Parrot Nation

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!:

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:

The rest of the contestants, Kim Everett-Martin, Christina Giordano, Paula Rossow, Missi Brode-Bellande, and Corinne Graehame win prizes as well, of course. You all win a “Ring-Around-The Rainbow” Bird toy from Starbird just for entering the “Plug-Ugly Parrot Paraphernalia” Contest and following along with us. I really enjoyed this contest and hope to think of another just as interesting for our next competition. I want to thank all of the contestants for entering this contest and for being such good sports about the snarky comments! But the entire point was that “ugly is in” for this competition and you all did yourselves proud! Would all the winners please email your addresses to me so that I may send you your prizes? It may be a couple of weeks before I can get the prizes mailed out. Deb at “Dancing Parrot” has to process my order and mail them to me and I have to wait until I can get the Starbird Toys in from their warehouse in California. As I said before, they are back-ordered, but I will mail all prizes out as soon as I get your toys shipped to me. Thank you again and congratulations!