My craft projects list continues to grow for 2009. I refuse to begin a new project until I deal with this…

giant stack of photos! There are actually 374 photos that highlight our year, but this is just a drop in the bucket from all the photos of 2008. While I have adopted digital photography, I have not abandoned paper prints. If it weren't for iPhoto and Shutterfly, the majority of my spare time would be spent organizing, editing and printing photos. Before D was on the scene, that's exactly what I did. It was truly my past time.

In addition to motherhood, other endeavors such as baking, sewing, reading, exercising and knitting [life actually] vie for my spare time. Fortunately, I've figured out a system that keeps me trigger happy with the camera and allows me to archive and create wonderful picture books to capture our memories.

As I mentioned, iPhoto and Shutterfly have really made managing digital photos easy. Once I've edited pictures in iPhoto or Photoshop, I export them directly to Shutterfly [Shutterfly has an iPhoto plug-in which you can download to a mac for super efficiency]. Once in Shutterfly, I add borders and send off prints to the Grandmas, other relatives and myself. These are then "archived" into Kolo photo albums. I have one for each year, and each holds 300 pictures. But archiving and creating are not the same thing.

To satisfy the "creative" craving, I use iPhoto to make photo books. This is the BEST THING EVER!

Now I can really tell a story about our year with pictures without having to print out hundreds and hundreds of photos. If you don't have iPhoto, there are other services such as Shutterfly and Blurb that allow you create your own book. In fact, I really want to give Blurb a shot this year as the ability to custom design your own book is even greater, practically unlimited. I'll keep you posted when I do.

So, I hope this was helpful in some way.

Say Cheese!

F&N