March Giveaway!

Hi Everyone,

It's time for another giveaway. The winner will receive a $15.00 gift certificate to be used in my Etsy Store.

Please read the following before entering:

1.  Gift Certificates go towards anything  at my shop on ETSY.  You must make an account on ETSY to be able to use the certificate.

2.  Gift Certificate is a one time use only.

3.  Gift Certificate is not redeemable for cash. Any purchases made using this certificate are final.

4. Invalid entries will be deleted. I will check all entries before picking a random winner. Make sure you fill  in the correct information required for your points. Otherwise, your entries will be invalid for the drawing.

5. The winner will have 48 hours to respond  to my e-mail in order to claim their prize. If  winners do not respond within that time frame, then I will need to choose another winner.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 Ingredient Curry Chicken Bean Soup in 3 Steps - Courtesy of Costco

I've had several friends ask for my recipe for Curry Chicken Bean Soup, so what better way to share it then through a blog post. There are only 7 main ingredients and they were all purchased from my local Costco.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups tru Roots Sprouted Bean Trio
• 1 quart Kirkland Chicken Stock
• 4 cups Water
• 1 can Kirkland Chicken Breast meat
• 1 Pepper (any red, yellow, or orange will do)
• 1 cup diced Carrots
• 1 cup diced Red Onion
• Curry Powder (I use at least 1/4 cup, but you may find that a bit much)

 Other Optional Ingredients:

• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Ginger 

Step 1:
Dice pepper, carrots, onion and optional ginger.


Step 2:
Place in saute pan preheated with 1 tablespoon oil. Add garlic, if desired. Saute for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until vegetables are soft.

Step 3:
Add cooked vegetables, one can of chicken, water and bean trio to crockpot. Stir in curry powder. Start with a couple tablespoons of curry powder and taste in a few hours. You can always add more at any time.
Set the crockpot to low and cook all day.

That's it!
I usually start this soup around 10 am and it's ready by 5 or 6. This soup couldn't be any easier to make and your house will smell so wonderful all day. I find it hard to wait for dinner and sneak tastes throughout the day.

Made Now Carrying Theresa Rose Designs

A quick shout-out to the newest store carrying Theresa Rose Designs!

You can now find my jewelry at Made on Mass. They are a modern handmade shop located at 737 Massachusetts St. in downtown Lawrence Kansas. They carry locally made items, along with items from regional and national artists.

See more great products: Made

February Giveaway Contest Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in my first giveaway contest of 2013!

We had a 3-way tie with the exact date given. The date I had in mind was the date I joined Etsy - November 26, 2007.

Since there was a 3-way tie, I let my trusty assistant, Keena, help with the random selection for the winner. I placed all three names on separate pieces of paper and threw them in the air. Keena then selected the winner. As you can see from the first photo, she wasn't quite up to the task. But with a little lovin and a milk bone treat, I soon had her ready to help out.

Congratulations to Kristin! You will receive an e-mail with the details of your gift certificate.

Spring 2013 Color of the Year - Poppy Red

I can't believe that March 1st is only a few days away! Daylight savings time is only 2 weeks away and spring will officially kick-off in 3 weeks. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year and with the weather a balmy 70 degrees today in San Diego, I feel it will be an early and warm one this year.

I'm really excited about the new spring colors for 2013. They are soft, yet vibrant. Another great color this spring is Poppy Red. While many of the colors for this year are soft and pastel, the poppy red 'pops' out and is sure to bring a lot of inspiration to my designs this year.

I found this great red sweater at Anthropologie. Black, white and red is going to be hot, hot, hot this year. and I love this combination! This sweater inspired the darling little gold wire wrapped earrings in my shop.

To see these earrings in my Etsy store for $8.00 each:
Red and Gold Teardrop Earrings

February Giveaway

Along with resurrecting my blog, I'm also going to start my monthly giveaways again. I really enjoyed my giveaways and connecting with new people during that time, so I'm not really sure why I stopped. Life probably just got in the way - doesn't it always!

So, here we go. For this giveaway, I'm giving a $15.00 gift certificate to my Etsy store. It's open to everyone, domestic and international.

The way to win this giveaway is to enter a date (from 1/1/2000 - present) that is the closest to an important date that I have selected. The person who guesses closest to that date wins. In case of a tie, I will randomly select a winner.

To enter:
1. Enter a comment with the date you have selected. Be sure to use the following format - month/date/year.
2. You can enter once in the comment section below.
3. However, you can also enter (as many as once per day) by sharing the facebook post from my Facebook Fan Page regarding this contest. After sharing the post, enter a comment with a date. You can share this post as many days as this contest runs - just remember, only once per day.

This contest runs through Monday, March 4th at midnight.

Creating Your Own Website Without Hiring a WebMaster

Creating and maintaining a website doesn’t have to be a monumental task. I think one big mistake people make is that they look at big company websites and are immediately intimidated by the scope and grandeur of these sites. For most of us, it’s just important to have a presence on the internet that contains pertinent information and links to our product offerings on our shopping site.

While I maintain a successful Etsy shop, I also have my own website. This site shows my latest jewelry products in a slideshow and then has links to my Etsy shop, blog, facebook fan page, twitter, and pinterest. There is also an ‘About’ page and a ‘Contact’ page. It took me one week to create and I used all free code found on the internet! I can modify it at a later date as my needs change. But for right now, I have all my important information on one site.

I found a great site on the internet called Free Website Templates. I browsed through their templates until I found one that had the style I was looking for. One caveat -  there are some templates (usually the best ones), that do not allow you to download the code. You can only edit and publish from their site. I quickly dismissed those. There are still many free downloadable templates to choose from. 

Once you download the code, then it’s just a matter of replacing their logos, images, links, and text with your information. Fortunately, I used to be a windows programmer, so I do have a lot of comfort in coding, but html code is very straightforward and anyone can edit it in a simple text editor. The source code is not cryptic and one can usually decipher it readily. If you’re stuck on a piece of code, just google it! You’ll find all the descriptions you need.

The most difficult task was replacing the main body picture with the slideshow pictures. I found a great site on the internet that gave me the free code for the slideshow – with all the instructions needed to integrate their code. There’s even a discussion board to help!

The company is Dynamic Drive and their website can be found here:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/fadeinslideshow.htm

Once I edited the files, cleaned up my images, I copied all the files onto my hosting site (I use hostmonster.com) and I was instantly on-line! It was a great feeling to type in my website and see my jewelry on the internet.

I’m happy to help anyone who may have a question regarding what I discussed today. Please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help any way I can. I realize that programming can be a bit daunting, but it is so worthwhile to have your own website!

Here's the link to my site: Theresa Rose Designs