How much do I heart Shutterfly??? Let me count the ways...

So even if they weren't having this insanely awesome promotion for bloggers here I would love to brag about how many cool things I have ordered from Shutterfly.  I have recommended the site/company to many people. I know there are a few companies online that you can order prints/photo books/announcements/Xmas cards from but by far, my personal fave has got to be Shutterfly. 

Just this last weekend I was here working on our Christmas cards for this year. Love their selection and designs and they are having some great sales right now.  My cards were already designed and ready to go when I came across this great promotion for bloggers!

Hello Bandwagon! I am jumping on! 

Mario and I had a small beach wedding that included mostly close family.  So after the wedding we sent out announcements to extended family and friends that didn't attend. Guess where we ordered these adorable announcements???

You guessed it.

Need to announce an occasion of your own? Wedding, baby, new fish? You can create your own masterpiece right over here

For Father's Day I ordered Mario his own photo book that included solely pictures of him and baby girl.  He started crying when he opened it. (Sorry babe!)

I LOVE it and love flipping though it occasionally.

I also recently made a photo book from Stella's Birthday party to keep in her keepsake box.  I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival which should be any day now!!!

Take a wild gander where I ordered them from?

Mmmhm. You guessed it.

You can make your own book right over here and make your man cry. :)

For Mario's parents' Christmas gift last year we made them calenders.  The cool kind that have your personal pictures which we corresponded to what was going on in that particular month.  You also can add all of your families important dates.  They turned out great and it was SO easy! The hardest part was going through all of our pictures and picking out which one's to choose.

Where did we make these wonderful gift ideas you ask?

They also happen to be running a special right now on calendars, buy 1 get 1 50% off!

That great gift idea can be created right over here

Last year for Stella's birthday thank you's I ordered a simple white card with a cute border.  I added her name across the top and voila personalized thank you's for any occasion.

OK, overkill I know but thank you's are polite and you should order yours now right over here

They also have this cool little area where they have special offers just for YOU! OK, well maybe not specifically for me but I think the more you order the more "special" you are because there always seems to be a special offer for me and the best part is they are FREE! If you have a Shutterfly account go down to the bottom right of the home page and click on "view my special offers".  There is almost always a tasty little treat waiting!

But seriously...I use the product. I love the product.

Right now they are offering bloggers 50 free 5x7 Christmas cards here (Yes, photo cards included. I asked.)

Oh how i love cool free stuff.

Especially from a site I love and use regularly so thanks Shutterfly and this concludes my shameless plug.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thanks and goodnight.

P.S.

If you receive a Christmas card from us this year...why yes they are from Shutterfly and yes they were FREE!!!

Black Friday Nightmares!

 image via news tribune

So there was a whole row of the cutest kids dress up ball gowns you've ever seen! Just beautiful! I went to grab one for Stella. Obviously the lady next to me was admiring them also, since she reached out to grab the same one at the same time. I won.  She challenged me with, "What size do you need"?  I responded vigorously, "4T"! Then challenged with "What size do YOU need"?  She volleyed back, "4T". It was a standoff. We both held our ground but I could tell she was going to stop at nothing to get the dress I held.

Then I woke up. 

Seriously, a Black Friday nightmare. 

 I've officially lost my mind.

Aubrey and I went down to one of the sales at midnight armed with the local circular and actually got everything I had "circled" minus 1 item.  Success!!!  We didn't get home until 2:30 though and so 6:30 comes early.  When I groggily woke up I realized I had been dreaming of a standoff with some random woman over a dress.  The funny thing is...there were tons of these dresses on the rack for 1 and for 2 Stella is no where near a size 4T. Black Friday obviously got to me. :)

I blame it on the year before.  I had never done Black Friday before. I'm sure at some point I had done some shopping later in the day, but I had never done the whole get up at some ungodly hour and jockey for items that the stores only carried 2 of to get you in to spend money on other things.  Last year I decided it was time.  I got up at like 3 am and headed out in the dark. I got to the first store right as it opened, grabbed a buggie (that's what they call a cart in the south) and jumped into the sea of others trying to make their way back to the toy section.  I quickly realized I was getting no where with a cart. I abandoned the cart and went in search of the items I had marked on this coveted circular with my sharpie. Nothing, everything I had planned on getting was gone.

I moved on to store #2 with said circular with similar sharpie markings.  FAIL.  OK, OK. Store 3? Nope, nada.  Even worse I had to drag 4 different play tents up through the maze that led to the checkout.  Each time to be informed that the tent in my hand was NOT the tent in the circular.  Every tent I brought up was a variation of the Disney Princess tent just not THE specific one.  I was getting mad by the 4th tent and asked the girl at check out to please have someone find this needle in a haystack only to be informed it was sold out. 

Fading quickly and getting more pissed off by the second I drove to the 4th store.  By this time it was about 6:30 A.M. and I had made not 1 purchase.  At this point I abandoned the circular and just started shopping for deals. Success! I finished almost all of my shopping and saved a nice amount of money. Was the whole morning worth it, probably not. I most likely could have saved the same amount just shopping for deals through out the season.  I had the experience though. The famous "Black Friday" experience. It has obviously scarred me for life. 

This year was a greater success. I still got out the sharpie and circled.  I started with what I had wanted to get the most. Upon arrival I staked out the 4 wheeler and waited for the clock to hit 12:01.  Well, actually 11:56.  People started grabbing their items 5 minutes earlier and who was I to stand there like a dummy.  I told the lady next to me that everyone had started getting things and she could probably go ahead.  She told me her husband was a lawyer and would kill her if she started early.  Her loss, let her look like the dummy.  There was only 1 item I didn't get that I had wanted and the clerk informed me that their store never received that item.  7 out of 8 isn't bad odds. 

Happy Holidays!!!

Da Girls!

We went down and took some pictures at the beach last weekend. I really really like them and am excited to get some up on our wall.

I am pooped from Turkey prep.  It is the night before Thanksgiving and I am DONE!!! All we have left is season the turkey, stuff the turkey and cook the turkey. Oh and vaccum upstairs and swifter the family room, but those are Mario's job.  I feel like I got a really good workout in at the gym. So far I have Cranberry sauce, Mashed Potatoes, some kick butt stuffing, a Pecan Pie, Sweet Potato pie & green beans.  I feel like I've left something out...hmm.  Mario's mom is bringing sweet potatos, rolls and olives.  We also had Book babies at the Library today then cooked & cleaning and now it's time to relax. I've been a real party animal lately. I've taken up a new hobby, crocheting. Yes, I know. I am getting old, either that or extremely lame. It's actually soothing. You can just zone out and get really zen when doing it. So far I've made Stella a hat and am working on a blanket now. More on that at a later date though.  So I have been sitting in bed while Mario is asleep crocheting me little heart out til after midnight lately. Last night I was going to try to crash early and where did I end up? On the computer surfing Amazon. I'm not doing Black Friday this year I am going to do my shopping from the comfort of my own computer in my pj's. Ahhh.

Get your free Amazon Prime Mom membership here

Amazon Mom Prime

You get free shipping on tons of items!

For now it's time to RELAX! Gobble Gobble!!!

Salmon with Mustard and Brown Sugar Glaze

image via www.ifood.tv

Salmon with Mustard and Brown Sugar Glaze

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1 2 pound center cut skinless salmon fillet
1/3 cup spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350.
Boil wine, butter, and Old Bay seasoning in small suacepan 3 minutes.  Sprinkle salmon on both sides with salt and pepper.  Place fish on heavy rimmed baking sheet.  Pour wine mixture over.  Bake until fish is opaque in center, about 14 minutes. Remove from over.
Preheat broiler.
Mix mustard and sugar in small bowl to blend; spread over salmon to cover.  Broil salmon until topping is brown and bubbling, about 3 minutes.  Transfer salmon to platter and serve.

So I made some modifications to this, but it had a great flavor.

So I was fresh out of spicy mustard so I just substituted regular mustard and it was still really good.  Fyi.  I also didn't have Old Bay seasoning so I used a little Lawry's and some paprika instead.  I added fresh chopped garlic to the wine/butter mixture.  I just used a casserole dish instead of the baking sheet.  The other change I made was in broiling.  We (ok well mostly me) LOVE sauces.  I am the sauce queen.  So I heated the mustard/brown sugar mixture in a pan and after the salmon was cooked I just did a few minutes on each side in the sauce.  Then topped with remaining on plate. Yum! It was really good.  If you are looking for another way to do salmon try this, the flavors are really good with the fish.

Free stuff is cool!

How cute are these?

I never used slings but I know they are really popular...

Seven Slings is giving away a FREE sling! All you have to do is pay shipping, which is $11.95.

They also charge $3.00 for insurance to exchance sizes, but you can choose to remove that.

Even if you don't use them yourself they would make a great gift for someone that does!

Thanks Liz for the info!

Always love a deal!

Click on the Seven Sling website.

Make sure you know what size you need under sizing, choose your sling which automatically takes you to the cart. Put the word "turkey" in the promo code and VOILA!



The Girl has moves!



Fairy Extravaganza Part Deux

Here's the remainder of Stella's Birthday pictures. Thanks Larry for sharing your copies with us.  Right now through Shutterfly they have an offer for a FREE softcover 7x9 Photo Book.  I'm going to make Stella a book from her Birthday/party to keep in her keepsake box.