Just Call Me Haha

Happy first day of November!  Now that Halloween is over, I will fully admit that I am already excited for Christmas!  I’m not sure why because usually I follow the rule of no decorations, etc. until Thanksgiving, but this year it’s different.  It also doesn’t help that this morning I noticed one of the companies has already put Christmas lights up on their trees outside (I swear, everything looks better with the twinkle of Christmas lights), but also, Starbucks got their holiday cups!!! Ta-da; to me that’s the sign that, okay holidays are coming! Yay!

Actually, I kind of lied….I already did one holiday thing, well maybe two.  One, I ordered our holiday cards last week.  I ordered them from Vistaprint because I know that shipping can sometimes take a while (even though I usually get my items within two weeks).  Using  knowledge from wedding planning, I used Powerpoint to design the card and then uploaded it to Vistaprint.  With a promotional email from my friend, whom I like to call the “Vistaprint Goddess” (<google it, she has an awesome tutorial website on Vistaprint), I ordered 50 holiday cards, envelopes, and return labels for $15 including shipping.  Really from the promo, the cards, upload fee and return labels were free.  I paid $5 for the envelopes and $10 for shipping.  I’m excited to get them!  Here’s our holiday card from last year (no peaking on this year’s card until after I send them out):

The second thing I’ve done related to the holidays is to establish a date for our “Lights and Libations” trolley and made up the initial invite list.  It’s our third year hosting it.  I’m not sure why, but the first Christmas Ben and I were living together, 2009, I told Ben I thought it’d be fun to get a holiday trolley.  When I looked into it, I found it was actually pretty reasonable since it’s BYOB.  The first year we did the official “Holiday Lights Tours”, which cost $23 a person and included a stop at Hersey’s store for a brownie and hot chocolate…but since less than half of the people were interested in the snacks, last year I got smart and just booked the trolley for the set 3 hour fee and requested that we go on the tour route but no treats.  Thus, we were able to charge $25/person which included beer.  So that’s the same set-up we have for this year.  Plus, now that I’m obsessed with Pinterest, I’m excited to come up with some tasty apps and holiday decorations for the apartment.

Even Ben’s getting into it.  Ben has been brewing beer for about two years now (only one year with his “real” supplies; the previous supplies were from a Mr. Beer Kit I bought him for Valentines 2010…however, I do claim that I was the one who got him inspired to start brewing.  Despite Ben’s past claims, I truly am a good gift giver!)…anyways, so on Friday night Ben found a recipe for a Christmas beer in one of his books.  We brewed it Saturday (yep, the apartment was smelling all nice and fresh and then he decided to stink it up).  I actually like helping him when his recipes call for specific items like spices, fruits, etc.  This Christmas recipe claims it’s a beer-spin on fruit cake.  It was my job to prepare the orange peel, grated ginger and cinnamon.  I can’t lie, it actually smelled pretty good once we got it boiling.  I took pictures of some of the process to share; but Ben said maybe I shouldn’t because people may not want to drink it if they see what it looks like in the process.  Ben also suggested that we make a label and save this beer for the trolley party.  So now the next step is working to design a label (and also crossing my fingers that this beer turns out!).

In the meantime, tonight is the company’s client dinner.  I opted for a black pencil skirt, black tights, round toe black heels and a plum/purple blouse.  I’m hoping it was a “safe” choice.  I certainly feel more dressed up than usual.  I also just realized that out of the ten people from our company, I’m the only female representative.  I suppose it should be an honor, but it also makes me nervous!

Today’s deals and steal:

·         Banana Republic: 11/1-11/3, online only; $30 off dresses, $20 off sweaters and $10 of tops (select styles; prices marked)

·         BR/Gap/ON/Piperlime: 10% off today for store card holders w/code:  TUESDAYS

·         Ebates.com:  New month, new rebates.  Some that I think are worthy of posting (complete list here):

o   10% back at Banana Republic

o   8% back at Barnes and Noble

o   8% back at J. Crew

o   10% back at Piperlime

o   20% back at Snapfish

·         Kate Spade Outlet:  Marked down the Henry Street Rude from $295 to $95; great price for a classic bag!

·         Michaels: Black Friday preview sale 11/1 and 11/2 in stores; includes:

o   60% off holiday ribbon

o   50% off Christmas ornaments

o   50% off Martha Stewart scoring board and circle cutter

o   50% off stickers and embellishments

o   50% off strung beads

·         Snapfish: Free shipping on all eCatalog orders through 11/2 with code: FSCATALOG

·         Zazzle: Through 11/4, use code: UPTOSIXTYOFF to save: 60% off cards and invitations, 30% off calendars and cases, and 25% off ornaments and mugs