Silver Spoon Coloured Icing

To conclude a fabulous January, today I received a surprise win in the post - a pack of Silver Spoon Coloured Icing. Never used roll-on icing before, hopefully it will look a lot neater than my usual efforts!

Value: £2.44
2013 Total: £141.48

Jenning's Queen Bee Apron

A runner prize from a competition Jenning's Brewery are running all of this year - a Queen Bee Apron! The bee is actually quite cute and the apron seems good quality.

Value: Doesn't seem to be in their online shop (they're probably trying to get rid of old stock!) but their clothing costs around £11 on average...but I'll say £5 to be on the safe side.
2013 Total: £139.04

Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector

A nice blog win from before Christmas - Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector (a moisturiser, basically) This stuff has had rave reviews and I can see why - my hands have been so chapped this time of year, I put some of this on them and they STILL soft days later! The cream is quite thick as well so a little goes a long way. The only downside to it is the funny smell - it's kind of weird and earthy. Worth putting up with for the soft skin though I think! :)

Value: £10.00
2013 Total: £134.04

Shrek the Musical Ears

These were a runner-up prize in a competition. Not a lot I can say about them. They are green. They are furry. Lol.

Value: I was going to say 10p until I saw people were happily paying £3-4 on ebay for them!
2013 Total: £124.04

Bottle of Stoli Citros

A nice win from the Stoli advent calendar - a bottle of Citros (lemon-lime) flavour Stoli vodka. I haven't tried it yet but the bottle is pretty XD

Value: £17.50
2013 Total: £121.04

SWELL travel haircare set

SWELL are launching a new 'advanced root nutrient complex' hair product. They were signing people up to be VIPs, with 500 VIPs selected each week to receive some samples to try. I was picked this week and received a travel-sized set of shampoo, conditioner and spray. I've used them yesterday and today, and can't say I'm particularly blown away by the results.

The product is supposed to give volume to limp and fine hair amongst other things, but I don't think it has made a huge amount of difference to me. I think perhaps my hair is a little bigger and softer, but nothing so spectacular that would justify buying it on a regular basis. Also, the shampoo really smells like a bad cocktail I had on holiday once!

Value: £19.00 according to the winning email they sent!
2013 Total: £103.54

Burn Mark by Laura Powell

Another book! I won this via a blog competition back in October but it's finally here :) Another one to update when I get round to reading it.

Value: £6.29
2013 Total: £84.54

Update: I was kind of disappointed with this book. The premise seemed so good: witches yay - inquisition (government organisation to keep them in order), yay. If the book had stuck to just that it could have been excellent. For some reason the author decided to throw in some covens/mafia type people and that's where things got sort of confusing. Partly because I lost interest and stopped paying attention so I lost track of what was going on, and partly because everything was a bit rushed and there were too many characters involved/mentioned which didn't help.
Glory's character I found to be quite unlikeable as well, and I would have been quite happy to read a whole story about Luke instead. I was also disappointed by how misleading the blurb was - there was a very distinct lack of love story between the two characters which gives it another thumbs down from me.

Weight Watcher's Simply Enjoy Cookbook

I've recently switched networks to o2 which means I now get o2 priority moments, and I am LOVING them!

Today I picked up a free book from W H Smith - "Weight Watcher's Simply Enjoy" recipe book, RRP £18.99! (Although it is on sale, maybe they're trying to get rid of it! :D)
It's a really nice big book, filled with lots of recipes that look quite simple to make. Looking forward to trying some!

Value: £6.99 at sale price
2013 Total: £78.25

She Rises by Kate Worsley

My second win from Waterstones - an advanced copy of 'She Rises' by Kate Worsley. With competitions and christmas I am getting quite a back log of books to get through!

Looks quite interesting, will update when I've read it :)

Value: £10.39
2013 Total: £71.26



Update: So I just finished reading this one. Overall I'd have to say...it's ok, but not great. It took a very long time to get going, made worse by the fact that the characters are kind of...drippy. Louise lacks any kind of personality (especially at the beginning), and Luke spends most of his time walking around "feeling scared." And that's about it. It does improve around the half way point when events start to pick up, but then is let down again by an unsatisfying conclusion. The way the two plots are intertwined is quite interesting, so I would say it is worth reading if you have some spare time and a bit of patience.

Campo Viejo wine

This is another win that's taking a while to appear - a bottle of Campo Viejo wine. It came very nicely packaged in a nice bottle holder.. tubthing. Will update once I've given it a try! ;)

Value: £8.89
2013 Total: £60.87

Total Recall Blu-Ray

I entered this competition a little preemptively seeing as I do not own a blu-ray player - but I will win one someday!
My boyfriend has a player though and we both want to see this film so not a problem anyway :)

Value: £14.99
2013 Total: £51.98

Update: I watched this the other day, I thought it was alright but I wasn't blown away - the plot was a bit weak and I think overall it was a bit of a 'boys' film - too many explosions and I got bored!

Brother's Goodies

These were all won during the Brother's Cider Advent Calendar. I mainly entered for the t-shirt. Which I did not win. So that is sad. Anyway, I did win:

1 x Brother's Flag (It's HUGE!)
1 x Brother's Lanyard (With bottle opener, quite useful)
1 x Brother's Drawstring Bag
1 x Brother's Badge

Value: My first made-up value of the year, I'll just say £1.
2013 Total: £36.99

Excuse the terrible picture -the flag was a beast to photograph! :)

Weird Fish Caps

Two wins from a Weird Fish pass the parcel game that I've been waiting for for a while! 2 caps - one blue and one beige. They are quite nice and good quality, although a little manly for me I think? :D

Value: £12.00 each (£24 total)
2013 Total: £35.99

Pump it Up! CD

I'm starting to think the postman hates me. I've got so many things that I won in December that I am still waiting to arrive!

Anyway, this is my first win of January so I suppose it is fitting that it is also my first post :) A copy of Ministry of Sound: Pump it Up CD. I'm actually really pleased with this win, it's not the kind of thing I would buy for myself but it does have some great tracks across the 3 CDs - a mixture of current chart music and some older club classics!

Value: £11.99
2013 Total: £11.99