Jacqueline Horning Photography

Real Life

My Girl

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Eila girl, I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.  Love you and your paintings of lions (mane and all!), pretend everything, and the gentleness God gave you about it all.  Thankful to be your mama.  xo. 

How to get professional photos to Instagram

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You scheduled the session, picked out the outfits, decided on a location, avoided coffee spills and diaper blowouts for an hour, and just received your images back from the session.  You LOVE them and immediately want to print them / frame them / call your mom / post one - er, five -  on Instagram.  

If your method of getting photos that came from a real camera (i.e. not your phone) to Instagram involves some combination of downloading / emailing / screen shots, might I offer another way?  

I'm sure there are other methods, but here's a simple one: dropbox.  To do this, you'll need a (free) dropbox account and the dropbox app on your phone.  

  1. 1. On your computer, save the image file (or copy and paste) to dropbox 
  2. 2. Open the dropbox app on your phone and find the file
  3. 3. Tap at the top right to expand options (next to your user profile icon) and select "export"
  4. 4. Select "save image" and it will export the file to your camera roll
  5. 5. Open Instagram and voila, your image is right there ready for you.  (It propagates cropped so zoom out if you want to display the whole image.)

 

Say goodby to fuzzy images and show off those beauties you invested in!  Any other methods you love?  

My Top Picks for a Diaper Bag

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So as you may have seen, babe #2 arrived in September.  Going from one child to two meant upping my game in a few areas, and a diaper bag was one of them.  

Other areas include strollers, doing life one handed, and making awesome toddler-approved meals in five minutes...so needless to say I'm a work in progress. ;)

Anyway, back to the diaper bag situation: the canvas bag I swung over my shoulder with baby #1 was already starting to get in the way as I lifted my baby-turned-toddler to the sink to wash her hands, bent to see what new treasure she found on the ground, etc.  A backpack was a must, as smarter mothers had already realized. 

Also, I had done the bag that isn't a diaper bag thing and was ok without the compartments....but thought it would be nice and definitely faster to grab that little hair clip that fell to the bottom of the bag.  

Backpacks go with babywearing!  Iphone photo from this fall when he was just a peanut.

So, since we're all searching for the same thing - a diaper bag that doesn't look like one - I thought I'd share my finalists with you.

In no particular order:

1. Storq - The Carryall.  Minimalist black backpack.  It's simple, it's waterproof, looks like a gender-neutral backpack and holds baby gear in a few pockets.  #win.

2. Honest Co. - honest city backpack.  Pretty leather backpacks - I'd expect nothing less from a company that made diapers into works of art!  

3. Fawn - more stylish leather backpacks.  A little rounder shape, comes in black / brown / grey.

4. One Duo - Canvas coated backpack.  Material like the Storq bag but in an unexpected shape (and colors!).  It looks like they are currently sold out, but hopefully there will be more available soon!

5. Lily Jade - Diaper bag disguised as a designer handbag.   Add an amazing organizer insert and straps that convert to a backpack and vóila - form meets function.

6. Fjallraven Kanken - You know, those great swiss backpacks.  No, they aren't diaper bags at all, but why not?  Love their simplicity, people rave about them, and they look great.  I hear some people add an organizer inside to give it some compartments.   

Most of the leather (or "leather") backpack options were out of stock when I was looking so that helped narrow down my choices.  I opted for the One Duo, sold on Etsy, so I'm particularly bummed that it's currently off the market!  I typically opt for understated pieces so liked the plain canvas backpack options.  Add just a tad of style and lots of pockets and I'm one happy camper!

What else have you found?  

Wishing you form and function (so we can forget about the bag already) and enjoy the outdoors with your kiddos.  xo.