Crafty Beards {for Babies} + a GIVEAWAY

January 21, 2013 by Jules 21 Comments

Anybody else still thawing out from a randomly frigged cold front?!? What a perfect time for a cozy giveaway, eh?

You know I like to say thanks for read'n my ramblings as often as possible and it's been way too long since I've done a giveaway sooooo, I'm gonna hook ya up!

I have made this sweat friend through The Homemaker's Challenge where we both contribute, Nicole Beard. She is one crafty lil chicka!

Nicole is a 25 Year old Christian wife and soon to be mother {woop!}, living in Kansas but originally from Florida! Her mother taught me to crochet when she was a lil bitty kid, and over the years she's picked up different techniques and patterns from various sources. Her prayer is to honor the Lord with her craft. How cool is that?

These stylish crochet newborn caps with earflaps will keep your little one (or the little one receiving a gift!) warm and cozy. Sold in a pack of 2, dark blue and bright green. Caps are approximately 5 inches from top to bottom and the ear flaps add approximately 2 inches to the length and will comfortably cover the baby's ears. The diameter is approximately 7 inches.

Please contact me Nicole for special orders - she can be made in any color you'd like! Boy, girl or neutral! Makes a wonderful gift as well. Ear flaps are optional and the caps can be made special order without them. (from my Etsy shop product description).

As far as the rest of the products on the CraftyBeards shop, she can make anything on there in any other color! She does take special orders for everything.

Today's giveaway is the adorable 2-pack caps in this photo:

How stank'n cute would these be with giant bows hooked on them?

Here is the how we're gonna do the giveaway. Rather than complicate things with a Rafflecopter, we're doing the good ole fashion comment method. Make sure you use an email where I can reach you with further info if/when you win.

Leave a separate comment for each of the following:

Head over to the Crafty Beards Etsy Shop and tell me your favorite thing Nicole offers
Tweet about the Giveaway on Twitter
Like this post on Facebook
Share about the giveaway on Facebook

Good Luck!!!

{Giveaway closes Friday morning and winner will be announced & contacted that afternoon}

Congratulatinos to Angie Ukena,
the winner of the Crafty Beards' 2 pack knit beanies!

Filed Under: Gifts Ideas, GIVEAWAYS!, Holidays, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Alternatives to PayPal for Bloggers

January 19, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

Today, I bring you a guest post from Michele from The Mommy Blogger. I know there are several other mommy blogger out there reading this and may need some advise from someone who knows a lot more than I do about this thing called blogging. So here's some alternatives to PayPal for my Bloggy friends!

Alternatives to PayPal for Bloggers

PayPal is certainly a popular way to "pay and get paid" on the internet today. There are some wonderful benefits to this service but they also tend to have a fairly high number of customer service related complaints. So if you are a blogger looking to add a payment service to your blog then you may want to consider one of the other options mentioned below.

Checkout This is a payment service provided by Amazon that can only be used if you are selling actually goods. In other words, it cannot be used for services or donations. This service is very user-friendly and costs almost nothing. Users only have to pay when a purchase has been made and the fee is small. In addition, they have excellent security settings.

WePay This service is often preferred because customers do not need to create an account or register to use it. Credit card or bank account payments can be made directly through this very easy to use system. WePay will also create a web page to add onto an existing site with relevant payment information which makes it easy for bloggers and customers alike.

Advantage is a merchant provider where you can apply even if you have a high risk business. And you can get the attachment for your iPhone or iPad if you sell something in person.

Paymentech This is a service offered by Chase that allows users to make payments from any computer or mobile device. No contract is required when signing up for Paymentech which is appealing to many bloggers. There is no annual fee and they also offer a bonus of twenty five gift cards to be awarded to customers. It offers more options than the two aforementioned services.

NOTE:

The links attached to this post are backed by Michele and are not necessarily backed by me. I use PayPal and have had no problems and do not use any of the other mentioned options nor am I an affiliate with any of them.
I agreed to post this as a part of a guest post exchange via The Mommy Blogger Directory and chose to because I thought her post could be helpful to bloggers reading here at as Jules is going.

Filed Under: The ones about the Rothacher Home

Find a Way to Play Together!

January 18, 2013 by Jules 2 Comments

Matt and I are so thankful to PBS's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and this awesome song we use almost daily with our kids to resolve fights:

Watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Find a Way to Play Together on PBS. See more from pbs.

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Feed My Starving Children

January 17, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

Hey friends! I would really love your help!

I, along with The Valley and Vilonia friends, have put together a team to take part in this amazing ministry. This is just a tiny way we can help make disciples of all nations for as little as $0.22. Not only is Feed My Starving Children gonna feed thousands of people, they are sharing the life saving gospel with them.

I know if your local, we are volunteering to help pack these meals as well but with out donations to pay for them we will be useless.

Please help us feed starving children! 22c pays for 1 meal.

My challenge to you?

Consider who you're feeding
- "Feed your children" -give 22c for every child you have.
- "Feed your Family" -give 22c for every member of your immediate family.
- "Feed your Friends" -give 22c in honor of your close friends
- Round it up. You wanna feed 4 kids and that comes to .88c Go ahead and donate an even $1.oo
Set a $ amount rather than a person amount.
- Pass along your happy hour drink for the day -give $1
- Skip eating out once -give $15
- Swap a movie theater date for a red box one -give $20
Be creative!
- Go in with friends or family Plan a beans and rice dinner with your family and talk about the meals these kids eat regularly {use the money us saved for this ministry}
- Make a beans and rice party out of it with friends {taking loose change to feed kids}
Here is another way to look at possible gifts.
- $33 Feed 5 Children for a Month
- $50 Pays for a full box of MannaPack Rice (216 meals)
- $80 Feed a Child for a Year
- $220 Provides 1,000 Meals
- $1,485 Feed 25 School Children for a Year
- $8,030 Feed a Village of 100 for a Year

We need YOUR help in reaching our miniscule goal. Please give whatever you can afford. THANKS!

Share your great ideas or goals!

Filed Under: Cool Ministries, Feed My Starving Children, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}

Beef & Veggie Stew

January 17, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

So our Arkansas winter went from 60'+ to snowing overnight. I'm constantly amazed my family isn't sick more often! When the weather turned frigged and there was not stank'n way I was heading out in it for groceries I was forced to hunt in the pantry, fridge, and deep freeze for what kind of heartiness I was going to feed my family. I know, 1st world problems, right!?

All of a sudden I had a hankering for some stew! I'd never made stew before and always thought you had to have fancy {expensive} stew meet to make it...then I realized that was crazy talk. That had never stopped me before. I then Googled {like every pro does} in search of a beef stew recipe I could tweek. I looked at several and realized I had the building blocks for a good stew already. SCORE! Here's what I came up with.

Beef and Vegetable Stew

I love recipes 😉

I started by browning my lean ground beef in my pampered chef steamer {best way EVER to brown meat!}.
I peeled, diced, and boiled my potatoes for about 30 minutes. I just waited until they were soft(er) not necessarily mashable.
In a big pot I mixed the browned meat, tomato sauce, {already dissolved bouillon cute} beef broth, onion powder, pepper, and salt all together.
I went in search of what other veggies I had and came up with a steamable bag of corn and a can of mixed peas and carrots. Yep, chunked all those veggies into the pot.
After bringing it to a bowl and stirring consistently, I removed it from the heat and ate it up! 😉

I'm thinking you could easily make this in a crockpot recipe. Put it all in to sit all day and simmer even more. That way you wouldn't have to hover over your potatoes either.