My first "real" giveaway: Paypal Cash!

I know I've been a little absent from this space lately, but I've still been brainstorming ways to expand my content and grow my blog after I finish a few other life projects and can jump back into the blogosphere. Given this thought train, imagine my delight when I found an email from the lovely Amanda inviting me to join her giveaway! This is my first "real" giveaway with other bloggers, and I have to tell you, there are some pretty great peeps in here. :) Please take a minute to at least visit the home page of all the lovely ladies in this giveaway; I guarantee you'll find at least a few new blogs to add to your feed (if you're not reading them all already)!

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Blogger Switch Back: A Swap with Vintage 1973

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to "switch back" with Regina of Vintage 1973. (If you missed our "Freaky Friday" posts last week, check them out here and here!)


Today, I'm going to take the questions Regina answered as me and show how I would have answered them. I have to say, I was pretty dang impressed with Regina's answers! This project really showed me how much we can learn about one another just through reading our blogs. Below, I included Regina's answers as me in black, and I wrote my own answers and comments under each answer in green. Enjoy!

Freaky Friday: A Blog Swap with Vintage 1973!

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Halloween. I'd love to hear what you dressed up as in the comments! My fiance dressed up as Superman and I dressed up as Lois Lane (kind of a cop-out, but it allowed me to still look professional in my office). Anyway, I'm participating in a brand-new project with Regina of Vintage 1973 today, and I'm excited for you to check out its inaugural post! Regina wrote up a great description of the project already, so I'm just going to include it after the jump. Enjoy!

Literary Junkies: September 2013

Note: If you stopped by for Travel Tuesday, don't worry! The link-up will go live at 8 a.m. EST. This week's prompt: How much of a country's official language do you learn before traveling there?

I'm so excited to be co-hosting the Literary Junkies link-up this month! I'm also co-hosting The Book Chat on Thursday, so this is just a lovely literary week for me. :) Literary Junkies is an online book club (active on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads), and we have a link-up once a month where our hosts and co-hosts (me!) come up with a few book-related questions for all our members to answer. Read more after the jump to see this week's questions and my answers!

#28: Be featured on blogger {av}'s "Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" series.

It has happened! After years of reading {av}'s fabulous blog, {long distance loving}, she chose me to be featured in her "Love Is" series!

image via {long distance loving}

A little background: {av} was my first "blog crush." I found her blog because she had this awesome series called "Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" (hence the title of this post, despite the recent name change to "Love Is"). Two bloggers I read faithfully (Christy and Kate) were actually featured, and I thought, "Gee, that would be so cool! I want to share my story and encourage everyone else out there in a long-distance relationship that it can work—and work so well!"

So I put it on my "bucket list" and contacted {av} to see if she had a spot in her schedule for me. Unfortunately, the series dwindled from a weekly feature to a special once-in-a-while feature, and then {av} stopped posting the feature altogether about a year ago. (Although I didn't stop reading her blog; she still posts beautiful content about travel, home, relationships, blogging tips, life—you name it! Plus it's always fun to join her Friday's Fancies link-up every once in a while.)

Then, last month, {av} announced she was bringing the series back, and she chose Jonathan and me to be her first featured couple! So from one excited fangirl to one gorgeous blogger: Thank you for taking the time to write about my story today!

Check out my story on {long distance loving} here. If you're visiting from {long distance loving}, you can read my full engagement story (with lots of photos!) here. And finally, if you want to see more photos of us throughout the years, check out my post from our 8-year anniversary last year here. :)

Thanks for stopping by! And thanks again, {av}!

Summer Book Challenge Winner: Hannah G.

The second Semi-Charmed Winter Book Challenge check-in will be up on Tuesday, so I wanted to spotlight yet another summer winner to encourage all the winter participants and prove that yes—it is possible to finish! :) Today I'm featuring Hannah G., who finished the summer challenge in 14 weeks, making her the fifth overall finisher. Read more about Hannah after the jump.

Summer Book Challenge Winner: Heather L.

I know it's been a while since the Semi-Charmed Summer 2012 Book Challenge ended, but I wanted to be sure to feature each of the ladies who completed that challenge as we prepare for our first Semi-Charmed Winter 2012 Book Challenge check-in (on December 1!). This first reader I'm featuring finished all 14 books of the challenge in the first six weeks! Read more about her after the jump.

Photo via Date a Girl Who Reads