Happy National Milk Chocolate Day!
July 28, 2009
No, I did not make that up. It’s official. July 28th is National Milk Chocolate Day!
And I have three sweet treats for you!
This is my husband’s favorite holiday because his favorite snack is Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips. Yep, he eats them right out of the bag. Makes it easy on me. If I want to make his day, I don’t have to labor over a hot stove trying to bake up something sweet and hope that it doesn’t flop. Nope, all I have to do is get him a bag of chocolate chips… but they have to be MILK chocolate, NOT semi-sweet or dark chocolate. Only MILK Chocolate will do.
So, you don’t have to feel guilty for eating your fill of milk chocolate today either. But if you’d like to try something a little “cooler” than just chocolate chips out of the bag, check out
Treat #1:
Try this cool and creamy frozen drink:
Ice Cream Whirly
- 1/4 cup REESE’S Milk Chocolate Baking Pieces Filled with Peanut Butter Creme
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup vanilla ice cream
- Whipped topping(optional)
- Additional REESE’S Milk Chocolate Baking Pieces Filled with Peanut Butter Creme(optional)
Directions:
1. Place baking pieces and milk in blender container. Cover; blend until baking pieces are in fine pieces.
2. Add ice cream; cover. Process until well blended. Pour into glass. Garnish with whipped topping and additional baking pieces, if desired. Serve with spoon or wide straw. 1 serving (about 3/4 cup).
*chocolate photos and recipe from Hersheys.com
Now for Treat #2:
In honor of National Milk Chocolate Day, I’m having a sale on all “Chocolate” color invitations and stationery.
Just place an order at www.JoyfulHeartDesign.com between now and July 31, 2009. If any part of your invitation (pocketfolder, mat, envelope, design or text color) is chocolate brown, then enter code TAKE10 at checkout to get 10% off your order.
Offer is good on all wedding invitations, save the date cards, bridal shower invitations, baby shower invitations, personalized stationery and thank you notes.
Finally, Treat #3:
One of my favorite chocolate treats is chocolate brownies. So one random winner will receive a box of 4 HUGE Gourmet melt-in-your-mouth brownies by Cookietree.
Here’s how to enter: (Contest will run from July 28, 2009 – July 31, 2009.) You get one entry for each of the following actions:
- Leave me a comment below with your favorite chocolate treat. (Recipes are welcome, but not required.)
- Twitter: Follow me at twitter.com/OohNAahInvites. Post this exact tweet: “Follow @OohNAahInvites for contests, special deals & tons of wedding ideas that are guaranteed to get lots of Oohs & Aahs.” —you can tweet once a day through July 31.
- Facebook: Become a fan at: http://bit.ly/LgHOk and/or http://bit.ly/119Zr9 and post your favorite chocolate treat on my wall.
- MySpace: Become my friend at: myspace.com/joyfulheartdesign. Post a bulletin about Joyful Heart Design. Visit www.JoyfulHeartDesign.com for more info.
- Blog: Create a quick blog post about this blog, Ooh & Aah Wedding Ideas, OohandAahWeddingInvites.com or JoyfulHeartDesign.com, Comment below with your link.
Ready, set, go!
Wedding Inspiration Board Contest
July 24, 2009
I just love viewing and creating wedding inspiration boards, (or collages) like the one below, to see how different color combinations, styles and themes will look, don’t you?
If you also like to create inspiration boards, you’ll want to hear about this:
Abby over at StyleMePretty.com is hosting a Fashion Inspired Inspiration Board Contest in celebration of their brand new Look Book! The winner will receive a $250 shop card to Crate and Barrel! Who couldn’t use that?
But there’s more…
I’m adding my own twist to the contest. If the winning inspiration board contains a picture of an invitation by Joyful Heart Design, the winner will also receive a prize from me… 100 Custom Save the Date Postcards ($150 value) or $100 discount on any order of Pocket Wedding Invitation Sets.
You can use any photos of invitations by Joyful Heart Design that you find on this blog or on these websites:
www.JoyfulHeartDesign.com
www.OohandAahWeddingInvites.com
blog.OohandAahWeddingInvites.com
www.JoyfulHeartDesign.blogspot.com
www.JoyfulHeartDesign.Etsy.com
Unique Wedding Invitations Facebook Page
Joyful Heart Design’s MySpace Page
Head on over to StyleMePretty.com to get the details on how to enter the contest.
Have fun and may the best board win!
P.S. If you don’t know how to make an inspiration board, try using Mosaic Maker. Or WeddingWire.com also has a tool you can use to create one.
Support Joyful Heart Design in StartUp Nation’s 2009 Home-Based Business Competition
July 21, 2009
My company, Joyful Heart Design Custom Invitations, is a contestant in StartUp Nation’s 2009 Home-Based Business Competition. I would very much appreciate your support. You can vote for Joyful Heart Design once a day from now through October 2009.
Please vote here.
The second annual 2009 StartupNation Home-Based 100 will once again rank the best performing home-based businesses across America in ten distinct categories.
This year’s categories are:
- Best Financial Performers
- Most Innovative
- Boomers Back in Business
- Greenest
- Yummiest
- Wackiest
- Savviest in Social Media
- Recession Busters
- Most Slacker Friendly
- Most Glamorous
Building on the fanfare surrounding last year’s winners, the 2009 competition has the makings of an even bigger celebration of contestants, and ultimately, finalists who will claim their place among the 100 winners.
Joyful Heart Design is entered in the Recession Busters category.
If you own a home-based business, visit StartUp Nation to get more info about the contest and about running or starting a home-based business. They have a lot of great resources on their site.
New Autumn Sunburst Save the Date Card Design
July 17, 2009
I created this new Autumn Sunburst Save the Date card and I’d like your feedback on it. It is not for sale… yet. I entered it in the Seasonal Save the Date design challenge at minted.com. If it wins or is one of the top designs, then it will be for sale on minted.com.
I used deep jeweltones to give this contemporary card an autumn feel even without the typical fall leaf or pumpkin icons. The stylized sunburst is warm and inviting. It is fun, yet formal; bold, yet simple. The squash orange and garnet red sunburst could be used on the wedding invitations and on other wedding accessories, decorations and favors to carry the autumn theme throughout the entire wedding and reception.
So… if you like it and would like to be able to purchase it, then please go to minted.com and rate it. (5 means you love it!)
While you are at minted.com, take a look at all the awesome designs submitted for the challenge and rate some others as well. (If you only rate one or two cards, then they throw those scores out.)
Also, feel free to leave me a comment either here or on minted.com with your thoughts about my Autumn Sunburst Save the Date card.
Yellow and Blue Butterfly Theme and Garden Theme Wedding Invitations
June 22, 2009
If you are considering a yellow and blue color palette for a Spring or Summer wedding, but do not want a beach theme, a Butterfly theme or Garden theme might be more your style. Below are a couple of samples of my Lacy Butterfly wedding invitation design in yellow and cyan (turquoise blue) and also navy and yellow to give you some ideas.
You can also find some more great photos of blue and yellow wedding ideas on this beautiful blog post on Brenda’s Wedding Blog.
Visit JoyfulHeartDesign.com for ordering and pricing info on the Lacy Butterfly wedding invitations. These butterfly invitations could also be used for wedding shower invitations, rehearsal dinner invitations, reception invitations, bridal tea invitations and more.
Butterfly Wedding Invitation Design and Ideas
June 10, 2009
Butterflies make a great wedding theme not only because of their beautiful colors and unique shape, but also because of their symbolism. The butterfly is most commonly viewed as a symbol of new life because it goes through three stages of life— the caterpillar (birth), the chrysalis or cocoon (death) and the butterfly (resurrection.) Butterflies can also represent change, transition, transformation, celebration, joy, beauty, love and freedom.
Butterflies are very easy to incorporate into every part of your wedding from the invitation to the wedding ceremony to the reception.
I will start with wedding invitation ideas and then present wedding ceremony and reception ideas in subsequent posts.
Pink Lacy Butterfly Wedding Invite
The trend in wedding invitations is now for invitations to very colorful with text that is not all centered but left-aligned or right-aligned or both, with modern designs that seem to fall off the edge of the paper. My Lacy Butterflies Pocket Wedding Invitation contains all of these elements, which explains why it has been so popular this year, especially for Spring and Summer weddings.
Here is what one client had to say about her Tiffany Blue and Peach Lacy Butterfly pocket wedding invitations:
“Thank you, thank you! We are working feverishly to get the invites out in today’s mail. They look terrific; I’ll send one to you for your book of collections…” —Ashley Johnson
It is shown here in the two most popular color combinations of tiffany blue & peach, and also in a range of different shades of pink— from hot pink to a medium rose pink to a light baby pink.
Hot pink, light pink and white Lacy Butterfly pocket wedding invitation
Tiffany Blue and Peach Lacy Butterfly Invite close-up
Lacy Butterfly Accommodations Card
Lacy Butterfly RSVP Card
Lacy Butterfly Favor Tag
For more information on my Lacy Butterfly Pocket Wedding Invitations, visit my website at: www.JoyfulHeartDesign.com
Fabulous Fleur-de-Lis Wedding Invitation Design
May 13, 2009
Fleur de Lis wedding themes are very popular this year and not only for New Orleans brides, Louisiana brides or those of French decent. Brides across the country are choosing the fleur-de-lis as their wedding theme for many reasons. Though the fleur-de-lis is a symbol once used by French royalty, today it is entirely appropriate for modern fashion queens (and, of course, brides.)
According to wikipedia.org, the fleur-de-lis is a stylized design of either an iris or a lily that is now used decoratively as well as symbolically, or it may be “at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic”,[1] especially in heraldry.
Joyful Heart Design Custom Invitation Boutique now offers a colorful fleur-de-lis pattern wedding invitation design that is completely customizable with any wedding colors of your choice.
Some of our most popular color combinations used for the fleur-de-lis patterns are: chocolate brown, hot pink and light pink; tiffany blue, chocolate brown and chartruese; chocolate brown, celadon green and tangerine orange.
For pricing and ordering information, visit our online custom invitation boutique at: www.JoyfulHeartDesign.com.
May Special on Save the Date Cards
May 8, 2009
May Wedding Special!
Get 100 Save the Date Cards FREEwith a purchase of 150 or more!Get your guests excited abut your wedding without spending a fortune!
Choose from any of our contemporary, colorful and delightfully unique designs of photo save the dates, calendar save the dates, postcard save the dates and save the date cards with monograms and fancy swirls save the date cards.Customize by choosing your colors, fonts, text and by adding your photo!
View designs and get more details at: JoyfulHeartDesign.com.
Although they are not all listed in the Save the Date section, we can do Save the Date cards to match any of our wedding invitation designs.
Enter code: OAAB100STD at checkout to get your 100 extra Save the Date Cards.
(Order the quantity you want minus 100!)
Order today! Sale ends Sunday, May 31, 2009!
Purchase Forever Stamps Now —Before Prices Increase on May 11, 2009.
May 6, 2009
In case you haven’t heard, the price of a first class stamp will increase form $.42 to $.44 on May, 11, 2009.
Stock up now on Forever Stamps which can always be used to mail a one-ounce letter via first class mail regardless of when the stamps are purchased or how much you paid for them.
Think ahead. . .
If you are planning to mail out a bunch of invitations, announcements, save the dates or thank you notes in the near future, you may want to go ahead and purchase enough Forever Stamps for them now.
Forever Stamp
Here is a FACT SHEET on the FOREVER STAMP issued by USPS.com
- The Forever Stamp first went on sale in April 2007. Since then, more than 6 billion Forever Stamps have been sold.
- As the name suggests, Forever Stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future.
- Forever Stamps are always sold at the same price as a regular First-Class Mail stamp. Forever Stamps are currently being sold for 41 cents and will be sold for 42 cents starting May 12, 2008.
- The Postal Service developed the Forever Stamp for consumers to ease the transition during price changes. There is only one Forever Stamp — it features an image of the Liberty Bell.
- Forever Stamps are available for purchase at post offices nationwide, online at usps.com, by phone at 1-800-STAMP-24, and from Automated Postal Centers and ATMs. They are sold in booklets of 20 and sheetlets of 18.
- Customers can use Forever Stamps for international mail, but since all international prices are higher than domestic prices, customers will need to attach additional postage. The value of the Forever Stamp is the domestic First-Class Mail letter price in effect on the day of use.
Delightful Wedding Details Sneak Preview
May 2, 2009
The next issue of my ezine, “Delightful Wedding Details” will go out on Tuesday.
You won’t want to miss this exciting issue. It will contain exciting news about
-
A new product of interest to brides who are looking for DIY wedding invitations.
A special sale on Save the Date photo cards
Answers to your most frequently asked questions
A subscriber-only coupon
and more!
Simply fill in the form on the right to subscribe to my ezine now, so you will not miss this exciting issue. You’ll also receive a link to download my special report on “Wedding Invitations: 27 Hidden Costs to Watch Out For.” This report could save you hundreds of dollars, tons of time and many tears of frustration.
And if you’d like to read my blog posts in your favorite blog reader, click on the “Subscribe to Blog” button on the left and choose your favorite reader.
Have a joyful weekend!
Remember…
“A joyful heart is good medicine…” -Prov. 17:22
