my grown up christmas list

I know, I know, it's only November 13th, but realistically Christmas will be here before we know it!  Darrell & I already started our shopping, and I wanted to share a few things that are on my radar for gifts and to-dos.  

This week, I'll definitely be tackling Christmas cards.  I love love love sending them out, but this year I'm trying to pick a more budget friendly option - we have to send more cards out now that pictures of Claire are involved, and more cards means more $!  We'll probably end up using Snapfish or Shutterfly for the first time, but of course my favorite place to get cards if money was no object would be Minted.  I love their real gold foil accents!  

For Claire, I know we'll get clothes & toys a plenty (which is good, because I'm a bit lacking in the 6-12 month sizes) but I've also got my eye on this hand-stitched heirloom pillow from Etsy shop The Wild Hares, and another pair of moccasins for her from Giggles & Fluff.  It almost makes me tear up when I think about the fact that her first pair was SO huge when we received them 3 months ago, and now she's going to grow right out of them any day.  The buffalo plaid bonnet from Stella & Wilbur is one of my new favorites in their shop, I think bonnets are such a cute throwback and the perfect alternative to bows in the winter!  

For me?  At the top of my list is a cognac leather Lily Jade Madeleine diaper bag, a splurge but it seems it's the universal favorite!  I have enough slings to last a lifetime and will be wearing "sangria" from Sakura Bloom the whole month of December, but since it's discontinued I wanted to share Vienna Springs' holiday ready "bordeaux" sling.  The rich dark red would look picture perfect in photos!  (Her stockings are announced via her Instagram, and they go quickly!)  

Anything on your Christmas list that you're planning to get a head start on?  If there's anything that I've found true in the last few months of life with a baby, it's that getting a head start is the key to less stress!  

our christmas card

So I thought I would write up a little post on the Christmas card we chose to send out this year!  

We chose Tiny Prints, which is a great company we love, and very affordable.  I have looked at Minted, and I used Pinhole Press last year, but they are honestly a little out of my price range. I used to only send out about 30 cards, but it seems I need more each year.  Now I could easily send 100.  That probably has something to do with being married, because my husband has a huge family.    

We also love the quality of their paper and the wide variety of designs they have.  You can go really classic, or a bit more funky like we did this year.  

We didn't pay any fancy photographer to take our photos, my friend Joanna is just good with a camera and sweetly offered to come to the park with us to take some snapshots.  

Here are my tips for getting a good picture, without hiring any professionals: 

1.  It's a holiday card, so I like it to look seasonal.  Wear something classic you know you look good in - no need for a new outfit.  Sweaters and peacoats are great.  Don't force your man into anything he isn't comfortable in, or the pictures will look fake.  Jeans are fine!  

2.  Take a lot of photos.  We have a pretty nice camera, and in about 30 minutes I think Joanna snapped over 150 photos.  Just so you don't think our dogs are TOO well behaved, here is a shot of us wrangling them into submission.   I think we only had 10 photos total in which we were all looking at the camera.  

3.  Try to take photos during the last hour before sunset.  Have you heard the term "golden hour" before?  There's a reason that's the best time of day to take photos!  The light is almost perfect then (around 4 pm in the US this time of year) so I didn't have to edit these photos at all!  It also meant no fancy camera settings were necessary - we shot these on the auto setting.  

4.  Have fun!  If you've got a fake smile going or you just weren't in the mood to take pictures that day, it might be better to put it off.  You don't want it to look forced!  And for the record, I love our outtake photos as well.  Sometimes the imperfect shots would also make a great card.  

Got any other tips for the perfect holiday photo?  Any other favorite places to get cards?  

*ps - There's a reason I didn't link to the card we went with.  Tiny Prints doesn't like outside websites linking to them - in fact I got an email from their pr team asking me to take some from last year down!  I didn't mind, they were incredibly nice about it.  Something about trying to control all of their advertising from inside their office.  Just google their name and their website will pop up.