Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Its November 5. Please don't unfollow me because of this post, but I'm Christmas obsessed! I'm wearing red and green today for our company Christmas photo. I'm begging RCW to start putting up outdoor Christmas lights this weekend and due to our upcoming schedule, I'm fairly certain he's going to oblige. No worries, I promise we will not start turning them on until the day after Thanksgiving! But we go all out, take a look at last year's not even yet finished house...

There are 1,000 lights on that one tree alone. I know we have a problem, but when you're born and raised in Richmond, VA you grow up thinking its only natural to have tacky lights at Christmas! What RCW and I do is nothing compared to what we grew up going to see...take a look.

Anyway, I digress. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting our annual Christmas card picture taken (making sure we're all in matching outfits) and picking out a design to put our perfect picture into and sending cards to all of our family and friends. I've sent Christmas cards since RCW and I moved in together, so since Christmas 2006. Isn't that crazy?! This year will be no different and I'm already planning our outfits, wondering if I should use our family beach pictures and picking out designs to use on Shutterfly.

Now, I know some of my friends have said they are a Merry Christmas only family, but we aren't, we've used Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays interchangeably simply depending on which card design we like best. My search parameters at Shutterfly where simply this:
- 1 photo
- flat card
- premium cardstock.

We take family pictures ALL the time so having one large photo with all 4 of us is fine, since I'm not hand signing our cards I perfer a flat over folded card and I like the heavier cardstock as opposed to photopaper quality. Here are my top choices for The 2010 W Family Christmas Card.

First up, my heart skipped when it saw the Oh What Fun Christmas Card design. I adore the fun font and that it changes colors between red, green, lighter green and white. I love that the majority of the card is our photo and flirty snowflakes. PS. I'm not a fan of the picture I chose, but I don't have access to many of our holiday/winter pictures at the moment so I'm making due with what I have to steal from Facebook!
After some more searching I stumbled across the Pretty Package design. The blue and red combo for Christmas is a favorite of mine. Seriously, I love the blue instead of the standard red and green. *swoon* Again, I'm ok with the Happy Holidays wish. My only dilemma would be picking a picture that fits between the lovely ribbons. The picture included is our 2009 Santa picture.
Finally, I found a more traditional card with Red Revamped. I love nonstandard card sizes of the 5x5 size appealed to me as did the font on the card. As well as the focus is on the picture of us and not a lot of fancy designs.
Oh, decisions, decisions. There are so many wonderful designs at Shutterfly to choose from! Not to mention, when I order our cards I'll probably be ordering some photobooks as gifts for loved ones as well! One stop shopping is fabulous and makes Christmas so less stressful.

Which card do you like best and do you think I should use our family beach pictures or a more Christmas themed card? I wish I had thought ahead and taken Santa hats or something to the beach for a couple of our photos - oh well, live and learn!

PS: If you want some free Shutterfly cards go here!! Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly this year!!!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored and I will receive 50 free photo cards for writing it. However, the content and opinions are my own.

What I Loved: October

Laura from Happy Hour with a Housewife posted a blog this morning titled 'What I Loved: October'. She started it after seeing it on another blog - oh how I love the blogging community! The purpose of WIL is this: Its a way to look back, reflect, and be grateful for the month you just had. I think we could all use a gentle reminder every now and then about just how truly blessed, lucky and privileged we are. Despite our own individuals trials and tribulations, if we are able to write a blog, chances are we are blessed and our lowest low isn't really that bad in the grand scheme of life! So without further ado...

What I loved about October 2010 in pictures and captions.

First major hair cut since our wedding!!!! - October 1, 2010

St. James Court Art Fair, where we bought Christmas gifts!! - October 1-3, 2010

University of Louisville v. Memphis - October 9, 2010

BW3's Tradition with fabulous blogger KJ Pugs - October 13, 2010

University of Louisville v. Cincinnati - October 15, 2010

Family Beach Pictures - Received CD of 700 images on October 16, 2010

Miss A's New Shirt - Sorority Big Sis Announced Baby # 2 via this text message "So...Miss A wanted to tell you something...{insert above picture}" on October 21, 2010

Miss S, our favorite 3 year old had a fabulous birthday party with a cake made with help from RCW (click here to visit Miss S's mom's blog to read more about that adventure!) - October 23, 2010

The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About...Halloween - October 31, 2010

So, if you like the idea of What I Loved Monthly, go visit Laura's blog and leave her a sweet comment telling her she should create a button and Linky so we can all be reminded each month of how sweet life is for each of us! And here's to a fabulous November!

Blog Challenge Day 22

Day 22-Favorite city

This is a hard question!! I haven't been to THAT many cities and besides Tallahassee, Florida, Rome, Italy and Indianapolis, Indiana (sorry KJPugs!) have adored most I have visited. My favorite city that I could semi-realistically live in would be NYC. Yup, I said it.

If RCW and I had the opportunity (mainly, job opportunity) I'd move there in a heartbeat.

I've only been to NYC twice, and my first trip didn't make me so enamored of the Big Apple, but my second trip as a 27 year old made me fall in love. The people, the energy, the walkable city, the Broadway shows, Central Park, the food, the shopping...sigh. Honestly, if we had a job offer that would pay us reasonably well, I'd pack us up and move there and never look back.

I mean who wouldn't want to live near this amazing park and have their kids grow up there!? *swoon*

And while I know this is the complete opposite of my dream home, let me just say again I don't know where in the world that dream home would be located! I'm at two opposing ends of the spectrum...I either want to really live city life or I want to fully embrace country living. Nothing really inbetween appeals to me - i.e.: the suburbs which is where we are now. I know, I'm random, but you love me anyway!

Blog Challenge Day 21

Day 21-Picture of yourself

(No words needed.)

IF Friends...

Tell me what you know about Circle + Bloom please...

I'm still such a newbie, just heard of them mentioned on Katie over at From IF to When and visited and downloaded and relaxed from the sample. It was bliss and I think I may be in love, but I'd love to know your thoughts.

Also, since I have PCOS, would I follow PCOS Fertility Program or the IUI/IVF Program?

Thanks friends!

Get Out And Vote!!

Oh Election Day, I adore thee.

Its this day every year that I'm sad I don't work in politics anymore. Election Day was a day full of excitement and nerves. Wondering if all your hard work would pay off in the end. I miss those feelings on this day now that I don't have a candidate I'm working for. But, the 9 months leading up to one day, makes me happy I'm out of the political game. Seriously, its like a wedding. You work so hard and plan so much and then poof in one day its over and on November 3 (this year) you're either out of a job or you're floating on Cloud 9 because your candidate won.

So this year, I sit at my desk while MANY of my friends (and family) are out working at polls, putting up signs, handing out sample ballots and doing last minute GOTV calls and door to doors. Those same friends (and family) will be at parties tonight, watching the results. I'll be at home, watching on tv because I have to go to work tomorrow morning. But friends have fun! Enjoy it! You all worked so hard for this day and I'm proud of you!

And, you my blog loves, please take time and vote today! We all know I'm a huge Republican so I encourage you to vote for the RIGHT party today, but really, its our right, privilege and freedom to vote, so even if you're going to vote to the left, please just vote. We each know someone who has fought or is fighting for this freedom and we shouldn't take it for granted!

Blog Challenge Day 20

Day 20-Nicknames

I was about to type that I've never really had nicknames, but that just isn't true. The more I think about it, the more nicknames I remember. So here goes the list...

1. Binky - growing up and sometimes still, my dad called me Binky. No clue where it came from, but yea, it stuck.

2. Stefi - in school, especially middle and high school, my friends called me this. I loved it back then, please now, please don't call me Stefi. Steph is fine and I refer to myself and sign emails often as Steph, but just not Stefi.

3. Bos - a play on my maiden name of Boswell (I figure I was full out disclosure on my wedding blog so if someone really wanted to know my name they could figure it out). This stuck with co-workers on political campaigns and at the American Heart Association. Sadly, now with my new last name, it doesn't make sense anymore.

4. Boohead - my ASA Big Sister's nickname for me. I have a plethora of cards and notes from her sent to me with this nickname. Not sure how it happened, but since some of her other nicknames for people are 'donkey' I'll take boohead! *wink, wink to SJM if you read this*

5. Boodle, Boo, Booty-Lu - these are all of RCW's nicknames for me. My parents have always called each other 'boo' and I suppose it stuck with RCW and I.

So while I don't have any too over the top crazy nicknames, I do have a few and they work for me!

Blog Challenge Day 19

Day 19-Something you miss

Something I miss...hmm...I miss my family and our friends in RVA. I hate that I missed seeing our nephew dressed up for his first Halloween... Cutest little spider you've ever seen, right!?

But the flip side is, I can't imagine leaving Louisville right now. We adore where we live and if I moved to RVA, I'd miss all of our amazing friends here. Catch-22 dilemma.

What else do I miss...

I miss living my carefree college days, not worrying about paying bills and just going out and having fun. And not often, but sometimes I miss drinking. Like Saturday night's Halloween party, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol or caffeine. While RCW was partaking in glass after glass of Maker's Mark, I was sipping on Sprite. Parties are definitely not as fun when everyone but you is drinking!

Blog Challenge Day 18

Day 18-Something you regret

I try to live my life without regrets...but if I had to choose...I would have finished college when I was suppose to. I would have still come back to RVA from Virginia Tech and gone to Virginia Commonwealth University so I could join ASA and meet my Big Sis, which lead me to RCW, but instead of all the partying and thinking I didn't need a piece of paper, I would go back and find a better balance. Enjoy college life and still go to class so I could have graduated back in 2005 when I was suppose to.

I'm thankful for the experiences and friends I made while forgoing school to work in politics from 2004-2008, but now being in the corporate world I know how badly I need to have that piece of paper on my resume. I make at least $5,000 to $10,000 less than my peers because I don't have that piece of paper. Sigh. And no, it wasn't like that in politics - experience ranked over a degree. And while I'm back in school at University of Louisville and proudly maintaining a 3.93 cumulative GPA, I still have quite a few classes to complete before I get my degree. In all honesty, I have 12-13 more classes to take to reach 121 credits to wear a cap and gown, walk across a stage and add B.A. to my resume. When only taking 1-2 classes per semester because taking any more than that while working 40 hours a week and trying to make a baby results in way too much stress and not doing well in anything, it means I have a couple more years of school. But, I'd rather take a long time to graduate than overwhelm myself and do poorly - its the perfectionist coming out.

So, one day I'll have my degree, but I do regret not getting it when I should have.

another plea for votes...

Thanks to everyone who has voted for us! We're currently in second place with 84 votes behind Lily the Bunny who has 90 votes. Voting is open until 11:55pm Sunday, October 31. If you haven't taken the time yet, please vote for us!

Click this link: http://www.nanzandkraft.com/contests/halloween_2010/photos/index.cfm?entID=122, rate us a 5 and enter your email. Be sure to verify your vote when you get a message in your inbox! And remember to vote with all of your email addresses!

Thanks loves!!