‘I Blog With the Sisterhood’ Contest: And the Winner Is…

Somebody in this picture will be all sunshine and smiles today.

PLAYING FAVORITES AMONG YOUR SISTERS is something nobody should ever do, but TSP’s judges (profiled below) were faced with 36 amazing entries for the “I Blog With the Sisterhood” contest with Type-A Mom, and were frankly unable to limit ourselves to the three prizes we had promised. We dug into our cookie jars a little deeper, and have delicious news: Besides the top prize, valued at $900, we upgraded the other awards to include not two but four runners-up, and more than doubled the value of each award. (I know, we’ve gone nuts, but everyone’s work really moved us.) And the winners are…

GRAND PRIZE:
Grand prize including conference registration and up to $750 in travel, hotel and meal costs for the Type-A Mom Conference next month, totaling more than $900, goes to Sara Harmon of Tout-Est-Des-Roses (pictured at top), photographer, writer, sister, and mother of four, for her entry “You Know You’re a Sister When You Have a Place to Belong.” An excerpt from her unique prose-poem about her own genetic sisterhood and the one she has found online, fills in the blank “You know you’re a sister when…”

Sara Harmon/Tout-Est-Des-Roses “…when you are at your worst, someone believes in you…Since I began blogging online I have lost the feeling of isolation I had living in a small town, hours away from my family. I have found solace through the sympathetic ears of my ‘online sisterhood.’

“Knowing they are there to support me and accept me no matter what I am going through, is an irreplaceable lifeline. Through the years I have experienced both failure and success–the light and dark of life–but I have always, ALWAYS, felt accepted by those who are my sisters…whether through birth, through years, or a virtual arm around my shoulders. You KNOW you’re a sister when you have a place to BELONG.”

THE RUNNERS-UP:

Each runner-up receives conference registration, plus $250 toward hotel accommodation, totaling more than $400 in value apiece. Amber Haines of The Run-a-Muck; Malia Carden of Live, Laugh, Love; Corina Fiore of Down to Earth Mama; and Deb Rox of Deb on the Rocks are our runners-up. Excerpts from their winning entries that completed our phrase about sisterhood:

Amber Haines/The Run-a-muck “… when you splay all your vulnerable business in exchange for her voice. I give you my voice, and then you give me yours, and something about it is home.”

Malia Carden/Live, Laugh, Love “…when you can come together in a potluck of acceptance and friendship found in the most unlikeliest of all circumstances. Sisterhood is a delicious, satisfying and comforting meal, shared together.”

Corina Fiore/Down to Earth Mama “…when you know each other so well you have forgotten you have never met face to face….you think nothing of driving four hours to sit with a friend going through a crisis, just to hold their hand, and wait. When you know each other’s scars, both literal and figurative.”

Deb Rox/Deb on the Rocks “…when you feel as though you’ve come home and it’s okay that your shoes are dusty from the long walk up the gravel driveway. You are home, and your sister is making you coffee and she wants to hear your stories.”

Our Judges

Our panel of six judges included the three bloggers below who were already attending the Type-A Mom Conference on personal sponsorships from The Sister Project. Lisa, Mishelle and Chris teamed with TSP’s own Marion, Paige and Anastasia to judge the 36 amazing entries, to pick another “sister” to join them in Asheville. TSP founder Margaret Roach and Type-A Mom founder Kelby Carr played the role of big sisters and oversaw the judging.

Lisa Douglas
Ex-New York State resident Lisa Douglas of Crazy Adventures in Parenting is now a Louisiana-based military wife and mother of six children: three boys and three girls. Lisa calls sisterhood, “a closeness you share, blood or no, in which you feel as though you’re one, despite differences, despite adversity—a connection, a bond.”

“I’ve been blogging a bit now,” she adds, “and I can honestly say blogging has shown me new ‘sisters’ in the universe, ones I can also confide in, learn from, many of whom I feel are like an extended branch of my family. I have witnessed amazing strength and calls-to-action in support of other bloggers in need, banding together, sister-to-sister.”

Mishelle Lane
Mishelle Lane of Secret Agent Mama, also a New York State native, lives near Atlanta today with her husband of 15 years and their four children. She is a photographer.

“I have no siblings,” says Mishelle, but she has sisters, anyway. “From cousins to old friends to long-lost neighbors to bulletin-board mamas to blogging superstars; you are abundant in my life. You are what makes up the fiber of my being. Your similarities and differences make me whole. You are my sisterhood. There’s no other way to describe it.”

“When I was a little girl,” she adds, “I always dreamed of having my own true sister. I wanted to fight with her just to make up….I wanted to steal her favorite sweater just to make her see that I wanted to be just like her….But it was all just a dream. My parents wouldn’t have any more children. I was it for them. I would have to search through my life for the ones I’d call my sisters.”

Mishelle will be speaking about photography at the upcoming conference, in a session sponsored by The Sister Project and Type-A Mom.

Chris McLaughlin
Christine McLaughlin, a garden blogger (like our own Margaret Roach) based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has multiple online incarnations, including columns on the Examiner, Foodie Mama, Type-A Mom and her own blog, The Savvy Plant. She is a mother of four.

“I didn’t grow up with a sister,” says Chris. “I grew up with brothers. Which is very different, I suspect. “

She isn’t kidding:

“Had I a sister she probably would have had more respect for my not-yet-developed-chest than my brothers did, who would smack it any chance they got,” recalls Chris. “Had I a sister she probably would have left the heads on my Barbies—not to mention their clothes. On the other hand, my crayon-bomb-constructing technique may not be where it is today, nor could I whistle with four fingers—had I a sister.”

TSP and Type-A Mom thank all the judges for their hard work. We also thank each of the 36 exceptional entrants, whose links and excerpted work can be found here. It is the hope of The Sister Project and Type-A Mom network that this is just the start of a widening blogging sisterhood for all of us.

Related posts:

1. I Blog With the Sisterhood: 36 Type-A Mom Contest Entries In!
2. Blogging With the Sisterhood: A Contest With Type-A Mom
3. Is Blogging Your Sisterhood?
4. Happy 6-Month Blogaversary!
5. The Poetry of Sisterhood

Enjoy this post? Don't miss anything on The Sister Project network. Sign up for our new email newsletter, and subscribe to our RSS feed