For Unto You...

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Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas.

Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway: Day 2

I know that I said there'd be one winner every day, but I lied. Because today there will be three winners!

Here's what's up for grabs today: Three packs of Sicily Eason assorted hand pressed holiday cards from Brenda at Real Houston Housewife,

and three eBook codes for The Trio, a collection of three stories written and published by Alyse of How the Gears of my Mind Turn!

Three winners, one pack of cards and one eBook code for each winner.

Brenda, from Real Houston Housewife, is from Houston (obviously), and she blogs about family life in Houston and transitioning her family to whole foods and green living. She owns Hello Houston! Media, which she started to help businesses and bloggers build better relationships. She also owns Sicily Eason, a graphic design studio specializing in letterpress printing. 

Alyse, from How the Gears of my Mind Turn wrote The Trio her freshman year of college, and published it two summers ago, and is wanting to publish another one. She's currently a junior and an English major at the University of South Carolina in Beaufort. 

And as always, here are the rules: you must be a follower of my blog, Brenda's, and Alyse's blog. Those are the only mandatory entries, but you have other ways of gaining extra entries. This contest only runs for one day, today, from 7am - 11pm CST. Three winners will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter once the contest has ended, and then notified via email within 24 hours. The winners then have 48 hours to respond. If winner does not respond within the time given, a new winner will be chosen at random. All entries will be verified before the winners are contacted. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Good luck y'all!!

Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway: Day 1

Y'all, I am so, so excited to kick off the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway! I know I've been talking about it a lot of the last few days, but I'm seriously excited about it. And I've got some amazing sponsors lined up. Are you ready to see what today's giveaway is?

A Christmas Countdown Print from Little Laws Prints

Isn't it cute!? I absolutely adore Little Laws Prints, and the oh-so-fab lady behind it, Kristen. She has done M's birthday invites and thank you letters for the last two years, and she's also designed some adorable personalized stationary for a grad gift for B's cousin. Kristen blogs over at First Name Smith about life with her hubs, Kent, and their little man, Smith. (Side note, if we lived closer, M would totally be chasing after Smith, she thinks he's "ca-ute".)

On to the rules! You must be a follower of my blog, and Kristen's blog, via Google Friend Connect. Those are the only mandatory entries, but you have other ways of gaining extra entries. This contest only runs for one day, today, from 7am - 11pm CST. A winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter once the contest has ended, and then notified via email within 24 hours. The winner then has 48 hours to respond. If said winner does not respond within the time given, a new winner will be chosen at random. All entries will be verified before the winner is contacted. 

Ready to enter? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck y'all! And if you don't win, just remember, there's 11 more days!

I've Been Working on a Little Something...

I love y'all so very, very much. Seriously, all of my readers rock my world. So, I wanted to give y'all something for Christmas. Wanna know what it is?

That's right y'all, a twelve days of Christmas giveaway. Starting Thursday, the 13th, through Monday, the 24th, I'll be having a giveaway a day. Some days there's one prize, some days there's more. Each day there is just one winner (though maybe, just maybe, there might be a day or two with more than one winner!). The giveaway will run from 7am CST to 11pm CST for one day only. And y'all? I've got some awesome prizes lined up! So be sure and check back first thing Thursday morning for the first day of the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

Best of luck my loves, and thanks for being so amazing!

Photo via

Five Minutes

I saw this over at Alynne's, who originally got the idea from Vikki, and I loved it so much, I had to do to it too. I'm writing a post in 5 minutes, just kind of dumping my thoughts onto this blog. If you decide to take the 5 minute challenge, let me know! Here we go....

I'm not ready for Christmas. This has been on my mind the last few days. Normally I'm so excited for Christmas, and can't wait to get the decorations up. This year isn't like that. Sure, I'm excited for Christmas, and I've been playing my beloved Christmas Pandora channel since September for awhile now, but I'm just not ready for it to be here.

I really enjoyed fall, and Halloween, and Thanksgiving this year. I'm not ready to take down the pumpkins and put up the garland. It just doesn't seem like that time yet. But, if I don't do it, it'll end up being December 15th, and I still won't have a tree up. All I'm saying is there needs to be more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or summer and Thanksgiving. Something! I want more pumpkin pies, and falling leaves, and thankfulness! Why can't we just hold off on Christmas a bit longer!?

M says we can't, she's demanding I finish decorating so the rest of the house can look look as pretty as her room. Excuse me while I put up another tree and pout.

Here's a little hint, my dear readers, I may or may not have a giveaway starting up this week. Maybe not. But probably. But maybe not...

Halloween is Next Week... And I'm Planning Christmas

Even though I get so stressed this time of year (Hello, HalloweenThanksgivingChristmasNewYearsMsBirthday!) I love it. When the air turns cooler slightly cooler, pumpkins start popping up everywhere, and Starbucks brings back their spiced apple cider, I get like a kid in a candy store. I love everything about it, the decorating, the seasonal scents, the food, the music, all.of.it.

I like to give each holiday it's respectable amount of time to celebrate. The fall decor comes up September 1st, Halloween decor goes up the weekend before October 1st and comes down November 1st, then it's strictly fall until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Then? It's full out reindeer time. We go all out at Christmas. But, there's one thing that I always have to plan extra early. Our Christmas card. B's schedule is so crazy, we have to do things extra early. We're taking our Christmas pictures before Thanksgiving. That's early, y'all. But, at least I'll have plenty of time to design our Christmas Cards!

Though truth be told, I'm already working on them! I'm using Shutterfly this year. They've got such a huge selection, and their service and prices are great, so they're the obvious choice. I've already started poking around the site a bit, and I think I've narrowed it down to three cards.

I love all of these. So elegant, yet simple. Perfection.

Now, for the good stuff, the good folks over at Shutterfly are so awesome, they've offered a $50 store credit to one of my wonderful readers! Hurry and enter, and then head over and check out the special offers they have going on!

Good luck, my loves!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. But, as always, all opinions are my own. 

Week of Wish Lists: Day One

I'm sure you've seen those gift guides floating around the blogosphere, but I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to do a week of actual blogger's wish lists. So, An Unstyled Life's Week of Wish Lists was born. I've got some amazing guest posters this week, so without further adieu, let's kick this off, shall we?

Up first we have Lil' Woman. I love this girl. She's funny, her blog is the cutest, and she's on the Twit. Which everyone knows, makes someone 10x cooler. Plus, her wish list and mine look pretty similar this year!

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Hello Loves...
I'm Lil' Woman from Little Woman, Little Home and today I have the pleasure of sharing my wish list for Christmas with all you ladies, and J has been gracious enough to let me hijack her blog to do so. : )

I will probably post about it sometime on my blog but my game plan is to spread the word throughout the interwebs, in hopes of starting a petition for Big Man (the hubs), errrr, Santa, to bring me this one teensy weensy little gift. I've tried leaving notes in his gaming magazines, ala Ralphie from A Christmas Story, but it seems to be getting me fudging no where.

So, I'm reaching out to you ladies and asking that we all band together to try to mind control Big Man into getting me this pretty for Christmas...



via weheartit

I know it is a bit pricey but this is the only gift I want to for the next year and beyond. I would gladly forgo any future Christmas, Birthday, Easter, Halloween, and Anniversary presents if I could get this bad boy in my hands this year.

I have a passion for photography but my camera phone can only take me so far. It's a decent camera for a phone but this mama wants to step her game up and get those beautiful shots that I see so many others getting.

And it's multipurpose gift....I can:
Take much better pictures of us
Do family portraits for my family and friends
Document our upcoming big honeymoon to it's fullest potential
And just overall get better pictures to post on the blog.

I will need many tutorials and lots advice to get to the level I would like to be at but I'm willing to put in the effort and work to do this, if only given the chance *wink wink*

I begged for years to get the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer and finally got one last year, so let's hope to keep this streak alive and hope for another 'win' this year. I know the holidays are not all about the gifts and we should be concentrating on the more meaningful parts and I fully intend to but if we're being honest...

This Little Woman wants this camera, and she wants it baddddddddddd!!!

**Now put your index and middle fingers on your temples, focus real hard, and mind control the shizz out of my husband**

Where My Heart Lies

Today I am off to watch my brother graduate from college. This has been a long time coming, and I'm so proud of him for accomplishing this!!

So, since I'll be gone all day, I figured I'd leave y'all with these adorable pictures from our adventures last weekend! Between wearing the wheels out on the jeep, visits with Santa, shopping all day, and a night spent at Lights of Tejas, we were exhausted come Sunday night. But, I love the time that I get to spend with The Tot and Princess R, so I'll gladly take the exhaustion that goes along with it!!

Are you ready for some major cuteness?

I hope all of you have a fabulous weekend, and I'll see y'all back here bright and early Monday for my Week of Wish Lists!!

Sparkley and Bright

The Christmas season is in full effect in the M house! We are decking our halls and knocking back the peppermint hot chocolates.

B is putting the lights on the house today, and I'm putting the finishing touches on our indoor decor. Now, if you remember a few weeks ago, I was talking about decorating our tree with a peacock theme. I have since changed my mind a million and one times. I've considered doing red and aqua, then back to the peacock theme, then red and lime green, then red and gold, and now I'm thinking of doing a western theme, since our dining room (where the tree is) is decorated in chili peppers.

What's a girl to do when she can't make up her mind and needs some inspiration?

Hit up the Pinterest, of course!!

Here's a few lovely things I found:

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and last, but not least, the peacock tree

Source: flickr.com via J on Pinterest

But, after searching for hours, I'm still not sure how I want to decorate our tree.

Tell me your favorite, and maybe it'll help me choose?