JenniFairy Illustration – Review*

2019 is the year where I really got to work with some amazing people and companies on my blog, but 2019 is also the year where I have been privileged to work with one of my favourite independent artists, JenniFairy.

As readers will know, since 2018 I have discovered a new hobby, which is enamel pin collecting. I just love them so much! They’re affordable, can be pinned anywhere and best of all a great way to show off some of your favourite artists, game series and more.

If there is one independent artist I really do love and adore, it’s JenniFairy! I love her Pokemon pins, as well a her food pins too. We’ve been talking together for a while now through Instagram and I’ve discovered what a lovely person she is to talk to! We spoke about Japan, what she hopes to do with her store in the future and more. She’s one of my favourite artists to talk to, purely for how approachable and honest she is.

So, when we decided to work together, I was so excited! Whilst I have worked with loads of big companies and people this year, I have also learnt that I actually get more joy out of working with smaller/newer companies and independent artists, especially ones I have loved and bought from for many years.

JenniFairy is definitely one of those people! I’ve spoken about Jenn and her store on my blog before. Once back in 2017 when I first discovered her and mentioned her on my old independent artists series and literally this time last year when Jenn worked with Sour Attitude Club to create two gorgeous Pikachu enamel pins in their Pika Sweets Cafe range!

I remember wearing these pin badges to Birmingham Comic Con in March on my Persona 5 varsity jacket and EVERYONE asked me about them. Who they were by, how much, etc. I felt so happy to share JenniFairy and her store with everyone at the con. 😀

I am so excited to share with you guys not only the pins that Jenn sent me to talk about on my blog but I’m also going to show you some I have bought myself! As always, I will share links, prices and of course which pins were gifted to me, as well as which ones I bought. 🙂

Some of the items mentioned in this post have been gifted for promotional and reviewing purposes, so all views on this post are entirely my own. Items that have been gifted will have a * next to them.

I have a few different pin designs (and a sticker!) from a couple of different “series” that JenniFairy has released recently, as well as throughout the rest of 2019. 🙂

The first series I will talk about is the most recent one, which is called Spoopy Cuties. I remember when Jenn was sketching the ideas up for these cute pin designs and I honestly fell in love with all the dressed up ghosts! I knew I had to pick up one of these when they came out.

The Spoopy Cuties will be perfect all year around! I know loads of people who love Halloween and I feel like these designs will be perfect for showing off your love of the spooky month. 😛

In the collection there are 6 designs to choose from – Pumpkin Buddy (you can also grab a glitter variant too which is special edition!), Boolloons, Angel Ghost, Devil Ghost, Witch Bunny and Boonicorn. I was gifted and bought the last 2.

Witch Bunny Enamel Pin* – A Grade £8.00 and B Grade £6.00 (link)

I know loads of people who actually picked up the Witch Bunny enamel pin and I can honestly understand why. This is one of my favourite designs to come out in the Spoopy Cuties because it’s so cute with that bit of Halloween too! The purple hat works really well with the white bunny and I especially love the star detailing on the hat too. This is on a gold finish and has two clutch fixes on the back. I do really love this bunny! It would be really cute to wear on a leather/fake leather jacket!

Boonicorn Enamel Pin – A Grade £8.00 and B Grade £6.00 (link)

This is the pin I knew I had to buy when it came out! I actually picked up a B Grade for a change and I have to be honest, this doesn’t look like a B Grade at all! If anything it looks like an A Grade, which makes me so happy. I can’t see any defects on it at all, which is good. The Boonicorn is so pastel, I love it! It has a pastel mane made of colours yellow, pink. blue and purple, as long as a sparkly white unicorn horn, which I found to be such a cute and magical unicorn touch! It’s face is so happy with it’s pink rosy cheeks and little arms. It’s just so damn cute! I love ghost themed things at Halloween so this pin is perfect for me! I already plan to wear it in my new itabag whilst I’m in Japan! This is on a gold finish and has two clutch fixes on the back.

The next collection I want to talk about is actually from the first Kickstarter that JenniFairy released this year, which is Big Cat Cuties. The campaign came out in July, with pins being sent out to backers at the start of October. I backed one of the designs, but Jenn was kind enough to also send me one of the cats I regret not picking up!

The collection (as the name suggests) is inspired by big cats of the world, with the collection including 6 designs to choose from – Jaguar, Black Panther, Snow Leopard, Lion, Lynx and Tiger. Again, I was gifted and bought the last 2.

Big Cat Cuties Tiger Enamel Pin* – £9.00 and Seconds £7.00 (link)

I actually think this is my favourite design out of all the Big Cat Cuties! It looks so bright with the orange and adorable with it’s little happy face! As I mentioned before, I did regret not backing for 2 pins because I wanted this one so much! This will look adorable on a cream jumper or cardigan at work, or even on a coat throughout the winter months. I know cat fans are also massive on cat toe beans, which the Tiger has! It has little black pads, so cute! It’s the only Big Cat Cutie design to have this. This is on a gold finish and has two clutch fixes on the back.

Big Cat Cuties Lynx Enamel Pin – £9.00 and Seconds £7.00 (link)

This is the Big Cat Cuties design I chose from backing the Kickstarter campaign and it’s so adorable! I’m not a massive “cat” fan, but I couldn’t resist this cute animal pin designs, especially as they were by JenniFairy. I love the grey colour of the Lynx design and especially the cute little pink nose. It adds such a perfect touch alongside the white and grey. This is an enamel pin I know I’ll wear loads, as I love the colour scheme so much. I love the fluffy detail on the ears, it’s so well done and really does bring out more detailing on the character. I would love to wear this both in my new itabag as well as on my red winter coat! This is on a gold finish and has two clutch fixes on the back.

Big Cat Cuties Sticker Sheet – £4.00 (link)

I was gifted these with my Kickstarter campaign award (Lynx) and just wanted to show them to you guys! They’re so damn cute and I don’t have the heart to use them yet, as I’m not 100% sure HOW I want to use them! You get all of the Big Cat Cutie designs here and these would make a lovely little Christmas gift for someone who loves cats.

The next pin I want to talk about is a design that brought me to JenniFairy’s store in the first place, which is her adorable Eeveelution collection called Chubbilutions! I actually already own a couple of the Eeveelution pins already, which is both Eevee (a seconds pin) and Sylveon. The one I opted for this time is Vaporeon, which is one of my favourites out of the 9 cuties! Of course you can pick up Eevee, Flareon, Jolteon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon and Sylveon. I would LOVE to own all these in the future! 😀

Vaporeon Enamel Pin* – £8.00 (link)

I’m so glad I chose this design as it’s absolutely adorable, as well as really well detailed! I love that all of the Chubbilutions are munching on their tails, which is such a cute idea. I love how JenniFairy worked on this for each Eeveelution too. I do love the tail in Vaporeon’s mouth though, the cute little mermaid pupper that it is! I also love the detail on the scales of the Vaporeon too along its tail and as odd as it sounds, it feels really comforting on the fingers when you stroke it. This pin will be perfect to wear all the time and I especially can’t wait to put this pin and the Sylveon one together in my itabag! This is on a gold finish and has two clutch fixes on the back.

As well as enamel pins, Jenn also sent me a sticker! I actually own the enamel pin design of the sticker that I was sent. I wanted this sticker to pop either into my Filofax diary, or even a notebook.

Pikachu Crepe Sticker* – £2.00 (link)

I love this design so much, it shouts Japan to me in every sense with both the Pikachu and the crepe. It’s so cute and really does remind me of when I went to Birmingham comic con in March and everyone adored this design, alongside the Pikachu ice cream design that I own both of the pins of.

Finally I’m going to be talking about my favourite item that Jenn sent me in my gifted package and it’s an item that is sadly no longer available as it was limited edtion. HOWEVER, Jenn will be bringing a special Christmas edition out of this little cutie, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this!

Detective Pikachu Enamel Pin*

I love this pin so much and it’s one that Jenn was kind enough to put to one side for me before it sold out, as she knew how much I wanted one! As I mentioned before, this pin is now sold out but I just had to mention it here because I know JenniFairy will be bringing this back for Christmas… So make sure to keep eyes peeled for this limited edition cutie! The original design has his cute little deer stalker hat on and his takeaway cup of coffee! I love the pastel colour scheme for this too, it’s perfect and really does shout JenniFairy’s unique style to me! I loved Detective Pikachu so I’m so pleased to have a little pin badge to show this. This will definitely be going into my itabag and taken with me to Japan! This is on a gold finish and has one clutch fixes on the back.

So that is everything that both JenniFairy sent me, as well as the few bits I picked up myself. 🙂

I cannot thank Jenn enough for giving me the opportunity to work with her for this blog post today and it is by far one of my favourite collaborations of 2019! I’m so excited to put these pins in my itabag, as well as on cardigans, coats/jackets and more to show off to the world and especially when I go to Japan! 😀

I love talking about independent artists on my blog, especially when I love what they do! If it means I can talk about something I adore and help my readers discover new places to buy kawaii goods from at the same time, it’s real blessing.

Overall I honestly love Jenn’s designs and they’re so unique and whenever I see her work I instantly know it’s her. Her designs are cute, pastel and chubby, can you get anymore kawaii than that? I don’t think so. 😛

Not only does she design Pokemon themed goods, but she does also design food and Japanese food, as well as some other animal designs too. Make sure to go and check out her store for more, as well as go and bag yourself some goodies as well! 😀

I’ve posted JenniFairy’s links down below so you can check out her store, as well as all her social media platforms. 😀

Etsy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Christmas is looming and I feel JenniFairy would be a great place to pick up a Secret Santa present, as well as gifts for friends or young teenagers who love Pokemon.

What would you like to pick up for yourself, or a friend? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

Until next time all, I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend. 🙂

April Favourites ’18

Image taken from GIPHY

Oh man I had to use that gif! I’ve never done this before so any time is better than no time! 😛

April went by so damn quick to be honest and I can’t believe that not only is May here, but that Avengers Infinity Wars is also here and breaking everyone’s hearts.

I’m off work tomorrow (YAYS!) so I’m going to have a blog and chill day. For now though I’m catching up on some housework whilst doing some blogging.

This months favourites are pretty good (in my opinion anyway!) and I’m loving everything on this list, which I hope you do too! 😀

• Jo Malone Cologne in Earl Grey & Cucumber (review)

This is an old favourite of mine and one I tend to use on and off whenever the mood takes me. It’s one I got through my old job at Costa Coffee and since then I use it on special occasions. I think pretty much every weekend in April however, I’ve used this when going out! It’s a really strong perfume so you can use it once and it’ll last for ages! I love the scent so much and although I love it more during autumn and winter, it’s been so refreshing to use during the spring month of April!

• Antipodes Deliverance Hand Cream.

I was bought this as a Christmas present back in 2015, which I know is forever ago and probably means that it’s out of date but I don’t care. 😛 When tidying stuff in our bedroom a few weeks back I found this hand cream again and have started to use it. I use it daily now, especially at work and it’s really helped my hands with their recent spell of dryness! It smells really nice, just like lemongrass and isn’t too heavy and thick on your hands. I just love it to use throughout my shifts at work, as well as on the go. I’d definitely buy it myself.

• Nivea Peach Shine & Cherry Shine Caring Lip Balm.

I would just talk about one of these this month but I love both so much equally that they both need to be spoken about! I used to use the cherry and strawberry Nivea lip balms ALL THE TIME during my final years of school! I just feel like a kid again and it’s so weird. The cherry one is tinted so you get a slight pinky/red tint, which is lovely. The peach one you don’t really get much of a tint. They both smell amazing too, which I love the most! Towards the end of the month my lips have been splitting again at the sides, so sadly I haven’t been able to use the lip balms.

• Newtons Labs T-Zone Spot Zapping Gel.

This is an oldie and goldie I have loved on and off over the years. I always have a supply of it in case I break out badly and need it. I don’t know why but a couple of weeks ago my cheeks broke out so badly that I worried it was the start of acne. Thankfully due to other beauty products it’s now passed, but I do feel this tea tree gel really has helped too!

• The Body Shop Strawberry Shower Gel.

This is always a firm favourite of mine and Dane bought it for me for my birthday this year. I started using it FINALLY in April and I always forget how much I love it. It reminds me of when I was a child, my mom would always buy it for me and I fondly remember using it before school most mornings when I was in primary school. It’s definitely a great shower gel to start using with spring here!

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

Favourite TV Show – Hitoshi Matsumoto Presents Documental Season 1.

Oh man if there is a show I have thoroughly loved and enjoyed it’s definitely Documental! Dane was watching it one morning and got me to watch the start of episode 3, I really got into it and continued to watch that episode, as well as 4 with him. I then went on to watch episode 1 and 2 on my own. Since then I’ve watched it again, as some of the moments in episode 3 and 4 are absolutely hilarious! It’s created and presented by a big Japanese comedian, Hitoshi Matsumoto. 10 Japanese comedians are locked in a room for either 6 or 9 hours and the one whose left in the room will win 10 million yen! Each comedian has taken in a million yen, which obviously makes up the prize money. The one who will win the 10 million yen needs to be the one who doesn’t laugh or smile. Some of the stuff the comedians will do to throw one another off is just amazing. I’ve seen online that there’s 3, maybe even 4 seasons now and I cannot wait for them all to come out!

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Film – Black Panther and Marvel Infinity War

I know I’m talking about two Marvel films, but I just have to! First of all just before Dane’s birthday we went to see Black Panther and it’s fast turned into one of my favourite Avengers movies! There was so much action going on throughout the movie and it was perfect. I especially loved Erik Killmonger (reason why the gif is of him! :P) and he stole the show, well… Movie. 😛

The second film on this list is Infinity War. I’m not going to talk too much about this film here, obviously due to spoilers and shit. Let’s just say both me and Dane were really excited but nervous to go and watch it. We went in excited and unsure what to expect, but left feeling confused and depressed. Honestly I felt low the whole of Sunday, as did Dane. I think I can speak for us both when we say we want to go again soon to see it.

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Book – K-ON!

I love K-ON! the anime so much! So this time last year I ended up buying all of the manga because I needed more. I’ve only just recently started reading them of late however! I’m currently on Vol. 3 and loving it! I just love getting to work early most mornings and reading them before I head in. It’s also funny reading them during my shifts at work during my breaks too. I can’t wait to finish reading them however though now.

Favourite Song/Album/Artist – James Arthur.

This is thanks to the radio at work to be honest. Both of these songs come on on a daily basis and I love them so much! James Arthur has such a lovely singing voice and I’ve found myself singing along to these songs most days throughout the month. There isn’t much more music I can talk about on here really as I haven’t listened to much more in all honesty.

Favourite Game – A Way Out.

During our depressive state after Marvel Infinity Wars me and Dane decided to buy this on the Xbox One. We’ve been playing it together and we’re having so much fun. It’s about two guys and you get to pick who you play as. Leo is already in prison, but you start the game either playing as or witnessing Vincent coming into the prison. From there you have to work together to escape prison and both take on the same person who caused you to be in jail in the first place. Or something like that anyway. 😛

So those were my favourites for this month! I still can’t believe it’s May! There’s loads of stuff coming up in June, I’ll have to write about it towards the end of this month.

I’m sorry my April favourites are up late today, I’ve just been so incredibly busy over the weekend and yesterday, but I’m sure it’s worth the wait!

What were your favourites throughout April? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far.

This Past Week… A Boring & Ranting Life Update

Image taken from GIPHY

Haha the title of this post really did make me chuckle when I was writing it out. I have the Wired YouTube video on when Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal read out the auto search Google things. I fucking love Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal is so adorable.

ANYWAY! I’ve been quiet for nearly a week now sadly and this is for a reason… A very good one at that! I’ve been pretty poorly on and off the past week and it was only with an upset phone call to my doctors yesterday that I finally got an answer.

I hadn’t felt great with going to the loo all of last weekend, which sucked but I thought it would pass. It seemed to but as soon as Monday had come and gone, I was extremely poorly Tuesday. Without going into too much detail, I nearly wet myself waiting for a train to work, as well as walking from the trains platform towards where I work. I’ll elaborate as to why I had gotten the train instead of driving later.

SO I had to rush to the toilet in the train station as walking was incredibly uncomfortable. Work is only a couple of minutes walk away too, so I must have been bad to think I wouldn’t make it there! That whole day bloody sucked. I was going to the toilet every hour during my shift and it wasn’t only the Tuesday that this happened on. It also happened all day Wednesday AND Thursday!

I decided Wednesday evening whilst at home that this wasn’t normal and I knew I would call the doctors on Thursday morning. That morning however I had some quick errands to run before going to work, which included getting rid of some cardboard one of my local recycling centres, as well as popping to the Post Office to grab a parcel I’d missed.

Sadly on the walk to the Post Office and then back to my car I felt the way I had Tuesday, like I was about to wet myself. I had to run into one of the local supermarkets to go to the loo and after I popped to the pharmacy and asked if they could help me at all. They couldn’t and recommended I head to the doctor straight away.

Image taken from GIPHY

From then until 9am I called my doctors surgery 10 times and it constantly went to caller busy. I finally got through and was told, “sorry nothing left.” I was fed up and felt like I could cry down the phone. This was now starting to impact my life.

Think about it, I’m trying to get on with my work and then my body is telling me I must go pee before I pee myself!

Thankfully the receptionist took all my symptoms down and said she would get a nurse to call me back to see if I could be helped over the phone or if I’d need to come in.

It turned out that I had a UTI and the nurse was lovely enough to sort out some medication for me to pick up near work! I was chuffed to be honest. It really cheered me up knowing that I was getting something to help me.

A day later and I’m definitely better, although still in pain. I was so scared it would be something a hell of a lot worse. Whenever I’ve had UTI issues in the past I’ve had short passings of urine, but this time it was normal passings, EVERY HOUR. I was worrying I could have diabetes, or (as my best friend calls it) a lazy bladder, or even incontinence.

I’m really hoping that I don’t need anymore medication like the nurse suggested, my doctors is crap and it’s so hard to get an appointment some days. I do just want to be better. On that Thursday morning I had had the toilet 3 times in the space of an hour, and as I said they were all normal wees!

ANYWAY no more talk about pee… You’re probably wondering why I had to get the train to work this week?

My car had some slight issues with it which happened whilst I was out with my dad to see some family. I’m glad he was with me to be honest but I was a nervous wreck driving him home and then driving myself home. I was fine though. I couldn’t get my car seen Monday but I could Tuesday. I dropped it off Tuesday morning and it was done in the evening! 😀 I was so chuffed! The garage I take my car to are absolute legends and do jobs at such wonderful prices. I’m just so pleased it was sorted in one day, and whilst I was at work!

I haven’t noticed any issues since it being fixed, which is amazing! I love my car so much and lately I’ve enjoyed driving it more than ever. I love driving me and Dane places if I can, but he always likes to drive. 😛

Image taken from GIPHY

Today was pretty good! Both me and Dane booked work off so we could spend the day together and we decided yesterday that we would go to watch Black Panther before it’s taken out of cinemas. Oh man I’m so glad we went to watch it to be honest with you as I loved it SO MUCH! My favourite character was for sure Killmonger (or leopard as I keep calling him… :P) for so many reasons! I feel like his character really did over shine Black Panther and he stole the limelight for both me and Dane.

We went super early in the afternoon too so it was nice to come out early, get some ingredients to bake Dane’s birthday cake and come home to do just that. Boy was Dane awkward with the birthday cake he wanted this year!

He asked for a pancake cake, which I thought would be a doddle… Alas it proved to be harder than I thought. I’m not showing any pictures of the cake I baked as it doesn’t look picture worthy. If anything I was really disappointed in myself that it didn’t turn out how it should, which in turn has put me in a slight bad mood for the rest of the day.

Image taken from GIPHY

BUT it’s Dane’s birthday tomorrow and I think I’m more excited for it than he is! 😛 I haven’t been able to buy him much this year as I really struggled with what to get, so I really hope he loves the presents I did buy him!

I’m also really excited for him to open one of his cards as it’s custom made for him. 😛

One thing that has really bugged me this week is something that means a lot to me. My favourite independent artist Ohayou! Clothing has had some issues lately with both her Kickstarter and some pin badges she had up for sale on her website. It’s really annoyed me to be honest! I won’t go into too much detail here you can go to her Instagram and have a look yourselves if you’re interested. I’m just meh about it all. I try to support her whenever I can and I love her Kickstarter so much (which of course I’ve backed!) as well as some cute doughnut Eeveelution pins she had designed and put up for sale on her website. I’d also pre ordered one of those.

I’m just sad that someone feels the need to shit all over what she is currently doing, as she’s such an amazing designer and I love her work so damn much. I hope stuff gets better for her soon, I really do. 😦

Urgh I’m sorry most of this post has been negative or miserable. Sadly it hasn’t exactly been the best week in the world.

I am excited for tomorrow though and I know not only will I have a great time, but Dane definitely will! We’re going with some friends who are just as geeky as we are, which I’m so excited for!

Anyway, how are my readers? I hope you’re all well!

OH and I recently got to 200 followers on my Bloglovin page, WHICH MAKES ME SO HAPPY! If this stays at 200 by the end of April, I might hold a giveaway for my awesome readers! 😀

It’s getting late now and it’s time to snuggle in bed with Dane to watch this weeks RuPaul episode! 😛

Until next time all, take care all and have an amazing weekend.