& that's the way life goes

It’s true that I never take the time to send out any other cards besides Christmas cards.  I always have good intentions but sending cards always slips my mind.  I use Shutterfly for printing photos and photobooks (which I adore).   One of the only traditions I seem to keep every year is sending out a Christmas card that shows off my little family.  Mostly the adorableness of my furbabies.

Shutterfly has a ton of holiday card designs and I can almost guarantee that they have a format that will fit your needs.  This year I’m going to do something different from years past.  I usually set everyone up in one location, set the camera timer and take a million pictures.  It never fails that the dogs are never looking the same way and there is usually at least one of Liko with his lips curled back exposing his teeth.  Though small, still sharp.

So this year I’m taking individual pictures of the furkids and either taking a photo of C and I or using one from the past year.  This year has gone by so quickly that the holidays really did sneak up.  These are the layouts I’m deciding between:

First 3 commenters will get a code for 25 free cards from Shutterfly!

*This post was sponsored by Shutterfly. I have ordered photobooks, prints and cards from them in the past.*

via postsecret.com

Whenever holidays come around I feel torn about feeling obligated to go to a family gathering or spending quality time with my own little family. I’ll be honest that 8 out of 10 times I choose the quality family time ignoring the disdain of extended family at skipping dinner.

Easter isn’t a holiday that registers with me. I was raised Catholic but I don’t practice and haven’t for some years now. I don’t have kids to take to egg hunts or color eggs with so aside for the Easter candy I don’t have much involvement with it. Instead, C and I ran our errands and picked up a soccer ball. We took the dogs to a near by community college and kicked the ball around for part of the afternoon.

Scooby was too exhausted to even sit up during the ride home

I wish I would have gotten video of Liko with the soccer ball. He would chase it down, running at top speed, and when he tried to stop as he got to it he ended up rolling over the ball. It was entertaining, trust me.

I spent an absurd amount of time watching hockey this weekend too. Every game that was on to be exact, with the exception of Nashville/Anaheim because it wasn’t broadcast on national television.

How was your weekend?

I’ve been banging my head against hard inanimate objects trying to figure out the best way to back up all my crap.  I have an external hard drive and I back photos up on Shutterfly (<3) but I feel like if something were to happen to my external drive I would cry because all the original sized photos are on there, not to mention my documents and music.  Dare I say that sometimes I miss having to develop film and filing cabinets?  At least then I had hard copies and organizing them was relatively easy.

Now I take pictures with my camera, my phone, C’s camera, C’s phone.  We go somewhere for the weekend and I have media from 3-4 different electronics.  UGH.  I’m not the most detail oriented person.  I’m only organized to a certain extent and then from there it’s pretty much chaos.

I tossed the idea of flickr around but I really don’t think I want to use flickr.  Do any of you use cloud storage? I like the idea of it, I upload and then it’s just floating around on a server somewhere.  Enlighten me.

Last year I waited until the last minute to do Christmas cards.  Since we officially had a house and three furbabies I wanted to send out Christmas cards.  I decided this sometime at the end of November.  Ideally, you want to have the picture taken and have the cards out by sometime in early December so people can enjoy them, not get them a couple days before Christmas and throw them out.

I order my photobooks form Shutterfly, so why not my Holiday cards too?  So we took about a bazillion photos with the dogs in front of the fireplace one Sunday morning. Of course someone was always looking the other way, blinking, drooling, whatever.  I glanced over the images, chose the one and tried to tone down the dogs laser eyes.  They all ended up looking possessed. “Merry Christmas! My dogs are dead inside!”

That’s what I get for being in a hurry.  Not this year though, I’m starting now!

I’m having a hard time choosing though, I’ve narrowed it down to these three:

Mod Snowflakes

Modern Snowflakes

Bright Colored Lights

I love getting Christmas cards, I tape them to my front door.  Which card is your favorite?

*Attention Bloggers: You can receive 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010*

*This post was sponsored by Shutterfly. I have ordered photobooks, prints and cards from them in the past.*

What’s been going on – visual edition

Taking time out to explore Oscoda – September 2010

Jenni and I went and saw a Midsummer Night’s Dream – September 2010 – My uncle happened to be one of the dancers.

My Dad turned 60 and I held a small dinner for him at one of his favorite restaurants – September 2010

C and I ventured to the apple orchard. I was disappointed that you walk to the orchard and don’t get a hay ride. Boo. I now have more than enough apples to bake some tasty treats though. – October 2010

Jenni, Lauryn, Sarah and I had more more class of working our sexy. Oh yeah, almost ready for the clubs – you know the high class ones – October 2010