sweet tweets for summer treats

if you're not already on twitter, you probably should be. besides the addicting process of posting what you're wearing today in 140 characters and digitally stalking @heyismeashley or @officialchace, a handful of retailers, designers, daily newspapers and others are now announcing some fantastic giveaways through the site. some ask followers to retweet something or answer a question to win movie tickets or a free sample, but there are a few others that are really worth your time.

take @rachelnasvik for example. through her twitter account and her simple, yet eye-catching "thrill of the chase" blog - http://www.wherethenighttakesyou.blogspot.com/ - the designer staged a pretty inventive campaign to put her name and handbags on the style map. over the course of a couple weeks in june, more than 90 of her limited edition, hand-printed alice bond bags were "lost" somewhere in nyc and clues on their whereabouts were then tweeted and blogged. bags were left in abandoned shopping carts at dean and deluca, on a hot dog cart, in club restrooms, on a subway car and even hanging in my nyc lodging of choice, the hudson hotel.



any lucky wanderer to engage in the bag hunt, whether on purpose or by accident, also found a note that read: "you did not find this bag; this bag found you," and became the rightful owner of the purse. the bags were stocked to prepare the "finder-keeper" for more than just a night on the town: a mix of tunes, bobby pins, tarot cards, lip gloss, matches and other - some unmentionable here - accessories added to the already-exciting find.

since we were not able to get our hands on the bags in palm beach county, @cityplacewpb is giving away some sizzling summer swag closer to home. launched last week, cityplace is tweeting every wednesday between noon and 2 p.m. until july 22 with instructions for locals to win prizes from some of the area's hottest retailers. the first lucky follower to check in at the day's selected store and repeat the tweet will go home with something sweet.

last week's winner - who happened to be my friend chrissy! - arrived within six minutes of the tweet to receive $300 worth of laura mercier and issey miyake products from sephora, including a new summer fragrance and a nude color palette of bronzer, waterproof mascara, light mineral shadows and other makeup perfect for the sunny weather.


i hear that today's prize will be a victoria's secret bathing suit of choice, just in time for the fourth of july. but who will be today's winner...will it be you?