Domestic Randomness: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Party Time! 6th giveaway - Ad Space

Our 6th giveaway is an ad space on Addicted to Recipes.

Dawn from Addicted to Recipes is a wife and mom to two boys, Dawn is a blogger who writes about recipes old and new, some that she has been collecting since she was a child. There are always cookbooks lying out around her house as she is constantly flipping through the books as well as her massive binder of collected recipes looking for inspiration. She truly is "Addicted to Recipes!". Outside of the home, Dawn works full-time for the fundraising department of a post-secondary institution, and when she can find a little extra time, she loves to scrapbook, read and get in the occasional run. You can follow her recipe adventures on her blog, on Twitter and on Facebook too!

I'd love it if you would take a button!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linked Up To:
Shopper Strategy, Sweep Tight Blog Giveaways, Sweep Tight Rafflecopter Giveaways, The Steady Hand, Family Focus Blog, Home Jobs by Mom, 5 Minutes for Mom, Coupon Geek, Deal Seeking Mom, Enter Online Sweeps, Mommy Jenna, Gracious Giveaways and Reviews, Look What Mom Found & Dad too, Miki's Hope,

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Party Time! 5th giveaway - 3 months of Emeals subscription

Our fifth giveaway is a 3 month subscription to emeals. If you haven't heard of emeals, you should. I wrote a review about it here. It really is a cool company. I personally don't use it long term, but many of my friends do and I know that it is a great service for those who don't have time to plan meals ahead of time. It is especially great for working parents, but I know we stay at home parents can be busy too :)

Of course this giveaway is sponsored by emeals. Go on over and check them out! And check out the awesome entries below!

I'd love it if you would take a button!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Party Time! 4th Giveaway - Ad Spot and Amazon Gift Card

Our 4th giveaway is a 240x100 ad spot to run for 1 month and a $15 amazon gift code. That's right today you are entering for 2 awesome prizes (1 winner gets both)! And Angie said that if you don't have a button for the ad she will help you make one

These prizes are sponsored by Angie from Snack Cups and Smiles. Here is how Angie describes herself and her blog:

Hey! I'm Angie and I'm a wife, mom and mamaw.

We live in East Tennessee where I was born and raised.

I graduated from a SAHM to a "stay-at-home Mamaw".

My all time favorite motto that I learned from my mother is "choose your battles wisely".

I love photography, baking/cooking, sports, pizza, crafts with my Grandboy, quiet moments alone, the beach and hearing people laugh.

I'm laid back, I have a big heart and I'm open-minded.

I blog about our daily lives, funny and dramatic moments with Grandboy,

recipes and a few attempts at being crafty.

If you haven't been over there go check it out! And don't forget to enter the giveaway.

I'd love it if you would take a button!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linked Up To:
Shopper Strategy, Sweep Tight Blog Giveaways, Sweep Tight Rafflecopter Giveaways, CashNet, Just Sweep, Airplanes and Dragonflies, Blog Giveaways, The Steady Hand, Family Focus Blog, Mom Giveaways, Home Jobs by Mom, I Love Giveaways, Contest Listings, Sweeties Sweeps, 5 Minutes for Mom, Coupon Geek, Deal Seeking Mom, Enter Online Sweeps, Mommy Jenna, Gracious Giveaways and Reviews, Look What Mom Found & Dad too, Miki's Hope, Saving Money Plan, My Crafty Life,

Monday, February 25, 2013

Party Time! 3rd Giveaway - Arbonne Makeup

Our 3rd giveaway is 3 Arbonne Eye Shadows. You can see the colors in the picture above.

Arbonne is a great natural Swiss products company. I am not an active consultant anymore but I still very much love the products!

This prize is sponsored by me, here at Domestic Randomness. If you haven't yet please feel free to poke around and see what it is I do and what this blog is all about. You can see the main topics I write about in the tabs at the top of the page.

I am running a survey to get to know my readers a little bit more and see what you are interested in. I will also be using the information that I gather to make sure that the ads, promotions, and reviews that I run will be of interest to my readers. So if you would be willing to fill out this quick survey for me (and I do mean quick, it should only take you a few minutes) that would be really great! Filling out this survey will also get you an entry into this and a couple other upcoming giveaways. Simply fill out the Domestic Randomness Survey form and submit and then go down to the rafflecopter and enter through the Fill out the Survey option.

Domestic Randomness Survey

Thanks for your help! There are many other entry options below, check it out.

I'd love it if you'd take a button!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Party Time! 2nd Giveaway - 2 months of Ad Space

Our second giveaway is two months of 250x250 ad space on The Domesticated Princess.

The Domesticated Princess is a cool blog that talks about sewing, crafts, saving money, parenting, and more! It is also a co-host for the Party Time! Linky Party.

Bonny says "While I can be called a daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, friend, volunteer, tutor, and more, the title I like best is princess even when most days I feel more like a maid, cook, chauffeur, secretary, nurse, accountant, photographer, counselor"

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Party Time! 1st Giveaway - Microwavable Hand Warmers

Pocket Hand Warmers From Practically Functional

Our very first giveaway is a set of beautiful hand warmers.

These microwaveable hand warmers come in two shapes and are made of soft flannel in one of 5 patterns and filled with whole corn. Microwave them before heading out into the cold and enjoy warm hands for 30-45 minutes! Each pair comes tied up in ribbon with a set of instructions, so they make great gifts! Choose from a pair of 3"x4" rectangles or 4" hearts, in one of 5 colors.

These hand warmers were donated by Practically Functional.

Practically Functional is a DIY/Craft blog about simple, practical ways to turn a house into a home! She shares a little bit of everything from fun crafts and cleaning tips to DIY projects, organization ideas, quick and easy recipes, gardening advice, and more!

I'd love it if you'd take a button!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Party Time! - Blogiversary Linky Party

Tomorrow (February 23) is the one year anniversary of the day I put up my first post and started this blog. I can't believe how far it has come since that day. My first post was short and not my best writing. In case you are wondering my first post was Produce Picks. I didn't have any followers and didn't even tell people about my blog for a while (I wanted to make sure that I could do it first, and stick with it). And it has grown so much, and I have grown with it. I think I started this as a way to talk to adults and share of myself. I was a new mom with a 3 month old, staying at home, having little interaction with adults. I needed an outlet, a way to interact with others and share my thoughts so I wouldn't go crazy. This blog has grown so much and I love being able to share with all of you.

And I have a lot of great things to share with you in the next few weeks! In honor of my 1 year blogiversary I am throwing a huge party! It starts today with a big linky party. I have 2 great co-hosts (thanks Snack Cups and Smiles, and The Domesticated Princess) teaming up with me for this, so when you link up on any of our blogs it shows up on them all. Then starting tomorrow I have several giveaways for you. So far I have 14 awesome giveaways lined up so far, but i am still getting offers so there may be more :). There will be one giveaway offered every day until we run out of prizes. The prizes include several gift cards, some products, and some ad spaces. I'm not going to say more because I don't want to ruin the surprise. You'll just have to come back every day and see what awesome thing you can win!

As for today join in the party! Link up anything you have been working on!

This linky party is happening in place of my usual Friday Fascinations Linky Party. Friday Fascinations will resume after Party Time! has concluded. I will also post the features from the recent Friday Fascinations after we are finished with the party. Hopefully all of you new subscribers will come back for my regular parties. Friday Fascinations runs every other friday and continues for two weeks. Please feel free to visit anytime and link up because there is always a linky party running here.

This week we are going to do an everything linky party. You can link up anything that you have been working on, thinking about, writing about, whatever. Literally any post of yours that you would like to share with my readers link it up!

Oh and if you have a linky party that you would like me to visit please link it up in the Link Up Your Party Here tab above. I love visiting parties and when I have time I go to that tab and visit all the parties that are open at that time.

The rules:

You may link up anything that you have been working on - crafts, recipes, random musings, etc. And you may link up as many posts as you like.
Please follow the host and two co-hosts (Domestic Randomness, Snack Cups and Smiles, and The Domesticated Princess in some way.
Link up directly to the post, not your home page.
By linking up you are giving us permission to feature your post including but not limited to pictures and quotes from your post, and also to feature your post in our various social media outlets.
This is a family friendly, Christ following blog. I reserve the right to remove a link to any content that I find offensive or not compatible with this blog, with or without notice.
Please add a back link or my button to your blog or post somewhere.
Please check out some of the other links and leave some love in some way (comment, pin, follow, etc.)
The links are inserted in random order so if you don't see your link it may have entered somewhere in the middle. Please check to be sure that it is not already inserted before you link it up again.

Oh and I'd love it if you would take a button!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Blast from the Past 26 - The only way, a political poem

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.

From April 2007

The only way, a political poem

The only way

I understand the point of view
and I would really like to help.
I have come up with a simple way
for us to solve the problem.

The problem is the poor people
they are everywhere, we see them
in doorways and under bridges,
there is one in every motion picture.

So I think that we should give them money
that is what they truly need right?
We should continue giving them money
until they have enough to buy that fancy house
that we have always dreamed of
or that Porsche convertible
the one with the red paint.

That is what they really need right?
They need all that fancy stuff,
all that stuff that we don’t have,
that stuff that we can live without.

They obviously can’t live without it.
Who would be audacious enough
to think that they can?
What kind of horrible beast would not give?

I am not a horrible beast
so I will give them all I have,
and if that is not enough,
I’ll take a loan and give them what I don’t have,
How else do we solve the problem?

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Blast from the Past 25 - 50 Goals

50 goals

My cousin has 103, I was determined to think of at least 50. I realized the other day through various conversations that not even my close friends and family knew that I had a lot of goals for my life. So I started making a list, and here is the first 50, I will continue making the list and post more when it seems to be worthwhile.

[Me current day - I thought it would be fun to add into this post what I have achieved from this list, so I will be inserting comments. They will be in [] so you can tell what is new]

So anyways here are 50 goals that I hope to achive sometime in my life:

1. graduate college [done!]
2. get a degree [done!]
3. teach English in Taiwan [Not done, and unlikely to happen since I have a husband and kids now, but oh well, I like this path better :)]
4. write a novel and get it published [hasn't happened, still possible, but I have found that I am really more of a short works writer, like this blog and children's stories. I have trouble concentrating on one story long enough to write a novel]
5. write a series of children’s books [I have written a couple, none published yet]
6. buy my own kiln, or work somewhere that I can use one regularly [hasn't happened yet, still possible but expensive, so we'll see]
7. make a movie [I have made some short stuff]
8. train myself to get up earlier for devotions [I don't get up earlier, but I have gotten to the point where I do devotions every morning, currently I am not doing well on this but I have before]
9. grow closer to God everyday [I am trying]
10. surround myself with people who are actively growing in God and who will encourage me to do the same [We have done a pretty good job of this, we have an awesome church family and family group!]
11. become fluent in Spanish [hasn't happened, but I do remember a few words from high school, for some reason pinguino is the word that most often comes to mind, it means penguin, not sure why but it is stuck in my head]
12. be a nanny [I have nannied for several families, before I became a mom]
13. get married [done!]
14. have children [done!]
15. tour Europe [hasn't happened yet, who knows, maybe someday]
16. travel as much as possible [well we take a couple vacations a year, as much as we can afford]
17. visit each of the 50 states [I have been to some, going to a new one in a couple months]
18. visit every country in the world (highly doubting that this will happen) [Unlikely and expensive, but who knows :)]
19. bake a soufflé [haven't yet, anyone have a good recipe]
20. invent a new food [well I have lots of recipes, I'm not sure if I can say any of them are truly new]
21. do all of my hw every night, or even better the night before (yeah, that’s not going to happen :) [yeah, totally didn't happen]
22. invent a way to cook without having to clean up afterwards [Well I guess I kinda did, because my husband does the dishes, but I can't eliminate all the cleaning, sorry sweetie]
23. worship God fully with all of my talents [This could probably use some work]
24. be good enough to, and not too nervous to, sing up front at church sometime [I did this for a while, but then felt that it wasn't where I was called to serve]
25. learn to overcome my nervousness in talking and singing in front of people [I have done this somewhat, I still get nervous but I can function through it, so it doesn't stop me, but it could use some more work]
26. paint a mural [haven't done this, but still hope to someday]
27. become fluent in at least one other language, maybe more [unlikely to happen, but who knows, maybe someday]
28. learn to ballroom dance really well [well, I do ballroom dance, don't know if it is really well, it is good enough for me, I no longer want to be really good, I just want to be good enough to have fun]
29. learn to play the piano [hasn't happened yet, well I know 2 songs, but that's it]
30. study culinary arts [I took a baking class, it was fun]
31. learn how to start my own business [I have learned, and I did start this blog]
32. make a pair of glass or ceramic slippers that are functional [haven't done this yet, and I don't know if they will be functional but I still love this idea]
33. have a library room in my home, and have enough books that I have read to fill all the shelves [We really don't have room in this house for a library, honestly it kinda seems like a waste of space now, but we do have plenty of books]
34. have met 1,000,000 people I my lifetime [I'm not keeping track, so I will have no idea if I will or have ever met this goal]
35. have lead a lot of people to the lord [I have led some, but not for a while]
36. become the person God wants me to be [I hope so :)]
37. invent something new that is really useful [I have ideas, but no actual inventions yet :)]
38. figure out what I (or God) want to do with my life [Well I know what I am supposed to be doing now, I think, that is the best I can do :)]
39. own a white bug with pastel polka dots [hasn't happened yet, and is unlikely since it is a little impractical for a family, but you never know]
40. pay off all my college loans before I graduate, or enough of them that it won't be a hardship for me to finish [Well I didn't pay them off before I graduated but we paid them off before they started collecting interest]
41. learn to invest in stocks well [Well I didn't do this one and the next one, and have no plans to
because I found a better way, playing the stock market is gambling, investing in mutual funds is a good investment]
42. play the stock market and win
43. build a ceramic house [hasn't happened yet, I don't even remember why I wanted to do this anymore]
44. learn to fly an airplane [Hasn't happened yet, pretty unlikely, but I suppose possible]
45. overcome my fear of Frisbees (or discover a way to make them all disappear from the earth) [I don't think either of these things is going to happen, oh well :)]
46. have enough money every year to fill at least two shoeboxes for the shoe box mission thing [so far this has happened, yay! Last year I made six!]
47. be financially worry free (someday, hopefully, but not likely :) [This is pretty true right now.I don't know if it is possible to never worry about money, but we are in a good spot thanks to God, Dave Ramsey, and my husband's job]
48. figure guys out [is that possible? I know Mr. Random really well, but I don't know if I would say I have him or any man figured out]
49. have enough time to volunteer wherever I feel called [well I'm not working any more, but I'm not sure I have time, hopefully I will be able to get organized enough to have time :)]
50. think of 50 goals !! [obviously I did :) And recently I made 100 goals!]

Friday, February 8, 2013

Friday Fascinations 10 - Everything Linky Party - Features from Friday Fascinations 8

Features from Friday Fascinations 8

So much talent linked up this week! I had a hard time narrowing it down. There were many other awesome links in Friday Fascinations 8 so go on over and check them out :) Oh and by the way as I was looking on inlinkz to see what the most clicked on link was and it turns out you lovely people are not really joining the party. You are linking and running. Please be nice and look at other people's posts while you are here. You want them to look at your post, right? Please return the favor.

For those who are featured get yourself a button!

Favorite Main Dish Recipe

Rediscovering Lost Arts from Our Mothers linked up a Gnocchi recipe that looks yummy and surprisingly not hard. You know me, I love easy recipes :)

Favorite Dessert Recipe

Snack Cups and Smiles linked up some Ooey Gooey Bars that look simply scrumptious.

Favorite Child Related post

Huckleberry Love linked up a super cute Upcycled Play Kitchen that they made out of a dresser and file cabinet. Aren't they super cute?

Favorite Organizational Post

On the Home Front linked up Frugal Tips: Preparing for Christmas. I know it sounds weird to think about preparing for Christmas in January or February but I totally agree with her that the time to start is now. That way you don't have a mad rush, spirit killing Christmas season in December.

Favorite Relationship Post

The Faithful Homeschool linked up Knitting in Love in which she talks about honoring your husband with your words. I totally agree with her, we need to watch what we say about our husbands to others.

So there they are, aren't they fabulous?

Now on to the linky party. What have you been working on?

This week we are going to do an everything linky party. You can link up anything that you have been working on, thinking about, writing about, whatever. Literally any post of yours that you would like to share with my readers link it up!

Oh and if you have a linky party that you would like me to visit please link it up in the Link Up Your Party Here tab above. I love visiting parties and when I have time I go to that tab and visit all the parties that are open at that time.

The rules:

For this party you may link up anything that you have been working on - crafts, recipes, random musings, etc. I do not mind links to giveaways or parties as long as you state that it is a giveaway or party in the title. Link up whatever you want just please be honest in the title. I do some themed linky parties sometimes, but this one is a free for all!
Please follow me in some way. If you absolutely hate my blog then of course don't follow it, but if you hate it should you really be linking up? (I leave that for you to answer :) There are several ways to follow me offered on the right sidebar.
Link up directly to the post, not your home page.
By linking up you are giving me permission to feature your post including but not limited to pictures and quotes from your post, and also to feature your post in my various social media outlets.
This is a family friendly, Christ following blog. I reserve the right to remove a link to any content that I find offensive or not compatible with this blog, with or without notice.
Please add a back link or my button to your blog or post somewhere. You can find my buttons in the button tab above.
Please check out some of the other links and leave some love in some way (comment, pin, follow, etc.)