Interview with Laurel M. of Waltham, MA  

Laurel hung in there to win the dMarie Bowl VI Trivia Marathon.  It took 14 rounds over two days to weed out a winner, and Laurel bested the competition to win a $100.00 gift certificate.  How did she do it?  Let's find out!

Was this your first dMarie Bowl Trivia marathon, and did you do anything special to prepare for it?

This was my first dMarie Bowl period, and I loved every minute of it! The newsletter sparked my interest, and late Saturday morning (EST) I figured I would check things out. If I had known what I was in for I would have prepared somehow - I'll definitely have some caffeine and a personal masseuse on hand for next year LOL. My neck and shoulders still aren't right. Cordless mouse, here I come! :)

How long have you been on the dMarie site?

About 6 or 8 months I think. I work at a craft store, and never knew what other scrapbook possibilities were out there until I started buying online - that's how I found dMarie!

What was your winning strategy?

I'm completely impatient!! I must have been close to, if not the first person to attempt to answer each question. Plus, I love a challenge, and zooming around the site in under two minutes to find the answers was quite the challenge! I have to admit, I got completely lucky on a couple of the answers - but Happy Centennial Crayola!

After that it was just staying power, I was really surprised at how few people were still in it after less than ten questions, so I stayed in just because I knew my chances were good. Actually, it's probably all Mark's fault (LOL) - knowing his sense of humor generally guided me in the right direction on some answers.

In all seriousness, after Question 3 (which I totally guessed on) I stopped looking for footballs and started going through every possible area of the site to understand where information could be found, and trying to anticipate what questions might get asked. That really helped on the questions about the Page Topper and the location of your store.

How many questions went by before you felt you could really win this thing?

I think it was around question 7 or 8, there were so few people left in the game that I knew if I stuck it out I could either be #1 or #2

Was it difficult to watch the clock and show up every hour for a new question?

No, I was at the computer pretty much the whole time - searching for footballs kept me focused LOL!

What do you plan to buy with your winning gift certificate?

I already spent half of it!! There aren't really any full-fledged scrapbook stores where I live, only warehouse craft stores with small scrapbook sections, so I went after a lot of products that I LOVE that I can only get online. SEI and Suzy Ratto are my favorites, and I also grabbed a couple new tools and embellishments to try.  I'll save the rest for specific items as I work through new books. Thanks a million (or at least a hundred lol) dMarie!!!