Monday, October 12, 2009

"Where's the Wreath?" Contest Announcement

The original “Where’s the Wreath?” contest started on October 31, 2007, on Pirate Mom’s old “Hilltop Academy” blog. Tapping into the “Where’s Waldo?” theme of locating Waldo in a variety of different pictures, Kellie hid an “old, crusty Starlight mint wreath [that] kept showing up in photos that” she posted on her blog. She wrote, “The reason for that is that this wreath has been hanging on the same doorknob in our school room for at least 3 years. I had forgotten to take it down for so long that it just became part of the scenery.” I am uncertain of the exact age of the wreath. I recall Kellie mentioning six or seven years. She sent the wreath to me with a stern warning not to eat any of the candy. It was that old.  If you haven't read Kellie's blog, check out the Pirate Mom dot com.  Kellie is a very funny writer.

So, what did General Mayhem do once the wreath was safely located in our house? He employed stealth and subterfuge to eat a quarter of the wreath, one mint at a time!

I planned on running the second “Where’s the Wreath?” contest last year on Arby’s Archives, but that didn’t happen. I abruptly shut down the site and took a short hiatus from the blogging world. I did spend a great deal of last fall wandering through life with a wreath and a camera. I managed to take some great pictures. I even planned on sending the wreath to Iraq so that the Boss could take a picture of it in one of Saddam’s palaces. That didn’t happen, either. And those great pictures I took last fall? They were lost in last spring’s computer failure.

A few weeks ago the Boss and I sat down with a spool of curling ribbon and a bag of candy, and rebuilt the wreath. It was a surprisingly pleasant activity without the kids. It also took a considerable amount of candy to repair the damage done by Mr. Iron Stomach. I’ve read some remarkable stories about sharks and alligators digesting anything, including kegs of nails and the rusty bumper from an old Winnebago (I’ve often wondered what happened to the rest of the RV). It’s frightening to think of the items a doctor would find if they investigated the contents of General Mayhem’s large intestine, but he hasn’t set off the metal detectors at the airport yet. We should be okay.

The Boss made some jewelry for the first and second place prizes for the second annual “Where’s the Wreath?” contest. Yes, the second annual contest. We’re just pretending that the two year gap didn’t happen. The first place winner gets his or her choice of a necklace and earring set designed and built by the lovely and talented Boss. The second place winner gets his or her choice of a bracelet designed and built by the lovely and talented Boss. If you are of the female persuasion, you’ll enjoy the jewelry. If you’re of the male persuasion, I don’t want to know if you enjoy the jewelry. You might consider giving it to a female type person as a gift. The third place winner gets a $5 gift card to a book store, because Arby is nowhere near as creative as his wife. Let’s face it; it’s just easier to go buy something.

So, here are the rules for the “Where’s the Wreath?” contest:


• To participate, you must write a post about this contest and post it to your blog. Send me a link to your blog so that I can read it.  We need to advertise this here contest thingy! 

• I will post ten pictures on my blog, one picture each day on ten consecutive days, except Sundays. The wreath will be located somewhere in the picture. Your task is to locate the wreath and send an e-mail to writearby@gmail.com telling me with some specificity where the wreath is located in the picture. An e-mail that states, “The wreath is in the picture,” won’t earn you any points. An e-mail that states, “The wreath is hanging from the antlers of that very angry Bull Moose,” would be a good answer.

• I will award three points to the first person who correctly identifies the location of the wreath in each day's photo, two points to the second person who correctly identifies the location of the wreath, and one point to the third person who correctly identifies the location of the wreath. All other e-mails will be awarded mocking ridicule. I will use the time/date stamp on the e-mails to determine who answered first, second, third, etc.

• At the end of the contest I will count up each contestant’s points. The person with the highest points total is the first place winner. The person with the second highest points total wins second place. The person with the third highest points total will win third place. I will post the winners on my blog on day 11, and contact them for shipping information. Due to the recession, I will have to ask for a nominal shipping fee of $111.95 to be paid by the winners before I mail any prizes. All shipping will be parcel post, via a slow boat to China.

Just kidding.

I’ll take care of shipping, but I am restricting shipping to CONUS, APO and FPO addresses only.

Please resist the temptation to be as stupid as I was two years ago and reveal the location of a wreath in the comments section of the blog.  I’m still somewhat embarrassed by that maneuver.

So, if I wasn’t clear in the written explanation, let’s try an example. I might post a picture like this:



You would send an e-mail to writearby@gmail.com and say, “Wow, that’s quite the large growth on your right buttock, Arby.” But I promise, the wreath will not be that easy to spot in the contest photos.

I will post pictures of the jewelry tomorrow.

The second annual “Where’s the Wreath?” contest will begin on Thursday, October 15th, and finish on Mondayday, October 26th. I will announce the winners on Tuesday, October 27th, and ship the prizes as soon as the winners send me a shipping address.

Any questions? Readers, start your blogging!

15 comments:

Linda said...

Ok, I'll give it a try!

Teacher Mommy said...

Oh lordy, lordy, lordy. I think this may be unfairly geared towards all y'all who sit at home all day doing nothing (it's sarcasm! sarcasm! please don't hurt me!!!!!)

I'll see what I can do. I'm a sucker for jewelry.

CrossView said...

DO we need to do a whole post? Or can we just link to it? If you wonder what I'm talking about, see the top right hand corner of my blog for an example....

And why am I the only one who has a question? Why am I always the difficult one? Wait! Don't answer that!

Unknown said...

Crossview - just advertise the contest in a way that your readers will see it. Cool?

CrossView said...

Cool! I've put it up. Your, um, wreath is on my blog. =/

Kathleen said...

I believe that would be your left buttock. But who am I to judge?

Unknown said...

Thanks for checkin' out the backside, Kathleen! You're correct.

Kid said...

You got the plug Arby. I doubt I could win. Plus I'd probably cheat so I'd feel bad if I did win. Plus I don't wear jewelery, and my wife doesn't even like jewelery (makes gift giving that much more fun!).

I may play for fun, we'll see.

Michelle said...

uhm, when does it start? Oct 31st?

Oh, and are we passing the wreath around? New blog gets to host it every year? Its like that tacty gift everyone gives away-no offense Kelli or ARby!

Anonymous said...

Oh this sounds like much fun!!! And I like Michelles idea of passing the wreath around. That would be very interesting. (My kids would be the ones eating the candy too lol)

TobyBo said...

question: is team play allowed? like, if I can get Miss Language and Devastatingly Handsome to play, and we took first, DH could have the necklace and Miss L & I could each have an earring...

Brownie said...

Okay! I'm in for the contest. I'm going to try to link it like Crossview... if I can figure out how...

TobyBo said...

Okay, I'm in. And just to show how serious I am... I posted on two blogs.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CarpeBanana/735873/ andhttp://tobybo.xanga.com/714450355/christmas-is-coming/


It is a good thing we started our schoolyear early, since now we will be missing 10 days I had planned to teach.

Teacher Mommy said...

I posted, just for you. You will of course forgive me for doing so in a rather snarky way.

It just wouldn't be me otherwise, would it?

http://diapersanddragons.blogspot.com/2009/10/to-whom-it-may-concern-sucking-rocks.html

Anonymous said...

WOO HOO, now when are you posting???? I'll set my alarm clock.