Real Living 2011 reader decorating contest

This year, for the second year in a row, I'm entering the Real Living reader decorating contest. I really don't think I'll have much of a chance against the many other great entries they'll have, but it's worth a shot. I don't even want the prizes. I just want to get my home in the magazine!

My entry for the living room will consist of around 20 photos. I think I might need to post a CD or USB! Here's a sneak peek of a few of them.

For more information about this year's contest, visit the Real Living website.

Movie ticket giveaway: Big Mamma's Boy

Thanks to Madman, I have five double passes to give away to a preview screening of Australian film Big Mamma's Boy.

The screening takes place at Hoyts Stafford 10 Cinemas next Sunday (24 July) at 10.30am.

To enter, just leave a comment before 5.00pm on Monday 18 July, and I'll pop tickets in the post the next day.

Winners... and an award!

First off, an Easter treat for my lovely commenters.

I'll be sending an origami recipe heart to Chelsea, Fizzleout, Julie, Widge, Jane, Katyha, Littlemissairgap AND Chrisy. That's right, every single one of you who left me a comment! Please shoot me your address details and I'll get folding and posting! In exchange, I may ask for the full recipes for some of those treats, as they all sounded delicious.

And, now, an award for me! This is the second time I've received the Versatile Blogger Award, and it has been bestowed upon me by the lovely Tracey. I am required to tell you all seven facts about myself, and then pass the award on to other worthy bloggers. So, without further ado...

1. As a child I was obsessed with the Swedish pop group Roxette. The happiest day of my life was when I opened my Christmas present as a twelve year old to discover tickets to their Brisbane concert.
2. When I was eleven, I won the school fete karaoke competition. I sang Roxette's 'The look' (of course), and won a hefty $10 prize. I spent my winnings on a talking troll doll. Creepy.
3. My ankles have about 50 per cent more rotation than they're supposed to. No high heels for me!
4. I listen to records quite a bit. Some things just sound better on vinyl. Currently, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is a favourite.
5. The first thing I ever saved my pocket money for as a child was a My First Macquarie Dictionary and a big fat Jacaranda world atlas. I was five. I'm pretty sure the dictionary was a sign of things to come.
6. I know all the words to Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby, as well as far too many other eighties and nineties hits.
7. I am going to be a bridesmaid for the first time this September (for my younger sister).

That's all! Ok, I now tag Katyha, Lavender's Green, designed to a T and kit and nancy!

Thank you: Peppermint magazine, Mina + Oli and Quiet Paws!

Over the past week or so lady luck has been smiling on my yet again. First off, I won this beautiful Mina + Oli wristlet from Peppermint magazine! The lovely Laura selected this blue number for me, which is made from a recycled leather jacket. I really, really love it!

Then, I was most excited (and amused!) to learn that I'd won a HUGE prize pool over at Tracey's blog Quiet Paws. Tracey has won a few Flying Ducks giveaways, so I guess what goes around comes around! I won all this awesome stuff (including the scarf, which is from Tracey's personal collection), plus a $25 donation in my name to the RSPCA flood appeal, which means an awful lot to me as an animal lover.

Image: Quiet Paws

I'm also very patiently awaiting the arrival of a Cocolo chocolate pack, courtesy of a Twitter giveaway from Fair Trade Australia. I am a big Cocolo fan, as I usually buy chocolate 'bricks' through Project 18 to help raise funds for an orphanage in Indonesia.

Clearly I'm a very lucky girl lately!

Movie ticket winners! Plus preview passes to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

The winners of the Certified Copy in-season passes are Thea, Brismod, BrissieMum2, Claire and Online Tutor! I have postal addresses for Thea and Brismod, but if everyone else can please email me their postal address that would be grand.

Now, I have five more passes to give away to lucky readers! Thanks to Rialto, these are valid for a preview screening of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest at Dendy Portside on 2 March at 6.30pm. To win, please leave a comment and your email address before 5.00pm next Wednesday (23 February).

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment for running this giveaway.

Movie ticket giveaway: Certified Copy

Thanks to Madman Entertainment, I have five in-season double passes for Certified Copy to give away (valid at participating cinemas across Australia from 17 February). Just leave a comment before 5.00pm Wednesday (16 February) and I'll randomly draw the winners. If you don't have a blog, please leave an email address as well.

Academy Award-winner Juliette Binoche stars as an antique dealer, living in the Tuscan countryside. One day she sits in on a talk by visiting English cultural commentator (opera baritone William Shimell) on the value of copies in art. At the end of the talk they meet, and over the course of a single afternoon, they drive into the sun-dappled countryside, have lunch, wander around galleries, discussing the nature of love, art and life. But what really is the nature of their relationship? Have they met before? Are they are a couple, or in fact perfect strangers?


Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment for running this giveaway.

Winner of the final Christmas giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who left comments for my three Christmas giveaways! The winner of the gorgeous rubber duck is... Tracey!

Tracey will get her prize when we meet for pre-Christmas lunch next week!

Final Christmas giveaway!

I’m a little bit slack today, aren’t I?!

Ok, it’s time for the final Christmas giveaway from Flying Ducks — and what better to celebrate this occasion with than a duck?! I have this very regal rubber duck from Bud. He comes packaged in a very fancy-looking box. He’s black and white, so should suit any décor. I like him so much that I have one of my own sitting on the bathroom windowsill!

Image: Bud by designroom

This giveaway is open to everyone — just leave a comment here before next midday Thursday (Brisbane time), and I’ll get him in the post to the lucky winner before Christmas.

Good luck!

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment or goods for running this giveaway. All items have been purchased independently by me.

And the winners are...

The winners of Christmas giveaway #2 are:

Lantern Studios tub
Jess

Typo mini notebook and pen
Jane
Liesa

I’ll email you all to arrange delivery of your little packages!

Stay tuned for the final giveaway starting tomorrow!

Christmas giveaway #2

Welcome to my second week of Christmas giveaways!

This week I have two more tiny A7 buffalo leather notebooks and pens from Typo.

As well as this tub of white paperclips and bulldog clips from Lantern Studios.

Anyone worldwide can enter to win the notebooks, but the tub will need to go to an Australian resident for postage reasons. Just leave a comment to be in the running! A winner will be drawn next Thursday at midday Brisbane time.

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment or goods for running this giveaway. All items have been purchased independently by me.

And the winners are...

The winners of Christmas giveaway #1 are:

Lantern Studios clips
designed to a T (Terese)
Fizzle Out (Jasmine)

Typo mini notebook and pen
Raine and Sage (Sonia)
Riini (Irene)

I’ll email you all to arrange delivery of your little packages!

Stay tuned for giveaway #2 starting tomorrow!

The Christmas decorations are up!

I spent last night carefully punching out my recycled paper Polli decorations and tying them to our recycled timber Christmas tree. I had so many left over that I also strung them up above the shutters (and I STILL have about six left!).

Aren't they pretty?! For those who missed my posts last year, John and our tree from scrap timber we found at Reverse Garbage, and then I decorated it with leftover paint in the garage. With our added eco decorations from Polli, we now have an environmentally friendly decorated home for Christmas!

There's less than a day left in my Christmas giveaway for this week, but there will be another one up on Friday!

Christmas giveaway #1

Welcome to week one of the Flying Ducks Christmas giveaway!

This week, we have four prizes. First up, there's two packets of cute red and white bulldog clips from Lantern Studios.

I also have two teeny-tiny A7 buffalo leather notebooks from Typo, including some equally tiny pens to go with them.

To enter, just leave a comment and an email address (if you don't have a blog where I can reach you) on this post before midday next Thursday 2 December (Brisbane time). This giveaway is open to everyone, including those overseas. Good luck!

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment or goods for running this giveaway. All items have been purchased independently by me.

It’s almost Christmas giveaway time!

This year I’ve decided to be super festive and hold a Christmas giveaway. For the next three Fridays, I’ll launch a little competition with some cute little goodies on offer.

There will be some pretty little stationery items from Lantern Studios…

Images: Lantern Studios

…as well as this very regal-looking Décor Luxury Duck from Bud (you may have spotted his twin brother in our bathroom already).

Image: Bud by designroom

I may add a few other goodies into the mix as well.

To enter, all you’ll need to do is leave a comment with your details on each of the giveaway posts. Each winner will be drawn on the following Thursday before the new giveaway starts the next day, and I’ll do my absolute best to get all the prizes in the post before Christmas!

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment or goods for running this giveaway. All items have been purchased independently by me.

Stripy red bowls... and giveaway winners!

About a month ago, I spied these ultra-cute stripy red bowls in Kmart for $2.00 each. Insane, yes? I didn't buy them at the time, but filed their existence safely away in the back of my mind.

This afternoon, John needed to go to the shopping centre for something, so I told him I needed to 'look at something' at Kmart. Of course, I returned with $8.00 worth of stripy red ceramic goodness. It's ok, though - it means I can move the remnants of our ugly old dinner sets off to Lifeline to make way for them. Here are my new purchases on a disgracefully unironed Thea & Sami Spoon and Whisk tea towel.

I decided to use my new bowls to draw the screenprinted bag giveaway a tiny bit early. Drumroll...

The winners are... Tracey and Rachel! 

I will email both of you shortly to arrange delivery of your prizes.

More screenprinting workshop... and a giveaway!

You can now see Thea's overview of the weekend screenprinting workshop on her website. The other ladies produced some fabulous designs (many far more ambitious than my own!), and I think we should all be very proud of ourselves. Here's a picture of me at the studio with one of my newly printed bags.

Image: Thea Samios

I also forgot to mention that after the class, John and I stopped off at Love Love Studio (in Newstead, Brisbane) to pick up a print we purchased at a recent exhibition. On hearing that I've just done a screenprinting course, the guys were kind enough to give me one of the screens they had laying around the studio. How awesome is that?!

Now for a giveaway! I'm giving away one each of my apples and pears bags! Keep in mind that these two bags are far from perfect - they certainly have their flaws! If you would like to win one, just leave a comment before 5.00pm Sunday (Brisbane time - keep that in mind daylight savings people!).

Move ticket giveaway: The Loved Ones

Thanks to Madman Entertainment, I have quite a few (a lot, actually) double passes to give away to a preview screening of The Loved Ones - a 'modern, sexy, fun, relentlessly attacking pop-horror nightmare that takes the conventions of the genre then runs them off the rail'.

The screening is at Event Cinemas, Indooroopilly, next at 6.30pm Wednesday 13 October.

If you'd like a double pass, please leave a comment before 6.00pm this Thursday 7 October. I'll post the passes out before the weekend so they're received well before the screening. For more information about the movie, check out the Madman website.

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment for running this giveaway.

Movie ticket giveaway: The Runaways

Thanks to Hoyts distribution, I have an in-season double pass for The Runaways to give away (valid at participating cinemas across Australia). Just leave a comment before 5.00pm tomorrow (Friday 30 July) and I'll randomly draw a winner.

To find out more about the movie, check out my review over at BNE: Hot or Not.

Please note: This is not a sponsored post, and I have received no payment for running this giveaway.

Life through the Lens...

Thank you to the lovely Kristi from Life through the Lens, who sent me this lovely 8 x 10 photo - one of my several other internet winnings over the past month.

Image: Life through the Lens

I'm pretty sure this print will end up framed at work. Considering I edit books for much of the day, it's probably a good spot for it! Kristi was also generous enough to send me a couple of extra 6 x 4 prints of her other photos. 

Head on over to Kristi's Etsy store to check out her other lovely images!

Lantern Books Comfort Food Challenge

Over the past eight weeks, Lanterns Books (an imprint of Penguin Books responsible for some fantastic cooking and lifestyle titles) has been running their Comfort Food Challenge with Master Chef judge Gary Mehigan. Each Friday, members of the Lantern Facebook group are told the ingredient for the week, and participants have until Monday to submit a photo of their entry.

Two weeks ago, I entered the lamb challenge with my delicious pie accompanied by organic brussel sprouts. Yummo! Since I've been practising my photography by taking photos of food, I figured it couldn't hurt to send in one of my images. Vegetarians, look away now...

In yet another example of me winning competitions left, right and centre, I was victorious! As the winner of week 6, I will receive a signed copy of Gary's Comfort Food book, and I also have to participate in the semi finals, which are taking place this weekend. Semi-finalists were split into two groups, and my group has to cook Gary's Tuscan beef and black pepper stew. I decided to deviate from the recipe a little and pop the whole lot in the slow cooker. I have my nanna's old orange GE one, and I figure there's no better comfort food than a stew made in your nanna's old crock pot. I'll upload an image of the results once I've submitted my entry tonight.

If I win the semi finals, I'll receive a whole stack of Lantern cookbooks, and the major prize is a trip to Melbourne to eat with Gary in his Fenix restaurant. If I don't win the semi finals, maybe I'll buy myself a copy of this Margaret Fulton gem.

Image: Semantically Driven