Posts Tagged: "photo"

Picture Frame, Chocolate & Diamonds | Birthday Gift

Queen Darlene - October 15, 2015 - Birthday, Christmas, Food & Drinks

My girlfriends and I used to play tennis but no longer. Age and injuries got the best of us, but we still like to keep in touch by having brunch together on Saturdays.

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The perfect gift to celebrate a friend’s birthday!

Carol is the glue for this girls’ group. She contacts us to set up when and where we will meet. I love her for keeping us close and connected.

Years ago, Carol gave all of us a “team picture” that I still have on my desk at the office. I cherish that picture and the memories of fun times together. It always makes me smile!

When I saw a picture frame with the word Friends on it, I thought this would be perfect for Carol’s birthday the next time we got together. Continue Reading

Glamour Shots Makeover for 90-Year Old Grandmother

Queen Darlene - April 23, 2015 - Birthday, Experiences, Mother's Day

How do you celebrate a 90 year old grandmother’s birthday that she can see over and over again? Take her to Glamour Shots!

To say the least, my family is very visual. Growing up in a deaf family, the “eyes” have it! The deaf members in my family may not be able to hear but they SEE everything!

Visual – Visual – Visual was a huge motivation for gifts to my mother, step-father, and grandparents.

I made an appointment at Glamour Shots to have my grandmother’s picture made for her 90th birthday.

The most make-up my grandmother wore was rouge. That’s what they called it in her day. We call it blush.

So when they styled her hair, applied eye make-up, foundation, and lipstick, and put her in fancy clothes and a cowboy hat, she thought “what a big fuss.” She had no idea how to “strike a pose” but they showed her and made it a big deal of how beautiful she looked, especially at 90 years of age.

She loved it and began to have fun being made up like a movie star! The final product? She looked like the famous actress Mae West!

Thank You Card Using Photo of Your Child

Princess Diana - November 4, 2014 - Thank You

Do you have a photo of your son or daughter that you know will get people to say, “Awwww… so cute!”?

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Glue a cute photo of your child to the front of a blank note card for a thoughtful thank you card!

That’s exactly what you’ll need for making this thank you card using a photo of your child.

When my son turned two years old, I wrote thank you cards to everyone who gave him a gift. Even though my son isn’t old enough to make or write his own thank you cards, I still wanted his thank you cards to be representative of him and his Oklahoma City Thunder basketball-themed birthday party.

I purchased blank note cards in the Thunder’s team colors, blue and orange, and made multiple 4X4 prints of a close-up photo I took of my son at his birthday party. In the photo, he is wearing his Thunder basketball jersey.

Not only is the photo adorable, but it will remind everyone of his birthday party!

Play on Words Add Special Touch to Gifts

Princess Diana - September 25, 2014 - $20 or Less, Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Teacher Gifts

For my mother-in-law’s birthday, I bought her a gift card to a local shop that specializes in flavor infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

I knew she’d love it because my boss loved her Premium Olive Oil and Vinegar With State-Shaped Cutting Board gift that I gave her for Christmas from the same store.

I gave her a gift card so she could pick out her own flavors of olive oil and balsamic vinegar but a gift card just isn’t much fun to open. So what did I do?

I added a “thoughtful twist” to the gift card by creating a cute card on the easy peasy photo editing website PicMonkey. I combined a photo of my son, a chalkboard overlay, some doodle heart overlays, and text that said:

Oil always love my Mimi! Continue Reading

Painting of Childhood Home Brings to Life Cherished Memories

Princess Diana - August 7, 2014 - Birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, Mother's Day

I bet you can remember in great detail your childhood home.

For me, I still remember the wallpaper design in each room. The texture of our brown couch where I spent hours reading my Nancy Drew novels. The large crack that ran across the width of my bedroom door for which I have my younger brother and a very sturdy chair to thank for creating.

Every time one of my siblings visits our hometown of Enid, Oklahoma, we always drive by our childhood home. It’s a magnet that draws us.

With one look at that two-story beige house with its wide front porch, the flood gates open to our childhood memories. We see the windows but what we’re really seeing are the many family events that took place behind those windows.

Mother’s Day Gift Idea | Digital Photo Frame Containing Sweet Messages

Princess Diana - April 11, 2014 - Birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day

When digital photo frames came out, I loved the concept and thought, “Why didn’t I think to invent that?” (I thought the same thing about Snuggies and Pillow Pets, and I bet you did too! We totally could have been millionaires by now!)

Instead of having to look at the same photo each day, with digital photo frames you can view a slideshow and swap out the photos without making a trip somewhere to get prints made.

I don’t think I need to go into how mothers love having photos of their children and other family members on display.

Download this image to use as one of your sweet messages.

From my experience, it’s pretty much a universal thing!

Giving a preloaded Digital Photo Frames as a Mother’s Day gift is a great gift but not unique on its own. So let me tell you how to make it unique!

Graduation Gift Idea – 18 Things I Wish I Had Known at 18

Princess Diana - April 3, 2014 - Graduation, Kids

Goodbye childhood. Hello adulthood. This is what my oldest niece Shakira is experiencing as she gets ready to graduate from high school. She’s excited about adulthood because to her it means freedom to do whatever she wants. But like most 18-year olds, she hasn’t really thought about the responsibilities that come with that freedom.

As her aunt, I thought I would take the opportunity to impart some life lessons that I’ve personally found to be helpful in living a full and happy life. But Shakira doesn’t want to listen to a lecture from me. Blah. Blah. Blah. Even if she did listen, she could easily forget everything I told her the next day.

I needed to deliver my nuggets of wisdom in a fun and memorable way and something that would make a cool graduation gift.

I created a custom photo book called “18 Things I Wish I Had Known at 18.” I picked out a black and white template from Shutterfly.com that matched my niece’s sense of taste and style.

In the book I listed my top 18 life lessons and paired them with photos of Shakira, Shakira and me together, and group family photos. I arranged the photos in chronological older starting with her baby photos.

Here are the 18 life lessons or words of wisdom I put together:

How to Buy Your Wife Gifts That Won’t Get Returned

Princess Diana - February 14, 2014 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Money, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day

Queen Darlene and I have a co-worker who follows our blog. He sent us an email one day after one of our gift ideas reminded him of a gift-giving strategy that has served him well as a husband.

Eldon’s idea of how to buy your wife clothing, jewelry, accessories or other gifts that won’t get returned is so good that we wanted to share it with our readers! Here is what he wrote to us:

I tried to buy clothing gifts for my wife. She returned them all because they were the wrong color, etc. So, I got wise and would find a cute photo of a dress, purse, shoes, earrings, etc. that I wanted to buy – usually if I listened closely I could pick up the hint of what she wanted.

Continue Reading

Photo Thank You Card

Princess Diana - December 31, 2013 - Thank You

Everyone loves a handwritten thank you card, but a picture is also worth a thousand words!

Instead of a traditional handwritten thank you card, have your child hand write his or her thank you message on a dry-erase board or chalkboard. Take a picture of your child holding the thank you message. You now have a thank you card that will likely go in a picture frame in someone’s home it’s that awesome!

This idea works also works well for younger children who may be too young to write very much, or at all, but can draw pictures.

If you try this idea, please let us know how it turned out and send us photos. We would love to hear from you!

Santa’s Naughty or Nice List – Add Names of Family

Queen Darlene - December 5, 2013 - Christmas, Family

In 1996, I purchased a print of Santa Claus holding his Naughty or Nice List. The artist was there to write the names of who you wanted on either list.

On the Nice list, I had the artist write my husband’s side of the family – his dad and mom, his sister and her children, his brother, and my husband and our two sons – the lineage of the Drew family. On the Naughty list was my brother-in-law David and me since we were the “out-laws” of the family.

I framed the print and gave it to my in-laws as a Christmas gift. They thought it was a hoot!

Years later when my in-laws decided to downsize and move into a retirement home, they had the “kids” go through their items and keep what we wanted. I chose the print and and it has been sitting in a box at the bottom of my closet for more than 10 years.

As luck would have it, I recently rediscovered the print of Santa. After looking at it, I realized my husband’s brother has since married and his wife and son were missing from the list. This gave me a Christmas gift idea!