Vacation and Prizes

Postcard courtesy of Jassy-50

Well folks, tonight I'm riding on a jet plane to London and I couldn't be more excited as I count down my last hour at the office for the next 13 days (Hallelujah!). Not only is this vacation long overdue, but it's a welcome escape from the stresses -- albeit mostly good ones -- of my life here in Texas. While I'm thrilled at the prospect of my first trip to Europe since 2002 (sad!), I really will miss both blogging and keeping up with all my blogging buddies. To be sure, I'll have tons to catch up on when I get back.

In preparation for my extended separation from the Internet, I've gone ahead and pulled together some posts to keep you entertained (and checking in here at Odi et Amo) while I'm away. These posts are on some of my absolute favorite things -- or in keeping with my Latin theme, optimum optimorum ("the best of the best") -- in the world of interior design.

In an effort to draw out my wallflowers and lurkers and to get a little audience participation, I'm going to host a little contest while I'm away. For every comment that you leave on one of the Optimum Optimorum posts, you'll automatically be entered to win a copy of one of my three favorite decorating books: Domino: The book of decorating, Celerie Kemble: To Your Taste or My Prescription for Anti-depressive Living by Jonathan Adler. When I return to action on Tuesday, July 14, I will select three winners (one for each book).

The Rules: The contest is open from tomorrow, July 2, at 8:30 AM (when the first installment of Optimum Optimorum goes up) and will stay open until midnight on Monday, July 13. You will receive one entry for every comment you leave on each of these "Optimum Optimorum" posts provided that each comment must list at least one of your favorite {fill in the blank}. In other words, if the post was on, say, my favorite dishtowels, you would tell me your favorite dishtowel -- not that I will be blogging about dishtowels, but you get the idea. Of course your favorite can also be one of my favorites, but I'd love it if you'd list one I didn't blog about. The ultimate goal is to assemble a sort of greatest hits list for various home decor items in one place for everyone's amusement and future reference. Multiple comments to the same post will be accepted, though each of your comments must list a different item in order to be counted as separate entries.