Wednesday Weekly Review #32

On July 17th I shared with you the blogs I nominated for the Liebster Award when I was nominated the first time. Well now it's time to share with you the blogs which I nominated the second time around! A little about the Liebster Award in case you missed it last time: You are nominated by a blogger who was previously nominated for the award. You share 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions that the blogger who nominated you gave you, create 11 questions for your nominees, then you nominate 11 people for the award, and finally (in your nomination post) you thank the blogger who nominated you! It's all about the number 11! A VERY important rule to this award: You have to have less than 200 GFC followers in order to receive it.

If you're interested, here is my Second Liebster Award Nomination post. This award was given in November of 2012. The third award happened in December. The first was awarded in October.

The second nomination came from Nicole @ This Is The True Story. Read her nomination post here.

Nominees In Order of Appearance on the Post

Lovin Our Chaos. This blog is written by Abbie, an Apostolic Pentecostal blogger. She shares many DIY projects and a lot of tasty recipes. See her nomination post here.

Oh By Golly. This blog is written by Jacklyn. She shares a lot of posts on cute decor ideas, things to do with being a mommy, and diy projects.

Quiver Full of Blessings. A Christian blog written by Rachel. She has a wonderful blog full of tasty recipes, diy projects and life as a mom.

Sunshine & Rain. At the point of nomination this blog was known as Keeping Plus In A Minus World. Krys, the creative author behind this blog, has since changed the name. She still shares creative projects she's working on and little tidbits of her life. Read her nomination post here.

Eclectic Darling. This blog is written by my best friend Kora. Her most popular series are her Music Mondays, but she also shares photos of cakes she's decorated and the occasional Fashion Friday post!

The Pentecostal Lookbook. This is an Apostolic Pentecostal blog, but it hasn't been updated since December 2012...which is sad because they shared a lot of cute & modest outfit ideas.

It's a Wunderbar Life. This blog is written by Kaitlin. She is very crafty and shares her many projects on a regular basis. That includes everything clothing knock-offs of popular stores, home decor, and more!

From Sarah's Camera. A photography blog by Apostolic Pentecostal blogger, Sarah.

PJM's Closet. A clothing & fashion blog written by Pia.

A Rooth-less Life. A blog written by Ruth. She shares a lot of adorable & modest outfits.

The Modesty Walk. An Apostolic Pentecostal blog written by Natalie. She too shares a lot of cute outfit ideas and testimonials from AP ladies in her church about dressing modestly.

Well there is the end of the Liebster #2 blogs! Be looking for the third Liebster Award review post coming soon!

Prego With Style | Week 14, Purple & Blue

Today's outfit was worn around my 14th week of Pregnancy, otherwise known as the week of July 16th. I was feeling quite good at that point and then just one short week later I started having pains in my stomach which could only mean the uterus was stretching to make room for the baby to grow...and it was starting to push my stomach out a bit too and that wasn't comfortable either. Anyway, here is my outfit and a few belly shots since my cousin wanted to see some updates on how big the baby belly was getting.

Blue Dress: $5 Clearance at Walmart! (2013)
Brown T-Shirt Scarf: DIY Project I did in September 2012.
Purple Cardigan: Clearance rack at Old Navy, 2010.
Brown Sandals: Thrifted!

I had to have Autry take several photos...this one was my favorite.

This is a selfie...notice only one had. I put this one up too because it really shows how big my baby belly has gotten recently. According to my chart I've gained 11 pounds since being pregnant. My last visit to the midwife I had lost 3 pounds. She asked if I had been eating healthier. I have been eating more raw fruits & vegetables so that must be helping! :)

I wasn't into fixing my hair that day, but I wanted it out of my face so I did a quick braid and snapped the rest of it back with a hair clip. Notice how thick my hair is getting? (Maybe it's just me...but I think it's getting darker too.)

So there's my latest outfit. I generally wear the same black skirt (see this post) with a loose T-shirt since that's the most comfortable thing. But when I do dress up or wear something different I do try to get a photo so I can share the outfit ideas. I'm still looking for maternity clothes. I found the blue dress and a black one just like it at Walmart for $5 each. There is plenty of room to grow in them and I can layer up in the fall/winter to make them last longer.

What did you wear most when you were pregnant?

{closed} 400+ Followers & First Blog Giveaway!

Screen Shot as of July 23, 2013.

Blue Eyed Beauty Blog is celebrating reaching over 400 followers on GFC! I'm thrilled to be attempting my first giveaway ALL by myself! (Hopefully it goes smoothly! lol.)

On my fairly new series "Bucket Listed" I shared the post Create A Popular Blog where I wrote about the journey of how my blog began to where it is now. I've come so much farther than I ever thought possible when I first started out. I didn't really have a goal in mind at the beginning, but I did hope I would have at least a handful of readers at some point and now to have over 400 on GFC...Wow! I never even imagined this! Thank you readers and followers for joining in and making my blog so wonderful!

I've got the giveaway set up with Rafflecopter just below. There will be ONE "Grand Prize" winner and TEN runner's up. I thought that it might be more fun that way! Here is the breakdown on the prizes:

GRAND PRIZE

The winner of the Grand Prize will receive a blog makeover with the following 'makeover' pieces: 1 custom header, 1 custom button with grab box, 1 custom signature, and 1 custom set of social media icons. I will email you when you win and we will talk over details of what you'd like (color/design, etc.) before I create your blog's new look!

3 MONTH BLOG AD SPACE

TEN people will win the prize of 3 Months Blog Ad Space on  Blue Eyed Beauty Blog. This will be for the months of September, October & November. I will display your blog button up on my blog's sidebar. You will not be required to display mine since you'll be winning this as a prize on my giveaway (usually I only do swaps).

I'm sorry I don't have a prize for my readers who don't blog! I'll have to work on that for the next giveaway I do!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners of the Ad Space
Justina Who
Will&Me+B=3
Marjorie's Busy Corner
Homegrown On The Hill
I Gotta Try That
Latitude Adjustment
Let It Shine

Words On Sunday | Words vs. Actions

{photo via Cubicle Refugee}

Everyone's heard the phrase 'actions speak louder than words', but this photo really gives perspective to it; don't you think?

Has this phrase been true of you?

Blue & Rosy Pink Blog Design {for sale!}

Hello lovely readers! As some of you know, I do spend some time designing looks for blogs. I came up with this one this past week, but didn't end up using it. I've put it up for sale on the Blue Eyed Beauty Store.

This is the Blue & Rosy Pink Blog Design. You can see the preview here on Blue Eyed Beauty Store.

This is what the put together design looks like. I had it up on one of my testing blogs so I could get this photo. It's saved as {dot} JPG on purpose, but when purchased you will have the {dot} PNG version so it will be crystal clear.

Here are the social media icons I've put together for this set.

Design Specifics

~Full light-blue background

~Rosy Pink header with light blue shadowing

~6 rosy pink social media icons (see above)

~unique blog buttons with grab box (regular & featured buttons)

~custom menu bar

~I can install it for you with no extra charge

Other options for this design can be discussed. It may cost more depending on what it is.

The images in this post & on the store are purposely saved in {dot} JPG, but when you purchase this blog design package you will be getting everything in {dot} PNG so everything loaded on your blog will look crystal clear! I just didn't want anyone able to easily copy the design.

This design is up for sale for $30. For anything not already included in the package may cost $10 more. Email me if you're interested!

This Is Me | Challenge Accepted?

I don't know about you when you were a young & reckless driver, but as for myself...every time I saw a yellow light it meant only one thing: speed up and get through that light! Every time! I'm not really sure what I was thinking at the time...maybe I wasn't, but now when I see a yellow light I question whether it's worth stepping on the gas.

{photo via pophangover}

My driving style has changed a LOT since The Car Wreck. I'm a lot more cautious, most of the time, and less likely to do something stupid like push a yellow light. Of course when I was in Oklahoma we only had one red-light in our town so I would usually take a side road around it so I never had to stop at it...and even in the next town over there were ways around the stop lights, even here in Missouri I avoid stop lights as much as possible, but I usually don't push the yellow like I used to do.

Buying Fresh, Buying Local

The past few months I've been visiting a little local store in town that sells fresh vegetables & fruits, many of which are organic grown and are super tasty! Not only that but just a few weeks ago I started going to the local Farmer's Market and shopping at the many stands there as well. I've found a lot of great tasting vegetables this way and I've really enjoyed it (Autry doesn't really like fresh vegetables like I do...I like cucumbers, he doesn't..etc).

In more recent weeks I've been reading different things about eating "Real Food" and that has really inspired me to work harder on eating healthier...now that doesn't mean I eat right or good all the time, but I think I've improved a lot from where I/we were when we first moved in together. I hope to keep working towards the eating Real Food goal, but I know it will take time.

For now I thought I'd share a few photos of the different things I've bought over the past month or so from either the local organic food stores, farmers market, or straight from the farm!

This was one of my trips to the local Health Food Store. I found a lot of great things there that day. My favorite were the yogurt covered pretzels (pictured below). Other things I picked up that day: Almond Oil, Date Pieces in Oat Flour, Banana Chips, and Almond Slivers.

Date pieces from the Health Food Store. They were TASTY!! I would buy them again.

Yogurt Covered Pretzels. These were really good...even hubby liked them!

This 8oz. bottle of Almond Oil was on sale for like $6. I was thrilled! It's so hard to find almond oil...

Fresh Picked Blueberries from a local Blueberry Farm! I picked them myself and BOY are they delicious! You can't really tell in this photo but they're actually really big berries... I have a post in the works of picking berries on the farm. I bought quite a few of the 'jelly berries' to make Blueberry Jelly. When I make it I'll be taking lots of photos so I can blog how that experience goes!

Pancakes with Fresh Blueberries & Bananas for breakfast! I have two different pancake recipes which are both really tasty: Oatmeal Pancakes and/or Fluffy Pancakes.

These tomatoes are vine ripened and were picked up at my favorite local organic foods store. I've stopped by to pick these up twice now in the past few weeks they are that good!

My favorite way to eat them is sliced and a nice bit of salt on them! They are SO juicy!!

These nice big cucumbers were bought at the farmers market. I haven't tired them yet, but I'm sure they're delicious! My favorite way to eat cucumbers is with a little salt and a lot of ranch dressing! (See here.)

Fresh Farm Eggs! Nothing beats them!! These were purchased at the farmers market as well. I've gone back to get them more than once, they're really good!

Finally we have fresh peaches...but these are no ordinary peaches, they were FREE! Why? Because they were considered 'bad' and the lady wasn't able to sell them...so she gave me a bushel and a half... I made it all up into Peach Butter (a lot like apple butter!). I probably could've saved some of them and put into baggies to freeze for peach cobbler, or other baked goods, but I didn't.

Here's how our peach butter turned out. Doesn't it look tasty?? Recipe & directions for making this coming soon!

I've purchased other things from the farmers market and local stores such as Strawberries, Onions, Potatoes...but I don't have photos of them because I wasn't thinking about writing a post about them until recently.

Do you shop at the Farmer's Market?

Bucket Listed | Create A Popular Blog

Last year I was VERY into putting together different posts of things I'd like to complete throughout my lifetime. A lot of people would probably call my lists "Bucket Lists" and that's just fine with me. I like to call them Life Goals, but really there's very little difference. Anyway, today I want to share with you a Life Goal that I feel I've completed: Create A Popular Blog. Now to clarify, when I first started blogging in February of 2012 I really had no clue what blogging was all about so I just wrote posts for myself and for the fun of it. I still keep this concept as I'm writing the posts that go out each week. I write about things I love, things I'm doing, and things I want to do. It's a great system and obviously it's paid off without me having to try very hard! I love blogging and have really enjoyed this past year and a half where I've been able to post a lot of great recipes, DIY tutorials and so much more!

In the very beginning & even still now, I don't blog to gain followers or build my reader audience. My purpose behind blogging was to give me something to do after my car wreck so that I felt like I still had some importance in the world. I couldn't work a job, I really wasn't able to go out much, and I had to drop out of college right after the wreck (I did try going back the summer and again in the fall after the wreck but that was very challenging and caused more stress than I could handle so I had to give it up completely). Having my blog gave me something to focus on and work on and in the beginning months of my blog I didn't do much with it because I didn't really understand everything. When I finally quit college for good I had a lot more time to focus on it and started to realize how much I loved blogging.

As I would learn something new I would try to apply it to my blog. Since my blog begain the style has had a few changes to it, but over all, in the last 6 months or so, it's stayed pretty much the same with only minor differences. The black 'header' was the first one I ever attempted to make. Some of my old posts still have writing on the photos in the black & peach colors. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't like the way that looked so then I switched to the all black & white one but that too wasn't a favorite so I moved on to the white & green header. I think that was up for a few months but then I discovered picmonkey.com (a great source for editing photos! You can use it for free or sign up for the yearly price and get all the features!) so I created the denim & cardboard header. I really liked that...but eventually I figured out how to add my own custom sidebar for the pages so I moved on again to the all denim look...which has been around for almost a year now if not more. I really like the denim & white and will probably be keeping that for quite some time!

Another thing that was a learning experience for me was creating a blog button. The peach one was the very first one I made. I made it on the Paint program on my computer. The second one I made from a piece of fabric on a photo I had, but it was never used on the blog. The third was around much longer and was only replaced when I decided to go from a whole bunch of fonts down to three which is when the last one came it.

When I first started blogging I shared an occasional recipe, a few DIY projects, and some DIY homemade things...many of those posts are still wildly popular today...possibly because they've  been around for awhile. I eventually started up a few series on the blog. The Wednesday Weekly Review is one that is still alive and kicking today with over thirty published posts and quite a few sitting on schedule waiting for their publish dates to arrive!

At least once every month I receive a comment from a new reader and they say they love that I have such a wide variety of posts to share and that they really like that about my blog. I'm always glad to hear this because I DO cover a lot of different subjects. I love hearing reader(s) feedback period! It's always nice to know that someone is enjoying the posts that I put so much effort into.

This past week has been a really awesome week for Blue Eyed Beauty Blog. We reached over 400 followers on Google Friend Connect, hit 184 on the Facebook fan page, 48 on Feedburner, and 240 on Bloglovin! Not only that but BEBBlog was featured on several other blogs throughout this past week. It almost felt like it was "Feature Blue Eyed Beauty Blog" week!! Here are some of the places BEBBlog was recently featured:

I shared the recipe Blueberry Crumble Muffins on Inspire Me Wednesday which is run by Mel @ Mama Buzz. I was SO thrilled when I went to link up yesterday and saw that it was a featured post! View the post where my recipe was featured.

Awhile back I swapped buttons with Marigolds' Loft and just this past Monday she put out a feature post which included a bit about my blog! I was so honored I had to add the featured button to my sidebar right away! View the post here.

Just yesterday not only one but TWO of my posts were featured on the Wednesday's Adorned From Above Hop! They were the DIY Car Emergency Kit and Cooking For 2 | Baked Potato Casserole. I was really surprised to find a feature and even more surprised when I saw the double feature! Wow! :) View the post where both of these posts were featured.

Last week my Coconut Almond Granola recipe was featured on the T.G.I.F. Link Party hosted by A Peek Into My Paradise! I had no idea so many people would want to check out a homemade granola recipe! :) View the post where I was featured.

And last, but surely not least, my recipe for Helen's Homemade Granola was featured on the HomeAcre Hop @ Summers Acres. We talked a bit through email about making granola and how it never seems to stay in the house very long because you want to eat it all the time! She liked that this recipe used brown sugar because so many of the recipes she saw called for honey. View the feature post here.

As I said, it's been an exciting week for Blue Eyed Beauty Blog and I've loved it! My 'featured' section on my sidebar has grown a little bigger and now we've reached 400 followers on GFC which I never thought would happen when I first started out.

I wanted to do one last thing before I close up this post. I wanted to show off the three Liebster Awards Blue Eyed Beauty Blog has received. One was given to me by each of these ladies and it was greatly appreciated: Julie @ Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk gave me my first award in October of 2012, Carolyn @ The Diary of a Tall Girl gave me my second award in November 2012, and Nicole @ This Is The True Story gave me my third award which was also given in November, but I didn't get my post up until January 2013. I went over 200 followers somewhere around January and didn't qualify for the award anymore since you have to have less than 200 followers in order to receive it.

I feel very blessed to have so many great followers & readers on my blog & I love getting to email you and chat with you about the different subject I write about plus SO much more! :) Thank you all for being apart of my "Create A Popular Blog" experience! You're wonderful!

"Firsts" & "Important's" of BEBBlog's History

2012

February 2, 2012 First Post: Photography Interest

February 5, 2012 First Recipe: Banana Nut Bread

April 17, 2012 First DIY Project: DIY Shaving Cream

July 1, 2012 First Blog Hop I linked up with: Follow Me Friday

July 10, 2012 First Outfit Post: Summery White Skirt

July 11, 2012 First Featured Blog Post: Natural With Kendra

July 18, 2012 First Wednesday Weekly Review Post

July 23, 2012 First Guest Post: Paula Parrish Blog

August 17, 2012 First Lets Talk About Hair Post

September 2012: Month With The Most Posts (115)

September 10, 2012 First FAIL Post: Apple Cider Vinegar

September 21, 2012 First Joined Bloglovin

September 27, 2012 First Became a Refashion Co-op Contributor

September 30, 2012 First 10 Day YOU Challenge Post

October 11, 2012 First part of The Car Wreck Story was Published

October 14, 2014 First Liebster Award

November 4, 2012 First Words On Sunday Post

November 8, 2012 Went over 100 Followers!

November 23, 2013 First Homemaking 101 Post

December 31, 2012 Co-Hosted my first Giveaway

2013

January 2, 2013 Hosted my First Blog Hop

January 3, 2013 First Co-Host of a Hop: That Friday Blog Hop

January 22, 2013 Cooking For 2 went Live

February 4, 2013 First Guest Post on BEBBlog by Lisa

April 8, 2013 First ASL Post

April 9, 2013 Opened the online Blue Eyed Beauty Store

May 21, 2013 First Announced our Baby on the blog!

May 25, 2013 First "This Is Me" Post

June 10, 2013 First Post with Pics of Emerald (our cat)

June 11, 2013 First Prego With Style Post

July 15, 2013 First post of everything Hubby & I
July 24, 2013 BEBBlog hit 400 Followers!
July 29, 2013 First Blog Giveaway!

I hope you enjoyed looking over the different things that have helped this blog grow!


GIVEAWAY COMING SOON!
This coming Monday BEBBlog will he holding it's very first Giveaway. I will be giving a Grand Prize to ONE winner of a blog makeover with new custom header, button w/grab box, signature, and social media icon set. TEN winners will be given a 3 Month Blog Ad Space on Blue Eyed Beauty Blog! Be looking forward to that and be sure to stop by and enter! Lots of opportunities to gain points especially if you already follow me on the blog via GFC, facebook, twitter, pinterest, rss or bloglovin!