Thanks again for all your support. Winners, please remember to email me back with your address so I can get these into the mail.

Today is the last day of my Avon Walk raffle. I’m $50 away from my goal! just ten $5 donations or five $10 donations and I’m at a total of $1,800 raised for breast cancer research. If you donate by midnight tonight, you are entered into the BLOGGERS HEART BOOBIES raffle where I’m giving away four separate prizes, including a $50 GAP gift card and various etsy goodies.

Donate and I’ll love you forever Click here to go to my donation page.

Morgan at Mrs. Priss donated one of her fabulous hair pins (in pink of course!) and flower rings from her shop Little Lovelies. Those flower rings have to be one of my favorite rings to wear. Especially during summer. I’m so excited to give it away. This prize, being a special addition to the giveaway goes to the person who tips me over the $1,800 mark. I’m less than $100 away! It will happen soon!

To enter, you must donate towards the Avon Foundation through my donation page here: Steph Corwin’s Avon Walk. When donating, please make sure to include your email address so that I can contact the winners.

Only three days left to enter!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been accumulating some amazing prizes from some of my favorite etsy shop owners. Thanks to their ingenuity and to my Discovercard rewards, I’m so excited to offer up a virtual raffle to my lovely blog friends!

Next month, I’ll be joining thousands of other walkers in San Francisco for the Avon Walk. With this commitment, I’m raising $1,800 towards breast cancer research and to support those under-insured who need treatment. I’m already close to my goal at a whopping $1,705. I’ve gotten there through gifts from my mom, mother in law, Grandma Betty, coworkers Diana and Diana, Talia, Morgan, Rachel, fundraising events with my team, and some profitable yard sales at my mom’s house with huge effort from my sister Cait. It’s been a journey, and I want to come into my goal with a bang!

The grand prize above that is going to one lucky donator includes a $50 GAP gift card and a prize package put together by the lovely Danni at oh, hello friend and her darling etsy shop, which includes a beautiful necklace, a ring, and various pink hairpins. Perfectly appropriate for the breast cancer research supporter!

Another prize is available to a second lucky winner. Alyssa sent me some of her super cute hair accessories from her shop Pinned up. The pink and white lace headband is so adorable on! I tried it (hush, I don’t have lice, calm down) and was tempted to sneak it for myself!

There is a third prize available to another lucky donator! Our Little Ashley put together an adorable package showcasing the hits in her etsy store: Joyful Star. It includes crimson flower earrings, two hairpins (similar to a pair I purchased for myself earlier this year and wear regularly), and a felt argyle keychain.

EDITED TO ADD:

Lastly, Morgan at Mrs. Priss donated one of her fabulous hair pins (in pink of course!) and flower rings from her shop Little Lovelies. Those flower rings have to be one of my favorite rings to wear. Especially during summer. I’m so excited to give it away. This prize, being a special addition to the giveaway goes to the person who tips me over the $1,800 mark. I’m less than $100 away! It will happen soon!

To enter, you must donate towards the Avon Foundation through my donation page here: Steph Corwin’s Avon Walk. $5 will earn one entry into the drawing. For every $10 you donate, you earn 1 bonus entry. Therefore, a donation of $10 would earn 3 entries into the drawing, $20 would earn 6 entries, etc. When donating, please make sure to include your email address so that I can contact the winners.

The deadline for donations is Friday, June 18th at 11:59 pm PST. Please only US residents will be eligible for the raffle (to avoid any legal issues regarding charity raffles, and please check your own state’s laws regarding charity raffles). All proceeds go directly to the Avon Foundation (as you will see when you enter the donation page). The donations are to a qualified charity and can be tax deductible. (Please contact your tax professional if you have any further questions about charitable donations… and not me )

Side note: For those who have already donated, you are grandfathered into the raffle since you are so awesome, and I didn’t even need to bribe you to donate

Spread the word by pasting this onto your own blog:

Full Disclosure: I compensated our etsy shop owners for costs, but this does not represent the full purchase price for these items. They put these packages together for the purposes of this raffle, and I appreciate their support. The GAP gift card is coming from my own windfall from Discovercard rewards. So enjoy it! I could have just bought myself a new pair of jeans.

First off, happy birthday!

I, too, LOVED carousels. I had my own porcelain, musical carousel. Ah, memories. I was obsessed with horses, though. I love horse figurines and I wanted a horse so bad when I was a kid!

We’re twinsies! But I loved all the responses! It brought back so many memories!

As for my birthday, it was wonderful. My mom and grandma came up to visit, and we went to a nice fondue dinner where I ate so much I felt like I was going to explode. A great way to start my year as a twenty five year old.

Well this year, I decided that I’d like to give something away for my birthday again. Why? Well it’s just so darn fun. And there are so many of you I just love, and I wish I could have a huge birthday party with all of you, combined with wine, girly movies, and makeovers of course. Since I can’t logically do all that, I’d like to spread some fun and prettiness your way in honor of the fact that I’m steadily getting older.

Sigh.

Danni has a lovely little carousel necklace in her ohhellofriend etsy shop that I just fell in love with. Because if I may share a little tidbit about myself: I used to love all things carousel and unicorn related. I have a box of porcelain carousels stored safely away at my mom’s house. My room used to have a lovely little unicorn wallpaper border, all adorned with pastel colors. Really that necklace is something that the moment I saw it, it took me right back to that little girl, carefully organizing her figurines by height (seriously. That was me as a child. OCD much?)

What’s a birthday without some childhood photos?

this can become a part of your own jewelry box!

So for my birthday, I am going to buy this as a gift for one of you! All you have to do is leave a comment with one of your childhood obsessions, be it a boy band, the care bears, you name it! (One comment per person please!) The contest will close at 11:59pm on Friday December 11th, and I will announce the winner on December 12th.

Hello? Oh hey. Yeah. So. I suck at the blogging thing, but yes I’m alive. I cannot even believe how it is already Friday. Where did this week go?

I kept up my end of the bargain. Well pretty much. Except for Sunday, which we shall not discuss, okay? Well fine. I knew I’d have to face you all sooner or later. Let’s just say Mother’s Day + an indestructible migraine = No workout. Since I did start my workouts one day early, I’ve just moved my days around. But I did not just give up. That’s the lesson of the story. One setback, and I’m still here. Shredding my booty off. I did not bury my woes in a pint of ice cream, no matter how tempting it may have been. (Okay okay! Cale and I did get a scoop of gelato.. but it was just one!).

Whew. Okay I got that off my chest. I’ve seen around the blogosphere that a few of you missed a day too, so I will go ahead and say it: It’s okay! The most important part is that you get right back into the routine. I’m not going to be the workout nazi and say No whipped soap for you! To be honest, I could care less if you miss a day or two, I just want everyone to get their booties moving. Isn’t that the point? So if you’ve missed a day or two, brush it off and keep up with the rest of us!

I would do my checklist of workouts, but this is pretty much what it looks like: Shred, Shred, Shred, Shred (omg I did all the shoulder raises without cheating!), Shred. Yeah I think that covers it. Last Friday I did hit the pool. Outside! It was a nice long lunch break. I even got a tan just from the 45 minutes I was out there. Swimming is such a deceiving workout for me. I spent my whole life perfecting my technique to make my stroke more efficient. So now, when I swim I feel like I’m barely working hard (yes I know, this is a good thing) while I’m doing it. Ohhhh man though, once I got out I could feel it all in my arms and back. I was one sore woman that evening. And the next day. And even a little on Sunday.

Have you noticed a difference? Today will be Day Ten for me. I’m constantly walking up to Cale with the same question: Do I look skinnier?? He says what any smart husband would say: Of course! Riiiight. But I do feel stronger. Earlier this week I was shocked to find my tricep. That little muscle that slowly disappeared over the years. Yeah it’s back baby! I’m really enjoying the 30 Day Shred, and I’m pretty nervous about moving on to Level Two tomorrow. I can just remember how I floundered around like an idiot my first time with Level 1. Now I get to look forward to doing that all again. But it’s time to move on, no more being a big fish in a little pond. Level 2, can you please be nice to me tomorrow? I look forward to getting acquainted with you.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty dang sexy after I workout.

So to everyone whose working out along with me: how has your week been? Give us an update, either in a comment or a blog post. Let’s keep each other motivated!

Flippin’ Fit People: Diana, lucklys, steph anne, Cait, Rene’, Elizabeth, Meri, shannon, Kyla, Sensibly Sassy, ashley.star, Alyssa, Lisa, Andrea, Allison, Kourtni, Ali, Amanda, E.P., Michelle Woo, Talia, Sarah Marie P, Je, sara.jane, Lacey Bean, Amber, Lisa, Joy, Trysha, calisara, and unofficially so shhhhh… wishcake.

details here

You all will be so proud of me. I held up my end of the bargain. I totally worked out the past three days. And the working out for today is imminent. I’m so glad we have a solid group of folks who are up for this challenge! Yay for everyone!

• Tuesday: The Shred. I started up again at level one. I work out with five pound weights. I don’t have any problems with it until the anterior raises with the side lunge. That is when my five pound weights suddenly feel like fifty. I’m interested to see if this is much easier by the end of level 1
• Wednesday: The Shred again. I didn’t get to this until about 10:30pm. I really want to start waking up early to get it over with before work, but my body is disagreeing with my head and would like to sleep in. We’ll see if I can start this up next week.
• Thursday: The Shred (noticing a pattern?). I could tell a difference in my endurance. It was much easier. I’m working up to doing all regular pushups during the first circuit. Right not I’m at about half and then I switch to the modification.
• Today’s plan: Swimming on my lunch break. Hiding at my cube for the rest of the day since my hair will most certainly be a disaster. Also planning on doing the Shred again tonight. I think the Shred will be my base workout everyday, and I’m hoping to add more activities on top of that.

I’ve found that fitting in the Shred during my day is much easier than I was making it out to be. Really it is only about 40 minutes to set up, complete, and then put the living room back in order. Plus I really feel the pressure to work out because the only thing worse than failing is failing publicly.

Flippin’ Fit People: Diana, lucklys, steph anne, Cait, Rene (see even my in-laws are joining in! real life pressure!), Elizabeth, Meri, shannon, Kyla, Sensibly Sassy, ashley.star, Alyssa, Lisa, Andrea, Allison, Kourtni, Ali, Amanda, E.P., Michelle Woo, Talia, Sarah Marie P, Je, sara.jane, Lacey Bean, Amber, Lisa, Joy, Trysha, and unofficially so shhhhh… wishcake.

How have your last few days been? Do you have any fun ways to get exercise to share with the rest of us? Let’s get busy supporting each other. If you missed a day, jump right back on the wagon. We won’t tell anyone

Are you ready to hear what the contest winner will get?

whipped soap and other luxurious handmade and vegan goodies from Savor.

I was browsing etsy wondering what in the world it should be. And then I realized, what better way to pamper yourself after working out than to get all sweetly clean and wonderful smelling. As Cale delicately put it:

Oh yeah because after you work out, you smell like fit.

Except he said something that rhymes with fit.

So to the winner will go a bundle of goodies that I will pick out from the Savor etsy shop: whipped soap, bar soap, and body mist. I will most certainly get input from the winner about which scents they prefer.

If you want to join us in our quest for fitness, please do! I’m extending the start date to the 9th, so don’t hesitate, let’s get moving!