Seek boldly.

Journey courageously.

Work diligently.

Sacrifice valiantly.

Suffer willingly.

Persist relentlessly.

Share extravagantly.

Serve compassionately.

Love fearlessly.

Live intentionally.

Give thanks unceasingly.

We are all but pilgrims and strangers upon the earth.

Happy Thanksgiving from the House of Antique

As promised, this week I have for you another awesome Novica give away, and just in time for the gift-giving season! Whether that gift is for you or someone else is entirely up to you.  But if you ask me, I think you deserve it.

If you are unfamiliar with Novica and why I like them so much, here’s the deal – Novica works in association with National Geographic to showcase and sell art, jewelry, clothing, handbags, home décor, corporate gifts and more from artisans from all over the world.  Novica ensures the artists receive a fair market value for their work so that they might keep body and soul together, which as an artist and a human being, I really appreciate.  (I state this in every Novica  post because it is true and I can’t say it any better than I did the first time.)

This time Novica has offered two $75 gift certificates, one for moi and another for one lucky Antique Mommy reader.  In addition to a dizzying array of jewelry, they have a huge selection of women’s accessories, like scarves and totes and handbags and even men’s accessories too, like cuff links. Do men still wear cuff links?

I am trying to choose between these two bags.  What do you think? Which one?

In my estimation, one cannot have too many bags.  I like the yellow one because it is shallow and a too-deep tote is worse than no tote at all because it becomes a big black hole which eats lipstick and important receipts.  And I love the color and style.  But.  I really like the Zapotec wool bag too. It just appeals to the eye.  Which one, which one? (insert hand wringing)

If you would like a chance to win a $75 Novica gift card, check out Novica and leave a comment telling me about something you saw that you would like for you or someone you love.

I will draw a comment at random when the mood strikes.

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The mood has struck ~  contest closed!  Congratulations to Melanie, commenter #28!  Thanks to everyone for your comments and playing along!

I was recently contacted by the people at Minted, a company which offers personalized holiday cards and stationary and all manner of personalized paper goodness.  They offered me some free Christmas cards to try them out and tell you all about it.

I received my cards yesterday and here they are:

These particular cards are not high-gloss and sharp as you might expect with typical photo cards, but have more of a matte-canvas feel, and are printed on a heavy-weight stock paper.  The border is not part of the card, I added that to define it from the background so you could better see it.

If you would like to give Minted a shot, they’ll give you 15% off through November 28^th with the promo code READERS45.

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Stay tuned – another fabulous give away from Novica coming this week!