Recent competition wins

January and February have been really slow months for me in terms of competition wins. This time last year I had won over £750 worth of prizes. Up to now this year I have won Just over £100.

I much prefer creative competitions and recently I haven't seen as many around, there seems to be much less than last year. I've tried my hand at twitter comps as well this year, just the simple follow and retweet. I've had no luck, in fact I've lost a bunch of followers on twitter and I wonder if thats why, because I'm spamming their timeline.

Anyway the prizes I have won I like and they are all very useful to me! First up is a £50 Wallis voucher I won from Super lucky with a silly video I did to wish her luck in the teamhonk relay.

I bought these boots with the voucher and I have pretty much lived in them since I got them!

An angry birds dvd which was a runners up prize from a text competition that I found in compers news.

I won a blog competition with a prize of go-karting for 2. I had a good feeling when I entered this as there wasn't many entries. My husband and I love go-karting and only usually go on holiday so this will be a nice treat. We get a bit competitive though!

I did win a twitter competition for a soppy tweet I sent to lakeland in their Valentines competition. I won a heart shaped cookie tin. 

So there we have it, my best wins of the year so far, whats your best win so far?

Center Parcs and Tots100 February Blogger Challenge

Its half term, I love spending time with the kids during half term and making, playing and just generally having lots of fun. I completely forget about housework and do the bare minimum around the house and try and make the most of the time they have at home.

Tots100 and the Center Parcs blogger challenge has been running a while now and I have often thought about entering but this is the first time! Winning bloggers can win a stay Center parcs so I thought its worth a shot!

This months challenge is to create a home made game. This is right up our street, my children love junk modelling and are always making and gluing things together from recycled boxes etc.This half term we have come up with a marble run.

You need to start by collecting tubes (we used some fabric and wrapping paper rolls), or cardboard boxes and making channels from them, the pieces can be as long or small as you like. We also used bits from a hot wheels track as they are the perfect surface! We stuck ours to the wall because we are decorating so we don't need to worry about the wallpaper but you could use the door.

You need lots of sellotape and patience because the marbles don't always go where you think they will. Its great for a teamwork game working out the best angles and positions of the tubes.

We wanted to makes other obstacles for the marbles so we made this funnel from a used reel of cotton and some cardboard. Since then they have made another from cardboard.

Here's our finished marble run:

I really can't tell you how much entertainment this has provided for a 7,5 and 3 year old. They have played together for hours, changing, timing and racing the marbles down the run. They have worked together to make the run better and cheered each other on as their marble go down.

They have absolutly loved it...

This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots 100 February challenge. If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Sherwood Forest

Atlantic #Barstool competition entry

Atlantic Shopping are currently running a competition and have 5 vouchers up for grabs to spend on their site. All you have to do is choose a photo that you would have a on bar stool and say why you choose that one. Entries can be made via facebook twitter or a blog post.

It's really got me thinking about what I would have. My favourite pictures are of my children but it just doesn't seem right sitting on a barstool with your children's face on! In fact I don't particularly like any furniture with people's faces on, I just think its abit tacky. Plus I don't think when they get to teenagers they would sit on the barstools if they had pictures of themselves on!

Its got to fit in with the kitchen and the decor as you change it over the years. Its got to fit with the seasons, a wintery image wouldn't cheer your days up in the summer and vice versa.

I thought about my bouquet of flowers on my wedding day, or pictures of my favourite places in Italy or of the Eiffel tower from when we visited, my children's handprints and fingerprints. The list really is endless of favourite things. Then I thought food...

Most of our time spent in the kitchen is because of food, either preparing, eating baking and cooking. So I thought images of my favourite foods. Or of the favourite cakes I've baked. I think they will fit just right in the kitchen.

These are my favourite cupcakes I have made,mainly because I love shoes! Food and shoes we're on to a winner really :)

I think the ET on this is possibly the best icing model I have ever made, I was so proud of it! So it would be a nice reminder of what I have created.

Do you ever grow out of Wallace and Gromit?

Yummy warm food, this is a favourite in our house too and fun food always cheers you up whatever the weather or the season.

Bright, fresh food to liven up the kitchen, I love this picture it was taken in the summer, its just bright and juicy. Of all the pictures this is really the one I can imagine best. I have a cream kitchen so with this on the barstools it would really brighten the place up and inject a nice bright colour.

All these pictures would really get my creative juices going in the kitchen not to mention my tastebuds!

Which picture would you choose if you had to choose on of these?

My 2014 wishlist

My wish list for 2013 was really ambitious and I didn't really seek out the particular competitions. But I still did pretty well. Here's what I wished for and how I did!

• DIY or garden vouchers
• Food shopping vouchers  I won over £150 of Sainsburys and Tesco vouchers combined
• A weekend break
• Children's clothes vouchers £25 Tesco clothing vouchers came in handy for PJs
• A years supply of anything useful  I won a supply of zoflora cleaning items that will last well over a year.
• A TV
• A Hamper I won a Easter and and a chocolate hamper.
• A sofa We bought one with the cash we won.
• A new laptop

This year I would really like to transform my bedroom. We've not done anything to it since we moved in and it need some love! So my wish list will be based around that as well as other things!

• A TV
• Vouchers for B&Q or other DIY stores
• Vouchers for furniture e.g Laura Ashley, slider robes, 
• Vouchers for soft furnishings e.g. dunelm mill, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis
• A new bed
• A weekend away
• Children's clothes or vouchers
• A years supply of anything useful e.g cleaning products, teabags
• A hamper ( I love hampers!)
• Something nice for myself... anything :)

I know its another ambitious list of goodies but you've got to aim high. With a holiday already booked for next year and not much spare cash I'm determined to do even better than last year. 

Happy new year everyone and good luck with your comping, leave your wishlists in the comments  for me to have a look at!

My 2013 competition wins

Its been a good year for competitions for me. I've been on and off them for all year and some months I haven't entered or won a single competition. So here's some of my favourite wins this year:

January

It was the best start to the year ever, on the 1st I won a £100 red letter day voucher and topping that on the 11th  we won an ipad mini!

February

I won 4 prizes including £500 cash for some fun comic relief cupcakes with Jackpotjoy. This is the biggist amount of cash I have ever won!

March

I couldn't believe my luck when I won another £500 cash with jackpotjoy in another of their members only photo competition. I also won a Easter hamper of goodies from himmeandthree blog, a hamper was one of the prizes off my wishlist!

April

I won 2 prizes, a hamper of chocolate from a local radio station and £10 worth of nectar points in confused.com pinterest competition.

May

This was the month of the tropicana competition and I managed to win £120 cash (after the purchase of the bottles), this was one of my favourite competitions this year and brightened my day in the morning when I got a winning message. 

June

I won 7 prizes, 2 of them with J20 a £50 Tesco voucher and £20 pizza express voucher, which were also prizes from my wishlist.

July, August and September

This was when my comping really slowed down I completely lost my mojo, I think was just enjoying the summer rather than spending lots of time on the computer. I won a nerf gun in July, a ticket to Drayton manor in August and nothing in September.

October

I really got back into comping in October when I won 3 prizes including some snazzy sony headphones, a tool kit and a monster high dvd

November

I won 1 competition with Tesco clothing on twitter with this daft photo. With my £25 voucher I bought some Pj's for the kids for Christmas.

December

Came the results of all the movember competitions and I won 2 small prizes. I also won a super cute girls jumper from squeaky jumpers.

I'm really happy as always with my wins this year. Winning over £2400 is more than I've won in a year before. Now I will have to start thinking about next years wishlist!

What has been your favourite win this year?

Competition: John cotton Christmas bed bundle

It's that time of the year again when you get unexpected guests and expected guest that end up staying the night.

Now wouldn't it be nice to have brand new clean and cosy bedding for them?

I have got a John Cotton double bed bundle to give away that contains:

• 13.5 tog duvet
• 2 pillows
• pillow protectors
• mattress protectors
• A bag to store them in.

If you can't wait to win one, the bundle is currently on offer at Argos for £19.99 until 24th December.

What are you waiting for? Enter below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

• UK entry only
• The prize will be posted out by myself
• Closing date 10.12.13
• Prize provided by Slumberdown

Listed on The Prizefinder

My perfect Wayfair item

When I saw Sarah at Life in a breakdown hosting a competition with Wayfair.co.uk I had to enter, there are always things you need for the home and especially in the run up to Christmas when you have a lot more visitors. With £150 to spend I knew exactly what I was going to go for!

These beauties:

A bit boring you might think! But these Lamboro Aldo Bar Stools are just what I have been dreaming of for quite some time. At £44 each I would be able to get 3 for the £150.

These would make my life and Christmas so much easier because...

No more trying to squeeze onto the kitchen table to eat breakfast in the morning I can eat it in peace while the children eat theirs and usually have their 'stuff' (colouring, crafting etc.) next to them.

I can actually use my breakfast bar for what its for...

Instead of somewhere to put our bits and bobs and piles of washing ready for ironing...

And as our kitchen is the largest room downstairs its our gathering point for visitors so with three extra chairs there will be no more standing up, sitting on foot stools, or boxes piled on top of each other.

These would really *really* make my Christmas soooooo much easier not to mention stylish :)

My Dream Car #DreamCarDesign

I am a bit of a petrol head and I often find myself fantasising over the super fast and stylish sports car. Or day dream about racing round the top gear lap.

But if I could design my own car... What would it look like? How would it work? Well I think I've just about sussed it... I could NEVER afford it but I can dream :)

My car now costs me a fortune to run and isn't the best for the environment so I tailored the car to our needs and one that will be eco friendly too.

Here is the key features of my car:

• Powered by solar panels. No petrol costs!
• Dual pane low-emittance windows. They will keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
• Non wearing tyres, you will never need to replace them.
• Scratch proof paint, no more marks on the edge of the doors where the kids have opened them onto walls etc.
• Solar CREE (for extra brightness) LED headlights.

It would be quite 'normal' looking on the outside but on the inside it will be luxurious and fun! 

It would have super cool batman car seats for my boys.

Slick leather comfy seats for us in the front.

A coffee machine to keep us going on long journeys.

And an up to date gaming system for the kids to keep them entertained.

So what you think to my dream car?

This is my entry into Car Craft's Dream car design competition.

Furniture Choice come dine with me menu

Ok so I'm not inviting everyone to come to my house for dinner! This is my entry to furniture choice's blogging competition, who are giving away some fabulous prizes.

everyone that knows us, knows that we love a good fancy dress up! So the theme would be famous couples and as we are Victoria and David we would have to be the ever so famous Beckhams... naturally. 

I would dress the room in an Italian style with olives in little ramekin dishes and bread sticks at the table. And I would put olive branches in vases. Its would be a very calm theme which would be a great contrast to the loud fancy dress. 

So after we have dressed in our super stylish clothes and piled on all our millions of pounds worth of jewellery we would start our super tasty Italian Menu. We got married in Italy so its the obvious choice of menu for us. For our wedding meal we had a really laid back menu in fact some guest had chips with their meal, whilst others just had a massive pizza! Carry on reading to get your taste buds going!

Menu

Starters

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil 

Main

Original Spaghetti Bolognese

(includes carrots, celery and red wine)

Dessert

Super strawberry and meringue Sundae

Afters

A Lemonchello drink

Our Entertainment would be good old fashioned charades and quiet relaxing music in the background. After all I think our guests will be noisy enough. 

Our guests would have a fabulous time and we would expect to open the door to some creative outfits, but just in case our guests got stuck they could dress as:

Mr and Mrs Incredible

Minnie and mickey

Shrek and Fiona

Ahem... I'm hungry now! Who would you come dressed as if you were invited to my dinner party?