I think they're creating more work for themselves...

I need to ship out some Original Pass It On Plates but ran out of my extra large USPS flat rate shipping boxes.

"No problem," I thought, "I'll just go back to the Post Office and pick up another bundle of boxes."

Long story short, these boxes have become a special order item only, and the only way I can get more is by ordering a bundle of 10 from USPS.com. So I went online, set up an account, and ordered my boxes. When the order was completed, I received this message:

All free shipping supply items are shipped via Parcel Post within 2 Business Days and should be received within 7-10 Business Days.

What??

Since I have an odd way of looking at things, this message really made me laugh.

Parcel Post, really?

Seven to ten business days, are you kidding?

It just seems silly that they would ship my order to me when they can just throw some on the mail truck and drop them off.

Huh.

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Giveaway reminder - - -

Over the past few weeks, several Pass It On Plate Lite and DIY Pass It On Plate kits have been sent out for testing. In addition, several of the Original Pass It On Plates have been distributed in the Salem, Oregon area. All of these Pass It On Plates are "live" plates and they qualify for any promotions we happen to be running.

I just wanted to remind everyone about the promo we are currently running. I'd love to see a lot of you get all six entries per plate. Here are the details:

Over 20 names, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

It’s our biggest giveaway yet!
Enter to
win a free Pass It On Plate
in our monthly drawing.
All monthly drawing entries have a chance to win our Grand Prize:
a set of four Pass It On Plates!
That would help with your Christmas shopping, wouldn’t it?

From July 1 through the end of September, you can enter to win every time you make a plate diary entry. The more plate diary entries you make, the more chances you have to win!

Whoo hoo!

Winners of these plates get to mix and match the plate color, the PlateWrap, the Pretty Little Doo Dad, and special paint pen color of their choice to totally personalize their prize.

Here are three ways to enter:

You get one entry when you leave a qualifying comment in the official Plate Diary (right here)
(see below to learn more about what a qualifying comment is)

You get two entries when you email us a picture of your plate.

You get three entries when you email us a picture of you with the plate as you pass it on.

1 + 2 + 3 = 6
For example, if you make a comment in your plate’s online diary,
and email a picture of your plate,
and email another picture of you giving the plate to a friend,
you’ll get six entries to win!

Just pass it on &
encourage your friends to keep it moving.

Click here for the rest of the details and contest rules.

And the winner is...

Andi! She won the drawing for July's Flying Plate promo and has a free Pass It On Plate heading her way.

And just to get the rest of you excited about this contest, Andi earned two contest entries using the same plate. She earned her two entries when she emailed us a picture of the plate. Take a look here.

On top of that, she sent us a picture of the plate loaded with some very addictive Andes Candies cookies and shared her recipe with us. For that, she gets a free mug. Yeah, a free mug, with either gourmet cocoa or coffee. (I'm betting she'll choose the gourmet cocoa.) Details about the free mug are in the sidebar of Plate Diaries and we'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

By the way Andi, YOU are just plain awesome!

(Um, Andi, did you want to leave a plate diary entry, too? Since it's now August, this will earn you one entry in the August contest.)


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Our biggest Flying Plate giveaway yet!

Over 20 names, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

How would you like to get a free Pass It On Plate?
How about a free set of four Pass It On Plates?

From July 1 through the end of September, you can enter to win every time you make a plate diary comment. The more plate diary comments you make, the more chances you have to win!

Whoo hoo!

What do I win?
At the end of every month we draw the winner of a Flying Plate mug with your choice of gourmet cocoa or gourmet coffee.

And...
At the end of September we draw two winners!
One winner gets a brand-spankin' new Pass It On Plate ~
and the Grand prize is a set of four brand-spankin' new Pass It On Plates.
Winners of these plates get to mix and match the plate color, the PlateWrap, the Pretty Little Doo Dad, and special paint pen color of their choice to totally personalize their prize.

Here's how you can enter:

1. Make a valid plate diary comment.
Visit our Plate Diaries at http://passitonplates.blogspot.com/ and find your plate number. Leave a message in your plate's diary, follow the contest instructions on the diary page, then load the plate with treats and pass it on. No purchase necessary, but you do need to be passing the plate as you leave comments. A valid plate comment would be along the lines of "Here is a treat for you," and not "Gee I would really like to win."

2. Send us a picture of your plate.
We love love this and will give you two contest entries for these pictures! Let us know the plate number and we'll post the picture in that plate's online diary. We'd love to see how many names you have on your plate!

3. Send us a picture of you with the plate as you Pass It On.
We love love love this and will give you three contest entries for these kinds of pictures! With your permission, we'd like to post these pictures in your plate's diary as well. Make sure you tell us your plate number when you send us the pictures.

One note about the pictures: The idea is to keep these plates flying, so one picture per plate please. Don't go crazy and send us 600 pictures of you giving the same plate to Aunt Martha again and again. If you do, still you get three contest entries.

Send your pictures in jpg format to
flyingplate [at] passitonplates [dot] com.

The contest starts at 12:01am PST on July 1, 2008. Monthly prizes will be drawn for comments and photos submitted until midnight PST on the last day of each month during the contest. Grand prize winners will be drawn for comments and photos submitted until midnight PST on Sept 30, 2008.

Do you know anyone who is hard to buy for or who has everything?

This set of four Pass It On Plates would definitely help you with your holiday shopping, wouldn't it?

For more info about Pass It On Plates, check out our FAQ.
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...and the winner is...

Well, we just don't know yet.

A Pass It On Plate with this pink sunflower PlateWrap was donated to Mommyfest 2008 as one of the prizes and we're anxiously awaiting an email from Mommyfest organizer Marie.

We will keep you updated on who the winner is as soon as we find out.
Can't wait!

I wonder what kind of cookies she'll want?

Update May 27, 2008:
Still no word on the winner and eagerly anticipating the news.
It looks like Karen of Sillymonkeez has indicated an interest, but the final word has not come out yet. If you'd like to keep track of the progress of this prize, you can visit the Mommyfest prize page.

We'll be sure to announce the winner as soon as we find out who she is!

Mommyfest 2008 contest

Update: We have a winner! This PlateWrap will now be called "Wait A Minute, Mr, Postman."
For the winning announcement, click here.

Here is our latest new fabric on the sewing table. Before sewing it into PlateWraps, though, it needs a name. Can you think of a good one? Can you think of several good ones?

This fabric features a scattering of envelopes, mailboxes, stamps, and fountain pens over a black background. Dominant colors are red, pumpkin yellow, dark sage green, and lavender.
Here is a close-up of the print (or just click on the above image for a larger version) :

Add your comment here with the name you think we should use for this particular PlateWrap. Enter as many name ideas as you like, but please just one name per comment. Make sure you include your email or a link back to your site so we can contact you if your name suggestion is the winner.

How will we pick the winner? At the end of the blog party, May 16, 2008 at 11:59pm PST we will enter all the names here and the whichever one ends up in the number one spot will be the winner. We'll announce the winner in this blog and notify the winner by 11:59pm PST on May 17, 2008.

So what do you get if you win? We'll send you a Pass It On Plate with this PlateWrap on it. This is a complete Pass It On Plate with not just the numbered plate and PlateWrap, but we'll dress it up with a coordinating Pretty Little Doo Dad and special paint pen, and we'll even include a dozen chocolate chip cookies. How cool is that? The plate alone is a $49.95 value, and the cookies, which are usually only available locally, are another $9.95. Holy cow, that's almost $60 worth of traveling-cookie-plate-goodness. Better think up a whole bunch of good names for this PlateWrap.

What if the winner can't be contacted? That's a good question. We will make every effort to contact the winner and get their mailing address so we can send out the Pass It On Plate. After two weeks with no reply to our contact attempts we will award the prize to the second name on the list. Hopefully this won't happen, but if it does, that's the plan.

Good luck!

No purchase necessary. Due to shipping constraints, this contest is open to addresses in the US only.

Mountain View, CA

About the only thing I know about Mountain View, CA is that Shirley Temple Black lives there. At least she did, many years ago when I worked for a national moving company.

About once every week this blog has yet another visit from someone in the Mountain View area. (This shows up on the Feedjit visitor bar, to the right - you may need to scroll down to see it.) Now I say 'area' because that's what shows up, but my frequent visitor(s) could be from another small town in the vicinity. Ben Lomond, for example. (Sometimes my own visits to this blog show up as a town about 40 miles from my computer.) My Mountain View visitor could be the same person stopping by again and again to check on things, or it could be a handful of different people visiting from Google.

You might even be searching for the Pam Hawk at Periodik or the Pam Hawk Real Estate Professional and you ended up here. Those two are in California, there's me up in Oregon, another couple of gals named Pam Hawk in Ohio and I think maybe another one of us in Pennsylvania. There aren't very many women with this name and I'm proud to be one of them. (Yes, you heard it here first: I'm a Dork. With a capital D.)

Either way, I'm intrigued, since I don't really know anyone in CA, it makes me smile every time I see another visit from Mountain View.

Because of the frequent visits, I'd like to send a plate of cookies to Mountain View to say thank you for visiting.

If you're from Mountain View, will you please add a comment with a link so I can contact you? Or just email me at pam[at]passitonplates[dot]com.
Thanks! :o)

Oh, heck. If your name is Pam Hawk and you live anywhere in the world, drop me a line via email for your free plate, too.