Happy Saturday! I've been working with Speak Now for a couple of months and have been so excited to share this huge link-up in support of their mission. Check it out and get involved!

Ellie Coburn // elliecoburn.com | Christina Soto // Piecing it all together | Shane Prather // Whispering Sweet Nothings | Vicki // My Vickilicious Life | Kristine Foley // The Foley Fam | Jenny // Diary of a Dreamer | Nina // Nina's Bargain Beauty | Ashley Griffith // After Nine to Five | Christine Rosko // Life With a Side of Coffee | Megan Flynn // Freckled Italian Kendra Newton // Kandid Kendra | Julie Grimmett // Julie is Coco and Cocoa | Kayla Leppelman // Love Sparkle Pretty | Ashlea Durrett // Ashlea with an A | Sarah Hallstead // A Plethora of Pondering's blog | Cassie Yielding // Live. Laugh. Love. | Laura Euler // Storybook Reality | Brett // What Happens at Bakertown | Brittany Trevino // Sunny Tales and Happy Mail | Ashley Wilhite // Your Super Awesome Life | Eliza St. Clair // Case Study | Diana // Fly to the Wall | Elle // Dig Deep Studio | Cody Doll // Catching Cody K. | Wendy E. // Blush and Barbells | Brenda Wilkerson // Don't Stop Believing
Today is an exciting day, new friends!  Welcome to the first ever community fair for women empowerment. 

My name is Ellie Coburn, I'm the owner and founder of the Speak Now Organization and movement for women empowerment. 
Today exists to inspire you to love yourself. Today exists to challenge you to empower yourself.
Today exists to spark a movement that is of such importance.....
A movement of self-worth, self-appriciation, and self-love. A movement that strives to create a community thousands strong of women who believe in themselves and their abilities. 

Today Speak Now is teaming up with 30+ bloggers, woman, and empowerment leaders and telling you that you are beautiful. 

Why are we here sharing this information with you?

We live in a culture that defines our successes based on our weight, general appearance, or financial successes. A culture of female mothers, lawyers, doctors, waitresses, bloggers, realtors, house maids, interior designers, graphic designers, photographers, and endless other lifestyle choices. Interestingly, despite our dynamic differences based on demographics or choices we are expected to fit in with the expectation of the "ideal woman" Today we are here to tell you: 

Speak Now exists to inspire and empower you to look in the mirror each day and pledge to love yourself. Are you in? 

Link up below to show your support. Be sure to share your support with family, friends, and fellow bloggers. Like us on Facebook to stay connected!

Special thanks to,  Sarah Moog, Casey Wiegand of the Wiegands, Annelise Rowe of Aunie Sauce, and  Jenni of Story of My Life

This Event is Sponsored By: 

The Transformation Survival Guide

It's been a while since I picked up my copy of

Old Friend from Far Away

, but I've been thinking about it a lot since I moved. I guess it just took an uninspired afternoon for me to reach for it, hoping for some kind of serendipitous writing prompt to be waiting for me on whichever page I happened to open. Of course, I never like the first one, so I tried again until I came across a passage that spoke to me.

"In order to write we must have an awareness of who we are--and who we aren't. If you don't know either, writing can help teach it.

Know that writing is born from the ache of contraries, polarities in search of peace, of unity.

But not the unity of making mush. You want to live in the country. Your husband is an urban boy. You compromise and both live in the suburbs. What a squash of desire and energy.

Can you instead hold the tension until something fresh and howling results? You must find your way to this when you write.

What bold restless extremes do you carry inside?

"

Here are some of mine:

Coffee. Every day.

The best meals start with garlic and butter or olive oil.

I feel that there is no room in life for guilt or regret. Where do you go with either? I try to live each day well and if I make a mistake, I can say I'm sorry--fix it in some way--but then be done with it.

People deserve to be happy. Surprisingly, happiness doesn't always have room in it for everything you thought it might.

There was a time when I was insecure and unsure of myself in too many ways. It wasn't fun, and it wasn't good for me, and I'm glad that time has passed.

I want a big life full of good food and some kids and a dog and all the people I love near me more often than they're not.

When I read, write, run, pray--do whatever it is that makes me feel connected to myself and the Universe that surrounds me--I feel better. Because I am better.

I am often hard on myself and it's usually unfair.

I'm supposed to write. I just don't always know where to begin.

So, what bold restless extremes do you carry inside?

Photo credit: 

Winona Grey Photography

This post is sponsored by Bing.

Last year around the holidays, my friend Tony and I made a pact to turn 2013 into "The Year of DIY." He threw a bean-themed party with goody bags and a table full of awesome bean dishes and even made the cutest bunting for the dining room wall. I showed up with a round vanilla candle that I surrounded with cinnamon sticks and tied with a white ribbon, and then we didn't make any more crafts for the rest of the year.

This holiday season, I'm determined to make at least one or two gifts for people. I've always have a plethora of jars that has continued to grow over the years (I'm not sure if I'm actually a horder or just very environmentally concious), and I've always been a fan of a good body scrub--so I thought that I'd honor my oath to DIY and give a homemade body scrub recipe or two a try. (And, apparently, do a bit of rhyming.)

Image via Whole Living

I was really excited when Bing asked me to use their new Smart Search to navigate my next online searching experience, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Have you used it? I was so pleased with how it was not only easy, but helpful.

We passed by the Windows store in the mall the other day and stopped in to do a quick Bing search on one of their new tablets. I simply typed in "DIY body scrub" and was met with a really aesthetically pleasing page of results. A row of photos in the middle of the page were helpful and expanded with a quick hover of my mouse. Bing Smart Search truly does provide a smart summary of results. You get a rich, visual summary of the most relevant information from across the web, and I'm totally going to make that Spicy Sugar Scrub (pictured above) from Whole Living. It looks like it'll be perfect for the holidays.

Have you made any great body scrubs or other homemade bath/beauty products lately?

And what are you waiting for? Give Bing Smart Search a go!

As always, I deeply appreciate your support as I continue to work with sponsors.