The Holidays are Coming!

With Halloween soon upon us, the start of the annual holiday planning is peaking around the corner. For those of us suffering with Type A personalities, this means thinking about holiday card and shopping lists to be sure that we are prepared to get everything mailed on time. Having carefully balanced the art of recycling left over cards of years before for the past several years, I decided that this year I will splurge a bit and send something that speaks to me – or is at least acceptable to both my sense of style and my budget!

My quest has provided me with a few considerations that I am now evaluating to see which best meets my needs… Hopefully, they will help you with your holiday planning list, as well!

Minted

For style selections this site is my clear favorite! There are loads of card styles to select from and all sorts of options from which you can choose to put together your perfect greeting card. If you are a fan of adding your favorite photo to your greetings they have tons of options. For those of us preferring a more traditional and non-photo option, there are plenty of stylish selections, as well.  Depending on your spend budget, you can select from a flat or folded card (postcard versus traditional folded). From there you can opt to include a pre-printed greeting message or leave it blank. Along the way, there are options for upgrades such as recycled paper, printing of your return address and other elegance boosters (for an additional cost). The site is VERY simple to use, so personalization and ordering is a breeze! The only down side that I was able to find is the price tag… The cards I was looking at ran about $70.00 for 25 cards without any of the upgrade options and before shipping.

Moo

Stop giggling about the title – Elsie would not approve! Similar to the Minted site, Moo offers a bunch of options to create your perfect card. Unlike Minted, Moo has a more limited selection of stock graphics from which you can choose. Those that are available are super cute and stylish, so don’t give up just yet. The true upside of this site is for those graphically inclined. If you have the software and creative drive to develop your own card graphics, you can use them to create a one of a kind greeting card. The better news? They offer the option to print multiple graphic styles within one order batch! If you truly believe that variety is the spice of life – you will LOVE this site! Cards created on this site are truly personalized in that stock greeting messages are not included. If you want to get super coordinated with your holiday items, take a look at their mini cards. They can be customized in a variety of ways and would make great gift tags! Use graphics similar to those on your greeting cards and you are sure to give Martha Stewart a run for the money! My favorite part is that 25 cards run around $40 which makes them a bit more budget friendly for me.This does not, however, include shipping unless your purchase is $50 or more.

Zazzle

I have to admit that on my first visit to this site I got a little lost in all of the merchandise items they offer and almost missed that they also offer greeting card options. Thankfully the coffee kicked in and I found the magic button taking me to the card development page. Similar to Moo, this site offers the option of using their stock graphics or your own. It did seem to me that the graphic options on this site are a bit more main stream versus the other two sites that offer more hip considerations. A major bonus on this site, though, is that you can also explore additional items for gifting coordination. The customized stamps and labels sure caught my attention! Pricing on this site is similar to Moo with 20 cards running about $35 before shipping costs. ** Current promotion offers 35% off until October 31st and orders over $50 get free shipping.

EGP Checks

Ok – I will be honest that this one seems a little strange since it is a business forms site. Stick with me, though, as I explain my method madness. Yes, the holiday cards on this site are designed for use by businesses, but that does not mean they cannot be adjusted to represent your family. Just think of your family unit as a corporation and detail the personalization accordingly. Where they ask for “company name” add your family name and you should be all set. The upside is that there is a wide range of styles from very traditional to more contemporary and all are printed on that nice, heavy card stock that professional printers use. Another bonus is that most of the cards available include foil lined envelopes rather than the usual white and un-lined envelopes the other sites include. (Shopping hint: a lot of the cards include foil accents on the graphic designs, as well!) A few other bonus details with this site are that return address printing  and standard shipping are included AT NO ADDITIONAL COST! The prices of cards vary depending on the card selected. The few that caught my eye ranged from $70 - $85 for 25 cards which puts them in the range of Minted, but already include several upgrade options.

Write in Style!

During a little Fall cleaning around the house, I unearthed some of my old journals. After a good round of chuckles over what used to seem SO dramatic, I started looking at the journals themselves. They were the average, mass produced blank journals that so many teens use to log their thoughts and angst. Even though the content is no longer applicable to life as I know it, I felt the need to hang on to them for posterity - and future levity! As I placed them in a storage box to be re-discovered at a later date, it got me thinking about the journals themselves. My nostalgia kicked in and I am found myself wishing that the books were something a little more special than the bargain bin option at Barnes and Noble. In my search it became obvious to me that there truly are options to suit every need when it comes to keeping a journal.

The purist in me fell in love with the charm of this leather bound journal. I can envision myself with a great cup of coffee at a street side cafe watching the world go by and making note of my oh so interesting thoughts... well, they would be interesting to me! Just the texture of the paper used for the pages appeals to the writer trapped inside. Of course, with my passion for all things clay, the ceramic piece adorning the cover is the thing I cannot resist.  The 200+ pages should also make it feasible for me to keep this fictional cafe in business throughout the year as I document my cerebral pontifications. 

As I drifted back to reality, it occurred to me that unless I win the Lotto soon I am not likely to have the free time to sit at a charming cafe spending the afternoon thinking and writing. Still feeling nostalgic, though, this charming journal caught my attention. Designed to help you consolidate your journal writing, the pages allow for one line of entry for each day of the year. Simply take a few moments at the end of each day to make note of the most memorable experience and add it to your journal. At the end of the year, you can grab that cup of java and conduct your own "year in review" to relive all of your adventures. 

For those on the go with limited time to journal or who may simply want something stylish in which to make notes and lists, this versatile journal book may be the perfect fit. A simple design and stylish cut away pattern on the cover give it a distinctive appearance while the alternating blank and graph pages ensure that whatever information you need to add has the perfect page to call home. 

I am an avid fan of practicing gratitude, but have found that my sassy and sometimes sarcastic approach tends to be lost on most people also engaged in the process. Trying to be respectful of their serious approach to giving thanks, I have  recently been a closet gratitude fan. My salvation has arrived, though, with this Thank Journal! The perfect blend of honest appreciation encouragement and sassy wit, it is right up my ally! Allowing plenty of space for you to document your thanks, the journal also hosts suggestions for exercises to make you really understand the things in your life that give you thanks.

Here is the part where I must confess that in my stash closet (gift items only... perfectly legal) I have a collection of colorful and creative journals just waiting for my thoughts. There are also a few less than visually enticing options with blank pages begging to be used and this is where the recycle gene kicks into action. Failing to be inspired by these basic journals, the writing bug never bit me. These clever journal covers may soon change that, though!

Happy journal writing and let me know if you have favorites of your own!

Keeping It Simple

A dear friend of mine recently shared that she is expecting her first baby bundle. After the initial excitement settled it was time to think about hosting a baby shower to help her stock up on much needed mom supplies. There were, however, a few challenges to overcome on our way to throwing her a baby shower to remember... 

Challenge #1 - She lives in another city!

Challenge #2 - After she made plans to come back to town for her shower, we had about a month to get everything in order.

Challenge #3 - She is not the frilly kind, so the usual over the top cuteness was simply not an option.

Here is how we met these challenges and managed to host a simply successful baby shower for our dear friend. Since challenge two pretty much addressed challenge one, we will skip straight to challenge three. Most baby showers use some sort of theme to build from to create continuity between the invitations, decor, gifts and snacks. Since our mom to be is not the usual baby crazed lady, the standard options were out the window. There was a tentative theme for the baby's room - safari - but it was not 100% just yet, so that was not a safe bet either. After a round of email conversations about what to do, we decided to keep it simple and avoid a theme all together. Yes, I said NO THEME! (insert shocked gasp here...)

What we decided was to pick a style for the shower and build the invitations, decor and other elements to match. Since we had a quick turn on planning this gathering, the invitation selection was the foundation for the style. Needing to get the invitations in the mail ASAP my savvy co-hostess used an online source to select the perfect invitation style. The site allowed her to quickly customize the details and order the invitations which arrived in about a week. While they were in production, we wrangled the invite list from the mom to be and started working on the other elements. (Forgive the black out spots, but we thought it best to protect everyone's privacy...)

Now that we had a style we moved onto the food, decor and activity options. Without an overall theme to the shower, the food was a little challenging. We also took into consideration what our mom to be could not eat, as well as special requests (can you say Sprinkles cupcakes?) In the end, we aimed for a modern twist on afternoon tea. There were updated versions of traditional tea sandwiches along with some sweet treats. For the non-tea drinkers we made a traditional party punch and added some fresh fruit for anyone trying to appease their inner health nut. 

Sticking with the plan of keeping things simple the decorative accents were kept to a minimum, but still tied back to the selected style - modern, sleek and simple. Using the dining room table as a buffet station, a quilt with coordinating colors was used as a tablecloth creating a soft and unique display for the food. As a centerpiece for the table a diaper cake was displayed on a crystal cake stand to add a little whimsy to the occasion without being over the top. A word of warning when creating a diaper cake - pay attention to any decoration on the diapers! Thanks to the magic of marketing, there are all kinds of themes available for diapers now and if you are not hosting an Elmo theme shower, the Sesame Street decorated diapers may through a kink in your hosting plans. I got lucky for this shower by using the Target brand diapers. They have a printed pattern of blue and green polka dots which blended very well with our decor selections - thank goodness! A few baby toys and pacifiers were added to the ribbons on the cakes for a touch of baby and the "cake" was complete. The best part of the diaper cake? It doubles as a gift from the hostesses! As long as you don't use adhesives to build the cake layers, mom can easily dissect the cake and use the diapers when the baby arrives. Rather than make guests guess at all of the culinary goodies, we created food labels to match the shower style and used wooden clothes pins to display them on the table. To maintain the connection between the decor and shower invitation, disposable cups and plates in a variety of colors matching the invitation were used.

If you do a quick search on the internet for baby shower games and/or activities, there are a number of options that will pop up for your review. My only suggestion when selecting activities is to consider the mom to be and the guests. Having made the mistake of selecting incorrect activities in the past (and still hearing about it years later) I cannot stress enough how important it is to pick games that the mother will not want to strangle you for later. For this shower, I had direct access to the mother and sister of the mom to be and was able to enlist their help in a get to know you guessing game. Since most of the guests at the shower did not have the pleasure of growing up with the mother to be, we only knew the childhood stories that she cared to share over the years. To help guests get to know her even better and allow her mother to dish a bit, we worked together to create game in which guests had to match childhood photos to stories shared. It turned out to be a lot of fun and very educational! The other activity we added to the mix was a memory game that doubled as more gift goodies for the mom to be. Conveniently she registered for a baby bath station which became the holding container for a number of baby related items - butt paste, books, clothes, toys, etc. The collection was revealed to guests for about 30-seconds during which time they had to memorize the contents to the best of their ability. After covering the goodies, guests had 1-minute to write down as many of the items they could remember and the best memory won the challenge! Again, the best part is that the game doubled as a gift from the hostesses adding to the gift pile. 

As guests departed the gathering, they were offered a small token of appreciation. Keeping with the simple style and adding a dash of the modern tea party twist, everyone received a small dish in the shape of a tea kettle with the phrase "sweet-tea" in the center. It works as a small spoon rest or safe spot for tea bags to rest to avoid counter top stains. A tag with the same graphic as the food labels was added with a note of thanks to keep the visual continuity of the decor.

At the and of the shower, everyone left with a few more stories about the mom to be, a tummy full of yummy treats and happy anticipation of meeting the little one due to arrive sooner than later!