Where Did All The Penguins Go?

You may have wondered about how the Penguin Amnesty and how it all worked out.  When all’s said and done, I posted out approximately 6o donations of penguins and penguin merchandise to poorly kids and with the help of Parcels For Delivery and their wonderful Round Up Your Pound campaign, we raised £852.19…..£100 of which was donated by them as part of their annual Christmas donation.

You’ll just have to imagine muffled penguin squarking that was going on at that point. They were so excited about going to their new homes!

Here is a link to their page which outlines how Parcels for Delivery supported the Penguin Amnesty.  They are simply amazing and if you’re ever going to post a parcel, they’re the company to post it with!  Love ’em!

And…if you’d like a nosey at the penguins people kindly donated, and the mischief they got up to, have a look HERE! 

This penguin would like to say thank you for all your donations, unfortunately he’s drunk so he can’t string a sentence together so I’m saying thank you on his behalf.

It was one of the strangest, most successful charity blogging projects I’ve ever been involved with and it seriously restored my faith in people and their capacity for selfless giving.  Thank you so much.  I still have some penguin prizes to send out, and although they are terribly, awfully late (in typical me stylee) they will be posted at some point.  I have not forgotten.

To say thank you, I’d like to run a competition, my good friend Jo (@humanb3an) donated a penguin costume which you can see here:

Does my bum look big in this?

It is a grown up size penguin costume so I couldn’t send it to any of the children so the plan was to use it for publicity purposes only.  With that in mind, if you would like to own your very fabulous penguin outfit, please simply comment on the blog to say that you will visit the Post Pals page and at the very least think about sending something to a PostPals kid.  That’s all you have to do.    I’ve decided to post out a brand new penguin outfit directly from Amazon to the winner who will be chosen on the 1st June.  Here’s a link to the prize!  Don’t you think this would be fabulous for Halloween (you could be a zombie penguin or something) or for a kid’s party?

Please do enter the competition and show your support for the fabulous work that PostPals do.  Thanks a million, billion, trillion to the myriad of businesses that donated to this project.  You should all be very proud of what you helped to achieve.  Thank you.  Hugs, squeezes and penguin kisses, Kay :O) xxxxx

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Penguin Amnesty Prize Draw!

Anyone who donated a penguin, a penguin related item, or made a donation was put into a prize draw for one of the items modelled below by a helpful penguin who will soon be sent to a PostPals child, along with all of his other penguin mates.

Give us a twirl!

I’m too thick to know how to install Rafflecopter or anything, but I do know how to be fair.  So I dutifully wrote everyone’s names down and randomly chose four of them.  Here are the results!

ButtonF1Fan (Julie Marlow) won the sparkly penguin bracelet.

InkyPrints won the very useful wine charms.  (I think your penguin maybe takes after you?  If so I think these will be very handy ;o)

Staffstechgirl (Helen O’Keefe) won the penguin earrings.

CupCakeMumma won the handpainted penguin keyring.

All of these prizes were donated by Dylan Ward (DylanWardArt31) to help out with the Penguin Amnesty Project.  Thank you Dylan!

Please could all the winners contact me on Twitter with their addresses via Direct Message , you’re all on there so that’s handy!

There’s now a Penguin Amnesty Gallery Part 4 for you to have a look at if you like?  This project will run right through to the end of December with the support of the wonderful Parcels For Delivery. 

Trash Pack Dump Truck and Trashies! – A review!

Trash Pack Dump Truck

and Trashies! – A review for UKMumsTV

Trash and the Trash Pack Dump Truck! Making rubbish even more disgusting than you already thought it was!

(There’s a comp for £1000 worth of outdoors equipment for your school at the bottom of this blog  if you scroll down by the way….)

‘Trashies’ are a motley selection of frankly disgusting characters that live in their very own luminious green plastic trash bins.  They are about 2cm tall, 1 cm wide, rubbery, squidgy and in fairly bad taste.  They all have their little faces, and the Trashies I was sent to review ranged from scrawny, half mouldy looking brocolli, to a very poorly looking trash bin being sick on itself (nope, I’m not joking).  Pictures are included here.

Unsquished!

Squished!

Kids, and possibly mainly boys (if you buy into that sort of thing), will love them!  I didn’t expect my two to really appreciate these at all, but they have played with them for quite some time, and have shown real enthusiasm for the little repulsive creatures and their mode of transport.

From experience, young kids often find really ‘orrible things really funny.  Any talk of burping, farting, being sick, poo, etc is the height of humour for a 4 year old.  My lad is no exception, and my daughter is the same too if I’m being honest.  This particular range of toys really does tap into that sort of humour, and despite my ‘Ew!’ reaction, Sausage happily made pretend retching noises and bounced the puking trash bin up and down a lot.  He loves it!  As a grown up with a more sensitive stomach and slightly more refined tastes in toys, I really can’t see the attraction.  But I can’t argue it; both kids have played with this loads.

'What's up Mr Very-Poorly-Looking Trash bin?' 'I ate yesterday's dinner after the dog had licked it!' *vomits*

Yep, it’s that kind of thing that has the kids rolling around the place laughing, absolutely vile!

Stackable bins can be piled on the back of the Trash Pack Dump Truck.

Free range Trashies, they can drive the truck, travel around on the truck, be tipped into the truck via the bin tipper at the back, and they can be sick on the truck too if they like!

There’s an additional play feature which isn’t immediately obvious too, you can stack the little green bins with the Trashies  inside, on top of each other.   Then you detach the tipper at the back and use it to balance another Trashie on; then you catapult the Trashie as hard and as fast as you can to knock over the pile of bins.  It’s like Trashie skittles.  My two spent quite a while launching Trashies all over the living room.

My only criticism is that the fold up side of the truck is a little flimsy and one panel fell off this morning, but it did click back into place very easily so no harm done there.

Trashies can drive too!

A Trash Pack Dump Truck is £19.99 and it comes with two Trashies to play with too.  Click HERE if you’re want to view these on Amazon (none of these are associate links if you were wondering)

If you’d like a blister pack of 5 Trashies to increase your rubbish family, you can buy them for £5 HERE.

First News, the childrens newspaper, is currently running a competition for schools to design a Trash Pack recycling poster, the prize is a whopping £1000 worth of vouchers to spend on outdoors equipment for your school.

It’s simple to take part…just use the contact details on the website which you can find HERE and if you’re one of the first schools to apply you will be eligible for a Trash Pack Campaign Pack which includes:  A poster template for the pupils to design their poster on, a rules pack, some great lesson notes on recycling, plus a Trash Pack gift for the first 100,000 pupils.

This is a great way for you to teach kids about recycling and to….well…..erm…. tempt them to buy Trashies.  You have been warned.  Mind you any education about recycling can’t be a bad thing – but, Trashies are probably very addictive toys.   My kids already want more of them…..

I was sent a Trash Pack Dump Truck and a pack of 5 Trashies to review, it was all rubbish (c’ept it wasn’t really, it’s actually a really cool toy set!), no other financial reward was given.

12 Days of Christmas – Club Penguin Puffles and Penguins!

12 Days of Christmas –

Club Penguin Gifts!

& a Giveaway!

Today’s number 9 on the 12 Days of Christmas inspiration list are Club Penguin Puffles and Penguins! I’m also offering them as a giveaway! See end of post.

The one I am giving away is the King Roi toy! The one shown is another from the same range.

“Help bring the virtual Club Penguin to life with a range of cuddly Penguin and Puffle plush, perfect for recreating icy adventures at home and for a special gift, each comes with a special token to unlock online goodies too!” – That’s what it says on the packaging!  We think they’re ever so cute but we simply don’t have room for them.  Can you give a penguin and a puffle a home?

These cost £4.99 from Jakks Pacific and they can be bought from Argos.

A crazed looking pink Puffle! A cute stocking filler - also part of the giveaway!

If you’d like a chance of winning these all you have to do is wish me and other blog readers a Merry Christmas and for an additional entry you can tweet ‘I’ve entered Brink of Bedlam’s Christmas competition for a Club Penguin Puffle & Penguin #ClubsofPenguins http://wp.me/p1d7pP-IE’

You could subscribe to the blog too if you like, then you won’t miss out on further competitions in the future?  If you do, you’ll have an extra entry in this giveaway!

Pls comment saying what you have done in regards to entering the comp – ‘tweeted, commented and subscribed’ for example.  Thank you!

This competition ends on the 12 Dec at 24.00, so you’ll have time to present wrap him for Christmas Day.  UK Residents only.  Random winner will be chosen.

A Christmas Competition, Courtesy of Yours Truly!

A Christmas Competition, Courtesy of Yours Truly!

As you may have noticed the Brink of Bedlam has been as chaotic as ever this year – you have been treated to toy reviews, family life rants, photography articles, recipes (sane and insane) and creative writing excerpts.  I once read somewhere that a blog is a direct reflection of the author’s life – well I must be very random and erm…I have a broken link. Now, now, don’t you dare laugh!

I have to admit, the one thing I love more than anything is hearing that you’ve enjoyed the posts, or that they’ve made you think or laugh.  It makes it all worthwhile.  In 2012 I want to carry on writing and making the bloggy journey worthwhile…..so I’m asking you for a little feedback in return for the chance to win £20 worth of Amazon vouchers.  This competition is only for current blog subscribers and UK residents (although I’ll make an exception for my mates @Slightlydoolaly and @Naviguesser)

All you have to do is comment constructively on the last year’s blogging exploits.  What did you enjoy most, what would you like to see more or less of for example?  More comps? More reviews? Less reviews? More creative writing? Less waffling?  More recipes, normal or ridiculous?  More link ups? More or less memes? Topical articles on parenting issues or articles on whatever topic is roaming around my head at the time.  Should the presentation be improved, should I focus on just one topic and do the ‘niche blogging’ thing?  Should I write shorter posts?  What do you think?

I’d particularly like to hear from people who haven’t commented before, there’s 124 of you in total and each and every opinion counts – and of course, every person who comments will be put in the draw which will be drawn randomly on the 12th December.  Obviously any and every comment will be noted, but pretty please don’t just say ‘ I think it’s crap’or ‘I think it’s good’  without saying why.

Without meaning to sound over the top, since having left work six years ago, this blog has been my biggest and most challenging project – apart from raising my two kids of course, that goes without saying.  My little blog means the world to me and I want it to be as good as it can possibly be.  Your help will be invaluable!

My decision is final by the way!  *stands arms folded and looks fierce*

I’ll write names on a piece of paper and get the kids to choose one, so it’ll be completely fair, promise. x

12 Days of Christmas! Science Kits for Girls!

12 Days of Christmas!

Wild Science for Girls!

And a Giveaway too! 

Day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas inspiration list includes…drum roll…..ta-daaaah!

A Moisturising Laboratory – make your own Fabulous Purifying Treatments from Interplay.  Discover the Secrets of Cosmetic Science!

Obviously for girls - the packaging is pink! (grimaces)

This is a kit that would be fabulous for a girl who is interested in science and erm….cosmetics? Or a boy who is interested in science and cosmetics!  They are obviously aiming at the female market because of the lurid pink colour.  I mean, only girls like pink don’t they? (Kay pulls a face and grins sarcastically)

I could go off on a rant about toys and sexism, but I won’t.  I’ll leave that for another day.  Needless to say – if this is the sort of thing your child is into – they will love it and you can buy it for £12.99 from HERE!

Or you could win it right here instead!  All you have to do is tell me your favourite colour and why in the comments box below.  Make sure you include your Twitter name or some way of contacting you (don’t write out your email address though! Spammers can pick up on email addresses written out in full)

For two extra entries you can subscribe to the blog, and tweet ‘I have entered the Brink of Bedlam blog comp for the Girls Wild Science Kit! #wildscience http://wp.me/p1d7pP-I3’

Please include what you have done in the comments box, ie ‘Tweeted, subscribed and commented’  Thanking you!

This competition will be drawn at random and will end on the 12th December at 24.00  UK Residents only.

12 Days of Christmas! – Thanks to UKMumsTV!

12 Days of Christmas!  

Thanks to UKMumsTV! 

Win RastaMouse! 

We loved his ziggy-zaggy tail!

Today is the 1st December and if you’re anything like me it’s the beginning of the whirlwind that is Christmas.  I’m tired even thinking about it all.  Presents, cards, food, plays, stockings, decorations, trees – none of which I have organised as yet.  Oops.  Someone throw me a strong length of tinsel will you?  I need to haul myself out of November and swing into December like a festive tarzan.  *Kay yodels like the screen star and frightens the cat*

Thanks to UKMumsTV I’ve been given a bundle of toys to kick start your toy inspiration.  I’ve been particularly stuck for present ideas for our two this year.  Darlek wants a mobile phone – not gonna happen!  Sausage wants a dog, not until hell freezes over!   Apparently Father Christmas is ready and willing to deliver both, but I’m going to intercept him half way down the chimney and refuse him  entry until he puts both mobile phone and puppy back in his sleigh for the next kid on his list.  Oh, I’m such a spoilsport!

The firsts toy on the 12 Days of Christmas inspiration list is ………..Rastamouse!  We thought he was a fabulous mouse when we reviewed him and I’m offering him up as a prize.  If you’d like to read the review, please click HERE!

All you have to do is comment here about your favourite Christmas toy and for an additional entry you can tweet ‘I’ve entered Brink of Bedlam’s Christmas competition for a Rastamouse Plush toy #Rastamouse http://brinkofbedlam.co.uk/’

You could subscribe to the blog too if you like, then you won’t miss out on further competitions in the future?  If you do, you’ll have an extra entry in this giveaway!

Pls comment saying what you have done in regards to entering the comp – ‘tweeted, commented and subscribed’ for example.  Thank you!

What you waiting for man?! (add Rastamouse accent)

This competition ends on the 12 Dec at 24.00, so you’ll have time to wrap him up for your little ‘uns.  UK Residents only.