Every year thousands of people make resolutions on New Years Eve… this year I’d like to suggest a little different twist on your New Years Resolution…
Don’t think in terms of a “NEW YEAR” think in terms of a “New Day” resolution. That’s right, everyday you have the opportunity to change things in your life.
Often when we break a new years resolution we simply throw up our hands and say “oh well, so much for that one”. If we wake everyday and realize we have the opportunity to make new choices, great new changes, in our lives – we will NEVER fail. Failure is giving up. With a daily resolution attitude you never have to give up.
Looking at each new day as a new chance puts you in the drivers seat – It gives you the opportunity to change things that may simply need a little tweeking before they get out of control. You can adjust each day according to the challenges you may face, to stack the odds in your favor, to insure success to some degree. Lets face it, any degree of success is better than a New Years Resolutions dropped off at the department of failure. Don’t give up, just adjust your goals.
Every day you have the opportunity to change your live…start now:)
Just the other day Charles and I were talking about what it’s like spending time with our families on Christmas. He was saying every year when he gets to his mothers house she shows him Christmas pictures from the previous year. And as sweet as that is, the problem is, she shows them to him on the back of her camera. That’s right – she never takes them off her camera and puts them anywhere else.
That is a problem with digital cameras today. Seriously! Those memories are irreplaceable. How would you feel if you lost ALL those memories? If you still haven’t taken the pictures off your camera yet – Loosing those pictures is not a matter of IF it will ever happen it is a matter of WHEN it will happen.
Contrary to what you may think – your digital camera is NOT a storage system for all your pictures. So please, this year – take them off the camera. Get them printed somewhere. Burn a cd or dvd of the files. Put them in a safe place. You can prevent a terrible thing from happening by simply getting those pictures off the camera and on a safe storage medium. If you don’t know how or don’t know what to do – please call us. We’ll show you what to do.
Your camera is for capturing your memories – not for storing them and not for sharing them with others. Do that with printed pictures or through the internet but get them off your camera before it’s too late.
Step One: Buy the digital camera.
Step Two: Take lots of pictures.
Step Three: Preserve those memories forever with prints
Step Four: Save those memories on CD or DVD for future generations to access.
Step Five: Enjoy seeing life through the camera’s eye.
Until next time…
It’s almost Christmas and it is the perfect time to have a family portrait taken – no matter who does it – it’s important.
If you have a high school senior in your home – do you realize this year may be the last chance you have to capture your family as it is right now – capture the people you have become – reflect on the memories – remember when your kids were little…and wonder where did the time go?
Realistically (weather you want to believe it or not) your family WILL change when your kids finishes high school. Your life will never be the same. No matter what happens. Weather they go off to college, get a full time job, travel the world (seriously, I have a friend who did just that when he graduated form high school) or simply take time to figure out what they want out of life – it will change your family dynamics. Capture who you have become as a family NOW! Your kids will appreciate it – one day they will thank you for it. Don’t look back in 5 years and say “I wish I had…” when you can do it now.
No excuses now. You can get a friend to take that picture or you can call us and we’ll create one for you. Either way – get it done before this time passes you by and you can never get it back. We can help you. We know how special this time is for you – even if you haven’t figured it out for yourself yet.
I think it’s time for my next family portrait too. My son is now 22. Wow when did that happen?
Baking cookies in the Benton house 18 years ago and still today...
It’s almost time for Santa and once again we will have an opportunity to capture some of the most cherished images of a lifetime with your family.
When I was a child, my grandmother had a Christmas tradition that to this day I remember as though it was yesterday. She always made a date nut roll that was to die for. It was candy and was made like candy. Boiled water, a thermometer, lots of dates and brown sugar, walnuts, 2 granddaughters and LOTS of patience It was tradition in our household for nearly 16 years to get together and help make her famous date nut roll. I had no idea that we were not just making candy but we were making memories.
I couldn’t tell you the recipe – grandmother kept a few of those ingredients to herself – but I can tell you it was a recipe of love. I have some wonderful memories of my cousin and me standing on a chair next to her watching the thermometer until just the right time when we’d drop tiny balls of the date nut into the water to see if it world make a soft ball candy. When it did – it was time. Time for what? I couldn’t tell you exactly because that’s when she’d tell us to go tell our dad’s (her son’s) that the date nut roll was almost ready. I don’t know what she did while we were gone but when we came back it was always beautiful made and displayed on the counter waiting for us to sprinkle the powdered sugar on it – that is when the fun really began. What a mess we made. My grandmother would laugh so hard she’d cry . Just thinking about it takes me back to that kitchen with all those wonderful smells and memories.
My husbands family has a tradition of making Christmas cookies for the holidays. All kinds. Little houses, gingerbread men, candy canes, star – you name a Christmas object and they make it. So to create a memory for our son to remember fondly later in life for many, many years we have made Christmas cookies from scratch too. Talk about a mess The smile on his little face when he found flour all over him and me and whoever else ended up in our house for Christmas baking was simply PRICELESS.
To this day, if you visit our house the week before Christmas you’re likely to find us making those wonderful Christmas cookies. Stars and Christmas stockings and angels are our favorite to make and decorate. So break out you camera and capture the action as it happens. Some of the best photographs are not the looking at the camera pictures but rather the ones that look like you happen upon a magic moment. You know the magic of Christmas – in Family Traditions.
Did you ever take a moment to really read what is in your Christmas card? The ones you receive from your family and friends? Some people write a note in the card, some send a letter that recaps all of what happened in their family last year while others simply have the names of the people sending them to you. No matter what is in the card – one thing for sure you can count on is that a Christmas card is filled with love. That’s right – love. If someone takes the time to select your name from a list of people they keep in touch with it’s because somewhere deep down inside they feel love for you and yours.
Every year as I address the cards to our family and friends, with each and every one, I remember why they mean so much to us. In some small way they have touched our lives and they are important to us. I want them to know that at the most beautiful time of the year they are in our hearts and even if we can’t be with them in person over the holidays they are still very dear to us.
When I receive a card from someone with a picture of their family or loved one (sometimes it’s their pet) I feel loved. Imagine that – we are special enough to have been chosen to receive a gift of sharing a moment in their lives through that photograph.
We create beautiful custom Christmas cards for our families and for our clients to send out to their loved ones. A lot of love goes into designing each and every card for every client because I know as a receiver of a card just how SPECIAL it will make someone feel.
Call today to see how we can create a beautiful card just for you.
Cathy
