Week One is NOW OVER!
Subsequent auctions will also last a week only: Nov. 21-28; Nov. 28-Dec. 5; and Dec. 5-12.
Click on the name of any item to go to the auction page and see how it all turned out …
Copter ride with Santa
Who needs reindeer when you can hitch a ride with Santa on his Sikorsky S-76Z? This is the perfect parent-child gift: a trip for two with Santa on a sleek helicopter as he flies from the Tampa International Jet Center to The Children’s Home, where your child (and you, too, if you like) can act as Santa’s helpers as he hands out gifts. It’s a gift with double rewards: the thrill of flight and the joy of giving, all in one. Value: $500.
Bourbon & Brew Festival VIP Experience, Nov. 23
Do you scream for Jim Beam? Then this item’s for you: four (4) VIP tickets to the Jim Beam Bourbon & Brew Festival on Sat., Nov. 23, 3-11 p.m., at The Heights Waterfront in Downtown Tampa. Your VIP status grants you and your three guests unlimited samples of over 40 brands of whiskey and bourbon, unlimited bourbon drinks at the VIP bar, and a Bourbon & Brew souvenir glass. The festival also features specialty craft beers, BBQ, live country and Southern rock music, fireworks, and lots of good ol’ countrified fun. Value: $340.
Cigar box guitar from Cotton Pickin’ Blues
A gorgeous instrument hand-crafted by Sarasota-area cigar box guitar luthier Steve Cinnamon of Cotton Pickin’ Blues. The electric model is made of an empty wooden cigar box (the hollow body acts as a resonator), three strings, and a carved and shaped oak neck. Value: $250.
Your signature sandwich and cocktail once a month for a year at Lucky Dill
What better place to design your own sandwich than the Valhalla of sandwiches, Lucky Dill in Palm Harbor? Add your signature sandwich to the menu alongside such New York-centric items as the Woody Allen (beef tongue, of course) and the Rocky Graziano (salami that packs a punch). Best of all — get your sandwich once a month for a whole year. Prefer a liquid lunch à la Don Draper? Design your own cocktail, to join Lucky Dill’s cocktail list along with such classics as A Sidecar Named Desire, and have that once a month for year, too. Value: Priceless.
Go Greek in Tarpon Springs
Feel like an escape to a Greek island? The unique ambience of Tarpon Springs’ sponge docks will take you there, especially if you enhance your Tarpon experience with a $50 gift certificate to Hellas — the most popular eatery in the sponge docks district. To complete the mini-vacation feeling, use your $20 voucher to buy clothing and distinctive souvenirs at Best of the Bay-winning Sponge Diver Supply Company. Value: $70
A dozen doughnuts per week for a year from Dough
Dough, the new bakery from South Tampa favorite Datz, is out-dunkin’ all other doughnuts with this item. Each week, pick a dozen of your favorites from Dough’s cornucopia of flavors — Maple Bacon, Red Velvet, Pumpkin, M&M, even Worms and Dirt, plus classics like Sour Cream and Boston Cream — up to a value of $25 a box. Total value: $1,300.
Two ticket four-packs to Jobsite Theater plus dinners at Mad Dogs & Englishmen and The Refinery
Jobsite is offering not just a pair but four tickets to two of its upcoming shows — making for a great night out with friends or a supercool double date. First, see The Hound of the Baskervilles, the classic Sherlock Holmes mystery, directed by Katrina Stevenson. Runs Jan. 8-Feb. 2. Then see All New People by Zach Braff, the actor/director famous for Garden State and the hit sitcom Scrubs. Directed by Paul Potenza, it runs May 7-June 1. Make those nights out really special events with gift certificates from two wonderful restaurants — a $100 certificate from South Tampa’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen (possibly the perfect place to eat before a play with Hound in the title, no?) and a $125 certificate for Seminole Heights hot spot The Refinery. Winning bidder is asked to make reservations at both Jobsite and the participating restaurants as soon as possible after the close of the auction on Nov. 21. Total value: $450.
Painting with a Twist plus a Taco Bus feast
St. Pete’s Painting with a Twist offers a two-hour session with instruction by a professional artist, and provides the paint, canvas, smocks, brushes, and in some cases, stencils to help out the more creatively challenged; you choose the image you want to replicate from the website offerings, and bring yourself, a bottle of your favorite wine, and your painting companion of choice. Then invite four friends to join you and your painting partner for dinner at Taco Bus, where you can show off your finished work and pretend you captured the likeness of Michael Jackson all by yourself. (You don’t have to tell them about the stencil.) Value: $70 for Painting with a Twist; Gift certificate for dinner for 6 at Taco Bus, $90. Total value: $160.
Six sessions with personal trainer and professional boxer Jenna Shiver
Kick off the new year with a resolution to kick butt. Six sessions with championship boxing beauty Jenna Shiver will get you in your best shape ever, leading you through beach workout, conditioning, body sculpting, kickboxing and boxing. Jenna will share some info about nutrition, too. Value: $300.
Creative Loafing Print & Online Ad Campaign
Have a product, business or service that you’d like to share with the Creative Loafing audience? Why not advertise with us? We have a readership of over 900,000 people every month in print and online. Our readers are active, engaged in their community, support the arts and go out to eat regularly. And, they’re dying to learn about you! This CL print and online package includes a 13-week campaign of online display ads plus 1/4 page full-color ads in print. Value: $12,935.
Deluxe Loews Don Cesar Hotel/Maritana Grille package
Experience the Loews Don Cesar, the Pink Palace of Pass-A-Grille, at its best. With this package, you’ll enjoy a private chef dinner for two, including wines, created by Best of the Bay-winning Loews Executive Chef Kenny Hunsberger. You’ll stay two nights in one of the Don’s posh rooms high above the Gulf. And you’ll get to indulge yourself with a Table for Two Couples Massage at the hotel’s luxurious Spa Oceana. Ahhhh … Value: $1895.
Tampa Bay Rays ticket package and Lobaton-autographed flag
After the Rays’ thrilling 2013 season, there’s no telling what kind of excitement is in store next year. With this package you get to enjoy all the fun up close and personal with four (4) lower box tickets and four (4) pregame field passes to a mutually agreed upon Tampa Bay Rays home game in 2014. You’ll also get a unique memento — a Rays flag signed by Jose Lobaton, the ice cream-loving catcher whose walk-off homer in Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Red Sox was the first by the home team to land in the Rays Touch Tank, thereby netting a $5,000 contribution from the Rays to Lobaton’s favorite charity: The Children’s Home. Value: $600.
Downtown Tampa Special: Tampa Bay History Center, Pizza Fusion & Old Tampa Book Company
It’s a great time to visit the Tampa Bay History Center, with the blockbuster show Charting the Land of Flowers: 500 Years of Florida Maps on view until Feb. 16 and JFK in Tampa up through Dec. 8. With this package you not only get a family four-pack of tickets to the history museum, you also get a gift card good for dinner for four at Pizza Fusion (with an assorted craft-beer six-pack thrown in for Mom and Dad), plus a $20 gift certificate for Old Tampa Book Company, the wonderful little bookstore where you can browse the rest of the day away. Value: $171.80.
Yoga classes at White Orchid
“Heal the Body, Heal the Mind, Heal the Spirit” is the motto of Clearwater’s White Orchid yoga studio. With this item, you can explore your own body, mind and spirit with a five-pack class pass. Value: $78.
A Foursome in The Children’s Home 32nd Annual Celebrity Golf Classic
Gather your best foursome and hit the links for The Children’s Home 32nd Annual Celebrity Golf Classic. The event takes place on Feb. 24, 2013 at the beautiful Carrollwood Country Club in Tampa. Value: $800.
Six months of Bright House cable, Internet and phone
It’s cable for a cause. The winning bidder receives a certificate for six months of cable, Internet and phone courtesy of Bright House Networks. This includes all applicable taxes and fees (new subscribers may have installation costs). The certificate expires on Dec. 15, 2013, so cash it in quick. Value: $600.
Dunedin Brewery Pints-Plus-Parties package
This beer-lovers’ package is not for the faint of pint. Dunedin Brewery, Florida’s oldest microbrewery, will supply one draft pint a week for the next year, plus two tickets each to two of the brewery’s most popular events — Stogies & Stout and the IPA Festival — and two Literstein Oktobeerfest mugs. We say cheers to that! Value: $500.
Sterling & topaz bracelet from Baubles & Bubbles and a gift certificate from Bella Moda
Two stylish St. Pete boutiques, Bella Moda and Baubles & Bubbles, now share a space on St. Pete’s Beach Drive (read more about them in CL’s High on Style column on p. 67). So they’ve paired up to offer a beautiful deal for bidders: a sterling silver and stainless steel bracelet with three carats of pear-shaped blue topaz from B&B and a $50 gift certificate from Bella Moda, perfect for the woman who dresses with flair. Value: $425.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2013.