I really do need to purge, however. There are so many shots that I really don’t need at all.

That’s a WONDERFUL idea! I’ve been going through a lot of those same issues myself and have a couple ideas for you that sure helped me!

1. Get an external hard drive. I went to costco and spent $75 bucks on a HUGE (space-wise) external and now my computer and programs work so fast! You can keep it plugged in all day and access it like a normal folder on your desktop.

2. Make a blurb.com book with your pics. I think I already sent you images of the book I made for Justin’s family, but it’s a GREAT way to preserve photos and the glue will never peel, the pics will never fall out, it fits neatly on a shelf or coffee table, and you don’t have to waste a bunch of ink and paper in the process. Plus, it gives you a chance to sharpen your photoshop and layout skills! You can download the free software and it comes with tons of templates. I make all my pages from scratch, but it’s easy to do a blend if you like!

I decided a few months ago that when we have our first baby, I want to make a digital yearbook that I’ll have printed on blurb. It would be maybe just a two page spread for every month- just SOMETHING to document the events, pictures, etc. By the time he or she is 20, we’d have a whole Encyclopedia Brittanica style shelf of yearbooks! Then I decided, why wait for the baby? So I’ve started compiling all of the photos, notes, events, ticket stubs, postcards etc from 2008 and began organizing them for my 2008 yearbook. It’s fun because you can just scan random items in: handwriting, notes, drawings and more, which you can size down, overlap, etc however you’d like. I’ve also set up a system for 2009 to keep things organized! Here are a couple links to the two books I’ve made so far- each has a selection of pages from the real book.

The first is a book for Justin’s parents 30th Anniversary. Almost all the items in it were scanned in, photographed, and drawn or painted by Justin and me and I scanned in family members’ handwriting, talking about the happy couple:
http://satchel-studio.com/images/book1.jpg

This second book I compiled more simply of photos I took over the summer and thanksgiving of Justin’s family- no frills, simple portraits in a template I made:
http://satchel-studio.com/images/book2.jpg

Hope that helps inspire! Love you!

Did you know (*hint* TIP OF THE DAY! & it works with Photoshop & Elements!)

You can go into your EDIT > PREFERENCES > PERFORMANCE dialogue box and increase or decrease the MEMORY USAGE.

ALSO, in this same dialogue box you can designate a separate “SCRATCH DISK”. This means that you can buy a tiny little 2GB thumb drive and designate ALL of it to “SCRATCH DISK” usage!

ALSO, while in this SAME window, you can designate how many “HISTORY STATES” (this roughly means how many UNDOS you get… yes there is more to it than that, but that is the easiest way to think of it)….

So i luv your post….i think we can help each other…I can help you get teh stories organized and written with the FYB Challenge. FYI: you can publish your book through Cherish Bound if you want to put anything into hardbound books. I can tell you how to do that. And I’m going to come over here and visit for some PSE help….I suck at it! cant’ figure it out for hte life of me….such a rookie. i have PSE 6 and it just sits there as i abuse the heck out of it! BTW: i love pb & j so make extra for me! ♥