Monday, July 30, 2018

Celebrating My Third Blog Anniversary And a Giveaway!

Celebrating Three Years of Blogging!

It's party day, dear readers, as I prepare to celebrate three years of blogging! Hope you'll come to the party! And, just because I'm in a partyin' kind of mood, I am doing my first giveaway on the blog. Read to the end of this post for details of how to enter. You do like presents, don't you?!






My third year of blogging has brought some exciting posts and a few changes.

By far, one of my favorite posts was the three part series I did on styling my little black dress in formal, semi-casual and casual ways. These posts garnered a lot of interest. 



I also shared some favorite authors and books I enjoyed. 


And had the pleasure of meeting author Jan Karon and spending the evening with her at a local bookstore! (I'm still pinching myself to believe that this really happened!) Luckily, my dear friend was there to remind that it did, indeed, happen!


I dusted off my tiara for the Royal Wedding.



And tried my hand (or should I say feet?) at my first ever race for a good cause!



And, just for good measure, Mr.thisandthat and I welcomed these two fur cuties into our family. 



Many of my posts have remained predictable such as my ever-changing foyer stylings and attempts at tablescapes




While some of my style posts show me taking a few risks with fashion. 

My main goal, however, as a blogger continues to be to give my readers a little bit of this and that in my posts. Variety is truly the spice of life in my opinion!

There was a BIG change (at least for me) that happened in May with my blog. I switched my blog name back to its original blogspot address and gave up owning my own domain. In retrospect, I may have been a bit hasty in some of the decisions I made, but at the time, I was very concerned with the changes I kept reading about regarding the new European Union laws regarding privacy of information. I feel like I have done all I can to be "legal", though, and probably didn't need to be as concerned as I was. Changing back to my blogspot address has been nice in many ways. Will I ever own my own domain again? Or work with brands again? I'm not sure. I'm kind of in a holding pattern right now and we'll see what happens in the future. 

I do need your help, though. Switching back caused me to lose quite a number of followers on "Feedburner." So, if you could follow me by email (think of it as a blog birthday gift) I would surely appreciate it! Also, feel free to pin my photos for reference later! 

But, most of all-I hope you will leave me a comment. Let me know which post you enjoyed most this last year. What would you like to see more of in my posts? If I put together a book of my devotions I've written, would you be interested in buying it? Hope you will take a moment to share. I always love hearing from you!

And, now, for the giveaway news! In honor of my third blog anniversary, if you leave a comment on this post between the time this post airs (which is Monday, July 30th, 2018) and midnight on Tuesday, July 31st, 2018 eastern standard time, I will enter your name in a drawing for the beautiful necklace and earring set you see in the photo below (scarf not included). One entry per commenter and no spam comments will be entered! Comments must be made on this blog post and not on another type of social media. I will announce the winner in my blog post on Thursday, August 2nd, 2018,  and will ask the winner to private email me your address so I can send the necklace and earring set to you! Due to mailing costs, this giveaway is only open to folks who reside in the *contiguous United States. I apologize to any Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and European readers! There will be only one winner, so be sure to leave a comment!

Necklace approx. 18" long. Both pieces are hypoallergenic. 


And, as always, thank you for being a loyal reader to debbiethisandthat.blogspot.com! 

Until Next Time,
Debbie

*Contiguous United States refers to the 48 connected states including Washington, D.C. but excluding Alaska, Hawaii and off shore insular areas/territories. 





8 comments:

Ruth An Cooper said...

I always love seeing your pictures and reading your posts.
My favorite fashionista friend!

Susan said...

Debbie, I especially enjoy your scriptural postings and the decoration ideas. I've also learned to notice clothing in atypical settings (like Walgreens)! Happy 3rd anniversary as a blogger! Keep up the good work!

Karen said...

Congratulations on another blogging anniversary Debbie! Yours is one of my favorites. It would be hard to pick from all of your interesting posts, but I do like the ones where you style an item different ways. That is really helpful to me in seeing my things in a new light! And I LOVE the post that Cassie did and always look forward to those. Maybe Garden is another aspiring writer! I do very much enjoy the thought-provoking devotional posts also. Please keep doing what you're doing! I know it's a lot of work to do this, but you are so relatable and I know many, many of us appreciate the time and effort that goes into blogging!

Sharon said...

Congratulations, Debbie! I enjoy all your blog posts, but I especially like the ones of your foyer decor, your book recommendations, and of course, Cassie's turn as a guest blogger. I would absolutely buy a book of your devotions!

Mary Lou said...

It is hard to believe it is 3 years already! I'm not on blogs and such much with you being the Exception! Congratulations and best wishes for continued growth& success of your endeavors!

Bain said...

I can't imagine giving up my domain. My main concern has always been that I want to own my blog content, 100%, and have control over who can use it (and whether they have to pay me to do so). I don't like the idea that Google has a license to use my blog posts whenever and however they want. The European privacy stuff isn't as big a deal for most bloggers as the rest of the world made it out to be--most of us are MAYBE collecting email addresses on a mailing list, or allowing comments that require protected information. We just have to disclose what we're collecting, and allow people to opt out. (There's something called "the right to be forgotten," so a person can come back and say, "hey, can you delete all of my comments?" or "take me off your mailing list?").

Linda said...

Yes, I was one of those people who lost you,
but thankfully I found you again.
Keep on writing and sharing and being an inspiration for your readers.
Blessings to you,
Linda

Debbie Styles Life said...

Ruth Ann, Karen, Sharon, Susan, Linda, Bain, Mary Lou....

Ladies, you all humble me with your kind and thoughtful comments about my little blog! Thank you, thank you for reading and commenting and being such devoted readers. You all are the best!