Posts Tagged: "photos"

Professional Family Photo of Three Generations

Queen Darlene - July 11, 2018 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Experiences, Family, Mother's Day

I’m on summer vacation and reposting a favorite by our readers. Speaking of summer, it’s a great time for family photos!

It’s not an easy task to get three generations of one family scheduled on the same date and time for professional photos. Life just seems to get in the way.

That’s even more reason to pause and take the time to pose for those precious photos.

Professional Family Photos

Most people have nice cameras and even smartphones take excellent pictures, but professional photos should not be overlooked.

For my mother-in-law’s 80^th birthday gift, the family decided we would have a professional photo of three generations of our family made.

A photo of three or even two generations of family is a keepsake many family members will cherish.

Couple’s Photo Shoot | One-Size-Fits-All Gift

Queen Darlene - December 21, 2017 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day

Most of my friends and I have adult children. The question each year is “What do we give them for Christmas?”

It was so much easier to pick out Christmas gifts when they were small, but as adults it’s difficult to surprise them.

My friend shared her “stroke of genius” idea and came up with a Couple’s Photo Shoot for her grown adult children’s Christmas gift.

We have lots of pictures of our children but not professional grown-up photos of our kids and their spouses other than the wedding photos taken years before.

Even her adult granddaughter and boyfriend will receive a photo session. They will be so surprised!

Moto Photo packages for couples are reasonably priced starting at $55 for a one pose package.

The package consists of an 8×10, two 5×7 and 8 wallets. Gift certificates are also available to give any dollar amount you would like.

JCPenney Portraits and Portrait Innovations are also offering holiday specials.

Cozy Fleece Photo Blanket

Princess Diana - August 15, 2017 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Family, Father's Day, Get Well, Going Away, Graduation, Housewarming, Kids, Mother's Day, Retirement, Teacher Gifts, Valentine's Day, Wedding

Years ago, my sister, Julia, and her family moved to the East coast away from her parents and siblings.

It’s tough living far apart from family, but especially hard when someone has young children. Finding child care is harder, and holidays can be a bit more lonely.

My sister though experienced tremendous luck! She found an older woman in her neighborhood who ran a small in-home day care. “Miss Pat” has cared for my sister’s three daughters for 14 years now, and they have a very special bond with her.

She loves those girls like her own granddaughters, and they love her like a grandmother.

“Miss Pat” and her husband “Mister Pete” have become family.

Custom Photo Blanket

For Miss Pat’s birthday this year, my sister gave her a custom fleece photo blanket with a beautiful collage of her three daughters and Miss Pat.

The photos printed really well and show how much the girls have grown up since Miss Pat has known them. So many cherished memories gathered all in one place!

Miss Pat can literally wrap the girls around her any time, day or night! Continue Reading

Share Memories Year Round With Custom Photo Calendar

Princess Diana - November 29, 2016 - Birthday, Christmas, Family, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Retirement

We all know that time flies, especially the older you get. So it’s important to preserve happy memories with photographs. Even better, share them with loved ones so they can enjoy them year round!

As a birthday gift for our mother, my siblings and I collaborated to give her a custom photo calendar.

We all provided pictures so the calendar would contain photos of ALL of her children and grandchildren. We also included group family photos from when we were together during the holidays.

Many websites make it easy peasy to design a personalized photo calendar with your own photos and text. Just pick a template, drag and drop photos, and you’re done! I created mine using Shutterfly.com.

Since you can choose the starting month of your photo calendar, you can give this gift at any time of the year. They make excellent gifts for birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and family exchanges.

Passing Down Family Heirlooms

Queen Darlene - January 7, 2016 - Birthday, Christmas, Family, Gifts for Me, Housewarming, Mother's Day, Wedding

My husband’s job transferred him to Albuquerque in 1984. It was the first time either one of us had lived more than 10 miles from family. We were excited about our new adventure, and at the same time sad to leave our very close-knit family behind.

great-grandmother's-rose-bowl-thoughtful-gift-idea

Rose Bowl from Germany was given to my grandmother by her mother.

We moved into a new and larger home so I needed more wall decorations.

This was before we had the Internet so I visited several furniture stores, but had difficulty finding pictures I liked in my price range.

We lived several months without anything on the walls until one day I was making room to store old dishes passed down to me by my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother. Continue Reading

Old Family Photos Made New on T-Shirts

Queen Darlene - October 22, 2015 - $20 or Less, Birthday, Christmas, Family

What to do with old family photos? Since my grandparents and parents have passed, I have become the keeper of old photos. I have thousands of photos in albums, boxes and drawers. Some are even dated back to the 1800s.

I wanted to create something new from old family photos for my two brothers and myself as a Christmas present. I found a wonderful photo of our parents in their early years of marriage and chose a cute picture of the three of us as young kids.

Picking the photo was no easy task since my mother took hundreds of pictures of her three children. She wanted to capture every moment of us growing up.

I used a local t-shirt screen printing business that transferred the pictures onto t-shirts. Since I gave at Christmas time, I chose long-sleeve t-shirts.

Wind Chimes | Sympathy & Condolence Gift

Queen Darlene - October 1, 2015 - Condolence

When someone you love passes away, it’s like a piece of your heart has been taken. We’ve all experienced it, and appreciate those who want to ease our pain.

Sympathy cards are usually the number one item sent. Thank goodness for Hallmark and other companies that make cards that eloquently express how we feel.

But for those times when you want to do more than send cards or flowers, what can you do?

My mother’s cousin passed away not too long ago. Bob was our favorite cousin hands down or should I say hands up because he was one of the few who knew sign language and could converse with my mother.

Bob, his wife, Ann and their four children, Larry, Beverly, Denise and Mark were intertwined with our family all our lives. We have many wonderful memories and my brothers and I wanted to do more than get a sympathy card. Continue Reading

Baby Growth Calendar Photos

Queen Darlene - September 24, 2015 - $20 or Less, Baby Shower

Parents love to capture precious moments of their baby’s first year, especially how fast they grow every month. I have a unique, cute and easy photo idea for every month – a baby growth calendar!

st-year-baby-growth-calendar-thoughtful-gift-idea

7 month, 8 month, 9 month, 10 month, 11 month, 12 month click to enlarge

My cousin took pictures of her baby girl with a large calendar desk pad. The photos consist of her baby lying on top of the calendar every month of her first year.

I’m sure it was easy at first but took several takes to get the photos just right when she started rolling or crawling. It’s all about creating memories, right?

She would write on the calendar 1st month, 2nd month and so on. This made for the most adorable baby pictures. Continue Reading

Baby Bump Maternity Photo Shoot

Queen Darlene - June 12, 2015 - Baby Shower, Birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day

Did you know there’s a whole industry in baby bump/pregnancy/maternity photography? Google it and you will see hundreds of amazing pregnancy photos.

It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the upcoming birth of a baby by showing off the “bump!”

My maternity outfits were much like my mother’s and grandmother – big flowing tops that hid our pregnant bellies.

In my grandmother’s day you couldn’t even say “pregnant.” The correct term was “in the family way.” Thank goodness that taboo is no longer the norm.

My mother told me when she was pregnant, you said the word “pregnant” in a hushed tone. Oh, how glad I am times have changed! It’s exciting to be pregnant and maternity photos are a great way to share the joy with loved ones.

My friend’s daughter, Kelsey, is a professional dancer and her pregnancy photos feature her as a ballerina.

Picture Frames | The Keeper of Memories

Queen Darlene - May 28, 2015 - $20 or Less, Birthday, Christmas, Family, Housewarming

Picture frames are wonderful gifts for all occasions. They keep memories close to our hearts by celebrating weddings, birthdays, friendships, vacations, children, couples, and families.

There are five of us girls who have been BFFs for close to 40 years. We still enjoy celebrating each other’s birthdays when we are together.

This year we decided to give three yellow (her favorite color) picture frames to Linda. We brainstormed what pictures to place in the frames.

1) Charlie, her faithful companion.

2) A picture of a swimming dolphin from one of her vacations.

3) Of course, a picture of us five girls together. Continue Reading