Traveling Trevor Contest

My oldest son has a class project he needs to complete. Here's the notice he came home with:

Dear Friend or Relative,

Hello! I am participating in an exciting learning project with the other students in my class in Parker, CO. We have read a funny book called "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown. The book is about a young boy named Stanley who is accidentally squished "as flat as a pancake" when a bulletin board falls on him. Stanley is very, very flat but otherwise fine. The story goes on to tell how Stanley discovers some real advantages to being flat. He can slide under doors, go down into sidewalk grates, and even fold himself up small enough to fit into an envelope and be mailed to California for an exciting vacation.

My classmates and I are sending out plain paper dolls that we call Flat Stanley [or for the purpose of this contest - Traveling Trevor], and we are sending them off to visit cities all over the world [T has specifically requested Hawaii, if anyone can help with that]. I have selected you to be Flat Stanley's "host" and hope that you will send him back to me after a short visit telling us (my class) something about your city and the exciting things Flat Stanley saw or did while he was there. We would also appreciate it if you could let us know approximately how far your city is from Parker, CO. so that we can calculate the number of miles Flat Stanley has traveled. (Using the website www.symsys.com/ingram/mileage.html is a quick easy way to calculate mileage.) If Flat Stanley finds any souvenirs while visiting your city, such as a postcard or bumper sticker, he would love to share them with my class. Of course Flat Stanley would also appreciate it if you could "dress" him to reflect the season you are in, or an activity that he did, or other clothing that would tell us more about where you live (and take a picture with him!).

Thank you for letting my Flat Stanley come visit you! Would you please make sure that my Flat Stanley gets home by December 1, 2008? Thanks again!

Sincerely, T

My idea is to send this to as many places as possible, have people fill out the form and take pic's with the paper doll and then send it on to the next person on the list. So here's the contest:

How To's:

1. Send your mailing address and email address to my email (Ruth AT 5elementknitr DOT com). Put Traveling Trevor in the subject line as most of these will go to my junk mail. DO NOT put your addresses in the comments or anywhere else on this blog.

2. I will email you the form to fill out and after you receive the paper doll, you can fill it out and send it back to me by email (preferably in an attachment).

3. You will also be asked to take pic's of the paper doll somewhere in your town (backyard with the pets/kids is fine, but we're looking for points of interest in your town, no matter how small or large!). Email the pic's in attachment form, too.

4. Then you will have to send the doll on to the next person (I'll email you who that will be).

5. If you have any "souvenirs" to send, I'll send you my address so you can mail them directly to T instead of having to try to pass them on to the next host and the next and the next, etc.

Time is of the essence here - This project is due on Dec. 1 which means I'd like all of this to be finished by November 28. So that's the deadline - November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving). That deadline is for Traveling T to come back and be done. Please DO NOT sign up if you can't get your turn and kick it back in the mail within a day or two of receiving. We don't want Traveling Trevor to get stuck anywhere!

I was thinking of having this all done through email (just posting the paper doll T decorates and letting you all print and go crazy) but I think that would be cheating as the assignment is to mail the thing around. ETA: If you want to participate and are not in the US, then by all means, I will email you all the stuff (including a paper doll) and you can still play so it gets done in time!

Entries:You will get one entry for completing steps 1-4. You will get a second entry if you complete step 5. I'll put all entries in a hat and let T close his eyes and pick the winner.

Here's the prize for this contest:


Pagewood Farm Yukon Sock Yarn; Colorway New Horizon;

Merino/Bamboo/Nylon (70/20/10); 450 yards

(A better picture can be seen at their site pagewoodfarm.com)

and of course, a Customized Stitch Saver

ETA - 2 : If you want to play and don't knit, I'll think of something special for a prize for you. Maybe I'll use this yarn to knit you something nice? Or I can also think of a completely unrelated knit prize. Due to my obsession with all things knitting, I'll have to think hard but I'm sure I can come up with something!

Now for someone else's contest. Sophanne is having a contest to show your favorite Halloween costume. For T's first Halloween, we went to a party for the kids in our playgroup. Dave and I were pirates and T was our parrot. We threw our costumes together and I made T's out of felt wings I cut out and glued some feathers to, a felt beak I cut out and attached to a red hat and a red onesie. My favorite part about these costumes is that it was Dave's idea!

T was about 5 months old....

I like this shot as it shows T's perpetual pouty lip he'd get when he was tired...

Paper doll mailing, Ruth!