At the risk of opening myself up to public ridicule, I am about to bravely tackle a touchy subject. A hot-button issue so loaded with emotion and passionate beliefs that we may see friendships end and lawsuits filed by the time this post is off my front page.

Ok, not really, but that was kind of exciting for a minute, right? What I really need to tackle is Christmas Card etiquette in the digital age.

As you may or may not know, I am way more Blissful than Domestic. I don’t cook and I’m too busy to craft anything that is not on my computer screen.

But what about the pressure to prepare and send the Christmas cards?

Hours…and hours…and hours…I used to spend on them.

Can I look myself in the mirror if I throw in the towel on sending paper Christmas cards?

I mean I have so many other very important things to do.

Such as planning BlissDom with Barbara & Paula-

Why yes, we are always in a soft blended sepia tone and holding ‘blisstinis’.  No editing on this photo at all. Pshaww

*ahem*

On a day to day basis I am more likely to spend my free time taking pictures of daily life around the house.

Like when I find my boys decorating our Roomba vacuum for Christmas…

“I wuv you wobot”

Or playing family papparazzi during backyard golf…

“Don’t worry, I will help you find your lost golf ball, Daddy!”

Maybe I am just looking for an way not to feel guilty for not mailing cards this year.

I do need to know if secretly everyone will think I’m a jerk.

Bring the honesty, Y’all.

Are digital cards a sign of the etiquette apocalypse or totally acceptable?

I always knew my love of the Sharpie pen was not unusual, but wow, y’all love some Sharpies.

I found myself noticing all the ways I used them during the week. I even snapped a picture as I made my son’s school play costume.

Choosing a winner was impossible. How could I pick the person who loves Sharpies the most? I had to do this scientifically. Ok, not *really* scientifically, you know what I mean.

Congrats to Michelle at La Vita E Bella (Send me your address and your Sharpie Ornament is on the way!)

Today is the last day to enter to win the $250 gift card so generously donated by the wonderful Sharpie company to help brighten someone’s holiday! Go enter before it is too late.

Whenever I speak to groups I remind attendees to support the brands who have supported the event. The companies who dip their toes into the sometimes scary social media water are trailblazers.

I met the wonderful women of Creative Memories at Kelby’s Type A Mom Conference in September. Creative Memories officially sponsored and during the event produced a beautiful presentation of snapshots taken that very day. I fell in love with Digital Scrapbooking right then and there.

Combine the ease and quality of the software with a company that actively supports and engages in the online community, and I am hooked. Blissfully Domestic is partnering with Creative Memories to share new features, programs and ideas with the community.

As you know, I’m not exactly crafty. I slide by with minimal effort on my part. (Hello, Digital Scrapbooking, Where have you been all my life?) I am not going to share any crafty tips, I wanted to share what I love. I am giving a  thumbs up to Creative Memories for reaching out to women in the online community and joining in on Social Media platforms.

Weather you are a talented scrapbook pro or a slacker (like moi) who lets the software make her snapshots look fab, be sure to stop by and say hello to our friends at Creative Memories. They are trailblazers who are dedicated to building connections through Social Media.

Love to Tweet? Check out @Creative_Mems

I know you love Facebook! The CM Fanpage

Want insider ideas? Check out the CM Blog

In the meantime, I will be making my snapshots into little pieces of art. Like this beauty…

This is too easy.

P.S.- I’m closing comments so you can go welcome Creative Memories to the Social media world. The Fanpage. The Blog. or Twitter.

I can’t help myself. I love making these stories. My apologies to anyone who is now wearing a beard, reindeer nose or Santa hat.

My cousin and I take our kids to see the Christmas decorations at Opryland every year. You know that Opryland where we are hosting BlissDom? (swoon)

Enjoy!

I have a confession to make. I have issues. I have sock issues. The boys, when they wear them, leave them hidden all over the house. When I find dirty socks under the couch, behind toy boxes or in the driveway; the response is always the same.  “I didn’t do it!” they say in unison. When asked to match the socks they sigh and say they can’t tell who has what anymore.

Now sure there are bigger issues in life than our family sock drama, but the great sock battles of 2009 have us frazzled.

Then a little magic came in the mail.

Now, sure, most of you would create very cool crafts with this stash of sharpies. But I have issues to tackle first!

With the help of my trusty three year old, the Sharpies were put to work.

We gave each boy in the family a specific color and number (#1 – #5). Mark and I use the first letter of our names simply to mark our territory.

From this moment on, every time I find dirty socks stuffed between couch cushions, tossed under bathroom sink, or thrown behind shower curtains; I know just who is the sock-abuser at fault.

Mwahahahahaha, I am victorious!  (pumps well manicured fist in the air)

(*ahem* smooths down hair with hands daintily and regains composure)

Now, the part you will love. I asked the wonderful people at Sharpie if I could share these fun gifts with you and they are happy to spread the sharpie love.

To win one of these (boy not included)

Simply leave a comment. Here are some ideas:

• Share a fun story about sharpies,
• family life,
• how you would use your ornament o’ Sharpies.

Then  you are entered to win. Easy peasy lemon squeezy

For an extra entry be sure to post a tweet with #Sharpie and leave the link to you tweet here.

Winner will be announced Monday December 14th.

Starting Monday, Blissfully Domestic will host a fun contest where readers can enter to win a $250 gift card. We are grateful to Sharpies for donating our fun prizes this year.

Our readers will get to show off their Sharpie inspired creations to win. Metallic sharpies and paper turned to beautiful snowflake decorations, white wrapping paper decorated with love from the kids, and organized labeling bliss will all be on display.

Blissfully Domestic readers can upload a picture of, or write a post about, how they use Sharpies to enter to win the $250 giftcard. We will post ideas for Sharpie uses on the contest page on Monday. The winner will be drawn by random number, but the masses of Sharpie fans will finally get to prove their Sharpie skills!

Three years ago I gave up on the ‘perfect Christmas card picture’. You know the one where everyone is smiling and happy? Yeah, not so much.  We just have way too many kids to get everyone to smile.  I used to make my step-daughter a nervous wreck and at least one of my sons cry after demanding a good picture. It was not my finest moment y’all.

Now, we keep it real on our cards.  We are messy and silly and those boys rarely wear socks. So I gave up on the image of having it all together and embraced the ‘real us’ s for our cards.

It all started with this-

Since then we have added two fantastic little guys to the family and I can’t wait to capture our wild gang for the 2009 oh-so-very-official portrait.

Why am I reminiscing? Blissfully Domestic is hosting a wonderful giveaway with Creative Memories and readers are able to upload a holiday picture to enter to win a holiday prize package.

What about your family? How do you do your holiday pictures? I would love to hear. And if you want to join in, please add yours to the comment section at Blissfully Domestic. I love every one’s pictures, especially the fun snapshots.

Don’t tell me I’m the only one who can’t get her sons to wear socks…..

One of my favorite things about personal blogging is the reminder to capture the little moments.

Between unpacking eleventy billion boxes, making BlissDom calls and returning some of the oh-I’ll-never-get-through-it-all email backup; I stopped and watched him playing happily on the kitchen floor.

“Do you want to go play cars on the carpet? Want Mommy to play car garage with you?

“No Mommy. I like the kitchen floor. I am playing wiff my cars.”

The baby napped, the three big boys were off at school, and before I went back to tackling it all…

I stopped to capture the moment.

Beautiful. Everyday. Life.

It is magic.

I have a long history with my readers and sharing my housing issues. I never tell you all anything until it is over. Yes, it goes against  everything blogger’s believe in to keep readers in the dark. Sometimes typing things that are so unsettled are too much. I also hate to make you, my wonderful friends, worry.

I give information, but not all the details….

We lived in the mountains for a month during the Summer of 2008.

The boys were lucky enough to spend time with their Great Grandfather that month. What a gift!  To the boys, it was a fun vacation.

For Hubs and I, I was a time of worry. We held out so long for a job in Tennessee. We needed to put down roots. He was flying to Seattle for interviews, and we almost accepted a job in Iowa. Finally, like magic, we were brought back to Nashville to live. A new position opened up and we celebrated coming home.

It was only then I mentioned it…

Remember when I finally admitted I had been a wee-tad homeless after we lost our big fancy dream house?

With a new job for Mr. Smartypants, our family was lucky enough to rent a beautiful home.

We were so happy.

And very soon I noticed parts of the floor felt soft…..

Oh yes, friends, remember the Black Mold evacuation? We all lived in a hotel room for 6 weeks while it was removed. Take a moment and think about the logistics of that. (shudders)

After the mold was removed we were happily settled here for a year. Until a visitor interrupted dinner right after Halloween.

A very nice realtor came to the door to ask about our house. He looked uncomfortable and nervous. He said he read in the Sunday Paper that our house was in foreclosure and up for auction in November.

We called the owner of the home. We asked if there was anything we needed to know. *ahem* He said not to be concerned, he was simply renegotiating his mortgage. Lovely, right?

So we decided to get out of dodge before dodge was sold while we lived there.  I called realtor after realtor, and learned that many families are going through the same thing. Houses were going fast because a so many were in foreclosure!

Sidenote- Do you know how hard it is to convince someone that you have five boys and would be a great family to rent to? Yeah, not so easy.

We panicked. We prayed. We were sideswiped.

Then I spoke to a grandmother at the boys’ school. She is a realtor who knew of a perfect home for our family.

The market crashed and most of a neighborhood sat empty. Instead of begging to rent a new house, we bought one. (Thanks crappy housing market!)

Sorry I have been quiet here, I was busy with Bliss business and packing up the  rooms. We are happily moving all this week, just as auctioneers come eyeing the rental we called home.

I’ll be back next week. I promise. Just need to finish packing these boxes.

Love, Alli

*Who knows that song? Maybe you, BlondeMom?

What? I am not scary? Arrrrr….

I really am this pale.

Ok, seriously, we decided to Halloween-ify ourselves over at Blissfully Domestic. Come check out how Lotus made hers look down right disturbing!

The women of Blissfully Domestic use Picnik so much behind the scenes that we thought it would be fun to share with our community how to use the cool online tools and host a contest.*

Here is the contest info:

Go make some Halloween Edits on a photo of yourself and/or your kids and once you’ve got a masterpiece, you can submit it to me for a chance to have it featured here on Halloween Day.  Judges from BD’s Editorial Staff will help me choose 3 winners out of all photos submitted.

The winning photos will be featured here on the Photography Column of Blissfully Domestic throughout the day on October 31st.

• Email your finished photo to: blissfullydomesticphotos @ gmail.com
• Please include in your email a preferred name to include for attribution if you get featured, and if you like, a link to your webpage.
• Photos will be accepted Monday 10/26 through Friday 10/30

For another chance to be featured, Halloweenify your Wedding Photos with Picnik and submit them to Malia on the Relationships Column, too! Click here for that.

We hope this contest will encourage our community to take a few moments to find a picture of yourself or of your wedding and have some fun. Lot’s of people are even using the Halloween edits for their Twitter avatars. So fun!

*We at Blissfully Domestic are not paid or have any business relationship with Picnik*

This post is linked into our weekly “I Am Blissfully Domestic” linky. Everyone is encouraged to link a post that is in a topic that is included on Blissfully Domestic. Um, hello, Blissfully Domestic covers everything! We only ask that the post that links up, puts a link back and everyone go visit 3-5 other blogs that are linked in.

See you there.

Use Twitter to get rich! We hear it all the time. Making easy money using Twitter is a dream, we all know this, but we still see all the Tweets that say “Use Twitter to Make Money Online” or “Easy Money using Twitter” and we all know this is just sleazy.

So how can you really make money because of Twitter? Nope! Well, except you can make money on commission from sales of my Twitter guide when you sign up to become an affiliate for The Smart Girl’s Guide to Twitter. In the simplest of terms, it means you will talk about the book, or do a review, and have ads on your blog or online platforms. Everyone who clicks to the Twitter Book site and purchases the book will earn you $5.00 commission. You will have a special link that tracks it all and at the end of every month all commission is deposited directly to your Paypal account.

It is that easy. With every book sold, I donate 10% to Compassion International, and 25% to you. I have designed many different ad sizes and styles to complement personal blogs, and will be happy to help adjust colors to match a specific look of your site.

I wrote the book to help give women all the tools they need to use Twitter for everything from keeping up with friends to building their business. I hope with this affiliate program I will be able to help more women finally get Twitter and help provide some extra revenue to every one’s budget. I love a great win-win.

You can feel comfortable promoting the Twitter User Guide because I give a 100% guarantee on the Smart Girl’s Guide to Twitter. I have not had a single person say they were disappointed, much less want money back. It is just that helpful and easy to understand.

To apply for an affiliate account look ^up^ at the tabs for my pages. You will see Smart Girl’s Affiliate Program click on it and get the party started.

And just for fun- Here is a peek of some of the ads for the Smart Girl’s Guide to Twitter. Enjoy!