My March Wins - Pancakes and World Book Day

I didn't post an update of wins for February as I just wasn't well enough and the energy I did have was spent on creative competition entries because March had some of my favourite comping events - Pancake Day and World Book Day. Whilst there weren't many pancake comps this year I'm happy with my efforts. I do still have a list of wins for February though which I may upload at some point but for the time being here is how my March fared. 

My first win of the month was a WTC from Pop Fun a children's channel and was for a Mighty Beanz Play Set. 

J also received a set of Fireman Sam puzzles from a Children's Magazine. 

Then it was Pancake Day and there weren't many competitions about but I entered the few I did find. It's common when there is another popular day nearby for there to be less comps, which in this case was World Book Day. I received some good feedback for my LEGO pancakes though.

The 7th March is my late Mother in Laws birthday. Her ashes are scattered in Studley Deer Park in Ripon which borders Fountains Abbey. I spotted a comp that was for a National Trust Pass to visit and entered on Facebook. It was supposed to have ended and been announced earlier in March but on the 7th I received a message letting me know I had won. It was like a sign my MIL was saying we needed to go visit.

For World Book Day I made J a frog costume and he was the frog from the Oi! books. It was made from leggings and a long sleeve top which I dyed green with Dylon and then I made a head, feet and hands with cardboard and masking tape which I painted green. Then an old cardboard box became a log for the purpose of this photo. I had a tweet from the illustrator saying he loved the costume which made my day! Then I had the following wins: 

• 2 Leather bound mini journals from Scaramanga
• Book bundle from Buzzybooks on Facebook
• £10 Amazon voucher (we used it to buy a David Walliams Worlds Worst Children book) 
• Weekend box full of craft projects 
• James and the Giant Peach notebooks 
• £10 Waterstones Voucher (used to buy the Pinch of Nom cookbook)
• A bunny teddy from Park Holidays UK
• A Letterland Phonics Set - which J LOVES!!! 
• Stories for Boys Who Dare To Be Different book 
• Superkitty book 
• £20 Usborne books bundle 
• Scholastic Book bundle 
• Very Hungry Caterpillar badge 
• Sanctuary treat - Sanctuary trio of travel products and a £5 Amazon voucher. 

I won some Clairol root touch up on Instagram.

Then J received another set of Fireman Sam puzzles, exactly the same as the earlier set but from a different magazine! A lot of the magazines offer similar prizes at times and as they are entry form with a few months before end date duplicates do happen..... 

Another Instagram win was some Anti-colic bottles which are being put away for my friend who is expecting. 

I won a £20 Debenhams voucher on twitter from Hyper Recruitment.

J then received another set of jigsaws from a kids magazine - this time Mickey Mouse themed. 

We had another set of duplicate prizes received a week apart from kids mags of  Minions Aquabeads sets. Our duplicate kids prizes get put aside for when J gets invited to birthday parties but we also take a bundle with us to his hospital appointments too as it's nice to put a smile on poorly children's faces. 

Then J received another jigsaw prize (he loves jigsaws!) from a kids mag and these ones were Incredibles 2 themed, 

Another reason I love March is it's Science Week which massively appeals to me. I always joke that March is geek month as you have a day dedicated to books, a day dedicated to Math and a week dedicated to Science too! I found a low-ish entry competition on Facebook and added a picture of J doing some science experiments at home last year and they picked us as a winner of Galt Frightful First Experiments.

I had given up all hope of a Pancake Day win but received a message from Good To Know to let me know I had been chosen as one of their winners. I could choose between a Unicorn pan or a Pug pan to make shaped pancakes so I've opted for the Pug one and look forward to practicing my pancake art before next year! 

I've won a fruit spinner from Fruitbowl on Facebook but they say some winners will receive an extra surprise so we will see if I'm lucky when it arrives.

I then received a text to say I'd won on the Glade weekly competition of 6 months premium Spotify which I am super pleased about as my Amazon Unlimited Music trial has recently run out and J loves asking Alexa to play him music. 

I won 2 Cineworld tickets in an Instagram competition. Which I will be saving till my grandparents are back from Oz so that me and Ant can have a date night. 

I received a tweet from Dead Horse Media to say I had won a copy of the new Spiderman Homecoming film on DVD. We took J to see this at the cinema and he loved it and so it's a great win for him. 

Our last (7th!) kids mag win of the month is a set of Stink Bomz toys for J from Beano. Apparently they don't stink too horrible. Not like the nacho cheese smelling thing he won last month that made me gip. 

My last win of the month was actually won by my friend but she tagged me in it and so we both won. £150 Homebase voucher! Which is brilliantly timed as I really want to redecorate and I need a new fence panel after the wind destroyed one of mine. 

So all in all a great month for J especially with lots of books, puzzles and things to do in the school holidays. 

Have a great April and be lucky x 

Danielle 

What I Won In January 2019

It's oh so quiet, ssshhhh, ssshhh. 

I've found January rather quiet. It's been a mixture of lack of comps I've wanted to enter, lack of motivation to enter, miserable weather, miserable moods and lack of wins, illness and sleep deprivation. I know from social media that a lot of my fellow compers have felt the same way. 

In the same vein some of the comps that are around, but not suitable for my family to enter, have been amazing, such as the Heart Faces For Florida. I've loved seeing fellow compers get creative and win once in a lifetime holidays. Heart have been really generous with the holiday prizes this month and for a comper it's inspiring to see such great efforts be rewarded. 

I've done things a little bit different this month and created a video of prizes as they arrive. Sort of like an unboxing video, but without me in it because I'm still not comfortable with that. Some of them are wins from December and some are things I've won this month. I will still list what I've won as well as the video as not everything has arrived yet. 

What I've Won:
1) Allel Skin Genial Eye Cream - Won from Instagram in a simple like and comment competition

2) Amazon Echo Dot - This was a rather generous promotion run by Aster Sales on Social Media. You had to download a Christmas Tree template and colour it in then add it to social media with a specified hash tag. There were 30 prizes of an Echo Dot and you could have unlimited entries. I coloured a tree and then J coloured a tree and I uploaded both pictures and received a notification to let me know we had won one once the competition was over.

3) Festival Face Glitter Make Up - Another Instagram win which was a like/comment/tag and had multiple winners. It will come in handy for creative seasonal competitions I think.

4) Magic Spell App - Won from the Dyslexia Association on Facebook. They were really low entry and you just had to comment. I've downloaded it on the iPad for J as he struggles a bit with b d p q and n u  so I thought it may help him a little bit.

5) Super Wings Vroom and Zoom bundle - a win from Super Wings on twitter this was from one of their advent competitions.

6) Fingerless Gloves and a Teddy Bear Soap - an Instagram competition to tag and comment. These are actually coming in super useful at the moment! I can wear them and have warm hands and still type or use my phone!

7) Swizzels Sweets Hamper - Instagram win from Swizzels. Another advent win and just a simple comment and tag. It didn't specify what the prize would be but it turned out to be a little wicker hamper filled with their new Choos range and then a few old favourites like Refreshers and Parma Violets.

8) Turtle Swim Pack - won for J from Turtle Pack on Instagram. It's a fab idea. The turtle shell is a swim float and has 3 layers that you can add or remove as your child gets more confident in the water. J has loved wearing the Turtle Shell and Swim Cap around the house (and in the shower!) and can't wait to try it out at swimming. We also got a bag, book and turtle teddy toy.

9) Gravitrax Starter Set - Nigel Clarke is a TV presenter/blogger and runs lots of competitions on his blog and Facebook. He was asking for people to comment what they would like to see on his blog and there was a large bundle of goodies up for grabs. I wasn't lucky enough to win the bundle (my friend Robyn did) but he liked my answer so much that he awarded a runners up spot prize of a Gravitrax Starter Set which is great!

10) Crate Creature - this is our first and only Kids Mag win this month - boohoo! Won from an entry form in a children's magazine.

11) A Crème Egg from the Spot The Crème Egg competition Cadbury's are currently running.

12) A Neos Smart Camera - won from Neos Smart Home on Blue Monday. This is my favourite win of the month. I've got it set up on my window sill in the dining room so that it is overlooking my front door. I can use the app to look and see who is outside of my house and it records sounds/movement it detects on my phone which is pretty cool. As someone who suffers massively with anxiety and doesn't like to open the door to strangers as well as being kept awake at night through a fear of being broken into it's added a little bit of a sense of security and I'm really impressed.

13) Gruffalo bundle - this is a fab little bundle won from Arla Milk. A few comping friends had mentioned this comp and not seeing winners on one of the social media groups I'm on and it was whilst I was commenting on their post that I decided to enter. I didn't receive notification of the win it just arrived in the post. Consisting of a Gruffalo backpack, Gruffalo's Child finger puppets, colouring pencils, personalised notebook and an activity book it's a lovely prize!

14) March of The Penguins DVD - came with no compliments slip or anything so I have no clue where it is from.

15) £20 Amazon Voucher - Won from Cartoon Network after filling in a survey for them.



January wins in total: 15
January wins RRP: £595



January Prize Deliveries:

Have a fantastic February everyone, be lucky. 

Danielle