First things first – I got so excited yesterday telling you about the prize, that I forget to tell you who won the waffle blanket! Oopps. Today then I get to announce two winners, so big claps please for Ashley Highmore and Jackie Foster, winners of the blanket and the elephant toy. Congratulations ladies!

And now, on to today’s competition.

We’ve had a few things for your baby already, so we thought it was about time we had something for the mummies. So, today we’ve got a very glam purse from Mia Tui to giveaway – without the money in I’m afraid.

This is the red one, (my favourite), but there are lots of other available, so you can choose your own colour. Mia Tui are very generously including an i-phone purse too, which we think would make a lovely present if you don’t have an i-phone yourself.

To enter, leave a comment on this post, telling us what one thing, apart from your purse, keys and phone, you couldn’t do without in your handbag. Good luck!

Don’t forget – today is the last day you can shop with our fantastic 20% off everything. Yep, that’s 20% off absolutely everything! Everything on the Cuddledry website of course. Not everything in the world. That would be weird. To claim your super dooper discount just enter the code PRESENT20 at the checkout.

Read the full competition rules here.

Here we are at last, the day you’ve all been waiting for, the first day of our fantastic advent competition!

*pause for cheering and whooping*

And we’re starting today with one of my favourite prizes of the lot, a gorgeous overnight bag from Pink Lining. Pink Lining do a really beautiful range of baby changing bags, but I really loved this overnight bag, with the cute pyjama picture.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment, telling us about your advent calendars – are you a chocolate person? Do your kids have one each or do they have to share? Or maybe you have a funky lego one? We want to know!

Good luck!

If you’re interested, we do have a few competition rules. Once you’re done entering, you might want to have a look at our colour changing bath mat. We think it’s pretty cool.

Throughout December, all the way through until Christmas Eve, we’re going to be giving away a heap of lovely prizes, so we thought we should have a few rules. Not many, but just enough to make sure no one gets trampled in all the excitement.

• Entries must be made as specified in the daily competition post. Please don’t send answers on a postcard.
• Each competition closes at midnight, and a winner will be chosen at random and notified the following day.
• Prizes can only be posted within the UK, so if you’re in Australia and just have to enter, you’ll need to arrange to have your prize shipped to a helpful cousin in Leeds.
• You can’t enter if you work for Cuddledry (damn), or if you are one of our husbands. You’re not allowed to enter competitions in partnership with any other companies you might work for.
• The judge’s decision is final. (That’s me).
• The prize is the prize, so please don’t ask to swap for cash/a holiday/new car.
• No running, spitting or swearing.

I think that’s it! Good luck everyone, and Happy Christmas!

Last weekend saw 17,000 women (and quite a lot of men I have to say!) take part in the 9th Moonwalk in London to raise money for, and awareness of, breast cancer. Breast Cancer will almost certainly effect someone you know in your life and therefore effects us all. Last weekend the Cuddledry founders, Helen and I, and a team of very special friends who have all known each other for 20 years, finished that marathon and raised over £5000 towards fighting breast cancer – well done us! One of those friends of ours is a mum living with breast cancer and is an inspiration to us all. She is one of the several thousand amazing mums, sisters and daughters living with breast cancer who completed that walk. Other amazing mums on that walk included another friend of ours who is currently living a single mums life while her hubby earns a living on the other side of the world – she looked after 3 children all day, then put on her trainers and walked 26.2 miles throughout the entire night, then came home – stiff, tired and in pain – and looked after her 3 young demanding children all day again. So let’s hear it for all the other mums who regularly work all day and all night to achieve great things for their family and friends, relentlessly putting other people first and dealing with their own needs last, if ever. There are so many wonderful women out there who achieve such great things against all odds, I wanted to highlight them and also to highlight the Moonwalk itself. Comic Relief, with it’s massive PR machine and weeks of build up – raises £30million – which is brilliant. The Moonwalk is something not everyone has even heard of – and yet in one night without anything like the same promotion, it raised over £9million last year. Fingers crossed it raises over £10million this year. And if anyone fancies a last minute sponsorship – here’s the link!

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/Helen_Wooldridge

When my first daughter was born I had great intentions. I diligently recorded the date of her first smile in her Red Book, and when I watched her take her first steps I’m pretty sure I believed that moment would be etched on my mind forever.

It didn’t.

To be honest, I can barely remember what I cooked for tea today, and by the time I was on to baby number two I had given up completely.

Of course all those years ago, when my eldest, now nearly 16, was born, I didn’t even have a computer, let alone the internet. Her birth story and contraction times are recorded in a small Peter Rabbit notebook. The height of sophisticated technology. Now though, it seems mums everywhere, me included, are spending more and more of their time online, talking to other parents, sharing happy moments from family life. Read the rest of this entry »

Irresponsibility is a MUST HAVE for anyone wanting to keep their sanity,and their sense of humour, during these years of having a young family, school runs and after school activities/taxi service, businesses to run, meetings to attend, houses to clean, dinners to cook and chores to complete.

For years beforehand we were told to “grow up”, “behave” and “you must learn to be responsible”. But it’s all a bit of a stressful, boring weight to carry around all the time, and all work and no play makes mummy a dull girl.

So I say that a weekend away from all those responsibilities is essential for any upstanding mummy. I have just reached the almighty milestone that is 40 years old. And I’m happy with that. No issues there whatsoever. BUT, to celebrate, my husband (and the husband of a dear friend who also shared the same celebration – and obviously the same friends!!!) organised for our very best friends (26 of us) to join us for a weekend away staying at a fabulous house. There was only one stipulation – NO CHILDREN.

Now I realise that it’s not easy for anyone to escape for an evening away, let alone a whole weekend, but the effort that is required to organise such childcare is a snip in comparison to the rewards your soul will reap, and ultimately your children will benefit from a happy parent, and anyone else too who comes into contact with you. Right now, I am on top of the world – I don’t think I’ll come down for another week at least. I can’t stop laughing. Outloud. To myself. I know I’m a nicer person than the grumpy stressed person I was before taking time out to be me again.

We paid for our childcare, but even the additional financial dent would not put me off doing it again, and again and again. So if you’ve got a mum, dad, aunt, neighbour, friend - anyone you trust – to help out and allow you to take some time for yourself, you will discover that underneath the outer responsible “mummy” layer, there lurks someone 20 years younger, someone who still thinks they can sing in tune down a hairbrush with great gusto, someone who can still breakdance (well – still trying to breakdance), and someone who has NO RESPONSIBILITY, and does not care whether it’s midnight, 3am or even 5am, because who needs to get up? Apart from to fix you and your hubby a life-giving cup of tea and bacon sandwich at 11.30am (nah – they still don’t get up before you).

The last weekend has given me a rush of youth, energy, joie de vie, call it what you will, and I know I’m a better person for my children to be around, my husband and people I see on a daily basis. I’m happy to play jigsaw puzzles when there is a mountiain of laundry to do, happy to cuddle on the sofa and watch a movie when there is a pile of plates to wash, and happy to walk the dog when there are 60 emails waiting my attention at work , and THAT should be how life is more of the time. Next time I won’t leave it nine months before allowing myself a night out and a lie in.

So what are you doing next weekend?

Do we fancy winning one of the new Cosmopolitan blog awards…

Hmm…

Do we ever!

Which is why we are asking nicely…ok begging…for you to nominate us in the ‘Lifestyle’ category now! It takes no time at all, and you don’t even need to fill in any tiresome name, address, or email info about yourself.

I know our blog is only little and new, and I’m sure there are going to be hundreds of fabulous entries, but it would still be lovely to be nominated. So if you’ve ever enjoyed a post, or think we have anything vaguely useful or interesting to say, please think about voting for us.

Pretty please. With a cherry on the top.

Thank you!

x x

You may remember last week we introduced our new guest blogger, Kayleigh, and I promised Kayleigh would keep us updated on her new life with baby Nathan. Well, as promised, Kayleigh is back today, to tell us all about the first week with her new baby…

Day eight and we finally arrived home. We walked through our front door with my hospital bags and Nathan who was looking very tiny and “squishy” in his car seat, put him down then stood there terrified and wondering “What on earth do we do now???” It was all new and scary so we opted for the good old English cup of tea before deciding what to do next.

We were in hospital for so long because Nathan lost 15% of his birth weight due to feeding problems and had issues with his temperature. I never imagined breastfeeding would be so hard! My antenatal classes made me believe that after the birth we’d have skin to skin contact, my baby would route around, find the nipple, feed and we’d live happily ever after.

Read the rest of this entry »