Showing posts with label polar vortex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polar vortex. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

WIN: 2 Innovative NEKZ:)™ Warmers in Adult & Youth Sizes ($32-$51 value depending on style)

ChiIL Mama's Holidaze 12 Days of Giveaways
Continues


Necessity is the mother of invention and this Chicago mother just invented something you'll wonder how you weathered winter without! Have you heard of NEKZ:)™ yet? Be one of the first to wear one. Get your NEKZ today. Your NECK will love you for it!! 

Rumor has it, the dreaded Polar Vortex is coming back again this winter, to put the whammy on us. This time we'll be ready and so will one of our lucky readers. We're giving away an adult and youth sized NEKZ the original scarf alternative. Stay hot, look cool.


Disclosure: It's our pleasure to partner up another local, woman run, small business. Thanks to NEKZ for providing us with 2 NEKZ for our giveaway and for review purposes. As always, all opinions are our own.

for your chance to win 
2 Innovative NEKZ:)™ Scarf Alternative in Adult & Youth Sizes 
($32-$51 value depending on style). Enter through midnight 12/20. Open nationwide.


NEKZ is the brainchild of Raquel Graham Crayton - working mother and entrepreneur. It is manufactured in Chicago, IL U.S.A. The city that knows COLD! 

Raquel’s friends call her the ‘Mom-Solver,’ because she understands the everyday balance of work and family. Raquel realizes that as a family grows and changes, there is a need for new and innovative products. 

“Moms are everyday magicians. We develop, solve and invent solutions daily to meet the needs of our families. I enjoy providing solutions to making anyone’s life a bit easier. We all need that.”




INTRODUCING NEKZ™, THE WARM AND FASHIONABLE ALTERNATIVE TO THE SCARF

Compact and Stylish, NEKZ Keep Wearers Necks Warm Without the Bulk

This winter, NEKZ, an innovative new alternative to traditional scarves, combines fashion and function in a cozy, adjustable, unisex design. Designed and manufactured in Chicago, a city synonymous with frigid temperatures, 
NEKZ provides the comfort and warmth of a scarf without excess bulky fabric. 

Designed for comfort in plush fleece or faux fur, NEKZ is compact enough to easily slip into a coat pocket or purse and large enough to encircle the neck in a ring of warmth.  Its patent-pending closure, located in the back, adjusts easily so that it can fit snugly around a wearer’s neck, or can be slightly loosened on blustery days to cover the mouth.  

NEKZ feature an array of designs, from fashion-forward animal prints and stylish colors, to more neutral, traditional patterns.

Working mother Raquel Graham Crayton, a native New Yorker now residing in Chicago, came up with the brainchild of NEKZ as a solution for her children chronic complaints during frigid months finding non-bulky neckwear that was easy to carry and stow.

“Living in Chicago, I wanted to create something that kept my kids warm during last year’s brutal ‘polar vortex’ winter: something kids would wear, light, and warm, but also something that could easily be stored in a pocket,” she recalls.After creating a simple fleece neck-warmer, soon every mother in the school wanted one not only for their kids, but for themselves! So I designed an adult version that maintained the practicality of the original design, but in fashionable colors and designs for women and men.


Already, NEKZ are becoming a trendy new item for college students.  Nekz is available on 45 college campuses in school/spirit colors and for some schools, Graham Crayton created designs to incorporate the schools logos.  She is creating a line of NEKZ for The National Hockey League thru a partnership with Sportin' Styles. Graham meticulously designs the pattern for each NEKZ
design, and scrupulously tests the fabric utilized.  Plush, chic and versatile, 


Shop Locally:
NEKZ
are fabricated in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, where Graham can regularly visit the manufacturer to inspect products before they are distributed. 







NEKZ 
are durable enough for every-day wearing and machine washable. They are
priced from $15 - $35, depending on design. 

Raquel Graham is the founder, president and CEO of ROQ Innovation.  A graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Wesleyan University, she was previously the Vice President and Director of Marketing for Johnson Publishing. She resides in Chicago with her husband and two children, and is active in her community, serving on the Board of Directors of the XS Tennis and Education Foundation.


NEKZ:)™ made in Chicago, IL USA
Click here to order yours. Orders placed by 12/18 will be delivered before Christmas.


NEKZ:)™ was recently featured on WBBM talk show. Introducing the new hot fashion alternative for a scarf made in Chicago, USA.



Here at ChiIL Mama, we're still eagerly waiting for our NEKZ to arrive, and we'll have a photo filled review up once we get to try them out. In the mean time. Order yours for the holidays and enter to win.

Check back with us and enter like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. It's rewarding! ChiIL Mama's Holidaze 12 Days of Giveaways is on through December 17th for items 1-6 and December 20th for 7-12, with loads of great daily giveaways, flash giveaways on Facebook/Twitter, gift guide ideas, and holiday happenings in Chi, IL and beyond. All giveaways are open nationwide. Here's the master link where ALL our 12 Days of Giveaways Are Added.

Disclosure: It's our pleasure to partner up another local, woman run, small business. Thanks to NEKZ for providing us with 2 NEKZ for our giveaway and for review purposes. As always, all opinions are our own.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Cavy Love #BabyGuineaPigs #PhotoFeature #GuineaPigFeeding #GuineaPigPregnancy

Here's your cute, baby animal pix fix for the weekend.  It's been our great pleasure to raise 3 adorable baby Guinea Pigs from birth.  



If you follow us on Facebook, ChiIL Mama's FB Page or Twitter, you've already seen quite a bit of them.  If not, meet:


Charlie 

Vortex (born during the 2nd Polar Vortex/adopted during the 3rd one)


and Cheekums (the keeper)


We're keeping Cheekum (kids' choice) and her mother, Bweep, and big sister, Brave. Sage was vocally wishing throughout the pregnancy for an orange girl to keep who would resemble Cheekums from one of their fav TV shows, Gravity Falls.  She got what she wished for!



Since we were maxed out with 3 Guinea Pigs, 2 big dogs, and fish, we found new homes to adopt Charlie and Vortex this week.  I hadn't expected it to be soooooo hard for the kids to give up the babies.  They've been through the deaths of pets before with more of a stoic response.  


Sage (10) cried for hours after we dropped Charlie off with a gymnastics teammate of hers. Vortex may be renamed Retro and he'll be hangin' with a couple of awesome homeschooler sisters.  


I was sad to see 'em go, too, (Charlie was my favorite).  I had a black n white Guinea Pig named Charlie as a kid, that my mom gave away to a school class because she thought I wasn't cleaning him often enough.  I cried & when I asked to go visit him a month later she said he'd caught a virus in the class and died!!  I was devastated.  My own kids named the little black n white girl Charlie after my childhood cavy.

I was sad to have to give up Charlie Guinea Pigs TWICE, but I'm very happy we found loving, kid filled homes for them, instead of having to sell to strangers and wonder how they're being treated.  That's a relief!  Hopefully Charlie #2 will live a long and lovely life.

 Newborn #BabyGuineaPigs 1/28/14

The whole accidental litter thing was a deja vu to my own childhood when my sister's albino mouse unexpectedly gave birth to a bunch of little, blind, naked babies.  They were so small at birth all 5 fit in the palm of my hand.  We had a blast playing with them in the doll house & driving them around in our Honey Hill Bunch Cart.  Here's my sister with our mice in 1980.  We named them Hickory, Dickory & Doc, Estella & Evangeline.


We bought 2 Guinea Pigs as a Christmas gift for Sage and didn't know our Guinea Pig mom was expecting when we got her.  They nurse for 3 weeks then start right into sexual maturity, and the moms can get knocked up right after birth and have a litter of 2-7 in 2 months!  The babies are relatively huge & hairy at birth and have their eyes open.  #GladI'mNotAGuineaPig

Newborn Guinea Pig in relation to a Brussels Sprout: 

Mama Bweep & newborn Charlie

They nurse 3 weeks but start solid food at 2 days & are remarkably self sufficient. It was a great experience for the kids, nurturing the babies and researching diet and care.  The cavy babies were better than my kids about eating kale, Brussels sprouts, and carrots for the high vitamin C content.  They make awesome pets and love to snuggle up with people.  Downside: they do poop and pee a LOT, and will do it on YOU if you're holding them, so a towel under them is helpful.  



Upside: They make adorable squeaks and purring noises, are quite affectionate, and are patient when kids put them in toys cars, armor and whatnot.  If you can put up with a bit of Timothy Hay mess, and don't mind doing a weekly cage cleaning, we highly recommend them as pets.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Happy Birthday Cavy Babies #BabyGuineapigs #GravityFalls #PolarVortex

Meet Cheekums, Vortex & Charlie, the newest members in the ChiIL Mama family.   The first, Cheekums, the tan & white one, is named for a character in an episode of Gravity Falls, one of our family's favorite Disney Channel shows.





We dig Gravity Falls!   It's full of secret codes, cyphers and messages.   Check out a YouTube summary here.   Only the first season has aired and we're jonsin' for more.   Get your geek on and check out Gravity Falls.   The brainy tweens in Lane Tech's gifted selective enrollment Jr high love it and debate & discuss the episodes at length. 






Back to baby guinea pig land...

Vortex, the little grey & white guinea pig, is named for the winter weather we've been caught in this season in Chicago.   Polar Vortex has become a household name and has caused the schools that NEVER close (seriously, only 1 snow day in over a decade), to shut down for FOUR days due to brutal 50 below zero wind chills.   

This little grey and white fluff of cuteness incarnate was born between two polar vortex induced off days, in the middle of an unexpected 5 day weekend.   



The last of our 3 little piggies is a black and white one named Charlie, after my childhood guinea pig who was black and white too.  I got him in 1982, back when the Men at Work tune, Be Good Johnny was huge.   I have fond memories of singing this to my cavy boy, Charlie, subbing in his name for Johnny.   Ah... childhood memories.




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