Today, I received a beautiful box in the mail filled with ten samples from SimplyToImpress.com. Included were birth announcements, birthday invitations and holiday cards. I was truly impressed with each and every sample. The designs were gorgeous and the cardstock was high quality and not flimsy. I was also glad to see that there was printing on both sides of the cards, a great touch!

SimplyToImpress.com has many creative and innovative designs for personalized invitations and announcements. The company was founded by a mom who wanted to use photographs as a main focus of the cards, invitations and announcements.

I played around with the design tool – it was really easy to use. I created this sample graduation notice for my daughter who will graduate from high school next year. There are so many choices, it was hard choosing the one that I liked the best.

Right now, you can get 25% off by using code 2525 by August 1, 2011. If you already have your holiday pictures, why not take advantage of this great deal for your holiday cards?

I recently had a sweet sixteen party for my daughter. We did a black light party where we removed the regular recessed lighting bulbs in our back room and replaced them with black light bulbs. Then I bought a bunch of glow sticks, necklaces and bracelets. The room was dark, but not too dark and the kids had a lot of fun. The one thing I forgot was to make sure that there were digital cameras to take pictures of the event. I think I only have a couple of photos. Next time, maybe I will provide disposable cameras for the teens so that I get some good memories.

I wanted to plan a surprise Sweet Sixteen Party for my daughter who turns sixteen in February, but she won’t have it. She likes to know everything that is going on, so I am not sure that I will be able to sneak it by her. Besides, if I invited all the wrong friends, she would be made.

At first, she wanted to do something unusual for her party, but I told her I couldn’t afford any rv financing and that cross country road trip would be out of the question!

Instead, I think I found some cool ideas that would be fun and if I can get a guest list out of her, maybe it will be a surprise after all. She just won’t know when it will hit her!

You may be searching for weight loss products after Halloween is over. Certainly, if you eat all of the candy on the Halloween Most Popular Candy List. This list of candy was the most searched for candy in Lycos last year:
1. Tootsie Roll
2. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
3. Nestle Crunch
4. Nerds
5. Hot Tamales
6. Candy Corn
7. Snickers Bar
8. Baby Ruth
9. Reese’s Pieces
10. Almond Joy
11. Milky Way
12. Razzles
13. Life Savers
14. M & M’s
15. Sour Patch

Did you buy any of these to hand out?

I think that I have all of my kids Halloween Costumes ready. If you are still shopping for costumes, BuyCostumes.com has a wide range of selection. They have all the popular costumes, such as Indiana Jones, Spiderman, Batman, Pirates, etc. Both adult and children sizes are available. Plus, every Monday through Friday, starting at 9:00am you will find 5 deals at $5 each!

This year, I want to throw a Halloween party. I always thought it would be fun to have a costume party and a scary theme. There are so many recipes for cool looking Halloween food that I am sure it would be a great success. I found these cool Halloween invitations that I thought would do the trick. Now, all I have to do is plan the party!

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I just thought of a fun birthday gift – custom pens! My kids love having things with their names on them. If you are buying for a school age child, what a great gift – pens and pencils with their names on them. This is also a great gift for the business owner or executive with a huge ego!

LittleThings.com is a great place to shop for wedding favors. The offer over 3,000 wedding favors and accessories. They have wedding favors under $1.00 and also very unique favors. Check out their new wedding favors category to find out what new stuff has been added. I wish I had known about this site when we held the 50th anniversary party for my in-laws. LittleThings.com has such a variety of favors that it would have been easy to find the perfect favor for this event.

Right now, LittleThings.com is offering two deals. Get 10% off any order by using the coupon code: grandopening. Also, you can get free shipping when you oreder $250 or more within the United States.

Join their monthly contest and you could win $100.00 toward the purchase of favors on their site.

I am starting to plan my 4-year-old’s birthday party and I need some supplies. We always serve a dinner with stuff to munch on before hand.

I was thrilled to find a cool/warm dip server for the party at The Lakeside Collection. Basically it is a 6″ x 5 1/2″ ceramic pot with a lid and an insert. You fill the base with either ice or hot water depending on if you want to keep the dip cold or hot. It holds up to 1 1/2 cups of dip and it is oven, microwave and dishwater safe! They sell for $6.95 each.

I think I need to order a couple of these for the party. What an excellent idea!