DIY - Pocketful of Joules

How to Back Up Your iPhone Photos the Free & Easy Way

It’s time for some tough love and a little PSA. If you’ve been following along, you might remember that my son’s iPhone recently disappeared. And while that was a whole adventure in itself, it really got me thinking: What would I do if I lost every single photo in my phone?

I have both my calendar and my notes app backed up on my Google gmail account, but I refuse to pay Apple to store my photos on the iCloud. However, I’m also not going to chance losing 100 adorable photos of my kid. Or the dozens of mountain photos we’ve taken on our adventures. So, I’m going to do it the free and easy way. Obviously.

I make a note (in my phone, of course) every few months to do a quick back-up on my PC. I just completed this month’s chore, so I figured it was a perfect time to share the reminder (and some quick and easy instructions) with you too.

And guess what? It just took me five minutes to back up 323 photos to my laptop. That’s it. Five minutes. If you’ve got five minutes (which you do), here’s how you can do it too.

Step 1: Grab your iPhone charging cable and connect your phone to your PC. You will most likely have to tap “trust this computer” on your phone.

Step 2: On your computer, open the Photos app (just search for “Photos” in the start menu if you can’t find it. Sometimes my iPhone is an overachiever and it opens it for me as soon as I hit “trust this computer”.

Step 3: Click import. On my PC, there is an “import” button on the top right corner. Just click it and select your device.

Step 4: Pick which photos to import (I usually just select them all and then sort later) and TAKE NOTE OF THE SAVE location. Mine wants to import it to my C drive under Users and then Pictures. You need to know where it’s saving so you can find it once it’s imported!

Step 5: Wait a few minutes while it copies over all your photos. Then, search out that saved location and drag and drop the folder to where you want it to live. I like to drag the new folder onto my desktop and then make smaller folders to file groups of images (ex. 2024 Spring Break, Jack 2025, and Ollie Being Cute).

THAT’S IT.

Now you can go through and delete photos that don’t really have to LIVE on your phone, since you have them backed up elsewhere. While we all hope we won’t ever lose our phones – or accidentally drop them in the toilet – it’s always best to be prepared.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Taking a Preserved Moss Art Frame Class

I don’t really have what you would call a green thumb. Instead, it’s a running joke with my husband and son that I basically kill all plants that come to live in our house. However, I am okay with succulents. For a while. We have a variety of succulents and little mini cactuses that are faithfully living in our house right now.

So when I saw that a cute local shop was having a Preserved Moss Art Frame Class for a project that “requires no care”, well, it seemed like the perfect fit!

I had hoped to attend with a friend, but it was sold out before she could sign up. So, I went solo and it was still super fun! Each person received a little wooden frame, glue, assortment of moss, and extras like pine cones and dried lavender.

We were encouraged to lay out our plan before gluing, but for me it worked best to start at the bottom of the frame and glue each piece on as I went. I added a little here and there. And then, shoved in a little more. Once I got all the moss as I liked it, I added in the little extras.

I really like the little clump of pinecones in the bottom corner and the fingers of moss that reach out over the top of the frame. I actually love it so much more than I even thought I would. And it was a super fun and easy project to do!

Which makes me think I should add more little artistic classes to my 2025 schedule. After a month/months of feeling like I’ve been running around like a crazy person, I actually felt like ME for a while.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

DIY: Hemming Sweater Sleeves

I bought this pretty cardigan on clearance from Summersalt last year and I just didn’t love the sleeves.

I tried wearing it a few times to see if I’d get over it. However, the fact that the body of the sweater was a super lightweight and soft cashmere and the light blue portion of the sleeves were a thick, ribbed cotton finally broke me.

And I decided to chop them off.

Initially I was going to cut off ALL the light blue, but then I realized that there were no elastic cuffs on the cashmere portion, so after wearing it a bit the new cuffs would most likely get all loose and baggy. With that in mind, I decided to leave a little bit of the light blue cuff.

I eyeballed my new hem and pinned it into place.