The Best Gift Ever: SWAGG Post

SWAGG is a free mobile app (download here) that lets you shop smarter using your mobile phone. Buy, send or swap SWAGG GIFTS and organize your old school plastic gift cards.
For every download of the app between now and Dec. 31, 2010, SWAGG will donate $1 to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) , up to $125,000.
Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG are sending a pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival! Download the SWAGG app and then visit the Ultimate SWAGG Getaway Sweepstakes site to enter to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival. Entry deadline is January 3, 2011, 11:59pm, PST.

The best gift I ever gave was one I didn't even know I was giving!

Just after we were engaged, my then boyfriend gave me a beautiful (and expensive) silk scarf for my birthday It was flowered and lovely and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It made me feel like a million bucks.

The day before Christmas I was shopping with some friends, one of whom is a notorius prankster. I know this about her and I love her anyway, even though I'm not a huge fan of practical jokes.

My friends and I have a tradition of getting together on the day after Christmas and exchanging little presents, nothing major and I showed up with my bags of lotion and good smelling things for all my girlfriends. We took turns opening gifts and squealing over the things that we got until it came time for the last presentation.

One of my girlfriends took her time unwrapping the last gift which was carefully wrapped in a small box. She peeked inside and slowly lifted the lid then she pulled out ... my scarf!

She was oohing and aahing about it. How pretty! How thoughtful! How she couldn't believe I would give her such a thing! I was stunned. Then confused. Then stunned again. Rapidly my mind was running. Wasn't that mine? Wait, where was mine? Is that mine? Why does she think I'm giving it to her? Then I saw my friends snicker, then laugh, then belly laugh, then howl with laughter.

That's mine! I exclaimed. I snatched it from her hands to look at the tag. It was mine. My sneaky friend has slipped it away from me the day before, then wrapped it up and gave it to my other friend (who was in on it) under false pretenses -- just to see the look on my face. Which apparently was very, very funny.

So yes, I was mad for a minute, but then I gave in and laughed along with them. To this day they still bring it up and yuck it up about how funny that was and what a great night we had. It's true. I love my friends and I love that I was able to give them a belly laugh, even if it was at my expense. That's the stuff that real friendship is made of.

Hoping your Holiday is filled with much love & laughter!

Learn more about the coolest new app that revolutionizes the whole shopping, gifting, and gift card-organizing experience and Download the SWAGG app to your iPhone or Droid. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective , which endorses Blog With Integrity.

Laughing makes you feel great, and so can this: SWAGG has partnered with non-profit Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). For every download of the app between now and Dec. 31, 2010, SWAGG will donate $1 to SU2C up to $125,000. Awesome, right?! Visit the SU2C site for more info http://www.standup2cancer.org/

Shutterfly Holiday Cards: Yes, It's That Time Already!

This morning when I was driving to work I saw that a park near by is gearing up the Holiday lights display. Really? I thought -- but then I realized it's almost November so, yeah, I guess it's time. 

Hooray for Mistletoe!

I've used Shutterfly before for holiday cards. I am usually super frazzled by the time the middle of December rolls around, but I love sending Christmas cards.  I love sharing pictures of my kiddos and we all know that if you don't send Christmas cards you don't get very many back. I think it's so fun to get letters and pictures from family and friends plus don't you love getting mail that is not a bill?

I love the clean & classic look of this one.

Since I don't have a lot of time or money, I look for a few things when picking out Christmas cards:

1. Shopping that is EASY.
2. Christmas photo cards and the flexibility to move them photos around to create my own format.
3. Non-Traditional designs. I don't like to send religious cards and I like modern designs and colors, although I am always tempted by the beautiful blue Hanukkah cards.

This one would work great if I choose to use summer vacation photos this year.

So grab your camera and your family and click away, then head over to Shutterfly to see what you can create.

Do you want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season, and make sure to select Clever 1000 as the referral source.

This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.