Doodles Announces the Winner of the Creative Peeps Calendar

Congratulations, Tina Fariss Barbour! You are the winner of a 2014 Creative Peeps Inspirational Desk Calendar!

WINNA, WINNA, WINNA, I say! Woof!

Doodles 2014 Creative Peeps Desk Calendar Winner Tina Fariss Barbour

Send me an email to improbablelife (at) gmail with your mailing address and your calendar will be on its merry way.

Thanks for taking part in the fun and helping me get out of the doghouse. You’ll be happy to know my mom isn’t mad at me anymore for sneaking on to her computer. In fact, she said she has a whole new appreciation for me after reading all your comments. She’s even forgiven me for making her spill an entire glass of red wine all over her keyboard when I bumped her elbow a while back (even though it still glows purple).

I’m not super big on having my picture taken, but as you can see above, I tried to be a good sport. I’m smiling on the inside. Really, I am.

Hugs and kisses,
Doodles

Love and Cookies-The Winning Entry

Congratulations to Laura Bergerson for her winning entry in the Mother’s Day 7-word mini-essay contest. Here’s what she wrote about her fabulous mom, Charlotte Eckart:

Mom: source of love, hugs, and cookies!

Portrait of Laura Bergerson and Charlotte Eckart

Aren’t they adorable?

Thanks to everyone who entered and shared their thoughts about their mothers. Your essays were all terrific, making it extremely difficult to choose a winner. Somehow the cookies said it all.

Caption Contest WINNER

First of all…BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You guys are so damn funny and clever, I love it. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it made it really hard to pick a winner for the caption contest this time.

After much deliberation though, I’m happy to crown TOM MELBERG ”Most Creative,” with his winning caption:

“Is that really John Wayne?”

Photo for Where in the World Contest 2

Congratulations, Tom! Here are the four runner’s up (in no particular order)…

CINDY BROWN: “I know we’re Indians who are really Chinese men, and we’re trying out for the cowboy parts in this movie, so we probably won’t get it, but do you at least think we’ll get a glimpse of Clint Eastwood?”

CARYL: “Think anyone noticed that we’re wearing the same boots? Seriously, call me next time.”

RODGER: ”I think she winked at us as she went by!”

NORM: “Awaiting the election result. The one on the left is a republican.”

Thanks to all of you for participating and sharing your wit. I laughed out loud at many of them!

The Winner of the iTunes Gift Card is…

 DEBORAH BATTERMAN

Congratulations, Deborah! Your iTunes gift card will be emailed today. Thanks to all of you for participating and sharing your fun comments! I have the best blog followers of anybody out there in the blogosphere.

I leave you on this Monday with a few thoughts about courage and creativity:

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure”  –Bill Cosby

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work” –Rita Mae Brown

“Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.”  –Dee Hock

And don’t forget…today your heart will beat 100,000 times. Make each one count!

The Winner of the Photo Caption Contest is…

CINDY BROWN for her caption:

“Exhausted from their Washington, D.C. walking tour, the Johnsons collapse onto a bench to rest. Realizing in horror that the black bench is freshly painted, they simply lay down, clasp hands, and hope to suddenly die of simultaneous brain aneurysms rather than suffer the inevitable embarrassment.”

Cindy wins the title of “Most Creative” and a $10 Amazon gift card for her clever entry. Congratulations, Cindy!

To take a peek at the photograph again CLICK HERE. Jeffrey created this image in London when he was working on assignment for Voyageur Magazine. He was shooting a feature story about London’s hip South Bank and found great humor in this photograph because it was polar opposite to what he was trying to capture.

There were many funny caption entries in this contest. Take a glance at the comment box and you’ll see what I mean. Here are three others that were top contenders:

First runner-up–Marcia with her caption:

“I think it looks like a dog!”
“No, it’s a reindeer…see the fluffy white antlers?”
“You’re wrong, totally a dog.”

Second runner-up–Sweetmother with her caption:

“If I have to do this to induce ovulation, then so do you.”

Third runner-up–Harper Faulkner with his caption:

“I think these bike helmets are too heavy.”

Thanks to everyone who participated. Your creativity never ceases to amaze me!

Thursday’s Picture of the Week: The Winning Caption Is…

“I have no idea what she’s saying, but I think I’m getting a car!!”

Congratulations to Caryl

You will be receiving a $20 Amazon gift card for your winning entry.

Photo of monks watching television

Behind the Scenes: It is the year 2000 and Jeffrey has been hired by Wired Magazine to photograph a feature story about Bhutan, the last country in the world to get television.

Map of BhutanBhutan, known by its people as Druk Yai (Land of the Thunder Dragon), is a small landlocked kingdom sandwiched high in the Eastern Himalayas between Tibet, China, and India. Primarily Buddhist, it has been named numerous times as one of the happiest places on earth. Its king proclaimed “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.

Bhutan has held on tightly to its culture for centuries. It only allows about 7,500 tourists a year to enter, and within the country police are empowered to detain any Bhutanese not wearing official national dress, the robelike gho for men and the jacket and apronlike kira for women. The king is only allowing television to be introduced because he feels his country needs to keep up with the modern world.

After flying on Druk Air into Paro, Jeffrey travels to the capital of Thimpu. Here he’s lead to a small hamlet on the outskirts of town, where the Oko Thsering Family has just acquired a TV. They are the only ones in the entire area with this new contraption and they aren’t sure what to make of it yet. Jeffrey photographs the family, along with several of their friends as they watch it.

Much to Jeffrey’s dismay when the television is turned on, the first thing they see is World Wide Wrestling, followed by Felix the Cat cartoons, then finally Oprah, which you can see in the image above. He knows at that moment, Bhutan will never be the same.

If you want to know how television has affected Bhutan, take a look at this 2003 article in the Guardian called “Fast Forward into Trouble.” Perhaps you can tell by the title that introducing western values into this culture has not added to Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness.

To see more of Jeffrey’s photographs from Bhutan, click on the picture of the monk below:

Photo of a monk in Bhutan

ALSO, there were so many creative captions for Jeffrey’s photograph, I wanted to give a shout out to several runners-up. 

Marcia: “And this week’s selection for Oprah’s Book Club is…”

Jennifer: “I heard Oprah really is God.”

Claire : ‘Om mani padme hum’
‘O Prah me find me hom’
‘Oprah me find me mom’

Michael: The guy on the far right says, “I heard that she and Steadman are having problems again.”

Cathy: Is this America’s new president?

All I could think of was, “AND EVERYONE WINS A YAK!”

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