The ELEMENTS of money

Stuck at Prom

Have you seen the scholarship contest sponsored by Duck Brand Duct Tape? It's called Stuck at Prom and it's a contest for high school students who create a prom outfit made out of duct tape. Every year hundreds of students raid the local Home Depot of its duct tape and start designing. If you're interested for the 2009 scholarship (sorry, the 2008 deadline already passed), you can visit www.stuckatprom.com.

While you're there, vote for your favorite. So far, Adrienne Beiler, of Salisbury, Pa. (shown below), is in first place. She spent over a year designing her dress and accessories. Who knew duct tape could be so stylish? Go Adrienne!

Up, Up and Away

Keeping with my theme of financial misfortune (see my 3/14 post), I wanted to quickly share another story I just read. This story takes place in London and it starts off like a Hollywood romance movie. A couple had been dating and the guy wanted to ask his girlfriend to marry him. So far pretty normal. He wanted to propose in a creative way so he bought a $12,000 engagement ring and put it in a helium balloon. His plan was to give his girlfriend the balloon and have her pop it (get it ... "pop the question"). When he left the jewelry store with his new balloon and $12,000 ring, a gust of wind blew the balloon out of his hands and before you can say "I do" the balloon was floating off. He tried chasing it, but quickly realized that he couldn't fly. The guy at the jewelry store really should have tied the balloon around his wrist like my mom used to do for me at Disneyland. I saved many a balloons that way.

What happened to the happy couple? As of this post, his girlfriend refuses to talk to him until he buys her a new ring.

So what's the moral of this story? Well besides the lesson on spending $12,000 for a ring (waaaay too much $$$), there really isn't any. I just thought it was funny.

Catie