threelilprincesses.com

Category: Reviews and Giveaways

  • WIN: Aussie Giveaway Linkup and winner’s secrets

    WIN: Aussie Giveaway Linkup and winner’s secrets

    Yay! You're a winner!

    WHEN I announced I wasn’t a lucky person during last week’s Aussie Giveaway Linkup and then proceeded to talk about all the prizes I’d won, it made me realise I really have been blessed. I guess it happened during a small space of time, when Princess Ella was just a bub. I had time on my hands, because she slept so much during the day, that the 25 words or less competitions nearly became my full-time occupation.

    So I thought over the next few weeks, as the gorgeous Tina from tinagray {dot} me and I co-host this linky, I’d offer up some of the entries that scored me all that loot. You can visit The Inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup to see some of the huge prizes I won.

    I also have to correct myself from last week. I said I’d won two $1000 Prepaid Visa cards. But, I actually won two $2000 cards. Now I sound even greedier. This is how I won one of them (under The Bloke in The Shed’s name, but with his permission, I might add). It was to state in 25 words or less what you’d spend the money on at the competition host’s venue.

    “Fendi dresses with beautiful sashes, Mac mascara for my wife’s eyelashes, Gucci watches and Destiny rings. These are a few of my `must purchase’ things.’’

    Easy. Much easier is winning something in the below link up though. So get clicking!

    If you’re a blogger wanting to take part in the Aussie Giveaway Linkup:

    1. Only link directly to the giveaway post/s and include the prize and end date in the linky tool below. Link each giveaway separately.
    2. Giveaways must be open to Australian residents. 
    3. Grab the button to add to your post.
    4. A new list is added each Sunday so bloggers need to add their links weekly. 
    5. Start entering the giveaways!

    What are your tips for winning competitions?

    As mentioned, this linkup is a combined project with the wonderful Tina Gray, so pop on over and say hi to her. You can link up your giveaway on either of our sites – it all goes into the one linky.



    Aussie Giveaway Linky
    Hosted by Three Lil Princesses and Tina Gray {dot} Me



  • WIN: Raggs DVD and CD (review and giveaway)

    WIN: Raggs DVD and CD (review and giveaway)

    GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. See the end of the post for the winner.

    IF YOU visited the blog yesterday, you would have seen the rock star that kindly offered up an interview.

    Yes, that’s Raggs, from the live action and animated TV show of the same name and rockin’ Kids Club Band. It’s fair to say, our surprise interview caused quite a few giggles.

    Raggs is a pretty familiar character in our household, thanks to previously being part of our afternoon TV schedule. It’s returning to TV on Boomerang and 7TWO, by the way. He’s also familiar to our car, maybe a little too familiar. Although, Tutti Fruity Baby is a rather fine song!

    Three-year-old Ella didn’t sit still too long when we popped in the new batch of Raggs episodes from the Move Your Tails! DVD, promptly standing up, putting hands on her hips and wiggling to the theme song.

    When there are so many movie-length DVDs out there, it’s nice to discover something for toddlers and preschoolers that has TV-length episodes. Even better when the episodes revolve around play and play ideas. We all need those!

    Ella had a giggling fit during one scene where one of the five dogs couldn’t stop saying the word “fleas’’. Small things, huh. Another scene, which had the five dogs playing doctors, meant I spent the rest of the afternoon operating on her to get rid of bees in her stomach.

    What appeals to me about the wonderfully bright Raggs, other than the Australian accents, is that it addresses preschool curriculum topics (yes, really), looks at emotions and there’s great variety within its format to keep little ones engaged.  The downside is that those songs are just way too catchy.

    Although, you can put up with that when you have characters like the wise-cracking cat Dumpster. He was definitely put in the show to entertain parents.

    For more information on the show or DVD, visit www.raggs.com.au. Now for the giveaway…

    To go in the draw to win a Move Your Tails! DVD and Have a Ball! Raggs 15 Hits Songs CD (with free 16-page activity book), leave a comment telling us your favourite game to play with your kids.  The giveaway closes Friday, June 24 at 7pm and a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on this blog and via Facebook and Twitter. Australian residents only. Limit of three entries.

    Are you game to try for more entries? Then here’s how you can up your chances in the draw. Each task is worth one extra entry, but must be included as a separate comment (or it won’t count).

    1. Click the Facebook button below and share this giveaway with your Facebook friends. Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Facebook’’.
    2. Click the Twitter button below and share this giveaway with your Twitter followers (Twitter handle is @ThreeLil). Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Twitter’’.

    **DISCLAIMER: I received a DVD for review. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

    Aussie Giveaway Linky
    Hosted by Three Lil Princesses and Tina Gray {dot} Me

    Winner of the DVD and CD was…..

    Deb! Deb said:

    My favourite game to play with my kids is hide and go seek, its so funny because when its their turn to hide they actually tell me where they are….

    Congratulations, Deb!

  • WIN: The inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup

    WIN: The inaugural Aussie Giveaway Linkup

    Holly in the winning Chicco high chair

    WHEN it comes to giveaways, I’m far from a lucky person. Unless you include winning a $1000 prepaid VISA card – twice, scoring a $12,000 scholarship fund for Ella and getting a $350 Chicco high chair. Although, I did have to pay for its freight to Tasmania. So that got devalued pretty quickly.

    However, my usual lack of luck doesn’t stop me entering. At one time I did really well entering every competition requiring 25 words or less by changing the words to These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things. It worked. For a while. That’s how I got the VISA cards and high chair. Then contest organisers obviously cottoned on to my little plan and all of a sudden the winnings went dry.

    So when I discovered blogging and all the giveaways that DIDN’T require me to be clever (oh, what joy for a sleep-deprived, brain-fried, caffeine-wired mama), I got more than a little excited.

    However, that’s nothing in comparison to the moment the wonderful Tina Gray from www.tinagray.me emailed to see if I’d be keen to co-host the Aussie Giveaway Linkup with her. Yes, please! All those giveaways on my site? What joy! What? Oh, right, it’s just links. I don’t actually get to have all the prizes. Bummer!

    So here we are, giveaways in hand, ready to spread the free(bie) love.

    As a reader, all you have to do is click the links that entice you and enter the giveaways. And, of course, you can enter as many as you want. Or all of them.

    If you’re a blogger wanting to take part in the Aussie Giveaway Linkup:

    1. Only link directly to the giveaway post/s and include the prize and end date in the linky tool below. Link each giveaway separately.
    2. Giveaways must be open to Australian residents. 
    3. Grab the button to add to your post.
    4. A new list is added each Sunday so bloggers need to add their links weekly. 
    5. Start entering the giveaways!

    Next Sunday, make sure you pop on over to Tina Gray {dot} me to check out the latest batch of giveaways. PS. Feel free to vote in our poll over there in the sidebar. We’d love to hear what you think.

    Aussie Giveaway Linkup



  • WIN: Secret women’s business (Miss De Jour giveaway)

    WIN: Secret women’s business (Miss De Jour giveaway)

    IF YOU’RE male and hoping to catch a laugh from The Bloke in The Shed, may I suggest you visit his page. This post really isn’t for your eyes.

    SINCE the day I first hit “womanhood’’, life has been fraught with embarrassing moments.

    If you’re a male and still reading, let me just say: this is secret women’s business. Umm… how can I put it? It’s about menstruation. No, not mentalstration. That’s what happens to my daughter when she picks her nose with too much vigour. I’m talking… periods. Yes, we’ll see you later then.

    Anyway, back to the story…

    My first red-faced encounter was during the end of Grade 6 summer holidays at Nan and Pops. Yes, you can probably already see where this is going. I went a whiter shade of pale when I first discovered that spot of red and had to lie down. On checking an hour later to see if it was just a figment of my imagination, I discovered more of the stuff. I was horrified, mortified, terrified. Terrified? Well, there was the little task of now having to tell Nan.

    “Oh duck, you’ve probably just got a touch of piles,’’ Nan said. Yes Nan, of course, because I sit on cold cement all the time and no, I’m not of “that age’’. Really!  At bath time, she revisited the subject. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Pop. We’ll see how you go and if we need to we’ll get you some rags’’. What? Rags? What are you talking about? She then left the bathroom and made a beeline straight for Pop to announce how I’d “just become a woman’’. Let’s just say I didn’t look Pop in the eye for a few days afterwards.

    More embarrassing moments ensued during the following year.

    • Like the time “my monthlies’’ went unnoticed by me but was visible by everyone else in Grade 7 as I walked around in my white and light blue school uniform.
    • The time I didn’t want to participate in the school swimming carnival and told the teacher I didn’t know how to use tampons. She proceeded to try and explain it to me. Ewww.
    • Then there was the moment Ella decided to empty the contents of my handbag all over the shop floor, pick up the tampons and ask “what are these, Mum?’’, while onlookers tried to divert their eyes.
    • My biggest concern now is wondering how I’m going to deal with the day my two girls come to me with the words “I’m bleeding’’ and this time a Wiggles bandaid just won’t cut it!

    Where was Miss De Jour through all this? Well, Miss De Jour, an Australian company solely owned by an Aussie woman, is going to be there for one lucky reader by giving away a year’s supply of tampons. You have to admit, looking at her design, she’s made tampons you’d be proud to show off. Sassy, or what? In fact, she said she “thought that tampon packaging 12 years ago was very florally, very Laura Ashley and thought, `wow what happens if I ‘Calvin Klein’ the tampon market?’’’ You can find Miss De Jour on Facebook and Twitter.

    To go in the draw to win a year’s supply of Miss De Jour tampons, tell me either the moment you discovered you had entered “womanhood” or an embarrassing moment dealing with your “P plates’’.  The giveaway closes *EXTENDED DATE* Sunday, June 19 at 7pm and a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on this blog and via Facebook and Twitter. Australian residents only. 

    Are you game to try for more entries? Then here’s how you can up your chances in the draw. Each task is worth one extra entry, but must be included as a separate comment (or it won’t count).

    1. Click the Facebook button below and share this giveaway with your Facebook friends. Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Facebook’’.
    2. Click the Twitter button below and share this giveaway with your Twitter followers (Twitter handle is @ThreeLil). Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Twitter’’.

    **DISCLAIMER: I received a year’s supply of Miss De Jour tampons. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

    Aussie Giveaway Linky
    Hosted by Three Lil Princesses and Tina Gray {dot} Me

    Winner of the 12-month supply of Miss De Jour tampons was:

    Meagan. Congratulations Meagan!

    Meagan’s (embarrassing) answer was:

    I remember getting my periods, they come at the worst possible time whilst we we’re out camping in the middle of no where!!! Poor mum was in a tizzie and we ended having to drive to town for ‘Supplies’. God love her she had to argue with my dad that we had to go and get important supplies as other families were there and she didn’t want to embarrass me by announcing to the whole camp that I had just become a women! In the end we got there tho…lol

    Scroll down to the comments to read some more hilarious stories.

  • WIN: Babies Love CD Collection review and giveaway (valued $120)

    WIN: Babies Love CD Collection review and giveaway (valued $120)

    My two sick girls

    BABY Holly and Princess Ella have colds, which is making Holly miserable and Ella… challenging. Holly is presently waking every hour from midnight ‘til 6am. OK, so there’s nothing really new there. Except that she doesn’t want a feed or a dummy. She just wants me to hold her. Which sounds so utterly sweet, except for the fact it’s the middle of the night.

    During the day yesterday the heartbreaking tears and need for cuddles were constant. When 5pm hit, panic set in. How was I going to manage to cook dinner? Yes, as you can see, my world was going to end if I couldn’t get food heated.

    Amid my sleep stupor I conjured up the idea to prop Baby Holly in her high chair, give her some spoons to play with (we can’t afford real toys) and pop on one of the Babies Love CDs – international pop-rock songs turned into lullabies.

    Then panic set in. Which one would I chose?

    Michael Jackson

    The Police and Sting

    U2

    Rolling Stones

    Stevie Wonder

    Phil Collins

     Mariah Carey

    All, bar the latter, from the new collection.

    Again, my world could very well end if I didn’t make the right decision. I chose the Boy Wonder in the hope he’d be able to work some of his magic. If he can make parents happy enough to make babies, then surely he can make babies happy enough to please parents.

    And he did. Make Baby Holly happy, that is. Well, not him specifically, but a bunch of super talented musicians playing lullaby versions of Wonder’s classic tunes. The one that really stopped Holly in her tracks was Isn’t She Lovely. She smiled. Even laughed. Or maybe that was because I was singing at the top of my lungs.

    If I’d known all the words to My Cherie Amour it might have had the same effect. That goes for Ribbon in the Sky too. Then mid way through the final track – Signed, Sealed Delivered, I’m Yours – I realised I’d better get dinner on.

    Even if you don’t know all the words, the serene melodies will have you humming away. More importantly, they’ll help create a sense of peace and calm within the house. Well, for 40-odd minutes, at least.

    These would have been perfect when I was up the duff too. Sure, you should play music to your unborn child, but after nearly three years of nursery rhymes I couldn’t bare listening to them voluntarily. However, this would be ideal relaxation music for me and delicate sounds for bub’s cognitive and emotional development. Quick, lock me in a room now.

    The only real flaw I can see with these CDs is that some may buy them on the pretence they’re getting Wonder, or Jackson, or Sting. Sadly, you won’t even hear them breathe heavily in the background. But if you know what you’re getting, then these are sublime.

    To go in the draw to win ALL SIX CDS – Michael Jackson, The Police and Sting, U2, Rolling Stones, Phil Collins and Mariah Carey – valued about $120, simply tell us which CD you would have chose to play to your upset baby. The giveaway closes Tuesday, May 31 at 7pm and a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on this blog and via Facebook and Twitter. Australian residents only.

    Want more entries? Then here’s how you can up your chances in the draw. Each task is worth one extra entry, but must be included as a separate comment (or it won’t count).

    1. Click the Facebook button below and share this giveaway with your Facebook friends. Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Facebook’’.
    2. Click the Twitter button below and share this giveaway with your Twitter followers (Twitter handle is @ThreeLil). Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Twitter’’.

    **I received a complimentary CD courtesy of Universal Music / ABC Music. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

    AND THE WINNER IS:

    Candice!

    Congratulations Candice. Happy listening!

  • WIN: Two nights in a one-bedroom Medina apartment (Valued at $1000)

    WIN: Two nights in a one-bedroom Medina apartment (Valued at $1000)

    SINCE blogging about being Spoilt on a grand Melbourne holiday (Medina Grand review) and asking Did you know fish eat pumpkin?, there’s been a lot of interest from you, our readers. So, as a way for you to experience exactly what it’s like to live like princesses (or princes), we’ve decided to allow one lucky reader to live like we did.

    If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me refresh your memory. Last week the O’Briens went to Melbourne and indulged in three nights’ accommodation in a stunning room at the Medina Grand in Melbourne. This was our room.

    Our two-bedroom Medina Grand room

    You can visit the review post to see how that room ended up!

    There are a few Medina options in Melbourne, but the Medina Grand suited us because it was an easy walk to the Melbourne Aquarium (or pram ride, for Ella and Holly), simple trek home from the MCG for The Bloke in The Shed (or more like a tail-between-his-legs waddle after the Pies’ loss) and quick tram ride to Harbour Town (the highlight for Ella – the tram, not the shopping). Although, if we hadn’t missed the stop, we might have shopped at the new DFO South Wharf instead. But anyway…

    And did I mention pancakes?

    Ella stuffing her face with pancakes, while Uncle Rick watches on.

    What made our holiday was the hotel. There is nothing better after a hard day slogging it out at the shops, than coming “home’’ to comfort. You can read the full review at Spoilt on a grand Melbourne holiday. And Ella hasn’t stopped talking about her big bed

    Ella's room

    or that big box of toys.

    The toy box and kiddie chairs.

    The thing that appealed to us about Medina is it’s family friendly – just check out its Facebook page MumSpace. It’s an online mother’s group that Medina created to thank one of its most valued group of guests. Yes, you guessed it, us mamas. The group has been up and running for a year now (it just celebrated its first anniversary) and has more than 10,000 fans!

    So, just for a minute, picture yourself here:

    Or here…

    Or even here.

    Well, dream no more. You can have a chance at living it.

    To go in the draw to win two consecutive nights accommodation for two adults in a one-bedroom apartment at a Medina Apartment Hotel of choice across Australia, simply tell us which Medina hotel you’d like to stay in? You can find hotel locations on the Medina site.The giveaway closes Sunday, June 5 at 7pm and a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on this blog and via Facebook and Twitter. Australian residents only.

    Want more entries? Then here’s how you can up your chances in the draw. Each task is worth one extra entry, but must be included as a separate comment (or it won’t count).

    1. Click the Facebook button below and share this giveaway with your Facebook friends. Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Facebook’’.
    2. Click the Twitter button below and share this giveaway with your Twitter followers (Twitter handle is @ThreeLil). Then leave a separate comment saying something along the lines of “I’ve shared this on Twitter’’.

    Total Prize Value: $1,000 

    Terms and Conditions:

    Prize must be redeemed at a Medina Apartment Hotel in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Wollongong or Darwin. Prize is not refundable, non-endorsable or non-transferable.  Prize is for two consecutive night’s accommodation in a one bedroom apartment for two adults at a Medina Apartment Hotel of choice.

    Bookings should be made in advance to avoid disappointment. All prizes are subject to availability. Additional spending money, meals, insurance, taxes, passports, visas, travel to and from the winners choice of Medina Apartment Hotel and all other ancillary costs are the responsibility of the winner.  The winner must provide a valid credit card at check-in to cover any incidentals incurred throughout the stay.

    In the event that, for any reason whatsoever, a winner does not take an element of the prize at the time stipulated by the Promoter, then that element of the prize will be forfeited by the winner and cash will not be awarded in lieu of that element. The prize will be issued in the form of a gift voucher valid for six months from the date of issue.
    PhotobucketWinner announced at Medina Apartment winner is…