Why I Started Streaming On Twitch

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter, can you already believe Easter was a week ago? Let’s not even talk about how crazy the weather is and the fact I haven’t eaten my Easter egg yet… 😛

The past couple of weeks have been a mixture of crazy and chaotic, as well as pretty cool and awesome. I wanted to share the latter with you and this includes me starting to stream on Twitch.

Yep, I’m a Twitch streamer now! I know I’ve spoken on and off about it on my blog and social media pages in the past but I’ve finally started it and have been at it for two weeks now!

I’ve wanted to stream on Twitch for a long time now, well over a year in fact and in March I finally decided to bite the bullet one evening and have a play around. It was whilst Dane was away working from home that I did a test stream on Dane’s Xbox playing Super Lucky’s Tale. I only played for half an hour to test the waters and see how it went and it was amazing! Some of my friends joined to see what I was up to and I had a few comments. I fondly remember Vikki (Cuteek) joining and rooting me on, which was amazing!

I then decided later on that week that I would officially start streaming on Twitch! I opened up with Persona 5: Strikers and not only did some of my friends join, a lot of my online friends and friends of friends did too and it was amazing! I was so happy and felt more confident with my decision to finally stream.

However… Streaming has come with some “tough” decisions, alongside juggling my personal life and blogging around when I stream. I want to just chat with you all about my experiences and thoughts since I started streaming two weeks ago, as well as a semi funny story along the way.

First of all I want to mention how I played Persona 5: Strikers on two streams and decided it wasn’t a game I wanted to stream and stopped. As regular readers and friends of mine know, I LOVE Persona 5. It’s one of my favourite games and is definitely up there with Pokemon and Animal Crossing. I was so excited to have Persona 5: Strikers as a streaming game of choice and that it would be a first playthrough too. However, during my second stream playing it, I didn’t “enjoy” it. Persona 5: Strikers isn’t the same style of gameplay as Persona 5 and Persona 5: Royal in the sense of it’s a hack and slash style game instead of turn based. I’ve not really played hack and slash games before so this was new to me. Not just that, I wanted to invest myself into the story but that was proving hard to do when I wanted to talk to my viewers at the same time. So, it was with a heavy heart that I decided to discontinue playing Persona 5: Strikers for the foreseeable future.

Alongside playing Persona 5: Strikers I’ve started playing Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! from the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. I’m playing a brand new save, as I’ve 100% completed this game on my own save years ago when it first came out. These streams are chilled and fun! I mean, who doesn’t love Spyro, eh?

I was mainly playing games on my Xbox after the first week of streaming and on Monday Dane turned to me and said, “Nat? Why don’t you look into buying yourself a Switch so you can start streaming Nintendo games?” The idea had already been swirling around my head since Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March 2020 and especially since I’d started streaming. However, due to money and buying a capture card too the idea just didn’t seem doable at the present time.

This being said I thought about the idea quite a bit that morning and it didn’t take me long before I was Googling for the Animal Crossing switch console. I regret not buying this switch back in March 2020 when it came out alongside Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s not a console that is easy to get hold of new these days as it’s pretty limited and I ended up settling on buying a second hand one from CeX, which we ordered and collected on Monday. I wasn’t exactly happy with how much I paid but at least I had 24 months warranty against it. When I got the switch home I was anxious I’d made a bad decision with the price I paid. The switch wasn’t exactly in the best quality considering how much I paid and this anxious feeling didn’t really pass. The screen was scratched quite badly in the bottom right hand corner, inside the box was filthy (dust/fluff) and the joy cons and switch overall was covered in scuffs and dust. I gave it a clean and turned it on to play and it worked fine! Dane popped on a spare screen protector he had from when he bought his switch and we ordered a capture card and a new micro SD card.

Come Wednesday evening and I streamed Animal Crossing on my stream and it did REALLY well! I was chuffed as fuck and came off the stream feeling great. I’d popped the micro SD into my switch earlier that day and during the stream I’d taken a lot of snapshots and wanted to make sure they’d save to the micro SD okay. They hadn’t saved because the switch hadn’t even acknowledged the micro SD… Which was strange. I did loads of troubleshooting that I knew, as well as via the Nintendo UK website and nothing worked. I started to worry I’d bought a switch that didn’t work and the more I tested, the more this worry became a reality. I went to bed miserable.

I woke up miserable too but determined to find a brand new Animal Crossing switch. I did a Google search and found one BRAND NEW and for less than I paid for the second hand one from CeX. I did a bit of research about the online store in question as I’d never heard of them before and honestly, the price of the switch seemed too good to be true… The reviews were mostly good, but mixed nonetheless. As we could pay through PayPal we took a chance and ordered. Just over 24 hours later, the switch arrived. It was indeed the real deal. Legit, brand new and perfect.

I streamed on Friday using it and faced no issues. The second hand CeX switch was packed away and returned yesterday with an refund issued yesterday too.

Now we have that bit of the story out of the way, I want to share my Twitch experience(s) so far.

I’ve been streaming on Twitch for two weeks now and it’s definitely been a learning curve and a fun one at that! I’ve streamed various games so far and I’m slowly starting to get a firm schedule in place. I have to keep reminding myself that it has only been two/three weeks (seven streams in total) so it’s technically still very early days.

So far I’ve streamed Persona 5: Strikers, Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage), Ark: Survival Evolved, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.
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I would honestly say the most popular game I’ve played to date is by far Animal Crossing: New Horizons which gained me a lot of followers as well as a chatty audience to boot. I’m really excited to be playing Animal Crossing again on my stream.

Speaking of playing this on my stream I think for the time being I have finally settled on a schedule that I’m really happy with for now. All streams run between 7pm-9pm GMT. Monday I play Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage (once this is completed I’ll move onto Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon), Wednesday I play Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX (however, this stream didn’t seem to do very well on Friday so this is subject to change if this continues) and finally on Friday I play Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

I’m not going to share 100% what happens/will happen in these streams, especially the Animal Crossing one. You’ll have to come and see for yourself. 😉

In the future I’m looking to add New Pokémon Snap into the mix, which will be really cool to play! I’d also love to play the newly announced Pokemon games – Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. These both look amazing and it would be so much fun to play them with my Twitch audience! Maybe not 100%, but when it comes to searching for new Pokemon to find and catch/breed that’s where I could host a “chill and fill my Pokedex” type stream.

The one thing that I haven’t declared yet is that I’m not affiliate or anything like that, I’m just your regular streamer… Hoping to make affiliate some day! I do have my goals set for the future of Twitch but if I don’t make those goals, it’s not the end of the world. This is just a bit of fun and something new for me to do as COVID and lockdowns have really shown me how creative I love being and how I want to do it as much as I can. This being said – I would love to make affiliate by the end of May ready for the summer.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love writing on my blog, but sometimes it’s really nice to add to that with chatting and playing games on stream three nights a week. 🙂

If you would love to check out my stream please click on the link below and make sure to follow if you’re interested in future streams! I do have all my previous streams on the channel so you can watch previous streams back if you’ve missed out on any. 🙂

There Might Be Coffee Twitch channel

Please bear in mind I am still new to this, I don’t have hundreds of followers, viewers or comments/chat so this is still a learning curve and early days for me. Every view, comment, share and follow means the world to me. 🙂

Thank you for reading me waffle about my Twitch stream and how excited I am about it! I hope you can follow me on my little gaming stream journey and I really hope you enjoy my content if you come and check me out!

I want to finally finish this post by saying a massive thank you to my boyfriend Dane for helping me out with Twitch. He’s been the one who has guided me in what I need to do in regards to OBS, Stream Labs and more. He sat with me the whole evening before I did my first official Nintendo stream and went through how OBS works, how capture cards work and more. He even paid for my capture card and Animal Crossing switch, which I will be paying him back the next couple of pay days.

So Dane, thank you for not only being my rock, thank you for being my admin and technical guy too when it comes down to Twitch. It would be wrong of me to take credit for the behind the scenes work when it’s been Dane learning how to do it and teaching me. 🙂

Please let me a comment down below of what you think, as well as any game suggestions you’d love to see me play!

Until next time guys, take care and I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.

March Wish List ‘21

I can’t quite believe we’re coming to the end of the first week of March. I woke up this morning and said to Dane, “Is it Friday?” because the week has gone by so bloody quickly!

I’ve been having a think about what items to talk about and share with you for my wish list this month as I’m struggling a tad AND as I mentioned on my favourites post (which you can read here), I’m on a spending ban again in March. It’s not gone off to the best start but meh… It is what is it and I’m going to try and be better throughout the rest of the month!

All of the items on this wish list are things I plan to purchase come payday due to pre-orders or because they’re home related items I’d like to buy.

I hope you enjoy this months wish list as always! 😀

• Persona 5 Animation Parts 1 & 2 (link)

As everyone knows, I love Persona 5. It was a game I played when it first came out in the UK and I quickly fell in love with it. I’m currently playing Persona 5: Royal and will look at FINALLY starting to play Persona 5: Strikers today. I love anime and when I heard Persona 5 was getting one, I was so excited! This was quite a while ago now and I’ve never actually watched the anime. 😦 This is because at the time it was subbed (Japanese speaking with English subtitles) and as I’d played the game dubbed (English speaking) I wanted to watch the anime with the same voice actors that I’d played the game with. I know Channel 4/All  4 have the English dub to watch, but with adverts and all that, I was put off. Now it’s coming out for pre-order at the end of the month I’m happy to wait a little longer after ordering! 😀

• Pokémon TCG: Eevee Sweet Choices Playmat (link)

I’m not a Pokemon Trading Card player, but I do hope to get my own desk in the future and this ADORABLE Eevee Sweet Choices playmat would be amazing to buy to use as a massive mouse/keyboard mat for my future desk. It’s a cute design with an Eevee on the front holding and surround by Eeveelution themed chocolates. The background is white and is covered in the Eeveelution themed chocolates. This is really hard to get hold of now and you’re looking over £60 to get hold of one from America. This is kind of frustrating to be honest as it only sold for $24.99 this time last year. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for it, as it’s definitely something I’d love for a desk. It would be so bloody cute. 🙂

• M&S Pure Cotton Strawberry Bedding Set (link)

I don’t know about you, but I’m always up for buying some new bedding, especially in spring and winter. I was contemplating buying some new bedding in winter but ended up leaving it, which I’m glad about as I’m definitely planning on buying this bedding soon! M&S bedding is really lovely and great quality, so when I spotted this strawberry bedding set on the website, I fell in love! I love strawberries and the print on this bedding is really sweet, delicate and the pink strawberries remind me of Japan a little. This would just be perfect to use throughout the year, especially spring and summer. When payday hits at the end of the month, I’m going to order this. 🙂

• Smoko Pearl Boba Tea Air Purifier (link)

I LOVE Smoko’s products! They’re so practical and kawaii that I do love having them in my own. I love their Pearl Boba design and I already own the little light variant of it. So when Firebox announced they’d got the air purifier in stock, I KNEW I had to have it! As someone who suffers from hay fever, this purifier would be perfect in the summer to keep next to me when working from home in the week. Imagine too if I had my own desk, with the cute Eevee playmat, as well as this air purifier? Would be so cute!!!

• Asda Artificial Succulent In Dalmatian Pot (link)

For some reason I thought I’d mentioned this last month… But I didn’t! I actually discovered this through someone on Twitter, which was amazing! I would have bought it last month if it hadn’t been for a mixture of spending ban AND you need to buy something else in order to snag this item from the website. I haven’t seen anything I want or need to justify ordering it, which is a bit of a shame. I’ll get one eventually I’m sure. I plan to keep it by the front door to add a bit of colour into the hallway!

• Lunaticgumis Puppycat Enamel Pin & Sticker (link)

Finally we have this amazing enamel pin and sticker design from Lunaticgumis. I LOVE Bee & Puppycat, so I’m always in the lookout for merch from independent artists. Lunaticgumis is my favourite for Puppycat goodies and I already own some stickers, an enamel pin and even an amigurumi of Puppycat from her (I’ll be talking about her in the future on my blog!). This Puppycat design is so adorable as Puppycat is dressed as Bee! 😀 This isn’t something I’ve seen anyone else do in the community yet, so it’s something unique for sure! I’ll definitely be ordering the enamel pin and the sticker in the future. 😀

So yeah there we have it, all of my wish list items for March! As I said previously, I’m on a spending ban this month so these items won’t be bought in a massive hurry in all honesty, but I do really love sharing my wish lists with you all to promote independent artists and more.

What item(s) do you have on your wish list this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. 🙂

February Favourites ‘21

Can you guys believe it’s March tomorrow? I can’t. February went by really quickly and you know what, I’m not complaining about that. I’m going to be honest, February was a shit month for me and I’m really glad to see the back of it. My mental health was really tested for three weeks solid and there was a time where I was in a really low place. To be honest at the time of writing this (Thursday 25th) I still have a couple of days left of the month to go, so fingers crossed the rest of the month treats me well!

I just want to be honest with you guys. The first week I felt numb and empty and it was mostly PMS related but I started to think about life before lockdown, COVID and my parents. I really miss them. The first thing I’m planning to do when lockdown is over and it’s safe to do so is see my parents. I was also starting to think about how I miss my aunt who passed away in September. I think about her almost daily and yeah. It’s shit.

The second week I can’t talk about too much. My mental health was just bad, I was a nervous wreck and I just couldn’t stop crying some days. Just to get this out there, I’m okay now and these feelings have now passed… Thank fuck.

The third week (well this week really…) things just didn’t seem to go right. Dane was told to self isolate at the end of the second week, we’ve had some issues in the house and we’ve been irritable and miserable as fuck. Thankfully we’re both feeling a lot better now.

I just wanted to get that off of my chest. Just because I appear happy and cheerful on my blog and social media, it doesn’t always mean I am and the same goes to everyone. I’m quite good at putting an act on when the time comes. It’s something I’ve had to do my whole life in regards to my mental health.

I also want to say a massive thanks to the handful of friends who have been there for me this month when things were rough. I miss and love you all. :’)

Besides me feeling like shit, February was also a month where I decided to go on a spending ban. I’d been very spend happy in January and due to it being a long month (payday wise) I was kinda skint. The February spending ban went pretty well… Until shitty week two out of three where I ended up treating myself to some Black Milk Clothing pieces… Oops. 😛 Aside from that, the spending ban went really well and it’s actually inspired others to go on a spending ban with me too! I’m already planning to do it again in March AND people will be joining me for that!

Of course if you’re interested to follow along, or maybe even join yourself I’ll pop the template I’ve created for March above. I’ve been posting daily to weekly updates on my Instagram page (theremightbecoffeeblog) stories. Come and join in!

Anyhoo, enough of me waffling on about spending bans and more, let’s talk about my favourites from February. It may have been a crap month but I loved so much stuff and have been excited to share it with you all!

Beauty

• The Body Shop Strawberry Shower Gel.

I’ve spoken about this shower gel from The Body Shop many times and I really do love it. I tell this story every time I talk about this shower gel, which I’m sure everyone is bored of now. 😛 Basically my mom used to always buy me a bottle of this shower gel whenever we visited The Body Shop (once every few months or so?) so whenever I use it, it reminds me of when I was younger. I had a £5 birthday voucher and I didn’t want to worry I lost it, so bought myself a MASSIVE bottle of the strawberry shower gel. It’s something Dane loves just as much as I do so it works out nicely. I’ve been using it loads this month and not only does it smell amazing, but it has left my skin feeling lovely and soft too. 🙂

So… Now it’s time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month! If there isn’t anything I’ve done I’m not going to mention. I haven’t mentioned a movie this month as I don’t actually think I/we watched one!

Favourite TV Show – Attack on Titan Final Season.

It saddens me to say that we are on the final season of Attack on Titan, it only feels like yesterday that me and Dane were watching it for the first time (we’d travelled to Bristol for a long weekend for our first anniversary)… That was almost seven years ago! I love the show and I for one am sad to see it come to an end. So far this final season has been AMAZING and it’s something me and Dane have either watched Sunday night before bed, or Monday morning before work. I don’t want to say too much due to spoilers but it’s amazing and very “WHAT IS HAPPENING!” Moments throughout. This is because I don’t/haven’t read the manga yet. I plan to in the future. I definitely recommend watching Attack on Titan if you never have and want to!

I just want to add here that I was going to also add another TV show I’m loving right now… But I’m going to wait until next month when it’s due to end. Spoiler, it’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2… 😛

Favourite Book – Remina by Junji Ito.

GUYS I actually read a book! One book, but A book! This is actually a manga that Dane bought for himself that I ended up reading before him. It’s the latest manga from Junji Ito and it was a strange but enjoyable read. It’s about a young woman called Remina whose dad has discovered a planet, which he names after her. The planet isn’t good, shit goes crazy and people start to blame Remina for it, due to their shared name. For those of you who aren’t aware, Junji Ito is described as the “king of horror manga” due to his unique art style. It’s incredibly detailed and beautiful, although creepy all the same. This isn’t a long manga, but a lot of packed in there! I didn’t really like the ending, but I don’t know what else I expected really. This being said it’s amazing and I recommend giving it a read if you’re already a fan of Junji Ito’s work, or a new reader of his work like I am.

Favourite Music – Childish Gambino – Summer Pack.

I recently discovered the track “Summertime Magic” by Childish Gambino through a game and I have fallen in love with it. From that I also discovered “Feels Like Summer” as both songs were on an EP called Summer Pack which I really love. I’ve found myself listening to them whilst working, even whilst writing up this post on and off too. I’ve never really listened to Childish Gambino before but I’ll definitely listen to his work more in the future for sure! I’m not super excited for the summer yet due to everything going on in the UK at the moment with lockdown and COVID, but as and when we can have a fun summer again, these are songs I’ll be playing whilst cooking something on the BBQ and sipping on a cocktail!

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Game – Ark.

Ark is a game me and a group of friends have been playing recently after we bought a server and with Dane and a friend of ours both needing to self isolate in February it’s been good for them to have something to do during the day, as well as in the week. I’d never played Ark before so I was feeling a mixture of excitement and anxious of what to expect. All I knew about it was that it’s a survival game surrounding dinosaurs. We’ve been playing it for over a week now and we’re all having an amazing time! 😀 I’ve become the one who looks after the dinosaurs and tidies up around the place. 😛 We have two robot stegosaurus’ which I called Daft and Punk. Yes, I’m a loser. 😛 It’s just such a fun game and I honestly recommend it to everyone who fancies something new to play. Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s free on Xbox too!

Just a few of my favourite things.

• Creating an amigurumi – Animal Crossing Bizkit dog villager.

Not long after the third lockdown began in the UK I decided I would take up a new hobby and that new hobby was going to be amigurumi! I’d been mesmerised by it for quite some time thanks to Instagram and I thought, “Why not give it a go myself?” I’m not going to lie, the first time I gave this a go I was stressed out and anxious that I’d picked up a hobby I couldn’t actually do… My aunt always tried to show me how to crochet when I was younger and I never got the hang of it. Dane was really good and helped me so much with learning how to do some of the basics of amigurumi and if it wasn’t for that, I think I would have given up.

I worked on this project for a couple of days and didn’t go back to it for a few weeks after getting busy. I don’t know what happened but when I picked it back up I just… Got on with it and something that I’d struggled with so much the two weeks prior just came natural to me! I haven’t finished Biskit yet, but I plan to at the start of March. I’ve been a bit too busy lately to pick it up back but I only have a leg and his ears left to do.

Due to the amount of wool I have left I’m actually planning to make another one to either gift to a friend or keep hold of. In the future I would love to do some more projects similar to this including more Animal Crossing dog villagers, Pokemon and maybe even try and find a Puppycat (Bee & Puppycat) and Morgana (Persona 5) design to play with too.

If you’re interested in this design too and fancy giving it a go yourself then make sure to go and check out HanisCrochet! I bought my PDF pattern on her Etsy store and she’s been so lovely and helpful when I’ve gotten stuck or confused with the pattern. I’ll link back to the Biskit pattern here. The next one I plan to buy from her is Cherry so I can make one for Dane, as well as my friend Gabriella. 🙂

• Pikarar photoshoot (read the post all about Pikarar here).

I’m not going to talk too much about this but I LOVED this mini photoshoot that me and Dane did for my Pikarar review! I had loved the mini photoshoot we’d done for my Black Milk Clothing x Pokemon collection post (which you can read here) so I knew I wanted to do another. Our front room is perfect for these photoshoots and I’m not going to lie, 2021 will hopefully bring more!

As you will have noticed on my blog, as well as on my blog social media pages my image has changed to be the one where I’m wearing my yellow Pikachu crane Pikarar t-shirt. I loved how natural the photo came out and I found by wearing something Pokemon and geeky related it’s more related to what my blog is about.

What do you guys think about the photos? 😀

• Food – Pancake day,fFakeaway and Japanese ramen.

February was a month of me cooking some yummy meals and if there is one thing I really love to do, it’s cooking. Towards the start of February we had Shrove Tuesday/pancake day! I always make pancakes for me and Dane when pancake day rolls around and I knew we had to have them with bacon and syrup! They were really yummy and now I’m craving them again. 😛

I’ve cooked a couple of “fakeaway” meals during February including Nandos and this burger meal we did! The burgers are Linda McCartney’s vegetarian pulled pork burgers and they are AMAZING! I cooked up some chilli halloumi to pop on top and on the side, as well as some salt and pepper chips. This was such a lovely dinner and it definitely hit the spot.

Finally earlier this week I made ramen. It’s been BLOODY FREEZING this week in Birmingham and both me and Dane needed something to warm us up, so I decided to cook us ramen. I used Oumph! spiced kebab meat which is vegetarian and it’s okay… But it’s not something I’d pick up often as I find for the price it isn’t worth it. I’m not 100% vegetarian (flexitarian?) but I’m not someone who eats kebabs so I’d rather have this, if that makes sense? 🙂

• Black Milk Clothing x Pokemon.

Pokemon Day was yesterday and can you believe Pokemon has been around officially for 25 years? I feel fucking old… 😛 I mentioned earlier in this post that I had splurged on some Black Milk pieces towards the end of February and pissed my spending ban UP THE WALL! One of the two pieces I picked up is the Pokemon Dreams Snuggle Suit that I’ve had on my wish list since the collection came out in 2020. I’ve been wearing this on and off toward the end of February and it’s so comfortable to wear during games evenings and chilling with Dane. Black Milk Clothing have their Pokemon 2.0 collection coming out TONIGHT (in the UK anyway…) and I’m planning to buy a couple of things from it. I’m eyeing up the Snorlax snuggle suit but… I don’t think I will. One is enough for me me thinks.

So that is everything from my February monthly favourites! As I said before, February was rubbish for me but writing this post I’ve seen some things I really loved and enjoyed this month, which has made me feel a bit better. 🙂

What were your favourites from February? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time all, take care, keep safe and see you soon!

September Favourites ’20

Wow, did September fly by or what?! I can’t quite believe it’s October and I’m still saying and writing September down when referring to this month.

As I mentioned this time last month, September is my favourite month of the year, for autumn and it’s always the month I have associated with as a “fresh start”. This is down to starting education in September and preparing myself for that. I was one of those teenagers who started a new year of school with a “new year, new me!” approach… But never really changed much. xD

However, September 2020 for me has been… Shit. Due to lockdown I haven’t been able to do stuff I usually would in the run up to autumn, which sucks, but without saying too much, I’ve been grieving during September and I can only see October being the same. This is also why there wasn’t a blog post last week.

Aside from that September was just bland really. I had to “take a stand” and look after my mental health. I’d found being part of group chats and Discord chats to be too much for me and I’ve ended up muting them for the foreseeable future. That “new year, new me!” stance I’ve always had since the age of 13 appears to have been used this year for sure! xD

This months favourites are strange. I found that a lot of beauty related items I’ve loved have been holy grails for me, especially for my hand, which flared up with my dermatitis. SO, I hope the one product mentioned may help others out there who have dermatitis like myself, or eczema.

Image taken from The Latest Kate

Anyhoo, enough of me waffling and being depressing (ha! xD), on with the monthly favourites for September!

• Happy Place Cosmetics Wild Child Body Scrub.

I got this body scrub towards the end of July/start of August in my Happy Place Cosmetics monthly box. This is my favourite item that was in the box, but I was wary I wasn’t going to like the scent after reading the description on the website. It’s described as being a dupe of Lush’s 29 High Street scent. This is a definite dupe, but back in the day when I was a Lushie, 29 High Street wasn’t a scent I particularly liked. However, it’s really grown on me and actually reminds me of Christmas! It’s a warm foral, but fruity scent! Lush say that 29 High Street is said to be the scent of a Lush shop when you walk in. I think this has changed the past 8 years however…

Honestly though, the Happy Place Cosmetics body scrubs are AMAZING and by far the best I’ve ever used. They’re really scrubby, but they also foam up too depending on how much water you add. I don’t feel like I’ve had a body scrub work as well as these do. I use them once a week and they make my skin lovely and soft. At the time of writing this post (evening of 30/09/2020) there are some body scrubs available on the Happy Place Cosmetics website, so if you’re interested in them, go and check out the website.

• Lyonsleaf Calendula and Marshmallow Balm.

When I say this product has been a lifesaver, I really mean it. I’ve mentioned on and off on my blog how my eczema/dermatitis is really bad on my hand the past year and at one point over the past month it got so bad and uncomfortable. So much so, it was waking me up in the night due to how itchy it was. I decided to research what products I could buy and use on it after washing my hands and in between the ointment my doctor had prescribed me. Lyonsleaf came up and after doing a lot of reading and watching of reviews on YouTube, I decided to order myself a little tub. It’s honestly amazing stuff! It’s greasy in consistency but a little goes a long way. It doesn’t have a scent or taste when applied to the skin, but in the jar it does remind me of a Sunday dinner/gravy sort of smell, which is so odd! I really do recommend this though if you have really dry skin and need something to soothe it, especially if it’s just patches like what I have.

• Doll 10 Doll Skin Perfecting Treatment Powder.

This is something my mom bought me as a gift quite a while ago. I’ve only really started to use it during lockdown whenever I’m popping out for the day, or fancy wearing doing myself up as if I’m going out for the day. Lately I’ve been venturing out a little more, whether it’s going for a shop, getting my nails done or running errands out and about. This is a light translucent powder which goes on pretty straight forward. It’s been my go to really to remove any excess oil on my t-zone. I couldn’t say if it actually keeps the oil at bay all day but it works for me enough at the moment during “lockdown” and whilst I’m working from home. I’m never usually a fan of loose powders as I find they often don’t get picked by the brush (if that makes sense?) which can wind me up a little as I feel like I’m constantly trying to get an even coverage on my face. This being said, this powder is pretty good for that!

• Nivea Blueberry Blush Lip Butter.

I mentioned this a couple of months on my monthly favourites and I’m mentioning it again! This lip butter by Nivea is so lovely to use and as sad as it sounds, it’s a treat for me to use throughout the week during work. It’s buttery, creamy and a little goes a long way. It feels really nice and moisturising on the lips and it smells absolutely gorgeous! I love blueberries and especially love blueberry scented things so this is right up my street. I usually go to Vaseline when it comes to lip balms, but I’m really loving the Nivea lip butter lately, so this is definitely a product I’ll repurchase in the future. I highly recommend it is you want a good lip butter/cream. It’s not greasy or sticky, yet it lasts ages on the lips!

• Bath Bake Love White Cocoa Fluffy Whip Soap.

The final product I want to talk about for the beauty side of my monthly favourites is Bath Bake Love, an independent beauty brand I have fallen in love with during lockdown. I’d like to write a blog post about them in the future, but I don’t know when it’ll be. Anyway, this is the first and only fluffy whip soap I’ve tried by them and it smells of white chocolate/white hot chocolate. It’s divine and it isn’t just me who loves it too, my boyfriend has really taken to this and has been using is everyday to wash with in the mornings. It’s a thick creamy soap, it looks more like a buttercream than soap and it smells like it too. A little goes a long way and when used in a sponge or a shower puff it really foams up and leaves you with loads of lovely smelling lather/bubbles. This can also be used in the bath, which my boyfriend has done. Bath Bake Love has definitely become a must have for our shower and I cannot wait to try and own more of their products in the future. They currently have their Halloween range on their website, so make sure to go and check them out. 🙂

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

Gif taken from GIPHY

Favourite TV Show – The Boys.

First of all, sorry for the C word being used on the gif… Butcher is one of my favourite characters for the way he is, so I had to include that gif. 😛 We are already six episodes into season 2 of The Boys and so far I’m really enjoying it! There’s been loads happen since season 1 finished last year, which is always good. One of the episodes so far felt really slow and I know I wasn’t the only person saying this. Monday morning meetings are spent with my team discussion the episode of The Boys from the weekend and what we thought of it. We’ve all had the same feelings about it and so far we are all loving it! I really do look forward to spending Friday night or Saturday morning watching the latest episode with Dane. The Boys reminds me of Preacher, which ended last year, just after The Boys began. They’re both based off of comics of the same dark comedy, so they’re good in my books! I definitely recommend checking out The Boys and Preacher if you have Amazon Prime, as that’s where they’re hosted.

Favourite Movie – I’m Thinking of Ending Things.

Although we watched this film at the end of start of September it’s the only film I’ve really watched lately that I could think of adding to my monthly favourites this month. This is one that Dane had watched the trailer for, heard about online and really wanted to watch. We popped it on and I swear throughout we were constantly questioning what the fuck was going on. It’s a psychological drama about a young woman who is contemplating ending the six week relationship with her boyfriend as they drive to his parents house so she can meet them for the first time. It spirals from there, but I don’t really want to say much in case it reveals any spoilers but it’s based off of a novel and is directed by Charlie Kaufman the guy behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you have Netflix or are able to watch it another way I highly recommend it. 🙂

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Book – Oops…

Oops indeed. I didn’t read anything this month. I really need to just have an evening off of my phone, Nintendo Switch and laptop and just read! Sometimes though I just don’t feel like I have time. I’m always trying to make way for everything and reading takes a back burner. Earlier today I ordered Aggretsuko Vol. 1 comic book! I love Aggretsuko so I’m rather excited for that to arrive tomorrow or Friday to read over the weekend… If I’m able to! Honestly though, I have so many manga volumes and comics to read. I really need to get on it!

Favourite Music – PVRIS – Use Me.

PVRIS new album Use Me came out at the end of August and it’s one I’ve been listening to on and off throughout September, but I definitely need to listen to it a lot more. I wanted to share one of the songs from the album that I’ve already fallen in love with, starting with “Loveless”. This song is clearly about a breakup but it’s got such a lovely acoustic melody behind it, as well as powerful lyrics that a lot of people who have or are going through a breakup can relate to. I just love it so much and after I heard it for the first time, I replayed it a few times and got the lyrics up to read as it played and sing along to. Who else does this? 😛

Overall I really love Use Me but I think it’s one that will have to grow on me. I love PVRIS’s previous two albums so much, but that isn’t it. I think due to the fact 5/11 songs on the album have come out gradually the past year as singles and EP’s, nearly half of the albums isn’t a “surprise”, if that makes sense? Even so, I still love it! PVRIS has fast become one of my favourite bands the past year and a half and that’s not going to change.

Favourite Game – Not Tonight: Take Back Control Edition (Nintendo Switch).

I only bought this game about a week ago but it’s already earnt it’s place on my monthly favourites for September due to how much I’ve played it already! The week I bought this was when I received some bad news and I looked on the eShop for something simple to play, but not for a lot of money. I picked Not Tonight up for a BARGAIN price of £1.94! I think it was 90% off so the game was roughly £19? Crazy how cheap this was, but totally worth it! It’s set after Brexit and you’re playing a bouncer with European in their blood. You live in a dump, work for shit money and have loads of bills and taxes to pay. You have to check the ID of people coming in pubs, clubs, festivals, events and even on the border of the UK. I love it, it’s such a “relaxing” game to play which has a dark sense of humour about it. Some people I’ve spoken to about the game said it sounds depressing. It’s really not. If it’s still on offer on the eShop I highly recommend it, I’m sure you won’t miss £1.94 eh?

So, there we have it, my favourites from September. I’ve had to write this post the day before it’s due to be out and I honestly can’t believe tomorrow is going to October. This year has flew, even with the circumstances of COVID. I wish September hadn’t gone by so quickly and I wish myself and my family hadn’t received the news we did… I’m kind of glad for a new month due to that, but at the same time, I don’t know what October will bring. Fingers crossed something good, eh?

What have you been loving throughout September? Are you excited for autumn, the nights starting to draw in and Halloween? I’m excited for Halloween! I’m going to try and use October as the month to watch Halloween movies I’ve always meant to. 🙂

Speaking of, what’s your favourite Halloween movie? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, stay safe and take care all. 🙂

September Wish List ’20

We’ve been into September almost a week now and I am feeling autumnal and excited for Halloween, Bonfire Night and especially everything else this season brings.

September so far hasn’t been too bad and I’m really loving how each day you can see summer begin to fade and autumn start to show it’s true colours… Aka orange, brown and yellow. 😛

In regards to my September wish list, I toyed with having this up either this weekend or next. I felt it would be too long for a post if I didn’t have it up until next weekend, so here we are… Two posts in one week! 😀 Don’t think it’s going to become a habit though… It’s not. 😛

I don’t really have much to talk about sadly as it feels like it hasn’t been too long yet between my two monthly posts… I’m just super excited for autumn and Halloween at the moment, so please excuse how spooky this months favourites are. 😛 I even made the background orange for autumn… 😛 I hope it isn’t too bright for you guys. xD

• LittlestSpookShop Halloween Hijinkery Print (link)

Recently I discovered Littlest Spook Shop through YouTuber SimplySpooky and I have fallen in love with their ghost designs. I honestly want them all, but sadly I don’t have a clue where I would keep them in my house. I also have to add the fact Dane isn’t a massive fan of them… Purely because they’re ghost and gothic/Halloween looking. There is one design I may pick up in the future to keep by my side of the bed which is the Always Cosy Club design. It’s definitely me and it’s a print Dane likes too. However, the print I like the most from their Etsy store at the moment is the Halloween Hijinkery print. It shouts Halloween and the little ghosts are absolutely adorable! I think if I was to pick up this print I’d want to stick it up on my plushie cabinet. 🙂

• BeaconCandlesUK Pokémon Lavender Town inspired Scented Candle (link)

Everyone knows I’m a massive fan of candles and Pokemon, so when I heard of a UK seller merging the two together, I had to check it out. Lavender Town is one of my favourite places in the original Gen 1 Pokemon games and I think it’s obvious why. The scent of this candle is kind of obvious with lavender, vanilla and cedarwood. It sounds so lovely, especially for cold evenings. Cubone is also one of my favourite Pokemon, so for there to be a Cubone skull and crossbones on the top of this candle, is morbid but cool at the same time. This isn’t something I’ll pick up anytime soon as I have LOADS of amazing wax tarts from CushtyCo to burn, as well as some leftover Yankee Candle jars. This is definitely the kind of thing I will ask for when Christmas and my birthday is around.

• UNIQLO Lady and The Tramp T-Shirt (link)

Regular readers (and friends) of my blog will know I’m a MASSIVE Lady and the Tramp fan and have been since I was old enough to watch Disney and understand it. I knew UNIQLO were releasing a Disney collection soon, so I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for the collection to launch. I don’t 100% know when this came out, but I rather like it. It’s simple, not in your face with the design and it’s pink… A colour I don’t own much of in my wardrobe. I love the design across the chest as the black and white design fits perfect against the pink. It’s the classic scenes from Lady and the Tramp when the two are having the spaghetti meatballs. I’ve never bought a UNIQLO item before and have always wanted to. Maybe this will be the first of many pieces? I’d rock this tucked into a skirt or mom jeans. 🙂

• Quirkory Lunar Plushie Spookies Enamel Pins – Tab and A-ghostin (link)

Heads up, this is a pre-order item at the moment and I made sure to pre-order my goodies as soon as this went live on Quirkory’s Etsy store! As regular readers will know, I LOVE Quirkory and they’re by far my favourite independent store out there (make sure to check out my two posts about their enamel pins here – Eeveelutions and Animal Crossing) and I’ll always support them the best I can. So, when they redesigned their Lunar Spookies enamel pins in a cuter plushie form, I knew I had to pick up a couple. I went for Tab the bat and A-ghostin the ghost. They’re so plushie, kawaii and right up my street! I honestly cannot wait for these to arrive for Halloween and autumn. I already know I’m going to display all my Halloween pins throughout October.

• Black Milk Clothing Ghosties Longline Evil Tee Dress (link)

I have been a fan of Black Milk Clothing since 2014 and I’ve never looked back. I recently made a MASSIVE order from their Pokemon collaboration in July and I have zero regrets… Hint hint I’ll be talking about the pieces I bought this month. 😛 However, Black Milk have now announced and shown sneak peaks of their Halloween collection and I’ve seen one piece that I really do want in my collection. The Ghosties dress is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! The little ghosties all over it are so cute but I feel like this dress isn’t too in your face in regards to the spooky, Halloween design. I really don’t need to be buying Black Milk pieces again so close to the Pokemon ones, but come Monday night when this goes up in the store… I may just get it. 😛

So there we have it guys, this months wish list! I’m actually trying to watch my spending again, as I have some stuff to do on the house, as well as Christmas being here before we know it!

I don’t know why I’m soooo excited for Halloween this year, but I’ve been itching to go to Homesense and/or TK Maxx to look at all the Halloween goodies and how me and Dane can decorate the house this year. I actually think it’s due to being in the house so much that is giving me that “decorating” itch. 😛

What items do you guys have on your wish lists? Do you like what I added to mine? Make sure to let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, take care, stay safe and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Japan Series – Where We Plan To Go

Hello and welcome to the second post of the Japan Series! I posted last month on my blog the exciting news about how me and Dane are FINALLY going to Japan in 2020. It still hasn’t sunk in, but almost daily we are talking about it and where we want to go, whether it be to visit, shop, eat and drink.

We are constantly asking people and researching. I thought I would share with my gorgeous readers where we are planning to go and why!

Image taken from Ghibli Museum website

• Ghibli Museum

This is a place I have wanted to visit ever since I heard about many years ago. I LOVE Studio Ghibli so much and alongside Elfen Lied it’s what actually got me into anime in the first place! I have fond memories of my dad and me watching Spirited Away one day after school during a rain storm outside. Years later I bought it on DVD and not long after me and Dane got together, I took the DVD to his house so we could watch it. I even want a tattoo of Haku on my bicep! It’s just a film I adore to the bottom of my heart. The museum apparently isn’t mind blowing, but I don’t care. I still plan to go! You have to book tickets a month in advance, so Dane has daily reminders a month before we’re off to Japan to book the tickets so we don’t miss out! I plan (if I’m allowed to do so!) to take loads of photos of the museum and possibly spend a little bit too much money in the gift shop. 😛

Image taken from teamLab Borderless website

Image taken from teamLab Planets website

• teamLab Borderless and teamLab Planets

These gorgeous light museums are somewhere I have wanted to visit for quite some time now and I am so excited to finally have the chance to go when we visit Japan. I’m not a massive museum or art exhibition person… I can at times find them quite boring, but these interactive light installations look amazing. You can download an app to use alongside the experience, which I really like the look and sound of. You need to book in advance and from memory it said two months, so myself and Dane will be keeping our eyes peeled for when we can book!

Image taken from Sanrio Puroland website

• Sanrio Puroland

This is a place I’ve ummed about for ages because I really want to go, but I don’t know if I love Sanrio enough to… In the end however, I would really love to go! It looks like it’s a good day out to go and explore, see a couple of shows (maybe) and just go around the area. Of course there’s lots of shopping to be done throughout too. I say I don’t love Sanrio, but I do have a lot of memories with Sanrio. I remember back when I was coming towards the end of primary school and in my first couple of years of secondary school, I adored Sanrio and couldn’t get enough of it! I fell in love with Chococat, Cinnamoroll (alongside his friends Azuki, Milk, Chiffon, Espresso, Mocha and Cappuccino) who came out in the early 00’s and especially Pompompurin! The most recent character Aggretsuko is amazing and I adore her so much. The more I write and think about it, the more I really would like to go to Puroland whilst we’re in Japan!

• Nara Park to feed the deers!

This is somewhere in Japan I REALLY want to go to but I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not… Basically Nara Park is located in Nara, which is nearly 4 and a half hours away by train… Unless we get up really early and go to Nara for a day… I don’t know if we’ll be able to go or not. In Nara Park you can feed the deer that live there. They bow their heads for food and as a reward, you feed them. Both me and Dane love animals, so it’s something we would both love to do whilst we’re out there. I feel like Dane will sort it so we can go, but I’m worried it won’t be able to happen… We shall see! 🙂

Image taken from Kyoto Animation website

• Kyoto Animation

This isn’t somewhere me and Dane thought about going before the tragic arson attack that happened at Kyoto Animation on the morning of 18th July 2019. We LOVE loads of anime that has been released by Kyoto Animation such as K-ON!, Nichijo, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, A Silent Voice, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Violet Evergarden. It broke out hearts when we heard about what had happened to the studio and it still to this day upsets me. It hurts even more that the director of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid died in the attack of Kyoto Animation. This is by far one of my favourite anime and manga series to date and I know they had just started to work on a second season too. I want to go and pay my respects to be honest and I’m hoping that when we’re out in Japan, Kyoto Animation will have begun to rebuild and me and Dane will be able to see how it’s forming and growing again.

Image taken from Tokyo Skytree website

• Tokyo Skytree

This is somewhere I really do want to go to in Japan… However I am also shit scared. I’m not a massive fan of heights in all honesty and I especially hate using lifts. Of course, both of these need to be used when it comes to visiting the Tokyo Skytree. This being said I know Dane really wants to go and visit this whilst we’re in Japan and to be honest with you, I would hate to come back from our trip and think, “I wish we had gone and done it now.” So yes, I will suck it in and go! If anything whilst I will be scared, I know I’ll also love it!

Honestly guys, I could go on for hours about all the places in Japan that me and Dane plan to visit, but I could be here for ages and would definitely bore you all! 😛 These are the main places we plan to go and would love to go whilst we’re in Japan.

Our holiday STILL hasn’t sunk in for me and honestly, it won’t until we’re boarding the plane and I’m beginning to have a mini panic attack!

What do you think to the places both me and Dane would like to visit in Japan? Make sure to let us know in the comments and hey! Even suggest any if you’ve visited Japan yourselves!

Next time I plan to talk about food and drinks places we plan to visit, including cafes! 😀

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

 

Cereal Killer Cafe

On mine and my boyfriends last day in London, we decided a month previous to going that we would be visiting the Cereal Killer Cafe in Shoreditch for breakfast. I had looked online for cool places to visit in London to have breakfast, and this was at the top of the list and one that we knew we needed to go to.

I don’t eat cereal much, as it makes me feel sick after eating it after a while but this was one occasion where I wouldn’t let that stop me. It was a little out the way from where we traveled from but it was so worth it when we got there.

The place is only tiny and we nearly missed seeing it due to how busy the market area was outside of the cafe itself. Luckily we managed to get in and it was quiet enough so that we could get first in line to order our breakfast.

The first thing you notice when you go into the cafe is that three of the walls are just lined with boxes of cereal, both current ones and ones from the past. One of these included Pokemon cereal, which I never got to try as a kid, but I wanted to! One wall of them aren’t edible and are just for show, whilst the main wall and one beside it are what the staff use for orders. You have the wall with British cereals on, and the massive wall with American, as well as Asian and other global cereals on.

One cereal I asked for was the Oreo cereal, which they admitted they stopped selling, as the makers of it stopped making it, which sucks! Not only could you  pick what cereal  you wanted, but you could pick toppings for your cereal too, and whatever milk you wanted. If you wanted to be a little different you could choose from their cocktail menu, which is what my boyfriend did.

I decided to go for Reece’s Puffs cereal, with Oreo toppings, and chocolate soya milk. I recently discovered that the combo that I had was all vegan, which is pretty cool! My boyfriend went for the S’more Than Words cocktail cereal which has golden graham  cereal, marshmallow toppings, and chocolate milk.

I have to say how amazing my cereal was! I know you can pick this up in places that specially sell American cereal, but it’s really expensive for what it is, and high calorie too. I would definitely get this again though, and maybe in the future buy me and my boyfriend a box to share.

Whilst mine was really yummy, my boyfriends cocktail cereal was amazing and I immediately regretted not getting the same as he did! I would love to try and make this myself in the future as a Sunday treat for us both, but that would involve trying to find the graham cracker cereal to use for this.

Me and my boyfriend have this weird thing where we’ll go into a shop or a restaurant and it’ll be dead, but after we go in it’ll be rammed! This happened with the Cereal Killer Cafe and not long after stepping in and getting into the queue, the place was rammed and we worried we wouldn’t get anywhere to it and eat.

However there is a larger downstairs seating area where we ended up going to sit, and I’m glad we did really as it was lovely down there. It reminded me of something you would see on a 90’s TV show and it was very nostalgic with more old cereal boxes from my childhood, as well as some toys from cereal boxes too.

The decor of the place was also pretty awesome and it made me wish I could get something like that for my own home in the future.

My favourite piece in the cafe has to be the huge picture of Dexter Morgan from the show Dexter which is made out of cereal, pretty cool huh? There was also one of Hannibal too, also very cool!

The staff were so lovely there though and you could have a good chat to them about cereal and what the cereal section of supermarkets look like in America.

Looking back at our trip there I’m so pleased we went, and I’m sad we didn’t go more than once to be honest. I just wish that Birmingham had a Cereal Killer Cafe, as I feel it would do really well. I’m unsure of what I would have if I could change what I ordered, probably the same as my boyfriend, but with soya chocolate milk instead of normal chocolate milk.

Other than that I don’t know what else I would have tried, as I said I’m not a huge fan of cereal. Either way I loved Cereal Killer Cafe and it was a definite highlight of our trip to London.

I’m going to leave the links here for all of Cereal Killer Cafe’s handles, I recommend you check them out if you’re taking a trip to London soon, and especially if you live there!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

What do you think of Cereal Killer Cafe? Would you visit there? Check out the menu on their website, what would you have from their to eat? Let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’ve all had a great week!