My evenings these days...

With Christmas just over a couple of months away, I have been busy working on Christmas cards these days. I slowly started in July and am now working hard tweaking, replacing photos and adding the last of the new designs. I feel like I have really found my own style through the year as well as better ways of doing things. I also have a much bigger font selection (I LOVE fonts), patterns, etc to work with. Therefore, I have taken at least half of last years designs off my website. In the end I expect to have close to 100 Christmas card designs posted. Crazy! This is something that I enjoy and love to do. It's also been great to have something to work on while David has been working REALLY long hours at the winery.

I have shyed away from photography. I do cards not take pictures. Don't get me wrong, I love taking photos of our kids and the places we visit. I have a professsional level Canon DSLR but am still learning how to use it well. This whole past year I have felt like I have had lots of design ideas but not much in the way of photos to work with. Great photos help make card designs great. I can create a beautiful design, but with bad photos the card will only look ok.

Sadly, the lack of great photos has been what's delayed me getting my 2010 Christmas card designs posted. Therefore I decided to face my fears, pick up my camera and look for some willing volunteers to be my subjects. Since we don't know many people here, I asked for help from our church care group. Here's a few photos from my first photo session attempt. I know I have a long way to go, but I was happy with the results for my first time. The photos don't need to be the most amazing ever, just clean, simple and beautiful. I like simple, candid photos that look like they could have actually happened in real life. After the rest saw the pics, I now have four more beautiful families lined up for my practice. Thanks so much Whyte family!! Now I just have to find times within the next couple of weeks to make this all happen.



I'm starting to get pretty curious what Christmas will be like for me (business wise). My sister in law will be coming out for December to spend time with us and help with the kids for the first couple of weeks, which will be wonderful! I'm expecting some super crazy days and REALLY long hours. This is all awesome in so many ways but I'm sure it will also be very difficult at times as well. Who knows? Any guesses how many Christmas orders I'll get?? I've already had two! Also had a couple of orders from Australia this past week. I'm currently creating wedding invitations for a bride in Hawaii. Four fundraisers lined up (one is in Ohio). Pretty exciting!! So thankful for such a supportive husband in all this!