I absolutely love sending and receiving handwritten cards -  I think it’s a lost art form. I’ve been sending holiday to firends and family ever since I can remember.  This year, I’m going to expand that tradition to all of my blog friends, advertisers, and PR contacts.

Since blogging is kinda-sorta a business for me – granted it’s a really fun one that doesn’t technically qualify as work – business greeting cards from Brookhallow are perfect. My favorite is the designer wreath, which can be customized with my URLs as part of the wreath! They even come with snappy red envelopes!

Order early and take advantage of 50% off all holiday cards! The holidays will be here before you know it, so order your cards and start writing happy holiday thoughts to friends, family, and business associates!

This is a sponsored post. Please read my site policy if you have any questions.

Congratulations to our winner…Christy!

Here are your random numbers:

19	

Timestamp: 2009-11-07 07:59:05 UTC

Great news! This giveaway is a Prizey pick! Thanks to Prizey for recognizing what a great giveaway this is and welcome to everyone from Prizey – good luck!

Is the thought of holiday decorations and Christmas carols too much to handle? Wondering how you’re going to fit holiday gift giving into your budget?

The Popcorn Factory (part of the 1-800-Flowers family) can help in more ways than one – and I’ll tell you about it while I munch on the delicious caramel corn that was delivered to my doorstep yesterday.

Their “happy band of popcorn poppers” (too cute not to quote) has been creating yummy gifts for 30 years – while their specialty is popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels, candy, snack mixes, and other goodies are also available for good measure.

All treats from The Popcorn Factory are of the freshest and highest quality and packed and shipped by happy little popcorn poppers lickity split. Not to mention the bang for your budget – you get a whole lot of goodies for not a whole lot of cash.

To celebrate 30 years of scrumptious gift giving, and to celebrate National Popcorn Month, The Popcorn Factory has launched the 30 Gift Giveaway. Visit www.thepopcornfactory.com to enter to win 30 gifts for family and friends (up to a $6,000 value) this holiday season! There’s also 30 second prize and 30 third prize winners! Contest runs through November 23rd, 2009.

While you wait to find out if you’re the big winner of the 30 Gift Giveaway – here’s how you can enter to win a 2-gallon 3-way tin of butter, cheese, and caramel popcorn from ME!

Main entry – that means you have to complete this entry to win!

• Visit www.thepopcornfactory.com and tell me which gift you’d most like to give to someone this holiday season

Extra entries – you can complete any or all of these for extra entries!

• Become a fan of The Popcorn Factory on Facebook
• Subscribe to my RSS feed
• Follow me on Twitter @CorrinRenee and leave your Twitter handle to follow back
• Tweet the following and leave the link to your tweet:

Win yummy yummy popcorn from @CorrinRenee and The Popcorn Factory http://tinyurl.com/ygjzhk9

Remember leave a separate comment for each entry and be careful entering your email address – I’m not responsible for typos!

The fine print… Entries will be accepted until midnight, Friday, November 6th. One winner will be chosen at random and announced on Saturday, November 7th. Winner will be contacted by email and/or Twitter and will have 48 hours to respond. Please use your real first name and a valid email address when entering. I am not responsible for incorrect contact information. Prize will be shipped directly from sponsor. Good luck!

This is a sponsored post. Please read my site policy if you have any questions. Special thanks to The Popcorn Factory for sending me goodies!

I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific is too good of a deal to pass up if you’re looking to book travel during the winter months…

Starting TODAY, there are deals as low as $30 a night on over 1 million hotel rooms throughout Asia Pacific, including the following destinations (and I have to admit that I didn’t realize all these locations qualify as Asia Pacific – I was never great at geography):

• Thailand
• Korea
• China
• Japan
• Hong Kong
• Australia
• Singapore
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Fiji
• Indonesia
• Taiwan
• India
• Bali

Participating Accor hotels are above and beyond anywhere you’d think possible to stay for as low as $30 a night. They are stylish and trendy and close to dining, museums, and other attractions. They include:

• Sofitel
• Pullman
• Grand Mercure
• Novotel
• Mercure
• All Seasons
• Ibis Hotels

This 3-day Super Sale is going on RIGHT NOW and runs through October 29. Travel can take place anytime between December 9 and April 10 which is the perfect time to get away before SAD kicks in – so plan ahead and you could be spending some time in an exotic location this winter while all your friends and family are shivering in the cold.

These hotels are sure to book up quickly, so make your reservations ASAP! And reserve a bed for me!

Definitely broke until payday. Trying my absolutely hardest not to spend money on anything besides absolute necessities for the next 8 days. Gas tank is full and there’s groceries in the fridge – I think I can do it.

I don’t think it’s a secret that traveling is a priority for my husband and I – we value the time together and the opportunity to visit new places and do new things.

In the past few years, our traveling has become…stagnant. We find ourselves visiting the same places over and over again, so the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific really piqued my interest! We’ve certainly never been to Asia Pacific and visiting Australia, Fiji, or Bali could definitely provide us with unique experiences that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.

With deals as low as $30 a night on over 1 million hotel rooms and airlines running some of the lowest fares to Pacific destinations, there are fantastic vacations to be had at some of the all-time lowest prices. Seriously…$30 a night for a hotel room? I pay more than $30 a night in rent!!

The 3-day Super Sale runs from October 27 thru 29 and you can travel anytime between December 9 and April 10 – so plan ahead for a warm weather vacation during the long winter!. Accor hotels include Pullman, Grand Mercure, All Seasons, and others – so these prices won’t last long on such great accommodations!

You’ll need to book quickly because these prices only last for the duration of the 3-day Super Sale!

I learned my lesson last week when my local CVS was out of several items on my list and remembered to shop early this week!

Purchased:

• 2 two liters of Pepsi on sale 2/$3 and earn 1 ECB – $0.55 in store coupon = $2.45
• Durracel batteries regularly $8.99 on sale for $5.99 – $0.75 Sunday coupon = $5.24
• 1 Mentos Gum regularly $1.69 on sale for $0.99 – $0.55 Sunday coupon = $0.49
• 1 Glade Refill twin pack regularly $5.99 on sale for $3.99 – $2 manufacturer coupon = $1.99
• 1 Glade Warmer regularly $1.49 – free printable coupon = FREE
• 1 Venus Razor regularly $11.99 on sale for $9.99 and earn $5 ECB – $3 Sunday coupon = $6.99
• 2 Neosporin Lip Health regularly $5.29 on sale for $2.89 – $3 printable coupons = FREE
• 2 Almay Makeup regularly $9.99 on sale BOGO – $4 magazine coupon = $4.99
• 1 CVS Disposable Toothbrushes regularly $1.99 – free CVS coupon = FREE
• 2 Trident Layers Gum regularly $1.49 – BOGO CVS receipt coupon – $1 manufacturer coupon = $0.49
• $19.99 ECB

Earned:

• $1 ECB from Pepsi
• $5 ECB from Venus Razors

Need:

• $9.00 in Durracel products to earn $5 ECB
• 2 liters Pepsi to earn $1 ECB

TOTAL = $9.48

I’ll never get my CVS shopping down to only once a week – I didn’t complete my Durracel purchases because the package I purchased today had more coupons inside, and I didn’t know there wasn’t a limit on the Pepsi ECB so I’ll be buying 2 more bottles with 2 $0.55 coupons.

• $167 Sallie Mae
• $106 Seaworld – tickets for our November trip to San Antonio/Austin
• $258 State Farm – Corolla insurance
• $38 AT&T
• $600 Chase
• $205 Burlington Coat Factory- where we had a lovely experience
• $23 Post Office
• $61 Hooters
• $153 Costco
• $459 eye doctor
• $39 Zenni Optical
• $9 CVS

I’m not quire sure what the purpose of having vision insurance is if a trip to the eye doctor cost $459 for exams and two pair of glasses. The frames were even 40% off through a sale at the office!

Thankfully, the doctor was nice enough to give us all of our measurements so that we could go online and buy a extra pair of glasses for each of us through Zenni Optical.

If you haven’t tried Zenni Optical, you need to. I was paid a few bucks to blog for them several years ago, and I’ve been ordering my spare set of glasses from them ever since.