> The Beesley Buzz: July 2019

FLASH SALE of my book


Both the papercopy and kindle ebook version  of my book Overcoming the Odds: How I won £50,000 of prizes in three years are currently HALF-PRICE on Amazon. As before, all proceeds from the sale of the book are going to charity - Juvenile Arthritis Research - who are searching for a cure for Juvenile Arthritis and doing vital awareness raising work via their #ThinkJIA campaign.

That means the ebook is currently on sale at only £3.99 (usual RRP £7.99) and the paper version is now only £4.99 (rather than the usual price of £9.99). You'll need to be quick though as the price will revert back to normal from next week.

I do have book 2 in progress too - It's going to be called The Happy Comper but I'm struggling with finding any spare time in my life to work on it. The exciting news is that the book cover for it is already sorted as I won a competition to have it designed - how cool is that!? - a book about entering competitions where the cover design was a prize in itself!

Here's a sneak peak of the cover (although the title of The Happy Comper has been decided already, the strapline hasn't yet been so that is for illustrative purposes only at the moment):

I am so pleased with the cover for The Happy Comper, which was designed by a very talented young lady at Hause Of Designs. I hope to bring you more news on that soon.

But for now, you can get started on your comping journey if you are a beginner who needs a little inspiration or a seasoned comper who loves to hear about other people's comping adventures as much as I do by getting hold of your own copy of Overcoming the Odds whilst it is on Summer Sale price for THIS WEEK ONLY!


I also have a giveaway running to win a signed copy of my book here (ends Sunday 4 August 2019).



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NOW CLOSED: GIVEAWAY: Win a signed copy of Overcoming the Odds - How I won £50,000 of prizes in three years


With the summer holidays in full swing and everyone's minds turning to having a summer break (I'm literally counting down the days at work until I have my annual leave!) I thought it would be nice to have a giveaway to win a copy of my book Overcoming the Odds: How I won £50,000 of prizes in three years

Not only would it make a nice easy summer read, but summer is also a GREAT time to get into comping. Many people associate advent competitions with new compers joining in the fun (and frenzy!) but summer can also be a brilliant time to start.

With so many people away on holiday or packing or planning for their holidays, a lot of competitions end up having fewer entries in the summer months. This means that the odds of winning can be greater for those that do enter.

So to win a signed copy of Overcoming the Odds, I've made it super easy to enter. Just fill in the rafflecopter widget below (for a handy guide to using rafflecopter see Di Coke's blogpost here).

And whilst our minds are on summer reading, both the paper copy and kindle ebook version are currently HALF-PRICE on Amazon. As before, all proceeds from the sale of the book are going to charity - Juvenile Arthritis Research - who are searching for a cure for Juvenile Arthritis.

That means the ebook is currently on sale at only £3.99 (usual RRP £7.99) and the paper version is now only £4.99 (rather than the usual price of £9.99). You'll need to be quick though as the price will revert back to normal from next week.

It's already received some rave reviews. I've never made any promises about this book helping to make you a super comper - it's just my own little story of how this hobby of mine has transformed my own life. But it seems to appeal to seasoned compers who enjoy reading about my comping experiences and beginners who are inspired to get started.

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Listed on Superlucky:
SuperLucky Blog Giveaway Linky: the UK's biggest list of blog giveaways
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Aquabeads Box of Fun Safari Review #Aquabeaders #gifted #ad

We are always excited to receive Aquabeads sets to review but to receive the Aquabeads Box of Fun Safari was particularly awesome with over 3000 beads in this set!!!


All the Aquabeads playsets (as opposed to sets) are designed brilliantly for storage with space to keep spare beads, water spray bottle and the templates but this massive box is even better than usual for storage.

There's also something about it that makes me feel like it is ready to pick up and take with us on our travels whereas I would never normally have thought of taking Aquabeads on holiday with us. This would be the perfect rainy day activity to have on hand when we go on a UK break later in the summer.


Aquabeads products are great at telling you exactly what you are getting. On the outside of the box there was a full list of what is included right down to the exact number of each colour and type of bead.


This set also included some small clear pieces which push onto the completed Aquabeads to form a stand to be able to stand the safari animals up.


Miss T was also excited that there was a background included...

...and she was wowed by the number of beads in this set!

She even came up with the idea of this photo to demonstrate how many beads there are by throwing them into the air and catching it on camera.


In this big set there was also a multitude of templates to use as well as some further ideas on some of the leaflets included. And its always good to know that there are hundreds more designs that can be downloaded from the Aquabeads website. Check them out here!



I'm always raving about how innovative Aquabeads are. Each new item we have had from them seems to incorporate an improvement in design to make the product even better - from the changes in the design of the sprayer bottles which we raved about here, to the bead pen design being changed over time and the introduction of a scraper tool known as a bead peeler that we came across in the minions playset review.

This box of fun safari set also included a new innovation. This time there was no bead peeler but instead a brand new design of table tray to design your beads on. As before there is a palette with lots of little sections in to store the different coloured beads. But on top of that lays a table tray onto which parts clip onto... There are 2 parts onto which the beads get placed onto that push into one edge of the table tray to give a hinged effect - because they now hinge and flip over, they are called "flip trays". The template slots in behind the table tray. The blue sections that also hinge onto it are called "receivers". They are designed to place on once the design is complete and sprayed as that allows the design to be safely removed from the table tray and to be put somewhere safe to dry with no need to 'peel' the beads off. That reduces the risk of breaking the design and also means that the table tray is ready to use again to create more designs.



There are visual instructions on how to use the new flip tray design



Once the design has been flipped onto the receiver, it can be removed from its hinge and placed somewhere safe to dry.


The second of the flip trays in this set has some pre-moulded animal shapes on it. There is a giraffe outline, an elephant outline, then what looks like it could be a bear or tiger (front facing) and a 4th animal that I can't quite make out what it is supposed to be - possibly a horse or zebra. The beauty of these are that the vagueness of them gives children the freedom to choose their own colours and create their own designs but with a little guidance from the outline of the template.




Once Miss T finished her flamingo, she couldn't wait to get started on her next design...





A cute panda bear. Keep an eye on our instagram to see the finished panda!


You can purchase the Aquabeads Big Box of fun Safari here. 


Disclosure: We were gifted the Aquabeads Box of Fun Safari for the purposes of review. We received no monetary compensation for this post and all opinions remain our own. 
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