Vistaprint Christmas Cards: Review

I'm a dork, I love sending out Christmas cards and I run to the mailbox every evening to see if one of our friends has sent us a card.  I love them.  I love displaying them in the house so I have smiling family and friends around me for a few weeks.

Our Christmas Card display from 2011

While I was decorating the house this year I went back to the 2011 cards that we received, yes, I kept them, and it was a fun trip down memory lane.  So many couples now have babies who didn't last year and the kids that were in the photos last year have grown so much in just one year.  That's why I love Christmas Cards.

This year I ordered our cards off of Vistaprint.com after seeing a deal on Groupon.  I spent one evening on Thanksgiving weekend playing around with the 900+ card options they have on the site and finally decided on one of them, using one of our favorite wedding pictures as our main image.  It took a while for me to decide on our card, there are so many great ones to choose from.  I know there are a ton of sites out there, even Etsy, where you can create your own card and I think the best advice I can give when picking your cards, pick a site and stick to it.  If you jump around to multiple sites to compare cards, you'll drive yourself nuts.  With the deal we had, it was a no-brainer, we were using Vistaprint.  When comparing prices, they were on the lower end of the scale, too.  Once we found 3 or 4 cards we really liked I picked 4 or 5 photo options and played around with them to see which combination I liked the most.

The ordering process was very simple and the cards were delivered faster than they had quoted.  Love that! I was a little nervous that the cards wouldn't be top quality but they are great - exactly what I was looking for.  The image is clear, the type is clear on the front and the back and the paper weight feels like it's a nice quality paper.  I couldn't be happier.

If you haven't ordered your Christmas cards yet, or are planning on sending them out next year, I highly recommend Vistaprint.

DIY Christmas Wreath with Yarn

I love decorating for the holidays/seasons/months/birthdays/etc and because our front door is the first thing guests will see when they come to our house, I want to make sure it's always decorated in some way.  Right now, for Florida Football we have the Gator Ribbon Wreath that I made a few weeks ago. The Gators are undefeated right now so it's not going anywhere until after the last regular season game.  

Supplies for the yarn Christmas wreath

I have a couple of Christmas decoration projects lined up in my head, so starting in October seems like the best plan for me to get everything done by Thanksgiving weekend, when I decorate for Christmas at our house.  I decided to make a bright, red and green wreath for our front door.  Our gate is white, so the red and green will really stand out which is what I want to happen.

I was aiming for something simple yet classic looking and also something I should help others make for their homes.  I came up with a yarn wrapped wreath with some really pretty, fake poinsettias and red ribbon.

To make my wreath you'll need:

• Foam circle from a craft store or dollar store.  Mine is a 12" circle
• Fake poinsettias or any other holiday decor you'd like to display.  We toyed with some holly or even some white flowers but landed on the poinsettias because of their bright red color.
• Yarn, any color that you want while matching your flower choice.  I went with a deep green.  The yarn aisle at Michael's had about 10 different dark greens to choose from.  
• Ribbon to hang the wreath.  You could also hang this wreath from a wreath hook, it's up to you.
• Hot glue gun and scissors.   

Wrap the yarn around the foam circle

The first step in making the wreath is to wrap the yarn around the circle.  For my 12" circle it took about 90 minutes to get it wrapped.  It's a mindless and easy process, so sit down in front of the TV and pop in a movie and start wrapping!  To start the yarn I tied a knot in the yarn and just started wrapping around the foam.  I pulled it tight as I went and made sure that the foam didn't show through.  I used a thin yarn because it was the color I wanted, if you use something thicker it might not take you as long.

Yarn wrapped wreath - it's almost done!

Once it's all wrapped I secured it with hot glue.  I made sure the loose end was glued securely to the rest of the yarn.  It doesn't have to look pretty, it won't be seen once the wreath is complete.  

Add the pretty poinsettia to the wreath

Once the yarn is secure, add on the poinsettia or other floral piece that you have.  I cut the flower from the stem and attached it with a TON of hot glue.   I also used some yarn to tie it to the wreath, and hot glued that down too.  I had to position the leaves where I wanted them and glued them down, too.

Give the glue some time to cool down and harden and then it's time to hang!  I used some red ribbon that we picked up at Michaels for our hanging piece.  

I love how the wreath turned out. You'll notice that I started with two poinsettia flowers but when it came time to add the second one I felt that one was enough.  Now i have another flower to use somewhere else.  I call that a crafting bonus.    

Home for Christmas

Home is a lovely 7 hour drive away in Orlando.  This year I made the drive with Mabel.  Just two girls on the open road (or busy I-75).

She was pretty good on the way down, but didn't understand why she couldn't lay on my lap during the drive.  That got frustrating.  But once she got it she took a nice little nap.  Our first stop was to visit our friends and their dog, Peej.  Peej is close to 90 lbs and when I was home last year for New Years Eve he was just a tiny little puppy.  My, things change in a year!

Here are the two new, best friends hanging out.  He is so much bigger than she is, but she was so much faster outside in the backyard.  Peej was a gentledog and let Mabel use his bed and his chew toys, what a good boy!  I wish they all lived closer so we could get together.  They are our parallel relationship couple.  Having dogs that get along makes it even more perfect.

Mabel stayed at my mom's while I stayed with my dad with the rest of the sisters and family.  That house already has a dog and we chose not to complicate things any more than they were already.  She LOVED my mom's house. There were tons of toys and unlimited walks.  I brought home a very sleepy puppy yesterday afternoon.

Time at my dad's house was perfect.  My sisters was home from NYC and Austin and the sister who lives in town was home with her husband.  It was so great to have the whole family together under one roof.  I told my dad and step-mom after we had opened our presents how lucky I am to have such a great family.  When I was little I used to wish in all fountains or wishing wells for a brother and more sisters.  Well, my wish finally came true, just 20+ years later.  It's going to be so much fun for our family to grow in the next couple of years!

The big surprise for the trip home was that we all (except one of the sisters because she got a new MacBook Air) got iPad 2s!!!!  WHAT?  ARE THE PARENTS FOR REAL??  I've spent just an hour or so playing with it and now we have to get wifi at the house.  To me it seems like it's just a big iPhone, which I already have.  BUT I can now watch TV shows and read magazines in beautiful color.  People at work are saying that it will replace my Kindle.  I could see that happening, but I love my Kindle.  There is a Kindle App for the iPad, so all of my Amazon purchases still work but now I don't need a light to read at night.  I'll keep you posted.

I did notice that with such a large family, there never seems to be a bit of down time.  When I talked about what I'd be doing while I was home, it sounded like I'd have plenty of time to meet up with friends and relax.  I didn't get any of that!  I'm totally exhausted from the trip!  I need a vacation from my vacation.  Good thing San Diego is only two days away.  Our plan for the next two nights is to do a little as possible, that includes cooking.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas begins the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I can't start thinking about Christmas until after Thanksgiving, if I do, I feel like I'm cheating that holiday before it's had a chance to happen.

Getting ready for Christmas isn't just about decorating, it's also time for all the Christmas parties with friends and offices.  Lot's of drinking, lots of dressing up and so much food.  I love all of it.

I was in charge of decorating the inside of the house, Stephen was in charge of the outside.  Sadly, I haven't taking any pictures of the outside of the house - but I can assure you, he did an amazing job.  Every window has a strand of multicolored lights and the stairs have garland and bows.  The front door is wrapped as a Christmas present.  He did an amazing job.  The best part of our decorating was that we never argued.  Another sign of how perfect we are together.

The tree was put up in the dining room, basically because it was the only place for it.  Doesn't it look so pretty with our set table???  I finally get to display all of my Spode items.

On the fireplace that faces the dining room I hung lights (seen in the first picture) and then I added Santa's sleigh and the reindeer with little jingle bells.  The cut outs are from a local store in the Highlands and I knew they'd be perfect on the white fireplace.  

I ordered stockings for all of us from Pottery Barn for our first Christmas together.  I love the classic look of them against the brick fireplace.  

We've been getting a TON of Christmas cards from family and friends and I needed a way to display them. I hung a piece of ribbon from the top of our hutch and clothes pinned each and every card to the ribbon for display.  I had to add the second ribbon the other day!

My office had a Christmas party this year at The Georgia Aquarium - what a beautiful place for everyone to get together with family.  

Aren't we just perfect together!  This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us.  We're in the coral reef room where they have an entire wall of a coral reef complete with tides and sunlight.

Merry Christmas to everyone!