i won a schwarzwald weekend trip

In a Gudrun Sjödén newsletter in October I saw a notice about a competition; describe in 10 inspiring words why you shop at Gudrun Sjödén and attach a photo of yourself  for an even higher chance of winning.

First prize was a four days trip to Freiburg in Schwarzwald, Germany - I was there in the very early 1990ies and it is indeed a gorgeous. lush part of the world - and I thought I'd have a go. 10 words and 1 picture, well I wouldn't work with what I do if I wouldn't be able to have at least a fighting chance of winning that, right?

And as much as I dislike having pictures taken of myself I did win that other competetition with me and the best accessory recently, right?

A mere 10 words is quite a limitation to write something engaging and inspiring with. So I wrote down some keywords (made up words are the best!) and dabbled with those, came up with ridiculous dry and unengaging motivations. Until suddenly, hey this is quite neat, in fact really neat. And exactly 10 words.

The picture I attached was of course the above one, thank you little Zigne for once again putting up with my silly ideas and human nonsense. 

I emailed my contribution. And then I kept my fingers crossed, the winners would be announced in middle of November.

When I was at the hairdresser yesterday I noticed I had a missed call, when I tried to google the phone number I noticed that it was indeed from Gudrun Sjödén headquarters. Yay, there was *a bit* of excitement there, could it be that...? Today they called again when I sat on the train home - "Congratulations, you won first prize!".

Current Pia-status: so very excited and happy!!! Wow. Wow. Wow.

I don't win competitions often - which of course might have something to do with the fact that I rarely enter them - and I never ever enter any on social media that calls for the passive "like, share, tag" stupidity. I'm a firm believer that competitions should be about active things, creativity and competence. They don't have to be complicated, but you should at least actively in some way contribute with your own ideas.

I will now contact the travel agency to sort out the details. Hopefully I can save the trip for spring and lighter, greener weather. Freiburg is not only very pretty but also a city with a green profile and exciting sustainability projects - and yes, I've already looked up the vegan and vegetarian restaurants on offer. I will certainly not go hungry.

Green happiness indeed.