Printcopia Canvas Print Review & Giveaway

**CLOSED** 

 Winner is Lynsie!

I recently ordered a canvas print courtesy of Printcopia. It was my first time using them so I did not know what to expect during the ordering process.  My first step was to figure out what photo I wanted to use for my canvas print. I decided to go with my ad shot I did for Cool Whip earlier this year. I figured it would be a great piece to have as a memory that I can hang in my office. I have to say that when I first went into the Printcopia site, I was very impressed with the gorgeous layout. It is pleasing to the eye and not too busy. I was surprised to see that besides the option of uploading an image from your computer, you could also upload from Instagram or Facebook. Living in a social media world, I know most of us have a ton of photos in those places! From start to finish the ordering process took about 3 minutes. The only reason it even took that long was because I wanted to double and triple check that I was doing it correctly. I received my order confirmation email and soon after a message from the print department to make sure that everything was done to my specifications. Their customer service is fast and very efficient! Once everything was approved, my order was being printed. The shipping time was fast and came packaged carefully to ensure my print could not be damaged. Here is the final product:

I love it! The colors are so rich and true to the original ad print. I did not realize that it was going to be mounted onto a frame with a hook. It was ready to hang! Printcopia has impressed me and offers a wide range of print products perfect for your business or personal use. They also offer things like banners and cheap signs. If you are in search of high-quality prints, I recommend Printcopia.

How would you like to win your very own 11x14 canvas print from Printcopia? (One winner) Enter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway is open to US Residents only and will end on November 20, 2012. One winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted via email. Momfiles is not responsible for any lost or stolen prizes. Be sure to follow giveaway rules in Rafflecopter. Good luck!

Printcopia provided me with a FREE item to review and all thoughts/opinions are 100% my own. 

A priceless moment in a girl's life

This past Friday, our daughter Chardonnay was crowned the 2012 Richland Northeast High School Homecoming Queen. It was such an exciting night for our family and certainly will be treasured forever! Check out the super short video clip (start at 9:54). There were lots of tears and smiles!

Waiting to be called down to get in place to walk out onto the field at half-time. 

Patiently waiting with her Papo. He looks like security! 

The introduction of the girls that were running for Homecoming Queen and their dad/escort. 

The crowning. She was in tears! Even her little sister cried.  

Me and my girl! 

First day of school 2012

Brie (sophomore) & Chardie (Senior) 

I can't believe how fast time has gone by. My girls are so grown up and today they start their new school year for 2012-13. They were up early full of excitement for their first day back. It was a whirlwind of emotion for me. My oldest is a high school senior and my younger daughter has outgrown us all! We had such fun in the car on the way to school. We shared a lot of laughs and reminisced about them being in elementary school. I am looking forward to the stories we will share this year.

Wishing everyone a fantastic school year ahead!

Sisters in print | High School memories

It is that time of year again... end of the school year and yearbooks! Both girls got their high school yearbook yesterday and I asked them if they were in it besides the class photo. They told me there was a shot of the two of them together and casually showed it to me.

I screamed out loud like whaaaat??!!! Those are my babies!! I was so thrilled to see that they were a part of a feature they did on students that share the same house and school. They thought I was crazy with how excited I was seeing them together in the yearbook. I think it is neat that they can look back at this many years from now and remember those times. I still glance through my high school yearbooks from time to time.

Just seeing how happy and vibrant they are when they are hanging out warms my mommy heart. It is such a wonderful thing when siblings, especially teenagers get along so well. I tell them all the time that they have a best friend for life! I love my girls so much! I just had to share this with you all.

Have a great weekend! :)

My favorite girls | Friends for life

I was looking at an old photo of my daughters along with their friend, Haley.  Chardie and Haley met in kindergarten and became best friends from day one. Although Haley and Chardie are in the same grade, Brie took a liking to Haley and joined in on the friendship. After all these years they still get together for sleepovers, outings and parties. Haley is referred to as being my third daughter. I love her as if she was my own! When Haley comes to the house, I enjoy making them my "world famous" grilled cheese sandwiches and baking cookies. It has been a tradition for many years and all three girls look forward to it.

Chardie and Haley were in kindergarten and Brie was still at home with me! This was taken at their end of kindergarten school trip to a local park. How adorable are those sweet faces?! 

Here are the girls are all grown up. Chardie and Haley are finishing off Junior year and will become Seniors next school year. Brie will be a Sophomore next school year. *sniff*

All three girls have made us so proud. They are all very high academic achievers and have such outstanding manners and a love for the community. We couldn't ask for better daughters! It has been a joy watching the three of them grow up together. It is wonderful to have lifelong friends that become a part of your family. 

Do you or your children have any of the same friends since early childhood? 

Looking back

I came across this photo today and it made me smile. This was taken before Will turned 2.

Farewell One Life To Live

Well, we said our final goodbyes last night. We watched the last episode of One Life To Live on Soapnet. It did not end as we would have thought but that's the soaps for ya. I admit that I had some tears roll down my face. Not from sad scenes but just the memories. I can't believe how much the show was a part of my life for so many years.

We all wore black for the occasion. Pictured from left to right- Brie, Haley, Shelly and Chardie.

Of course we had to have our snacks that included pizza, chocolate, candies, ice cream, popcorn and soda. I think that it will really hit us next week when we go to tune into Soapnet only to realize our show will no longer be in that time slot. 

Before we had Ipads & Pinterest

I was sitting in my office thinking yesterday morning and glanced over at this clipboard. It is not the best looking clipboard at all. As a matter of fact, it is absolutely tacky. It has paint drips, marker smudges and who knows what else on it. Well it turns out that this tacky thing is filled with memories...about 20 years to be exact. You see, this was Dwayne's clipboard in high school. He was very into his office supplies. He even carried a briefcase! During his rap days, he went to visit our local radio station and had DJ Laz from Power 96 autograph it. If you are from Miami you would know what a big deal that was! DJ Laz is still doing his thing.

You can see where I wrote all over it. So high school girl of me huh? Even Dwayne signed his old rap name "D-Smoothe" 

I guess one thing is for sure, we have been together FOREVER!
I hung the clipboard on my office wall. It is very special and will be treasured forever :-) 

Our trip to the Magic Kingdom

Last week, the Ismail family packed up the car and headed down to the happiest place on earth...Disney's Magic Kingdom. The drive was great up until we were 8 miles from our destination. We were stuck in traffic for almost 2 hours! Thankfully we had plenty of fuel in the car and made the best out of that time. It was actually fun although I don't necessarily think I would want that to happen very often! We stayed in a nice resort with some family members.  We really loved that we had all the conveniences of home so that we were able to cook family-sized meals which really helped out a lot.

When we were driving to the park we were all so leery of the cloudy sky. There was good reason for all those clouds. More on that later in the post.

Those clouds really had us in a panic.

We took the Ferry boat over to the park since the clouds started to break. Boy was it windy though! We all wore short sleeves. Hey, it's Florida. That's the norm right? 

We wore our "I'm Celebrating!" buttons that we got from the ticket booth just to be festive. 

Of course the teenagers were freaking out over their hair getting wind-blown!I admit I might have secretly been going through that myself!  

William really enjoyed the ferry boat ride and got to throw coins in the water. He was all smiles! Of course he did not cooperate to take photos. The sun started peaking through the clouds and we were all super excited to have some fun. Well, our fun turned into soaking wet fun. Yep, you guessed it. Rain. Not just rain, cold and windy kind of rain. We all looked a hot sloppy mess but put a smile on our faces and kept it moving. I am so happy I packed a back-up outfit for Will so at least he did not have to wear a wet shirt. Man, did it end up getting cold though!

Dwayne kept William since he is not a ride person and I went with the girls and a couple of our cousins. We met up here and there to eat and check on each other. The food was way over-priced and not all that great. You better believe that I made everyone eat every last bite!

Somehow Dwayne and William got to do way more than the rest of us waiting 2 hours to ride Space Mountain (which was totally worth it). They got to get a photo with Mickey and Minnie and our boy William was NOT feeling it! He was so afraid of them I think because they were so big. He looks like he was trying to leap out of Dwayne's arms! 

He did LOVE LOVE LOVE the castle. He is still talking about it and asks if we can go back again. I can't believe that Dwayne actually went on rides with William. I guess Disney really is a magical place after all :) 

Pure happiness :)

He was taking it all in.

We were able to catch a few parades and shows as well as get on some of the rides. Everyone had the best time and we made some great memories. We do plan to return again for sure. I wish I had more photos to share but they did not come out all that great after we got rain soaked! William had the most fun and behaved perfectly. Come to think of it, he did well from start to finish. No complaints, no mischief, no potty accidents, no foolishness. I am the luckiest mom on the planet! 

Now this sight was worth every drop of rain we encountered. I did not even have to edit this photo.  It was very cold at the end of the night but at least we caught the magnificent fireworks display. Truly amazing!! 

Wordfull Wednesday | A priceless keepsake

Growing up as a child was not very easy for me. I had a very different upbringing from my peers and had a lot of self-esteem issues. Honestly, a lot of my days were very sad. I had this sheet I slept with every single night since I was very little (maybe  4 or 5). There was nothing glamorous about it. It was just a simple light blue bed sheet with butterflies on it.

There was something so special about this sheet though. Over the years it had become so worn that you can practically see through it. It feels like silk and has not one single hole in it. I left my parent's home when I was just 17 years old. I was not allowed to take anything with me but I did manage to grab my "blue sheet". I went through so much over the years but always had my sheet to comfort me. I still have this special sheet after all these years and have even put it in my will for Briahnna to have when I pass away. She has always had a thing for butterflies and it seemed fitting for her to have it. I no longer sleep with my sheet but I do keep it around the house to remind me how much I have grown as a person. 

Do you have a special keepsake that you won't let go of?

Keepsakes wrapped in 3D

Do you find that your little ones bring home all kinds of cute things that they made in school? It can range from clay artwork to jewelry and what do you do with it all? I know that we have quite a few items from when the girls were little and they are packed away in boxes. How cool would it be to display some of those creative works of art? Now you can do it with a Z-Access frame.



With a Z-Access 3D frame you can proudly display any of those prized possessions in a very unique way. These frames are 100% American made and come in a variety of colors. There are so many creative uses for these frames...everything from wedding, graduation, baby shower or any kinds of personal keepsakes. These frames would make a neat, one-of-a-kind gift for grandparents with a handmade item from the grand kids. You can learn how to load your frame here and order frames here.

I wish these frames were around years ago! I think we would need to have an entire room dedicated to our family memories.

I received a product sample for review and all opinions are 100% mine as always.

Throwback: Don't Mess With The Man's Records!

Over the weekend, Dwayne and I cleaned out and organized one of our storage rooms. We came across a lot of things that were keepers and just as many items that were either going to be donated or thrown out. Now if you have been reading Momfiles for a while then you would know that we are really old school. Actually my husband sort of takes old school back way more than I do. We came across billions of cassette tapes...EPMD, Slick Rick, Luke, Vanilla Ice, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Salt 'n Pepa and the list goes on for days. He has a suitcase full along with a few shoes boxes full. He refuses to ever part with them. He tells me if I ever try to get rid of his collection that it will be grounds for divorce! Of course he says this in his Bernie Mac voice.

We had at least a couple dozen mix-tapes. I remember making them off the radio and the DJ always messed up the last part of the song. If you have no idea of what I am talking about then you are a youngen.

After we browsed through some of the tapes we moved on to the records. He has a big box full that he has actually put in his will. I think they will go to William.

I laughed so hard when I saw the Beat Street album. On the left hand side it says "Dwayne AKA Little Wizard" bahahaha! That was his Junior High School dance name.

We sure reminisced over some good times. He has the first album Prince put out and so many other classic artists. Now I need to buy Dwayne a record player.

Do you still have your old cassette tapes or record albums? If you are laughing at us right now, shut it up!

I am facing facts

I was having a little conversation with the kids yesterday evening and the subject was me. The girls were making comments how young I look and how I am the youngest mom in their group. This is probably why I don't have any friends, I never seem to fit in. Then Chardie informs me that I will probably be one of the oldest moms when William becomes school age. I felt like I was hit in the gut. Wow, to say that I am 37 I really do not feel that way. I think I feel more like a mature 20-something. I can just see all the young mommies in the carpool line in their Hybrid cars and then there will be me in my old lady ride.

The girls had the TLC show on called Four Weddings and started discussing their weddings. I was starting to feel sick. Weddings already? Trust me, I am very happy that they are looking forward to getting married but damn, it will be here before I know it! William turns 3 in March and I am still undecided if I will put him in public school or home school him. Why in the world am I feeling like my kids are going to be gone tomorrow? I guess time does go by way quicker when you are an "experienced" adult. I just know that I enjoy every second of every minute I have with my sweet family.

I'm allergic to clutter

I spent the weekend getting rid of things. I have been pushing things around here and there and finally got sick of it. I packed up my car trunk and parted with a whole lot of stuff. My kids had a HUGE zipper bag (the kind you get a king-sized comforter set in) filled with Christmas related stuffed animals. Now don't get me wrong, so many of them were so adorable and filled with memories but realistically I'm no hoarder. I keep a few things as memories but I donate most things. When you open up a bag of things that make you sneeze then you know it is time to let it go. It feels so good to see spaces open up and it truly feels like we are moving forward. Now I did come across 3 bags of baby clothes but I still have to sort through it. I had no problem getting rid of the 1 year and older stuff. There is just something so special about the baby stuff. I still believe in the "less is more" mentality.

Another dinosaur

I wanted to share another dinosaur that lurks around the Ismail domain. It is my most FAVORITE cooking utensil EVER. I got it as a hand-me-down from Dwayne's grandmother when we left to move to South Carolina 15 years ago. She had it for 20 years+ before then. I remember my mother having a similar pot spoon growing up.

I have searched high and low for a new one since the handle broke about 5 years ago. No luck. I don't care if I spend a lot to get a new one, as long as it is as good as this one. I will use this one forever or until it gives out. No other pot spoon can compare. It is so well made (probably the reason I can't find one nowadays). When I update my will next year I will give it to one of the girls (of course I have to be dead first). I'm serious. I love my spoon! It's a shame that things just aren't made as well anymore.