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Red Envelope carries lots of great gift items and they’ve just added almost 400 new items to their website for the fall season.  I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to review this fabulous pieced plush robot that was personalized for my oldest son.  My three boys (two age six and one age seven) are young enough that they still want plush toys to play with and sleep with, but they’re also old enough that they don’t want anything they would consider to be “for babies” or “for girls”.  Well this plush robot is PERFECT for them – they love robots and Jacob is so pleased that it has his name on it and everybody knows who it belongs to so there is no fighting over that.

The robot is very well made with adorable embroidered features and durable stitching, plus he’s got a bean bag bottom so he can sit up on his own.  Jacob’s favorite part is the patch front pocket where he can hide his little trinkets, and my favorite part is that he loves it so much!

In addition to the robot you can also choose personalized lion or owl plush toys, or lots of other fun kids room decor items like personalized signs, vintage inspired toys and wooden piggy banks.  There are so many wonderful gift items to choose from, but I particularly love these kids personalized pillows that allow you to choose hair color and skin tone in addition to personalizing with your child’s name. 

You’re sure to find something for everyone on your gift list at Red Envelope, and all of their unique gift items come with a satisfaction guarantee!

Disclosure – Red Envelope provided me with the plush toy described above for the purpose of facilitating this review.  I received no compensation for this post and all thoughts and comments are my own.

Happy birthday America!  Have a safe and happy Independence Day everyone!

Get this adorable Personalized “Love Shack” Doormat (24″x36″) from Wal-Mart for only $29! I thought this was a cute idea for a Valentine’s Day gift and just had to share

When our quadruplets were three months old the boys both developed pyloric stenosis and had to have surgery to correct the problem.  We spent the week of Christmas at the hospital with one son, then the week of New Year’s at the hospital with the other and even though they were way too young to remember, the hospital is just no place for a kid to be at Christmas.  Ever since then I’ve been planning on taking the kids back up to the hospital on Christmas Eve to deliver toys to the children there as soon as they were old enough to understand.  This year we’ve been hearing way too much about “want” – my silly kids “want” everything they see on television, even when they don’t know what it is or does.  So we decided that this was the perfect time for a lesson on “need” and to get started on what will be an annual trip to the hospital, and I’m so glad that we did.  The kids were very happy to give out gifts of stuffed animals, Zhu Zhu pets, bendable elves, and holiday tattoos to about 30 kids at the hospital last night.  Several of the kids were around their age and I think that really brought the message home for them. 

Thanks very much to Sacred Heart Hospital and to Miss Angie, the sweet volunteer who gave up part of her own Christmas Eve to escort us around the children’s ward!  We’ll see you again next year!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed day!  I’ll be spending the day enjoying time with my family and will look forward to being back here tomorrow

When I was young, my grandmother used to bake doughnuts every hunting season and place a dozen in a little brown lunch bag. She’d give them out to her sons on the first day of hunting season.

This holiday season, I thought about those ordinary little brown lunch bags. They were just the right size for a dozen mini doughnuts, and so why not a dozen holiday cookies?

If you have a few Christmas cookie cutters lying around, some brown paper lunch bags, and some scrapbook paper or construction paper—this craft should be a cinch!

Make paper shapes by tracing your cookie cutters on paper. Then attach your shapes to the brown paper bags using regular craft glue. Use a marker and write some type of holiday greeting below.

You can add little embellishments like ribbon or rhinestones like the stars on the little trees of the bags pictured.

It’s that simple. Aren’t they cute? Place a dozen or so cookies inside and they’re ready to give away for treats or cookie exchanges! (These are stapled or you can just double fold the tops and seal with stickers or gift tags.)

Romantic at heart, Susan Lower is one crafty mom. She has written over a hundred articles for venues such as ehow, triond, ezinearticles.com, and newspapers. When Susan’s not writing, she enjoys visiting friends and a good cup of tea. To find out more about Susan Lower you can visit her site at www.susanlower.com.

My husband is one of those ‘wait til the very last minute’ kind of Christmas gift buyers so I’ve found that it’s always best to help him out a little bit in that department.  So far ”he’s” gotten me a cool hard sided carryon suitcase and a pair of earrings, but I think he’ll be happy to know that he also just got me this beautiful Pearl & Crystal Bead Necklace and Bracelet set for only $9.99 shipped!  The three strand necklace and bracelet retail for $99 and are on sale right now for only $29.99 BUT you can take $20 off with promo code save20 and get the set for just $9.99 shipped.  I love Super Jeweler because they stand behind their stuff with a 60 day money back guarantee, and I love all the great stuff ‘hubby’ is getting me this year

As the countdown to the holidays grows shorter and shorter, the burdens of your to-do list grow larger and larger. There are cookies to bake, gifts to buy, cards to mail, home décor and house cleaning to complete.

Sound familiar?

Sound like too much?

Like every good coach will tell you, you’ve got to have a game plan. The holiday season is no different. Just look upon Christmas day as “game day”– no television required.

The key to de-stressing your holidays is not allowing your holidays to become more of a burden then a joy.

If you’re planning a large family gathering, ask everyone to help out. Each member of the family can bring a covered dish for dinner, leaving you only to prepare the main dish.

Ask family members living nearby to come over a few days early to help clean and decorate the house, and exchange the same for them.

When you know family members are going out shopping, ask them to pick up items for you.

Send your husband and kids out for supper and a movie, while you and your friends have a gift wrapping party. Also, many small shops now offer gift wrapping services, as do local church organizations and children’s clubs like Girl Scouts.

Feel overwhelmed when it comes to baking? Join a cookie exchange where you only have to make one kind of cookie. This way, on Christmas day you’ll have a variety without all the work of changing recipes. Don’t bake? It’s okay to skip the oven sweat and pick up a variety cookie tray at your local bakery.

Do gift exchanges freak you out? You just never know what to buy the family member whose name you got stuck with? Why not suggest a Yankee Swap this year? Old gifts that you got and never used, or new ones you picked up on the fly… your family will have plenty of fun discovering what’s inside while they swap and laugh till the end.

Skip the handwritten addresses this year for your Christmas card list and create one through your word processing software. Print them out on standard mailing labels and save half the time of processing your Christmas cards. Each year, you can pull up the file and update the addresses in just a few minutes.

Is it your wallet pressing the most weight on you this holiday season? Sometimes the most cherished gifts are those that cost very little to nothing to give. Written sentiments, a handmade item, a promise of service (like shoveling the snow from the driveway, or walking the dog), or traveling to see someone can rank as the best gifts of all.

Before you let the holidays stress you, create a plan to lighten the burdens and bask in the joy of the season.

About the Author:  

MRsCHADT is the author of the 2011 Daily Mood Organizer, Mood Journal, and MRsCHADT’s Holiday Planner. She has written over a hundred articles on crafting, self-help, and home organization for both online and print venues. You can find out more about MRsCHADT at http://www.mrschadt.com/.

Remember Shrinky Dinks?  Well now there are printable Shrinky Dink sheets that you can use to make all sorts of things like jewelry, Christmas ornaments, keychains, magnets and even stand-up displays from photos of your loved ones or pets.  Just print your favorite photos, cut out the shape that you want, and bake them for three to five minutes!

Last year I used Shrinky Dinks to make these lockets for my mom and my mother-in-law for Christmas, and I made charm bracelets for my sister-in-law and my aunt from pictures of their kids (this is a photo of mine).  The Shrinky Dink sheets come in a package of 6 for around $10, which you can get at your local craft and hobby store or you can buy it on eBay. 

I picked up the lockets, picture frame charms, chain and findings on sale at Michael’s, measured the spaces I needed to fill then had a blast picking out which digital pictures to use.  All you have to do is crop the image that you want, enlarge it to three times the size you need, and lighten the image (it’ll darken when it shrinks) before printing with an inkjet printer.

Next you cut out the image and bake it per the directions for 3 to 5 minutes.  Once baked the pieces will be one third their original size and they’ll be nine times as thick so they’re very durable.  Use craft glue to fix the images in place then seal them with spray sealer or clear nail polish.  These were super fun and easy to make, and they look like a million bucks when in reality they only cost a few dollars a piece to make.

This year we’re using the remaining sheets to make special Christmas ornaments from photos of all the pre-k students.  One of the kids’ teachers has recently had a cancer diagnosis and is out for the rest of the year so the students are going to decorate a tree with their ornaments and deliver it to her as a surprise.  To make the ornaments we’re printing 4 1/2″ round photos of the kids then using a hole punch to make a hole at the top of each before baking, which we’ll use to string ribbon for hanging.

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is officially time to start getting ready for Christmas.  The kids had a blast helping to decorate the Christmas tree yesterday (don’t worry – I’ll redistribute the ornaments after they’re asleep) while we sang our first Christmas carols of the year.  They’re already talking about writing letters to Santa Claus to let him know that they’ve been good and make sure he knows about the gifts they’d like to have.  This year I think one of the best gifts they’re going to receive is a personalized, keepsake letter right back from Santa!

Especially From Santa sends beautiful keepsake, personalized letters directly from Santa to children of all ages, and even to family pets. The fee is a very reasonable $10 per letter which includes 1st class postage and a REAL Santa signature (not a printed font).  In addition, you also get 8 fun activity pages, a postcard quality picture of Santa that has been prepared for hanging on the Christmas tree, and an Official Membership card for Santa’s Nice List.  All of this will arrive in a festive Christmas envelope complete with a North Pole style postmark addressed to the recipient under the wraps of a plain white envelope addressed to the person placing the order. The best part though is that no two letters are the same, so even multiple letters to one household will still be unique! 

I’m sure that my kids will treasure their letters for years to come and I’m excited to be able to giveaway these special letters Especially From Santa to FIVE lucky readers!  In the meanwhile, be sure to visit Santa’s Nice List blog where you can learn of Santa’s thoughts and preparations for the big Christmas Eve worldwide flight!

How to enter – 7 different ways!

• Tell us who you would like to have receive a letter from Santa Claus.  This entry is mandatory but you may also do any or all of the following for additional entries.  Leave a comment on this post for each entry so that all of your entries count.  The winner will be chosen at random at midnight CST on Friday December 10th.
• Subscribe to Shopper Strategy by Email or RSS feed, or leave a comment that you already subscribe.
• Follow me on Twitter @sdenise.
• Tweet about this giveaway and include me @sdenise so that I can see it (you can do this up to once daily).
• Like me on Facebook, or just say if you already do.
• Follow Santa Claus on Twitter @SantaLetters2U
• Download our free coupon toolbar for TWO EXTRA ENTRIES.  Be sure to leave two comments!

Disclaimer:  Especially From Santa has graciously offered me five letters from Santa for my children to facilitate my review, and another five letters from Santa to giveaway to readers of this blog.  All thoughts and comments are my own and I received no compensation for this post.