Tag Archives: contests

2015 Ends With Two Wins!

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Happy New Year! I hope 2015 was a great one for all of you, and that 2016 will bring you much joy and happiness. Personally, I’m sad to see 2015 go. I had one of my best years ever—a new job, great graphic design classes, a wonderful trip overseas, and some fantastic new friendships.

With all the changes in my professional and personal life, I didn’t have as much time for entering contests in 2015. However, I did have some memorable wins earlier this year and December ended with two wins; a great way to end 2015.

The first was a $50 drink and appie voucher for the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier (North Vancouver) courtesy of Got Craft? I enjoy going to this craft show every year before Christmas and this year was an especially nice experience because of the meal I shared with my mother at the hotel preceding the event. Here are the two appetizers we had:

Charcuterie Plate
Charcuterie Plate
Fish Tacos
Fish Tacos

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both were absolutely delicious! The charcuterie plate delighted us with its array of cheeses, prosciutto, pate, dried cranberries, and more. The fish tacos were also very unique, as they were wrapped in jicama and had a light and fresh flavour that we both enjoyed.

Our server was very friendly and the restaurant had lovely Christmas decorations that put us in the festive spirit for some crafting at the market.

My last prize of the year was a CND Vinylux nail polish set which I won via an online holiday giveaway launched by The Style Spy. I will be receiving my prize in January. If you’d like a preview of what’s due to arrive at my doorstep in the coming weeks, click here. This final prize is worth $137, making my total winnings for the year $412.

So ends 2015. A year I’ll look back on with fondness. 2016 promises to be an exciting one as well, with more changes coming my way! Here’s hoping for some more wins too!

 

The Adventures of a Shutterbug

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I’ve always loved taking photos. I took one course in high school and one in college, and enjoyed snapping away. However, I despised developing in claustrophobia-inducing darkrooms. Fortunately, digital has put an end to all that. I’ve also received an injection of new motivation recently. I was fortunate enough to get an iPhone 6 for Christmas. Now, I have an easy-to-carry lens with me wherever I go and no excuse not to take photos.

Back in August, I went to Cultus Lake Adventure Park and took this photo:

Cultus Lake photo

It’s one of the many rides I went on that day. I even braved the rollercoaster for what may have been the first and last time. The amusement park is a photographer’s dream, as there is an array of colours, lights, and the interesting juxtaposition of man-made whirling machines and the serene natural surroundings.

I garnered some very kind votes from friends, family, coworkers, and strangers, but lost out to a photo of a cute child. My niece and/or nephew will have to star in some future photo contest entries!

The Woman in the Window

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In luscious black-and-white, the screen flickers and takes us back to a world filled with crimes, intrigues, and elegant men and women with dark pasts. Film Noir. I’m a die hard fan and have been for years. Thus, I was delighted to win tickets to the screening of my choice during The Cinematheque‘s recent Film Noir series. I chose The Woman in the Window. It’s not as well-known as some other Noir classics, but I had to see it.

The primary reason was the lead actor, Edward G. Robinson. I feel about Robinson the way many people felt about Lady Gaga after she sang The Sound of Music classics at The Oscars. Why, exactly, had this woman with a fantastic voice been wasting her time singing songs like “Poker Face” all these years? Robinson played so many gangster roles throughout his career that it’s easy to think his abilities as an actor were limited to these parts, but a few performances showed audiences that he was capable of so much more. The Woman in the Window was one of the films that demonstrated his ability to convey pathos, inner turmoil, and utter despair. Yet, he displayed a subtle, restrained sense of humour at other points in this movie, as well. He goes from being a rather staid, middle-aged professor to a man bewitched by beauty and capable of acts that we, the audience, couldn’t have conceived of him doing moments earlier.

I would encourage all of you to seek out this film, if not for Robinson’s performance, but for the ending. I’m not one for giving away key plot points, but let’s just say there are two endings to this film. The first is the real ending. The ending that the film would have had if it were made today. Instead, it concludes with the censors’ ending. Even in Film Noir, bad guys don’t get off scot free and bad deeds don’t go unpunished. The world was always portrayed as a generally good place, even when it was really in the midst of World War II.

Well, this latest win brings my total to $225 for 2015. Look for my next installment when I describe the experience of being a finalist in a photo contest and going on my first rollercoaster ride.

And the Wins Kept Rolling In…

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Winning sometimes eludes me, no matter how hard I try.  Droughts make me sad–not because I want more stuff, but because I miss the element of surprise.  However, like many droughts, this one ended with a downpour.  I won five prizes in just over two weeks!

1. April 9th: It all began with Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing.  @chaptersindigo posted a contest on Twitter.  It involved tweeting the name of your favourite Canadian poet to receive Cohen’s book of poetry.  I chose Robert Service, as he was one of the few Canadian poets I remembered.  Luckily, my tweet was one of the five winning ones!

2. April 11th: The second prize I won was an all day pass to Fusion 2013:

I entered this contest via e-mail with through The Georgia Straight.  I entered in hopes that my husband would go, as he’s interested in photography and videography.  Unfortunately, he was working on a side job that day and there were no takers for the pass, so I had to forfeit this prize.

3. April 14th: Next, I won a $10 gift card to Metropolis.

I won this by playing the spin and win contest on their website.  I ended up spending my gift card at Lush.  I bought a face mask called Love Lettuce.

This mask is amazing!  It makes my skin feel really soft and costs less than $10!  I have tried lots of face masks and I would really recommend this one to anyone with combination skin like myself.

4. April 23rd: My fourth win was two tickets to Got Craft?

I entered on Facebook and won the prize by answered a trivia question about the show more quickly than anyone else.  I must confess I was watching my news feed like a hawk in order to get those tickets.  Got Craft? is my favourite craft show of the year.  Not only do they have fabulous vendors, but they have a lot of DIY workshops which I love!  Oh, and I took my wonderful mother with me to the show!

5. April 24th: My last post-drought win came on the heels of my fourth one.  I won two tickets Nikkei National Museum’s art auction fundraiser.

I won this prize on Facebook/Twitter from Hello Vancity:

I greatly enjoyed the auction, canapés, and the beautiful dolls, one of which I bought for my Mom for Mother’s Day.  Check back for an upcoming post.

*An additional prize came just this Friday, May 10th.  I won two tickets to the Great Canadian Craft Spring Fling from Miss 604.

**Total winnings are approximately: $134.00 to date.

***A fond farewell to Rubens; my year of chocolate ended yesterday.

The Start of a Great Adventure

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Before Christmas, in the retro atmosphere of the Waldorf Hotel, two friends made a vow for New Years: enter as many contests as possible and see who wins the most prizes.  Now, I’ve always considered myself a lucky person, not in terms of height or mathematical skill, but in my ability to win prizes.  My interrupted winning streak started at age six when my parents took me to a church bazaar and I won an enormous bottle of Andre’s wine.  My Dad tried to look happy, but being a painter, he already had his share of paint stripper.  Since that first momentous win, I have won play tickets, gift baskets from The Body Shop, Lush, and Sephora, Canucks tickets, and a number of other prizes worth less than $300.  So, yeah I don’t win big, but I do win relatively frequently.

The rules of this contest are very simple.  My friend and I will enter as many contests as possible.  I don’t think it matters if we enter the same contests or not, but the contest entries must be free.  This is because I am as cheap as I am lucky.  My willingness to do odd things to win will vary depending on whether my common sense or extremely competitive nature comes out on top. I am only entering contests that offer prizes I would actually want or would like to give to someone close to me.  At the end of all this, whoever wins the most will take the “loser” out for a nice dinner and very delicious cocktails at the Waldorf Hotel in January 2012, should the world still be here.

So, start your pools now.  Who’s going to win?  As the days and months go by, you will learn more about us.  Discuss amongst your friends and family which of the two of us seems to have the luckier profile, star sign (I’m a Cancer under the old zodiac and a Gemini under the new, BTW), and track record.

May the luckiest woman win!