Cute letter “E” sticky notes from Anthropologie.

Bought by my mom. Thanks mom! They will hold many happy little to-do’s. :)

Costco run today. I bought most of the usual stuff. Cheese and crackers for the kids. Popcorn and sugar snap peas for me, strawberries and cuties for all of us. A rotisserie chicken for an easy dinner. I buy one every time I go because I always get so frustrated when I go to Costco and drop $200 bucks like it’s nothing and then come home and wonder what in the world we’re going to eat for dinner!!? The chicken makes me feel better. :) Shampoo and conditioner for the girls. My sister always gave me a hard time for using expensive hair products for my girls so last time I was in Costco I picked up some cheap-o Kirkland brand for them to try. LOVE IT! We always get compliments on how good their hair smells! Even Kenny likes it better than my salon stuff. Go figure. Carly – I guess you maybe had a point there. Also bought and not pictured, diapers, wipes, paper towels…

and of course toilet paper. All of the essentials!

What about you? What are your go to Costco items? Anyone else smelling like a rose because of Kirkland shampoo or shopping for Halloween items in August?

p.s. Post for tomorrow night — Fashion Friday or my newly painted and decorated shelf??? Or after this enthralling post are you dying to see what I buy at the grocery store each time I go? ;)

xoxo, Erin

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home decor 2

08.10.11

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

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Kole

08.09.11

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

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Kole

08.05.11

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

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organization2

08.03.11

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