Michaels handmade holiday contest

I opened my emails this morning and was sooo excited to receive an email from the Martha Stewart Show confirming my tickets for two in April. http://www.marthastewart.com/tv  I was one of the two grand prize winners of the Michaels Handmade Holiday Contest. I won a trip for two to New York City to see the Martha Stewart Show as well as a $250 gift certificate to Michaels. I'm taking one of my crafty girlfriends, Karen, with me to the show and we are both looking forward to seeing Martha in person.  

Here's my entry for the contest! I designed these holiday countdown calendars out of wooden elements and scrapbooking papers that I bought at Michaels. http://www.michaels.com/art/online/home   I decorated the wooden frame, base and cubes with co-ordinating scrapbooking papers. The wooden cubes were stamped with numbers to use for the countdown. I stamped the numbers 0-1-2-3-4-5 on one cube and 0-1-2-6-7-8 on the other cube ... the 6 doubles as a 9 when it is turned upside down. I made a bunch of these and personalized each of them for family and friends last Christmas. I even had a crafting afternoon with my youngest daughter and some of her girlfriends before the holidays and this was the craft that each of the girls wanted to make.

I think that these countdown calendars could also be adapted to other uses - like birthday countdown calendars or even a yearly calendar that could be created to match your home decor.

I'm doing research later today on hotels in New York City. If you have ever attended the Martha Stewart Show and can recommend a nice hotel in New York that is close enough for us to walk to the studio please let me know!