I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a movement of citizens inspired by the presidential campaign who are now submitting ideas for how they think the Obama Administration should change America.  It’s called “Ideas for Change in America.” It doesn’t really matter what your political views are at this point, its time to make sure that our opinions are heard.

One idea is titled: Save Small Business From the CPSIA. This details some of what will happen to businesses like mine…we’ll basically be almost forced out of business. Its not just my business, its any business that uses raw materials. This could potentially make a HUGE impact on the economy as thousands or even hundreds of thousands of small businesses go out of business and lose their “extra” income….not to mention the tons and tons of materials that are to be thrown away as unusable.

Please click the link. The top 10 ideas are going to be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day and will be supported by a national lobbying campaign run by Change.org, MySpace, and more than a dozen leading nonprofits after the Inauguration.  So each idea has a real chance at becoming policy.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

I appreciate your support!

Diane

You know someone.

You know someone who’s experienced a tragedy, is struggling to stay afloat, is raising kids while holding down more than one job, or is volunteering selflessly despite extenuating personal circumstances. You know someone who can’t afford custom photography, but who would cherish it this holiday season. You know someone who deserves a year-round reminder of their family’s spirit, love, and beauty.

You know someone. I guarantee it.

I want to know who they are, and I want to give them the chance to experience complimentary custom photography — $300 worth to be exact. Whether it’s canvas or albums, prints for Grandma or a slideshow to watch over and over, it’s in your power to give them the artwork they deserve this holiday season.

Oh, and the best part? The person who nominates the winner recieves a $100 print credit. What better reason to show some love could there possibly be,  people??

The rules:

* You cannot nominate yourself, and the person nominated must sincerely be incapable of purchasing my services. (Being unable to make mortgage payments for a two-million-dollar-vacation-home in Paris does not qualify as sincere financial need.)

* The nominee must reside in Pennsylvania and be able to travel to the Palmyra/Hershey area. Tell me who you know, what they’re experiencing, and why they deserve my artwork. Please include a way to contact both your nominee and yourself as well.

*You must email me the full story: diane@dbimpressions.com by Friday, January 23, 2009.

The winner will be announced the following week — get nominating! I can’t wait to read all of your entries!

Open your heart to someone this holiday season…even though the holidays are technically over — and thanks for giving me the opportunity to open mine!

Diane

Who’s behind this concept??

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Christmas came and disappeared quickly for me this year…it really feels a bit like it never happened. But as a result, I get to go back and look at the pictures maybe just that much more closely….and these ended up being some of my favorites. We had a theme in our church this year that encompassed the Nativity scene as interpretted around the globe…I don’t recall which countries these two were from, but they really caught my eye.

And the pointsettia…its got a neat story to go along with it to. I just thought this particular one was beautiful and colorful and slightly unique with its moddled colors.

And just out of curiousity….do you speak of a Nativity scene as the Nativity, or as a Creche?

Well, its been quite a year…lots of ups, a few downs, but its over already! I’m sitting here kind of wondering where the heck it actually went.

A year ago, Prince DoodleBunz was nursing. Today he’s not and oh BOY has he become independent. I’m wondering if by next New Years’ he’ll be using the potty (and secretly starting to sort of HOPE he is, but I’m not going to rush it).

Mr. GoldFish changed jobs unexpectedly mid-year….and while that’s been a heck of a battle with the former employer, there’s lots of good memories with some of the guys he worked with…some people really revealed their true colors, showing friendship where none was necessary (and a couple whom he thought were closer friends apparently were not, but such is life)….beginning his new job has opened a whole bunch of different doors, while bringing with it its own set of challenges with shift changes and new personalities.

PamperedBunz became DoodleBunz through our whole trademark issue with a large company….(click HERE to see the video if you missed the news stories) and taught me a whole lot more than I knew before about running my own business.  I was able to meet and reconnect with some friends.  It also really helped us through the month that Mr. Goldfish was searching for a new job…and gave us some hope in what was a difficult time.

As we approached my sister’s wedding….I became her official photographer and learned more than I realized I didn’t know about my camera (and how to use it best) in a really, really short time….which led to wanting to take better pictures of my own kids (because now I realized it was entirely POSSIBLE) and I’ve been having a blast with it ever since I started learning about ISO, exposure, metering, aperture and shutter speeds (among about 100 other things)…and in the process, DB Impressions was born! Its amazing how quickly and wonderfully that business has grown as well, with the support of my friends and family. They’ve really been encouraging!

Miss Princess started school this year at a small Christian school nearby, and is doing better than we could have hoped. She’s happy there, and READING!! She also has the most wonderful, patient teacher….this lady is seriously amazing…she has a smile (!) on her face at the end of the morning with 12 rambunctious kindergartners!! We’ve gone thru some behavior stuff with Miss Princess, but overall she’s done really well facing some of her changes.

Beyond that…wow. Not sure what to say. Sitting here thinking about it, there’s a million things that I could ramble on about…but I don’t have all day to blog, as much as you probably don’t feel like reading that long!

I hope your year ended well in 2008, and I hope you have some wonderful things ahead of you too!

Announcement Front - Click Here

It seems a little odd to be offering a Valentine’s package already….what with New Years’ Eve being tomorrow and all, and the “big game” happening on Thursday (Penn State in the Rose Bowl if you’re not sure what I’m talking about)…but by popular request, here is my Valentine’s special!

I’m pleased to be able to offer a discreet setting that I’ll make sure goes beyond the “cookie cutter” hotel room.

Instead of having to clunk click through links to get to a specific gallery, you can now get to client galleries by typing in www.dbimpressions.com/lastname (subbing out the “lastname” part for the family’s last name, of course).

I’m really excited for this feature. I hope you are too!

Vintage (ie. Mommy's) Stable...

Did you know that Legos come in PINK now?!?

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas with your family.  It seems my kiddos will be more than happy for some time to come….and you know what? We haven’t gotten any attitude from my daughter in a few days, either! I hadn’t wanted to think that she was bored, but you know…maybe she was. So far, Legos are the answer to our prayers. She’s been deeply engulfed/entrenched/totally absorbed with them for 2 straight days now. And gosh, the things her imagination is letting her do!!

And here’s my dear little man…who turned two the day after Christmas. I’m really sad that the time has gone this quickly, but gosh have we ever had fun with it. For those who are afraid he was jipped out of a birthday party…yes, but only for now. We’re working to  decide if we should have it at the end of January, or wait till maybe June-ish. Thoughts?

By the way…his previous obsession with trains…yeah. Its worse now. He’s had SO much fun with the new trains added into the ones he had already…I don’t think I’ll hear words other than “whoo whoo,” “track,” “Tank,” and “chugga chugga” for weeks. Eh, he’s happy.

And I’ll mention that being sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas….stinks. But its all better now…hopefully next Christmas I’ll be able to watch them open their gifts on Christmas Morning. Santa sure did a nice job keeping everything together though!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I didn’t quickly get hooked on the opportunity to confess on Mondays, assist the family in eating way too many cookies over the weekend, JUST get gifts wrapped today or sleep till noon! Not me! In my defense on the sleeping thing, I wasn’t up way too late keeping the fire going so the kids wouldn’t get too cold (me, up too late? NAH!)….its WICKED windy and cold here.  I also didn’t secretly want another baby when I was holding a dear friend’s almost-newborn…but in my defense, the feeling lasted about 5 minutes, till they buckled her into her seat and she started SCREAMING.

Nor did I threaten to tell Santa not to stop here when my daughter wouldn’t quit giving me lip yesterday….seriously, are they SUPPOSED to have this much attitude so early?? SHEESH! And I surely didn’t forget to mail a couple of gifts either, did I??? Nah, not me!

Hmm, that’s about it for this week’s edition….how about you? Feel free to leave your confessions in the comments if you don’t want to “play” the game!

Nearby-ish to me is a somewhat forgotten story. It was covered on a new spot this morning, honoring the career of one of our “legendary” journalists and triggered me to do a little more digging. I remembered hearing about Centralia, PA when I was younger, but its one of those things that’s somewhat forgotten as you move along in life.

This link tells a little more about why Centralia has a population of approximatly 10 people today. None of its residents are children, and the story reads that much of the town has been reclaimed by nature. When Mr. Goldfish wakes up, I’ll be reminding him of this story…maybe one weekend this spring we’ll be able to take the camera, leave the kids with family and explore the edge of it. I’m fascinated….I want to see the ground where its truly warmer underneath. Does snow accumulate here, or just in spots? I’m not a total historical buff, but stuff like this is SO fascinating to me.

This was posted on a forum that I frequent, but this little guy is fighting his battle at the hospital down the road from us. I hope you’ll consider keeping them in your prayers this Christmas as they face being away from their daughter at the hospital. Their little man is just a bit younger than my own…so this kind of hit home for me.

Xander’s Fight

Thanks for all your support!!