Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts
365 Ways to Say 'I Love You'
The Perfect Pairing for Little Girls - Tutu & Fairy Wand Giveaway
When I found out {by accident} that I was having a little girl, all of my dreams of playing dress up, doing hair, getting cute bows and shoes were all I could think of for weeks. I couldn't wait to meet my little girl.
For her birthday, I wanted to see if she would wear a tutu. The only problem was that I didn't have time to make one. Just one week before my daughter's birthday, my friend Victoria started her company Pixie Tales Creations. She has made several tutu's for her daughter and she loved doing it so much, she wanted to make tutus for everyone! I was over the moon when she told me we could have one completed and shipped in less than a week!
My daughter LOVED the tutu! It was the only girly thing so far that she can't get enough of.
My daughter LOVED the tutu! It was the only girly thing so far that she can't get enough of.
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Now it's your turn!
We are teaming up with the Blogging Mamas Network, Lindsey Blogs and Viva Veltoro for the 3rd annual Handmade from the Heart Giveaway Hop. This Hop has been such a success in the past that they brought it back for round 3 because it seems everyone loves beautiful handmade items!
Pixie Tales Creations is giving away a handmade tutu and fairy wand to your little girl!
If you purchase a tutu and/or fairy wand from Pixie Tales Creations {enter that option below} and if you win, you will have the option of getting another tutu and fairy wand or be refunded for your purchase.
Each blogger in this Event has a handmade giveaway worth at least $25, so be sure to hop around and celebrate Handmade from the Heart! And you definitely do not want to miss the fantastic handmade goodness of the Grand Prize… a $200 Etsy Gift Card!
Disclosure: I have received this tutu & fairy wand at no charge. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. Giveaways are supplied by Pixie Tales Creations. See full disclosure statement here.
14 Healthy Days of Valentines
Let me start off by saying..
If you are my husband, do not read this post! You will ruin your surprises!
Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with this post!
We are trying to be a bit healthier in our household, so when Valentine's Day comes around, we try to avoid the overpriced and often buttery restaurant meals and sugary chocolates and sweets by not celebrating the holiday. Well, now that we have a daughter, we need to start showing some love to the holiday. {pun intended}
I saw some crazy cute printables for significant others on Pinterest and on linky parties, but most of them included ideas for sugary and processed items that we are trying to avoid. So the search continued.
Then, I found these bad boys. They are super cute and offer healthy alternatives for daily gifts.
I went to the original site and only one of these were available to be clicked on and printed, so I decided to make them printable for you. Just click on the images above {each image has it's own link} to download and print for yourself.
I know, I know..there are only 12. For the other two days I plan on using these ideas:
I love this option with some much needed lip balm attached. We love Burt's Bees Lip Balm in our house. Head over to Five Little Chefs and print your own.
And for the final day/night February 14, I am going with this one found at Lou Lou Girls. {But instead of soda, I will get a mix and match 6 pack of beer for him}. I realize this isn't the "healthiest" option, but it's better than chocolate!
The Lou Lou Girls also have a toothbrush option in this post, which I thought about because my hubby wants a toothbrush at work. I was torn between that and the lip balm above. But chapstick won out.
There are so many other non-candy, non-sweet options. This will also help us all keep any weight loss New Year's Resolutions.
For more Valentine's Day inspiration, follow my Valentine's Day Pinterest board.
I know, I know..there are only 12. For the other two days I plan on using these ideas:
I love this option with some much needed lip balm attached. We love Burt's Bees Lip Balm in our house. Head over to Five Little Chefs and print your own.
And for the final day/night February 14, I am going with this one found at Lou Lou Girls. {But instead of soda, I will get a mix and match 6 pack of beer for him}. I realize this isn't the "healthiest" option, but it's better than chocolate!
The Lou Lou Girls also have a toothbrush option in this post, which I thought about because my hubby wants a toothbrush at work. I was torn between that and the lip balm above. But chapstick won out.
For more Valentine's Day inspiration, follow my Valentine's Day Pinterest board.
Have a healthy Valentine's Day!
How we paid $0 for our Family's Christmas Presents
For years now my husband and I have been finding interesting ways to pay for Christmas Presents. Usually, it results in using overtime money he brought in, saving for Christmas instead of saving in our normal savings accounts, and inevitably the "third paycheck". You know, every month you get 2 checks but because you are paid bi-weekly two months a year you get 3 checks. We have always just made it work.
This year I had a brilliant idea. I found a way that we were able to pay for ALL of our family's presents without paying a dollar.
We used credit card points. We use our Citi Forward Card for everything. We accumulate so many points but we can only get so many gift cards to use for ourselves. So Amazon recently teamed with Citicards and offers the opportunity to use your points to pay for your order.
My daughter's birthday was a week ago, so I didn't even start thinking about Christmas until Monday. That's right..no need to adjust your screen..Monday. Amazon Prime makes it super easy with two-day shipping to get all of my last minute gifts and now to use my Citicard points! This is my kind of Christmas.
The only gifts we said we were paying for are the gifts for our daughter and our gifts for each other. We have budgeted for our daughter's gifts and our presents for each other will be paid for out of our own savings accounts, but will for sure go on our credit card for points. My husband already knows he is getting his Year of Dates from me.
In the new year I will be going into more detail on how we budget and use our credit card for everything. In the meantime, how do you budget or pay for your Christmas?
**This post contains Amazon affliate links. If you sign up for the free trial of Amazon Prime and/or join, you will help to keep this blog running at no additional charge to you. Thank you for clinking! Visit my full disclosure here.**
**This post contains Amazon affliate links. If you sign up for the free trial of Amazon Prime and/or join, you will help to keep this blog running at no additional charge to you. Thank you for clinking! Visit my full disclosure here.**
Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas & a Giveaway
Now it is after Thanksgiving and I know you all have started to receive your holiday party invites. Most of us gift a bottle of wine to our hostess when we attend a party. This week I am partnering with EVCreations to bring you a super simple way to jazz up that bottle of wine for your hosts.
Holiday wine labels make it easy to gift wine to hosts for the holidays. Not only are these labels easy to attach and witty, they are personalized with our family's names. No need to even gift the wine with anything! And the best part is that the host knows who the wine came from.
But just in case you are like me and want to make your wine a little more like a gift {it is the holidays after all}, here are some simple ideas to dress up your wine.
You can simply add an ornament for a festive look.
Want to give the hostess a little more than just wine? Pair it with a great candle and a box of chocolates. My personal favorite combination: DaVinci Chianti, Sea Salted Caramel Chocolates and Twisted Peppermint Candle.
There are so many options to dress up your personalized wine for your holiday parties this year. Here is your chance to win your very own set of personalized holiday wine labels. Good luck!
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a Rafflecopter giveaway
I found these great bags at Dollar Tree this season. What a better "outfit" for a bottle of wine than a Santa suit, elf costume, or just a little Santa hat?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
How to Plan your Year of Dates Present
This year, my husband asked me to gift him A Year of Dates again. If you missed last year's present, read it here.
I am cheating a little this year and reusing one that was extremely popular and re-gifting dates we didn't get to do, so I feel confident I can share them with you.
I am sharing with you how I am planning my gift to him this year. I obviously cannot share specifics since he does read my blog. I will be posting throughout the next year about what dates we are doing so you can use them for your gift next year!
*some links used are affiliate links*
Matching Months to Dates
Pretty obvious, but it is harder than you think! I used my Date Ideas Board on Pinterest to provide some inspiration.
I have a handy, dandy printable that I used to help me plan. It has a column for the month, the date that I chose {use pencil - lots of erasing and moving around}, as well as cost for the entire date and what I am willing to contribute. I am always sure to include a BIG date in there. Big date = most expensive. I always pay the full amount for that one, because some months, I opted to not pay for the entire date and that month we just budgeted in some of the money needed. For the rest of the dates, I mixed in some cheap and free dates as well.
I also have added columns so that you can note what gift item you will include {gift card, voucher, cash, etc} and a column to help you remember if it is completed or not.
I also have added columns so that you can note what gift item you will include {gift card, voucher, cash, etc} and a column to help you remember if it is completed or not.
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| Click here to download planning page |
Spa Date - I opened up the Schramm Spa for one night only. I gave him a choice of 6 options, he got to choose 2. {can't have it all} I found recipes online for facials, foot scrubs, bath salts, massage oil and a lavender face mask. When he made his choice about what we would like and made his 'appointment', I gathered my materials and made what I needed to make. I was rather inexpensive because it is done at home and all of my treatments were made at home as well. This was by far his favorite date.
Hiking Bushkill Falls - we didn't get to do this date because of the timing. The height of the season this year fell later and it just didn't land on a weekend we could get up there. Going for a walk or hike is a perfect date. You get exercise, beautiful views and best part for us is we could take our baby girl along. You can find hiking trails near you and pack a picnic to take along.
Drive-in Movie - We still have a couple if drive in movie theaters near us. It seems like such a great experience. You can see if there is one near you. If not, many movie theaters are starting to convert to full service theaters. This would be a great "dinner & a movie" all at once.
For ideas, you can follow my Date Ideas Board on Pinterest, check out Groupon or Living Social {just be aware of the expiration dates} and be sure to think about some things you did when you first started dating and throw those in there too. These traditional things took up most of my dates for our first year.
Writing out your dates or Printing them out
I have to admit, this was my most difficult task. I wanted to say something meaningful but everything came out not-so-cute quirky or it didn't make sense. Since I hand-wrote each month's date so I went through a lot of paper. Surprisingly, this is the one thing I got the most comments on from my last post - how handwriting the notes really adds something special to the gift. I have always believed in handwriting notes when it is especially sentimental or meaningful.
This year I started to type out each date idea. This way I can have my wording available and then hand write on the pages I chose to use.
Some tips to help you:
Title page: Explain why you are gifting this to him. In our case, my husband's love language is time spent together so this is my expression of love. Here is a glimpse of last year's.
Month descriptions: Give brief instructions on how it is to work. This is also where you can make it sweet or add any cryptic messages you may want to add {wink,wink}.
Assembling it all together
Month descriptions: Give brief instructions on how it is to work. This is also where you can make it sweet or add any cryptic messages you may want to add {wink,wink}.
Use any envelope you would like. I used these larger ones because I had some gifts that wouldn't fit in a small envelope. This year, I may use the small envelope - haven't decided.
Here are the labels that I used for the large envelopes. I have included ones for smaller envelopes. Print, cut and paste onto the envelope.
Put in a box and you are ready! Happy Holidays!
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| Click to download the large labels or small labels |
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Our Year of Dates Christmas Present 2013
Christmastime always seems to be my favorite time. I love the lights, the tree trimming, the Christmas carols {even in October}, but my favorite part is choosing the BEST gift for everyone on my list. I start making my list and checking it twice in September.
So I'm starting Christmas on my blog now!
So, I started scheming and planning in July. I had come up with all of my dates and pre-paid for some of them.
Here are our dates for the year:
So I'm starting Christmas on my blog now!
Last year, my husband and I were having a baby. Her due date was December 16. Knowing she was due so close to Christmas, I was making sure that I had ALL of my presents purchased, wrapped and under the trimmed tree by Thanksgiving. Yes that's right - Thanksgiving. I started thinking about what I could possibly give to my husband {besides a baby} that he would love and would hopefully bring us closer together {again, besides a baby}.
I saw this on pinterest and it gave me a great idea. A year of dates!
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If I give him a year of dates, we will be forced to spend time together after the baby is born.
January - Philadelphia Home Show {tradition} and money for cookies at Reading Terminal {tradition}
February - Schramm Spa Date {his ABSOLUTE favorite}
March - Beer Tasting at a Brewery
April - Movie on me
May - Spring morning walk and money for breakfast
June - Drive in Movie Theater {yes we have some near us :)}
July - Couples Massage {most pricey and reminder of our honeymoon}
August - Wii Game Night
September - Bushkill Falls Hiking {tradition}
October - Apple picking, hot apple cider and apple cider doughnuts {tradition - first date}
November - Dave & Busters fun date
December - TBA {he reads this blog}
So my grand idea is amazing! Execution - not so much. Out of these 11 dates, as of today we have done 7. For some reason, I thought it would be easier than it is to a) leave a baby, b) find a babysitter, c) have a free weekend and d) did I mention leave the baby?
So, as per his request, I am putting together another year of dates for him next year! I told him I am reusing ones we haven't done yet - makes it easier on me :)
Since he does read my blog, I did have to keep it all under wraps but you can check it out here.
I also have created a Year of Dates for Kids!
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