Oh photography! We all love it, one way or another, we all take pictures daily nowadays and have our phones and computers storage full of memories. It’s so absurd to think just a few decades ago people would still rely on films and that a few decades earlier people wasn’t even able to take its own photos as well! This is why I’ll never complain about this digital age (although, I’ll admit, vintage cameras still have their own charm!) but, if I really have to complain about something at all, it would be about the endless list of times a memory card or USB pen broke and the million photos I thought I was safely storing in them went lost forever. Or the huge amount of times phones ended up getting irreparably damaged in the sink, a pool or even a random deep puddle and all my hardly collected memories have perished with them.

I have grown a love for photography in the years, and since the very first time I decided I wanted to see my hard work into physical form, I’ve been obsessed with printing my own photos every now and then. Having your memories stored into something you can hold between your fingertips is something technology can’t really replace. Putting your favourite photos in a photo frame and looking at it everyday, absently or on purpose, can’t really be compared with pinching your way through all the pictures in your iPhone really!

And it doesn’t really matter if they’re Instagram-worthy or what, even the very first pictures I took with my old iPhone 4 crappy camera and printed in polaroid form, they’re still some of my favourites to browse through!

So hopefully, if you haven’t started printing your own pictures just yet, you’ll feel a little bit more motivated to, as today I wanted to share three of my favourite ways to make use of printed photos..!

I purchased this Paperchase Kraft Scrapbook a couple of years ago, bought a black label for the front and hand-written ‘Vol. I’ on it. We bought transparent photo corners and started selecting the pictures that were worth going into the album between the huge amount I had got printed – and let me tell you this, it was (and still is as we still do it every now and then whenever we print new photos) such a fun and sweet couple activity!

We didn’t wanted a proper photo album to start from, but something that gave us freedom to add doodles or notes if we wanted to, or decide on the layout we wanted to go for for each of the pages, and that’s why we went for a scrapbook instead, which I’d highly suggested if you want some more creative freedom!

Keeping a photo album allows us to have our pictures stored in chronological order (and we’re getting around also making labels to organize them by date or periods!) and to be able to browse through them every now and then and smile at them so easily or reminisc of the times that have been so effortlessly captured and printed…

Check out Why You Should Print Your Photos and What to Do With Them

by Giada Correale at Mode

One other thing I love (and should also do more often) is framing pictures. I have this picture of us in the snow from last year on my dressing table in a simple IKEA Photo Frame and it’s seriously the thing I love the most about my room. Just looking at how happy we were in that photos put a huge smile on my face each time!

I also like to pin photos to my mood board or hang them around the room with the help of a clip or two – these, I just switch them around based on the period of the year or on what keeps me motivated during that particular time, but it’s nice to always be able to look at your own personal memories together with your work notes or inspirational cards or illustrations!

And yes, these are my favourite ways to store and use my printed photos at the very moment! I’ve also shared a few more DIY ideas over on Mode this week if you fancy having a peek!

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Would love to know what’s your favourite way to store or make use of your printed photos! x

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know I’ve been obsessed with Skillshare for quite some time and have been suggesting it a lot lately! Whether you’re a creative and like a bit of DIY, a designer and want to learn new topics in your sector or simply someone who likes art and learning new things just in general, I couldn’t suggest giving it a try enough! There’s always something new to learn on there, from basic Photoshop skills to how to run a successful business, and the fact that teachers are both experts and normal people like anyone of us, makes learning even easier and nicer!

Today, though, I’d love to share some more Skillshare classes I loved, but this time all around the lifestyle category: these are basically all classes that will come extremely useful in the everyday life, and that hopefully you’ll find handy and interesting as much as I did!

01 :: Happy Houseplants: Caring For Your Plants
It was probably because houseplants have always been such a mistery to me, but I’ve loved this class and found it so enlightening! Botanist Christopher from The Sill will teach you how to take care of your plants based on their variety, suggest how to pot and re-pot them and everything from what to do when leaves turn yellow, how to deal with eventual infestations and how to manage watering. This free class is something you don’t really want to miss out on if you love adding a little je-ne-sais-quoi to your flat with houseplants but are not very sure where to start with caring about them!

02 :: Easy Chocolate Making: All the Basics from Bean to Bar
Another free class and this one is a sort of chocolate-centered documentary, so whether you’re ever going to give making chocolate at home a go or not, if you love chocolate as much as I do you’ll find this class extremely interesting! Peter and Nate from Raaka Chocolate explain how they got started with making chocolate at first and how you too can go from raw beans to a chocolate bar with minimal equipment.

03 :: Still Life Photography: Make a Perfect Breakfast Picture
Photography to me is always an on-going experience, a skill I always strive to get better at. This class would be so helpful for complete beginners but was extremely handy for someone like me as well, who, with blogging, has been introduced to most photography terms already, but who is always after some smart tips to improve and get better! Ever since joining the class, I’ve been implementing some of the tricks Mariya suggests every single time I take pictures, and now I don’t really know how I was doing without them before!

04 :: Candle Making: Scent Your Way to Paradise
I don’t know about you, but the art of homemade DIY candles has always intrigued me and I’ve given it a go a couple of times already before. So hearing about some great tips from an expert was totally up my street! John will teach you how to get started with your own DIY candle, from picking the best wax for your project to deciding on the scent and everything in between!

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And that’s it! Four online classes you should really check out!
Any other Skillshare fans? x

Oh June, you’ve been lovely this year! Not so much on the weather front as we are properly experiencing Summer only now in these last couple of weeks, but we had the chance for so many lovely moments, read: alfresco dinners have become a weekly thing, homemade pizza has been made more than usual, iced coffee has become appropriate every single morning and the weather lately has been good enough to allow us to put together picnics and spend time outside enjoying moments!

So here are a few material things I’ve loved this month as well…

Watercolor Wishes Card Kit ℅ Stamping’ Up

Craft

If you are a long time reader of this blog you’ll surely know about my love for stationery and paper in general. And you’ll know I’m a creative and love getting crafty even on my spare time every now and then. So you’ll understand my excitement when opening a box of lovely watercolour-themed papers, envelopes, stickers, stamps, tapes and literally everything you’d need to put together cute and unique greeting cards and having fun in the meanwhile!

The Stamping’ Up Watercolor Wishes Card Kit* includes all the tools to create twenty hand-crafted incredibly sweet cards, but what I love the most about it is their signature stamping kit that always allows me to create unique designs with beautiful scripts. I now have my greeting cards for any occasions really all nice and sorted, but I reckon this kit would make such a perfect gift to anyone into crafting and cute paper goods as well!

OITNB ; Paper Fairy Lights – Maison Du Monde

Life

Like the rest of the world, this month I’ve been *obsessed* with Orange Is The New Black. For some reasons I realized I still had a few episodes from last season to catch up with, so as soon as the new season has been released earlier this month, I was ready and excited for more episodes to devour each evenings, one legitimate reason for spending my hours on the couch with chips in one hand and ice cream in the other! I’m half way through the new season already and I’m excited to see things evolving!

And yes, I finally caved and bought fairy lights for atmosphere. I mainly wanted them because of the many dinner alfresco that surely need some sort of outdoor lighting action, but I ended up hanging them behind my bed because they’re too pretty not to!

Striped Pleated Midi Skirt – Zara ; Scented Sachets – Maison Du Monde

Style

Talking of picnics, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect picnic-inspired midi skirt for months! It wasn’t easy and it was probably due to the fact I’ve never thought I would have liked a midi skirt on my body figure, but, after trying one on, loving it and finding myself obsessively thinking about it for days, I decided to give this Zara midi skirt a go! I might have a thing for striped skirts (or stripes just in general) but for some reasons I have a feeling this skirt will get a whole lot of love all Summer long! Plus it screams “Picnic!” to me, which is surely a good reason to love it.

And talking about wardrobe, I won’t stress it too much again but I’m the biggest fan of scented sachet, especially if you can hang them, and especially if they look extremely cute and smell nice and summery! So yes, I stocked up on pretty scented sachet once again, and this oriental vanilla option is just the best thing.

Salted Coconut Scrub ℅ Lush

Beauty

On the beauty front, with the heat, the short dresses and all that shaving, my Lush Salted Coconut Scrub is coming in quite handy indeed! I don’t only use it to scrub my hands but also on my body as well, because it’s quite gentle but still effective. Nice and hydrating, this scrub smells like dreams and I’m not even kidding! Always such a shower guilty pleasure to me!

Food

Because I couldn’t really close the first favourites post of summetime without mentioning ice cream, right? I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream, a tiny bit more than appropriate, but it’s Summer so it’s OK, no?! And in particular I’ve recently discovered the Ysco Extreme Brownie Ice Cream and I think I’ve literally just discovered the best thing ever existed. So y’know, I thought it was worth sharing! 😉

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And that’s a wrap!
As usual I’d love to discover new things so do let me know what’s on your favourites list this month! x