Happy Birthday to this BLOG!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BLOG! The Photography by Dixie Blog is 5 years old this March! (and my birthday is the 5th! YAY!) (and thet studio will have its 15th anniversary in June!)

We were the first Photo studio in Wichita Falls to have a blog. I wrote a great article about creating your own blog for the Texas Professional Photographer magazine called "GOT BLOG?" and many wrote to me for advice and started their own! Ive personally written over 10,000 posts!

If you are interested in going back to see your portraits, or read anything the past 5 years, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and there is a directory to the LEFT HAND SIDE that says the month and the year or you can click on the tiny words on the right side that say "OLDER POSTS" to go back page by page.

Its tiny but its there on the RIGHT hand side at the bottom.

Thanks to you guys for reading it, and keeping in touch with us. I love it when people tell me that they read it often and they know all sorts of things about our children/grandchildren/ studio etc. from the blog! it warms my heart!

We have got some great ideas for the blog in the coming year. We are going to start having Free Give-a ways! We will have contests and drawings, so check back often and bookmark us. http://wwwdixie.blogspot.com/ Each month we will have some offer where we will give away something ranging from $50-$500.!!!! Happy Birthday Pics by Dix Blog, and heres to the next 5 years!

Have a great week everyone!

Had a super weekend, how about you?

Wow, the weather has been really unusual lately. Cold nights, super warms days (my car temp gauge said the air temp was 90 F yesterday! And the wind and grass fires up near Amarillo, etc.
We had a great weekend, My son and I rode with the Head Power lifting Coach, Freeman to Leonard Texas for the Girls Regional Power lifting meet! We are proud to say our lone girl AMBER won first place in her weight division! She was amazing! Our son Scott wrapped her knees and helped her prepare for her lifts and I went as a chaperon and cheerleader for Amber! (however I'm afraid my snoring might have cost her some sleep!) We stayed at a very nice hotel in Sherman and had a great day. We knew Amber would take a gold medal, shes got that inner and outer strength. She amazes us all! Way to go AMBER! Sunday I got some much needed grandma time with my 2 grandsons. We had a fun day at the mall and Chuck E. Cheese.

I'm so excited for Summer to be here soon. We have a beautiful pool and our grandsons really enjoy it, I love to garden and will have the back yard full of flowers and planning trips. I am not sure if I'm taking our son back to Hawaii for his Sr. trip or if we will go on a cruise in the Caribbean. I have a good friend in Hawaii that is an amazing photographer and he is an avid surfer so we most likely will go to Honolulu! Scott's up for either one.

Hope you guys have a great week! My birthday is this Saturday and we will be at Scott's regional Power lifting meet, where hopefully he will break the state record (he only missed by 25 lbs last week.)

We are also planning our Easter Children's' portrait specials and will announce it soon. To get on the list call the studio at (940) 761-5111 . Our lovely office manager Jacquelyn would be happy to put you on the list. We may have live animals again this year or something else in the works, that shall remain a surprise!

Enjoy the early spring weather! HUGS!

Beautiful Britton!

The past 2 days have been busier than I expected! Ill post more of sweet baby Britton soon! She was an angel and never got fussy! Isnt she beautiful!???

Organization "Dixie Style"

I'm a sucker for anything that organizes. When I first discovered the Container store in Dallas 16 years ago I went nuts! I love to have a "home" for things. Im not naturally organized so I feel like if I find something that will give my things "a home" then it will automatically make things more organized.

But I had to have a place for my beloved Earl Grey tea and my Eye of Newt (Just kidding).

I typed the labels on my vintage typewriter. Too fun!
I got this at Hobby Lobby. I LOVE IT! Its so me! Oh and the Valentine Doughnuts? , There just there to make your mouth water! :-) Have a great Sunday!

Well our son did it again!

A new personal best record for Scott! 1800 pounds! Right now hes ranked 2nd in the entire state of Texas. He just keeps getting bigger and stronger and he always gives God the Glory! We Love you Scott and are so proud of you! Just one week ago his total was 1710 pounds. He became 90 pounds stronger in just one week. Those Texas Road House Steaks are good for building the muscles! The whole room gathered around and watched him at the very end when he attempted to break the state record with a 630 pound Deadlift! I think he did it, but 2 judges said he missed. But we think he still did fantastic and has 5 more weeks to prepare for STATE. Way to go Scott!

Splish Splash, she was taking a bath.

This is baby Rachel! Shes 6 months old and is quite the chunka monka! I so enjoyed cuddling her and playing with her, shes so happy and cuddily!
Thank you Lori for bringing her in with her big brother! She really made my day!

Jake!

This is one of the nicest, sweetest young men I've ever met. Funny and Nice and pretty easy on the eyes too! He loves all sports, he loves Orange Sherbet Ice cream and hes enlisting in the US Air Force! He has a great family and is from Henrietta high school. It seems our studio is a magnet for the very best, great kids.
Thanks Jake and Lori for coming in today! It was my pleasure!

Our Straight Shooting Govenor!

I was fortunate to get to photograph an event with a friend of mine that Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin attended. Actually she was the featured speaker and in attendance was also Texas Governor Rick Perry. I was so lucky to be one of 2 photographers there to capture the event for Heroic Media. I created this portrait of Perry and wanted to share it with you. Over the years I have photographed the likes of former Senator Phill Gramm, Tx Govenor Ann Richards, John Connally, Ross Perot, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, etc.
Friday I am photographing the survivors of the battle of Iwo Jima! Life is never dull as a professional photographer!

More of the White Stuff!

Well as the song goes... "NOthing can stop the US Air Force!" Heres my honey of 19 years clearing his windshield and heading to work. The official TEXT we got at 5:30 am said to come in at 10 am. All personell come in at 10:00, but not my Bruce, He was up at 5:30 and watching the news and went in much eariler than that.

Hes been serving for 26 years and has achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel. I am so proud of him. He will be retiring in the fall of this year!

He gave up our warm garage so I could have a Home studio, so now the cars are out in the elements but he never complains about it. My friend said that he could fly his jet home and the the blast and heat from the engines would clear the snow off his car, the lawn and warm up the sidewalk too! Lol
I love you Bruce, you are truly a person who never lets anything get in your way and
always does your duty. Thats why I married you! That and those amazing green eyes.

What love really means.

Who will Love me for me? Not for what Ive done, or what Ill become?

Gorgeous Cassey!

My grandsons room

I absolutely love Dr. Seuss books. I grew up on them, and I think they are why I fell in love with reading as a kid.! My daughter and I are still working on her home, we are currently working on her youngest childs room, AARon, who is 3.
So what better artwork to hang on the walls, than good ole Dr. Seuss?
I found a great book at ROSS, (I didnt want to cut up one of his treasured books) and got some affordable frames and framed them up!
I got the frames at The Dollar store for $4 a piece (8x10) and spray painted the frames, then sanded them down and applied 2 more coats of white paint.
I made my own mats from sheets of white paper (Going to get better mats in the future.)
We havent settled on a color scheme for his room yet but I know bright colors of yellow, Orange, Turquoise will be part of the scheme.

I tried to find some good white frames in town and couldnt find any i liked so i just made my own. What I like about these is there are two parts to it, so I can spray paint the wood mat that sits inside the frame a different color at a different time!
All this only took a couple of hours to paint and sand and dry and assemble the glass back on.
and Viola! Custom artwork for an oh so special grandson!


The stuffed animal I got today at Hastings. His name is "BIG TOE."They are called UGLY DOLLS and all the rage on design sites such as Design Sponge, 6th Street Design, Apartment Therapy, etc.
I am going to get him more! My grandson is a fun, wild, and energetic kid so I know he will love these crazy characters!
Check out the site to see all the different ones they have! http://shop.uglydolls.com/home/index/322.0.1.1

Superbowl SUNDAY!

Well, it's Superbowl Sunday! We are making Enchilidas, Buffalo wings and Nachos!
Heres the recipe for the Enchildadas Im making. Im using left over Turkey. I cooked a big turkey the other day and have half of it left over! Were having a few friends over for the big game. Would of loved to have gone to it, but the tickets were between $2,000. and $3500.
Heres the recipe link! Have a great Sunday! !

Snow, Ice, and slush... i got cabin fever.

How are you guys liking all this snow we have been having? I havent liked it too much. Tolertaing it is more like it. heres a few shots I got around our home. The one on the right top is our studio entrance!
Stay warm and hopefully spring will be here before we know it!

SNOWED IN!

Wow, this Cold Front here in Texas, has really been something. 5 days cooped up in the house has been really unusual!
My husband actually found a way to get to work on Thursday and Friday! He was the only pilot in his squadron to go! Heres a shot of him going to work and our son writing a paper at home. (See the smashed toe?) He dropped the weight bar at the gym on it and got 5 stiches! (and he was wearing shoes! Thats how heavy it was!)

All the canceled flights and schools shut down. It was fun the first day and the 2nd day but its getting a bit old. thank goodness for Facebook and the internet!
The studio has been closed for obvious reasons. Our office manager , Jackie had a minor accident on Tuesday and we decided that it wouldnt be wise to open and take the risk of anyone getting hurt.
I hope you all can make some warm stews, and spend time with your kids! We are going to play the Wii game to try to get a little bit of exercise.!
Take care and stay warm and be safe!

Its a SNOWDAY!!!

Today snow and ice have blanketed North Texas and the schools are closed! Burkburnett has closed both today and tomorrow! One thing we love to do is sit by the fireplace, sip hot chocolate and watch pay per view movies! We all gather under blankets (we have high ceilings in our house 16 feet tall, so it gets chilly in our house. and floor to ceiling windows.) What we also love to do each year is make snowflakes!
Heres a fun site to make virtual snowflakes!Ive posted about this site for the past 3 years in a row.

You can make yours, attach a message to it and comment on others.
Its fun and you never know who you will meet! I always comment and give a response to at least 5 other snowflakes! Fun for any age!
yall stay warm and stay home and safe!