With the holidays soon upon us our Daily Dish review schedule is fully booked—good news for our readers! Once in a while we will give you a double shot of the Dish so we can fit in as many great gift ideas as we can. Today is one of those “once in a whiles.”

With the holidays comes holiday cards. If you’re looking for something other than Shutterfly photo cards (hey, I’m a big fan!) or off-the-shelf greetings, then Inventing Matilda is for you. Inventing Matilda caught my attention when I received her first email, part of which read:

Please browse my site for two minutes…twenty seconds…any amount of time you might need to deem the wares I am peddling to be unique and far from the currently marketed sappy rhyming stodgy paper has-beens. I promise you that if you take a look, you will find a new product that your style-conscious readers are itching to discover.”

Inventing Matilda’s custom holiday cards are unique, artsy and fresh…and worthy of the best spot on the refrigerator. Whether you include a photo or not, these cards will out-holiday any other cards your friends and family will receive this year…and probably next year as well (unless you go with Inventing Matilda for ‘09). My favorite designs are Vaughn, Little Holiday Bird and Derrick. Inventing Matilda also has birth announcements, just in case you receive a 7 lb. 6 oz. gift this year.

And for your holiday reading (and writing), give a gift that will truly give back. Sand Dune Books’ line of Between Me and You journals. Creating family keepsakes is a must-do these days, and Between Me and You: A few things I’ve been meaning to ask makes it easy to do so.

Inside each one are pages of fun—and sometimes funny—questions. You give the journal to someone you love and he or she returns it after answering the questions. Very little is handwritten these days so this is definitely something to cherish. Use the Dad, Mom, Grandpa or Grandma journals to learn more about your heritage, or hand your significant other the Honey journal and find out what he pictured his future mate would look like! I have the Girl journal and can’t wait to send it to my good friend so I can find out what’s been the most rewarding part of our friendship (though I’m not sure I want to hear what she thinks is my not-so-best quality).

Between Me and You keepsake journals from Sand Dune Books are a great gift idea, especially if you have friends and family who are hard to shop for. Of course it’s almost more a gift for you than them, but I’m more than okay with that!—Emily

** Giveaway Inventing Matilda is giving away one environmentally friendly e-card to 10 people! These e-card is a JPEG that can be posted on a blog, emailed to a friend or printed at your favorite, local photo processing center. Winners will have until the end of this year to take advantage of their free 5×7 design. Please leave a comment with a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winners from the comments and contact them via email. Deadline: October 30, 2008 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

* Promotion! Sand Dune Books is offering Daily Dish readers 10% off their purchase. Simply enter code BoutiqueCafe in the Comments section at checkout. Offer expires October 29, 2008 so get your shopping done ASAP!