Sept. 24: National Thank You Day (thank someone today and win free chocolate)

I'm a big fan of writing thank you notes.

I write them for almost everything. I wrote two yesterday - one to a family friend who bought my daughter a gift and one to the former editor of the community newspaper where I freelance for writing me a glowing recommendation letter.

When I am grateful for someone's kindness or generosity or friendship, I like to actually say it.

So I was excited when I stumbled across the National Thank You Day contest. All you have to do to enter is write an essay of 150 words or less about someone you would like to thank and why. If your essay wins, then your nominee wins a prize of your choosing (up to $20,000). Plus, ALL eligible nominations will receive two boxes of chocolate FREE.

Go enter today and express your gratitude (and don't you dare do it just for the free chocolate). :)

The deadline is August 24.

My First Big Contest Win

Remember my contesting hobby (see my prior blog entitled "contests")? I won my first prize: an all-expenses-paid trip for me and a guest to Santa Monica, CA - including airfare for two, accommodations, most meals, transportation, a $1,000 shopping spree with a wardrobe consultant, a haircut/style, a makeover, and 2 tickets to a dinner and debut fashion show. The contest was sponsored by FIDM. My entry consisted of four short essays and a photo of myself.

We just took the trip this past weekend and returned last night (hence, my neglected blog...). As with most things in life, I made it a learning experience and came away with a lot of great insights about myself and about the fashion industry.

Today's log will be about the shopping spree portion of the trip:

1) Shopping with a consultant is the best way to shop - especially if you don't particularly like to shop. If I were rich and I had my druthers, I would go shopping once a quarter with a fashion consultant because it's fast, efficient, and fun. Essentially, I just stood in the dressing room and tried on clothes that were brought to me from throughout the store. Vicki brought me styles that she thought would look good on me - I tried them on and handed them back if they were in the wrong size, didn't fit right, wrong color, etc. Plus, she gave me feedback about various styles. All in all, we bought: 2 skirts, 2 pants, 3 shirts, 2 jackets, a camisole, 2 pairs of shoes, and 2 hand bags. We spent most of our time and money at Zara, but also made purchases at Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, and Loehmanns. We stopped in at BCBG, Mango, and Max Studio as well. If we had more time, Vicki was also going to bring me to H & M, Anthropologie, Club Monaco, and Banana Republic. [NOTE: Out of the 11 stores named above, only 5 are in AZ and only 2 are in southern AZ.]

2) Women's clothes are overpriced and under quality. I can understand a pair of pants being $50 or even $100, but not $200, $300, $500+. That's just plain ridiculous.

3) If you buy at high end stores, expect to take your clothes to a seamstress afterward. All the pants and jackets were too long and the jackets needed to be brought in. Such is life in Beverly Hills.

4) I would absolutely love to win a shopping spree for casual/athletic clothes. Yes, it was fun to buy shiny heels, swirly skirts, and leather handbags - but it wasn't particularly practical for a young mother. I would have much rather purchased fashionable jeans, sweaters, shorts, t-shirts, tennies, etc. Especially since Tucson is on the casual side and especially since I won't be in a fulltime work setting for some time now.

All in all, shopping on Saturday was my favorite part of the experience. This came as a surprise to me since shopping is generally not something that I enjoy.

I would have liked to have a bit more buying power (Ex. I wanted to buy all pants since I wear pants way more often than skirts due to constantly bending over to pick up baby, but the wardrobe consultant insisted that I buy skirts), but I can't complain. I received some very nice pieces that I can mix and match with clothes in my closet.

Contests

I've been on a "contest kick" lately. Yes, it's true. I've been entering dozens of contests - perhaps up to 100. My favorite kind of contests are - surprise - any that involve writing. I especially am drawn to short paragraph/essay contests on a prescribed topic ("In 250 words or less, describe your dream vacation...", something like that). I also compete in other writing contests - historical essays, poetry, grant proposals, nominations. And, I confess, I enter sweepstakes as well. The lure is the possibility of winning an all-expenses-paid vacation, a makeover, a shopping spree, a new bike, a donation to the charity of my choice, or any other number of things. I am attracted to the hope that perhaps my essay might win over the hearts of the judges or that my name might be pulled out of the proverbial hat.

Wish me luck on this wild and crazy venture. You can check back with me in about six months to see if my efforts were futile or if my hopeful attempts resulted in anything fun or fabulous.

If you happen to run across any contests in the newspaper or your favorite magazine or the local department store, please send me a link or a cut-out. It's a silly hobby, I know - but my imagination about the prospect of what could be keeps me energized.