Peace begins with our own hearts.
It can fill our homes…
and spread to our families…
and ultimately throughout the world.
holiday
Valentine’s Day and May Designs: Love Is In the Air
I crush on good design and May Designs does a good job of keeping me crushing with every new release. Their Valentine’s Day designs for this year are no different! I wanted to bring in some samples I had designed, as well as those designed by the team at May Designs to share. The fonts and color selections are spectacular, working across a wide-variety of cards, etc., so you never have to worry about your choices not working together.
Because I am cheeky, I would send this card to my husband. He is probably blushing without ever having read this post!
Having a Valentine’s Day cocktail party and need a great invitation? Look no further than this pretty little invite.
Finally, this great customizable card (all of May Designs can be customized down to what you want them to say) that boldly proclaims “Love” with “is all you need” in a smaller script underneath. If my paramour were to give me this card, I’d be transported into the movie “Love Actually” and relive the wedding of Juliet and Peter.
Disclosure: This post was not compensated, nor did I receive product. I just love May Designs and am currently in the middle of ordering my own Valentine’s Day cards from them.
TravelingMom Presents 52 Holiday Light Delights
TravelingMom is the definitive online resource and survival guide for parents who travel. We travel quite a bit, so they’ve been my go to resource for quite some time.
I’m also a big fan of Christmas lights. Not far from where I live, an entire street decorates, each house in competition and it gets bigger and bigger every year. When TravelingMom asked me if I was interested in promoting their 52 Holiday Lights Delights guide, it was only natural that I share the love and pick out some of my favorite places listed, as well as those I want to visit.
This guide also has more than just lights. There’s advice on how to handle travel with gifts, choosing a cruise, plus great travel discounts from hotels like Omni Hotels and Resorts.
I’ve included lists of places I’ve visited in 52 Holiday Light Delights and that’s on my immediate list to visit. Where have you visited? Where do you want/plan to visit? Let me know in the comments below!
Visited:
1. Gatlinburg, TN — I’ve attended the “Winter Magic” light display on and off for 20 of it’s 22 years. I love the shopping, the festive feeling and the lights that are everywhere. Take the trolly tour, or park and walk. Traffic is very heavy.
2. Virginia Beach, VA — Driving down the boardwalk in Virginia Beach is part of the fun when visiting the “Holiday Lights at the Beach”. Christmas music is playing, the ocean is crashing and the nautical theme makes you wish you were wearing a bathing suit. There generally isn’t a long wait, but that can change nightly.
3. Charlotte, NC — “Carolina Christmas” at Charlotte Motor Speedway includes over 3 million lights in 600 different displays. There is a Festival of Trees, food and drink and photos with Santa. Best of all? You drive on one of the premiere race tracks in the US. Go early and expect an extended wait.
4. McAdenville, NC — “Christmas Town USA” I’m lucky enough to live 3 (!!) miles from McAdenville and visit multiple times a season. How many is multiple? At least twice a week. You can’t access McAdenville from 85-N, nor Hwy 74 East, in an effort to control traffic. Go early as the lights turn off at 9pm during the week and 10pm on the weekends.
Places I want to visit:
1. Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Maryland. My husband is a Marylander and I had no idea this existed. I love the beach. I love Christmas lights. The two together are the perfect fit!
2. Lights on the Bay in Annapolis, Maryland is also on my list now. I’m beginning to sense a conspiracy theory!
3. The Holiday Festival of Lights on James Island in Charleston is on my list of places to visit this year. A short 3.5 hour drive, I can’t wait to load up the family and spend the night in the grand dame of the South, soaking in the Holiday spirit and enjoying Christmas Low-Country style.
4. Red Rock Fantasy in Sedona has been added to my travel list. This is an area that’s high on my travel list and I just bumped it up another notch. All proceeds go to charity.
5. Celebration in the Oaks in New Orleans also appeals to my wanderlust, Christmas light obsessed nature. Taking a walking tour through City Park in a city I love, to see millions of lights, will definitely be an enriching experience.
6. The Festival of Lights at the historic Mission Inn Hotel and Spa just makes me giddy. I have a girlfriend who goes there frequently, so Mission Inn was already on my travel list after seeing her photos and hearing about her experiences. To see it decorated for the holidays? That’s just a bonus.
Click on this guide to be taken to 52 Holiday Light Delights
Disclosure: I was not required to write about this guide, however TravelingMom is an advertiser on my site. All thoughts contained herein are my own
Tis the season…for Christmas Cards!!
I can’t believe it! Christmas is less than two months away and I am already making my list and checking it twice. Santa Claus likes it when we are peaceful and do unto others, so I am doing my part by ordering my holiday cards early from Shutterfly!
Every year, I ponder a multitude of card choices and this year, it’s not been any different. We have never done a Christmas photo card, as most of the ones that we receive are well, kinda hokey. I have also sworn solemnly to my husband that I wouldn’t do a Christmas letter. He tried to get it put into our nuptials! Cheese, or being anti-cheese is also on the list. So, I have promised no matching turtlenecks, no Jingle-Bell sock and certainly no sequined sweaters. (I hear you, breathing a sigh of relief out there with this proclamation.)
So, I took to the interwebs on my hunt for majesty, glory and taste, with a huge heaping dose of cute and fun thrown in for good measure.
We are the most content as a family when we are at the beach. So, these beachy themed cards from Shutterfly might be the perfect ones for us to pick as our choice. Being able to customize the card with our family name, as well as it being sustainably harvested is a win in my book.
The next card on my list would be the Paper Ornaments Christmas Card. I love it. When I think of Christmas it’s very red, green, bold and retro. It’s a Leave it to Beaver meets Little House in the Big Woods, with a healthy dose of Clark W. Griswold thrown in for good measure. Love it!! This card? Definitely shows what Clark wanted his Christmas to be. We all know what he got. Thankfully, I am not trying to wear down the town power supply with my house decorated with more lights than an airport runway.
Finally, I had to consider business Christmas Cards. Since Heidi Klum won’t return my phone calls, I have to make do. That would be the decision not to frighten people during the holiday season and pick a card that is simple, let’s you know “tis the season” and has a modern, hip feel. So, for my business Christmas cards, it would be the Modern Merry Wreath Business Holiday Card.
Wow. My cards are all blue! That’s ok. I am a traditional green, gold and red gal, much to the dismay of my family. So, I am guessing my selections might be my subconscious being infiltrated by boys, asking me to change it up during the holidays. Umm, that’s not happening. 🙂
Now, for a surprise. If you want 50 free!!! Shutterfly cards of your own, blog about it! Just follow this link and give them a write up. Tell them Clever Girls Collective sent you and they will get back to you faster than Santa whips up and down the chimneys delivering gifts on Christmas Eve!
This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Lisa is a lifestyle blogger, writer and social media strategist living in Charlotte, NC. 
