Tis the season!

With Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror, I suppose it's time for me to put away my pumpkins, pilgrims & gourds & pull out my Christmas decorations! Tis the season for twinkle lights, Advent calendars, Christmas cookies, ornaments & Christmas cards!

I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail from friends & family, & by mid-fall, I've usually picked out our Christmas card/photo (we're using this one)! All over the blogosphere, I've been reading about Shutterfly's blogger holiday card giveaway. Blog about Shutterfly (what's not to love about their amazing Christmas card designs?!) & get 50 free cards! What a deal! We've used Shutterfly in the past for our Christmas cards & have always loved the finished product!

I'd already ordered my photos when I read about this awesome promotion, so I said "shucks!" & vowed to pay attention next year. Until... I thought about my big sister. I'd already offered to take their family Christmas card photo while we were home for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd see if she'd like to take advantage of the 50 free cards. I'm all about sharing the love. Katie was in, so all we needed to do was to capture some sweet photos of their fam (no small feat with a 14 month old) & pick out a Shutterfly design. Here are the finalists...

Option #1
This was my absolute favorite photo of the entire shoot. Hannah just started walking on her own while we were home (I think she was waiting for Aunt Suz & Uncle Matt to arrive to make her big move!). She went from taking a few steps to completely tottling around independently & she was oh-so-proud of herself.

With her sweet & a little bit naughty expression, I think this Shutterfly design would be perfect!

Option #2
I absolutely melt when I see Hannah's sweet smile in this photo. She is so loved.

I think that this photo would look great with this simple Shutterfly design.

Option #3
This is the best family photo (at least of everyone's faces) that we captured. It's tough getting a 14 month old to smile & look at the camera at the same time. Uncle Matt & the abundance of Florida oranges (true to form for our family, Hannah loves a ball & the oranges in the backyard passed muster as balls) helped capture Hannah's attention!

For this photo, I love this Shutterfly design. It's so important to remember the real reason for the season & I love when a Christmas card reflects that.

I'll leave the ultimate choice up to Katie since these are her cards! I'll also share some more cute photos from our little shoot & week in Florida later on the blog.

Psst... Have your own blog? Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. Learn more here!

Thanks, Shutterfly!

Thankful

I'd planned to write an extensive list of all of the things that I am thankful for this year here on Simply Suz, but what I am most thankful for at the moment is the chance to spend time with my family this week. I'll spare you the list, as I'd rather be counting my blessings with my family than spending time recounting them here on the blog.

I am so blessed to have a wonderful, supportive, loving, faithful family & to have married into a pretty amazing family, as well. This Thanksgiving, I am also especially thankful that I grew up having a relationship with all four of my grandparents, & I am praying hard that the Lord stands beside my Grandpa K as he recovers from the stroke he suffered on Sunday & as he faces the seriousness & difficulty of cancer. I hope that as he spends his Thanksgiving in a hospital room, he is reminded how loved, cherised & lifted up in prayer he is... Love you, Gramps.

Gramps

This is my beloved Gramps, with my super-sweet niece Hannah....
Gramps is very sick & needs some prayers right now,
so if you're reading this, please lift him up to the Lord. 
Thanks, blog friends. Love, Suz

PhotoBOOK of the Week!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over here on Simply Suz. I've been busy creating a photo book (using Blurb's Booksmart, my fave) of our summer vacation to Alaska. About 2 weeks ago, I received an email from Blurb offering 20% off my next book.* Here's the catch, I had less than a month to finish it. I'm a frugal lady & will do almost anything to take advantage of a sale. I've also found that I need motivation to start & finish a Blurb book & a sale is just the ticket to kick me into high gear.

This was my 6th Blurb book (have I mentioned I'm a very happy customer? I've written about blurb once, twice, three times already!) & probably took the most time & effort. I've become more comfortable using their software, which meant that I created custom layouts for almost every page. For the control freak like me, that's a huge selling point. If you don't like Blurb's preset layouts, or want to tweak the size of a photo or text box, you can edit the layouts.

Once I painstakingly went through hundreds of photos & picked out my favorites, tweaked or created new layouts, & wrote a little travelogue, I finally gave my book a good once-over... Overall, I was pleased. Thankfully, my little blog series gave me a head start. A lot of my favorite photos were already picked out & I'd already written about our whirlwind vacation in detail right here on the blog. (I'd already done the hard part).

When I previewed the book, I did notice that some of the photos looked a little fuzzy, which puzzled me. We'd just bought a fancy-schmancy new camera & the photos were super big with amazing resolution (in fact, I plan on blowing up this one in canvas & putting on our mantel). After searching Blurb FAQs & finally emailing customer support, I discovered that my photos were just too-dang-big. Jamming all of those megapixels into teeny image boxes distorted the photo. And here I thought low-resolution would be my only problem! I had to go through each & every photo in the book (319 to be exact), determine the "optimal resolution" in Blurb, open in Picasa, export a lower-resolution copy of the original photo, import that copy into Blurb & replace the original file. It. took. forever.

In the end, I'm glad I took the extra time. I would have been super bummed had the book come in the mail & all of the photos were fuzzy! I thought y'all might want to take a looksie (note that the blurry photos exist in this little preview, the photos you see are a lower resolution "placeholder" if you will, of the actual files). If you read my Alaska series, a lot of the photos will look familiar, but feel free to flip through if you're at all curious! Consider putting together a Blurb book of your own. You won't be disappointed!

*Psst....Want to make your own book & get a 20% discount? Finish & upload your book by November 26th & enter "PROMO" at checkout.

PhotoSHOOT of the Week: Mel Headshots

My beautiful friend, Melanie, needed headshots taken to use when she auditions for plays & she asked me if I'd be willing to take them for her. Yes, CPA-Suz has dramatic, creative friends who live in an entirely different world than her. Of course I said "yes." One, because I love taking pictures. Two, because I love Mel.

Mel was so patient with me while I fiddled around with my camera, dragged her all around the grounds of Rashkis Elementary (Matt & I run on a path by the school & I am in love with the bamboo on the trails), & asked her to smile...now be serious...now smile...now look pensive. What can I say? I'm new to this, & haven't really mastered taking care of my job behind the camera & instructing the subject what to do (Not that Mel needed much if any coaching. She is the pro. I am the amateur). Plus, I usually photograph flowers & trees & mountains. They don't need both of their eyes to be in focus.

Mel has gorgeous green eyes, which really worked well with the bamboo/pinetree backdrops. All of the photos on this page are "SOOC" (straight out of the camera), with the exception of the B&W, which I made monotone in desktop Picasa (the color file was a little too warm for my liking). Of course, Photoshop would be helpful to do a little touch up, but sadly, Matt's computer which actually has Photoshop is dead as a doornail. Luckily, Mel's a natural beauty & doesn't need any editing!

Here's my favorite, which actually happened to be one of the first photos I took! Mel's favorite was the bottom row, second from the left in the collage above. Which one do you like best? You should be able to click to enlarge...

Psst... I decided to use my free flickr account for now for photos. I'm still contemplating which "pay for storage" site I want to use to house my photos. Hopefully I don't run out of free flickr space before I make up my mind!

Tuesday Musings: A List About Blogging

1. Do you like the new header? I'm excited about it! Hopefully, I'll do a better job at rotating that with the seasons. Given that it's been autumn for, what...2 months?... I wouldn't hold your breath on a winter header anytime soon!
2. I love blogging. Although I'm very very Type A, I do have a creative side (I do! I do!) & blogging has been a great opportunity for me to get those creative juices going & write outside of work. Simply Suz has challenged me to work on my photo skills & has given me a forum to share some of our adventures. Even though I'm not consistent in my blogging, this isn't going to disappear anytime soon.
3. I've dropped the ball on Life for Less. Part of my impetus in starting this blog was sharing some of some personal finance tips for 20-somethings, but Simply Suz has become more of a photo blog! Sorry! Since it's benefits enrollment season, I've started a post on high deductible health insurance, however, I keep getting sidetracked & I haven't had a chance to spend any brain power on that one. It's coming one of these days...
4. I have officially run out of space for my photos so I'm investigating other options (probably going to bite the bullet & buy a Flickr "Pro" account) so I can keep sharing my favorite hobby with you. Plus I just had my first real "gig" taking photos for a sweet friend of mine. More details on that later this week. That is if I can make a decision on where to house my photos in cyberland so that I can share them with you!
5. Lastly, has anyone else noticed the Christmas commercials vamping up? This would usually annoy me, but I'm trying not to be in denial & I've already started my Christmas cards & shopping (what?!?), plus I'm trying to finish a book chronicling our Alaska trip this week, which takes precedence over blogging.
6. Did you care about any of that? Probably not. If you made it to #6, thanks for reading :)

More (Very Special) Birthdays!

It is birthday season around here! 

Today, Momma McA & Margot Z. (Grandpa Bud's lovely wife) celebrate their birthdays. These two ladies are extremely special to us & we wish we could celebrate with them today! I could not have asked for a better mother-in-law & grandmother-in-law.

Heidi (who I affectionately call "Mom") is one of the sweetest, funniest, quirkiest, most loving moms. Maybe it's because I lived by myself with her & Dad Mac last year when Matt moved to NC, but calling her "Mom" doesn't seem foreign at all. She gave me a hug when I left for work each morning, we've traveled together, made dinners together, enjoyed one too many cups of coffee (& wine) together, cried to/for one another, gone for evening walks with nonstop chitchat & made lots of sweet memories in my short stint (so far) as a McAndrew. In short, she's a keeper & I'm so thankful for her! Margot is an absolute sweetheart. Kindhearted, adventuresome, patient & unassuming, she is a wonderful partner-in-crime for Grandpa Bud! I miss these ladies like crazy...

I have officially maxxed out my photo usage on Picasa, which explains the lack of blogging in the last week, so please bear with me while I figure out how to get new photos on the blog! Luckily, I had all of our photos from our trip to California last Thanksgiving in a web album, so I could pull these funny/favorites of Mom & me in Monterrey. Unfortunately, until I have some time to iron out my technical (a.k.a. photo) difficulties here on Simply Suz, I can't upload a photo of Margot :( but I hope she knows how special & celebrated she is!

Happy Birthday, Mom & Margot! Love, Suz (& Matt, too!)

birthday boy!

Yesterday we had birthday girls & today we have a birthday boy! Tommy! 

Happy birthday to my brother (in-law...but we usually drop that part), who turns 24 today!

Tommy had a pretty exciting year (playing in a BCS bowl game, studying abroad in South Africa, graduating from Stanford, landing a sweet job, & proposing to his best friend), but I have a feeling this coming year will top it.

I am so thankful that the McAs have embraced me as a true member of their family, & Tom's no exception. As evidenced by these photos, he learned how to make me feel welcome early on. He's a great guy, better brother & I'm sure he'll make an excellent husband to Caroline...

Happy birthday, Tommy!

Love,
Your big sister, Suz
& Matt, too!

birthday girls!

Happy Birthday to my college roomies, bridesmaids, & most importantly dear friends, Jenny & Courtney!
These ladies are both turning a quarter of a century old (j turns 25 tomorrow & cbiz on wednesday!)! Their bdays are separated by a mere 24 hours, & they truly are kindred spirits. Must explain why I love them both so much....

 

Ladies, I love you & miss you more than you know.  I hope you feel celebrated today.

happy halloween!

It was our fourth Halloween & we had our first trick-or-treater! We were so excited when the doorbell rang & a little fairy was standing there. We also got to skype with a really cute lady bug tonight...Hannah! Babies in costumes = awesome.

I had great intentions to post my favorite pumpkin recipes today (dinner in a pumpkin...which we enjoyed last night, Mom's yummy pumpkin bars, Katie's pumpkin pancakes, Liz's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, & pumpkin spice cake), but the day slipped away! I'll have to post those another day!

{Photo shot last weekend in Blowing Rock, NC.... Miss those posts? Click here!}

Autumn in the Mountains {Day 2}

{Psst...if you missed Day 1 of our little camping trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains, click here!}

Thankfully, we didn't wake up as ice cubes on Sunday morning. Whatever the reason (Was Saturday night was warmer than chilly Friday? Did the soup we ate for dinner warmed us up from the inside? Or maybe wearing every stitch of clothing we had with us kept us more insulated?), I could feel my feet on Sunday morning so I knew it'd be a good day. After a hot breakfast, breaking down our tent & packing up, we hit the road & made our way to Moses Cone Memorial Park. I couldn't tell you what Mr. Cone did for a living, but whatever it was, he made enough moolah to build a gorgeous home on a breathtaking piece of land....

Apparently, in addition to hiking the grounds, browsing their "Craft Center" (a.k.a. glorified gift shop), you could also take horse & buggy rides. We passed... but we did enjoy meandering the grounds.

And boy oh boy were those grounds gorgeous...

Our little party of four five (counting Riley!), was a little sleepy and stinky that morning after a long day of hiking & no showers.  Matt was going for the pajama model look & Dave enjoyed "reclining" on a hill. I was smart enough not to let anyone take my photo...

We parted ways at Moses Cone & Matt & I took a short detour to Blowing Rock, NC. I'd been there ages ago with my family, but Matt hadn't ever checked out this charming mountain town. It was teeming with tourists checking out all of the high-end shops (Matt told me "This place is like Disney world for old people!"), so we felt a little out of place in our pajamas....errr....sweats.

Ladies, if you haven't read Jan Karon's Mitford Series, and you're looking for a sweet, heartwarming, engaging read ... pick them up! Mitford is a fictional North Carolina mountain town based on Blowing Rock. This is how I envisioned Father Tim's parish when I read the books years ago...

And lastly, here's my favorite Blowing Rock photo... Love the fall colors!

After our quick trip to Blowing Rock, we were fortunate enough to get to meet up with our friends, Kevin & Lara, who moved to Boone this summer from Durham. We were in small group together at The Summit, and we were sad to see them move, but also equally excited for them. They are both App State grads and they were itching to head back to the mountains. Can you blame them?!

After a delicious lunch at a funky, burrito place (can't for the life of me remember the name...but it was yummy...Matt had the "white trash" burritto and I had some sort of Jamaican Jerk variety) , they graced us with a tour of App State. What a great campus! Sadly, I forgot to take a photo with our friends... probably good not to have a photo of us, but those 2 looked like they walked out of a Banana Republic catalog! A darling couple...Sorry for my forgetfulness!

Although we probably missed the height of the fall coclor by a week or two, the campus had a few vibrant trees...

After saying goodbye to Lara & Kevin, we hit the road to head back to Chapel Hill. About 20 miles west of Winston-Salem, we made a split second decision to pull off the highway and say "hi" to our friends, Carson & Nicole, & they were kind enough to allow us to swing by at such short notice. They even fed us! What awesome friends! I already shared one cute photo of Liam, but here are some other faves. Can't get enough of that boy!

So there you have it, friends! Our whirlwind weekend in the mountains...Thanks for reading along!

Autumn in the Mountains {Day 1}

{Psst... Once you're done reading this marathon post, day 2 in the mountains can be found here. Sorry for the photo overload. It took me awhile to upload all of these so I'm sure it'll take awhile on your end, too! I promise it'll be worth your while, just get a snack while you're waiting!} 

Since our future is so up in the air, Matt & I are trying to take advantage of everything North Carolina has to offer. If we could have it our way, we'd relocate to the mountains permanently, but since (sadly) there are no dental schools off the Blue Ridge Parkway, we just sneak up there when we can. This weekend we packed up the Jeep with our camping gear & made the 3 hour drive after work on Friday to Julian Price Campground off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Doesn't our Jeep look like this is where it belongs? I think our car was as happy for a trip to the Parkway as us.

We didn't arrive until after 8 so that meant we had to set up the tent in the dark. It's a good thing we've camped so much that we're pros at pitching our tent now; last year we did it in the dark, pouring rain at Julian Price! After we drove in the last stake, we jumped into our sleeping bags & called it a night. We didn't get much sleep because it was freezing! Our friends in Boone said that it got down to the mid-20s on Friday.... Brrrr.... North Face, are you reading this? Your mummy sleeping bags are supposed to keep us warm to 20 degrees, but we can assure you that they did not! Here we are trying to warm up. When I asked Matt why he was standing on our picnic table, he told me (very seriously), "heat rises." Brilliant... that husband of mine.

As we wrapped up our usual camping breakfast (oatmeal with craisins...yummy & warm), our friends Lori & Dave (and their pup, Riley) arrived. Lori & my big sis, Katie, were college roommates at UF & are great friends. Lori & Dave relocated to NC a few months before we did & we're so thankful to have Florida friends close by! They also love to camp & hike so we were eager to spend the weekend in the mountains with them. After they located a campsite (the campground was packed!) & set up, we hit the trails!

Our first stop was the Daniel Boone Scout Trail, which is part of Grandfather Mountain State Park (but here's a secret....you don't have to pay the big entrance fees for Grandfather!). This trail offers beautiful views of the Blue Ridge mountains, valleys & Parkway. The curvy road in the photo below is the Linn Cove Viaduct, an "engineering marvel" of the Parkway. Near the top of the trail, there are ladders/cables to the peak (which Matt & I tackled last year), but this year we decided would be a little difficult for Riley to get up & down so we turned around.

The fall colors were spectacular, but most of my photos are pretty light due to the bright sun, so I increased the shadows this one so that you can see all of the layers of color....

One crazy part of this hike is that there is a plane wreck just off the trail... I read somewhere it's from the 60s or 70s. Not sure why they never cleaned up the wreckage. I guess it stays as a warning: don't fly in fog! (I'll spare you the photos...just kind of creepy). Instead, here's a closer look at the fall colors...

After a quick snack, Dave drove us down the Parkway to Linville Falls. Matt & I have been there twice before, but this was by far the prettiest we've ever seen the falls. The autumn colors were gorgeous, which is probably why we weren't alone (not by a long shot). The place was packed! Here's Lori & Dave at the Upper Falls... such a good looking couple! (If you missed it, here are our photos from the same spot...)

Let me tell you, both couples took advantage of having an extra set of hands to take photos! When Matt & I travel together we get a lot of solo shots. We even found a friendly hiker to snap a group shot!

We had a little photo shoot with Riley, too. She's a 10 month old, Rhodesian Ridgeback/Lab mix...hence the mohawk on her back. Riley's such a sweet pup and a great hiker!

Check out the natural beauty of Linville Falls.The center photo is of the Lower Falls... I am loving that colorful backdrop!

Here's my favorite photo from Linville. Shocker...it's not even of the falls!

We stopped for some photo-ops on the way back to our campground...

Even though Dave graciously stopped for me to snap some photos, below is (surprisingly) my favorite shot right out of the car window. Have I mentioned, I love the Blue Ridge Parkway?

Alright, folks, I think I'm going to have to cover day 2 tomorrow! I'm worn out from all of these photos... Coming tomorrow: Moses Cone, Blowing Rock, Boone/App State, & quick detour to Winston-Salem!

See the resemblance?

On the way home from the mountains this weekend (I promise to put up photos from that camping/hiking trip later this week), we took a quick detour off the highway to say a quick "hello" to our friends the Felkels in Winston-Salem. I pulled out the camera to get a few shots of Liam & he struck this pose (please excuse the remnants of dinner on his chin & shirt).

 ....I think he has a future in football...Or maybe child modeling....

link love.

My friend, Courtney, is trying to drum up some interest for her home reno blog, so I decided to share the love today here on Simply Suz! Here's a snapshot of what they're up to...

Welcome to the Anderson's journey of home renovation and design. We recently bought our first home and are excited to transform our outdated house into a beautiful home. We're learning a lot along the way, and wanted to document our progress for friends and family to see!

While I'm at it, I add a brand-spanking new page for you... Under "Welcome Friends" in the right hand column, click on Link Love to see a list of all of my favorite blogs! Do it! Maybe you'll find a new read (just promise me you'll come right back here to Simply Suz!)

Happy Fall from the McAs!

We spent the weekend in the beautiful North Carolina mountains with some fun friends! I'll post some pretty photos later, but until then ... here's a taste! (If I didn't already have a Christmas card photo picked out, I'd be inclined to use this one!)

 Or maybe this one... We're accustomed to traveling solo so we appreciated Lori & Dave's snapping a few photos for us!

{Linville Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway}

....Stay tuned for more!

Photos of the Week: Favorites!

In case you felt overwhelmed by the crazy number of photos I posted on Wednesday 

(I know I was when I went back & looked at my post), here are my favorites from this week....

Cupcakes (to eat & drink) for Girls Night!

Love the light in this photo from Occoneechee.

Nice skillz on this one, Matt!

Baked with love by Matt Mac.

Cheers!

I'm a sucker for an unexpected perspective.

Hope you had a great week, too!

4 years ago yesterday...

...Matt asked me to marry him. So glad I said yes...

Buckingham Fountain. Chicago. October 20, 2006.

I don't think I would have guessed that four years later we'd be living in North Carolina, he'd be interviewing for dental school & I'd be sitting here writing a blog about it, but I'm so thankful I get to walk alongside him every day.

"The Bean" at Millennium Park. Chicago. October 20, 2006.

Love you, Matt. Thanks for loving me back.

Art Institute of Chicago. October 20, 2006.