Polling is closed for The Jacket Writing Competition. The people have spoken and we have a winner.
Drumroll please….
Congratulations to Darla at She’s a Mainiac! Whoo hoo! It was neck and neck, but she narrowly edged out Shauntelle in the final days to emerge triumphant. You can go here to read her winning entry.
I hung around to close the polls at 5 on the dot last night, so everything would be on the up-and-up. This, despite the fact that happy hour starts at 4:30 at my favorite watering hole. You can’t ask for more dedication than that.
Now the question on all minds is..does she take The Jacket, or the Applebees gift card? Well, Daronica Lake, what’s it gonna be???
A special congratulations to our finalists.
Worrywart at Worrywarts Guide to Weight, Sex and Marriage
Angie at Childhood Relived
Sandy at A Mind Divided
Shauntelle at Being Is A Verb
Tawn at Totally Tawn
Be sure to check out these bloggers if you don’t already know them. Thanks to all of you for playing along. We had over 300 votes by the end of polling. I had a lot of fun with this and hope you did, too. I made some new friends, and figured out both Polldaddy and the slideshow/gallery image feature of WordPress. A blogger can’t ask for better.
Now I need a vacation.
Peg-o-Leg's Ramblings 
I am so happy for Darla! Way to go Darla. This jacket will fit well with your new “plaid-wearing” tagline 😉 I think you need to take the jacket, put it on and post a new pic of you wearing it — in your blog banner. In fact, I’ll expect this. In fact, I’ll try to take my votes back if you don’t.
Again, I was thrilled to be a finalist. Thanks for the good times, Peg!
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You’re so right – I foresee a brand, new header for Darla!
Your entry had a real, grabber opening that hooked the reader in. Thanks for playing along.
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Congratulations Dara! Although I had already spoken with the framer about creating a display for my first place prize, I won’t cry or start a twitter campaign calling for a recount… lol!
Seriously, being a finalist in this crowd was an honor and the contest was so much fun. Thanks for hosting it and allowing me to play along.
Hope Dara shares photos of herself enjoying her prize. Congrats again!
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Er, um,…Awkward!
Thanks so much for submitting a piece. Your entry was really powerful and bittersweet. Don’t be a stranger!
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Congrats to Darla, and thanks for putting this together, Peg’o!
It is a great deal of work to create the idea, follow through with the idea and READ all the entries. You’ve earned your vacation. I hope you enjoy it. Report for work Monday morning 9am SHARP. (smile)
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You’re a tough taskmaster, Lenore. I still have the rest of the weekend to goof off, though.
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It’s time for me to hang it up too – but that has nothing to do with this post!
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Chris, that sounds ominous. Don’t do it! Noooooooo! Unless you mean you have to take your laundry out of the dryer and hang it up, in which case, well, carry on.
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It’s a portrait of my mother-in-law and I’ve been putting off putting it up for several weeks now, and my wife is getting mad enough to make things hard on me – instead of making my… nope, TMI. 😉
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Thanks Peg – it was a lot of fun!
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Thanks for playing – your entry had me giggling!
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Congrats to Darla. Hope she gets as much mileage out of that jacket as you did!
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I wonder if she’ll choose the jacket. We shall see…
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Congrats Darla! And thank you, Peg! That was a BLAST! And thanks to everyone who voted and for all the bloggy love! 😀
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Oh, and Darla should expect Clinton and Stacy on her doorstep any time now. 😉
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What are you saying here, Tawn? That they’ll want to BORROW The Jacket to use in a fab style makeover of some poor slob?
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Of course! They may want to party with it, too.
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Thanks, and I think you are right about Clinton and Stacy. I’ll try to dress it up a bit with some jewelry…
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And pointy shoes. Can I go shopping with you?
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I am thrilled beyond words! No wait, I have a few words left in me–Thank you, guys! It was loads of fun and all the entries were fantastic. And thanks to you, Peg, for running it–time to hit happy hour again later on today, well deserved.
I would love to take the jacket. It’s plaid. It’s a bright enough shade of green so that my kids won’t lose me in a crowd (unless they try real hard) I do have a few questions:
–what size it is? Can my husband wear it?
–has it been cleaned? Does it need to be ironed? (you know I hate doing laundry)
–would there be a possibility of me finding some other treasure in the pockets along with the note? A coupon for a buck off a pack ofSkittles perhaps?
But then…Applebee’s is good. They do make a killer quesadilla…
Ok, my husband just said, “Take the jacket!” So jacket it is, Peg-o-leg. I will not only take a picture of it, I will do a vlog of myself twirling my baton while wearing it.
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Wow. I’m speechless at the thought of the treat in store for us all. It would have been worth trying to figure out how to stuff the Polldaddy ballot box had I known a Jacket-wearing, baton-twirling Darla would be the result.
Email your address to me and I’ll get the prize in the mail. I’m sure you don’t mind if I wear it tonight, though, right? It’s Chocolate Pudding Wrestling night down at the Lazy Duck, my favorite bar. I think I really have a shot this time.
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Oh yes, I’ve secretly been dying to do some more baton twirling AND vlogging…and to know it might produce an unattractive snort fest from you? How can I resist?
And hahahahaha! Chocolate pudding! Mmm mmm… I have a feeling there might be a little truth to that story…Just pop the jacket in the washer on hot and use tons of Arm & Hammer.
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Careful not to trip over those shoes, Darla!
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Not a chance. There will be no clown shoes harmed in the making of this video.
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Congrats, Darla!
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Congratulations, girl!
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Thanks, Laura!
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and Patti!
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D-Woww, congrats on the win!
Let me just say that no one, and I do mean NO ONE wears, or has, more plaid than me. Obviously, the ballot box for this contest was rigged, or I surely would have one it.
One small detail: Oh yeah, I didn’t enter the contest. Woops!
I leave you with a quote from Steve Martin in the quintessential plaid movie, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982):
All dames are alike: they reach down your throat so they can grab your heart, pull it out and they throw it on the floor, and they step on ’em with their high heels, they spit on it, shove it in the oven and they cook the s**t out of it. Then they slice it into little pieces, slam it on a hunk of toast, and they serve it to you. And they expect you to say, “Thanks, honey, it’s delicious.”
Ah, words to live by!
Congrats on the win. I’m SO envious of the PLAID jacket.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send it to me – temporarily, of course – and I will take a picture of me in it, in a VERY prominent public place and then promptly send that all-kind-of-awesomeness directly back to you.
I know, you don’t trust me, do you?? hehe
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I’d be glad to loan it to you for a week or so, but Darla got kinda miffed just because it was the featured attraction at a local orgy. Jeesh – talk about picky!
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What?!!!! What kind of orgy would feature THAT as the main attraction? Wait—I don’t wanna know.
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Now I have to watch Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid again! (yes, I’ve seen that movie…I love Steve Martin…still haven’t seen Godfather, sorry, if Steve Martin has a cameo in it, let me know and I’ll watch it)
Well, now, I am very sorry you didn’t win the jacket, MJ. I might consider sending it to you. IF you tell me where this prominent public place is? I don’t want anything bad happening to my plaid duds, ya dig?
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Congrats to Darla! What a fun competition this was!
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Thanks so much for playing along with your fab submission. I just wish I had 25 jackets to award! Of course, that wouldn’t be quite as special, then, would it?
Remember people can reread all the entries on The Jacket page up top.
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You know, I am indeed proud of my submission, lol. I was off and running with it as soon as I got the email, and the words just flowed non-stop. I found it so interesting that a picture could evoke so many DIFFERENT responses, so totally DIFFERENT. Shows how unique we all are!
So thanks again Peg! It was a lot of work for you.
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Congratulations to the winner:) And thanks for setting up this fun competition, Peg. It’s been a great way to “meet” other blogs.
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Thanks so much for entering, Brooke. Your piece was really good, with a great twist ending.
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Darla, you seriously rock. Although the caliber of your wardrobe has now gone down a few notches.
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I plan on wearing it to Walmart on my first outing. Don’t think anyone will even notice me there.
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Hey, hey! What’s all this, then? This is a radically cool jacket, as any fashionista will tell you. Some people….(grumble, grumble)
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Oh, it IS radically cool. As radically cool as all the other fashion one can see on a typical day at Walmart. (I love that jacket, I do, I do!)
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Hey, there ain’t NObody rocking a fab jacket like this down at the Walmart; I guaran-damn-tee it. You just gotta have a little fashion vision, Darleski!
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“Hey, there ain’t NObody rocking a fab jacket like this down at the Walmart.”
And this is why I not only read your blog, but also the comments. 🙂
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Congrats to Darla, you must be tired of winning everything.
And thanks to Peg-o-Leg, who is a creative genius in blogger guise …
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Congrats, Darla!
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Yes, it seems that Darla is out to take over the world!
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Huh? I never win anything! I did get 10 bucks once off a scratch-off ticket once. But then I walked right back in and bought 10 more tickets so my elation was very short-lived.
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You do too win all the time. Just not the lottery because that is mine. Evenually.
But YOU win the caption comment all the time. But probably because GG likes you and because you can remember whether he is the Good Greatsby, the Great Goodsby, or Austan Goolsby, of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors.
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I’m a little concerned that you even know that there IS a Council of Economy Advisors, let alone who heads it up. Blowing frivilous blogger image – blowing it, blowing it!
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That is only so that I can continue to be considered a know it all … well except perhaps how to spell Goolsby/Goolsbee …
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(gasp!) Are you saying my captions suck, Elyse? That is what you’re saying right? Or that GG merely feels sorry for me and my cow-tippin’, plaid-wearin’ Mainah life? Or maybe that GG only puts me in the contest because I constantly butter him up by sending him emails telling him what a fricken genius he is all the time?
Because it’s true. It’s TRUE! (weeping) ALL of it! (Except for the part about knowing who the hell Austan Goolsby is.) Why, Elyse? Why must you expose the truth in such a heartless way? Now I’ll never be in his contest again.
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I am getting in trouble on two different blogs simultaneously. Not to mention that I made an error in my own piece last night.
I am going to have to hang up my keyboard and actually work here at work. Sniff.
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You know I was kidding, right?? Come back, Elyse! I was just teasin’ ya! Just having a little snarky fun! I love you, Elyse! Please don’t go!! Nooooo….(sniff sniff)
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I was just thinking, “Darla is a stay-at-home mom, so she just tells the kids to go juggle knives when she wants bloggy goofing off time, and I’m self employed so I’m willing to starve because I’m not selling any insurance when I’m goofing off…wonder if Elyse is just independently wealthy?”
Are you really that chick who says she won the lottery but doesn’t have to split the winnings with everyone else down at the McDonalds?
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Yes. I drove to a horrible neighborhood in Baltimore, 1.5 hours away, just so nobody’d suspect.
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Psst. Hey, Elyse. Can you lend me a million bucks? Or at least give me a Big Mac? Thanks.
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How about a million Big Macs?
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Can you evenly space the Big Macs out over say, 20 years? So I don’t have a massive coronary? Or maybe that’s what you want–me to drop dead from Big Mac Attack.
p.s. I’m only teasin’ ya, you know that, right? I meant 40 years not 20. God, that would be WAY too many Big Macs for me to consume.
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Darla, if you will always assume I’m joking, I’ll always assume you are. Until one of us shoots, that is!
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I think it’s safe to say we both always are. I don’t think anything gets my dander up anymore (other than politics. Religion. And taxes…)
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And traffic!
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If we could remove religion, politics and traffic from daily life, I would practically turn into a Buddhist monk. Ohm. Ohm.
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AMEN Sister!
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Congratulations to Darla and to all the other finalists, too! What a fun contest that was, Peg– good times all around!
I’m happy to hear that Darla is choosing the jacket as her prize. I would be sad if she chose otherwise…
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I would have been very, very disappointed if she took the easy way out. Good for her for giving the RIGHT response 🙂
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That really was so much fun, all the entries were great! Hopefully you will be shopping at the Vintage Emporium again soon – who knows what you will come up with. I may need your expertise in the near future for a contest I am thinking of…
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Contests are a lot of fun! Lots of work, too, but fun!
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Congratulations to Darla.
Tim
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Congrats, Darla!!! A well deserved win, and I think that color green will really bring out the true victor in you. (Of course, I’ll need to see that baton-twirling vlog first, just to be sure.)
And now Peg can keep the Applebee’s gift card for herself, and by a much-needed drink (or 5).
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*buy (Ack!)
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I’m peeing my pants, waiting for the baton-twirling vlog. How much awesomesauce can one person consume???
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Yes, there will be music. And probably one of my kids. But no mutant shoes.
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Congratulations to Darla!!!
*dun dun dun dun*
I probably should have waited to sing that.
My ‘fanfare’… improves quite a bit after 4:30 yet, you know.
🙂
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How did that yet sneak in there?
Maybe it is 4:30?
😦
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It’s always happy hour somewhere, right?
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Congrats to Darla and everyone who played. It was great fun–even the voting was fun. Now, pass the awsomesauce.
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Heaping helping, coming right up!
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