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I am overwhelmed. That, my dear friends, is four greeting cards, two note card sets, one set of Christmas cards, five sets of stationery, and one big custom order. And I made them all in one night. Wait, you mean I'm also a teacher? Whoops. Forgot about that for a second. And by forgot, I just thought you really meant that I was superwoman.

I have to say that while this can be extremely overwhelming to keep up with, I am also overwhelmed in other ways. I am completely overwhelmed by how amazing you all have been in supporting me in this quite possibly crazy business endeavor. In all seriousness, when Andrew convinced me that I should actually start selling my cards instead of hoarding them in our house, I thought he was kind of crazy. I mean, wouldn't I rather end up on that tv show Hoarders for hoarding something as ridiculous as cards? 700 sales later (yes, 700, holy crap-ola!!!) I might have to finally admit that maybe he was a little less crazy than he seemed.

Needless to say, you guys totally rock my socks. Big time. The end.

I'm saving the best for Cyber Monday with a huge sale in my shop! Everything in my shop is 25% off if you use the code MONDAY. Still need to purchase your Christmas cards for the season? Want to buy stationery as a gift for friends or family? Need to snag a birthday card or two for an upcoming celebration? Or maybe you've had your eye on something else in the shop for a while. It is all 25% off, so feel free to stock up!

And I have an added bonus for you bloggers and shop owners out there. Use the same code MONDAY to get 50% off on all sponsor spots for this month!

Enjoy and happy Monday to everyone! :)

As you may know, we love our road trips. Maybe we like them just a little too much. We've had about the best luck we could possibly imagine on our multitude of trips. And by good luck, I mean bad. Tornadoes, blizzards, you name it, we've experienced it while on the road.

We hit the road again, with Lilah in tow in the back seat, on Thanksgiving day to head up to Andrew's parents' house in Cleveland. We thought we were in the clear and were complete geniuses for leaving on Thursday morning rather than Wednesday night when everyone else would be traveling. Clearly, a beautiful sunny day and hardly any cars on the road spelled 0% chance of disaster. Boy were we wrong!

Enter six, seven, or eight friendly little deer. We weren't quite sure how many after the fact because they just kept coming and coming and coming. Kind of like how the clowns keep filing out of the clown car, the deer just kept crossing the road in front of us as we were barreling down the Pennsylvania Turnpike at 70 mph. Good thing Andrew swerved. Oh wait, you mean you're not supposed to swerve? Ooops.

Well, good thing anyway because he was able to maintain control of the car with his superhuman strength, manage to miss the concrete median to the left of us, and hit the smallest of the six, seven, or eight deer. Because only we are that awesome and have this kind of luck, after Andrew pulled off the the side of the turnpike to assess the damage, we looked up to notice that the whole incident happened right next to a Pennsylvania State Trooper station. A PA state trooper was on hand within seconds to write up a report for our insurance company. And, despite it all, this is what the car looked like after the fact.

Another lucky factor? Despite seeing Lilah flying and flailing through the air in the back seat during this whole event, she was quite fine and forgot the whole thing a mere fifteen minutes later when we were able to get back on the road. What a resilient pup!
Needless to say, we're quite thankful that nothing worse happened after all was said and done. And we are also left wondering what else could possibly happen to us while we're on the road. I mean, haven't we finally experienced it all by now? Who knows. Guess we'll find out as we're heading back on the road to Baltimore at the very moment you are probably reading this.

Do you have any crazy road trip stories or are we the only unlucky ones? I'd love to know!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the awesome sale going on in my shop as we speak!

Stop by my shop to get free shipping within the U.S. as well as an awesome deal on greeting cards. When you order two single greeting cards you get a third for free. Just leave the link for the card you'd like for free in the note to seller when you check out-- simple as that! :)

And in case one day isn't enough, the sale will be running on Friday and Saturday. Plus, be sure to check back on Cyber Monday for some other fantastic deals! Hop on over to the shop and enjoy! :)

Now is the time that I get to write that really cheesy blog post about what I'm thankful for. I tend not to do cheesy well unless it's sarcasm, but this time I promise there is no sarcasm involved (ok, only maybe a little, but I mean well, people). In the past year, I've had some pretty amazing stuff happen, so here goes nothing.

1) The Saturday after last Thanksgiving, Andrew surprised me in the middle of rainy Chicago by popping the question. Yup, that's right. We were standing in the middle of a wet and dead garden and I was wet and miserable and wanted to know what the hell we were doing there. I may or may not have slapped him on his arm and asked him what he was doing while he proposed. And while I'm not a super mushy and sentimental person, I have to say I'm pretty thankful for him and the last 8 years we've been together (plus for putting up with that arm slapping thing during his proposal). It's been a pretty awesome ride so far and I'm looking forward to more to come. And for those of you that were wondering-- no, we still haven't set a date yet or started planning a wedding. We're pretty bad at that kind of stuff. Oops.


2) After a few really rough and stressful years in a teaching position I was not entirely happy with, I finally made the transition to teaching Social Studies full time. I'm definitely thankful for that because it has revived my passion for teaching. Seriously, people, nothing makes me smile more than hearing middle school students sing "Fifty Nifty United States" as they walk down the hall. At the same time, nothing makes me want to cry more than having "Fifty Nifty United States" stuck in my head at 3:30 in the morning while I lay wide awake in bed trying to fall asleep. But at least I know there is a reason it is stuck in my head and that certainly makes me thankful.

3) Lilah and Finn.
I mean, look at them! Need I say more? How could I not be thankful for them?

4) I'm super thankful for this awesome row house that we get to call our own. It took us over nine months for us to close on this house. It was a short sale and contrary to what the name would lead you to believe, short sales are not short. Factor in the part where the bank lost our paperwork three times in the process and it took even longer. Needless to say, we've been here for over two years now and I couldn't be happier.

5) I'm super thankful for my card shop. I am so incredibly thankful to be able to have this creative outlet and business that I hope one day will be my full time job. In the past year, I've been blown away by the support I have had in making this business grow. And grow it has-- by leaps and bounds in just a few short months. I have far exceeded my goals for this year and I couldn't be more thankful for that!


6) And last but not least, I'm super thankful for all of you awesome people out there. You've all helped and encouraged me with my shop as well as with this here old blog. I'm pretty certain that when I first started writing this blog for fun I never expected to have nearly as many readers as I do. And quite frankly, I'm sort of shocked that you all stick around! But apparently you must love me just enough that you'll put up with five million really bad posts if I can come up with one or two good ones now and again about burning my butt or dying while running. Either way, thank you all so much for reading and commenting, emailing, and tweeting your responses! It's been great so far and I'm super thankful for that!

Now excuse me while I go bust out the fat pants and stuff my face with turkey. Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving!