Thanks to all who entered the Warm Biscuit Bedding Company gift certificate giveaway. The lucky winner is Farrah of Baby Love Slings! Congrats, mama!
And a HUGE thank you to Warm Biscuit Bedding for sponsoring such a generous giveaway for my amazing friends and readers. I hope you all found some really cute things there that you just can't live without!
Oh, this is so exciting! The lovely, warm, and inviting folks at Warm Biscuit Bedding Company want to offer you - you gorgeous SortaCrunchy readers you! - the chance to win a fifty dollar gift certificate to their darling store! You may have heard of Warm Biscuit Bedding - they have been featured in the pages of BabyTalk, Cookie, and Parents magazines and have been featured on ABC News and the Today Show. One look through their scrumptious catalog and you'll quickly see what all the buzz is about!
Warm Biscuit Bedding offers vintage-inspired bedding that is sure to quicken the heartbeat of any mommy with great taste. Beyond their bedding lines, they also offer a delightful array of vintage toys, books, games, and jewelry.
Every time I browse there, I find something else to fall in love with. My current objects-de-drool include this pink perfection embroidered Moses basket (oh, I DO love a great Moses basket!):
as well as this vintage-inspired copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and little matching bunny ("It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." *big sigh*):
I think D would absolutely burst if one of these lavender jewelry boxes with a dancing ballerina somehow made it into her hands:
And yes, sure, I'm partial to the girly stuff, but they do have plenty of little boy goodness, too. I know one little Beep Beep who might be pretty fond of the entire line of vintage train bedroom decor:
SO! On to the giving away!
We'll make this nice and easy. All you need to do is go to the Warm Biscuit Bedding Company site, browse around, take in the sights, and come back here and leave me a comment with what your very favorite item in the store is. Open to all - bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Make sure your email address on the comment form is accurate so I know where to find you if you win!
Bloggers - want to be entered twice? Post about this giveaway with a link to it at your blog and email me the link or paste your link into the comments (make sure it is the link to the giveaway post - not your homepage).
Giveaway will run through 6 AM, May 16th, at which time I'll draw a winner. Good luck! Happy drooling shopping!
Thanks so much to everyone who read and shared yesterday. So FUN! Totally made my week.
Earlier, I mentioned my friend Mandy had read and reviewed Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's Jesus For President. Now she is giving away a copy of this book! Go see her and enter and spread the word around. (While you are there, check out her crunchy and christian manifesto, which I identif with in a lot of ways!)
I'd love to win this, and if I don't, I'm probably gonna go ahead and grab this one for myself anyway.
You'll want to check this out, mamas . . .
Crunchy Domestic Goddess is holding a huge giveaway to honor and celebrate both our earth and the mamas who make this planet go 'round. There are many, many delightfully green and crunchy and delicious prizes to be won. (None of them are edible, although that last sentence may have led you to believe otherwise.) The giveaway runs from now through May 11th, so make sure you stop by her place soon to peruse the goodies!
Hello! Welcome to the Spring 2008 edition of bloggy giveaways. Such a fun week this is! If this is your first visit to SortaCrunchy, let me tell you I am so glad you stopped by. Feel free to take a minute to snoop around - the doors are always open around here.
This week, I am giving away one copy of Dr. Bob Sears' The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child. Vaccine information awareness is a topic I am passionate about. Dr. Sears has spent thirteen years researching vaccines and has put together invaluable information on each vaccine on the market today coupled with up-to-date information on the diseases these vaccines are designed to protect our children against. His approach is one of advocating for vaccination while encouraging parents to make careful, informed choices about when and why each vaccine should be given.
I cannot say enough good things about this book! I think it is one each parent should have on the bookshelf as a guide and go-to reference. Even if you are past the years of having to worry over vaccine schedules, you may perhaps want to win a copy to pass on to friends and family who are in the "havin' babies" season of life.
*Important giveaway note - The Vaccine Book is written for parents in the U.S. and contains information unique to the Centers for Disease Control/American Academy of Pediatrics vaccine schedule. Therefore, this giveaway is for residents of the United States only. BUT, I don't want to leave my dear blogging friends in Canada and other parts of the world out of all the fun, so if you are not a resident of the U.S., go ahead and leave me a comment telling me where you live and if your name is chosen, I bet I can come up with a little somethin' to send you instead of this book!
* To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment. Make sure the email address you enter in your comment is accurate! I will draw a winner on Friday, April 25th, sometime during nap time (mid-afternoon).
By the way, you can find the complete list of bloggy giveaway participants here. (And would you believe when I posted this at 5:45 this morning, there were already over 140 giveaways listed? Ay-yi-yi! Bless your heart for making it by to see me.)
Have a gorgeous week, and thank you again for stopping in!
COMMENTS CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!
Ohsomany thanks to each of you who have stopped by this week to check out my new blog home! It's been such a blessing to hear from each of you.
The winner of the Mrs. Meyers honeysuckle cleaning kit is . . . Julie from Elisharose News! This fellow Tejas mama just returned home from a trip to sunny California. I'm jealous! And she wrote a great entry on life as a captive earlier this week that I encourage you to check out. In fact, she is in the midst of Beth Moore's Breaking Free, which makes me wonder if she is going to the actual Beth Moore Tuesday night teachings. Because, evidently, she knows Missy. Hey, are ya'll friends? Fill me in! I love this small bloggy world. (And speaking of Missy and giveaways, she's giving away a copy of a book that has turned my thinking on Christian spirituality upside down . . . and ironically enough, has spurred my desire to leave the Republican party, which I think highly annoys Mama Missy! Go check it out and enter, and while you are there, send some good sleep vibes her way, okay?)
And a little something happy greeted my this morning. Turns out, I won the personalized post-it giveaway over at mom-fessions. YES! I do love me some office supplies. Not kidding even a little bit.
As Miss D would say, "Hit! Hit! HOORAY!"
Today is SortaCrunchy's big ol' two year blogiversary.
Can't believe it's been two whole years since I nestled into this little corner of the blogosphere. I am not going to link back to my very first post because it's quite anti-climatic. Sure, look it up from my archives if you want to, but personally, I wouldn't bother.
If you read my posts directly from the SortaCrunchy homepage, you may have seen the note at the top of my sidebar inviting you to be here on January 2nd. Curious? Here's why!
I don't think I can ever quite express how much my readers mean to me. Within this little group are very dear, very wonderful friends from my community; there are friends I have known for over three years via mommy message boards (including Meghan to whom I owe all my inspiration to blog to begin with); and there are friends who have happened my way quite unexpectedly from points near and far through the wide world of blogging.
I wanted to celebrate my readers today with two surprise prizes. (We are just all about the giveaways these days, huh!)
The first prize I am awarding goes to the reader who has left the most comments in the past year. Calculating these was no small task, let me assure you! You sweet friends are so generous with your feedback around here. I genuinely would love to give each and every one of you a token of thanks for making blogging so delightful for me! But that might mean my family going without groceries for the month, and The Coach prefers a menu that stretches beyond ramen noodles and celery sticks, so I must restrain my gift-giving.
The reader with the most comments from January 2007 to today is my dear friend LORI of Fairytales and Margaritas! Lori, please go over to Just Being Notesy and pick out what you would like on a set of custom cards made just for you. Email me what you want and I will take care of ordering a set for you. Love you, mama!
Since I am celebrating TWO years of blogging today, I wanted to give away TWO gifts. The second gift is a random selection. I figured I have posted about 168 times this year. I took out the three giveaway posts and my blogroll post and went to random.org for help in randomly picking a post. Funnily enough, it picked one of my favorite posts from the past year - See the Fine Lady Upon the High Horse. That little entry gathered nine comments, and so again, random.org chose a number for me. Number eight - my dear and delightful friend Megan at FriedOkra! How fun it was to pick out a thanks-for-commenting gift for newly with-child-number-two Megan! Here's what I found from one of my verrrrrrrry fave handmade soap makers - Frost Fish Cove Soaps: a Body Worship Butter Blend stick to ward off stretch marks and cure cold skin blues AND some relaxing massage oil so hubby can take care of your child-bearing self! Email me your address, mama, and I will get these sent to you.
What I had really wanted to do was what Gretchen at Lifenut did recently in her Thank you Thanksgiving post and link to every person who commented here in the last year. Alas, that plan did not come to fruition, but maybe next year. Next January, I plan to offer THREE little thank you prizes to my dear friends who take a minute away from their busy lives to hang out with me here.
Really, ya'll. Thank you. I can't say it enough.
Happy New Year, friends!
Christy and I are thrilled to be able to showcase two fabulous blog designers as part of our Big Bloggy Move blogging event. These two lovely ladies have offered completely free blog makeovers to get the new year started out right.
For those who are looking to give their Blogger blogs a face-lift OR for those who have been wanting to start up a beautiful blog of their own on Blogger, let me introduce you to Jennisa of Jennisa's Bloggie Designs! As I looked through Jennisa's work, I kept saying to myself, "Precious! So cute! Just DARLING!" Go browse through some of her work and see if you don't agree.
Jennisa is offering a free blog makeover for a Blogger blog. To enter, all you have to do is leave a little comment on this post. (If you don't have a blog yet, just make sure I know where to find you if you win.) Though not a requirement, it would be really, really awesome if you could link to our giveaways and The Big Bloggy Move on your blog as well! (Check Christy's blog for a design giveaway from Blue Yonder Designs.)
This giveaway will run from January 1st through January 6th. Winner will be announced on January 7th! And even if you don't win the giveaway, Jennisa's prices are so reasonable and her work is so cute, who wouldn't hire her for a sprucing up of your bloggy home?
Labels: blogging, bloggy move, contests
So here's the deal . . . I am struggling with keeping up with my blog reading. I think probably I am not managing my blog reading very well and I would love to hear how you guys do it. I also know we are all pressed for time these days, so I want to make it worth your while to share your secrets, hints, and tips with me!
If you will answer these questions for me in the comments for this post, I will enter your name for a fun little drawing. The winner will receive one lip balm of her choice from Clear Hills Honey Company! Because CHHC is about to close for the holidays, I will close this drawing at 2 pm central time on Thursday, December 13. Winner will need to email me her address no later than 8 am on Friday, December 14 so I can get the order in promptly. (both bloggers and non-bloggers are eligible, so that means all my lurky and/or non-blogging readers are more than welcome to de-lurk today!!)
Okay, so here is what I am wondering . . .
1) Do you use a feed aggregator like Bloglines or Google Reader to do your blog reading? If yes, skip to #3
2) If you don't use a feed aggregator, how do you keep up with your favorite blogs?
3 a) If you do use a feed aggregator, how often do you "click through" to the actual blog to comment?
3 b) If the blog you are reading publishes truncated (shortened) feeds, does that make you more likely or less likely to click through and read the whole post?
4) For everyone - how many blogs do you read/subscribe to? Overall, are you happy or unhappy with how often you are able to read AND comment on your favorite blogs?
5) Feel free to share any advice or feedback that you think might help me better manage my blog reading time. :)
Brennan Manning: Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God
Madeleine L'Engle: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Wheaton Literary Series)
Shane Claiborne: Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals
Amanda Blake Soule: The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections
Allison Tyler Jones: Expressions: Taking Extraordinary Photos for Your Scrapbooks and Memory Art
Jennifer Carden: Toddler Café: Fast, Healthy, and Fun Ways to Feed Even the Pickiest Eater
