Don't Skip This: The Day After Father's Day Move
And a fun secret in Sagaponack
Today is Monday, the day after Father’s Day here in the US. And I have a hack for you. (You can apply this to any holiday!) It’ll make you feel like the best friend in the world, will delight your loved ones, and it’s efficient AF.
This totally hits my whimsy note too because it’s giving me a beautiful memory to look back on before it’s even far enough in the past to be called history.
Here’s what you do.
If you celebrated yesterday by doing anything at all, I’d bet you took a photo. So right now, today, you’re going to:
1. Pick the best photo from yesterday
2. Order it as a photo gift, immediately
3. Hide it in the closet until you need it
The day you need it might be your anniversary. Might be your partner’s birthday. It might be six months from now when it’s the holidays, and you’re scrambling for something that doesn’t feel last-minute.
Either way, you’re going to look like a genius. (A thoughtful one!) A beautiful callback to a day that already happened, already mattered, already made you happy. And when it shows up later, it’s going to feel like the most clever, unexpected gift in the world.
Do it now. Thank me later.
As I’ve mentioned before, navigating ADHD as a mom in midlife is usually a story of chaos and things I meant to do, even though I wanted to follow through. So when I can manage to crack the “I forgot” code, I do my best to repeat it into habit!
Stashing away the excellent gift in advance means I remembered, and I care. And — I didn’t forget!
Pick One, Order Now, Hide It
• An effing classy, small metal, desktop frame from Artifact Uprising
• A slightly larger gallery frame, for the wall (I have these everywhere in my house)
• A customizable old-school slip-in photo book (paging millennials!)
• These tiny fridge magnets, displayed in a chic grid
• These tiny photo albums?! I stuck these in my kids’ stockings last year to great fanfare
My pick if you want zero decision fatigue: This more substantial desktop wood frame. I have and love these!
P.S. Now you may be wondering, and surely my husband is wondering as he reads this, doesn’t hiding gifts in a closet make me a bit of a hoarder? The answer is kind of. Yes. Kind of.
Hoarding implies keeping things you don’t need and don’t know you have. This is keeping, but the payoff is good. (If you remember where you stashed it, bahaha…)
If you keep and stash consistently but not daily, then it’s under-control hoarding! Hoarding with heart. Should that be the name of my forthcoming memoir?
More on why I’m an emotional hoarder in an upcoming post.
More Ways to Use This
This hack isn’t just for hiding gifts in the closet. Once you start thinking this way, you see the opportunities everywhere.
For your kids
This Friday is the last day of school for my big kids. I’ve got albums on my phone already sorted: Beau’s kindergarten year, Colette’s second-grade year. I’m ordering photo books from both. I don’t do anything fancy with it; I just dump in the photos from each iPhone album and let it build the book. Then I present the kids with their books on the last day of summer, right as they’re gearing up for the next school year. A little closure, a little excitement for what’s next.
For work
After a big activation or event, print a small photo of your boss looking good and give it to her at the office party.
If you’re a photographer who delivers digital galleries, take a top tier shot, print it, frame it, and hand it over at the next session. And if you’ve got a family who books you every summer, go back into last year’s favorites, pick the one you know they already love, and turn it into a little keepsake, like a little faux Polaroid print. Bring it to this year’s session. They will not see it coming in this ephemeral age of pixels.
For yourself
Pick a photo of yourself, mom, one where you think you look good and everyone’s happy. Doesn’t have to be recent. If you’re doing a spring clean, redecorating or setting up for summer, and you’ve got a desk or a corner that’s yours, make sure there’s a photo of you on it. Go find it on your phone right now, send it to print, and have it up in your home by the end of the week.
I’m going to take my own advice and print this one:
Here’s the one I’m ordering! It incorporates our fun day at the airplane show with a cute Papa selfie.
In Sagaponack, the Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York hosts an open day on a farm in Sagaponack, where the families gather to watch beautiful small planes land and take off.
The planes park there every Father’s Day at 9 A.M., and some pilots even let your kids sit in them. A wonderful hidden Hamptons secret that my friend Kim whispered in my ear!
Have a wonderful last week of school!
hugs!!
Ana