RESULTS: Catherine Colebrook giveaway

Thank you so much to everyone that entered the Catherine Colebrook giveaway on LLG.

Any one of their framed prints, a tea towel in each of the colour ways, a set of four mugs (Cake is for Life, Keep Calm, Make Hay and When in Doubt) and a Keep Calm and Carry on Shopping canvas bag, worth a grand total of £102.

I asked you to leave a comment to tell us what object in your house is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. I loved all your entries which made me smile, cry and, in some cases, snort with laughter: you readers are just bloomin' brilliant. Using random.org we have picked someone to receive the enormous pile of gifts that Catherine has so generously donated.

So: it all goes to Lindsey.dear who said:

On my bedside table is a small pewter figure of a horse. The style is called 'folk horse' - my parents bought it for me when I was a child, on a visit to Norway. He was nicknamed Little Hoss, and has always been a favourite possession.

However, what makes me smile everytime I glance at Little Hoss is not childhood memories, but more recent events . .

Last year, my little sister headed off to travel the world, and decided to take Little Hoss with her as a reminder of home (never having being able to maintain a clear distinction between my stuff and hers, in true younger sibling style!). We were sad to see her go, but knew she needed to get the wanderlust out of her system, so with a promise to stay in touch, she flew away.

The first photograph arrived on e-mail just a couple of days later, and they came in a steady stream for the next ten months. Little Hoss amidst cherry blossom in a Tokyo park; Little Hoss at Ankor Watt; Little Hoss relaxing on a sunlounger somewhere on a remote Thai island; Little Hoss on the back of a baby elephant in Sri Lanka - for every photo of my sister and her newfound friends, there was a photo of Little Hoss having just as much fun.

Little Hoss has returned to my bedside table now, and my sister is back in her north London flat, but both of them are different for their adventures. Little Hoss might have a few dints and scratches, but my sister is braver, more confident, probably happier - and everytime I see Little Hoss he makes me smile.

Please email me at libertylondongirl@gmail.com to claim your gifts.

ALSO: Because of the weight, it was not possible to open this up to international readers (but I promise we'll have some competitions for you too soon). However Catherine Colebrook have arranged a 10% discount for both UK and overseas customers who would like to do some shopping. Simply enter LLG10 in the code box at check out. www.catherinecolebrook.com

Super soaraway giveaway: Fifty Cars that Changed the World

I just shoved a copy of this beautiful book, Fifty Cars That Changed the World under lil'sis's nose. What car is this on the cover? I demanded. An E Type, moron. Bugger off, she replied, as delightful & charming as ever.

I was just testing: anyone brought up in my family knows that this is an E type jag as sure as surely as they know that Posetta Baddog nips toes. My father lives, breathes cars. I remember books about the E Type on the coffee tables in the drawing room growing up, and the gradual progression of his collection from an XJS to the XK120 now garaged at his home.

I don't have any brothers so I get to play too. I've driven most of the English circuits from Silverstone to Brands Hatch, Castle Combe to Mallory Park, and been scared rigid by Stirling Moss when he almost span me into the kitty litter at Goodwood in the 120.

My father does terrifying things in races and rallies all over the world; he & my mother drove from Islamabad to Kolkata in his TR3, and took part in the Moroccan World Cup rally. Me, I stick to England and terrifying passengers. I've never enjoyed myself more than when asked to drive a friend's teenage son around Goodwood at a track day. He was crestfallen at being driven by a girl. Esp a girly girl with blonde hair & pink lipstick.

I smiled sweetly, asked how fast he wanted to go, slid down my helmet visor and scared the living daylights out of him. There is a reason why the 120 is named so: it was the fastest production sports car of its time (1948) at 120 mph and it shifts. Ha.

So of course this book is just as exciting to me as the other books in the series, (which includes Fifty Dresses & Fifty Shoes). It has one of my first cars - the Citroen 2CV (mine was lime green and called Celeste), although the 120 and my favourite car, the Mercedes 280SL are missing.

Anyway, I highly recommend it: cars like these informed popular design and a book like this should be part of any fashion lover's collection.

Luckily for you my darlings, lovely Octopus have three copies for my readers. Usual rules apply: leave a comment and I will draw the winners using random.org. Just tell me either what your first car was or what your dream car would be. Winners will be picked next Wednesday. UK entries only this time.

Mine was my mother's old gold Renault 5 - I crashed it within five weeks. My dream car? A Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.

Winner: Fifty Dresses That Changed the World

Thank you everyone who left a comment to tell us about their favourite dress. I used random.org to choose three people to receive a copy of the book. And they are:

Kiki said...
It's black lace, found on the floor of a Zara sale years ago for £10. I've worn it to everything, from everyday with flats to evening, for work meetings to a picnic at the park with flip-flops and Xmas dinner with friends. I've worn it so much the wrap detail at the front has loosened up and is now held together with a pin making it uneven (but I like it even more this way!) And wearing it one day this summer, waiting at some London traffic lights I got the best compliment EVER, from a cute old lady, "I love the way it moves at the back and it shows off your pretty legs! You walk well in it!" I walked with her to her house, chatting about her granddaughter, called everyone I know to tell them and had a smile on my face for the rest of the day! x

Claire said...
My favourite dress, is a pink collared vintage piece I found on. It was floor length, until it got it to my house that is! I cut it to a more modern length that suited my shape and height better, and now I wear it all the time. I always get asked where its from and how much. No one believes me when I say £5 from eBay!
I am wearing it here : http://lookbook.nu/look/238270-Pink-Vintage
I love the look of those books! I study fashion promotion with styling and it would come in so handy! Fingers crossed! xox

Mirandola said...
The dusky pink silk dress my italian grandma made for me for my first dressed up party, when I was 18. She'd been a seamstress and volunteered to make me the dress. I was terrified, in the way that only an overwrought teenager can be, that the dress would be wrong, somehow, and that I'd get laughed at. I should point out, here, that I'd never seen my grandma wear anything but southern italian woman black wool...
My mum didn't want to hurt nonna's feelings by saying no, so we agreed that I'd pretend to wear whatever she made, but that if I didn't like it I'd get a proper, shop-bought dress. And it was fabulous. Not let's-be-nice-to-elderly-relative-wearable. It was chic, and flattering, and made me feel grown up and.... She was amazing.

Such fabulous stories from everyone. Girls: please can you email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com and I will let you know how to claim your books.

Friday Giveway: Fifty Dresses that Changed the World

I can't remember a series of books that spoke to my overarching obsessions more clearly. You only have to look at the covers to see what I mean. There in all their glory are four icons of the design world: a Givenchy dress, a Verner Panton chair, a Jaguar E-Type and a Jimmy Choo sandal.

Drool.

Fifty Dresses That Changed the World, Fifty Chairs That Changed the World Fifty Cars That Changed the World,and Fifty Shoes That Changed the World aren't those awful stocking fillers you see every year, each containing a badly edited list that makes anyone with a modicum of knowledge spit their cocoa across the room in horror.

These neat hardbacks are produced by the UK's Design Museum, and have the weight of authoritative research behind them. The books attempt to catalogue the pieces that have made the most substantial impact in their area of design, with each entry giving a short appraisal of the item's iconic status.

Whilst I may not agree with all the entries, the whole is a fascinating window into both design and social history. And at just £12.99, they'd make great presents, even for grumpy know-it-alls like myself.

Now: the exciting bit. Because I loved them so much, I persuaded the lovely people at Octopus to give me a stack of these wonderful books, and I'm going to give them away to LLG readers three copies of one title at a time. Today I'm giving away THREE COPIES OF FIFTY DRESSES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, so that three people can drool over the 1915 Delphos Pleated dress, Hussein Chalayan's 2007 LED creation and the rest,

Simply leave me a comment telling me about your favourite dress, and I'll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday next week.
(This is a UK-delivery only competition I am afraid. Of course that is not so say you can't enter if you live anywhere else, but the books can only be sent to UK addresses)

The Inconvenient Bag - winners!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my first LLG eco giveaway! The response to the giveaways I've been running each week with the help of a few wonderful sponsors (thank you Ormonde Jayne, Etre Touchy gloves & The Inconvenient Bag) has been so great, that I'll be running a giveaway once a week from now until Christmas. (Basically I'm thoroughly enjoying playing Santa Claus.)

Anyway, on to the people who are receiving an Inconvenient Bag. Chosen using numbers drawn on random.org, they are:

Red Shoes said...

At Mardi Gras this year, one of the parades (Muses) used reusable bags as throws. Best parade throw I've ever gotten. Only problem is, last week my sister got sick in the car and um... defiled it. Unsalvageable. I need a new grocery bag.

enc said...

My shopping goes into one of the bog-standard eco bags the grocery store sells for .99c. It's awful, because it's already torn. Things keep falling out of it. I'm loathe to buy another one to replace it, because it'll just be more of the same (cheap) thing. This would be a great permanent replacement!

an ordinary girl said...
Their bags are cute! Way better than my oft-reused paper Trader Joe's bags. I still have a stash, and each one usually lasts a while, so I have been bringing them with me every time I go grocery shopping. But these bags would be much better since they can be folded and last much longer!

Red Shoes definitely made me laugh the most! Can you three email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com so that I can tell you how to go about claiming your bag? Thank you.

The Inconvenient Bag - GIVEAWAY!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Thank you everyone that took the time to leave a comment LLGx

I think we all realise by now that continually accepting new plastic bags at the supermarket checkout is not best practice. I try to remember to carry around a calico or canvas bag so that, whilst I will inevitably have to accept some plastic or cardboard bags, I can at least try to reduce my environmental impact on a daily basis.


Classic design $11

I rather like these shopping bags from The Inconvenient Bag, a small American company, whose motto is, “saving our planet one bag at a time”. The name comes from their belief that though it may be a small inconvenience to remember to use reusable bags when shopping, it's worth the effort.


Beatnik design $11

The bags are much more durable than the usual calico bags: they have a gusset which enables them to hold 45 pounds and they have a flat bottom for better support. But they are still easily fold down-able for carrying in a handbag or purse. I've been carrying one for a week and am impressed.

The Inconvenient Bag have very kindly offered to give three readers an Inconvenient Bag of their choice (there are lots of brilliant designs on their website). Just leave a comment below to tell us in what kind of bag you normally carry your shopping.

This giveaway is open to readers with US & UK postal addresses only

Everyone's a winner! Etre Touchy Gloves giveaway

Here are the five winners for the Etre Touchy sort of fingerless gloves. As usual, I used Random.org to generate five numbers, and chose the comments that corresponded. A big thank you to everyone who left a comment: there were a wonderful assortment of uses for the gloves, and amongst the winners are a priest, a cyclist and a photographer which I think demonstrates perfectly the glorious variety of LLG readers. (Even Dave Yello, my favourite dinosaur, entered. Although as he wanted them for rampaging, I'm quite relieved his number didn't come up this time.)

No 2: Llefenni said...
ooh, oooh! I'm a techy AND a cyclist! These mega-gloves would allow me to change gear without falling off the bike and THEN answer a call on my Hero, with NO FUSS! Amazing! Thanks for the post LLG, found you through @KirstieMallsopp :-D

No, 7: Alastair said...
Those gloves would be very good for taking a Communion service in a cold country church :-)

No. 18: deililly said...
I live on a windy hill in Scotland. I would be glued into them at this time of year. Both inside the house and out! That would be so great, could use phone/substitute brain without getting cold hands! Black with charcoal sounds lovely.

No.34: Becky Colley said...
It's about time somebody made something like this - usually beauty comes before practicality but it'd be nice to have both! I'm a student photographer frequently suffering from frozen fingers so I'd use mine with my camera. Thanks for the opportunity! x (Grey with rose trim)

No. 83 pretty face said...
ooh I'd love grey with rose trim! I'd be able to turn the pages of my book whilst nibbling on a biscuit in the park :) x

Could you all email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com for details on how to claim your gloves? Alistair & Llefenni: don't forget to say which colourway you'd like. Thank you.

FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!: Five pairs of Etre Touchy gloves

I have a special Friday giveaway today: the makers of the Etre Touchy lambswool fingerless gloves which I featured yesterday were so happy with the response from y'all that they have offered five FREE pairs of gloves for LLG readers.

All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what gadget you'd use (maybe a camera or iPod) or job you'd do whilst wearing your gloves (photographer or make-up artist perhaps), and I'll uses a random number generator to pick five winners on Monday afternoon. This giveway is open to readers worldwide.

Please state which colourway you'd like:
Charcoal with turquoise trim, Grey with rose trim, Black with charcoal trim or Chocolate with mint stripes.

Winner: Ormonde Jayne Frangipani Bath Oil

Wow, that sure was a lot of entries. Then again it was a lovely & generous giveaway from Ormonde Jayne.

So I used random.org's random number generator to produce the three winners, and they are:
9 Stevey
"I love the way the house smells when you have a cake baking away merrily in the oven."
84 MinxMarple
"When I was fifteen I lost my sense of smell following an operation. It reappeared one mid-winter day five years later. I opened a cupboard, smelt the heavenly bergamot of Earl Grey tea, and literally fainted with pleasure.The scent of Earl Grey tea tells me that all is well in the world, and that's an indulgence of it's own."
94 Victoria Regina
"The sea on a spring day, when the waves are crashing and the seagulls are wheeling above."

Can you please contact me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com so that I can give you the details of how to claim your gift?

Thank you to everyone who left a comment: they were fascinating. Whilst I'm not convinced by puppy breath (sorry Ruby!), I'm certainly with those of you who love the smells of night blooming jasmine, mother's sweet peas, freshly cracked books, woodsmoke, autumn, wet roads and newly laundered sheets.

I will be running a giveaway of something lovely once a week on LLG, so keep an eye out for further posts.

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani Absolute Bath Oil Giveaway

Now that the Northern Hemisphere's skies are grey and full of rain, a long hot bath is an essential rather than a luxury. Good bathing oil makes the whole experience that much more wonderful, and yesterday I wrote about how much I adored Ormonde Jayne's Frangipani Essential bathing oil.

"The matching bath oil is an exercise in deliciousness: it turns the bath slightly milky, and your skin soft and scented. As the scent diffuses a wonderful haze of flowers drifts upwards in the steam, out the door and throughout the house. It makes me feel as though I am in a seraglio. In the best possible way."

Several of you commented on how wonderful it sounded, and here's your chance to try it: after I posted, Ormonde Jayne got in touch with me to offer my readers three 100ml bottles of Essential Bathing Oil in Frangipani Absolute, worth £48 each. The Bathing Range is entirely free of parabens, mineral oils, sulphates, petrochemicals & GM ingredients, and has added moisturising botanical extracts which really do leave your skin feeling soft afterwards. (They will also include a 2ml perfume sample.)

So to qualify for the giveaway, just tell me what you consider to be your favourite fragrant indulgence? A scented bath, a new bottle of perfume, an apple pie just out of the oven...

Leave your answer in the comments below and I will pick the three winners using a random number generator and post the results on here next week.

A huge thank you to the lovely people at Ormonde Jayne!
www.ormondejayne.com

And the winner is....

Thank you everyone who left a comment on the Kimberly Sayer Deep Cleansing French Clay Mask competition post. They all made fascinating reading and I'll be sure to cover some of your beauty suggestions and skin types in future posts.

Meanwhile, to find a winner I used a random number generator to pick comment number 13 who was Anna, who left the following comment:

"I'm always keen on a competition! I've followed your recommendations in the past - with La Roche Posay, and also C is for Carrots - and they always turn up trumps! Ah, my favourite product at the moment is my el cheapo Eucerin Q10 Night Cream - perfect for a grad student budget, and seems to do good things for my skin: calming and quite plumping too. Really enjoying the blog."

Anna - please can you email me at libertylondongirl@gmail.com with your address so that I can get it off to you next week?