“But I can’t win a contest on a blog!”

Posted by: tealstripes on: 06/19/2010

• In: Etsy
• 3 Comments

I know this is super late…I’ve been really lazy about blogging (I find if you’re heart’s not into it, it’s very hard to blog, let alone think of things to blog about). However, I’d like to share with you the items I won from a couple blog contests (and plug the Etsy shops of course!)

I enter blog giveaways once in a while, but since I don’t “tweet”, I don’t “follow blogs” (it’s hard to do using WordPress.com), and I don’t blog regularly (thus I don’t blog about giveaways), it becomes very difficult to enter one without doing all those extra things to get “more entries.” Which is why I would declare, “But I can’t win a contest on a blog!”

Well, lo and behold, it can happen!

I found out about Le’s Treasure’s contest for suggesting a soap scent (back in March), somewhere in the Etsy forums. She created this cute pink soap shaped like a pig (her blog). Once again I thought, “Hmph, I probably won’t win, but it won’t hurt to enter, right?”. She wanted us to suggest the scent to produce the piggy soap in…I suggested “rose” because roses smell nice (duh) but also, people think of pigs as being filthy, smelly animals (the ones I’ve encountered, which have been few, usually are!). So I thought wouldn’t you want your pig to smell nice??

So I entered and then forgot about it, haha. I got a convo a few weeks later, and LesTreasure had informed me that I won the contest! For the prize, I won my own pig soap that smells like roses! That really made my day!

Hah…it’s little tail…

Now my little pig sits on my desk and helps keep my room smelling like roses. It’s adorable and maybe I’ll use it one day. It truly smells like roses. I love it’s cheeky smile! So, if you’re looking for cute shaped soaps paired with wonderful scents, I highly suggest LesTreasure‘s shop!

Anyhoo, so I also stumbled across this wonderful blog called The Bright Side Project, where each entry features a seller of handmade/vintage items (not necessarily from Etsy) and that person gets to discuss their favorite items/patterns/themes/interesting finds. AND each entry has a question that you can answer in order to win a set of items that’s been chosen by that featured person.

So for an entry by the blogger Ellie (of the Mint Design Blog) (this entry was written early May), the question was, “What is the last great book you read?” And I just finished reading The Art Instinct, which is about how evolution has determined our aesthetics in art/music, and how our art is derived from evolution…a really interesting read and I definitely suggest all artists/designers/musicians read this book!! The language isn’t overly complicated, and it really makes you wonder how aesthetics has played a role in our evolution…

So I answered that for the blog entry, and a week later I returned to the blog to enter another contest (they have one like everyday) and I saw my name on the winner’s list. At first I wasn’t sure if it was me, so I had to check…and yep, I had won! Wow!

I won a set of the Mint blogger’s favorite things, all sold on Etsy! I’ve received 3 of them so far…still waiting for one more (a $20 gift certificate to the Etsy store, Tortoise Loves Donkey)!

Here’s what I won…

This lovely set of 5 vintage glasses from Seesaw Vintage (which I received packaged securely in a box). I’ll be moving to a new house soon, so I’m looking forward to setting these up somewhere…what will I use them for??

A beautiful necklace, made of metal, by Laura Lombardi Jewelry. It’s definitely a piece that people will ask, “wow, where did you get that from?” (The necklace is called “Pastern“)

A “Grandpa” handkerchief from DownHome Amy…sent all the way from Canada! It’s so cute, and the image was silk-screened (I know how laborous that task is!). Not sure how I’ll use it yet.

So, see? You can win contests on blogs! I guess it’s a matter of luck, typing in the “right place” at the “right time” (I’d say “being at the right place, at the right time”, but that doesn’t quite make sense via the Internet). I also appreciate that these sellers put their items out there to be “won”, which works as great promotion for their efforts, as well as makes someone’s day really special.

Tags: blogs, contest, Creating, Etsy, giveaway, jewelry