4,589

Any guesses?
Would you believe that's the number of pictures I've taken in the last 12 months?
Wow!
So what have I done with them?
Well the vast majority are on the computer and occasionally backed up (I know, very bad!!).
The rest?
The best are scrapped in one of three albums: Garrett's, Morgan's, or Jack's.
Up until this year I had a family album, but it was just too many to keep up with.

This year I'm attempting to do Project 365 by Becky Higgins. This was a totally new concept to me and I was one of the fortunate ones to get the kit. Unfortunately I didn't get it until the end of March so I was way behind when I started and I'm still behind. But I will finish! And I plan to do it next year. Curious, want more info? This year it is called Project Life. Check it out. If you don't want to scrapbook, this is a great alternative. If you want to improve your photography skills, this will make you think out of the box. She will also be offering a digital version, but I think I'm going to stick to the traditional. I'd love to nudge a few people (you know who you are!) into giving it a shot this year. Have I taken a picture EVERY day? No, almost. But I do think I have a collection of pictures that reflect our year so I've achieved my goal.

Because I didn't have the kit until March, I opted to organize my pictures on a a site called Shuttercal. You'll notice I have it linked on my blog and it shows the most current picture that I've uploaded. My sister says she loves looking through this so between her interest in it and the fact that it visually organizes my pictures, I'll keep it up. Not ready to commit to Project Life, try this next year. It's free and there's not much guilt involved if you don't complete it. And they have a wonderful new feature where you can order the prints and they are coded with the date on the front. Take a look at the video, what a great system! And can I toot my own horn? Go to the homepage of that site. See number 14? That's my picture. Yep, little ol' me! I wrote them a quick email and thanked them for making my day and here is their response, Thanks Julie,

This is Scott (DefaultArtist) I design the site, and I just pick the images for the front out of my favorites section ;) It's a very nice photo! Congrats on making the front page ;)
How cool is that?

Lastly, I've been doing 12 on the 12th. I saw some paper layouts with this concept last year (before I ever heard of Project 365) and thought it was a neat concept. I mentioned this to a few friends and there's a group of us that remind and motivate each other each month. I never planned to scrap the pictures, but in December I'm going to create a photo book so I'll have a collection of my 12 on the 12th collages for the year. My Nana is my biggest fan of these each month. So I will definitely continue with those next year.

So there's the long winded summary about the number 4,589. Is it too many? Better to have too many than too few. Time just goes by too quickly and who regrets having too many pictures when they are feeling nostalgic? I'd certainly regret having too few.

So now the question I have for you...are you going to join me? The more the merrier!

ETA: I just realized that I wrote a post about 4,589 pictures and didn't even post a picture...the irony :)