Free Stuff!

I just wanted to pop in real quick to share some awesome news with you guys...


One of my favorite craft blogs, THRIVE, is turning one! In honor of the occasion Nike (THRIVE's creator) is throwing a week-long blog party, complete with presents! Carolina Pear is joining the fun by hosting one of the seven, yes SEVEN, awesome giveaways. Stop by THRIVE to enter to win. And while you're there, stick around, you could probably learn a thing or two about thrifty crafting from Nike!

The Day We Celebrate the Land of the Free (Stuff) and the Home of the Brave

Happy Fourth of July my fellow Americans! To you international readers,* um, happy Monday?
*Do I have international readers? I don't know, but I'm going to assume I'm cool enough to have at least a few.

In honor of the fact that my best friend was in town for the holiday I decided to host a clothing swap. For those of you too lazy to click the link, a clothing swap is a type of swapmeet wherein participants exchange their valued but no longer used clothing for clothing they will use. Clothing swaps are considered not only a good way to declutter and refill one's wardrobe, but also are considered an act of environmentalism. Thanks, wiki!

Just a little something I designed for the invitation. Cute, no?

In retrospect it was probably dumb to plan a social gathering for a holiday weekend, but in my defense I think of July 4th as a stay-home-and-eat-burgers holiday not a traveling holiday so I assumed people would be around and bored the day before. I was wrong. I was hoping for 15-20 people but only ended up with 5 swappers. And, sadly, that 5 included me and my mother who only agreed to come out of pity. Or was it that I only invited her when I didn't think I'd have enough real guests? Either way, one of us (probably me) was being a prick.

In the end I think 5 was a good number, mainly because it required WAY less organization and rule enforcement on my part. I had all these schemes in my head for how to keep the swap moving swiftly and fair for all the swappers, but luckily I didn't need them. Even better, the actual clothes sharing was more successful than I had thought, considering the 5 swappers had very different body types and size ranges.

The most fun was when more than one swapper wanted an item and we would have a "model off," which is basically exactly what it sounds like: whoever is competing for the item tries it on, everyone else judges and then whoever looks the best in the item wins it. I would now like to point out that my mom - who is taller than me, has bigger boobs and smaller hips than me, AND just lost a ton of weight - battled me for a dress and I won. HA! Take that, Mom! But also, congrats on the weight loss. You look kind of terrific.

But enough business chatter, let's talk about my free stuff! I walked away to my closet with 7 tops, 2 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of pants, 3 dresses, 4 sweaters, 1 leather jacket, 2 kick-ass skirts and a pair of sandals. And, of course, I got rid of some items that I just didn't wear much so now i have room for the new stuff. I won't show you everything I got, but I will hit the high notes.

DRESSES
LOFT, Kohl's, Target

SKIRTSTarget, Vera Wang for Kohl's

Just look at these gorgeous patterns. I could eat them with a spoon.skirt, skirt, dress
which is like duck, duck, goose only way more fun

PANTS
H&M, Kohl's
Admittedly the brown pair look a little sad on the hanger but they are quite flattering on, AND they're super comfortable.

TOPSTarget, LOFT, Old Navy

I intentionally set up the red, white and blue for all the patriots out there. Except for these Patriots. Coaches who cheat at football wear hideous sweatshirts get no love from me.

Speaking of red, white and blue today's 4th of July outfit (except for the shoes) was entirely from my swap loot. I normally don't do "theme" outfits, but this patriotically plaid tank was just begging to be worn today.


Oh, I almost forgot the best part - the shoes! I have been looking, and looking for a pair of gray or silver sandals but coming up with nothing. I have 4 or 5 pairs of gold/bronze summer shoes - seriously - but no gray shoes, so that situation clearly needed to be remedied. But as I said I have been looking with no luck. Imagine my delight when my mom pulled this pair out of her bag:


I may or may not have shrieked "MINE!" and hid them in my room before anyone else saw them. Whatever. I'm the hostess, I'm allowed to cheat.

So that's the tale of my surprisingly successful clothing swap. It was loads of fun so I am already thinking about hosting another one in the future. To keep with my (poorly thought out) tradition I'll stick with holiday weekends, so mark your calenders for Thanksgiving and Easter. Heh.

Have you guys ever hosted or attended a clothing swap? How many people participated? What made the swap really successful? Go ahead, spill those beans.

What's better than cheap ad space? Free ad space, that's what!

Are you a young design professional doing freelance work? Do you have a new Etsy shop? Promote your business here, for free!

That's right, free.

I have decided to offer advertising space here on gimmeakiss*, but since I'm new to the game I want to ease into it. While I'm learning the ropes I am going to give free ad space to any qualifying business.


Do I qualify?
I am looking for small artistic ventures. You could be a web designer, painter, sculptor, photographer or clothing designer. Any new business you can think of, I want to support you!

What do I get?
A free 150 x 150 ad - of your own design - at the top of my sidebar for 3 weeks. Ads will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

What's the catch?
No catch. The ad is absolutely free. All I ask for in return is a little blog love. If you like something I post, please share it on your blog, Facebook or Twitter. If you don't like it, then don't post it. There are no minimum linkbacks required. It's that simple.

Where do I sign up?
E-mail me at gimmeakiss dot blog at gmail dot com and tell me a little bit about yourself and your business. If you have the type of business I'm looking for (don't worry, I'm not too picky) all you have to do is send me a jpg and - BOOM! - you have yourself a free ad.

Feel free to share this opportunity with your friends and readers!

WALL-E Update

On Thursday I told you about WALL-E and my firm's participation in Canstruction. I wanted to give you an update about the awards ceremony.

Five teams participated and there were four possible awards: Structural Ingenuity, Best Use of Labels, Best Meal and Judges' Favorite.

We were awarded 'Best Meal' and based on our list of materials we figured we were a shoe-in. WALL-E contains canned vegetables, baked and dry beans, coffee, cereal, taco shells, sardines, potted meat and baking chocolate, among other items! Being newbies to the competition, we were quite proud to take home an award and we are very excited to be donating such a well-rounded batch of food to the food bank.

I love that the trophies are recycled cans!

WALL-E

This past Saturday my firm participated in Canstruction, a national design competition. The contest begins at the local level then winning teams advance to regional, state and national judging.

As a brief explanation, Canstruction is an annual event in which teams* design and build structures out of cans and other non-perishable food items. After the judging and awards each structure is dismantled and all food items are donated to a food bank. During the build session the local newspaper snapped some photos which are available in a slideshow.

This is the first year my firm has competed and we feel very proud of our first attempt. This year's theme was Cartoon Heroes and we chose WALL-E as our inspiration. At our local level, the other four teams used only cans and made very large sculptures.** As first timers, we chose to do something on a smaller scale (closer to the 'real' proportions of WALL-E) and focus on varied materials rather than a complex structural system. Most of our research phase was spent scouring various grocery stores for the perfect grocery items to act as parts of WALL-E.

There's more to be proud of. The host for the local competition is Marbles Kids Museum and the entries are on display so that museum visitors can enjoy them. We have heard from several 'eye witnesses' that WALL-E is a favorite amongst the kiddos and many of them have had their picture taken with him. If only the kids got to vote in the judging...

Speaking of judging, the winners will be announced this Saturday so I'll let you know how we did!

P.S. - it's not too late to donate to this great cause! If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation drop leave me a comment and I'll get you hooked up!


*The competition is open to anyone but entrants are typically architecture and engineering firms.
**Click through the slideshow for examples of their progress.

Giving: fawn&forest + PLYWERK

fawn&forest + plywerk are hosting a giveaway! Head to poppytalk for details!

image source 1 2

Giving: Rhymes With Purty Winner

Cydney! Congrats Cydney, although it's a shallow victory since you didn't have any competition. Which leads me to my question...

What gives guys? I know I have readers, thanks to my hit-tracker and your comments, but I only got one giveaway entry (and only 3 for my previous giveaway). So what is it? Are my prizes terrible? Is the entry period too short? Tell me (and be honest) what could make my giveaways better? If nothing changes I may have to abandon the giveaways for a while until I can think of something better.

Bring on the constructive criticism!

Giving: Rhymes With Purty Reminder

It's not too late to enter the giveaway!



Click here for rules and details.

Giving: Rhymes With Purty

As promised, I have a new give-away for August. One lucky reader will receive my QWERTY photo.



This photo was shot with a Canon film SLR and taken at my favorite thrift store - I just love the color combination!

PRIZE: 8x10 print - your choice of glossy or matte photo paper
TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “PURTY” and your e-mail address and…
BONUS QUESTION: Tell me what makes you feel beautiful (or handsome)... It can be your best feature, something you do for yourself or that special thing your honey says that makes your day.
CONTEST CLOSES: Monday, August 24th at 5pm EST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
PRIZE SHIPS: USA only
THE USUAL: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Tuesday August 25th. Good luck!



P.S. - If you have a business, Etsy shop or just like to make beautiful things contact me if you would be interested in sponsoring a giveaway!

P.P.S. - Feel free to link to this giveaway on your blog, facebook or twitter page!

Giving: Button Ring Winner

And the winner is... Clarissa!

To collect your prize, post a comment here and tell me which ring you would like from my shop!

For the rest of you, I will try to scrounge up another give-away next month.

Giving: Button Ring Reminder

Don't forget! The ring giveaway ends today at noon. It's not too late to enter. Click here for rules and details.

Giving: Button Ring

I (along with the other members of my Etsy collective) have been hard at work stocking our shop pens & needles. As a reward to my readers, and to kick-start some sales, I am offering a ring giveaway. One of my favorites in the shop are my button rings made from vintage buttons and findings.

PRIZE: Your choice of any ring in my shop.
TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words "GIVE ME A RING" and…
BONUS QUESTION: Tell me your favorite feature on Gimmeakiss, or something you would enjoy seeing here.
GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 12:00 EST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
PRIZE SHIPS: USA
THE USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected at random and announced on Tuesday afternoon.

I will be adding more rings through out the week, so you will have plenty to choose from!

Good luck!

Giving: oh, hello friend giveaway

One of my favorite blogs is having a giveaway! YAY! But giveaway or not, definitely check out her wonderful and lovely blog. Always a source of inspiration!