Recession Style Christmas Card...

I have had two failed attempts at a Christmas card.

Here is my first attempt. I had given up getting a Christmasy picture so I decided to throw out all Christmas colors and make an attempt to spot light their personalities. But, when I showed it to Emma, she said it looked more like an Easter card than a Christmas card. I decided that she was right and started once again, my pursuit of a Christmas picture.



And I got the picture below and made the following card. It wasn't my optimum photography skills as the picture isn't very high resolution but the girls looked sweet in it so I decided to go with it. I sent them to Walmart because I didn't have time to order the much better quality prints from Smugmug. When I got to Walmart, the guy was totally rude telling me that I needed the Copyright release. Which I found ironic since the photography quality stunk. But fine, I get that he needed to cover his tail. So I told him I didn't have a copyright release since I took the picture but I'd be glad to write him one. He handed me a form to fill out. But, when I asked him a question, he threw his hands up and refused to speak to me like he wasn't going to have anything to do with my criminal activity and would not speak to me the rest of the time I was standing there. Probably not the best call if it's your tail you want to cover but we'll see what your manager has to say about that. Then when I got to the car and looked at the picture, half of the writing was cut off the side. A far cry from what I would consider professional looking photography or professional behavior from a customer service associate. Once again, Walmart scores a BIG FAT F!!



I may give it a rest and sike myself back up and try one more time and I may not. So you should probably take a good look just in case. I have worked everything out for a stress free Christmas except for these stinking Christmas Cards!!

Deep breaths, deep breaths!

Blessings,
Dana



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Christmas Can Still Change the World..

Last year, we started a new Christmas tradition. We gave no gifts and filled the days leading up to Christmas day with activities: crafts, baking, games and scavengar hunts. Much of our family joined us and gave us money instead and we were able to send money to Living Water International towards putting wells to provide clean water to a whole city in Rwanda. You can read about it HERE and HERE. After Christmas, we took a much needed vacation to Disney World. This year, we knew many people closer to home that were in need of financial help so we kept our charity closer to home. Since a Disney World vacation isn't in the budget every year, we have elected to give the girls one present each (more on that later). It is our desire that we teach our children that Christmas is a time to focus on relationships and others, because of our relationship with Jesus, rather than getting all the stuff that they want and don't actually need. Will you join me this year in sharing a much better story with our children?

And the winner is...

Thank you all for the overwhelming participation in the hopper dog giveaway. I wish I was like Oprah and could give one to everyone. But since I don't have enough hopper dogs to go around, the results of a random drawing using www.random.org chose:

Stephanie over at GraphicI. Stephanie does photo greeting cards and has some great designs. If you're wanting a greeting card, you should check her out because since I can no longer get my favorite program for my new computer (Microsoft Picture It 99. I know that's old but it worked the best.) I'm closing shop in the greeting card designs.

If you would like to order a hopper dog, then hurry on over to Bella's Toy Shop on ebay. She was planning on selling out before Christmas and everywhere else I had found were sold out. Or, you can skip the middle man and e-mail the seller directly at sboatwright7@comcast.net.

Blessings and a Merry Christmas to all!

Little Froggie

Everyone I know is having babies these days. This is my friend Mandy's sweet baby. He was two weeks old when these were taken. I'm still hit or miss and lighting is everything.. This particular day, the lighting was just perfect in my upstairs room and I was really happy with how these came out.. Still, my consistency needs improving. I win a few, I lose a few.. But I'm only going to show you the winners of course.

Mandy is one of those smart mommies that came up with nicknames for her children and doesn't use their real names. Whoops, didn't think of that. I don't guess it matters much as both of my girls have names that half the little girls their ages have. For the record, Emma is my grandmother's name. I had it picked out long before the tv show "Friends" named their baby Emma.. Just for the record..

Anyway, you can check out little Froggie over at Life's about a Dream

Such a handsome little bundle of joy!!









Blessings,
Dana

Giveaway-- Hopper Dog

The other night, we went into Learning Express. Chloe immediately spotted this little bouncy dog, ran over and hopped on and went to town. She bounced all of the store chanting "this is fun, this is fun". I started looking around for the box they came in and found the price tag of 49.99. Now these things are the cutest things I've seen in a while but, me, being the cheap person that I am decided to wait until I got home to see if I could find them cheaper on the internet. So I began my search and found a seller on ebay selling them for 27.99. Then I had this thought.. Hey, I've been doing reviews on my blog. Maybe this lady would want me to review a hopper dog for her. So I emailed her and told her that I was going to buy one anyway but was wondering if she was interested in doing a review and sent her a link to my blog. Her reply, if I bought one, she'd send me an additional one to giveaway.. Fair enough.. But, since I wanted one for my neice Wynn and Chloe and still wanted to be able to give you a chance to win one, I ordered two, and got one free. What can I say? I love you guys!

So, now is your chance to see your kids bouncing and having a ball just like my kids are in this video:



But, if you know that you've just got to get every little person on your Christmas list one of these adorable puppies, and you don't want to wait to see if you won one, then you can e-mail Susan at sboatwright7@comcast.net and tell her what you want and she will send you an invoice for your order.

So how to win: Same as before, for one entry, leave me a comment telling me who you want to have the hopper dog and for five additional entries, post my giveaway on facebook, twitter or your blog. The winner will be chosen via www.random.org and announced on Friday, Dec. 4th (wow, how crazy is that? We're almost in December!)..

Merry Christmas!!!

Blessings,
Dana

And the Winner Is....

The winner of the Crayola Color Explosion Glow Dome is KRISTEN!! Congratulations Kristen!!!

Check back soon for a chance to win a HOPPER DOG!! If you haven't seen one of these, they're the cutest thing ever!!

Black Friday Shopper's Guide

Still trying to decide if I'm doing the Black Friday thing.. Guess it depends on what my Thanksgiving visitors want to do. But, since I know that so many of my blogger friends are doing Black Friday shopping and all my coupon resources are flooding my inbox with Black Friday information, I'm going to try to compose them all in one place. I will add to it as I receive them. If you know, of something not listed, by all means, share please!

So here is a list of links that you might find valuable in your Black Friday preparations. Some of these sites are so busy that they're timing out. If you have a hard time getting into them. Try checking back during a time that isn't primetime.

Black Friday Explanation and Tips

Black Friday Complete Store Flyers-- Go here and you can see the Black Friday Ads.

Black Friday Buying Guide-- Find out which store has the best deal on the item you want.

Walmart has a Canon Rebel deal online right now (1:40 p.m. 11/24) for $499. Don't know how long it last

Black Friday Store opening times-- Different stores have different opening times. Find those here

Black Friday Coupons:
Bath and Body Works Free item with a ten dollar purchase.

Gap-- 20% off. Now through 1/30/09

Old Navy-- $10 off $50 or more (THURSDAY ONLY)

Bitterness-- Wishing for Another's Harm while Drinking our own Poison

This is something I've had on my mind for a while. There are so many people that I know that are hurting.. Things from their past... things from now. And often forgiveness is hard to find. Bitterness is by far the most harmful of emotions. It leads to so many other things.. anger, hate, need for revenge. It grabs our own sense of reason and distorts it in way that justifies actions that we could never otherwise justify. It is a wedge between us and God. It is a roadblock on the path to us becoming what God wants us to be. It becomes our master, and us, it's slave..

I've mulled this over in my head for months now. I have no eloquent words of inspiration. But, perhaps the words that broke my heart on this matter will do so for you too. The video clip that I'm posting is divided into two segments. Together, they are around 15 minutes. That's a long time to spend on a blog post.. I know that.. But it is my prayer that if you are struggling with bitterness towards someone, that you will find a quiet 15 minutes to watch and listen with an open heart.. It may change your life. It did mine.





May our hearts be open to give the forgiveness that Jesus so freely gives to us.

Blessings,
Dana

Crayola Giveaway!

You might imagine that when I opened an e-mail from Myblogspark and they were offering to send me these three crayola products review that I didn't have to think twice.






We are always looking for ways to explore our artistic creativity that doesn't involve my walls at the Ellis household. So I jumped on the deal just as fast as I could.

I was so excited to receive the box with our goodies inside complete with batteries taped to the boxes! These people know the way to a mom's heart! They couldn't have come at a better time as we were plotting through the stormy days we experienced when hurricane Ivan was coming through. It was just perfect that I was able to pull out the Crayola Color Explosion Glow Dome on a yucky day when Emma came in from school. We were definitely impressed. Though it comes with templates, my little artist decided to march to the beat of her own drum and draw hearts and stars.. It has a piece in the middle that she colored and then she colored the outside dome . Once the dome was put in place, we flipped this little switch and the light show was just what we needed to brighten up our gloomy afternoon.






And as for what my girls thought about the other two items, I'll just let you see that for yourself:



All of these items would make wonderful gifts for the artist in your life. And here is your chance to win one of them. Crayola and Myblogspark were so kind as to also share with my readers and are allowing me to also give away one of the Crayola Color Explosion Glow Domes.

To enter, simply leave me a comment telling me what little artist you have in mind as recipient of your gift. For five additional entries, share about my giveaway on your blog, or facebook page or twitter. Giveaway will end Wed. Nov. 25th.


You can also visit HERE and register to win all 6 of Crayola's new holiday products and a Caribbean cruise!