nostalgia

2.20.2015

my first instagram account was born around the same time as august, a little less than two years ago. it was a private account i shared with family + friends with the intention of keeping everyone up with our new little family by posting daily photos of august. [#augustdaily for those looking to kill some time, while glossing over adorable baby mugshots] mostly, it was created for august's grandmothers - both of which live too far away to see him on a regular basis - so i made the commitment to take a picture of him every day of his first year of life. i did pretty well too, only missed a handful of days. 

i laugh when i think about how seriously i took this personal project of mine. it began at a time before i had a "real" camera so the image of me standing over my infant son with an ipad, hitting the camera button with rapid-fire succession brings a slightly embarrassed smile to my face. and the time i spent with my nose inches from the screen sliding back and forth between nearly-identical photos to determine the best shot is a pretty funny one too or how i pinned over the *right* caption (i am still SO not good at captions. if only andy and i could combine powers... he's brilliant at one-liners and quips.)

that account has gone abandoned for months now, but i've kept it open and occasionally find myself logging on just to scroll through the past. i'm so grateful for having a visual journal of august's first year, but therein lies the conundrum of modern memory keeping: it's all either online or lost somewhere on a hard drive. nothing necessarily wrong with that, but i've always been a sensitive person in the sense that i prefer using as many of my senses possible (record number of uses of the word "sense" in one sentence! plus all those sssss! i'm on fire!). i like the feel of pages between my fingers, the soft sound of the spine when it cracks open, the sight of vibrant colors from saturated photos, and one day, the sweet musty smell of yellowed pages.

that's when i finally broke out the beautiful baby journal claudin got me and i sent alllll those pictures to print. i'm slowly making my way, documenting the milestones and relieving those precious moments. the book is far from complete and i've missed a lot, but having this collection of anecdotes and images makes me so glad i started that little project all that time ago. august has already asked me to read him the "baby" book, which already kind of just makes it worth every silly effort.
this is part of a linkup with oftreesandhues and taravictoria where you can find other interpretations on nostalgia.

23 comments:

Hollands reverie said...

First off- I almost emailed you today to ask when you would be posting again- I love them and miss when you don't. Second hear ya on the captions- I agonize and they are still horrible. Third- I love this. I'm around four years behind on printing and making books and it's on my must do list. Anyway, have a great weekend!

melaniekay said...

I love these pictures! This looks like a really cool book! I really love it!
Melanie @ meandmr.com

Lauren said...

Oh, beautifully brilliant! I love every word of this. Every word. I'm behind on printing, and I'm thinking I need to designate one day a month to picking and printing photos. There's been a lot of chatter about how our digital footprint will disappear.

And here's a story to encourage you (and why I'm glad I couldn't comment last night because I just learned it!). A high school friend and old neighbor was back on our street killing time last night. She grew up living with her grandparents. For nostalgia's sake, she took a picture of her old house, but asked the new owners for permission. They were so glad she knocked because they'd found old letters in the attic, written from her grandparents and great grandparents during WW2. What an unexpected treasure!

If all that stuff stays on my computer, who will find it?

gillian claire said...

Ohhh I love this, I am the absolute WORST at doing anything with my pictures these days. When Roman was a baby I did keep a very up to date photo album and scrapbook etc. but since Asher came along my documentation has gone downhill. I have thousands of photos just sitting around in digital form. :(

Amy S. said...

It's great that you were able to capture so much of his first year, and even better that you'll have printed copies of the photos, so they won't be forever stuck in cyberspace.

I can relate on the lack of captioning skills, though...and I'm thinking the gift of good one-liners and quips must definitely be another trait those brothers have in common!! :-)

Fiona Harding said...

I love this and maybe even more that you were using an ipad! I think we (myself totally included) get too caught up in perfect photos that we forget it's the memories that steal our hearts :)

Kaylan Buteyn said...

ahhh this is so sweet! Love those little memory books.

Unknown said...

Wow, this is great and so beautiful you have so many consistent photographs of August's first years. Also, there's just something about the fact that they weren't taken with a "real" camera that I actually love. What a wonderful thing to make it into a book. :)

lucinda said...

you are so sweet, chelsea. i can't tell you how much your kind words mean to me. and as for the captions, all i have to day is thank goodness for emojis. we can just comment on pictures with more pictures! ha! xo

lucinda said...

it's hard enough to get done with one little one running around, i can only imagine how much more challenging it is when the nest expands beyond that! we gotta give ourselves some credit though. at least we're taking the pictures and documenting the moments, right? and on those fronts you're doing great, mama! xo

lucinda said...

i love that story, lauren!! what an amazing find and to think, those letters may have very well stayed in that attic without your friend ever having known their existence, if she hadn't reached out! community is such a cool thing. it's how we stay connected, how stories around remembered, and how they are passed on. just awesome. thank you for sharing this.

lucinda said...

agreed. so well put, fee. xo

Erin said...

"but therein lies the conundrum of modern memory keeping:" Oh, that's a lovely alliteration, and you're so right, it IS a conundrum. You made such a beautiful thing out of the once-intangible, and I can't help but think of how much fun it will be for August one day to look back and see his early days through your eyes (maybe I'm vain, but I loved leafing through my baby albums. It's a much purer, more innocent version of when you black out as an adult at a party but photos end up online anyway. "So THAT'S what happened!"). Would you recommend Origrami for prints? I've been itching to print some travel photos from my feed for a while now. xo

Valerie Price said...

Oh wow, I love this project! The book looks amazing...such a sweet way to capture beautiful memories! :)

Christine D. | The Plumed Nest said...

i love this. it is really beautiful. and a good reminder that i need to actually PRINT some photos of my children. i couldn't agree with lauren's comment more. xoxo

lucinda said...

haha! love the analogy, erin. brilliant!

origrami is fantastic, i highly recommend it. first of all, you will totally appreciate the packaging - it's adorable. then, there are the details like how you can choose from different themes (if you tagged your location on those travel photos, you should totally do the map theme), the caption and time stamp are printed on the back of each, and you can choose from two sizes. most importantly, the print quality is really lovely. it will do your gorgeous photos justice. xo

Petra said...

that's a great idea. I have a folder of images that I want to print to spread them throughout the apartment. you are right. it's all online. behind a screen. and that's just not the same as a real life photograph that throws a real shadow and not a carefully added dropshadow.

Annie Montgomery said...

such a sweet post! I love seeing your instaphotos come up in my feed - always so adorable!

Jade Lee Wright said...

Heya I hope you come back soon - been a while since you posted! Hope you're okay!?


Lovely post and nostalgia is quite beautiful when you can look back at such gorgeous memories xx


www.bohemianmuses.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

echoing the sentiments of Jade - please post again soon! Missing your words and pictures!!

Rebecca Murphy said...

This is so great. I've been feeling the pull to print more images lately too, but then the question of framing? Scraping? Just pinning them to some cork boards? Ah, what to do with them!? I love this and think your son will relish these memories later. I do, thanks to my mom. xoxo

Hannah Smith | fox and willow said...

what a beautiful book!

Unknown said...

Oh! This is such a beautiful thing you've created, dear. What a lovely thing to have to cherish for years to come. xo

 

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