Halloween 2011

Alright so normally I do not like Halloween. And I wouldn't say that this year was an exception, but we did manage to figure out a costume for Landon and that was what made my whole day.

This Halloween (today) marks 5 years since my Oma passed away so I have spent a lot of the day just praying for my Opa to feel at peace, to feel loved and to not wish he was with her quite yet.

On the brighter side though, my friends were taking their little ones to the mall to go trick-or-treating there, which actually motivated me to go as well (even though I missed them b/c Landon woke later than expected). I got all the shopping for the Christmas Shoe box finished though. Now I will just wrap it and take a photo of Landon with it as we're starting a tradition and we'll take a photo of it each year. Our child(ren) will do shoe boxes each year so we have an opportunity to teach them about how blessed we are, and how there are many children around the world who don't get anything for Christmas. Obviously he's a little young at this point, but when he's old enough, we're going to let him pick what age and gender we'll make the box for, and some of the items we put in it, and he'll get to  decorate it. So one day, it won't be as much work for me as it was this time. That is the hope anyway.

Well, here is our little hockey player :)

 PS: I should give credit - this costume was ALL Matt's idea. He put the whole thing together. Yay Daddy :)

Christmas Cards for Sale

These are the cards I have made this year for Christmas. I have been asked in past years if I make/sell Christmas cards and I have never been ready, well, now I am ready, here are some to look at. They are for sale as sets. 

This first set of 6 is $24.

This second set is $16

This third set is also $16

This fourth set is 11 cards at $40

I have a separate page labeled up top where these will stay for the time being.

A Reminder that you get what you pay for...

So as of late, I have been on a hunt for the best deals. Mostly this is for groceries as I have been paying attention to flyers and sales and even comparing US and Canadian prices as I shop in Lynden. However my hunting has also migrated to getting photos printed and I have been using Shutterfly to print my photos and because I'm a customer, and I get their emails, I get lots of promo codes for free prints and free photobooks. AND because they sent me one free photobook, it has myself, and much of my family hooked on doing these books up for eachother! It's a fantastic gift for people who don't need anything, like grandparents and great grandparents, especially when there is finally a (great) grandchild to photograph! Landon will have no shortage of photos of himself through the years, the first ((great)grand) child is so spoiled!! 

Anyhow, not to knock Shutterfly as I have been quite pleased with their product, but I came across a post on the Paint the Moon blog (in my list over there ---> ) that talked about how it is important to choose your photo lab carefully. Now it doesn't matter too much, if the quality of your photos doesn't matter too much to you. But now that I am spending WAY more time editing my photos than I ever did before, I do not want all that time to go to waste. I want my photos to print the way I see them on my screen. And I found out that you have to PAY MORE for this, and frankly, I DON"T WANT TO PAY MORE! I want a good deal! 

The blog shows the same photo sent to Target, Walmart, Costco, MPIX and Simply Color Lab. It didn't show Shutterfly so I'm definitely curious as to how Shutterfly would compare. I may email the blog writer to find out.

So I'm torn.

The blog recommends Simply Color Lab for professional photographers and prints and MPIX for non-professionals.

Again, I'm torn even between these two.  Because while I'm not professional in any sense of the word, I AIM to be. 

Then I read a little further and she talks about calibrating your monitor. Again, something that costs approx $250 from what I could find from her links... or you can do it for free, but you're eyeing it yourself (I did it...and it's totally unreliable). Yet another expense, I'm not professional, but I want to be...what step do you take first? I guess I have a pretty good idea that the first steps are learning to use the camera, and taking good pics and then learning to edit, but then I think this calibration has to come in. 

Anyhow, there's my thoughts for the day, if you feel so inclined, please answer a question for me.

Where do you get your prints developed?

And since I like photos, here's one for today

A few more from Thanksgiving

From Canadian Thanksgiving this year

Look who I caught...red handed!!

Need I say more? He's getting into EVERYTHING!!!

My first edit start to finish!

Look what I just won on Swagbucks

Alright, so I am going to admit right now, that I use Swagbucks and so far I have earned $55 at Amazon.com for using Swagbucks as my preferred search engine! And, just now when I searched for blogger, I got 7 swagbucks. You don't always get swagbucks with every search, and seven is nothing special, however this particular dollar bill image is not one I've seen before so I thought I'd share it here, (if this works!)

Cool!! There it is!

So to add, if you decide you want to join Swagbucks, I believe you'll earn 30 free swagbucks just for joining if you click on my link above. Plus it'll give me some extra bucks as you earn yours.

Welcome ** and please be patient!

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time now. Finally I just decided to go for it.

I have no intentions of ALWAYS keeping up to date on blogging, and sometimes I will post photos with no words at all because it is photography that is my passion, not writing. However, I know that Matt enjoys writing so we'll see if we can't get him to guest write on here once in a while! Until then, welcome here, hopefully I'll have much more to post in the coming days!