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practicing the art of an ordinary life

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practicing what i preach

well so exactly one week ago , my girl and i were upstairs in the office going through some old pictures for tripp’s birthday. 

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ok.  so can we please pause for a second while i drool over the hotness of my husband?? 

anyway, so here’s the thing you need to know about that…{well besides that my husband is hot.}  i was looking at pictures.  real. live. pictures.

i know.  it’s kind of become my thing lately. like i shared in this post i did over at focusing on life, i blame revolution (the tv show).  but it’s true, i really do believe that it is important to print out our photos.  and for the past several months, i have been pretty diligent about printing my pictures. 

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and i have been pretty good about getting them into my project life album. 

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keeping it really simple helps.

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just a few little embellishments here and there.

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so i’ve got my picture taking/photo processing down to a great workflow.  i feel really good about that.  and this ‘pocket style’ of scrapbooking really suits me and makes the process of getting pictures into albums super easy.  which i love.  but here’s where it all breaks down my friends…printing my pictures. 

i thought i would share with you my dilemma in hopes that you might help me.  and please don’t judge me…you know that making things harder than they need to be is my special gift.

so there are basically two options for printing pictures right?  either print at home or print at walgreens (or shutterfly or wherever).  and most sources say that printing at walgreens is more economical. when it comes to standard 4×6 photos anyway.

  • http://www.thesimpledollar.com/does-home-photo-printing-really-save-money/
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/08/technology/08photo.ready.html?_r=0

yes, i know i’m a goober for looking it up.  what else is new.

and in many ways, printing at walgreens is fairly easy and convenient.  i just export full-sized jpegs from lightroom to a designated folder. then i upload them to walgreens’ website and pick them up the next day. easy peasy. 

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right now is where i should probably say, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’

but sometimes i get a wild hair you know?  i find a little pocket of time or get the urge the scrapbook and i don’t want to wait on walgreens.  and my epson printer is pretty good for photos.  so i’ll just print them at home.  except that it takes forever. and ink is expensive so i only want to print the photos that i actually plan to use. 

hello my name is kelly and i am an overthinker.

so for the page protectors that i like to use, there are a total of 8 horizontal 4×6 slots and 8 vertical 3×4 slots.  some of the vertical slots i like to use the decorative cards and journal cards.  but i almost always have way more pictures than slots.  so before i print i have to sort of plan out my pages.  which is not a big deal.   but when i order from walgreens, i usually print everything then plan after the fact.  printing at home is the exact opposite – plan first, then print.

the other dilemma i have about printing at home is whether to print to individual 4×6 photo papers.  or to print to an 8×10 sheet of photo paper and trim them down myself.

i’m still trying to decide which i like best…printing at home or sending them off to walgreens.  there are pros and cons to each.  but i’m starting to think that it doesn’t really matter all that much.  there’s no one ‘best’ way.  just picking one way and staying consistent is probably the most efficient way to to go.  all that matters though is that we print our photos.  for ourselves.  for our children.  for our grandchildren or the grandchildren we hope to have (someday way in the future i might add). 

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so for those of you who do project life i’d love to hear your workflow.  how you go about printing?  do you prefer to send them out or print them at home?  inquiring, overthinking minds would like to know. Smile

love, kelly

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Comments

  1. Deanna@Snippets from Springdale says

    November 14, 2013 at 8:56 pm

    oh you are too funny. I love reading your posts, they are always lively!! I print at home, I think my Canon Pro 9000 Mark II does a bang-up job and I can print whenever the urge happens. Now that I have my “little” photography business I am always printing samples to make sure that my editing is spot on and that I turn out a good product.

    Reply
  2. Terri Porter says

    November 14, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    Since I started printing at home (many years ago) I have never gone back! When I first started, I did a little test and sent the same photo to six or so different places to have printed (Walgreens was one of them) and printed one on my Epson R2880 printer. Absolutely NO contest! The saturation of the color and the realistic skin tones of the print from my printer could not be touched by any outside lab. So there you have it. I know it costs me more money but I don’t care. It’s the quality, and as you mentioned, the convenience that I care about. I try to stay as current as possible, so I’m usually printing out my photos every day or two. I do my layouts by the week and if I have more photos I want to include, I add in an insert of some kind. There are several different varieties but I think the ones I use the most are the 6×12 with the three pockets. If you want to see a sample, shoot me an email and I’ll send you a photo of one of those kinds of pages. Whew! I’ve gone on long enough!

    Reply
  3. Carrie says

    November 14, 2013 at 10:42 pm

    Well all I’m gonna say is your doing AWESOME!!! I love all of it! 🙂

    Reply
  4. justine says

    November 14, 2013 at 11:11 pm

    I love your project life photos here, wish I could do project life but I’m not crafty enough. I agree with you totally about printing out pictures or making books with a series, so important.

    Reply
  5. Cathy says

    November 15, 2013 at 11:26 am

    sending you an email… you rock my world.

    Reply
  6. Dotti says

    November 15, 2013 at 11:58 am

    I mostly print at home. I like my Epson printer and I know it’s probably not the most economical way but I like the instant gratification. Now, that said … I’m a terrible procrastinator when it comes to printing. I had this great idea to print photos from our FOL Chicago trip to put up on the photo line I have above my workspace. Well … you know how long ago that was …

    Reply
  7. Naomi says

    November 15, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    I agree that we should enjoy our photos! I just printed a few Alaska pics at Costco so I could hang them up on my craft room door and enjoy them. For me, Costco is the way to go, but it does get hard to wait for their hour-long developing and then drive there. Walgreens has an app too, did you know? If you find the immediacy of printing at home is best for you, go with it. I would do it if I had a nicer printer for sure.

    Reply

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Hi There! I’m Kelly. I am a wife, mom, light seeker, homemaker, and storyteller. From an empty nest to an abundant life, all it took was a little time, a lot of faith, and the courage to see my life differently.

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