Shunned by Apartment Therapy?

I'm sure most of you have heard that Apartment Therapy is hosting a contest called "Room for Color" right now. Well I entered my dining room in the contest...

You know the one, you've seen it before. It may not be bright color but I have a lot of bold color in this room so I thought I would give it a shot. 

I'm not even going to include the countless hours I spent designing this room. But I did spend a lot of time cleaning it, touching up the trim, buying flowers, photographing it, editing the images, writing the entry, all in order to compete.

Then they decided not to even let my room compete.

I understand that there may be bad entries or spam entries so everything has to be approved for the contest. They also said they only select the strongest entries for the competition.

I thought no problem. My entry is certainly strong enough. Plus at the time I submitted, there wasn't near as many entries in the southern category.

I submitted my entry more than 10 days before the deadline.

and waited...

and waited...

then the deadline to submit passed and still no word.

I double checked the rules and requirements to be sure I'd done everything right and sure enough I had.

Then I logged in to see this message...

Thanks for your entry, but due to the large number of entries received yours was not included in Room for Color 2010. We hope to hear from you again in the future. Enjoy the rest of the contest!

WTF?

I can't imagine why I wasn't even given the chance for my entry to be seen.

And I hate to sound shallow but there are entries that I definitely do not feel are as strong as mine or photographed as well...

BTW, these images you see here are the exact ones I submitted. My photographer friend took them, another person's time wasted.

So that's how I got shunned by apartment therapy. Obviously I am quite bitter about it. To me it makes no sense. 

My friends said to email them but I guess I just don't see the point.

Sorry to bring down your Wednesday but I'm just upset about this.

PS. There's still time to sign up for my gift swap! I'm extending the deadline because I would like to get as many people signed up as possible. So tell your friends and email me at myflightsofwhimsy(at)gmail(dot)com to sign up!

When Life Hands You Lemons, You Punch it in the Face

Well friends, I was dealt one of life's many blows last week. My company downsized and I was laid off. A lot has been going on in my brain since i heard the news. I decided not to dwell on the how and the why and try to think about what I REALLY want to do with my career.

The problem is I have no idea what I really want to do. I wish I had a clear goal in mind so I could focus every fiber of my being on making that happen.

Fortunately I can take a little time out and think things through and decide on what I really for my career. I don't think I want to go back to another typical "office" type job. I've been suffering from office burnout pretty much since my career began after college several years ago. I'm sure you of all people can relate to how hard the monotony can be to a creative minded person. I could never get used to the routine even when the work was interesting.

So I guess my request from all of you is for some brainstorming. What are my strengths? What are my options? Also to anyone who is working independently, how did you get your start? Please email me directly if you wish myflightsofwhimsy (at) gmail (dot) com.

I appreciate your support during this transitional but hopefully beneficial phase. I already know I will be blogging more, and that's never a bad thing!