Posts Tagged: "pictures"

Professional Family Photo of Three Generations

Queen Darlene - July 11, 2018 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Experiences, Family, Mother's Day

I’m on summer vacation and reposting a favorite by our readers. Speaking of summer, it’s a great time for family photos!

It’s not an easy task to get three generations of one family scheduled on the same date and time for professional photos. Life just seems to get in the way.

That’s even more reason to pause and take the time to pose for those precious photos.

Professional Family Photos

Most people have nice cameras and even smartphones take excellent pictures, but professional photos should not be overlooked.

For my mother-in-law’s 80^th birthday gift, the family decided we would have a professional photo of three generations of our family made.

A photo of three or even two generations of family is a keepsake many family members will cherish.

Thoughtful Second Marriage Wedding Gift

Queen Darlene - July 27, 2017 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Uncategorized, Wedding

When my friend announced she would be saying “I do” for the second time, I wanted to give her a special wedding gift.

Traditional gifts such as dishes, towels and kitchen appliances are usually not needed in a second marriage.

I had the perfect opportunity to give a creative and thoughtful wedding gift!

Mike and Teresa were getting married on a beach in Florida and hosting a reception later for family and friends. This gave me time to do a little research…

Teresa posted on Facebook pictures of their beach wedding, and it sparked a gift idea.

I had seen custom couple silhouette portraits on Etsy.com, and thought I would create my own using one of Teresa’s wedding photos. I picked one of them in a unique pose.

Share Memories Year Round With Custom Photo Calendar

Princess Diana - November 29, 2016 - Birthday, Christmas, Family, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Retirement

We all know that time flies, especially the older you get. So it’s important to preserve happy memories with photographs. Even better, share them with loved ones so they can enjoy them year round!

As a birthday gift for our mother, my siblings and I collaborated to give her a custom photo calendar.

We all provided pictures so the calendar would contain photos of ALL of her children and grandchildren. We also included group family photos from when we were together during the holidays.

Many websites make it easy peasy to design a personalized photo calendar with your own photos and text. Just pick a template, drag and drop photos, and you’re done! I created mine using Shutterfly.com.

Since you can choose the starting month of your photo calendar, you can give this gift at any time of the year. They make excellent gifts for birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and family exchanges.

Passing Down Family Heirlooms

Queen Darlene - January 7, 2016 - Birthday, Christmas, Family, Gifts for Me, Housewarming, Mother's Day, Wedding

My husband’s job transferred him to Albuquerque in 1984. It was the first time either one of us had lived more than 10 miles from family. We were excited about our new adventure, and at the same time sad to leave our very close-knit family behind.

great-grandmother's-rose-bowl-thoughtful-gift-idea

Rose Bowl from Germany was given to my grandmother by her mother.

We moved into a new and larger home so I needed more wall decorations.

This was before we had the Internet so I visited several furniture stores, but had difficulty finding pictures I liked in my price range.

We lived several months without anything on the walls until one day I was making room to store old dishes passed down to me by my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother. Continue Reading

Old Family Photos Made New on T-Shirts

Queen Darlene - October 22, 2015 - $20 or Less, Birthday, Christmas, Family

What to do with old family photos? Since my grandparents and parents have passed, I have become the keeper of old photos. I have thousands of photos in albums, boxes and drawers. Some are even dated back to the 1800s.

I wanted to create something new from old family photos for my two brothers and myself as a Christmas present. I found a wonderful photo of our parents in their early years of marriage and chose a cute picture of the three of us as young kids.

Picking the photo was no easy task since my mother took hundreds of pictures of her three children. She wanted to capture every moment of us growing up.

I used a local t-shirt screen printing business that transferred the pictures onto t-shirts. Since I gave at Christmas time, I chose long-sleeve t-shirts.

Wind Chimes | Sympathy & Condolence Gift

Queen Darlene - October 1, 2015 - Condolence

When someone you love passes away, it’s like a piece of your heart has been taken. We’ve all experienced it, and appreciate those who want to ease our pain.

Sympathy cards are usually the number one item sent. Thank goodness for Hallmark and other companies that make cards that eloquently express how we feel.

But for those times when you want to do more than send cards or flowers, what can you do?

My mother’s cousin passed away not too long ago. Bob was our favorite cousin hands down or should I say hands up because he was one of the few who knew sign language and could converse with my mother.

Bob, his wife, Ann and their four children, Larry, Beverly, Denise and Mark were intertwined with our family all our lives. We have many wonderful memories and my brothers and I wanted to do more than get a sympathy card. Continue Reading

Baby Growth Calendar Photos

Queen Darlene - September 24, 2015 - $20 or Less, Baby Shower

Parents love to capture precious moments of their baby’s first year, especially how fast they grow every month. I have a unique, cute and easy photo idea for every month – a baby growth calendar!

st-year-baby-growth-calendar-thoughtful-gift-idea

7 month, 8 month, 9 month, 10 month, 11 month, 12 month click to enlarge

My cousin took pictures of her baby girl with a large calendar desk pad. The photos consist of her baby lying on top of the calendar every month of her first year.

I’m sure it was easy at first but took several takes to get the photos just right when she started rolling or crawling. It’s all about creating memories, right?

She would write on the calendar 1st month, 2nd month and so on. This made for the most adorable baby pictures. Continue Reading

Queen for the Day | Photo Shoot

Queen Darlene - May 7, 2015 - Birthday, Experiences, Mother's Day

My mother loved taking pictures of her three kids, her family and friends. She also loved being in the pictures too. She would have loved Selfies!

When Mom’s health began to show signs of dementia, I wanted to get her out of the house to do something fun. I decided to make her Queen for the Day!

I brought over one of my sequin gowns, long black gloves, jewelry and a tiara. I explained we were going to make her Queen for the Day and her grandson was going to take pictures – in essence a photo shoot while we visited Bricktown in Downtown Oklahoma City.

Mom loved seeing all of the new changes in Downtown OKC – the canal, the larger than life bronze statues, beautiful waterfalls and botanical gardens. She enjoyed using these as backdrops for her photos. Continue Reading

Hands of Love | Photo Gift Idea

Queen Darlene - October 9, 2014 - $20 or Less, Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Gifts for Him

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Hands are a beautiful thing because of all of the different ways they express love.

The hands of your parents and grandparents are the ones that held you for hours as a baby, wiped your tears when you cried, placed the Band-Aid on your skinned knees, threw the ball to teach you “catch,” held your bike up as you learned to ride it, showed you how to measure ingredients when baking cookies, and reached in their wallets to give you a few extra dollars to go out with your friends.

Their hands also taught you how to write your name, work math problems and start a lawn-mower. I’m sure you can think of a zillion more things their loving hands have helped you with throughout your life.

My son and I thought it would be a meaningful gift to capture pictures of both of his grandparents’ hands and give them to family member for Christmas. Dustin came up with the idea to take pictures of the things they enjoy doing now.

Mother & Me | Copycat Photos

Queen Darlene - April 24, 2014 - Birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day

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Mother was a very visual person. She was deaf so her eyes were truly her window to the world.

She loved to look at everything and she filled her home with lots of beautiful and unusual things! There was not a spare inch on the bookshelves, hutch, desks, cabinet counters, windows sills or walls. She even collected more than 10,000 owls! (But that will have to be another story.)

Pictures were important to Mother. My brothers and I learned to stop whatever we were doing right then and there to take a picture if Mother wanted it. It was just easier to get it over with than to fuss with her. (Funny how history repeats itself. My boys stop and turn on the smiles for me – click – then they are off and on their way).

Mother cherished her pictures, and they brought her much happiness.