One of the holiday perks of being a mama to gorgeous littles is the relative ease I now have with gifting. When I was young, I thought it was so crazy that my grandparents and family members were satisfied with our school pictures as gifts. I understand now.

So many of us put effort into choreographing family pictures and designing holiday cards. Sometimes we can do it on a budget, but often we end up sinking more into it than we intended: trying to make the outfits coordinate without being too matchy-matchy, then ordering prints, buying stamps, getting them mailed, and spending oodles of our emotional and organizational energy.

Sometimes I can accomplish this exercise. Sometimes I cannot. I am working on being ok with either outcome.

I wanted to share an alternative with you here, because I know that sometimes things have to be let go in the name of sanity and love and all things peaceful and joyful.

This summer, a sweet friend from Baltimore posted one of her new endeavors on Facebook. Tera is a talented graphic designer, and sister to one of my good friends/neighbors/former colleagues. She is branching out into silhouettes, created in the color of your choice. They are gorgeous and classic, able to tug the heartstrings of any Gramma but still polished enough to hang in your home. And on the effort scale, these rank a solid ZERO for a tired mama.

I snapped profile photos of my gorgeous gals while they were zombied out with Princess Sofia one afternoon, emailed them off to Tera, and received a printable file back in my email. Easy.

I’m sharing these with you for several reasons. I believe in supporting other mamas. I believe that creating thoughtful and well-loved gifts shouldn’t be difficult or wallet-emptying.

As Tera put it, “the shoemaker’s children go without shoes and the graphic designer goes without her own website.” But if you’re interested, shoot her an email. Tera works under the name of Smith Studio, and can be reached at terapike at yahoo.com.