While the general Love It, Love It, Love It, is nice, I’ve received a few requests for details. Specifics. As one email put it, I love your suggestions but could you please stop being so vague?!?
My answer? Absolutely!
So, that’s how we’re going to spend the next several posts: getting down to details. Now, part of the reason I have been vague up until now is that not everyone shares the same idea of a champagne life. Candles may be vital to one person, while another could really care less.
To address this, here’s a handy cheat sheet for upcoming topics. If something doesn’t interest you, skip it. Easy huh? I promise I won’t even be offended.
glass v. plastic
tins, jars, bottles
candles
pillows and throws
technology, music, and movies
wrap up: bedroom
wrap up: bathroom
wrap up: living space
wrap up: kitchen
And that, my friends, as startling as it just was to realize, will get us through the year. Wow… I can’t think about that too hard so we’re going on now.
There may, of course, be some variation off of this. This is supposed to be fun and schedules are only so much fun for me. It is, however, a good guide. And while I said you could skip a post if you wanted, why not stop by for all of them? The schedule might change after all. Or, while a specific suggestion might not work for you, it might give you a brainstorm about something that does work for you and fits into your Champagne Life. Because that’s what it’s all about.
Congratulations to Fedora, who won an inscribed copy of FALL INTO ME, for participating in LASR’s Easter Egg Hunt. I do love running contests. It’s especially cool to run contests that bring in new readers, like all of you who wrote me for the first time.
Since there are new readers out there, and it has been a very long time since I’ve updated this blog, I thought I would use this first post to remind ~ or explain to ~ people what this blog is all about. Check it out by following the links that interest you most.
Now you understand why I write about Living A Champagne Life, why it’s important to me, why I think it’s important to all of us, and, of course what I mean when I talk about it. I’m glad to have you here and hope to see you again next Monday. Until then, enjoy your own Champagne Life.
Wow ~ three and a half months. I didn’t mean for the title of the last post to be “Curl Up With A Good Book and Hibernate the Rest of the Winter” but that’s what it became. However, it’s Spring and that seems like a good time to relaunch the blog. And what better way than to relaunch with a contest?
Not only have you found the Easter egg from Long and Short of It Reviews, but if you leave me a comment here or drop me an email through my contact page, you will be eligible to win a signed copy of FALL INTO ME. Meanwhile, check back here Mondays for more Living a Champagne Life on a Beer Budget tips. And stop by my news page for updates from my desk.
If you’re a new reader, it’s nice to meet you. If you’re an old friend, it’s good to see you again. I’ve been away for a while. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink and fill me in on everything I’ve missed…
For many of us, myself absolutely included, being able to give to our loved ones is a large part of living a Champagne Life. And giving on a Beer Budget is easier than you might think.
First, remember the bath products from the launch of this blog? These are as inexpensive to make for your friends as they are to make for yourself. And why not refresh your own supply while you’re mixing?
Another option is to go old school and bake. Cookies, fudge, candies…there are so many recipes out there and available, many of them easy enough that kids of any age can even help. One of my favorites is my mother’s spiced tea recipe, which doesn’t require any more skill than being able to mix powders. Hello? It doesn’t get any easier than that! If you’re really pushed for time, instead of stressing, give dry mixes. Layer the ingredients for cookies, brownies, even soups. Just don’t forget to attach the recipe.
Still too expensive? Find three other friends who are interested in living a Champagne Life on a Beer Budget. Each of you buy the ingredients for one or two goodies, get together and bake, mix and layer. Somebody can even splurge on a bottle of wine and make an evening of it, if you want. Once everything has cooled or set, swap out. A dozen chocolate chip cookies is only so interesting. A tray of four different sweets will make anyone happy. And your gift recipients never need know you didn’t make them all!
Now you’ve got your bath stuff and goodies for your friends (with extra for yourself, of course). The right packaging take a bunch of scented salt and makes it an elegant, Champagne Life present. While plastic tubs are perfectly acceptable, a special tin turns a treat into a gift. Dollar stores, craft stores, even drugstores, have trays and containers and tins galore, in just about every shape and size. If you’re lucky enough to live near a Christmas Tree Shop, you’re near a goldmine.
Clear or ceramic canisters are perfect for dry mixes. Add a label with baking or soaking instructions and sick a bow on it. If you’d be more comfortable, put the mix in a plastic baggie and put the baggie in the canister. Tins and trays are made for baked goods. A favorite of mine is a large, pre-decorated gift box. I’ve fit two dozen cupcakes in one of those before.
For a surprisingly beautiful look, fill a small, pretty glass bowl with spiced tea or caramelized nuts. Cover the top with plastic wrap and tie it on with a gold ribbon. Both finished recipes have a golden hue to them anyway. When enhanced by the glass and the ribbon, the whole thing nearly sparkles.
Gift giving doesn’t have to break you. It doesn’t have to stress you. It can ~ and should ~ be a part of every Champagne Life. Please accept my mother’s spiced tea recipe as my gift to you, whatever you are celebrating this season. As always, be smart about it and don’t drink it if you’re allergic. Leave a comment or drop me an email, and I’ll send you the caramelized nuts recipe, too! Because yummy treats for yourself and for giving? That’s a Champagne Life on a Beer Budget!
Enjoy ~
~ Pauline
Susan’s Spiced Tea
2 cups Tang
2 scoops instant lemonade
1 cup instant, unsweetened tea (caffeinated or decaf, optional)
1 teaspoon ground clove
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Add three heaping teaspoons to a mug. Fill mug with boiling water and stir (with cinnamon stick for an added kick).
Kate Duffy, one of, if not the, premiere editor of romance novels died today. The industry will never be the same ~ and I will miss her and her wisdom.
Next post, I promise we will pick up where we left off last post. After all, we are staring into a closet with a whole lot of space in it. I don’t know about you, but wearing the same outfits three days in a row or being arrested for public indecency don’t exactly fit into my idea of a Champagne Life on any kind of budget. That being said, based on some emails and feedback I’ve been getting, I feel I need to address something.
I know you’re stressed. I know you’re being pulled in seventeen different ways. We have work and children and spouses and houses and parents and siblings and bills and, and, and…And it’s crazy out there. Three things I want you to remember:
1. These are suggestions. Take the ones you like. Discard the ones you don’t. Create the things I’ve missed but that matter to you. This is your Champagne Life on a Beer Budget. No one else’s. I remember once I was raving about a recipe to a woman I knew at an office. The main ingredients were peanut butter and chocolate. She asked for the recipe and said she would try it over the weekend. Monday, I asked her if she had tried it and if she had liked it. Her response was yes, she had tried it and no, she hadn’t liked it. Then she went on to say “But I really can’t stand chocolate and peanut butter combined.” Hm. Well, no. Given that you don’t like the main combination of ingredients, it makes sense you wouldn’t like the recipe. I didn’t say that, of course, but I certainly thought it. These are like chocolate and peanut butter. If you know you don’t like them, don’t take time out of your crazy, busy schedule to try them. Take time out of your crazy busy schedule to try something you do like, or at least you think you might like. And then write me or leave a comment and tell me what it is. I’m always looking for new things to incorporate into my Champagne Life.
2. You don’t have to find time for everything all at once. You don’t have to give yourself a manicure/pedicure every single Thursday and take a hot bath every night and go through your closet immediately and rid yourself of plastic grocery bags and read a new or favorite author all before the month is out. Again, if you can afford that kind of time and commitment, odds are good the Beer Budget doesn’t really apply anyway (and more power to you!). Start slow. Get one thing absorbed comfortably into your routine before you try to add something else.
3.You have to be willing to carve out the time for yourself. We find the time for the things that really matter to us. Let yourself really matter to you. Maybe it’s one small thing. Maybe it’s several small things (because that’s the whole point of this ~ they are all small things). Whichever it is, you have to make the time, just as you make the time for your other commitments. Remember, one of the very first posts here was the power bath. That mindset can see you through more suggestions than just bathing. When I was in college in Boston, one afternoon, my mother and I went to high tea at the Ritz (talk about a Champagne Life!). We saw a woman there obviously doing business. She had her folders and files and was working. Until the waiter brought her tea service to her. At that point, she stopped working, put everything aside and pulled out a book. She read and had tea and didn’t work. Her tea probably lasted all of twenty minutes. Then she packed everything up and headed back out again, most probably back to the office. But she had found herself those twenty minutes for high tea, just for herself. Make yourself as important as everything else. You’re worth it.
And that more than anything else is a Champagne Life on a Beer Budget.
Have you noticed I’ve been posting less regularly recently? That’s because I am considering making some changes with the website and was looking at options. Now that I have basically decided what I want to do, I feel it’s time to fill you in on the plan.
First, I will continue to post Champagne Life on a Beer Budget tips here on the blog. It’s too much fun to give up. However, I will now be posting every other Monday rather than even pretending to post every week. Life is just getting in the way of that particular plan.
Second, I’m going to have an announcement and news page. For those of you who have written saying you want to know more about the books and my writing, you’ve been heard. I don’t have a schedule for that particular page. As there are announcements and news to share, I will share!
Third, I’m hoping to run more contests come autumn so be sure to check back regularly!
There you have it ~ the few changes I wanted to tell you about. Thanks for hanging in during a busy season. Hopefully your summer has been as delightfully interesting as mine has been and you have lived a champagne life on a beer budget.
It’s a lovely thing to do, as I have learned this last month since my last post. And now I’ve learned how to do it without breaking the bank! It can also be a little scary sometimes. We get into our routines and our comfort zones and it really isn’t all that necessary to move out of them. However, we can discover so much when we do. Another good idea…? Take baby steps. Broaden your horizons slowly.
Something nice about this blog is I know everyone reading it loves books. If you didn’t (and there does seem to be an anti-reading movement going on recently, which makes me shudder for so many reasons), you wouldn’t be here. Also, the fact that you’re here means that you enjoy some subcategory of romance novel, probably contemporary romance, since that’s what I write. So, try a new author, a new subcategory. I even have a suggestion for you (and no, she’s not paying me *wink*).
Try Delilah Marvelle’s School Of Gallantry series. It starts with Mistress of Pleasure and will continue this August with Lord of Pleasure. You can learn more by visiting Delilah herself here.
2009 may become known as the summer of the staycation. But if you curl up with one of these good books, the heat generated will equal any beach’s! And that is a champagne life on a beer budget.
