Instagram Photo Books

A few months ago I blogged about things I was loving annnnd I'm back to tell you about Chatbooks again. This isn't a sponsored post or an ad or anything - I just love them and think you will, too! :) Some of my best pals were in town this past weekend and, once I told them a little more about how great Chatbooks are, they all got on board. 

Here's the quick+dirty: 

1. You can print gorgeous photo books directly from your Instagram without having to do anything at all. It is SO much easier than making manual photo books or printing individual photos. 
2. You can print from your Instagram account (which most people do) OR phone favorites. Or you can link it to a private account. I do it this way so I can upload a bunch of photos at once without spamming the internet. 
3. When you hit 60 photos, Chatbooks asks you if you want to print your book. If so, just click print and it'll send you a beautiful book for $8. If you don't want to print, it won't autobill you. 
4. You can also assign a cover, delete photos, add a title and make edits as needed. Or you can skip all that and have even less work to do! 
5. It prints a date stamp on each photo, which is so great for the mems :) 

Still confused?

Watch this video. It's super mom-focused but I think y'all will still get the idea - it doesn't require having kids to be too busy to make pesky photobooks, amiright?

We absolutely LOVED it for our Kenya trip. While we were there, we posted photos to a private Insta account as we took them. Now? We have a photo book on its way to us and barely did any work! It's so much easier than making manual books. My friends are making them for their babies, recent trips and puppys' lifetimes. It's easy peasy. I wish I had been using it for our honeymoon and wedding!

Like I said, this post wasn't sponsored (in any way!), but if you do want your first book free, you can use this referral link. I will receive referral points from you if you do. So thank you very much!

Do You Over Apologize?

One of the clunkier parts of The Letter Project is that every bundle has to be individually weighed. It requires me to physically go to the Post Office and wait as they enter the class of service + destination. On days when I am super busy, I'm tempted to guess how many stamps each one takes. But, time and time again, I get them weighed and they vary just enough to make it worth going in person.

I always get the same Clerk when I'm there. Some days, he's happy to see me - asking questions about where we are sending letters, telling me about his time in the Army. Other days, he's less friendly and I try to give him extra understanding, knowing it takes a while to weigh each bundle. And, seeing that people are often rude to Post Office employees, frustrated with wait times and having to run an extra errand, I can't imagine how old it could get.

Last week, I took a big batch to be weighed. I felt nervous with so many envelopes and tried to go when I knew it would be a little less busy. I walked in and he waved, but his demeanor shifted when he saw how many there were. I totally felt him. It was a lot. 

I waited in line and, when it got to be my turn, asked him if it was too many to do at once. I can do half now and half later, I told him as I swiped my credit card for 100 stamps. I know it's a pain. I'm so sorry. He didn't say anything in response, but began weighing each one. My hands were shaky as I tried to rush through them, slapping the stamps on quickly, when I'm normally so careful to line them up. Sorry, I know it's a lot. I said again.

I kept checking the line behind me and, as we finished up, apologized to the next customer. He told me he didn't mind at all and smiled. His smile calmed me and suddenly I felt frustrated with myself. I was a paying customer and the entire transaction took less than 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I was practically groveling. Why did I feel so guilty? Why did I feel like I was inconveniencing everyone, as I tried to execute a task that is crucial to my business? 

I recently saw an Instagram that, in our overly apologizing [often female] culture, we should replace our sorries with thank yous. So, instead of "I'm sorry I have so many letters" I could have said "Thank you so much for taking the time to weigh these letters." I often aim to be kind by apologizing and, in reality, saying thank you is equally as polite and appropriate. 

Later that day, I was checking out at IKEA (bless it.) and apologized to the cashier that it was taking a while for me to bag my items. This time, though, I caught myself. I just bought this stuff and, PS, why doesn't IKEA have any boxes or bags for customers? Are they sorry about this? :)

I have a long (long) way to go, but I'm confident that the less we over-apologize, the more our sorries will mean when we actually need them. 

PS: This quiz! Nothing like making you realize how much you say sorry!
PPS: With me on this one? These were some good tips. 
PPPS: Sorry for multiple postscripts. 
PPPPS: JK. 

For When You Feel Like Your Life is a Disaster

Not too long ago, there was a period of time when I moved six times in 18 months. That's an average of moving every 90 days! My friend, Katie, jokes that I probably still have mail all over the city. And she's right! Just before we left for Kenya, I picked up a check from a house I haven't lived in since April 2013. 

I walked up to the old rental and smiled as I thought of all the nights Melly and I spent there together. It was for sale then, which meant rent for the newly renovated, four-bedroom, two-bathroom Highlands home was only $450. It also meant we had constant showings and weren't allowed to host guests. 

Just a few months before we moved in, I'd gone through a breakup. In retrospect, it wasn't a significant relationship, but, in the moment, it stung a bit. We'd dated for eight months and he was my Good on Paper Boyfriend.

The trouble with Good on Paper Boyfriends is they allow us to easily imagine Paper Futures, even if chemistry and emotions aren't there. When he lit our Paper Future on fire, it hurt to watch it burn. 

A few weeks after we broke up, Melly, Katie and I returned from Christmas to learn that the rats, with which our house had been infested in October, had returned. Over Christmas, my mom had washed all of my clothes after we decided they smelled like rats. I wanted to cry at the thought of doing that much laundry again. 

We called our landlord and told him this wasn't working; we had to break our lease. He agreed. The rats needed to be professionally handled, with chemicals humans couldn't inhale. We needed to move out. It's worth noting that this house has since been torn down. 

Katie, just a few months from her wedding, moved in with her sister. Melly and I moved into the Show Home sight unseen, for a fraction of the rent we'd been paying to live with rats. By the time we moved in, we felt like we'd survived something. We'd been to battle and walked away from it. Only one injury sustained! Some clothes, jewelry and furniture lost to the human-sized rats, sure. But, for the most part, unscathed!

The Show Home was across from multiple bars and restaurants, which isn't a problem at all when you're 26. Nowadays? Too noisy! Then? No Uber! It was a phase marked by too much money spent at Target and too many tacos and margaritas ordered at the Mexican restaurant across the street. It was a season of staying too late at Dark Horse and becoming obsessed with live music at Blind Willie's. 

Now, when I think about those days, I envision us as two carefree city girls, moving all around cool areas of town and eating tacos. But, when I look a little more closely, I remember I felt like my life was a disaster.

I never had enough money. We didn't know how long it would be until we were moving again. Should we even unpack!? I had no clue what I wanted to do for a living. Meanwhile, it felt like all of our friends were getting married, going to grad school and leaving the city. I was so tired of being single and felt like I was getting left behind. There were days when I'd declare I was going to buy a house, because I could totally do this on my own! And then other days I'd ask my parents if it would be cool if I moved back in. 

Life felt chaotic and uncertain and messy. And those feelings weren't fleeting but instead like a heavy, unmovable cloud. 

Little did I know that, just three months later, we'd be moving into a duplex that would become my longest Atlanta residence, for more than four years. It would become my most significant home in the city and, just three weeks after moving in, I'd meet Chris. It would become a place of so much joy, where I got to live with both Melly and my brothers simultaneously. It would become the place where Chris picked me up for both our first date and the night he asked me to marry him. It would become our first married home, where we'd return after our honeymoon. It would be a place where we'd host dear friends for bible study and wine nights and Write Nights. 

I tell you this because I want you to know that your life might feel like a jumbled disaster of tacos, too. So many of my clients feel like this season of life is pure chaos; they want to throw their hands up and declare a do-over.

I just want you to know that this is normal. Your 20s are hard. But, I promise you they get easier. It might take a little longer than you expect. Things might not shape up exactly like the Paper Dreams you created years ago. But, they do get easier. And better. 

Someday, you'll be walking up to an old rental to pick up a check and you'll smile as you think about the time you covered the Show Home's fancy dining room table with trash bags so you could play flip cup with your friends without them knowing you had a party. But that's our secret :) 

A Few Good Books

My rule for reading in 2017 is that I'm not shoulding on myself. You see, I love fiction. It's the bomb. But sometimes, I feel like I should read nonfiction because I learn, it's good for my writing and it feels productive. Last year, I had a queue of nonfiction books to read and, at the end of the day, when I was ready to mentally check out, I'd opt for Netflix instead. Which meant I never got to my happy stack of fiction!

Ah, problems that aren't real :) 

That being said, this year, I am only reading books I really want to read, which has led to a whole lot more reading. 

Right before we left for Kenya, I started An Abundance of Katherine's and I just couldn't get into it. I always love John Green's writing, but it didn't do it for me. I couldn't connect with the main character. Instead of forcing myself to finish it, I put it down. Even though I sort of felt like a quitter (!), it was also liberating and helped me find my reading groove on the trip. Wahoo :)

Here are a few books I've loved lately:

image via

1. Bird by Bird // If you have any interest in being a writer, this is a must read. Anne Lamott is wonderfully goofy and her tips for writing - both fiction and nonfiction - are amazing. She also has great life advice. Her ideas challenged the way I look at the world and how that perspective interacts with my writing. 

2. Big Little Lies // Could.not.put.this.down. So good! Liane Moriarty is so sneaky with her endings! If you're watching the show, I highly recommend reading the book first. It's funnier and lighter. I just started What Alice Forgot this week and am already hooked. 

3. For the Love // This wasn't my favorite of the trip, but it's worth a read - especially for young moms. Jen Hatmaker has good perspective and is always funny. I don't typically love sarcasm, so it wasn't necessarily my style, but I still liked her ideas. Very refreshing!

What are you guys reading? Anything I ought to pick up?