Week 4 Giveaway!

For our giveaway this week we are giving away one of our 2 oz Arnica salves AND one of our 2 oz All Better Butters. The salves are a favorite of mine. 

The arnica salve is wonderful for sore muscles of any kind. We use it for prevention of soreness as well as sprained ankles, tired backs etc..

 The All Better Butter is used almost daily around here! I've been making it for a while now (used to call it healing salve) and I find myself at a loss without it. With antiseptic, antibacterial and soothing qualities we use it on bee stings, sunburns, diaper rashes, scrapes, minor burns, bug bites and any other skin irritation we run into.  If you want some personal testimonies, let me know because not only do we love it, but it seems to be loved everywhere it goes!

For an extra entry this week we decided to make it easy on you!  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.  Any comment.  Even "Hi!" will suffice!  Remember, all of your previous entries are still counted for this week.

If you are entering for the first time, here are the different ways to earn extra entries.

1.  Go to gracenotes.biz  then come back here and let me know what your favorite product is.

2.  Like Gracenotes on facebook.

3.  Put a link to gracenotes.biz on your blog.

4.  Become a follower of my blog, or tell me that you already are one.

5.  Leave a comment about gracenotes.biz on your facebook page and then let me know about it.

The winner will be drawn next Tuesday so don't forget to get your entries in!

A Most Welcome Delay!

I greatly apologize for the delay of the giveaway this week! Hoping to have to the next one ready by tomorrow.

Our family has been slightly distracted these past few days by this handsome little fellow! I know you understand!

Glory to the newborn King!

Our Christmas was wonderful.  What a incredible time to celebrate not only a miraculous historical event that offered us eternal life with Him, but that same living God who promises us abundant life today and who richly pours out His blessings on us. 

Christmas eve we spent at my parents home which includes grandparents, aunties and great-grandparents.

The next morning we had all to ourselves.  We had a precious time of acting out the Christmas story, sharing gifts and enjoying our time together.

That afternoon we headed up to the King house where we had sweet fellowship with all of the aunties and uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents and some friends.

Last night we tagged on an extra celebration with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins which was also a truly blessed time (although now Bethany wants to move to Washington to be near Uncle Doug!). 

I sit here now feeling very blessed.  In so many ways.  What a great God we serve! 

Week Three Giveaway Winner!!!

And the winner this week is..............

Sandy S!!!!!      Congratulations Sandy!  I hope you enjoy your sugar scrub!

Don't forget!  This week's giveaway comes out tomorrow so don't forget to check back for another chance to win!

'Twas The Day Before The Day Before Christmas

And here at the King house we were baking and frosting and washing and dancing and cleaning and wrapping and experimenting and rejoicing. Ahhh, what a day!

There were cookies to be frosted, bon bons to dip, truffles to roll,

cinnamon rolls to prepare for Christmas morning,

and a beautiful little cousin to smooch!

Our Christmas celebrations start full-force tomorrow so today was our last day to get ready. Now we just get to sit back, bask in the wonderful company of our family and rejoice in our great and loving Savior!

Week 3 Giveaway!!!

Here we are at Week 3!  For our giveaway this week we are giving away one of our 8 oz. sugar scrubs.  The winner gets to pick their choice of one of our five different fragrances.  Lavender Bergamot, Coconut Cream, Candy Cane, Brown Sugar Honey and our new addition, our Organic Sugar scrub.

The sugar scrubs have been such a fun addition to our business.  Honestly, I didn't think I would be too excited about them when we first started, but after one try, I was hooked!  They leave your skin feeling so moist and refreshed.  My all time favorite is the Candy Cane Scrub.

Our newest addition to the line is our Organic Sugar Scrub.  We've used Organic evaporated cane juice instead of refined sugar and the only fragrance comes from peppermint essential oil.  If you have trouble with additives this might be your answer.

For this week's extra entry, all you have to do is leave a comment about gracenotes.biz (or this giveaway) on your facebook page and then leave a comment here to let me know.

Remember, your previous entries still count for this week.  If you've already done the first four entry options, you do not need to repeat them.

For those of you who are just joining us, here is the list of the different ways you can enter. 

1.  Go to http://gracenotes.biz/ then come back here and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite product is.

2. Link this giveaway or our website on your blog.

3. Like Gracenotes on facebook.

4. Become a follower of my blog or tell me that you already are one.

The winner will be drawn next Tuesday.  Will it be you?

Today's winner is.........

Jessica G. !!!!

Congratulations Jessica!  You have won your choice of any individual piece of jewelry from our site.  Can't wait to see what you choose!

Those of you who didn't win last week, check back tomorrow to see what this week's giveaway will be!

Giveaway #2 and last weeks winner!!!

Thanks to all of you for joining in the giveaway!  We have loved hearing your feedback and comments.  Getting started with the business has been loads of fun and we are very excited about the future!

First order of business......  The winner of Week #1 giveaway is.................. Cheryl P.  !!!  Congratulations Cheryl!  You have won your choice of either the tea sampler gift set or a full sized tea and one reusable tea bag.

Now on to our Week #2 giveaway!   This week's winner will get their choice of any individual piece of jewelry on our site.  We have a large selection of necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

The jewelry line is one of our very favorite aspects of  the business.  We have such fun creating and experimenting with several different looks and designs.

If you entered the giveaway last week, your entries will be automatically added to this week's list.  If you missed entering last week, feel free to get your three entries by 1.) going to gracenotes.biz and leaving a comment here about your favorite product, 2.)  Putting a link to us on your own blog, and 3.) Liking gracenotes on facebook.

For an extra entry this week (for anyone! Even if you already have three entries!), all you have to do is become a follower of my blog, or tell me that you already are. 

We will be drawing our winner next Tuesday.  Remember, this is for your choice of any individual piece of jewelry!

P.S.  All of our Christmas jewelry is 10% off until Christmas!

On this dark and rainy day.....

We are busy concocting every imaginable Christmas treat we can manage!  Will return soon with some successes, some failures and some recipes, but for now we are baking away! 

Don't forget to enter the tea giveaway!  We will draw tomorrow and let you know what is up for grabs next week!

Cut the Ribbon Please.......

Gracenotes is open for business!!!

This has been a long time coming and I am so excited be able to officially announce the opening of our very own at home business, gracenotes.  This all began as an idea that I liked to dream about, of a business I could do from home with my daughters down the road.  I dreamed of blessing those around us while developing useful skills in us at the same time.  One day while talking to my sister who is about to graduate, I began to see how a business like this could be beneficial now, with my sisters.  We soon brought our mom on board which was the most blessed move we ever made.  After watching the hours and hours of the work she has put into our website, not to mention an overwhelming amount of thinking through different details, I can say without a doubt that we NEVER would have opened without her. 

Why the name?  It was one of Mom's original ideas, but I rejected it as it felt like we were naming the business after me.  We spent days racking our brains for different ideas.  We knew we wanted something to convey the purpose of our store.  We're not selling essentials in life.  We're selling those little extras that make life extra special.  If you're familiar with musical terms, that is exactly what a grace note is!  It's the tiny extra notes that add the little embellishments to make the music truly beautiful.  So I gave in!

The road to get here has been much longer than anticipated! Our original plan was to open at the end of summer. We quickly moved that to October.  It's hard to believe that we are actually here! 

Let me assure you, we have no dreams of grandeur here!  Our purpose the entire time has been to be a blessing to our customers.  We've strived the whole way to keep our costs low and our site easy to use.  Please bare with us as we continue to work out the kinks!

So this brings us to why you are really here!  The GIVEAWAY!!!!  We are actually going to be doing FIVE giveaways over the next five weeks, so stay tuned!

Today's giveaway is for some of our herbal tea and 100% organic cotton reusable tea bags.  (my computer is being very difficult this morning and I can't get it to load ANY of our tea pictures!!! Grrr!). 

Starting out we have four different teas. Mint Harmony ( a refreshing blend of peppermint and spearmint), Lavender Lemongrass (a light, subtle tea with a soothing feel to it), Peaceful Moments ( a blend of chamomile, spearmint and lemongrass that is wonderfully relaxing) and Vanilla Rooibos ( Have you ever tried rooibos? Try it!  It is rich and deep yet completely caffeine free.  We've mixed ours with some vanilla bean and vanilla to give it an even richer taste.  Add a little milk and sugar.... perfection.  But I digress!). 

One of my favorite products on our entire site is our reusable tea bags.  PICTURES WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?  PLEASE go to the site and check these out.  They are amazing.  They work better than any tea ball or strainer I've ever used.  Plus they are super easy to clean.

For our giveaway this week we are giving away a sampler pack (A sample of all four teas containing about 8 servings each, PLUS two of the tea bags) OR a full sized tea of your choice plus one tea bag to go with it.

You have three simple ways to enter. 

#1~  Go to our site http://gracenotes.biz/  and come back and leave a comment telling us what one of your favorite products are.

#2~  Link us on your blog.  Tell your friends about us!

#3~ Find us on facebook under Gracenotes. Like us and you get another entry!

This weeks winner will be drawn next Wednesday.  Your entries will carry over to the next week, but we'll give you some extra ways to enter in the weeks to come as well!

Come on over to gracenotes.biz to find some easy and reasonable Christmas ideas or just something fun for you!  Thanks!!

Huff and Puff!

Well, there's been a lot of work going on around here!  Not hard manual work, but much planning, figuring, dreaming, scheming, tweaking, playing and enjoying.  But now it's almost time!  Our secret will be revealed tomorrow so come back around!  I know you all love giveaways!!!

A Precious Gift

I don't know about you, but I LOVE giving gifts!  Call it a "love language", call me crazy, call me what ever you want. I just love it!  This time of year makes me so excited as I think and plan about what gifts I'm going to be able to give to the incredibly special people in my life.  I especially love giving gifts to my husband, probably because I'm so in love with the man that any way I can find to shower my love on him I find so exciting.  Make sense?  My love =  desire to shower with joy.  Now the trick can be finding that gift that is just right! 

This got me to thinking though.  Thinking about our beautiful Lord, and how His ways are not our ways.  Don't get me wrong. We know that He delights in delighting us!  We experience it all the time.  His abundant blessings continue to daily blow me away.  He loves to fill us with joy and overwhelm us at His goodness.

But God is a little bigger than our very small perspective.  He sees and knows that our earthly happiness is not the end goal.  He sees the reality of the eternal perspective, something we fail to see, no matter how hard we try to grasp it.  In His infinite love and wisdom He knows exactly what we need, to shape us, refine us and teach us, that we might truly know the unending joy of knowing Him more.

At church yesterday, Pastor lovingly reminded us of the gift of hardship that the Lord so graciously bestows on us at times.  As I've pondered this it has brought to mind a dear friend who I've met on MOMYS.  Her name is Susanna.  The Lord saw fit to bless this woman with a precious gift.  A priceless gift.  He also blessed her with an amazing amount of faith and humbleness to realize what a precious gift it is.  On top of that, He blessed her with an amazing amount of gentleness and boldness so that she is able to speak unafraid of His goodness and His faithfulness. 

You see Susanna's beautiful little girl, her tenth child, was born with downs syndrome and a serious heart defect.  Not what most in the world would consider a very loving gift from the Lord.  Oh how the Lord has used Susanna though, to open my eyes.  She shared a link this past week to a blog from another precious mother who had interviewed several mothers and I had to share it with you.  Please take the time to read through it.  It doesn't take long, and I guarantee your heart will be touched! 

A Perfect Lily

If your anything like me now, wipe away your tears and consider, just consider, the goodness and greatness of our God.  Our God who could easily give us anything we want.  Anything that pleases us.  But in light of the amazing plans He has for us, at times chooses to bless us ways we don't understand.  Because He is good and we are not.  And because we cannot even comprehend what a beautiful and priceless work He desires to do in our lives. 

( To keep up with Susanna and Verity, follow her blog at The Blessing of Verity  ) 

One of my favorites!!!

Because I'm so excited to be blogging again!  Because I ate these for breakfast this morning!  And because it occurred to me that maybe one of you hasn't tried to make these yet, I thought I would share my recipe for one of my favorite homemade foods,  BAGELS!!!


I tried making homemade bagels for the first time almost two years ago and they were an instant success.  They really are quite simple and have turned out delicious every time, in every flavor!

Dissolve 1 tsp. yeast in 1 1/4 cups warm milk.

Add 1/4 cup softened butter, 2 Tbl. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 1 egg yolk.

Mix well.  Stir in enough flour to make a soft yet firm dough (approx. 3 3/4 cups).  Knead 10 min..

This is where you can add some different flavor choices!  With this batch I made 1/3 plain, 1/3 with chopped, dried cranberries and 1/3 cinnamon and raisin.  Go wild here and try whatever sounds good!  We also love cheese and jalapeno, plain cheese and onion and poppy seed.

Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.   Punch dough down and shape into small balls.  This recipe says it makes 12, however we make ours on the small side so we got 17 out of this batch.

After forming your ball, poke a hole in the center and stretch.  I know it looks funny here, but believe me, if you want any sort of whole on the finished product, make sure your whole is LARGE to start with!

Let the bagels sit for 10 minutes. 

Before you boil them, flatten them.  Just do it!

Drop in boiling water and remove when they float to the top ( or about 15 seconds!).

Place on a greased cookie sheet  and bake at 400' for 13-18 minutes.  Remove when they are brown on the bottom and slightly golden on top.

Enjoy!  Toasted, plain, with butter or cream cheese, these little guys are just plain delicious!  Try them!!!

10 Months Old (and back to the blogging world!!!)

I think I'm actually back for good!  It has been so sad this past month  to stop by my blog and see the same old writing that has sat there for weeks!  Hopefully some of you still remember me and will stop back by and give me a wave.

First order of business, Ella is now officially 10 months old!

Her biggest changes this month have been learning to wave (she now crawls up on the back of the couch and waves like no tomorrow with her sisters!), standing on her own for long periods of time (Will we have one who walks "on time"?  With her sisters not walking until 13, 14 and 16 months, I'm not holding my breath!) and becoming a total ham.  She has always had a goofy side, but she is now a total cheese ball that keeps us constantly in stitches!

We adore her.  Every single one of us.  What would life be like without out sweet Ella Joy?

Since writing last, Bethany has turned four (birthday pictures to come soon!), we got our Christmas tree, I've been working hard on a "secret project" (Just be patient! You'll find out soon!) and our tiny little one has been growing rapidly throwing me into that lovely stage of "too early for maternity clothes/ too big for regular".  Pretty soon I'll start making Christmas candy though, and that should help push me over the edge!

Last night was Lydia's first piano recital.  She started lessons back in October with my sister, Mary and has LOVED it!  The recital was only for six students (of which Lydia was by far the youngest!), so it was perfect for a first time.  We were so proud of our little baby! 



Well, it's good to be back!  I can't wait to catch up with all of you!