A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

contest

We have some winners!

We have some winners in the giveaway for my most recent pathtag!

First, thank you to all who entered. We had more than 50 entries, which was great. The bad part is, some people who had said they did something actually didn’t, which meant I had to disqualify them. The good news is – there are going to be more chances to win this tag (and maybe some of my others as well)!

The winners will receive this pathtag!

I have a bunch of my other tags I’ve had made and plan on setting several aside for giveaways, along with a few other items I’ve collected along the way. Maybe I’ll even look to give away some geocoins, as well as some non-geocaching items.

So keep following along and you will have many chances to win!

The winners are posted below (as well as on the RaffleCopter widget on the contest post). They will have until Sunday to respond to me with their address so I can send the tag; if we get to Monday and there’s no response, I will look to pick a substitute winner.

The winners are:

  • acdc&kc (followed on Twitter)
  • Leah Batchelor (liked a ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook)
  • Adam Chater (left a blog post)

I will be contacting each of you to get your addresses.

Thank you again! I look forward to doing more of these contests!

please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Time for a giveaway!

In conjunction with my new look and logos and such, I’m going to do a little giveaway, too.

And though this might interest geocachers – I think the item is cool enough for non-geocachers, too. Especially if you like collecting little knick-knacks and such.

Late last year, I had a pathtag designed to show my blog. The idea of the tag was to show a lot of my interests, and also have something I can give away through the blog or social media. That’s the thing about this tag – it will only be available this way. I won’t be trading it and such. I mean, if somebody else does with one they win – that’s up to them. But from me, it’s win it or nothing.

It took almost 13 weeks to get here after I submitted. But it came out really nice!

For those who don’t know what a Pathtag is, it’s basically a colored, collectible coin. It’s about the size of a quarter, or a touch bigger. This one is in a custom shape.

And I only had 50 made. I will give one away for up to 10 entries; two away for up to 25 entries; and three away for more than 25 entries.

This contest will run until sometime after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12. So about a week or so. You can gain multiple entries to the contest.

Ways to enter:

  • Comment on this post and let me know if you collect Pathtags, or just like this and want to win
  • Use the Rafflecopter system below to gain more entries by following on several social media platforms (liking the blogs Facebook page, following on Instagram and Twitter).
  • You can also gain an additional entry by going to the Instagram post for the contest and doing what that says.
  • Another way to enter is Tweeting it out. You can do this once daily (on entry per tweet), but please make sure the tweet is done as it shows so I can keep things in order.

One note with these: Some of you might already follow me on these platforms. If so, it should allow you to enter those still. Just make sure you fill out the items it needs in certain spots.

Whoever the winner(s) is/are, I will be checking to make sure the entries qualify.

I will be giving these out at random times for different things, too. So make sure to follow along with me on the blog.

Entries can be done via the Rafflecopter widget below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Contest: Give and win

A hand-made quilted scarf.

The above image is a scarf that was made by my mother. It’s flannel and quilted.

And it can be yours!

Every year, I come to the blog in hopes of soliciting some donations for my Relay For Life fundraising. It’s the one time of year I really try to give and get people to give.

After all, I would say the majority of us have all been touched by cancer in one way or another.

This year, it’s the scarf.

To win?

Donate.

For every $5 that is donated to my personal Relay For Life page, you’ll get one entry to win this scarf. It’s as simple as that. So if you donate $20, you get four entries.

Our local relay runs this year from 6 p.m. April 27 to 9 a.m. April 28.

Therefore, I’ll say that this contest runs until noon on April 28, 2012. Don’t wait until the last second, though! If that happens, I’ve found people forget. And with this, every dollar counts when fundraising!

When that time comes, I might be sleeping after being up so long! But at some point that day, I’ll do a random draw for the winner. I’ll likely use random.org by putting every entry in and then hitting the button 10-20 times to really randomize it.

I’ll then mail the scarf to the winner.

This counts for any way of donating, as long as it credits to my account. So you can buy luminaries in honor of or in memory of someone you care about. If you let me know who you did the luminary for, I will also try and get a snap shot of said luminary for you. I can’t make promises, because sometimes it’s hard to track them all down. But I will try my hardest.

I thank you in advance for helping with this fundraiser.

You can donate by going to my personal Relay for Life page.

Some other photos of the scarf:

The more the scarf is washed/dried, the more frayed and "worn" it gets as part of the look.

Folded up.

Another view.

Details about the scarf: 

  • Material: Flannel.
  • Dimensions: The scarf is about 5 1/2 inches thick and about 58 inches long.
  • Who is it for?: Unisex.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Hiking away with a book (contest winner!)

With the hiking series of stories in the books, it’s time for the winner of the contest.

Though I had hoped to get many entries for this signed book of Skywalker’s trip on the Appalachian, only three people entered. Two tweeted the contest, too, so that’s five entries. Add two more who gave a Facebook page like (thanks, you two!) and we have a total of seven entries.

That’s disappointing.

Still, for those three people, the odds got that much better to win this book. First, if you haven’t read the book, it’s a fantastic story of — as Skywalker told me through Twitter — on what not to do on the Appalachian Trail. He makes fun of himself and tells about the trip in a humorous and colorful way.

I highly recommend the book to those of you who either didn’t win this contest or are just reading about it now.

Anyway, with so few entries, it didn’t take me to pop the four into Random.org’s randomizer to get a winner.

And the winner is…

Lauren!

Congrats, Lauren. Contact me with your address and I’ll get the book out to you sometime next week!

The winner via random.org.

The hiking series

I hope people enjoyed the hiking series. Though I would have liked to have had a few other hikers (I contacted several, but didn’t hear back from all of them), I am happy with how the series worked out.

There were some really cool stories and I liked getting back into that style of writing. I hope to do a few more things like this with the blog down the line. I have some ideas I’m working on, so we’ll see how it goes.

The links below are for all of the stories in the series. Go check ’em out if you haven’t already!

Series Schedule:

The future of contests at A ‘lil HooHaa

I’m not sure if I’ll be running contests much anymore. Though I like the idea, it hasn’t done what the hope is — drive some traffic to the blog so people read it. Even through social media “advertising,” I don’t get many extra hits. And many who enter the contest only enter and move on. Even though tweeting it (if one has a Twitter account) is a quick and easy way to get a second entry. Same with liking the page on Facebook.

I’ll reconsider as I go on, but it doesn’t seem like the contests do too well, so I’m going to save myself the shipping costs (most things I’ve given away, I already have or have been donated).  If I do another series or two of stories and somebody gives me something to give away, I’ll try again. But for now, I’m not going to have any standalone contests anymore. Which, to be honest, is too bad because I had some cool things (things I have gathered personally over the last year or two like t-shirts, geocoins etc.) that I was going to give away. I’ll re-visit it down the line, but for now it doesn’t seem like a feature I’ll keep doing.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

A hiking contest

In conjunction with an upcoming series of blog posts I have on thru-hiking, I am having another contest.

And the prize in this is a doozy!

It’s an autographed copy of Bill Walker’s book on his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

It’s a great book.

If you enjoy reading a humorous and — at times — serious look at hiking the Appalachian Trail, this is for you. If you like good stories, this is for you. If you like adventures, this is for you.

This book made me laugh many times. And it really gave me a different view of the Appalachian Trail. It showed the human side and, well, it showed me what it’s like for someone who isn’t a “big time” hiker to give a go and finish the Appalachian Trail.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be running a series of stories about people who have hiked or attempted the trail. In all, there are four stories on the people, one other as a preview and then I’ll wrap it up at the end with the winner of this contest.

That means, this contest will run until 12:01 a.m. Friday, October 28. The winner will be announced Friday, Oct. 28 in a post on this blog.

So what do you have to do?

It’s simple. All the details are below, but the short of it is this — I want a hiking story! (There are several other ways to earn extra entries, but you must do the first one before the others will count!)

So think deep about it. Decide your story. Enter soon!

The series of stories starts tomorrow, too. So check back to see the start and follow the series of stories!

The contest: Hiking stories.

How to win: In the comments section, give me your best hiking story. It doesn’t have to be major hikes. It could be a quarter-mile hike to find a geocache. Or a 25-mile hike to an amazing view. Just try and make it something in nature. Though I’m sure getting nearly attacked by a house cat on your way to the store would be a funny story, it’s not hiking!

The story can be serious or funny. Short or long. Just give us some details!

Other ways to enter: You have to first do the main contest entry. After doing that, you can earn additional entries by doing the following (a person can do each one, but only once each. So you can earn a total of five entries into the contest.):

  • Like A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook (on the right side of the blog at the top of the page. If you have already liked the blog, let me know and I can give an entry that way, too).
  • Write a post on your blog about this contest (make sure you let me know so I can check it out!)
  • Tweet about this contest by copying and pasting the following (please copy this exactly… it will fit in a tweet):

@softball29 at A ‘lil HooHaa is having contest! Enter at https://hoohaa.com/?p=2491 !  #hiking #contest #skywalker #billwalker #appalachiantrail

What can you win? An autographed copy of Bill Walker’s book, “Close encounters on the Appalachian Trail”!

Who can enter: This contest is open to anyone. (Note, this is a larger package — so if an international person wins and there are any customs, you will be responsible for it. I don’t know if there will be or not. Shipping is on me).

How decided? Random draw.

Entry deadline is 12:01 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) Friday, October 28. Results will be announced in a blog post here at noon on October 28.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!