adventure awaits.

January 26, 2014

adventure

We booked our plane tickets to the west coast last night and I AM GIDDY. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wanting to travel out to the Pacific– to see the coast, and the culture, and the sights and the sounds. I am smiling like a fool just thinking about it.

Our trip will be in April, during my spring vacation from school. We’ll be there officially for 8 and a half days and we will fill each one to the brim. Tentative plans are to spend 2 days in Big Sur, 3 days in San Francisco, 1 day in Napa, and 2 days in Seattle, with a half day of travel built in to fly from California to Washington.

I have a few ideas {including Muir Woods and Pike Place Market}, but would love some recommendations if you have any– we’re going to be complete tourists and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Views we MUST see?

Attractions we can’t miss?

Food that’s the most delicious?

Give us all you’ve got. We are ready and waiting.

Mostly, I want to take all the photos and eat all the food.

Building up my dream to-do list HERE.

Giddy giddy giddy. West Coast! I love you already!

50 Comments · Filed Under: life, travel, west coast ·

meet meghan // organizing your adventure photos

January 23, 2014

eatlivemakewear2

I’m really excited to introduce you to my friend Meghan today. First off, she’s got some great tips for organizing your photos {seeing as mine are scattered all over my desktop, I’m going to be using her system for sure}, and second, she is just such an awesome and inspiring person. Her photos are amazing, her heart is beautiful, and her story is a unique and important one— and she is living it so well. Meghan is one of those people I am incredibly thankful to have met here on the internet, and I’m so glad she’s taken the time to create this post for my little space today. ♥

Hello sweet dear friend readers! My name is Meghan and I write a little blog named eat.live.make  about living a creative, simple and healthy life. I am so excited to be over here today (thank you Anna!) to share with you guys how I organize my little family’s adventure photos.

After starting my own photography business  last year I realized I needed a better way to organize my photos than just putting them in folders on my computer. I started using this method for our personal travel photos as well, and it has made things so much easier! Each year I get an album printed out from Artifact Uprising of our year’s adventures, and this year it took me half the time as it did last year because I had everything organized and ready to go.

This system is super easy, and just takes a bit of forethought when you start to upload photos from your camera into your computer. Here’s how you do it:

ORGANIZINGphotos

Each year I create a yearly folder in our computer hard drive. You can see that I started the folders in 2011 above. In each of those folders I have a folder for each month of the year. You can see 2013’s folder’s contents on the far left of my finder screen shot.

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Each month of the year has sub-folders. For December’s sub folders I have several projects I did for my blog, along with our trip to the beach, our trip to the lake and some recipe pictures.

They KEY to this whole process is to create each folder BEFORE you upload your pictures so that your uploading photos will have a file to go into.

For example, if I was about to upload photos from our recent lake house trip, I would get on my computer go to>>meghan blog photos>>January>> then create a NEW folder that said “lake house”. Then in would import my photos into the “lake house” folder!

Pretty easy, huh? All it takes is a little forethought and then you will be able to organize and access your adventure photos much easier!

Looking for more photography tips and tricks? Check out my photography 101 series and follow along with eat.live.make on instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

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THANK YOU, MEGHAN!

And I had to add this promo video of Meghan’s here, because her work is gorgeous, it helps you get to know her a little better, and it makes me smile every time I watch it. :)

5 Comments · Filed Under: blogging, guest post ·

a new project.

January 19, 2014

brim papery!

Say hello to Brim Papery’s new official brand enthusiast.

i.e. PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHER.

{Insert large cheese smile HERE.}

I have loved Jolie’s work from the moment she opened her etsy shop, and then sometime around that time, we started to become friends, too. She’s smart, and honest, and kind. And really, what more could you ask for in a person? And how can we forget the beauty she brought to my blog! I still love it more than ever and whisper a silent thank you to her often when I catch a glimpse of my header. HEART EYES FOREVER. I’ve bought many products from her shop for myself and as gifts, because words are so happy for a home. A joyful reminder of the things you believe in and the messages you want to remember the whole year through. Jolie’s hand lettered words and illustrations are easily some of my favorite out there in this internet world, and so I’m happy to support it, and even shout it out my instagram feed every now and again. and again. and again.

Sister’s got SKILLS.

About a month ago Jolie came to me with an idea to team up for some product photos and, of course, I said 100% Y.E.S. Because Brim Papery is the best and also, I love this kind of stuff. Creating a little scene and capturing it. Oh, I can do that, I told her. That kind of thing is my jam. And I discovered yesterday, when the first batch of products came to my doorstep, that I actually and sincerely really DO love this. There I was, on a Saturday afternoon, just standing on a chair, camera clicking away, the snow falling down, and the records playing on…

SEND ME MORE, YA HEAR?! This is fun and fun is good.

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You can read more about Brim Papery here. And shop the shop here.
So much goodness. Through and through.

14 Comments · Filed Under: handmade ·

shine on…

January 14, 2014

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“This is the year I will choose a word.”

That’s what I decided when 2104 rolled around. You know, the whole, choose a word, live the word, BE THE WORD. I liked the idea, this phenomenon. But you want to know what I did? When I first started this project, this idea of a word, I scoured the internet for hours. I googled “New Years Word”. I scrolled through all my instagram, pinterest, twitter. I looked at my friends’ words, I looked at strangers words. I looked to everyone else for my word, but you know what? I hardly even looked to myself.

So then I stopped and took a deep breath. Because I’d literally gotten myself in a tizzy over picking a word. Because this sort of thing— this sort of comparing, and measuring, and looking out into the world for the answers? This is the thing we do now. All of us. Definitely me. And this is the thing that I try so so hard not to do and not to be.

I am constantly telling myself and trying to believe in myself {succeeding in believing, and failing to believe}, that just being me is enough.

JUST DO YOU. BE YOU. YOU YOU YOU.

And so,

Shine.

That’s my word.

And I’m not sure exactly what it means for me just yet, but it’s the single word that I thought up myself, and it spoke to me, and I feel something for it, and best of all, it just seems right. I don’t want to overanalyze it, or beat it to the ground. I just want to bring the light to my life, keep the light, shine the light. That quote up above? That’s the kind of life I want to live this year. That’s the kind of person I want to be.

Shine in, Shine out, Shine on.

37 Comments · Filed Under: blogging, life, quotes ·
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