My Big Christmas Giveaway

No, I don't mean it's MY big Christmas Giveaway, but that's what it's called.  It's actually Michelle at I Shall Not Covet that is running this huge competition.  If you haven't seen it already, then go have a look.  If you are overseas, then sorry, but you can still go look at what you could have entered to win.

There's a rather enviable list of prizes from 15 sponsor companies with a combined value of over £1400.  I'm not going to give a complete rundown of each one, go have a look, but here are my 3 favourites.  And they aren't the most expensive items.

Olivia Burton watch, supplied by The Dressing Room
Paul's Boutique Mila bag, supplied by  My Bag
Masterful Collection Pearlescent White Makeup Brush set, supplied by Nanshy

Funny, I don't even wear makeup, but those brushes are just so pretty.  We could give them a good home, you can see that Lisa likes playing with makeup, even if not exactly in the usual fashion beauty sort of way.

November wins

Lisa won the first prize of the month - first prize for her Halloween fancy dress on November 1st.  She says if she had known she was going to win she wouldn't have encouraged the landlord to choose goodies from Lidl.  Still, we enjoyed the shell chocolates and fizz.

I had a fairly quiet month for new prizes, but still fun, and there were enough parcels arriving from previous wins to be most satisfying.

Manny dvd and poster - Bike magazine daily clickies
YA novel Demons and Thieves - UKMums.tv
Couple more chocolate bars from Cadbury
Cinnamon disinfectant, most festive, useful to have with an elderly dog at Christmas
Voucher for a Co-op Christmas pudding - Lisa gave this away, neither of us like it

Fancy dress

No, this isn't me.  This is Lisa getting ready to go to the pub.  Max wasn't at all sure about it all.

She won first prize, which she does find funny as she's in her normal clothes.  She only decided to go as a werewolf when she saw a latex prosthetic to buy very cheaply.  So she watched a few vids on youtube on how to apply fur and that kept her quiet for a bit.  Some cheeky sod asked how she'd got grey bits in her hair to match.  Hmm.  No, that's called being 40.

October wins

Lots of little and not so little wins in October, I've been very lucky.

Boardwalk Empire Season 4 On Blu-ray - Empire daily Extra Entry
Arm and Hammer tote bag
Pair OM Yoga show tickets - Win Something daily EE
Extendable Tub & Tile Scrubber‏ - Zoflora
£200 shopping vouchers - Made for Mums and Baby Expert
Cadbury Starbar x 2
60 nectar points
Toffee Apple Set - thanks to Jac @tinnedtoms
Sudocrem goody bag - thanks to Ness at Always be a friend
Steam Fresh voucher
Leather skull necklace - Urban Male
Haribo Despicable Me Night In, sweeties and dvd - thanks to Jo at Given to distracting others.

Only one place to spend love to shop vouchers in Ruthin - Boots.  I couldn't think of anything I wanted until I remembered that my shaver gave up the ghost the other year.  And Rachael's did too, so we are having new ladyshaves.  And Lisa has had lots of fun buying smellies.  So happy early Christmas to us from the comping fairy.  Yay!

I've shared the Despicable Me Haribo with the girls next door.  Far too many for me.  At least, I could eat that many, but it wouldn't be a good idea.

September wins

Not sure how I forgot, but I did.  So here is the list of my September wins.

Tickets to VegFest - @FineFoodies
book - @johnmurrays
4 comedy dvds - @CultBoxTV
Bag of Wagg dog food - @WaggFoods
Lagoon book - @WeekendReads
Two Faces of January signed poster and book - @moviesonVM
Sanctuary body lotion - not sure where from
100 foot journey goody bag - Thank you to Fuss Free Flavours
3 pack wildflower seed collection - Thompson & Morgan
Suspects on dvd - no idea where from

My daughter enjoyed vegfest, all the samples were vegan, so was great.
Max enjoyed the bag of Wagg.

Win £300 to spend on your own #SleepHappy

I do like sleeping, you have probably figured that out already. So when I saw a competition to win £300 to spend on bedroom furniture at Wren Living (wrenliving) on LittleStuff I knew I had to enter.  Okay, everyone knew I had to enter, I do love entering competitions, and you don't have to write a blog post, so go enter everyone, you've got 3 days left.  littlestuff comp

The strangest place I've slept.  Took me a while to remember this one, I fall asleep so easily, watching TV, used to fall asleep in the cinema, but then I remembered.  I slept a couple of hours at Nottingham Pride, could be 10 years ago now.  With all the loudspeakers, singing, chatting, Pride whistles, I ate my picnic, then stretched out and slept.  Lisa had to ward off all sorts of people asking if I was okay, has she drunk too much, got sunstroke, nope.  She's having a nap.  Leave her alone.

My ideal place for a nap?  At home in bed, thank you.  No, not very adventurous, and maybe outside on the deck on a comfy lounger could be lovely.  But.  Could get bitten by midges, and that wouldn't be so lovely.  Lots of mattresses on Wren Living, I wonder if the prize could be spent on that?  Some very expensive ones reduced at the moment.  Expensive to me at least, would like to try those out.  Lots of gorgeous beds and wardrobes, but it occurred to me, some matching bedside tables would be wonderful.  We have an odd collection of mismatched second hand and cobbled together bits, could be handsomely replaced with rustic-jacobean-oak-3-drawer-bedside-table.

This is my entry into the #SleepHappy competition over on LittleStuff  - go enter, it's rafflecopter, so very easy.  Littlestuff - Wren living competition    

A few August goodies and a monster in the kitchen

Tickets to Alison Moyet, Glasgow thanks to Magners on twitter. Couldn't go, and all the family I have there, none of them could go either so had to turn it down. Teach me to be more careful what I rt, thought it might have been for cider. We love Alison too.
Lovely cookbook Spice by Dhruv Baker, thank you Fuss Free Flavours. Visit fussfreeflavours  for lots of recipes and giveaways too.
Happy Egg instant, not arrived yet, so don't know what. Hoping for seeds.
Pantene age defy shampoo and conditioner, supersavvyme 
Louise Penny - The Long Way Home Thanks to goodreads
Silvikrin mousse

That cookbook would make a good Christmas present if anyone is looking for ideas.

Had my final checkup at the eye clinic on Friday, and I've been discharged.  So that's good news at least.  No further changes.  I do still see the floaters, and sometimes everything looks a bit blurry, but oh well.  Can't be helped.  

Now.  This monster.  We can't see it, and we've looked really hard.  But Max our 11 year old GSD can see it.  It's so scary that he can't eat his dinner in the kitchen any more, and wouldn't even come in to clean up all the ham scraps I dropped all over the floor.  Lisa put a towel over the cooker in case he was seeing his own reflection and didn't like that.  So what is he seeing?  Or is it just another marble lost?  We've ended up putting his dinner outside, no monsters there.  Daft old boy.

Little wins in July

No biggies, but still useful.

Flash concentrate floor cleaner. Whoever delivered it didn't think anyone was in, so chucked it over the garden wall. Bit of a surprise for Lisa, it hit her leg.  

Three from the catch a quiche giveaway; Strawberry Urban Fruit, vouchers for a bag of pop chips and a Higgidy little quiche.

Boost exotic fruits. Facebook instant win

Two lots of bagels, New York Bagel Company. One bagel left to eat.

£10 Costa voucher from freederm instant win.

Head and Shoulders 2in1. Thanks to @HeadShouldersUK

Rimmel Wonder'full mascara

Simple Thai Food thanks to cutoutandkeep.net

Very nice lasagna dish, and sauces from @LoydFood

Mixed luck in June

First the wins!

This works, perfect legs skin miracle, thank you to feelunique.com on twitter.
£5 tesco online grocery voucher
Olay Regenerist Complexion Corrector thanks to supersavvyme
Dr Browns storage pods on twitter - these arrived very quickly.  Handy pressie for someone.
House of Fraser, Union Jack dog toy. Twitter again.
A footie mascot from a text.

Not a long list, but still fun.

I also had a PVD which wasn't so fun.  Handy wiki link - Posterior vitreous detachment. I was just sitting on the sofa, about to check my emails, when I felt really swimmy, and a swirl of thread appeared in my vision.  Very very odd sensation.  In a few minutes it had changed to bits of squiggles and dots.  My parents were here, thank goodness, though I'm sure it was scary for them too.  My dad is a retired doctor, so he knew all the nasty things it could mean.  I tend to put every ill down to my ms, and go back to bed to sleep it off, but dad was gently insistent that it needed looking at, so I rang for an emergency appointment at the gp.  The gp suggested the optician, so we went to Smith Family Optician, Well Street, Ruthin.  He managed to squeeze me in around his appointments, and had a really good look.  I felt very relieved when he found the problem, partly because he looked so very relieved too.  Not a tear or detached retina, but a tiny, tiny leak.  He rang the eye casualty, and made an appointment for me to go the next day to have his diagnosis confirmed.  It turned out not to be anything very drastic, but it could have been.  And I am stuck with a load of new floaters.  They won't go away, but apparently, I'll get used to them.

If something like this happens to you, don't ignore it, or think it will be okay.  Go get it checked out.  Let the experts decide.

May wins

I know, I know, we are nearly at the end of the month, but still.  Here's my list of luck for May.

£10 Doritos 
£5 Walkers - I'd decided that I would just take that first cash win, and not gamble it.  That's probably how they manage to not give away too much money maybe, because many would take the risk and end up winning nothing.  
Bottle of Abbot Ale 
£50 to spend at Bonmarche, thanks to lifeinabreakdown.com.  I chose trousers and 2 tops from the David Emanuel collection.
2 books from Joolz Denby on twitter
Klondike dvd, Hey U Guys Rafflecopter
Boost pink lemonade, facebook
Coke and Co-op, weekly shop, nice cheque, from a text
2 Monster and Chips books, lovereading4kids
Battery force batteries! Yay!
PG Tips samples x 2. I just love that silly game.
Tshirt from Jennings Brewery
Tomato seeds

It was my partner's birthday on the 11th, and I had new clothes to wear for it, Lisa had a perfect bracelet, and our spending money was all from comping.  How fab is that?

Lovely April wins.

If anyone is wondering why they can't get a good nights sleep, it's because I've stolen all the sleep in the world.  All of it.  I didn't mean to, and I would love to share it out again, but no, I'm stuck with it.  Felt so muddy headed yesterday, a little better today, but still.  Not very awake.  Never mind.

Win list for April.  Very lucky again.

MAGIX Samplitude Music Studio 2014. MusicRadar magazine daily entries.
Voucher for Coors Light, hasn't arrived yet.
Month supply of Vapourlite, which is just fab thank you Ness at alwaysbeafriend blog
Book from First Reads, not my thing, but passed it on.
Our choice of photo printed on canvas, thanks to Christine at mummyof3diaries and Loren at canvasdesign.co.uk. Must choose something, the photo we liked, we realised we didn't have the original.  Oh well.
A Samsung phone charger from their Winter Olympics competition ages ago.  Need the phone now.
Easter egg from Guylian, thank you Emma at theminimesandme, I look forward to that arriving.

Too many competitions on crisps at the moment.  I love crisps and I love competitions.  Dangerous combination.  Still, I won £10 on Doritos today, and £5 on Walkers yesterday, so I'm getting rewarded for eating unnecessary snacks.  BOGOF in Coop on Doritos, I'm sure there are more offers too.

March wins +

Not a very long list but some nice things, so I'm still very happy with comping.

Token for a Panebello pizza
Fruitella goodies - instant facebook win, not arrived yet.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, long-listed for the Baileys prize.  And a books are my bag bag.
Multivape kit and some extra menthol.  Lisa's happy with this, she was thinking about getting one, so saves some pennies.  She finds it helps with cutting down, and very useful in vile weather! That was a 50p text comp with the Weekly News.  Not a huge prize, but they were giving away 50 of them, so thought it worth a gamble for something we wanted anyway.
And a Sony bluetooth handbag speaker -  Sony-SRSBTM8B  Thank you to @expansysUK for this great gadget.  That was just a retweet, so very lucky from at least 3000 entries.

The community cafe for MS Trust went well.  Lots of delicious cake was eaten, and my dad sold some of his photos, and some of my aunt's Holy Socks too.  Over £300 raised, so that's brilliant.

Twitter comping, I do like a bit of retweeting myself, and even tweet occasionally. But I do wonder why some people copy and paste the competition tweet as well as retweeting. And then complain when their tweet gets retweeted. If you are going to tweet something that starts with RT, then don't be surprised when it gets RT'd. Still. Whatever makes people happy!

Marks and Spencer?

Writing about my MS for the Cake in Cilcain post, I remembered what it was like to hear my diagnosis.  Not all that unexpected for me, what else could it have been?  But Lisa really wasn't expecting it, she was waiting to hear that I just needed to take a tablet or something, and I would be okay.  She'd been trying to give up smoking, but as soon as she heard, she wanted cigarettes.  Pub was closer than the shop, so she went the few doors up the street to the Standard of England.  She wasn't looking very happy and the barmaid asked her what was up.  She said that we'd just found out what was wrong with me.  MS.  

Wot?  Marks and Spencer?

Lisa was close to punching her, but didn't.  And she can't remember if she said or just thought her incredibly thick.  She couldn't tell me that first day, but when she did, a day or so later, we laughed so much.  See what happens if you wear their underwear and eat their sandwiches?  

Eat Cake in Cilcain for the MS Trust

The Cilcain community cafe will be raising funds for the MS Trust on Saturday 29th March, 2-5pm.  Cilcain is in Flintshire, North Wales.  Not that far from Chester.

More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS
57 people every week are diagnosed with MS
The most common symptoms are invisible: fatigue, pain and slowed thinking
MS is the most common neurological condition affecting young people
People are usually diagnosed with MS in their 20s and 30s
MS affects more than twice as many women than men
MS is not a fatal condition
Most people diagnosed with MS will not need to use a wheelchair on a regular basis
At present, there is no cure for MS. But there are many ways that symptoms can be treated.

My parents are running this, with help from others in Cilcain.  A good excuse to eat cake.  Really good cake too.  You could always go for a walk up Moel Famau first to work up an appetite.  If you do, please remember there are lots of lambs about, so your dog must be on a lead at all times.

I copied the info about MS from my Dad's facebook.  I'll just have a look down the list.  Yep, fatigue.  I don't remember what it feels like to have lots of energy.  Pain, not constant for me, but as I type, I have pain in the right side of my neck, not too bad, but maybe time for more meds.  Slowed thinking.  Oh yes.  Slow to recall words, names of things.  I forget stuff.  It's hard doing more than very simple things.  Following a recipe is tricky. Just too complex.  Do this, then this, then this while this.  Nope!  That is just not happening!  Oh well.  What's next on the list.  Yep, I was diagnosed when I was 30.  Was I 30?  Or 31?  Anyway.  I'd got to a reasonable level of fitness, decided what I wanted to do with my life.  Been to the open evening and got the forms for psyche nursing.  Not fatal that list says.  Lisa was floored by my diagnosis because she had a good friend die very young from it.  So her immediate thought was that I would die too.  The wheelchair thing.  I could do with one  now.  It's very limiting not having one.  More for others than for me, I know people want to take me places.  Though I'm not sure how well I'll feel with places rushing past me.  Still.  I'll find out soon enough.  No cure, but symptoms can be treated huh.  I've tried a few drugs for alertness and not found them helpful for me. Baclofen for muscle spasm, that's a good one.  Pain would be worse without it.

Still.  Cake is good!  So if you are in the area next weekend, do come and have a cup of tea and a cake.  

Dad, do send me any links I need to add to this!
http://cilcainvillagehall.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holy-Socks/211010952323300  Holy Socks will be available!

Favourite Luxury Sports Watch from The Watch Gallery

So I saw this competition to win-100-asos-voucher-with-watch-gallery.html and thought I would have a go at it.  Maybe I would find a nice watch for Lisa's 40th birthday coming up in June.  I missed that word luxury.  That means crazily expensive.  I did find a nice watch, this Hublot Big Bang.

Rubber strap, so it wouldn't irritate her skin, looks good doesn't it?  Views of it from various angles here - thewatchgallery. I really liked it, and showed it to Lisa. She really liked it too, she's not exactly girly, so cute and shiny isn't her thing. Not sure she would wear any watch for weight training, but it would look good afterwards, when showered and fully dressed.

Then I noticed the price. £10,200.  Sorry Lisa!  You aren't getting that for your birthday!  

February Wins

Tiny £2 win - download of Alph and Betty

Little bottle of Schwarzkopf Got2b Oil-licious Styling Oil with Argan Oil
Can't remember brand, but some sort of makeup primer
Signed Ken Hom cookbook Tesco twitter giveaway
You know all about the gorgeous friendship bracelet, it arrived so quickly too, notified of the win on Saturday, arrived on Tuesday.  

And my daughter has won a 3 month paid internship.  Good for her!  For a marketing company for ethical brands.  

Perfect bracelet win!

Thank you so much to Fiona of dollydowsie.com for running this competition OLLY M JEWELLERY - GOLD & INITIAL FRIENDSHIP BRACELET & *FEBRUARY GIVEAWAY* recently.  She emailed and tweeted me on Saturday to say that I've won.  Just brilliant, it's Lisa's 40th birthday in June, and this is perfect for her.  She usually wears a couple of friendship bracelets, not this expensive though, so the style is absolutely right.  Thank you to Olly M Jewellery for giving this prize, I so look forward to it arriving.

January Wins!

A lucky comping start to the 2014, still no holiday or car (yet) but some lovely things again.  I tried a couple of radio comps last month, and didn't win the money on offer, but discovered I rather like absolute radio, a good background.

First win of the year was a Chocoholics box thanks to the Reading Residence - thereadingresidence Very tasty, especially that chocolate dipped fudge.
A token for a bottle of Sunny D
Some self tan goop - can't remember what, Lisa has put it with all the rest I've won for her.  She says the cheapest ones seem to be the best.
Thank you Jo at giventodistractingothers, I love my necklace.
Gold nail varnish, thank you elanorsnails  And no, I still haven't attacked Max with it.
Bluray of Harrigan
A Roberts Ecologic 1 from Absolute Radio. This comp - absoluteradio - request a song, and if they mention you and you hear the song being played, ring in and claim your radio. I was all aflibble when I heard my name. I asked for Black Hole Sun, Soundgarden, hadn't been played on Absolute radio before, but I was fairly sure Leona would play it.  And she did.
Last win of the month from booksbiscuitsandtea Wake, by Anna Hope. Look forward to reading that.

So how have the not resolutions gone?  Not bad, no chocolate or biscuits bought, and only one bottle of diet pepsi, drunk by the small glass.  The exercise thing hasn't gone quite so well, I just get so very tired the next day. Just zonked. Oh well!

No resolutions, no no.

But, I'm not buying, or asking Lisa to buy, any chocolate or sweets for me this month.  And that's going just fine.  Don't miss them either.  Which is amazing considering how many I usually eat.  I'm looking forward to a box of chocolate treats from a giveaway run by .thereadingresidence - we've agreed though, won chocolate doesn't count.

I usually drink pepsi everyday, usually diet pepsi, but even so, not good for my teeth, and the caffeine doesn't do my bladder any good.  Pesky MS.  And I'm not buying any of that either this month.  I'm not missing it.  Which I did expect.  Do I feel better for it?  Not sure, but I don't think I feel worse, so that's okay.  And why spend on empty calories if it doesn't make me feel better?

Time to get back on the exercise bike.  Really don't need to lose any more strength, so got to give it a go.  First time today for a long time, only 4 minutes, but that's better than 0 minutes.

There.  Everyone else seems to have done New Years Resolution type posts, so there's mine.

If you like comps with a bit of effort involved ...

Have a look at this one http://lovechicliving.co.uk/win-200-ms-magical-dining-room-bloggers-competition/ to win £200 of vouchers, and a couple of runners up prizes of £50 of vouchers.  Fab comp, looks fun, but I really don't have the brain power to make a mood board.  Even a virtual one.  Still, if you like that sort of thing, go have a go.  Create a mood board and blog post about your dream dining room.  

Good luck!