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The Beginning of the End

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To quote from Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we have now come to “the true beginning of our end”.

Depending on where you live:

“in the Northern Hemisphere on: June 20, 2008 at 7:59 PM EDT; and in the UK on June 20, 2008 at 23:59 UTC.”

tonight is Midsummer’s Night…the Summer Solstice…and it marks the end of our second annual journey to the land of “Once Upon a Time”.

But with sadness comes joy, because there are prizes to be had!

Yes, it is the Journey’s End Prize Pack!

Included in the pack are:

–a very nice print by Kinuko Y. Craft entitled Poison.

–a set of 4 art postcards by Etsy Week artist Jennifer Gordon

–a set of 3 Anne-Julie Aubry postcards

–very cool business cards from Cricket Press and Jennifer Gordon (make great bookmarks)

–a size XL Endicott Studio t-shirt with a fantastic image by Terri Windling

–a sampler book of the Art of Brian Froud book (this has some fantastic full page images in it!)

–a set of DVDs which includes: Merlin, Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver’s Travels, Noah’s Ark, and Cleopatra). These are Hallmark Hall of Fame productions.

–a Little Whimsies pin by Anne-Julie Aubry

–an Ofelia pin (inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth) by Anne-Julie Aubry

–a card featuring an image by artist Rachael Direnna

–a poppet bookmark by Lisa Snellings-Clark

–and, wrapped in the black paper, a Little Red Poppet of your very own (tear not included). There was no way I was going to let Once Upon a Time II pass without Poppets making their presence known.

Not pictured above:

All you have to do to qualify for the prize pack is finish a quest…or multiple quests…from the Once Upon a Time II Challenge and let me know about it. Several of you have already told me that you’ve completed your challenge. You are:

Carrie
Corinne
Ken
Deslily
Somer
Bellezza
Jenn
Rachael
Becky
Melissa
Melanie
Chris H.
Erin
Tasses
Stephanie
Cafeshree
Traci
Sassymonkey
Chelle
Aichaku
Gaye
Nicole
Megan
Medbie
Tanabata
Debi
Annie
Petunia
Jlshall
Valentina
Lindy
JenClair
Bride of the Book God
Kamisha
Vasilly

Please let me know if you have already told me you completed and yet I don’t have you in the above list. For those of you whose names are not here, if you have already completed your quest(s) or do so by the end of the night, please leave me a comment here so that I can include you in the drawing. At some point tomorrow I will post a Once Upon a Time II Wrap Up post which will announce this winner and some Special Prize winners.

For those of you expecting a Friday Favorite, next week, in tribute to the second anniversay of the death of blog friend and amazing photographer, etc, Jennifer Cakert, the entire week will be devoted to art and will coincide with an art scholarship fundraiser with a few amazing giveaway items. Details on Sunday!

Have a great weekend and be sure to check back on Saturday and Sunday!

34 thoughts on “The Beginning of the End”

  1. I just have a few more scenes in a Midsummer Night’s Dream to finish, which I *will* do before midnight. And then I’ll be done. Quest the third (I think…5 fantasy books + Shakespeare).

    First challenge I ever finished on time! Wooooo!

    Man I love those poppets. I need to buy some.

  2. I’ve had a fantabulous time, and I just snuck in under the wire, finishing my journey on June 18th. Can’t wait for the drawing!

  3. wow that’s a lotta stuff!! There’s enough stuff there for 2 or 3 winners! holy moly! As always you have really cool stuff Carl!!

  4. What an incredibly generous prize package – it’s hard to work with ALL of my fingers crossed!

  5. I didi not read Missummer Night’s Dream. Read the following: Mythology 1. Sutcliff, Rosemary The Light Beyond the Forest
    A retelling of the adventures of King Arthur’s knights, Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival, as they search for the Holy Grail.
    Mythology 2. Lewis, C. S. Till We Have Faces
    It is a retelling of the Greek myth of Eros/Cupid and Psyche, based on a chapter of The Golden Ass of Apuleius.
    Fantsy 1. Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland
    The story of a young girl nemed Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a wonderful adventure.
    Folklore 1. Kunstler, Howard James Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
    Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale, about a poor and vry lazy young man recruited by a sorcerer to to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave.

  6. Oh, Carl, those prizes take one’s breath away. Truly, you are the King of Challenges. Whoever wins the End of the Journey (or Les Preludes, as Franz Lizst wrote) will be quite enchanted indeed. Thank you again, for hosting such a spectacular feat!

  7. I have finished my challenge today by re-reading Midsummer Night’s Dream. I enjoyed it much more this time, since the last time I read it was for my Shakespeare class in college. Thanks so much for hosting the challenge, I had a blast.

  9. My goodness, Carl! What an amazing, generous, gorgeous-beyond-words prize package you have put together there! Good luck to everyone! And thanks again…this really is a magical challenge!

  10. Thank you so much for hosting this challenge. After being on a nonfiction kick for about 3 years I didn’t realize how much I needed stories. Since I don’t have a blog I will mention here what I managed to get through. This spring I read Joan Osbourne’s Book of Favorite Greek Myths, Melt with You by Alison Tyler (a little spicy, but it is time travel), Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst, Coast to Coast Ghosts by Leslie Rule and a few interviews from Hanging out with the Dream King. I may still try to sneak in a graphic novel version of Neverwhere which will make a great lead into what I’m calling my summer of graphic novels and manga.

  11. Wow! What awesome looking prizes! Thanks again for hosting such a fun challenge–I look forward to doing it again next year. 🙂

  12. What a fantastic prize pack! Thanks for yet another great challenge, Carl. I had a lot of fun with it 🙂

  13. I was able to read 33/34 books for the challenge depending on if reading the graphic novel and the original shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream counts once or twice. Here is an official list of what I read.

  14. Sorry I forgot to tell you I had finished this challenge! I have a wrap up post here. I really enjoyed my second OUAT challenge and am looking forward to next years…!

  17. I’m done but I haven’t done a wrap-up post and probably won’t be able to until tomorrow. Blogger was down when I tried yesterday and I haven’t had a chance to today.

  18. Now that’s an incredible prize pack! Thanks again Carl for another amazing challenge. This and the RIP challenge are certainly my favorites of the year and you make them such a joy to participate in. You make reading that much more fun!

  19. Thank you for making my first reading challenge so worth the effort. I learned quite a bit about my reading and blogging habits which I posted about HERE. The post includes my completion list which I’ve remembered to post to the Mr. Linky challenge page (woo hoo… lots to remember for a newbie).

    I just hopped over to your post on Jennifer Cakert. What a beautiful and touching tribute. It moved me to tears. I find something inspirational in every one of your posts and I’ve found some of the best blogs through your comment threads. I’m so glad that I found Stainless Steel Droppings 🙂

  20. That is a great prize package!

    Well done on another fabulous challenge Carl. As I said in my post, I’m only sorry I couldn’t participate more this year.

    Am trying to visit at least some of the blogs I missed out on checking out in this year’s challenge. Better late than never, right? 😉

  21. I finished mine a while back. I think you commented on my post when I did it. Thanks for hosting this challenge. It’s been really fun.

  22. Well…..yesterday I posted about A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Last night I finished one more book. That totals 7, plus the play. So Yeah! I finished. But I still have to a wrap-up….hopefully tomorrow. I know it’s late, but work calls!

  23. OOh – my name is not on the list – I finished ages ago 🙂 Had put three f my links up but not the last one – so have amended that 🙂

    See here for the books I read for the challenge and the links to my reviews:
    http://myreadingchallanges.blogspot.com/2008/03/once-upon-time-challenge-march-21st-to.html

    I also have a list of books I like the look of that other participants read – is never too early to start preparations for challenge 3 next year (? )

  24. I signed up for the quest to read five books from any genre. I read four of my original books and subbed my fifth original choice (Lud-in-the-Mist) for Odd and the Frost Giants. ANd I’ve got all my reviews up!

  29. I just finished reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream! Hurrah!!! I did the Quest the 3rd, with books from the 4 categories and the play. I had so much fun! and I completed my first challenge! thank you, Carl!! (PS I finished the play just before midnight, so not quite 7:59 pm, but still Midsummer’s night!!!)

  32. I finished, my first ever reading challenge! Thanks for the inspiration Carl, it’s very impressive how creative you are!

  34. this is so cool!!! it’s like christmas! thank you for hosting this amazing challenge, it’s been great fun.

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