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How To Share Photos With Your Loved Ones

I tend to be the main photographer at family gatherings. This is because I have a wonderful camera that takes nice photos, and because I love snapping away and recording these events. I usually end up with some nice shots, and then the problem becomes: how best to share them? My family usually wants to see and download the pictures to be printed or saved, but it’s sometimes tricky to find the best way to accomplish that!

Emailing generally doesn’t work – attaching the photos takes a long time, and you can only send a couple in each email. I used to use primarily Flickr and Facebook, but my family has said that it’s time-consuming and increasingly difficult to download pictures off these websites. When you have grandparents who don’t love technology at the best of times, sending them confusing emails with five sentences of download instructions for Flickr pictures is not the best method! They’re not so good at the right click, options, download thing for each picture. They want one straightforward method to get the whole bunch.

So after Thanksgiving this year, I was determined to find a way to share my pictures that would let my family download them easily to their own computers and then look at them or print them however they’d like. I found a couple great solutions to this problem, which I’ll present in a hierarchy of needs! Enjoy, and happy sharing!

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The Best List, by Stephanie

This list is inspired by the magnificent Danielle Laporte’s Best Lists vol 1 and 2. She’s amazing, and her list is more focused & grown-up than mine, but these are the things that I love. Expect more installments in the future!

The New York City Public Library

Apple Trailers. Glossy, high quality anticipation. Bite-sized movies. Entertainment at its finest?

Yummy Earth lollipops. Pomegranate, strawberry, green apple, grape, cherry, blueberry. 22 calories. Big flavour.

Voluspa candles. Preferably Maison Blanc collection, 12 oz, in Pink Citron or Saijo Persimmon.

The 4 Minute Workout. Gets your heart beating, metabolism working, muscles toned.

Mason jars. To be used as juice cups, wine glasses, candy/spice/sugar cube storage, vases, change jars..

Netflix. Cheap, legal, high quality. Syncs automatically from my computer to my phone. Good selection + growing.

Exercise balls = desk chairs. Balance, core exercise, bouncy bouncy fun!

Moleskine notebooks. I use them for everything from food logs to recipe books to journals to scrapbooks.

Cubano sandwiches. Sauteed mushrooms, mashed avocado, garlic mayonnaise, melted Monterey Jack.

St. Ives Clear Pore Cleanser + Tea Tree Oil.  Blemishes be gone! I’ve never had clearer skin in my life.

Everyday Food magazine. Inspiration to cook at home!
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Read This Book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This post is the first in a new series called Read This Book. As some of you may know, I used to have a separate blog devoted to my literary loves. While I may continue with it at some point, I have since decided to consolidate a bit, and start writing about books on this blog! Stay tuned for upcoming posts in the series.

Photo thanks to redheadedbookchild

Last Tuesday, I came home from school in a good mood. It was a lovely day, bright and happy, with impeccable weather. I suddenly had a thought to go to the nearest Indigo, one of my favourite haunts – ever. I was home though, and quickly becoming a little too comfortable sitting down and relaxing after a long day. I questioned whether I should just stay home.. But something told me I should go. So I did! Was it the magical pull of discovering this book? I’ll never know..

I wandered the first floor for a while, choosing a book or two to peruse. It was just an ordinary trip to the bookstore until I got upstairs: where the Random House/McClelland Stewart Fall Book Preview was taking place! [#nerdalert] Oh boy. I was a bit late, but there were still some empty chairs with thick PowerPoint slide printouts sitting on top of them. I snatched one up as quickly as possible, and parked my booty for the next few hours, sitting in wonder as I was told of book after wonderful book that I simply must read. But it wasn’t until the Random House representative, Jen, stood up and started raving about this book that I got really excited. This is a woman who reads hundreds of books a year, and she’s this passionate about a book? She says it’s the most exciting book since Shadow of the Wind? Well. Those who loved that book as much as I did will understand what happened next.

I practically threw the other books in my hands on the floor (kidding, that would never happen). Ran after a sales rep. Breathlessly managed to ask for: The Night Circus. Raced home and consumed all 387 pages within 48 hours.

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Shifting Your Focus

Here’s something I’m sure you can all relate to: sometimes I freak out.

Sometimes I worry about myself: how I’m dressed, where I’m going in life, my grades, my comportment. I throw pity parties, on occasion, and whine about how hard my life is (read: not at all) to anyone who will listen. I get into “moods” and at times conduct myself in the manner so succintly outlined on the First World Problems Twitter page.

And while it might sound stupid or dramatic or ridiculous, I really have been struggling lately with living too much inside my own head, thinking too much about my own worries and fears.  I’m sure you can all agree that once you’re in a mood, the funk is dark and twisty and it can be fairly hard to bounce back. Developing coping techniques to deal with such moods is not an easy task, even for the most confident among us.

On the other hand, though: I have to remember to count my blessings. And I have so many of them to count. Which is why my favourite new coping technique is about shifting my focus to others.

Here’s the idea: start thinking about anyone but yourself.  Anyone. Put them at the center of your thought target and fire away! What resonates most with me personally is the idea of making someone’s day, and helping people in my life as much as possible. Maybe you’d prefer joining in with a protest that moves you, contributing to a charity you believe in, volunteering for a local organization that does great work, or sending letters to the people that you love. Maybe you just want to start collecting smiles, or hugs that you helped create.

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