Another look at Christmas

My favorite shot ... Next year's Christmas card!


1912 Santa ornament - The year my mother was born.


Little reindeer - a steal at 99cents each at the local Goodwill!


The shelf over our fireplace - halfway 'undecorated' today. The photo is a shot I took when we camped one weekend at Devil's Den in NW Arkansas when our boys were little. Gosh, what was that, 18 years ago?! I'll have to check.


Red lights in the dining room! Fun, Festive -- love it.


And a photo showing the gift my oldest son, Tim, gave me for Christmas. One of those tea light wall sconces. I put white sand in each votive holder to elevate the tea lights and keep the glass from getting hot.

Since I really didn't have a chance to do much decorating or photographs before Christmas, today I thought, it's the perfect chance to take some photos before I pack up the tree tomorrow evening. Of course, I thought this only after I had removed some of the angels and items off the shelf above my fireplace. (Note to self: Get the shelf replaced with something more modern that will enhance that wall!)
I think my favorite shot was the last one I took tonight, that being the first one in this post. I may have to use it as a Christmas card next year.
The kids strung up some of the lights we found in one of the holiday tubs during moving. It's not perfect, but I love it! Though I'm sure my husband is ready for them to come down.
I'm going to add a few notes beneath some of the photos. And I know I have lots of lurkers, but I'd love for comments to be posted once in a while! So, if I get some posts on this "almost last blog of 2007" I'll pick one winner to receive a 5x7 framed image out of my etsy shop of one of my photos. Or a 5x5, depending on your choice. I'll send the winner details and I'll post here New Year's Day. And yes, you get to choose which image! So, don't be bashful blog readers, post away-but remember the rule, only NICE posts!

Little Man

That's his mom's nickname for Roman. Shot these on Christmas Day. Had another photographer tell me she thought them too busy and that the wrapping paper should have been all solid. So I explained to her that these photos were personal -GRANDMA shots-, not 'pro studio' shots. Our family tradition is not all matchy, matchy, but instead we choose to wrap our gifts with paper that we find fun and interesting. This year, we used Scooby, Pirates of the Caribbean, pink paper with colorful snowflakes ... and even some old vintage I had left over from years ago. To me, Christmas isn't a 'designer' issue, but instead something of the heart, spiritual and warm. Plus after just moving and barely getting a tree up, the last thing on my mind was making sure everything looked like it came from a New York magazine shoot.

We had a wonderful holiday and I'm looking forward to many more in our new home.
Hope you enjoy my photos! Oh and I plan on squeezing in one more post before the end of this year. And on New Year's Day, I plan on featuring a fabulous jewelry designer from etsy! I stumbled onto her shop in only her second day. But for that story, you have to return. Meanwhile, Happy New Year and good blessings in the coming year of 2008.
Oh, and notice my great vintage Santa?! $10!
One other thing. Sad though. If you read my blog regularly, you'll remember my post below of our silly cat Goober. Well, we thought she'd be OK going outside after a week in her new home. I was wrong. We haven't seen her since Christmas Day and I feel quite guilty as I was the one who let her out in the backyard. My son did go check at the animal shelters, but no luck. She was my husband's cat, but loved to annoy me every night when I got on the computer. I sure miss her! It almost feels like fate that I took those photos of her and now she's gone. I remember the first year we got her was around Christmas and I have some fun shots of her playing near the tree and in the lights from back then also. You can never have enough shots of your pets!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!
OK, so I didn't get to post more odd photos the other day. Sometimes I think I can get things done, then, wham, life interferes. Or maybe trips to Wal-Mart two days before Christmas.
Christmas Eve went pretty much like this: Rush to work and then spend the next 6 1/2 hours trying to put together three newspapers so that I can enjoy Christmas with my family. Came home, realized that yes, that another trip to W-ville was inevitable. So, off I went with the girls, Jennipher and Kia. Get home, sit down to play some Uno then realized, hey, I'm tired. No-really tired! *That's what happens when you stay up until 4:30 a.m. from the day before.
So I excuse myself from family time and off to bed I go. Around 7 or so, sleep until 11 p.m. then get up and have fun doing Mya's photo shoot for Christmas. Didn't have my studio lights hooked up, so we just did on-camera flash. I think they turned out nicely!
Now I'm posting them and then back to bed for a few hours before the day really begins. I haven't even started baking yet!
And hopefully I will get to do some photos of Roman later, and my boys.

Goober Kitty and the tree

OK, so everything is wrong with this photo! But wait, you should know I have excuses. Actually a combo of them. It was low light, nearly dead battery and one extremely curious kitty. She was ready to play! I have a photo of that too, but it is really bad. So, enjoy this one where she just looks so innocent. Hah, right! I'll be posting more odd photos through the day, with a great image posted at around 7 or so of my greatest holiday find and the story behind it.
And it'd be super nice if some of you blog readers post some comments today -only nice ones allowed --! Merry Christmas.

Christmas on Main Street

Just some fun shots of Duncan's Main Street windows. I've got a pinched nerve or developing carpal tunnel, not sure which, but I didn't really do more than snapshots on these. It was fun, plus I did some bokeh shots. I love Christmas for many reasons and try to look past the commercialism of it. While these were shot in merchant windows, I didn't want any of the images to look like a retail window. Hope you enjoy them! And don't forget to scroll down to see other holiday images I've shot and posted so far.

Christmas fun

Who can resist the adorable little Sock Monkey?! I had so much fun playing with him last night to create some photographs for greeting cards to post in my etsy shop. And of course, it didn't stop there. You can see more at my etsy shop by clicking on any of the images featured to the left.
And along the lines of retro, vintage like items, since all of my stuff is in storage, I hit the Goodwill store and found a ton of old shiny brites (red) and mercury glass silver ornaments in their boxes, all for $1.49 per box. Then I found some darling little china items. A vintage Santa and some elves, two different days that I found them. I don't have photos yet of the elves, but here's the Santa.

Architectural spirit

Well, I said I would post something along these lines every Sunday. While it is early morning Monday hours, for me it is still Sunday. I have been so busy unpacking, cooking in my new kitchen, decorating for Christmas, that my blog has taken a backseat lately. Plus, I'm working on finishing up a few wedding albums!
But, here's a photo I shot a few years ago at the Holy City of the Wichitas over by Lawton. I have always liked the photo, but felt it was lacking something. So, I went into creative overdrive today and came up with this. I have it for sale in each of the three tones over in my etsy shop, or as a wall gallery image, 10x15 size if anyone is interested. My favorite is the first one in the blue/green version.

Little Angels

Well, I didn't get a chance to post my Christmas once-a-day photo yesterday, but, here it is. Of course, I have to show off some beautiful images I shot of Mya last night in front of our fireplace. She's the best little angel.
The little ceramic angel is one of my recent vintage scores. I wish I could figure out its history. It has an unusual marking on the back. But researching artist's marks is not an easy task. If you have any idea, post a comment! Have a great day, more moving for me. And it's pouring rain, lovely.

Christmas once a day

In the spirit of celebrating being in my new home, I'm going to post a Christmas photo or two every day. I had found a stack of older Martha Stewart December magazines. Made some chocolate chip cookies and sat down on one of my new rugs to enjoy the magazines and cookies. And of course, with my camera out, I had to snap some photos of Mya.

Angela's in Palatka, oh and ...

The very sexy red dress! Love this dress..this is definitely something I would have worn once. Maybe again, who knows? This dress and many more scrumptious dresses, clothing, accessories can be found at Angela's in Palatka, Florida. It's one of those great little shops that once you discover it, you want to share with everyone. And Angela is awesome! She was headed out the door so I didn't get a photo of her. She also does tuxedos, wedding dresses and wow, the list is never ending! And she's online so you can shop that way. If you do, be sure to tell her I sent you. Just tell her "Christian's aunt Toni"... Click on the title of this post and it will take you to her site. Just first finish reading this and enjoying my yummy photos!

These beautiful dresses are lovely for any southern belle.

And Vera Bradley, oh yeah!

Look at these sweet dresses. Very romantic.

And even Lilly. How can you not love this place! Oh yes, and Angela carries Red Hats for those of you who have achieved that status.
Oh I have one more bit of news...We closed on our home today and so I may be out of touch for a few days while we get moved! And yes, I'll share photos! Thank you to everyone so far who has been so supportive of me and my crazy moods. Thank you for your prayers and patience. Now I will just be impossible because I am so stinking happy!

Spider Web glass

It must be dramatic.

I shot these at St. Augustine in August 2006. I am now trying to decide which one I want to order to hang over my fireplace in my new home. It has to be dramatic. The house is huge and when you walk in the door, I want it to be the focal point of the living area. I'd love to hear your thoughts! And yes, this is my inspiration post for Sunday. I need to clarify, the solitude beach image that I have in three styles (dark, dreamy and color) was taken at Crescent Beach, Florida on a very overcast day. The others are St. Augustine. I also will be offering these for sale through my Etsy shop photogypsy320. The images will be available for greeting cards or as prints. I will be posting sizes, but if you are interested before I get them uploaded, please email me.