Do you send Holiday Cards? It's a Shutterfly Giveaway!

I know some people who take the holiday family photos regligiously every year, color-coordinated, ordered, signed, stamped and addressed right after Thanksgiving...

And others who send online cards.  Or no cards at all. 

There's a lot of in between.

I love sending Christmas cards...but as I mentioned in the Do's & Don'ts of Holiday Cards, I haven't been able to afford them the last couple of years.  But, when I have, I've always used Shutterfly.  And Shutterfly has an amazing variety of cards.


If you're more of a Feliz Navidad:






Or a Happy Hanukkah:







Or a traditional Merry Christmas:







Or a more generic Happy Holidays:






Or a Happy New Year:






Do you send cards?  Do you want to?
I'm giving away a promo code for 25 free cards...to three different readers!

Leave me a comment below for your first entry, and let me know which card is your favorite from Shutterfly's Christmas Cards or other Holiday Cards.
For an extra entry you can tweet or mention this on Facebook.

I'll choose three winners by next Friday, November 4th!!


Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

The Do's & Don't of Christmas Cards

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards.

Here's one of our old cards:



Holiday cards are an excellent opportunity to see old friends and how their families have grown, to see the new babies and growing kids. It gives me a warm feeling to hear from family and friends...and to send them some love in return. However, there are some definitely Do's & Don'ts when preparing your holiday cards.

• Do display modesty.  Don't boast that your toddler has created an algorithm to rival Google's.
• Do include highlights of your year.  Family update letters are usually a blast to read and catch up on everyone's antics.  Don't share major news that might be depressing.
• Don't use the cards as a chance to push your political or relgious agenda on others. But it is OK to send a religious card.
• Do send out cards early or late, it doesn't matter the timing...as long as it's not BEFORE Thanksgiving. 
• Do use the opportunity to be creative! Include photos.  Don't spend a fortune on your cards...it's tacky and offensive during these economic times.

And in my opinion, you can't go wrong using Shutterfly for your holiday photos.  I've been using them every single year to make mine, and I haven't been disappointed once. I've also made photo calendars each year of my children to send to grandparents, had photos put on coffee mugs for special gifts and even had photos put on special boxes and made into canvass paintings.  If I had my way, I'd make every gift a Shutterfly gift, because I love turning photo memories into gifts.

Here's another one of our old Christmas cards made from Shutterfly:





They have so many adorable and inspiring designs...and you can add one photo or multiple photos and add your own message. And, I've always received them timely and in excellent condition.


Sadly, since separating from my husband and being a full-time working mom, I haven't been able to afford Christmas cards the last two years.  But, this year, I'm so excited because Shutterfly has offered me a chance to make free cards AND offer 3 of my readers an opportunity to win 25 free cards from Shutterfly!


I can't wait to get started on this year's cards!  My first step will be dragging the boys and the dog outdoors and giving my mom the camera to take our photo. It might be easy and quick...it might be long and torturous. but no matter what, I'm making memories and traditions with my children for years to come. 

Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q”



Have you received some bad Christmas Cards?
Are photo cards your favorite?

Last Day for a $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Thanks to Gatorade and BlogHer, I'm giving away a $100 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

What kinds of things can you buy with that gift card?

1. Sports equipment
2. Swim wear
3. Camping, hiking and fishing gear
4. Shoes
5. Exercise equipment
6. Apparel

To enter for a chance to win, comment on this Gatorade Giveaway post!

A $100 Gift Card Giveaway

BlogHer & Gatorade have paired up to give away 

a $100 Dick's Sporting Goods gift card.

Leave a comment on my Gatorade Giveaway post,

and you might be the lucky winner!

Pink Cowgirl Hats & Tall Tales

You've heard me mention SITS before.
Many of you already belong.
SITS stands for "The Secret is in the Sauce."

It's a place for bloggers to come together and have fun.
To find each other and support.
To read fun blogs and meet neat people.


AND, today is their SPRING FLING!

If you visit SITS today, you'll find tons and tons of giveaways.

I'm a big supporter of this group, and I've been trying to think of something to giveaway.

I can't spend much money right now, so I've thought of something that's uniquely me.

I'm giving away a pink cowgirl hat
(the same on in my profile picture)
and a short story, to be written by me,
as a bedtime story for your child...or dog...or boyfriend. Or just for you.

You give me some details, I'll supply plenty of imagination.



Leave me a comment to enter the giveaway.
(and go visit the SITS GIRLS!)



I'll choose a winner by midnight central standard time.





Did you know that I write for UpTake & for United Credit Source now?

Starting the New Year Out Right - A Texas Word Tangle Giveaway

In my mind, there's only one way to bring in the New Year...

besides rocketing in a space ship from NASA up into outer space to look for aliens...

ahem.


and, that's with a fabulous giveaway!!!

The gift package will include three books:

When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely, and Emma bids him an awkward good-bye. When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight. He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend. But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating. So why can't she stop thinking about him?

Something Borrowed is as much about the meaning and value of friendship as it is about love, and it takes some risky chances that pay off. Rachel is celebrating her thirtieth birthday with her friends, including her lifelong best friend, Darcy, and Dex, Rachel's handsome friend from law school and Darcy's fiance. One thing leads to another and Rachel ends up in bed with Dex.

Goodnight Nobody stars Kate Klein is a feisty, charmingly insecure Connecticut housewife who trades in a life of late-night karaoke sing-a-longs and West Village brunches with her best friend Janie for a world of mini-vans and Mommy and Me pilates classes. Life in Upchurch, Connecticut, heats up when Kate discovers picture-perfect wife and mother Kitty Cavanaugh dead on the pickled maple hardwood floor of her recently remodeled kitchen. A former chronicler of celebrity gossip, Kate takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of Kitty's murder and the disappearance of Lexi Hagen-Holdt, another Upchurch supermom. Along the way, the mysteries and disappointments in Kate's personal life begin to unravel, including her marriage to the kind-yet-uptight Ben, and her unresolved crush on Evan McKenna, a former neighbor with whom a one-night tryst ended in disaster.

So, I'm giving away those three books
as well as:

this 11" Thomas Stir Fry Pan free from my grocery store.
(and since I have plenty of pans) I've decided to pass on to you.

It's dishwasher safe, oven safe, comes with a glass lid and is $70 in value.

And with this fabulous piece of cookware I am including
a package of Cajun Magic Jambalaya mix.




And this yummy chocolate brownie mix.







I might throw in some more stuff as a surprise, like a picture frame or a photo album...

But only the winner will know for sure.

Leave me a comment a day to earn an entry each day,
Tweet about it for 5 extra entries,
blog about it for five more.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, January 6th at midnight U.S. central time.

Awesome Giveaways

OHMommy, from Classy Chaos, is one of my favorite blogs to read.
And, she's having an awesome giveaway.
These boots.

I'd LOVE these boots.
Go comment on her site and enter!



There's another awesome giveaway...

One of my favorite online shops is having a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post!

Monogram Chick

She's giving away 2 of her favorite things: a monogrammed scarf and a preppy travel mug.
Go leave her a comment to enter and mention I sent you!

Twilight & True Blood Winner

Here's page 75 from the Twilight Movie Companion.
Lula said it was her favorite. She's our resident Twilight guru, so I had to mention her.

My good friend Kat is having a Twilight Giveaway this week, with tons of amazing goodies in anticipation of the movie...and a Lula-signed Twilight Movie Companion book!!

without further ado...

The Texas Word Tangle winner is

Jennifer from Crazy, Magic, Sometimes Hectic, Beautiful Life!

More Side Effects

The Vampire giveaway was going to end today at midnight,
but I've decided to extend it to Friday,
so you can get more entries.
One comment a day, every day, for more entries.
Post about the giveaway on your blog for three extra entries.


A while back I wrote a post about the side effects of football.
I still have a hard time looking at those photos.

Well, I'm here today to show you yet more side effects.

I should have know, after reading Shannon's post about her daughter and Valarie's post about her son, that these things happen in 3's.

It took me a week to clue in to our medical issue.
Girls, I think we all three win Mother of the Year Awards.

It was our turn.

Here we are in the orthopedic waiting room, where they have a chess board.
The waiting room was packed with kids and adults,
but no one was playing, so Donny and I did.

I checkmated him fairly quickly,
and then our second game was cut short.

And we headed back to an exam room to have the doctor look at our x-rays.

The Doctor identified the small fracture on his pinky immediately, and told us Donny needed a cast.

DARNIT.

That's the splint the emergency center had given us.

And now on to the cast making...

He chose bright green.

And he has to wear it for six weeks.

But, the kicker is, get this...he can still play football!!

Is that nutty or what?!!

Donny only has one or two games left.

Vampire Giveaway

I'm feel like having a giveaway!!
Here's what I'm offering,
two books:


This book, Dead Until Dark, is the first in a series of books about Sookie Stackhouse, a special waitress in Louisiana, that is awesome...
and it inspired the HBO show True Blood.

Everyone's read Twilight by now right?
And knows the movie comes out in a couple of weeks?

Well, you need the movie companion book!

One comment a day, for one entry a day. Contest ends Wednesday at midnight.
Winner gets BOTH books.

Luck in 3's.

I've won some contests recently.

Linda at Another Piece of the Pie gave me a year's subscription to

Everyday Food Magazine!

Thank you, Linda!!!




Then I won at Raspberry Lemonade for posting leaving a house cleaning tip,
which is ironic, because I'm a horrible house cleaner.

Here is the comment I left:

My house cleaning tip is to let the dog lick up all kitchen spills...hehe

Ok, I'm not the best housekeeper, unfortunately, but I do know you should change your air filters every three months and spray your AC unit outside with a hose every once in a while to clean it off. Use gloves to clean out your gutters because we have spiders here that bite...

and don't have kids, because they are NOT conducive to a clean house. hehe

They are sending me an initial pewter charm,
although it hasn't arrived yet.

Then I also won an adorable baby blanket from
Elaine at Miss Elaine-ous Life.
She sent me a mini cuddle from Ambajam



I don't have a baby,
but I think this will make the perfect gift to my cousin's new baby!




Thank you, everyone!!