Living – Page 40 – Unlikely Martha

Featured• Living

life lately

As much as my heart desires to complete a project 365 I just can’t do it. I’m way too flaky to take a photo a day and the pettiness in me won’t let me take two photos on Wednesday and pass one off as being taken on Monday. Just not in me.

I still capture many random moments in our lives so I’ll share them from time to time as a glimpse into our life.

Here is life lately:

Imagine marinating the meat for your favorite meal, turning on the stove and discovering your stove cooked it’s last meal yesterday. This happened. I was without a stove for nearly a week. I did not cook and did not feel bad. In hindsight there is a crockpot and griddle that could’ve been used but that is neither here nor there . I had a week in which I did not cook and I didn’t feel any way about it.

We managed to throw the most bootleg Superbowl party ever. Cause we are all in eradicate debt mode our budget didn’t call for a full on Superbowl party. When a few friends asked if they could come over, we said yes but you have to bring your own food and drink.

I know. I know.

It was the chicken wings they left that fed us for the week while the stove was broken. Man, that really worked out. They got to see Bey in large form and hear her in surround sound and we got dinner for the week. WIN

I have dreams of a wash and go this Summer. I keep chopping on my hair not because I love it so much but that I am hoping to get my curls back. I think I see them, do you? Heat damage is a muva.

…and parenting these people has been challenging to say the least. They are developing their own personalities and are needing to be parented differently. Send wine and good vibes for my nerves of course.

Working on this for a March 1 launch. A little excited and a whole lot scared.

I’m sure I’m not the only mother who doesn’t sleep when her kids are sick. A spiked fever or a puke session in bed while I’m sound asleep, the thoughts keep me sleeping with one eye open when I have a sicky poo. Then they wake up well rested and I’m tired.

… and this is what strep looks like

I suppose she became sick and tired to avoid cleaning up?

What’s life looking like on your end?

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Featured• Living• Photography

3 simple steps to organizing digital photos on your computer

Remember film, and how our parents would take photos of us and drop those little rolls off and a few days later come back with a bag full of pictures?

Those little kiosks in parking lots that were devoted solely to being the place where you would drop off and pick up your memories?

I do. My father was a photographer and film rolls in the refrigerator in those little round black containers were my reality. Fast forward lets say 30 years to be on the safe side and I can’t remember the last time I actually took the time to get my photos developed although it no longer requires me getting in my car, and is as easy as uploading to a site and having them on my doorstep in a matter of days. We’ll take issue with that laziness later.

Today I’m sharing with you a few tips for effectively storing photos to your computer so that when it is time to look for first day of school photos, or that photo with grandma from the family reunion, within a few clicks you will know where to find those memories on your computer. It is incredible the different things you can do to your pictures with a computer, have a look at these image best practices to find out more about the things you can do to make your pictures even better.

Create a Consistent Upload Location

I’ve been guilty of uploading photos to my desktop, my external drive and to the downloads section of my computer. Do yourself a favor and pick a consistent upload location. If you do this you will automatically know where to look on your computer for your photos

Create a Hierarchy of Folders

Say goodbye to just uploading photos, because we are uploading now. We’re not letting photos sit on our memory cards and deleting non important ones when we need space. We’re not.

Create a hierarchy of folders starting with one renamed for the year. This simply tells you, if you know the year the photo was taken it will be stored in that file.

From there break it down even further creating sub folders named after the month, and within those month folders create another level of sub folder renamed for any special events. Examples would include ballet recital, 100th day of school. Get really descriptive because it is likely in a few years a vague description won’t help you out when you are looking for a photo.

Create a Backup Location

As a person whose last half of 2013 is missing thanks to a dropped external drive. Please create a back up location, and then a back up for that back up. Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites do not count. While we think these places will be around forever they may die a slow death and take your photos along with them to a digital heaven you have no access to. Myspace anyone?

There are so many options for external methods for organizing digital photos. I currently use Dropbox and an external drive, and I am thinking about adding a cloud service as well. I’m not really versed on all of the technicalities of ways to back up photos, however Lashawn at Everyday Eyecandy has some great suggestions if you are looking to learn more about methods by which to back up your photos. She totally breaks down everything. Your memories are worth preserving so I encourage you to take a peek at the options she has to offer.

These are just 3 very basic steps to get you on track to organizing your digital photos.

How are you organizing your digital photos? Are you even dowloading them out of your camera?!

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Featured• Living• Vlog

weekend vlog

Press play for our weekend happenings!

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Featured• Home• Living

kid command center

I’ve tripped over one too many shoes and haphazardly dropped bookbags in my day. Too many.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve taken the stance of making the functional needs of my home pretty, so I decided to create a kid command center in Addison’s room in an attempt to corral ALL of her things into her space. My son’s room is up next.

Ever since I took Addi’s name hook down to make room for her vintage desk her drop the book bag wherever I feel game was extra strong. After nearly face planting the foyer floor after getting my foot hooked in her book bag strap the need to get her used to hanging her book bag on it’s “home” again got real.

I found a cushioned board at Hobby Lobby on clearance right after Christmas and wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it. It sat for a few weeks and then it hit me that I would create a little command center for her.

It finally dawned on me that this blank area would be the perfect place to set up a command center for her book bag and a place for me to hang her artwork and other pertinent school paperwork thus keeping it out of my kitchen!

I set about hanging the cushioned board on the wall. Not sure if that is the proper term but it is like a giant pin cushion. If you have a more accurate description please share.

When hanging things I take a piece of painters tape and place it over the hooks and put a hole where the hooks are to denote where to put the nails when I go to hang it on the wall. I then make sure the tape is level prior to hanging

Now she has a place to hang her book bag again. My goal for the “cushioned board” is to order photos I’ve taken of her on Instagram and place them there with gold thumbtacks along with her artwork. I’ll be back with that update. Until then she’s decided to post up her vision board.

Do you have a dedicated space for your child {ren} to dump their things? If not, get them one, it makes a difference one non face plant at a time.

Trust. Me.

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