It doesn’t matter how far we delve into digital devices for media and communication; I think I will always feel a little rush of excitement when the mailman comes and the hope that maybe I received a package or a note from someone unexpected. The best way to ensure that you receive that kind of correspondence is to send it out yourself, and that is exactly the idea behind the We Love Mail competition being held by Newspaper Taxi, a boutique stationery and paper good shop in Australia.

Simply send Newspaper Taxi a piece of mail with a little stationery-related treat tucked inside — a luggage tag, some stickers, a couple old stamps. They will use all the mail for a window display, and then they’ll draw three lucky winners. Runners up will receive these pretty notecard bundles from Rifle Paper Co. and Sycamore Street Press (below), and first prize will receive all of the mailed-in loot! Sounds like a pretty fun way to ease back into sending more snail mail, and I can’t wait to see how the window turns out! The contest ends November 4th. You can find out everything you need to know to participate by clicking here. — Kate

I’ve emailed all these winners directly this morning, but if you see your comment here and don’t see an email from me, please shoot me a line at “designsponge at gmail dot com”. Thanks! xo, grace

CLICK HERE for the full list of winners for all three contests after the jump!

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Sibella’s newest book, A Stylist’s Guide to NYC, has been a favorite of mine since it hit stores. Even though I live here, it’s hard to find all the hidden gems in town and Sibella really was gracious and when she offered up all her insider sources and tips in the book. In honor of that book, Anthropologie is hosting both a book signing and fantastic contest and I’m so excited because they’re going to pick three winners from the Design*Sponge audience to join Sibella on a special NYC walking tour!

Three D*S readers will be chosen to go on a 60-90 minute walking tour with SIbella on May 26th, 2011, as well as receive a signed copy of her book. The tour will guide you through some of her favorite NYC shopping/styling haunts and you’ll get all inside scoop from Sibella herself on where and how to shop for great design deals. We’re going to be there to document the walking tour for D*S so if you win, you can help me try not to totally geek out in from of Sibella.

Here are the details:

• Anthropologie and D*S will choose 3 winners from the D*S audience
• Winners will receive a signed copy of Sibella’s book and a 60-90 min walking tour through NYC
• Travel is not included (sorry guys) so you must be in (or willing to travel to) the NYC area for the tour on May 26th, 2011
• For full rules and eligibility please read Anthro’s rules here

So, how do you enter? You just need to answer this question: If you wrote a guide to NYC based on your expertise, what would be the book’s name? Please leave your answer in this form: “A ______’s Guide to NYC” For example, if you’re a lover of ribbons and trimming maybe your guide would be called “A Ribbon Fanatic‘s Guide to NYC”. The title can be anything that speaks to you and your personality.

The deadline to leave a comment for consideration is Sunday, May 23rd at 11:59 pm EST. All comments left after that date will not be eligible for the contest. Please only leave one comment per person and one book title within each comment. Anthropologie will be choosing two additional winners via their Facebook page so you click here to check that out as well. Best of luck to everyone and we’ll see three of you next week at Sibella’s walking tour! xo, grace

It should be no surprise that Matt visited a few fairs for inspiration and drew on his extensive travel experience, during which he has encountered quite a bit of street food. So we’d like to ask you what your favorite fair food or street food is. Tell us all about the experience in the comment section below, and next Friday, Matt will choose the five best entries to win a copy of his book! — Kristina

It’s with that same spirit and affection for travel that Jen and Omar from These are Things created their new series of European city maps. Inspired by an old European road-trip guidebook, they decided to apply their modern, graphic style to each city’s historic landmarks. With prints for Athens, Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris and Rome, the full set ($199 for six or $39 each) is a creative way to celebrate beautiful cities you’ve visited or maybe inspire a trip to visit them one day. And if you can watch the video above (with its accompanying Amelie music) and not want to visit Paris, you’re a stronger person than I.

Jen and Omar sweetly offered to share a set with one lucky D*S reader, and I couldn’t resist the kind offer. Not just because I wish I was personally eligible to win, but also because travel has been on my brain non-stop lately. We just finalized the D*S Book Tour cities/dates (info coming soon), and all I can think about is getting on the road and experiencing new places first-hand.

So, if you’d like to be eligible to win, please leave a comment below with your funniest travel experience story. Whether it’s sad/funny or hysterically funny, hopefully we can all enjoy each other’s stories and maybe even inspire each other to travel someplace spectacular. We’ll collect comments through the end of the day on Wednesday, and Jen + Omar will pick a favorite to be announced on Friday. Good luck and happy travels. xo, grace

*PS — Check out Jen and Omar’s sneak peek here.

It’s been contest central here for the last couple weeks. There have been so many amazing books coming out! We gave away two copies of Lena Corwin’s Maps, five copies of Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day and one copy of The Drawing Nature Journal by Jill Bliss. Whew! All the amazing entries made narrowing the list one tough task, but there can only be one winner. (Okay — so that’s eight winners!) -Amy A

Lena Corwin‘s new book Maps is a collection of 40 of Lena’s hand-drawn maps and includes illustrations of 20 American cities. To enter this contest, you had to leave a comment with a link to one of your favorite maps. There were some pretty amazing links in the mix. Lena chose her two favorites. (See all the entries here: Lena Corwin Map Contest)

amelia
April 3rd, 2011 at 7:38 pm
My grandfather sparked my love of maps, he had such great old globes and a hurricane tracking map that I used to love playing with. He even helped me make a salt & flour map of florida for a 3rd grade geography project. Now that I have wee ones to pass on my cartographic love to, I think that the map quilt by abby at hi + low and the almost an animal map by katie viggers
are two of my favorites at the moment. Thanks for the give away and great work on a beautiful book!

Pelin
April 3rd, 2011 at 10:19 am
I’ve been following Lena’s maps on Elle Decor for a while now. I’ve especially enjoyed her Istanbul map and I kept it since that’s where I’m from. My favorite maps are oceanic depth maps – I can’t get over the beautiful shades of blue. Here is an example.

CLICK HERE for all the contest winners!

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