Coming soon! Happy Comper Journal

By the time this blogpost is published, I will be in sunny Mexico lying in the sun, poolside, on a holiday of a lifetime. And this holiday won't have cost me a penny. That's right a holiday for me and my whole family (all 5 of us) to Mexico, for FREE!

How? Well it is a holiday I won in a competition. I have a hobby that I absolutely love which involves entering competitions - the more creative the better. In fact I love my hobby so much that I wrote a book about it. Overcoming the Odds was published last year and I shared how I won over £50,000 of prizes in my first three years of this hobby.

Yet that is only a small fraction of the prizes I have won. Since those first 3 years, I have gone on to win a whole load more items, as well as other amazing experiences and more holidays too.

So those new stories will be coming in a second book called The Happy Comper which I'm gradually writing, slowly, as I'm enjoying the process of getting as many inspirational stories as possible in there.

But in the meantime, I do have something that is coming soon. Very soon. It is just going through final proof stages and then it will be ready to get hold of on Amazon. If you want to hear as soon as it is ready you can follow my social media channels (Twitter here, Facebook here and Instagram here) or subscribe to this blog by filling in the 'subscribe by email' box.

So what is it? It's my very own comping journal, designed and created by me with all the pages that I find useful when I'm entering competitions. It's in a diary format (undated so you can start to use it any time) and with loads of spaces for lists, creative ideas, and inspiration - You can really make this journal your own with notes, doodles and drawings relevant to the competitions that interest you.

I designed it to help me get more organised and stay focused with my comping hobby and I hope it will help you to do so too. By comping smarter not harder, it helps me get a happy balance in my life!

I'm so proud of the cover - It was designed by talented artist and designer Jael Umerah-Makelemi (you can see some of her artwork here). And as if the universe was trying to make the point that it really is possible to win anything in a competition, I actually WON the cover being designed.

Jael has designed the cover for both the Happy Comper Journal and the Happy Comper for when that is ready to publish and I'm so happy with how both the covers have turned out. Thank you Jael!

As before, ALL proceeds (other than the rather big cut that Amazon take) will go to Juvenile Arthritis Research in the search for a cure for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and their other amazing initiatives like the "Little Box of Hope" rollout to newly diagnosed children, and the #ThinkJIA awareness campaign raising awareness amongst the public, parents and healthcare professionals that children can get arthritis too.

This cause is very close to our hearts because I myself had Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) since the age of 10, resulting in a hip replacement at a relatively young age. And my daughter has had the condition since the age of 2. Whilst treatment options have improved over this time, shockingly general awareness has remained low and remission rates remain unchanged. This is why the work that Juvenile Arthritis Research are doing is so crucial!

I will keep you posted as soon as the Happy Comper Journal is ready... so watch this space.