We just wanted to let you know some of the fun things happening at our Table. Tomorrow, Fancy Friday will be a Link Up party for all things GREEN and ST. PATRICK’S DAY! So, get your posts ready and link up tomorrow. Speaking of St. Patrick’s Day…let’s talk Ireland for a minute. I (Kristin) went to Ireland about  6 years ago. My husband and I have great friends who live there and are doing amazing work on reconciliation. They bring people to the table who have very different views and faith to share and listen to one another. One way they want to increase that conversation in their community, in Northern Ireland, is to open a Cafe. Since my husband and I owned Jahva House, we have always had a heart to help others open their own. We are firm believers that whole communities can be transformed over a cup of coffee. They have invited us to come to Ireland next month to help them and their team open up their coffee shop. I’m thrilled!

Speaking of COFFEE…have you seen what we added to the SHOP?

LoveFeast Brew

I’m hoping to share more with you in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, if you’ve ever wanted to visit Ireland, International Delight is GIVING AWAY a trip for two, HERE. It’s easy to enter and you can enter once every day.

We’re sure you’ve noticed we are doing more with the BlogFrog community. Chris Ann and I have wanted for some time to create a place where we can all have more conversation. So, we started working with the International Delight Community. It has been a blast! There are 10 or so community leaders who start daily conversations. Then once a week or so, there is a LIVE Chat, which is like having an hour of talk time with your girlfriends, in real time. We’ve met amazing women and have also learned so much. We have decided to so something similar here at LoveFeast Table. Next week, we will be hosting our own LIVE Chat HERE on March 21 at 9pm eastern. We’d love for you to join us! We will be talking about …COMMUNITY. We want to hear your thoughts on how you are building community, meeting people online and how those compare to your IRL relationships. Will you join us?

Here is a snippet of what is happening at the International Delight Community to give you a taste!

Well, we know that’s a lot of fun info! One of our heart’s desires is to give everyone a place to pull up a chair to the (virtual) Table. We believe the more the merrier!

Check out these popular conversations from my community

What Makes You Unfollow?
So I’m curious over our cup of coffee here.. what makes you
unfollow a blog? I have a only a small group of visable followers
so i notice if the number drops off and it’s like….”hey where did
you go?” why?  May be the follow a lot of blogs and are just
cleaning house.. but still.. ouch

… read more…

What’s Your Slam Dunk Pulled Together Look for Spring?

You have a school function to go to or a last minute business
meeting. What are your tricks for pulling together a slam dunk
spring look at the last minute?  You know, the look that says
“I’m fashion forward”…I look pulled together (you’d never know I
was wrestling toddlers an hour earl… read more…

How do you unwind at night?
I have terrible insomnia, and am told that I should develop a
nighttime routine to help me unwind. Specifically, that I should
NOT look at TV, the Internet, my phone, or anything electronic for
at least an hour before bedtime. Easier said than done!
How do you unwind at night?

read more…

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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!

I was in Kindergarten.  We had moved back from Little Rock, Arkansas.  My dad was a pastor and had spent some time serving a small mountain church community.  We lived in a trailer and all I really remember about Arkansas was there was a horse that lived in the next yard. Early in the mornings, I’d go out with my parents and feed it carrots. I still remember the way it’s nose felt in my open hand as it feasted on the treat.

Being a pastor’s family, meant we lived pretty simply.  But, as a young kid, I never knew there were things we went without.

You see, my mom is an artist who is passionate about creating traditions and memories.

To this day, she still dreams up fun ways to celebrate.  Just last year, on Christmas morning, she woke my kids up outside their windows by shouting over a bull horn.  That was to surpass the year before when she strung jingle bells out their window and rang them early to wake the kids out of their slumber.

When we moved back to Baltimore from Little Rock, there wasn’t a whole lot of money at Christmas.

But, that didn’t stop my mom from creating a memory that still dangles from my tree.

She whipped up a batch of Salt Dough and we rolled and cut and painted ornaments until our tree was full.  We also made construction paper ornaments.  Every year, I gently unwrap the few I have left and remember those years in our tiny apartment, when Christmas was about creativity, the smells of yummy cookies baking in the oven and time spent together.

So, this year, I whipped up a batch of Cinnamon Salt Dough with my kids.  We rolled and cut and baked.  The house filled with the fragrance of cinnamon while we laughed.  I hope one day, when they are decorating their trees with their kids, a few of these ornaments will find their way onto their trees and they’ll remember, just like I do.

What’s one of your favorite childhood Christmas memories?

We knew when we first laid eyes on our velvet Plush Pumpkins that they would be a hit!  Instantly we envisioned  them decorating our tables!  Have your checked out the current special issue of Better Homes And Gardens Halloween tricks & treats magazine?

Turns out the editors at Better Homes And Gardens thought they’d be fun inspiration for their Mad Tea Party styled editorial.

Our LoveFeast Shop Plush Pumpkins are piled on the tables ~

their velvety texture adding luxury and beauty to the tablescaping!

We have to admit ~ we are more than just a little excited to have our favorite velvet pumpkins featured in such an iconic magazine!  These pumpkins would be a unique and special addition to any Halloween and fall inspired decorating.

The Halloween “tricks & treats” issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine featuring Plush Pumpkins is on news-stands until November.

We hope you check it out and find a place to add Plush Pumpkins to your table!

We have had a busy month this past August.  We’ve been working for so long to finish our new design and it’s been so much fun to celebrate our launch this month.   We hope you have been enjoying our newly designed table as much as we have.  It’s been like taking this beautiful mess of ideas and scraps of inspiration and turning it into a package that has been truly a gift to use for us!  And, keep your eyes open!  We’ll be adding new bits of color and pieces to our table as we go!  We still have some surprises up our sleeve!!

Our launch month of August began with celebrating our LoveFeast Table categories LOVE (Things that inspire & make us happy!), FEAST (All things related to feasting!), TABLE (Conversation around our table!), and LIFE (Exploring & experiencing a LoveFeast lifestyle!).  We’ve also had lots of friends at our table joining the conversation, sharing posts and taking a seat as guests at our table!  We are so thankful for the inspiration these friends and guests have shared!  We are also inspired by all the brands and businesses that gave us the privileged of sharing their products at our past BlogLove™ events and as giveaways during our launch.  They made the party special by adding their gifts.  With a special shout out to our friend Noemi from Noemi Photography who photographed our antique silver frame seen at the bottom of our blog in our footer while single-handedly bringing perms back.

Part of our story here at LoveFeast Table is sharing inspiration and passion for savoring a beautiful life.  Kristin was honored to be able to share  as a guest speaker at Buzz Your Biz in Annapolis, Maryland this month.

Another passion of ours is to LoveBomb someone with a surprise food or meal.  We were thrilled to see Wendi from Bon Appetit Hon grabbed our idea and started her own Operation LoveBomb.  We and few others got bombed with some sweet jam.  Way to spread the love Wendi!

We are very excited to announce our project, The Traveling Cookbook this month.  Not only is it going to be fun to hear all the tales from all sorts of bloggers’ kitchens but we are simultaneously going to try to raise the $24000 needed for a MobilePack^TM unit from Feed My Starving Children.  That unit will pack 100,000 meals for starving children.  We hope you follow along on the journey of The Traveling Cookbook!

We are also finishing up the touches around our LoveFeast Shop.  The velvet Plush Pumpkins from our shop are featured in the brand new seasonal issue of Better Homes & Garden, Halloween Tricks & Treats.  They looked fabulous in the Alice & Wonderland editorial.  Can you eye-spy the velvet pumpkins?

And, of course besides all this blog and business stuff we are busy being the moms that we are.  Kristin is ordering books to home-school and planning art classes for her co-op and we are both getting our teenagers ready for high school classes, gathering school supplies and new tennis shoes for all our 9 kids.  Back to school is one of the busiest times of the year for us and it won’t be long before they are off on the bus and on their way to school.

There still is some summer to savor, so we are going to enjoy that last bit!

What’s on your plate right now?