Inexpensive Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards were a big deal to me when the children were younger. The family gets all dressed up and you strive for the perfect family picture. I realized long ago there is no such thing with us. So I learned to embrace it. This year the budget has been a bit tight around here, just like the rest of the world. I had to come up with an inexpensive Christmas card this year.

It took me a while but it finally came to me. Every year in Feb we go to the Date Festival here in Indio, and we take pictures in the Photobooth. So I decided that was going to be our family picture, lucky for me there is only one child left at home, or believe me I would have crammed them all in there! I remembered there was a Photobooth at the Palm Desert Mail, so off we went for our $3.00 photo shoot, this is what we came up with:

I then scanned it, and I had to get it scanned at Staples for .54 cents because my scanner wasn't cooperating. I didn't like the yellowish going on, the picture doesn't look like that, and since I couldn't be the one to scan it and redo the settings this is what I had to work with.

So I turned it Black and White, and pulled it together in Photoshop:

I then turned it into a .jpeg and went back to Staples and had them print 20 of them. Because they are black and white images it was only $4.00, to have them printed on Card Stock.

So for $7.54 I got 40 cards, that are now in the mail, and it's not even the 25 yet! I'm on a roll this year getting stuff done before the day of. 

Stephanie Black & White Photo shoot

The second to the last assignment in my Black and White Photography class what Portraits. I have come to the conclusion that I don't like them. I took four rolls of film and finally got some pictures I liked. It was difficult to capture this child's personality. Here are a few of my favorites:

That's my hippie child, I have no clue where she got it from!

Wood Chests and Trains

My husband has been hard at work. He likes to give himself challenges. Here is a wood chest that he was working on:

And this is what I found in his Den two weeks later:

I guess the little one wasn't big enough. I've been listing on Whoopdwhoop some of the trains he feels aren't quite perfect, I don't think there is anything wrong with them. Some one that had purchased a large train asked for a small one, and this is what he came up with:

And this is what I found in his Den a week later:

Needless to say my husband is an Extremist. The little trains are gone, but the set of 3 is currently listed in his Etsy shop: RandysWoodShop

My Daughter's Tea Party

For being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we are a little obsessed with tea and the whole idea of Tea Party's. I like going out to my mother's patch of dirt were she grows stuff (you might confuse it for a garden but it isn't, it's more of a natural growing spot) and plucking some lemon grass to make a natural lemon tea. I also seem to have acquired a large amount of tea pots and tea settings. My husband brought some back from Thailand and Hong Kong during his Navy travels.

My Daughter has followed in our slight obsession of tea. She finds natural tea's that don't have caffeine and are not overly processed. Yes, there is all kinds of rationalization going on.

But a Tea Party is so fun with all the people:

And all the Food:

Wordless Wednesday...Snowman Cookies

My daughters Snowman cookies came out perfect this year:

You can see last years very melted snowman here.

4 yr old Photographer

My little sister has got her work cut out for her. She has two very strong willed and intelligent kids. I love the fact that they are able to come over and visit when she is next door taking care of mom.

This kid is a character (sorry don't remember who I stole the pic from, let me know and I'll link it):

He has been picking up my camera since he was able to walk. Some of his pics turn out really good:

In other pictures it's just interesting to see the view point of a 4 year old:

Little sis Lexi

My daughters behind.

My husband and his always interesting facial expressions.

A very good composition, I think.

And like I said these kids are intelligent. The memory card ran out of space, so he walks up to me and says "Tia, it's down to 0, I can't take anymore pictures, how do I fix that." I'm sure I could have shown the kid how to make some room, but I can just see me screaming my head off in a future date saying "Who deleted my pictures I hadn't downloaded them yet." So needless to say we have shown him the sequence of buttons that deletes pictures - and I'm really glad it is a sequence because he clearly recognized the trash can icon!