Holiday Card Roundup {$100 Minted Credit Giveaway}

We are officially one month away from Christmas! We haven't yet replaced our pumpkins and turkeys for pine cones and garland but we have picked out our holiday card! One of my favorite holiday traditions is sending out {and receiving} Christmas cards in the mail. Each year I get more and more excited as the cards pour into our mailbox. I absolutely love watching all of the exciting changes in my friends and family's lives each year - from engagement pictures to babies, nothing makes me happier than receiving a happy moment captured in the lives of those closest to us! 

This year we decided to go with Minted for our holiday card. We've used Minted many times for all sorts of paper needs and have always been impressed. In my opinion, Minted truly offers the best designs, lots of customizable options, high quality paper, recipient addressing options {usually free during promotions}, awesome customer service and the super convenient "find it fast" feature which allows you to insert your photo into all of the cards at once for easy shopping.

Here are some of my favorite designs this year, one of which I already have chosen for our Christmas card...

Nonchalant

 A Wonderful Life

All Together Now

Be Merry Script

Best Year Ever

Merrily

Wishing You Joy

Watercolor Merry and Bright

Christmas Love

A Merry Little Christmas But the best news? Minted has graciously offered to give one lucky reader a $100 credit! To enter, use the rafflecopter below. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway  

francesca's {Holiday Gift Guide}

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday week! I am anxiously counting down the days until it's time for turkey and shopping, so to keep myself busy in the meantime I have been plotting out my game plan for shopping the sales at my favorite stores. 

 

Definitely on my list this year {and every year} is francesca's for knocking out the bulk of my shopping list - a candle for our annual girl's gift exchange, a scarf for my seester, coffee mugs for Caroline's teachers, a wine cork for a hostess gift, a poncho for me and the list goes on! francesca's really is a great one stop shop for your holiday shopping list. 

 

Here are just a few things on my holiday gift list this year...

 

Meadows Scalloped Poncho / Villa Savoye Beaded Earrings / Oslo Sequin Infinity Scarf / Amarillo Tribal Gloves / Capri Blue Volcano No. 6 / Corkcicle Air Wine Chiller / Oxford Street Houndstooth Oxford Flat / Mona Bow Knit Hat / Polka Dot Measuring Cups / Enjoy the Little Things Travel Mug    Interested in some of these items? Be sure to check out francesca’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday deals! A little birdy told me there are going to be some super great deals!      Note: francesca's stores will not be open on Thanksgiving but there will be special deals online that day!   *This is a sponsored post. All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday!!

- ONE - I survived my first trip to the very Windy City this week! Of course it was record breaking temperatures while I was there (-11 degrees with wind chill) all 3 days. Thankfully I borrowed an awesome puffy coat from a friend because my North Face fleece definitely wouldn't have been cut out for the trip. I wish I could say I did all sorts of fun touristy things while I was in Chicago but the reality is that it was a work trip and I spent most of my time in a hotel ballroom working an event. However, I did get to break away on the first night to have a really fun dinner with my coworkers at RPM (a swanky Italian restaurant by Bill and Giuliana Rancic)!

And I would be remiss not to mention how great Matt did with Caroline on his own while I was away. This was my first time ever spending the night away from her and it was hard but I knew she was in good hands with daddy! Caroline's teachers even applauded Matt for doing so well solo...even though he dressed her in backwards outfits two days in a row. Love him. 

- TWO - And speaking of our little muffin, we just got our Christmas pictures back and they are unbelievable. I'll do a full post soon, but in the meantime...

- THREE - I'm having a hard time deciding on a dish to bring to Thanksgiving this year. Has anyone ever tried crockpot cranberry sauce? If so, what recipe did you use? Or if you have another easy idea I'm open to that too.

via

- FOUR - Mamas! I just discovered The Original Orbit Label by InchBug and it has been a complete game changer! Each night Matt and I rotate who puts Caroline down for bed while the other person makes (and labels) all her bottles for daycare. I loathe labeling her bottles. We've been using (rolls and rolls) of washi tape until I stumbled upon these wonderful non-adhesive reusable labels. I had Caroline's full name engraved on a set of pink labels and I love them. They fit around her bottles, sippy cups and a variety of other containers. I am definitely adding another set of these labels to Caroline's Christmas list!

- FIVE - I recently received the cozy Everything You Are Sweater from The Palm Tree Boutique and love it so much that I haven't been able to part with it long enough to throw it in the wash, despite wearing it 2345435423 times so far. Paired with leggings, this top is the perfect fall weekend outfit. The material is a blend of polyester and cotton and I love how loosely it fits (I'm wearing a small here). Love it too? You can get one {here}! And make sure to check out all of the other fabulous items that The Palm Tree Boutique offers! Make sure to use coupon code CCHARM15% at checkout for a 15% discount! Happy shopping!

You can also follow The Palm Tree Boutique on

Facebook: The Palm Tree Boutique

Instagram: @thepalmtreeboutique

Pinterest: The Palm Tree Boutique

 

Wanna join Darci, April, Natasha and I on the Friday fun? You can link-up on any of our four blogs every Friday! All you have to do is...

1.) Write your post about five things you're lovin' this week (or any five things you want to share!).

2.) Share the logo on your blog and link back. 

3.) Link-up at the bottom of the post so some new readers can check out your five things and say hello!