Life for Dessert DOT COM Ya'll!

I have to show ya'll a couple of the super fun things I've gotten in the mail recently.  I ordered them both and they came within two days of one another.  This first thing I ordered for my sister who's having a baby in February (EEEEK....I'm so excited to be an auntie!,) and the second was a present that I ordered for the Hubs for our anniversary.

Gussy Sews Wristlet

Red Letter Words Cafe Print

Aren't they both so great?!  

And here's where it gets better for YOU!  Life for Dessert will be getting a serious facelift and upgrade to dot com on Monday August 22nd.  That entire week will be full of awesome prizes for you guys to win.  Each day there will be a separate giveaway and you'll have just 24 hours to enter for that day's product.  And I have some AMAZING stuff lined up to giveaway!  Of course it's stuff that I love, because I'm not a sell-out and I won't tout something that I don't think isn't completely great.

So....you'll have a chance to win products from both of the above talented ladies (Gussy Sews and Red Letter Words), as well as some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint from a brand new Distributor (Jennie Leigh Designs based right here in Greenville), some Hanky Panky Undies (my personal fav) and a pair of my newly designed Goody Goody knock offs, and Keen Footwear will be giving away both adult and children's shoes of your choice.  Cool beans huh?

So...don't forget...mark your calenders and tell your friends that Life for Dessert will be making your life sweeter...

the entire week of August 22nd! 

I can't wait to show ya'll the great new look for Life for Dessert that my friend Erin from Design by Insight and I have been working on.  It's gonna be fun and I can't wait to roll it out for ya!

I'm off to take a shower now....I foolishly took another spin class today and now feel that I could collapse from utter exhaustion at any moment.  I figure if I'm gonna be a heap on the floor, I might as well be a clean heap.

Happy July!

I had great intentions to blog alot while at the beach this week.  To type up some posts to even have a backlog for when I skip a day writing here and there.  Obviously, you've probably noticed by now that those intentions paved the way to nowhere.

On Monday, my inbox had several feeds from adorable blogs who'd done due diligence and written to wish me a "Happy 4th of July."  I kinda felt like a slacker since I didn't do anything of the sort.  No fun 4th of July crafts to share, no recipe to sweeten your table in advance for the holiday, no eye candy of everything we've done over this vacation, and no top ten list for why America is great.  Nothing.  Sorry.

But here's what I've realized about myself, and about my blog...I'm probably always going to try to spend my holidays actually "on holiday."  I've always in some small part of myself wished that I was one of those people who could use nouns like verbs more often and do things like "summer," and "winter" somewhere.  An extended vacation that really just gets to consume an entire season so that the seasonal noun becomes your verb of choice...but I'm not one of those people, so for now I'm going to take the small handful of days that the calender affords me and actually "holiday" on the holiday.

I busted my tail to blog when I was in Montana, and it was fun too, but this vacation has left me wanting to take a nap in the afternoons, or to sit on the beach an extra hour while my kids are napping.  To get unplugged and stay that way loner than normal.  I'm not really gonna drag my laptop onto the beach and give myself a square shaped tanline on my legs just to fire out a post.  I hope you'll still read here though...and I hope that when I take a break, you won't hold it against me and forget to stop by here anymore.

May be one day I'll get myself in gear and blog way in advance and you'll get a "Happy Thanksgiving" post on Thanksgiving...or a "Merry Christmas" post on Christmas.  My guess is though that most of you reading are doing the same thing that I am though which doesn't involve being on the computer when you happen to get an extra fun day off to spend with your family.

I have just two more days of vacation and then it's a 12 hour drive back home with my parents and 2 children...and if that's not a springboard back into reality, then I don't know what is?!

So...Happy June 31st, July 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th.

 - Logan

Don't forget to send a sailor some love this month.  This month's "Blogging from the Bush" serviceman to write and send carepackages to is Landon Lane on the aircraft carrier the George H. W. Bush.

His address is
AD3 Lane, Landon
VFA-15
Unit 60413
FPO AE 09504-6201

PS.  Standard mail and shipping rates apply...there's no need for any extra postage than normal.

A Megaphone for the A' La Mode....

I read the following quote on Twitter this morning.  Oh yeah, guess who's on Twitter now?!  Tweet Tweet people!  Check me out HERE and see what I have to chirp about.

So here's the quote.

"Blogging is not a stepping stone for me. Blogging isn’t a way for me to build a platform so I can do whatever it is that I really want to do. I’m doing what I really want to do, right now, and I’m not looking for something that will give me extra credibility. I just want a megaphone."
The Nester, for S Bryant on "Writing an e-book: Is it a fit for you?" (via 29lincolnavenue.)

And I was thinking about it especially since I met with my very talented friend Erin yesterday of Insight Blog Design.   Re-doing this blog, it's on my list of things to do, and now it's on hers too!  And so I've been wondering lately what I've been doing here.  She challenged me to figure that out for the redesign, and here's what I've come up with....

I'm a naturally wired social networker, which is probably why I've loved this avenue more than I've ever though I would.  I've been networking and loving making friends all over for YEARS....even before there was facebook.  I've joined business networking groups, was in a sorority in college (social chair even), I'm one of the first to volunteer for planning any event, and I love hosting parties where everyone I know can just come and have a good time.  So for me, blogging gets to be that.  But even better because I get to demystify some of the things that I do and make them tangible for people who don't give themselves the credit they deserve.  I get to pour into people just by thinking out loud.  And then there are moments where I see a friend in Marshalls and they learned to cut an onion because of me, or I get an email that says "I had a recipe for something that called for a leek and I pulled up your blog and followed the instructions to cut it. Thanks!"  I'm a natural product endorser too....when I love something, you will know it.  And then I want everyone to get in on the greatness, or the fun, or the making life better one comfy shoe or clean floor at a time. Once in awhile I have a profound learning moment, and even thinking back through it to share, I find that I'm able to often gain even more perspective...so I learn from my own mistakes even better because I share them with you.  And I think that one thing that has been the most fun for me is just being me and getting to know some of you.

But here's the thing that I always want to be here no matter what the look of things is...whether I have a great header, or an embarrassing moment, or the most delicious recipe, or even a thought-provoking word....what I always want to be is....

authentic.

I'm learning that this avenue can eventually help provide some extra income for our family (so be on the lookout with the new redesign for some cool ad space. I promise it'll be nice, not annoying), but more importantly it is another way for me to pour into other people (from where I sit behind this screen)..and I genuinely LOVE doing that.  

So Nester, I agree....I just want a megaphone to share the right now of life....because it's the dessert, the icing on the cake...the a' la mode.  And I don't want to run by and miss it on my way to anything else.  I want to walk, take time to smell the roses, to feel the rain...and to have people walk alongside with me to make it that much sweeter!