Contestista

For those of you who know me, and know me well, you might know that I'm a bit of a contest diva. Or perhaps a "contestista" if you will (my take on fashionista, by the way). Lets just say I win a lot of contests.

I'm not sure if its about luck. If it is about luck, I definitely got my luck from my Grandma Ruth. She is what you would consider "lucky." She and my Grandpa would head down South for the winters, and enjoy some of the fabulous casinos in Reno (and all over for that matter). Now don't get me wrong, my Grandpa would win from time to time, but generally it was my Grandma making the big wins. Like $1600 big wins from slot machines! Like, wow!

Every morning for probably almost all of their retired life together they would play three games of Smear. They each had their winnings jars (old Mason jars). And by the way, I can fully appreciate that they played for money. Adds a little competition! So when I used to go to visit, I loved counting the money in those jars. Well no, I loved counting the money in my Grandma's jar. Hers always had significantly more money that my Grandpa's ever did (and not a lot of pennies either!). It was cold hard cash (Loonies, Toonies, even some American money from when they were playing down South). I'm pretty sure I used to count into the $100's in her jar. Not bad for a husband/wife game of Smear.

So is it about luck? Well, I don't know. I'm not much of one to ascribe to the concept of luck. I'm more of a divine intervention type person. But when it comes to stuff like this, I think it just gets down to plain 'ol odds. I generally avoid bigger contests. An example would be the Reader's Digest Sweepstakes. They have been coming in the mail for Rob for awhile now, so I finally sat down and read the "fine print." Do you realize the draw isn't until 2012, and you have a 1 in 1,790,000 chance of winning? Um, yeah, not really worth my time or my stamp!

I have been winning contests since I was a kid. I think it all started with coloring contests. I would spend hours working on my masterpiece. Using different mediums (when your a kid, "mediums" generally means sparkles). It was intense coloring. But it paid off, I would win, time and time again! I won a Mountain Bike. I won stuffed animals. I won a Walkman (oh dear, I'm showing my age). An Easter basket filled with goodies. I won all sorts of things.

So now that I can no longer enter coloring contests (it really is a shame), I have to enter big girl contests. So I generally look for the lesser known contests. My most recent win? On a blog called Forever and Ever House. I have been following this blog for a few months now (you can see it in my sidebar on the right). She was contacted by cookware.com to host a giveaway. So she did, and I won! (*Most blog giveaways are based out of the States, so this is the first one I've seen that Canadians can enter).

The prize is a 3 piece canister set, in the Sorrento pattern. The crazy part? We got a set of 4 oversize mugs for our wedding in the same pattern...5 years ago! I had a doozy of a time deciding on a color. Red, Blue, Green, Brown, Yellow, and then Rustic White. Whew! Now I would normally lean towards the white, but I thought I would go out on a limb and add a little splash of color to our kitchen.

Retail value (without shipping), $38! Gorgeous hey?

My biggest win? A $500 Gift Card to West Edmonton Mall. I won that this time last year. They had a contest to see who could re-use their Back to School flyer in the most creative way. I think I may have been the only person who entered, but really, who cares? I spent a few hours one evening coming up with the following ideas.

A letter to my friend Sarah, using the flyer pages (The only problem is that I think you can actually read the words. Oh well, I don't think it was too juicy of a letter! At least I hope not!)

Then I also used the paper to make the envelope.

I cut up some of the pages for note paper, and we actually used them.

So all of that, got me this. $500 worth of this!

I was able to buy all of our Christmas gifts last year using this gift card. It was so fun to get people you love some really great gifts and know it didn't really cost you anything. What a huge blessing!

A few weeks ago I won a prize package from Edmonton's Child. A local newspaper. I won a Smarties gift pack. I don't actually even remember entering for it. We got a bunch of coloring things for Abbi, and coloring sheets, and then copious amount of chocolate for me...no wait, for all of us :)

I won tickets to a Tree 63 concert through our local Christian radio station, Shine FM. It was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It was a typical, hideous Edmonton winter's night. -30, blowing snow. So no one really showed up. It was at a church down town that used to be a movie theatre. I'd say the youth group showed up, but other than that, it was empty. Maybe 50-75 people max. It was one of the most intimate concerts I've been to, and they put on an awesome show. And I do have to say Tree 63 was appalled at the weather. They are from South Africa, so they couldn't believe that people actually live here.

I have two big contests right now that I am "working on." Because some contests do take time, and a bit of money. Its like the lotto in that sense, it could pay off. But it may not, that's the chance you take. My big one right now is the Edmonton Sun's "Change Your Life Contest." The total prize value is $44,800. The concept is that they pay all your expenses for one year (basically $40,000), and then you get $4,800 in gift cards to Safeway. Now in my opinion, that's one contest that's worth it!

So I've started a Sun subscription for the duration of the contest (it will cost me $24). Every day you cut out a game piece and paste them to a game card you get on Sundays. Then you mail it in each week. They will pick 5 finalists each week, so by the end of 5 weeks, if you are one of the finalists you will have a 1 in 25 chance of winning. Not bad if you ask me. There is also a runner up prize of $5000.

My other big contest right now is from a local radio station called Joe FM. The contest is "I listen to Joe." You have to answer your phone with "I listen to Joe" (rather than Hello) and you win whatever is in the pot. If someone doesn't answer right, the pot grows by $1000 until someone does. Now they take the numbers sometimes from the phone book (the odds would be really bad if that was the only chance you had), but more often they take it from their Joe Club member list. Of which I am a member. I keep track of the call times (which Joe Club members can get ahead of time). I also have it on our answering machine, just in case we aren't home. Its slightly dorky, but if they do phone and I win $13,000 (like a girl did last week), I will feel anything but dorky!

So anyway, that's me in my contest-ness. I don't spend a huge amount of time entering contests, I really don't. But I do look for ones that seem to be worth my while, and look for the ones that are a bit more obscure. And I've already got Abbi signed up for "Coloring Contest Boot Camp!" Come on...I have to live vicariously through her somehow, right?