How To Choose Designer Holiday Cards From Minted

Shine Bright this Holiday Season with Unique and Indie Designed Minted Holiday Cards

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I’m pleased to be working with Minted for another holiday season. As my Christmas card list shrinks because so many people have switched to e-cards (so I send them e-cards in return) I still love the process of selecting a design and tweaking it to create a combo of images of my family and a message that communicates our holiday greetings with our unique personality.

The only problem is that there are so many designs to choose from! As my friend texted me, “I’ve fallen down the Minted rabbit hole.”

Indeed. When I first started poking around in this season’s designs, I was just going to take a cursory look, but a half hour later I was still browsing through, imagining my own family’s photo in one of the designs. You can skip that part and just upload your photo right away, then load it into each design you like to preview how it will look. Minted works with indie designers to present a variety of different looks. If you like one design, you can look at others by the same artist.

But if you’re like me and you fall down the rabbit hole, you might get stuck on a design that strikes your fancy. I loved the idea of a “year in review,” and so then I fell down another hole, which is all the photos I’ve loaded onto my computer since January 2015. I wound up picking 70 favorites. That’s too many. So I loaded about 20 into Minted’s photo library, and played around with them, and came up with this goofy combo:card frontThen, because I couldn’t resist, I chose to add one large photo to the back of the card with a holiday message. (This adds $23.95 to the price, but don’t you think it’s worth it?)

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And since this option is free, I loaded in my address book for all the people I am sending cards to. Minted prints their addresses on the envelopes so they look classy, and it saves my hand from cramping! All I have to do is stuff envelopes and stamp them. For an additional fee you can even have your return address printed on the envelope.

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I really love the quality of Minted’s cards for the holidays. There are many beautiful design options, thick and luxurious paper, classy printed envelopes, and the prices are reasonable for the quality you get. I ordered them on Monday and received them on Friday! They look and feel great. Done and done!

I received complimentary cards from Minted as part of my work with Savvy Sassy Scouts program.

Take the #StackedMac Challenge To Win a $50 Gift Card!

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Do you love macaroni and cheese? Do you love Stacked? Well, if you visit Stacked and build your own mac & cheese dish, snap a photo and share it online! You could win a $50 gift card to go back for more!

I visited Stacked recently with my friend Charlene to make a #STACKEDMac creation of my own. But first, drinks:

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Once that part was taken care of, I wanted a #STACKEDMac dish that would go with my strawberry cocktail!

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At STACKED, the options are so plentiful that I had trouble decided. Lucky for us all, the menu has some pre-built combinations that you can just order in 2 seconds by selecting them on the cool iPad menu. But I was determined to be creative, so here’s what I ordered.

Gluten-free macaroni and cheese, with pulled pork, roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, and cilantro. Sort of a southern charm pot of goodness.

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It was delicious.

Charlene created a bowl of mac & cheese with lobster, jalapeno, and bacon. This dish also went well with the yummy beverage!

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We both sampled the restaurant’s Buffalo Chicken Mac – made with chicken nuggets, buffalo sauce, celery, ranch dressing, and scallions.

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Okay, now YOUR turn. It’s easy (and fun) to enter this contest:

1. Go to STACKED
2. Build your own #StackedMac dish and make it the most amazing mac & cheese you’ve ever had
3. Snap a photo
4. Share it on Instagram and tag it #STACKEDMac and tag me! @agourahillsmom

Enter all month long, because it’s MACovember at STACKED. The winner will get a $50 gift card for STACKED, where you can enjoy more #STACKEDMac!

How to Dress a Boy: French Toast Clothing

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My 10-year-old son does not care what he wears as long as he can get dressed once and never change his clothes again. Unfortunately for him he is growing very quickly, so that a shirt or a pair of shorts that fit him fine one day looks ridiculous on him the next. Yes, he grows overnight like the Hulk getting angry. On those days I have to send him back to his room to change and thus begins a terrible day.

In addition, being a physical child, he tends to but holes in his clothing. Even the khakis we keep on hand for him to wear to church and the occasional fancy occasion. I remember a certain pair of khakis he put on his body, wore to his first confession at church, and then promptly tore a hole in the knee while horsing around with a friend during the little reception in the church yard after the ceremony.

::facepalm:

Anyway, the point is that when I was invited to try out French Toast clothing for kids as part of the Back to School #ScoutBox program from Savvy Sassy Moms, I seized the opportunity to find some sturdy, good-looking clothing for this boy. French Toast makes school uniform clothing for kids, and even though my son’s school doesn’t require uniforms, I still found some classic styles, and colors I wanted to try for him.

IMG_2840Boys’ long-sleeved interlock knit polo, $14

For shirts I chose a short-sleeved polo in his school color (red) and this beautiful baby blue interlock knit long-sleeved polo. The fabric is so soft it feels like he’s already worn it several times, but it looks great on him.

For pants I chose two colors of the same style: adjustable waist double-knee pant. It seems like the solution to my boys’ pants problems! Reinforced knees to prevent tears, and adjustable waist to allow for all of the growing! I thought I’d throw some maroon into the mix because I guess I didn’t get enough of that color when I wore my own uniforms in high school. But that’s another story.

Unfortunately for me this is the only picture from the photo shoot he so begrudgingly allowed that he will let me show you that includes the pants. But actually, I rather love it. Captures his personality perfectly:

IMG_2847Boys’ adjustable waist double-knee pant, $20

He hasn’t worn the clothing to a rough-housing session with his brother or friends, so I can’t yet report on the durability, but they do show promise. And if your kids wear uniform clothing to school, French Toast clothing is a great place to find quality pieces in all the traditional colors and sizes.