Holiday Greetings

We have gone to pumpkin patches twice to try to capture the quintessential fall photo of Hac. So far, we've deleted many, many photos, but we've gotten a couple of decent shots. I print photos as quickly as I take them. I have a somewhat OCD system, too. Shocking, I know. I download pics to iPhoto after each shoot. Then, I am fairly consistent at naming, tagging and rating at least the best pictures in the bunch. It also helps to delete the duds ASAP. In the last year my active photo library has ballooned from about 4,000 to 18,000 pictures even with this system, thousands of deletions, and a bit of archiving.

The photos I flag - the best of the best- get immediately uploaded to my favorite photo sharing and printing  sites. It has just become part of the process. This does two things: it keeps a steady stream of fresh photos available for family and friends and it has me poised to act when a good sale is happening on the photo printing sites.

In Hac's first year, I've printed greeting cards for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Birthdays and Thank You cards and his first birthday party invitation. I've also printed lots of photo books, enlargements and collages. I even have a magnet nestled in my photo stash for the holidays. I have tried all of the services out there and one of the best is Shutterfly. It consistently produces better pictures than any of the print and pick up places I've tried and virtually all of the online and mail photo shops.

Check it out for the holidays. You get 50 free prints when you sign up as a new Shutterfly member!

Some links to their products:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

Star Wars Pancake Battle

We received the Williams-Sonoma Star Wars pancake set from a friend way back at the baby shower. I hadn't had the wherewithal to make them for a few months and then I decided we'd all sample them together so we waited until Hac was ready for them.

On Jac's birthday I set out on my maiden SW pancake-making voyage. Admittedly, I made some rookie mistakes. I was making pumpkin pancakes instead of plain ones so the consistency was a little different, but that wasn't the issue. No, I pretty much forgot about the existence of butter and/or cooking spray until I'd already poured the pancakes into their molds. Not good. Also non-stick pans and accessories are not as forgiving as one might hope. I tried to retroactively grease the wheels but it was not successful.

But, I gave it another whirl and the pancakes were passable. I know better now. Next time I will thoroughly grease everything before I go anywhere near the batter and I'll put a bit less in each mold so that the openings are more pronounced. Still, they were deliiiicious. 

A Tale of Two Roses

There is a rose plant in our back yard that cannot be thwarted. We have shown it no love and the only attention it ever gets is not good. Yet, year after year it surprises us with a few amazing blooms. I have been in a rush or having a @&*y day and looked up (while taking out the trash, no less) to spot a perfect flower in my face. Such was the case the other night after the rain. Yesterday I clipped the rose and brought it in and today it opened up nicely. I wouldn't usually say I am a "pink rose girl" but these lovelies have livened things up around here.