Merry Christmas to all ....

Merry Christmas to all ....and to all a late Christmas card. What? Christmas card? Yes, since I shared with you yesterday our gift tags and I am months behind on my posting, I thought I should at least post our Christmas card from this year. Now that we have a furbaby as a part of our family, I love getting our family portraits made for Christmas. This year I grabbed our good friend Kevin, and we all headed over to downtown Bryan to take pictures for our card. In our area, downtown Bryan is the place to take any pictures really, at any given saturday, you will find no less than five photographers down there. In fact, while taking our pictures, I believe I saw at least three, not counting us. We went around 4:30, since it is winter and things get dark early. Luckily, while we were out there, the hotel and theater's lights came on, so they are nice and bright for our picture. Mac did very well, considering how much there was going on. Cars were passing, people were walking by and his little attention span was really being tested. We had his leash clipped to his collar on the back, which was covered by his scarf, and then we ran the leash down his back, with our foot at the end, so that he couldn't run away, or get very far. We had quite a few takes, adjusting our posing, posture and smiles :) so we really appreciated Kevin being patient with us. Here are a few photos from the session. 

I got our cards printed at MPIX.com and here are a few options I was looking at: 

And here is the one we ended up using: 

(sorry the scan copy is really bad, I'll have to redo it tonight)

Do you like it? 

Tag you're it!

I know it is like a month after Christmas, but I have a quick post about a project I put together for Christmas.  Better late than never, right? This year for our gift tags I wanted to do something fun and not use the same old boring stickers with Santa or frosty or whoever. I wanted to make them personal and obvious who they were from. On the blog Young House Love (of which I am obsessed), I saw that they made gift tags last year out of business cards. On the business cards was a picture of their little fur baby Burger.

A light bulb went off in my head, and I thought, my puppy is pretty cute, so why not do that for us. Everyone would definitely know who it was from if Mac's face was on the tag staring at you. So I made Mac sit for a couple of treats while he had a mini-photo session. He really doesn't mind taking pictures, especially if they involve treats. Here are two photos of him from the photo shoot. We like to play with him and see what words/noises/sounds we can use to make him turn his head. It is pretty funny. Does anyone else do that to your pets?

 I photographed him and then selected the background out. Then I dragged his cute lil face on top of a red background added in Photoshop. Easy peasy. They were a big hit with our family and friends. I ordered about 200 I believe, which is a whole lot I know, but for less than $20, it was well worth it. I was originally going to try and use them year round, so we will see, I might have to cut off the Christmas part.

On the front of the card it said "Have a dog-gone good Christmas". And on the back it just says,  To: Love, the Neyland's.

Here are a few photos of the tags on actual gifts under our tree. 

So how do you like them? Would you love to receive a gift with your friends/family's pet or child on the tag? I think its a great way to personalize any gift. 

Linking up with the DIY Showoff project parade. 

 

Door decor

A few months ago I made a cute little door wreath with some left over fabric scraps I had from another project. I used a wreath I had planned on using for another project that failed. I was trying to make something like this (below) at one point for a coworker of mine, but wrapping the yarn was a lot more time consuming than I thought. I threw it aside and forgot about it for a few months.

                                                    source

So I decided to reuse the wreath and try wrapping it in my fabulous new fabric. I got my fabric from fabric.com, where they have unbelievable prices and great patterns. Here are three of the styles that I got below. I haven't decided what to do with the yellow and blue patterns yet, but I loved them and had to have them. I will post something as soon as I decide. The black and white chevron print was actually used on our dining room table and chair redo. I will make a separate post on that soon.

So here is the final piece completed. I ended up just cutting strips of fabric and then wrapped them around the wreath. I pinned it all together with sewing pins in case I ever wanted to change it. I got the ribbon for the bow from Michael's around Halloween and I just absolutely loved it. I wish I could have stocked up on it since it was seasonal.

Here is a little wider picture of the wreath on the door. The wreath is a little small, but I can always put it somewhere in the house as decoration and move it when I am tired of it. Since I made this wreath in late September, I ended up finding a little skull at the store and added it to the center of the wreath to make it a lil more seasonal for Halloween. I however, forgot to take a picture of it and can only help you to imagine it.

So that's the end to my little project that only took me about 5 minutes to complete. I am so happy with the way it turned out and feel that anyone can honestly do this. 

UPDATE: I found a picture of the wreath with the skull on it. However, it is really bad quality with a flash, so please forgive me. 

linking to DIY showoff

Attention lover

This will be just a quick one picture post of my little sweet fur baby child, who acts like no one ever loves him. As I was sitting on the couch trying to type up the never ending post of our Vegas Vacation, poor little puppy decides that he is not getting enough attention and must become a part of whatever I was doing. He is so pitiful looking in this picture.

This is the same reason why when I get home and try to workout with Zumba, or anything really, I can't finish.  I have to remind myself that he is home all day by himself and just needs the love of his momma when I get home. I actually enjoy every second of it though. When he was a little puppy, he was non stop energy and would never snuggle, so I try and take every ounce that I can.

**Oh and yes, that is a sticker on my loving husbands laptop. He refuses to take the sticker off and it doesn't just go for his computer. Anything that has a sticker on it, he leaves it, like the camera. I am trying to break him of that habit, because it crawls under my skin. Maybe he is trying to break me of removing stickers. haha.

New Orleans Lady

Hi there long lost blog buddies. I am back and I hope to keep this little thing of beauty up and running this year at any cost. I am going to try my darnedest to keep this blog of love updated. To keep you posted on the most recent events, I thought I would start with the most recent of activities. A few weeks ago the Hubs and I made the drive back home to Louisiana, namely New Orleans, to attend a Photo Conference, Imaging USA. In actuality, I attended and Matt came with me to the Expo and the other events. Matt stayed in the hotel and worked (it was literally right across the street, so convenient) while I was busy attending classes of some of the best photographers in the World. Yes, World!! I had an AMAZING time and came back with so much inspiration and motivation, It was a great way to start off the year. Especially after the drive down, where it got me thinking if I really wanted to do this anymore. This past year wasn't really what all we wanted it be, and it really showed in my photography business. But I'm back and this year will be better than ever, Right? Right!

       I don't have too many images from our trip, even though it was a photography conference (I know, I know..its a photo conference, you are supposed to carry your camera everywhere right?). So I thought I would show you a few images taken on my phone.

  View of the ships from the Riverwalk

  Picture from our hotel's floor. 

One thing I didn't get pictures of that I really wished I had was of Saturday night when the Saints played the 49ers. My family had come down to New Orleans (since it was only 20 mins way) to eat dinner with us and we ended up eating at Gordon Biersch and watched the game. It was a great game and it was even better watching it in the city with all of the fans. The cooks and wait staff all came out to celebrate when something good happened. There were a lot of high fives going on between the workers and customers, and we all became one. Now I know the game didn't go in our favor, but it was such an amazing experience to be a part of. I really wish we could have gone to the Superbowl again, but hey I am just proud that Saints fans are no longer wearing bags on their heads.

One night we ate at Palace Cafe on Canal Street. We only had to walk a few blocks from our hotel across from the convention center to get there. I had the Cafe' Spinach Salad and I think Matt had the Shrimp and Alligator Etouffee. My salad was really good, but pretty small, which was ok, because we got cheesecake for dessert. After dinner we just headed back to the hotel, and didn't worry about partying on Bourbon, that is for amateurs, lol. We've been there, done that. I am from the area, so it doesn't excite me like it used to and we like to use the excuse that we are getting old.

      Matt's dinner.

         My delicious salad

Our cheesecake. yummy. 

 The next day, we tried a restaurant right down the street that my mom had recommended. It is called Butcher. Its a trendy little restaurant that only has a few tables, so you have to be fast to grab a seat around lunch time. Matt and I both got BLT's, I know boring, but it was the best BLT I've ever had. Well, maybe not the BEST, but ONE of the best. The "L" (lettuce) they put on it was marinated in a vinaigrette dressing before and just made it so different. It was served with kettle chips, which I love, because they remind me of Zapp's Potato chips, a Louisiana favorite. We did also pick up a Randazzo's king cake while we were down there and it is quickly disappearing. I got the baby the other night, so maybe that will bring me good luck!

  Our BLT's.

   The handsome Hubs

      Me, getting some grub on.

Here is the front of the restaurant. 

I hope I haven't bored you too much with my lo-qual images and uneventful New Orleans story. I know you were expecting a lil more from the crescent city known for partying. We will be going back in a few weeks for a wedding, so maybe there will be a lil more excitement to come. Don't get your hopes up though. Have you visited New Orleans recently? Do you have a favorite restaurant down there?