Sponsored Posts

This post is sponsored by Bosisto’s and is helping to pay for my plumbing disaster, which is now, thankfully less disastrous and more “slightly muddy”.

***

I grew up in the bush, surrounded by gum trees. When I was little and wanting to make bouquets of flowers, gum leaves used to feature prominently and through the colder months, they were the only “flowers” I could pick.

I also spent a lot of time walking through the bush, crushing gum leaves in my fingers.

Eucalyptus oil therefore is one of my very favourite smells and we’ve usually got a bottle or two hanging around the house, in use for things like bench scrubbing during the frequent ant plagues, as a rinse aid in the washing machine and my favourite use in Winter, being boiled in a pot of water on the stove to help the small ones breathe easily.

It really is versatile.

That’s why when Bosisto’s asked if I’d like to review their new all purpose eucalyptus spray and some eucalyptus oil, I agreed.

See, we’ve got a cat that likes to pee inside and as many times as I scrub behind the TV, it still smells vaguely funky. So we sprayed behind the TV and it was good. And then the cat tried to pee in the corner again anyway, and so we sprayed her as well. Well, we sprayed near her. She didn’t like the hissing sound OR the smell and I haven’t seen her trying to hide behind the TV since.

Nathan has also been using the oil in the laundry (have I mentioned that Nathan does all of our washing? God I love that man) and the clothes have been coming out smelling divine.

Why yes, I am a sucker for smell.

Because I enjoy the Bosisto’s product so much, they’ve offered me a gift pack worth $160 to give away to you guys.

Doesn’t it look awesome? I’d certainly like to win this one!

To enter, simply comment below telling me what your favourite smell is.

Then fill out the Rafflecopter widget. You MUST fill out the widget to be entered into the competition. There are extra entries for tweeting about the competition, or liking Sleepless Nights on Facebook.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***

Entries are open to AUSTRALIAN POSTAL ADDRESSES ONLY. One entry per household. I will be checking.

You can check out more about Bosisto’s and their products here. They have lots of cool stuff.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

This post is sponsored by Big W Toys and is helping to pay for my plumbing disaster, that continues, despite me trying not to look at it.
***

Amy will be turning six, around the same time that this baby of mine is born. It’s nice to be able to say that still, because the baby didn’t move for over 12 hours yesterday and I ended up at the hospital, worrying that she was dead. Obviously she is not dead, which is really quite a relief. She kicked while I was on the monitors, kicked the straps and immediately went quiet again once the trace was finished.

Never fear though Internet, she was WIDE awake at 3am when I was trying not to vomit. Morning sickness is back, apparently with a firm desire to make sure I never eat again.

Anyway, I digress.

Amy will be turning six in early September and I haven’t bought her any presents yet. This is mostly because I have nowhere to hide them, but also because I’ve been sort of lazy about deciding which direction we want to go in for presents this year. I can’t see that I’ll be up to helping her with craft sets and paints, not with the whole brand new baby and leaking breasts thing going on.

I also need to find both children a present to give them once the baby is born, knowing that they will both be feeling a little put out by the new arrival.

Enter, Big W toys. I’ve been spending a little bit of time on their online catalogue, working out what exactly I need to buy to keep everyone happy. Being able to check everything out online has made my life so much easier, what with the whole broken pelvis thing I’ve got going on and the inability to walk great distances.

Needless to say, sometime in the next month or so, I will be baby shopping, birthday shopping and hey kids you’ve got a new sister shopping. If I’m really lucky, they’ll have what I want online and I won’t even have to walk anywhere.

Because Big W are interested in letting you guys (my lovely loyal minions) buy some toys too, I have a $100 gift card to give away!

Just let me know in a comment below, what toy would you buy if you had $100 to spend?

You can score extra entries by liking the Big W facebook page, or tweeting about the giveaway. See the widget for details.

Then fill out the Rafflecopter form below, so that moderating and drawing the entries is easy for me.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You MUST fill out the Rafflecopter form to be eligible. One entry per household, Australian residents only.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I’ve been a mother for nearly six years now and I’ve never received anything for Mother’s Day. I should scream and wail about this fact (and I’ve been known to), but Nathan is hopeless at gift buying and I accept this.

Last year was the worst year, as I expected to receive at least a token item that Amy had made for Mother’s Day, plus a little something from the school Mother’s Day stall – only Nathan didn’t hide the present well enough and Amy ate my chocolates and the dog ate the handmade necklace and card.

I may have been a little grumpy about this.

Okay, I was a lot grumpy and rather upset.

Bygones.

Amy has matured a lot in the last twelve months and while I’m not confident that leaving her alone with chocolates is a great idea, at least I know that the card is likely to make it home to me.

This year however, Ferrero Rocher offered to send me a Mother’s Day Hamper from their new online Boutique. Knowing that it was probably my only chance to get chocolate for Mother’s Day that I didn’t have to buy myself, I agreed.

My only complaint is that there aren’t enough of the white coconut-type chocolates in this hamper and that I was forced to share the mini ferreros with my children.

If your children are too little to make things and your husband is terrible at gift buying like mine, you can buy your own Ferrero Rocher Mother’s Day Hamper here.

—

I was not paid for this post, although I did receive the chocolates above for free to review. I can happily say that I am making my way through them as I type.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Amy’s class has been talking a bit about rubbish recently and how to reduce rubbish in their lunchboxes. Of course, I didn’t realise this until I was at the swimming carnival with the Kinders and heard one boy proudly telling the teacher that he had “no rubbish today!” and being praised for it.

I know that Marita’s school has been doing similar things and so I started to think about how to reduce rubbish in our lunch boxes. I use reusable containers for as many things as possible, but I am guilty of just quickly wrapping things in cling wrap and sending them, because it’s easy.

Imagine how pleased I was when the lovely Rebecca from 4 My Earth expressed interest in running advertising on my sidebar, and having me review her products as well. 4 My Earth sells all kinds of things, but I was really interested in the lunch wraps and pouches, that allow you to wrap sandwiches and keep them fresh.

Not to mention that they are super cool looking.

I’ve been sending these to school with Amy’s lunch for a week now with no problems whatsoever. I was a little worried that they wouldn’t make it home again, but Amy has adjusted really well and they are making it home at the end of the day perfectly.

They’re really simple to use and according to Amy, they’ve kept her lunch “yummy and delicious!” as well. You place the sandwich in the middle and then wrap it, using the velcro to hold it closed. Plastic lined, but woven material on the outside means that they look great and they keep everything fresh.

To clean, I’ve just been rinsing them in the washing up water at the beginning of the washing up and then hanging in the window to dry, which seems to be working well for us.

The pouches are exactly what they sound like and are pouches for placing food in. I haven’t tried these out properly yet because I’ve been too slack to bake, but the large pouch would hold a piece of quiche, or a slice quite well, whereas the smaller one looks perfect for putting crackers, or sweet biscuits into, or even slices of cucumber and olives.

***

Giveaway!

Because Rebecca would like you guys to try out these eco-wraps and see how amazing they are, she is offering two Eco-Packs to give away, including one large sandwich wrap, one small wrap, one large pouch and one small pouch.

You MUST enter through the Rafflecopter widget.

To enter, tell me, what is your favourite lunch box food?

***

This is a sponsored post.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }