Must come up with something groovy, man…
After a wild few months in which I won or was gifted an embarrassing amount of cool things from my fellow bloggers, I decided in February 2014 to give back and created The Contest of Whatever. Anyone with a blog could play along, and all that was required was to come up with something creative that could be shown off in a blog post that followed the minimal set of conditions I set for the competition. I would choose one winner on merit and another from a random drawing who would each get to pick an item from my Cafepress shop valued at $20 USD or less.
The Contest judges are drunk, and ready to carefully consider your entries!
The CoW has become an annual tradition at The Nest every February, and what follows is a summary of the first ten contests:
2014
Theme: Must contain a squirrel, a possum and a unicorn
The Field (13 entries)
Winner: YoungAtFifty, for her crocheted Buster that turns inside out into Evil Squirrel and accompanying Rainbow Donkey head.
Random Winner: Goldfish
Badges:
2015
Theme: Must contain at least two animal characters participating in some form of a game or competition.
The Field (9 entries)
Winner: Draliman, for his ill-fated Possum Olympics
Random Winner: Merby
(There used to be an image of animals playing poker here, but it seems to have disappeared….)
Badges:
2016
Theme: Must include Buster and he must die!
The Field (8 entries, Jenn’s late entry can be found in the “Winner” link)
Winner: Gentlestitches, for her cute ami play featuring Buster, Rainbow Donkey, Hottie and MBRS
Random Winner: Jade Phillips
Badges:
2017
Theme: Anthropomorphize objects around the house and tell a story a la Shelf Critter Theatre
The Field (9 entries)
Winner: Juliette, for her party attended by Vlad and Randolfo.
Random Winner: Jenn’s Midlife Crisis
Badges:
2018
Theme: Create something that ties in at least one element from each of the following three randomly selected images:
The Field (8 entries)
Winner: Trisha, for her story of evil Luigi torturing his captive brother Mario
Random Winner: Pam Kimmell (Onespoiledcat)
Badges:
2019
Theme: “A squirrel walks into a bar…”
The Field (11 entries)
Winner: Melanie, for Squirrellena introducing us to a bunch of her weird friends.
Random Winner: Juliette
Badges:
2020
Theme: Murphy’s Law
The Field (9 entries)
Winner: Mandy, for Murphy’s Paw, which led to The Shittening
Random Winner: Pam
Badges:
2021
Theme: X
The Field (8 entries)
Winner: Merby for her poem on Generation X
Random Winner: Phenny
Badges:
2022
Theme: Create an identity/personality/history for this unused critter.
The Field (7 entries)
Winner: Mandy for Moofoo, the pet you can eat!
Random Winner: Phenny
Badges:
2023
Theme: The imaginary day of November 31st
The Field: (10 entries)
Winner: Michael Seidel for the failed rise of the smart machines
Random Winner: Juliette
Badges:
Coming in February 2024: The Eleventh Annual Contest of Whatever!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 