Summer is here so I thought it was about time to run another competition. Some of you may be lucky enough to be going on a summer holiday, so to brighten up your travels how about entering this competition to be in with a chance of winning a set of rather stylish cosmetics and wash bags.
Up for grabs this month is 2 sets of PVC print wash bags, worth up to £40*. The set includes a cosmetics bag (measures 21cm wide x 13cm high x 5cm deep at the base), a wash bag (measures 29cm wide x 18.5cm high x 9cm deep at the base ) and a flat zip purse (measures 18.5cm wide x 12cm high). Both the cosmetics bag and the wash bag feature water-resistant lining.
There will be one winner for the UK and one winner from ‘the rest of the world’.
There are five fabulous prints to choose from – how on earth will you decide which is your favourite?
To enter all you have to do is….
1. leave me a comment on this post along with the country you live in
2. …actually….that is all !
No hidden catches
No please buy something from me and I’ll give you a free gift
No link to my blog and I’ll enter you (although if you do blog about this competition let me kow and you’ll get a second entry in the draw)
No shenannigans at all !
If you feel like it have a vote and see which prints other people are loving…
CLOSING DATE for the competition is 31st July 2009
Good Luck !
*please note that in the case of the green floral print and the summer print you will not receive a zip purse as I have run out!! The value of these sets of bags is £35.
It’s time to say goodbye to some very old friends. They have stood by me through many a summer, many a London Underground commute, many a dog walk in the country, most of my pregnancy (the only shoes I could wear by the end as my feet were so swollen) and dare I say it, even child birth (ok, so not actually the pushing bit, just the walking around huffing and puffing bit). I love these shoes to bits and couldn’t do without them – HOWEVER they have definitely seen better days. The sole is completely worn down at the toes and the heels and the strap is starting to crack. I know I can get them repaired but I’m not sure how much of the original shoe would be left by the time the elves had worked their magic!
I am planning for a holiday (not that it will be that warm at the other end) so I finally plucked up the courage to order myself a new pair. When they arrived I was more than shocked, astounded and a little bit embarassed at how filthy the old pair were – they really have gone the distance!
All I need to do now is bin the old pair…..eventually
My baby girl is about 9 months old now and I am loving being a mum. From time to time I find it difficult to juggle looking after her (now that she can crawl at high speed and scale any knee high object in her way) along with a needy dog, a messy house, and a lovely husband ….. and of course a busy business.
Anyway as I have the luxury of working from home I like to take the time to make all the baby food. As I am essentially a rubbish cook with very little creative skills when it comes to cooking I am using a combination of the Annabel Karmel and the Gina Ford books for recipe ideas.
The other night I decided to cook some individual fish pies. They came out of the oven looking great and tasting amazing, but just needed another 5 minutes to fully cook the fish through………30 minutes later this is the result!
I normally dry the washing on top of the AGA (it costs so much to run it doesn’t make sense to use the tumble dryer) but I do get fed up of having washing in the kitchen all the time. Last week it was so windy so I decided to get a rotary washing line.
Well, you can’t have a washing line without a stylish peg bag. I found this fabulous one from Pouch made from vintage fabric…..
…and you can’t have such a great peg bag without some wooden pegs
Needless to say ever since I’ve made my purchases it has rained non stop (it even hailed yesterday)! I’m sure summer is on it’s way
A postcard droped through the letterbox the other day from Business Link West Midlands. Before using it for phone messages (which is what normally happens with post on my desk) I decided to actually read what was printed on it!
Buisness Link are a fabulous free resource for all businesses – and in the current climate, what can be better than a bit of free business advice?
The West Midlands branch of Business Link are offering a number of free events over the course of this month ranging from Time Management to Marketing and Employing People. They also have a range of guides available to download from their web site – surely worth a read?
In the early stages of setting up my business a few years back I had a free consultation with one of their business advisors. It was a great opportunity to talk through my business plan and what sort of formalitites I needed to go through to get me up and running. It was the perfect starting point and I can thoroughly recommend any small business getting in touch with their local Business Link office.
Throughout the month of April I have been running a competition to win a suede doorstop. Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!
First things first….your favourite colour was Green, with 24% of the votes, closely followed by Grey and Red – lovely choices everyone. Green is my favourite too, closely followed by Dark Brown!
Now down to the important stuff – the winners of the competition! Winners were chosen at random from random.org
CONGRATULATIONS to you both and thank you again to everyone who entered. If you are so bitterly dissapointed that you didn’t win and just can’t live without your very own doorstop then drop by one of my outlets (see where to buy at the top of the page)
Well, I am totally gutted. I had been looking forwards to the WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) conference for such a long time. I had babysitting sorted out, business cards ready, postcards printed and a selection of product all packaged up and ready to show at the conference. I was looking forwards to meeting loads of new people and learning some new skills along the way from one of the fabulous talks and workshops.
Just my luck, I came down with what turned out to be a 48 hour bug! Stuck in bed, not going anywhere – gutted. All I can say is that I am relieved that my mother in law was here to look after the baby.
Now, I’m not saying that I ever had a good memory but since I fell pregnant and had a baby my memory is awful. When people say the pregnancy and birth affect your memory I thought they were kidding and it was a convenient excuse for those less organised! Those people were right – I am now so forgetful it drives me up the wall !!!
What is scary is that whilst you are a new mum and suffering (from what I hope is merely temporary) memory lapses you are expected to be responsible and organised enough to remember when you last fed the baby. This is where Hells Bells have a fantastic solution – Milk Mates
Milk Mates are bracelets to help remind you of when you last fed the baby by simply moving the sterling silver charm around the bracelet. I found mine to be completely invaluable and would recommend them to anyone either about to have a baby or someone looking for a great gift for a new mum.
As seen in Pregnancy and Birth magazine
You can buy Milk Mates from the Hells Bells web site in a range of different colours ranging from £9.99.
The team at WiRE have anounced the plans for this year’s conference and I’m quite excited. The event last year was great and I met some really interesting people.
I have a baby sitter organised (I think the mum-in-law is disapointed it’s not an overnight conference!) so I’ll be off to Newport for the day.
This year there are two motivational speakers, including Kavita Oberoi who featured on The Secret Millionaire and a selection of workshops designed to help you grow your business and the opportunity to have a one on one business clinic with an advisor.
All I have to do now is decide which workshop to attend….
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