Thanks for stopping by! If you have a picture up for Wordless Wednesday, leave your link below on Mr. Linky! Then head on over to From Val’s Kitchen, Here And There, What’s That Smell, Wordless Wednesday, Go Graham Go, 5 Minutes for Mom and The Not-So-Blog Blog for more wordless fun!
Where are your pictures? My pictures, the ones taken before digital camera that is, are in the bottom of a cabinet that’s in my dining room. They are thousands. So many in fact, that the cabinet is stuffed and we rarely open it. Why, you ask? Because we’re afraid. Here’s why.
There’s a reason it’s got a child lock on it. It’s not to keep any children out. It’s to keep what’s in there in. It’s packed in there and impossible to find anything and every time you open the doors everything falls out. Think I’m kidding? Take a look.
There are probably 20 or more albums full of photos in there, as well as a couple of boxes of photos, a couple hundred photo processing envelopes and hundreds of loose pictures. Do you think I’m in need of photo scanning services?
It would be so nice to transfer all of those photos to cd. There are companies out there that do this for you, like ScanDigital. You ship them your photos and they do all of the work, even cropping and correcting images if you like. They then send you your photos back, along with CDs containing all of the photos. They also do video transfers, moving old VHS to DVD, if you’re in the need.
The walls of my house are covered with photos of my boys - portraits, school pictures and pictures I’ve taken. I’ve actually got so many up that I’ve about run out of space and will soon need to find a way to fit more. I’m thinking if RB ever finishes the painting and windows in the living room that we’ll take all of the photos down and rehang them closer together. That would hold me for another year or so. Anyway. Those are the two things I like to put on my walls - my kids and my photos. I only have one painting and that was a gift. I’ve never bought a painting because I know I’d get tired of looking at most paintings after a while. Not so anymore, thanks to Paint Your Life.
“Royal and aristocratic families painted family members through the generations. Engaged couples sent portraits to one another before their marriage. In the last 100 years, photography took the place of painted portraits. Now, the Internet uses photography to link artists and the public in a worldwide online portrait and design studio: www.PaintYourLife.com. The company’s sister operation, the online graphics production studio, is www.PrintYourCanvas.com. That site creates graphic interpretations on canvas from client photographs in an array of artistic styles. The prices are affordable - oil portraits on canvas from $99 and charcoal portraits from $69 only!”
PaintYourLife creates art from photos by turning your photos into handmade paintings. The ordering process is easy. Go to the site and decide which type of portrait you want your photo turned into - oil, charcoal, watercolor, pastel, acrylic or pencil.
The next step is to upload your photo. When you upload your photo you can make special requests for additional work. There is no charge for these requests and you can request all sorts of things for your custom painting - combine images from multiple photographs, add color to black and white photos, add or change the background of a photo, restore an old photo and improve the coloring of a photo.
Here’s the photo we uploaded. We made no special requests and included an additional photo as a reference.
Once you’ve finished you check out, where a 20% deposit is due at time of order placement.
I placed my order on 07/05/09. I received an email confirmation of my order almost immediately.
On 07/08/09 I received an email letting me know that my painting was now being painted by one of the artists. On 07/13/09 I received another email letting me know that my painting was ready and awaiting my approval. I admit I read this email quickly and didn’t think to click on the link and approve my painting. On 07/18/09 I received another email with a second request to log in and approve my painting. When you log in at this time you do have the opportunity to request additional changes or modifications or approve the painting.When you approve your painting the balance of your purchase is due.
On 07/21/09 I received an email letting me know that my painting had shipped. The email included a tracking number, which when I checked confirmed that my painting was indeed on its way. Paintings can be shipped anywhere in the world, either in a tube, inside a frame or stretched onto a wooden frame. Delivery takes from 7 to 21 days, depending on what type of artwork you’re having created and which method of shipping you choose.
It only took two days for my painting to get from China, where it was painted, to my home in New Jersey. It arrives safely in a cardboard box. Had I only paid attention I would have had my painting many days earlier. What a silly girl I am!
The painting was wrapped twice in plastic.
The painting was stapled securely to the wooden frame.
The single piece of criticism I have for the painting is very minor. There were a few loose threads, a straight cut would have looked more finished and a bit nicer. Aside from this one thing, the ordering process, communication from start to finish and the final product were perfect.
The painting is absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the finished painting. It looks so much better than the original picture I sent, which I like very much. The colors are so bright and vivid. I am so amazed when I look at it that even now a couple of days later I find myself staring at it. It’s gorgeous!
A painting from Paint Your Life would make a unique photo gift for someone you love or even as a treat for yourself to show off a special photo or preserve a memory. You can find Paint Your Life at www.paintyourlife.com.
Disclaimer
“My painting was complimentary HOWEVER my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.”
I’ve mentioned before that with digital photography becoming more popular and affordable people are taking more pictures. As time goes by you end up with a shot that’s so terrific, or means something soecial, that you want to do something special with it to show it off. Like custom poster printing.
Large Format Posters offers poster printing and banners, as well as vinyl and canvas products. I have a couple of pictures I’d love to have turned into posters. One of them is RB and TJ with my favorite band Hinder, taken two years ago. They’ve all grown so much since then, this is a moment we’ll never forget.
WIN IT!
One winner will receive a High-gloss or Semi-gloss 18×24″ Digitally Printed Poster.
Giveaway is open to US/CAN residents. Ground shipping of prizes is free, but there is a $5 handling fee that must be paid by winner. Large Format Posters reserves the right not to print obscene or offensive materials.
HOW TO ENTER. (MANDATORY)
To enter leave a comment on this post telling me one photo that you’d like to have made into a poster.
BONUS ENTRIES - LOTS OF THEM!
1 - Subscribe to my RSS feed.
1 - Follow me on Twitter AND leave your Twitter name here.
1 - Tweet this giveaway.
1 - Friend me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/valmg
1 - Fave this blog at Technorati AND leave your Technorati name here.
1 - Blog about this giveaway, including a link here.
1 - Place my button on your blog.
1 - Visit HereAndThere.US (my Mom) and leave a comment on any post (except a giveaway post) there. Then return here and leave a comment on this post telling me one thing you read or learned on my Mom’s blog. (That’s two comments you need to leave for this bonus entry, one there and one here.) Unlimited entries for this method of entry.
Leave an additional comment for each entry you qualify for. You must have completed the first entry according to the instructions to be eligible for any bonus entries.
THE SMALL PRINT.
This contest will end on Sunday 08/02/09 at 11:59 pm est. If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. The winner must contact me to confirm they wish to receive the prize within two days of my email notifying them they’ve won. Members of my own family are not eligible to win but are still welcome to leave a comment. Good luck to everyone!
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
This week’s Heads or Tails prompt is heads - motion. Because it’s heads or tails we’re writing about anything that has motion or moves or has movement.
We go camping every year. We retired our tiny travel trailer last year because it was so small I hated the sight of it, never mind being in it. I’ve had my eyes pealed for a good deal on a larger used travel trailer for almost a year now and finally found one this past weekend.
So. My contribution for this week is a photo of our new used travel trailer, which we got a really good deal on. My Dad and I went and picked it up today. It really moves, that’s for sure. It’s 28 foot long and barely fits in my driveway. It’s about twice the size of our last travel trailer. Now I’m looking forward to camping!
If you want to learn more about this fun meme or play along, visit Heads Or Tails.
Thanks for stopping by! If you have a picture up for Wordless Wednesday, leave your link below on Mr. Linky! Then head on over to Here And There, What’s That Smell, Wordless Wednesday, Go Graham Go, 3 Ps In A Pod, 5 Minutes for Mom and The Not-So-Blog Blog for more wordless fun!
Thanks for stopping by! If you have a picture up for Wordless Wednesday, leave your link below on Mr. Linky! Then head on over to Here And There, What’s That Smell, Wordless Wednesday, Go Graham Go, 3 Ps In A Pod, 5 Minutes for Mom and The Not-So-Blog Blog for more wordless fun!
For those of you following the saga of my computer repair, I now finally have a working hard drive in there. Dad’s just got to come over (hopefully tomorrow) and take the old drive out and out the case back together. Things do seem to be running noticeably faster. I’m having to reinstall some programs and have had some minor problems with a couple of them but overall I’m mostly just relieved that all of my data made it to the new drive safely.
We have a ton of pictures on the computer. Right before the drive switch I’d also moved older pictures off of my old computer onto this one. The first thing I did once this computer booted up was put my desktop back to the way it was and then reconfigure the slideshow. Me and RB love to sit and watch the pictures go by and remember when. It’s good to laugh and talk over old times. What I like most about times like those are that we can put our current financial problems and whatnot aside.
It’s when people come over and we want to show them certain pictures that I think I’m the only one that doesn’t have a digital picture frame, something I’ve wanted for some time. While browsing through the Buy.com sale page I found an item I simply must have.
The Aluratek 10.5 inch digital photo frame is actually being called a digital lifestyle device. It comes with a remote control. It can display pictures like you’d expect but it can also operate in movie mode and play sound through the built in speakers. Pass me the MP3s please! This frame has 256mb of built in memory and supports most memory card formats including CF, MS, SD, MMC and XD. It also recognizes most file formats including JPEG, MJPG, AVI, and MP3. It’s on sale for $79.99 and I can’t stop drooling over it. Anybody have a bib?
This week’s Heads or Tails prompt is “Getting There”.
My Mom and Dad were away so I needed to let their dogs out. They only live down the street so I walk there. Between last night and today we got a foot of snow, so the walk looked a little different than usual.
Come on, walk with me.
TJ’s footsteps.
The corner where the driveway meets the street.
The drift outside my Mom’s back bedroom door.
The dogs on the back deck.
Yes, that’s a Boxer and she had to jump to move around. Yes, that’s a Saint Bernard and the snow was most of the way up his legs.
The news reported it will be between zero and five degrees here tonight. Perhaps my next set of pictures will be of ice skating dogs. LOL.
If you want to learn more about this fun meme or play along, visit Heads Or Tails.
