More beautiful options to surround myself with water

I am obsessed with photographing water and have decided that I need to surround myself with water which is why I decided to go to the Costco Photo Center today and make a canvas print of another favorite photo I took of water last week to hang on my wall. I love water. I love looking at water. What do you think?

There are 10 size options at Costco Photo Center. Every size option you could possibly want. The process is intuitive which for me is essential since I have the attention span of a gnat most of the time. It took me less than 10 minutes from uploading the photo, dragging and dropping the photo into the spot and adjusting it, then clicking add to cart. Wow, cool and soon I’ll have yet another inspirational photo of water on my wall. Pretty soon, my house will feel like the ocean or a river or just watery. It will make me smile I love to smile…

Dopp kit or ditty bag and chance to win free photo gift!

I know it seems goofy but watch the video and comment here and maybe I’ll hook you up with a free photo gift from Costco…

Publishing with My Publisher

Here goes my journey with My Publisher from Costco. I thought I’d try it out and see how it compares with some of the other photobook making software I’ve used. Unfortunately, the jury is still out given that I ran into all sorts of slowness and freezing on the loaner Dell Mini I’m using while my laptop is being fixed, but you get the general picture (hee, hee). Great features though not as intuitive as I had hoped, but I’m the WORST at reading directions and am totally impatient with slow connections or slow moving computers. I’ll definitely be trying again once I get MY computer back. I did the videos in 2 parts mainly because the mini froze and although I could have entertained you during the long 5 minutes it took me to get back on track, that’s not what you came for (or is it). Anyway, here’s part 1…

and here is part 2…

Remembering past pets through photos ~ Part 1

I decided that after a year of losing pets, it was time to forage through photos of our beloved Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Buoy and our feisty gray and black tiger striped cat, Reilly and make something from them for us to have around in memory.

Here is part one: Finding/scanning/uploading photos to Costco Photo Center…

Trees are uplifting and inspiring.

I’ve been in a serious funk lately, not that I’m surprised given that this is the first holiday season since my divorce and I struggle more this time of the year anyway. I love taking nature shots and some of my favorites are of trees. I decided to try to fill some of my walls with photos I’ve taken of nature that I find inspiring. I tagged along with my friend on a Costco run earlier this week and happened to have my camera with me so I decided to start my collection and was so happily surprised with the results! I made a 20×30 poster of the above photo, picked it up after we were done shopping (less than 1 hour) and it is AMAZING! The quality surpasses my expectations and it was only $9.84. SERIOUSLY! I’m going to frame it with one of the cool wood frames I picked up at the thrift store and voila…an uplifting and inspiring picture to wake up looking at that I took on one of my favorite hikes. Check out how easy it was to make…

Special gift for a true friend

I have this photo of my best friend and me when we were in Leavenworth for a “girls weekend.” I love this pic! We are relaxed, wearing cowboy hats with our bottlecap hat bands and the mountains in the background. I decided that I wanted to make something special for her that I can add to the basket of goodies I’m giving her for Christmas. So I logged onto my Costco account, uploaded the photo and found the perfect gift to put it on AND it’s only $7.99!

Watch the video and see how easy it is!

Playing catch up with my son’s photos

I hoping I’m not alone in feeling like a bad mom about this… My youngest has been so bummed that there isn’t a photo album dedicated to his baby pictures and he’s right! When my oldest was a baby, I wasn’t totally digital yet and had a plethora of photos in a box that my mom took and made a great big thick photo album out of. So now when we are going through the albums,,, my son is like, “where am I?” SO….I am going to make him something special, maybe a “this is your life” photo album and I’m starting by uploading pics to the Costco online photo site. Here is a video of how to do that. It can get confusing because there are a couple of ways to upload your photos so I thought I would demonstrate how easy it is to take some of the mystery away.

Jazz up your business cards with photo stickers

I LOVE this idea and as I was making stickers on the Costco Photo Center site to put on my business cards, I came up with tons of other ways to use them. For $2.24 per sheet of stickers…it’s cheaper than most sheets of holiday tags and these are MUCH more fun!

Must love little dogs

I have always been a dog person and until recently, a big dog person. I hadn’t met a little dog that swung my thinking away from my perceptions of little dogs being ankle biters, yappers, etc. Then I met Milo.

Seriously! Doesn’t get any cuter than this! Milo belongs to my friend and daughters tutor/teacher. I met him during the summer when I dropped my 10 year old off for her tutoring sessions. Milo and I love each other, there is no doubt of that! So when Milo’s (mom/owner) was wondering what she would do once school started and she and her family would have to be away from the house for long days, I begged her to let me come over for “play time” with him.

Now I’m getting my own Cockapoo from Echo Hills Ranch. He’s actually Milo’s half brother and was born on 9/1/09.

Just goes to show you how perceptions can change. Now Milo and the new pup can play together! I’m sure nothing will change my love for Milo. You know how sometimes pets just “get” you and you “get” them, well that’s how it is for us.

So as a thank you to Milo’s family, for letting me be a part of his life and for introducing the kids and I to our new future Cockapoo, I went to the Costco Photo Center and made the cutest notepad with his picture on it. Check it out!

It took all of 5 minutes to upload the photos from my computer and drag it into the photo spot. Oh, and you can add text too if you want. There are tons of different themes to choose from with spots for 1, 2 or 3 photos and they are only $4.49 until September 30. Seriously! I’m going to make a notepad for EVERYONE this year. They’ll be great stocking stuffers for the holidays.

While you’re there…check out the notebooks too. I don’t know about you, but between me and my 8 and 10 year old, we go through tons of these notebooks and here I can make personalized ones for them for $5.99 each!

I can’t wait to see Milo again on Monday and get our new pup (who we’ve already named Musgongus, or Gus for short) at the end of October.

Fantastic reviews and giveaways for photo gifts!

I’m having so much fun with these cool bloggers setting up reviews and giveaways. I said last year at BlogWorld Expo that I’ve never met a nicer, more outgoing, friendly group of people and I continue to meet more peeps that I would love to hang out with in person!

Here are some more great opportunities to get a head start on holiday gifts (or b’day or anniversary or anything really)…

Here’s one from Jill at Frugal Plus that expires tomorrow so get over there to win a collage poster from Costco, a photo book from CVS or a velvet photo book from Sam’s Club. Jill made some really cool products and turned a photo book into a personalized recipe book!

Here’s another fabulous review and opportunity to win a a CVS photo book, a Sam’s Club personalized calendar, or a Sam’s Club photo collage from Ruminations of a TwentySomethingMomma. Wait until you see what she created of her little cutie patooties! Her giveaway is going right now and expires on October 1.

I love this site! Kristen at Goodie Goodie Gumdrops made an awesome CVS photo book of her sweet baby boy commemorating his first year. She did a great review of the process of making one and is offering a free photo book from CVS to a lucky winner. Get over to her site by October 3 to enter!

More to fun reviews and giveaways to come for all sorts of great photo projects over the next month. Can’t wait to see more of what these creative peeps can make!

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