Afternoon Delight

**Click here to get in on this week's giveaway**

One Spring afternoon, a mom & her 2 girls had a hankering for something sweet. So, they hopped in the car and brought home 6 exquisite examples of dessert excellence. One for each of them, one for daddy and two others for good measure (or a midnight snack).

The girls couldn't wait to dig in to their chocolate treats. One took a more cautious approach.

While the other attacked the treat with voraciousness.

Remnants of the sugary goodness could be seen everywhere.

Many smiles of sweet satisfaction could be spotted.

And soon the little works of art...

...were left as a pleasant memory.

"Trim the Fat" Thursday

Wow, thanks to all of you for your feedback last week and all the wonderfully supportive ideas! Here's how the week shook out for me.

I managed to get in 1 workout. It's a start! I met with a personal trainer for an hour and while she was great, I need a Jillian Michaels type to really get my rear in gear. My PT put a program together for me and I'm officially heading in the right direction.

I started a food diary and it's forcing me to examine how much food I'm really taking in. And really, it's not so much the volume as the types of food. I love my desserts!

Now, for the weight loss. Yeah, not only did I not lose a pound, I actually gained a whole pound. (Sigh) This week is going to be a better week. I just know it!

And now for the thing that I promised myself I would do. I'm actually going to disclose here in black & white, the awful number that I saw on the scale this morning. Because every journey begins with the first step and I really think that saying this out loud is the serious first step that I need to get my ass in high gear. The number this morning was 219.2. Phew. That was a lot harder than ripping off a band-aid. My heart is still pounding. Let's move on before I have a full blown panic attack.

Goals for this week:
1) Get in at least 3 workouts
2) Write everyday in my food journal
3) Join Sparkpeople
4) Lose 2 lbs

So, how are things going for you guys? What goals do you have this week/month?

A few of her favorite things

Last month, I had the opportunity to join a swap that Mamarazzi was hosting. The theme was "My Favorite Things" and I was so excited to join in the fun! My partner's name is Dawn and her adorable blog can be seen here. Dawn & I have very similar interests, which made me know immediately that I would love whatever she sent me.

And then today arrived! Look at what the postman brought me. I love big boxes!

Did you hear that squeal with delight? Yeah, that was me. I love boxes full of wrapped presents! And this box was FULL.

Like I said, the box was FULL of goodies! Some of my favorites included some beauty products that I've been wanting to try, handmade note cards, and most importantly, CHOCOLATE.

Thank you so much Dawn for making this swap experience wonderful and fabulous! You rock! Now, I'm off to enjoy another truffle. That is unless my hubby has already finished them off.

Bloomers & Bows & Bibs...Oh My!

It's giveaway time again!

This time I'm offering up a package fit for a princess, courtesy of my good friend Diana. She is starting a business called Appleby Mommy and it features all sorts of awesome monogrammed gifts!

While I am not a girly girl, my 2 daughters most definitely can be and they ADORE the bows that Diana has made for them! The ribbon colors are precious and I love that she monograms the girl's initial on the bows. It personalizes them and makes the girl feel like this bow belongs to her 100%!

This prize package includes 4 bows, a pair of bloomers and a bib, all monogrammed. Do you know a little girl or 2 who would love these items? I know I do! And here's how to enter to win.

First, please head over to Appleby Mommy and look at all her fabulous ribbon choices. Then come back here and leave a comment on this entry with your favorite ribbon color (you must have the correct name from her website).

For additional entries:
1) Become a follower of my blog and leave me comment telling me so
2) Become a subscriber and leave me a comment telling me so
3) Follow me on Twitter and leave me a comment telling me so
4) Tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave me a comment with the url link

If you do not have an email linked to your comment, please leave me your email addy in the first comment.

All entries must be received by 9pm ET on Tuesday, June 2. **Edited: Due to timing issue, the contest deadline has been extended to Tuesday, June 16th** Winner will be chosen by random number draw and notified by email, as well as posted here. Winner has 48 hours to respond to email notification or a new winner will be drawn. Good luck everyone!

Monday Morning Eye Candy

Welcome back to Monday Morning Eye Candy! This week I've got a couple of cuties from the world of music.

Gavin Rossdale (aka: Mr. Gwen Stefani)

Chris Mann - This guy is going to be making some serious waves in the music world soon, I hope! Check out his site to hear some of his fab tunes and to see his video for the song "Heartless" by Kanye West. BTW, Chris had remade the song way before Kris Allen made it popular on AI.

Have a great Monday and I hope you've enjoyed the long holiday weekend!

"Trim the Fat" Thursday

In my (seemingly never ending) quest to eliminate all this extra mass that I've accumulated over the last 15 years, I have set out on another weight loss adventure. (cue the groans) Yeah, yeah, I know, same story, different month.

ANYWAY, I've decided to try & tap into a motivation that seemed to work for me last year. Actually, this motive has proven to be the most successful for me so far in all my years of dieting. And that motivation is: MONEY.

My dad blessed with me a membership to a really great gym in my town that has state of the art equipment and a yoga studio, which I'm the most excited about! But I knew that alone was not going to be enough to get me in the mindset of losing some weight. So, I'm doing a "biggest loser" competition with myself. I'm putting money in the pot every week when I weigh in and I'm trying to figure out a financial penalty/reward system that will help keep me on track.

Do my peeps out there have any suggestions?

In the meantime, here are my goals for the next 7 days.
1. Work out at least 3 times
2. Start a food journal
3. Lose 1lb

Bonus Task: Get up enough courage to actually post my weight here next week. Come on Angie, you can do it!

So, for any of you out there who are struggling with diet & exercise issues, tell me what is and isn't working for you. Let's support each other! And tune in next Thursday to see my results.

Pass the humble pie please

So, remember when I ranted about the importance of writing thank you notes? Well, I need to take my own advice. In the last several months recent past, I have been bestowed with several blog awards by some really awesome bloggers out there! And I'm not letting one more month week day pass without thanking each and every one of them (and showing off my bling). Let's hit it!

This is my most recent acquisition and it was given to me by the very sweet Joy!











This award was given to me by a new friend who I'm having a ball getting to know. Her name is Dawn!







Dawn also gave me this lovely award! I'm suddenly feeling very lucky to have such wonderful bloggy friends!









This is the Cup of Friendship award and my buddy, Brandy, gave this one to me!



This is the Mommy Blogger award and my good friend, Shannon, graced me with this one!









The next 3 awards came from my BFF and the gal who got me into blogging in the first place. Thanks to Angela!








And I would dance on the bar with Angela anytime too!














Again, another cool one from Angela! Shannon also gave me this award!











This award was given to me by Kelly!







And both Kelly & Shannon gave me this one!






Wow, my head might not fit through the doorway after this post. Thanks to all of you who have given me these really great badges and I'm sorry it's taken me a while to thank some of you. You guys rock!

And I'm sure that most of these badges come with rules on passing them along and such and normally I'm a rule follower to the t. But this post is already too long and frankly, I want to share the love with everyone. So, if there's an award or 2 or 3 here that you would like to have on your blog, please take it and consider it my gift to you! You guys are so awesome and deserve all kinds of recognition! Mwah!

And the winners are...

Yes, you read that correctly. I said winners! I got some great news today that has relieved a lot of stress from my life, so I'm feeling more generous than usual! I decided to choose 2 winners who will each receive a pendant. Yahoo!! There were 72 entries total and random.org chose the following 2 numbers.

First, it chose #2 who is my good buddy Shannon! Yay Shannon!

The next number that came up was #34, who is Michelle, another friend of mine! Yay Michelle!

I'll email both of you to get your choice of pendant and shipping info and congrats to you both. Yippee!!

Many thanks to all of you who entered and stay tuned for another giveaway announcement later this week. It's going to be a great one!

Monday Morning Eye Candy

We're B-AAAACK! I was flipping through TV Guide a few days ago and inspiration struck. So, we have a theme this week. But, before I forget, today is the last day to enter my jewelry giveaway! Click here to get your final entry in before 9pm ET tonight. Now, back to the cuties.

This week, I'm showcasing the cuties of the shows on TNT. There are a fine crop of guys who are appealing to the eye! Enjoy!

Kenny Johnson (from the show "Saving Grace")

Bailey Chase (from the show "Saving Grace")

Dylan McDermott (from the new show "Dark Blue"...YAY!!)

Jon Tenney (from the show "The Closer")

Michael Vartan (from the new show "HawthoRNe"...Double YAY!!!)

I hope this gets your week started off right! See you here next week.

"What If" Wednesday

**Click here to enter my newest giveaway. It's jewelry!**

Welcome back to "What If" Wednesday! Let's see what this week's question is for anyone who wants to participate. I let my hubby pick the question out of the book this week. I'm sure he was intrigued as to how I would answer. So, I won't keep him waiting.

"If you could put a tattoo on someone you know, who would you pick, what would it be, and where would you put it?"

This is a hard one for me because I have so many answers! I'll just pare it down to one though. I would pick my BFF, Angela. And I would put a martini glass on her ankle. She & I have had some great laughs and memories over martinis and I'm sure there are many more to come!

So, what tattoo would you choose?

It's a Jewelry Giveaway!

Today started out as a pretty crappy day for me. I've had some stuff going on in my personal life recently that's got me out of sorts. And then my Monday took a turn for the best. Hubby came home for a surprise lunch and brought me flowers, which made my day. And then when I got home from an afternoon at the office, there was a package in my mailbox that I've been anxiously awaiting. And because I love to share a good thing when I find it, well, you guys are going to reap the benefits!

I love to support small businesses and people who sell handcrafted items. Which is just one reason that I love Etsy! For those who aren't familiar with Etsy, it's a network marketplace of people who make and sell handcrafted items. It's fabulous! I've found such cool stuff.

My newest find is Analiese Designs and the fabulous pendants that she makes! Here are the 2 new additions to my jewelry box that arrived yesterday.






































Jealous? Well, don't be. You too can have one of these awesome pendants or one of 80+ other gorgeous pendants that she makes. And now the fine print.

To enter this contest, please visit Analiese Designs and come back here to tell me which pendant is your favorite. This first entry is required. (If your email address is not linked to your comment or profile, PLEASE leave your email in your comment, so I can contact you if you win)

For additional entries:
1) Become a follower and leave me a comment here (existing followers, leave a comment also for an extra entry)
2) Follow me on Twitter and leave me a comment here (existing Twitter followers, leave a comment also for an extra entry)
3) Tweet this giveaway and leave me a comment with your tweet url. You can tweet this once per day for an extra entry per day.
4) Subscribe to my blog and leave me a comment letting me know how you subscribe (existing subscribers, you know the drill)
5) Blog about this giveaway for an extra entry. Leave a comment here linking to your blog post. And it doesn't have to be an entire post about the giveaway. A blurb on another post will suffice.

The winner will receive the pendant of his/her choice plus a chain to be chosen from the following categories: Polymer Clay pendants, Rectangle Glass pendants, Square Glass pendants, Round Glass pendants.

Contest will end at 9pm ET on Monday, May 18th. Winner will be chosen by random draw. Good luck everyone!

Uninspired

Folks, I'm taking a break from Monday Morning Eye Candy this week. I'm currently uninspired. Sometimes life happens and I just can't put on a smile and roll with it. The past week has been one of those times and this week is just a continuation of it.

Anyway, not to leave you empty handed, please enjoy this Far Side cartoon (by the fabulous Gary Larson)! This is my fave comic strip of all time.

A Biltmore Blogging Adventure

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to check out the largest privately owned home in America.

Welcome to The Biltmore!

And being a Biltmore virgin, I had to take a couple of more experienced ladies along for the ride. As you can see, they were all too happy to oblige.

Smile, Lizzy & Shannon!

After a REALLY great lunch at the Stable Cafe (yes that was a former horse stall that we were eating in), we made our way to the house. Check out this view.

And here's the part where I would've shown you the amazing interiors of this mansion. Except, that Biltmore doesn't allow ANY photography inside the building. Trust me, it was amazing!

After spending a lot of time in the house, we ventured outside into the rainy mist and decided to get in our cars and drive to the winery. You know, because nothing ends a great day with friends like getting sloshed at a wine "tasting"!

On the way, we saw a couple that just got married. I just love weddings. In gardens. With spring flowers blooming all around.

We got to see lots of gorgeous flowers on the way.

And then we saw something that I really loved. There were Canadian Geese all over the grounds, but here, we came across what appeared to be a little family. Complete with goslings. Adorable!

All in all, we had a great time despite the fact that we were missing friends who couldn't come and the weather was kind of "bleh" for the entire day. We had a lot of laughs and Shannon reminded us that at the end of the day, we're all in this thing together.

For more phabulous photo phinishes, check out the Fx4 at Candid Carrie's!

Eight...Do I hear Eight?

It's been a while since I've taken on a meme. My buddy Shannon from Welcome to the Nut House tagged me on this, so let's play!

8 things I'm looking forward to:

• our beach trip to Hilton Head
  
• meeting my favorite author next weekend
  
• a Fall girlfriends getaway
  
• getting my youngest child potty trained
  
• fitting into a size 6 jeans
  
• finishing the Twilight series
  
• getting another German Shepherd
  
• a low-key weekend of scrapbooking (I hope)
  

8 things I did yesterday:

• took my girls to visit with my grandma
  
• Watched "How To Be" for the 2nd time (Rob: I'm still waiting to hear back from you!)
  
• Changed cellphone ringtones on a couple of my regular callers
  
• Downloaded pics from my cameras
  
• Vacuumed my filthy kitchen floor
  
• Laundry
  
• Played Candyland with the kids
  
• Received homemade chocolate chip cookies in the mail
  

8 things I wish I could do:

• Lose 90 lbs (I can't seem to get past 20 lbs)
  
• Cook dinner every night
  
• Say no to things (I take on way too much and stress myself out...constantly)
  
• Play the guitar
  
• Stop procrastinating
  
• Finish existing craft projects that have been lingering for...YEARS
  
• Be more outdoorsy (or at least not despise it so much)
  
• Not have such low self-esteem
  

8 shows I watch:

• Millionaire Matchmaker
  
• Ellen
  
• Grey's Anatomy
• Survivor
• The Amazing Race
• Criminal Minds
  
• Gilmore Girls reruns
  
• The Biggest Loser

8 favorite fruits:

• strawberries
• white grapes
• Granny Smith apples
• blackberries
  
• tomatoes (yes, it's a fruit, not a vegetable)
  
• pineapple
• grapefruit
• banana

8 places I'd like to travel to:

• Ireland
• Scotland
• England
• Italy
• Australia
  
• Japan
  
• Germany
  
• Switzerland
  

8 places I've lived (well, really there's just 2):

• Chattanooga, TN
  
• Duluth, GA (part time while I was working)

Rather than tag 8 people for this meme, I'm going to put it out there for anyone who wants to participate. Just let me know in the comments so I can come check out your answers!

"What If" Wednesday

Welcome back to "What If" Wednesday! Let's see what question we have for this week.

"If you could have a year any place in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?"

Really?

Is there anyone out there in blog-land who DOESN'T know the answer to this question?

Alright, enough sarcasm. The answer is the United Kingdom! I want to travel all over England, Ireland & Scotland sooner than later. To be able to do it on someone else's dime would be a dream come true!

So, where do you want to go?

Frankly my dear...

I am a movie nut. I've been this way since early adolescence. My hubby can attest to the fact that I will watch the same movie over and over and over again and not tire of it AT.ALL. This habit has caused me to inadvertently memorize thousands of lines of dialogue from some of my favorite movies. And so, I ask you, what is your favorite movie line of all time? Here's mine.

"Oh, he's a real gentleman! I bet he takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it."

~ Ouiser from Steel Magnolias


P.S. For all you Robert Pattinson fans out there, no, I haven't received any response to my fan letter yet. But, I did get to see his movie "How To Be" this evening and it was great. Especially if you love British comedy. LOVE IT!

Monday Morning Eye Candy

Welcome back to Monday Morning Eye Candy!

This week's theme is based on one of the many "reality" shows that I follow.
THIS is...American Idol!
This show has had some serious cuties over the years. Here are some of my all time faves.

Kris Allen

Chris Daughtry

Blake Lewis

Ace Young (my personal fave)

I hope this makes your Monday morning! If you have a list of guys that you would like me to feature (along with your blog name), please send them to anticswithangie at gmail dot com.

See you here next week!

Melodic Inspiration

I'm a big fan of the Ellen Degeneres show and I love that she showcases talented kids. Yesterday's episode featured a return appearance by a 7 yr old girl named Emily Bear. This child is AMAZING! She's a piano prodigy who writes and performs many of her own compositions. This clip is from a performance last summer and she's playing an original song. Enjoy!