Cutest things ever.

It's no secret that I love my dogs. We treat them as if they were our actual children (often making us wonder if we will ever treat our future children as well as we treat our dogs!). Last year I really wanted to get ornaments for them - since it was their first Christmas with us.

Well, I never found any that worked. Since they're mutts, it's much harder. There is absolutely no breed that looks even remotely similar to either of our dogs. I didn't want to do a photo ornament and I didn't want to get just a generic one with their names painted on them. I found one place on Etsy that would create custom ornaments but they were $40 each. I love my dogs, but $80 for two ornaments? Sorry, girls. At least you made the Christmas card that year.

So after Christmas I just kept searching. I figured at some point I'd find someone who makes ornaments cheaper. Finally, I found someone on Etsy who would make them for about $16 each. Still a little expensive, but much more reasonable than $40. Plus, her stuff looked so adorable and she seemed so confident that she could capture our two pups. I sent her some pictures, told her I wanted to make sure the ornaments showed Chloe's gigantic ears and Roxy's brindle.

A reference picture:

And the actual ornaments:

I love them! You can find them at Sally's Bits of Clay. You can choose ornament colors and whether or not you want the hats. Total customization.

Warm and Cozy

I know this looks like a totally ridiculous gift, but it's not a prank gift. It's 100% genuine and I am fully confident that it's recipient will use it often.

Amazon/PajamaCity, $45

My brother-in-law's girlfriend is truly still a kid at heart. I got her a pair of rain boots for her birthday in March and let me just tell you - those things get USED!

These pajamas are footed, fleece and even have the drop seat in the back so bathroom use is easily accessible! I also saw some that had hoods with them. There's solid colors, cartoon characters, "sexy" (as sexy as a fully covered set of pajamas could be haha).

But I guarantee that she'll have them on, showcasing them for everyone by the end of the day. No doubt!

Apologies.

School has been absolutely overwhelming lately, but rest assured. My Christmas shopping is nearly complete and I have really out-done myself with some of these gifts this year. I'll be adding new updates as soon as possible. Gifts to look forward to:

- Sushi lovers
- Moped lovers
- 80's lovers
- Garden lovers
- Kids at heart

And gifts that keep on giving...for the recipient AND the donor!

Remember this blog where I said something was in the works? Well, it's time for my little update!

What I had planned was quite possibly the best gift I could have ever planned. Thanks to Gotham Dream Cars, my husband drove 6 exotic cars with me as the passenger! The Ferrari was in the shop (hate when that happens!) but we drove a Porsche, two Lamborghini's, an Aston Martin, Bentley and finally a Mercedes. I really don't know how else to describe it, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Just having fun in NYC was enough gift for the both of us, I think! But it was an absolutely amazing experience. It kind of stunk because it rained horribly through most of the morning - flooding conditions, actually. But they gave us a phenomenal deal to come back within a year and try it again.

I HIGHLY recommend Gotham Dream Cars, though. They were ridiculously knowledgeable and super impressive. They have a lead car and a trail car and you just have to stay in between those two. The lead car will radio ahead if they see a cop or something, but they can't help you if you get pulled over. Although, who wouldn't want a speeding ticket in a Lamborghini to take home as an extra souvenir?

It's not cheap - with tax it comes in right under $1,000. BUT, we got a great deal on our hotel, a cheap shuttle in and out of the city and once we were in NYC, we barely spent any money. We just walked around and enjoyed everything together. I'd been budgeting for this since January and regardless of what some people have said, it was worth it to me. We had a great time together, doing something that most people will never do and it made incredible memories for us. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Want to see all of the professional pictures?  Click here!

I was inspired...

I figured, why not. I said in this post that if I could do photo books all day, every day, I'd be a happy girl.

So here's to hoping I can do at least a couple a month or so.

Whatever makes a girl happy, right?

http://www.natalietopper.com/

Open to suggestions!

A morning cup of coffee...

Snapfish did this very clever marketing move - the week of Mother's Day I began to get emails offering me 50% off Father's Day gifts.

Hook, line and sinker.

I started looking through their "qualified" Father's Day items and saw something I thought my dad just might like.

A photo mug!

Brad's grandmother was given one of them for her 80th birthday and I know she's really enjoyed it. My dad is a devoted morning coffee man and while they have a bazillion and one coffee mugs, I have a feeling this will be the one used daily.

You can put up to I believe 16 pictures on a mug and there's a couple of different sizes of mugs, 11oz-17oz. I went with the 15oz coffee mug (the 17oz is a Latte mug). I took pictures of my brother and I as kids, of my mom and dad, and wedding pictures from both of our weddings...and of course the two grandpuppies! I'm probably going to get a small bag of gourmet coffee to put with it. Even though I'm far away, he can have his coffee with his baby girl every morning!

Oh, and by the way. With my 50% off, even with tax and shipping my total came to $15.35. Normally they start at $16.99. Still not bad, but my 50% off was nice :)

Mother's Day, Take 2

I posted earlier about my mother's gift for Mother's Day. Today, my mother-in-law gets the stage.

A few months ago, my in-laws took me, my husband, my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend on a 10 day cruise in the Caribbean. Yes, I know that you all hate me right now. It was fantastic. Just what I needed in the middle of the cold, dreary winter.

After my husband and I got married, I created a photo book of some pictures from our wedding. Not an album, but an actual book. My mother-in-law asked me to just make two copies of it and give one to her (she says she's not creative enough to put one together). She loved the book and loved having something to show people when they asked for wedding pictures.

I told her after the cruise that I needed her pictures so I could put together a book of pictures from the cruise. But after she gave me her cd's, I told her I was busy with school so I would work on the book between spring and summer semesters. She hasn't asked about it yet - and my semester ends Tuesday.

Well, I went ahead and put together a book of pictures from the cruise. Between her two cd's worth and my nearly 1,000 pictures - I had a ton of great pictures to choose from.

 The front of the book says Cruising Through the Caribbean 2011 and a list of all the countries we visited. I should have taken a picture of it, but the first page shows the dates, the towns and countries that we visited. The second page is a map I created through the Apple software that highlights the countries we visited. That's my favorite part of this book. I was proud of that little attribute :) It also has the little paper cover around it - but the picture on the front of the cover is also on the actual front cover of the book. So you can choose to have the cover or not.

I tried to hold myself to 2-4 pages of pictures per country. It was hard, because there were SO many gorgeous pictures to choose from. This was the first time I used Apple and I'm very pleased with the quality of the book. I use iPhotos anyway, so it was great to be able to just drag my pictures into my book. I used Mpix for my wedding book, but since then they've changed their system and to do the more advanced features that I like to do - they simply won't let me. If I want anything beyond their simple version, I had to employ one of THEIR graphic designers to do it for me. Apple takes a little more time to figure out, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

That's my (hopefully) future sister-in-law and me with the captain of the ship. He was quite the hottie and quite young. We considered going after him butttttt settled for a picture.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with Apple's quality. The first and last pages seem to be a linen material and the pictures came out crisp and clear. It cost me $56 for this book and 18 pages (it doesn't sound like a lot, but to see it in person, it looks like a normal coffee table book.

There are tons of other sites you can do for cheaper - Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. And if you're not the creative type, you can just upload your pictures and let them arrange the pictures for you.

It's an absolutely fantastic gift for people though. I know she's going to be excited to get it. And I had a blast doing it. If I could just make photo books for people all day long for a living - I would be in heaven :)