Celebrate the Holidays with Shutterfly

We're heading into my most favorite time of the year; Thanksgiving & Christmas! I especially love Christmas time. So many things about this time of year I love; family traditions, decorating our tree, listening to Christmas music and making cookies! 

This year I'm feeling ahead of the game as I've already made Christmas cards and it's my goal this month to get them all addressed and mailed out. 

I've been using Shutterfly to create my Christmas cards for the last six years, I'm always blown away by their quality and the options they have.  Every year I love picking out a coordinating card that goes with our family photos. 

This year we did something a little different, we didn't take traditional family photos before Christmas. Our trip to Disneyland this year was a big highlight for our family I wanted to use our cards to showcase a few pictures from that trip. 

I chose bright colors with a little bit of sparkle with the gold trim. I also chose matching return address labels to pull it all together. 

I also love that Shutterfly gives you many options when customizing your holiday cards, you can choose from the amount of photos you want featured, shimmer, matte or regular paper, as well as many font options. I also use the customization on the back to add a few more photos and a message from our family. See more Shutterfly Holiday cards here.

Holiday Party Invitations

I've never hosted a holiday party before but this year I'm switching it up and hosting a party for all of my girlfriends! What better way to celebrate your friends than hosting a party for them and loving on them a bit. 

With so many options to choose from you're able to find the perfect invitations for your holiday party or New Year's Eve bash. Same with the holiday cards you can make them your own using different fonts and use the back to write messages to your guests. See more Shutterfly Party Invitations here.

Gifts for Your Girlfriends

Celebrate your girl friends in a special way this holiday season with some fun gifts you can customize from Shutterfly. These would also be great gifts for teachers, neighbors and other people in your life you want to give some appreciation to this holiday season! 

I made these notebooks by adding my own image to one of their notebooks, this is my blog tagline and a motto I love living in life. I hope it inspires my friends to celebrate the everyday as well! 

Coffee Mugs with a Special Message

Give a special gift this season for the coffee & tea lover in your life! I used a free image from The TomKat Studio to make this adorable mug! Visit Kim's blog to download your image and order a mug from Shutterfly. 

Mix & Match Stationary Sets

With so many designs to choose from this is the perfect small gift to give your friends! I love that you can add your own messages to these cards. I made some (shown below) that said "hello", "thank you" and used my personal initials on them. 

The black and white stripes and dots are my favorite, classic and simple. 

With so many options for gift giving with Shutterfly the possibilities are endless and my favorite thing about using Shutterfly is that you give such personalized gifts people always feel really well thought of. 

Have you browsed Shutterfly lately, what are some of your favorite things on their site? What are some of your favorite personal gifts to give during the holidays? 

Everlasting Light Collection by DaySpring

DaySpring has introduced Everlasting Light A Jewelry & Home Decor Collection! A collection that is inspired by the thought of sharing God's light to others. 

A home decor collection that includes pillows, a table runner, a starburst mirror and beautifully crafted candle holders as well as art prints for your walls. 

Also in the collection are amazing hand crafted jewelry pieces that physically sparkle and remind us of God's everlasting light in us that shines for him. Shop any of these items here.

I added this beautiful Everlasting Light Table runner to my kitchen table it goes perfectly with my glittery pumpkins but it's also going to be perfect at Christmas time too. 

I love inviting people into my home and gathering them around my table. There's something so special about creating a meal and an atmosphere for community. I think this is one of the best ways I can be a shining light for the Lord. People want to be valued and cared for and when you take the time to make a meal and share it with them it let's them know they are special and valued in your eyes. 

It reminds me of in the scriptures when Jesus and the disciples broke bread at the last supper. Jesus then humbled himself and washed each of their feet. A job reserved for servants at that time, but Jesus loved them so much and wanted to be a humble example so he did this. 

It's the perfect image of love and everlasting light. 

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I was provided this product for the purpose of a review, however all thoughts and opinions are my own. *Post contains affiliate links.*

Turning One Year Older.

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend. 

We snuck away to the mountains in Flagstaff. I shared my birthday with some sweet friends who were also getting married that day. My husband officiated their wedding and it was a pleasure to share my birthday with their special day. 

We started the day with breakfast together. Then we found a cute little park and let them play around before we had to get ready for the wedding. 

They loved running around and playing. Up in the mountains the air was crisp, the leaves were changing and the mountains all around us was a beautiful site. 

A simple calm reminder of God's goodness in his creation. 

I have always loved birthdays. Now, that I'm older birthdays are a lot more special with my family. I also take the time each year to reflect and make some news goals for the year. Being thankful for God's blessings and goodness in my life. 

This year he's reminding me of the dreams he put on my heart ten years ago. He sweetly reminded me that he hasn't forgotten about them, so neither should I. I'm excited to start moving in a direction that I feel God is leading me after all this time towards making some of those dreams happen. 

It's such a good reminder from God. He's teaching me that I am not forgotten. That I am his, he cares about my needs, my dreams and my passions because he birthed them in me first. They are His. I am created for his purpose, and he has a plan for my life.

Cheers to being 32 and making this a memorable year full of growth and changes. 

Family Dinners are My #HappiMess

We've lived 5 years in Arizona without a single family member here, so when my Grandparents moved here last November to say that I was delighted might be an understatement! Not only do they live here now, but they live right across the street from us. It's such a blessing to have them close, and God truly answered a small prayer that I had in my heart about living closer to family. 

Family dinners are something that we have every night as my own little family gathers around the table. I've dreamed of big family dinners around a table for a long time. One full with cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents. Dinners where there's barely any room to sit because our table is full and so our are hearts. 

Dinners where everyone brings a dish to share, the desserts are sweet but the company you share it with is even better. 

I love dinner time. Not because of the food but because of the company and life you get to share it with. 

When there are dishes piled high around the sink I won't be overwhelmed by the task of cleaning everything up. I love sitting back and watching the conversation happen over those last few bites and over those last few sips of sweet tea. Dishes can wait. 

When it is time to clean up I'm thankful for a husband who decided long ago in our marriage that he'd clean up as long as I cooked. That's a keeper right there! Our new #DeltaFaucet makes clean up a snap. When you're hands are messy from cleaning plates it's so nice to be able to just touch the faucet with the back of my hand and get clean water pouring out to clean up this #happimess. 

Share your #HappiMess moments using the hashtag and you could win a kitchen & bath prize package valued at $2400! 

“Why do people treat mess like it’s a bad thing? It’s actually the evidence of a life well lived. When you’re out there making, creating, doing and playing, embrace your #HappiMess and let Delta kitchen and bath innovations help clean up so you can do it all again tomorrow.”

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Delta via Mode Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Delta.

Shower Her With Love from Shutterfly.

My sweet friend Erica is pregnant with her third baby, a sweet boy will be here in October! You may remember her from this post a few days back. I had the best time shooting her maternity pics! I wanted to do something special for her, this being her third baby she's already got a ton of baby things and doesn't need a whole lot more. 

I feel like no matter how many children you already have being pregnant and having another baby is to be celebrated! Moms should feel special during this season of life no matter how many children they already have. I wanted to create some special things for her to remember this time in her life, with the help of Shutterfly I was able to do just that! 

I want to share with you some of the amazing gifts I created for my friend, I hope they inspire you to think outside the box when gift giving and celebrate some mamas in your life! 

Every mama needs a stash of stationary cards ready to go when they come home from the hospital. A few thank you notes already on hand can make like a whole lots easier, especially when someone drops by a meal for you. You can quickly write them a note and have it there to give them when they come over! 

Shutterfly has many pre designed notes to choose from, and make it even more special and add matching address labels like I did below. I choose these Dashing Denote ones, perfect for a little boy!

As I mentioned my friend Erica already has two children; a girl and a boy! I didn't want to forget them in this process, sometimes siblings often get overlooked during baby hoopla so I wanted to make them some special gifts they could use to help keep them busy while they are sitting in the hospital with Mom and Dad.

I made them each their own notebooks and gifted them with some crayons. They can color or draw keeping themselves occupied at home or at the hospital. I chose this notebook from Shutterfly and customized them with their names and the phrases "Big Sister" & "Big Brother."

If you would like to download these covers to make your own sibling notebooks simply save the image links below to your computer. Visit Shutterfly.com and choose the 8.5x11 size notebook, personalize by uploading the image, save and order your notebooks. Visit the links below to download these fun designs. 

BIG SISTER

BIG BROTHER

These brothers are going to be sharing a room together, a nautical themed room! I love anything nautical I almost decorated my son's room this way. Since these boys will be sharing a room I thought it would be so perfect for them to have their own name plates over their bed and crib. 

Using an 8x10 canvas I designed these custom images and placed them on canvas. Shutterfly makes beautiful and thick canvas. The color and imaged quality are amazing, and the canvas frames are nice and sturdy. You can either choose to have them framed or as shown below with out the frames. 

Lastly, I wanted to use one of the photos from her maternity shoot and put it on a beautiful canvas. Everyone should do something beautiful with their images. Don't just let them sit on a CD or in albums. Display them in a beautiful way, it's such an amazing season of life to be celebrated. 

Shutterfly has an amazing range of gifts and home decor items, there's no limit to what you can make out of your photos and how you can choose to display your memories! 

Next time you've got a baby shower to attend or a gift to give a lucky mama in your life make it something really personalized with some of these fun ideas. I loved gifting these items to my friend, she loved them and it made for a really fun way to celebrate her and her brand new baby boy! 

This is a sponsored post on behalf of myself and Shutterfly, as always opinions are 100% my own. I strive to only partner with brands that I truly love and feel will be a good fit for my readers and my blog.