Giving Thanks

With tomorrow officially bringing us to the Holiday Season, it got me thinking about a few things. For starters, I began thinking about the meaning behind the Thanksgiving holiday - gratitude. Since I am not able to welcome everyone dear to me to be at the same table at the same time I began to sort through ideas of how to express my gratitude to the people in my life for their abundant gifts of friendship. There is always the option of calling, sending an email or a text message which all seem to be acceptable among friends. 

There are just a few challenges with these options. Telephone calls on a major holiday get tricky because everyone is juggling a dozen things including guests or being a guest which makes relaxed conversation of any sort a long shot at best. That leaves email and text messages and neither of these options convey the personal warmth that I would want to share with my thanks. That got me thinking about the old fashioned approach - letters! Most everyone has some old stationary or Thank You notes around their house, what better way to put them to good use than as a note of gratitude to those you hold dear?! If you don't have any hanging around waiting for a purpose, perhaps this could be a great excuse to check out some of the fantastic new designs and give yourself a little gift... 'tis the season for giving, after all!

Here are some of my new favorites!

Set of 6 cards with envelopes (hand made)

"You're Good People" Note cards with envelopes

Modern style that can be personalized! Lots of colors and additional styles available!

Give thanks in many languages!

"How Thoughtful of You" Note cards - additional color options available!

How Charming!

Somewhere in my jewelry drawers I have the charm bracelet that my mother started for me. She was in love with the idea that you could wear your memories as jewelry. Unfortunately, she was also a little ADD and my charm collection stopped somewhere in high school! Although I share her love of the idea charms foster, I find that I am drawn to them more for the style they create. Fortunately, the folks in charge of jewelry trends must feel the same way as I see charm style items popping up all over the place - from main stream to artisan crafters!

What I find myself really falling for is that there is so much variety of selection. If you just love the style, you can find pieces that look great, but don't require a nostalgic speech to explain. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also some great pieces with meaning that sport super style. A true win win!

Here are some of the pieces I have been scoping out as possible additions to my personal collection or gifts for friends. If you fall in love with one and scoop it up before I do, that's OK. It's all for the love of charm!

Turquoise and Gold Leaf Tie Necklace

Green Quartz Coin Pearl Charm Necklace

Silver Family Tree Pendant Charm Necklace

Yellow Orange and Gold Charm Necklace

Stella & Dot Charms - LOADS of options!

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.