Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Our family has started a tradition in the past few years of taking a family picture just before Thanksgiving to use in a photo card for Christmas. It has been such a fun tradition, and we look forward to looking back on each year's photo to see how we've changed and grown. To go from two dogs in 2007 to two kids in 2010 is crazy fun. =)

The only difficulty each year is actually choosing a card. Generic cards are easy to find. Cards that share our faith - that we're wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas" and not "Seasons' Greetings" - are much more sparse. Typically the choices are few, and most are boring. So, when I clicked on a sidebar ad the other day to peruse Shutterfly's selection, I was shocked to find so many choices bearing the details we desire in a card. Look at how cute some of these are!


I love these!

Plus, they have a ton of other options that I was unaware of like personalized gift tags,
Christmas party invitations,

Photo calendars,

Photo mugs,
and even Address labels that coordinate with the Christmas cards.

Then, several days later, I saw a blog post of a friend talking about earning 50 free cards by blogging about her favorite Shutterfly products. Perfect! And, if you're interested, make sure you visit their site to find out how you can earn 50 free cards too!

Here's the thing - good luck sticking to just the 50 cards! Once you start looking around the site, you may stumble upon many more things to fill your cart.

I'm seeing a version of this under our tree for sure!

I can't wait to get started on this! What a precious gift for a little girl. Do you know anyone who would love this as much as my sweet daughter?

Chocolate-covered Marshmallows

We made some gift buckets for our neighbors for Halloween, and I had to share the only handmade element - chocolate-covered marshmallows. I've seen this idea floating around the Internet, and it was the easiest and probably most versatile thing I've ever made. You just put a jumbo marshmallow on the end of a lollipop stick, dip the top in melted chocolate, then decorate with sprinkles. This could be so fun with white chocolate and crushed candy canes, dark chocolate and crumbled graham crackers, or milk chocolate and mini M&Ms. The possibilities are endless, and it's the perfect quick and easy favor!