Smart Solutions for Busy Moms!
I’m sure everyone by now has seen some version of the holiday elf, right? Well, in our house we have an Elf Magic elf. Her name is Molly, and the kids get suck a kick out of her – even my oldest nephew, who at the totally mature age of 10 is getting too cool for most of the silly traditions that Abby and I enjoy. {That crazy kid even tried to tell his little brother {7} that Santa wasn’t real. I mean, seriously? Of course Santa is real. I still believe – so end of story :)
I received a complimentary package of products from Personal Creations to create this post abotu personalizing your holidays. All opinions are 100% my own, as always.
“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.” – Andy Rooney… I’m pretty sure I’ve told you before, like, maybe 200 million times, how much I love Christmas. It makes me feel like a little kid again – I seriously get so excited. And, I love to surprise people with the perfect gift. Seeing even the adults in the family light up when they get something special totally makes my holiday complete. That’s why I work on my holiday shopping year ’round, to be sure I’m not just buying a “something, anything, whatever I’ll just grab this and get out of here!” kind of gift at the mall, last minute. And my favorite gifts are things that are totally personal for the person receiving them – I hand-make a lot of presents, I love to create photo cards and gifts, and one of my more recent personal favorites this year has been choosing an item that I know the giftee will love, then having it customized with their names or family details. To give you an idea of what’s out there, I have a few of my fave gifts from this year to show ya….
Ok, first of all, let’s talk about a little gift I bought for me. Yep, I buy myself gifts “from Santa” every year. Because really, don’t moms always seem to get missed a lot when it comes to gifts? This casserole dish is perfect for me – the thing that I’m best at in the kitchen is a casserole or baked pasta. TI think my casseroles are pretty kick-ass, no lie. [Read more…]
With all of the junk mail, overflow of catalogs and sales flyers, and those dreaded piles of bills – isn’t it nice to get a personalized card in the mail? It’s kind of a refreshing break to open a beautiful card, see your favorite smiling faces, and read their heartfelt messages, any time of year. But, one of the big reasons I hear people say that they don’t send cards is because it’s too much work, or they aren’t creative enough to create great holiday or event cards. So, I’m here to share a few of my favorite tips and tricks with you guys. These work perfectly for Christmas and New Year’s cards, but can work year-round too, for birthday invites, baby announcements, fun thank you cards, or other celebrations. Check ’em out, then leave your own fave tips in the comments too – I love hearing from you guys!
Obviously, the first step is to pick photos. You can go with one great family photo, feature just a new baby {or toddler, like I did this year} – or if you don’t have a good family photo this year, choose a card design that lets you upload several photos, and use individual pics of each family member. And remember that just a little bit of photo editing can make a drastic difference – and you don’t need expensive or complicated software. I use PicMonkey, and love how simple and intuitive it is.
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of SendThanks.com for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you remember when you were a kid? I mean – not all of you. Not any readers under the age of 18ish…. I’m talking readers that are old like me. Who grew up before there were smartphones – heck, before any cell phones at all, unless they were 10 pounders. Who grew up with only an Atari, or who maybe rocked some Oregon Trail. Remember how at holidays and birthdays, we hand wrote actual thank you cards? On paper? And put stamps on them… To put in the mail box? Such a lost art, seriously.
Well, times have changed. And us old timers have to accept that. But there’s no reason that the tradition of sending thank you notes should go the way of handwriting notes for the mail. Technology keeps up with everything… And now there’s a digital way to send thanks.
It’s called, simply enough, SendThanks.com. And it’s exactly what you would guess – an awesome way to send thanks to anyone, anywhere, anytime – from your computer. You can add photos, video, personal messages, whatever makes your thank you feel right. It’s super simple, but much more personalized and thoughtful than a simple email or ecard.
Check out this new way to send virtual thank you notes today – and be sure to share it with any kids, teens, or 20-somethings in your life too. You know how hard it is to get them to write actual paper thank you cards, so let this be a new way of encouraging that thankfullness.
I received a complimentary package of products from Personal Creations to create this post abotu personalizing your holidays. All opinions are 100% my own, as always.
“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.” – Harlan Miller… I’m one of the biggest Christmas junkies you’ll ever meet. My house is wrapped up inside and out with twinkling lights, sparkling ornaments, shiny decorations, and ribbons and bows. There’s glitter everywhere. I buy too many presents, I bake too many cookies, and we listen to my Family Christmas Tunes station on Pandora 24/7 starting the day after Thanksgiving. Now, if Mother Nature would just cooperate and bring me some darn snow already….
I received a complimentary package of LifeOil products – all opinions on the quality are 100% my own.
I’ve been on a mission for the last couple years to get my booty back to it’s pre-baby size. I have a ton of jeans just waiting for me to slip down and slip back into them again. They were pricey, from when I worked as a manager at The Buckle, and I refuse to let them go. And… Slowly but surely, the numbers on the scale are getting smaller every month. But while it’s been slow, it’s been consistent – half a pound to a pound a week for a long time now. But I’m not just trying to get smaller – I’m trying to build an all-around healthier lifestyle. I’m making small changes each week, that start to really add up. My most recent change was to swap my regular cooking oil for a healthier version – LifeOiL.
So, what’s the difference between regular cooking oil and LifeOiL? A lot. Most people think that to lose weight and be healthy you want to eliminate as much fat from your diet as possible, but that’s just not true. Sure, you want to get rid of the “empty” fatty foods – things like greasy potato chips, candy, and fast food. Those things don’t offer much nutritional value at all. But a high-fat diet can be healthy when it’s filled with good fats – like Sunflower Oil, Olive Oil, and Safflower Oil. A diet high in Safflower Oil can actually help you lose weight! The healthy combo of fats, light flavor, and high level of vitamin E make it a much better choice than a traditional cooking oil, and it’s so versatile, I use it in everything now. You can learn all of the details and get questions answered by visiting their site here: www.lifeoils.com.
And I have to tell you about one more totally smart trick for eating healthy, and staying on budget – Zaycon Foods. I’d heard of them before, but wasn’t really sure what they were all about. Once I placed my first order – that is the just about the ONLY way I will buy meat from now on! You buy fresh meat – like, directly from small farmers, never frozen. And the chicken is THE best chicken I have ever had, even the Mister agrees. {The next product we tried was bacon – and ohmygoodheck, best bacon I’ve ever had. No lie.} They have events all over the country, and the prices are amazing. Definitely recommend checking out what you have in your area.
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Is your little fur-baby #BegginForPresents?… Mine is. I mean, it’s not surprising. He comes from a family that loves bacon. I mean, not just loves bacon. But, if bacon were the new currancy, we’d be broke. Because we’d eat it all. We L-O-V-E bacon. So of course, since my little guy gets only the best, we get him Beggin Treats.
"The phrase "working mother" is redundant." I'm Meagan - a Momma, a Blogger, a Freelance Writer, and a total Social Media Junkie. I love sparkles and … [Read More...]
