Pear Tree Giveaway Winner!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was a bit rainy, which was perfect for staying indoors and doing a little spring organizing.

Random.org chose the winner of the $20 Gift Certificate to Pear Tree Greetings and it's AubreyLaine who said she'd choose these watercolor flowers personalized note cards.

Congratulations, I'll be sending you an e-mail shortly with the details. :)

Thank you to everyone who entered and much love to my sponsor Pear Tree Greetings for their generosity!

Another Pear Tree Greetings Giveaway!

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**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**

Ladies, I promised you a few days ago when I shared my lovely Pear Tree review with you, that I'd be posting another fun giveaway. I'm so excited that my friends at the ever-generous Pear Tree Greetings have allowed me to do another give away with them!

Our last stationery giveaway was so much fun. This one has a little twist, there will be 5, yes, I said FIVE winners! Even if you've entered one of my giveaways in the past and won, no need to shy away this is open to anyone in the U.S. My apologies to my international gals, but there will be future giveaways open to everyone. :)

Now, on with the prize. Since I shared with you how amazing their address labels are, I thought it would only be fair to let you try them for yourself. I was given the choice of having one winner receive 5 sets of labels or five ladies that will each receive a set of (12-24) stylish, custom labels-the more the merrier. The set amount depends on the specific label you choose, as there are 3 different sets of label dimensions. I use the word custom because several are available with the ability to add a photo-perfect for newlyweds, newly engaged, a new baby or even Christmas or holiday labels, most of the other designs come in multiple colors.

These designs are fresh, fun and fabulous! Here are the details to enter:

FIRST ENTRY: Mention that you already are a public follower or become one. :)

EXTRA ENTRIES: {Leave a separate comment for each of the following and an appropriate link/e-mail if you don't have a blog.}
1. (1) entry for adding me to your blogroll. (leave a comment also if you already have)

2. (1) entry for adding my blog button to your blog (code found in my sidebar, leave comment also if you already have)

3. (1) entry for tweeting about this giveaway (link to this post & provide your twitter ID in comment)

GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Monday June.14th at 11pm EST.
NUMBER OF WINNERS: Five
RULES: The winners will be selected using random.org and announced on 06/15.
OPEN TO: U.S. addresses ONLY for this giveaway.

Good Luck!

Stylish & Affordable Stationery

Last month, one of my sponsors Pear Tree Greetings was kind enough to provide a $50 gift certificate for our giveaway to one lucky reader to spend any way she pleased. When I revealed the winner, I promised to share with you in an upcoming post what they were sweet enough to send me too.

If you've never heard of them or purchased their stationery before, it is beautiful. They have a vast array of simple and fresh designs, many available in a variety of color palettes and their quality is top notch. Note cards are given heavy weight cardstock for durability and even the envelopes are far nicer than the standard, run of the mill envelope. They too are thicker and provide a polished look when corresponding with family and friends. Pear Tree provides everything from save the date cards to personalized photo address labels, mommy cards, children's birthday invitations, baby shower invitations to holiday photo cards. They are now my go-to place for stylish, yet affordable stationery and labels. With over 50 years in the industry, they definitely know what they're doing!

I was fortunate enough to receive 2 different sets of their gorgeous address labels. The first set is for me to mail to personal friends, so it has a more feminine flair. I love damask patterns and was very tempted to pick this style. However, with the same color scheme in mind I wanted to do something a little different and when they arrived in the mail, I couldn't have been more pleased. Here is the 'Delicate Lace in Blue' pattern.

{To protect my privacy, I am using address label images from their website}

My second set will be used by both Paul and I, so I wanted it to remain neutral but provide some color and an 'eco' sort of feel, given that we both cherish our precious earth. The pattern below is called Elegant Floral. These labels are what I received first and formed my initial impression of Pear Tree as being a detail oriented company. The square labels are unlike anything I've seen before (they have round and regular size available also) and are 2.25 inches wide/hight, I couldn't wait to use them!

You can imagine my surprise when after I had ordered these labels, one of my contacts within Pear Tree decided to surprise me by sending me a batch of 25 cards with envelopes that she specifically selected with my personality and blog style in mind! Although they are different in color, these 'Elegant Red' (which are actually terracota brown and pink on cream cardstock) flat notecards match the labels I had already ordered which we both thought was too funny. If I later wanted to order matching address labels, they have these lovely 'Elegant Red Labels' too. I love the simplicity of this design and the informality of my first name only.

No matter what I'm looking for, I always find the Pear Tree site easy to navigate, personalization of items are simple and I receive all merchandise quickly and in excellent condition. In my opinion, they are a fabulous company to work with. As they describe in their own words how they came about, this is also why I appreciate them "At a time when all the other options out there were either too expensive, too cookie cutter, too cutesy or waaaay too much work, Pear Tree Greetings blossomed."  If you haven't used them yet, I hope you'll visit them for any upcoming stationery need.

*Disclaimer-I am not being paid to write this review nor am I receiving any product in exchange for it. I did not receive my address labels or note cards in exchange for a write up. I did however, let them know that I wanted to provide a review, upon receiving my stationery, as I think they are one of the most generous companies with a fabulous product to boot, which is a rarity.This is my personal opinion and experience with Pear Tree Greetings.

Now, here's the really exciting part. Some of you lovely ladies will win something fabulous from Pear Tree this month too!  I'll be doing something a little different this time around. Here's a hint, there will be more than one winner. ;) I hope you'll pop back over this week because I'll have all the giveaway details on how you can enter to win your very own Pear Tree Greetings goodies!


I hope you are doing something lovely this weekend!

Stylish Stationery GIVEAWAY Winner!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! Two weeks ago many of you began entering our $50 Stylish Stationery Giveaway from the always generous Pear Tree Greetings. In celebration of Mother's Day, I asked you all to tell me the best advice your mom had ever given you in the form of a comment. I really enjoyed reading every last one of them.

With a little help from the Random.org number generator, our lucky winner from the 60 entries that were received (we actually had 61 but the last one was past the deadline, so I had to keep it fair for everyone who had already entered and met the deadline) was  Jackie Flaherty of  the blog Letters & Journals!

Congratulations! You are going to have such a fun time choosing your new stationery. Pear Tree greetings has a lot of amazing designs to choose from. I'm going to show you all what I received from them last week in the next of couple days. So pretty!

Jackie, I'll  be in touch with you shortly so that we can get that $50 gift certificate into your hands.

Have a wonderful start to your week ladies!

Reader Request: Stationery Savvy

Image Sources: Betsy White; J Press Design;  Oblation;  Betsy White (clockwise)

Today’s request comes from a reader that would like to remain somewhat anonymous, given the uniqueness of her name. She has a couple of tricky dilemmas to tackle when it comes to stationery, monograms and which names to use as she has kept her maiden name and her husband is often referred to by his nickname versus his given name.

Here is what she e-mailed me:

I have a question about Stationary. I want to order some custom stationary, but am not sure what to put on it. If I order note cards, do I put my name on the front, or my monogram? If it has my name on it, can I use them for Thank You cards for things for myself AND my husband, or only myself?


Also, my husband and I have different last names so how do I create a monogram to use on things? This has bugged me since our wedding as I have always wanted personalized stationary, but none of the stationary companies I have contacted seems to have an answer.


My initials are MMB and my Husbands are DEC. To make it more complicated, my husband is known to almost everyone as a Nickname as he and his father share the same name. This nickname (Woody) does not share any of his official initials. We even had to put the nickname on our wedding invitations so people would know that I was marrying the SON not the Father.


HELP!!!  If you have ANY idea where I can find info on this, it would be great.


Thanks so much!!


M. Bourne


First of all, thank you for your question Ms. Bourne. I love custom stationery and it’s a fun way to send out correspondence, thank you cards and to keep in touch with friends while adding your own unique and personal touch.


To answer your first question about note cards, you can really use whatever you would like on the cards, but bear in mind that it will ultimately depend on who will be using these cards. If they'll be used exclusively by you, then you can use your first name only, your first and last (maiden) name or a monogram which is unique to your three initials which would include your maiden name. Tradition dictates that it is always appropriate for a woman to use or incorporate her maiden name, even after becoming married. So, one alternative that many women choose (as do those without a middle name) is to use their maiden name as their middle name. HERE is a whole site page dedicated to the very topic of using names within a monogram.


If you intend to share the note cards with your husband, you should probably use the initial of your married surname. For a joint monogram which would include both of your names, list your first initial, your married last name initial in the middle (which is larger than the other letters on either side) followed by his first (most commonly used) initial. This is very common now and many family and friends of a newly married couple often purchase stationery or other custom items like bed sheets with the couple’s combined names for a truly united monogram.


Any of these selections would allow you to use your note cards as thank you cards for a wedding, baby shower or for an occasion such as a housewarming party.


In terms of the monogram that you’d like to create for other uses, tradition calls for the use of a given name vs. a nickname. However, in these modern times, you could use his nickname since that is the name that he is really most known by. It’s really a matter of personal preference. For formal invitations or events, I would encourage him to be listed with "Jr." behind his first name or use the roman numerals “II”, so that he can be differentiated from his father. My husband has a similar situation as he shares his father’s name also. As such, he often uses the above additions to his name and frequently uses his middle initial as part of his name professionally, since Paul Davis II would just come across a bit 18th century.


Since you have already made the decision to keep your maiden name, you can continue to create personal cards or monogrammed items for yourself that involve all 3 of your original initials. For anything that you purchase together such as something monogrammed for your home, because you are now married and share the home it would be most appropriate to use his surname initial “C”.

I hope I was able to answer all of your questions and that you feel a bit more confident about proceeding with the purchase of your new custom stationery. Be sure to visit Pear Tree Greetings' website via my sidebar button, under 'sponsors' as they offer some gorgeous designs! Custom return address labels will really complete the overall polished look.


Your e-mail is also very timely because there will be a fun giveaway involving stationery in the coming weeks. Check back for your chance to win some gorgeous goodies!


Warmly,