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Friday randomness (please pardon the mishmash of thoughts, this is just how my brain works these days):

Daylight savings time has kicked my butt.  I’m exhausted in the mornings and not ready to go to sleep at night.  In the mornings when the alarm goes off, Charlie looks at me like “do we have to get up now?!”

My bracket is in the toilet.  I had Vandy in the Sweet 16 and Georgetown in the FINAL FOUR.  However, in light of all of the upsets, my Wofford pick is looking pretty strong right now!

It’s easter bunny photo time again next weekend! Here is Charlie’s bunny photo from last year, to refresh your memory.  I love how he looks like he’s trying to escape from the easter bunny.

Jeff and Jordan are hilarious on the Amazing Race.  I loved them on Big Brother and still love them.

I’ve been mulling over adding some kind of recipe submissions tool to EADL – would you guys like that?

I read the most amazing book on the plane home from Las Vegas (when I went to WPPI).  It’s called Firefly Lane and it’s the story of two best friends told throughout their lives.  You should read it, I was bawling by the end.

And speaking of Las Vegas, I had a BLAST but four nights in the land of smoking and slot machines was far too long.  They need to move the conference to the beach or something.

It takes 45 minutes to walk from the far tower of the MGM Signature to the Strip exit of the MGM.

My sister is visiting India for her spring break.  I am jealous.  I want to go to India.

Does anyone who’s been to Egypt have any tips to share?

I know I still need to post my photos from the rest of the cruise.  I will try to do that soon, I promise.  Russia was phenomenal and I want to do it justice!

It’s been 60s all week and sunny, and naturally it’s supposed to rain/snow this weekend.  Lovely.

What are your weekend plans?

Hi everyone!  I am excited to announce that yesterday I launched a new blogging venture, Edit and Post.  Edit and Post will encourage you to think more closely about your blog, about your business, and about your goals.  And of course, we’ll hopefully have a little bit of fun along the way.

If you are bloggers or small business owners, I would love for you to stop by Edit and Post and take a peek!

xo,
Ami

Stop 1: Copenhagen
Stop 2: Stockholm

Well here we are in Finland, folks!  Our Baltic cruise stopped in Helsinki on a drizzly Sunday, admittedly not the best for photos (drizzle) or tourism (Sunday).  The biggest attractions in town are several churches, so that is what we toured. 

The shuttle from the cruise terminal dropped us in downtown Helsinki, a short walk from Esplanade Park and Market Square.  I quite enjoyed walking around Market Square and could have spent a lot of money on the lovely leather goods and the works by local artisans.

Our first cathedral stop was Helsinki’s Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral.  While it’s a lovely space, and by far my favorite church in Helsinki, it doesn’t at all compare to what we’ll see on Baltic Cruise stop 4: St. Petersburg.  Pretty nonetheless, though, yes?

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Hi everyone!  I just wanted to let you know that you now have the option to receive EAD Living in your inbox.  Simply click on the link below to subscribe – email is delivered via Feedburner once per day.

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You can also find the e-mail subscription link, along with links to subscribe via RSS, add to Google Reader, or follow my Twitter feed in the follow and subscribe section of the sidebar.

I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,
Ami

Those of you who have gotten to know me know that I am absolutely a sports freak.  So this time of year is absolutely my favorite, because especially in an Olympic year, I am in sports heaven.

We start off the year with the US Figure Skating Championships.  The men’s championship blew me away.  Although I am an Evan Lysacek fan, Jeremy Abbott has been growing on me.  I adored his short program choreography and his long program simply blew me away (and blew the field away too!).  If you are an Olympics fan, don’t you dare miss the men’s final, because it will simply rock and the US has three legitimate medal contenders!

{photo credit to NBC}

Then, we move on to the Australian Open.  Huge tennis fan here.  Lots of late nights were spent watching the Aussie Open, and I was thrilled to see Serena gut it out and win, although I would have loved Murray to pull through.  Shame Roddick didn’t make it further as well.

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Next up, we have the pièce de résistance, the Winter Olympics.  From Feb 12-28, I will be glued to the television.  The Olympics are, to me, one of the last pure things in the world – seeing athletes come together under a common spirit to strive to perform their best when it counts… it just doesn’t get better than that.  During the Winter Olympics, my husband and I literally watch every single minute we can.  Obviously, as a former figure skater, that is near and dear to my heart, but we love it all, right down to the curling.

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As you all know, I’m a mommy to the most adorable puppy in the world, Charlie.

I am a firm believer that dogs should only eat foods that contain ingredients that are natural to them and should not contain any byproducts, antibiotics or hormones (I should preface this entire conversation by saying that Charlie eats FAR healthier than his father and I do!).  Charlie’s favorite treats are chicken strips, and we have always purchased the Vitality chicken strips made by Dogswell.

Recently, my mom and I were having a conversation about pet treats and food, and she let me know that Dogswell had switched to having their treads produced in China.  I was horrified.  There are all sorts of FDA warnings about dog foods and treats made in China (you can google to find lots of articles about this, here is one). I looked on the back of Charlie’s bag of chicken strips and, sure enough, there was a teeny-tiny-need-a-magnifying-glass-to-see-it “Made in China” at the bottom.  Into the trash they went and off on the hunt we went for a brand of chicken strips not made in China.  We found none.  Seriously.  Lots of treats made in the US, lots of ones he likes, but none that are his favorite kind of treat.

So we decided to take matters into our own hands.  We went to Bed Bath and Beyond for a food dehydrator and to Whole Foods for chicken breast pre-cut into tenders, and not only was it relatively inexpensive (around $40 for the dehydrator and $3-4 for a 1/2 pound of chicken) but Charlie L-O-V-E-S the dehydrated jerky.  As in, every time I open the fridge he goes nuts because he thinks he’s getting jerky.  :)  And, I know what I’m feeding him is completely natural and healthy and it’s really no trouble to make.  Simply bake the chicken as you would if you were eating it, then pop it into the dehydrator for about 6-8 hours until it’s hard enough to break in two.  Store in fridge.  Done.

So the moral of the story is, watch the products you are feeding your pup.  I felt insanely guilty when I realized I hadn’t been inspecting every single bag of treats that I purchased!

Any good healthy-treat recommendations for Charlie to supplement his jerky addiction?

I’m a huge fan of color, but my favorite color for the bedroom is white. I like my bed to look like a fluffy white cloud that I can nestle into.

{bedroom styled by Eva Lindh via This is Glamorous}

{House Beautiful via Apartment Therapy and The City Sage}

{Black & White Home}

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By now, ya’ll know that I love two things: 1) adorable puppies and 2) beautiful stationery. Well Lydia and Pugs combines both, and I’m so thrilled to partner with them to give away a set of custom notecards to one EAD reader!

The winner will receive a custom Lydia and Pugs drawing and 12 printed notecards (with coordinating envelopes).  To enter, just leave a comment below letting us know why you and your furbaby would love these notecards.  Tweets with the URL of this post will also be counted.  The winner will be chosen at 12pm central on Friday.

GOOD LUCK!

Update – congrats to our winner, Lori!

Ask me anything.  I’ll blog the good ones back here on EADL.  :)

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I’m thrilled to partner with Pose Prints, one of EAD Weddings’ fabulous sponsors, to give one lucky EAD reader their choice of 75 cards or 50 magnets in their choice of design and style!

It’s just too fun to make a caricature of yourself isn’t it? To win, just comment below and let us know what you would choose. Tweets linking to the post will count as entries as well. One lucky winner will be chosen Friday, January 8th at noon.

Good luck!