giveaway

Support the reader economy: Giveaway #2.

by

My new “Support the Reader Economy” giveaway series is back! For an explanation of why I’m doing this, and why I think it’s important, see the original post.

This time – and probably every time – the support the reader economy giveaway will be a $15 gift card of the winner’s choice. Given how startlingly fast the price of gasoline has jumped, I’m wondering how many of you would choose a gas gift card. Just think: It would probably cover at least two gallons!

You could also request a gift card for something else you need (food, drugstore stuff, whatever) and divert the $15 you saved to the fill-’er-up fund. Again: It’s not much, and I’m not suggesting that $15 will solve anyone’s problems, but it can’t hurt.

And as a reminder, that $15 could be for:

Read more

Valentine giveaway: Alaska-made jewelry.

by

Welcome back to the “support the local economy” giveaway series. This time around, we’re going for a Valentine’s Day theme. Specifically, a trio of heart-shaped earrings made by Cypher Alaska.

That’s the business run by my friend Linda B., who started out with freeform bead-weaving and has added things like traditional beading, resin capture and metal work.

Once she picked up a bunch of flashing at the Habitat ReStore and turned pieces of it into jewelry (Linda has quite the collection of shapes and punches). Then there was the time she purchased a piece of copper piping at the home improvement center, capped both ends and beaded around the middle.

What I’m giving away this week is a bit simpler, though. Three winners will each get a pair of hammered metal heart-shaped earrings. From a distance, these things look like just metal hearts. When you get up close, you can see they bear multiple divots that add texture to the metal.

That’s not a bad metaphor for Valentine’s Day, or for love itsownself: After all, many a heart has been dented in the name of l’amour.

If you’re lucky, that never happened to you because you met The One and immediately paired up. Or maybe you escaped a heart-hammering because you have the ability to shrug over a lost love and say, “Plenty of other fish in the sea.” Or possibly you don’t have much interest in the whole love thing from the start, living just as long and dying just as happy without romance (shout-out to the aro folks among us).

But back to Valentine’s Day. If you’re interested in gifting a pair of shiny earbobs to your Valentine – or to yourself – on Feb. 14, read on to see the goods and enter the drawing.

Read more

Giveaway: Artisan felted mittens from Alaska.

by

Happy New Year, belatedly, and time for another “support the Alaska economy” giveaway. This time around, the winner gets to pick from among six pairs of artisan felted mittens.

Given how cold it is in so many places right now, who’s up for some wearable art? 

These mittens are outstanding: both beautiful and practical. They’re funky-stylish outside and unbelievably soft and cozy inside. 

The artist who makes them, Sherri Stein, is a retiree who spends part of the year Outside* and part of the year in Alaska. She rescues wool sweaters from secondhand shops and felts them until they’re soft and super-warm, then turns them into mittens with deep cuffs and interesting buttons.

Her color choices are whimsical. But as DF points out, they’re also practical: “If you lose one of these, you’ll be able to find it in the snow.”

The winner can choose from among six pairs, one of which is pictured at top left. Here are the other five options:

Read more

Giveaway: “Tundra” calendar.

by

Continuing with my “support the local economy” string of giveaways, I give you…a wall calendar made by Alaska’s funniest guy – and signed by him, too. If you squint real hard at the photo on the left, you’ll see the signature “Chad Carpenter” in silver Sharpie at the top, just above the “Tundra” logo. Carpenter … Read more

Giveaway: Two $25 gift cards.

by

I’ve been trying to focus on Alaska goods for my giveaways lately, in order to support the local economy. My idea is that some of the folks who don’t win might decide to check out these the Last Frontier economy* on their own. I even had an Alaska item picked out to give away – but then I realized it might not get to its recipient before Christmas. That’s why I’m doing something non-local today: gift cards.

Which gift cards? Whichever the winners want, provided I can obtain them electronically. 

Drugstore? Discount emporium? Office-supply place? Home improvement center? Supermarket? Bookstore? Massive online retailer? It’s your call, if you win. 

Two winners get to use these card to finish up their holiday shopping. They could opt to give the cards themselves as gifts. Or donate them. Or, maybe, use the cards for something they themselves need.

Again: Your call. Provided you win, of course.

Read more

Holiday 2021 giveaway: Alaska chocolate.

by

Here we are, a bit closer to Christmas and Kwanzaa, Hannukah in the rear-view mirror, and still supporting the local economy. This week’s holiday 2021 giveaway is pretty sweet. But not too sweet, even though it’s made up mostly of chocolate.

That’s because the Chugach Chocolate company specializes in dark chocolate. Headquartered in Anchorage, it’s been the subject of a couple of previous giveaways and it’s always been a big hit.

If you win, you could give free chocolate to someone you love this holiday season?

And yes, that someone could be…yourself. Charity begins at home. Sometimes chocolate does, too.

In addition to the four chocolate bars in the giveaway, the winner will also receive a fun (yet useful!) piece of Alaska kitsch: a face mask featuring the Alaska Tastee-Freez logo.

More on that in a minute. Right now, let’s talk about the chocolate.

Read more

Holiday 2021 giveaway: Scented candles.

by

We have one month before Christmas and a little more than that until Kwanzaa, so let’s keep these giveaways coming! This time around, the holiday 2021 giveaway is sponsored by Abigail Perry of I Pick Up Pennies, whom regular readers will know is my daughter. These highly scented candles could become four or more holiday gifts for some lucky reader, or maybe a really nice self-gift.

The backstory, as I recall it: Abby had written about the importance of supporting local and small-biz economies. One of her readers mentioned that she had an Etsy shop called BettysOnly. Abby visited and spent a little money, and decided to donate them to my holiday giveaway series.

As you can see from the photo, there are four good-sized scented candles and four little tulle bags. The bags are full of what I initially thought were small, flat candles, but which on closer inspection  proved to be wickless. I concluded that these are fragrance blocks, designed to perfume a room. Put one or two of them into a dish in a musty-smelling room, closet or dresser drawer and they’ll change the dynamic pretty quickly.

(I brought them home wrapped in plastic bags in my suitcase several weeks ago, and that Gladstone still smells sweet. Since I’m heading for the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition next weekend with Linda B., I’ll be even more irresistible than I usually am. Or my clothes will, anyway.)

You could give this prize as one great big holiday or birthday (or Valentine’s Day) present, or split it up into individual gifts. Three of the four candles are heart-shaped and one is a tall, square pillar. The smaller bags would make good stocking-stuffers, or little gifts to someone you’d like to treat but with whom you don’t want to provoke a gift war; such a small remembrance shouldn’t make that person feel, “Oh, but I didn’t get you anything!”

Read more

Win a $100 Macy’s gift card.

by

Win a $100 e-gift card from Macy's.

I didn’t set out to be a giveaway site, and thus try not to post too many “win this” articles in a row. Right now I have the Alaskan art jewelry giveaway* going, so this will make the second post in a row that lets you enter to win a prize. But the holidays approach, and I would like for readers to have a chance to win a $100 Macy’s gift card from Savings.com. which is giving away five of them. So here we are.

Macy’s has a wide variety of products, from toys to toasters, to go along with its clothing items. Having a $100 head start on your holiday shopping could be a nice boost to your budget. So what are you waiting for?

Not shopping for the holidays? Already finished your buying? Well, then, you could spend the money on warm items to take to a shelter. If you’re in a warm climate, use it to buy necessities like socks and underwear because I think most (if not all) shelters can never have enough of such things.

Spend it all on playthings to donate to a toy drive. Contact a nursing home to see if you could play Secret Santa to someone who has no family; a hundred dollars could let you buy slippers, PJs, comfortable loungewear for someone who otherwise would not be remembered on the holiday. 

Read more

Holiday 2021 giveaway: Alaska art jewelry.

by

I’ve been doing intermittent giveaways of Alaska-made items, in order to support the local economy. Today I realized that Hannukah starts on Nov. 28, and that we have only about five more weeks before Christmas and Kwanzaa. Clearly it’s time for a holiday 2021 giveaway, no matter which holiday(s) you observe.

My friend Linda B’s jewelry has done so well in the past that I’m putting some of it back up for grabs. You can read more about her backstory in the first giveaway write-up. Short form: She’s talented in fields other than jewelry, and she’s also awesome.

As is her jewelry. She started out with beading, and has lately become entranced with metalwork and resin capture. If you want to give gifts to a spouse, lover, friend or, heck, even to yourself, I can guarantee that these are one-of-a-kind pieces. Linda never repeats herself, so every jewelry work is unique and never to be repeated.

Her work is arresting, and it’s hard to pick favorites, but here are the items I will be giving away this time around.

Read more

Win a $100 Old Navy gift card.

by

Enter for a chance to win a $100 e-gift card to spend at Old Navy!

Savings.com is at it again. This time, the coupon/deals website is giving away five $100 e-gift cards to Old Navy. 

Although this is being billed as the #OldNavyFallLooks giveaway, I’m thinking “holiday shopping.” You could do quite a bit of damage with $100 at Old Navy, especially if you check the clearance racks and/or wait until Black Friday.

Then again, Old Navy is known for fun clothing and accessories that are affordable even when they aren’t on sale. 

Read more