June Favourites ’22

I can’t believe we are already on day three of July! June really did fly by due to how much fun me and Dane were clearly having with our week off, Manchester, seeing friends and other stuff. But, at the same time it sort of dragged towards the end of June. I remember mid June having a phone call with my dad and saying, “It’s July next week!” and it was due to me thinking about payday… Oh dear! July wasn’t due for another two weeks at that point.

Speaking of payday, I was SKINT after Manchester in June and I’m already “skint” this month too. I made some big purchases I probably shouldn’t have, as well as recouping all the monies I’ve put on bills and such as well. Due to that, after my payday treats this month, I’m going to be really good with money from now on, especially as me and Dane are hoping to make a big purchase for our home in the near future…

That aside I’m not sure how I’m feeling about July yet. At the time of writing this post I’m miserable as fuck in general. A lot of crap news has come up in the news, as well as personal so right now I’m just going with it. I don’t really have a lot planned for July, aside from meeting up with friends I’ve not seen for years due to Covid, as well as lots of D&D game nights! I’m hopeful my mood will lift as the month goes on however, I don’t want a sad one. :’)

Anyhoo, enough of my woes, on with the favourites!

Beauty – The Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt.

Back in 2018 The Body Shop brought out their banana range and I fell in love with it! They brought out a shower gel, body butter and body yogurt and I bought all three of them of course. I managed to get through a lot of them, but I still have some of the products left brand new, including the body butter and body yogurt. As regular readers will know, I started to use body lotion as my skin was honestly screaming out for it and I feel so much better for it since. It’s come to the time where I need to start using the body yogurt as my stash is growing quite low. I’m sad to because I know I won’t be able to pick it up again anytime soon, but at the same time, it means I can get some new goodies in. Hey, maybe I’ll find another banana body lotion soon? The Body Shop body yogurts are amazing, especially during the warmer months as they’re thin, cooling and still very moisturising. Plus, a little bit of this stuff goes a long way! As strawberry is my favourite scent from The Body Shop, I’m planning to pick up the strawberry one in the near future!

Movie – Everything Everywhere All at Once.

First things first, this film is amazing and it isn’t what I was expecting at all. The trailer didn’t really do the film justice for me, but at the same time that wasn’t a bad thing either. I knew this was a film Dane wanted to watch and I was happy to give it a go, because why not. The film is about Evelyn, owner of a laundromat with her husband. Her father lives with them and their daughter appears to have moved out. Evelyn has a lot going on, along with accepting her daughters sexuality and girlfriend, her father needing her care, as well as her business being in trouble money wise. Everything Everywhere All at Once is broken up into chapters, like a play, and whilst the film is a little bat shit crazy, it’s done really, really well! I highly recommend checking this out, no matter what genre of movies you prefer, it’s amazing and I get the hype of it being titled film of the year.

Image taken from Giphy

TV Show – The Boys Season Three.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I love The Boys. It’s a hilarious show with a unique concept, with the show being created off of a comic book series. We’re not on series three of The Boys and it’s getting darker and more intense with each episode. I don’t want to say too much as I may end up spoiling it for some but lets just say there some hilarious adult humour, some fucked up deaths and stuff I didn’t expect Butcher to do. It’s also now been given the green light for a fourth season, which in turn makes me really happy! The original comic book series is by Garth Ennis who also wrote the comic book series Preacher, another TV Show both me and Dane loved. Both are on Amazon Prime Video, so make sure to go and check them out if you haven’t already!

Music – PVRIS – Use Me.

This is an album I’ve found myself listening to a lot towards the end of June and I honestly can’t stop. I’ve been listening to it when working from home, driving to work, and even in the office when I need to get my earphones in and head down to concentrate. I love all of the songs PVRIS work on and release and whilst Use Me isn’t my favourite album (All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell is my favourite) but it’s a close second to be honest with you. I keep meaning to book tickets to see PVRIS in January 2023, but I feel like each payday, the right time isn’t appearing. 😦

Game – Sniper Elite 5.

This is a game me and Dane randomly started playing together after he started to play it on his own. It’s on Xbox Games Pass, so was “free” for us both to pick up and play together. Sniper Elite 5 is set during World War II and your goal is to try and defeat the Nazi’s taking over parts of Europe. It was such a fun game to play with Dane and the more levels we got through, the better we got! We’ve completed the game now, but we’re planning on buying the DLC very soon so we can play some more of the game together. It didn’t take us long to complete the game, I’d like to say a week but that being said, it was a lot of fun! I’ve been asking Dane if he can find something similar for us to play next.

Just a few of my favourite things…

Image from greetings.nerds

For my other favourites this month, I wanted to talk about some small businesses I feel deserve to get some new shoppers, or at least some new followers on their social media pages. I read the above post on Instagram by greetings.nerds earlier this week and wanted to take a moment to share some people who I feel deserve to be mentioned. With the changes to the world from Covid and now the current conflict happening in Eastern Europe, the changes are affecting some people drastically, where others just slightly. Small businesses all over are being affected sales wise, and with social media platforms making it harder than ever to reach new customers, they could do with as much support and help as possible. Which is what I have strived to do since 2019 on my blog, and Instagram page. Even if you can’t afford to make a purchase from any of the mentioned small businesses today, please drop them a follow on their social media accounts. They’re all down to Earth, amazing and friendly people. They’re also my friends and I wouldn’t be friends with them if they weren’t any of the points mentioned. 🙂

Happy Place Cosmetics

Store, Instagram, TikTok.

Cruelty free and SLS free handmade cosmetics, based in Scotland. I’ve been a massive fan of Happy Place Cosmetics since before 2020, but it was only during Covid and lockdowns that I finally bit the bullet and placed my first order! Since then I won’t got anywhere else for my body scrubs AND I’ve become such good friends with the owner too. HPC don’t constantly have stock in, but instead release themed beauty and wax melts boxes for us to buy, with themes including 90’s, horror, pop culture and more! Alongside that HPC will of course release certain stock every now and then. I like the way they release their goods, because it means I can really treat myself to goods! I recently had some new wax melts arrived, with some smelling of Lush Tramp shower gel, an old favourite of mine and the owners! I burnt one yesterday and it smells AMAZING and to boot the scent lasted ages in our office, even after my tea light had gone out. She also included some Calpol scented wax tarts too, which I’m so excited to burn.

Claire Likes To Doodle

Website, Shop, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

Claire is one of my oldest friends and for years I encouraged her to turn her art from a hobbie to a job, which she did a couple of years ago! I’m so proud of where she has come, her work is unique and beautiful and every time she posts something new on Instagram, it really does make me smile. Recently alongside selling art, she’s started to play with clay to create pieces of her original character Bernard. In the near future I am hoping to commission her for a piece myself… 😛 Please make sure to go and check her out and maybe even give her some support over on Ko-fi and maybe buy some goodies from her too!

Quirkory

Shop, Pin Club, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Quirkory are by far my favourite enamel pin creators. Their work always makes me happy to see and really does brighten my day. I discovered them in 2019 and since then I’ve been supporting their work, as well as befriending them over the years. Currently I’m loving what Quirkory are doing with their Patreon/pin club and Discord communities, their new designs and ideas for the future are kawaii AF and I cannot wait to see more in the future! Plus don’t forget I have a discount code for Quirkory where you can save 10% on purchases with code TMBQUIRKORY.

Worlds Apart, Birmingham

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Worlds Apart is the oldest comic book shop in England and for that fact alone I’m proud to call them my local and favourite comic book shop! I can’t speak for Worlds Apart or other comic book shops but with places like Amazon selling comics and manga online, as well as bigger businesses such as Waterstones too, smaller comic book shops can struggle at times to get custom, especially during Covid! One thing that Worlds Apart did during Covid was open up orders through their Discord, as well as through Instagram, which I used often during lockdowns to get hold of merchandise and manga. I’m a part of the Worlds Apart Discord, which is full of amazing people! I highly recommend if you’re from Birmingham to support Worlds Apart if you can, even if it’s just promoting them online.

So, there we have it guys, my favourites from June! June did really fly by and I’m just wary the rest of the year is going to follow suit, which I don’t want. I mean, I’d love for cooler months to come by so I can start layering my clothes and feeling cosy!

What did you guys love throughout June, and what are you looking forward to in July? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

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

SleepingWolvesArt – Review

Today’s post is LONG overdue and it’s for a valid reason! I wanted to wait for SleepingWolvesArt to announce their store opening again, as well as their Etsy for UK shoppers. So, finally the time has come to share with you some goodies I bought before the end of 2020 and why you should check them out, especially if you love dogs and puppies!

As you can tell today’s blog post is all about SleepingWolvesArt and their amazing store! I’ve been so excited to share it with you since the start of 2021, I really hope you enjoy reading about this kawaii independent store, especially if you’ve never heard of them before. 🙂

I discovered SleepingWolvesArt back in August 2020 when I discovered their Kickstarter for the Foxy Ita Mini Backpack/Cross-body Convertible Itabag. I nearly backed this Kickstarter but left it in the end due to other itabags I’d purchased at the time. Alongside the itabag you could pledge for some adorable enamel pins, which I fell in love with but didn’t pledge for at the time either. I was gutted and regretted not getting these at least.

Through discovering SleepingWolvesArt on Kickstarter I decided to give them a follow on their social media pages, with Instagram being my favourite place to keep track of any new designs, as well as the Kickstarter. I kept going on and off the website, bookmarking items I liked the look of to order, but I just never did. Couldn’t really say why.

Then SleepingWolvesArt showcased some corgi and shiba designs and I fell in love! I was hoping they’d be enamel pins, but when it was announced they would feature on notebooks, I was a mixture of happy and in trouble. The latter because I’m kind of on a notebook ban, I have too many. 😛

This didn’t stop me though and before I knew it I’d made my first order with SleepingWolvesArt and the two cute doggy designs had been ordered in the form of notebooks! As I ordered these before January 2021 when the new regulations came in, I was able to order directly from the website.

Due to this change that has happened in the UK (I’ve mentioned before) a lot of independent artists/stores have stopped selling to the UK. However, some stores have opened Etsy stores or managed to work on their stores in order to offer us in the UK to make orders I wanted to wait until SleepingWolvesArt had opened their Etsy store for UK customers before writing this post as I know a good chunk of my readers are from the UK, like myself, so at least after reading this post you could make some purchases if you wanted to. 🙂

I will pop all the social media links at the end of this post for SleepingWolvesArt, as well as links to both the main website AND the Etsy store. Some of the items I’m talking about are currently sold out, or aren’t available to purchase on Etsy, but I’ll mention this at the time.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy todays blog post! 😀

• Pink Shiba Inu Notebook (link) and Garden Corgi Notebook (link) – $25.00 each.

As mentioned above, my first order with SleepingWolvesArt was these two gorgeous notebooks, one is green and one is pink but aside from the designs they’re both pretty much identical. I haven’t used them yet either as I’ve been waiting to write this post. 😛 I’ve opened the garden corgi design so I could take a look inside, but I’m waiting to use the pink shiba inu one for another day.

I bought both of these notebooks together in a set for $40.00 and whilst this offer is still going, buying both designs is currently sold out, but you can sign up to be notified when these will be back in stock.

As you will have seen from the band around both the notebooks, these are A5 size and 160 pages/80 sheets which is perfect to keep in a backpack for travelling, or for studies. These are vegan leather which is lovely and soft to the touch and inside have dotted line pages, a type of notebook I’ve never bought before. There is also a bookmark ribbon inside so you can keep tabs on your pages, an elastic book strap to keep the notebook closed when you aren’t using it and a handy pocket at the back of the notebook to keep anything small such as receipts, notes etc. The quality of the paper is thick and if I was to write in them with some fine felt tip pens, it wouldn’t bleed through.

The designs for both of these are exactly the same, with the noticeable differences being the colour of the dogs and the tails. The corgi design is red with a short tail, which the shiba inu design is a grey/purple colour with a curly fluffy tail. There are three different designs with one sitting down, one lying down and one doing a playful stance. I have to be honest, as much as I love both the doggy designs, the shiba inu is my favourite for sure! I love this design/print so much and I would honestly love to see it on a piece of clothing, preferably a dress. 😛

These notebooks not only make great gifts for friends and family, but for yourself too! They’re really good quality for the money and perfect for puppy, corgi, shiba inu fans, as well as people who love to do bullet journaling, sketching, a diary or maybe even somewhere to keep stickers or photos. Personally I think I’m going to keep my pink shiba inu notebook as a mini scrapbook for when I next go to Japan!

For UK shoppers/readers these aren’t on the Etsy store, not sure if this is something that will appear eventually. It’s always worth dropping SleepingWolvesArt a message/email to enquire further if you’re after one. I did end up charged customs for these notebooks which wasn’t cheap at around the £20 mark, but to be honest it was worth it.

To add here, if you like this print but you need to stop buying notebooks (like me…) then it’s also available on a microfiber cleaning cloth! Store links here and here and Etsy links here and here.

After I made my notebook purchase from SleepingWolvesArt I decided to order some enamel pins after it was announced the store would be closing for UK shoppers! All of the enamel pins I ordered are B-Grade, which means there might be some slight faults or issues with the pins. I didn’t mind this personally and in all honestly I’m so happy with all of the pins I bought. Although these are b-grade enamel pins I wouldn’t have thought so in all honesty, they’re such perfect condition to me! Not only am I linking back to the B-grade enamel pin, but also the normal grade AND the Etsy store. 🙂

• Foxy Ita B-Grade Enamel Pin (link) – $9.00
• Foxy Ita Enamel Pin (link) – $12.00
• ETSY LISTING – Foxy Ita Enamel Pin (link) – £11.08

The is the other design I really fell in love with from the fox itabag Kickstarter, so I had to pick it up. As you can see this enamel pin is of a cute little white fox inside of an itabag, with the itabag in question being the design that SleepingWolvesArt had created for the Kickstarter in question. I thought this was such a cute and unique idea! This enamel pin was also a freebie for people who backed to get the itabag, which is even better! I just love the design and the fact it’s an original character of SleepingWolvesArt makes it even more special to me.

Although I chose the lavender itabag design, you can choose from six different colours – mint, pink, teal, maroon, black and lavender.

It’s a double back pin, with purple rubber backs to match the purple itabag. On the back of the enamel pin “SleepingWolvesArt” is etched on the back, which I always love to see on enamel pins.

• Mini Fox B-Grade Enamel Pin (link) – $8.00
• Mini Fox Enamel Pin (link) – $11.00
• ETSY LISTING – Mini Fox Enamel Pin (link) – £10.16

This is one of the two designs I really loved the look of from the fox itabag Kickstarter. This cute little foxy is an original character design and has a maroon coloured bow around it’s neck and the cutest little toe beans too! The little smile on the foxes face is really sweet and the design makes me smile whenever I look at it! It’s on a gold enamel and overall the design is just gorgeous! It’s a nice size too, which I always love with my enamel pins. It means all the detailing is in there and not ruined.

Although I chose the maroon bow design, you can choose from six different colours – mint, pink, lavender, teal, black and maroon.

It’s a double back pin, with red rubber backs to match the maroon bow. On the back of the enamel pin “SleepingWolvesArt” is etched on the back, which I always love to see on enamel pins.

• Black Shiba Bowtie Puppy B-Grade Enamel Pin (link) – $8.00
• Black Shiba Bowtie Puppy Enamel Pin (link) – $11.00
• ETSY LISTING – Black Shiba Bowtie Puppy Enamel Pin (link) – £10.17

This was a whim purchase I picked up to make my overall order worth the shipping and potential customs I was due to pay. I decided to get one of the bowtie puppy designs and again settled on the B-grade version. At the time of purchase this was the only puppy available with a pink bowie or ribbon, which was a shame. I would have really liked the red shiba but the black one is just as cute and the pink bowtie works really well! Alongside all of this, this enamel pin is on a rose gold enamel which really compliments both the black and white shiba and the pink bowtie. I have to say, this is such a gorgeous enamel pin and I’d love to own a red shiba variant in the future.

There are different varieties of designs to choose from with this enamel pin including a white puppy, pink shiba, cream shiba, red shiba, black shiba, orange corgi and black corgi Alongside this you can choose either a bowtie or ribbon design which are either pink or mint.

It’s a double back pin, with pink rubber backs that appear to match the bowtie colour. On the back of the enamel pin “SleepingWolvesArt” is etched on the back, which I always love to see on enamel pins.

Overall I am so happy with my purchases from SleepingWolvesArt and all the goodies I purchased! I’m so glad they have finally reopened the store, as well as their Etsy store too for UK shoppers!

I’ve got my eye on some other items from their Etsy store including the Sleepy Wolf Enamel Pin, Pink Shiba Inu Enamel Pin and the Red Shiba Inu Enamel Pin.

I’m going to pop SleepingWolvesArt’s links down below for you, including their stores as well as social media.

Store

Etsy Store

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

So, what do you guys think of SleepingWolvesArt and their designs and cute pieces? Not only do they design their own original character designs but they do have some Pokemon dogs, as well as Animal Crossing wolf villagers. You can definitely sense a theme that the artist loves foxes, wolves and dogs. 🙂 Make sure to let me know in the comments below, plus what you would buy from her store?

Until next time guys, stay safe and take care.

Pikarar – Review

Guys I’m back after a weekend off and I’m so excited to be sharing with you an independent artist/store that I fell in love with towards the end of 2020!

As regular readers (and followers of my Instagram) will know, I do really love to share independent artists/stores with you all. If anyone needs our support (purchasing wise) right now, it’s these guys! Plus, their designs are so much better. 😉

I discovered Pikarar around October/November 2020 when Yapfrog shared one of Pikarar’s designs over on Instagram. It was a shiba version of K.K. Slider and was ADORABLE! I went over to her store to check out her work straight away and made an order. I also pre-ordered some goodies towards the end of November 2020 for the New Year. I’m already planning to buy from Pikarar again, but I wanted to talk to you guys about my experience (spoiler it was amazing!) as well as share the goodies I picked up. 🙂

I first of all want to mention here that the store isn’t open at the moment, but I have reached out to Pikarar to find out roughly when it’ll be open again. At the time of publishing, I haven’t received an answer in regards.

Pikarar is based in America so I already hear a lot of you in the UK worrying you may not be able to order… I don’t think we have to worry! Granted, I avoided the VAT related issues that began at the start of 2021, but I’m still in the frame of mind that Pikarar will offer to ship to the UK, which is amazing!

I want to get this out there first, shipping was NOT cheap, but it was worth every penny for how bloody quickly everything arrived. Both my orders arrived to me a week after they’d been shipping and as I had tracking with both too I was able to track the process. 🙂 I also didn’t get customs charges either, which was AMAZING! We all hate those, don’t we? I paid $20.00 shipping but personally this was worth every penny to me. 🙂

On the website there is a section where you can preview what will be for sale, but these are view only images. There aren’t any prices at the moment I’m afraid. I can’t 100% remember how much I paid for some of pieces I bought either, which is frustrating so sorry I can’t give exact prices on some of the pieces I picked up. I’ll mention what the rough price is on some items and the actual prices on others.

One thing to mention here is any clothing you buy, Pikarar will send you an apparel care guide, aka how to wash them etc. You need to wash the clothing inside out in cold water. I hate hand washing stuff and with my dermatitis on my hand, it isn’t something I can really “afford” to do. Instead I opt for popping the pieces into my washing machine inside out on a lot heat for a short amount of time and I hang it to dry naturally. You can tumble dry low if you want to, but I don’t personally.

I really hope you enjoy this blog post today guys! Alongside talking about Pikarar’s designs and the pieces I picked up, at the end of the post I’ll also share the website again, as well as their social media. 🙂

• Eevee Crane Sweater – Between $45.00-$55.00.

This was the first piece I popped into my basket! I love Pokemon and I’d seen this item shown over on Pikarar’s Instagram page shortly after discovering them. As many of you know, I love Pokemon and Eevee and the Eeveelutions are one/some of my favourite Pokemon. I couldn’t pass this sweater up in all honesty, the cream brown colour isn’t a colour I have in my wardrobe either so it’s something new!

As you can see from the design, this is a crane machine but instead of plushies it’s full of Eevee’s and they’re all doing different and cute poses. My favourite is the one at the front in my middle who is pushing its whole body against the glass of the crane machine. All the designs are adorable though and whenever I’ve shown me wearing this on camera to friends, as well as photos on Instagram/Twitter people have always commented how cute it is!

I’ll be honest, when it arrived the little white patches where the Eevee’s are smushing their faces, hands and bodies against the glass I thought the little white patches were a flaw in the print. I reached out to Pikarar in regards who was really lovely and understanding of my confusion and explained what it was.

Alongside how cute the design of this sweater is, the sweater itself is so bloody comfortable! It’s super fluffy and soft inside, as well as being really warm. It’s definitely been worn and loved loads since buying it in October/November last year. The sizing is unisex and I went with an L. I can get away with an M no problem but I wanted something really big and baggy which this sizing choice has done perfectly.

• Shiba Crane Sweater – Between $45.00-$55.00.

The shiba crane sweater is actually my favourite out of all the crane designs I own from Pikarar. Shiba’s are adorable and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like the breed. After returning from Japan I’ve kind of fallen in love with the dog breed more and more often now than before if I see a design of the breed I like, I may go for it. This shiba crane sweater included.

It’s the same sort of design idea as the Eevee crane sweater but with shiba dogs on it instead. I actually prefer the shiba design due to some of the poses the dogs are in. They’re very similar to the Eevee’s but there are some minor differences and such. My favourite shiba dog is squished by the drop/win section of the crane game. It’s little face is squashed up against the glass and it looks a little fed up.

I went for this gorgeous baby pink colour for my sweater. Pink isn’t a colour that you’ll see often in my wardrobe, so it’s nice to have some variety. I wear this sweater quite a lot and it’s fast become one I reach into my wardrobe for when I want to wear something warm and comforting.

When I recently went for an eye test at my opticians one of the women who worked there commented how cute this design was and asked me where it was from. I love clothing that can become a conversation starter, especially if people know of the artist whose pieces your wearing, or if they love that animal, character, game, etc.

Like the Eevee crane sweater, the sweater itself is so bloody comfortable! It’s super fluffy and soft inside, as well as being really warm. It’s definitely been worn and loved loads since buying it in October/November last year. The sizing is unisex and I went with an L. I can get away with an M no problem but I wanted something really big and baggy which this sizing choice has done perfectly.

• Shiba Samurai Sticker – Between $2.00-$5.00.

I actually bought this sticker for my boyfriend as since he bought himself a laptop in the summer last year, he’s started to pop stickers on it for fun. I saw this shiba samurai sticker and thought he would love it. I haven’t allowed him to stick it on his laptop yet as I wanted to show it off to you guys first! 🙂

As you can see it’s a black and white sticker of a shiba holding two katana style swords and looking a mixture of cute, serious, and ready to fight! I knew my boyfriend would love something like this. There was also a sweater with the same design on that I contemplated buying him for Christmas, which I didn’t in the end. I’d still like to pick this up for him in the future, or maybe even for myself as it’s such a cool design!

The quality of the sticker is really good too. It has a matte texture and it feels lovely and thick, so you know it’s going to last a long time on whatever you decide to stick it against!

It’s nothing to do with the design but I wanted to mention here that whenever you buy a sticker Pikarar pops it in a cute little envelope, alongside with a thank you care and your apparel care instructions, if you’ve bought any.

• Shiba Good Girls Hoodie – $55.00.

This was one of my pre-order items and one of the items I’d wanted to snag the first time I made an order with Pikarar. I missed out, but I was happy to wait for my pre-order. I went for the mustard yellow/gold colour hoodie and the “Good Girls” slogan on the back and arm of the hoodie. You could also choose black and the “Good Boys” slogan. I don’t have a mustard yellow/gold hoodie and whilst I was anxious to wear this bright a colour, I knew I’d be able to pull it off. Since it arrived last month I’ve worn it quite a few times now. It’s been my go to hoodie for when I want to look and feel cute, but I don’t want to be too warm.

There is a shiba design on the back where it’s wearing a black hoodie and underneath it says, “Good Girls” alongside with “Pikarar”. The shiba looks so cute and happy as it’s smiling and it sort of reminds me of the shiba cafe we visited in Harajuku, Japan last year. The hiragana on the arm reads something along the lines of “good”. I did work out what it said the first couple of times I wore it, but I’ve since forgotten. 😦

This hoodie isn’t as thick as I thought it was going to be, which I first thought was going to be a problem. Thankfully this isn’t the case and it’s actually been a great hoodie to throw on when I want to be warm, but not super toasty. It’ll be a great hoodie to wear for spring, cooler days in summery and autumn and winter days when I want to wear a long sleeved shirt underneath. This hoodie is also a little see through… Which is annoying from someone who wears a lot of dark t-shirts… This being said it could be worse. I picked this up in a size L, as like the unisex sizing for the sweatshirts this is nice and baggy. 🙂

I actually have a defect on the hoodie from where Pikarar has printed the design on the sleeve. There’s a green/black mark near the hiragana which I reported to Pikarar who has been kind enough to offer to send me from free stickers and a discount code when the store opens. At first the offer was for me to send the hoodie back to her and she would send a replacement. That sounded like it was going to cost Pikarar a lot of money, so I suggested a discount instead to make things easier and less faff.

• Pikachu Crane T-Shirt – $25.00.

The final piece I bought and own by Pikarar (so far anyway…) is the Pikachu crane t-shirt. I decided that I needed the other Pokemon crane design in my collection, but I wasn’t quite sure I wanted another sweater. A part of me regrets not getting the sweater, but at the same time I don’t. It’ll be good to have a t-shirt to wear in the warmer summer months.

This t-shirt is also the same colour as the shiba good girls hoodie, so that mustard yellow/gold colour. I wasn’t feel as anxious about wearing such a bright colour with a t-shirt as it can always be styled with a darker pair of jeans or a skirt. This being said I actually really love the colour and both pieces have received lots of compliments during work calls!

The Pikachu design on the t-shirt is really cute and is very similar to the Eevee and shiba designs. Unlike the other designs, I can’t pick one Pikachu that I love and adore more than the others. The Pikachu’s in this design are all so sweet and adorable to look at! The one in the claw about to get won is pretty adorable, but so is the cutie at the front pressed up against the glass. I’ve really loved wearing this design. I picked this up in a size L, as again like both the sweatshirts and hoodie this is a unisex size. I could have gotten away with an M in this, but glad I got the L for that slouchy, comfy fit.

It’s adorable and out of the three this one reminds me of my childhood the most. Hot summer days during the school holidays and miserable rainy weekend days me and my dad would venture to a local town in the countryside where there are loads of arcade games to play! We’d pay the claw games and he’d win me teddy bears. One year he won me a fake TY bear that looked like Harry Potter. I cherished it for years and it’s still in my parents house somewhere. I think that’s the last time he won me anything on the claw games before they got “rigged”. I have to say, when the world starts to go back to normal, I’d love to go there with my dad for a day out together. It would be my treat and we could play arcade games, grab fish and chips and just have a fun day together. 🙂

I would love some other things in this design, including a mouse mat if that’s something Pikarar would look into doing in the future.

That’s everything I picked up from Pikarar though! I’m really excited for when she opens her store again to potentially grab a few more pieces and maybe even snag some goodies for my boyfriend for his birthday in April!

Overall I’m so happy with everything I’ve bought from Pikarar so far! Her designs are so unique and adorable. I just want to snuggle and squish all the cute animals she draws. I’m really excited to see what she comes out with next. I know she recently announced she’s creating a sticker Patreon soon so if you’re interested make sure to follow her on Instagram.

The same goes for when Pikarar announces when she will be opening her store. Following her on Instagram for updates in regards is the best place to be. 🙂

I’m going to pop Pikarar’s links down below for you, including their store as well as social media.

Store

Instagram

Twitter

Twitch

For Fans By Fans (Store)

What do you guys think of Pikarar and her unique shiba and Pokemon designs? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, plus what you would buy from her store?

Until next time guys, stay safe and take care.

Sugar Bunny Shop – Review

I’ve mentioned a few times now on my blog (as well as social media) but in December I went very shop happy and not just because I had Christmas presents and sales goods to buy.

It was announced by the government that there would be changes made to the VAT and how it’s treated on overseas goods sold to UK customers. Due to this a lot of independent stores/artists in America had to say no more to selling to the UK from 1st January 2021. I was gutted as more and more stores/artists I wanted to buy from announced no more sales in 2021 to the UK, so I went shopping. Sugar Bunny Shop was one of the stores I bought some goodies from and I had to share with you what I bought, as well as a bit of a back story in how I discovered Sugar Bunny Shop and why I’m glad, but also gutted (due to the VAT stuff) to have finally bought from them.

Before I talk more about Sugar Bunny Shop, I want to just address the VAT related issue here for people in the UK who may want to order. I did reach out to find out more information in regards to what may be set up/happen in the future for people in the UK looking to order. I know some American stores are looking to open Etsy stores for UK shoppers, as well as discuss further options etc.

Sugar Bunny Shop/Samantha did in fact reach out to me in regards to my query. I want to thank Samantha for taking the time to reply to my email and for how lovely she was too! 😀

Unfortunately I don’t have a resolution to the UK issues at the moment. I’ve considered using Etsy, but the fees are so high it’s not an ideal solution. I’m hoping the UK/EU will figure out some kind of solution to this for small businesses as they iron out the wrinkles in how the new VAT system works.

I wish I could offer a solution so that any of your readers could immediately order stuff if they wanted. My best suggestion is to recommend they maybe follow the shop on social media or sign up for the newsletter to be notified in any updates regarding UK orders.

I’ve known about Sugar Bunny Shop for years, I feel like it’s been since around 2011, so for the almost ten years and it’s only in 2020 I actually finally made an order. This being said, this isn’t the first time I’ve had something from Sugar Bunny Shop. Back in 2014 my boyfriend bought me a Doki Fox sticker sheet (which I spoke about here). He didn’t buy it direct from Sugar Bunny Shop (think he said it was on Crunchyroll’s store?) so when I opened it and said, “Oh my God! How did you know I loved Doki Fox?” He was taken by surprise.

Over the years I’ve been really interested in the Doki Fox original character, as well as a red panda original character called Ponwan. I’ll pop a little bit below about Doki Fox. I love that Sugar Bunny Shop wrote a little blurb about the cute fox character she’d created!

Silly li’l dumplin’ fox, Doki is a cheerful ball of fur that can’t contain his joy for pastries!

This plump little fox is cheeky, playful and so very fluffy! Small, dumpling-shaped chicks are his best friends and they love to follow him around, though sometimes he confuses them for real dumplings. Especially when they mingle with his food. He would never eat them, of course! But when he’s stuffing his face too quickly he sometimes discovers the taste of feathers. P’tooie!

Eating and sleeping are Doki’s two favorite hobbies, and he can often be found napping contentedly with his peeps after stuffing his tummy with tasty food. Aside from snacks and sleep, this wee fox enjoys soft grass and warm sunshine, which is the perfect spot to laze the day away.

Although dumplings are his favorite food, he also enjoys trying all kinds of other treats as well.

Text and image of Doki Fox taken from Sugar Bunny Shop

Doki Fox has been through some design changes over the years and doesn’t look as chibi as he used to. That being said, he’s still absolutely adorable and I’m glad to finally own a piece of clothing and some more stickers with Doki Fox on!

Short story behind my main reason for ordering from Sugar Bunny Shop. I asked Dane if he would be able to buy me the Doki Fox sweatshirt for me for Christmas/birthday and I’d somewhat hoped he had. Christmas passed and the size of the sweatshirt I was after came back into stock. I’d asked Dane in passing if he’d bought it for me and he said no. I rushed to the Sugar Bunny Shop website and got my order in for the sweatshirt, as well as some stickers! A part of me regrets not ordering more, especially as I’m unsure when I’ll be able to buy from Sugar Bunny Shop next…

• Doki Fox Chick Pile Sweatshirt – $55.00 (link)

This sweatshirt is gorgeous in every way shape and form. I remember when it was announced around autumn time in 2020 and I fell in love with it. The design, the colour, the autumn vibes and most of all that it’s on a sweater! This is a dark brown sweater that is so fluffy and soft inside and makes me feel like I’m wearing a cloud of marshmallow! The sleeves has yellow and orange autumn leaves on, which I love. Autumn is my favourite time of year, so this is already perfect for me! Of course on the front we have the Doki Fox design – he’s lying on his back with a cute little smile on his face and is surrounded by his dumpling chick friends, who look to be really happy to be around Doki Fox. There are more orange and yellow leaves surrounding them, which I like. The design is just so adorable and it makes me smile whenever I see it.

• Doki Fox and Chicks Vinyl Sticker – $4.00 (link) and Doki Fox Playful Vinyl Sticker – $4.00 (link)

I decided to order myself some stickers from Sugar Bunny Shop as I’ve become a bit of a sticker hoarder lately! Of course I couldn’t resist the Doki Fox stickers and both of the designs I bought are adorable. Both stickers feel like amazing quality due to the thickness, as well as the matte finish. I don’t mind shiny stickers, but I do prefer matte sometimes. The first design is of Doki fox lying on his belly and surrounded by his little dumpling chick friends. It’s such a sweet design and makes me smile! The second design is Doki Fox on his own, lying on his back, with his front and back legs in the air in a playful position! Both stickers are adorable and I regret not ordering two of each.

So that is everything I picked up! I regret not ordering more to be honest, so just wanted to share below just a few of the items I wish I could have picked up.

Image taken from Sugar Bunny Shop

• Red Panda Ponwan Parfait Vinyl Sticker – $4.00 (link)

I had so many regrets not buying this sticker and it was only JUST AFTER my items had been dispatched that I noticed it! NOOOO! Red pandas are one of my favourite animals and I swear, Sugar Bunny Shop has designed this so perfectly too, from how happy and fluffy the Ponwan is, to how yummy the parfait Ponwan is holding looks. I hope that Sugar Bunny Shop designs more Ponwan goodies in the future. 🙂

Image taken from Sugar Bunny Shop

• Lavendeer Fawn Floral Sweatshirt – $55.00 (link)

I don’t so much as regret not buying this sweatshirt, but it would have been awesome to have picked up considering how lovely my Doki Fox version is. This is something I’d definitely love to pick up in the future if possible. I love and live in sweatshirts, especially since working from home due to COVID. I love the colour purple and the Lavendeer Fawn design is so damn pretty!

Image taken from Sugar Bunny Shop

• Doki Fox Playful Bee Unisex Shirt – $25.00 currently on sale for $22.00 (link)

If this hadn’t of been sold out in my size, I would have ordered. The only size that is currently left is an XS and that wouldn’t have fit me AT ALL! I’m really gutted I couldn’t pick this t-shirt up as Doki Fox is adorable. The design is more spring/summer than my sweatshirt design and has Doki Fox playing with a bee. It’s really cute and I hope (again) in the future I can pick it up, or maybe even another/newer Doki Fox design.

That is everything I regret not picking up and hope to in the future from Sugar Bunny Shop and with that we have come to the end of this review.

Overall I’m really happy with my order and I’m glad I bit the bullet and placed it. I’d have regretted so much not picking up that Doki Fox sweatshirt. I’ve already worn it almost a handful of times and it just makes me feel so happy to wear.

I’m going to pop Sugar Bunny Shop’s links down below for you, including their store as well as social media.

Store

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Art Prints Store 

What do you guys think of Sugar Bunny Shop and her adorable AF designs? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, plus what you would buy from her store? 🙂

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

Goodbye 2020!

Image taken from Pinterest

I can’t quite believe a whole year has flew past us as we prepare to go into 2021… Sorry but 2020 was a big year for me for so many reasons but of course it wasn’t a great year either…

2020 was the year I entered the 30-35 tick box and I don’t feel ready to turn 31 next week. :S It was also the year me and Dane travelled to Japan for the first time. It was amazing and I’m so glad we were able to go before COVID started to manifest. I remember my dad messaging me our second week into the trip and saying, “There’s a virus called coronavirus going around Japan. Be careful!” and us shrugging it off. Oh how times have changed, eh?

Going back to that trip, it was amazing and I have clutched onto the memories we made and photos we took to get me through 2020 when I felt rubbish. I’m really hoping 2021 will be better COVID wise as I would love to return back to Japan in 2022, maybe even 2023 if that’s the case.

Image taken from GIPHY

Me and Dane have already said we’d like to go around March/April time to see the cherry blossoms, travel around more (Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima) and especially go for Dane’s birthday this time around. We’ve also discussed going for Christmas/New Year at some point too as that would be lovely. We could eat KFC, stay at a private onsen for a few days and again, travel around and have the perfect kawaii/otaku Christmas… But we don’t know when this will be. It’s just an idea.

I wanted to briefly do a bit of a chat about how 2020 was for me overall (including my favourites), mention how December has been and of course talk about 2021 and what I’m looking forward to so far.

I need to get this off of my chest out of the way because it’s still semi ongoing and it’s pissed me off something awful.

I mentioned back in September 2019 on a post (8 Games I’m Excited To Play) about being excited for a game I’d backed on Kickstarter called Calico. The game released 15th December 2020 and was announced on the Nintendo Indie World Showcase. As someone who had backed the game I was pretty meh to discover that people who HADN’T backed the Kickstarter had access to the game before we did and may I add, for less monies… Just felt like a bit of a punch to the stomach. I’m on the Discord channel and started hearing nothing but bug complaints/feedback from people who had been playing the game. Turns out not much testing had been done… Not good! I waited a week for my game code on the Switch, but no sign and I was given excuses of, “we’re new to this, wasn’t aware how long it would take.” etc. Then North American codes were being sent to people in the EU, which of course wouldn’t work. It was just a bit of a shit show to be blunt. I asked for my money back on Sunday, which has been processed and I’m waiting for. I can’t be arsed to play Calico now. It sounds like a rushed out mess and I just don’t want to support a game like that. I’ve heard nothing but complaints from friends about it who have played. I’m happy to have supported the game and help it come to life, but I’m not happy to wait and constantly feel mugged off. The developers have now advised for UK backers to ask for refunds so they can go and buy it themselves on the eShop.

It’s just so poor and clearly rushed out. I was really excited for this game and especially when they announced it as coming out a few weeks back. Dane was away with work and with the game coming out I thought, “Awesome, something to keep me going until he’s back home!” which of course wasn’t the case.

If you’re thinking about getting Calico, get it on Steam if you can. The console versions are full of bugs (I think some may have been fixed?) and from what has been said it can take a while to get them fixed. Or just wait a while for it to go down in price, as I’m sure any bugs will have been amended by then too. I’m not saying don’t support the game, but be wary of the bugs…

I’m sorry if that above has come off as bitchy but I was so frustrated for those two weeks that I just had to be honest with you guys on my experience. I’ve got two other games backed via Kickstarter and from the start I’ve definitely had a better experience with them, so I have very high hopes for how the games will be when they release. 🙂

Now that little rant is out of the way, I thought I would mention some stuff I have loved this year!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Okay, who DIDN’T love this game in 2020? For some it was a sort of lifeline during the start of COVID, I know it was for me. I don’t play it daily now, but when I do pick it up it just relaxes me straight away and it’s also a game I love playing with my friends online. The Toy Day event on Christmas Eve was so lovely and started to get me in the Christmas spirit. I know a lot of people who ended up buying a Switch/Switch Lite due to the need to play Animal Crossing on it, I even helped two of my friends get a Switch/Switch Lite of their own so they could play!

The Mandalorian – I’ve honestly loved this series in 2020 and it’s actually one me and Dane binge watched over the Christmas period. I couldn’t get into it last year, especially with our Japan trip coming up so we just… Didn’t get into it. Season 2 is AMAZING though and I was all there for it. I highly recommend watching The Mandalorian even if you aren’t a huge Star Wars fan, as it’s just good all around show that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Plus some of my favourite Star Wars characters make appearances in season 2, which made me so happy!

PVRIS Use Me (Deluxe) – Use Me released this year and I had been excited for this album since it was announced. I discovered PVRIS when I started my job in April 2019 and I have since fallen in love. This album is one I’ve found myself listening to time and time again, whether I’m out and about driving/walking or working in the house. I’ve found myself dancing in the kitchen whilst making a cup of coffee, that’s just how much I love it. My top three tracks from the album are – “Gimme a Minute”, “Stay Gold” and “Loveless”. They’re all such amazing songs, with “Stay Gold” being my favourite on the album… And the one I danced to in the kitchen whilst grabbing coffee. 😛

Lyonsleaf Calendula and Marshmallow Balm – This balm has to be mentioned here because it really has helped with my hand in 2020. My eczema/dermatitis is still ongoing and hasn’t improved at all and I’m still waiting to see a specialist. Since about August I’ve been using this balm and it really does help with the dryness and cracking and since using it religiously, my hands haven’t cracked and bled for as long as I can remember. I’ll be continuing to use this for as long as I can as it really does help. 🙂

Aveeno – I’m just going to add Aveeno as a whole, as this is another product that has really changed my life since purchasing it, in so many ways! I use the intense body lotions on my hands, which has really helped recently and I even bought the shower cream to see if that would help too. It smells delicious and makes my body feel lovely and soft. I highly recommend Aveeno in general, let alone if you have really dry skin like myself.

There are a few things in 2021 that I’m excited to have come up!

31st Birthday – This is actually a week from today and yeah it’s scary how quickly it’s come around! I think for the day I’m going to bake some red velvet cupcakes, play with my new resin molds and get a takeaway. At the time of writing this post, Birmingham has actually gone into tier 4 and I’m gutted. Good job I’d planned to do something at home, eh?

Eight Year Anniversary – I can’t believe me and Dane have been together eight years in 2021… It’s really flew by and I hope we can do something for it in 2021. For our seven year anniversary we went for a drive around the countryside and grabbed a Japanese takeaway on our way home. Who knows what we’ll do this year, but I’m sure it’ll be good. 🙂

My Chemical Romance in June – That’s if COVID doesn’t come along and cause it to be postponed/rescheduled like it was this year.

Potential planning for Japan trip #2 – This would be amazing to do! I really hope it can be done towards the end of 2021…

Maybe a puppy(?) – We were really close to getting a dog in 2020 but due to the issues we faced with adopting we gave up and said we would wait and either try to adopt again (although doubtful…) or get a puppy in 2021. If we go for the latter, I already have a breeder in mind that we want to go with… We shall see what happens. Getting a pet is a big thing and we need to make sure we’re ready and able to do it.

Speaking of 2021, I also  wanted to mention what posts I am hoping to bring to you guys in 2021, these are just some ideas of what I have swirling around my head. This isn’t definite, as it never is but it’s ideas I would like to get down on my blog eventually. At the moment it’s mostly independent stores I’ve discovered/known about for years and bought from! There are a lot of USA based independent stores mentioned here as due to the changes in the UK with VAT, a lot of them have stated they aren’t able to sell to the UK anymore, so I went all out!

Quirkory – I’ll be writing a review of the Mostari Mystery Pack, as well as the Animal Crossing Gimme my Joycon 2 enamel pins I’ve pre-ordered. They won’t arrive until January/February.

Lunaticgumis – I’m planning to talk about the Puppycat Amigurumi, stickers and enamel pin I picked up a month or so ago. I wanted to talk about the goodies I picked up before Christmas but I just didn’t have time, sadly.

Pikarar – I only discovered Pikarar in October/November time and I’m already in love with their designs and items! I’ve so far made two orders, one being a pre-order for after Christmas. When my pre-order arrives, I’ll be showing you all what I bought! It’s mostly clothes. 😛

SleepingWolvesArt – Review where I’ll be talking about some notebooks (which have arrived) and enamel pins (literally just ordered) I’ve bought.

Sugar Bunny Shop – It’s still on it’s way to me but I ordered the Doki Fox sweater I’ve wanted for MONTHS.

So there is a sneak peak of what I will be sharing in the future on my blog! Of course I will talk about other things in between, but until the weeks/months come I won’t know 100% what may come up to discuss. As always I’ll have my monthly favourites and wish list too.

I can’t quite believe 2021 is just around the corner and we’re entering it with practically in lockdown, which sucks. Whatever though, it isn’t going to affect me much in regards to work, or my social life. I’ll just miss not being able to be closer to some form of “normality”.

I’m not feeling glum about 2021 and if anything I’m hoping to grow some of my hobbies, as well as see some of my friends again who I haven’t seen for ages.

What are you excited for in 2021? Is there any specific content you would like to see more of on my blog in the New Year? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time all, Happy New Year for tomorrow/Friday and I hope you’re all safe. 🙂

HUGE Shop Small UK Guide – Christmas 2020

Can you believe there is only 18 days until Christmas? Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? I’m awful this year and I’m not done. I usually have all my gifts bought by now, but alas I still have my parents to buy for.

This year I wanted to do a gift guide, but not my usual one aimed at the geeks, otaku and kawaii fans, beauty, fashion etc etc. I wanted to instead focus on small companies/independent artists/businesses who need our support more than ever due to COVID and it’s affects from lockdowns here in the UK.

First of all, I’m only speaking about the UK as with a Twitter poll a couple of weeks ago, it’s what you as the readers voted for. However at the end of the post I will mention who you can shop small with all over the world too.

I’m going to add all sorts of categories here, not just geek, kawaii, otaku related. I’ll be talking about beauty, home, geek, Japan related, food and more! I want to try and talk about as much as I can, so when you need ideas for Christmas gifts you have lots of choice. I will also mention the last date to order for Christmas too if you’re in the UK. Please bear in mind with the COVID situation and Christmas on the horizon, Royal Main is struggling a little, so if you want to order, order as soon as possible!

Let’s get started! I really hope you guys enjoy this post. 🙂

Image taken from GIPHY

Geeky/Kawaii

Image taken from Jennifairy Illustration

Jennifairy Illustration – Creating cuties to make you smile. Enamel pins, stickers and keychains, all inspired by cute animals, video game characters and more.

Last date to order for Christmas – 14th December. However, if order after this date it could still get there but that can’t be promised. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

Jennifairy Illustration is an independent artist/store I have spoken about on my blog since 2017 and I knew they were one of the first places I wanted to speak about today! Jennifairy has a range of products – enamel pins, stickers and keychains. Her style is incredibly cute and kawaii and the designs make me smile whenever I see them, both on her store and in my home. If you know someone who loves cute animals and certain characters from popular video games, then they will love to open a cute design from Jennifairy. Christmas wise you can pick up some gingerbread friends or even a Christmas Pikachu, with a Santa’s hat and a cup of coffee. There are loads of different designs to choose from, there is something for everyone.

Image taken from Littlest Spook Shop

Littlest Spook Shop – We put the Oo in spooky! Cute spooky ghost prints, mugs and other items to choose from!

Last date to order for Christmas – Currently Littlest Spook Shop is looking to close 9th December.

Halloween isn’t just once a year with Littlest Spook Shop. I discovered them around Halloween this year and I love their spooky ghost designs. They’re so damn cute and spoopy and I’m down for that. I regret not ordering some of their Christmas cards this year to be honest, but there’s always next year. If you know someone who celebrates Halloween all year around then a print (or two!) from Littlest Spook Shop may just be for them! Not only do they sell prints but they also sell mugs, tote bags, enamel pins and patches so that spooky friend or family member can show off their love of ghosts and all things spooky all year around! The Always Cosy Club spooky print shouts out to me so much. During the colder months I’m like that little ghosty.

Image taken from FoxLeap

FoxLeap – Kawaii designs inspired by Disney and Japanese characters from films and video games.

Last date to order for Christmas – Not known at time of writing post.

FoxLeap is an independent artist/store I love buying enamel pins from. They’re adorable and there is always something in the store I want to pick up, including the Jiji enamel pin which I may need to order myself as a treat for writing this post. 😛 There is something for everyone when it comes down to FoxLeap including designs inspired by Disney (especially The Lion King series!), Pokemon, Studio Ghibli, Wolf’s Rain, Okami and more. Anyone who loves enamel pins will really love to receive a FoxLeap design and honestly they probably already know of FoxLeap’s existence. Not only do they make and sell enamel pins but they also sell prints, t-shirts, stickers, enamel pin flags, tote bags and more so there is plenty to choose from!

Image taken from NaomiLordArt

NaomiLordArt – A freelance artist who creates adorable prints inspired by animals, magical creatures, witches, Goddesses, Critical Role and more!

Last date to order for Christmas – Orders will be shipped until the shop closes for Christmas on 20th December. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

Guys you know me I love kawaii animals, especially foxes and that is something NaomiLordArt does so bloody well! I mean, look at them cute seasonal fox designs! I feel anyone of any age will love a little stocking filler that involves one of the many designs that NaomiLordArt has on offer. Plus if you and your friends are fans of Critical Role, she’s drawn all of the gang and put it onto a print, which you can find here. I feel NaomiLordArt would be perfect as items to gift children, teenagers and anyone who loves prints and stickers. I’ve gifted my best friend goodies from there before that were surrounding Star Wars and Harry Potter. There are also RPG class animal stickers and prints too, so if you play in a D&D group and are taking part in a D&D themed Secret Santa, these would make perfect gifts alongside some dice.

Image taken from GIPHY

Japanese Snacks

Image taken from Something Japanese

Something Japanese – UK based online shop that sells the best things from Japan! Chocolate, Candy, Collectables, Otaku Goodies and much much more.

Last date to order for Christmas – December 21st. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

Something Japanese is a store I have bought from for about five years now and they are really good! I especially love to pick up the Japanese snack boxes from them as they’re always an amazing price for how many Japanese sweets and treats you get. I ordered the Halloween one and it was amazing and I’ve ordered the Christmas Japanese Candy Box too. This might make for an amazing gift to someone who loves Japanese sweets and treats and who may also miss Japan or want to visit Japan. COVID has prevented travelling to Japan for a lot of people and I know a lot of my friends who missed out on their trips this year. This would make for a nice treat to open Christmas Day. Something Japanese does sell other items too and separate sweet treats so make sure to check that out too.

Image taken from Tofu Cute

Tofu Cute – A UK kawaii shop that sells all sorts of cute and unique Japanese snacks, plushies, accessories, stationery and other goodies.

Last date to order for Christmas – Not known at time of writing post.

Tofu Cute is a store me and my boyfriend often order our Japanese sweets from as they’re great prices and they always seem to have the goods that Japan get at the same time. Not only do they stock sweets but also drinks as well! We’ve bought many bottles of ramune and Pokemon fizzy drinks from Tofu Cute and they’ve all been enjoyed! Think my favourite thing I’ve ever bought from Tofu Cute are the Melty Kiss chocolates. They’re to die for and would make an amazing gift for someone’s stocking this Christmas. 🙂

Image taken from GIPHY

Home

Image taken from Cushty Co Twitter page

Cushty Co – Handmade home fragrance. Scented soy wax melts beautifully crafted with sprinkles of glitter and careful colouring. Vegan friendly.

Last date to order for Christmas – Monday 14th December – Store will close at 5pm. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

Cushty Co are my go to for wax melts and I’ve ended up buying so many this year! Their autumn/Halloween collection being my favourite to date. If you know someone who loves burning candles and wax tarts like me, Cushty Co are a great place to check out. They do LOADS of different scent varieties and three different sizes of wax so the choices are huge. They currently have their Christmas/winter scents in stock and I have all of them! They’re absolutely amazing and if you know someone who loves Christmas and wishes it could be everyday, then some of the Christmas/winter scents will be right up their street. Not only do Cushty Co sell wax tarts, but they also sell room sprays too, which I’m yet to try. If you know someone who loves Lush then they’ll love Unicorn Dreams which smells exactly like Snow Fairy and Nightfall which smells exactly like Twlight.

Image taken from Bubble Baskets UK/Books Baths and Beauty

Bubble Baskets UK/Books Baths and Beauty – Lovingly Custom made 3D printed Bubble Baskets.

Last date to order for Christmas – 17th December if ordering a pink, black or ombré bubble basket. 14th December if ordering a custom colour. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

I recently decided to buy myself a bubble basket from Books Baths and Beauty as I’ve wanted one for over a year now and as my bathroom was redone in the summer, I’ve finally been indulging in bath products and having bath cocktails more. It arrived over the weekend I’ve used it a few times since. It’s really good and if you’re like me and use bubble bars, shower gels and more to create bubbles, then this is for you! They’re made with a 3D printer and are sturdy and amazing! 😀 If you know someone who loves taking baths and using the same products as I do, this will be perfect for helping them create lots of bubbles! Teenagers will love this, as well as mermaids.

Image taken from GIPHY

Beauty

Image taken from The Bath Bae

The Bath Bae  –  Handmade bath treats to make you glow inside and out. Vegan and cruelty free!

Last date to order for Christmas – Monday 21 December at 3pm Royal Mail Tracked 48 or Tuesday 22 December at 3pm Royal Mail Tracked 24. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

I recently made my first order with The Bath Bae and honestly – I have zero regrets. They focus on bath bomb products in various different varieties and scents so there is plenty to choose from! So far I’ve only tried the bath cubes and they are amazing, perfect for anyone of any age. You can pick up bath sparkle, sparkle rocks, bath cubes and bath soak. These would make great stocking fillers for teenagers and anyone who loves a good soak in the bath. My favourite scent from them so far is Oh So Slushie, which reminds me of Tango Ice Blast slushies from the cinema.

Image taken from Happy Melon

Happy Melon – Handmade beauty products made in small batches and packed with cuteness, colour and yummy fragrance. Cruelty free!

Last date to order for Christmas – Restock this Sunday (13/12/2020) and as items sell out quickly, there isn’t really a last date to order for Christmas.

Happy Melon is a brand I discovered this year and bought from during their last restock. If you know someone who loves their beauty and bath products and for them to be as colourful as possible, Happy Melon is a good indie brand for this! They have a wide variety of products including bubble bath, lip sugar, perfume oil, bath soak (snuggle soak), sugar scrub and more! One of the bubble baths I own is a Lush Snow Fairy dupe (Sabrina bubble bath) and it’s one of my favourite products to use after a long day. Plus a little goes a long way and this stuff lasts AGES! One of the products I am excited to try soon is the Pop Kei Snuggle Soak, which smells just like Tango Ice Blast slushies! It would work so well with the slushie bath cubes from The Bath Bae. Again this is a great brand for teenagers due to how colourful everything is and maybe even children too due to how colourful and sparkly the bubble baths are.

Image taken from Hex Bomb

Hex Bomb – Divine handmade gothic beauty products for dark sweets hearts. Creator of the first black bath bomb! Cruelty free and vegan!

Last date to order for Christmas – 21st December. If you want to guarantee item(s) to arrive for Christmas order as soon as possible.

Hex Bomb is a brand I have always wanted to try since the Black As Your Soul bath bomb came out. I’m yet to try it still and plan to buy it in the near future! I’ve mentioned some colourful and kawaii beauty indie brands so far, so I wanted to through a gothic, dark brand in there for good measure. I love me a dark bath, it reflects who I am inside and this brand would be perfect for any goth friend or relative out there! Not only do they make bath bombs but Hex Bomb also sell shower gel, soap, scrub, lip balm, perfume oil AND even wax melts for your home. If you aren’t sure what to buy that gothic beauty in your life (because Hex Bomb have a lot of variety!) you could always pick up one of their gift boxes which contains a variety of products. If you want to see a review (or two) of Hex Bomb make sure to go and check out my great blogger friend Raiin Monkey’s blog posts here.

Image taken from GIPHY

Honourable Mentions

Geek/Kawaii – Quirkory – Due to being based in Italy, they didn’t qualify for this shop small post. However, I couldn’t not mention them! They sell enamel pins, stickers and prints inspired by Japanese video games and cute animals.

Geek/Kawaii – Claire Likes To Doodle – The reason I didn’t mention my friend Claire and her store is because she got a post allllll to herself recently! Which I am going to link here. 🙂

Geek/Kawaii – 1 In 100/One In Hundred – A local Brummy like myself, Alex over at 1 In 100 has some amazing designs on her store and you can buy items from clothing, badges, keyrings, stickers, prints, stationary and more. I keep meaning to pick up some of her Japan inspired prints. Check them out here and here.

Geek/Kawaii – Chibi Shibby – May have bought a Christmas present from one of my favourite artists… 😉 Shibby recently reopened her store and has filled it was gorgeous kawaii goodies! There’s also some Christmas related goods in there too.

Geek/Kawaii – Lunaticgumis – Due to being based in Gran Canaria, they didn’t quality for this shop small post. However, I am planning to write about them on my blog very very soon! 😀 They sell stickers as well as amigurumis (Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures). They stock Bee and Puppycat designs WHICH I LOVE!

Geek/Kawaii – Taiyakiblue – This store is joint owned by tattooists senseoftheterrific and tubbybeartattoo. They stock clothing, prints and even some keyrings and pins made out of resin. They’re both inspired by geeky/kawaii themes such as D&D, Studio Ghibli, Dragonball Z, Moomins, Adventure Time and more. I’ve purchased a Christmas present from them and plan to buy prints in the future! I love their style so much.

Bath – Bath Bake Love – No restock until after Christmas where there will be lots of enchanted teasers for the New Year Wonderland and plenty of goodies in January!

AND THERE WE HAVE IT! My HUGE shop small Christmas shopping guide for the UK!

What do you guys think? I wanted to try and cover as much as I could and I like to think I’ve done that quite well. In the future I may pop up with some of these after Christmas, just as good shopping guides throughout the year for birthday’s and more!

Honestly guys, I hope you enjoyed this post today as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m off work for the week and the first thing I knew I wanted to do was to write this post.

Are there any small shops in the UK that you feel I should know about? Make sure to let me know and I’ll take a look for next time!

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

November Wish List ’20

I still can’t believe it’s November already and less than a month now until December. It’s crazy how quick 2020 has gone by considering all the crap we’ve had to deal with – e.g. COVID but at least we can try and have Christmas to look forward to, eh? I already know LOADS of people who have put their Christmas trees up because they’ve been looking forward to do something.

Anyhoo with Christmas lurking I REALLY struggled with this months wish list due to wanting to hold off on adding items I’ve added for Christmas. Realistically they aren’t items for my wish list this month, they’re not things I could buy if I wanted to, due to the fact Dane may have bought them me for Christmas and birthday.

My wish list this month is mostly really colourful and cute and honestly I would love to pick up some of these items, but I don’t think I can afford to… I’m so skint this month after starting my Christmas shopping but I have no regrets. I’m really excited to spoil people close to me and show them how much I love and care for them after such a shitty year.

Anyhoo… Let’s get on with the wish list!

• The Bath Bae Oh So Slushie Bath Soak – (link)

This is an indie bath brand that I REALLY want to try! I’ve heard and seen nothing but good things about The Bath Bae and I really need to give them a go. At the moment I have so much bath stuff to use up, but when I time comes I’ll be ordered some of their goodies with the Oh So Slushie scent, which is described as one of my favourite drinks… blue raspberry and chery slushies! From what I’ve seen of people sharing The Bath Bae on Instagram you get a LOT of product for the money and that’s something that really does appeal to me! Alongside the bath soak you can also pick up bath sparkle, sparkle rocks and bath cubes. The bath cubes is something else I’d really love to give a go too!

• Sugarnova Beary Cute Gummies Washi Tape – (link)

I recently made a purchase with Sugarnova where I ordered some of the enamel pins from their Halloween collection (Lollipop Ghost and Trick or Treat Yo’Self Ghost) but some of the packaging they arrived in had been secured with some super adorable washi tape and I fell in love with it. So much so that I cut around the washi tape and used it as a bookmark for my work diary! I was going to reach out to Sugarova via Instagram to ask where/who it was from, but I discovered through their Instagram grid that it was in fact their own design and washi tape. I WISH I HAD OF KNOWN. I WOULD HAVE ORDERED SOONER! So, in the future I’ll be purchasing this washi tape… A couple of rolls to be honest with you as it’s so cheap, less than £3.00! The design is a row of gummy bears doing unique poses based on their colours, my favourite being the little red bear.

• FromCaliko Pokemon Eeveelution Double Sided Zip Bag – (link)

This is a zip bag I have wanted for years but just never bought due to the shipping costs… 😦 It went out of stock a while ago and I was wary it might never return. However, a few nights ago I checked their Etsy store AND it was back in stock! I really want to pick it up to be honest with you as it’s such an adorable design… But I don’t have a bloody clue what I would use it for at the moment, apart from maybe some stuff to do with my blog content, stickers, etc etc. I’ve shown it to Dane so I may get it for Christmas… Who knows. xD Also my friend Sarah over at Raiin Monkey reviewed this zip back over on her blog so make sure to go and check that out!

• Jenni Illustrations Soda Dog Keychain – (link)

If you guys didn’t read my post about Jenni Illustrations a few months back (you can read it here) I mentioned how much I love her original character Soda Dog and how I need more items with him on, including the keychain. I would still really love this keychain that I would add to my Isabelle ita bag! It just reminds me of Japan so much and considering that was the best thing about 2020, I’d like to keep my love of Japan and memories going for as long as possible.

• Black Milk Clothing Sporty Stripes Hosiery 2.0 – (link)

As regular readers of my blog will know I have been a fan of Black Milk Clothing pretty much since my blog started in 2012. Over the years I have purchased from the second hand/brand new with tags from sellers on both eBay and Depop. However this year I decided to start buying direct from Black Milk Clothing when a collection launched that I liked the look of, alas Pokemon (you can read about what I picked up here) and Animal Crossing (my goods are still to arrive…). I would love to pick up these sporty stripes leggings/tights when they’re back in stock as they look amazing! I’ve been after something like this for a while now to wear with dresses that come up a little on the short side. The Halloween collection contains an orange pair and the Christmas collection contains a red and green pair. I’d love the red pair too, but I don’t think I could make them work with as much as the black pair.

• EMP Deadpool Peek A Boo T-Shirt – (link)

Finally we have some Deadpool merch to share and I feel like I haven’t mentioned Deadpool much on my blog since the second film came out in 2018! I was looking around EMP for some Christmas present ideas (both for me and other people) and found this really cute Deadpool t-shirt where he’s peeping out of the pocket on the left hand side. There was a point where I wore these style of t-shirts all the time so whenever I see them nowhere days they do remind me of 23-25 year old Nat. 😛

So that’s all the items for this months wish list post! I would really love to buy some goodies from this list but with Christmas presents taking priority… I need to buy goodies for others instead. 😛

What items do you have on your wish lists this month? To think before we know it it’ll be the start of December and I’ll be talking about items I either want to buy for that month and/or my Christmas wish list!

Make sure to let me know what you think of the items on my wish list this month, as well as what you have on your wish lists!

Until next time, take care all and keep safe during second lockdown here in the UK. 🙂

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!

July Wish List ’20

It’s that time of month again where I share my monthly wish list with you all! I know I say most months that I’ve struggled to put a list together, but this month I really HAVE struggled. In all honesty this is down to me buying things as and when I have wanted them.

During lock down I have saved quite a bit of money, which is great, but at the same time it’s also been nice having money to splurge on things I’ve wanted for a while, but now I’m running out of items from my wish list, which is a mixture of funny and sad. 😛

Half of the items on this list are Animal Crossing related… But is that such a big surprise? 😛

I hope you enjoy this months wish list, it’s sadly nothing special, but it’s better than nothing at all, eh?

• Fearless Illustration Danger Days Long Sleeved Top (link)

I don’t know why but I’ve really fallen in love with this top! I’m a sucker for baseball style t-shirts and have always loved them. They look great with anything, but especially jeans. I’d get this in the largest size too so I could have it baggy to tuck into my mom jeans and skirts. I know there is also a version with yellow/mustard sleeves instead of red, but I much prefer the red version. Also with the slogan on the top and it being called “Danger Days” it reminds me a little of My Chemical Romance… So this top could come in handy next June when I see them in Milton Keynes!

• Sugar Bunny Shop Animal Crossing Marshal Textured Print (link)

I’ve always been a fan of Sugar Bunny Shop and whilst people have bought me things from her store, I’ve never actually bought anything for myself. I’m LOVING the Animal Crossing prints the owner of the store has designed and I’ve especially fallen in love with this Marshal print. I never understood the fuss behind Marshal, until he visited my campsite and decided to move to my island. He’s one of my favourites now for so many reasons, but mostly because he loves coffee. This print would go in my bedroom along with my other Animal Crossing prints.

• Jenni Illustrations Froggy Chair Sticker (link)

This is another store that I have wanted to buy from for the longest time and never had. Well, recently Jenni opened up her store again with loads of new and old goodies. I decided I had waited long enough and made an order (which I’ll be showing you guys when it’s here, of course) BUT I made my order a little too soon. The next day Jenni added some more goodies to her store, some of them that I really wanted, including some Animal Crossing stickers, Blue’s Clues stickers and this Animal Crossing froggy chair sticker. It looks so adorable! I would have loved this for my iPad case or maybe even something else. With the amount of Jenni Illustration items in my wish list, I’ll be able to make another order in the future for sure!

• Eltamagotchi Isabelle Animal Crossing Cereal Vol.1 Enamel Pin (link)

This is an enamel pin I nearly ordered recently… But I went against it due to the cost of it overall to the UK with shipping. It wasn’t cheap and it made me cringe. This isn’t a massive enamel pin either, so I’m going to wait until I either buy someone else a pin as a birthday/Christmas present. The other thing that slightly puts me off is the fact it sort of looks like a “traced” copy of the Isabelle design from Nintendo? I don’t know if that’s just me? I do really love the idea of Animal Crossing characters in the size and shape of cereal. It would look adorable in my Isabelle ita bag… I’ll see. 😛

• Bobblejot Tori the Corgi Plushies Kickstarter (link)

First of all this Kickstarter campaign finishes Monday 6th July at 4.41pm, so if you like the look of this cute Tori plush by Bobblejot, then make sure to back the campaign before then! Okay, so I’ve been a fan of Bobblejot’s cartoon about Tori the corgi and Samuel the cat for as long as I can remember now, so when I heard they had brought out a Kickstarter with plushies of Tori, I KNEW I had to get one myself! Tori is an adorable young corgi who is finding out new things in the world, with the help of Samuel. I’ll link the Instagram page here so you can go and check out some of the cartoons for yourself.

• TK Maxx GC Home Decor White Giraffe Artificial Succulent (link)

Finally the last item on my wish list this month is this giraffe artificial succulent home decoration from TK Maxx. I’m not one for keeping plants in the house and I couldn’t tell you why… I love some flowers every now and again, but succulents and house plants aren’t for me. However, I would like to start potentially having some green around my house. This being said, I do not have a clue where I would keep this if I bought it… Maybe the office in the window or on the side by my front door? Who knows. I have fallen in love with the giraffe a little though!

So there you have it, my wish list for July. Again, I’m sorry there wasn’t anything “exciting” on there, but I like the items I popped on. I doubt very much I’ll be buying any of the items due to my bathroom being done. I’m going to be a little skint now until I’m paid at the end of the month. 😛

What item(s) do you like on my wish list? What items do you have on your lists? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and stay safe!