Mingling.

Although I don't seem to do it as often as I have in the past, or would like to, I've got a passion for entertaining, and table scapes in particular.

No, that is not my guilty pleasure confession. You already know that about me.

Now that we have Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, I can log on and find inspiration any time of the day or night, so...for the most part, I don't purchase magazines anymore.

For the most part.

There is one publication I can't get enough of, and I find myself checking the magazine rack at the store whenever I know a new issue is due out. It's called Mingle. (How perfect is that name for an entertaining mag?) It's one of the fabulous Stampington publications.

It's been out for a couple of years now (I think) and each and every issue is loaded with over-the-top-and-think-way-outside-of-the-box entertaining inspiration.

I can't get enough of this magazine.

(I even love the feel of the paper they use for this publication.)

The photography is always such that I find new inspiration each time I flip the page. (Even after looking it over fifty gajillions times.) The features strike something in me that makes my heart skip a beat, and I begin thinking of new ideas for table settings, and soirees, and details to make any event or meal-at-home special.

Today when I was looking through this latest issue of Mingle, I realized something. (You know that moment when you suddenly see something for the quadrillianth time but with suddenly new crystal clear clarity, and wonder why you hadn't known it before? Yeah, like that.) While I get oodles and toodles of inspration from this magazine, I do not take the steps to move it from the inspiration stage to reality. It's strange, because I used to be much better at following through on this, (I looked back in my blog archives, here, and here...and here. Oh, and here...) and I am wondering what the heck happened to me along the way.

That is something I am going to work on changing. AFter all, I have come to realize that life is very much shorter than I first assumed it was, and because of that very reason alone, I want to make the most out of each and every day from this point moving forward.

So, thanks to Mingle, I am (hopefully) going to do more of what makes me happy, which is, in part, entertaining...making the ordinary..extraordinary. I am going to make the most of life's little moments (Like a breakfast of pumpkin walnut oatmeal with coworkers, and sweet little themed lunches with grand-babes) and put into action what plays out in my head after meandering through an issue of Mingle.

I'll be sure to keep you posted!