snap.scrap.share. Thursdays with Katie Stories: April 2014

In case you were wondering if I had fallen and was never coming back....I am alive and getting healthier by the day.  Watch for that post later in the week...promise!  But today, it is my favorite Thursday of the month....Katie is here and to go along with my blog makeover, she has spruced up her button and given her monthly post a new name!  Thank you for stopping by for the the first SNAP.SCRAP.SHARE....I love it!

Today, Katie is sharing her process for keeping her pictures organized....wait for it - on a WEEKLY basis!  I have a sneaky suspicion that if I adopted her method I would never get overwhelmed by pictures again.  It is a seemingly simple process if you can just discipline yourself to make the time each and every week....GENIUS!!!

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Hi everyone! Happy weekend eve!

I am extra excited about this Thursday, because it is the last day of school before Spring Break. I'm hoping to get some scrapping done while I am off from school.

But I've got a confession to make. I haven't felt much like scrapping lately. I've done other crafty things, like made an Easter wreath, and finished decorating our fireplace. But as for actual scrapbooking, I just haven't been in the mood.

I'm just hoping it comes back, because there are a lot of pages floating around in my head that I'd like to make before they float right on out of there!

Even when I'm not in a crafting mood, there is one thing that I always try to keep up with, and that is organizing and uploading my photos. And since everyone has a different way to do it, I thought I'd share my method with you today.

I organize my photos chronologically by week. It just works best for me, since my main style of documenting lately seems to be Project Life.

The first thing I do is gather all of my pictures from my iphone + AJ's iphone + our point and shoot camera + my DSLR and dump them in a folder on my computer labeled with the month/day of the week.

Then, I delete any pictures I don't need to save. Usually, these are pictures of layouts that I took for my blog. I figure if I have the layout, I don't really need a picture of it!

And I decide what needs to be edited. I don't do much editing, to be honest. iPhone pics might get a run through the PicTapGo app if they need it when they are taken (or if I'm feeling bored or fancy and want to play around with them). Some camera shots will go to PicMonkey for quick edits, but most don't.

Once all the pictures I want are saved on my computer, edited if needed, I upload them to Shutterfly. I like Shutterfly for three reasons:

• pictures are easy to order and I have the option of having them mailed to me or picked up at a local CVS, Walgreens or Target (since we are always moving or traveling, I like the flexibility)
• sharing is super easy - there is an iPhone app so I can easily access pictures on Shutterfly if I want to show them to someone on the go or I can select pictures to send to my family back home
• at the end of every year I have a CD made of all the pictures I took that year and have it sent to me for backup

Okay, that sounded like a Shutterfly ad, but I promise you it isn't. I just really like them!

When I upload, I use the same file name (the dates of the week) + I add any important events that may have taken place. This album is named 03 31 - 04 06 Opening Day, California, Allie and Jeremy's Wedding. That way if I'm looking for pictures of a specific event, but don't know the exact date - say our friend's wedding - I can find them easily.

Once on Shutterfly, pictures are automatically sent to the My Albums folder. I leave them there until I order pictures. Then I move them over to the 2014 folder. That's my way of knowing which pictures need to be ordered, and which don't!

And that's my picture organization method!

How do you sort your pictures?