So you finally have some time and are ready to print some of those pictures you’ve taken of your little one. Yey!
Your mind starts coming up with ideas and you think to yourself:
A scrapbook…eh maybe not that creative
Photo album…ok now I’m going to have to be a designer?
Frames?…do I even have wall space?
You sigh as you drum your fingers.
I totally get it. Even as a photographer, I’m guilty of not doing the best job of printing my own photos.
Some of these projects can take time and I can imagine it’s even harder with little ones.
So I came across a super simple idea I think you might like.
Order some plain old prints and pop them into a decorative bowl!
That’s it. Done. Just like that. Can’t get any easier.
I know maybe it sounds a bit simple but look at this photo by Style Me Pretty I found on Pinterest.
It’s adorable!
I have never seen this at anyone’s house that I have ever went to, so perhaps you can be the first.
Around this time, I was talking to a friend of mine, Richan, (whose kids are in their 20-30s) about what to do with family photos (both old and new) and ironically she had just gotten the same idea from her neighbor.
I asked her how hers worked out.
Richan’s Photo Wicker Basket
So, she went and gathered various photos from all different periods of her life.
From black and white photos of her parents — to when she got married — and all through when her kids were growing up.
She didn’t have a decorative bowl so used a wicker basket instead. After she filled it up, she displayed it in her family room figuring anyone that came over could look through them.
It’s nice to know those pictures were able to come out of boxes and no longer collect dust.
One thing she did do a bit differently was she found some old Christmas cards and letters, and pulled those out as well to display in the basket – I loved this idea!
Later on one of her daughters ended up coming for a visit and noticed the basket of old family photos and was pleasantly surprised to find some old but new photos to her because she’d never seen them before. Ones with her school mates from middle school.
Next she pulled out a set of photos of her parents after they had just got married and were on a trip somewhere. There was one of her mom standing in a garden by herself followed by a photo of her dad in a garden by himself.
She wondered why didn’t they just get one together — turned out it was because no one was around to take one of the two of them so they took one of each other!
I guess that was the solution back before we could just take a selfie lol 🙂
They also found a BW photo of their Grandma when she was a baby and noticed how much Grandma looked one of their baby cousins now.
It was super touching to hear about the physical similarities of two family members that were 4 generations apart! As well as all the other stories and reminiscing my coworker and her daughter had over this one basket of pictures.
Guaranteeing we have experiences like these is going to be harder and harder as we print less and less of our everyday moments.
It does take more effort these days to get those physical prints than it did back in the day but to me they’re so important to have.
Pictures connect us to our past and to others and without printing them, how will we know for sure they’ll make into the future 20 to 30 years from now?
So I’d say it’s worth it to print.
Don’t overthink it. If the picture pulls on your heartstrings, print it.
You can’t get any easier than placing those prints in a decorative bowl in your family room. Mix in some old photos and see what happens…what conversations and stories come out.
When the little ones are a little older, you can always tackle a photo album or something more time-consuming.
Huge thanks to my friend Richan for allowing me to share her story and feature a couple of her family photos <3.
I hope you enjoyed this idea and get to try it out. If so, let me know how your photo bowl centerpiece worked out.