A Review of Sorts: (in)courage, DaySpring, Cards, & a Card Organizer

Have you ever heard of (in)courage? (in)courage calls itself "a home for the hearts of women" and I agree with them. I originally discovered (in)courage through Blessings Unlimited (I'm a Blessings Unlimited independent consultant. I consider it a hobby). Now I follow (in)courage on Twitter and Facebook and I subscribe to their daily email of new-blog-type-posts. You can click here to read what was in today's email; it really spoke to my heart, it even made me cry.


Back on December 20th (in)courage tweeted this: "Are you a card sender? If so, January #indeals is for you!" 


I tweeted this back: "@incourage "Are you a card sender?" Ha!!! You have no idea!!! This is like the most #perfect opportunity!!! <3"


I was slightly excited (huge understatement).


And then (In)courage responded with "@vanessatachenko LOVE hearing that!"


It was like a match made in heaven; blogging and cards, what more could this girl ask for? 


In(courage) sent me free cards (which I got to pick out) and a card organizer (which was a surprise added gift from them!) with the agreement that I would write a review of sorts about their product on my blog . It's a win-win for everyone because I get FREE CARDS, they get personal advertisement, and my blog gets exposed to a new audience. Plus I don't feel like I'm selling my soul or anything because I genuinely love their cards, their company, and consider it an honor to write anything for them (let alone something I'm passionate about!!!). 


I may be breaking some sort of unspoken blogging law by sharing these details with you... but I think it adds to the genuineness of the review... and I want all of my reviews (or anything I post) to be at least genuine. Side note. 

(In)courage sent me an email after I signed up to write this review. This is how the email started, 

"Hi there!
Thank you all for partnering with (in)courage & DaySpring and being a part of an (in)spired deals review. You will be receiving a So True Card Pack plus a Thank You boxed note set! You can expect your cards to arrive by this time next week. We are looking forward to hearing you share your story about who you sent a card to and why card sending matters to you! We also snuck a little extra gift in your order as well! 

"Snuck a little extra gift in your order?!?!" And I thought this arrangement couldn't get any better... 

 I was all kinds of excited when the package came! 

Packaged perfectly...

Ta Da!

My surprise was this beautiful "I Will Bless You - Accordion Card Organizer" - By the way it is on sale right now for $4.99

 This is the So True Card Pack; coincidentally I have a board on Pinterest that is called So True!, which is one of the reasons why I picked this pack. Unfortunately the pictures (mine or Dayspring's) don't do justice to how beautiful these cards are. In person, they look like quality handmade cards. A lot of beautiful detail was put into each card (on the outside and inside).

 I have a rule about not sharing what I write in cards. You can read this post to find out why.

 Thank You - From the Heart. Need I say more? 

Here's a shot of my favorite stamps... Do you think the government would send me free stamps if write a review about them? What was that I heard? When pigs fly?

You can read this post to learn why I love giving and receiving cards so much... it's an addiction actually. 

I will be doing my first ever free giveaway soon... hopefully this week. May I (in)courage you to spread the love and send a card or two this week... you won't regret it! I'd also like to invite you to share your card sending goals for 2012 by commenting below.

God is love,

Vanessa

p.s. My favorite team, the GreenBayPackers, lost today. I will not be cheering for them at our annual superbowl getaway weekend. :'( Sympathy cards appreciated. ;)

p.s.s Don't forget that tomorrow is Monday, which means there will be a new "Memory Verse a Week for the Weak".

Take Time to Stop & Smell opps i mean Send the Cards

There are many things I would like to write about tonight, however today was a "need to give cards day".  So I decided to take the time to stop and  smell  send the cards. 

Card number 1

Inside of Card # 1

Card #2

Inside of card #2. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.

Also inside of card #2

Both of these cards are from the "ALL OCCASION ASSORTMENT"
 via Blessings Unlimited. You can purchase them here if you would like.

These two cards are ***PERFECT*** for each recipient/occasion. I'm not going to share whom I'm giving them to, or what I'm writing in each card; that's just too personal.

You may be thinking, "She'll post about shower dates, but won't post about what she writes in a card???? I don't get it." (Aren't my ESP skills impressive?)

Allow me to explain. I think shower dates are a beautiful thing worth sharing and celebrating. It's a beautiful thing that Ryan and I are still madly in-love with each other after 5.5 years of marriage (8.5 years of togetherness). This should be celebrated.  The happily-married thing is getting to be more and more rare it seems, so why not celebrate the happiness/love when it happens?!?! (Fuzzy moment)

It is also a beautiful thing when I write in cards; not because I'm an amazing writer, because it gives me the chance to really share my heart with the recipient (which is probably why I like card giving so much). The words would lose their intimacy and sincerity if I were to post the words that I write in these cards. The words are meant for one heart, from my heart. The end.

God is love,

Vanessa

p.s. There are several other cards I would like to send to several other people. If you are one of those people, thank you for your patience... it will happen eventually. Same applies to emails, phone calls, and text messages... I will get back to you eventually. <3

Our Honest Christmas Letter

       I can't help but think of the Dunbar Family when I think of Christmas letters. The Dunbar Family that I'm referring to is from an episode on This American Life. Julia Sweeney reads an annual Christmas letter from the Dunbars.... It's a very funny episode if you enjoy sarcasm or dark humor. Here's an audio clip from the episode I'm referring to: 

The other type of Christmas letter that comes to mind is the infamous BRAG LETTER. You know the type; we've all read them... and by the end of the letter you can't help but wonder what planet they are from, because no one else you know has that much to brag about.

We are going to attempt to land our Christmas letter somewhere in between the dysfunctional "Dunbar's" and the nauseating "Mr. and Mrs. Brag". Here goes nothin'....

Dear Family, Friends, and Random Strangers that Read this Blog,                            

                  This is our first ever Christmas letter! I'm not the biggest fan of letters of this breed but we thought we'd do things a bit different this year. We are, however,  big Dave Ramsey fans and in true Dave Ramsey fashion we are cinching the "purse strings" in every way possible as we pay off our debt (we're down to just 35K!!!). So instead of sending 300-400 Christmas cards via snail mail, we are delivering 400+ "Christmas Letters" via email (or via other social media mediums). There are a few little old ladies that will be an exception to this new-state-of-the-art way of doing business. So consider yourself young and cutting-edge if you aren't an exception!

      Young or old.. snail mail or email... family, friend, or stranger.... our gift... our prayer... for *YOU* this Christmas remains the same...

HOPE

May you have the HOPE of being reunited with your loved ones that passed away this year or years past. May you look forward to a time when our bodies will be made anew... free of age, injury, or disease.  

*Hebrews 11:1, NKJV. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

*Romans 8:24-25, NKJV. "For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."

Romans 5:3-5, NKJV. "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

*

I Thessalonians 4:13-14

, NKJV. " But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.^"

Titus 1:2, NKJV. "in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,"

Titus 2:13, KJV. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ"

FAITH

Take that leap of FAITH (you know, the one you've been too scared to take)! This too, is our prayer for *YOU*! We promise you won't regret it. May your eyes remain focused on our loving Saviour... because walking on water isn't over rated... and this world.... yeah it's soooo over rated.

Hebrews 11:1, TLB. "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."

LOVE

"...And the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). Often times it is in our best interest to simply LET GO, but love is something you want to get a hold of and grasp firmly. The beauty of love is that it is in constant pursuit of *YOU* but it can only catch you if you let it. So our prayer is that you let love catch and carry you... then once caught, hold on tight and *NEVER EVER* let go. By the way God is love (1 John). >>>Try replacing the word love with God in this paragraph.<<< LET LOVE TAKE OVER... YOU!

We wish you a CRAZY-HAPPY-JOYFUL-FUN-LOVE_FEST-JOLLY-MERRY Christmas... after all Birthdays are meant to be celebrated!!!

God is love,

Vanessa and Ryan

A Christmas Evolution of Us

Christmas is just a few days away! I can't believe it! I'm blaming the lack of snow that exists here in Eastern Oregon for my lack of jolly Christmas spunk. Jolly or not, my favorite part of the Christmas season is the exchange of Christmas cards. Which comes at no surprise; especially if you read my post about my card/stationary addiction.

Ryan and I decided to do Christmas a little different this year, but before we share our season greetings for 2011... I thought it'd be fun to see our evolution of Christmas card pictures from the past few years...

2005

This picture was taken at my grandma's house. I was 20 and Ryan was 25. Aren't we young and in love??? We still are by the way!

This was the back of our picture. Simple and sweet. <3

2006

I can't really remember what we did for Christmas cards in 2006...

but I'm pretty sure it involved these pictures!

2007

In 2007 we used Shutterfly to create our Christmas card. We included the following pictures and a quote that is good enough to share again here, "To those we love & see each day & other loved ones far away... To all good friends who mean so much & those with whom we're out of touch... To folks who are so good & kind it's easy to keep them in mind... To people we keep close at heart even when we are apart... We sent to you this wish sincere for a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!"

This picture was taken the day we adopted Poco Bear.

On a hike to one of my favorite lakes, Van Patten.

This was taken the same day of my Grandpa's funeral. I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to have a picture taken after crying all day. We are in front of my grandparents fireplace in their basement. 

2008

In 2008 we used a card from Leanin' Tree.  You can click here to see the exact card that we used. It has been my favorite card so far. The greeting inside the card read "It wouldn't seem like Christmas if we couldn't get in touch and wish the Season's Blessings to those we like so much!" The card allowed us to put captions with the pictures. The captions you read here are the same as they were on the card 3 years ago (I realize I'm the biggest card nerd; I'm ok with that).

No caption because this pic was on the front of the card.

Ryan spent this year's father's day windsurfing w/ his Dad @ Thief Valley.

This picture was taken @ our friend's wedding. What a fun weekend! It's hard to believe  it has been over 2 years since our day!

It's nice to remember that warmer months are ahead... this picture was taken @ Vanessa's mother's home in AZ.

What would be do without God's awesome creatures? This year we deiced to give Poco a hair cut to help him deal with the summer heat. Isn't he handsome? Ike is our newest addition to our family... there is a reason why a hurricane was named after him this year! 

2009

2009 was apparently my year of indecision. I couldn't decide on just a few pictures and I couldn't decide on just one type of card, so different folks got different cards with different pictures. And some people got multiple cards; one for Christmas and one for New Years (at least I can admit that I'm addicted). I purchased my photo cards from Blessings Unlimited that year. There were no captions with the pictures so I'll just add my own now...

Ryan was voted Firefighter of the year.

It's amazing how much critters can grow in a year!

Photo taken by: Photos by Lisa Edited by me.

Carly Carlson Photography 

Carly Carlson Photography

2010

I was also indecisive in 2010. I attempted to keep it simpler last year but... well you know... ok you probably don't know... let's just say... ITS AN ADDICTION! One of the cards that we used last year can be found at WalMart. The others were... one of a kind....

Ryan and I stopped at Deadwood Outfitters for a day of their flyfishing clinic. I hope we can make to Deadwood in 2012!

Jenny Jimenez photography

Jenny Jimenez Photography

Jenney Jimenez took this picture at my best friend Eun's wedding. Click on this link to get a glimpse of Eun's beautiful wedding and Jenny's awesome photography.

Thanksgiving 2010.

Our caption for this was: Ryan says "This is what happens when you turn 30." I say, "This is what happens when your husband turns 30."

2011

???????????????????????????????????????

I guess you'll have to wait and see....  it's ok if you lose sleep over this... I understand!

What is your favorite tradition of the season? Do you send out Christmas cards? If so, how many? We send between 300-400 each year.