Frame of Love

I admit it.  I'm officially a gadget girl. 

I didn't realize this until Jeannine pointed it out to me. I love my iPod. I love my digital camera. I love my TiVo. I love my stereo. I love my Apple computer. I love my adjustable bed. 

And usually, I'm not really a 'thing' girl. So, it's kind of funny. I'm not quite sure when, why or how this happened, except that I love things that, in theory, simplify my life (TiVo), make things more accessible (iPod vs. CDs), make connecting to others more possible (computer), or make my life more comfortable (adjustable bed).

Oh and did I mention my electric toothbrush?! Sensitive, bleeding gums be gone!

The only problem with my gadget fascination is that I am pretty much inept at operating them and I very much dislike reading directions.  I also get very frustrated when things don't work properly (which is often if you bring an iPod into the mix). 

Oh how I miss you Loralea! Every time I would get something new in college that required reading directions, Loralea would read the directions to me while I followed each step. We were an excellent team!

My latest gadget fascination is a 10 inch digital picture frame on which I have loaded pictures of everyone and everything I love. I have photos of my friends and family, photos of their children, photos of Hillary Clinton when she was here, photos of Davidson basketball, photos of me with Wynton Marsalis.  I also loaded on photos of all sorts of flowers and scenery around our home and from drives we've taken. Oh, and a few pictures of Asher are on the frame too. :) Just a few though (Haha).

I am completely in awe of this thing! It's my favorite form of entertainment right now.

I love, love, love having photos of everyone and everything all in ONE place running on a perpetual slideshow. 

The last time I made a collage frame was over five years ago. Otherwise since then, I've done little to print and frame photos. My friends Meredith and Marla are each in one of my collages holding their babies who are now five (almost six!) and four years old, respectively! They've grown a touch since then, I think! 

The frame has wonderful picture quality and is big enough for me to lie in bed and just watch when I don't feel well. (Or any time for that matter). Right now, I'm looking at a picture of the valley we live in.

It's super easy to use. Any time I take photos or friends and family email or post photos on Facebook, I can put them into iPhoto and just 'drag and drop' them onto the frame while it is plugged into my computer using a USB cable.

The one unfortunate discovery that I made while transferring the photos from my computer to the frame was that a bunch of pictures seem to have 'gone missing', which I assume happened during the transfer of photos from my old computer to my new one. I didn't do the transfer and will have to check on this, as I'm not so good with this stuff. I can only do the basics. Thankfully, Rebekah was here the day the frame arrived and got it set up for me. I would never have figured out how to do that!

I don't know which gadget I like better now...TiVo? iPod? Adjustable bed? Digital photo frame? Apple computer? Really hard call. :)

But, I love what Maxine calls my 'Frame of Love'--seeing pictures of everyone I love makes me smile! Sometimes, when I am feeling a little lonely or sad, I just look over at the picture frame and it's a guaranteed smile-maker.

In the photo above Loralea's daughter, Kaylea, is showing off her applesauce-eating skills. With a fork! :) 

I hope this new gadget will help me to keep more current photos in sight rather than just sitting on my computer or in Facebook albums.

Oh, and if I don't have a great picture of you or your kiddos yet...you might want to get one to me right quick! :) 

Here's to Fridays! :)

Blessings,

Emily

Photo:  My new digital photo frame with a picture of Kaylea on the screen. So, I originally wrote this post 12 days ago--but, I'm still loving my picture frame just as much!