September Favourites ’21

I cannot believe it’s already October! This month has flown by and it’s been a mixture of good and bad for me. I won’t go into the latter but I’ll definitely share some exciting stuff me and Dane got up to during the month!

I’m quite glad for a new month to be honest, purely for the bad that’s happened and I especially cannot wait for Halloween at the end of the month, some time off for me and Dane as well as Bonfire Night too, even though that’s November. 😛

For October I have decided to go on a spending ban too, I need to start saving for Christmas, which will be here before we know it! I’ll talk more about that on next weeks post (wish list).

Without further delay, let’s get on with the monthly favourites!

Favourite Beauty Product – Blistex MedPlus Lip Balm.

I don’t know what happened at the start of September but at one point for about a week my lips were so dry, sore and sensitive! So much so, at one point I was anxious I had eczema/dermatitis on my lips! During mine and Dane’s week off we went shopping and I decided to pick up this Blistex lip balm in the hops it would help my lips, which it did, thank fuck for that! Quite frankly since buying this I’ve been using it on my lips when they feel sore or sensitive and due for a flare up. This was only £2 from Bodycare, but I know it’s around this price elsewhere too from places like Boots and Superdrug.

Image taken from Giphy

Favourite Film – Free Guy.

I literally watched this film the evening before writing this post as it’s on Disney+ (thanks Sacha for telling me! :D) and I was SO EXCITED for watching it! I remember when this film was announced, as well as a trailer, I was so hyped. Ryan Reynolds is my favourite actor, so whenever he’s in a new film I always tend to check it out. Free Guy is about Guy, a NPC (non playable character) in a Grand Theft Auto style game. One day he realises he can do more and is more than just a guy who works in a bank. It’s an amazing film and I highly recommend everyone to watch it, especially if you love Ryan Reynolds like me, as well as games. 😀

Image taken from Amazon.com

Favourite TV Show – Kenny Vs Spenny.

Kenny Vs Spenny is a TV show I kept (and keep) going to and from and I love it so much! It’s one that Dane actually introduced me to around the start of our week off together in September and it’s also one he thought I’d heard of. This is due to the fact it’s similar to Dirty Sanchez and Jackass, which are both right up my street. Kenny Vs Spenny came out in the early 00’s, which you can tell if you watch it. The show is hilarious though and is about Kenny and Spenny, two best friends who set each other challenges. The winner gets the loser to do horrible prank style stuff. Kenny is always cheating and due to that often wins over Spenny, so when Spenny wins it makes me so happy. I’m constantly rooting for Spenny. 😛 I highly recommend you giving this a go, all six seasons are over on Kenny’s YouTube account, which I’ve linked you back to. 🙂

Favourite Music/Album – Lil Nas X – Montero.

Lil Nas X’s new album Montero came out a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve been listening to it on and off. I love some of the songs from Montero and I think Lil Nas X is such a legend! This isn’t my usual music genre of choice but I do really love this album. It’s got a little bit of everything in there (lyric topics wise) and I’m always there for that! I’d say whether or not you like this genre, definitely give Montero a listen as you might be surprised at just how GOOD this album is! I’m listening to it as I write this post this evening. 😀

Image taken from Giphy

Favourite Game – WarioWare: Get It Together!

Gaming in September for me has really been lacking due to a mixture of being busy and just not being in the mood. However, I have played a bit of the new WarioWare game on Nintendo Switch as Dane pre-ordered us both a copy. It’s been so much fun to play alone as well as together as it’s full of small quick paced party style games, which can be frustrating and funny all at the same time! This is the first time I’ve played a WarioWare game and I’m glad I’ve finally gotten to give it a go. If you fancy getting this game but want to see what you think of it, make sure to go to the Nintendo eShop and download the demo to try before you buy. 🙂

Just a few of my favourite things…

The Steamhouse Bakery.

I have been excited to talk to you guys about The Steamhouse Bakery and why (if you’re in the Midlands) you need to visit in on your next trip! I heard about The Steamhouse Bakery during lockdown last year ad have wanted to go there ever since. So, during mine and Dane’s week off last month we decided to go and we went all out… In a way! 😛 We had yummy coffee, bagels and of course had to get some cakes too!

We bought a bagel of each, but decided to share them so we could see what they were like! I went for The Workman (Smoked Bacon, Scrambled Eggs & Sausage) and Dane went for The Southern Gent (Roast Chicken, Bacon, Mozzarella, BBQ Sauce & Leaves). Both bagels were amazing and as you can see from the photos, you get plenty of food too! We were stuffed and couldn’t eat any dinner due to that fact. 😛 We also ordered some cakes, I had a Nutella and Bueno brownie and Dane had a Twix doughnut.

The Steamhouse Bakery have three stores, based in Leamington Spa, Worcester and Redditch. So if you’re in the Midlands (or live here like I do), there’s a chance on your next trip out to Worcestershire, you might be able to drop into one of the stores to try their amazing baked goods… And coffee. 😛

Holiday to Wales.

A couple of weeks before September, we decided to book a few days in Wales, just to get away and have a break. We haven’t had a holiday (as in get away from home) since Japan in January 2020 so this trip away was a little overdue. We did a tour of the coast of Wales travelling from Pembrokeshire, to Aberystwyth, and finally to Snowdon. During out time there we did lots of walking, visited our friends farm , walked on some beaches and stayed in a luxury cabin with a HUGE bath and double showers. It was a lovely break away and we’re already planning to go to the luxury cabin again in the future!

Black Milk Clothing Ghost Unicorns Sheer Romance Dress.

This photo is actually from the luxury cabin in question, but I wanted to show off my Black Milk Clothing ghost unicorns dress, as I LOVE it! This is the first time I’d worn it, which was just on the way home from Wales. I then wore it again for my dad’s birthday meal out! I LOVE the romance style of BMC’s dresses as it’s so flattering for my figure and I always feel fancy wearing them (I own two including this one). On our way home from Wales we stopped off somewhere for food and the woman who served us commented how lovely my dress was and how it had a pink glow around the restaurant as I walked around. Her comments really made me smile. :’)

Ghost Items!

I have to show off some of the new spoopy items I’ve received from orders and pre-orders, especially these two ghostie cuties! I love kawaii ghosts, I have done since I was a kid, so when Halloween comes around, I always like to snag a few spooky pieces.

The Sad Ghost Club brought out a limited edition plush back in July and I made sure to pre-order my own as soon as I could! My Sad Ghost arrived a week or so ago and it’s so cute and perfect. The Sad Ghost Club is something I really adore and their posts on Instagram really do help me when I’m feeling low. I feel like it’s been around forever and it’s always been something that comes up on my social media now, it’s sort of like a norm for me now. So, to have my own Sad Ghost as part of my plushie collection really does make me happy!

I also managed to snag this large DW Home ghost candle from TK Maxx… Well, technically I sourced it through a group on Facebook and someone was nice enough to pick it up for me and ship it. This candle smells like vanilla cupcake and honestly, the picture doesn’t so it just of just how big this thing is! It weighs a ton but that cuteness really does pack a punch. This ghostie lives on my bedroom window shelf and it makes me smile looking at it each morning and evening. I’m planning to light it soon… But at the same time I want to keep it nice! xD

Autumnal Gel Nails!

Finally I want to share my newest and current gel mani with you all! I know nails might not be some people’s thing and I get that, I do. But my nails mean a lot to me now. I’ve mentioned before on my blog (I’m sure…) how bad my nails condition used to be. I’d cut them down so short they would bleed and they looked tiny and more like children’s nails than a grown adults. Due to how often I cut them down, they didn’t get the chance to grow. This was down to my anxieties and I often cut them down to stop myself from chewing and biting them.

When I started going to my nail tech almost two years ago now, I wondered if getting my nails done with gel would be for me. Who knew it would be, eh? I bloody love my nails now and love seeing them look healthy, long and gorgeous all the time. I don’t have my nails long, because I do still like them neat and short. If I have them long, I end up chewing on them and the gel doesn’t last five minutes.

My friend Bintou (hey girl! :D) recently had her nails painted pretty much the same as mine, which in turn inspired me to go with some gorgeous fall colours for my recent mani! I love them so much and they’re definitely up there as some of my favourite nails! 😀

There we have it guys, my monthly favourites from September!

What were some of your favourite things last month? What are you looking forward to in October? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Roll on Halloween I say!!!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you have a great start to the month. 🙂

April Favourites ‘21

How is it May already? I can’t believe how quick 2021 is going and it’s making me feel old in a way! At the same time, as much as I’ve enjoyed April it’s been bloody cold this week. We are meant to be in spring, I need me some sunshine and warmer weather now.

I think the most I’m excited about for May is some pre-ordered goodies I have arriving, making my new desk look cute as fuck and playing lots of New Pokemon Snap.

April has been such a strange month. It’s the month I really started to get into Twitch and I even bought a brand new Animal Crossing edition Switch, which I LOVE. You can read more about that here. I’m excited for the future of my Twitch channel and by the end of May I hope to have made affiliate.

For the time being however, I’m going to get cracking with my favourites and what I loved in April.

Beauty.

• Bodyform Intimawear Period Underwear – (link).

I know this isn’t a typical beauty product to talk about but I REALLY wanted to share these period underwear this month after trying them in April. Three words – They are amazing and I’ll never look back. I’d been thinking about buying reusable pads for a while now, but was feeling a bit lost of where to look, start, etc. Whilst doing my monthly shop at the end of March I found these in Tesco on offer and decided to pick up a pack. I gave them a go on day two of my period and they were amazing. I could tell I had them on at first, but the longer I wore them the more I got used to and comfortable with wearing them. I felt anxious throughout the day but at the same time I felt confident of no leaks. I wore them to bed and woke up with no issues… If you know what I mean. 😉

From memory they last 50 washes and are as easy to wash as they are to wear. You rinse them with cold water until the water runs clear and then throw into the washing machine. Simple! I clean them with cold water when I jump into the shower in the morning, run under the cold tap and when I’m out of the shower I throw them into the machine.

There are loads of brands you can buy and try, my reason for picking the Bodyform underwear up is the price I snagged them for and more. Again, I highly recommend these, they’re amazing!

So… Now it’s time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month! If there isn’t anything I’ve done I’m not going to mention.

Favourite Movie – Midsommar.

This is a film I’ve seen a few times now and recently I had the urge to watch it again. It’s a horror film by Ari Aster (also directed Hereditary) who has seemingly come out of nowhere. Aster’s horror films are eerie and will leave you with questions and an unfamiliar feeling, which is exactly what Midsommar did to me. Midsommar is a film about a group of friends who travel to Sweden to visit their friends home. A festival is taking place during their stay and they end up finding themselves in part of a cult that they aren’t 100% sure about. Amongst the group of friends there is also a couple whose relationship is being held together by a tragedy that occurred years prior. The film is overall just eerie and the things that happen are strange and odd to say the least. I’ve watched so many videos analysing the film, which is what fuelled me to watch it again. Watching it for a second time has really opened my eyes to the film and if you don’t get upset easily (there are a lot of sensitive subjects such as suicide and gore) I highly recommend watching it!

Favourite TV Show – Invincible.

This is a new TV show I’ve literally finished just before writing my favourites and I LOVED it! It was a recommendation from my colleagues and when I mentioned it to Dane we decided to start watching it that evening. It’s based off of a comic book of the same name and is about Mark, son of superhero Omni-Man, who eventually becomes superhero Invincible. We see Mark juggling being a superhero and trying to finish high school. There’s more to the story, but I don’t want to worry whatever I share may spoil. I highly recommend watching! This is an Amazon Prime Video exclusive show by the way.

Favourite Song – Lil Nas X – “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)”.

This song. I don’t feel like I need to write anything about it because I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this song at the moment. I kept hearing this song on a Logitech advert on Twitch and I started to really like it, so Googled. This song came up on YouTube and it has literally JUST come out. I fell in love with it and I’ve not been able to stop listening to it since. I play it at least once a day in the week whilst working and maybe once or twice throughout the weekend. It’s blowing up the internet though and before hearing this song I’d never heard of Lil Nas X before. Now I’m quite excited for his new album to drop this year. I don’t know if it’ll be my sort of music, but I’ll definitely check it out.

Image taken from Twitter

Favourite Game – Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.

I’ve owned the remake of the original Pokemon mystery dungeon games since it came out at the start of March 2020, but I’d only played it for a short amount of time before Animal Crossing came out. Why? Because I got bloody stuck and gave up on it. At the start of April I decided to start streaming me playing it on Twitch and it’s been really fun. I decided to restart the game as I hadn’t played a lot anyway when I got stuck. So far it’s going okay, but I’m yet to get to the point I was stuck at before… I just forgot how much I like this game and it’s one I can see me playing outside of stream in the future. I highly recommend picking it up to play if you’ve never played the mystery dungeon games before, or if you want the nostalgia from the games back in the day!

Just a few of my favourite things.

Gel Nails.

As the salons were able to open back up in April I was booked in to get my nails done and it was WELL overdue! I decided to go for a duck egg blue colour with glitter. They’re still lasting now and I do love them. If there’s one thing I have really missed during the second and third lockdowns it’s getting my nails done. I feel like every three weeks it’s my time to get pampered, not have to do or think about much for an hour and I can just have a good natter with my nail technician. I’ve been going to her for over a year now, but due to COVID I’ve only had my nails done by her sixteen times, which isn’t as many as it should have been by now. I’m already excited to get a new set of gels done next week, but I do not have a clue what I’m going to get yet! maybe something pastel for spring? 😛

New Desk.

Me and Dane decided in April that it was time for me to get my own desk in our office. I’ve wanted my own space for a while to work at for both work and personal. I’ve had a few of my items dotted on Dane’s desk but I have to always move them at the end of the working day and put them back at the start and the same happened with my work laptop too. I’d put it away at the end of the day and set it up at the start. The desk Dane bought me wasn’t the one I’d thought he was ordering, so I was worried at first that it would be too small. However, this being said we’ve made it work and I’ve had it and been working at it for a week now. It’s amazing! I got my office chair from work so I didn’t need to buy a new one (although I may eventually) and we already had an old monitor that I could use. All that was left to do was decorate the desk and the area really!

As you can see from the above photo I have started to make it my own with my Danbo Nendoroid, Smoko ramen cup lamp, a Tokidoki plush and fox coaster that my friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) sent to me, my raccoon planter from Tesco and finally my Razer quartz headset and headset stand. I have a lot more work to do to my desk including making use of the white space above the desk and more. I’ll be showing it off more in my monthly favourites I’m sure!

Pokemon and Disney purchases.

I made some cute purchases during April and they’re all featuring towards the end of my monthly favourites. The first group I want to talk about are Pokemon and Disney themed.

I picked up this Loungefly bag second hand from someone via a Loungefly Facebook group (who I’ve since befriended) and I’ve been using it since. After I discovered this bag existed at the start of the year it fast became one of my holy grain and sought after bags. One weekend around February I searched all over for this and could only find it for around $200-$400 which I was NOT willing to pay. I gave up on the search eventually and had the frame of mind, “If it turns up at a decent price… So be it…” so when I saw it for a decent price, I snatched it up! I love it so much. The first shopping trip I wore it out I heard people commenting on it which was awesome. It’s my go to bag at the moment and one I’ll definitely use when I return back to working in the office. I have taken it into a work a few times now, which is good. Would you guys like to see a blog post about my Loungefly bags? I have one coming soon and I’ve bought a couple of new ones in 2021 so yes, let me know!

I picked up some Disney goodies from Fox Leap and alongside the two items I bought, Sophie sent me LOADS of extra goodies too which made me smile! She’s such an amazing seller and lovely person to talk to. I decided to finally pick up the Angel enamel pin and Lady and the Tramp print that I’ve had saved in my favourites on Etsy for the longest time. As regular readers will know, Lady and the Tramp is my favourite Disney film and I have fond memories of the sequel when it came out too. Alongside my purchases I also received a Scar print (which I’d been eyeing up for a while), Fennekin enamel pin, Bambi and Faline enamel pin, an Angel sticker and some Disney horse stickers. I don’t feel like I can thank Sophie enough for sending me so many lovely extras.

I’m giving Sophie a bit of a plug here (because she bloody deserves it!) but if you like watching streamers, make sure to check out her Twitch channel. Sophie’s streams are great to relax to and she’s even come to mine before, which is always lovely and supportive. I’m also part of her Discord which is so friendly. 🙂 I’m looking to join her Patreon in the near future.

Finally I ordered the Nickit plush from the Pokemon Center via YY Kawaii and it arrived in April. Nickit was my favourite Pokemon in Sword and Shield and as soon as I could catch one in the game, it stayed in my party for as long as possible! This plush is bigger than I thought it was going to be, which was great! It now lives on my plushie cabinet alongside my Dragonite, Eevee, Morgana and more. It’s just a nice plush to add to my collection. Don’t forget by the way that if you would like to save 10% off of the YY Kawaii website, make sure to use the code YYCOFFEE10 – which is my brand affiliate code with YY Kawaii!

Animal Crossing Cookie.

April appears to have been a month where I have been slightly obsessed with Cookie from Animal Crossing. Why? I don’t know but I’ve either bought items, received items or found and finished things with her featured.

As you may have seen from my last blog post, my Quirkory pre-order arrived for some Animal Crossing enamel pins, one of the pins was Cookie. It’s such an adorable enamel pin and it’s by far one of my favourites in my collection now! If you want to read a bit more about this enamel pin AND the latest Animal Crossing collection from Quirkory please make sure to check out the latest post all about it. 🙂 If you like the look of the Cookie enamel pin and would like to save 10% off of Quirkory’s store then make sure to use the code TMBQUIRKORY!

Alongside the enamel pin arriving, I decided to finally order myself something from Nooks Needles Co as I’d wanted to for a while. I noticed the store had started to stock Cookie designs, so I decided to reach out to potentially buy a custom order. I wanted Cookie on a light purple sweater, but I wanted the image of Cookie to be larger and in the middle of the chest area of the sweater, instead of smaller and on the left hand side of the chest. Laur the person behind Nooks Needles Co was happy to oblige and ordered a sweater in shade orchid for me. It arrived over a week later and I’ve worn it loads so far, as you’ll see from the image above, as well as my new picture on my blog too. I’m looking to review this store and sweater in the future, so please keep eyes peeled for this in May/June. 😉

Finally I want to share this Cookie cross stitch I FINALLY finished after owning it since March 2020. I don’t know why it took so long as it was practically finished when I picked it up again towards the end of this month. This cross stitch kit is from diyCrossing and although I bought this last year, they still have plenty of cross stitch kits available to buy! They’re really easy to follow, whether you’re new to cross stitch or not. I’ve been cross stitching since I was about ten why my mom first got me into it, so to be able to do this kit of a villager I adore, it’s been lovely. I’ve since ordered two more, Lucky and Bones, two more of my favourite villagers. I plan to buy and work on all the dog cross stitch kits from diyCrossing in the future and display them.

There we have it guys, those are my favourites from April! As I said at the start of the post, I can’t quite believe it’s May already! I don’t know what May brings, but I feel like it’s going to be good. I have some time off work in June so I feel May is going to be a month of planning what me and Dane are going to do.

What were your favourites from April? What do you think of my favourites? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

Until next time guys, take care and have a lovely bank holiday weekend!