Thank You Notes: An Imperative in My World

When we were little, many a night was spent at the kitchen table writing what then felt like an epic thank you note. We could not simply say "thanks for the loot, Grandma!" We had to outline what she gave, how we wanted it every so badly, and how we were currently using it.

Confession: I plan to do the exact same thing to Wee 'Burb.

In the world of the evite and invites via Twitter and Facebook, I know the hand-written paper thank you card is a lost art. But I will never let it go.

For right now, Wee 'Burb personalizes her thank you cards with her handprint and the date.

For my own thank you cards, I try to follow the basic rules my mom taught me.

Yes, they will likely be thrown away. Yes, other than weddings and birthdays, some people may never care about getting a thank you card. But I care.

I keep a bin of thank you cards handy for all occasions. I'm looking to renew my bin (Wee 'Burb has been the receipt of much generosity lately, the girl is cleaning out my supply...and possibly turning completely blue with the plethora of handprints she delivers) so here are a few of my most coveted:

Source: Amazon.com

Source: Amazon.com

Source: Papyrusonline.com

Source: Papyrusonline.com

Do you write thank you cards and/or make your kids write them? Do you think they've lost importance? If not, where do you get your favorite thank you cards? Do you pick them individually or buy a box of them?

Things I Love Thursday: Cute Cards

When I was a starving college senior, I attended about a million networking events looking for my first glamorous journalism job (still waiting). At those events, I was very surprised to find how many of the students had generic business cards with their relevant information.

I had no idea where to begin with getting a business card. Everyone I knew was just issued one when they started a job, it never occurred to me to have one before I got a job! So I started doing research on the Web.

To set the scene, I made most of my “mad money” by baby-sitting. I would like to be cool and say I was a nanny, but the reality is, there were a stable of parents that kept me on speed dial because I was the only 21-year-old willing to totally ditch my social life in order to get money. They were rich parents, so I was paid well, but I wasn’t exactly hitting Rockefeller status and I wasn’t about to ask my parents for money to buy business cards I still wasn’t 100 % sure I really NEEDED.

My research led me to Vistaprint and I got some lovely business cards for about $10. See those flower ones, aren’t they cute? Score!

I continued to get e-mails throughout the years, but didn’t pay much attention. I was thrilled with my cards, I just had no need for any of their other services. But while I was planning my wedding, they had an advertisement for free address labels and I thought it would be fun to get some customized labels for our wedding thank-you notes, which you can see above. And while I was there, we got some great deals on other address labels, so we got 200 address labels for $11 (and that’s only because I paid $5 for fast shipping versus their 2-week shipping, which is typically free).

Since, then I have also ordered customized thank-you cards for Wee ‘Burb, and some adorable monkey cards that were $2 for a set of 12, including envelopes with her name and address on them. Free shipping on that one!

My stuff is super cutesy, admittedly. They have some more professional looks for businesses, too. You really can’t beat their prices, and they have a lot of unique styles.

What are your favorite sites for cards and labels?