'tis the season of the holiday card

photo by Dan, Wonderly Imaging

Thanks to my friend Greenacresmama for the heads up on this awesome deal! New to the blogosphere, I'm still uncertain as to how I feel about schlepping products. However, considering I already use Shutterfly for my holiday cards, it would be simply ridiculous to pass up this opportunity to receive 50 free holiday cards for merely mentioning them in my blog! Duh. Bloggers: interested in this deal? Click here to sign up.

Try as I may, I have never been able to get around to sending Christmas cards on time. Ever since I can remember, my friends and family receive Happy New Year cards, or, frankly, no cards at all. My favorite of all time is Flash's first New Year, pictured. I created this using a design from Shutterfly's flat card collection that coordinated well with the dapper look I wanted to create.

I'm not sure what my New Year's card will entail this year, but you can be certain it will not include Kaellyn sitting in the middle of the ghetto mall on the lap of a random, dirty old man dressed in a tired old Santa suit. And Allen wasn't too keen on my idea of us all posing in matching footy pajamas. In fact, I believe his exact words were "absolutely not". With all the wonderful options from Shutterfly, however, I should have no problem.

I LOVE the simplicity of Shutterfly. I just checked out this year's holiday selection on Shutterfly's site and I must say, there are some gorgeous, modern designs this year! I'm usually really picky about my designs and prefer simple stuff with a modern, sassy flair. No fluff, frills, flashing, singing lights, fake holly border, etc. for this girl! Not that there's anything wrong with some good old-fashioned Griswaldian flair, but I'll leave that for others.

One of the best gifts I've ever given were the re-usable wall calendars that I created for my college roommates after graduation, each month featuring a different favorite memory from our college career. Jenn and Julie, do you still have these? I spent hours enlarging photos, laminating, creating a calendar for each month and then getting them bound. How lovely that Shutterfly now does this for you, with a click of the mouse, and at a fraction of the cost! Choose from several different designs, and give what could possibly be The Best Gift Ever! Toiling away in an office all day?  how about a personalized desk calendar, which would definitely brighten up any dark cubicle!

Wow, Shutterfly rocks! End shameless promotion here :)

shooting The Baby

My friend Christina is learning photography, and Kaellyn had the honor to be one of her first human subjects. Keallyn had just turned 6 months old and I was eager for the opportunity to have some professional photos done, Christina was eager to practice taking some, and Kaellyn was eager to, well, do what babies do. We had a fun afternoon, and even had a mid-shoot wardrobe change! The shoot was before Kaellyn was crawling, so I can imagine it would be a lot more challenging with a mobile baby (isn't everything?!).

The end results very much exceeded my expectations. Not only are the photos absolutely stunning, but they truly capture Kaellyn's personality and development at 6 months. And believe it or not, I actually really like each and every photo. It took me forever to decide which shots to display here, and I just know I'm going to have an even more difficult time choosing which ones to frame and display.  I can't wait to spruce up this blog, too!

In the end, I decided to feature different photos than Christina featured on her blog. Visit her blog, C&C Marriage Factory, to see more! I think Christina is extremely talented, and she has definitely found her calling!