12 days of Christmas advent competition - DAY 4!

These days are flying by aren't they? Christmas day is three weeks away! Three weeks!!

Here, we have some lovely chocolates from Hotel Chocolat for you to win in today's advent competition! Check out my review of Hotel Chocolat here.


12 days of Christmas - day 4 - A Hotel Chocolat Christmas Goody Bag

As always, best of luck!

You're sweet like chocolat - A Hotel Chocolat review

Never have I been more excited than when I received an email from the lovely people from Hotel Chocolat. I mean, what girl wouldn't like the chance to "test" a box of chocolates?

I chose the Sleekster Classic Christmas Selection RRP £23.00.

The box itself is stunning, it made me feel all Christmassy just by looking at it. It would make the perfect gift for someone as it even comes with a little card.

The chocolates were a variety of flavours; from the delicious Milk Bauble, containing milk chocolate, to the melt-in-your-mouth Cranberry Cup. Each chocolate was so exquisite and tasteful, you could tell these were made to taste good!

The only problem I had was that they didn't last very long! Once the kids knew I was hiding a box of chocolates that was it! Of course, being the good mummy that I am, I had to share with them :(

The description of each chocolate is very clear and made it easy for the kids to choose which ones they liked (boo!) and which ones I could have they didn't. Unfortunately, that didn't leave me with many, sob! But, I liked being able to share with the ones I love.

Aside from being awesome at chocolate making, Hotel Chocolat are well known for their support to cocoa communities in Ghana and Saint Lucia. Their own Engaged Ethics program has being running for 8 years and allows benefits to the cocoa communities. I like a company looking out for everyone involved in the process, I wish more would follow suit. You can read more on the Hotel Chocolat story here on the website.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, why not have a browse through the website, there are some fantastic boxes on there, all suitable for gifts. Just make sure you buy extra for yourself too!

Disclaimer: We were sent the chocolates for free to review. However, our opinion is 100% our own. 

12 Days of Christmas! Advent competition - DAY 3!

Day 3 already? Only 22 sleeps until Christmas morning!! Yay!

Today we have a few goodies up for grabs!

Best of luck everyone :)


12 days of Christmas - day 3 - A small bundle of goodies

I need to tell you something.......

This morning, I went without breakfast! :O

As much shock as that may be, it isn't something that's going to make the national papers.

However, whilst I was not eating breakfast and catching up on social media, I came across this video from Tom Daley.




I admire the guy, he's an Olympic Gold medalist for crying out loud, but why did he feel the need to do this?

In the video he says how supportive his mother has been, how some family members were against it - what does it matter what they think?

I struggle to understand the buzz about famous people. Yes they are well known, yes they have more money in the bank than most of us, but, at the end of the day, they are humans too, right? Why do they feel inclined to post tweets, facebook statuses, pictures, videos and the like, about their private life? Because surely, their private life should be exactly that? PRIVATE?!

It annoys me that the news media thinks that we all want to know what colour pants so-and-so is wearing today, who's pregnant, or if Miley Cyrus has poked her tongue out today! Leave them be, let them live their lives.

So far, I have seen nothing but support for Tom Daley. Not many people, famous or not, would do what he's done. But I can imagine there'll be some against it. I wish Tom and his partner the very best for the future!

The one thing I'm certain of though - my daughter will be GUTTED!

Christmas Gifts

In an earlier post I mentioned how difficult I find it to buy for the men in my life. I have to admit, I also find some female relatives impossible to buy for!

Take my mother, for example. I could just imagine her face if I ever tried giving her something to help with either housework or cooking. She only reads one author, Kathy Reichs, and ALWAYS buys any new book as soon as it's on sale. She loves Bones (The TV show) but, if there's no new DVDs out, I'm stuck.

So when Personal Planner contacted me and asked if I would like to review one of their planners, I hoped it was something I could pass on to her.

That wasn't going to happen though! The problem started when I went on to the website.

As you know I am a busy mum of four. You can't see my fridge due to letters, reminder notes, timetables from school. My phone's calendar is full of appointments for all four, I had a diary I kept in my handbag once, that's full! I'm fed up of having pieces of paper with important information on everywhere!

On the website, you can choose and change pretty much every aspect of the planner. I went for a "Large" size and got to work at personalising it. It was so simple to do, no faffing around with things, I added a picture to the front and one to the back of all my mums' grandchildren. Then I had that thought. "This is something I have been looking for ever since I started getting a mountain of letters from school!"

Sorry Mum! This one is mine!

I changed the cover pictures, added birthdays, important dates, changed the themes - it was a breeze!

And the end product? Well, take a look for yourselves!

I absolutely adore my planner! It didn't take long to arrive, about five days. Even though my Mum didn't get this one, I'm ordering her one for Christmas!

Do you like the look of them? Well, I have a competition for you to win one in today's Advent Competition here. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I was sent a Personal Planner for free to review but all views are my own.

12 days of Christmas! Advent competition - DAY 2!

The lovely people at Personal Planner have offered a code for someone to win to create their own fab planner.

Check out my review to see what I thought of it here!

Good luck!



12 days of Christmas - day 2 - win a Personalised Planner!

12 days of Christmas! Advent competition - DAY 1!

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

As many of you climb into the attic or loft, dig deep in the garage or shed, or just go and buy new decorations to put up today, why not take a five minute break and enter this fantastic competition?

I will be adding 12 competitions in the next 12 days. This is the first.

The Dog Doo Dahs is a really great website with a range of cards to suit your fancy.


12 days of Christmas - day 1 - win 1 of 5 personalised cards from TheDogsDoodahs.com!