Creating the DREAM bedroom for my little boy.

When I was younger I used to fill art pads with drawings and designs of houses. 

I'd plan out the layouts, the decor, the finishing touches. 

I used to love the IKEA catalogue and would spend several thousands of imaginary pounds on furniture for a house that one day I would create.

 I wish I'd had the opportunity to progress with that dream, maybe take up a career in it. However that wasn't an option for me and so I shall have to make do with decorating my own home. 

As I posted in my wins from March I was lucky enough to win a £150 Homebase voucher so it seemed the perfect opportunity, combined with some other wins I'd been saving to tackle J's bedroom. 

J is 6. I asked him what type of bedroom he wanted and he gave me a very specific brief:

• To sleep in the sky
• A ladder bed with a den underneath
• A LEGO bedroom
• Somewhere to sit and read 

Firstly we had to tackle what was already in J's bedroom - a very large cumbersome car shaped bed, some wonky furniture that had been abused and a very dark blue focal wall that had some of Stickerscape Space theme stickers on. We dismantled the bed and disposed of the wonky furniture. Carefully peeled away the stickers - which I must say came off really easily despite being on the wall for several years. Then we had a blank canvas.

Due to the different things J wanted from his bedroom we decided to split the room into areas so we had two focal walls and then the remaining walls we kept neutral. We opted for Wilko's paint. The neutral colour we picked was called Grey Whisper and then the focal wall colours we chose Turquoise and Elf. I must say I was a little bit nervous when we first opened the tin of Elf.

For the furniture we used the Homebase voucher and bought two of their cube storage systems with some storage boxes in blue and green to complement the wall colours. The units are perfect for toy storage, books and displaying LEGO. The smaller 3 cube bench is being used as a seating area. 

The mid-sleeper bed was the main focus of my hunt and I ummed and aahed over so many different beds wanting to get the perfect one. I didn't want anything too high in case J fell out and I wanted something sturdy and that I knew would be resilient to J's stimming (he bounces himself to sleep and also bounces in his sleep). We looked at brand new and second hand and then I spotted that the Childrens Bed Shop had an eBay store and were selling brand new beds that had been returned with torn boxes at clearance prices. The only issue being they were collect only from Durham. A £10 winning bid and £15 in diesel for Ant's work van and we had the perfect bed for J. We kept his original mattress and underneath have put an LED strip light kit which J thinks is brilliant. He loves his Steens Memphis mid sleeper and the great thing is when he has had enough of being in a mid sleeper it converts back to a single too. 

Whilst on eBay I also found some amazing MDF creations for his bedroom. Some cloud shelves - perfect for the sky theme wall which I painted with the Grey Whisper paint. Some LEGO shelves which I painted with Wilko Lemon Zest paint and some LEGO Blackboards. 

Once the walls were painted, the bed and storage furniture built it was time to add the finishing touches.

The balloon lights are from IKEA. We placed them alongside his cloud shelves. On those shelves we added his LEGO alarm clocks (competition win), Grimms Rainbow and also a little Cloud light. 

The bedding, fleece blanket and cushion were a competition win. 

Whilst in IKEA we also bought some pop up baskets to store J's soft toys in and a small ladder shelve system to display his minifigures. 

The wall art was from ukposters and some competition wins. 

J is really happy with his bedroom and so am I. 

Danielle 

September is done, look out October here we come!

Hello!

September was a real mixed bag for me in both comping and real life. While most people were looking forward to their kids going back to or starting school and gaining some extra time in their day, the start of my month was spent battling to get J into his new school and into full time education. He's been there 2 weeks now, with the first week being a transition week but he's doing really well. It did mean though that for the first two weeks of September he was only accessing 2 hours of education a day and I was spending a lot of my time making phone calls, emailing people and meeting people and then on his transition week until he went full time on the Thursday I was travelling to his new school with him and then waiting there before coming home so comping really took a back seat as I just didn't have the energy or inclination. I did think when he went full time I'd start really putting the hours in and comping lots but I found it really alien to have time to myself and not just the occasional hour so I did other things around the house, got dragged to garden centres and the vets by relatives who worry that my agoraphobia would take hold again now I have nothing to force me to leave the house like the school run (J gets transport) and then when I did finally feel like comping, my laptop went Pop!

All that aside, I did manage some wins, not my usual quantity but there are quite a few bits I'm really pleased about.

So lets begin.

The first win of the month was a Cadbury Bag from the Match & Win promo. I've not really bothered with it since, I'm not a football fan at all and don't really need a keyring which a lot of people seem to be winning. I also don't need any excuse to eat more chocolate.

I won a pair of Cineworld cinema tickets in a text competition. We haven't used them yet as I didn't want to waste them on any old film and so I'm hoping to save them for date night and go see the new Halloween film when it comes out.

J loves the Hotel Transylvania films and with the new one out there were lots of comps to win goodies. I'd seen a few comps to win a copy of the game and one of the new dolls on twitter so I made sure to enter them all. With every tweet I added a video of J reciting a scene from the second movie. One of his quirks is that he has full films, songs and adverts memorised and can repeat them effortlessly. We were lucky enough to win the Wedding Mavis and game for the Nintendo Switch.

We had two kids mag wins on consecutive days. One was a Tractor Ted floor puzzle and wooden tractor that drives over it and the other is a Power Rangers Steel Morpher. Both Will be going in the Christmas cupboard one for J and one for my nephew.

I won a fantastic childrens book on twitter from Sploshy about Transport. It's a brilliant book with each page dedicated to one type of vehicle which is named and the book asks questions and gets you to sing nursery rhymes too, its lovely.

Baker Ross have been doing loads of daily giveaways of little childrens art project kits on both twitter and Instagram. I was lucky enough to win a Dinosaur Fridge Magnet Scratch Art set. Here are some of our dinosaurs.

Aldiss run regular freebie Friday comps and I won a light box from them. I've bought some extra lettering and icons on eBay and it will be used as a Halloween prop.

I also won an overnight stay at a Jury Inn in their Freebie Friday competition.

I finally after trying from the beginning managed to win on the Freddo competition. I was hoping for LEGOLAND but ended up with a small adventure which wasn't suitable for us so I swapped it on the Virgin Experience website for some fancy chocolates.

New York Bagel Company are giving Bagel Tins away on their Bagel Thins. The odds are really good on this one.

I don't know how I came across it but Holland & Barrett did a big giveaway where they gave loads of Dr Organics Snail Gel products away on twitter and I won a face cream. I'm actually terrified of slugs and snails and the thought of using the cream weirds me out but my nan is really looking forward to using it.

I won a competition with Claudi and Fin of a goody bag and some Usborne book learning books which will be perfect for J. The goody bag has arrived and was a tote bag, pen, ruler, note pad, frisbee, rubber etc but unusually no coupon for some of their ice lollies which is a shame.

A couple of years ago during a mad moment one night I drew a poop emoji on my face. A kind of sh*t has hit the fan and I'm still smiling moment. It's been used in a few comps since and this time won me one of KD's new SNOT IT games which looks gross but great fun. I've put it out of the way till J's birthday.

Tesco and Nestle are doing a giveaway with lots of prizes from free sharing bags to TV's. You have to buy a bag of chocolate and put your code in to win, you can only win once but you can keep reusing your code till you do win. We won a £10 Sky movies voucher on it so it will go towards a new DVD or something.

After telling my grandma on the phone I was missing my postie and hadn't seen him for a while and hadn't had a win either I had 4 wins in the space of around half an hour! AMAZING! 

A yummy looking jar of Autumn Chutney is on it's way to me from Cartwright & Butler after I commented on their facebook competition with what my favourite thing about Autumn is.

I won a book for J from Carlton Books about Pirates on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

One of my favourite wins of the month is a No More Worries Kit from the Irish Fairy Door company. Not only did I win one for J but I won one for my friend Rachel whose son also has ASD. Anxiety can be a big thing in children on the spectrum so I'd love to see if it helps them any.

Then I decided to enter the Dairylea Super Cool or Super Cheesy comp which just like Freddo I had been entering with zero luck! You can imagine my shock when it came up saying I'd won! I've won a Polaroid Snap! camera. I can't wait for it to arrive.

I had an email from School Run to say I've won two Thames and Hudson Art books for children.

Then I had a surprise delivery from a kids mag of a Thomas the Tank Engine foam puzzle which is perfect for my nephew for Christmas or his birthday.

With Carabao cash due to end I put my last two codes in and won £5 on both of them.

So there you are. Despite a not very good start to the month, things picked up towards the end, and whilst a lot of the wins were on the smaller side sometimes it's the smaller prizes that keep you going.

I'm now all geared up for October. It's my favourite month of the year. It's J's 6th birthday which I can't wait to celebrate and also Halloween. I love me a Halloween creative comp. I've been working on ideas for me and the boy as well as pumpkins and really hope they work out how I envision them and win us some prizes. We've also got our Disney on Ice trip planned this month.

Here is for a smooth sailing month for everyone and the only frights to end with Halloween Delights.

Danielle.

Month review:

Total Prizes Won: 23

Total RRP of Prizes: £568

 

June in a Nutshell, how it panned out.

It's the end of June already! We are already six months through the year and it's zooming by.

June has been my worst comping month so far this year. I've had 30 prizes so stuck to my average of 1 per day which is great but value wise it's my lowest value month and there are a few reasons for that.

The first week of June hubby was off work and we finished decorating then had lots of lovely day trips to places like Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Harrogate Valley Gardens and Grasshoppers in Tong. It's great when he's off as he can drive so we can go further afield but it also makes taking Jake out easier as I struggle alone and I can't do all the things he wants to do.

We've upped Jake's hobbies! He was doing gymnastics once a week at special disability classes but we are looking for other avenues for things he loves and enjoys too. So now I take him swimming one lunch time a week with the help of my Nan, leaving us both quite tired afterwards but he's showing such progress after just a month of sessions. He's also started quad biking, if you follow me on social media you will have probably seen pictures and videos of him in his full motocross gear zooming around my Dad's factory, it's a bit heart in mouth sometimes but he loves it so is doing that a couple of times a week.

Other reasons involve breaking my laptop screen - it's still a complete mystery how it happened but it rendered me unable to comp on the laptop for a week unless I hooked it up to the TV and used the TV as a monitor, although it's fixed now. The final reason is it's been so sunny we've been playing in the garden or in the paddling pool and snoozing or just too warm to be bothered to comp. I've gone from doing a couple of Instagram comps a couple of times a day at interim periods to doing a couple of Instagram comps once every couple of days and my wins definitely show that.

Anyway, enough waffling.

Here are my wins:

The 1st of June saw my first win from Annabel Karmel of a micro-trike, this was a purchase competition where you had to buy a children's ready meal and they had 50 a month to give away I think it was. I only entered in the last month but was pleased to win as it's perfect for my niece and nephew.

Jake had his first kids mag win on the 2nd. A Poopeez Toilet Launcher play set. It is as grim as it sounds. Poopeez are the new collectibles rage at the mo, delightful little figures in the shape of different poops, wee
s and even trumps such as Silent But Deadly! The Toilet Launcher came with two figures and you put them inside the toilet and then after a few seconds they pop up and jump out.

Lots of World Cup promos on this month and Coca Cola have a few including win a FIFA FUT code for the FIFA 18 game of downloadable content. I wouldn't usually class this as a win but as between us we've won about 8 I've decided to class it as 1 solitary win but I'm not valuing them highly.

I won two bottles of Fizzics Apple drink on Instagram it came in a lovely wooden box.

Finally after years of trying I cracked it with the Sun Puzzles and won £50 in their weekly wordsearch competition. They pay via BACS so do need you to send your bank details over which I know a few people are wary of doing but the payment hit my account and I've had no issues. Cash always helps!

John Adams was running a comp asking about peoples favourite flowers on Facebook and everybody was saying the typical ones such as Roses, Daffodils etc. My favourite is Senetti which is a beautiful white purple daisy. We won an Ezee Beads Garden Bugs and Flowers set which was a fun little activity for Jake to do.

Another copy of Maze Runner: The Death Cure arrived with no note or anything so I have no clue where from. I had entered a few before I won a copy last month.

The lovely Kate Eccles on twitter @KEEccles ran a giveaway for a copy of Monster in My Wardrobe and I tweeted a picture of Jake sat on top of one of my wardrobes saying we hadn't found a monster in the wardrobe but we had found one on top. It was a lovely read and the publisher wrapped it like a present which was a nice touch.

Another twitter win was a Femme Cup from the Powder Room. I was the only entrant and it was just a case of retweet and reply with a hashtag tagging a friend.

Jake won some Shopkins Cutie Cars from a children's magazine.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE Harry Potter. Bloomsbury Publishing have brought out some new special editions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and they ran competitions on their social media to win a house special. I entered for Gryffindor and you had to say what password you would give for the Gryffindor house. I said Voldemort - because most are too afraid to say his name, but Gryffindors are brave, courageous and daring!

A Win It Wednesday twitter win of Halibo children's vitamins from twitter.

Frubes have a no purchase necessary competition to win colour changing goodies - I keep forgetting to enter (I am rubbish at dailys!) but managed to win a colour change wristband.

Jake had another delivery! (He's done bloody well this month from children's magazines!) This time it was some Mickey Mouse jigsaw puzzles. 

On Instagram I won a Sister gift box. I actually found this when looking for twitter comps that were ending soon, you could enter on both twitter and instagram and it was ending soon with low entry numbers. It's a nice gift box with necklace, hot choc, notebook, bath bomb and chocolate mallow treat in.

Another twitter win this time from KBB Ark of a Kohler speaker that goes inside a shower head! Super cool!

ANOTHER win for Jake from a kids mag of a DC Match game, there were 10 prizes up for grabs and my mag group managed to win 8 of them so I was super pleased, although a clean sweep would have been lovely!

I won a lovely stationery bundle on Instagram that I can't wait to receive as I love stationery and all the bits look super cute.

A local shopping centre ran a competition for Love 2 Shop vouchers. I always enter their competitions but this is the first time I've ever been lucky with them. I won £25 which we had to collect in person, they originally wanted to take publicity photo's but when I explained my anxiety of having a photo posted publicly and people being able to criticize me due to my physical appearance etc they were lovely and said I didn't have to. I used the vouchers to buy The Greatest Showman and Coco on DVD as despite lots of trying I never managed to win them. We've only watched Coco so far but it was so good! The other £5 I used to buy ice lollies in Iceland - much needed in this heat haha.

I also won a Darkest Hour DVD from a web comp.

Oh look, another win for Jacob, this time some Paw Patrol books.

I won a MojMoj toy on Instagram these seem to be along the likes of L.O.L Dolls and the type of opening a surprise.

I won a copy of No Guilt Pregnancy Plan  from Mumsnet, here's hoping me and hubby get the chance to use it!!!

Milkshake magazine had a twitter competition where they wanted kids to make a mask and send a picture with a hash tag, there were hardly any entries and we got ours in last minute and won a copy of Chicken in the Kitchen.

2 Scrub Daddy sponges and a stand were won from Instagram. I love how they are smiley faces but I've been sat using one as a stress ball all afternoon as I love the way it feels when you squish it, it's hard but soft at the same time.

Every Tuesday on Facebook Disney Jr have a 'Tea Party' with multiple prizes where you have to answer questions. We won a Mickey's Racers bundle on it this week. Two soft toys, a cup and a toy driving license.

You can tell I started to get back into Instagram a little bit towards the end of the month as I had two more wins on there. Some gorgeous leather sandals for Jake from Chipmunk Sandals and an Aquabeads set from one of their daily comps.

One last kids mag win for Jake of an Ookiverse book, we already have this so when this arrives we will pass it to my cousin.

My last win of the month was a fab bundle of DVDs from Movie Weekender. There are some classics in there and a couple I've not seen before.

So there you have it. In a nutshell my June has consisted of DVD's, Books and Children's prizes haha. It's almost as if the comping Gods know the summer holidays are on the way and we may need things to keep us busy!

Have a great July everyone, I hope the lovely weather holds up for us all.

Danielle x

 My stats for the month are:
Total Number of Prizes: 30
Total RRP of Prizes £664
Breakdown of Prize type: