Valentine's Day is coming up fast. Have you bought your sweetheart a gift yet?
For those of you who need a little extra help in the gift-buying department, here are a few ideas.
Mustache heart pint glasses
Shameless self-promotion here, but we think our mustache/heart pint glasses designed by Megan are a fabulous gift for the person who already has everything. Buy one and stuff a bunch of chocolate kisses in it, or buy more and wrap them up as a set. They're $3 each. It's a bargain.
Downtown Lawrence gift certificate
Did you know you can buy gift certificates for downtown Lawrence? Any of the businesses downtown who are members of Downtown Lawrence, Inc. will accept them, including the Sandbar. (Dave is the past president of DLI.) Another perfect gift for the hard-to-buy-for person on your list, because there are so many different places they can be used.
You can buy them at Douglas County Bank, or you can buy them online here.
Guys night at Prairie Patches
This doesn't really help the ladies- well, yes it does. Girls, go fill out a wish list at Prairie Patches. Guys, go down there on Feb. 13 from 6-8 p.m. and get personalized shopping help. And there's a bonus! 10% of all sales will be donated to Habitat for Humanity's Women Build project, and if you donate to the organization you'll get a free rose in a vase.
And there's more! Enjoy wine and snacks and free gift wrapping. How can you NOT do this?
There you have it. Three great options for Valentine's Day gifts. You're welcome.
We recently put out a call for a new Valentine's Day pint glass design, since we haven't crowdsourced a design in over a year.
We got several submissions and we loved them all.
Here's the first one. It's printed and ready to buy!
It. Is. Fabulous.
I'll tell you a secret: I was hoping that someone out there would find a way to incorporate our love (and our customers' love) of mustaches into a Valentine's Day pint design.
And Megan read my mind.
The first run of 2013 Valentine pints is behind the bar, waiting for you. They're $3 each and yours to keep forever. Bring them back in every Thursday for $2.50 tropical drink refills.
These will also make perfect Valentine's Day gifts!
We hope to have a second Valentine's Day glass soon. We're waiting to hear back from the artist. Stay tuned.
Our crowdsourced pint glass designs have been popular the last several years, but it's been a whole year since we asked our customers to submit their best designs.
The last customer-designed glass was our happy new year glass from last year. We've been so busy this year, we haven't had a chance to hold another contest! And, we've been busy with the super popular mustache glasses. More of those are coming soon, I promise. In fact, we may let YOU choose which mustache comes next…
Our Valentine's Day glass in 2011, designed by Alison, was one of our most popular pints ever.
The fine print:
The design has to be a black and white line art drawing. We only print single-color designs, so a design with multiple colors won't work. Shadows and other shading won't work either.
Keep it simple. Remember, pint glasses aren't huge and the design will only be a few inches in size. The design should be fairly basic and not have a lot of tiny detail, and it should also translate well to a small size.
You don't need to include the Sandbar name or logo. Our logo will be on the other side of the glass.
We aren't going to pay you money, but if your design or idea is chosen, you'll get a pack of pint glasses, a T-shirt and a whole blog post dedicated to the things you want to share with our friends.
We'll take submissions for the next two weeks, until January 21. Then, we'll pick our favorite design. We might pick more than one; we might combine designs and create a whole new one.
If you can't draw, it's not a big deal. Do your best, or if you really can't draw anything at all, or design something basic on the computer, just email us the idea and we'll try to create it.
So, if you've got an idea for a Valentine's Day glass, send it to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com!
Disclaimer stuff: submitting your design to us gives us full rights to use it on our websites, social networking sites and merchandise. We'll give you credit everywhere we can, of course.
Unless you're new around here (and if you are, that's okay!), you already know that our founder Peach also owns the Lodge in Baldwin City, a rustic motel and banquet facility. Baldwin City is just a short drive south of Lawrence.
If you haven't made plans with your valentine this weekend, check out the Lodge! They're holding a Valentine Dance from 8 p.m. to midnight. Mark Valentine and the Ticklers, the band that has headlined our annual birthday block party for the past three years, will be performing all your favorite songs.
There's no cover charge for the dane, but you must be 21 or older to attend.
If you want to make the night even more special, add a motel room for just $69, or a suite for $99. Call the Lodge for more information or to make reservations. You can reach them at 785.594.3900 or by email at baldwincitylodge@gmail.com.
What's your favorite jukebox song? Everytime I go to Sandbar, my friends always overload the jukebox with Disney and Grease soundtracks. So I'm going to say "You're the One That I Want" has to be a favorite, since it's inevitably played every time I'm there, but there's few things I love more than hearing "Sweet Caroline" or "Friends in Low Places" getting belted out by everyone in the bar.
Tell us about the first time you came to the Sandbar. I'm not sure I actually remember the first time I went to the Sandbar, as it was shortly after my 21st birthday (to be fair, that whole year is pretty blurry). But I do remember one of the first times we ever went we played upstairs in the sand most of the night. The cutouts are so funny, they should start making more apperances downstairs! I also remember scouring the fish tanks and giving names to our favorites, and obviously doing the car wash after dirty banana shots.
Favorite drink? I can usually only do one or two tropical drinks before hitting a sugar high, but I always have to have at least one shark attack every time I go. Also, dirty banana shots are the greatest shots known to man.
What's the longest you've waited in line? The only time I remember having to stand in line for a really long time was the first time I brought my mom and her friend. They had never 'partied' in Lawrence with me before, and I knew they would have a total blast at The Sandbar. We thankfully only had to wait about 30 minutes or so, and it was well worth it.
…which leads to my funniest memory of The Sandbar. I had promised my mother a legendary hurricane, and once again, it did not disappoint. I think the best time I ever had at The Sandbar was doing a hurricane and singing "Car Wash" with my mom standing on the benches, Bahama Mamas in hand. We laughed so hard, she had the best time.
Favorite memories at The Sandbar? My favorite memories of The Sandbar HAVE to be the birthday parties. My friends and I have been for the past two years, and they are legendary! We took about a gazillion pictures in the photobooth, they're still hanging up in all of our apartments. And last year we got a picture with Coach Self! It's also a lot of fun with the live bands and shutting down the whole block, it's like Sandbar just takes over all of downtown for one night a year!
Favorite drink trinket? I think my favorite drink toys are the Shark Attack sharks, I have more than my fair share of them. I really want to figure out a way to display them properly. Brenna suggested making lights out of them by stringing them on a strand of christmas lights, I think that would be so much fun!
Jukebox song you never want to hear again? Again, with all of the sing-a-long jams my friends pick EVERY TIME we're at the bar, there's more than a handful I'd be fine with never hearing again. Abba's "Dancing Queen" and "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King are definitely at the top of the list. (Editor's note: Aren't those a couple of Brenna's favorites?!)
Where can you be found when you're not at The Sandbar? When I'm not dressing up as a mermaid for the 11th time (seriously, Erin and I have a contest going to see who can be a mermaid more times than the other. Is there a Guiness World's Record entry for that yet?), I am a Graphic Designer for the Lawrence Journal-World. In my free time I enjoy traveling as much as possible, cheering on the Jayhawks to assured victory (while biting my nails and yelling at the TV), and fighting the effects of my late nights at Sandbar with pilates, soccer, dodgeball, and kickball.
