TAA Giveaway (Plus Notes on AT's Smallest, Coolest)

April is a busy month for us small-spacers on the design blog circuit (says the gal who's been running her blog for three months now). The great-granddaddy of them all, Apartment Therapy, is hosting their annual "Smallest, Coolest" contest. To go along with it, they're focusing on small spaces this month, and my Google Reader has been inundated with great posts for those of us who live in shoeboxes. I can barely keep up with reading them, let alone sharing all the links with you here at TAA! So, while I am reading (or at least bookmarking) all of their wonderful entries, all I can say is that you need to be visiting AT yourself for your several-times-a-day dose of the small and the cool. I'll still share them with you here when I can, but I do have other content I don't want you to miss, too! Eventually, when things slow down, we can revisit some of AT's ideas and inspiration and discuss them in a little more depth.

So, don't forget: check out Apartment Therapy's "small spaces"-tagged entries here to get their articles hot off the Internet presses.

Now, in regard to the contest itself... The Smallest, Coolest contest is an incredible source of inspiration. Every category is full of gorgeous homes with clever small-space solutions. I wish I could link to every single one. But the fact is, I'm entering this year and I'm horribly selfish. So I'm not gonna. However, if anyone who has already been featured on TAA in our "Real-Life Tiny-Ass Apartment" series wants to throw their hat into the "Smallest, Coolest" ring, you bet I'll share that here with you all so you can go support your fellow TAA-dweller. (And yes, I'll share the link if mine makes it up on the site as well.)

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Now, because I have an overdeveloped sense of guilt, and I feel bad for not being able to provide 24/7 "Smallest, Coolest" coverage, I have something for you. We're doing a giveaway!

Tiny-Ass Apartment is teaming up with Paul Wilson of Wilson Graphics to give away a blackboard wall decal to one lucky reader. This is a perfect pairing. After all, I know most of you TAA-dwellers are a) renters, and b) broke. Wall decals are a great way to decorate your walls without damaging them (and thus forfeiting your security deposit), and seriously -- what's better than free?

To enter, leave a comment on this post that includes your name and email address. I'll be using the Random Number Generator to select one winner; the winner will be able to select any blackboard decal of their choosing from Wilson Graphics' shop on Etsy. The deadline for comment/entries is next Thursday, April 15th. Only one entry per person; for more detailed rules, please see below.

A taste of some of the graphics available...

So leave a comment, check out Paul's shop, and thank you guys for supporting Tiny-Ass Apartment and being so awesome!

Grand Prize: One (1) blackboard vinyl wall decal of the winner’s choosing ($40.00 maximum value) from Paul Wilson’s online Etsy shop, Wilson Graphics. Shipping (via either First Class mail or Priority Mail, depending on decal size) is included in this prize.

Deadlines: Contest begins on Friday, April 9th, 2010 with the announcement of the contest and the posting of the contest rules on the TAA site. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 15th, 2010.

To enter: Leave a comment to this blog post. Only one entry per person; any additional comments/entries will be deleted from the post immediately by TAA. Be sure to include your name and email address. Winners will be contacted by email and announced on the TAA site on or about Friday, April 16th, 2010. If the winner does not respond to the notification email within five (5) business days, they forfeit their right to the prize and another winner will be selected.

Selection process: Comments will be assigned a number in the order in which they are received. (The first comment received will be #1, the second will be #2, and so forth.) After the deadline for entries (11:59 p.m. on 4/15/10), TAA will use the Random Number Generator (www.random.org/) to select a number, and the commenter that corresponds with that number will be the winner.

Claiming the prize: The notification email will instruct the winner to contact Paul Wilson with their decal selection and shipping address. Wilson will ship the prize to the winner within three (3) business days of receiving the winner’s information. Should there be any problems with the shipment or with the decal itself, the winner must notify both Simone Chavoor and Paul Wilson immediately. All parties will work in good faith to make sure the winner receives a prize that he/she is satisfied with.