Enjoying the Small Things

Enjoying the Small Things

  • ABOUT
    • KELLE HAMPTON + ETST BLOG
    • Our Down Syndrome Journey
    • Down Syndrome: Our Family Today
    • PRESS
  • the book
  • The Blog
    • Make Stuff
    • Family
    • Favorites
    • Parenting
    • Parties
    • Style
    • Travel
  • Once Upon A Summer PDF
  • Printables
  • CONTACT

Everything You Need to Know to Make 2021 Your Year for Taking Photos and Keeping them Organized

January 6, 2021 By Kelle

Everything You Need to Know to Make 2021 Your Year for Taking Photos and Keeping them Organized

Happy New Year, Friends! We did it! We found the escape hatch out of 2020, and we arrived to the new year alive. This is the part of the movie where we’re all bloodied up from our adventure getting here, and there’s a triumphant theme song (preferably composed by John Williams) playing while we hug each other. Now that we’ve arrived, we have to put some systems in place to successfully make this new year our home, and I’ve volunteered to take leadership in an area that overwhelms a lot of moms: taking photos, organizing them and doing something meaningful with them. If that suggestion completely overwhelms you because you are so far gone, buried in a mess of thousands of photos you never thought to organize; don’t run! This is fixable. Come with me.

I don’t normally follow the calendar when it comes to inspiration for starting something new; but if we’re talking about organizing photos, it makes the most sense to have January as your starting point. This is your chance to start the year on the right foot! Whether you mostly just use your phone to take photos or you’re into DSLR photography and editing, this post is going to dig in to all the tips and tricks to help you be successful this year at taking photos and creating consistent, sustainable practices for editing them, storing them and doing something meaningful with them so your family can enjoy these photos for years to come. I have fizzled out on so many systems in my life, but this is one area where I’ve been successful, give or take a few hard lessons learned (back up your photos!).

I asked what you want to know about this topic on Instagram Stories and received so many great questions, so I’m going to try and organize this in an orderly fashion by your questions and themes. But I want to begin with the two most important tips that will help you be successful. No matter what system you set up to manage your photos, if these two tips aren’t followed, I guarantee you’ll fizzle out on keeping up with them.

1. Make it joyful, and understand your “why.”

If keeping up on your photos is always an arduous dreaded task, no wonder you get behind and feel overwhelmed! The reason I’ve kept up on my photos all these years is because I actually enjoy the process. I’ve created rituals around editing (Saturday mornings with my coffee and a good playlist before anyone else is up) to make it less of a task and more of something that brings me joy. I also understand and fully embrace why I do it—it’s not just to “stay organized.” Having photos sorted, displayed and in books so that we can easily look at them and remember our moments together has brought so much joy to our family and makes me feel so much more grateful for my people and the experiences we’ve had together. I swear my kids’ memories of places we’ve visited and things we’ve done are more vivid because of the photos they continually look at to remind them of what we’ve shared. Having photos well organized also makes it really easy to create photo gifts for loved ones, video montages for birthday parties, etc. Try and think about photo storage and organization less as a task and more as an opportunity to sit down and look at your memories—an invitation to joy and reflection. Create a little time each week (or every two—keep your goals doable) to move photos, edit (if you’re the editing type), and organize them; and make this time enjoyable by lighting a candle, playing music, bringing a glass of wine into your office, etc.

2. Lower your standards and make photo goals sustainable.

When Lainey was a baby, I went deep into the abyss of digital scrapbooking. I spent hours creating intricate layouts, journaling letters to her and writing stories to go along with every album spread so I’d never forget a detail about her babyhood. I took thousands of photos and saved every one. People used to tease me that I’d never be able to keep up with it once I had more kids, and they were 100% right. So many moms go in strong the first year with the first kid but five years later lament that they never pick up their camera anymore and are so buried in years of unorganized photos, there’s no chance they’ll ever catch up—so they don’t even try. Lower your standards! Don’t set yourself up for failure. I make one annual album at the end of the year that includes a year’s worth of memories, and I choose the simplest layouts—no text (although text is an option with the company I use). If I started putting text in my albums, I know I’d feel the need to keep it up. The project would turn into something much bigger and time consuming, I’d procrastinate about doing it—and then I’d get behind and be where a lot of you are. Simplify! Your goal is “Done,” not “Perfect.”

My Process for Taking, Editing and Storing Photos

Before I tackle your questions, let me give you a quick run-down of what my photo process looks like. I use both my phone and DSLR camera for capturing memories. I use my phone for all the candid shots where I’m not really thinking about composition, but I do use it for some of the “good shots” too, especially if I’m out and see a great photo op and don’t have my big camera with me. The albums I create are made mostly of those “best shot” DSLR photos, but I’ve included phone photos many times and they print just fine (I’ve helped friends make my same album with mainly just iPhone pictures, and they still turn out beautiful). If I’ve taken a lot of photos from one event (say, a day at the zoo, a trip, a birthday party, etc.), I try and edit them and get them off my card and onto my hard drive immediately (within a day or two of taking them). Other than that, I try and edit day-to-day moment photos once a week. Some weeks I don’t take enough photos to do that; other weeks give me a nice fifteen minute editing session at my computer. I store all of my photos on an external hard drive (I like this one) and back them up to a cloud service. I use Amazon Photos because I have free unlimited photo storage with my Amazon Prime membership, but there are many cloud services available. After every editing session, I upload all the photos I edited into Amazon Photos and name the album folder the same as how it appears on my hard drive. I pay a small additional monthly fee to store videos on Amazon Photos as well. My phone photos automatically sync to Amazon photos, and I’m pretty lax about how those are organized because I already have a great organization system for my DSLR photos and also—practicing that low standard thing. In fact, when it comes to my phone, I usually just dump all the photos on my phone into one big folder on my external hard drive a few times a year (I need to do it more like once a month). The folders are given very classy names like “iPhone Dump August 2020”. I know I can always search later by the date photos were taken based on their metadata. If your phone is your main source of taking photos though, you probably want to follow more of what I do for my DSLR photos. This is what my external hard drive looks like for DSLR photo storage:

 

I used to save every shot I ever took, but it turned into a ridiculous hoarding situation. You don’t need 15 shots of the same thing with slightly different facial expressions. The older I get and the more responsibilities I have to manage, the more ruthless I become with what I save and throw away in all areas of my life. I’ve managed to develop a pretty good curating system—only the best of the best gets edited. I use Lightroom to edit my DSLR photos and Color Story to edit phone photos. Because I’m a major photo taker, I know my children are well documented. I do not for one second waste time feeling bad about deleting photos of them because we are not hurting for photos in this house. I am more careful to save photos of people we don’t see very often—grandparents, cousins, friends and family.

Printing Photos and Making Albums and Books

As far as what I do with my photos, our main big photo project is an end of the year album that includes our entire year. We make this hardcover album from Pinhole Press (it’s beautiful—thick wedding album quality lay-flat page spreads). I fill it with the maximum number of pages (90), and it sits on our coffee table all year long. It gets picked up, loved and looked through almost every week. I start creating my album in January and create page spreads all throughout the year, so it’s never an intimidating process. That way I can also see how many pages I’ve filled to keep me on track (I try to be up to 45 pages by June).

I wrote this post last year all about our albums and the album making process if you’d like more information. I don’t make the kids their own album each year because it’s just not sustainable to do one for each kid, but I do make other little soft cover books and projects for them for special occasions now and then. We also make smaller photo books throughout the year like these board books we create for all the trips we take, and the kids LOVE looking back at these trip memories. Pinhole Press saves all your projects on their site, so I can always go back and order duplicate albums later.

I  print a batch of regular hold-in-your-hand prints maybe twice a year or when we need them for a project. I love the square prints from Social Print Studio for displaying or tucking into cards and gifts. If I need photos printed for a quick project, I just send them to Walgreens. If I’m enlarging photos for our home, I use WHCC or have my father-in-law print them (he basically has a printing lab in his office). I always love having a stack of recent photo prints on hand though, so I try to print a batch a few times a year.

Now, let’s get to your questions.

By far, the most frequently asked question is:

I’m so far gone, I don’t know where to begin. How do I catch up on past years? How do I deal with the 50,000 photos in my camera roll?

I liken this question to the challenge of cleaning a bedroom that is so messy, you don’t know where to start. In the case of a bedroom, I’ve found the best way to attack is to move all the stuff aside first—load it up in laundry baskets that you can sort through later, but get to the bones of the bedroom so that you can see the light in the tunnel. Change the sheets, make the bed, dust, vacuum, light a candle, start fresh. Over time, you can backtrack and sort what’s in the laundry baskets, but what’s most important is getting the bedroom to a joyful starting place. It’s the same with photos. Set yourself up for 2021 by creating your first folders for this year’s storage. Maybe create a 2021 folder with Jan, Feb, March, etc. sub folders within it. Take lots of photos this week just for fun—corners of your home you love, your pet lying in a sliver of sunlight by the front door, your kids reading on the bed, a vase of flowers on the kitchen table. Drop them in your first labeled folder of the year and feel good for where your headed! As far as that giant mess of photos? Dump them in one folder to start (if they are on your phone, you may need to offload them in batches because of how long they take to download. I’d suggest connecting them directly to an external drive and exporting them there). Then, when you have time, you can slowly start to organize them into sub folders. Work with the most present and move backwards. So if your 2020 photos are one big heap of a mess, start by creating a 2020 folder for all of them. Within that folder, create one sub folder at a time. Give yourself a number so it’s not too overwhelming (kind of like the 15 minute shakedown I do to clean my kitchen). Tell yourself you’re only choosing 20 favorite photos from each month to put in subfolders. You can always add more later.

How do you narrow down your selections for what goes in the album and not feel the need to include or print every single photo you ever took?

Time has helped. I used to struggle with this and included way too many photos in albums. But then the good ones don’t stand out. I try to have the big moments and events always represented (events, vacations, birthdays) and then lots of my favorite photos of day to day life.  Here’s another good tip I’ve used for years: Create a “Favorites” folder at the beginning of the year. Whenever you take a shot you really love—one that truly embodies your family or a favorite moment or really beautiful photography (the “framers”), save a copy into the favorites folder. Whenever I’m looking to print photos to frame, include in a gallery wall or represent my best work, I can quickly pop into the favorites folder and find one. My favorites folder also inspires my creativity. When I’m not feeling very inspired to photograph, I can always spend a few minutes scrolling through favorite photos I’ve taken and feel a surge of creativity and inspiration return.

Do you have any editing tips for beginners?

Keep it simple! I don’t use a lot of filters or make a lot of changes to my photos to keep the editing process quick and enjoyable. In Lightroom, I make minor adjustments—brightness, fill light, sometimes temperature or individual color adjustment—but it’s super quick. And whenever I’m editing a batch of photos that were taken in the same light, I copy and paste edits to keep the process rolling. The simpler you keep your edits, the more likely you’ll keep up with it throughout the year.

About how many photos do you include in one year album?

I actually just counted the ones that are in my 2020 album—200. Some layouts are spread out with several photos on one page spread. Some page spreads are just one beautiful photo across two pages (for the best photos that I want to shine). I have 6-7  favorite page layouts in Pinhole Press that I reuse throughout the entire album.

My photos are mostly iphone only. Can I make an album from my phone?

Pinhole currently doesn’t have a phone app set up for this, but many other companies do. I would still suggest creating an organization system on an external hard drive where you can access, organize and do things with your phone photos from a desktop. I find it much easier to manage that way (plus, they’re safer on an external drive than on your phone—but back them up anyway!). If you transfer your favorite phone photos into folders on your computer, you can easily create a Pinhole album. Other album/book sites I know a lot of people love that have different options: Chatbooks, Popsa, Artifact Uprising.

Do you have an organization system for photos on your iPhone? 

Because I use my DSLR so much and iPhone photos are extra fun backup for all the casual day-to-day life stuff, I don’t organize my phone photos with as much dedication as I do for my big camera photos. I will, however, say that I started creating albums for my phone photos last year, and how have I waited so long?! If you’re iPhone only, I’d highly suggest you create 12 albums right this second in your phone for favorites for each month: January 2021 Favorites, February 2021 Favorites, etc. When you take a photo you love, add it to the appropriate album. Then at least when you’re going to create an album, book or print photos, you can pull right from the organized favorites albums rather than scrolling through 200 screenshots, 52 blurry kid selfies and shots of parking lot spots you didn’t want to forget.

How do you find interesting in the mundane?

As far as photography goes, find inspiration in the work of others! There are so many photographers who are masters at capturing beautiful photography of mundane moments and things. Follow them! Subscribe to their work. One of my favorite photo inspiration books for capturing the mundane is A Year of Mornings, a photography project shared between two moms across the globe who took one photo of their morning every day for one year. The images are stunning and completely expanded my perspective on things that make beautiful photos—light hitting the pocket of an apron hanging in the kitchen, a bowl of eggs on an old farmhouse table, a pile of colorful kids shoes by the front door, a cardinal in the window. I always challenge myself to capture beautiful photos outside of my children because I don’t want my love of photography to hinge on their presence. They’re going to be grown and out the door someday, and I don’t want my love for this hobby to wither when they leave. There is so much beauty in the world to be captured. Don’t forget to take photos of flowers, kitchen still life shots, corners of your home, scenes on neighborhood walks, etc. Include them in your favorites folder and yearly albums. Another photo book I love that always inspires me as summer gets closer—Summertime by Joanne Dugan. The images of simple summer pleasures are timeless and inspiring. Also, Click magazine is my favorite magazine subscription—a delicious buffet of photography inspiration. I am giddy when I open the mailbox to see it’s arrive.

One last thing! If you are buried under mounds of photo prints from the past that you want to organize and digitize, we’ve used Legacy Box, and they are amazing. They send you a box (shipping prepaid) to fill with your photos—prints, film, VHS tapes, even slides—and they digitize everything for you and send you all your prints back as well as a thumb drive with your new files, a digital download and a watchable DVD set.

I know that was a lot for one post, but hopefully you’re inspired to start fresh this year. Photography and having our moments preserved has brought me so much joy. I don’t want overwhelm keeping anyone from digging in.

Filed Under: Photography, Uncategorized

Round Three for FRAMED!

February 8, 2019 By Kelle

Round Three for FRAMED!

I leave my camera now on my counter so that I remember to use it. It was in my hands a lot more when the kids were babies and everything they did felt photogenic.

Now, with more hustled schedules and responsibilities, I find I often need a reminder to pull it out, and not just to take photos of the kids–although I do want to make sure I capture their evolving ages so that the photo archives don’t fizzle when they lose their baby teeth. It’s that I want to stay connected to this thing that has brought me so much joy, and use it to pay a little more attention to the world around me–maybe even broaden my lens when motherhood feels all-consuming. I want to remember to take photos of the tulips in the mason jar when that sliver of sunlight is hitting the dining room table just right, or the hallway pile of little tennis shoes that makes me smile, or a close-up of Nella’s braid, its loose hairs and red ribbon creating art against her eyelet blouse. The years of photo archives in my computer are like volumes of diaries–the moments and scenes that have inspired me to grab my camera. Those scenes change with time, but everyone has a life full of them–people and places and little things that interest us, delight us and make us pay a little more attention to the world and its light.

I’ve been taking photos of these things for years and am always surprised when I hear people say things like “I wish I could take better photos, but I’m not creative” or “I’d take more photos if I had something to photograph” because the joy of photography shouldn’t be limited to certain people or lifestyles. So last year, I created FRAMED!, a 3-week interactive online photography course to help make beautiful everyday photography more accessible to people who want to take better photos but are overwhelmed by all the technical aspects. Or maybe you used to take photos but lost your inspiration; or you do take photos, but they all sort of look the same and you’re looking for some new creative perspectives. I created FRAMED! for all of those reasons, and the third round starts next week (February 11).

It’s my favorite thing to lead–three weeks with assignments, lessons, online support and an amazing creative community; and it’s all intended to inspire you and motivate you to try new perspectives in your photography and give you tips and tricks in layman’s terms on how you can use light, angles, colors, space and editing to make your photos come to life and share them in engaging ways.

You can read a number of testimonials from past participants (25% of them came back after Round 1 to take Round 2 again!) here, but one of my favorite participant transformation stories is that of Corinne, the consultant I hired to help me with all the business and technical aspects of starting a web course last year. Corinne is skilled in the areas where I’m weaker–all the Type A stuff, and she considered herself more business minded than artsy. But, in helping me run the course, she thought it would be a good idea to actually participate in it the first round to push herself creatively and better understand the course. She used nothing more than her phone camera (but bought her first DSLR at the end of the course), and this is what she said about her experience:

I didn’t know the first thing about photography when I joined forces with Kelle to bring Framed! to her audience. I was the logistics-tech-project-manager person—here to help make this the best program possible for her amazing readers. But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t yearn to take meaningful photos and rediscover my own creative spirit as a self-employed working mom of three. 

So I decided to jump into the assignments with the Framed! crew and I am so grateful that I did. Today, photography is part of my everyday life. I did the first session with my phone and then took the leap and bought a DSLR camera for the second session. Just a few months after starting this journey, I feel confident with my camera and on a quest to learn more each day. 

Framed! has enriched my life in so many ways. It has helped me: connect daily with myself, appreciate my life and my family with a fresh perspective, and release stress through creative expression. It’s even helped my business because I’m sharing more about my life and work online and connecting with potential clients. I’m so grateful that my work has led me to discover a medium that has made every area of my life better. Thank you, Kelle and the Framed! community!

And look at how her feed changed when she took the course! I took a screenshot of her feed with her permission before the course and then pulled several shots from her feed during her participation in the course:

I still love the candid snapshots and blurry captures–of course they are every bit as meaningful–but sometimes it’s just a few easy little tips that can naturally be incorporated in your photo taking that can transform your images into something more evocative and ignite a creative fire in your soul in the process.

So, class starts next week, and if you’d like to join us, you can sign up here. There are lots of live components like office hours (I answer your questions live) and video chats, but we try to accommodate all schedules and record everything so you can have access to it whenever is best for you. The lively community is incredibly supportive and has become a great place for friends to share their photos and stories. And…you don’t have to have Facebook this round! There’s a new course site that hosts all the materials and communication.

Mostly, I love seeing the sleeping dragons of creativity awaken in participants as they explore the course. I love seeing their passion and love shine through their images, and I love sharing everything I’ve learned to help them continue to pursue their creative dreams and find joy in something that’s been such a gift in my own life.

Click here to read more about FRAMED! and to enroll.

Filed Under: Photography

The Big F.A.Q.

December 21, 2011 By Kelle

Q: How do you keep on top of your photos?

A: I take photos almost every day. Without even thinking about it, my routine is to download them at night and click through them to choose my favorites. I store them in folders by date and tag words like “South Beach weekend,” “Lainey’s birthday party,” or “Mom’s wedding.” I have three external drives right now, and every 3-4 months, I go through folders and clean them up–delete the extras and leave only the best of the best. This is getting easier than it used to be. Three years ago, I could have had 25 shots of Lainey eating an ice cream cone–all of them similar–and I’d be paralyzed, feeling guilty to delete just one. After four years though, I know my kids and their childhood are more than well represented. Between the blog, Photobucket, the books I make for them each year, and my hard drives, I’m confident I won’t lose sleep over deleting unused photos.

Photobucket

Q: How do you take your camera out?

A: If I don’t want to lug my camera case, I will wrap my camera in a scarf and put it in my purse (I carry a larger purse in these instances, and sometimes I’ll pull the diaper change mat from a diaper bag and line my purse with it). In these cases, I’ll settle on bringing one lens–usually my 16-35 mm. Obviously, I take my camera to the beach as well. I always bring my camera case if we’re going to the beach, and I’m careful to make sure my hands are clean and sand-free if I change lenses. I also use an air blower like this one to clean off the camera when we’re home. I send my camera to Canon at least once a year for a “tune-up”–sensor and body cleaning.

Photobucket

As far as photography goes, I have some really cool new ways of sharing some photo-taking tips (always a work in progress) with you come January. I can’t share yet, but I’m excited about a collaborative new project!

Q: How often does D.S. weigh on your mind?

A: We’re almost two years in this. D.S. is part of who my child is. I think about my children all day long and consequently, Down syndrome is part of that. There are so many times when I look at Nella and just feel–I don’t know, I can’t explain it–calm…content…thankful. Her eyes? I’m crazy over them–so exotic, so beautiful.

Photobucket

We still talk about how this has changed our lives in so many good ways and how we will continue to grow and learn in years to come. So, to say we don’t ever think about it isn’t really true. We do, however, forget about the things we used to think about. The fears. The uncertainty. Or, rather, we’ve become accustomed to it. There will be tears. There will be days when I will say yes, this is hard. But so far, I’ve thought so many times–how could I have ever underestimated this love? I have two daughters. Unmeasurable joy times two. Period.

Photobucket

Q: Do you ever worry about Lainey feeling overshadowed by Nella’s special needs?

A: I used to. It consumed me those first couple months. But I didn’t give myself enough credit as a mom. I love my children equally. How silly of me to think I wouldn’t be able to express that. The more I rely on my natural ability to love, nurture and mother the way I was born to do, the less I worry about things. I’ve realized I never miss a beat when either of my girls need more of me–I just know. And I react instinctively. I’ve never been more confident that my girls will both grow up knowing they are so special–each unique and talented in so many ways. The more I trust myself, the better I love.

Photobucket

Q: What kinds of therapy is Nella getting? Are you doing anything with her that you think contributes to how well she is doing?

A: Nella has O.T. (occupational therapy) and P.T. (physical therapy), each once a week, and an I.T.D.S. (Infant Toddler Development Specialist) comes to our house every two weeks and does play therapy, evaluations, etc. This is all provided by the state as part of a federally funded Early Intervention program. These programs are incredibly vital for children with special needs, and we need to continually advocate to see that they are appropriately funded and remain in place.

If there’s any one thing we do with Nella that I feel directly affects her progress, I’m happy to share (I love the tips I’ve received from the D.S. community on resources they’ve found useful). While I believe the accepting environment we provide for Nella, where we expect so much of her and treat her equally, helps promote her milestones, I don’t ever want to suggest that a child who isn’t reaching the same milestones doesn’t have parents who work with them. Regardless of special needs, children develop differently and at their own pace. In the meantime, we invest our time, love and praise into every one of our kids, celebrating their accomplishments, supporting their needs.

Photobucket

Q: It seems there are so many categories of moms these days, especially on blogs. What kind of mom do you consider yourself?

A: Just a mom. I don’t want to sum up what kind of mom I am in one word because that’s limiting. I don’t like being put in a box and I’m way too impulsive to fit into just one category. I’ve written about this before, but I think sometimes we feel like we can’t explore a new area if we don’t completely fit in the box. Like “I’d really like to buy that vintage plate because I love it, but my house is too contemporary and I’m not really Vintage Girl.” Who says you have to be just one thing? Buy the damn plate if you love it. Our society is fabulous at pigeon-holing people and identifying them into categories as if they have to abide by a certain set of rules–and judgement and assumption often follows. We’ve identified the urban mom, the hipster mom, the churchy mom, the homeschool mom, the wild mom, the funny mom, the divorced mom, the laid back mom as if once you have a label, that’s all you can be. That’s so constraining and yet, I admit, I fall victim to the labeling. Like I thought I couldn’t make my own laundry soap because it meant I’d also have to drive a hybrid car. Holding a solid faith and dancing out with the girls don’t have to be opposites. Having a home in a suburban neighborhood doesn’t mean I can’t funk it up with crafts and cherished kitsch. And writing about “the small things” certainly doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention to “the big things” in life too. I want to passionately explore a multitude of areas in life and, while some areas might bubble to the surface with noticeable expression, some simmer beautifully and quietly underneath–not to be forgotten. I’ll dip my toes into different hobbies and ways of life if I feel drawn to them, and I won’t let the box of “who I’m supposed to be” stop me for a hot second. And I learn–oh, do I learn from so many other kinds of moms who continually broaden the definition of motherhood with their insight and experience.

Photobucket

We’re women. We are multi-faceted. We don’t have to fit into a box. We follow our own rhythms and we celebrate our movements that may change over the course of aging, mothering, learning, exploring, loving.

I follow my instincts and listen to my heart. That’s the kind of mother I am.

Q: Do you read the comments?

A: Yes. I really try and read all of them. You took the time to write it, I want to take the time to read it. Sometimes I go a couple days before I sit down and catch up, but you’d be surprised how many of you I know by name. I try to visit blogs and leave comments when I can although, obviously, my first priority is time with my family. If you ask a question in the comments, I will try and answer it in another comment in the same post.

Q: With a public blog, how do you deal with negative criticism?

A: I wish I could say I’ve always been one of those people who shrug off criticism and make no qualms about how people perceive them. I’ve always wanted to please people, and that comes with the realization that when I don’t, it’s disheartening. When this blog gained publicity, I soon discovered that it also opened the door to criticism and sometimes false assumptions about how we live our lives, raise our kids, deal with issues, what I write about, what I don’t write about, etc. Here’s the thing–everyone should go through negative criticism at some point in their life because it is so good for you. It never feels good at the moment, but the process is enlightening. You sharpen your beliefs, gain confidence and, over time, stand firmer and stronger.

Photobucket

No one is invincible–I do get my feelings hurt, and that icky, self-analyzing, defensive cave I’ve slipped into is just gross. But necessary. You grow. From blogging and putting myself out there, I believe even more Shakespeare’s advice, “To thine own self be true.” And you don’t need a blog to discover that you cannot change yourself to please others nor can you be so arrogant to think that you’re never wrong. But you can own what you say…and learn more every day from the experiences that help shape us–and that includes criticism.

Q: Where do you get your quilts?

A: My mama’s always loved a good quilt, and I inherited her obsession once I had babies and fell into my style a little more. I like cozy. I like homey. And I love me some Ebay. I don’t think I’ve paid more than $30 for any of our quilts. They were all found on Ebay–old, used, a bit tattered…but perfect. I search words like “vintage quilt,” “vintage patchwork quilt,” “granny square afghan,” “homemade patchwork quilt” and about a hundred other combinations that have scored me some pretty cool finds.

Photobucket

Q: How did you and Brett meet?

A: This is definitely the most repeated question. I suppose my avoidance suggests some sort of scandalous story like we met in Las Vegas when I was a showgirl and he was a stage hand. Oh, but only if it were so storybook. Didn’t happen that way, although he did propose to me at dinner while we watched the Bellagio fountains from the Eiffel Tower–the Vegas one–and I do have a nice showgirl high-kick when I’m reenacting Sally O’Malley, if I don’t say so myself.

There is a story behind our meeting, and I did finally write it all down.

Photobucket

But it’s in Bloom, and you’ll have to wait until April 3 when the book comes out. There are a lot of issues in the book I specifically discuss that I don’t talk about a lot on the blog–my past, faith, family, etc. On the blog, my intent is that these issues breathe through stories, photos and words in a read-between-the-lines kind of way and, occassionally, I will expound when I’m inspired to do so.

The book opened up the opportunity to explore a lot of untread territory though. Writing it was the most cathartic personal experience of my life–a ten month therapy session, of sorts. I am excited for next year and the release of a story that is so precious to me–one in which I hope you find shared sentiments, determination and celebration. As it gets closer, I will talk about it a bit more, but for now you can pre-order a copy of Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected by clicking any of the four distributer buttons on the right sidebar.

Finally, I promise…I don’t do it all. No one does it all. There are never enough hours in the day to finish what I want to accomplish, and there are nights where I go to bed with the house in shambles and thinking to myself, I could have done better. I am forgiving. I am realistic. And I love the thrill of waking up the next day and deciding…what is it we want to do today? How are we going to make this day great? Happiness is a choice. Sometimes it isn’t easy. There are moments it doesn’t come naturally…but when you repeatedly practice finding the good, it has a way of finding you.

If I didn’t answer your question, you might find it on this old F.A.Q. post or the F.A.Q. tab at the top of the blog or perhaps the Photography F.A.Q.

Filed Under: Designer Genes, Favorites, Photography

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Popular Posts

Shop My Favorites

Keep In Touch

Bucket Lists

ARCHIVES

Archives


“One of the most emotionally stirring books I’ve ever read….a reminder that a mother’s love for her child is a powerful, eternal, unshakable force.”
Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman
  • Home
  • About this Blog
  • BLOG
  • BLOOM
  • Favorites
  • Parties
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT

Copyright © 2021 ·Enjoying the Small Things & Kelle Hampton, All Rights Reserved.