Glossybox

I was recently one of the lucky winners of a previous Glossybox from a competition run on BooandMe which excited me as I've seen some of the rave reviews about these boxes and have been thinking that they look really fun to get. Well today the postman brought me this:

Ohhhh so I was pretty excited when I got my hands on this, it does look very pretty doesn't it :-) So I carefully opened the box using the ripper along the front and this was revealed:

It's very pretty and girlie isn't it but yes I know, it's just a box, well, removing the beautiful pink box from the one it was delivered in I teased off the lid to find:

Still very pretty and girlie isn't it :-) the card on one side explains the philosophy behind the box that you have received and on the other side is a list of the products which are included along with discount codes for you to use when purchasing the items, note though that the codes have a short use date on them, the box I received was the August 2011 box and the codes use by dates were mostly for the end of August/early September.

Anyway back to the unwrapping of my first glossybox:

Hmmm, was I disappointed? you bet I was, it's not the amazing gift box of products that reviewers I've seen gush about but still, I thought I should dig further and see what's in there:

1) Murad Time release Blemish Cleanser
2) Ahava Mineral Body Lotion
3) Daniel Sandler Jumbo Jet Mascara
4) KMS California Hairspray style boost
5) Rebel Nails Nail Wraps

Yes all present and correct but I still felt after all the wonder and excitement that had been built by the packaging that I'd been let down by what was inside, basically hairspray (who doesn't have this already?), Mascara (Oh come on, do you know how many thousands are given away as freebies each year? I think I've won most of them!), Body lotion (check, loads of this too, wouldn't be without it!) Cleanser (Ummmmm OK, seeing a theme here, it's all the essentials that you buy regularly but by brands you might not have heard of nor can afford normally!) and finally Nail wraps (possibly the most interesting product to me, well, they might have been if they weren't NEON PINK!)

So I guess my conclusion is that these boxes are probably good for someone, maybe younger women with more money than sense (but who has that these days??) the sample sizes are good I admit that but come on, for £10 plus P&P each month to feel let down? I think I'll stick to my regular brands ..... and enter a few more competitions to try and win some treats!

Should you be interested in purchasing your very own Glossybox, further information can be found on their website http://www.glossybox.co.uk/

Chewits Xtreme!

I was sent these sweets this week from the Chewits Xtreme Facebook page as I won a competition with them. I actually won a copy of Dirt3 for the PS3 and they very nicely sent a pack of each sweet along with it. I know many of my friends have an interest in sweets and so I thought I would review these and let you know what Dave and I thought of them.


Each stick has 6 sweets in it and for those of us on diets and those watching what you eat, here is the information on the pack, where numbers are missing, they were not available

Nutritional Information

	Per 100g	Per Pack (%GDA)
Energy KJ	1620
Energy Kcal	380	125 - (6.3%)
Protein	0.2g
Carbohydrates	85.5g
Sugar	48g	16g - (18%)
Fat	3.0g	1.0g - (1.4%)
Saturates	1.9g	0.6g - (3.0%)
Sodium	0.1g	NIL - (0%)

So I'm guessing now you'd like to know more about the sweets themselves? (I took the photo's with a 2p in them to show the size of the sweets as they are different to normal Chewits, at least they were last time I had them!)

Sour Apple

When you take a sweet from the wrapper there is very little scent, after pulling on it I found there was a very delicate appley smell that developed which was good. I found them to be very soft and squidgey and this did translate over to when chewing them, they have a lovely chewy texture, very smooth.

But the flavour? Oh WOW they live up to their name, when it first hit my tongue I was assaulted by waves of citric acid which made my eye's water with how sour the sweet tasted. There is very little apple flavour but what there is is reminiscent of a granny smith. 

Sour Tutti Fruiti

When I unwrapped this one I could not find any smell on it, no matter how much I warmed it and it was also a bit harder texturally than the apple one. That being said, the hit from it when it hit your tongue was exactly the same cheek pulling sourness. After the initial hit I detected quite an unpleasant (to me) flavour in the sweet, I asked Dave what he tasted and he said "Rhubarb" which explained everything as I cannot stand the stuff but this sweet has a good amount of flavouring in it so it's easy to taste around the vast quantities of citric acid.

This warning comes alongside the sweets and I would have to agree, they really do live up to the advertising as being incredibly sour and if that's not for you then I would advise not to try these at all (but do make sure to dare others to have them who haven't read up about them!lol)

In conclusion, I have to say both Dave and I enjoyed the Sour Apple ones very much, they were by far our favourite version and we would continue to purchase these. The Tutti Fruiti ones are very good as well and I would say to those who love sour sweets to try both and see which you like :-)

NZXT H2 Vs Phantom

I recently became the lucky owner of both of these beautiful PC cases through some competitions I entered and won. The silvery fronted case on the left is the NZXT H2 in white (also available in Black) and the larger white case with red stripes on the right is the Limited Edition version of the NZXT Phantom (also available in Red, White and Black)

After receiving them both I thought I'd write about them on here incase you need a new case at some point as I really would recommend investing in one of these NZXT ones as they really are great for the prices (the H2 retails around £83 and the phantom around £105) and for more information on NZXT please visit their website here.

Here's the essential bits that you'd need to know about each case:.

Case Specs

	H2	Phantom
Case Type	Mid Tower Steel	Full Tower Steel
Dimensions (WxHxD)	215 x 466 X 520 mm	222 x 540 X 623 mm
Weight	8.9 kg	11 kg
Motherboard Support	ATX Baby AT Micro ATX	ATX Baby AT E-ATX Micro ATX
Internal Bays	8 INTERNAL 3.5"/2.5"	7 INTERNAL 3.5"/2.5"
External Bays	3 EXTERNAL 5.25"	5 EXTERNAL 5.25"
Fan Bays	4 x 120mm 1 x 140mm	3 x 120mm 1 x 140mm 2 x 200mm
Ports	1 x eSATA 1 x Headphone 1 x Mic In 3 x USB 2.0 1 x USB 3.0	1 x eSATA 1 x Headphone 1 x Mic In 2 x USB 2.0

Just looking at the image of the two cases I have to say the Phantom would have been my first choice of case and it is my favourite from the look of them BUT the H2 has a USB 3.0 port and the hot-swap HDD drive bay both of which are really attractive features.

We finally settled how to use these cases by deciding that the current PC will take up residence in the H2 in a few weeks time and the Phantom will be kept by for Dave's 40th. He didn't know what he wanted until I received these cases but now he's decided that he'd like to build another PC, a really high spec one with 3D and that he would be able to use to work on (believe me, it'll need to be really good for his work!lol) So this case will be the start of it, I'm going to be getting him a few bits for his Birthday towards it as well and hopefully others will too. It's good to see him excited over something and he really is over building this PC :-)

My journey into comping!

I’m trying to win an iPad 2 in the iSave, iWrite, iPad competition from PlayPennies.com!

Five or six years ago I became aware that some companies online gave out freebies, mostly small samples of their product for us to try before we buy. I joined a website that used to collate all the freebies and had a lot of fun there, made some friends and received quite a few things through the post. After a while there one of the friends I'd made told me about sites that list online competitions and I was curious, I'd been doing the weekly magazines for years and only ever won a set of make up brushes from Take A Break many many years ago! So off I trotted to the Competitions Time forum on MoneySavingExpert.com, to say I was shocked and totally overwhelmed would be an understatement! There were so many companies offering prizes ranging from stationery and promotional materials to houses, cars and even a boat!

So I had a look around and read some of the posts and started entering a few each day, a couple of weeks later I found an email from one of the magazine's online websites saying I'd won a prize from them (a pet poets calendar and book) I was amazed at how easy it was and started to enter a few more. Before long I was spending hours and hours online each day entering competitions but the wins kept coming, sometimes I'd have an email or telephone call telling me I'd won something but other times things would just appear in the post. It felt like Christmas most days when the postman delivered and I found myself getting more and more hooked as the more hours I put in the more things I won.

 At first I won things for us, then I started winning the Christmas and Birthday gifts for our family and friends, they knew how we'd got the gifts and seemed to be happy with them as everyone was getting much better gifts than we could have afforded to get them by buying them. This year has been more difficult so far though, a lot of people have started comping recently, some see it as a quick and easy way to make money when they see people winning lots of things and if you're lucky it can be but it can also be a lot of hard work, the trick to it is to not mind, to hope you will win something but to not rely on it and to make friends within whichever community you are a member of, seeing a friend win something when you have had a dry spell really does help keep you going and hoping for the comping fairy to smile down on you again.

I view my wins as all bonuses, lovely little surprises that turn up every so often and you can see how my winning has been going on my Kims Wins blog if you're curious. I've also just recently helped my Fiance's Sister's fundraising efforts by donating some of the things I'd won to top up her sponsorship when she ran the London Marathon and if you would like to sponsor her she's also doing both the Great North Run and Great South Run later this year for the Guide Dogs her sponsorship page is here.

So after hearing all that you probably want to know how come this is money saving, right? Well, in the past 3 years I haven't had to buy any toiletries as I've won loads, far too many for one woman, but they make great gifts don't they ;-) I've won things that we would have purchased anyway (a TV, Wii & Sainsbury's Vouchers) And I have a mountain of laundry detergent which I'm working through still not to mention all the cereal and just don't get me started on iPods, I think everyone we know has one of them now!lol I even won the Slimfast that I've been using to help me lose weight! So if you have a few spare moments I'd say try out a few, the only competition you really cant win is the one you don't enter ;-)

Those in Peril By Wilbur Smith - WINNER

Thank you very much to those who entered my giveaway here, I have just entered all the names into a random generator and here is the winning selection: (all names were added it only shows 6 but the double entries were there)

Congratulations Tracey! I will be in touch shortly to get your address from you to send off your book (and maybe a little something else too!lol)

White envelopes we like!

What a way to start the weekend that was! When I collected the post Saturday morning I saw this

Now we all know instinctively what this means and I was so excited opening it and after flipping the envelope open I could see the top of what was unmistakeably a cheque poking out of it. Reading the accompanying letter I discovered the £100 was for winning a su-doku prize from one of their weekly issues :-) So that's a little bit more to add to the house fund, not much I know but it all helps :-)


The diet's still going well, I've lost another lb this week so I'm back on track again after my birthday. We're seeing a lot of family and friends at the end of this month that we haven't seen for a good few months and I have to say I'm a little nervous about it! They all know we're dieting so I'm wondering if they'll notice the loss and if they say they have ....... will they just be saying it as it's what you say when you know someones on a diet! Oh the joys of being paranoid!lol

Oops!lol

Well, I know I'm late again with my weight loss update but (as I expected) I put on a lb this week, it was my birthday though and the cake and wine were well worth it ;-)

A few of us seem to have lost our luck recently, it's a shame when that happens and it can make it hard for some people to keep going with the entries when there is so little return but thankfully I have some wonderful friends online and we all keep each other going when times are lean because these times do happen, they don't last forever, you just have to try and keep going for as long as you can and hope that the tide turns again :-)

Hopefully one day soon the comping fairy will be spotted headed our way again though and she'll smile down on us all :-D

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WooHoo .......... Bingo that is ;-)

Yes I'm one of those women who enjoy a good game of Bingo but over the years I have tried to keep my habit firmly under control as I have very, very little luck with this game, my love is very definitely unrequited!

Now I've found a great way to feed my love for the game without breaking my bank and it's all thanks to WooHoo Bingo (http://www.woohoobingo.com) It's a free bingo site which also has prizes, you play with points that get topped up each day and you can earn more points by participating in a variety of challenges around the site and also on Facebook.

The CM's are great, very helpful and run chat games very often for points which you can either take yourself or donate to someone else who might be running low at that time. Quite often the players do donate, it's a very friendly easy going place to hang around if you have some spare time or just enjoy the feeling of online bingo but maybe like me just aren't one of the lucky ones who either win enough to be able to pay for it or can afford to pay for it anyway.

Alongside winning more points on a lot of the games you can also win stars, Bronze, Silver and Gold ones. You can trade up Bronze for Silver and Silver for Gold once you have enough and these in turn can be traded back for more points to play with or if you're very patient and let them build up there are also vouchers, subscriptions and hampers on offer right now.

The above image shows so much easier how the whole system works on there just have lots of fun, I am and I can see a lot of my friends are starting to as well since it was mentioned earlier today, it's really good to see some friendly faces in the rooms although the people in there are really friendly anyway.

So what are you waiting for, get over to http://www.woohoobingo.com now, it's free to register and you could be playing (and winning) in a few minutes time instead of still being sat there thinking about it ;-)

Shopping for Free!

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to win a £200 shopping voucher, it took a while to sort out between them getting lost in the post and address problems but it turned up a few weeks ago. £200 to spend at the West Quay shopping centre in Southampton ..... YAY!

My first thought was to treat myself to a 3DS when they come out but after hearing so many negative points about them recently I've decided against that for now (but I really wouldn't complain if I won one!lol) so instead I decided to get a DSi XL, I looked at which shops have a branch at West Quay and priced the console up and today off we went. After buying the console and game bits that I wanted there was a tiny bit left so I also got a nice new pair of slippers as well

Shopping is so much more fun when someone else has paid for it for you :-D

Diet Update & the PS3 move!

I just noticed I haven't reported in this week on my progress well, it's another 2lbs gone so I'm really happy with that :-D

We've also recently received the move system for the PS3, I had assumed it would be much like the Wii and can be playing sat down without much activity needed for most of the games, I was so wrong!

You have to line yourself up with the camera to play and it tells you off if you go out of vision, yes, you can be lazy with it but it is so much fun and I found I got quite competitive when playing against Dave. I'm mostly playing Sports Champions at the moment, I'm getting quite good at archery and the gladiator battles are really good fun.

I used to enjoy games like Street fighter before controllers got more buttons than I have fingers to use them and this takes me back to that but it's better as you use 2 controllers, one as your shield and the other as a sword/club. It makes controlling the character very easy and makes you so much more involved when you see your character doing what you do, I can see it being good therapy against bad moods too ;-)

My little hobby

A couple of weeks ago I finally agreed to a challenge for this year, most of the ones that were being proposed around weren't ones I really wanted to get involved in, I don't like to make a list of things I want to win, there are things I'd love to win but I really don't want to tempt fate!lol So I agreed to one a friend suggested on her blog and I set myself the hardest challenge of a win a day for the year so this year I need to win 365 competitions and they all have to be items I want as well, no entering for tickets for things I'd never go to then just because they're giving away thousands of them!lol

 It's going OK so far, up until a week ago a was behind by quite a few days but it's picked up a little and now I'm just about there and my lists can be found here if anyone is interested :-)

The other bit of good news is my weight, another 1lb lost, I know it's not much but it's better than a gain so I'm happy with it and now I have a target to work towards, we've been invited to a family wedding in the summer and I'd really like to be noticeably thinner by then, well, either that or behind the camera anyway!lol

Why we stalk the postie!

I know stalking someone sounds like a bad idea but when you enter competitions its a part of your day when you're at home, keeping an eye out for him, knowing his routine and hoping each day that he will bring you a lovely surprise!
Today I have a prime example of why we do this, for the third time in 4 years of comping I had a sackfull delivered:

 Unfortunately this time only the 3 on the right are for me, the others are for Dave from Amazon but it was still so exciting seeing that pink sack make it's way to the door even though I did suspect what it might contain!lol