The Estelleosaurus Animal Crossing Island Getaway Tag

Can you believe in almost a week that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been out for two months? Nope… Neither can I! The time has really flown by and honestly, I am living my best island life!

I don’t care if I talk about Animal Crossing too much on my blog, I love it so damn much and I’ll shout about if I want to! I love reading bloggers Animal Crossing posts too, I honestly cant get enough of it.

During the lock down I’ve not been too great on and off mentally. I’m feeling low, tired and lethargic and the only thing that is keeping me going at the moment (aside from Dane and my friends) is Animal Crossing. It came out at the perfect time considering lock down happened 3 days after the game released.

So, I will continue to talk about Animal Crossing as much as I want to, because this game is literally a huge part of my life right now.

Recently Estelle over at Estellosaurus created an Animal Crossing tag and I KNEW I had to take part! So, let’s get started!

Welcome to the Estellosaurus Animal Crossing Island Getaway Tag!

The rules are:

1. Copy and paste the rules and sentence above. Answer the questions. Duh.
2. Thank the person who tagged you, don’t forget to link to their original post/answers
3. Tag 2 new people to take part.
4. Share your Switch Friend Code at the end if you want too!

Animal Crossing Island Getaway Tag

1. What is your island called? Why did you pick that name?

My island is called Kitsakura and the name is a mixture of kitsune and sakura. I tried loads of names I wanted to have for my island, but they were all too long, so I merged some of my ideas together. I really love the name, it feels unique.

2. Share a picture of yourself on your island.

3. What hemisphere did you choose? Is it the hemisphere you are actually in?

I chose the Northern Hemisphere, as this is what I am in. I know some who changed it, but honestly I don’t see the point. I want the game to adapt to what is happening realistically where I live.

4. Who is your current favourite resident? Who would be your ultimate dream resident?

This is such a hard question because I love all my residents for different reasons! I would have to say Cookie though. This is the first time I have had her on my island and she’s always a villager I have wanted in the previous games. The fact I can finally have her (thanks to amiibo) is amazing and I honestly love how sassy and kawaii she is. I love her so much, I requested for her to be drawn in a commission with me, purely because I love her vibe so much!

 

I honestly love Bones so much 🙂 #AnimalCrossing #ACNH #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/6bhAMN4bml

— Nat 🐱 (@MayBeeCoffee) April 27, 2020

A close second to Cookie is Bones. I had him in one of my previous games and adored his silly, childish behaviour. He’s still as adorable as ever and he honestly brings a smile to my face whenever I see and talk to him on my island.

5. What can you not do on your island that you wish you could?

I’m really missing The Roost at the moment… In New Leaf it was one of my favourite places to go, as well as one of my favourite things to do once a day. You would have to make some villagers coffees for them and make sure to get them right. If you did good, Brewster would give you a special item. I worked as a barista at the time, so that’s why I loved it so much. Honestly though, The Roost needs to return!

6. Favourite season in game and why?

This is a hard one, especially with New Horizons, as so far we have only really seen spring. Overall… I think I have always loved spring for the cherry blossoms and winter for the snow. I especially love making snowmen and when Christmas is around, all the pine trees have pretty fairy lights on them.

7. If you played New Leaf, what do you miss from that game that you wish had been taken across to New Horizons?

The first thing that comes to mind is your villagers coming to your house to visit. You could either invite them or they would ask to come over. I really wish you could do this! I want Cookie, Bones and Goldie to come to my house and see all my cute stuff… As well as all my turnips. 😛

8. Favourite K.K. Slider song?

It’s always been K.K. Bossa since the Animal Crossing anime movie, however I’ve always fallen in love with Bubblegum K.K. after hearing it loads in Cookie’s house! It’s definitely K.K. Bossa though, it’s even my phones ringtone. The scene from the film is really cute and I recommend you to go and find it to watch if you can. YouTube has a fake English dub here… It’s not official dub but they did an amazing job (I’ve watched the Japanese one too).

9. Favourite non resident character?

Definitely Isabelle! She only came around in New Leaf, but honestly she is such a cutie and I honestly look forward to seeing her every morning when I turn my game on, even when she doesn’t have news. I love hearing about how she spent her evening and what crappy TV she’s been watching. Alongside Isabelle I love Tommy, he’s so cute and adorable with his higher pitched voice out of the two Nook brothers.

Finally, I love and miss Resetti. As much as I hated when he would have a go at me in the game if I didn’t save, I always looked forward to seeing him too as it was such a rare occurrence. I hope he comes back in the future… I really do. I know people have said they can hear him when you go to use the terraforming tool… But it isn’t the same. 😦

So, that was The Estelleosaurus Animal Crossing Island Getaway Tag! I love Animal Crossing so much, as well as Estelle, so I knew I had to take part in this tag.

Now for tagging who I want to join in… EVERYONE! If you read this post and would like to join in, please do!

Are you playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Are you still loving it and playing it everyday? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below all your thoughts and feelings on the game.

Until next time all, take care and stay safe.

Animal Crossing Independent Artists Wish List

At the time of me writing this post, Animal Crossing: New Horizons still has another 4 days to go until it’s out and I honestly cannot wait anymore… BRING IT ON! I NO LONGER WANT A LIFE!

BUT when this post is live on my blog, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will have been out over 24 hours and all the Animal Crossing fans who are swamping Twitter will go quiet…er. 😛

P.S. I’ve written this post early because I want my Friday and all weekend to myself to play this game! When I said I no longer want a life, I meant it. 😛

I thought considering Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out yesterday, it would be appropriate for me to talk about some items and independent artists who have created some amazing pieces that are Animal Crossing inspired!

A lot of the items below may be from Etsy as personally if I don’t discover a new artist through a con or Instagram, it’ll be from there! 😀

So, I hope you enjoy this blog post today – whether you are playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons or self isolating at home due to the COVID-19. Don’t forget to stay safe guys. 🙂

• Illustrator Jake Froggy Chair Enamel Pin (affiliate link)

This is actually an enamel pin I made sure to pre-order when it came out last week on Illustrator Jake’s website. The Froggy Chair from Animal Crossing has become a HUGE meme and I honestly couldn’t tell you why haha! I thought the design was cute though so just had to order. This will go inside an Animal Crossing itabag I’ve ordered. 😀

• Reddachi DJ K.K. Print (link)

I honestly love this print that I found on Etsy a while ago and would love to buy it to hang in the house somewhere. However, I wouldn’t have a clue where to put it in my house in all honesty. I just love all the details on the print from the glasses Tom Nook wears, to Resetti looking adorable and like a fan girl.

• NerdieNiftiesEU Isabelle’s Berry Muffins Candle (link)

Who doesn’t love scented candles? So, when you cross scented candles and Animal Crossing what do you get? Home perfection! 😛 I love the scented candles that NerdieNiftiesEU has on their store and I especially love the sound of this Isabelle berry muffin one. This would be ideal to burn on a summer evening whilst you relax and play Animal Crossing: New Horizons or whilst you have a relaxing bath.

• Shop Azula Pouch (link)

I recently discovered Shop Azula through Instagram who has created some gorgeous Animal Crossing inspired enamel pins, but as I’ve already mentioned some enamel pins on this post I wanted to showcase something else, aka this pouch. You can never go wrong with having a nice pouch, whether it be for stationary, beauty, gaming related items and more. You can always keep this pouch in your handbag/backpack or keep around the house. The print on it is gorgeous with various characters such as Isabelle, Tom Nook, Celeste, Blathers, Katrina, Reece, Cyrus, K.K. Slider and more!

• paolinamissio Lily and Marshall Onsen Holographic Sticker (link)

This sticker is so adorable and not only does it shout Animal Crossing to me, but it also personally reminds me of my holiday to Japan, due to the villagers bathing in the onsen. You can see Lily and Marshall bathing together in the tub with a wooden tub full of apples in between them. I especially love how the sticker is also holographic, which is cute! I’d love to set up an Animal Crossing style notebook, it would be full of Animal Crossing: New Horizons stuff!

• Samantha Whitten Sunflower Pup Print (link)

I honestly love Samantha Whitten’s work and have wanted to buy some of her pieces for the longest time! She also owns Sugar Bunny Shop and has the adorable fox Doki, which is the pieces I have wanted to buy for agggges! But, the Animal Crossing prints she has designed and released are gorgeous and I would honestly love one to hang up in either our living room, or in our bedroom. I may have to invest in buying some new prints soon! 🙂

• Zellerpins Many Bells Motel Keychain (link)

Who doesn’t love a cute keychain, right? The one thing I like the most about this keychain is that it’s unisex and with the new Animal Crossing game coming out now, this would make an awesome gift for someone who just just bought the game, or will in the future! This is the kind of thing I would buy someone who is a huge Animal Crossing fan as a birthday or Christmas present. 🙂

• SpiruttsCrafts Isabelle Floating Sticker (link)

Finally we have this adorable Isabelle sticker where she is chilling in a pool float. She looks so damn happy! Again, this is a sticker I would put in/on an Animal Crossing notebook/journal. You can also get a floating Tom Nook and Daisy-Mae, who I know everyone has gone crazy for lately! These stickers just remind me of summer!

So, there we have it! Some independent Animal Crossing merchandise ideas for all you Animal Crossing fans out there!

UPDATE – Also make sure to use my discount code below on Illustrator Jake’s store to snag yourself a nice 10% discount! 😀

THEREMIGHTBECOFFEE10

With everything that is going on at the moment in the world with Coronavirus, it was really important for me to share independent artists more than anything. I know a lot of independent artists are struggling right now so I want to definitely showcase some of my favourites here. 🙂

Are you guys playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons this weekend? If so, how are you finding it so far? Also, do you like any of the goodies I’ve spoken of in my post? Again, make sure to let me know in the comments.

Anyway guys, I’m getting back to Animal Crossing, I have an island to run! 😛

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far!

March Wish List ’20

It’s officially March and I already know I’m going to be skint this month… 😛

I’m also aware that I’ve broken my “every Saturday will be when posts go up” rule that I set after I got back from Japan. Like I said on my previous post for my February favourites post, I have always had certain days set for my monthly posts and I’m going to stick with these. So this week I will have two posts up! This one today and then one on Saturday.

This months wish list is full of game and anime related stuff, which isn’t a bad thing! 😛 I’ve already mentioned in various posts about all the games that are coming out this month that I am excited for, so of course I need to mention them here!

I hope you enjoy this months wish list post, and it isn’t too Japanese gaming and anime related… 😛

• Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing: New Horizons (link)

Of course I had to mention my favourite thing about March! Animal Crossing is finally coming to the Switch this month and I know I’m not the only one who is really excited for it. I’ve had it pre-ordered for months now and I am counting down the days now until it comes out. I’ve actually booked the day off work so that I can head out first thing in the morning, pick it up from Smyths (where I’ve pre-ordered from) and spend the whole day playing it as much as I can! Dane is also getting the game, so we can play it together the weekend it comes out, which I am beyond excited for. I’ll be talking loads about his game this month… Just warning you now. 😛

• Nendoroid Mai Sakurajima (Requested through YY Kawaii)

As many of my readers know, both me and Dane collect Nendoroid figures and we made sure to pick up some that we really wanted when we went to Japan in January. HOWEVER I regretted not buying one in particular that I kept seeing, which is Mai Sakurajima from Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, an anime that me and Dane watched together last year. We both fell in love with it and it’s one of those anime series now that I really love. We saw LOADS of merchandise in Japan for this anime and aside from Dane buying me one charm of Mai Sakurajima in her bunny girl outfit, I didn’t get anything else. I saw the Nendoroid figure loads and at decent prices too… But I just never bought it, as I planned to when I got back to the UK. HOWEVER, she’s either sold out or the release date has been pushed back months. She hasn’t been re-released… Just pushed back, which I find odd. So, I reached out to my favourite person for getting my Japanese goods, YY Kawaii to see if she could get Mai for me and she could AND FOR A GOOD PRICE! I’m so excited to receive her now and put her on display either in my Nendoroid cabinet or maybe on a shelf I’m getting next to my bed for some of my favourite things! I’ll see how I feel, but yes! I am excited for get her now.

• Nintendo Switch Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (link)

Back in 2008 my dad bought me a red Nintendo DSi (which I still own!) for Christmas and I LOVED IT! I remember not long after that whilst searching through Gamestation (who else remembers Gamestation?!) they had Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and I decided to pick it up. If there is one Nintendo handheld console that really disappointed me, it’s the Game Boy Advance. I hated pretty much all the games that came out on it, as well as the prices, so I hardly played it and instead stuck with my Game Boy Color. The DSi was great because you could play both DS and Game Boy Advance games in it, so I binge played Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team on it all the time! When I finished the game and found out that Nintendo had also made a version for the DS I decided to find it to buy! I found Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team from Play.com (who remembers play.com?! FUCK I FEEL OLD NOW) and again, I played the shit out of it! Since then I have been in love with the Mystery Dungeon series so I have been excited for the Switch remake of the original two to come out. I’ve played the demo as much as I can and have this game pre-ordered with Smyths to pick up after work on Friday. I am beyond excited and already know I’m going to play this game loads this weekend. Sorry for the massive ramble talking about this, but I just had to share. 😛

• John Lewis & Partners Premium Faux Fur Throw in Soft Pink (link)

A couple of weeks ago me and Dane popped into town as I had to exchange some Vans I bought before Christmas. I wore them to Japan as they were perfect for walking around in BUT they ripped at the side! The store was amazing and exchanged them for me straightaway. They are by far my favourite shoes now… ANYWAY as we were in town we decided to have a nose around whilst we waited for the trains to quiet down from the rush hour. We went into John Lewis, as we love a good nose at household stuff and I saw this gorgeous pink throw, which is one of the softest things I’ve ever touched. I really wanted to buy it, but they didn’t have any in stock. When we found out how much it cost… We were put off a tad. I still want it though to stick on the end of my bed BUT the price… I’m going to say this for a rainy day when I fancy a BIG house related treat. FYI if you haven’t gone to have a nose at the price yet… It’s £95.00… Ouch.

• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Blu-ray Collectors Edition (link)

It was only from looking for the Mai Sakurajima Nendoroid that I decided to take a look into the anime she comes from, to see if there’s any DVD’s or Blu-ray’s out for it… WHICH THERE IS THIS MONTH! Me and Dane love this anime, so as soon as I found this on Amazon I shouted to Dane, “Hey Dane? Bunny girl senpai is out next month… Shall we buy it?” His simple answer was yes. 😛 So this will be pre-ordered by one of us soon!

• Persona 5 Royal Steelbook Edition (link)

As a Persona 5 fan, I am beyond excited for Persona 5 Royal! It’s basically the same game but with loads more story and game play added… So an expensive DLC if you will, but I don’t mind as I love Persona 5 so much! There’s loads of stuff that has been added that I’m so glad to have heard and seen already. I won’t mention here, as whilst I didn’t mind spoilers, I know others may who have never played the original game, or who have and have wanted to stay away from the spoilers. I’m actually being sent this game from Gamersheek, who are an amazing company that I discovered back in 2017 and since then we have built up  great relationship! I worked with them for a time to advertise the Joker Nendoroid, which I loved! Since then, whenever Persona 5 related games have been released, Gamersheek have sent them to me! I will be writing all about Gamersheek at some point this month, so make sure to keep eyes peeled for that! 😀

• Nintendo Switch Lite Carrying Case (Animal Crossing: New Horizons Edition) & Screen Protector (link)

Another Animal Crossing related item! Nintendo have announced some amazing Animal Crossing related merchandise that will be coming out at the same time as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and this is one of the many items I would love to get! I don’t need a carrying case for my Switch Lite as I already have one, but this one is so cute! As I’ll be popping out the day this comes out, I might see if I can grab it whilst I’m out, instead of pre-ordering it. 🙂

• diy Crossing Cross Stitch Kit in Goldie (link)

Honestly whilst writing this post I have just gone and ordered the Cookie one of this… OOPS! 😛 I wanted to buy something to cheer me up, as I’m currently in bed with the flu and it sucks. I love cross stitching and doing kits and as I now have my plushie case (it’s a book case but I shoved all my Pokemon plushies in there!) I would love to decorate it a bit more with Animal Crossing related stuff! I’d like to do the cross stitch kits of my favourite Animal Crossing characters and hang them/place them inside the case somehow! I’m excited for the Cookie one to arrive now!

Anyhoo guys, that was my wish list for March 2020! It was very Japanese weeb heavy and I have zero fucks. 😛

What do you guys have on your wish lists this month? Are you excited for Animal Crossing too? 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. 🙂

30th Birthday Wish List

It is officially my birthday in 2 days time and I will be turning the the big three-O… Which semi depresses me and it sort of doesn’t at the same time. Ageing is going to happen and that’s just something I need to deal with now, as well as in the future.

I thought it would be worth sharing with you guys (as I always do) what I have on my wish list this month, which happens to include what I would like for my birthday… But if I don’t – I would probably just buy it myself. 🙂

• Pandora Blue Sparkling Crown Solitaire Ring (link)

A few Christmas/birthday’s ago my mom bought me a gorgeous Pandora ring – the one with the red heart (you can see it here) and I still love it to this day! I wear it pretty much all the time and it makes me think of my mom all the time. I have since spied a few other Pandora rings I like the look of, but never enough to take the plunge to ask for them as gifts or buy them myself… Until now! I saw this ring before Halloween whilst out shopping with a friends and I fell in love! It’s a gorgeous blue stone and it really stands out. I’m hoping to get to wear alongside my red heart ring, either above or below, whichever way looks best! I have a feeling Dane has bought me this… But we shall see! 😛

• Nintendo Tokyo Animal Crossing Smart Phone Ring (no link)

When I first bought my iPhone XR I bought a PopSocket to use when holding the phone. For the short time that I used it, it really did benefit me but at the same time it taught me that I should be holding my phone better. Since then I have missed having something on the back of my phone to hold onto, especially if I’m out and about and have my hands full. I saw these kawaii smart phone rings for sale in the Nintendo Tokyo store and I just have to have them! I plan to pick up both when I visit the store in Japan (as well as so much more Animal Crossing merch!) so that I can use them both on different cases. I find the backing doesn’t stick very well with things like this, so I may need to get the superglue out…

• Hell Bunny Ricci Dress in Black or Red (link)

I actually saw these dresses in EMP’s catalogue that I was given by Dane’s parents on Boxing Day to take home with me… They’ve clearly bought me something from EMP for my birthday… ANYWAY! I love dresses of this style as they shout out to me so much and I especially love to wear them with a thick warm coat in the winter and my Dr Martens boots. In the summer, with a cardigan and my flats. I think I love the red one most as it’s one of my favourite colours to wear. I would have loved to pick this up for my birthday, but I think at this point (my birthday is in 2 days) it’s a little too late now, unless I find it in store somewhere before then.

• Smoko Pearl Boba Tea Light (link)

Dane bought me the Little Bao Dumpling Light from Firebox/Smoko for Christmas and I LOVE it so much! For a battery operated light, it’s really bright and turns itself off after a certain amount of time. I love the Boba Tea Light as I’m a massive bubble tea drinker so would love to add this one to my collection as well. The thing I love about this the most is the fact when you move the light around, the boba in the bottom of the light move around. How cool is that? 😀

• Nintendo Tokyo Animal Crossing Pencil Case (link)

I love Animal Crossing so damn much and when I saw this for sale on the Something Japanese website, I really wanted to order it! That being said, I know I can just wait until my trip to Japan to pick this up myself if I still want it. I don’t NEED a new pencil case as I still have the one I owned back when I was at school and it’s still doing it’s job today of keeping my pens safe.

So (as boring as they were…) that is my 30th birthday wish list post! Wow it’s crazy to think that in 2 days time I’ll be turning 30… I’ll now have to say I’m in my early thirties when talking to people and tick the 30-35 box when signing up for things. 😛 If I still get ID’d though, I’ll be very happy!

Next week I plan to share with you guys what I received for my 30th birthday! I know I didn’t do this for Christmas 2019 but this was due to personal reasons. 🙂

What do you guys have on your wish lists for this month? Make sure to let me know down in the comments!

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

UK Games Expo 2019 – Haul

I am very much skint after the UK Games Expo that was on a couple of weekends ago and I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry… So instead I thought I would write a blog post about it! 😛

This was the first time me and Dane went to the UK Games Expo and we loved it so much! Not going to lie, it’s definitely the busiest con we’ve attended to date and definitely one we’ll talk about for a while for various different reasons. I’ll be mentioning them here too of course.

So come and have a nose at what we bought, as well as read about what we thought of the convention. 🙂

Our initial thoughts on the convention was that it wouldn’t be as big as it actually was for a start and as we walked through the entrance and looked around, we were shocked and a think a tad nervous that we wouldn’t get around everywhere. Spoiler, we did! 😛

Something we noticed quite heavily as we walked around was just how fucking rude people attending were. If they weren’t shoving past to get to stands and stalls, they were not even using, “please” or “thank you” as and when necessary. It pissed me off something rotten and depending how rude people were, depended how rude I was back. This put me off immensely but this isn’t due to the people hosting the convention.

This being said we will definitely be attending again next year, maybe on the Friday as we heard from quite a few people how this day is the best out of the three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as well as maybe Saturday so we can get two days in.

We wanted to play some games whilst we were there but due to how much is going on at the convention – we were far too tired for it, which was such a shame as there were loads of games we wanted to have a go at.

As this post shows from the photo, we bought a LOT of stuff, so I thought I would write a haul today so I could show you everything we picked up. I hope you enjoy this haul from us. Prepare for lots of geeky items! 😛

Also, as some of these (well maybe half actually!) items are Dane’s too, I’ll get him to write here when it comes to anything of his and why he decided to buy it! I’ll pop a “D:” when it comes to his sections so you know he’s talking instead of me. 🙂

The first thing we bought were D&D dice. Hey, you don’t go to a board game convention without buying some dice, am I right?! This was the first stand we really looked at properly as it wasn’t stupidly busy. They had the Chessex dice there and I had a specific pair and style in mind. These weren’t there, but the Borealis style I was after were! They had a couple of pairs (a pink and lighter blue pair) but I fell in love with these light green set and decided to pick them up!

Dane also bought himself a pair of dice too and opted for these blue and red ones. They’re so damn pretty and he doesn’t have anything like this so it’ll be cool for both him and me to try our new dice out at our D&D session on Sunday.

D: When we were walking around the convention the one stand that really caught my attention was the one for Barpig, a card game about pig adventurers in a bar. Even before I spoke to the people running the stand I was pretty much sold on buying the game anyway. They had a pretty good offer that both myself and my friend couldn’t resist after talking to the people running the stand, as well as being given a quick demo. I was sold and couldn’t walk away without buying the game. The day after the convention me and Nat played this game together only to discover it’s between 3-7 players, which is a shame as we were looking forward to an evening of playing it. This being said, we’re now especially excited to play it with friends!

For the convention they had a special price and goody bag for this game. For £19 you got everything in the photo including the game itself! This is what I was sold on the most and didn’t hesitate to pick it up.

They currently have the expansion pack BARPIG: After Hours up on Kickstarter until Monday 1st July. I’ll link it here so you can go and check it if you like the sound of the game.

These were some of my favourite items I picked up from the convention, just because they’re Japanese goodies and from some of my favourite things. I stumbled upon this stand about halfway through the day and spotted some Nendoroid figures, so knew I had to go for a nose. When I spotted two official Studio Ghibli puzzles on the table I KNEW Dane had to come and have a look around the stall too! I quickly snapped up the puzzle from the table and shouted for Dane to come over. As soon as he saw the puzzle he told me to get it, but not before I had a nose around the rest of the stall. It was amazing to be honest with you and was by far my favourite at the convention as they just sold so much stuff I love. I saw they had the Pokemon Centre Eeveelutions bell charms for sale too as a decent price so I decided to pick one up. I ideally want this for an ita bag I plan to put together sooner rather than later. It’s so cute, the perfect bag companion.

I honestly cannot wait for me and Dane to work on the My Neighbour Totoro puzzle together and hang up! I’m feeling like it can go up in our bedroom by my side of the bed. 🙂

Just when we thought we weren’t going to actually pick up more than one game, we found a stall where we fell in love with all the games on sale! We decided to pick up half of them and since then have played the one. The games are both by Jason Anarchy, who was a lovely guy to talk to as we looked through the games, asked questions in regards to them and even had a joke as we were paying and such.

I spotted Pretending To Grownup, a card game about doing adult things and scoring points through it. I spotted it through the artwork, which is by Megan McKay (Doodle For Food). She’s currently one of my favourite doodlers on the internet right now and I especially love her Dogs with Jobs sketches that she draws! Me and Dane have since played this game and it’s so much fun! It would definitely be more fun with friends to be honest with you, but considering just me and Dane played it, it was fab and I honestly can’t wait to play it more!

D: I was after a good party game, so as Nat had a look through the game she wanted I asked Jason what Drinking Quest was all about. He told me it was pretty much Dungeons & Dragons but with lots of drinking involved. This sounded like my sort of game so I knew I had to pick it up. I think I would have regretted it if I didn’t. Whilst I was paying for the games (it was £20 each or two for £35!) Jason wrote a little message and signed the lid of the game. As you can see he wrote, “It’s dangerous to go alone… Drink this” and drew a little drink as well as signed his name. Very cool! 😀

D: If there is one board game I really love it is definitely Zombies!!! I can’t remember where I bought this from but Nat has a feeling it was a spontaneous buy from Waterstones years ago. Since then I’ve wanted to buy the expansion packs and have added them to birthday, Christmas and anniversary gift ideas for years. It’s taken me going to the UK Games Expo to finally get at least 2 of them and from the actual creator of the game. He was lovely to chat to and even did us a cheap deal for these. Instead of £12 each he did them both for £20, bargain eh?! I regret not buying more in all fairness. Me and Nat played this game on our first evening together during our week off and we both forgot how hard this game can be, especially now we have more pieces and zombies to play with! We love this game however and cannot wait to play it with more people.

If there was a stand I really did enjoy shopping at during the convention it was at Oathsworn. I feel like this was the stand I spent the most time at as I was overwhelmed by how many miniatures there were, as well as how cute the little animals were. Everyone was looking at miniatures throughout the day, even though me and Dane struggled to find out D&D characters from one of our campaigns (I’m a Dragonborn bard and he’s a half goliath, half half-elf ranger) and had zero luck.

Instead I decided to pick up an animal miniature for any future campaigns me and Dane might go into or do in the future. NOW we’re working on some new characters for another campaign we’re doing with friends and my character for this will be a fennec fox rogue. I’m so excited to create my character for it already!

One of the stands I was rather excited to by from was TeeTurtle, a brand I’ve wanted t-shirts from for years! I actually have one t-shirt from them which is a Pokemon themed one with a Charmander sat in the a pocket on the chest. I picked this up on eBay years ago and still love it to this day.

We decided to take TeeTurtle up on their buy three t-shirts for £75 and get the fourth free. If you work this out you technically get all four t-shirts for less than £20 each. This may seem really expensive but TeeTurtle are an American brand and to ship to the UK costs a bomb! So we made sure to stock up at the convention whilst we had the chance. TeeTurtle were at the EGX convention in Birmingham September 2018 and I regret not grabbing any t-shirts there.

We decided to get two each and I regret not picking any t-shirts up earlier in the day. We picked these up a couple of hours before the convention was due to shut and the quantity of all sizes was very much small. Most of the sizes that me and Dane wanted had gone, which was such a shame. But this being said, we managed to grab some sizes in designs we wanted. The two on the left are Dane’s t-shirts and the two on the right are mine… Obviously the foxes are mine! 😛

Dane was actually going to buy me the Foxy Nerd design last year for Christmas but due to the prices for shipping etc he left it in the end.

The two designs on the bottom are both t-shirts we intend to wear during D&D session and we can’t wait to rock them this weekend! Honestly we could have bought so many t-shirts but due to most sizes being out of stock we didn’t get much choice of what we could buy. I hope to see them at another convention in the future so I can get the chance to pick up more designs.

This is a geeky beauty company that I am so happy to have discovered at the convention. Geeky Clean is a beauty company that sell bath bombs, soaps, bubble bars and more! I walked past the stand during the convention but didn’t think much at first. Dane went for a nose at a stand opposite so I decided to go and have a sniff of the goods at Geeky Clean. I fell in love with the bard scent, which is EXACTLY the same scent as Lush Snow Fairy. It’s a gorgeous bubblegum vanilla scent and I knew I had to pick some goods up with the scent. When I showed the soap to Dane he also really liked, so I made sure to pick it up. These weren’t expensive in my opinion (£4.00 or the soap and £4.50 for the bath bomb) and I’ll definitely be buying from the store again the future! When I’ve given these a go I will DEFINITELY be reviewing them on my blog.

D: We’ve been eyeing up plenty of miniatures and need a way of painting them. These brushes are pretty fancy and excellent quality feeling. I was going to go for the more expensive ones but as it’s going to be our first time painting miniatures I thought best not to just yet. Just need some paint now! I’m actually rather excited to help Nat bring her fennec fox miniature to life with some colour.

D: I want to start being the Dungeon Master with a couple of our friends that are new to Dungeons and Dragons and been looking to try and find a nice easy way to lay out the map for everyone. I have seen plenty of grid paper, laminated maps, DIY solutions and expensive pre-made maps but these seem like a good option. Hopefully, our group will be able to try them out soon! They cost me £30 and are by a company called Role 4 Initiative. I didn’t think £30 was a bad price considering the brand is American and it would have cost me a hell of a lot more to import from there.

This is the final item I picked up on the Saturday and it was actually from Collectormania which we were allowed free access to after 1pm due to attended UK Games Expo. I thought this was pretty awesome! Looking back I don’t fully know why I bought these lanyards… I used to use one on my house keys last year so it was easier to get them out of my handbag but after I was made a key holder in my old job I used said lanyard on my work key, only to have someone break it a few days later. I was gutted as it was a Deadpool lanyard. Now I’ve kind of replaced it with either a My Neighbour Totoro or Eeveelutions! I’m sure I’ll find a use for these sooner rather than later. 🙂

We actually went back for an hour on the Sunday just to buy a gaming table from Moby Geek! We actually saw this table on the Saturday and enquired about it and was offered it for £230 if we took it away that weekend. We decided against it and said we would order it at home. We fast changed our minds Saturday night/Sunday morning and ended up contacting the company to see if we could attend the event late Sunday to just come in to pay for the table and then take it away. They were more than happy with this and come 4pm I went into the event to pay, get Dane in and take away.

Since then we have not only used the table to play games, but to also eat on! The lid comes off of the table so that you can play games inside of the table – which is amazing. We are yet to give it a go without the lid but we are excited to start being able to have proper game nights with people.

So that was our (very expensive!) haul from the UK Games Expo! We really did enjoy ourselves and had a blast! We were shattered that evening however and couldn’t wait to be back at home and tucked up in bed.

I’m especially excited now to rock our D&D t-shirts to our next session, as well as use our new dice.

Did you attend the UK Games Expo? If so what did you pick up? Are you interested in board games, D&D etc? If so let me know which games you love playing, what your D&D character is like etc in the comments. I’d love to hear all about it!

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

Illustrator Jake Retsuko Enamel Pin – Review

If there is actually a spending ban I have given to myself this year it’s buying enamel pins. I bought FAR too many throughout 2018 and as gorgeous as they look on my pin flags in my bedroom, I can’t wear them all all the time (hence why I want/need an ita bag! :P) which in turn makes me sad.

So although I will buy the occasional enamel pin, I have cut down on buying them as much now. Even when I went to Comic Con in Birmingham last month I only bought one enamel pin, which is the one I’ll be talking about today!

I’ve been following Illustrator Jake for a while now and always loved his kawaii pastel designs. He came up with an adorable Retsuko enamel pin design but this was only available through a Kickstarter campaign nearly a year ago.

So when I was at Comic Con and saw Illustrator Jake had a stand I knew I had to go for a look. I didn’t plan to pick anything up in all honesty but when I saw he had the Retsuko pin for sale I KNEW I had to pick her up!

Since then I’ve worn her on my Persona 5 varsity jacket from Insert Coin Clothing and I don’t intend to swap her over for something else anytime soon…

I wanted to share this adorable enamel pin with you guys today, as I know a lot of you guys LOVE Retsuko and enamel pins, so it would be stupid not to talk about it really. 😛

This pin is really good quality and has a good feel and sturdiness to it. It’s gold enamel which I feel works with the colour scheme for Retsuko’s design. Silver just wouldn’t have worked but rose gold may have. Either way I love the gold.

The backs are standard with two backing posts which come with two black rubber clutches. I always love enamel pins with two backing posts as I feel these are more secure than just one. For example a few days after pinning this to my jacket one of the backs came off, which I found on the floor near me moments later. Imagine though if this just had one backing post and I hadn’t even realised a back was missing. I could have lost this pin and I tell you what, I would have been gutted!

As I mentioned previously the colour scheme for Illustrator Jake’s designs are very kawaii with a pastel theme, which I love. I feel like these pastel colours work with anything and aren’t too in your face with it. I especially love the relaxed colours with Retsuko and I feel like it gives a different feel for the character as a whole, considering she’s meant to be pissed off and sings metal because she hates her job. 😛

It just works really nicely together to bring a unique design for the character.

The price of the pin is £8, which I feel is a standard price really when it comes down to enamel pins. I was definitely more than happy to pay this price!

I never know fully what to write when it comes down to enamel pin reviews… I just love to show off amazing designers pieces and hopefully introduce you guys to a potential new enamel pin designer to check out in the future.

I highly recommend Illustrator Jake if you love anime and gaming and feel nostalgic at the likes of Kirby and Studio Ghibli movies.

I already have my eyes on his newest Retsuko Perfect Panda enamel pin as well as the Animal Crossing Isabelle Bumper Kart enamel pin.

The Studio Ghibli designs are gorgeous too, but I don’t think I need anymore in my collection. 😛

If you love the look of Illustrator Jake’s work then make sure to keep your eye on his Kickstarter as he has loads of awesome projects planned for that, including a sweater and then some Eeveelution enamel pins!

UPDATE – Also make sure to use my discount code below to snag yourself a nice 10% discount! 😀

THEREMIGHTBECOFFEE10

I’ll link Illustrator Jake’s store below, as well as his social media handles

Store

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Kickstarter

What do you think of Illustrator Jake’s work? Do you already own some of his pieces? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time all take care and I hope you’re ready for Easter weekend! I know I am. 😛

What I Got For My 29th Birthday

I cannot believe we’re nearly two weeks into January! The month is already going by quickly and I cant say as I like it. 😛

As I always do, I thought I’d write about what gifts I received for my 29th birthday. Like Christmas, I love reading gifts that people receive for both that and of course for birthdays too!

Since the 21st December I haven’t stopped and this weekend I’ll be doing sod all! I just want to relax and not worry about doing anything in all honesty. The only thing I want to do is clean my bathroom and play games. 😛 Nice mixture of adulthood and childhood right there. 😛

Anyhoo, without further ado, I’m going to show you all the wonderful gifts I received!

I started off the day by opening with Dane’s parents had bought me, which I was surprised by! I couldn’t believe that they’d not only bought me the Elodie the Unicorn humidifier as well as some essential oils to use with it! There are three essential oils in the box which are lavender, tea tree and eucalyptus. Since Sunday night we’ve been using this every evening whilst we sleep and it works so lovely! So far I’ve used the eucalyptus essential oil as I’ve felt like I’ve had a bit of a head cold the past couple of days and it works so great!

Seeing as this is an Elodie the Unicorn item and I’ve mentioned their stuff before on my blog, would you like me to review this humidifier? Make sure to let me know in the comments! 😀

After opening my adorable humidifier I opened the gifts that Dane had bought me. I was rather excited for what he’d bought as bar one thing, I didn’t have a clue about the others!

First of all the item(s) I knew about receiving are these amazing Pokemon Center Pokemon Doll pin badges! I started to collect these over a year ago and had been picking them up in dribs and drabs. As there was three I was missing, I decided I wanted to finish off my collection, but that was proving easier said than done considering these seem to now be discontinued. Then I found the three I needed on Asakura-Japan, an eBay and online store me and Dane use whenever we’re after certain things from Japan. I’d asked Dane for these for quite some time whenever he asked what I wanted for Christmas, birthday etc and Christmas he finally decided to order them! However, they got lost in the post and it sucked. He felt guilty and seemed a bit bummed about it as it seemed the Royal Mail had misplaced them at our local depot. He got his money back though and the seller offered Dane a discount so he could reorder them, which he was hesitant to do. However, I really wanted the pins so ordered them myself with a discount code I had myself for eBay. Dane being Dane sent me the money I’d spent on the pins and when they arrived he wrapped them up and popped them into my birthday bag. 🙂

As you can see I have three of the original four Eeveelutions, Eevee, Jolteon and Flareon. I’m so chuffed to have all 9 Eeveelutions pin badges now! I plan to buy a frame and some cork board from IKEA so I can make a nice little frame to hang up in the house. 🙂 I’ll definitely post about the making of this as and when I do it!

The next gift I received I had a feeling was a Nendoroid, but when it comes down to these gifts both me and Dane always open them last as they’re classed as our “big” or “main” presents from one another. I wasn’t quite sure which Nendoroid it would be in all honesty as I know Dane struggled to get me one as most of them I want right now I’ve either pre ordered myself, or are sold out in most places.

Alas, I opened it to see he’d bought me the casual version of Yuri Katsuki from Yuri on Ice. He’s so gorgeous and in all honesty I worried I would never get it to add to my Yuri on Ice collection. I remember when he was announced, I was so excited for him to come out so now that I have him, I can’t wait to get him into a cute position and pop him with the rest of my Yuri on Ice babies! 😀

The Nendoroid also came with a wooden Yuri Katsuki charm, which is so cute! He’s sat on the floor with an ice skate in his hands. I plan to keep him on my backpack alongside my Persona 5 Joker charm.

The final present that Dane bought me is by far my favourite gift and one that is so cute and thoughtful. He knew I’d had my eye on the Pokemon Pop’n Step figures for a while now and being the cutie that he is, he found the Eevee one and bought it for me. I actually think with this present he was more excited for me to open it than I was! 😛

This is amazing though and I couldn’t be happier with it! It plays three songs from the original Red, Blue and Yellow games which is cool. You click the button on the right and Eevee will dance to the music played. If you push that button again it stops the music. The button on the left is the volume, which is muted, low or high. We tried muting the music so you could hear how Eevee dances without it and it’s amazing that you can still tell what the songs are without the music.

I especially love how you can connect these to the other Pokemon Pop’n Step figures, but this is also dangerous because I want them all now. 😛 Honestly though I love this gift so much, it made me so happy for almost an hour the day I received it and the day after. The Eevee’s little face is just so magical to look at whilst it dances.

So those are all the gifts that Dane bought for me! I also received some money from family. The money I was gifted from my mom is being saved until I’m paid next month, so for now it’s saved for a rainy day. The money my dad gifted me went towards a new Pandora charm for my bracelet, this charm being the Bobby Bot Dog charm that I’ve been eyeing up for some time now. It’s so damn cute and the online store didn’t do it justice. I love it so much and every time I look at it, I think of my dad. 🙂

The rest of the money I received went towards some bits and pieces whilst shopping in town on my birthday, including some Lush products which were Christingle Naked Body Conditioner (which was in the sale), The Big Banana Massage Bar (which smells amazing! I don’t quite know what I plan how/where I wish to use this yet. It was tested on Dane and smelt too good to pass up!) and Six Yellow and Red Reusable Bubble Bar (which smells JUST LIKE YOG NOG! One of my favourite Lush scents!).

I plan to try and review Six (Yellow and Red) Reusable Bubble Bar reviewed on my blog before Valentine’s Day, so keep eyes peeled for that. 🙂

I also picked up the Blu-ray of Mary and the Witch’s Flower as it was only £9.99! I planned to watch it when me and Dane got home from town on my birthday, but we were too tired and just chilled out together in bed and read manga.

Finally I picked myself a little something up that I’d been eyeing up before Christmas. It’s the Loungefly Pokemon Eevee Embossed Tri-Fold Wallet which I mentioned before Christmas I’d wanted, but had sold out and I was gutted about. I still kept it saved on my Amazon wish list just in case it came back, WHICH IT DID! I was so happy and as soon as I saw it was back up for sale, I made sure to order it. I didn’t want to miss out on it again and for it to be permanent the next time. It arrived a few days later and it’s gorgeous and even better than I thought it was going to be! It’s a lovely vintage brown colour with a picture of a happy Eevee on the front. When you open it up there’s a gorgeous floral pattern inside of the wallet.

This is the same style as my current wallet (which is also by Loungefly) so I can transfer loads of stuff into it easily from my old wallet, which I’ll do as soon as this post is written, as I can’t wait to use it later today! 😛

So, that was everything I received and even bought for myself. 😛 I loved my birthday this year, even if it did go far too quickly for my liking. I went to town for the afternoon with Dane, went to Ghetto Golf with Dane and friends and went for a meal with Dane after. It wasn’t anything special, but it was good nonetheless.

I don’t quite know what to ask at the end of this post other than, when is your birthday? 😀 Make sure to let me know!

I hope everyone is ready for the weekend, I know I am! 😛

Until next time all, have a lovely weekend!

What I Got For Christmas 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all had a lovely day, whether it was with loved ones, friends or even (sadly) on your own.

I can’t believe how quick both Christmas Day and Boxing Day went! We just have that little slum between New Years Eve now and as depressing as it sounds, I’m working today and tomorrow… Which was completely my own choice! YES I chose to work. 😛

However, at the time of writing this, it’s Boxing Day morning and I’m snuggled up in bed and looking through all the gifts I was spoilt to this Christmas and as I always do, I share with you those lovely gifts I received.

Now I understand not a lot of people like posts like these because it’s seen as, “showing off” which I completely understand! I’m not showing off though, I’m just sharing what I received. I love reading and seeing what people get for Christmas, especially when they’re heartfelt and special gifts, where the receiver has clearly been thought about.

If you’re one of those people who think it’s showing off, you can bugger off because this post clearly won’t be for you. 😛 HASHTAG – honesty is the best policy.

Not all my Christmas presents have made it into this post sadly as I’m still yet to receive some from my best friends, but I can always share those in a separate post, can’t I?

Anyhoo, on with the post! There’s a lot of goodies to show off. 😛

The first gifts I’m going to talk about is what one of my best and oldest friends Sophi bought for me! She gave me my gifts back at the start of November so it’s been hard having to wait until now to open them! She bought me so many awesome bits and pieces and they’re all so fab! I’ve got so many Pusheen items it’s amazing.

These items include a Pusheen pyjama top, three pairs of shoe liner socks, Christmas Pusheen fluffy socks (which will be HEAVENLY to wear around the house!), a stationary pouch (which includes a notebook, blue pen, purple gel pen, two pencils, a sharpener and a rubber), a gorgeous notebook (which in turn I’ve had my eye on for agggges!), a pencil case/make up bag and finally some cute little pin badges! There was also some Japanese sweets inside the pencil case/makeup bag which taste AMAZING!

As well as Pusheen, Sophi also bought me a few Lady and The Tramp items, including a pyjama top and some shoe liner socks. I honestly love all the bits that Sophi bought for me, especially the Pusheen stationary to be honest with you! I’ve always been a sucker for stationary but I love using this sort of stuff at work and seeing as Dane bought me something lovely (stationary wise!) these bits from Sophi are perfect. 😀

The next gift I received is this gorgeous fox origami necklace and I got this from my gorgeous friend Sophie… Yes, another Sophie! 😛 I wasn’t expecting this so it was such a lovely gift to open when we met up recently. Since she gifted it me I’ve worn is everyday and I adore it so much. It’s definitely one of my favourite gifts I received this year. 🙂

The next gifts I received were the ones from Dane’s parents, which were all so lovely! The first thing I opened was the Empire Cinema voucher, which I found really random but when I read what they wrote inside it was so thoughtful and cute! It’s definitely the sweetest gift I’ve received so far. As you’ll probably see it says it’s for when Detective Pikachu comes out! You’ll see that I’ve blocked out some information, this is just to keep Dane’s parents names private, as well as how much is on the card.

They also gifted me this gorgeous fox hair towel from The Body Shop, as well as a cute patchouli fox candle, which I doubt I’ll ever burn! I think I’m going to keep it by the front door on our shoe cabinet, but I need something to stand it on before I pop it down there. It smells gorgeous to be honest.

Finally they bought me The Body Shop peppermint candy cane sack gift set. I’m so glad I got this as I LOVE the peppermint candy cane scent and I’ve already picked up a few items in the sales. I’ve tried a bit of the body butter on the back of my hand it’s so creamy and smells AMAZING! I can’t wait to try the shower gel out now, as well as the body scrub.

Next up we have the gifts my mom bought for me, one I knew about and two I didn’t. My mom knows me so well when it comes down to buying me gifts and every year not only does she surprise me, but she just reminds me of how much she knows me. 🙂

This was actually a gift for both me and Dane and that’s a massive refill bag of Australian Bodycare’s tea tree skin wash. I LOVE this stuff so much and have done since my mom bought it me as a teenager. I mostly use it on my face these days but I do occasionally use it all over my body, especially in the warmer months. I’ve already refilled my bottle with this, so I’m really chuffed! 😀

The second thing she bought me is this cleansing brush and it was such a surprise when I opened it! I’d mentioned to her a while ago how I’d stopped using the facial brush she bought me years ago as I found it didn’t work for me anymore… Not as in power, as in what it does to my skin. So when I opened this, oh man I’m so excited to give it a go! 😀 It’s easily charged and turns on and off easily! Not going to lie though, when I opened it on Christmas Day Dane made a lewd joke… 😛 Either way though this will hopefully work wonders on my skin!

Finally we have what is probably my favourite gift this Christmas. My mom had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I mentioned this watch to her, which isn’t the cheapest in the world… So when she said she was more than happy to buy it for me, I was over the moon! I love gifts when they’re bought from someone, as they have some meaning behind them. I’ve wanted a new watch for some time now and have eyed up the Olivia Burton ones since I started my job just over a year ago. As many readers will know, I LOVE foxes, so when I finally saw that Olivia Burton were doing a fox design, my heart was kind of set on it. I showed it to my mom and she sent me the money to order it for myself. I mentioned how you could get your name stamped on the band and she told me to make sure I did just that! As you’ll see, I did and THANK GOD they spelt my name right. 😛

I adore my new watch so much and when I wore it Christmas Day it was so comfortable. I love it. :’)

Finally we move over to Dane and the gifts that he bought for me. He really spoilt me this year and although I feel lucky as anything throughout the year, when it comes to Christmas, birthday and anniversary he always reminds me just how loved I am, as well as just how well he knows me.

These were mostly in the stocking he made up for me, we started to do stockings when we moved into the house and I really do enjoy doing them. 🙂 So some of the items Dane gifted me were matcha/green tea related, which was lovely but so bloody random! 😛 I LOVE green team KitKat’s from Japan and I’ve already eaten one of these whilst writing this post. 😛 He also bought me some matcha knock off Oreo’s, which look yummy, I can’t wait to try those. Finally he bought me a matcha ramune drink… I can’t imagine how this is going to taste! I think I’m going to wait until my birthday to try it. 😛

I didn’t think Dane would buy me squishes, but he did and he did good! I’m not a squishy person to be fair BUT I do like them as they help me relax whilst when I’m anxious or overthinking. I find they’re great when I’m a passenger on the motorway. He did actually show me these and I can’t remember if he said he’d bought them for me  before or after showing them off to me. I LOVE the fox ninja so much and it’s definitely my favourite of the two, but this being said I love the panda ninja for squishing. Due to the way the paint is on the foxes face, I’d worry it would crack, so the panda is going to be my go to for squishing!

It seems to have become a tradition every Christmas now that Dane buys me Nichijou! I never really pick it up for myself throughout the year, so he does it for me. 🙂 I do really love the Nichijou series, it’s something different and a manga series everyone needs to read! They have an anime version of it too, which I also need to watch through, I’ve only watched the odd episode… I might suggest me and Dane watch it tonight whilst we have dinner. ^_^

I love getting calendars for Christmas and when I opened this one from Dane, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect… So when I saw it was Juniper I was so chuffed! Dane bought me the Juniper calendar for 2018 so it’s nice to have that lovely Instagram famous fox hung up in our living room again! I love writing down stuff me and Dane plan, as well as days off, birthdays and even blog events!

This was something I had a feeling Dane had bought me as he showed it me before Christmas and asked what I thought of it! It’s so adorable and I LOVE Pompom Purin. 🙂 I actually saw this when I was in the Japan Centre in London and I rather liked the look of it to be fair. I’m just not sure whether to have it for work, or for the house to keep my stationary in downstairs in the living room… We’ll see but either way it’s so adorable. 😛

Bless Dane, he’s such a cutie! When we went to EGX in September he asked if I liked the Spyro pin badges that had been released to coincide with the game as he wanted to buy them me for Christmas. Sadly I didn’t like the look of them… They just weren’t for me in all fairness. So he asked me to have a look around to see if there were any other Spyro items I liked the look of online, alas I found this incense burner and hey presto! He bought it for me. 😛 I haven’t had chance to use this yet as I need to get some incense cones for it, but how it works is you pop a cone into this and as it smokes, the smoke comes out of Spyro’s nose. Funky, eh?! 😀

This is definitely one of my favourite Christmas presents this year and one I had a feeling Dane had bought me. I spoke recently about this item here and how much I’ve wanted something for the wall behind our bed. Alas I found this awesome wall tapestry online at Redbubble and I just knew I had to have it! Me and Dane plan to buy some easy stick on and remove hooks, as well as some fairy lights and we’ll soon have our room taking some shape after a few years of it looking bare. 🙂

I was rather shocked by the size of this in all honesty, I thought it was going to be bigger like my other Morgana cushion (which you can see here). This was an ichiban kuji prize and as YY Kawaii was selling it, I asked Dane for it for Christmas. Alas here it is! It’s such a cute little pillow and will be nice to use as a head pillow whilst in bed, especially if I’m feeling poorly or under the weather and need to rest my head on something a little more.

These again are some of my favourite gifts that I received from Dane! Again, I had a feeling I was getting something like this for Christmas as I’d hinted to him about it and he’d asked me to put in order which ones I’d like. I’m not only 2 short of having ALL the Eeveelution plushies and I’ve now pre ordered them from YY Kawaii! Some of these were in my stocking and some were in my present bag, so it was a nice surprise when I found out I had another two to open! I cant wait to show all nine of the Eeveelutions off to you in the New Year!

I know I’ve said this for a few gifts now, but this is definitely up there in my top three Christmas presents! I know it’s just a pop vinyl figure and I know it’s just Wall-E BUT it’s Earth Day Wall-E and he’s pretty damn rare now! I mentioned on my post a few days ago how he’s now worth a maximum of £50 on places like Amazon and eBay, so the fact Dane managed to get him new for £15 on eBay is such a bargain. He’s how the original Wall-E should have looked in all honesty and I just love the look of him so much! He’ll be going into mine and Dane’s manga cabinet and he’ll be staying in the box. 😛

Finally we have my number one present, which of course is a Nendoroid! I was surprised to only see one in my Christmas bag as Dane and me usually go Nendoroid happy over Christmas, birthday and anniversary. I bought Dane three and he only bought me one. This being said, a lot of Nendoroid’s I want at the moment aren’t THAT easy to get a hold of, or I’ve already ordered them for myself. There’s quite a few of the Yuri On Ice Nendoroid’s I want, mostly the casual versions at the moment BUT I was missing Yuri Plisetsky, so I’m glad that Dane managed to get hold of him for me! I’m going to pose him as a cutie with kitty ears on with the other two guys. 😛

So that’s all the Christmas gifts I have received so far! I know I have a few bits left to get from two of my best friends, but that’s okay, they’ll be worth the wait. 🙂

I can’t believe the whole hype of Christmas we work ourselves up for is now over. It’s only 4 days now until New Years Eve and then it’ll be 2019. It’s crazy, I don’t honestly know where this month has gone. It’s flown and it’s rather scary to be honest with you.

What did you get for Christmas from family, friends, significant others and more? 🙂 I want to know! I love hearing about what gifts people receive.

Until next time all, I hope you had an amazing Christmas and Boxing Day!

Surviving The Christmas Party – Guest Post

Christmas is just around the corner so me and Estelle over at Estelleosaurus decided it would be fun to do another collaboration post together! We did one in the summer about rainbow fashion (you can read her post here and my post here) and I LOVED it so damn much! 😀

I’ve spoken about great gift ideas for people who love gin and Estelle (as you’ll have guessed from the title!) is talking about how you can survive your Christmas party.

Right without further ado, I’ll hand it over to Estelle! 😀

For a long time, my only reference for the office Christmas party was what I’d seen on TV or in a film. The party was usually held in a very large office and all the staff partied there. Someone would inevitably photocopy their genitalia. Someone dressed as an elf would cop off with someone in a Santa hat in the stationery cupboard!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been to an office Christmas party like that. Even if I had, I’m fairly confident I couldn’t get on top of the photocopier to photocopy my bum anyway.

The office Christmas party can be a tricky event to navigate whether it’s held in the office or not, so here are some tips to get you through the festive season!

Planning

These days it is much more likely you and your work colleagues will go out to a pub or restaurant for the Christmas party. If you are really lucky, you will be the chosen organiser (I strongly suggest you try to avoid being the organiser). Your job will be to think of somewhere to go – usually more than one place because people like a choice. You will need to make sure you’ve covered allergies, dietary requirements, vegetarians etc. and then send the menu’s out for everyone to pick where they’d like to go. I cannot stress enough how important it is to do this early. Getting everyone to make a decision as to where they’d like to go is like herding cats. You will have to chase them, repeatedly. Once you have managed to get everyone’s restaurant preference it will be your job to call the venue, check they’ve got a table on your chosen festive night.

You will usually have to pre order and pay a deposit during the Christmas period, so next comes the fun task of collecting the deposit and getting a pre order choice from then. Once you have let the restaurant know the pre -orders you can relax until the big night. Definitely keep a list of what everyone ordered though, because they will forget and insist they ordered something different when the meal arrives in front of them!

What to Wear

It seems to be a given that you should wear something sparkly for the entire Christmas period, which quite frankly is fine with me. But not everyone will feel comfortable, so what should you wear? Honestly? It’s up to you. Where what the hell you want. Obviously check your venue doesn’t have a dress code – you should try not to wear flip flops and a baseball cap if the dress code is smart casual! It is important to be comfortable and if you are already suffering from anxiety, worrying about what to wear or what you are going to look like is the last thing you need.
Christmas jumpers are all over the place at this time of the year and you can pick up some really funky ones very cheaply at places like Primark. If you don’t have the spare cash or don’t want to spend money on something new, pinching a bit of tinsel off the tree and putting it in your hair or wearing it like a scarf can give you an instant Christmas look.

Once you are comfortable and ready to go it’s time to navigate the party itself.

The Big Night

As an anxiety sufferer the actual party can be quite stressful. It’s important to try and relax as much as you can, but give yourself a backup plan. If you need to leave, then do so. If you feel you can’t leave without an excuse then invent a sick friend, relative, dog, cat, goldfish that you need to get home for. Most people understand if and why you need to leave, but you will find one or two occasionally that don’t get it (usually the same people who are offended if you choose not to drink). If you need to go, just go. Your mental health is more important than seeing Angela’s knickers when she falls off her chair during desert.

If you want to have a drink then do so. Personally, I love a cocktail or a glass of prosecco. If you don’t want to drink, then don’t. Don’t feel pressured into drinking or going on to a club or doing anything you don’t want to do.

Try to sit at the other end of the table from Angela too, especially if she wants to talk about work all night!

Try to enjoy yourself, it is Christmas after all and hopefully you’ll be getting some really nice food and company.

The Day After

I don’t like to drink too much when I’m out, especially when I’m with work colleagues. Getting smashed and lairy can be really embarrassing when you have to go back to work on Monday. It’s obviously your choice at the end of the day, but I would advise caution, especially if you don’t want to be the talk of the office for the next year and be reminded of your dancing on the table at every office get together for the rest of eternity.

I like to have a relaxing day the day after any social event, just to calm myself from all the anxieties that lead up to the event, stress can be exhausting and can make you ill, so it’s important to debrief your body afterwards. For me, this involves going over ever single thing I did or said that may have made me look like a fool. I wouldn’t recommend this though!

Final Thoughts from Estellosaurus

This time of year can be tricky for some people for various reasons. Try to be kind (as you should all bloody year actually). If people don’t want to drink, or prefer not to come to the Christmas party then respect that, don’t try to force them to join in.

Enjoy the festive season, rock those antlers, jingle those bells, be merry and bright and if someone suggests you photocopy your fanny, then politely decline!

Thanks Nat for having me! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Aww I love those final thoughts from Estelle so damn much! They’re so important and so many people forget that not everyone wants to drink or even come to the Christmas party!

I LOVED Estelle’s post so much! It’s always good to have a plan when it comes to the Christmas party. 😛 I want to also say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to her for writing this Christmas post for me, she’s such a star and by far one of my favourite blogging girls. 🙂

Have you had your work or friends Christmas party yet? My work one is due in almost a week and I’m so damn excited! 😀

Make sure to let me and Estelle know in the comments your thoughts on Christmas parties.

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

November Wish List ’18

Why am I bothering to write a wish list so close to Christmas? Meh because I can, I guess! 😛

I apologise if this list is full of waffle, I really do but meh I’m kind of struggling to come up with things I want to get with Christmas being around the corner. It’s also crazy to think the next wish list I write will be for December, I mean where has the year gone?!

I’ll try my best however with my wish list, some items might be pre orders I’ve made, where others might just be items I’m going to have to lust after until after Christmas. I have to be careful not to buy anything that Dane may have already bought me… 😛

• WoodWick Sea Salt Caramel Candle – (link)

I LOVE WoodWick candles and although I rather like Yankee Candles, WoodWick are definitely my favourite. I love that they crackle as they burn and they’re also made out of soy wax so they’re actually better for you, breathing in wise. I’ve owned quite a few mini jars of the seat salt caramel scent and it is by far one of my favourites. I’d love to own the massive jar, but like Yankee Candle’s these aren’t the cheapest. So worth the money though! This may end up on a Christmas list or I might even buy it myself in the New Year.

• Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! & Poke Ball Plus – (link)

Oh man I am SO EXCITED for this game to come out this month! I’ve had it on preorder since it was announced back in May and I cannot believe in less than 2 weeks it will be out! Out of the two I preordered I decided I wanted Eevee, as having a little Eevee around with me sounds so adorable! I also ordered the bundle with the Poke Ball Plus with it too! I gave this game a go with the Poke Ball Plus at EGX in September and it was so good and it just made me so glad that I ordered it with the game. I’m especially excited to play this game with Dane, as it’s two player.

• Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream – (link)

I’ve been after a cuticle cream for the longest time and I’ve always heard nothing but good things about the Burt’s Bees one. I even tried it years ago when in store and it seemed like something good to pick up. I think I wanted it more for when I used to use gel nail polish all the time, which in turn I would like to get back into using again. This is something I’d love to pick up on a whim soon.

• Persona 5 Morgana Sega Prize “Nesoberi” Lying Down Plush – (link)

This is something I actually have preordered from YY Kawaii and I honestly cannot wait to get it! I’ve been after a Morgana plush for the longest time, but the one I really want is either hard to find or costs a fucking bomb! This one is quite a nice size and will either sit on our bed or on my cuddle chair downstairs. Either way I am so excited to get this now. 😛 I’ll definitely show it off on social media when I have him.

• Himouto! Umaru-chan Vol. 3 – (link)

I LOVE this manga series and although this volume came out in October, I didn’t actually realise this until late in October so I made sure to order a copy ready for November time. I don’t plan to buy anymore manga after this as I’m unsure if Dane will buy me any for Christmas or my birthday. I do have some that I plan to add to my wish list in December mind, so keep eyes peeled for that next month if you’re interested.

• Spyro Reignited Trilogy on PlayStation 4 – (link)

This is another game I’m really excited for this month! I was gutted back in September when it got pushed back but meh whatever, it’s going to be out in a couple of weeks now and it’s going to have been worth the wait for sure. I’m excited to play through all of the games and reminisce about all the hours, days and summer holidays spent playing these games. I plan to play the second Spyro game first as this was the first one I played back in the day.

• Hell Bunny Full Moon Mini Dress – (link)

I’ve never owned a Hell Bunny dress myself, but I have always been intrigued by them. I saw a picture of this style floating around on Instagram and thought it looked really nice! I recently only managed to remember about it and ventured to the website to check it out. It’s not the cheapest dress in the world, not going to lie… But it’s definitely a dress I’m going to keep my eye on for the future as I would like to own something like this again, especially for both work and days off.

So those are what items I have on my wish list for this month! I know it’s nothing special and most of it I’ve got on preorder, but meh sadly a lot of stuff I don’t want to add to my list as I want those for next month.

Next month is December. That in itself is bloody scary!

What things do you guys have on your wish lists? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having an amazing weekend!