Thursday, December 31, 2015

+365 - days 361 - 365 :) I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!

Day 361 - Sunday

So I need to stop moaning about my dad - he went out and bought me a laptop - its a late Christmas pressie - I'm in shock its pretty cool although I am not a huge fan of windows 10 and I forgot all ym passwords and stuff.

Thanks dad - positive is the generous daddy :)

Day 362 - Monday

Went to bingo with a my mum and an old friend :) had a good time chatting and playing although we didnt win - had to pay for mum as she was skint so I took £20 with me after paying for bingo and food for us both I had £3 left so had a quick go on the fruit machine and dropped the jackpot of £25 :) happy times.  Called in shaws after dropping my friend home and got new sheets to go with my new bedding, pants for my mum, a bed for the dog and pillow cases and came home with £8 left in cash - deffo a great day :D

Positive - cheap day out, good friends and a bit of shopping what more does a girl need?

Day 363 - Tuesday

Hit the sales today - not for me but for my sis got her a lot of pressies sorted for next year - managed to get lots of really cool stuff including toys for the kids and some nice bits for my nephew and sister and nieces from her too. Hopefully it means she wont be stressing too much about birthdays, easter and xmas as its mostly taken care of - the kids are young enough that they dont want the latest toys and gadgets and I got some really cool stuff for them all including dress up outfits, lego, smellies and clothes :D

Positive - getting my sis sorted well in advance  - even got her wrapping paper and stuff

Day 364 - Wednesday

Took the christmas decs down today - I know its early but our ornaments were taking a beating from the cats! Cleaned through , did the litter trays and a shed load of washing - been busy but good stuff I needed to do. Also popped to Tesco to see if they had anything good in their sale in the evening.Picked up a few bits and pieces.

Today's positive doing rubbish jobs that needed doing which sucks but happy to have gotten them all done

Day 365 - Thursday

So this is the last day of being positive 365 :)

I went out shopping today down Cardiff Bay - got the last of the bits for my sister and some bits for me to put away for the kids for next year. Also got my kitties one of those kitty grooming arches - they had them for £5.99 in the pets world at poundstretcher its a cheaper version of the expensive £19.99 one but they love it - not sure how long it will last but they are deffo some happy kitties which is great :)

The weather is horrendous we are not getting it as bad as some people no flooding or anything just grim wet weather, cold and high winds. My thoughts remain with friends and family in york who are in a very difficult situation with no electricity and flooding and various other warnings in place.

So today's positive is that I made it - I went a whole year being positive.

Tomorrow is the start of 2016 - I hope the new year brings joy, happiness and health to all my friends and family :)

and now I am off for a few cocktails :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sunday, December 27, 2015

+ 365 Days 347 - 360

So another 2 weeks have flown by without me doing anything on the blog!

Excuses are all well and good and I do kinda have some good ones - my uncle has been poorly, I had to collect my father from West Wales and now he is firmly ensconced in m living room and asks me every 5 mins what I am doing - apparently writing my blog is not good enough and lets play cards, talk about world politics or listen to another long winded story about people I dont know from his holidays :/ oh and that small thing of Christmas has happened too!

So this is a quick run down of what I have done :)

Work - we had 12 days of christmas in work for charity with different events each day for just over 2 weeks (the weekend didnt get included), we also had our christmas staff meeting with bring a plate lunch and games and stuff all organised by me phew, then we had christmas lunch in the canteen, breakfast somewhere else, and all manner of other things - in between doing all this and trying to actually get work done before being off for the hols we also had a couple of computer failures - yes our computers were down for half a day and it was chaotic phhht. But work is now finished until 4th of January and I am currently spending my days attempting to sleep til noon (my father isnt playing along with this) and in my pjs eating chocolate!

Social stuff - I've collected my dad and he is here until 3rd of Jan so no peace for me now - he lives alone so he is loud loud loud but not long til he goes on his hols for 2 months! My uncle has been round several times for dinner, I have visited my sisters and spent time with my nieces and nephews. I have done pressie and card runs and visited friends - seriously I need a break from this stuff and some me time lol

Christmas - Christmas day went well - didnt get up until 10am had a ridiculous amount of pressies from the parents every year they seem to try and out do each other - I genuinely got so much that I have had to sort through my clothes and belongings and give loads away to make room for the new stuff! We visited my aunt and uncle (my dads fam) and cousins and spent time making small talk before home to help prep dinner for my uncle and the fam who came round. We dont do christmas dinner we do a hot and cold buffet and let everyone get on with it. We finished off with some board games and chat - my uncle had a couple of whiskies with my dad so I offered to drive him home so he could have a few more and they both seemed to enjoy themselves. Boxing day we did our usual tradition and went out for christmas dinner at a local pub - 3 courses for 11.99 was great - dad picked up the bill for the drinks too and as I was driving him and the uncle had a few bevvies. I spent a few hours sorting through more of my stuff and putting a bunch of it on freecycle. A lady I know contacted me and asked if I had any socks left over to donate to the homeless (I had offered over 55 pairs on freecycle!) so agreed to put some to the side for her along with scarves and gloves - her church along with some other sin the area are open up until march to give the homeless somewhere warm and dry to sleep and they collect things like clothes and smellies for them.

Today (Sunday) I braved driving to our local What shop - I wanted to get some wrapping paper and bits in the sales to put by for next year - got some 10m rolls of quality stuff in red and gold for 45p each and also picked some up for my sister along with cards too for 30p as I know she wouldnt even dream of it and then next year would be stuck. Also got some lovely new butterfly bedding for my bed reduced from £12.99 to £5.99 which I am happy about - bloody cat must have rolled in oil befor e leaping on me bed on Christmas day and the old bedding (less than a year old I might add!) is completely ruined.

So my positives? Fun times in work, Fun times with family and friends, lots of amazing food and drink and tonnes of awesome pressies :D

I also tried entering lots of competitions in the run up to Christmas but havent done any since Christmas eve there's just been too much on and its a bit rude when you have guests to be sat playing on your laptop! I'm going to try and do a couple tonight but I seem to have lost my comping mojo - I normally enjoy comping comping up with silly rhymes and trying to make interesting comments on posts etc to get noticed and of course the fun photos but I found all the advent comps to be really stressful my OCD hated that I wasnt entering every single one but it was impossible! Now it's calmed down I can go back to my usual hour or 3 a night when I am chilling watching tv and enjoy it again!

Also I just realised in 5 days I will have made it to my target of 365 days positive (more or less) so I need to think what I am going to do with the blog. I have struggled to write a post every day due to time contraints rather than not having anything to say lol

My plan for the new year is to try and get fit and lose weight so maybe I will organise the blog around that - will really have to have a think about it :)

Anyways I hope anyone who has taken the time to read this has had a wonderful christmas :)

Friday, December 18, 2015

December wins and freebies :)

Well as it's already the 19th I am a tad late doing this post! real life has certainly kicked in this month!

Anyways as always here is a list of the items I have had for free, won or been sent to review which have arrived in the month of December - some of them will have been won other months but only just arrived!


1. WIN - A whisky wedge glass from prezzybox on twitter - I didnt take a pic as I am giving it to my dad for xmas and have wrapped it oops

2. WIN - a OS calendar from their twitter - again no pic as giving it as a pressie to my dad and have wrapped it

3. WIN - furchester hotel DVD



4. WIN - Nutcracker DVD from SAGA (not sure if twitter or FB as they announce winner across all social media)



5. WIN - personalised treat sack for Lady from Krafty Chix on FB




















6. WIN - Professor Brawnstorm DVD



7. WIN - Barney Thomson DVD from twitter


8. WIN - Cute sparkly eye toy I think its a wolf :) - from KEEL toys FB page



9. FREEBIE - Fabulift for eyes sample



10. WIN - text comp from ASDA / Aquafresh



11. WIN - Part of my carpet right house beautiful prize is a year's subscription to the magazine - this is the first one



12. WIN - Blog win - 2 x board games - Og on the Bog and Logo Lite



13. FREEBIE - cute little freebie from months ago - they were apparently overwhelmed with the response but rather than just not send anything they waited for new stock to come in and sent a little goodybag to everyone - contains 2 pens a lanyard and a guitar pick from diasyrock



14. WIN - from the Ferrero Rocher game on fb - I honestly thought I had won a single sweet - but then this bad boy turned up :D it also has a pack of 2 ferrero rocher inside



15. WIN - Advent win from Essence a lovely set of makeup in my colours - 6 x nail varnish, 2 x lip gloss, 2 x eye shadow palettes, 2 x blush products, eyebrow pen and nail file



16. WIN from Amphibia on FB - it's a ring protector for when you go swimming to stop your rings getting discoloured/damaged



17. WIN - from the Zoflora let it spin game on FB sadly not a top prize this time with them but 2 vouchers for a free bottle of Zoflora which we are happy with



18. FREEBIE - no idea where from but 2 x little tubes of skin sleep



19. WIN - well they were giving away like 500 or so of these on FB - good for a free pizza or calzone up to value of £3.99


20. FREEBIE - seriously if you have cats you should sign up to royal canin I get these vouchers a few times a year - you sign up on their webbie and choose a local stockist and they send you a voucher for a bag of food - as you can see from price tag its worth over £4 and you can try different foods from their range - whatever they have in stock really.

20.



















21. WIN - from Hamley's Cardiff FB page - I won their Monday quiz and this little fella is my prize - had to collect instore in person but sent my mum in so didnt even have to face the crazed xmas shoppers!



22. WIN - In the Night Garden Calendar from their ADVENT - sadly it arrived damaged as the postie allowed it to get soaked but as it's going up in work I am not too bothered



23. WIN - Randomly arrived in the post - set of stamps to use with a stamp block - my aunty is well into making her own cards and stuff so I am gifting this to her to say thanks for looking after the dog for me every time I go away!




24. WIN - From Thorntons on twitter - again I think they are giving out like 1000 boxes of these - mine are going towards christmas :D




25. FREEBIE - nose strips to cleanse your pores



26. WIN - from alive vitamins on twitter :)



27. WIN- from Ancol pet on facebook's advent - a santa toy for Jac - despite the photo he loves this toy



28. WIN - from Krispy Kreme FB game - I didnt actually win this a friend did but she gave me the code (I tried and opened hundreds of boxes each day and didnt win a darn thing!)



29. WIN/FREEBIE - not sure but a bunch of us got sent these innocent smoothie socks :D



30. WIN - Star Wars Mag from Disney on FB



31. WIN - HOOCH Tee from their FB page



32.  WIN - Whisbear from Mybaba blog/page



33. FREEBIE - another sopost freebie :) Candy Crush perfume



34. FREEBIE - another sopost freebie :) full size olay - which is great as the one I haad earlier in the year is running low and its great stuff :D



35. WIN - from superbakes blog :) Cocktail book



36. WIN - cant remember where from which is terrible! an MTV amplifyer case for an iphone - I was slightly gutted with this as it said it woul be a case for a phone of your choice but when I won they gave me a choice of an iphone 5/5c or 6 - which I have none of! my niece does have a 6 tho so i went to her



37. WIN - from BSOS webbie - a reflective vest for Harmony - gotit a size bigger as will be perfect for next year when she starts nursery in the winter :)



Sunday, December 13, 2015

+ 365 days 340 - 346

Day 340 - Monday

So after everything that happened last week my uncle is still unwell - he was taken back to hospital and after examining him they realised the reason he is struggling to breath is due to there being water on his lungs. They have given him medication to remove it so hopefully on the correct meds and with some time he will start to feel better soon

Today's positive is getting a diagnosis that we can work with for him

Day 341 - Tuesday

After work today I sorted through my Christmas pressies - I didn't get so far as wrapping them but I have checked and I have gifts for everyone yay! no more christmas shopping!!!! Most of the pressies I have were bought in the sales or have been won other the last year. I'm not tight or stingy with money but we are a big family and I could never afford to buy everyone as much as I have gotten them if I didnt win stuff or buy things in the sales.

I'm really happy I dont have to do any more pressie shopping - Cardiff city centre is crazy at the moment!

Day 342 - Wednesday

After work tonight I went to bingo - I didnt win sadly but it was nice to get out for a few hours and not worry about family stuff. With my uncle being so sick and my sister being evicted things can be crazy and I spend a lot of time running around after them so it was cool to just chill and not really think about anything. I go to a bingo called club 3000 and it's pretty cheap. I normally spend under £10 when I go and that includes books and dinner. They do some really nice meals all under £5 and I take my own drinks - I can never trust they will have pepsi max available and I cant stand diet coke :)

So today's positive was taking some time out for me - would be nice to say it was winning a few grand but hey ho

Day 343 - Thursday

Tonight my dad came down to stay for a few days. I get on really well with him ordinarily but he is super loud I think it's because he lives on his own most of the time. However one of the nice things about him coming down is he always buys me dinner hehe

Anyways hes only staying til tomorrow night because his friend is collecting him and they are going to meet with some other friends - he will then get dropped back here on Sunday and go home Monday and peace will reign for about a week until he comes down for Christmas.

He is staying with us from around the 20th Dec - 4th January when he flies out to Benidorm for 2 months which he has done every year since he has retired!

so today's positive was a free dinner ha!

Day 344 - Friday

Today in work I started to buy the prizes for the games we will have at out staff meeting - I get everyone to give £1 and then I buy a bunch of prizes which I wrap up - at our staff meeting we play silly games like pin the nose on rudolph and pass the parcel and the winners get prizes its just a way of building team spirit and all that jazz and this is my 3rd year of doing it and everyone seems to really enjoy it :)

Today's positive is doing something positive for someone else in this case for the rest of the staff I work with :)

Day 345 - Saturday

Today I cleaned my room - it had gotten to the point where it was disgusting - I mean seriously there was a clump of hair that the cat had taken out of the bin gathering dust in the corner it was that sick. It took me 3 hours to clean it completely and scrub the floor and stuff and I was so happy when it was done but also super tired too. I didn't end up changing my bedding though so that's a job for tomorrow!

Today's positive - clean room :)

Day 346 - Sunday

Today I sorted through my shoes - it's quite traumatic for me having to g et rid of them but when I can no longer close the cupboard door it's time to get rid. I ended up offering 12 pairs of different shoes on freecycle so I hope someone else will enjoy them and I now have space for my Christmas gifts when I get them to be stored in the cupboard. I really need to sort my makeup and smellies drawer next. Anything opened but still useable will go to freecycle and anything unopened I will donate to the shoe boxes for Christmas for women in homeless shelters

Today's positive is I feel really good about getting rid of my shoes....well I don't because I love them but I know its the right thing to do!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

+ 365 days 326 - 339

So - normally I would break down the individual days for the blog especially when I haven't update in such a long time - 2 weeks! But it's been a crazy 2 weeks and I genuinely can't remember what happened or when so here are the high and low lights:

- My mums pc broke - we are took full on dead to the world there aint no fixing it although I tried! It's been on its way out for ages which is why I ordered her a new tower when I got paid a couple of weeks ago for Christmas. Luckily the new tower arrived the day after it broke - serendipitous no? So she had her pressie early - it took me about 3 hours to set it up with an antivirus and sort out all her accounts and stuff. Its not the best unit ever - it runs windows vista but I dont think she could cope with windows 8 or 10! Its an i3, 1TB HD and 4GB ram and is perfect for what she uses it for i.e. playing candy crush on fb!

- My uncle was taken poorly and rushed to A&R with horribly symptoms - we spent the night there - I tried to tell them it was his blood glucose levels - they were at 4-5 and thats low for him but because they were in the normal range they didnt listen - after nearly 24 hours in hospital the conclusion from the senior doctor? his blood glucose levels were too low and he was slipping into a coma - if they had just given him a spoonful of jam and then a sarnie it could all have been avoided!

- I did ALL my sisters christmas shopping for her - got her pressies (although a lot for the kids I have won through comping!) and majority of her food stuff - all she has left to get is fresh fruit and veggies and some meats. I used her money to do it that I look after for her as if she had the money she would have spent it (in the summer she worked her way through £3000 in like 6 weeks!) - she's not been too well lately physically and emotionally the last year of hell has petty much taken its toll on her and shes covered in a weird rash looks like measles! I've told her to get to the GP ASAP to get checked out.

- My nephew has moved back in with my sister - he isnt able to cope with living by himself but it means that once again shes living in over crowded accommodation!

- My sister's landlord has sold the house she is in but he wont give her anything in writing which means she cant really get re-prioritised on the council waiting list. I have written her a letter for the council telling them that the house is sold along with notices from the estate agents and also telling them they are over-crowded. I suspect she will be evicted shortly after Christmas which isnt going to make for a nice new year :( I have also given her details of somewhere she can ring to try a different council outside of cardiff but close enough to us that it's easy for her to get to us as although its a different council it has properties that are about 5 miles from us (the other side of cardiff is harder to get to!)

- I had to take a day off work sick - I'm pretty sure this puts me over the sick limit and I am going to get pulled up for a formal interview over my sickness. I couldnt go in to work as I was throwing up with a migraine and couldnt even take any painkillers as I threw them up twice which sucked. I really am not looking forward to that but I'm not going to put myself and others at risk by trying to drive to work when I have flickering auras, black spots and slow reactions due to a migraine :(

- My other sister (not the one above) ran someone over on a crossing in the night. The person was okay and didnt even get hit down as my sister was driving slowly. The woman took photos of my sisters car but refused her when she said she would call the police and an ambulance and walked off. She was wearing all dark clothes at night. My sister called the police anyways and they said it sounded like an insurance scam - they had no report but they took the description of the incident and said they had similar reports of a woman with the same description stepping out on the same crossing. My sister was pretty upset over it all.

I am sure plenty of other things have happened too but I just can't remember them - also it's advent and it's my first year as a comper to try them. There are literally hundreds of competitions being run on every site imaginable and I am trying to enter them to win some extra bits for Christmas for the family. Today marks the end of the first week and I have actually won less comps than I would normally so it's not looking too bright but at least it keeps me out of trouble!

Anyhoo, my positives for the last 2 weeks? 1. My uncle's fine, 2. My sister's sorted for Christmas, 3. My mum's sorted with her computer 4. My other sister despite hitting someone looks like its a scam and isnt in trouble or hurt!