What I've Won - April 2017

Oh dear, we're almost at the end of May and I'm only publishing what I won in April now! One day, I swear I'll get back up to date and get posting these every first of the month. April was a steady month with some lovely wins. Here's what I won in full:

1) Signed Annabel Karmel recipe book (RRP £14.99) from Annabel Karmel

I do struggle with getting my two children to eat. I feel like they are so fussy so I tend to make them the same dinners - ones I know they'll eat! I entered this because I would love some fun ideas that I'd maybe never think of so it was an added bonus that it was signed, directly to me with my name! 

2) E decoration (RRP £10.00) from Crafty Wee Cat

This store was giving away this specific letter on Instagram so of course I had to enter for E's room. It's so flowery and girly - love it!

3) CSI: Cyber DVD (RRP £19.99) from Real Crime Magazine

I absolutely love TV shows of this genre so this was a nice wee treat for myself!

4) VR Headset (RRP £20.00) from TheSchoolRun

I'd always been intrigued by these but not really enough to go out and buy one. This was a web entry on a kids site and they had five to give away. It's so weird!

5) Swaddles (RRP £24.99) from Summer Infant

How cute are these?! C never liked swaddling but I swore by them with E. These will be gifted to someone I know who is having a baby boy later this year.

6) Diggerland tickets & £100 Little Tikes toys (RRP £180) from Little Tikes

 

 I could not believe my luck when I won this! I was worried that the Little Tikes toys would be a bit babyish but they are so perfect for C that I've squirrelled them away for his birthday. 

7) Dior luminizer (RRP £39) from Dave Lackie

I've been following Dave Lackie for a number of years now on social media and he is so lovely! I enter quite a few of his giveaways (for those I would actually want/use) so I was thrilled to win this in a Gleam giveaway on his blog. It came all the way from Canada.

8) Smurfs goody bag (RRP £15.00) from Mumsnet

My kids are Smurfs mad so this has gone down a treat! E even wore the hat for around two hours straight as soon as she opened it.

9) £15 Perfume Shop gift card from White Scribbles

One think my dad has always said to me since I started comping was "try and win me some aftershave!" He is obsessed and has quite a selection but it's been one think I've never really been lucky enough to win a lot of. I gifted this to him and he put it towards a bottle.

10) £10 ohbowprettyx spend 

I won this in an Instagram giveaway and as soon as I saw that she made princess bows, I asked for a surprise mix. E absolutely loves them!

11) Family plaque (RRP £35.00) from Make Memento

This is another Instagram win and I love it so much. It's proper sturdy wood and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

12) Kion costume (RRP £22.99) from Lion Guard magazine

C and E both love watching The Lion Guard on Disney Junior so they were chuffed to bits when this arrived from an email entry in Lion Guard magazine. How freaking cute does he look?!

13) Casdon toy washing machine (RRP £20.99) from Casdon

I won this on Casdon's Instagram page in a regram and comment comp. The kids love pretend play so it will go well with their toy kitchen.

14) £10 Maisie's Bowtique spend

More bows, I know! This time E actually sat with me and chose which ones she wanted. The rainbow is defnitely her favourite.

15) Beauty Bunny top from Glossybox

How cute is this jumper?! Glossybox had a few to giveaway over on Twitter recently. I love it!

16) Cuddles magazine (RRP £3.99) from Cuddles magazine

I won this in a simple like and comment giveaway on Cuddles magazine's Facebook page. Of course, I entered the actual competitions in the magazine too when it arrived!

17) £10 spend at Little Soles Love Daisies

I won a voucher spend on Instagram and as soon as I saw these, I knew E would love them! They have only just arrived so she hasn't seen them yet. I'm expecting lots of smiles.

18) Pupa Milano contour kit (RRP £18) from Beauty and Bird

Contouring - something which I've watched numerous tutorials on but never actually tried! I had never used this brand either so I was really excited to win this palette on Twitter.

19) Initial decoration (RRP £10.00) from Be Bright Designs

I think I have a knack for winning decorations and letters! This will be perfect hung on C's wall.

20) Line drawing (RRP £12.50) from Frankie's Doodles

Words cannot describe how much I love this. I won it on Instagram, sent her a photograph of C and E and she captured every bit of it perfectly. I'm in love.

21) Blogger stationery (RRP £16.98) from That Lame Company

I am such a bad blogger when it comes to organisation so I was thrilled to win these during National Stationery Week. Hopefully they'll help!

22) Lindy Bop dress (RRP £34.00) from Lindy Bop
Lindy Bop have been hosting three giveaways per day on their Facebook page for quite a few months now and I've been entering when I see something I like. I didn't think I'd ever win one of their gorgeous dresses so I was so pleased! I haven't taken a photograph of it yet but it's the Carla Swing Dress, if anyone's interested. 

23) £31 from The Selfie Lottery
The Selfie Lottery has actually closed down now but you had to sign up, upload a photo of yourself and wait to be chosen! A different person was chosen to win the "pot" each day and it rolled over if it wasn't claimed. You also got a daily bonus for checking back. 

In April 2017, I won 23 prizes worth a total of £564.42. If you haven't read any of my What I've Won posts before, I always like to do a comparison to previous years:

April 2016 -23 wins worth £359.91
April 2015 - 11 wins worth £296.66
April 2014 - 3 wins worth £42.98

Did you win anything nice last month?

Look in my Letterbox #82

Another week, another Look in my Letterbox! I had a really busy week with lots of wins arriving. It always makes my week a bit more exciting. 

Here's what I received this week:

Wins:

Pirate craft book

 This was a surprise win! I don't get many of these so it's always nice when one arrives. This came from a web entry at the Primary Times website. C will absolute love making these with me.

Blog goodies

 I am so bad when it comes to organisation for anything never mind just blogging. I won these during National Stationery Week from That Lame Company on Twitter. They will hopefully give me a kick up the bum to be more organised.

Line drawing 

 I was so excited when I won a line drawing of my children and when I received the finished article, I was absolutely blown away with how amazing it was. It's by the insanely talented Frankie's Doodles.

Diamond earrings

 I won these on Instagram from Diamond Heaven and it is by far my most valuable win in my five years of comping, with an RRP of £1,900. I didn't want to believe it until they arrived but here they are and they are absolutely stunning.

C decoration

 This was another little Instagram win from Be Bright Designs. It will be fab on C's wall!

Star Wars book

 I won this in a May 4th Star Wars giveaway and it is so cool! It's Star Wars written as a William Shakespeare play.

Sticker set

The Secret Life of Pets was the first movie that C and E saw in the cinema so when I saw this little giveaway when scrolling Twitter early one morning, I thought I'd enter for E. She was so excited and basically stuck all of the stickers in her sticker album right away.

 

Cordial

 Bottlegreen had 50 sets of these to give away over Facebook and Instagram and I was one of their lucky winners. I'd never actually tried this brand before but they are so lovely!

La Redoute clothing

 I have my lovely friend Jenna who writes at Chic Geek Diary to thank for this amazing win. She tagged me in a giveaway that La Redoute were running on their Facebook page. The prize was £1000 split between you and a friend and because she won and I was the tagged friend, we got £500 credit each! The above is what I ordered with my £500. I kitted the family out!

Bows

 This was another little Instagram win - you guys know I love my bows!

Skirt and Bow set

I won this beautiful skirt and a bow to match on Instagram too. The picture isn't the greatest but it's unicorn print - so pretty!

Purchases:

R plates 

My wonderful boyfriend Chris passed his driving test a few weeks ago so I bought him some magnetic R plates for his car. 

 

Fidget spinners

I also bought two fidget spinners (one for Chris and one for C) as they are all the rage and obviously couldn't be without them!

Reviews:

Bigjigs Dungeon

 I am part of the Bigjigs Play Patrol and this Dungeon is the second item that we have received to review. It's super cool so look out for my review later this week.

Book

This may be a little bit premature considering we haven't got an official autism diagnosis for C (although I'm 95% sure that we will get one) but I am hoping that we will get some helpful tips from it. I will publish my thoughts soon!

Other: 

Ant with Rolling Egg 

 This is a giveaway prize from the lovely people at BRIO. Keep an eye on the blog to be in with a chance of winning.

Did you receive anything nice last week?

 

Lucy Locket Wooden Biscuit Set Counting Game - Review

I've always said that the best thing that I ever did for my four year son C was give him a sister. E is two years old so is mobile, can talk and communicate well with her big brother. The closeness in age means that they can play games together happily. One of their favourite things to take part in is pretend play. We have a wooden kitchen set, cleaning set and tea set and they will play with them constantly, if they aren't making up little scenarios with their toy figures!

When Lucy Locket offered us the chance to review one of their Wooden Biscuit Counting Sets, I jumped at the chance because I thought it would go down well with the children and it didn't disappoint.

The set comes in a small box (15cm x 11cm x 6cm) and contains 10 wooden biscuits (five different types) and one tea cloth. Each piece is made of thick, durable wood, which is smoothed down making it perfect for little hands. I love how bright and colourful they are and they replicate real biscuits. I always fancy a pink wafer when the children are playing with it!

C and E both enjoyed pretending to be having afternoon tea and sharing out their biscuits evenly between them. E can be quite difficult when it comes to sharing but she surprised me when playing with this set. She would even pretend to be baking her biscuits in her toy kitchen then feed them to myself and her daddy. 

Not only do you have the pretend play and sharing aspect, but they soon discovered that each biscuit has a number on the reverse. C is starting primary school and September and has recently been teaching himself how to add numbers together. These have been a great tool for me to assist his learning. E, on the other hand, is a little bit younger so is only just learning about numbers and how to put them in order. She previously would skip a few out but this set has been great for number recognition and I'd often line some up in order then ask her to pass me the number which comes next, making it into a fun game. She does prefer to stack them then knock them all over though! 

I love the attention to detail that has been put into the Wooden Biscuit Counting Set, especially with the different shapes and paintwork of the biscuits. I cannot recommend this set enough as it's been both fun and educational and my children have been playing with in constantly since it arrived.

The Wooden Biscuit Counting Set retails at £16.00. You can find out more about their fantastic toy range at the Lucy Locket website or you can keep up to date on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.) 

 

Look in my Letterbox #81

Eek, I've been such a bad blogger lately. I had fallen into a bit of a slump so I, untentionally, stopped writing the posts I'd regularly write and posts for linkies I'd join up with. I'm vowing to get back into them now so first up is a new Look in my Letterbox! It feels like forever since I've written one so in case you aren't familiar, I literally write about everything that I received in the post that week! I'm quite a nosey person and I know I'm not the only one! Here's what I received last week:

Wins:

Wow Toys & Book

 We absolutely LOVE Wow Toys so I was thrilled to win this in their Twitter giveaway. The book is fab, we have a different themed one already, and love it.

Smurfs bundle

 I won this from Mumsnet on Twitter and was delighted. The kids love the Smurfs and E even wore the Smurf hat for two hours straight when it arrived.

Abeille blanket

 How lovely is this blanket? It is amazing quality and the colour is beautiful.

Signed Steve Backshall books

 I absolutely love Steve Backshall so I may have fangirled a little bit when these arrived - all signed inside too!

 Willow the Pillow

I won this gorgeous pillowcase alongside the Abeille blanket that I showed above. It is beautifully soft and I can't wait to get it on E's bed. It's so cute!

Purchases:

Alternative Press magazine

 Anyone who knows me, knows how much I adore Panic! at the Disco and Brendon Urie. This is an American magazine so after stalking my local newsagents for two months and everywhere being sold out online, I finally got my hands on a copy!

Did you receive anything nice last week?