Drawing winners and The Empty Bowl

First, the winners of the 2 drawings!

The QuadraFire Pellet Stove sponsored drawing for the teeshirt and notebook was won by WaterWaves
The Apartments.com drawing was won by AubreyLaine.

The Amazing Turnip Girl picked both winners randomly from a bowl. Congratulations to you both, and thank you to everyone who entered.

Learn more about SocialSpark, the site that connects sponsors and bloggers for contests like that.

Yesterday was the Annual Empty Bowl event here. I didn't bring my camera because I was in a fair amount of pain and didn't want to fuss with it, but it was a blast.

Empty Bowl is an annual fundraiser for our local soup kitchen. Unlike a lot of fundraisers, this one is very casual, and it's immensely popular. Potters and clay artists from around Alaska at all sorts of skill levels donate handmade bowls, thousands of them actually. With your 25 dollar ticket, you get to choose 1 bowl, and have as much soup and cornbread as you can eat. My kids look forward to this event, as do my husband and I.

This year, because I was hurting so badly when I woke up, we wound going a little later than usual. So we worried that the bowls would be pretty well picked over, but they just keep putting out new ones until all the bowls are gone and there was a great selection. I had my eye on 2 different bowls, both used the same color glaze and it's a color I must like because when we got home we found out they "matched" several other bowls from previous events. I finally settled on a tapered deep bowl, part of me still wanting the other bowl. Then my husband picked his bowl, and wouldn't you know it? He picked the other bowl. We must have the same tastes after all these years. TG and William took a little longer to choose their bowls. William picked a bowl that had a very plain outside and almost looked like crystal slices on the bottom of the inside. He really loved how it looked so ordinary until you saw into the depths of it. TG of course picked a bowl that was TARDIS blue, or as close as she could find. It's actually a blue and cream bowl.

My husband and I went to get soup while TG and William were choosing bowls. Our local soup kitchen is named Bean's Cafe, and the soups served are always bean soups. They hold a yearly contest to choose the recipe for the soup and do one vegetarian soup and one meat soup. The meat soup had bacon and kale in it, and the vegetarian soup was a creamy, cheesy soup with potatoes and beans. Michael and I both got the meat soup first and found a place to sit. Then the rest of our family joined us. It was pretty good soup and everyone sitting our table was friendly. Of course, TG can find a fellow Whovian anywhere and she and another lady compared matching TARDIS keyrings.

After we finished our first bowls, TG and I were full, Michael and William both went back to try the vegetarian soup. I had a bite of Michael's and OH GOSH it was so good. After they finished, we headed back to the car and Michael and I talked about what we liked about the vegetarian soup and possible ways to incorporate some of those things into a soup recipe of our own. TG and I discussed the possibility of entering the soup contest next year. One of the things Bean's Cafe does with the winner's soup is create bean mixes with the recipe for the soup as a fund raising item which they sell throughout the year.

I love our bowl collection. Last year, I picked a bowl that would nest with the one William picked so he could start a bowl collection of his own. All those pretty bowls from Empty Bowl events get used throughout the year and make me smile. They don't match, except some of them in color. They are different shapes and sizes, and all made by local artists and every one of them a memory of a nice lunch with my family to support a cause we really believe in. We help Bean's Cafe throughout the year, with inkind donations as well monetary donations and this is our favorite annual charity event.

After that, we went to the hardware store to look at lumber options for my garden beds this year. That was good too.

And if you read this far, do any of you grow horseradish? I'd really appreciate tips. Or if you're feeling really generous, maybe a root to plant this year?

My other entries for the Duck Tape contest

A few people has asked if I submitted other designs to the contest. Yes! I did. Only one design per designer could make it to the finals, but you could enter every day. I didn't enter quite every day, but did draw a few designs and enter them. Click on the images to see larger versions.
The other question I get asked a lot is when is the tape coming out. I have no idea! None. But when I know, I will announce it here!

Which one is your favorite?

Crayons! Everyone loves crayons right?

Spirals, stripes and dots. A recurrent theme around here!

Cookies! I think there should be a tape to celebrate home cooks.

Eyelet lace

Strawberries! (I'm really looking forward to summer and my strawberry patch)

Rainbows are just fun!

Moons, swirls and stars. Also something I draw a lot. Mostly because my friend Melissa loves anything celestial.

Scrappy Flowers with button centers

So what do you think? I love the owls, and it's my personal favorite. My second favorite is the baking design.  But it's close, because spirals, dots and stripes are one of my favorite things too.

Exciting news

Duck Tape started a MyDesign contest last month, and picked 20 finalists from all the entries to be voted on by Duck Tape fans. The winning design will be made into Duck Tape that will be available for sale!

Because of Sandy, the voting part of the contest was delayed, and I was notified yesterday that my design made the finals. I'm super honored, the other finalists all have fantastic designs, and they would all make fun tapes to use for crafts.

Of course,if my design gets picked, it means publicity for Don't Eat the Paste. It also means I'll probably do several hours of happy dances, and I told my daughter we would go out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants and I'd let her have two desserts. Because it would be a huge, wonderful, amazing thing.

Vote for the design you like best at Duck Tape on Facebook. I voted for my owls of course, because I would really love seeing that on tape. You can vote daily until the voting period is over.

I've been super excited since being told I was a finalist, and sort of nervous, afraid nobody would like my design, but a lot of the comments are so nice! (Super excited= dancing, laughing, telling my family repeatedly "I'm a finalist!")

Oh, the photo above is an old Captain Hammer messenger bag. I used it for about 3 years, and it was falling apart by the time I finally gave it up. Now it's a home for stickers on the outside and I keep my markers in the bag to keep them easy to find.

Today was the first time my son voted in a presidential election. He was very serious and very careful about his vote. I'm so proud of him for the care and consideration he took.