My favorite Christmas cards

My favorite Christmas cards to send and receive are photo cards! I always send out photo cards and I've been using Shutterfly for as long as I can remember. They offer a great variety of designs, a vast choice of layouts, and have good heavy paper quality, flat or folded cards. Shutterfly is my choice because the site is so user friendly. I can add my photos to the actual card, adjust, crop and see the finished product before ordering. It's so easy!
Here is our last year's card from 2009:The family had all recently been to my niece's Halloween wedding and I loved using a formal and fun photo together on the same card. After all, family times are the best times, right?!

I've already been on the Shutterfly website to preview shop for my 2010 card. I'm just waiting for my perfect family photo! Below are a few of my favorite cards. You can find the entire selection by clicking here!
You can also order the return address labels they offer to match your cards. This year I'm thinking I'll order their personalized gift tags too!
My family has a tradition of printing a calendar for the upcoming year with our important dates and photos on it. Yes... we order it too on Shutterfly!
And... they always have great customer service. They offer specials on photo prints and photo products every month. Right now, for Bloggers, if you write a post on your blog like I've done, you can get 50 free holiday cards of your choice!

I'm heading over to the site now to start on my 2010 card... hope to see you there!
Happy Holidays!

Introducing my new Canon camera

I wasn't completely happy with my little Sony CyberShot anymore or my Canon Digital Rebel for that matter, and wanted a new reliable camera for when the baby came.
One of the blogs I follow is Back Porch Musings by Pat from Missouri. She's quite the photographer! The cameras she uses are the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI and the Canon G11. I have a predecessor to the Digital Rebel XTI, the trouble is my lenses are all for the 35mm Rebel and I realized I'm not getting the quality of a digital lens with my combination of camera and lenses. I wasn't sure I wanted to lug around a larger camera anyway, so instead of investing ~$900 on a new XTI, I opted for the Canon G11. It has both auto and manual settings, so I can use the auto for spur of the moment shots and fuss with the manual settings when I have the inclination and the time.
I was very pleased, and so was the MOB, with the photos I took at the wedding we attended last weekend with my new G11.
Here are a few shots I just took outside on the auto setting...

I think I made the right decision for my needs and my pocketbook.
Stay tuned for more photos of blog-able happenings here at
Tales of a Golf Gal!