Getting the computer working again so I can write. I’ve missed it. A lot.
Working on more photobooks. And recycling all the art because the photos will last a lot longer and won’t fall apart as easily as most of the projects.
A final few days before I’m back to the work treadmill.
Being organised enough to have planned several small treats for myself well in advance.
New books from the library. I can’t say it enough, I ADORE our library.
Sorting through the remains of the school year and planning more photobooks so we can recycle all this art guilt free. I adore the ones from Google photos I’ve ordered.
The glass backsplash we splurged on for our kitchen. It is beautiful and shiny and sleek and minimalist and I love it every time I look at it.
Holiday time on the way. France here we come (again).
This podcast episode. We don’t live in a small home but there’s always something to be gained from listening to how other people live their lives.
Eight weeks of maternity leave left. Going to focus on the joy of this and not the return to work.
This is one of the photos that made the cut for a hastily thrown together 2018 photobook. I decided convenience was worth the price of getting it via Google photos. I picked photos from the selection I took with my phone, went for an automatically generated layout and hit order. It arrived within a week and I was delighted with it. The quality was superior to some others we’ve ordered and I’m amazed that photos from my phone came out so well.
With this in mind, and given my current focus on decluttering and organising and getting on top of things, I decided to tackle another project. My children’s art from years of Montessori has been in our attic for many months. In a middle of the night breastfeeding session I started looking into what people do with stuff like this and one recommendation was a photobook.
My lazy streak reared its head and I contacted a company which you can box up and send the stuff too. It will then photograph it professionally and make a photobook. Sounded very convenient, but the price was far more than I was willing to pay. Sometimes my frugal streak overcomes my love of convenience.
I told myself I could EASILY do this myself, sure look at the fantastic pictures my trusty phone took and the fabulous photobook I made with no effort at all. So I decided it would take no longer than an hour to take the photos and another hour to make the albums up and no time at all to produce and order two photos and I could smugly pat myself on the back and tell myself the savings were well worth it because I would have the satisfaction of doing something myself.
I continue to be surprised by how naive I can be about many things. It took a week of work to take the bloody photos. I had to snatch time when I could, the sunlight was a bit of a battle and extracting staples from paper made my fingers sore. I had to do a lot more editing of the pictures than I expected and I had fiddle around with the layouts a lot more.
The books are printed and on the way. I hope they’re worth it, but in the end I am grateful that I had to learn a couple of new skills and going the DIY route was satisfying in many ways. The process also made me sort out our photos of other life events and being a bit more organised in this regard does spark joy.
Orchids on my budget 