It’s Time to Stop Looking at Your Pics Only on Your Phone and Print Them Out

Moms, we have a problem. We have started to rely solely on our phones to collect and store all of our precious photos. I’m guilty of this, and I bet you are, too. I take tons of pictures on my phone every day, but for what purpose? It’s not like I am printing them out or viewing them regularly. They are just taking up memory space on my phone.

I’m not telling you to stop taking pictures. No way! I think the ability to snap pics anytime we want is one of the best things about modern technology. What I am talking about is the fact that we don’t ever print them out. Why take all these pics if you aren’t ever going to see them? If you have countless photos stored on your phone but not on your walls, this one is for you.

Technology will fail.

We have all experienced a technology fail. As much as we would like to believe our photos are safe on our phones or our computers, these things crash, and our photos crash right alongside them. Plus, even if you have wisely uploaded all your photos to a cloud storage system, it doesn’t mean you will always have the technology to access and view them.

You will actually look at them.

If you are anything like me, you do look through photos on your phone. However, with the huge number of photos, you likely don’t go all the way back and look at photos from years ago. Who does that? Many moms rely solely on social media flashbacks to see their old pics. But, if you have them printed out, you will actually look at the pics from years past.

They make great gifts.

Few things make grandparents happier than receiving a printed photo of their grandkids. Just go ahead and make your life easier at the holidays by printing off a few of your best pics and purchasing a variety of frames.

They are the best ways to personalize your décor.

We all want our house to feel like a home. One way to achieve this is to personalize your décor using photos of your family. Now this will vary according to your style tastes. I don’t like a lot of clutter on my walls, but I still think you can very tastefully decorate with personal photos.

Your kids will thank you.

Let’s face it. Someday we will no longer be here, and our kids will want to have something physical to remember us by. Our photo albums and prints will be precious to them, just like we treasure our parent’s scrapbooks.

Here are some fun things to do with your prints:

• Old-fashioned photo album – There is nothing wrong with using an old-fashioned photo album to store your prints. The fact is it is a book you and your kids can look through from time to time – no need to be fancy unless you want to.

• Printed scrapbooks – There are so many companies, such as Shutterfly, that allow you to create customized scrapbooks online using your digital photos. For the moms who are the busiest, there is also Chatbooks, which regularly prints out your Instagram photos and send them to you in a book.

• Make stickers or postcards – In addition to the more traditional ways to print out photos, there are online companies which make it easy to turn your Instagram pics into stickers or postcards. These are perfect for school-aged kids!

• Create a gallery wall – As shown above, I recently used Storyboards to create a gallery wall in the breakfast nook of my home of some of my favorite pics. I am over the moon with how well it turned out! It was super easy and looks awesome.

My time with the Samsung Galaxy S9+

This post has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AdvanceWithSamsungGS9 #CollectiveBias

Mother’s Day is on its way here! A day for us mothers to be celebrated for all the hard work we do 365 days of the year.  I think deep down nobody can understand the extent of the hard work we do for our loved ones.  This is a great time for us to recognize all that greatness we deserve as well.  So to set an example for the rest of the mothers out there… I wanted to treat myself to something in the tech field that would help me make my blogging easier and provide a convenient way to take top of the line pictures! 

I picked up a Samsung Galaxy S9+ at Costco because this update has some things that are truly game changing.  As a blogger I’m taking pictures all the time of my girls at different times day and night.  I need something that is tough, and can take amazing pictures.  Also, I love the lilac purple color of the phone! The Samsung Galaxy S9+’s camera has dual aperture lens which adapts like the human eye, capturing incredibly clear photos with vivid real-life colors.  It’s like having a pocket sized professional camera!  It’s great in all kinds of light, whether bright sunlight or lowlight .  The photos are all displayed on a beautiful edge to edge screen and is truly a sight.

Some other great features include the Intelligent Scan and the Live Translation.  A new way of unlocking your phone uses both the facial recognition and iris scan together so you can unlock simply in low light.  With Live Translation, this new future can ready languages and instantly translate in real time for you.  It’s a great fun instant translate feature by simply pointing the phone at anything!   

My favorite feature of the Samsung Galaxy S9+ is the new AR Emoji.  But scanning your face, it uses augmented reality to create an ‘emoji’ version of yourself!  When I’m sending messages to my husband or friends I throw in these emojis and it makes a simple text MUCH more interesting.  My girls get a kick out of it too seeing their mom in cartoon emoji form!  Does that AR Emoji look like me? 

Everything about the  Samsung Galaxy S9+ is a great improvement.  With a stronger screen and water proofing, you get something that is tough for me who is constantly using it to type emails/blog and take photos.  But the camera is really the special thing here with it’s dual aperture lens, live translation, intelligent scan, and AR emoji features takes this to another level.  Make sure to stop by your local Costco to pick one up!