Holidays — Page 4

FREE Build Your Own Holiday Card Freebie Package – Your Choice!

Free Card Sample Package!

Visit my favorite Free Sample site – MySavings – to find a super cool new offer… You can choose from one of three different option of totally free greeting card packages! Choose the Free Holiday Cards, Free All Occasion Cards, or choose your very favorite cards from all of the designs on their site, add the codes to the order form, and they’ll send you a custom sample pack. How cool is that, right? To get your Free Holiday Card Package, or make a custom pack, just scroll halfway down the page, and you’ll see the options to get your free cards today!

Build Your Own Free Greeting Card Sample Pack!!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 24, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Seattle’s Best #SeattlesBestBF Twitter Party + Facebook Freebies!

Seattle’s Best #SeattlesBestBF Twitter Party

While most of us are recovering from our turkey feast the day after Thanksgiving, people working in retail and related fields have to go to work on the busiest shopping day of the year – Black Friday! Seattle’s Best is showing appreciation by offering free coffee to those going to work on Black Friday.

Free Coffee from Seattle’s Best!

People working on Black Friday can for their free coffee by simply going on Seattle’s Best Facebook page (www.facebook.com/seattlesbestcoffee) and request a free sample. The first 100,000 people to sign up will receive a free sample of Level 3 coffee mailed to their home. Level 3 is a smooth complex coffee that’s exclusively for everyone. Each sample brews a 10-cup pot of deliciousness. Seattle’s Best Coffee knows there are plenty of non-retail employees at work on Black Friday, like police, fire and medical workers, who are all welcome to free coffee too.

Not working Black Friday? That’s Ok!

There’s something in it for the Black Friday shoppers as well! It’s a coupon for $2 off the Level of their choice that can be redeemed at grocery stores and mass retailers. Have you tried this stuff yet? Mmmmm…… I am a total coffee junkie, most of you know this. I’ve tried almost all of the levels now, and don’t have a favorite yet. Why? Because they’re all really unique, and all delicious – making it tough to choose just one! Use the coupon and pick up a couple varieties next time you’re shopping.

Let’s Party!!

Join me for a super fun Seattle’s Best Twitter Party this afternoon – you get to chat live with me and the other hosts, and have a chance to win some amazing prizes. Coffee + Party + Prizes?? What’s not to love!!

Date: Monday, November 21, 2011
Time: 3 – 4pm EST
Moderator: @MomCentral
Assistant Moderators: @DadCentral, @sunandsipcups, @kellysluckyyou
Topic/Focus: Talk about Black Friday shopping, deals and Seattle’s Best Black Friday initiative!
Hashtag: #SeattlesBestBF
Prizes: Six people will win $50 Target gift cards, two pre-party promotion winners will also win a $50 gift card.

For more information on the Best Coffee Level System and to see which Level you are – visit http://www.seattlesbest.com/level-system.aspx.
For more information on the Seattle’s Best #SeattlesBestBF Twitter Party, please click here: http://bit.ly/vLp1lT

Are YOU Working Black Friday?

I worked in retail management and fashion merchandising for years – so I’m a pro at Black Friday. But even with experience – it was still the craziest day of my year, and it did take a ton of coffee to get us all through it, lol! I’ve worked it all – smaller boutique stores like The Buckle, huge retailers like Macy’s, fun stores like Michaels Crafts – but the craziest was at Aeropostale! This was always the busiest store in our mall, with lines of people to get in and snag the amazing deals. If you’re working that day – tell me about it in the comments!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 21, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Elf Yourself! Check out my video – and get your own #FREE one too!

Elf Yourself – from Office Max and Jib Jab!!

Who doesn’t totally love Jib Jab, right?? So so so love that site. They’ve partnered with Office Max again this year to bring you totally FREE Elf Yourself Videos! Yep, that’s me, singing you some holiday tunes in the video above :) You know how much I love Christmas, right??

Get your own FREE Elf Yourself Video! Click here, scroll to two spots above the bottom to the Elf Yourself link, then set up your videos. {You’ll also see another fun free video offer from Jib Jab before you get to the Elf Yourself one – you’ll love that too!}

Also – make sure to enter all of my holiday giveaways! Find ’em right over there —-> in the new sidebar widget! You can see cute pic’s of each one, and it makes it easy peasy to enter them all! Good luck. And come share YOUR Elf Yourself videos on my wall on the Sunshine and Sippy Cups Facebook page!

Share the fun! Share this post with the easy peasy buttons – post this to YOUR Facebook and Twitter too – and ask your friends to share their videos with you too!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 11, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Shutterfly Family Photo Days – Fun Tips & Free Holiday Cards!

Getting Perfect Family Photos…

Everyone has that one perfect family photo. The one where everyone is smiling, the lighting is perfect, no one has a weird lamp growing out of their head…. You know, perfect. And you try again every year to get it right again, with no luck. At the holidays, you’re often sending out cards to people you seldom see during the year, so you want to show your family in the best possible way – it’s a lot of pressure, right?

The holidays are getting closer every minute…

As you can see from my new little gadget in the sidebar, there are only 47 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 22 seconds until Christmas! That might seem like a lot of time, but it’ll be here before you know it. And the very best tip to have a relaxing, peaceful, and enjoyable holiday season it to get things done early. One of the big reasons I hear from people for putting off creating amazing personalized holiday cards is that they don’t have a great photo to use. Well – I’m here, armed with some great tools from Shutterfly, to save the day!

Holiday {or any day!} Photo Tips:

Coordinate: You don’t have to dress everyone in matching holiday sweaters! But choose a theme, or color story, so everyone’s outfits work well together. Solid colors work better than a lot of pattern, layers work better than short sleeves, and a couple cute accessories can really pull things together! Choose one color that everyone pulls into their outfit somewhere – Example: If you chose red, then mom would wear a red top, dad might have a red shirt layered under a sweater, baby could have a red bow in her hair – you get the idea.
Shake it up: Don’t take stuffy, boring photos on the family couch. Get outside! Jump in fall leaves, play in the snow, run in the grass. Find an interesting landmark in your city to take photos with. The more unexpected the better!
Props: Some fun props can make a world of difference! I love, love, LOVE bringing big wooden letters into photos – have the kids hold letters that spell a word, like JOY or LOVE. Or have each kid hold a sign with a different word – spelling a phrase like Joy to the World. Have everyone wear hats and scarves – or big winter boots in the snow! Eat snowcones, shovel snow, throw the kids in the air, kick a soccer ball – trust me, when you’re having fun, it’ll show in your photos!

Have a Family Photo Day:

Shutterfly wants to help families across the country have an easier time capturing those perfect family moments to share in their Holiday Cards and Photo Books by helping you host Family Photo Days! What’s a Family Photo Day? Well, it’s a super smart idea, a total Busy Mom Solution – get a bunch of your friends together, set up some fun props to share, brainstorm fun ideas and silly settings, grab your cameras, and prepare to be delighted by some amazing holiday photos!

It’s not about the professional photographer or the dull photo shoot in front of the mantle. It’s something anyone can do. Get together with friends and brainstorm! Think about creative ways to show off your families’ personalities.

Online Tool Kit:

Check out Shutterfly Family Photo Day online for some super cool tools and features:

Learn more about Family Photo Day, and watch a really great video that will seriously give you some awesome ideas. So easy, and so fun!
Download the digital toolkit for a HUGE list of photo tips – including indoor shots, outdoor ideas, setting and prop ideas, wardrobe tips, and so much more. You’ll feel like a pro in no time!
Get FREE Holiday Cards! Enter your favorite family photo – and get 5 totally free cards just for entering! And the winner will get a full YEAR worth of free cards! Awesomesauce, I know.

Secret Trick for Holiday Photos:

If all else fails, and you just cannot get one picture where everyone looks good, use my secret trick – use an easy and free editing program like Picnik.com to crop your photos – take the best parts of a few of your favorites, make sure you’ve got everyone in at least one pic, and put them all together in a fun multiple-photo Christmas Card! No one will ever know that you had to crop out the brother pulling sisters hair. We’ve done this for many of our cards, and they turn out perfect.

More Holiday Fun:

Check out a few of my other Holiday Prep posts too! Learn my super easy peasy secret for amazing Bake Pop desserts, read my Top 10 Tips for Holiday Planning, learn how to get a great 25% off coupon for Melissa & Doug Toys, and get your business ready for the holidays too!

What do you think?

Did you watch the video? Does it make you more excited for great holiday photo shoots now too? What do you think of the idea to pull your family and friends together for a fun Family Photo Day? Share your thoughts, along with your best holiday photo tips, in the comments!

{Disclaimer: I received a complimentary set of holiday cards for sharing this amazingly cool promotion with you – but I would’ve shared it anyway, because I know you’ll love it. Fun tips and advice, creative inspiration, and free photo cards? That’s what I call super-cool.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 7, 2011 Filed Under: Holidays, Busy Mom Solution | No Comments

CouponCabin’s 25 Crazy Dayz of Giveawayz | Discovery Toys Prize Package! #CouponCabinHop

Welcome to CouponCabin’s 25 Crazy Dayz of Giveawayz!

This multi-blog event is hosted by Simply Stacie, Makobi Scribe and Sassy Mama in LA and is sponsored by CouponCabin. This is the biggest event the blogosphere has seen with over 400 giveaways each at $25 value or more plus a huge giveaway with some major prizes like a MacBook Air, iPad2 & Visa Gift Cards. You can find all the giveaways from the participating blogs by visiting the host blogs, Simply Stacie, Makobi Scribe and Sassy Mama in LA. Each host blog will feature a different set of giveaways for you to enter!

Coupon Cabin –

No matter what type of coupon you’re looking for, you’ll find it and over 100,000 others at CouponCabin.com, a leading destination for coupon codes, printable coupons, deals and more. Now with a new and improved grocery coupons section and the largest selection of coupon codes that are guaranteed to work, CouponCabin is the best place to start your search for savings. This holiday season, CouponCabin is dedicated to making holiday savings as easy as pie by bringing you the best deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can also download our CouponDetector and we’ll let you know when the site you’re shopping has coupons and deals available. Never pay full price again with help from CouponCabin.com!

CouponCabin is giving away the following fabulous prizes:

Grand Prize: MacBook Air (11-inch, 128GB; ARV $1,199)
2nd Runner Up: iPad2 (16GB, with Wi-Fi +3G; ARV $629) & $200 Visa Gift Card
3rd Runner Up: iPad2 (16GB, with Wi-Fi +3G; ARV $629)
4th Runner Up: $300 Visa Gift Card
5th Runner Up: $200 Visa Gift Card
6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Runner Ups: $100 Visa Gift Card each

Please visit Simply Stacie, Makobi Scribe and Sassy Mama in LA to enter the giveaway and make sure to say SUNSHINE AND SIPPY CUPS referred you! You can enter on all three sites or just one- it’s up to you! If you enter all three giveaways that just means more chances for you to win.

Win YOUR CHOICE of super fun product from Discovery Toys!!

I’m excited to give one lucky winner their choice of amazing toy from my own Discovery Toys catalog!! {Value of $30 or less} I had heard so many amazing things about Discovery Toys – they’re incredibly well-made, stimulate all of your child’s senses, have tips to encourage new skills and learning, and are just plain fun too! Discovery Toys are used at so many daycare’s and preschools – I have a friend who is a preschool teacher, and she said that they have tried “cheaper” versions of toys, similar to Discovery Toys – but that DT are the ONLY one’s that last! They now use them exclusively, and to me, that’s a HUGE seal of approval!

Discovery Toys has been helping parents to “Teach. Play. Inspire.” with our high-quality educational toys, books, games and music for over three decades.

Win a fantastic Christmas Gift!

One lucky winner will win their choice of item from my Fall/Winter Discovery Toys catalog – with a value of up to $30! So, check out the online catalog, choose the product that YOU hope to win, and use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to get YOUR entries in today!! Good luck!!

[Read more…]

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 31, 2011 Filed Under: Giveaways | 40 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: Busy Mom Solution, Holidays | No Comments

Get Ready for Festive Holiday Events!!

PromGirl.net

I recently got the chance to partner with PromGirl.net to review one of their dresses – which was SUCH fun! I never got to go to Prom or any fancy dances when I was in High School, which is such a huge bummer, because I love, love, LOVE getting all dressed up! I have loved being a bridesmaid so many times, since I adore picking out dresses, and I get super excited about holiday parties – since it’s another excuse for me to get glammed up!

Prom is still several months away for most schools – but I know that when I was in High School {things could be wildly different now. I’m over 30, which means I am totally old and out dated…} we had quite a few winter formal dances. If you have daughters who will soon be shopping for formal dresses, you have got to check out the selection on PromGirl.net!! There are so many pretty things to choose from… Oh, the girly girl in me was in heaven! And this site is NOT just for teens – if YOU have some fancy holiday parties coming up, there are loads of options for you too!

My Favorites:

I am totally in love with the dresses above! I know that when you think of Holiday dresses, most people imagine black or red – but these would totally set you apart from the crowd! The colors are so bright and festive, the cut is so flattering and flowy, and they look like they’d be amazingly comfortable and easy to wear! They’d make a perfect holiday party dress for you, or a fun prom dress for the teenager in your life – since they’re cute, and they cover up without looking too stuffy.

I also love this more traditional style cocktail dress! I am completely in love with the feathery black detailing at the waist, and the textured look of the skirt – it’s like a more modern version of Old Hollywood style. This is on my wish list – it would be such a fun dress to wear to my boyfriends company Christmas Party!

What is YOUR favorite?

There is such a wide selection of dresses on this site – from super funky and trendy, to very classic and simple – I guarantee you’ll find something that is perfect for you. They also carry a really great range of sizes, which is often hard to find in local shops. You can shop by size, by style, by event, by color – or check out the uh-MAY-zing prices on the Sale dresses!! {I found some under $50!! Wow, right??}

Enter to WIN a Dress!

Make sure to check out PromGirl on Facebook too – and enter their monthly drawing to WIN a FREE dress!! They draw a new winner every month, so make sure your daughters enter too!

What Holiday Events are YOU excited about?

Do you have any fun formal style events you’re looking forward to? Do you have kids that’ll be going to Prom or other fun dances this winter? I’d love to hear what you have coming up!