Photograph Gifts, Crafts, and Photo Sharing News

When you need to find a picture of yourself, do you have a tough time finding one even though you've taken lots and lots of pictures over the last few years? My youngest son, now 4, complains the other day about how his older brother has more framed photos around our house than he does. Of course, more than half of the pictures with our youngest son ALSO have the older one in it! This is nothing new, right? At least I tell myself this as I show him the many photos we've taken of him over the past 4 years. I even set him up in front of a computer and show a photo slideshow of his first year of life. He's happy. I'm glad that I was able to appease him, and vow to myself that I will do a more equitable job with photos in the years to come.

Then, he asks "Where are you? Didn't you live with us when I was a baby?" As I search for examples to prove that I've always been there, it hits me. I'm always the one behind the camera. I like it that way. I've never considered myself a photogenic person and learned early on to run and hide when the cameras came out. I train my husband well, always refusing to smile and turning my head. He eventually gives up.

Now, when my children need a picture of our family for a school project, I have about three pictures to choose from, always from a prior year with an old haircut. I vow again to change my ways, to start handing the camera over to my husband every now and then, to make sure my children have a photo record of me.

These vows were made two weeks ago. Last week, we went on a fabulous vacation with friends to St. Thomas. I have wonderful pictures of our villa, the beaches, snorkling and sunsets. Guess what I don't have?
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February 23, 2005 09:11 - Need to send a Thank You note? Try adding photos!

I add photos to all of my greeting cards these days, from Mothers' and Fathers' day to birthday cards. They just seem to personalize greetings like nothing else. Photo thank you notes have an even larger impact than the rest. Everyone loves to receive a thank you note but a card filled with photos of the recipient(s) enjoying the gift, whatever it may be, makes an especially thoughtful thank you. My husband and I were recently given the wonderful gift of a week in St. Thomas with several friends. The villa was free but we spent quite a bit once we got there on travel, rum, dining out, and more rum, of course! We wanted to give our friends a thank you gift worthy of such a wonderful vacation but we struggled to find something within our budget. We ended up buying a very small token of our appreciation and packaged it with some printed photos, a beautifully labelled CD with all of the pictures we took, and a photo thank you card. Our friends were most excited about the card, which is now prominently displayed in their kitchen.
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