Category Archives: Christmas
Our Christmas Show Booth | A Recap
Wow, this week was just a whirlwind. We returned from Christmas Village in Birmingham, Alabama, last Monday and it’s hard to believe we have been home for a week and are in full Christmas mode. Orders from the show will start shipping this week! I wanted to share some pictures of our booth so you can see some new goodies that we debuted at the show that are coming this next week to our website!
Oh, and as a side note, we are going to be selling our booth & checkout table. My husband and I built it in the Summer of 2010 and we have loved the display. We are trying to downsize just a bit with our inventory and supplies so if you are interested, please contact us!
A Week in Instagram Photos
Wow, it’s been a busy week around here. I’m starting to feel the holiday stress already. I feel like I’m going to end the week ok, though, I’ve been able to accomplish a lot on my “To Do List”. We’ve started uploading some Christmas designs to the website and have a ton more to add. They should all be up within the next couple weeks. In addition to the new holiday products, I’ve been working on getting everything together for our Christmas Show. I wanted to share with you a little of our week in Instagram pictures.
{Halloween Chevron Stickers}
{Styled shoot for upcoming magazine article}
{Custom Pumpkins & Pirates Party Goods}
{A little fun craft project}
{Local Farmers Market}
See all these and more if you follow us on Instagram: shophollydays
Have a great day!
Breakfast with Santa
One of my friends hosted a super cute (& fun) breakfast with Santa at her home over the weekend. She had Santa come read a story to the kiddos and then they were all able to sit in his lap and get their picture made. She used some of our cupcake sets and bunting to decorate and had Pinterest inspired goodies. I thought it turned out super cute!
Sausage Muffins in our Cupcake Sets (what a creative use for them!)
We had so much fun! It was a perfect special day except when Santa needed to leave his car didn’t want to crank… where are those reindeer when you need them!?
Here’s our family photo with Santa…
Have a great day!
Thankful
I am writing this post at midnight because it just is the best and only time right now for me to write. We are 3/4 of the way through our busiest season of the year. We only have 12 more days for orders that will be guaranteed for Christmas. It has been much better this year, I have to admit, even though this week has been the busiest HollyDays has ever been. I am so thankful for Jennifer, for the great help she is to me, thankful for all the folks who print and package for me and especially thankful to my husband who believes 100% in HollyDays and me. I have sleepy eyes tonight, but yet my heart is full of joy and thankfulness, which is actually unusual for me this time of year (I know that is crazy, but keep reading). HollyDays has officially been in business 5 years now and it has truly been a work of heart. From the outside looking in at a small business, it looks fun, easy and exciting. If it does, it is only because we make it look that way 
Don’t get me wrong, it is fun, but during the most joyous times of the year, I have not been my best self. As a business owner, I learn and grow in failure and stress. In the past, I had to stay up until 3:00 am working tediously on orders, extremely stressed and exhausted. I know I’m not the only one, as a matter of fact, I received an email just a couple weeks ago from a business owner in that same situation. Usually, I ended up in tears and our house empty of Christmas decor until just right before Christmas because we felt like it just wouldn’t be right not to put up a tree. This year, we are getting a tree this weekend and decorating. This year, Jen has helped more than I can even describe proofing, shipping, customer service and the list goes on. Yes, I’m still a little tired, but my friend Natalie Chang doesn’t call it “No Sleep November” for nothin’! I am thankful. Thankful for my wonderful family who I was able to spend Thanksgiving with last week.
{My Dad}
{My Mom}
{Our Thanksgiving Table & Thankful Tree}
Thankful for the Christmas tree and time I am planning to spend with my little family this weekend. Thankful for the little moments that I’m not taking for granted this year. I’m not writing this to just talk about myself. You are probably a Mom reading this post, maybe a business owner, maybe stressed, worried, feeling like the holiday season is just something to “make it through”. Let’s not just make it through this holiday season, let’s enjoy the process.
Goodnight!
Building Our Booth
This week, we are doing Christmas Village Arts Crafts & Gifts Show in Birmingham, Alabama. We dropped off our show booth and products yesterday and spent three hours turning it from nothing to this…
Today, we will return to set up all the products! Jen and I will be setting up and I’ll be updating you on the progress! We hope to see you there!
Oh, now I can’t resist showing off my little princess all dressed up for Halloween. She’s officially two-and-a-half now! She’ll tell you that, too. My, oh my, how they grow so quickly.
Hope you have a great day!
My Favorites of 2010
A new year always makes me start reflecting on the past year. For the next several days, I’ll be sharing some of my favorites of 2010… let’s start today with some of my favorite Christmas cards from 2010. November and December go by in a blink for me, so it is fun to take a look back at what all we were able to accomplish.
This is one of my favorite Christmas cards. Leslie sent me all these super cute photos and we wanted to fit them all on the card, so we did! A big family picture was printed on the back so that after Christmas, their family/friends could frame the 5×7 photo! Is this baby girl just the cutest thing ever?! and Max is a handsome little dude…
This one got my husband’s vote for his favorite card. It was so fun and a whimsical way to show off some cute photos.
This is another of my favorites!
This card proved to be one of our most popular sellers this year. It was a photo insert card – the customer can attach a 4×6″ photo or we print the photo on the cards.
Our cards either have a coordinating pattern/image printed on the back or either a photo. I just have to show the back of the previous card off because it is such a cute photo!
And of course, my family’s card for the year. We decided to do a New Years card instead of a Christmas card because we took a trip to Disney World with my husband’s family mid-December and wanted to show off some of those photos. You may have seen the front of the card earlier this week. It was a folded card. My favorite is the inside…
Here’s the inside:
Ok, I’m done! That was so fun! We had a great Christmas season. Thank you to all our customers for supporting us this year!
Christmas Order Deadline
Just in case you haven’t seen it on our website or Facebook page, December 5th is the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery! Also, this year, orders after December 10th will not begin to process until January 3. I am taking some time to spend with family, rest up and do some business planning for 2011. If you have anything planned for January, get your orders in this week!
