cookies, coming up!

The winner of a fresh batch of Chewy Lemon Snowdrop cookies is Deana!

Hopefully she won't mind if I taste test a few to make sure they're good enough to share.  I'll be hand delivering them tomorrow morning.  Yum!

Thanks to Jaime at Sophistimom for sharing the recipe and for allowing me to use her photo!

and the winner is...

McKenzie!

Thanks to those who participated!  McKenzie, please email me your mailing address and your prize will be on its way.  

Stay tuned, because I'm thinking about offering up another prize (maybe something delicious?) over the holiday weekend.

a little luck & a little giveaway

Contests, sweepstakes, raffles, giveaways. . . I cannot get enough of them!  Here are some of my simple tips and tactics.  Keep reading for a chance to win your own little giveaway.

I've had a lot of "luck" with contests for as long as I can remember.  In elementary school I won a coloring contest (I used the school's colors, blue and gold, in the design) that earned me lunch with the principal, including a Nestle Crunch ice cream bar for dessert (strangely memorable).  I've also won $100 and an art tote bag in two different writing contests in the past couple years.

• Tip:  Skill contests draw far fewer entrants, increasing your odds, so look for those that match your talents.

• Tip:  Consider your audience when entering a skill contest and tailor your entry to appeal to their preferences.

Two years ago I attended the annual Christmas party at my apartment complex and was the grand prize winner - $500 off a month of rent!  The next year I won a free carpet cleaning and this year I won a $50 gift card to a fancy Portland steak house.

• Tip:  Enter local contests!  These are some of your best odds.  Check the websites for radio, newspaper, and local businesses for even more opportunities.

Just yesterday I won a new casserole dish, pasta fork, cheese grater, and a jar of steak seasoning from a small cooking blog!

The About.com Contests & Sweepstakes page is a great resource for contests across the internet.  These are often for the biggest prizes like cash, vacations, and vehicles, but there's also a page for instant win contests with more prizes and better odds.

I'll also search Google on occasion, looking for contest, sweepstake, blog giveaway, or some similar search terms, and then restricting the results to the last 1 hour, 24 hours, or 1 week.  I'll try searching for the word giveaway along with a specific item I want to win, too (like an iPad2 or a Silhouette Cameo).

Now, for a modest giveaway of my own.  

For your chance to win a Powell's Books mug and a copy of Coffee Time with Perk Up Puzzles, Brainteasers, and Trivia, comment below with your answer to the following question AND make sure you're a follower of SaraPDX.  U.S. residents only, please.  Entries will be accepted until midnight PST on Wednesday, January 11th.  Good luck!  

What's the best prize you've ever won in a contest?

le winner

And the winner of my first giveaway is commenter number 2 - Tim, who said "Inspiration: ballet."  I thought at first that his suggestion was in jest, but it turns out he intends on giving the finished product as a gift.  This theme should be a healthy challenge for me.  I plan on getting a few more details from Tim and hopefully commencing work next week.  Stay tuned for photos of the process!

summertime giveaway

Much to my chagrin, I won exactly ZERO of the Giveaway Day giveaways.  Can you believe it?! 

I must have used up all of my luck landing the little lime-sized baby that's in my belly!  Well, that's a contest I was happy to win.  That's right, I'm pregnant with my first little one.  This little boy or girl will join big sister Chloe, my exuberant 8-year old stepdaughter, who has been waiting for years for us to break this news to her!  Here's a pic of her bouncing wildly right after we shared the exciting announcement:

I'm due on December 9th and hopefully we'll find out the gender on July 7th - little more than a month away!  Fortunately, Chloe will be able to accompany us to that appointment and will learn the news when we do.  She has already chosen the names Jordan, for a boy, and Sally, for a girl.  :) 

So in celebration of this great development, and despite my utter lack of luck in the giveaways, I have decided to hold my own giveaway.  I've settled on giving away a cute and functional Summertime Messenger Bag.  The best part is that the prize will be specially crafted with the winner in mind!  So leave a comment with what you'd like the inspiration for this bag to be if you're the winner. 

I'll accept comments until Thursday, May 27th at 11:59pm PST.  On Friday I'll choose a winner using a random number generator - so be sure to include your email address so I can contact you!  I'll probably solicit some more of your ideas on what you'd like the bag to look like, then I'll get to work on it after our long Memorial Day weekend at the Oregon Coast.  (ps: I'll ship internationally!)

In the meantime, here's a photo of the one project I've found the energy to work on in these harrowing first months of pregnancy!  This sunglasses case was a birthday gift for my dear friend, Sarah.  Kudos to her on snapping a great pic. :)

taking notes

Have any of you heard about the amazing Giveaway Day events on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog?  Holy smokes, what a dream for me (have you noticed I'm a contest junkie?)!  If you visit the blog you'll find three hyperlinked lists.  Each list contains a TON of blogs that are participating in Giveaway Day and are raffling off sewing supplies, handcrafted items, or both.  I estimate I entered at least 200 of the contests!

I obviously didn't submit my blog for the event, but I'm interested in doing a little giveaway.  I'm curious what people would like to see given away though... You can browse back through my blog to see the projects I've worked on, but I'd also be more than willing to try out a new idea.  Feel free to comment with your suggestions, or else I'll just figure something out on my own!

I actually did a bit of sewing recently, but I can't post photos of the item yet.  It's sitting at home, waiting to be wrapped up in a birthday package.  It was nice to pull the cover off my sewing machine finally - after weeks and weeks of unproductive laziness.  Now I've got my eye on this tutorial and maybe this one, and I'm interested in making curtains for Chloe's room.

Secondly, browsing through the photographs on my cell phone always helps to remind me what I've been up to since I wrote last.  I was happy to come across this beauty:

That's right, one of our favorite local bands, The Builders and the Butchers, will be playing a handful of presumably FREE shows in the Portland area this August.  I highly recommend that if you have the chance to check these guys out, that you do.  Need a preview?  Here's a video of a song from their most recent album.  Oh man, they are so good.

compose

Wow.  Having finally been diagnosed (bronchitis and the flu) and properly medicated, I am finally starting to feel better - on this, my 12th day of being sick.  I'm really looking forward to feeling like myself and returning to my usual level of multi-tasking busy-ness.

I've been able to put a little bit of work in on some sewing projects during my rest time spent at home.  It's been nearly impossible to stay seated on the couch, so I'd periodically cut fabric and move to a new seat at the sewing machine.

First, here's the project I was working on before my departure for Arizona.  It was my "travel tote" that I packed full of supplies and carried with me through airports.  I liked the size and strength of the bag and the deep side pocket I installed on the inside.  I was flattered to be asked once on my trip if I was selling the bags - to which I answered, "Not yet."  The deer stencil is from this cool book, which Jesse got me for Christmas.

Next is a little pincushion; the directions, by Heather Baily, can be found here.  I thought the pincushions I found at sewing supply shops were pretty horrendous, so I found this cute template and used some fabric from my first shopping spree at Mill End.  Next time I would stuff the cushion to be a bit firmer - and my slip-stitching skills (which close the final small opening by hand) really need some work.

Last is a "rice heat therapy bag" - the template can be found here - that I made as a birthday gift for my coworker.  This project includes an inner muslin bag which holds two pounds of rice, and a patchwork slipcover with a Velcro closure.  The recipient can microwave the whole bag for 2-3 minutes and apply it to "aches and pains."  I'm pretty pleased with the result and am excited to deliver this gift when I return to work tomorrow.  I found that a pre-assembled "fat quarter" pack from Joanne's provided a nice array of complimentary fabrics that I completed with some carefully chosen solids (Jesse helped with this!).

I've got to make note of yet another contest I've won!  Let me tell you that entering every contest you come across - and firmly believing that you're bound to win - is a winning combination!  This time I won two tickets to a concert that Jesse really, really wanted to attend, so I'm thrilled!  The artist is Citizen Cope, a singer we've seen several times before and who puts on a great show every time.  I just got the email this afternoon, and the show is Wednesday night, so I'm really hoping to be up and running by then.

positive reinforcement

Friday's work day was drawing to a close and I was awfully conflicted about how to spend my evening. Jesse and I had planned to attend the holiday party for our new apartment community, but when he picked up a dinner shift at work, I didn't really want to venture out alone. Teresa had invited me to Newberg for a night of Patron tequila, cheesy fries, and gossip, but the 40 minute drive and threat of freezing rain were dissuading factors.

I grabbed a long memo from my desk to proofread at home, anticipating a self-imposed lonely night on the couch. I hopped on the MAX and headed east toward home, all the while mulling over my options. The closer I got, the more seriously I was considering going to the holiday party alone. One of the big draws for Jesse and I had been a raffle contest for anyone who brought an item to donate to Toys for Tots. As I disembarked from the train, I decided to go for it. I walked over to a grocery store very near our apartment and chose a Crayola art set to bring.

It was still a bit early, so I went to our house to unpack my work bag and have a small glass of emboldening wine. Once it was safely past the party's start time, I walked down the hill with my donation in hand. Entering the party, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was an amazing improvement in holiday spirit from our prior apartment home. There was a National Guardsman taking toys and handing out raffle tickets in exchange. A live rock band played in the corner and several people huddled around the crackling fireplace.

I walked down the main hallway to a room full of people. One large table displayed an array of appetizers, while another had at least 10 kinds of desserts. Wine was being served at the bar. I grabbed food and drink and wandered around aimlessly, trying to decide how long to stay. I spotted two girls chatting and eventually talked myself into going over and saying hi.

The girls, Sarah and Clara (for real), and I talked for quite a while, when suddenly the raffle ceremony was announced. Everyone crowded into the main room, pink raffle tickets clutched in their hands. Many prizes were up for grabs, including gift cards to a grocery store, Target, P.F. Changs, and Claim Jumpers. Sarah was one of the first to win - a handy Target card. Not too long after, Clara won a Shell gasoline gift card. The female half of the couple in front of us declared a desire to win a grocery store gift card because it'd be just enough for two "Snuggies." Her husband or boyfriend immediately won that prize.

I was left the only one in our trio who hadn't won anything. It wasn't heartbreaking, but I felt a bit left out. The apartment employee announced that they were about to draw the ticket for the final, and most impressive prize - $500 off of a tenant's January rent. She pulled a ticket and slowly read the numbers. 1...4...0...4...9...5!

I breathed a loud, sudden sigh. I WON! I felt like a celebrity as I walked up front to submit my ticket, a camera flashing in my face and people reaching out to congratulate me.

So that makes my third contest win since I adopted contest entering as a renewed hobby! The moral of the win for me was that I should get out more often - talk to people and ditch any plan to take the boring, lonely route. Yay!

victory is relative

My nut-studded crust earned gloriously complimentary comments. The extra butter Jesse suggested did wonders, I say. My filling was not as firm as I would have liked...perhaps a little time in an actual icebox (rather than a fridge) would help? When all was said and done, I was a winner, though not the only winner.

My prize? Two Tupperware cups with nicely sealing lids and straw holes. And the sweet glow of satisfaction.

I'm serious about making contest winning my new part-time job (this is number 2 for the month). I'll keep you posted.

límon

I was invited to participate in a Lemon Icebox Pie "Throwdown" ala Bobby Flay, in honor of our Civil Deputy Supervisor's birthday. I did a test run the weekend before the contest, and the following is the recipe that resulted:

Hopefully Award-Winning Lemon Icebox Pie

Crust:

1/3 box of honey graham crackers, finely crushed (7 or 8 crackers)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup white sugar
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Grease deep-dish pie plate with butter. Mix together all crust ingredients and press into the bottom and onto the sides of the pie plate. Bake for 7 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool.

Filling:

12 oz. plain cream cheese, room temperature
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla
Juice of 4 large lemons (approximately 1 cup)
Juice of 1 small lime

Mix all ingredients in electric mixer on medium speed till smooth. Pour into cooled crust. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with Cool Whip.