Thursday, December 19, 2019

Holiday Christmas Cards


Back in July I had a greeting card company, basic invite, reach out to me to see if I wanted to work with them. Most of you know that I want to stay true to my brand and only post about companies and brands that I want to work with and would use or do use. In July I wasn't really thinking about holiday cards, but told them to keep me in mind if they wanted to work together closer to Christmas. As a photographer, I am always looking for companies to recommend to my clients.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and they reached back out. I was eager to see what the cards would look like and what the benefits of this brand compared to others would be. I also waited to agree to do this post until I knew for sure it was a quality product that I would use. 

Basic invite is a greeting card company that allows you to customize the greeting cards which is a HUGE advantage for me and one of the reasons that I was so excited to order cards from this company and work with them. When I plan a session I do it based on the styling of the shoot. I usually have in mind colors, location, etc. When I have tried to order holiday picture cards in the past, unless I knew which cards I was going to order ahead of time, a lot of the ones I liked the best I couldn't use because they didn't work with the colors in my photos. Basic invite has 180 colors to customize your card with and 3 foil colors that can be raised or flat on the card. You can preview your card while creating it online with all the different color options to make sure you like the fit. I absolutely loved playing around with all the options and finding the best fit for my cards. They also offer pages and pages of different card options. 

Along with customizing the greeting cards you can chose from 40 different envelope colors. The envelopes are all peel and stick so they can easily be closed. They also offer an address capturing service that allows you to request friend's and family's addresses over social media. The addresses are stored in the account and can be selected when designing the cards. Address printing is offered at no additional cost. This is a huge time saver especially if you have a large family or are a company looking to send to clients. 

If you are still unsure or want to make sure the quality and colors are perfect before placing an order they also offer samples. I ordered samples of 4 different styles with 4 different photos to check the quality and colors before I even did this post. They all came back beautiful and exactly how they appeared when I was done customizing them.

If you are interested in checking out their selection of 2019 Christmas cards or 
office Christmas party invitations click the links and they are currently offering 15% off with code 15FF51.



**Thank you basic invite for sponsoring this post, all opinions are my own**

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Thanksgiving/ Black Friday Sales

I have been getting questions about sales and trying to put together a list of some of my favorite places to shop during the holiday sales. Some of the sales have started and some have not. I am speculating on the sales they have run in the past for what will be offered but most have been these same deals for years.

J Crew 50% off and 60% off sale:
https://rstyle.me/+XGp-v8Vlh68lcRrzYvKneg

J Crew Factory 60% off:
https://rstyle.me/+ePbBiqj5MJYTR0jM8iVpWg

Abercrombie 50% off and free shipping:
https://rstyle.me/+O28j_FJT_r1-ewKjaoTLJw

Abercrombie Kids 40% off and free shipping:
https://rstyle.me/+lgIKWKAK89L4MaXYdmWikg

American Eagle 40% off and free shipping:
https://rstyle.me/+tCYueWd_wLhDIj21pt3stQ

Target :
https://rstyle.me/+ndwaRiJ7PYWir-jzTmlu6g

Kohls:
https://rstyle.me/+ajMmeUZsnQMfDNJwpUZbLw

Zara usually does 30% off sitewide:
https://www.zara.com/us/

Asos usually does 20% off sitewide:
https://rstyle.me/+75rmKs8NAQfuoC1UVzLK3w

Missguided 50% off:
https://rstyle.me/+uWB52eKms6nTfBwkDP69pg

Urban Outfitters Buy 1 get 1 50% off:
https://rstyle.me/+oQgcoBuomsGHzozdb9XrZQ

Old Navy 50% no exclusions and it appears some items have been restocked!:
https://rstyle.me/+eY7wjZ4kbxf8zM3PjO8OPA

Ssense Golden Goose Sneaker Sale:
https://rstyle.me/+WUFrRMeFShWZcwTg0uRoHw

Spiritual Gangster 40% off:
https://spiritualgangster.com/collections/kids

Amazon great deals on kindles, fire sticks, books, etc.:
https://rstyle.me/+nWoGFDenIznSugy68yeZtA

Hopefully this list is helpful!!

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

LTK Day #4 Jcpenny


Today's sale is for a store that we regularly stop into when we are at the mall (maybe because it is one of the few left in that mall?!)

My original plan was to try and put together a few family holiday looks, but I wasn't able to find much left in my size. It seems like our local store is always picked over so I just let the girls pick out some of their favorite items. Besides the fancy dresses all the items were added to their Christmas lists.

Shop these looks through my LIKEtoKNOW.it profile (youngwidowedstylishmama) for extra savings today! or click the link on the top of this blog SHOP MY LOOKS to take you to these styles!

Monday, November 18, 2019

LTK SALE Day #3 ASOS


I didn't really post much about yesterday's sale because I am not really familiar with the brand. I did post what it was on my Instagram stories for those interested, but I wasn't comfortable giving recommendations, etc since I haven't used the products.

LTK Day #3 is one of my favorite stores! Anyone else add to wish list instead of to cart? I always have a wish list going strong on this site haha.

This is one of my favorite retailers because they carry petites and also wide fit in shoes. They were also one of the first retailers I came across that also carried maternity right after I had my girls and realized that there was a huge lack of cute maternity stuff.

Head over to the LIKEtoKNOW.it app to see shop today's deal or click the link on the top of this blog page (shop my looks) and it will take you to all these items to shop.

Check back tomorrow for the next deal....

Saturday, November 16, 2019

12 days of LTK--Day 1




If you haven't downloaded the LIKEtoKNOW.it app yet, you need to! It is the easiest way to shop and find products. Unlike Pinterest where you find the perfect outfit and click the link to only end up at a dead end, this takes you right to the product. It isn't just for fashion you can search home décor and products as well. You can follow your favorite influencers or just do a general scroll or by search terms. My name on the app is youngwidowedstylishmama so head over and give me a follow! I do make a small commission on the purchases made through the links and it also helps me know what people actually like and are clicking on that I post.

For the next 12 days LTK is going to have exclusive sales for people in the app. Today starts day 1 with one of my favorite stores from when the girls were little. They pretty much exclusively wore clothing from this brand. I couldn't get enough of the warm, cozy outfits.

Even today we still buy their pajamas. Lily is obsessed with one piece footed pajamas and this is one of the only brands that carries them.

Head over to the SHOP MY LOOKS tab on top of this blog page to take you to my LIKEtoKNOW.it page and shop all my picks as well as find out today's promotion for this brand or just hop over to the app!

Don't forget to stop by daily to see the other sales that are going to be going on!


Friday, November 15, 2019

Tartan love for the little lady


Nothing says "holiday time" to me more than tartan pattern. I love when families show up in this classic pattern for holiday photos. This pattern is timeless and classy. I love when it is mixed with furs and sequins. It can make for such great holiday photos.

I decided to link some of my favorite pieces for little girls in this post.  A few of the items my own girls own.

What is your favorite holiday pattern? Do you love or hate tartan?

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Stomach Cancer Awareness Month


November is stomach cancer awareness month and I will never stop providing information to others in hopes that it helps save someone else from going through what our family did.

No one ever expects to hear cancer and now it seems more and more young people are being diagnosed. I often wonder why this is? Is it the power of social media and just hearing about it more? Is it the chemicals all around us? Whatever it is, I see news of people being diagnosed all the time.

When Ray was sick we didn't hear of stomach cancer. Everyone would hear about breast cancer, but stomach cancer was unknown (at least to us). If maybe we had known what the symptoms were, what it took to diagnosis it maybe we would have caught it earlier. Stomach cancer is usually not found until it is pretty progressed so it may not have mattered.

The one thing I tell everyone is be your own advocate. He went to doctor after doctor thinking they were doing what they needed to do, but not getting any better. Tests were being done and he continued to feel worse. If we had known what test needed to be done maybe it would have made a difference? So much time was wasted on unnecessary tests and drugs prescribed.

I can't bring Ray back but I can educate anyone that will listen and hopefully it reaches someone that needs to hear it.