Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 16 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

Recent Pet Portraits

July 28, 2019 by Ashley Hackshaw

Oh how I love painting your precious pets! Here are my most recent commissions for pet portraits. This is Daisy:

Her owners sent me a photo of Daisy checking herself out and I’ll be honest I don’t think Daisy looks that impressed here:

This is Bob. I painted him with three different expressions:

I was lucky enough to be able to paint two Goldens at the same time recently and I love how different the two were. This is Tanner. He loved to swim in the Chesapeake Bay and his family wanted the background and mood to reflect that:

I love Tanner’s rain hat:

A closeup of some of the brush work:

I use the tiniest paintbrush to paint the whiskers:

And this is Winston! Look at those gorgeous eyes:

And last but not least…a tiny Daisy. What a darling she was:

If you are interested in having a pet painted let me know! My listings for pet portraits are in my Etsy shop and I also can do custom sizes and projects.

Managing Family Photos – Simple Modern Photo Albums

July 26, 2019 by Ashley Hackshaw

I did a post a few years ago on organizing and printing photos that was extremely popular. I also did one on photo books. Now I think it’s time to confess that I’ve changed my whole process. I just don’t spend as much time organizing photos and I think my process has changed the more that I’ve become immersed in this new 21st century digital life.

I just want the easiest process possible and my old method doesn’t work for me anymore. My new process is streamlined and I’ve limited myself to about 6-12 family photos a month to print and tape into an album. While I love photo books, I don’t enjoy the computer process of making them anymore and I would rather be doing something adventurous. I now want to spend my time making memories, not cataloging them. My new process also allows the rest of the family to be involved and they are able to help add photos to the albums too when they come in the mail.

Managing and Storing Photos

“a simple solution for a simple life”

I take a lot of photos….I mean hundreds or thousands a month…but I don’t want to spend the time to organize them all. I also don’t have a lot of room on my laptop for them, so I use an external hard drive to manage them. Here’s my organizing and storing process:

I dump all my phone/camera photos into a download folder and drag them into folders by month. I don’t even try to distinguish the good ones from the bad. Each month might have a gazillion photos in them, and it doesn’t matter as long as they are in the correct monthly folder. Another note: I don’t use any photo apps for organizing…I just Airdrop them into my download folder and then drag and drop into a master PHOTOS folder on my external harddrive.
I pull all my photos down from Instagram for the month and add them to monthly folders. To do this: Go to Settings in your Instagram app, Go to Security, Go to Download Data and Request a Download. A link will be sent to your email and you can download all your photos (already organized into folders by month/year).
Once a month of photos has been completely downloaded, I put another backup onto a second external hard drive labeled “Family Photos Backup” just in case my other storage fails.

Printing Photos

“6-12 photos per month”

Once all my photos are organized by month, I go through and pick 6-12 photos to print. That’s my magic number. While I’m so tempted to pick a gazillion photos to print I try and remember that in a few years my family will just want to see a few highlights from each month. 100 photos per year is a manageable number and about what I used to take when I had 24 exposures. Once my photo highlights are uploaded to Prime Photos and organized into monthly folders, it’s easy to print a month of photos and have them arrive in my mailbox in a week. Also, you get free storage for photos in Prime so if you have it why not use it as a backup!

Keeping a Checklist

“a checklist a day keeps the anxiety away”

Ok, here’s my HUGE secret to staying on top of photos. I use a checklist to keep track of where I am in uploading and printing. With a checklist I can spend 15-20 minutes here and there tackling a small chunk of photos and then come back to it a month later and know exactly where I left off:

I’ve uploaded a blank copy so that you can just print multiple copies if needed to catch up on your own photos. (click here to download the checklist PDF or click the image below:

Creating a Photo Album

“one album a year as a family project”

My old process had cumbersome post albums, page sleeves and too many photos. I like this new simplified process and the especially the cost. These oversized scrapbooks are simple and easy to use and they only cost around $12 each. If I limit myself to 100 photos a year my total cost for a yearly album is only $24.

Oversized Photo Scrapbook

I love that this is an oversized album 11.75″ x 14″ and the price is right! If I limit myself to 6-12 photos a month it is the perfect size for one year of photos (I only adhere to one side). Also, I love the feel of the paper pages and there’s no “post system” to worry about (unless you want to add or subtract but I’m restricting myself from doing that).

Photo Mounting Squares

I don’t know why I have so much trouble with double sided tape and tape runners but I do! The double sided tape is difficult to manage and the tape runners always seem to skip or run out too fast. These square come out of the dispenser box ready to stick and all you have to do is pull off the little tab in one motion when set. They are acid free as well.

It takes just a few minutes to put a month’s worth of photos into an album:

I read somewhere that this generation of kids will be the most photographed but all eventually have the least amount of photos because so many could be lost digitally….so I’m going to print more photographs!

If this was too much information to wade through…here are my basic supplies:

External Hard Drive

Photo Mounting Squares

Oversized Scrapbook Album

I’d love to hear any other tips you have for storing photos, videos and other family memories!

Clingman’s Dome – The Highest Point in the Great Smoky Mountains

July 23, 2019 by Ashley Hackshaw

Clingman’s Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at 6,643 feet. On clear days you can see almost 100 miles from the concrete observation tower, but it’s alway hit or miss whether the day will be clear enough to see anything at all from that high up. I always tell people to go up to the tower regardless of the weather…but make sure to take lots of warm clothing because the temperature drop can be almost 20 to 30 degrees different from the bottom of the mountain to the top.

The observation tower was built in 1959. Its modern helical shape was not without controversy but architect Hubert Bebb’s design was eventually embraced for its well thought-out reasons: the gradual decline of the ramp allowed for easier accessibility and the tower had a smaller physical footprint. The design of the concrete tower would compliment the landscape and allow the public to gradually walk up through the trees. The forest was let almost completely intact during the construction and the structure was almost more cost effective and urable. The previous tower had been built from wood and in the harsh environment had only lasted 15 years.

The trail is paved from the parking lot to the Dome but it’s very steep. It’s a half a mile but there are benches every 1/10th of a mile to rest if you need to. If it’s foggy it’s still a great trip because there’s so much to see on the sides of the trail that I might not notice otherwise.

Like the beautiful new growth on this spruce-fir tree:

And the pattern on this leaf:

And this centipede:

And this little snail:

And this daddy long-leg:

Or this fuchsia colored elderberry branch:

Or water droplets on the grass:

Or the pattern in this decaying wood:

This last time we went up to Clingman’s it was Brett’s birthday so we took a picnic lunch:

Up at the top of the tower we stood there with clouds passing through us…leaving drops of dew behind:

It takes about an hour to get to the top of Clingman’s Dome from Bryson City, but it’s a beautiful 35 mile drive through the national park and you are sure to see a few elk, turkeys and other wildlife.

For more of my favorite places in the Smoky Mountains and Western NC click here!