Finding Lovely Everywhere I Look... a Book Giveaway!

So, if you know me in real life... then chances are really good you know that Mondays are my Introverting Days. 

I plan nothing.

If I am winning the day,
I go nowhere.

I know. Don't be jealous! It's divine!

And add in the glorious return of Sunny Mornings and Patio Time... aahhh - I have come to LOVE Mondays! And I need them! And here's the thing... whether you are an introvert or an extrovert or somehow a little of both... you need yourself some Mondays, too! (Resisting urge to hashtag #treatyoself... #andclearlyIfailed.)

Or whatever day of the week that you can pencil in some down time and create a little space for your soul to breathe!

So this is Monday... and I have been (gasp!) working all day - but it was quiet,-empty-house,-go-at-my-own-pace kind of work. It was creative,-but-under-a-deadline kind of work... which all basically means it was bossy-in-how-I-didn't-get-any-patio-time-out-under-the-beautiful-afternoon-blue-skies kind of work. But lovely, just the same.

Because it was feeding my soul. It is holy work and it is lovely in that it gives me room to fully inhale and slowly exhale and it's work that points me back to Him. And really, that is ultimately what brings real refreshing, right?

So - for fear of shooting myself in the foot come "What I Learned..."-time, when I clearly browse through my Instagram account to remind myself of what I learned... well, I am wanting to do an old school #1000gifts style post... and a new school #LookingForLovely style post because here's the deal:

1. Counting gifts or looking for lovely things that feed my soul cause time to slow just a bit and once you start looking, you just never get used to how much you will find... to how much you may be missing all around you, if you don't slow to look! 

and 2. I ordered extra copies of Looking for Lovely by Annie F. Downs and it arrives tomorrow and I can't WAIT to get it into a lucky readers' hands!

So - at the risk of quite possibly repeating some of these things at the beginning of May... here are just a few Lovely things that I am finding and capturing from the last week or so...

Here we go...

Lookie... I made Empanada's! They were so good! 

Thanks, Susan, for all your Tasty Tuesday posts!

And with the leftover filling, we made Pizza! 

I mean, come on! Can you EVEN with how flirty Spring is being around here? 

My Honey, who NEVER wears a backwards baseball hat sat down and I snuck this photo and sent it to our girlie because, we are nothing if not Gilmore Girls junkies... 

so of course she responded in kind!

Again, with Springtime and how he keeps wooing me outside!

Sun tea, patio sitting, a new magazine (about patio sitting!),

a new book, barefoot chillin' with the cat,

and a little (or a lot of) Dave Barnes.

Yep. All kinds of Lovely here!

I know? It's starting to feel a little showy-offy to me, too! 

This was Friday... a wide open day set aside

to begin work on a new Spoken Word piece...

A to the Men for fresh flowers, Starbucks, and Coffee Nut M&Ms! 

This was our Friday night spent with friends!

Lovely (delicious) Carne Asada,

bottomless iced tea (ya see what I did there?), and golf!

And this is the adorable Lovely that showed up and showed off on Saturday!

A morning coffee date with friends at an adorable little local bakery...

a visit from Mr. Bentley - as he tried to 'help' in the garden,

delivery of beef for BBQ season from Zaycon,

and a movie night with my Honey at the end of the day! 

Sundays' Lovely featured my new Sari skirt from Darn Good Yarn

and another great day at Dad's House! 

Sunday evening wrapped up with a walk with my Honey, and this little Lovely,

because when you are empty nesters, no one is the boss of you

and you can have basically ice cream for dinner!

(Georgia Peach flavored froyo topped with

fresh strawberries, mango, and coconut!)

Oh yeah... and then there is this...

I wrote about how much I loved this book from Annie last week! You can read that full review HERE... but all you really need to know is that I loved it so much that even though B&H was kind enough to send me an advanced copy for free - I went ahead and ordered three more copies because it's that good! Chances are really good I will be ordering even more because, as I said before - I can't think of anyone who couldn't benefit from this book! 

What that means for you, sweet reader, is one of those copies is up for the taking!

I know we just had a Giveaway celebrating ten years of blogging but with all this flirty Spring weather, and all the Lovely to be looked for and found... I just can't help myself! So one lucky *U.S. Resident Reader will win your very own copy of Looking for Lovely... 

Enter to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S.  I'm linking up with these lovely writers:

Kelly Chripczuk  for #SmallWonders 

Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory