Back in September we hosted a DWTS t-shirt design contest where the winning t-shirt’s creator would win a trip for two to LA for the finale.

Our winner, Tanya Pedersen, shared her experience with us – and what an experience it turned out to be. Here’s a photo of Tanya with Season 13 DWTS winner JR Martinez – holding up her winning t-shirt with a design of that was about none other than JR himself! And he signed it, too. Congrats to Tanya on a job well done…we’re kind of jealous you got to hold the mirror ball trophy.

We understand that the holidays are a stressful time in a lot of ways – working long hours, crazy in-laws to entertain, too many cookies. We don’t want you to eat your feelings this holiday season. But the wonderful thing about the season – in our opinion – is being able to spend quality time with your loved ones. They can live across the country, around the world – but holidays give us all a reason to come together in one (or many) places to just…be.

Maybe this isn’t always possible – especially if finances are tight.

That’s why we’re pleased to launch our CafePress Holiday Sweepstakes – which features a grand prize of $2,000 in FREE airfare (in the form of gift cards), as well as a $250 gift certificate to use on CafePress.com. This basically means a free flight for you or a loved one…and you can come bearing custom gifts from CafePress (Score. Winning.).

All you have to do to enter for a chance to win is visit our Facebook page, like our page, submit an entry form, and you’re entered. Another great tip to remember: the more people you refer who also enter, the more additional entries you get in the sweepstakes!

In the meantime, we hope you’re taking it easy on this Black Friday. Maybe laying around on the couch, or making Thanksgiving leftovers sandwiches. Jingle bells is already stuck in my head.

With recent allegations against Herman Cain from former employees starting to take its toll on the businessman-cum-potential Presidential candidate’s popularity, another GOP challenger is riding the rising wave – Newt Gingrich.

No amateur to politics or a presidential race, we’ve seen Gingrich’s recent acceleration in CafePress political-tagged merchandise sales on the latest CafePress Election Meter™ infographic, rising from an average of 2% three months ago, to an 8% jump this week, which puts Gingrich neck and neck in popularity with Mitt Romney (who also has 8%).

However, this jump is still not enough to surpass t-shirt front-runner Ron Paul, who maintains 43% of t-shirt sales from the week ending on November 20th.

Will Newt’s sales be steady on the rise, or will they falter soon to make way for another candidate’s turn in the spotlight? Tune into our CafePress Election Meter page next week to find out!

We have an incredible Groupon deal for you today – $39  gets you a 16″x20″ custom gallery-wrapped canvas! And, it includes shipping!

Let’s break it down… You get an amazing gallery wrapped canvas valued at $124, you save $85 (that’s 69%) and it includes shipping. Make sure to buy today before the deal ends – but rest assured that you have until the end of the year to redeem.

Details can be found here: http://www.groupon.com/deals/cafepress-national-exc-market-november

I don’t know about your gift giving plans, but its possible all of my family members will be receiving a canvas this year (please don’t tell them).

The Presidential Elections spawn a political revitalization of new opinions and platforms, partisan clashes, letdowns and triumphs over the course of months leading up to the most important political day: November 6, 2012 – voting day. The day we as U.S. citizens not only rally our support behind a candidate with our words, but with the action of voting. And for next year’s election, we’re already seeing some interesting metrics unfold within CafePress political sales of merchandise.

Back in 2008 as the race between Barack Obama and John McCain heated up, we took notice of the political designs by our community of users and sales from those designs. It was interesting to see how sales percentages of political-tagged products were on point with each candidate’s popularity in the polls – and we could try to predict who would win the 2008 Presidential Election. Hence, the origin of the CafePress Election Meter™ was born, and was correct in forecasting the inauguration of current incumbent, President Barack Obama, as well as showing CafePress as a Cultural Barometer® of trends in the election cycle.

Fast-forward to today – November 8, 2011. We’re 363 days away from the 2012 Election, and proud to introduce the 2012 CafePress Election Meter for your one-stop shop on politics updates and self-expression through merchandise. To celebrate, you’ll find a special $10 t-shirt available for each candidate, and you’ll also see some unique graphics and charts of trends based on sales percentages of political-tagged merchandise that will update each week on our election meter:

Overall candidate sales – 2011.  This graphic represents total 2011 political-tagged merchandise sales percentages to date for all candidates. This includes all GOP candidates plus incumbent Barack Obama. Ron Paul leads with 41% of the total, followed by Herman Cain with 21% and Obama with 14%. Interestingly enough, this is the first time since 2008 that another candidate (and in this case, two) took the #1 slot away from Obama. Does this mean Obama’s popularity is starting to weaken?

Pro-Obama VS. Anti-Obama. What’s more interesting than comparing Obama to himself? For those who support Obama, and those against him, this infographic conveys the sentiments of those who design and purchase Obama merchandise on CafePress. From sales percentages of Obama-tagged merchandise, 77% is anti, and 23% pro to date in 2011.

Weekly Results. On a weekly basis, you’ll be able to see which candidate saw the largest increase in sales from the previous week. This graphic can communicate what we’re seeing in terms of candidate popularity. Currently, the buzz is around Herman Cain, who dominates 50% of the total sales percentages of political-tagged products for last week; Ron Paul follows Cain with 24%.

Take a look at our elections meter every week to stay up to date on the current trends on the election cycle. Support your candidate of choice, and let’s see where these predictions will go on November 6, 2012!