my main passion... or two or three.....

When I started to really get into blogging I was not sure what I would put here, my life abit hectic with me being interested in so many bits of different things and that is why I wanted this blog to be the one blog where I put everything together, but so far I have only really posted about one thing, and to be honest not a great deal of the real me has been put on here, reviews yes, I adore doing reviews, (hey who doesn't love receiving packages from the postman!) But that aside I have one main passion and thats photos, I love taking them, I love looking at them, I love editing them.


I do not have a fancy camera, a mere point and shoot cannon, which was not very expensive, I have had several other equally inexpensive cameras and it has never stopped me loving capturing the moment, because watching my children grow has been amazing and each stage passes so quickly I have an urge to savour every moment in a still photo, I have literally hundreds of thousands of photographs and each one I love, but each day I take more and the next ones always become my new favourite. I am in no way a professional and nor do I want to be, it is just a passion.




And taking a photo is only half of the fun, I love to edit them, I can spend hours changing them, sometimes just tweaking them ever so slightly, sometimes turning them into something completely new, and it is my mad photo taking that got me into digital scrapbooking, which is quite simply an amazing pass time and one which I have neglected so much recently, well for the past year or so really, and it is something I really would love to throw myself back into and get back on top of the game.


So this post is me, reminding myself of how much I love scrapbooking and reminding myself to make time to do more, and that they too can find there place on here.

K'nex Dinosaur Model Kit - Competition!

We're now into our 3rd month of toyologist toy testing fun! and what an amazing 3 months it has been! We are due our 3rd box of toys to test next week, and along with this I have another great competition for you all!

This month the prize is an amazing K'nex dinosaur model set worth £22.99

"The K'Nex Dinosaurs 20 Model Building Set is packed with 326 parts to build a T-Rex, Brontosaurus, Pterodactyl and more. Then bring them to life with the motion-activated sound brick!"

This would be a lovely gift for any creative little mind.

To enter please popover to the Toys R us UK facebook page, and take a look at the ToyBox app,

which can be found on the left hand menu below their profile pic and contains all the great reviews by the toyologists, once you have taken a look come back here and let me know what you think in a comment below please also tel me your full name or twitter ID so I can contact you, or send me an email to Sarahdazjc@aol.com

I will also offer you an additional entry if you pop over to my facebook page here: This is me - Sarah mum of 3 and say hi :)

The winner will be drawn out of my hat on Monday 19th September at 6pm and I will contact the lucky winner asking for delivery details and a contact telephone number, if I am not provided with these details another winner may be picked.

Competition is open to the UK only

Good Luck

Winner of the Moon Dough Ice Cream

Thanks for all the entries into our Moon Dough Ice Cream Competition with Toys R us uk Toyologist Program

We have once again put all the entrants into a hat and this time my Daughter picked out a winner...

and the Lucky Winner is... Susi Ludlow


I will be contacting you very soon to collect your delivery info

Thanks again and remember to look out for next months competition!

how to spread the joy?

I have been exceptionally lucky this holiday period, what with winning a few competitions, being able to spend my time with those I love most, having a house to live and food to eat, I truly feel so lucky.

We're not ones to want for much, we certainly don't have that much, money is in short supply, but we have always had the view point of that money is one of the least important factors.
Money makes people greedy, nasty and all round horrible. There are things which I just don't want to go into that have changed my view of money forever, and I know that happiness is not about who can buy the greatest gifts or who can claim to have the biggest bank balance. No, happiness comes from something else all together, and only when people realize that do they become happier.

But put that to one side at the moment that is not the reason I started this post, this post is about sharing my joy, winning the competitions I have won really have been amazing, I never thought I would actually win these and the prizes couldn't have come at a better time. I was worrying how I was going to make this Christmas special this year, with not alot of money to buy gifts, and my parents taking a back seat due to them already giving us one of the best gifts they ever could, Jackson. I was starting to think maybe a small scale Christmas was on the cards, my memories as in my previous post, are firmly filled with the magic of Christmas my parents and grandparents went all out each year to ensure our Christmas mornings were filled with in reality far too many gifts, but it made it special, rightly or wrongly the gifts are important to children.
So true to my moto on life, things always do work themselves out, and the competitions have enabled me to hopefully create a great Christmas this year which will hopefully fill the memories of my three children for many many years, but also I have found a new joy in winning these comps, not only was there the thrill of entering, and waiting to see if I had won, there was the joy I felt by someone other than my friends and family giving me a pat on the back for the effort I'd put into making the entries, and there was something else I've gained from these competitions something just as worthy as the prizes themselves.
For they have made me start this blog, this blog which I WILL stick with, that I have been able to write more passionately on than any of my other blogs, this blog means more to me, because I started it hoping to be able to make something more of my prize. and secondly they have enabled me to spread the joy, even if just in a very fractional way. My £200 prize from the Early learning center was more than I could imagine and truly meant the world to me, I however have some very good friends who I know have struggled to give their own children a magical Christmas this year, so I choose to give a small amount to one of my friends to spread my win. I also was able to give 2 gifts to 2 other special families, small as these gifts are, and as relatively un impressive to most, these gifts were only able to be given because I had the luck of winning these competition, otherwise I just wouldn't of been able to as all my spare money always goes on my children.
I still have not been able to buy gifts for everyone who is important to me, actually in honesty some of the most important people to me always fall last on my gift list, because these people understand and don't expect gifts from me, and for that I'm very thankful.
But the true meaning of Christmas surely is giving, and this year I am thankful for the little bit of giving that I have been lucky enough to do, and I hope the gifts I have for my Children and the small token gifts for my friends, spread the joy i have felt since being lucky enough to of won a couple of competitions.
Christmas is also a time where I try and be as charitable as I can, for the past couple of years I have not sent cards out, yes its nice to have a token of good will and a message from friends past and present wishing you well in the coming new year, but these wishes can be spread in other ways, a phone call, an email, or even a visit all mean just as much, if not more to those people close to you, cards do at the end of the day cost a fair bit, the stamps too don't come cheap, and they all get discarded after such a small amount of time. So on request of an amazingly brave friend of mine, who has such a tough year, I donated a small amount instead of buying cards to her chosen charity, and even tho again my gift was small, I know she appreciates it and that is all that matters.

So my point to this post? to encourage everyone to spread their joy, be it in big ways or small, be it by giving gifts or kind words, smiles and hugs, spread the happiness as the holidays will then be happier for everyone.

We're for Dogs!

As you may be aware I have a beautiful boxer puppy, Jackson, who was a surprise birthday and Christmas gift from my parents, after we lost our little dog who we'd shared our lives with for the past 12 years.
Jackson is such a lovely bundle of fun, I have always loved and admired the boxer breed, they seem such a lovely fun loving dog, never having been able to own one myself until now, I am literally head of heels for him.

So with my love of facebook creeping in again I stumbled across the amazing 'we're for dogs' facebook page several months ago, before I acquired Jackson, its a wonderful page of dog lovers, sharing their pictures and stories, run by Pedigree. I can honestly say I have never seen such dedication and enthusiasm by a company before, a lady called Janet is the face of the page, and she does a wonderful job for Pedigree, replying to peoples comments and pictures, helping people with problems and advice. I have been frequently visiting this page now for a while, posting initially my tale of sadness that Dennis my four legged faithful friend had passed away, and then more recently uploading my pictures of Jackson eager to share them with others. The comments on the page always make me smile and the friendliness of others is a real nice change to some other forums and groups.
Then the other day I noticed 'we're for dogs' was running a competition game for their faithful four legged friends owners, to win various treats from Pedigree, they had decided to put on a game where by you could pop in and out of a page to see if a fire was burning and the dog was sleeping next to it, or if the fire was out and a present had been passed down the chimney, a novel little game which was very addictive. unfortunately the poor people at Pedigree had a right job with getting it to function smoothly and in the end they had to withdraw the game, however due to Janet's dedication and sheer effort they still managed to give away hundreds of prizes via their facebook page, and we were one of the lucky ones to receive a pack of Pedigree Schmackos.Which arrived this morning just 2 days after winning them, all neatly wrapped in yellow paper with a red ribbon, and a hand written note to Jackson, theres something nice about a personal touch to things and it just shows how much care and attention the people at Pedigree pay to their job, the whole facebook page is a testament to Pedigree and the people who work for them in the way it shows how they really do care about dogs, so a big thumbs up to pedigree, I will definitely be looking what goodies you have on offer next time I go to the supermarket!

To be gratetful..

Today we received the Toys R us, runner up prize, for their 'have you got what it takes to be a toyologist?' competition, so with wide eyes and grabbing arms I let my three children loose on the big box that had been brought to our door.


take a look at the above picture, a perfect picture of gratefulness right?

Take another look

My two boys from the second I brought in the box, had massive smiles on their faces, their eyes lit up with delight to see what was inside, my daughter however from the second she clapped eyes on the box looked more weary, like she was pre building herself up to be let down, and true to form when we opened the box the boys gasps of delight were obvious, C on the other hand took half a glance n slunk off saying 'there's nothing I like!'



What makes a child grateful, or ungrateful?
I think the anticipation of gifts, (they have asked me everyday since we won the comp when the toyologist toys would come!) but then being faced with the reality of not knowing what was included, was a bit too much for C to comprehend so instead of show delight in something she was not sure of, she choose to not allow herself to be let down.
she instead of being eager to rip of the tape to see what goodies were inside had already decided there must be nothing of interest, that way it didn't matter if there wasn't?

When she turned and said she did not like what was sent, I gave her a stern telling that these were gifts and she should be grateful of them, she sat and watched the boys marvel over the gifts for a few minutes pondering how to react, then soon came around and in that moment I think she perhaps learnt how to be a little more grateful.

And grateful we truly are!

Lucky streak or creative genius?

I have just discovered the wonderful world of facebook competitions!
and am loving every minute of it!

I am a big fan of facebook, I am a fan of several companies pages, as I have noticed they often have really good offers and discount vouchers specifically on their facebook pages with some great discounts and promotions.

As its nearly Christmas and I have three children my mind has been on searching out good bargains to fill Santa's sack, I found my way to the Toys R us facebook page, and noticed they were running a competition to find a new 'toyologist' someone who reviews toys they get sent from Toys R us.

Great!! free toys! what more could you want on the run up to Christmas?

The competition was to write on their facebook wall, with a photo and/or video attached explaining why you would make a good toyologist.

photos! great that sounds like my sort of competition, so I decided to put my own spin on it and made this photo to enter:I watched their facebook wall on and off for the next few days and saw their fan numbers rise by the minute where hundreds of hopefuls were putting in their entry.

Then the end date arrived and to my amazement I received an email from Geoffery the Giraffe stating I was one of the runners up!

The buzz of entering the competition, the anticipation hoping you had won, and then the excitement you feel when your told you have indeed won is amazing, and I was hooked!

I started to look at other facebook pages specifically to see if they had any competitions running, and noticed Early Learning Center had a comp on their facebook page.
Asking people to create a 30 second video bringing the toys to life.
so we went to work and created our entry which you can view here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDQ4ol0HQbU

I was amazed to hear back from ELC saying we had won their competition and they would send us £200 vouchers.