Christmas — Page 10

New Feature: Weekend Window Shopping! {Best of Today’s Deals!}

Weekend Window Shopping – Start your holiday gift shopping now!

Welcome to a new weekly feature – “Weekend Window Shopping!” I’ll bring you the best of all the daily deal sites in ONE post, easy peasy. Then you can shop the hottest products, at the lowest prices – in you pajama’s. Love it, right? These deal sites are a great way to start stocking up on Christmas gifts at a super low price! And always check to see if you can combine them with Cash Back on sites like Ebates, Inbox Dollars, or MyPoints too, for more savings. So let’s get started….

Weekend Window Shopping –

Totsy KidKraft Sale!

Ohmyheck, do I looove me some KidKraft toys!!! I’m really wanting to get the red play kitchen – but we don’t have room for it yet. And this play table is uh-MAY-zing! I got this for the boys last year, and it is the coolest thing ever. The top flips over to solid wood, so you can use it as a coffee table too – it is really high quality. Find this sale on Totsy today! All KidKraft toys are around 50% off – some more, and you can save over $100 on some of the big sets! SHOP TOTSY TODAY!!

Zulily – Plan Toys 60% off!

Another great sale to help you stock up on some really great quality, well-built toys for the kids for Christmas – check out the Plan Toys selection in the Zulily sale event today! “A green company with commitments to safety and child development, PlanToys proves that eco-friendly, socially responsible toys can be made with superior quality. Their goal is to create toys that inspire imaginations while promoting physical and intellectual development.” I love these toys, they really do last. SHOP ZULILY TODAY!

HomeSav ME – Modern Elements Sale!

Ok seriously, how cool are these?? There are around 20-30 styles to choose from, all very modern and super unique. They’re an eco-friendly spin on a fireplace – read more: Their fireplaces use bio-ethanol, a clean, renewable and environmentally friendly fuel. The combustion of ethanol results in a clean emission of heat, steam and a negligible amount of carbon dioxide, so there is no smoke.” SHOP HOMESAV TODAY!!

Open Sky – Tom Colicchio Sale!

I so love Open Sky… I find some of the most interesting products here that I never would’ve found on my own. You choose your favorite designers, chefs, and celebrities to follow, and get deep discounts on their picks each week! Today Tom Colicchio has this Crown Maple Syrup Trio at a great price – perfect for breakfast when you have holiday guests, right? This is the same syrup they use in their famous restaurants. Very cool. SHOP OPEN SKY TODAY!

Get Shopping!

Get some great deals at all of these sites, and check out the details on each one – you can earn credits for sharing YOUR favorite deals with your friends! Everyone loves a deal, right? Have a great weekend!

LOVE IT! Save $100 on rockAbye Rockers for the Holidays!!

Super Fun Deal at Coupon Mob!

I have been SOOOO wanting one of these super fun rockAbye rockers!!! My little girl loooooves doggys. Her third word was dog. So I know that she would be over the moon with excitement to play on her pirate ship rocker with her pirate doggys!!!! LOVE this. I have enough Amazon credit from my Swag Bucks to get most of her Christmas presents – but this has been a big one on my “Please let me find it on a discount site before the holidays” wish list…. And I found it!!

A little More about Coupon Mob:

“CouponMob is the most comprehensive online source for high-quality coupons and daily deals. Mob Members can tap into discounts of up to 80 percent on these deals, as well as save on everyday coupons for more than 250 leading national brands!!”

You can find a ton of great deals every day on Coupon Mob – I subscribe to both the National Deal newsletter {which is where I found this rockAbye deal!} and my local Yakima deals. And if you sign up today – you’ll get $10 bucks in your account – totally free!! – to use on your first “Steal”.

rockAbye Deal Details:

These rockers are usually $169.00 – but with this Steal from Coupon Mob, you can get them for only $69.99!!! That’s almost $100 off!!! And you can see in the picture, there are a ton of really great options to choose from – love the airplane and ladybug too. So super cute. Heck, I love all of ’em! And these are seriously amazing quality… I’ve been wanting to get one forever!

Get YOUR rockAbye Deal today!!

Head over to the Coupon Mob site to see this deal in the National Deals section – and get an amazing holiday gift sure to make your kids squeal in excitement at a HUGE savings that will make your wallet squeal with excitement too! {What, your wallet never squeals in excitement and admiration at your sweet deals? Hmmm….. you’ve got the wrong wallet. I bet Coupon Mob has a deal on those too…. Lol.}

Do a lot of Online Shopping??

If so, make sure to sign up for a SUPER helpful new service, UPS My Choice! Get alerts before packages arrive, electronically authorize packages for drop-off, re-route to other locations, and many other options. With the holidays coming up, this is such a great service – you can get notice of gifts being delivered to you too!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 28, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | No Comments

Busy Mom Solution: Moonpig.com Saves the {Special} Day!

Introducing another great Busy Mom Solution: Moonpig.com!!

This is the problem –

You’re on your way to work, and suddenly remember that this weekend is {insert important person here – grandmas, husbands, best friends, etc} birthday!!! Ohmyheck – when are you going to have time to go pick up a card? Ugh. This happens to me all the time. Plus, I hate making a last-minute dash to a card store and having to rush and pick out some random over-priced card because I’m in too much of a hurry to pick a good one, and the baby is tearing up the tissue paper display while the boys play sword fighting with wrapping paper rolls. Anyone else have this problem??

The solution –

Set up an account at Moonpig.com!! Moonpig lets you choose your favorite cards, personalize them with names, photos, and messages – then mails REAL paper cards directly to the recipient!! How cool is that??

Watch this super fun video to see it all in action –

So cool, right??

I made a few of these cards last night – and am a big fan now! Here are a few things that I totally love:

Personalizing with photos is super easy – even when you need to make “faces” – you know, where you cut out the shape of your head to add to a character in a funny pic?? Simple and the results come out great.
I love that you can personalize the inside of the card too! You can add messages to both sides of the inner part of the card – with your choice of fonts, colors, and signature. Super fun.
There is a HUGE selection! You can find something for every single person – super funny cards, classic designs, really fun stuff for kids, professional cards for work, and some incredibly cool invitations!
The price is totally reasonable! Each card will run you about $3 – $4 bucks – which is even cheaper than many of the cards you’ll find at Hallmark or the Grocery store, right? And these are way cooler – since you get to totally personalize them.

What are you waiting for??

Head over to Moonpig.com today, set up an account, upload your address book and calendar – and have one less thing to worry about!!! This is a great option to start setting up all of your holiday cards too – you could make a few personalized cards per day, set dates for them to be sent – and know that this year, all of your cards will get to people in time!

Did I just remind you that the holidays are on the way??

Yep, it’s true – the Christmas season is right around the corner. Here are a few posts to help you get ready – Santa’s Coming! 10 tips to help you prepare for the Holidays, an amazing Christmas Giveaway you can enter, and some great ways to stock up on FREE Christmas gifts – Kids Books, Pluto Ornament and Free Disney Movies, and some Cool Personalized Gifts too! Make it a holly jolly time of year by prepping now, so you can just sit back and relax this December!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 26, 2011 Filed Under: Holidays, Busy Mom Solution | No Comments

Rafflecopter: $200 Christmas Shopping Spree Extravaganza!!!

Win a Holiday Shopping Spree!!

Welcome to the $200 Christmas Shopping Spree Extravaganza! I am super excited about this giveaway, because you guys KNOW that I am a total Christmas Junkie, right?? {For some of my best tips to start getting ready for Christmas now, and a clip from my favorite movie, read this post} I have teamed up with a group of bloggers to offer an amazing giveaway prize — One amazingly lucky winner will receive TWO gift cards:

(1) $100 Amazon Gift Card for all your online Christmas shopping
(1) $100 Gift Card of your choice to use at your favorite store!

How cool is that?? Imagine how much cool stuff you could buy for the kids? Or, how much cool stuff you could just buy for YOU??

I have a chance to win too!

I’m not able to enter to win this super cool giveaway – BUT…This giveaway is also a friendly competition between all the sponsoring bloggers, so {pretty please with sugar on top!!} make sure to follow this very important step:

In the first Rafflecopter entry, you’ll be asked to give the name of the blog that referred you — please enter SUNSHINE AND SIPPY CUPS in the Extra Info box. The blogger who refers the most people to this giveaway will win a special gift card prize too, so thanks for your help!

The rest of the entries are easy peasy – you just follow each of us on Facebook and Twitter for one entry for each follow. Giveaway starts 10/26 at 12:00 am EST and ends 11/8 at 11:59 pm EST. This giveaway is open worldwide.

Note regarding double entries:

We know that many of our readers enter multiple giveaways a day and sometimes lose track of which ones they’ve entered. If you should happen to enter twice by accident or on separate blogs, this will NOT disqualify you. At the end of the giveaway all double entries are deleted so that each person has only one set of entries. This is to ensure that all entrants have a fair chance at being chosen as the winner.

Don’t forget that there are several daily entry opportunities as well, so bookmark this giveaway and come back every day to claim yours!

I am so super excited for one of you to WIN this amazing prize right in time for your holiday shopping. Someone is going to have an extra holly-jolly season this year — Good luck!

[Read more…]

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 25, 2011 Filed Under: Giveaways | 5 Comments

Get Unlimited FREE Scholastic Books from Kellogg’s!

Get FREE Books from Kellogg’s and Scholastic!

This is another great way to start stocking up on FREE Christmas Gifts – {learn how to get FREE Disney Movies too!} – and it’s super easy…

Here’s how it works:

Purchase participating Kellogg’s products at any Walmart store – {Stuff like Eggo Waffles, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Pop Tarts} – and then enter the codes on the package onto the Scholastic site. For every 2 codes you enter, you’ll get a voucher for a FREE book! How cool is that? And there is NO limit to how many free books you can get. Love it.

Get your Free Scholastic Books today!

Save on Kellogg’s products too!

Sign up today for the Kellogg’s newsletter, and get up to $10 bucks in free coupons now, then use those towards the participating products to make this an even better deal!

{For a list of participating Kellogg’s products, see the website for details, or watch for specially marked packages at Walmart!} By signing up for this newsletter, you’ll also get updates a couple times a month with great new promotions and savings.

What are YOUR best Holiday Freebie tips?

If you’ve found a FREE offer that would be great for holiday prep – share it in the comments!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 19, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | 1 Comment

Get your Business ready for the Holidays – Save over $50 too!

Who Loves Vistaprint?

I do, I do!! I use Vistaprint for a huge order every few months, and have always been super happy with the service, the quality, and especially the PRICE. You really can’t beat the value you get with Vistaprint – seriously. I get almost everything I need for my blog and business, plus fun gifts and personal stuff too.

Why do they give away so much stuff for FREE?

While Vistaprint has tons of great options for gifts, personal use, and office supplies – they are most focused on business owners. They’re hoping that by letting you try out a bunch of their products for free, you’ll love ’em enough to keep coming back for all of your small business needs. And for me, it sure worked!

What can you get free?

Right now there are a ton of great free options! You can get cute little mini-photo books like these – and there are a bunch of really nice design options. I used these as part of Christmas gifts for the grandparents last year. Really nice. You can also get all of this for free right now too:

One Wall Calendar – fully personalized with your own family photos and dates.
250 custom designed business cards – including your company logo!
10 Free Premium 4×8 Invitations – great for any holiday entertaining, or even make them as a Thank You style card instead!
1 Free Custom Cotton Tote Bag – your choice of design and text.
1 Free T-Shirt with your own photos and text.
Plus the photo books!

Why this is a great time to order:

Here’s how it works – all of the above items are totally FREE, you click here to visit Vistaprint.com, and start creating all of your fun free items. All you pay is shipping and handling on each one, which ranges from $4-6 bucks on each item. If you only want a couple of things, this is an amazing deal – how can you NOT love a full set of 250 business cards for $5 bucks? Or how about a T-shirt or tote bag customized with pic’s of the kids to sent to Grandma? And if you’re a business owner, you need to get ready for holiday promotions by stocking up on stickers, cards, brochures and more right now!

How to get even MORE value…

Here’s where the REAL value comes in… If you ordered all 6 free items, you’d pay about $30 bucks total for your shipping and processing fees. Still a totally great value for everything that you get, right? BUT – right now, Vistaprint has a deal – Spend $50 bucks or more and get FREE shipping! What does that mean? That means instead of paying $30 in shipping for all of this great stuff, you can STILL get it all, PLUS pick out $50 in ADDITIONAL merchandise, for only $20 bucks more!! When you add the value of the free items, plus the free shipping, you’re paying about $50 bucks for over $120 in merchandise!

There is so much fun stuff to choose from:

Car door magnets to advertise your business
Mugs and travel cups
Photo Mouse Pads like mine above
Holiday Cards
Christmas Ornaments with your family photos
Notebooks – these can be customized any way you like, with calendars inside, back cover graphics, text, etc. One of my favorites!
Keychains, lawn signs, banners, networking stickers, and more to boost your business
Photo Post-it Style notepads, greeting cards, birth announcements, and other fun stuff!

Love it!

My old business cards you see in the first picture have my old logo – so I’m putting together a HUGE new order with my new info! I want to add my Discovery Toys business info too. I’m excited to get new cards – and I’m getting a tote bag with my logo, to promote while I run errands. I’ll also get a rubber stamp, tons of cool logo pens, the car door magnet and more – and I’m totally having fun designing Christmas ornaments!

So check it out, and get YOUR order in today too!!

6 Free Fall Products from Vistaprint! The products are FREE, just pay Shipping and Processing. Choose from flip books, t-shirts, totes, calendars and more! Get creative and have some fun! Great for gifts or for your own use. Trying to find a way to preserve memories? Upload them to a calendar or flipbook! Planning an event? Send invitations and create rsvp cards out of business cards! Click Here to get started!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 18, 2011 Filed Under: Blogging Resources | No Comments

Santas Coming! 10 Tips to Get Ready for the Holidays…

Let me just throw this out here…. I. Love. Christmas. Like, reeeaaallly love Christmas. As soon as Thanksgiving dinner is over, the Christmas Tree goes up. We have a 25 foot wall in the garage, lined with shelves filled floor to ceiling with boxes of Christmas decorations. Yep, we’re that kind of family.

My Favorite Part of My Favorite Movie:

When this movie came out, everyone told me that Buddy the elf must be my twin brother, lol. And it’s true, I’m so much like this. And like Buddy says later – “Santa is coming!! There’s so much to do!!”

Top 10 Holiday Planning Tips:

1. Make lists! Get a notebook, and make a few master lists. Your first is Christmas Cards – make a list of everyone you want to send them to, and start getting addresses. So many of us wait until the last minute, and this becomes a stress-inducing chore instead of a fun way to keep in touch.

2. Now make a Christmas Shopping List too. Write down all of the people you’ll want to buy gifts for – from friends and family, to teachers and coworkers. Do they need holiday cards with their gifts too? Then add ’em to your first list!

3. Take Pictures! Getting professional pictures done is great, but if you can’t afford it – Don’t worry. Trust me, you can still get amazing photos on your own. Check out How to photograph holidays and special occasions and Tips for Capturing Great Family Photos for some great tips and advice on getting great pic’s for this years holiday cards. It’s all about capturing that special moment to share with friends and family!

4. Choose your cards! There are some amazing options for Festive Christmas Cards to be found online – and yes, you can wait until the last minute, and order them with express shipping to get them in time. But you can save a ton by preparing early, and ordering them sooner. Plus, getting them by early November gives you enough time to add a personal message to each one too – which is the best part!

5. Make a Holiday Baking List! There will be TONS of great sales coming up over the next couple of months, and you can match them up with coupons from sites like Coupons.com or RedPlum to save a TON of money. You’ll almost always find coupons for cake mixes, frosting, and cookie mixes. So make a list of everything you’ll need, and start stocking up when your local store has some great deals. Hate clipping coupons? Use my new favorite, SavingsStar, to load digital coupons right onto your store loyalty cards! {Check out my favorite cookie recipe – Peek-a-Boo Cookies!}

6. Start Shopping! Yes – I know it’s not even Halloween yet, lol. But starting early gives you a chance to find the best deals, and get gifts you know they’ll love – instead of overspending at the last minute just to get it finished up! Some tips – Sign up for email updates from sites like Totsy, Zulily or HomeSav to find some totally unique items at HUGE discounts! I watch these all year, and buy great stuff to hide away for birthdays and holidays – you can find kids toys at up to 70-90% off. Wow, right?

7. Yep – another list! List all of the events you want to attend, and set dates for all of your own holiday entertaining and parties. But – make sure not to overextend yourself! Leave some “family” time, at home too, for things like baking cookies and watching movies!

8. Give back to your community. There are so many people in need, and while they of course need your assistance all year long, it takes on extra importance during the holiday season. Imagine being a parent who doesn’t have the resources to get your child a holiday gift, a winter coat, or prepare a Christmas dinner. Heartbreaking. Find out how you can help by visiting sites like Toys for Tots and Coats for Kids. Or check out VolunteerMatch.org to get connected with other local groups who need your help!

9. Another list! Are you a crafty type? If you plan on making gifts for the holidays, you definitely need to get started now – so figure out what you’d like to make, and make a supply list. Make sure to pick up some fun stuff that the kids can make too – they LOVE giving handmade gifts! For some fun ideas check out Handmade Christmas Gifts and 100 Christmas Gifts to Make. And get some great coupons to save at Michaels Crafts.

10. Finally – relax! The holidays are a time for family, celebration, and appreciating what you have. Don’t get too caught up in the frenzy of more, more, more – {unless you’re talking about glitter or tinsel!} – start planning now, use these tips to save bunches of cash, and enjoy the season!

{Disclaimer: I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine.}