Want to design my book cover?

Want a chance to design a book cover?  :)

Send me a cover design or just a pitch by Wednesday, July 13th, and I'll pick the winner by Friday the 15th!  Here's the details:

Book Title: To Hymn We Sing
Subtitle: A Collection of 53 Devotionals on Hymn Texts
Author:  (me, duh.)  Michelle D. Gibson

Here's the template for the cover!  (Use the 5.5 by 8.5 cover template)

http://www.instantpublisher.com/covertemplates.asp

The winner gets a copy of the book, extreme notoriety among your friends, and a $20 Starbucks card.   Can't wait to see your designs!  Email them to www.michellegibson.net!

Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame...

#19. Take at least one picture every day. 

This is one I didn't think all the way through.

Really, Michelle?  One picture every day?  Seriously.  The goal behind this one is that I had really stopped taking pictures.  Due to the "rough years" of our life, I didn't want to document anything.  It was depressing and I didn't want to take pictures of it.  I did well for awhile, then I realized I was taking pictures just to take pictures.  Well, that wasn't the point at all.  So I started doing what this was intended to accomplish - take pictures of my life!

Here's a little sample of my picture taking:

Please don't stop the music!

#4. Write a business plan for a music studio.

This is going to be a fairly boring post.  The more I thought about this, the more I realized: I didn't want to do it.  My long term goal is not to be running a full store music studio.  I like the size it is now!  So, with that, I decided I was happy where my studio was, and I wasn't going to change it.  I do leave you with a picture of my adorable studio from our Christmas recital.  :)

Shopping for labels, shopping for love...

#25. Watch the entire series of Sex and the City.

Seriously?  What in the world was I thinking of when I decided on this one?  I don't have time to watch that much tv in six months!  Since I couldn't fit all that tv in, I decided on the next best thing:

I watched the movie. 

Yes, I know, it's not what I planned on, but sometimes, adjustments have to be made!  The point of me watching this was to watch ladies in their 30s being fabulous, and the movie was a good reminder.  I did, however, promise Jenica to watch all of the shows before I turn 31!

Girls Just Wanna have Fun...

#8 Start a once a month bunco group.

This one took a little while to get together.  In fact, we started this on June 30th - the very last night of my 20s!  If you aren't familiar with bunco, it's a dice game usually played by a group of women.  You roll the dice to get points and there's a lot of switching tables and screaming and wine.  Normally a group is 12 people, but to start out, we only had 6.  It was a blast!  We had wine and munchies and lots of fun!  I can't wait for the next one!

My heart is drenched in wine...

I know I said I was going to write about losing weight today, but I have some great photographical evidence for you, and my friend that has them is on her anniversary vacay, so for now, you get a different one.  Besides, my blog, my list, I write what I want!

#15 - Decide on a go to cocktail.

I love wine.  I really do.  Not in an "I can't live without it" way, but in an "oh, you make life so much sweeter" kind of way.  It's great with any kind of dinner, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, or just as a wind down after a long day kind of drink.  

For me, it has to be white wine, and I prefer it to be a little sweet.  Riesling is my favorite!  When trying to come up with what my go to cocktail was, I tried to think about something I always thought to order that was mostly available.  Wine was it.  I enjoy it so much, I had a wine party for my birthday!

They say it's your birthday...

The big 3-0 has come and gone, and I have to say, it was a blast!  In fact, I'm still celebrating.  I promised a blow by blow blogging of my list, so I'm going to start a little out of order: 

#30 - Say goodbye to my 20s in style!

Thursday morning, the day before my actual birthday, I came into the office to find this:

My super sweet coworkers had decorated my door!  I want to keep this up all year!  Thursday night held our very first bunco night (more about that in the bunco post!), and it was a blast.  I had so much fun with the girls and went to bed happy and content about my last night as a 20 something.  

Friday morning, I woke up early (I'm old now, that's what we do), and started the day off with a massage, a brow wax, and a shower.  Steffi met me for lunch, shopping for the perfect birthday dress, and a little mani/pedi.  When our hubbies got home from work, we had some birthday tacos at Fuzzy's, and then it was party time!

Yall know I love me some wine, so what better place to have my birthday party than a winery?  I decided to have a small and classy birthday bash year, so the winery closed down except for me and about 15 of my closest friends, and we got to talk, reminisce, eat wonderful cupcakes, and drink some delicious wine!  We stayed up way too late and the day was jam packed, but jam packed full of fun.  I'm excited to get to continue birthday fun today with my family!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post:  #1 - Lose weight!