As many of you know, each year I do a photoshoot with my best friend Padgett. We take photos that make their way into my holiday cards and onto this blog. 

I call it getting my royal portrait made. 

It’s always so much fun coming up with how I’m going to do it. I get to pick an aesthetic, I flip through magazines to get inspired, I make a playlist, and I try to cajole my cat into taking one decent photo with me (which goes about as well as it sounds).  

This is what we managed to come up with:

A classic black and white photo on a black and white tile floor:

Here’s how they stack up to the black and white photos of years past:

Here’s the best photo I was able to get of Calypso and me:

Some random photos:

Some BTS photos:

Every year, the front of the card is a royal portrait and every year the back is something fun that I did the year before. This year, I went with a photo of myself at the Golden Gate Bridge, a shot of my beloved cat, and a picture of myself on the cover.

I hope that many of you received a card in the mail, probably getting to you well after all of the holidays are completed. 

Happy New Year!

The Tragic Queen,

Raquel

P.S.: Check out my post on all of the books that I read throughout the end of the year.