Down East Basics Review and Giveaway

Okay, it's no lie when I tell you Down East is probably my favorite clothing store!  I miss living in Utah and being able to shop there all the time, but thank goodness I can still get my fix online.  Down East Basics online has all of your essentials (such as their infamous and perfect under tees in all sorts and colors) and tons of gorgeous, one-of-kind clothing. 

I especially love their swim suits!  The only one I actually wear is from there, and every time I look at their suits I wish I could buy ten more!

What's even better?  Unlike many online clothing shops, their prices are affordable!  Let me share some Down East goodness with you. . .

 Ultra cute tops

Amazing skirts and dresses

Amazing skinny jeans, capris, shorts, and more!

And the cutest swim suits you'll find anywhere!

Down East was generous enough to send me their amazing heart throb shorts to review:

Verdict?  Love them!  They are super comfy and cute and they go with everything!  Definitely a summer essential.

One of you lucky readers is going to win any item from the Down East Basics new summer line!  While new facebook promotional rules prohibit requiring "liking" a company as an entry for a giveaway, it would still be great to stop by and like Down East to stay informed on promotions and discounts!  Click here to visit Down East on Facebook.

Anyways, here's how to enter:

Mandatory: stop by Down East and take a look around then come back here and tell me what fun summer item is on your essentials list.

Optional extra entries:

1) Blog about this giveaway on the blog you regularly use (3 entries)

2) Subscribe to Women Who Do It All via email by clicking the little email icon in the "stay connected" section of my sidebar

3) Visit my new blog contributors (follow and leave a comment)- that's one entry per contributor so six possible extra entries.  You can find their buttons in the contributors section of my sidebar.

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This giveaway will run for one week with the winner being announced shortly thereafter.  Remember to leave one comment for each entry.  Thanks for participating!

Meet Our New Women Who Do It All Contributors

I am so excited to introduce you to our new contributors!  These are some talented ladies who have a lot to share.  There were many great applicants and it was really hard to choose, but these six ladies seem to really have a knack for their area of expertise.  I am excited about this change because I think it will fit with my whole theme a lot better.  Women Who Do It All was originally intended to have a little bit of everything, but lets face it I'm not good at, or even in to, everything.  This way there will be more variety and more expertise involved.  I hope you all are excited for the change too!

These lovely ladies will start posting next month, and meanwhile I've got two great giveaways to post in the next week or so (one of which is Down East, I know you don't want to miss that one!) so check back!

Anyways, without further ado, here are the new Women Who Do It All Contributors:

Jocelyn from Inside BruCrew Life will be sharing her cooking expertise with us.

 Marcy from Life's Gristle will be blogging about living a healthy lifestyle (and we all need that, don't we?!)



 Paige from The Crunchy Mamacita will be teaching us how to live a greener life.



 Danielle from Blissful and Domestic will be sharing sewing, organization, and home decor tips.  A jack of all trades :) The wonderful ladies from Six Sister Stuff will be sharing their craft expertise with us. And last but not least, Amy from Living A Radical Life will also be sharing her craft expertise.   Amy doesn't have a button yet, but her blog is ultra inspiring, so click here to go check it out! ********** I am so excited to start working with you ladies and become good bloggy buddies!  Thanks to all of my wonderful readers for being patient with me this last week as I got all this organized.  I still have some work to do on it, but things are getting going.  Happy Thursday :)

What I Wish I Had Known About Computer Viruses: You should all read this!

Last night I was browsing some blogs and went to download a freebie photoshop template from a perfectly trustworthy blog.  Turns out the site she used to provide the free download (also a trustworthy site that I have downloaded things through before) was infected with a virus.  Note that I didn't even end up clicking the download button, it happened simply from visiting the infected website.

Many of you probably know that often viruses are designed to look like your computer's virus protection program.  It will pop up and tell you that you have a virus and that immediate action is necessary.  It can look pretty legit.  What I didn't know is that the only way to avoid downloading the virus onto your computer once this happens is to immediately go to your start menu and shut down.  Even clicking on the x in the corner of the pop up window will still download the virus.  And once that happens there's no going back. 

We had to take our computer to Best Buy this morning and $350 and 3-5 days later we'll have our computer back.  ($200 to get rid of the infection, $150 to backup all our files).  I really wish I had known to shut the computer down instead of clicking on the x in the corner of the pop up.  I just wanted to pass along this info in case any of you experience this.  Remember they can look very legitimate, so if anything pops up telling you you have a virus just shut your computer down immediately, don't click on anything.  The Geek Squad guy at Best Buy said these things are running rampant right now and you can pick them up anywhere so be careful!

Anyways, I'll still be blogging because we have another computer, in fact tomorrow I'll be announcing our new contributors, so check back! 

Taking a Week Off

Alright folks, there are exciting changes coming here at Women Who Do It All!  I've had some great applicants for potential contributors.  I'm really excited to have some fresh ideas and expertise in different areas here.  I am yet to choose the contributors and get things going with the new WWDIA.  I also have a couple sessions this week, so I'm staying pretty busy.  Please excuse me for one week while I get the new Women Who Do It All ready.  Stay tuned for some awesome new stuff from some really talented "women who do it all"!

Free Father's Day Printables

But first a couple announcements:

- Thanks to everyone who has applied to be a contributor on Women Who Do It All.  I've had some great applicants!  I am only going to leave the application open through tomorrow (Tuesday) so if you want to enter, please fill out the application here by midnight tomorrow.

- Tomorrow is also the last day to enter the Snorg Tee giveaway (win the shirt of your choice!)  So click on the picture at the top of my sidebar to enter.

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Okay, aren't these the cutest printables?!  Talk about making dad feel special!  I am hoping I can get around to doing this for my hubby, he really does a lot to help with the boys!  And I had to laugh at the bacon on the cupcakes because Jason LOVES bacon too.  Maybe that's just a typical man thing?!  Anyways, you can find these printables at Shindig Parties.

Looking for Blog Contributors!

Alright folks, Women Who Do It All is looking for contributors!  As a woman who tries too hard to do it all, I am looking for ways to have some more free time in my life.  I love this blog and don't want to let it go, so I am looking for other women who do it all (I know there's a ton of you out there!) who want to be weekly blog contributors.

Here's what's in it for you:

1) Your blog button AND shop button (if you have a shop/business of your own) will maintain a spot in my sponsor and/or a new contributors box for as long as you are a contributor.

2) You are free to plug your own blog, shop, giveaways, etc. in your weekly posts.

3) Make some new friends :)

4) And lastly (this is a big one) you will have the opportunity to use Women Who Do It All to complete up to one review a month.  This blog gets quite a bit of traffic, so if you are looking to contact some companies for review proposals you may use Women Who Do It All as your medium (so some potentially awesome freebies).  There are specifics on this that we will have to go over once the contributors are chosen, but it can be a nice perk!

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Now I know those are some awesome perks, but please do not apply if you don't have the extra time to commit to posting on your specified day once a week.  I need people who I can count on to have their post up and scheduled in advance so my mind is at ease.

I will likely choose four people.  Each will specialize in one to three specific categories that they can blog about in their weekly posts.  If you are interested just fill out the form below.  This change will take place in July, but don't worry you'll still hear plenty from me :) 

My most recent newborn session

I am in love with the pictures from my most recent newborn session, so I have to share, here are my 20 favorite images.

Visit my photography site, Sweet Confections Photography, to check out other newborn portraits, wedding photography, senior pictures, family portraits, baby and child portraits, and more!

I made almost all of the props you see here!  Many of them are available in my prop shop (see sidebar) and a few of them are coming soon.  The headbands can be ordered too, even though they aren't listed yet.  And the crochet patterns are available (also some coming soon) in my pattern shop (also in sidebar).

Thanks for checking out my work :)

Free Vintage Grunge Texture Pack

I found this awesome free texture pack from Princess of Shadows. 

Textures can add some really fun effects to your photos!  If you don't know how to use them, this video tutorial can help.

Learning to Create Your Own Crochet Patterns

In case you missed my guest post at FaveCrafts Blog, here it is:
Here are some steps in learning to create your own crochet patterns.
1) Crochet a ton of patterns!  Let's just say you want to be able to create your own hat patterns.  The first step is to make so many different hats that you start to get a feel for the general guidelines they follow.  In the case of hats, for example, you always start with some type of ring.  Generally you then work somewhere between 6 and 10 single crochets (sc) into your ring.  From there you gradually increase until you reach the desired circumference, at which point you stop increasing and just do one stitch for each stitch around. 

I'm going to continue using hats as my example, but remember, the idea holds true for all things crochet (baby booties, newborn cocoons, flowers, etc.) 

2) Think of a specific design you want to create and start experimenting.  Let's say you want to start with just a basic beanie like this one:

You'll need to decide what size hook you want to work with (how big do you want the holes?) and what weight of yarn you want to use (how chunky do you want it to look?). 

Then just jump in!  Start making a hat.  If it doesn't turn out right, just take it out and try again (and again, and again). 

You will want to increase until the circumference of your hat matches the standard head size for the size/age you are trying to make.  You can find standard head sizes here.  Then continue down a stitch for a stitch as mentioned above until your hat is the length you want.

Some other products aren't as easy to decipher size.  You may be able to find size guidelines by consulting google, but often times you may need an actual model to try them out on.

3) Once you get your product just how you want it, count stitches and rows on your product to remind you exactly what you did and record your new pattern in a Word document. 

That's it, you've created a pattern!  Don't be deceived by the fact that there are only three steps.  Designing a pattern takes time and patience! 

Once you have a pattern of your own created it is much easier to create more because you can just use your pattern and change it to provide many different varieties.  I have created so many hats and each one gets easier to create as I have more experience.

(and these are just a few of the many!)

Once you get hats down, you can move on to more complicated things like cute photo props:

Important reminder: When you set out to make your own pattern you should never be looking at or consulting (even just a little bit) someone else's pattern.  Once you have created a pattern or two of your own it is perfectly fine to consult, change, and combine your own patterns however you would like, but never with someone else's pattern.  Unfortunately, not everyone realizes that combining multiple patterns that are not your own and/or taking pieces from someone else's pattern is still copyright infringement.  So my point is, be careful and courteous when creating patterns. 

You can see all of my patterns at Baby & Me Crochet Patterns.  Finished products are also available at Baby & Me Photo Props.  A big thank you to Christine for having me here today and to all of you for reading my tutorial! 

Ultimate Hair Care Package Winner

Don't forget to join in the fun and enter Idea Sharing Wednesday!  Just scroll down a little.

The lucky reader who will recieve the ultimate hair care package is. . .  number 24, Audrey.

Congrats Audrey!  Please email me at womenwhodoitall@gmail.com to claim your prize.  Don't forget to go show Enjoy and HBL Hair Care some love for donating these awesome prizes.  They've got some amazing products to check out!

Idea Sharing Wednesday

Sorry, no features this week, it was a long day!  I'll feature projects from this week and last week in next week's post.  Thanks for stopping by Idea Sharing Wednesday!

Snorg Tees Giveaway and Review

Alright, I had this post scheduled last night and now I look and it says draft and of course never published.  That happens to me sometimes.  Am I the only one????  Anyways this is an awesome giveaway so check it out!

Snorg Tees has the a huge selection of fun t-shirts!  I just love tees like with cute or funny sayings!  It gives people something to read and amuse themselves as you walk by :)  And sometimes they make nice conversation starters.

That one makes me smile!  These tees make great hubby gifts too!  I can never think of anything to get my husband on holidays, but he loves funny shirts like these!  I know where I'll be doing some shopping for Father's Day!

Well I got the chance to review one of Snorg Tees fine shirts.  I chose this one:

Super cute!  And let me say, this is a high quality shirt!  Nice thick fabric and super comfy!  It looks very cute and flattering on. 

There are so many hilarious and cute shirts at Snorg Tees.  You could spend hours looking at them all!  Here are a couple more of my favorites:

When I was choosing a shirt for my review, my hubby and I spent over an hour looking through them all and sometimes we literally laughed out loud!  Love it!

Want to win the Snorg Tee of your choice?

Mandatory:
1) Check out Snorg Tees and then come back here and tell me which shirt you would choose

Optional extra entries:
1) Like Snorg Tees on Facebook
2) Like Women Who Do It All on Facebook and share the page with your friends
3) Follow Women Who Do It All on Twitter and tweet about us
4) Subscribe to Women Who Do It All feed (or follow through google or GFC)
5) Add one of my buttons to your blog
6) Blog about this giveaway on the blog you regularly use (3 entries)

Thanks for participating!  This giveaway will run for one week with the winner being annouced shortly thereafter.  The winner must have a US or Canada mailing address.

Free Father's Day Printable

Don't forget, today is the last day to enter the Ultimate Hair Care Giveaway!  The winner will be announced late tonight and there will be a new giveaway posted tomorrow morning so check back :)

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I love this free Father's Day printable from My Computer is my Canvas!  It would be really cute in a frame all by itself, but Colette has shown you how to turn it into a cute countdown too if you've got a hubby who travels for business or gets deployed. 

"Skinny Recipes"

I've been meaning to share my new favorite blog with you.  I stumbled on it when I was looking for healthy recipes (I'm on that darn diet you know).  It's called Gina's Skinny Recipes.  So far I've tried these two recipes and LOVED them!  She tells you exactly how many calories and WW points are in each serving so you don't have to do all the work to figure it out.  Love it!  I thought I would share because, well, when are we not looking for great new recipes that fit in the diet? 

Coconut Chicken Salad

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

I just went shopping yesterday and bought the ingredients for several more of her recipes.  Yum :)

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Don't forget about the Ultimate Hair Care Package giveaway.  Ends Monday night.

Painting a Couch?!?!

Wow, really that's all I need to say, I am in awe!  Go check out the details at Fabric Bliss. 

Learning to Create Your Own Crochet Patterns

Hello everyone, today you will find me over at FaveCrafts Blog giving a guest tutorial for how to write your own crochet patterns.  I hope you'll drop by and show me some love :)  You can access the tutorial here.