Importing from Photostream

Question

my HD crashed and required a full erase/re-install.  because I am such a dummy, I had my previous iPhoto library on the HD itself, and not on my external HD.  moreover, I wasn't using TM for ongoing backup.
what I am left with is an iPhoto library that is a few months out of date.  luckily (?), I only use my iOS devices for picture taking these days, and so I am hoping that PhotoStream will be my salvation here.
here is the problem - I see the photos in photostream on my iOS device.  I do NOT see those photos when I click on Photo Stream within iPhoto.  Guessing that since I already imported them previously to the now erased iPhoto library, they are no longer showing up for import now.
so, I guess my initial question is, what is the most efficient way for me to import the photos resident in iCloud to my new iPhoto library given the fact that they are not showing up automatically for import?  is there a way of accessing the files within iCloud so that I can just copy them into iPhoto?
I'll hang up and listen, thanks.

Answer 1

Here's what I've figured out....
For me, there's no real reason to have an Event called "Photostream May 2012" (or whatever the case may be). I think it just ends up taking up hard drive space and kind of ruins the flow of photos events I have in iPhoto.
BUT, I do like the ability to take photos on my iPad and then import them into iPhoto without having to connect my iPad physically to my iMac.
SO, I simply go into Photostream and select a group of photos that I would consider one "event" and drag them to "Events" at the top left section of iPhoto. This imports the photos into the "May 2012 Photo Stream" event (or whatever the name of the Photostream even may be that month.)
I then create a new event (Event-->Create Event), and drag and drop that Photostream into the new event. The new event is now a separate, individual event, not a Photostream event which can cause issues when you want to later import additional Photostream photos into iPhoto.
If you have multiple events you want to import, basically do the same thing. You can either split them in the Photostream event or split them from within the new event.
Until Apple changes the functionality of how a new event is created when you drag a set of photos from Photostream into iPhoto, I think we will have to use these additional steps. (I also think this is one of the reasons why the there is a function called "Create Event". At this time, I can't think of any other reason why that command exists.)