I know, I know. I missed two weeks in a row for being out of town and now next week. I hope my DH doesn’t kill me since its our anniversary, but one hour wont kill him.
Friday night LIVE tonight….Who is coming?
Prizes, chat, and all that jazz with our normal crowd. If your new to FNL, just make sure you are our ‘friend’ on www.stickam.com/momdot and then sign in to watch the show and talk with everyone.
We will be doing it in the CHAT ROOM tonight on stickam.
Now while you are waiting, I’m going to kick off Friday with a post from Trisha about her Hallmark trip and a LIVE contest for commenting. You may comment as much as you want and this runs out when FNL starts. That way we can kick off FNL with a winner!
~Trisha
Her words below:
Hi everyone! This is Trisha from Sweet ‘n’ Sassy Girls, and I wanted to tell you all about my Hallmark Trip. When Trisha sent me a PM on the MomDot forum asking if I was interested in going to represent MomDot I was shocked. Thrilled, but shocked. I still consider myself new in the blogging world and had never been to any event before. I didn’t know what to expect!
Well, let me just tell you that it was a great first event to go to. First off, they invited my daughter. I decided not to take her because I didn’t want to deal with a 2 year old on a plane, by myself. Especially because my flight coming home didn’t get in until 11:30pm! My daughter is the type who will not fall asleep unless she’s in her crib, so I knew that would be a nightmare. It was such a nice break for me. It was a short break, but still a break nonetheless.
I flew in to Kansas City, Mo and was taken to the hotel we were staying at. Natalie from Red Sox Mommy and I shared a car to the hotel. We were all on the same floor of the hotel, which was kind of nice for those who did bring their kids because they could all play together. I ended up going out to dinner with Natalie and Jen from Mommy Needs Coffee. Let’s just say we were surprised when we found out that almost everything closed at 6. We finally found a burger joint and ate and chatted. Then we went back to the hotel and hung out with some of the other moms.
Early the next morning we went over to Hallmark headquarters and learned all about Hallmark. Did you know that the founder was only 18 when he started the company? I learned all sorts of small interesting facts about the company. Here’s the 5 different logos the company has had over the years.
These Christmas trees are awesome. The employees used to get together and give the founder a Christmas tree made out of different items every year for Christmas. They have set them all up and you can see all the different trees. There are some made from wreaths, some from ornament boxes, or cards, a crazy quilt one, and even one made from that 70s home made stained glass ornaments that you painted. (You know what I’m talking about?)
We even got to see how they make the ribbon bows. It’s a machine that has a giant spool of ribbon, and then it loops the ribbon over a needle over and over, turning each loop, until wa-la! A bow!
We got to meet with some of the writers and creative directors of their cards, and it was so interesting to get to read a card, and then realize that the girl sitting in front of us is the one who wrote it. I think we tend to forget that there’s a face behind the card. One of the ladies who writes a lot of the Shoebox cards (the funny ones) told us that she was nervous to be there in front of all of us great writers and mothers. We all just laughed at that! But it was awesome to see a company that realized that we are more than just moms. We ARE writers!
They also took the time to visit each of our blogs and throughout the day would mention something that they saw or liked. That was really cool to know that they cared enough to do their homework on us. To me, that speaks a lot about a company.
One of my favorite parts was touring their art supply library. They have anything and everything in there you could ever want. I video taped it for you.
I found out that Hallmark offers so many different kinds of cards that I didn’t know about! Did you know that you can go online, pick a card, personalize it, and Hallmark will take it put it an an envelope, address it, stamp it and mail it for you?! Well, those cards must be pretty pricey, huh. Nope! You just buy the card (usually about $3.49) and add the cost of a stamp. That’s it! So now there’s no excuse for not sending a card. They make it so easy for you. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your computer.
They also have photo cards that you can personalize and send out. Can you say “Christmas Cards?” They also have just redesigned their $.99 cards, and they don’t look like $.99 cards! These are great to send to friends just because. Nowadays people rarely send paper cards. Everything is done online. I think that makes it so special when you do receive a card in the mail, and not just an e-card through email. I was able to preview some of their new cards that are not in production yet, and although I can’t talk about them, I can tell you that they were hilarious! Some of them were only $.99 yet all of us said we would enjoy receiving that card. It doesn’t have to cost a lot for the meaning to be there.
I’m sure you’ve seen those musical cards around. I love to go to the store and sit there and listen to all of them. My sister has sent me a Little Mermaid one for my birthday the past two years and I still have them. Well, besides having basic musical cards, they have ones that you can personalize and record your saying. This is great for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. How fun is it to open a card and hear a message from someone you love.
These were the chandeliers in their dining room. How cool is that? Everything was marked with the crown, even their silverware!
Here’s a picture of all of us right before people started leaving to go to the airport.
Guess what? Hallmark is giving a whole bunch of cards away to one of you!
That was really cool Trisha! I actually just got my set I won from Sweet N Sassy girls live the other day and they are awesome!