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When we moved into our dream home last year the architect who planned the house took several
formal photographs of the finished house and newly landscaped yard both for his own reference
and as a record for us. We talked about framing one of the photos and hanging it in the den,
but just never got around to doing it.
Next month will be the 4th anniversary of our moving into our home and we are still delighted
with all of its features. There’s no doubt we will be raising our family here and spending
many more years in this great house. We’ve already added a patio and I’ve indulged my gardening
urges to include a lilac hedge and rose arbor.
I thought now would be good time to get one of those architect’s photographs framed, but on
pulling them out of the drawer I found them too cold and formal and lacking in the personal
feelings our home now holds for us.
Then I had a brilliant idea. I remembered that a friend of mine had commissioned an oil painting
of her daughter to commemorate her high school graduation and she had given the painter a few
photographs of her daughter in her cap and gown. I found out where she ordered the painting.
It turns out she commissioned the painting from an online Internet gallery called Paint Your Life
(www.PaintYourLife.com).
Paint Your Life does everything for you, including a frame if you want one. Their service is
great from the moment you contact them to the receipt of the finished painting. My idea was to
take a current digital photograph of my husband and myself sitting on our patio and have us, the
flowering garden and the new lilac hedges painted into the formal picture of our house, therefore
personalizing it and bringing it up to date at the same time. I was sure this would be too much
to ask for, but the Paint Your Life people saw no problem at all and even gave me suggestions to
achieve exactly what I had in mind. They advised me on the best way to take the current photos
and even showed me an online draft of the composite photograph for approval before they started
painting. I chose to have an original watercolor painted, but it could have been made in oil,
pastels, or even in mosaic tiles.
They use professional experienced artists and, again, they showed me online the finished watercolor
before they shipped it to me. I only paid 20% of the (surprisingly low) cost of the painting at
the time of my order and the balance when I gave my final approval.
I was absolutely satisfied with the painting and my husband and I are both delighted with our 4th
anniversary gift to one another, and to our future.
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