It’s been a crazy couple of weeks since my fall.

What I should have done: Worked on Christmas cards and photographs.

What I’ve really done: Whined. Moaned. Groaned. Been cranky. Whined some more. And helped pay my chiropractor’s mortgage. (I’m sure he’s grateful for the latter, right?)

Last week I buckled down. I took family photos. For us. I know, shocker right? I’m always so busy taking pictures of other people and showcasing at The Emerald Lens, that I fail to grab pictures of my own family. Then I fall into the trap of everyone else in not printing the pictures.

Which is a shame, because there’s so many cool things you can do with pictures these days. From the comfort of your own couch, even!

For example: Take a look at Shutterfly.

They let you do all sorts of groovy things with your pictures. They play happily with your iPhone, Flickr, and even Facebook. Sure a mug or a mousepad or a puzzle is cool, but we’ve all seen that before.

Here’s some gift ideas that I happen to LOVE that maybe you haven’t previously considered:

A Luggage Tag: I know a lot of people who travel, OK. My husband is just one of those people. Anyone can pick up the complimentary luggage tag while standing in line to check in for their flight. How about you let your loved one travel with a styling luggage tag that includes a snazzy photograph of your family? Won’t the other frequent fliers be jealous?

I know I’m jealous and I only fly once a year if I’m lucky. (Hint, I like to travel. Help me fly more!)

And you’ll know you have the right black suitcase. No more need of finding the gaudiest ribbon to tie around the handle to help you figure out which bag to grab off the carousel. I like it!

Pewter Ornaments: Have you ever seen one of these in person? I have. I’ve made them. By hand. It’s very time-consuming and a complete act of love that no one even realizes. Mostly it’s a pain in the rump. After my fall, I need as few pains in my rump as I can get this holiday season. The good people over here at Shutterfly are happy to make these for you. They look absolutely awesome. Seriously, people will go “WOW” when they see that.

I should order some of these as a gift to my photo clients. Especially those five brides. Hmmm… now I’m thinking!

Seriously though, I LOVE the way these look. My friend that got me into the pewter picture ornaments has a mini tree decorated in nothing but pictures of her family made into pewter ornaments and it is a really cool tree. Order some. You won’t be disappointed. I promise you.

They have other photo gifts, that I could feature like the wall decals, but instead I really want to highlight this one more:

Photo Charm Necklace: Those scrabble tile necklaces are all the rage. Seriously, I think every woman in my church has worn one this year. Every single one. This has the look of that…only better! It’s a photograph! It’s like the modern version of a photo locket! Tres chic!

Now that leads me back to what most of us are probably stressing about right now. Or at least the people who, like me, are lagging behind this holiday season.  I’m talking about the Christmas Cards. I know a lot of you are slackers like me because I only have like four cards. Where are the rest? Probably lost on the Island of Good Intentions for another year in a row.

It’s all right. I’m just as guilty. I’ll admit it. Bad Ozma!

I need to do this. Sadly I was stumped for what to do with my own family until the week after Thanksgiving. Then I ran into issues getting the pictures taken. Now, I think I’ll be too late for Christmas. So maybe I’ll reshoot with some other idea and do New Years cards? At this point my “Noel” themed cards will be a day late and a dollar short.

I blame me. No really, it’s all me. And a certain Mr. Crankypants. But mostly me.

A lot of people do one family photo and send that out. Check out this Pretty Poinsettia card! I like it!

However this year the collage card is super hot right now and taking your family photo when you are the photographer is crazy hard so I like the collage look. Check these ones out that I really like:

Family Wall Red: I just like it. It would be cute on my fridge which is where all the photos I get in the mail end up eventually. I’m getting quite the gallery actually!

With Love Chartreuse: I like this one as well. It would also look great on my fridge. This one is landscape style instead of portrait like the other one.

Both feature a nice monogram and you can even get matching address labels which is a great touch for that extra panache!

Many Memories Tree: I like this one as well. There’s something nice about its simplicity.

Did you notice that you can ask Shutterfly to even mail these puppies to you if you don’t want to do it yourself?  It’s a buck for in country. How much do stamps run these days anyway? I’m wondering if that’s not more cost-effective than using up the gas to head to the post office and waiting in line with a zillion other people to purchase postage for all of these cards.

Just sayin’… I hate going to the post office.

So there you have a fun little photo gift idea and even holiday card ideas! Get moving, I know I am!

–Lady O

This is a sponsored post. Shutterfly ran a groovy special for bloggers to earn 50 free holiday cards by simply blogging about the great things over at the Shutterfly website. Since I’m all photoggy anyway and was mucking about for Christmas ideas, I figured it was a worthwhile exchange. Thanks in advance to Shutterfly for my 50 cards! I can’t wait to order them!  I must admit, I’ve never used their service but often wondered. I’m really quite excited to try them out!

---