Second Blogiversary Giveaway Extravaganza!

My goodness, how time flies!  Can you believe I've been blogging for almost two whole years already?  It's certainly been an eventful two years.  I've gotten a second nephew, moved into a great apartment, won a bunch of spectacular giveaways, shed some pounds and built some muscle, finally made some friends in Maryland, read some great books, gotten rid of my crappy old car, learned how to crochet, watched approximately 50 years' worth of television (old and new), completely changed my nail shape, finally dyed my hair blue again, and published 118 blog posts!  That's all certainly worth celebrating!  And I'll be celebrating in the traditional way for bloggers: with a fantastic giveaway!

This year's prize packs are much larger than last year's, so as a result there will be one Grand Prize and one runner-up.  I bought some of the prizes specifically for the giveaway, a couple of wonderful people have sent me donations, and rather a lot of them are from my personal stash that I'm simply working on de-cluttering.

The giveaway will run from August 1 at 12:01 am through August 15 at 11:59 pm EDT.  I will contact the winners by noon on August 16, and they will have 36 hours to respond and claim their prizes.  If they do not respond within that time frame, I will have to choose another winner in their place.  So be sure to give me an email address that you check often!

After I mail out the prizes, they are out of my control.  I am not responsible for any damages or lost packages - although I will do my best to prevent those issues by carefully wrapping everything in bubble wrap and by getting tracking info for each prize pack!

As in the past, I'm running this giveaway through Rafflecopter.  And as always, the only two entries that you must complete to be eligible are your e-mail address and your location since I can sadly only ship within the USA.  Once you complete those entries, you can earn a multitude of extra entries by completing bonus tasks!

If you choose to follow me or any of the giveaway's sponsors, and you unfollow any of us immediately after the giveaway, you will be noted and blocked from future giveaways.  These entries are optional so if you don't want to follow anybody, you don't have to!

This giveaway is in no way sponsored, paid for, or endorsed by Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Rafflecopter,  or any other platform on which it can be viewed.

Okay, now on to the good stuff - descriptions and photos of the prizes!

GRAND PRIZE

Pixy Stix Nail Polish 

I bought this set specifically for the giveaway.  I haven't tested them out and I didn't buy myself a double, so I don't know how well the scents work or what the polish quality is like.  But I do know that these polishes are 5-Free, so that's good!  And, awesome bonus, those dots on the caps are nail art stickers!  These came from Target and were pretty inexpensive.

Zoya box

A few months ago, I purchased three Zoya gift boxes in a sale that they had.  But each box had at least one polish that I already owned, so I mixed and matched them up a bit.  This box includes Daisy, Cole, and Zahara.

Wacie Nail Co: Wintrella

Stacie of Wacie Nail Co was kind enough to donate this in honor of my blogiversary!  Thank you so much, Stacie <3 

Assorted nail accent stickers

These are from some KISS sets that I bought at Target (half for me and half for the giveaway, because I wanted some of them for myself). 

Jamberry sample sheet 

I love my Jamberry nail wraps, and my representative Sara loves to send out sample sheets!  As a result I have doubles of a couple of sheets, so I thought I'd spread the love.  I will include an instruction sheet for application.  You will need your own heat source (I use a blow dryer, and my space heater has also sufficed in the past), a rough nail file, and scissors.

Water decals

From my stash.
 
Trendy Nail Wraps

From my stash.  I've never actually tested out this brand of wrap, so please don't be mad at me if they don't work very well!

Rica Glossy Glam Topcoat

From my stash, never used.

Various indie glitters

From my stash.  The only brand I know for sure is Firecracker Lacquer; I don't remember where the other two bags came from!

Gift code to Born Pretty Store

 

Anne of Mani on the Move was generous enough to donate this prize!  Thank you, Anne!  Born Pretty Store carries dozens of brands of nail polish, nail art tools, and nail care goodies.

Assorted loose glitters, nail caviar, and applicator funnel

From my stash.

Polish cozies

As you know, I sell crocheted goods under the name Kate's Crochets.  I made these specifically for the giveaway!

Striping tape variety pack

From my stash.  They don't photograph on the roll very well, but I'm including 8 rolls of different colors!

RUNNER UP

Zoya box 

This is the third of the Zoya gift boxes that I bought to mix and match.  This one contains Jolene, Rayne, and Azalea.

Jamberry sample sheet  

I love my Jamberry nail wraps, and my representative Sara loves to send out sample sheets!  As a result I have doubles of a couple of sheets, so I thought I'd spread the love.  I will include an instruction sheet for application.  You will need your own heat source (I use a blow dryer, and my space heater has also sufficed in the past), a rough nail file, and scissors.


Wacie Nail Co: Origin

Stacie of Wacie Nail Co was kind enough to donate this in honor of my blogiversary!  Thank you so much, Stacie <3

Assorted indie glitters/nail art studs

From my stash.  Brands include Anonymous Lacquer, Firecracker Lacquer, and unknown (the black ones).

Water decals

From my stash.

Assorted nail accent stickers

Some are from my stash and some are from a kit that I bought half for the giveaway, half for myself.

Polish cozy

As you know, I also crocheted goods under the name Kate's Crochets.  I made this specifically for the giveaway!

Assorted loose glitters

From my stash.

Striping tape variety pack

From my stash.  They don't photograph on the roll very well, but I'm including 5 rolls of different colors!

Okay, so, the runner-up prize is practically big enough to be a grand prize too.  Is anybody really complaining about that? ;)

Good luck to everybody who enters!  As always, I wish I could send something to all of my lovely readers.  <3

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If you're on Instagram, you'll definitely want to check out my other giveaway!  This one is open to Instagram users only.

St. Patrick's Day Giveaway!

I decided to take a peek at the nail polish when I was grocery shopping over the weekend, and when I saw the limited edition St. Patrick's Day glitter by Sinful Colors, I thought, hey, it's been a while since I had a giveaway!  So I decided to host this quick little giveaway.  Hopefully, the prizes will get to the winner in time for St. Patrick's Day!

San Fransisco

This one is just such a beautiful emerald green that I thought it needed to be included with the special glitter.

The formula is quite thin - I have three coats on my nails, and you can see that it's still a tiny bit sheer!  For full opacity, I'd recommend layering it on top of a solid creme.  (Black or a matching shade of green would probably look best!)

It photographed surprisingly horribly.  Under my lamps, it actually showed up blue!  This photo is much more color accurate, and I was standing in indirect sunlight.  For the photos under Feelin' Lucky, I was under my lamps and I had to edit the colors as best as I could.

Feelin' Lucky 

Feelin' Lucky is a really fun glitter topper.  Sadly, the shamrock glitters that you see so many of in the bottle are nearly impossible to get onto the nail.  It probably took me a good 5 minutes of fishing just to pick out the 5 glitters for this mani!  That's a bit disappointing.  But the other types of glitter are much easier to get on the nail, and they're still fun and St. Patrick's themed.

From left to right, I have it on top of San Fransisco twice, Salon Perfect Loopy Lime, and Salon perfect Sugar Cube.  The small green glitters show up much better on top of a lighter color!  Personally, I like it best on top of Loopy Lime - the bright green has a faint shimmer to it, so it adds to the fun effect of the glitter.

The glitters are quite spread-y, so during application it's best to dab the glitters on, rather than spread the brush across the nail.  This one showed up on my camera much more accurately than San Francisco did!

 

As a little bonus, each polish in the giveaway will come with a cozy crocheted by Kate's Crochets, which is unsurprisingly my crochet shop!  I have a lot of fun making these because they only take about ten seconds.  Okay no, not really, but they are quick and fun for me!

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Giveaway Rules 

As in the past, I'm running this giveaway through Rafflecopter.  Enter through the widget above!

1. Prize is only available to residents of the United States.

2. Giveaway opens on Wednesday, March 9 at 12:01 am EST and ends Sunday, March 13 at 11:59 pm EST.  Winners will be contacted by 12:00 pm on March 14.  Once contacted, the winner will have 36 hours to respond and claim their prize or I will be forced to draw another winner.

3. No following and then unfollowing immediately after the giveaway ends.  Unfollowers will be noted and banned from future giveaways. 

4. Any posts for giveaway entries must be made public.  Private posts/accounts will not be able to be verified and therefore will be disqualified.

5.  The only entries required in order to be eligible to win are entering your location and e-mail.  All other entries, including re-posting images and visiting/following pages, are optional. 

6. Please be kind!  Anyone stirring up drama or being rude (to me or to other contestants) will be disqualified.

7. This giveaway is entirely sponsored by me, Kate of Kate's Nailing It and Kate's Crochets.  It has not been sponsored or endorsed by Sinful Colors or any of the platforms it is shared on (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+).

As always, have fun with the giveaway and good luck!

Kate's been Nailing It for a year!

Can you believe it?  I hardly can!  I've been blogging for almost a year!  My first post was published on August 9, 2014.  Although according to Timehop, I started working on my first post as early as July 30.  It took me a while to get completely set up: I had to choose the font for my watermarks; create a separate Gmail account; create the cover photo for YouTube, Google+, and Facebook; figure out how to use my version of Photoshop (it used to be in French, but I've since gotten it in English); and the hardest yet most important part - I had to choose the name!  I ended up reaching out on my personal Facebook page for help, and ended up getting the name of the blog from my Mom and the tagline ("French Tips and American Advice") from a friend of mine.  So, Mom and Travis, thank you for your brains!

Anyway, like many bloggers, I wanted to host a giveaway to celebrate this most awesome occasion.  While I don't have quite as many prizes as I'd like, due to a limited budget, I do have quite a few goodies to give away, and more than one prize for the first time in this blog's history!

The giveaway will open this coming Tuesday, August 4 at midnight EDT and close on Friday, August 14 at midnight EDT.

Here's a look at all of the different prizes...

Prize #1

$8 gift card to Twisted Colors

 

Prize #2

Zoya color cube #1: Cool in the Pool 

contents: Isa and Oceane, both from the Paradise Sun collection

Prize #3

Zoya color cube #2: Very Berry

contents: Serenity and Nana, both from the Island Fun collection

Prize #4

Zoya color cube #3: Strawberry Lemonade

contents: Daisy from the Delights collection and Happi from the Reverie collection

Grand Prize

 

Jamberry Mother's Day gift set

Contents: 1 bag of peppermint taffy, 1 pumice stone/nail brush, 

1 set of two foam toe separators, 3 different Jamberry nail wraps, 

1 bottle of Jamberry nail lacquer, 1 nail file, 1 orangewood stick

I purchased prizes 1-4 myself, and won the Jamberry set during their Mother's Day giveaway on Instagram.

Giveaway rules:

1. No following and then unfollowing immediately after the giveaway ends.  Unfollowers will be noted and banned from future giveaways.

2. Any posts for giveaway entries must be made public.  Private posts/accounts will not be able to be verified.

3. Giveaway opens on Tuesday, August 4 at 12:00 am EDT and ends Friday, August 14 at 12:00 am EDT.  Winners will be contacted by 11:00 pm on August 14.  Once contacted, winners have 36 hours to respond and claim their prizes or I will be forced to draw another winner.

4. Prizes #1 is open to residents of the US and Canada.  Prizes #2-4 and the Grand Prize are open to residents of the US only. (This information was originally published inaccurately; the mistakes have been altered.)

5. Please be kind!  Anyone stirring up drama or being rude (to me or to other contestants) will be disqualified. 

6. This giveaway is entirely sponsored by me, Kate of Kate's Nailing It.  It has not been sponsored or endorsed by Zoya, Jamberry, Twisted Colors, or any of the websites on which it is hosted/advertised.

Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below!  A link to the widget can also be found in my Instagram profile and on my Facebook page.  Have fun and good luck!  I hope you all know how badly I wish I could give each and every one of you a prize. :)

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New Year, New Hue Giveaway!

A few weeks ago, Zoya had an incredible sale called "New Year, New Hue."  You picked out any 3 polishes and got a set of 3 mystery polishes for free plus $15 shipping - or, if you spent at least $25 on other products, shipping was free.  These mystery polishes were promised to be shades that have never been, and will never be, available for purchase.

Upon seeing this announcement, I immediately picked out three colors and paid $15.  Then, when I realized that the 32-oz bottle of Remove+ is exactly $25, I was like well shit, it would be a phenomenal waste NOT to order one of those right now and get 3 more polishes plus another mystery set for free!

So now I'm sitting here with two of these mystery polish sets.  I could keep them for myself and go from "collector" to "hoarder," or I could give them to friends or family... Or I could give them away to one lucky follower!  So that's what I'm going to do, because I love you guys and two and a half months without a giveaway is just too long!!

Since Zoya didn't reveal the colors or the names of the mystery polishes before they shipped out, I'm not going to reveal them before the giveaway, either.  If any of you are completely averse to certain colors, textures, or finishes, well, tough noogies!  Either take the risk that you'll end up with a free color that you don't like or don't take the risk and miss out.  I will tell you that none of these are really colors I would probably ever buy - so if you've seen enough of my posts, you can probably figure out what kinds colors these are NOT.

Giveaway rules:

1. USA addresses only, please.  Sorry to international ladies - I just don't know how to mail nail polish outside the US since it's considered a hazardous chemical.

2. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.  The only mandatory entries are your e-mail and city/state; all following/sharing entries are optional, but will give you way more chances to win!  (Note that I will not save, sell, or give away your e-mail addresses, and that only the winner will be contacted.)

3. If you choose to follow me via any platform for the giveaway, please don't unfollow the moment it ends!  Unfollowers will be noted and banned from all future giveaways.  Again, you don't NEED to follow me for a chance to win, so if you don't want to follow, don't follow.

4. Giveaway closes on 2/21/15 at 12:00 am EST, and I will draw a winner by 2/22/15 at 11:59 am.  Once the winner is drawn, s/he has 36 hours to get back to me and claim the prize; if I don't get a response by 2/23/15 at 11:59 pm, I will draw another winner.

All right, that's it!  Good luck! :)

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Zebras for EDS Awareness

Indie nail polish maker Dazzlings is teaming up with several other indie brands to host a pretty neat contest/giveaway on Instagram.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a really shitty disease.  It's an invisible illness, meaning that you can't really "tell" a person is afflicted with it by looking at them (the way you can tell that someone has, for example, a broken leg or the flu).  A chronic pain disorder with no cure and very little treatment sounds like a shit card to be dealt in life.  My Yiayia had severe rheumatoid arthritis, which is another chronic pain disorder, so I can sympathize with EDS sufferers sort of by osmosis.

Anyway, EDS isn't talked about very much, not even in the medical research community.  So Dani of Dazzlings, who suffers from EDS herself, is hosting a giveaway to spread awareness and the entry requirement is a zebra manicure.  (In the medical community, a "zebra" is a rare or little-known disease.)  This giveaway is open until Friday, November 28, so there's still time to get your manis in if you're interested!  I'm not sure what the prize is yet, but I'm guessing it will be a good one as there are so many sponsors.  And it's worth noting that the winner will be chosen randomly, not based on their artistic talent!

I decided to go Classic Kate and paint my nails to match my purse!

To answer the age-old question: it's white with black stripes.  China Glaze White on White with Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black stripes, that is! ;)  The blue is Essie Strut Your Stuff, and the silver dots are Sally Hansen CSM Hi Ho Silver.

Fun story: I ended up doing the zebra mani twice for this!  The first time I did it, I forgot to hold a piece of paper with the required hashtag.  And I painted this on a very busy swatching day, so I removed the mani almost immediately after taking the pictures!  But I wanted to show it to you anyway, because it was my very first-ever zebra mani and I was very proud of it.

I've got to hand it to Julep - their bottle shape may be awkward for a normal swatch picture, but they're great for showing off thumbs!

The darker purple is Julep Elle (which has a surprisingly wonderful formula for Julep!), the lighter stripes and accent nails are Zoya Malia (with a coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss), and the background on my pointer finer is Sally Hansen CSM Trouble Maker.

Which color scheme do you like best?  Let me know in the comments!

December Giveaway Mega-post!

All righty guys, enough time has passed that now, most of the giveaways I come across end in December.  There aren't too many so far but I'll be adding to the list as the month goes on!

Firstly we have MY GIVEAWAY!  Have you entered it yet?  I'm giving away four full-sized bottles from OPI's Nordic collection.  USA only, and ends December 10.

Kelli of The Nail Polish Challenge is giving away Barielle's Jetsetter collection.  That's six polishes and, while I've never used Barielle before, they look really great based on reviews that I've seen.  USA only, ends December 8.

Amy of Amy Loves New Wave is giving away one HUGE grand prize and a second surprise prize in honor of the holidays!  (This giveaway was already featured in my November post, but I decided to put it here too.)  Ends December 1.

A couple of people are hosting 12 Days of Christmas giveaways, which is super fun and exciting!!  Since I was on vacation through December 4th, I'm a little late to the game on some of these, but each day's giveaway runs for more than a day.

Cirque Colors' 12 days started on December 1.  Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for each post so you can enter!

Heather's Hues is running their 12 Days on Instagram, and this one started on December 4.  (Update: Day One ended on 12/8, and I won!!!  There are a few nail polishes headed my way, as well as some discount codes to indie brands.  I'll be posting about that soon enough!)

Nail It! Magazine is at it again.  This time they've paired up with Sinful Colors and are giving away a huge holiday polishes collection!  To enter, you must follow the instructions on this Facebook post  and fill out this form.  US only, ends December 9 at 11:59 pm PST.

Gloss 48 has teamed up with Lydell NYC for an awesome giveaway.  Neither of these companies are strictly nail polish, but the prize is a $50 gift card to Gloss 48 and $100 to Lydell NYC - and Gloss 48 carries a ton of nail polish brands, including some indies!  I'm honestly not sure if this is international or US only.  Giveaway runs until December 15.

I AM Custom Color is celebrating their one year anniversary in making nail polish and cosmetics.  Congratulations!!  In honor of their anniversary, they're hosting an epic giveaway with two winners and TONS of prizes!  This one is international and it runs until January 5 (but it's in the December post because I feel silly starting my January post already).

Gloss 48, as if they don't have enough giveaways every month, is giving away a $100 gift card to their store!  Runs until December 22.

Polish Galore has a flash giveaway!  Win a set of Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer polishes just by commenting on the linked Facebook post with your favorite nail polish texture!  International, runs only until December 17.

The Mercurial Magpie has THREE giveaways running currently.  One of them ends TONIGHT, 12/17, at midnight EST - I wish I'd found it sooner!  She's giving away two Literary Lacquers polishes.  This one is US only. 
The second Magpie giveaway is a collaboration with lots of other beauty bloggers for a $350 Visa gift card - not exactly a nail poilsh giveaway, but think of all the polish you could buy with $350!!  I assume this one is international, and it's open for another 38 hours as of now (11 am on 12/17)... so what's that math?  It ends somewhere around 1 am on 12/19, EST, I think.  Another one that I wish I'd seen sooner! 
And finally, we have The Mercurial Magpie's Holiday Hullabaloo: a collaboration with a bunch of indie polish makers for a total of 38 prizes!  Wowza!  This one has some international prizes and some that are US only, and it runs until midnight on 12/29.

Kate's Birthday Giveaway!

My 23rd birthday is coming up in about a week.  This year, instead of getting presents, I'm going to be giving the presents to YOU!  :D

 That's right, in honor of my birthday I'm hosting my very first giveaway!  Woohoo!

For my very first giveaway, I'm giving away four colors from OPI's Nordic collection.  I wish I could afford to give away the whole collection!  I decided that the cheapest way for me to be able to swatch the colors and give away fresh, unused bottles was to buy the Little Northies box for myself, and purchase the full-sized polishes for you.  So, the prizes for this giveaway are: OPI How Great Is Your Dane, My Dogsled Is A Hybrid, My Voice Is A Little Norse, and Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm.  Just to be clear, the minis are not the prize here - the prizes are all full-sized bottles!  Oh boy!  (I did hold the full-sized bottles for the swatch photos, because mini bottles are frustrating to photograph.  Don't worry, my hands were clean, and I promise I painted my nails with my mini bottles!)

How Great Is Your Dane?

Dane is a lovely brown creme.  OPI describes it as a "cinnamon coffee" brown, and I'd say that's pretty accurate.  I originally bought it when the collection first came out with thoughts of painting a dark forest in honor of the Into The Woods film that's coming out soon(ish).  I also used this color in my Autumn-Colored Retro Dots tutorial.

Application is really good, though it's a bit uneven on the first coat.  A second coat evens it out completely, though!  The formula is a tiny bit on the thin side, which explains the unevenness - but it's not frustratingly thin.

Here it is with one coat of the glitter topper, My Voice Is A Little Norse.

My Dogsled Is A Hybrid

Dogsled is a great turquoise creme.  It's a bit muted, so it doesn't look out-of-season in autumn or winter.

Don't mind the band-aid on my finger - my cupboard handle attacked me and I lost.

The formula is wonderfully smooth.  It applied like a dream, even out of a mini bottle.  (Mini bottles have smaller brushes, which tends to make polish more frustrating to apply.)  Two coats for complete coverage, but you might be able to maneuver only one coat if you're very careful!

 Pictured with one coat of My Voice Is A Little Norse.

My Voice Is A Little Norse

Little Norse is a super-awesome glitter topper.  Silver holographic microglitters in a clear base = yes please!  I can see it looking amazing as snow on top of a white polish for a lovely winter manicure.  Or as stars on top of a galaxy mani!

 Out-of-focus to help you see the holographic shine!

It applies VERY smoothly - no glitter clumping or sticking.   I used one coat in all of the pictures.  I tried out two coats over Dogsled on my thumb, but I felt that it greyed out the color a bit too much.

This picture really doesn't do the sparkle justice, but from pinky to pointer finger I have it on top of China Glaze White on White, one coat of China Glaze Innocence (to simulate bare nail but cover up my yellowed nails), Zoya Ryan, and Nina Ultra Pro Black.  On top of the lighter colors it doesn't look special in this photo, but it looks AWESOME in person!

This is pretty textured.  I definitely recommend using a peel-off base coat with this.  I can still feel the texture of the glitter underneath two coats of Out The Door - which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  That's just a sign of a glitter that will be VERY frustrating to remove with remover and a cotton ball.

Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?

Holy crap, this color photographed WAY BLUE.  Dark purples tend to do that on my camera, and I just don't get it - I use manual white balance and all other colors photographed pretty accurately...

Far, FAR more blue than it looks in person.

Anyway, Stock-Holm is a really nice, blue-violet creme.  Applies just as beautifully as the rest of the cremes in this collection - OPI is typically very good about their formula.  Two coats for complete coverage.

I messed with the colors to show the color more accurately.  This is still a bit bluer and darker than it is in person, but it's much closer.

With one coat of Little Norse on top.

Giveaway!!!

Now, for the giveaway.  Rafflecopter is pretty simple, but I'll explain the rules for any of you who may be unsure how this works.

First, I'm sorry to say that this giveaway is open to US residents only.  If you are international and know somebody who lives in the US, you can still enter and have the prize delivered to them if you win - just know that once the prize is delivered to your US friend/relative, it's their responsibility to get it to you.  I also can't ship to a PO Box, so you'll need to use a street address.

There are only two requirements to enter: tell me where you live (city, state), and give me an e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.  I will not be saving any e-mail addresses, and I won't sell them to anybody.  You'll only get an e-mail from me if you win.  Doing both of these will enter you in the contest and earn you two entries.

If you wish to receive more entries in the giveaway, you can like and follow my various pages and profiles.  None of these are required for you to be entered in the giveaway, but they are highly encouraged as they earn you tons of extra entries!  Please note that anyone who Likes, follows, or subscribes to me for the duration of the contest and then unfollows after it ends will be noted and banned from all future giveaways.  If you don't want to add another page to your feed, just don't follow it and sacrifice the extra entries!  Additionally, I do not accept entries from giveaway accounts.  This term is pretty loosely defined across the internet, but I view a giveaway account as one with over 50% giveaway posts (not including giveaways run by you).

When the winner is announced, they will have 36 hours to respond to me.  If I don't get a response, I'll draw another winner - so check your e-mails!

The giveaway opens on Wednesday, November 19 at 12:15 am and ends on Wednesday, December 10 at 11:59 pm, EST.  I will announce the winner by 11:59 pm on Thursday, December 11.

All right, that's all I have to say.  Happy contest-ing and good luck!

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