Champagne Friday: Shameless Self Promotion

First...an apology. There has been some...er...stuff going on and by the end of the day, the best I can hope for is to get my to-do list checked off. Sometimes even that doesn't happen. Blogging falls off the bottom of the list, as does reading your blogs. It's certainly not intentional. If anything, being absent from the blogging community leaves a gaping, bleeding hole in my life. But rest assured this is not bad stuff. It's actually very good. I am, however, going to play it close to the vest for now. Not forever...but for now. The good news is, I'm very close to being all caught up with business affairs and can spend a large chunk of my weekend getting caught up on what's going on with y'all. And that makes me a happy panda indeed. So, without further ado...

Happy Champagne Friday! 

via the UK's Daily Mail

Although the Queen of England celebrated 60 years of life on the throne a couple of weeks ago, the Diamond Jubilee is not until June. So much champagne to drink between now and then.

I have two Daisy & Elm announcements today. No Random Musings, I'm afraid. But I'm collecting quite the list for next week. If you have some Random Musings of your own from this week, be sure to link up with Shana so you can share! 

February 29th is going to be a busy, busy day for D&E. Both events will happen on Leap Day. But if you can't cram as much as possible into 24-hour period that only rolls around roughly every 4 years, then why even bother?

After Glow Beads, a bead/gemstone/all things jewelry business with a storefront in Louisville, KY, is hosting an online auction to benefit Wings for Our Troops "in loving Memory of CPL Chad S Wade" beginning at 12:01 AM, Wednesday the 29th. I am asking for 2 things with regards to this event. If you are crafty and would like to donate an item to auction, please contact me through the comments or email. Although the majority of the items listed so far is jewelry, Tammy would like to include all handmade crafts. Do you knit? Sew? Create custom graphics? Bake? Bedazzle? If it's RED, it's RAD! Tami Boyette, founder of Wings for Our Troops, has already purchased 2 plane tickets for a Marine and his wife to fly home to see family before he deployed last month. Tami wrote about the presentation of tickets here. If you have flown lately, you know that a plane ticket can get pricey and many of our younger servicemembers can't afford to fly home before deployment. Y'know how they say the military gets paid hand over fist? Yeah...that's a well-circulated myth. Especially the enlisted. The winning bid on your donation will go directly towards a plane ticket for a servicemember in the future. Is there any better feeling? 

The auction is a win-win because even if you aren't crafty, you can still shop and bid and win! And that money goes towards plane tickets. Plus, you get something gorgeous and handmade. So...bead or bid...or both! The items listed so far can be found in the auction album on After Glow's fan page. New photos are posted almost daily as the donations roll in.

The second announcement concerns the ultra-talented, uber-witty Amanda of It's Blogworthy and her Birthday Celebration of the Celebrity Round-up that's featured every Friday. First, a word about the Celebrity Round-up: I don't read People, I don't watch TMZ (unless I'm blitzed on LIT's in Savannah), and I very rarely even read the Yahoo stories when I log on to check my mail. I am Celebrity Ignorant. Amanda rectifies that situation every Friday by covering the who, what, when, where, and why (although there's hardly ever a why) of celebrity gossip. In 10 minutes I'm completely caught up on the noteworthy news of famous and the infamous. It's more than a blog...it's a public service.

This week and next, she is hosting The Worst Dressed Link-up. Your post only needs a photo of your ugliest, tackiest, oldest, or most out of style clothing or accessory. That's it. The more hideous, the better. (It seems that hoarders may have a distinct advantage here.) As a reward for your unwillingness to toss anything from your closet, no matter how dated, you will be entered into a drawing for a shiny, new, hip piece of jewelry from Daisy & Elm. The idea being that "out with the old and in with the new." You have until the 29th to link up with Amanda and share your fuglies in hopes of winning something that could go a long way toward bringing you into 2012. Your entries will be judged by none other than Amanda herself, Surferwife, and me...of course. Our judge of poor fashion is directly related to the number of margaritas we've consumed. Fire up the blender, Amanda. We have a contest to judge! And you have an outfit to assemble. My advice? Start with something you would normally see at Wal-mart and go from there.

Thank you for hanging in with me these past few weeks. I will be stopping by this weekend to give you a healthy dose of love back. I miss you like the 1980's misses its parachute pants. Oooo...does somebody own parachute pants??