Competition time – Happy Mum-To-Be Day from Cussons Mum & Me

I'm really exited to be running another competition and the chance to win a lovely Mum to be prize from Cussons. My baby is actually due on Mother's Day so it could be a big one this year, and I am feeling in need of some pampering! This set looks very appealing to me. The competition ends Friday 8th of March so get those entries in and best of luck! 

Entry is via the rafflecopter, check out the gorgeous prize details below...

There’s nothing better than becoming a mum, and Mother’s Day is the perfect chance to celebrate what a good job mums do.  But what about Mums-to-be?

If you’re pregnant, Mother’s Day may be a day to think about the journey ahead, and take some time to relax while you still can! The Cussons Mum & Me Gift Pack is the perfect present for mums-to-be to pamper themselves before their little bundle of joy arrives.

The Bump Gift Pack includes:

Smooth & Glow Pregnancy Shampoo

• Containing Almond Oil and Pro Vitamin B5 to keep hair nourished and easy to manage. The perfect item to keep mum-to-be looking her very best for Mother's Day.

Soothe & Nourish Body Lotion

• With a blend of Avocado, Almond & Grapeseed oils, this product will leave mum-to-be feeling hydrated and moisturised. A great choice during the cold chilly months when your skin can be extra prone to damage. Plus it contains Allantoin that can help to relieve itchy skin, especially over mum’s bump.

Relax & Unwind Bath Soak

• This product contains Camomile which is known for its relaxing properties. The ideal gift for mum-to-be to get some “me time” this Mother's Day.

Relax & Unwind Sleep Mist

• With Lavender and Camomile this sleep mist will have mum-to-be unwinding in no time at all. Its relaxing aromas will let her gently drift off to sleep so she can dream about all Mother's Days to come.

With an RRP of £15.99 the Bump Gift Pack includes every essential mums-to-be will need to enjoy a little me time on their day.

Cussons Mum & Me is a new range of products designed to help with the amazing realities of becoming a mum. The range addresses three keys needs of mum and baby – sleep, skin and hair and has been designed to help with every stage of the journey – from bump to new mum to baby.

All Cussons Mum & Me products are available from major retailers including Tescos, Boots and Sainsbury’s. For more information see:  www.mumandme.com

Go go go – enter here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Al Fresco 'Young Story Writer of the Year Competition'

Oh I do love a good competition and here is a fantastic one for you, I only wish my daughter was old enough to enter it! Al Fresco holidays are hosting a national 'Young Story Writer of the year' competition. They have teamed up with children's book author, Jeremy Strong, to give children a chance to explore there story telling and writing skills. I love it when competitions are creative and it is a great thing that this one is encouraging children's imaginations in this way. To inspire and get your family started Jeremy Strong has written his very own story 'Joe's Unusual Journey'.

The theme is 'My Fantastic Journey'... going on my daughter's current role play games I'm pretty sure her story would involve a trip to Jupiter with a magical fairy... at three she certainly has the imagination but sadly not the writing skills!

But for anyone with children aged 6 to 12 it's time to get their thinking caps on and let their imaginations run wild! Each day a random entry is uploaded to the kidz blog on the Al Fresco Holidays website and then the top 5 entries will be judged and in with the chance of winning a family holiday to an Al Fresco Parc of their choice. 

With 55 parcs all across Europe this will be a hard choice to make and I'm sure will be a family fun trip of a lifetime. 

Some more details:

The competition is open from the 3rd of February until the 31st of March and is open to children aged six to twelve. Entries must have a word limit of up to 500 words. Further information of the competition can be found on the Al Fresco Kidz blog, along with Jeremy Strong's short story which he wrote exclusively for Al Fresco Holidays, Joe's Unusual Journey. More details are available on their blog: http://blog.thomsonalfresco.co.uk/2013/02/01/young-story-writer-of-the-year-is-back/

So if you are stuck for something to give the kids to do this half term this could be a great idea, you can find the entry form here:

http://blog.thomsonalfresco.co.uk/story-writer-competition/

Good luck!

Win 'A Matter of Life and Death' novel for Christmas

A Matter of Life and Death... no I'm not referring to the Christmas shopping but the title of the must-have debut novel by Paul Carroll. It is a fantastic stocking filler idea for Christmas and if you are stuck for inspiration this could be the perfect alternative to socks and bubble bath for the grown ups in your life!

I'm looking forward to reading a copy but for now I'll leave you with an extract from the press release...

 "...a satirical reflection on bereavement in contemporary Britain. A witty, black comedy with a thought-provoking core. 

A Matter of Life and Death claims “Everybody should be famous for fifteen minutes. After they die” but questions whether we go too far when it comes to mourning. 

Both entertaining and shocking, this book is a perfect present for those looking to add a bit of depth to this year’s Christmas stocking."


If you would like to find out more about the story and author please visit www.amolad.co.uk

I am very lucky to be able to offer 3 of my readers the chance to win a signed copy of 'A Matter of Life and Death'. Entry is via the rafflecopter widget below, you just need to read this post and answer the simple question.

The competition closes 17 December and please remember to leave me a way of contacting you in the comments section for your entry to be valid.
UK only, one entry per person.

Good luck and happy reading!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Next Winter Wardobe

The beautiful Amy Antoinette Blog is hosting a competition for Next giving you the chance to win a £500 voucher (...drifts off into dream world). The challenge is to pick 3 items from their range and style them for winter. Happily browsing their products I found a lot to choose from but here are the items I chose. Hope you enjoy the post, it's made we want to sit by a fireplace drinking hot chocolate!

Would you like to find the details of the items I selected? Feast your eyes!..

Item one:
Quilted Single Breasted Military Coat £70

styled with:
Grey Photographic Bunny Print Foil Scarf £14
Black Rounded Porter Hat £20

Item two:

Stud Dippy Hem Dress £55

styled with:

Pewter Sequin High Peep Toe Shoe Boots £38 

Crystal Effect Headband £16

Sparkle Friendship Bracelet £10

Item three:

Ostrich Cardigan £38

styled with:

Blue Beaded Multi Row Necklace £30 

Jacquard Trousers £45

What do you think? I don't think I'd mind winter one bit if I was styled like this! xx

Support your country at the Olympics and you could win a fantastic Lumix!

This competition has now closed.

Random.org selected number 1 which means Gemma Mills you are the lucky winner, congratulations I'll be in touch!

Has anyone noticed quite a big and very exciting sporting event going on at the moment??!! My family (like most of us) are completely gripped, it's such an exciting time and so inspiring to see all our athletes doing so well!

So if like me you are feeling all over excited, why not head over to facebook and have a go at the great fun Panasonic Flag Tag app. You can take a photo or select a fun one from your archives and then chose which flag you want to use to decorate your face.... and no mess! My girl loved seeing her picture decorated with the Union Jack. It's great fun for all the family to have a go, what do you think of ours?!

And what's even more exciting? If you have a go and come back and share your creation you'll be in with a chance to win a fantastic Olympic themed Panasonic Lumix camera here on my blog.

If you would like to enter just head over to the app, create you flag tag image, then simply come back and leave a link to your image in the comments below. You can find the app here:
http://www.facebook.com/
PanasonicUK/app_316244828451255

I'll pick a winner at random from all the valid comments after the closing date, please remember to leave a way for me to contact you (twitter handle, email etc.).

If you'd like to follow my blog or follow me on twitter you'll be the first to hear about the winner and any new competitions. It won't get you any extra entries but it will put a smile on my patriotic face!

Good luck and have fun, I can't wait to see the photos!

The details:
Competition closes 9th of September 2012 (just after the Paralympics).

Winner chosen at random and details passed on to promoting company.

The promoting company will send out the prize to the winner in the next 2 weeks following the closing date.

Non-UK entrants may enter but for postage reasons will receive a same value Amazon voucher instead. UK residents will receive the camera.

One entry per person.

The pictures will appear on the giant screen next to the Olympic stadium in Stratford

Win a love2read personalised reading book for your child!

A wonderful gift idea for your special Mummy! 

Last Father's Day I had in my head that I would love to make Daddy a book all about him and Squiggle, that they could share together but I had no idea where to start or how I would get it made and it came to nothing. So I was really excited to learn about love2read  – a wonderful website that helps you create a unique personalised books. They very kindly gave me chance to create my own book to review, I can't wait to see the results. 

I found the site really easy and fun to use. After you choose a book from the range ( I selected 'My Nana'), you then personalise it by adding your own photos using the easy upload tool and choosing some matching words e.g. some of the captions we have gone for are “My nana takes me to the swings”, “My nana loves to sing” and “My nana makes me smile”. It's going to make a wonderful and personal gift for my little girl to give my mum who does so much for us. 


As much as my mum will love the keepsake I know Squiggle will love reading her own story with nana. She loves seeing pictures of herself and I think it's great for her to be able to recall things she has done. This will be a lasting memory for her and Nana to share and keep! 

It's so simple. All you have to do is upload ten suitable photographs of Mum or Granny into a virtual book at www.love2read.co.uk and add some simple text. Your book will be printed and sent to your home address within 10 days. Titles include: My mummy…, Our mum… and My granny… 

The books are themed around National Curriculum keywords and are designed to stimulate the child’s interest in books so that they really want to read. No software is needed, the website is easy to use and you can even save your book as you go along if you need to come back to it later.

Now the really exciting part! 


love2read have very kindly offered one of my readers the chance to create their own personalised My mum…love2read book in a fabulous competition.

So here is your chance to give a Mother's Day gift the whole family will treasure forever - and help your child catch the reading bug at the same time. 


Entries are via the very clever Rafflecopter below and each step equals and extra entry, best of luck!
UK only.

The competition closes on Wednesday 7th March, so be quick! This is to give you a chance to get your order in time for Mother's Day, last orders are on the 13th. 

For further information and to see the range of books on offer please visit their website at:  www.love2read.co.uk

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My best travel photo

This is my favourite travel photo which I took in St Lucia. These caterpillars were as big as my hand! I love this photo because of the interesting shapes they make in the moonlight and also because it sums up our time there... everywhere we looked we discovered new creatures and flowers we'd never seen before, it truly felt like paradise!

I entered the Flythomascook Photography Competition:

My best ever holiday

I love holidays, who doesn't?! Getting away from it all and spending time with the people you really care about for once is about as good as it gets! Most of my favourite memories, which I'm sure will stand the test of time are from my holidays. Tots 100 and Al Fresco Holidays are running a competition asking you to choose your all time favourite, so here's mine... so when you've had a read head over to http://www.thomsonalfresco.co.uk/  to check out their fantastic deals!

A few years before our little one was born, and we were not long engaged, we took a trip to Sardinia. We were saving pennies for the wedding but I was determined to get my holiday! I had heard lots of good things and friends described the beaches as 'exactly like the Caribbean'. I didn't fancy my chances of getting to the Caribbean on our budget so it sounded perfect. Actually it turned out that it was quite an expensive destination itself, so we had to come up with a new plan. We booked some absolute bargain flights to Alghero ourselves and I found a campsite. I've always loved camping and growing up we did this a lot for our family holidays, I was just a bit worried what it would be like in the heat and if our tent would survive the flight!

San Teodoro
Our campsite was fantastic, right on the beach at San Teodoro which is on the east side of the Island. All the plots were in the shade so it wasn't too hot and it had a lovely peaceful air to it. The beach there is a gorgeous long expanse of sand, it was quite busy but I didn't mind that. As English tourists we were in the minority and it was mainly Italians holidaying there. I found it quite relaxing lying on the beach listening to Italian accents!! The people were so friendly and really proud of the Island, asking us, "what do you think of our sea, isn't it clear? How about the beaches?" Yes the sea was crystal clear and the beaches gorgeous. Oh and "have you tried the suckling pig?" sorry I wimped out on that one! 

A HUGE plus of being on an Italian island is indeed the food and wine. Ooooh boy!! I think we spent all the money we saved going out for dinner in the evenings, but San Teodoro had some great restaurants and I had the best meal of my life there. It's bustling in the evening with street markets open late, and lots of people meandering about. The idea of home cooked campsite dinners flew out of the window!

As our campsite was so close to the beach we used to head back at sunset, armed with a bottle of wine and two plastic glasses (classy I know!). By this point the place would be deserted and I felt everyone was missing a trick back at their hotels, it was so perfect.

Party time!

We hadn't realised when we booked it but there was a drum and base festival happening in that resort while we were there. When we found out my heart sank, it's not really my kind of music and I thought it would be a over-run with clubbers. But if you can't beat them, join them they say so we decided to go along a couple of nights and had a blast! It was held in outdoor clubs which were so chilled and fun and I was great to have a bit of a laugh and dance at night.

Touring
Knowing we'd have a fair amount of baggage and camping equipment with us, we hired a car which was fantastic as it meant we got to see more of the island. Every beach you want to was different, some with white sand, some red, some pebbles it's an amazing place! There's not as many cultural attractions that you might find on mainland Italy but Alghero is a beautiful old city with lots of streets and the city walls to explore.

We also visited the Costa Smeralda, the designer resorts where the celebs go apparently. They are lovely to walk around but we almost choked on our cokes when we found out how much they cost! I love walking round ports and deciding which boat I'd pick and what I'd name it. At Porto Cervo the boats didn't dissapoint, they are super yachts and some are unbelievably grand! Great to look at before you head back to your little tent :)

The best is yet to come...
So that was my favourite of holidays as a couple, but I really look forward to topping it as a family! It's a holiday I would love to revisit with my little one, we did some camping in September in Northumbria for our holiday. It was lovely cuddling round the fire but a little chilly for a 2 year old. I look forward to a holiday where she can run around in the sand and splash in the sea! xxx