Our Christmas with Mixbook

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches??
Joy to the World, the Lord has Come!
Away in the Manger the poor Baby wakes…
Silent Night, Holy Night, All is Calm, All is Bright…

These songs (and so many more) are on repeat in the Glass house and we are watching all the Christmas movies too. Do you know what else we are doing this holiday season? Updating our photos! As usual for our printing needs, we partnered with Mixbook, and I am so glad that we did.

Since our first year of marriage, Asa and I have sent out Christmas cards. At first I think he thought I was kind of silly [they included photos of us awkwardly posing, and our multitude of pets], but over the years, he admits that he loves it just as much as I do. [Wives know best right?]…….#KIDDING

Anyway, Mixbook has always been great and our Christmas cards come out beautifully! When this post goes live, you all will still have one day [by 12/15] to get your photo presents by December 24! Calendars are also going on sale until 12/19, but I’ll get there in a second.

One of my gifts for my mom has always been a 12-month calendar. She has always hung one in their kitchen, right above the small desk and work space. It’s one of the corners in their house, where I grew up, that is sentimental for me in a sense; making calendars for her full of photos from our past memories is something that I LOVE to do. This year was no different. I compiled tons of photos and asked my brother and sister-in-law to share theirs too. I plugged in birthdays and designed each month exactly how I wanted to. When the package arrived I was so excited to open it and flip through each month—the quality is excellent and pages sturdy. I can’t wait for her to open it when we get to visit for Christmas this year!

The last thing we gifted ourselves this holiday season, was an updated canvas in our living room. My sister-in-law takes our photos for us and we haven’t updated it in a couple of years. I love having our family photo being one of the first things people see when they walk in! These too have always had great quality with clear resolution, and accurate colors. You can see in the photos below our living room gallery too, which is full of photos we printed from Mixbook :)

Let’s face it, at the end of the day you know there are a million (plus some) photos on your phones, screaming to get and be printed. I promise you that Mixbook is the company to help you with that. Pictures are worth a thousand words and make the sweetest holiday presents for your loved ones. If you make your own order this year [or ever] let me know! I would love to know what you purchased. Photo books, cards, invitations, and calendars…this company has so much to offer!

Springtime Refresh with Mixbook

I’m a professional photographer and I’m a MOM. That means one thing: I LOVE PICTURES. I’ll never forget when I got my first DSLR after graduating college. I had big dreams, but I never really imagined that I would someday be photographing weddings, working with brands, and documenting my OWN children’s lives. That part is one of the most important to me. In 2012 I had my first baby, I blinked, and somehow I now have an almost seven year old and a five and a half year old. The days are sometimes long but the years are incredibly short. Thanks to my camera, and Mixbook, I can freeze so many moments in time and remember my babies in whatever stage I photographed.

I think I heard about Mixbook from another blogger friend of mine, back when she used them for Christmas cards. I loved how they turned out so much and really wanted a new canvas for our living room, so I reached out to them. Not only was their customer service beyond helpful and fast, the quality of the canvas was incredible. I am a huge stickler on quality, Y’all. If I take a blurry photo, that’s one thing, but if my photo is clear and crisp, I fully expect my prints (even large ones) to be too. Mixbook didn’t disappoint! For as long as I can, I will be using this company for my canvas needs (and prints!).

When we first moved into this house, there were a LOT of blank walls. We unpacked boxes and had everything put away in a matter of hours (not even kidding), but I can remember slinking down against the kitchen floor looking into our living room. This big giant wall stared back at me, screaming, “FILL ME WITH PHOTOS!” but I had NO idea where to start. Leave it to my husband to always save the day…he started grabbing picture frames we had and laying out a design right there on the hardwood floor. After we finalized how we wanted it to look, he told me to order prints. Let me tell you…that took a looooong time for me to decide on. I have thousands and thousands and thousands of photos on my hard drive—and I had to narrow it down to like, 20. Ha! Needless to say, we got the job done and as much as we love it, this spring we were itching for a refresh. Our kids have changed so much in the almost 3 years we’ve been here, and a lot of new memories have been formed. “Let’s order some new prints,” I told Ace.

Some of the most important memories that I wanted to have on display were of my horses (I still can’t believe I finally own not one, but TWO), and our pups. Our beautiful Chocolate Lab passed away on April 15th, and we wanted a few more of our favorite photos to hang of him. One of the coolest new additions is the metal print in the very left corner of that top photo (the Christmas one)—we really want this wall to have different textures, colors, and patterns. The metal print is a 20x16 and we chose the flat option (you can also get curved.) Once again the quality is on point, the colors are vivid, and we really love it! (Can I be real for a second? The two Christmas themed photos next to each other messes with my OCD tendency something fierce, buuuuut my husband re-arranged this wall and hung all the new photos on his own? So I really can’t complain.)

The super cute photo of toddler Pierson and Reese kissing on the front steps is one of Mixbook’s poster prints. I love how much variety there is when it comes to printing. You can even get 5x5 prints specifically for printing off your phone; cute square prints to hang anywhere! Beyond this gallery wall, I ordered my mom a calendar for Christmas this year; due to crappy sickness, we couldn’t make the trip to Michigan, but I watched her open it on FaceTime and she absolutely loved it. I also got some 4x6 prints for my classroom gallery wall, and my students love seeing all our family photos, especially the animals :)

It was after our Chocolate Lab passed away that I was finalizing our order, and let me tell you, I did it COMPLETELY wrong. I ordered the wrong sizes, only a few 8x10’s, and my mind was complete fog. The next day Asa checked our Mixbook account and texted, “Babe…did you realize you didn’t order these right?” I figured I had, as it was late at night and I had not been feeling well. I hurriedly reached out to customer support and asked if anything could be done, and guys, they were wonderful. They helped me cancel that order, fix my changes, and everything turned out wonderfully!! We are VERY thankful to Mixbook for helping us have these tangible memories. Y’all should head to their website, they do photo books, calendars, and a variety of cards. (They’re also who we ordered OUR Christmas cards from this year!) As a professional photographer, I will always recommend this company to my clients. You can’t beat their customer service and the quality of whatever it is you choose to order!

*Thank you, Mixbook, for partnering with us for our living room refresh! We love all the photos SO so much!*