Shew! We survived! We just wrapped up our first LIVE Chat on Coffee Talk at BlogFrog.

It was such a lively chat – what a blast!!

Yes, it was.

No major secrets came out – lol!!

Except that we use candlelight to hide craping.

Do people know what craping is?  Perhaps you should tell that story…Remember the time you called me from a restaurant because you had just over heard to ladies talking about craping in front of the mirror?  And, you had to call and tell me about it?

Yes, kinda…but, let’s just clarify, it’s not “crapping” we are talking about….”craping” AKA wrinkly skin.

I am sure that this conversation has not digressed into craping because you are about to turn 40?

Ouch. That seems to be a popular topic with you lately.

It had to come out sometime!
Tap. tap – hello?  Are you meditating?

No, just pouring another glass of vino. Taking it all in stride. Actually, I’m bound and determined to rock 40 and embrace it….I’m sure you have a few tips for surviving 40…you’ve had PLENTY of experience. Can you say reading glasses?

Oh no you didn’t!!

Actually – I thought there were quite a few great tips in our live chat tonight about ideas for your party.

Yes, I think I may roll with the chai spice kit.

Perfect for your “India” theme.  They will be great party favors.

Hookah?

Say ya!  And, I heard belly dancers!!  This will be perfect for your mid-life crisis!

Better than Billy Idol….just sayin’.

True, true!!  We won’t say who…..

Teen , just walked in and said, “You girls really need to go to bed.”

Yes, and we just finished our last sip of wine… (at the same time) (and from two different states)…so should we let peeps know when are next chat is? The online kind that is….

Totally! February 13 at 9pm. We will be chatting HERE, LIVE with Dani Petterey. Dani is a published author and will be our guest sharing tips on getting published, how to write solid posts, etc…

What about our readers who aren’t in the BlogFrog community…how do they participate?

Go into BlogFrog, create an account.  The night of the LIVE Chat, come HERE and click on the LIVE Chat, it will go live at 9pm. It’s super easy!

It was so so fun – more than I realized…it’s like hangin with the girls, at home, together and talking …letting the conversation go wherever it takes us!!  So fun!  And, Feb 13th ~ will be so inspiring!!  Should we call it a night now?

Yes, ‘cause it’s an hour later here in Baltimore. Night! I’ll call you in the morning! Any last tidbits to tell our readers?  

I’d like to say — be there!!  We want to meet you at the table!

Always!

OK ! Over and out from Minnesota!

(logged off at 10:11 central…11:11 eastern)

One of our favorite things is to share a cup of joe and some coffee chat.  When we were mothers with very young children we use to drive up and down the streets with our vans filled with sleeping toddlers and babies strapped in their car seats.  We would pass each other in the streets and nod and lift our cups to each other.

Times have changed for us!!  We’re now “coffee chatting” online ~ which is almost as good as in real life!!

Please join us TOMORROW for a LIVE CHAT  :  Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 9 pm est

We are going to be hosting the chat, along with our friend Heather from Whipperberry ~ on the topic of Hospitality and Entertaining!  We will share a conversation around ~ tips for entertaining, menu planning, conversation and memories!

IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE:

First, join us at the International Delight: Coffee Talk Community on BlogFrog, HERE .  

Put the kids to bed earlier and ask  your hubby to do the dishes (that’s what we’re doing!)

Pour yourself a hot cup of joe and maybe somethin’ special to add into it !

Pull up a chair and join us online!! 

You know we are firm believers, in the more the merrier! So, pull up a chair to the virtual table and bring your tips and tricks to share. We are always on the hunt for new ideas on how to make a dinner party a success! 

Let us know if you’ll be there & what you are interested in chatting about too!

And just to give you a taste of some of the other conversations happening at the Coffee Talk Community take a look below…and hop in to the conversation! We’d love to get to know you better!

Check out these new conversations from my community

Before Kids……….
Before you had children, did you work full time outside
house?  If you’re still working full time outside the house,
did you change jobs?
Basically…….what did you do before you had children?
I worked full time in the fitness industry.  I’m still
working in the fitness industry, bu… read more…

What do you think about reusable K-Cup Filters?
Ok Ok…I need your opinion!  I got a keurig for Christmas
and while I am in love, I miss some of my old coffee beans.  I
have heard that the reusable k cup filters make watered down
coffee, etc.  So I have been skeptical to try.
I am wondering do you use the reusable filter?&nbsp… read more…

How Do You Fit “Fitness” Into Your Weekly Routine?
I feel like I can’t get a thirty minute block anywhere in my day
to do anything active…it seems like there is always a kid who
wants to hang on me right when some free time opens up.  And,
since the weather is unpredictable right now, it isn’t easy to grab
them all and head out for a walk… read more…

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Dear Friends, We want to thank you for pulling up a chair to our table this year!  It was an exciting and busy year for us as we launched our new site, an online boutique and met so many wonderful people.  Thank you for joining us! We have been in great company. This is our latest, new addition, The LoveFeast Newsletter.  We will send this out once a month to give you a quick picture of what’s to come.  We will also share a tip from our kitchen and a featured item from LoveFeast Shop.  We recently launched The Traveling Cookbook Project.  Ree Drummond’s, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, is currently traveling from one blogger’s table to the next.  At each stop, the blogger is preparing 2-3 recipes from the cookbook and scrapbooking the pages of that recipe.  When The Traveling Cookbook is filled, we will be auctioning it off and all the proceeds will go to our $24,000 goal for Feed My Starving Children.  We made a pledge to raise $24,000 for a FMSC Mobile Pack Unit to prepare 100,000 meals for starving children. In January, we will be donating $3.00 from every LoveFeast Coffee Cake sold to our Feed My Starving Children Project.  We would love your help sharing this project with your friends and family.  To meet our financial goal as well as our desire to feed 100,000 children we will need the help of many!  Will you join us? We are so excited for 2012! We have a lot in store and can’t wait to share it all with you! Have a wonderful 2012!                                    We’re so glad you’ve joined us at the table, Join us at the LoveFeast Blog Stop by the LoveFeast Shop Connect with us on Facebook Join the conversation on Twitter

LoveFeast Shop We are thrilled to introduce you to the new LoveFeast Coffee Cake.  When we first tasted this cake, we just knew we had to share it with you!  Whether you order the Mixed Berry, Signature, Chocolate Chip or Pumpkin we know you will appreciate its high quality. Our coffee cakes are made with all natural ingredients and come packaged with a gold foil seal and finished with a gorgeous, hand tied ribbon.  These cakes are a perfect gift for hostesses, teachers, clients and friends. LoveFeast Shop will donate $3 for every cake sold in January to Feed My Starving Children and the LoveFeast Mobile Pack project.   Brittled Almonds by LoveFeast Chef ~ Devon Potler 1/4 stick of unsalted butter 1 tsp Cumin Seed 1 tsp Coriander Seed 2 Cups Whole Raw Almonds 1 Cup Brown Sugar Melt butter. Add cumin seed and coriander and toast for a few seconds then add brown sugar. Cook until it begins to carmelize.  Add almonds, stir to combine and turn off heat. Quote of the day: “Add butter – everything else is up to taste!”

Fancy Friday Fancy Friday is a weekly meme around things that are fancy to you.  If it is what motivates your day, leads your dream, whispers inspiration, catches your eye and puts a smile on your face ~ then it’s fanciful enough to share! Link up details are HERE and to give you an idea, here are some of our past examples.   Holiday Cookie Exchange We just wrapped up a virtual Holiday Cookie Exchange. Visit HERE to browse for delicious recipes!   The Traveling Cookbook …is well on it’s way! Click here to see where the cookbook has visited and where it’s headed. All proceeds from this project go to support Feed My Starving Children.

We are so glad to have you pull up a chair and join us here at our blog, LoveFeast Table.  To find out more about what we are up to, receive product highlights and discounts from our LoveFeast Shop and extra recipes and tidbits ~ Subscribe to our newsletter!

Just like a good glass of wine shared with friends ~ we believe in sharing a good secret with our friends here at LoveFeast Table!!  What’s the latest tidbits?

Some of our blog friends are giving away  amazing finds from our LoveFeast Shop!

Visit  House of Turquoise to find our amazing Roman Glass Necklace with a real antique Byzantine Coin.  That’s old – y’all!  Really old!  But, better than that ~ each coin is one of a kind and beautiful.  Kristin and I especially like the touch of the 24k gold vermeil discs at the top of each coin ~ so cool.

Visit House of Turquoise to win this amazing one-of-a-kind giveaway going on through December 16th.

Don’t miss your chance to win one of the 4 LoveFeast Coffee Cakes being given way on the blog, Pizazzarie!  Our coffee cakes are packaged beautifully.  They have been taste tested by us and we wouldn’t put our stamp of approval on a cake we thought wouldn’t be worthy of the name, LoveFeast.  Our LoveFeast Coffee Cakes will make a great and easy gift for co-workers, relatives, teachers and friends.  You won’t even have to wrap it ~ because it comes beautifully boxed. 

Visit Pizzazzerie to win your favorite flavor through December 14th.

We’re so happy to share our fun with you!  I just got back a couple of weeks ago from visiting Kristin in Baltimore.  Now, Kristin along with her husband Devon are going to be flying into Minnesota this coming weekend to celebrate my husband Todd’s birthday and prepare for our 2012 year.  We are going to be working even harder this coming year (because we love it!) to find more unique finds for you and your table in 2012!  We can’t believe we’ve come this far ~ and we are thrilled to find more inspiration in 2012.

Don’t forget our Velvet Plush Pumpkin Holiday Sets are on sale through December!

Stay tuned for this weekend in Minnesota ~ I think we are going to try some vlogging!

We hope you follow our adventures as we follow our dreams here at our virtual table ~ LoveFeast Table

Check out our Holiday Cookie Exchange.

See what table The Traveling Cookbook has journeyed to.

Be part of the story ~  donate to our LoveFeast Mobile Pack for Feed My Starving Children

And visit our shop ~ LoveFeast Shop ~ to see what we find along our journey!

Sometimes, you just have to jump in and let go.

There were sounds of screeching and giggling so I opened the curtain and peeked outside. Three of my kids sneaked out of the house, during a rain shower and this is what I found.

Even my teenager (who is a clean freak by nature) was embracing the mud. They wiggled their toes in it…danced and twirled and even tried to drag me in. I snapped away, capturing a “childhood sibling moment” I wanted them to be able to recall even after years had passed. It’s the moment I want to savor and capture. I don’t ever want to be so scheduled, or disciplined or grown up to enjoy even the dirtiest of days that life brings my way.

I’d like to hear about your moment of joy! Share your story and upload a photo (optional), and in return Shutterfly will gift you $5 off your next photo book to commemorate life’s joyous moments, and you”ll be entered for a chance to win a $200 Shutterfly Gift card.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Shutterfly. The opinions and text are all mine. Offer valid for $5 off one photo book order and valid for one-time redemption per member. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply. BlogFrog hosted gift card contest live from June 17th to July 14th. A winner will be randomly chosen and announced on July 18th. All participants remain the copyright holder of their photos.

“Our aspirations are our possibilities” ~ Samuel Johnson

What are you dreaming of doing?

Some of you know, we have been in an 8 month process of redefining our look for LoveFeast Table.  You see, when we started blogging 2 1/2 years ago, we thought we were going to write a cookbook.  That’s what started us on this blogging journey.  We had shared so many amazing meals around the table (over the 14 years we had been friends along with our growing families), we thought we wanted to document them.  We wanted to share not only the original recipes, but also capture the conversations that took place as well as the environment and overall feel that were part of the meal.  We looked at font after font that captured our feel and Kristin sketched it out.  We put a frame around it, because it was part of our story, and created our original logo:

We also picked a WordPress template (this one) because it was easy on the eyes.  We didn’t know about functionality or finding a site that would help clearly communicate who we were.  To be honest, the start of our blogging journey, was just the beginning of discovering who we were at LoveFeast Table and what we were trying to say.

Over time, we struggled to fit ourselves into a blogging genre.  We started with foodies.  Were we a food blog?  We featured recipes, meals and restaurant reviews.  But, we realized we had more to say.  We were the moms of  9 kids combined.  We had kids aging in range from 16 to 4.  Were we mom bloggers?  What about the part that we were both artists who are absolutely in love with anything that inspires.  We decorate, do projects, craft, paint and just plain love anything beautiful.  Were we home and garden bloggers?  We love throwing a party or creating multi course meals for friends.  Were we event planners?  Should we even be blogging since we love “In Real Life” time more?  Can you see our struggle?  Well, because we are dreamers and firmly believe in not boxing ourselves in, we decided we were all the above.  But, somehow, we realized, we needed to be able to better communicate that to you.

Fast forward to today.  We are working on a blog redesign that will clearly define who we are as a Lifestyle blog.  We are getting a new look.  Here’s a peek:

We have five categories we will be blogging under:

LOVE…This will include things we love…art, music, tablescaping, design, fashion, crafting projects, decor, Fancy Friday and bits & baubles.

FEAST…This includes meals, recipes, restaurant reviews, food toys and anything involving the art of eating.

TABLE…This is where we have a conversation.  We will feature guests that join us, interviews, stories about our friends, our journey and our community.

LIFE…This is about the experience.  Things like travel, events we attend, BlogLove Events, Love Bombing and giving back campaigns.

BOUTIQUE…This is our shop.  This shop will be filled with items we discover on our journey.  They are hand picked items that reflect our authentic journey.  These items will be featured in our shop as we discover them.  There may be a limited number of them or they may find a permanent place in our Boutique.  But, we promise they will be beautiful!

Some of you may have stopped over from Pioneer Woman’s site today.  Thank you for pulling up a chair and getting to know a little about us.  We hope you’ll come back again.  We love meeting new people!  If you want to connect a bit more and walk along side us on this journey, you can find us on twitter @LoveFeast, on facebook HERE and of course you can sign up for our RSS feed.

If you’ve come because you just love that necklace, you can click on SHOP or the necklace button on the side and you will be directed to our Boutique.  We love this necklace and know you will too!

Thanks for joining us at the Table!

Chris Ann & Kristin