24 Hours: A lesson in thankfulness and a giveaway by Liz

Life is busy.  So busy, in fact, that I often find my self rushing from task to task, never stopping to stop and smell those freakin' roses everyone is always talking about, never stopping to even BREATHE.  I often worry, am I racing through life so fast that I'm not enjoying any of the things in it? Do I work my ass off to achieve things,  not taking a hot minute to bask in the satisfaction?  Do I ever take a minute to be THANKFUL? This past Saturday, I had to work. (Remember, when I told you about my day job?) The forecast predicted 80 degrees and my close-to-mid-life crisis convertible purchase was going to sit in the garage, unused, as I sped off at 5:30am to work a booth at a conference in downtown San Diego, missing my son's first baseball game.  I was NOT feeling thankful.  But as sped down the freeway, I had a thought.  What if I WAS?  What if I found something to be thankful for in every situation for 24 hours?  And not just the obvious stuff, like losing two pounds for no reason or when someone tells me my shoes are cute.  What if I spent the day turning every negative into a positive?

So, that's what I did, yo!

Waking up at 4:45 on a Saturday?  Finally!  No line in the Starbucks drive thru!  And were you aware that calories consumed before 6am don't count? #hellocrumbcake

No one is stopping by the booth that I'm giving up my Saturday for?  That's okay--I'm thankful they have free wi-fi.  I now know more about Channing Tatum than I ever thought possible. (Don't judge! #buddingcougar)

My suit feeling snug from those extra 8 pounds that just won't come off? I'm thankful most of the fat seems to have gone to my boobs. #majorcleavage

Missing the kid's softball and baseball games? I'm thankful the hubs is blowing up my phone with a play by play of the action, even detailing their snack bar purchases. #snackbarTMI

Not outside soaking up the rays on the warmest day in months? I'm thankful that I won't get hat hair from shielding my face from all that gorgeous sunlight. Plus, isn't ghost white skin the new tan? #letsstartatrend

Stressed about all the writing I need to get done? But, I get to write!  And I get to do it with my best friend. These are problems to have! So STFU and be thankful.

You see? It's not that hard if you put your mind to it. They say being thankful brings positive energy your way--and who couldn't use a dose of that?  Even if you are having what you think is the worst day EVEH, try not to wallow in the negativity--find little ways to find happiness. Like maybe you're having a horrendously shitty day at work, but hey, you're thankful that job pays your bills.  Or if all the crazy political people on Facebook are driving you crazy with their tirades, try to be thankful that we live in a country where everyone gets an opinion without getting thrown in jail.

Sometimes, I have so many balls in the air that I forget how hard I worked to get all the balls up there in the first place.  And I never want to look back at my life and realize that I never took the time to be thankful for the things in it.  As I get older, I'm finally understanding that things don't have to be perfect--that it's in those moments where it's most important to find the good.  To put down our phones, log off our computers and take a deep breath.  Ahhhhh.  Now, didn't that feel good?

And you know what? My 24 hours of thankfulness turned out pretty good-the conference got out earlier than expected and I was able to race home and enjoy a slice of the sunlight-I even had time to test out my mom's new chi machine(long story!) and watch a movie with my husband that didn't star an animated character or a animal or Selena Gomez.  That was easy to be thankful for.

Tell me one thing you are thankful for and I'll enter you to win a MYSTERY stack of  15 books!  (And you don't end up liking all of them, you'll just have to be thankful you won, okay? lol)  Leave a comment here and you'll be entered to win.  I'll choose the winners on Monday, March 11th after 8am.

24 Hours: DIY or bust!

24 HOURS is our newest feature! We'll be stepping outside of our comfort zones for a full day & hopefully live to write about it! Here's the story of my first foray into the world of the crafties...(PS: I survived!)

Something came over me as I began to plan my daughter's 2nd Sesame Street-themed birthday party. I wasn't going to call that bakery from last year. Forget shopping at my go-tos (Party City or Target) to get all of the fixins.

I was overcome with the idea that I was going to bake and decorate the cupcakes myself. I planned to hand craft all of the decorations. I was on a mission to not only make all of the appetizers but to design them. (Think: Elmo inspired cruditee.)

*Cue record scratch* And make sure the sound is really, really loud.

I'm not a DIY'er.

I'm the girl who relies on fabulous, dream-like wonderlands such as The Container Store to tell me what to do. I buy things with no assembly required. I conceptualize ideas and ask others far more talented to execute.

So WTF was going on here?

A couple of things. A) I wanted to do it for this new 24 HOURS feature! 2) I had to make up for my PARTY FOUL(s) at my daughter's 1st birthday party. (She burned her finger on a lit candle and refused to eat or smash her expensive designer smash cake.)

So there I was, hour one of 24, on Pinterest researching how to make Big Bird out of pineapple and I started to get excited. I can do this, I thought. I think I can, I think I can. And the funniest thing happened, I did. But not without trial and error of course. I did a dry run of the cupcake prep which wasn't without complications. I needed to make sure that they not only tasted good (and that there were no choking hazards for the littles--ended up swapping peanut M&Ms for plain for Elmo's nose! Ha!) but I also wanted to coax  my non-sugar-eating daughter into trying a plain cupcake, thinking by party time when it was decorated to look like Elmo, she'd eat it and make me look like a rockstar in front of our guests. (No such luck.  Goldfish won out #momfailyetagain.)

But the party was still a major success (if I do say so me-self). Here are the pictures to prove that even the most non-DIY girl has a little (or a lot) of DIY in her. And for those of you who don't think you have an inner-Do-it-yourself-er in there, you should give it a try. Tap into it. You might be surprised what you discover about yourself and your (not so) secret helper (details on that below)! (Click on each photo to get a close-up.)

Welcome to the Brand Spankin' New Chick Lit is Not Dead!

Extreme Makeover: CLIND!

Do you like it? (Please, say you do!)

Happy 4th birthday to Chick Lit Is Not Dead!

It's been a roller coaster ride these past four years, and we've loved every minute of it.  And you know what else we love?  YOU GUYS.  Y'all are the best.  Without you, well, we'd just be two lameass girls talking to ourselves.

And it's not just a new look here at CLIND--we've got all kinds of new features too!  Of course, we'll still be interviewing all of your favorite authors and whoring it up with giveaways, but we'll also be talking some shit and taking you with us on our (still very surreal) road to publication.  In our new feature, On Our Radar, we'll tell you what we're loving at the moment--anything from books to movies to twitter hashtags. We'll also be tackling something outside of our comfort zone for 24 HOURS (think: no nagging or no technology!). Remember Liz vs. Lisa and  On The Soapbox?  They're baccckkkk! And that's not all! We'll be checking in with some of our favorite websites with our new Blog of the Month feature. And, last but not least, we'll keep you in the loop on our writing drama with Diary of a Debut.

Other fun things to check out?  If you scroll down, you'll find some inspirational quotes we love. And we've detailed our L&L history and found some old pics that we've posted over at the About Liz & Lisa page.  We've also streamlined our submissions process--make sure you check out the Contact if you want your book or blog profiled on CLIND.

Thankful....

We'd like to give a HUGE shout out to our web designers, Betsy Cohen and her team at Positive Element.  It's not an understatement to say we were HUGE pains in the asses(Who knew it was so hard to choose a font?) to work with on this redesign and they couldn't have been more patient, understanding or professional.  Thank you!

Also, we want to thank YOU.  Who knew, four years ago, when we didn't even understand how to log onto WordPress properly or what the hell a SEO search was, that we'd be here today? It's all because of YOU.  YOU make this fun for us.

Of course there's a COOL giveaway...duh!

To celebrate our fourth year, we're giving away FOUR books.  But not random books.  FOUR books off YOUR wish list. If you win, you'll send us a list of ANY four you'd like and we'll order them for you.  HOW RAD IS THAT?

But to enter, we need you to do a little somethin' somethin' for us.  See all those social media icons up top?  We'll give you one entry for EACH site where you follow us.  Just leave a comment and let us know where you're giving us the love. Got it?  Follow us at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram--that is FOUR entries! If you already follow us on any of these sites, just tell us that in the comments and you'll still be entered!  Haven't clicked follow yet?  Then get your booty over there! (pretty please!)

We'll choose the lucky winner after February 10th at noon PST.

So, are you ready to raise a toast? *clinks glasses*  Here's to a freakin' awesome 2013!