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 

An Awesome August Recapped

August is the month when school holidays are in full throttle and you've already exhausted all your fun ideas in the last week of July. So with that in mind I was determined to try and win some fun things to do, or if possible win some of the back to school things we need in order to lessen the to do list. It also meant comping time was limited so I did more social media comps and purchase comps this month that were quick and easy to enter although we also spent a bit of time on an effort comp or two but they were ones where my son was involved with helping me or taking part too. 

Anyway on to the wins.... 

The first August win was for J from a kids mag and was a Lost Kitty blind box. J is obsessed with anything 'surprise' he loves watching the opening videos on You Tube so was excited by this. (I however didn't realise they had playdoh in them and had a mad panic when he opened it on my rug ha ha) a small win but a nice one to keep the boy busy for a few minutes. 

I also was lucky enough to win some Kidtropolis tickets which was an accidental win as I tagged a friend to let her know to enter and they took my tag as an entry. My friend is happy to be getting to take her son though so it's all good! 

I've mentioned last month and also on talking to people on Facebook groups etc how I've wound down the amount of Instagram competitions I've been entering. Even though it has previously been where I got a lot of my wins from I found it quite draining so I've only been entering the odd few I come across on competition listing sites rather than searching my own out. However if you need someone to tag feel free to tag me - danigraves87 just please don't be offended if I don't respond. I'm still adding pictures so my account is still active and I may get back into entering a lot again when the boy is back in school. We shall see. After all that I actually had an Instagram win of some fantastic Stem Quest books. They are brilliant and I've actually really enjoyed looking at them myself, they are a bit advanced for J yet but will put them aside for him for when he is ready. 

I then had a second Instagram win of a runner up prize from thegroovyfoodcompany which had a jar of coconut oil in as well as a make up bag and some lovely wee treats like Urban Decay make up. A nice treat for me. 

On the 3rd August I got a WTC to say J had won tickets to CBBC Summer Social Festival in Liverpool, it was happening that weekend so we decided to head over on the Sunday. We had an amazing time, J got to go on rides with his daddy, see favourites such as Mr Tumble and Hey Duggee perform and his absolute favourite CBBC star Andy Day performed with his band the OddSocks. J loves watching Andy and the Dinosaurs and so was amazed to see him up close and personal, this was only made better by the fact we managed a meet and greet with him and J got to give him a high five and tell him how he always watches him on TV when he goes to Grandma's house. He then rang his grandma to tell her he'd met Andy and he was real and it was such a precious moment for him that he is still talking about weeks later. 

On the way back from Liverpool we popped into a services station. Hubby got a can of Carabao and J got a fruit shoot. We won £5 on the Carabao and then there was a text comp attached to the Fruit Shoot and we won a family bowling game. 

One of the effort competitions I mentioned was to do with Disney and their 24 Hour Challenge to encourage children to be more active. You had to sign up to the challenge and try it out and then give your feedback on a post on Mumsnet. Now J is a very active little boy anyway but my mobility issues mean me not so much however we signed up and gave it a go and I left feedback and thought nothing of it. So I was super surprised on the 6th to get an email telling me we had won tickets to Disney on Ice, train tickets and a hotel stay! We've chosen to go to the Manchester show on the 14th October which is the day before J's birthday! The PR who organised it all has been amazing and we have our hotel stay the night before so that we can make the most of a weekend in Manchester. 

I received a tweet from Here Come The Girls to tell me I had won a Baby Jack-Jack plush. I mentioned last month how I had been eager to win goodies for J and had searched lots of comps out, this one was found with a quick twitter search and had only 3 entries!! 

Apparently there is a day for everything now, and August included Yorkshire Day. I was notified on the 9th of August I'd won the Seabrooks Yorkshire Day competition. 48 packets of crisps and a large bouquet of white roses. The crisps were sweet chilli and a bit too much of a kick for me so hubby took them to work and popped them in the staff canteen and was very popular, and I had to borrow a vase from my Grandma as I've never been bought flowers before so didn't have one. 

I received a winning text message from a Freddo competition to let me know I had won a Giant Jenga game. It's a Jacques London one and is fab quality. I never usually have much luck with text comps but I keep trying. The set is fab and although we've not played Jenga with it yet J has been using them as building blocks to make forts for his figures and things! 

J received a parcel of some Peter Rabbit puzzles from a kids mag win. They'd had to switch one of the puzzles out for a more classic Beatrix Potter version rather than the film version so that's been put to one side but J has had great fun doing the larger puzzle and he's getting quicker and quicker. 

I had entered a competition with Nigel Clarke TV for an Incredibles bundle and had an email to say I was a possible winner but there were a few stipulations - I couldn't post on social media, had to reply in a set time, had to agree to post photo's etc. I replied within minutes and agreed to all stipulations but didn't get confirmation we had won until the 9th! It was such a long wait and I was checking every day on Facebook and emails. The toys have arrived and J loves them! 

My next 5 wins were £5's on Carabao. I have seen some people buy excessive amounts to chase a win on this comp and it kind of puts my 2 at a time to shame but I still seem to be doing reasonably well with it so whereas I'm not actively chasing to look for the comps if the supermarket has stock when I am doing a shop or hubby pops to the petrol stations we will grab 1 or 2 cans. 

J had another kids mag win delivered of a little Tonka Tinies playset. 

I won an Access All Awkward book on twitter from TeenBookHoots. 

J then had another kids mag win! This time a LEGO Friends bundle! We love LEGO in our house. 

OUPChildrens publishers on twitter did a comp for a bundle of their new releases which we won and received 4 fab books. We are really enjoying reading Bee Boy Attack of the Zombees. 

Another National Day was National Tell a Joke Day. I recorded Jake telling a joke and posted it on a couple of comps. He has a few favourite jokes but the one we used most was:

''Knock knock.

Who's there?

Narnia

Narnia who 

Narnia Business''

It won us a runners up prize from Brother Max of a Bath and Room Thermometer. 

I had a notification to say I won a picnic hamper from Aunt Bessies on Facebook. Perfect for days out with the boys and J is obsessed with picnics thanks to an episode or Mr Tumble. 

I subscribe to Compers News magazine and was really pleased to spot my name on the in-house winners list this issue. I've won a £30 H&M voucher from completing one of their puzzles. Although I've won competitions on their forum this is the first time I've ever won from the magazine puzzles. It's definitely given me the incentive to keep trying and I really enjoy doing the puzzles. 

Another Facebook win from Swizzels Love Hearts. You had to fill in the blanks of a song lyric they posted using only emojis. I wasn't sure what I would receive but got lots of sweets, a tea towel, lip balm, trolley token, coaster, and a tin of sweets. It's a really nice prize. 

I take part in the Disney Junior tea party every week if I can. They have a lot of different prizes based around themes or new shows. They were doing a back to school one. I won a Tangled Lunch bag set which I am going to give to my friend for her daughter. 

Speaking of lunch bags I really wanted one for J. We aren't sure how he will manage school dinners as he always used to finish school before lunch time and come home and he's such a fusspot with foods only eating certain things that I wanted to have a lunch box/bag ready just in case so when Di Coke posted about the Anchor Dairy purchase competition and that you could keep entering I made sure to buy a tub and enter and after a few days I received an email letting me know I had won one. 

Another thing I wanted for back to school was a car seat or a booster seat. We have one in our car and my grandparents have one in theirs but J will be going to a school nearly 9 miles away and although he will get transport (hopefully) there may be times when I have to taxi it to get him there or get him home so having something I can use in those instances was really important to me. So I was really pleased to receive a message from Muddy Puddles on Facebook to let me know I had won a Mi-Fold portable booster seat. This was won from a competition where you had to give a back to school tip and I posted a picture of a chest of drawers we use that are labelled Mon - Fri and have a full days uniform in each one. 

I received an email from another kids mag to say J had won another set of Peter Rabbit puzzles. The picture in the mag shows the same as what we should have won from the earlier set but which were substituted so we will have to wait and see if the same happens again. If we get the same puzzles they will go in the Christmas/Birthday cupboard. 

Cully and Sully Soup are running a competition for Souper Ambassador's and they said the more creative and fun the entry the better so I really pushed my boundaries to enter. I don't like pictures of myself much less video's as I get worried about what people will say about me or think of me and it causes me massive anxiety. However I decided to be brave and try something I had in my head. I rewrote a version of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's theme and made it all about Cully and Sully soup. I set a tripod up in my living room and I did my recording. I had to do a few takes - crap memory (mine not the device I was recording on), J being loud during it, him blasting bubbles into my face and me nearly choking on a bubble, the usual. However I got an edit I was happy with and posted it on to the competition post and was really pleased to be notified a few days later that I had won a Fitbit Charge 2. 

I won a pint of Lager on the Carling football comp. I'm not a drinker but hubby enjoyed a cheeky beer while we were out for my birthday. 

I had 5 more carabao wins spread over a week and a half totalling £30 

A text comp win for cinema tickets came in at just the right time on the 28th as it was my birthday on the 31st and we always go to the cinema for my birthday so these combined with free drinks thanks to the leftovers on a cineworld voucher i won months ago meant we got to go see The Meg for free and my birthday night out cost nothing but petrol to get there and back. 

I had a fab email from Encore to say I've won 2 Merlins Magic Passes meaning me and Ant can go to London for a few days in November and have tickets to the London Eye, London dungeons, Sealife Centre, Shrek Adventure and Madame Tussaud's. We are going to try fit in a Harry Potter trip if possible.

I had an email from the Acorn books blog to say I've won a collection of Dinosaur Adventure books for J. You had to comment saying what your favourite dinosaur was. 

Jackson Reece do a regularly freebie Friday competition on Facebook. I won for the 3rd time this month and won their toiletry range which looks fab. We love their nose nuzzlers.

We closed the month on a couple of small wins. 

A delivery from a kids mag for J of some activity books. They both look really good having flicked through and will give us something to do on an evening. 

A crate of 12 bottles of Mango drink from Pago on twitter. 

Finally a Bikybiky vest on Facebook which I'm super pleased about as we are trying to teach J to ride his bike. 

Overall a pretty awesome and amazing month! I'm looking forward to September but at the same time I'm apprehensive as J will be moving schools and it's a big deal for him so it won't be just a case of back to school, feet up and comping, plus I'm hoping to sign up a learning course of my own to learn BSL. 

Monthly recap: 

Total prizes won: 45

Prize RRP: £1790

I hope everyone has had a fantastic summer.

Danielle x

 

Was September Super?

September started and things went a bit (a lot) wrong and it just got a bit too much so I've spent the most of September as a hippopotamus. A great big hippo wallowing in a giant puddle of pity and woe is me, losing sight of my usual positive outlook and so lots of things took a back seat (not just comping) and I lost a lot of motivation for things I usually enjoy doing. Things have now turned a corner I've put my big girl knickers on and manned up and given my head a shake and that leads me on to my post about what I won in September which despite my lack of comping (some days I didn't even bother picking the laptop up) was still pretty super!

My first win of the month was on the 1st September. I received a message on facebook from the Entertainer to tell me I had been chosen as their 3rd place winner in their LEGO competition. My prize was a subscription to National Geographic Kids Magazine and a Jungle Helicopter LEGO set. Now a lot of compers know me through the Childrens Magazine Group I run, and a lot of compers also know I LOVE LEGO so this was a pretty fantastic and perfect prize for us. We haven't received our first issue of the subscription yet but as we've previously bought it I know J will enjoy it. He loved building the LEGO set too.

My second win was again on the 1st and was a Garage Anthems CD which arrived in the post with no notification as to where it was from but I managed to track it down and find it was an email competition with the Star. My partner was convinced I had bought the CD as it was one he'd actually mentioned wanting so it was lovely to have won something for him that he wanted.

Next up was a With Love gift box from a comp on instagram. Subscription boxes seem to be all the rage nowadays and there are so many different types. This one is classed as a 'well-being' box. It had a beautiful sleep mask, oils and a buddha card inside.

I won a rug on instagram at the start of the month too. It's a gorgeous brown rug that matches my decor and actually fits perfect in my living room too! J has loved laying on it as he says it feels so soft.

I won a colouring in book about preparing for birth with lots of zen like calming, yet empowering pictures inside which I'm planning on giving my friend as she is due very soon.

Another baby related prize I won is a board book called 'What Does Baby Want' which is a book about breastfeeding and has caused great delight and giggles from those who have seen the video of me reading the book. It's a bit of a random prize but brilliant none the less.

£50 Pets at Home Voucher this was a low entry facebook competition where you had to post a picture of you pet in their home and I posted a picture of Boycie one of our bearded dragons. The voucher has come in very handy for buying some new decor and lights for the vivariums and some bugs to feed them.

Eyeko Mascara - there were 1000 of these available and I was really pleased to have won one. The tube is well cool it's more like a toothpaste tube than a typical mascara tube, but they RRP at £19 which is nuts!

Boss Baby Blu-ray - this arrived through the post as a surprise, I have no idea where from but J has loved watching it  and it was a film I was actually looking into buying. However J now wants us to get a baby as he thinks people just knock on your door and deliver them.

Another fab LEGO win soon followed, this time with Smyths on facebook in one of their Force Friday competitions. We won a LEGO BB-8 which is amazing! and a Star Wars Path of the Force Lightsaber RRP £49.99!!! The lightsaber has been put away for Christmas.

Next up was a small instagram win of a personalised box frame from Littleunicornwishes. I'm torn between getting a Christmas themed frame or one with a letter J in for the boys room but he does have quite a lot of personalised name plates and things.

You may remember last month I won a Deluxe barbecue, well it came and we decided it was too big for us as there is only the three of us and although I like a BBQ only Ant is the big meat eater. So I did a deal with a friend where she got a bargain and we got a little bit of money to use towards a smaller barbecue. No sooner had I dropped it off and got back in the car I got a notification from Nisa on instagram to say I'd won a Weber Compact barbecue. Just perfect for us.

Bandai ran a competition across their social media pages to win a Power Rangers Star Sword Star Shooter and we were picked as one of the winners. J will love this however I'm not looking forward to the prospect of getting shot!

J won a LEGO Batman DVD from one of the kids mags we buy and enter via entry form. We actually already own this on blu-ray from a previous win so we are sending it to a comping friend for her son to enjoy :)

Another instagram win came from Espa who ran a comp giving about 20 prizes away and said they were sending me a surprise product. I am really pleased as they sent me the Pink Hair and Scalp mud which is £34 a jar and absolutely amazing!!!

MONUSKIN sent me a facial wash through a competition they ran around 3 months ago where you had to follow them on instagram and fill in a form. As it was so long ago I thought I hadn't been successful but it arrived and the reviews sound great.

Another kids mag win for J of a Nickleodeon goodybag which contained a light up fidget spinner which he loves! a tub of Nickelodeon slime which again he loves (but I don't as he got some on his brand new school vest and it had to be binned) and a JoJo Siwa bow which we have given to a comping friend for her daughter.

I won a beautiful corded bracelet with mother of pearl beads from Celestial Design on facebook.

Pip.Milburn ran a competition on instagram to win a Strong Girls Club tshirt, a grey tshirt with a golden pineapple on the front and a gorgeous smelling Relax candle from Soul_Candles. It was a lovely wee pick me up and the candle smells AMAZING!

I won a £50 Amazon voucher from Sytner Seat for answering a picture quiz I'd seen on my timeline. I had intended to use this voucher for LEGO but hubby got in their first and bought himself Forza 7!

CraftsBeautiful on instagram gave away some adult colouring books and i won a beautiful Birds of Paradise one. It has some gorgeous pictures inside one of which I'm considering framing in my room as I love it so much.

On the same day I won the colouring book I also got a message on instagram from Poundstretcher to say I'd won a mug which says 'I'm not bossy I'm the boss!' and is going to be given as part of a Christmas present.

A lot of compers have been trying to win personalised Onken Yogurts, or Yougurts as they are calling them and whilst I'd had a couple of goes I'd not got lucky (I'm too lazy and lack the motivation to do comps like this daily so tend to just do them when I remember or see them on friends walls etc) my lovely friend Emma posted that she had won one so I decided to copy her ingredients and won one! Yay for Emma haha. It was cherry, rhubarb and mango flavour that I won.

loveyourhome.yorkshire ran a competition across their insta and facebook for some wax melts and snap bars and I was chosen as a lucky winner. One of the items specified was out of stock so she sent me a few alternatives. They smell great and as you can probably tell I love candles and melts so these are a fab win for me!

The biggest win of the month for us has to be a Sphero Ultimate Lightning McQueen which is RRP £299.99 this was an effort comp which was found in the effort section of Compers News. It was run with Tesco and Hallmark you had to buy a card (so I bought myself a birthday card haha) and then print out an entry form and design a race car. Me and J did a picture of a car together and filled in the form about why we thought it would win the race. I sent it off and thought nothing of it as I expected it to get loads of entries and our creation wasn't the best however we received an email telling us J had won and they are coming to present it on the 3rd October. From what I've seen online it looks amazing!!!

Another lovely instagram win came from lisa.bramley who runs Apple of My Eye. I won a gorgeous necklace that is double sided and says 'First my mummy, forever my friend' This was such an apt prize to win. I got notification of the prize on the afternoon but in the morning on the walk to school I'd been trying to coax J in by saying 'you are going to have so much fun at school today, you are going to make some lovely friends and get to play with them' and he replied 'but mummy you're my friend can't I just stay home and play with you?' which melted my heart and so it was perfect timing for the necklace.

Anatomicals did another instagram comp where the first x amount of people to comment and send a picture received 2 facemasks. I'm going to use one myself and put the other in a Christmas hamper.

I won a magnetised energy bracelet from dream_goddess_sweden and good_balance on instagram. I'm not sure if I've noticed an improvement on my energy levels or how I'm sleeping but it's pretty and I like it so will keep wearing it.

J had another mag win! This time from Kraze mag for asking why old men had hairy nostrils haha. He originally asked why his grandad had hairy nostrils but when I filled the form in I thought it might be a bit personal so changed it to old men. The mag answered his question and he will love the goodies as since winning the blu-ray earlier in the month he's really enjoying the film.

We finally had a twitter win towards the end of the month and won a Mini Hornit. These are a light which you can fasten on to childrens bikes or scooters. They have a solid light as well as the chance to have flashing lights in either white or green and they have 25 sounds from a bell ringing to a dog barking which can be activated by a button that sticks on the handle bars. J has had great fun changing the sound and setting it off while riding around on his bike.

Another childrens mag win of a Shopkins Swapkins bundle! It had 24 blindbags inside! J loves blind bags and surprise eggs so took great delight in opening them however I think we only ended up with 5 different ones as we had a lot of dupes.

Another 'surprise' egg type of prize came from Tubz Brandz Ltd on twitter. They sent us 6 of the new Sqwishland suprise balls, some marshmallows and a chocolate egg. J tried to make an unboxing video on my phone for this bless him but the lighting and quality wasn't brilliant so we couldn't upload it. I need to get him back in my room where we have a better back drop and lighting for videos rather than just in the living room.

Novicemama_char on instagram did a competition for a cute heart plaque and some headbands which I won. I've chosen a lovely Robin design which I think will be perfect for Christmas. We've never really done the decorations, we had a tree once for about 3 days, so I'm looking for little bits and pieces that will help the home feel more festive.

Carabao have been running a competition on their cans of energy drink to win football tickets. I'm not a fan of football but Ant brought me some ringpulls home from work so I went on the Lucky Learners facebook group I'm in to see how to enter. Whilst reading the comments I noticed a comper saying they really wanted to win Man City tickets so when I got the Congratulations screen pop up I sent them a facebook message asking if they'd like them and they said yes! I hope they have a great time.

Emoji lunch bag from the cheesestring daily, I have won 3 of these now and as great as they are I'd love some of the other emoji items like stickers.

Youngblood ran a competition across their social media pages giving away Colour Lip Crayon kits. I was an instagram winner and chose the Angeleno shade. I just really love the little lip shaped pouch that thee products came in. I think it's very quirky.

Another small win was a bottle of Cloudberry Bubble Bath for J from goodbubbleuk on instagram.

Since updating the apps on his phone hubby keeps getting twitter notifications when people he follows tweet about certain subjects, one of the notifications he got was about the hashtag #PowerRangers and was because UKMumsTv were having a twitter frenzy. He asked me what he had to do and I said just retweet the competition posts they put up and he won a Power Ranger jigsaw for J which is fab!

I received an email on Thursday afternoon from our local radio station advising I'd won 4 tickets to go see the new LEGO Ninjago movie which we've been to see today and J loved it. Previous readers will know that cinema trips are usually a big no no for the boy but we actually managed a full movie! It was fab we also got a free LEGO keyring each which is super cool and we followed the movie up with a meal at a local All You Can Eat place that I won back in April in an Easter Competition.

My last two wins of the month were both on instagram.

I won a brooch making kit and glitterlips and stardust from Glitterlips. The brooch kit is right up my street as I love crafting and I'm sending the stardust to my friend as her daughter is a dancer so it will be perfect for her.

The last win is one that I won for me and a friend. We both get a back to school pack with an Art and Stationery set, Rainbow pencils and a Colouring Activity Pack and those were won from irishfairydoor on instagram. I love comps where I win something for me and a friend. It gives me more of a buzz getting to do something lovely for them and giving them a treat.

So there you have it, if it wasn't for social media and the support of some fab people I would be well and truly buggered. I'd like to think I'm proof that you don't have to enter EVERYTHING all the time to be a winner.

What I make of Mayka

Everyone has been raving about Mayka - the toy block tape, and being the huge LEGO fan I am I thought I would give it a go. 


It cost £6.99 for a 1m roll. There are other lengths, colours and thicknesses available. 

As mentioned it comes in a roll and the inner section of the roll has a small clamp to hold it in place and make sure you don't unroll it all. Face on the packaging is a winner. However the back of the package is like hell on earth. You have to peel a sticker off to unclip the tabs that hold it closed, only the sticker comes off in tiny pieces - a bit like when you're trying to remove the price tag from a gift - and so it looks unsightly. Apart from this one flaw the packaging is sturdy and works well. 

I decided to make myself a little phone cable holder as I'm forever dropping the cable on the floor when not in use. 

To do so I cut a small rectangle of Mayka, and chose one of my favourite LEGO minifigures - Harley Quinn. The hands on the minifigures are perfect for holding small cables like those for the iPhone. You then simply peel the backing off the Mayka tape and press it onto the desired surface. As long as your surfaces are clean and dry you can remove and reuse the tape so don't worry too much if it's not straight the first time. Then I put the cable in Harley's hand and pressed the back of her legs onto the Mayka to fix her. 

Overall I'm impressed with Mayka. I'm sure it has lots of possibilities which I look forward to exploring and I love the fact its not permanent