Two weeks ago, I announced “The Parrot Nation Plug Ugly Parrot Paraphernalia Contest.” I received eleven submissions. If you want to see all of them, you can read that post here: “Ugly Parrot!”
The winners will receive an array of prizes from my friend Deb White’s terrific bird toy company: “The Dancing Parrot.” Click on the photo for the link to the website. Great logo!:
The Dancing Parrot Website
I met Deb at the Rocky Mountain Society of Aviculture Fall Expo last November and was wowed by some of the toys she carries. Deb has some very cool toys with interesting features that I like including some toys with built-in perches, and toys you can reload. She also sells toy parts. “The Dancing Parrot” sponsored this contest and we’re real happy to have a link here to her website that showcases her toys.
Some contestants will be receiving some “Ring -Around-The-Rainbow” toys from Starbird toys. It’s going to be a while for the “Rings” because Starbird sold my toy out. They are back-ordered to hell and back and even I can’t get them!
I’ve decided that I’m doing categories like they do in those children’s beauty pageants. That way I can reward different entries for their own unique attributes. This means I get to award more prizes, which I love! I happen to loathe the titles they use in these exploitive baby beauty contests: “Ultimate Grand Supreme,” etc. Obviously, categories like “Best Swimwear” is out, but I think I’ve come up with some pretty good divisions.
This was a tough contest to judge because the stuff you entered was pretty Bad, but in a good way. That’s what the contest was all about. But from comments at Facebook, and some of the emails and messages I received there seemed to be an overall favorite ugly entry. Based on popular opinion, and my own assessment, we had a runaway winner for the “Ultimate Grand Supreme” title and that was Vickie Knox LeClair’s orange and green coconut atrocity:
Vickie wins the overall “Ultimate Grand Supreme” prize for this thoroughly hideous entry of a painted coconut parrot! Vickie’s nightmare has won her flock a “Dancing Parrot Olympic Rings” toy! She also wins an official Parrot Nation “Tye-Stix Crunch Toy”, a “Certificate of Achievement” and a Starbird “Ring-Around-The-Rainbow” toy as soon as they come in:
“Olympic Rings Toy”
The winner of the”Talent Competition” is Sher Rice!
Sher entered this talented little charmer that not only looks just downright unattractive, but it can also open bottles!
Sher wins a “Dancing Parrot Hanging Mega-Munch Ball” toy:
The winner of the”Miss Congeniality Category” is: Shannon Marie McConnell LaPrise! Shannon won “Miss Congeniality” with her famous hanging parrot lamp that ended up scaring the living crap out of her birds:
Congratulations Shannon! Shannon’s entry was of particular interest because it lights up, would look perfect over a bar in a basement and and no parrot will go near it. For her “Miss Congeniality” Category win, Shannon gets a ”Dancing Parrot Large Butterfly” toy:
Melissa Kowalski wins the category of “Scholarship Winner” for her intellectually challenging entry of this charming puzzle for us to busy ourselves with. We were overwhelmed by its complexity and overuse of primary colors:
Melissa wins a “Dancing Parrot Loofah Crunch Toy:”
Sarah Ptomey entered this total pile and came away a winner! Her category? Sarah wins “Best Glitz.” “Glitz” is a category often used by children’s beauty pageants which allows stage mommies to dress their daughter up in something that no self-respecting Las Vegas Show Girl would be caught dead in. Sarah’s New Orleans looking bead work here ran away with the “Glitz” category:
Sarah wins a “Dancing Parrot Daisy Wheel:”
Marcia Kwarsick was the first entry with her combination lizard/cockatoo/egg thingy. I just loved everything about this entry. It’s so beautifully rendered in such a wrong way!:
So Marcia wins “Early Bird” Category and comes away with a “Dancing Parrot Geometrix Toy:”
Tonya Anderson had a very popular entry with her physically-challenged purple parrot bag that came complete with no feet and what appeared to be gunshot wounds, so Tonya wins the “Special Olympics Award” for the most physically challenged entry:
Tonya wins a “Dancing Parrot Mini-Hula Dancer Toy” and a “Ring-Around-The -Rainbow” by Starbird Toys and designed by moi:
Patricia Sund
Patricia, thank you for this wonderful contest. It allowed us parrot lovers to strut our stuff, as well as created great blog entries! I am honored to be counted among the winners!
Oh you’re welcome! It was so much fun for me. I had a riot!
OH MAN!!!! Thanks P <3 I definitely enjoyed following this contest! I always love spotting tacky parrot paraphernalia!
It was so much fun Missi. I couldn’t wait to post the winners.
What a fun thing to do. Patricia, how wonderful for you think something up like this. It made my day. Thank you.
L,
I love thinking up stuff like this. It stretches my mind creatively. It also makes other people feel good and they have fun at the same time. It’s all positive, it makes people laugh and their birds get new toys. So why not? I think it’s good for everyone!
I posted an entry in my blog about your contest and having won it with links to your blog, your about page, and the Dancing Parrot!
But Wait! There’s more! You are doing a fabulous job with your blog! Congratulations Melissa! Damn fine job! Really great. I just love it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I am loving doing it. But how does a three paragraph blog entry take 1.5 hours to write and publish???
Lack of experience. You just haven’t logged in enough time. Trust me, you’ll become a better writer and it will come faster. Experts that have done studies on being experts say that it takes ten thousand hours to become really good at anything. In time, it will come. Just keep writing and it will become easier as you go along.