Were you a Giveaway Winner? Supa Drippa Taps
Supa Drippa Taps
Of all the gardening gadgets, products, equipment we have come across so far, these taps are the most useful. We are really happy we had some to giveaway. They saved our plants in the drought because we could target the tender and precious ones, right where they needed water, next to the stem in the case of the tomatoes. And those tomato plants are looking very good.
Leaving the milk containers in place means when we want to feed the tomatoes, generally once a fortnight – we just remove the cap, pour in the fertiliser mix and away they go!
Simple, time saving and effective, see our feature SOS – Save Your Plants.
So the lucky In Balance readers who have won a pack of 10 taps sponsored by The Organic Catalogue are:
- A Westley, Chesham
- V Brown Chichester
- T Karweni, Aldershot
Happy watering!
By the way www.ourfrontgarden.com is the website we write about the ongoing renovation and care of a front garden in a garden city
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
Owl Energy Monitor Were You a Winner?
Owl Energy Monitor
The winners of the Owl Energy Monitor were:
S Collinge, Blackpool
S Purser, Stoney Stanton
Sharon Wallis, Prestwich
To enter our giveaway draws be sure to subscribe – see below – so you know when and what is on offer.
Were You a Winner? Dress Book
Colour me Slimmer by Veronique Henderson
The winners of the Colour Me Slimmer books offered in our feature, are:
J Bryan, Peterborough
S Pearmain, Harrow
J Reynolds, Waterlooville
The New You Beauty Show – Giveaway Tickets
The New You Beauty Show
We’re making a point of getting to the Health & Beauty Show at Hertford on 19 June not just because we heard a whisper, well more than a whisper actually! of some rather special goody bags with some of our favourite skincare products, oh no, but because it promises to be an interesting event for anyone really into wellbeing for themselves and those they love. There will be the chance for treatments and to watch demonstrations.
Prize Draw – Supa Drippa Taps
We are great fans of these extremely useful devices that help the busy gardener with watering precious plants. You can control the flow of water and spread watering over a period of a week using a discarded plastic milk container and a dinky little tap.
Inexpensive, efficient and fuss free we love these Supa Drippas – see our feature.
We have three packs of ten worth £11.95 + £1 pp provided by The Organic Catalogue, to giveaway to our readers. To enter the prize draw just send an email to editorinbalance@me.com, with Supa Drippa in the subject box and full contact details in the text box.
One entry per household, closing date is 12 June 2011.
By the way www.ourfrontgarden.com is the website we write about the ongoing renovation and care of a front garden in a garden city
Giveaway Winner – Brother Labeller
The feature we wrote about the Brother P-touch Labeller included a popular giveaway.
We are pleased to say the winner is C Farley from East Sussex.
Click on the Sign Me Up button on the right to be sure to receive details of future features and giveaways.
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
Spring Clean your Energy Bills + Giveaways
Declutter your bills this spring with the OWL Pink Micro – we have THREE to GIVEAWAY – see below
Think pink go green! … it says on the box – very true in this case! The unit is a somewhat lurid pink making it hard to miss! (husband’s description) – there is a reason!* – wife’s response.
This OWL Pink Micro eco gadget is a special limited edition version of the best selling OWL Micro electricity monitor. A small investment of £25.99 will raise funds to help 46,000 women a year fight breast cancer* and save you £135** on your yearly bills.
With the last of the ‘big six’ energy companies, EDF Energy, set to hike its energy prices this Spring, there is no better time to invest in an OWL Pink Micro.
The unit comes with an easy to follow instruction leaflet, batteries are supplied.
The display shows time, watts/ hour power, costs (after programming in the electricity cost charged by the supplier).
We had a lot of fun with this.
Be aware though that it is extremely unlikely the base line power usage will be zero (we have a base line of 120 watts); most homes have at least some power running somewhere eg central heating, fridges, alarm systems etc. Also it could be rather easy to get obsessed with switching off everything – we did to begin with! Just remember we all have to use some power in life; so a sense of proportion will help to keep the peace in the household! By the way it is unlikely the unit is sensitive enough to pick up low power units like individual light bulbs etc.
However, if the unit succeeds in reducing power bills then it could be said to have saved costs – and to a small extent – the planet!
We like!
Christopher Johns, contributing author
The Pink OWL Micro costs just £25.99, available to buy in all good high street retailers and at www.theowl.com
* For further information about Breakthrough or breast cancer visit www.breakthrough.org.uk or call the charity’s free telephone number on 08080 100 200
** Source: moneysavingexpert
WE HAVE THREE Pink OWL Micros TO GIVEAWAY!
Just send an email to the editorinbalance@me.com with Pink OWL Micro in the subject box and your full contact details in the text area. Last day for entering the draw is 15 May 2011. One entry per household.
To keep up to date with future giveaways click on the Subscribe button on the right.
How to lose weight without dieting!
Dieting has never been our strong point and we were so touched by this rhyme sent in by a reader that we immediately sent her a copy of the new book Colour me slimmer that we find so inspiring.
I made this rhyme up in a fit of alcoholically fuelled despair walking behind two girls with lovely figures. It tells you as much about myself as I want you to know and more about how my mother dealt with my deep despair. Lucy Reckett
Fatty watty watty
That’s what they say
Fatty watty watty
It really makes my day
Fatty watty fatty
That’s what they say
Not matter what the day
I’m fatty watty watty
So I’m so fat
That is that
No matter what I say
It only means I weigh
More than you
More than you
Oh it’s true
I’m fatter than you
Fatty watty watty
What do I care
There, there, there,
My mum says fatty watty watty doesn’t
matty matty moo!
Colour Me Slimmer is about clever dressing for a fabulous figure, whether you are size 12 or 22. Here’s a book that banishes baggy tea shirts, rejects dangerous crash diets. This essential style guide demonstrates that by simply wearing the correct clothing for your body shape, you can shed pounds in seconds.
Colour Me Slimmer is published by Hamlyn, rrp £12.99
It’s available at all good booksellers and on Amazon Colour Me Slimmer: Clever Dressing for a Fabulous Figure (Colour Me Beautiful)
WE HAVE 8 COPIES TO GIVE AWAY TO IN BALANCE READERSThe Sun is Shining in the Sky …
Drumstick primula, sown May 2010
The sun is shining in the sky and it’s seed time! The most exciting time in my gardening year. The anticipation, the joy, the expectation. But then there is the labelling … I have so often sown the seed and not bothered to write a label thinking I won’t forget that particular tray.
Wrong! I have often forgotten and some seeds haven’t received the attention they need, especially those that take more than a month to germinate.
That’s all in the past. This year I have a labelling machine. A Brother P-touch GL200 and a wondrous machine it is too!
A dream machine it is a computerised, battery run labeller. Lightweight and so portable I can do the labelling in the garden if I want. In fact though, I generally print out the labels before I go into the garden, much easier to prepare the labels before I get my fingers muddy.
I can’t say enough good things about it, and so far, touch wood, I can’t think of anything negative. The labels are rainproof, humidity proof, fade proof, heat and frost resistant, can be on coloured tape. I can choose the typeface which can be small, medium or large, on a long or short strip. It has a built in date and time clock. You get to see the text before you print on a small screen, and it can be neatly cut. All I do is make sure I have enough plant sticks to add the label to! Easy. If you’re interested in the specification go to www.brother.co.uk/gl200
Actually I can think of a negative, the price of the replacement tape is a bit steep. But honestly the machine is so useful I can tolerate that, just.
Seed collected 2011
One of the uses I have put it to is to add an appropriate label inside the numerous plastic bags of seed I have collected last year. That way I know what those funny looking seeds really are this year and the label is ready to go. What joy!
My husband uses it for labelling his filing folders and I have used it for all kinds of jobs around the house and elsewhere – even the little plaque on a fence post giving the website address for our front garden!
Label weathering well
It is one of those gadgets I really wouldn’t be without.
RRP £27.55, available on Amazon Brother P-Touch Label Printer
Kate Campbell, Gardening editor
We have a Brother P-touch GL200 to GIVEAWAY to an In Balance reader. To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with Brother P-touch GL200 in the subject box and your full contact details in the text box. Entries to reach by latest 25 April 2011. One entry per household.
I Did It! So Can you! Give Up Smoking!
I was a 20-30 a day cigarette smoker from the age of 16. I shudder to think the condition of my lungs at 46 years old, 30 years later.
Smoking was enjoyable, mostly. A crutch to bridge the periods of boredom, the uncomfortable pauses in social events, to cover nervousness and to take away appetite, the relaxing effect after a meal. I used it and abused my body. Not that I ever thought much about that aspect.
Two things happened that brought it home to me just how unsociable smoking was to those who didn’t. One couple who socialised in their kitchen/diner would always put the extractor fan on when I lit up. I didn’t really notice because we were in the kitchen weren’t we, until someone else pointed it out and that made me so selfconscious I didn’t smoke in their house from then on.
On another occasion, on the way home from babysitting I realised I had left my handbag behind. I ran back to fetch it, and found my friends had opened all the windows and doors and were spraying odour killer around. I was horrified and somewhat ashamed that they felt so strongly about the smell of smoke.
So I could go for short periods without smoking when necessary which to me was almost as good as giving up.
However gradually my friends stopped smoking, and I was virtually the only in our group who puffed away. I began to feel selfconscious and the disapproval was palpable so I started to go outside to smoke.
All this happened years before the current smoking regulations came into force but I was determined to stop. And as Mark Twain said, it was easy, I did it lots of times!
I tried herbal cigarettes, herbal tablets, hypnosis but in the end it was sheer willpower, self disgust and exasperation that finally tipped me into the smoke free habit, together with using chewing gum loaded with nicotine. I gradually managed to reduce and have now been totally smoke free for more than 15 years.
In truth I would have much preferred to use a more natural product and when I heard of the new Rescue Chewing Gum I really wanted to tell everyone about, but especially anyone who is really desperate/keen to junk those cancer sticks.
Chewing gum really did help me, I felt calmer. Recent research has shown that chewing gum helps to relieve nervousness, improve alertness and reduce stress. Research also shows that chewing gum for an hour in the morning seems to reduce the appetite to some extent. But the reason why I am so interested in the Rescue Chewing Gum is the natural ingredients used, each piece of chewing gum has a liquid Rescue centre – the famous combination of five flower essences discovered by Dr Bach almost 80 years ago.
Suitable for vegetarians a month’s supply comes in a handy portable box ideal for taking Rescue on-the-go. Rescue Gum costs £3.95 and is available from Boots, Holland & Barrett, Lloyds Chemist, independent pharmacies and health food stores as well as grocery stores nationwide. For more information visit www.rescueremedy.co.uk
Why not buy some on your way home tonight and take the decision to stop smoking – It’s No Smoking Day tomorrow, let Rescue get you going!
Tips to help:
Keep an eye on your progress – keep a chart, by day
Keep your hands busy – get going on those word puzzles, sodoku, whatever that are in every paper these days
Give yourself targets of really positive treats – a weekend break, an active goal – climb that mountain! Yes, you’ll feel more energetic as all those toxins slowly leave your body
Acknowledging a dependence on nicotine and tobacco is a crucial first step and can be the all-important catalyst that smokers need to seek professional medical help and succeed in become smokefree.
There are Stop Smoking Services provided for free by the NHS. This support has been shown to increase a smoker’s chances of stopping by up to four times, compared with going it alone.
Why not join the million smokers who will use tomorrow to try to quit. It could just work.
Or perhaps you know someone who is desperate to give up smoking and might benefit from some help? You could make it your Good Samaritan deed for today! and tomorrow …. why not for the next twelve days! If you help just one person to quit smoking wouldn’t that be worth the effort?
Good luck!
Kate Campbell, Contributing journalist
GIVEAWAYS
Our contribution is to GIVEAWAY a month’s supply of Nelsons Rescue Gum to TEN In Balance readers.
To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with NELSONS RESCUE GUM in the subject box and your contact details in the text area. Make sure your entry reaches us by 18 March 2011. One entry per household. The draw is restricted to readers resident in the UK.
