Giveaways coming out the ying-yang!!

Sarah at A Beach Cottage had a few giveaways during the month of May. And I was lucky enough to win one of them!!

A package arrived today all the way from Australia, and brought some Aussie beach style with it :-)

Sarah wrapped the prize so nicely and included a handwritten note…

Inside the wrapping were two striped cushion covers….

Here they are unfolded. I love the wood buttons :-)

And I just happened to have a couple of perfectly-sized cushions to put inside them :-) I’ll buy some fluffier down-filled ones eventually, but these will do the trick for now :-)

My two new cushions will look great in our not-quite-on-the beach cottage :-)

Thank you, Sarah!!

AND…. Victoria recently won Sharon’s giveaway at Live Your Style!! Her prize is a pair of lovely note cards featuring paintings my Mauritian artists. They came all the way from Mauritius. If you’re not familiar with Mauritius, it’s a small island in the Indian Ocean and includes the even smaller island of Rodrigues:

Nice presentation :-)

Love the personal touch of these great handwritten notes :-)

Pretty cards :-)

Thank you, Sharon!!

Feeling left out?? Wanna get in on the giveaway love?? Then enter our giveaway!! You can win the fabulous interior design book, Jamie Drake’s New American Glamour. Here are a few snaps from the book to whet your appetite…

So hurry and enter!! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and any of these other posts:

• DesignTies welcomes “The King of Colour”, Jamie Drake (my interview with the amazing interior designer)
• Sunday snapshots
• A Few Projects Completed!
• Blog blues…

You get one entry for every comment you leave. So if you comment on all the eligible posts, you get five entries!! :-)

See how easy it is?? And look at how much fun it is to win!!

And if that isn’t enough… Paul at Kitchen and Residential Design is having a giveaway too!! You can win a great Michael Graves 9093 Kettle.

Still not enough?? Well, then head over to Christy’s A Lil’ Welsh Rarebit where you can enter to win three great prizes!!

See, I TOLD you giveaways are coming out the ying-yang!!

Renee’s New Painting!

On March 1st DesignTies teamed up with abstract artist Matt LeBlanc to give away a unique, beautiful and original painting to one of our readers… all they had to do was come up with a name that captured the essence of the piece (click here to read about our giveaway). It was so exciting for us… our first blog giveaway was a FAB painting!!

So many fantastic names were submitted that it was a real challenge for the 3 judges to come to a unanimous decision! In the end it came down to a submission that 2 of 3 judges liked…

Worn - submitted by Renee at Cottage Lifestyle

Announcing the winner in our March 8th post was a real thrill for us!

But not as much of a thrill as it is to actually see the painting hung in Renee’s attic “hang-out” room!!

Renee writes (here) that she uses this top-floor space in her cottage to “quilt, blog, watch TV, Wii, read, and dream.”

We love how Matt’s art looks on Renee’s wall – the juxtaposition of the painting with her neighbourhood view is perfect; like they were meant to sit next to one another! We can totally imagine Renee sitting in this window, dreaming about… well… all the stuff she dreams about! :-)

How great to see where Renee has hung the painting in her lovely home!

We had so much fun with this giveaway that we definitely plan to do it again sometime soon. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Matt will partner up with us again!! Keep coming back for news…

Renee – we’re happy you love your new painting and that it’s now living in special part of your home!!

Kelly & Victoria

Kelly wrote a great post about Matt LeBlanc’s wonderful work – check it out! Of course you can always head straight to Matt’s personal site (click here) where you’ll find even more fabulous art!!

A fantastic contest that you shouldn’t enter…

That’s right — there’s a FANTASTIC contest going on right now over at Kitchen and Residential Design. But don’t enter it. Really. I mean, who needs a $3,200 (yes, that’s $3,200) gift certificate from Metallo Arts?? To put towards a new custom range hood or a zinc countertop or a pewter countertop. And 10 hours of design time with kitchen, bath, and residential designer Paul Anater — worth an additional $1,300, for a total grand prize valued at $4,500.

OK, I’ll tell you who needs it — ME!!!! I have PINKY OAK cabinets and LAMINATE countertops and a stove with two measly burners and a light fixture that a friend said looks like a coffin. Hubby thinks the kitchen is just fine as it is, thank you very much, and refuses to make any changes. Well, if I win this contest, I’m gettin’ me a brand new kitchen!! Because you know how these things work… a new range hood leads to a new range leads to a new fridge (well, no, I like my fridge, it can stay), leads to a new countertop leads to… you get the picture!!!

So please, DON’T enter this contest. Because if you don’t enter, I’ll have a way better chance of winning. Yay, me!!! And because you won’t be entering the contest, there’s no need for you to know about the rules…

• Write or put together a presentation on your fantasy kitchen (however you interpret and express that). You can use words, pictures, a slide show… the more creative, the better.
• E-mail your presentation to p.anater@gmail.com by midnight on April 2, 2009.
• Contest is open to everybody — designers, bloggers, reporters, and regular Joes or Janes.

And you definitely DO NOT want to go to Kitchen and Residential Design to read the full contest details and rules. That would be a waste of your valuable time because you DO NOT want to enter this contest. Right?? :-)

For full contest details, check out:

Kitchen and Residential Design

A very special Met Monday DesignTies giveaway!!!

Kelly @ JAX Decor & Design and Victoria @ EdinDesign Interiors

Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting Metamorphosis Monday every week :-)

We’re SO EXCITED about our Met Monday post this week… because this week, our transformation is all about YOU and transforming YOUR space!! How?? We’re giving you the opportunity to win a wonderful piece of original art!!

Canadian abstract artist Matt LeBlanc has graciously provided us with a fabulous painting to give away to one of our lucky blog readers. You may have read about Matt a little while back in this post. If you didn’t read it before, go read it now!!

Thank you, Matt!!

The painting that’s up for grabs is 16” x 20”. It combines earthy colours with an interesting cross-hatch pattern and lots of texture (which you can see in the close-ups). Matt creates the majority of his paintings using a large brush that he’s dubbed Squeaky :-)

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NAME THAT PAINTING!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Come up with a name for this painting. The name can be only ONE WORD. Any word — a real word, a made-up word, a foreign language word — one word that you think captures the essence of the painting.
2. If you’re a registered user, leave us a comment with your name for the painting.
3. If you are NOT a registered user, send us an e-mail at designties@gmail.com with a name for this painting.
4. Only one entry per person.
5. Everyone is welcome to enter the contest, whether you live here in Canada or on the other side of the world :-)
6. All entries must be received by Friday, March 6^th at midnight (PST).

Three nonpartisan judges will select their favourite name from all the entries we receive, and the winner will be announced in next week’s Met Monday post. Matt will sign the back of the painting and include the date and the winning name with his signature. Matt will then ship the painting to the winner :-)

This is your chance to add a beautiful piece of beautiful original abstract art to your home… so get those creative juices flowing and come up with a name that makes our judges go WOW!! :-)

Check out some pictures of Matt’s work hanging in is client’s homes…

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And to check out some transformations that make you go WOW, head back over to Between Naps on the Porch and check out the list of other Metamorphosis Monday participants!!

You can read more about Matt on his web site and his Facebook group…

Matt LeBlanc Art

Matt LeBlanc on Facebook