Gifts — Page 2

The New Way to Send Thank You Cards

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.

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 16, 2013 Filed Under: Celebrations | No Comments

Personalize Your Christmas Decorations this Year – #PCholiday

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….

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 16, 2013 Filed Under: Holidays | No Comments

How to Get the Best Gifts & Best Deals at Best Buy

I made my list, and checked it twice – then picked it all up at Best Buy! Obviously I’m a little bit biased about Best Buy, since I’ve been part of their amazing WOLF {Woman’s Leadership Forum} Blogger program for over a year now. But the reason being part of that program made me fall in love with them is because I learned SO much about Best Buy that I didn’t know before! I would never have thought to buy my washer and dryer there, since I didn’t realize they carried them. But just a couple of months ago I did – and even after searching everywhere online, I couldn’t find a better deal than Best Buy. I learned about their awesome Geek Squad assistance {which has saved my life quite a few times now.} I learned about their My Best Buy points system, where I earn bonuses by shopping with them. And did you know they have a price match policy too?

The amazing team at Best Buy sent me a gift card to do my holiday shopping with them this year. They wanted to see what real moms really have on their list this year. Instead of them telling us which gifts to tell you about, they wanted us to show off the stuff we were truly excited about. So, I printed out my rewards certificates on MyBestBuy.com, tucked my gift cards into my wallet, and grabbed my Christmas list, and headed out over the river and through the woods, to our closest Best Buy store.

Holiday Shopping at Best Buy Rocks [Read more…]

How to Make Unique Family Movie Night Gift Baskets on a Budget

I love to give movies as gifts. One – you can always score amazing deals on Amazon, like the big list I have here for you today. And, there are so many fun ways to give movies as gifts… We have an Elf Magic doll that brings little random gifts for the kids during the month of December – things like a new movie to watch that night, candy and treats, or a new holiday story book. Or, they’re perfect for gift baskets – you can go basic and make a family movie night gift basket: Use a big popcorn bowl or bucket, add a movie or two, snacks and popcorn, maybe even send it with a big cozy blanket too. Or, get creative and build a basket around a favorite movie – I’ve added a bunch of ideas below each of these awesome movie deals. {But remember – prices flip fast at Amazon, especially this time of year. I’m posting this on 11/30/13 – the further away from this date, the more the prices may vary!} So whether you just want to buy some classic family favorites for yourself at a total steal of a price, or build some fun gifts, I hope you enjoy my ideas and deals!

Everyone loves The Goonies, right? It’s perfect for all ages – and you can get it right now for only $4. To build a gift around this, get those gold coin candies, candy rings and candy necklaces, Baby Ruth candy bars, truffles {ala the Truffle Shuffle}, pirate eye patches and accessories, a The Goonies T-shirt or two, and pack it all into a little $3 dollar Treasure Chest gift box. Fun, right?

This is one of my favorite movies – I could never watch it enough times: The Princess Bride. Right now it’s on sale on Amazon for only $3 bucks! If you wanted to make this into a giftable basket, here are some ideas of things to add: Princess Bride pub glasses, cute little love notes – “I’d come from mostly dead for you,” a bottle of Princess Bride wine, some Reece’s Peanut “Butter cups”, Pirate Sword Picks with a little ham and cheese gift set, and this awesome Storming The Castle Card Game. And just for fun, add a set of “Hello, My Name Is” Labels that you can personalize to finish the phrase – “Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die…” [Read more…]

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 30, 2013 Filed Under: Shopping, Entertainment | 5 Comments

What Does the Fox Say? – Holiday Ideas

Have you seen it yet – the What Does the Fox Say video from Ylvis? My nephews showed it to me a few weeks ago, before they headed off for school. I was half distracted trying to work, thought it was funny, and then sent them off to the bus. Little did I know – my life had just changed. This song has been stuck in my head ever since! And the more times I watch the video, the funnier it gets to me :) If you haven’t yet heard what all the fuss is about – let me show ya:

I love that the singer is so serious, while singing these ridiculous lyrics, in an over-the-top epic video. Flying guys in furry fox suits? Laser lights? What more can you ask for? This is now my little girl’s favorite song too – she was SO excited to see it performed in a choreographed dance routine on last night’s Dancing with the Stars finale. She jumped all over the bed singing and spinning. Which is why, when we had our early family Thanksgiving last weekend, I had to turn our pumpkin pie slices into fox faces…

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 27, 2013 Filed Under: Celebrations | 1 Comment

These are a Few of My Favorite Things…. & I’m Giving them All to You!

Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things…. Please tell me someone else is a fan of Sound of Music too? I’m not just old? If you don’t, well, please take a minute to educate and entertain yourself – My Favorite Things, Sound of Music. I’ve sang this song since I was a little girl, and love singing it to my own little girl now :) So, of course when I heard that some of my absolute best-est bloggy girlfriends wanted to get together and give away our own favorite things – I jumped in right away! We all went shopping and picked out some of our fave stuff, created prize packages, and are giving them away to you guys just in time for the holidays! You’ll see them all in the big gift collage below, then you can scroll down to see more about my prize up close and personal, enter to win my prize – then there are links to make it easy peasy to hop around and enter EVERYONE’S prizes too! Awesome, right?

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 16, 2013 Filed Under: Holidays, Giveaways | 14 Comments

Make the Perfect Gift for the Person Who Has Everything

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas, every where you go… Seriously, have you seen the holiday displays at Target and Safeway and other retail places already? It seems so early, but really – there’s only about 6 weeks until the big day. And with the hustle and bustle and overall busy-ness of the holiday season, Christmas will be here before you know it. And, I like to get all of my holiday gift shopping done early, so I can enjoy the December days {mostly} stress-free. So today I’m going to share a few ideas I’m lovin’, that might help you get a jump-start on your holiday shopping too….

I love personalized gifts. I use photos to make cool wall art, I’m addicted to creating little custom photo magnets out of Instagram photos {tutorial coming soon!}. I have a photo mug of Abby’s smiling face on my desk to hold pens and highlighters, and gave one to grandma and grandpa last year too. This year, I’m excited to get some of these cute iPhone cases for my girlfriends and siblings. They’re perfect for those friends who already have everything – it’s useful, it’s personal, and every day they’ll be reminded of how cool you are for giving it to them :)

And what goes better with a personalized gift than a personalized card, right? Treat.com has a huge selection of cards that you can personalize – from adding photos, changing color schemes, and creating your own text inside and out. Don’t have a family picture to use? No problem – use one of the collage options, then add photos of each of you into the boxes. Haven’t taken a family photo yet? Get tips from my fave pro photographer on how to take better photos for the holidays. Don’t want to use a photo? Choose one of their beautiful pre-made designs, and personalize it with your family name, or a message for the recipient. Easy peasy!

Another super cool option that I’ll be using this year are the digital cards. Almost every card that Treat offers can also be sent digitally – the video above shows you an example of how it works. This is perfect for me – I have a lot of friends around the country, like my fave bloggy buddies and business partners – that I don’t have addresses for. But I DO have their email addresses. So this is an inexpensive way to quickly send some holiday cheer their way.

And, just for fun, because I totally love you guys – I’ve got a giveaway! One lucky winner will get their choice of favorite photo mug from Treat, personalized with their own pics and text, plus a set of personalized stationery too! This is a great little “treat” for yourself, or you can personalize a set to give as a gift. Either way – I know you’ll love what you get. I’ve never been disappointed with my purchases with them. Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form below to enter, and be sure to take a minute afterwards to check out the BIG list of other prizes I’m giving away this month, all listed over in my sidebar. Have fun, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway