Monday, May 2, 2011

"Note"-worthy Birthday Gifts

I turned 27 on April 13th. Crazy! Two weeks after that, my sister, Jeannie, turned 25 on April 27th. It has always been fun for us to have our birthdays exactly two years and two weeks apart. I don't know about all of you, but I love gift giving. I love it ten times more than gift receiving! I have birthday and Christmas gift ideas running through my mind the day after I give them their gifts and just hope I am able to remember them for 364 more days. I'm a dork like that!

Anyway, so when it came to my sister's birthday, I knew exactly what I wanted to get her... stationary. It may sound weird, but we're a big stationary family. We were taught from a very young age that when we are given gifts, we should show our appreciation by sending a hand-written thank you card and it is something that has stuck with me my entire life. It stuck so hard that I don't think it even came as a surprise when my bridesmaids were given personalized stationary as gifts for being in my wedding. And, as far as I know, the gift was a huge hit! There is just something about seeing your name in perfect and fancy writing on a pristine note card, and then being able to express you gratitude for a gift or kind gesture, or just sending a simple hello to bring someone a smile. Love! I'm sure my Mom has given us stationary from numerous places over the years (we always received different styles, fonts, colors, etc for various birthday and Christmas gifts growing up - and she even gave some to my husband for his college graduation, since it's perfect for job interview thank you's and follow-ups!), but the brand that always comes to mind is Embossed Graphics. Maybe she'll comment on this post and let us know her favorite places to shop for stationary - thanks in advance for that, Mom! :) This stationary can be purchased from various vendors online (and at Statements, a gift store for all you KC peeps) and is my absolute favorite! I just recently purchased this Somerset Wardrobe set for myself a few months ago from giftsin24.com and just love it.

Since I have always been so pleased with my stationary from EG I was planning to buy the same set for my sister, until I came across this new (or new-to-me) online store for all things stationary-cards-business needs and couldn't get enough of vistaprint.com. I decided to continue looking around for a couple days before placing my order and signed up for the email list, only to find some amazing deals in my inbox over the next 24 hours. I was so impressed with the options, prices and production time (I had read online that even if you pick the slowest shipping method - which claims it could take up to a month to receive your order - that it will really ship within one week) that I couldn't pass it up. So, I set out to make the following two sets of stationary for Jeannie. Once I got through the process of picking out the design, personalizing my order and getting ready to purchase, I was prompted to create FREE (and matching!) return address labels for each set. Bonus! So, enough rambling from me; I want you to see what I created. The first is a basic card for Jeannie to send out thank you cards or special notes to family and friends. The second is so fun and something I didn't even know you could do - a personalized-to-every-family-member card for Jeannie and Chad to send out as a family thank you or, possibly, a thank you card from one of their boys. They were so much fun to create and hopefully something they can use for years to come (since the little "people" are saved in my vistaprint account forever) Love love love them!

Jeannie Wohletz - I love the fancy font and the pretty swirly flowers for my girly-girl sister!




The Wohletz Family - I just can't get enough! It was so fun to see Jeannie's & Chad's faces when
they saw how much these caricatures actually resemble each one of the Wohletz family members.




So, what do you think?! I had these wrapped and sitting  hiding in our master closet for at least two months (I told you, they came way faster than I thought they would) before her birthday. And let's be honest, I had to hide them not because I was scared someone would see them, but because I needed them out of sight/out of mind so I wasn't tempted to give them to her early! And when I was finally able to give them to her last week... she LOVED them!

PS - If you happen to try your luck  design skills at vistaprint, don't forget to sign up for the email list first AND don't forget to search Google for any possible coupon codes that they have out there for all to use. Happy gifting!

PPS - A big thank you to my wonderful parents for instilling such a great traditional and habit in out lives. I am still so grateful! Love you!

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