Now I'll admit, they don't set the bar all that high for what impresses them. They use their computer to email and surf the net a bit, but most technology is beyond their interest level. Which is awesome for me, because each and every time I give them photo gifts they are blown away. Seriously. So impressed and filled with praise I end up feeling guilty because no matter what the gift is, it was SO easy to create I feel bad at their over the top response.
I started a few years back with calendar of photos I'd taken at the beach. Now I basically recreate that same calendar each year, switching out some of the pictures and reusing my best shots. Despite they fact that they should know for sure it's coming, it continues to surprise and excite them each year. My favorite new addition for the 2012 version was being able to put photos on specific calendar dates. My dad circa 1975 with a party hat on for his birthday, my parents wedding photo for their anniversary, adorbs 5 year old pig-tailed me on my birthday.
I raised the bar even further last fall, when I created a photo book for my mom for her 60th birthday. My aunt is the keeper of the old photos in the so I raided her albums for photos of my mom and her siblings as little kids. Then while my parents were out of town I went out to their house and snagged the photos from my lifetime - from baby pics to my college graduation. I filled in the past five years with my digital photos and even got my mom's friends to send me some. In the end the book was a great representation of her life with photos ranging from when she was around 2 years old up til a few weeks before she received the book.
My mom loved it. And my dad did too. So much so I'm thinking the perfect Father's Day present this year would be a photo book just for him....
Hmmm... so while I go start gathering pictures for that book you really should go check out Shutterfly on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest and see what kind of photo gifts you can impress your loved ones with.
*This post was sponsored by Shutterfly. Though they have compensated me to write the post, the opinions shared, and my absolute love of their products, are mine all mine!
I make photo calendars for my mom, mother in law, Alex, and sister every year. They all adore them. I can never stop because then they'd kill me.
ReplyDeleteI'm giggling just thinking about the funny shots I'm sure make up those calendars. Though really, your boys will probably kill you over them when they grow up, so it's kinda a lose lose for you either way. ;-)
DeleteI make photo calendars every year but we always keep them for ourselves :) It's really the only way that our photos ever get displayed in the house. Of course, I was lazy one year and forgot to make one so now we're on a March-February calendar.
ReplyDeleteYour travel photos are so amazing and the dogs are so photogenic you could totally give those as gifts and your friends/family would happily hang them!
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