Frugalicious Daily Deal savings..Birth Announcment edition!!

So, coincidentally right when this birth announcment livingsocial deal came out I was in high gear choosing a baby announcement design that I liked in preparation for our little porker Sammy's arrival.  I had looked all over the place for one I liked and in a price range I could agree on.  Pintrest, just FYI is amazing for idea banking.  I didn't want to use vistaprint or shutterfly because truly, I don't think they print the best quality images.  Tinyprints was probably going to be my option, but their prices even with a coupon really make me have heart palpitations.  So when I heard about simply to impress thru the livingsocial deal I was all over it.  I'm quite excited to spend around $30 (I bought 2) for all of the announcements.  I did some coupon code searching on google before buying and it appears they do free shipping with 20% off pretty frequently.  Pretty excited to combine both the livingsocial deal and the coupon codes when the time comes!

So, while it seems a bit cart before the horse for me to have gone on this hunt now, I know how I look at way too many options with choosing stuff like this (Christmas cards, invitations, etc) and knew with sleep deprivation and adjusting to being a first time mom, I wouldn't have the time I wanted to dedicate to our son's first formal hello to the world. 

Here are my top seven choices (see what I mean).  Right now I'm leaning towards "simply hello blue".   Want to help me narrow it down, which one do you like best? 

Nursery Reveal and Dali Decal Winner

So, the winner of my first ever giveaway to one of my new favorite companies Dali Decals is Stephanie!!!  Congratulations!  I entered everyone's name into a spreadsheet and then came out with 13 entries.  11 out of 13 aka Stephanie was the winner.  Let us know which decal you end up going with and for everyone else, I hope you will use the coupon code frugal5off and sign up for dali decals backlot so you can get $5 off and 5% off your order.  A shameless plug, but if you sign up for backlot, please put me down my blog as a reference, we both get an extra entry for their big iPad 2 giveaway! 

Of course, you guys clearly were waiting to see the nursery not if you won the giveaway so without further ado, a partial view of Sammy's nursery only because pregnancy brain kicked in this morning and I forgot to take the rest of the pictures!!

Paul built this closet for Sammy.  We got everything from homedepot (made by closetmaid) for under $180.  Originally, all we had was one bar straight across.  There was a lot of damage to the walls so we had to spackle, sand and repaint.  We didn't have any paint left from the room which I had painted blue before trying to get pregnant so Paul came up with a great frugalicious idea.  When we were at Home Depot we went to the oops section, found the closest full can to white and asked them to tint it with some blue.  The color is perfect and the gallon was $5.  Also, considering this a DIY and we are still married without needing counseling (metric of choice) this closet maid system gets my seal of approval for ease of installation.

Last year I bought this oar (not a paddle like our friend Sean insinuated) from the christmas tree shops for $7 to go above the closet doors.

Got this cute "Bailey Puppy" print from target for $15 to hang above the light switch

I'll edit this post tonight and post the rest of the pics.  I wanted to let everyone know the winner of the giveaway.

Baby Hats

So, I realize I can only take so many newborn pictures of Sammy in adorable hats before I am considered a mean Mom, but these hats and pictures are soooo adorable.  I can't wait to dress him up in hats..potentially only hats, because seriously naked baby bottoms, a nice blanket or basket and a cute hat, what is better?  Here is a link to my favorite local baby photographer Little Moon Photography.  Unfortunately unless I somehow lose my frugality aka cheapness, I win something, or she does a groupon I will have to just admire these pictures of other babies. 

I bought the pumpkin and football hats during my Frugalicious Nesting Spree from Etsy and have comissioned my mom to make us a few more.  They were each $6 with $2 each for shipping.

These are the ones I want my Mom to make (she doesn't realize how many there are yet mauhhahaha).  The patterns which she says she doesn't need are listed $5 for $20 on etsy:

The prices of these hats really vary a lot ($5-$25) for essentially the exact same thing.  What I did to find the best price was simple, sort by lowest to highest.  I was amazed at the range in prices.

Dali Decal Review and Giveaway!

This is super exciting times for Frugalicious livin!  Not only do I get to lead up to the nursery debut with a preview of the amazing decal I had custom designed, but I get to do so with my first ever giveaway for a product I wish I could put up all over my house.  In case you want to order, they also gave me a coupon code good thru Oct 1, 2011: frugal5off

Here is what the decal looks like in the nursery:

The winner of the giveaway will be chosen on Monday August 15th using http://www.random.org/

To be eligible you will need to:

• Follow my blog
• Comment on this post, tell me where you want to put new decal
• For an extra chance to win, like Dali Decals on facebook
• Just an FYI, but right now if you register for their backlot you get 1000 pts worth $5 that can be used in combination with a coupon code and if you are the lucky winner your Gift Certificate too

Here are some of my favorite decals from their website:

First, I want to start off with my Dali Decal Review:
From the very beginning Dali Decals was awesome to work with.  I had searched everywhere (seriously everywhere) for something that fit with the Bailey and Beach theme I was going for.  I didn't think it would be so hard finding a decal of a cute chocolate lab or a little boy playing in the sand.  Fortunately during one of many google searches I found the Dali Decal website and gave them a call.  Within a few minutes, I knew who to contact and about how much my decal would cost.

You can do a regular order, choose what you want pay and in a few days it is at your doorstep (anything over $50 is free shipping too) or a custom order (what I did).  The whole process is really easy.  With a custom order you just have to be a bit creative, figure out what you want, tell them the dimensions, colors, fonts etc. and then within a few hours (they have up to 24, but it never took that long) they send you back a sample and you go from there.  I made a few simple changes to my original sample but for the most part Karen, the woman I worked with was right on my vision for what I wanted in the nursery.

Once I placed my order it took about a week to have made and then a few days to get to my doorstep (maybe 10 days start to finish).  The detail and quality of the decal is awesome.  Hanging the decal did not cause any marital dissatisfaction which is HUGE.  I mean definitly no less than 20 stars from me since our marriage survives best when hiring a handy man to hang things like curtains (more on that later).  Within about 20 minutes Paul had the decal hung above the crib.  I can't comment on removing it, but that doesn't seem like it would be hard at all.

Steps for installation include:

• Read directions (they come in the shipping box) or you can go to the dali decal webiste, or their installation videos on you tube. 
• If you have a large decal like mine it comes in one sheet that you have to cut out the pieces from.
• I cut out the boy, the puppy, the name and the starfish
• Using painters tape, put the decal up on the wall and figure out where you want it, if it is level etc.
• The thin piece of paper faces you, the hard piece against the wall. 
• You start by peeling back the thin piece cutting off the hard piece in sections
• Then press the thin piece to the wall which applies the decal to the wall
• Take out any air bubbles and then go to the next section and repeat.
• Step back and enjoy!   

So, I hope everyone found the review helpful and goes to take a peek at their awesome website to see what they want to get when they win!  Good Luck and thanks for participating.