Holiday Traditions & Hickory Farms Gifts

Thanks to Hickory Farms for sponsoring today's discussion.

It's obvious that I love the holidays, with the joy that's spread through out the season and the loving times I get to spend with family - what's not to love? While hubby and I are celebrating our 7th Christmas married this year, we're still working on building traditions of our own but we both have traditions we follow with our families and those traditions truly matter to us!

This year we're going to try to make new traditions while traveling, with having to make so many stops along our journey in the midwest to see all of our family it should be an adventure. One new tradition that I'm super excited about is our little off-the-beaten-path vacation we're plotting and hopefully going to take. We'll be driving all the way home so we want to stop a few beautiful places along the way and hopefully we'll make a random stop a tradition each year. With that said, another new tradition that I love to partake in around the holidays includes giving (and receiving) food as gifts and now it includes tea parties! What better way to any person's heart than through their tummies & taste buds?!

Receiving a fancy tea party package in the mail from Hickory Farms recently was an amazing experience! With two wonderful tea selections, Belgian truffles, Pretzels, Fruit Spread, and Biscuits - I felt like I had stepped into a regal tea party the second I laid eyes on my new collection!

While I was enjoying my "biscuits" and tea, I suddenly realized I knew just the right person to surprise with a Hickory Farms box first. I decided to check out the variety of gift baskets I could send and realized I could check almost every one off of my list!

Are you a foodie wanting to celebrate the upcoming holiday the right way? I bet you are wondering where can you buy Hickory Farms for your family? Hickory Farms' food gifts are available at Holiday market locations, on HickoryFarms.com, and at most big box retailers!

Not only can you buy Hickory Farms at those locations, you can win an awesome Hickory Farms giveaway here on the blog! Simply fill out the giveaway tools form below & leave a comment completing one simple sentence, "Traditions matter because..." - I may include your quote in an upcoming post as well!

Entry-Form

Disclaimer: Compensation and products for review were provided by Hickory Farms via MomTrends. I received a free sample of the product for the purpose of this review and to facilitate a giveaway.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Hickory Farms. Must be 18+ to enter to win, US residents only. Lauren Paints | a beautiful life is not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prizes, all information submitted via the form is only submitted to LaurenPaints.com. 

Well, now that you've had your chance to enter to win an awesome giveaway and I've shared one of my favorite ways to treat others (and myself), I suppose it's time for you to treat yourself as well!

Enhance Your Photography with Adobe Creative Cloud

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

I love taking pictures, of everything from the view out a plane window on a red eye flight to the intricate plating of my dish at a posh restaurant, I'm always pulling out my phone or my camera and snapping a quick photo to share with others.

Some may say it's best to live in the moment and not take pictures, while I understand that mindset - part of living in the moment for me is taking pictures. I love being able to document the exact moment I'm experiencing. Whether it's talking with my niece about how she recently turned two or a long walk on the beach with my hubby, these are moments I want to remember forever - therefore I want to capture them via a lens, as well as my memory.

The issue with always wanting to snag a picture, as some of you fellow photo enthusiasts may know, is that the quality of the photo isn't always great straight off the camera. Sometimes you have to adjust the lighting, play with the contrast, or even use some serious editing skills to remove or add something into a picture. I've always been a big fan of using Photoshop to complete these edits, it's the best editing software on the market. Notice Chrissy Teigen and Pippa on a stroll on their way to hang out with me below - this picture wouldn't be possible without Photoshop!

I use the Creative Cloud, specifically Photoshop for almost every single photo I share. I don't always do serious edits - sometimes I just want to add my logo to the corner of a photo, which is easy to do once you create a brush! If you're a small business, a blog, an internet celebrity, or anyone that just wants to stake claim on your photo, you should be adding just a little watermark to make sure your content is claimed as yours! Want to make a logo brush and add it to all of your photos?

First you'll need to download Adobe Creative Cloud so you can have access to Photoshop and Lightroom, which retails $119 for an entire year subscription!

Next you'll open your logo in Photoshop.

Then click on edit > define brush preset.

Name the brush whatever you prefer.

Use your logo on any and all photos you share, now they'll never end up used without your permission. I circled the use of my logo below, just to display it as an example - the red line obviously won't be there when you choose your brush from the brush options!

And that's it... Photoshop is that easy to use, just a few steps and you're already a professional with watermarked photos! With so many abilities, Adobe Creative Cloud is the ideal way to create and access your vision from any device, anywhere.

Retouching, manipulating, transforming in just about any way you can imagine- it's all at your finger tips with Photoshop and Lightroom, that's why I love Adobe so much! It helps me create what I want so easily, allowing my imagination and creativity to truly flow!

Plus, you can organize, edit & share images from anywhere: on your computer, on the web, on your tablet and on your cell phone! Another reason to love the Creative Cloud, you can make an edit or flag a favorite in one place and it's automatically updated everywhere else through Adobe CreativeSync technology.

Once you download the Creative Cloud, you'll have access to so many more programs than you can imagine. Not only can you create amazing work, you can showcase your work, organize images in web galleries or share them on your favorite social site! Adobe Slate mobile app is the best way to craft visual stories and animated videos and you can use the Adobe Voice mobile app to add your own voice for narration.

Are you ready to gain access to your Creative Cloud? Find the plan that's best for you here. I'd love to hear what you would create with Photoshop and/or Lightroom, tell me all about it in the comments below!

Macy's Rwanda Path to Peace Baskets Help Families and Build Stronger Communities for the People of Rwanda

I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere has provided me with compensation in the form of the beautiful Baskets from Rwanda  for this post. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Since 2005 Macy's has been selling hand-crafted baskets from Rwanda, this year marks the 10 year anniversary of something truly special and they celebrated in a big way - with a Rwanda Path to Peace pre-sale on their beautiful line of baskets, hand-made by the hard-working people of Rwanda! It's hard to imagine the journey the baskets (and these women) have been on; it's as though each of these baskets is a weaving together of cultures, a reconciliation of sorts - and that's what makes these colorful baskets even more beautiful. Basket-weaving allowing former enemies to come together and make something beautiful, I'm all for a Path to Peace for Rwanda...

After the terrible events that took place in the 90's, Rwanda and Macy's are trying to focus on the future. By focusing on poverty reduction through job creation, improved incomes, access to global markets and job skill training, the women of Rwanda can help lift their family (and their entire community) out of poverty. Macy's didn't want to offer the women a "hand out", but instead wanted to assist the strong and capable women with a hand up and that's' exactly what they are still doing 10 years later...

The purchase of each item from Rwanda provides the basket weavers an opportunity to improve their quality of life and puts a one-of-a-kind craft directly into your hands, it's a win-win situation for all involved! With the basket weavers earning nearly TEN times the average Rwandan wage, it's a huge help to the families in need.

As you can imagine, each women tediously works to hand weave these baskets; with such intricate detail and a process that has been practiced in Rwanda for centuries - these baskets are truly a treasure. Each design is unique and painstakingly created from sisal and grass by women who learned to weave from their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and other maternal figures.

The project employs thousands of weavers who are organized throughout Rwanda. What's amazing about this fact is that every group consists of women from both sides of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide conflict, working side by side. This proves that anyone and everyone is capable of working together towards economic stability.

With beautiful red hues and stunning intricate patterns, I absolutely adore my new baskets and will begin collecting these baskets each year - because helping out a good cause and indulging my basket hoarding habit are two fun ways to kick off the holidays! Plus, each basket is signed by it's creator, giving me an indirect look into the life of the strong women in Rwanda.

Do you want to give a gift this year that truly gives back? Get all the details on these beautiful baskets and snag one for yourself and your favorite friend here.

Are you interested in getting your hands on the same baskets I have pictured? The red basket on the top (in the photo below) is Macy's Special Commemorative Basket, woven to represent 10 years of peace and prosperity and is absolutely beautiful. The bottom basket is the shining star fruit basket and it's absolutely stunning as well, no matter which basket you get from Macy's Rwanda Path to Peace program, I'm certain you'll love it!

Want to find more awesome gifts to give over the holidays?

Check out my holiday gift guide!