Why pay big bucks for the same casual shoes you see in every park, schoolyard, gym, or dorm, when you can strut in custom kicks? And why toss out those tired old hightops, when they’ve still got good life left in them?

Give ‘em new life and express your creativity, with a custom design job!

If you can peel-and-stick, you can do Sneakart stickers. Or go for the full sheet patterns… there are about a kabillion designs to choose from, and you can mix and match to create the look of trendy (and expensive) hand-decorated sneakers.

Totally waterproof, these sneaker skins stand up to regular use for a couple of months — or you can peel them off and make a change, any time you like.

Is graphic design your gift?

You can even upload your own artwork to the Sneakart site, to make truly one-of-a-kind footwear stickers. But that’s not all — “Creative design deserves to be rewarded,” they say. So you can choose to keep your designs to yourself, or submit your art to the shop.

If it’s accepted for the design Gallery, each time someone buys your design to customize their shoes, Sneakart will credit your account with 10% of the sale price. You can cash out your royalties payments via Paypal or roll it over to get more Sneakart stuff for yourself.

Puma Sneaker Art Contest

And here’s a sneaker art contest that’s running right now, for another chance to make your artistic talents pay off — or at least to win a free pair of customized Baskets:

Sneakart is running a competition with in conjunction with PUMATALK to find the freshest new designs around. Design exactly what you want to see on a sneaker and then you can make it real with sneakskin. All good artwork will be accepted to the Sneakart library and will earn royalties on any sales made. The winner will be chosen by PUMATALK and sneakart and will receive a pair of baskets exclusively customized with sneakskin in their design.

Your custom sneaker design can be created with any software or hand drawn, as long as you use the templates provided. Check out the sneakart tutorial for more information.

The only thing better than a lovely new handbag? It’s got to be a lovely new handbag that’s FREE! …So, how do you rank a chance to win one of 24 spiffy high-end handbags?

To celebrate the launch of their new website, Handbag Planet is giving away 24 handbags in 24 hours on October 15th. Click on over there to sign up for your chance to win the bag of your choice — but know this: I call dibs on that tasty soft green bag, and my fingers are crossed for luck!

Here’s a little contest for my American friends who are into the great traditional art of applying fire to meat:

Just post your favourite knock-their-socks-off barbeque recipe, with a link to the iBuyBarbeques website, for a chance to win $400.

That could buy enough burgers to see you through the end of grilling season, I’m thinking! And if you’re one of the first 50 to submit your entry, my buddy Dan will send you $10 as a little thank-you gift. The price of your condiments, or a few cold bevvies for your BBQ enjoyment?

The contest runs from September 1, 2008 at 12:01 AM and ends at 12:01 on November 1, 2008, with the winning entry judged on quality and originality of recipe as well as the creativity and presentation of the entry. You can find the full contest rules here.

We have our Garden Giveaway contest winners! Email addresses of our 3 winners have been pulled from our usual Mexican basket-hat by He Who Hogs The Power Tools, and the lucky ones have been notified of their great fortune:

Thanks to Comtech, a CatStop goes to JCF (who apparently has a very specific pesky stray cat in mind for discouragement), a SquirrelStop to Queen Marlene (her songbirds will be happy!), and a SlugsAway goes to Peggie (they say everything is bigger in Texas, so I don’t want to see her slugs!).

Thanks for playing! Your prizes will go out in the mail this week, so cross your fingers for prompt and efficient postal service… And for others, less fortunate, who must now weep over their pest-ravaged gardens in disappointment: Better luck next time! And there will be a next time, you know it!

Ah, Springtime in the garden… from Wordworth’s dancing daffodils to Chaucer’s “grene and lusty May,” it’s all good — except for the harsh reality of garden pests.

Slimey Slugs and Snails, oh my!

Slugs and snails crawl into the garden at night, and leave their sticky slime all over whatever tiny bits of tender lettuce greens and flower petals they might not chew to a ragged edge or leave with great gaping holes…

Cats!

Stray cats take one look at that freshly turned, sweet, friable soil in your flower beds and say to themselves, “hey! check out the giant litter box!”

Squirrels? – please, don’t even get me started!

When all you want to do is lie in a gentle hammock and rest from your labours, watching the lovely songbirds come round for a gourmet meal — that’s when some greedy fat-tailed squirrel comes along to dangle upside down from the bird feeder, scooping out great fistfuls of expensive bird seed onto the ground as he stuffs his little rodent cheeks — guaranteed to scare away that rare shy Eastern Purple Whositbird that you’ve been dying to photograph since childhood…

Sound familiar, any of that?
Hang onto your sun-hat, then, Nelly — I’ve got the contest for you!

Garden Giveaway Contest

Here are the fabulous prizes –

1. 
   

   SlugsAway electronic slug and snail fence

   Keep slugs and snails out of your garden without using chemicals. Safe for children and pets, it can protect your garden all season on a single nine-volt battery.




2. 
   

   CatStop automatic outdoor cat deterrent

   Keep cats out of your garden, safely and efficiently. A motion-activated burst of ultrasonic sound startles cats, and teaches them to stay away.




3. 
   

   SquirrelStop automatic spinning squirrel deterrent

   Keep your bird feeder safe from squirrels. When a squirrel climbs on to the feeder, it triggers the SquirrelStop motor and makes the feeder spin! (Ha! Let’s see you try to stay on that amusement park ride, little seed-stealing rodent!) Works with any hanging feeder weighing up to 10 lbs.

Contech Electronics, based in British Columbia, Canada, is our gracious sponsor. They develop, manufacture and distribute a whole range of innovative technology for pets and gardens, including these three prizes.

Enter for your chance to win!

Read the contest rules here for your shot at 3 great prizes: there are 3 ways to enter. Residents of Canada and USA only for this one, please… and the deadline to enter is Saturday, 31 May 2008, at 11:59 pm (Eastern).

Sweet spring in the garden, with all the fresh little green sprouts: it’s like heaven from now until harvest! Except for the harsh reality of garden pests. If pesky slugs, cats or quirrels are planting frustration in your lovely garden, my friends, this Garden Giveaway is the contest for you.

3 Great Garden Pest Control Prizes

SlugsAway electronic slug and snail fence

Keep slugs and snails out of your garden without using chemicals. Safe for children and pets, it can protect your garden all season on a single 9-volt battery.

CatStop automatic outdoor cat deterrent

Keep cats out of your garden, safely and efficiently. A motion-activated burst of ultrasonic sound will startle cats and teach them to stay away.

SquirrelStop automatic spinning squirrel deterrent

Keep your bird feeder safe from squirrels. When a squirrel climbs on to the feeder, it triggers the SquirrelStop motor and makes the feeder spin! (Ha! Let’s see you try to stay on that amusement park ride, little seed-stealing rodent!) Works with any hanging feeder weighing up to 10 lbs.

Contest Rules

This contest is open to Canada and USA readers only, sorry — otherwise I’ll go broke on the postage for shipping these things all the way to Uruguay. (Not to worry, there’ll be another giveaway contest for our international friends very soon!)

Deadline to enter: Saturday, 31 May 2008, at 11:59 pm (Eastern)

Winners will be selected by my usual clever method of matching up email addresses with numbers, writing all the numbers on bits of paper, and putting the bits of paper into a hat (actually, a charming Mexican basket since I’m not a hat-wearing kind of gal). As usual, He Who Hogs The Power Tools will close his eyes, reach into the basket, and draw the winning numbers one by one.

First prize winner gets his/her choice of the 3 available prizes; then the 2nd prize winner gets to pick from the other two; and finally, the 3rd prize winner gets whichever prize has not yet been claimed.

Winners will be notified by email on Monday, 2 June 2008, and announced on DomestikGoddess.com at the end of that week.

3 Ways to Enter

1. Sign up to get Domestik Goddess updates by email, if you haven’t already done so, and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win.

or

If you’re already a subscriber, drop me a note (my email address is on the About page) or leave a comment on this other post to say “Count me in!”

or

2. Bonus! Get your name put into the hat twice by posting a note on your own blog to help spread the word about this contest — don’t forget to link back to this page, so I’ll see that you’ve entered!

or

3. Super bonus! Tell us your best story about garden pests for an extra chance to win. You can tell your tale in the comments on this other post, or send me an email, or post your garden-pest adventure on your own blog — whatever works for you — just make sure to let me know about it, so it will count towards a ballot in the giveaway!

All clear?

Good.

Remember, Canada and USA only for this one, please… and the deadline to enter is Saturday, 31 May 2008, at 11:59 pm (Eastern).

Now, let the Garden Giveaway begin!

SIGG Switzerland, the company that makes my favourite reusable beverage bottle, is turning 100 years old — and they’re planning an online celebration with a great green theme, celebrity chat, and a chance to win a trip to Hawaii.

To mark this milestone, SIGG Switzerland, along with Laurie David’s StopGlobalWarming.org, will launch www.sigg100.com and explore the 100 Top Eco-Moments of the past century.

From February 11 – April 22, 2008 (Earth Day), SIGG will unveil 10 historical eco-moments every week.

Visitors to www.sigg100.com are invited to vote on the most significant eco-moments for a chance to win a free trip to Hawaii for the Kokua Festival, with accommodations provided for by Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort and Spa.

Environmentalist celebrities will be turning up to chat with site visitors, too, through a bi-monthly Q&A series. It kicks off with the Academy Award winning producer and author Laurie David on February 12th at 2pm PST.

Other chat hosts will include actor and activist Ed Begley Jr.; the Oprah Winfrey show and NBC Nightly News environmental contributor P. Simran Sethi; the founder of EcoFabulous.com and Domino Magazine’s eco-editor Zem Joaquin; and Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World, Christopher Gavigan.

This is a limited-time event, remember! SIGG’s 100-year celebration starts tomorrow, 11 February, and will wrap up on Earth Day, 22 April, 2008.

If you’re at all into the game of Bunco, here’s a little something:

Proctor & Gamble’s Prilosec OTC has teamed up with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation® to raise money for breast cancer through a Charity Challenge.

Players can register online at Buncocentral.com and the group that raises the most cash will win a trip to Vegas to compete in the 3rd Annual Prilosec OTC and meet Naomi Judd, the country singer.

About Bunco
While it is a new and growing trend in the United States, Bunco is almost 200 years old. It’s gaining in popularity – in fact, more than 17 million women in the United States have played Bunco and more than 7 million play regularly. Per rules, players take turns trying to make three dice turn up as the “key number,” or ones in the first round of play, twos in the second and so on. Rolling three of a kind is a “Bunco.”

(Sounds like good clean fun, actually… and the history of Bunco, as given by the World Bunco Association, is nothing short of fascinating!)

P&G will donate 100% of donations from the Bunco Charity Challenge, and 100% of the proceeds of the Championship t-shirt sales to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® to support the nonprofit’s goal of preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in our lifetime by funding clinical and genetic research worldwide.

It almost breaks my heart that this clever emoticon T-shirt doesn’t exist yet!

Have a Day is a submission by a guy called Elbeardo to the on-going T-shirt design contest over at Threadless.com — where they give away something like $2000 in cash and prizes to 4-6 lucky winners every month.

Isn’t this a great design?
So simple, and yet so… simple.

The emoticon smiley face would be a blank circle, so you can draw on the face that best expresses the kind of day you’d like others to experience — and a blank white space lets you pick your own adjective. With a washable marker, you can change your mind about your design if your day happens to take a turn for the better or worse, part way through…

Anyone can send in a design for a chance to win, or vote on other people’s submitted designs — joining the street team is free and lets you earn points that can be cashed in to support your Threadless T-shirt habit.

And I’ll warn you now, surfing on the Threadless site gets habit-forming.

I was lurking for a while and finally grabbed a free account of my own at the end of August.

See, I’ve got an idea brewing for a submission of my own… (and aren’t you just so curious to know what it might be? Too bad, it’s not ready yet!) So far I’ve just been enjoying the fun of voting for my favourite shirt designs and leaving an occasional comment for the Threadless artists and wannabees like me.

Captain Jack Sparrow may be the summer’s hottest box-office draw, but what’s it really like inside his bedroom?Watch out for the skull and crossbones hanging from the ceiling. Be careful not to trip over the gold dubloons spilling out of the old chest by the captain’s bed…

In conjunction with next week’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World’s End Home-and-Bedroom.com is sponsoring a pirate-themed essay contest. Just let your imagination run wild, and give them your 100-word vision of a truly swashbuckling bedroom!

“Beds and bedroom sets are our company’s specialty, so we thought it would be fun to ask : What exactly does a Pirate’s bedroom look like?” explains Ben Weissman, spokesperson for the online furniture retailer. “Whether it’s Captain Jack Sparrow, Barbosa or Davy Jones, they all have a certain ‘Pirate Style’ to their quarters. We want to know what people imagine that would be like.”

The best 100-word essay that the company receives between now and June 10, 2007 will win a Disney Pirates twin bed comforter set (retail value of $100). For more information on the contest, visit Home-and-Bedroom.com.

The bathroom is, arguably, your most important room. Why not do it up over-the-top, with a little help from the guys at Rotorooter?

(And those guys have a definite sense of humour, I know — Randy Rotorooter once advised me to hire a hot-air balloon to access my vent stack, since I was oddly reluctant to scramble up a ladder and onto a steep-pitched roof in an ice storm!)

Rotorooter’s new contest offers a chance to win the ultimate Pimped Out John, “a luxury toilet equipped with name brand seat warmer, 20-inch LCD television, gaming system, DVD player, laptop computer with fully articulated robot arm, MP3 player with docking station, refrigerator and digital video recorder.”

This sweepstakes is open to Americans only, sadly… but who doesn’t simply enjoy the whole Extreme Bathroom concept?

If anyone knows anything about amazing kitchens, it’s the guys at Sub-Zero and Wolfe. And ever since my designer friend had a successful entry in Sub-Zero and Wolf’s Kitchen Design Contest a few years back, I’ve studied the winning designs with great interest.

After all, these are the world’s top kitchen designers on display!

The kitchen design contest gets hundreds of entries from “the best of the best” in kitchen design, worldwide, and drops a load of valuable hints about what materials, appliances and overall design tones will soon be most in demand in new and renovated kitchens across North America.

For its most recent contest, Sub-Zero and Wolf enlisted seven of the country’s top design professionals and architects to judge the 1,046 entries. Here are some of the trends spotted by the judging panel:

International Feel

Nationwide, designs are incorporating more of an international feel, with simpler and more sophisticated aesthetics. Jamie Drake, MaryJo Camp and Wendy Mendes all mentioned their surprise at finding very modern, contemporary kitchens – ones that would fit perfectly in a cosmopolitan home – in the heartland of America. Drake noted, “While America’s kitchens are predominantly traditional, even the traditional design entries reflected a modern approach that was cleaner and less fussy – an approach that we typically see in international designs.”

Mixed Materials

There is greater acceptance of a more component-like approach to the kitchen, in which materials are mixed to create a custom-styled space that can be used however the homeowner wishes. For example, multiple cabinet styles and finishes can be paired with several countertop surfaces and backsplashes to create a kitchen with separate zones for cooking, officing, etc. – what Robert Schwartz calls “a multizoned style for a multifunction area.”

New Age Materials

Materials including crystallized glass, terrazzo and quartz are replacing traditional granite surfaces. As Matthew Quinn noted, “More emphasis is being placed on material quality, texture and color rather than simply big size, high cost and quantity.”

Green Design

The trend toward green is influencing not only the choice of energy-efficient appliances but also the choice of environmentally conscious materials used in kitchen design. Patti Weaver commented on this trend: saying further, “Homeowners want sustainable, renewable and eco- friendly resources used in their homes. This trend leads to increased marketplace visibility of recycled-glass products, cast-stone products made from recycled marble and limestone, and renewable woods like Lyptus and bamboo.”

Originality/Personalization

Embellishments in the kitchen have evolved into a reflection of the homeowner’s personality, with designers incorporating intricate details such as mosaic flooring and ceilings and textured paints. Colorful accent pieces and other accoutrements including collectibles and antiques are also making appearances in a growing number of kitchens.

As well, a few “timeless trends that are still demonstrating great design influence and staying power” came to light. For example, appliance integration was a common component in contest entries, as increasingly modern designs call for a seamless, clean-lined approach. Specialized appliances continue to show up as a reflection of the homeowner’s lifestyle, such as refrigerators with extra-large crisper drawers and countertops with integrated steamer units for those who focus on a healthy lifestyle.

More and more designers are creating a free flow between the kitchen and the rest of the house, as kitchens are increasingly designed as the centerpiece of the home, used as much for social gathering as for food preparation.

I was quite surprised to note that the stainless-steel-appliance trend continues, for some reason, in contrast to the natural materials and warm personalization that’s taking the rest of the kitchen by storm. Stainless steel, of course, emerged as part of the “gourmet” trend towards a more “professional” or commercial feel…

Nevertheless, the judges estimated that more than 65 percent of the contest entrants used stainless steel appliances in their design schemes, confirming that although new materials are increasingly sought-after, stainless steel remains in high demand.

It will be interesting to see if that trend continues through the next Kitchen Design Contest, which Sub-Zero and Wolf are planning to take place in 2006/2007. For more information, and inspiration, visit http://www.subzero.com/contest.