August Favourites ’21

I cannot believe it’s September now, my favourite month of the year. September is a month I’m really excited for, but also very anxious and a little sad about too.

August is a month I couldn’t wait to see the back of as it wasn’t exactly great, especially for my mental health, but at the same time I had a really lovey time running up to the end of it. Me and my best friend went out for one of the days over bank holiday and it was so lovely. I’ll be talking about it more later on in the favourites.

September though… It’s always been my favourite month of the year due to feeling of a fresh start (due to education), as well as my favourite season of autumn starting. However, since last year September also carries some sadness I don’t want to discuss on my blog, as well as some big anxieties in the weeks leading up.

This all being said, me and Dane will be off holiday from work together and we’re planning to just chill out together and have lots of cuddles and chilled days. I honestly cannot wait for some time off of work to just do nothing and relax.

I’m sorry to start off this months favourites with a bit of a miserable topic, but I just wanted to be honest here. I’m incredibly worn out, even after bank holiday. xD

Favourite Beauty Product  – Boots Extracts Marshmallow & Peppermint Body Butter.

Not going to lie, this is actually an old product from many years ago that I only recently opened. I’d bought it as part of a gift set I bought back in 2016 and decided to finally crack open the body butter to use as a hand and foot butter. On my hands this just did not agree with my dermatitis due to the scent and ingredients, however, used as a foot butter it’s been a dream to use. I put a very generous amount on before socks in the morning which results in my feet looking and feeling lovely and smooth by the end of the day. It also has a gorgeous creamy peppermint scent too, which I adore. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if you’re supposed to use products past their sell by date… I think with beauty products it’s from when they’re opened you have the use by date. Of course, if you aren’t sure it might always be best to throw the product away.

Favourite Film – Us.

This is a film I’ve been wanting to watch since it came out in 2019, but we just never managed to. We planned to go to the cinema to watch it but never did and I’m really glad we didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the film but without saying too much, I guessed the twist of the film around thirty minutes in, which was a little disappointing. That being said, the overall plot of the film is really good and you’re definitely on the edge of your seat wondering what’s going to happen next.

Favourite TV Show – Centaurworld.

This is a new Netflix series that came out to the UK at the end of July. Dane thought it looked batshit crazy so he decided to pop it on for us to watch. We LOVED it and binge watched it in a few days. We follow Horse as she finds herself transported to Centaurworld during a battle with her owner. Horse discovers a group of centaur friends, who soon help Horse to try and find her way home. There’s singing involved too, as this is a musical show. It reminds me of Adventure Time crossed with Disney films. Give it a watch if you haven’t done so already!

Favourite Music – Unprocessed – “Candyland”

Unprocessed are a progressive metal band that Dane introduced me to recently with “Deadrose”. As I really love this song, Dane played me one of their newer songs to see what I thought of it. “Candyland” has fast turned into one of my favourite songs to listen to lately. Their music style seems to have changed a little when you hear “Deadrose” before or after “Candyland”. I really love them and I’m going to be checking out more of their stuff in September!

Image taken from Waterstones.

Favourite Book – The Sad Ghost Club.

Yes guys, I read a book this month! Don’t act too shocked, please. 😛 I bought The Sad Ghost Club back in January this year and I thought I’d read it, instead I placed it in our office and… Never touched it. As I found out a second book is due to come out in January 2022 (I’ve already pre ordered it too…) I decided it was time to finally dig the book out and give it a read! It’s actually a comic more so than a book, where we follow Sad Ghost and their struggles with their mental health, including social anxiety, worries about education and even going to a party. The comic itself is really sad at times, but at the same time makes you feel less alone. My mental health hasn’t been very good the past couple of months and reading The Sad Ghost Club really did help me feel less lonely.

Image taken from Tenor.

Favourite Game – State of Decay 2.

Recently Dane has really gotten back into State of Decay 2 again and as some of friends have also wanted to play it, I thought I’d jump on and play it too. State of Decay 2 is a zombie game where you need to build up your base, all whilst gathering resources, getting people to come and join your base, as well as killing zombies. It’s a really simple game to play and really nice and chilled to play with friends! I highly recommend it, I really do love it and the zombies don’t come across as too scary either, which is always good! 🙂

Just a few of my favourite things…

Loungefly bags, old and new!

I didn’t quite realise I received two new Loungefly bags in August, as well as decided to finally cut the tags off of one I bought at the start of 2021! The Pikachu wallet chain bag and the Baymax backpack are my new bags, whilst Meeko is one I bought via a Facebook group (and now one of my Instagram friends!) in January.

I was after a new shoulder bag so decided to pick up the Pikachu bag, however the images that Loungefly have out there are so fucking misleading and make the bag look bigger than it actually is. This being said, it’s the perfect bag for quickly going out to run errands as well as nights out. I’ve used it quite a few times throughout August and it’s a really good bag for if you don’t need to carry much, but still do need a bag.

Alongside that I also decided to purchase the Baymax backpack very last minute. The day the Baymax cosplay backpack and wallet went on sale on the Funko Europe website, I just fell in love with it and had to buy it. I didn’t need it, but I have ZERO REGRETS. I used it over the bank holiday and it’s such an adorable bag! I felt so cute using it around town during mine and my best friends mini bar/pub crawl and I honestly cannot wait to start using it more. I regret not getting the matching wallet for it, so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled on trying to get it at a decent price in the future.

Finally my Meeko backpack. This is a bag I was after for MONTHS before I finally snagged it via a Loungefly Facebook group. I also got the matching purse, but this is something I’m yet to use. Little story behind how I “missed out” on this bag. I was told by a Forbidden Planet store when the bag was due to come out that they would take my details and pop a bag to one side for me. They didn’t want any money for the bag to be put down as a pre order just in case they never got the bag in stock. This being said, they assured me they WERE going to get the bag in stock. Alas they never and they didn’t even bother to reach out to me to let me know. It was kind of obvious I wouldn’t be getting it and I was gutted. This being said, I have it now and I do really love it! I used it for the first time whilst out for my best friends 30th birthday and it is so comfortable and cute! It feels soft and isn’t a sturdy bag due to this, but this being said, I really love this aspect of the backpack.

I’m hoping to write a post all about my Loungefly collection in the future. If this is something you’re interested in, please let me know! I’d also love to do a YouTube video showing off my collection too, but I’m so anxious about doing YouTube… :’)

Some of my favourite gel nails.

As many of my readers will know, I do love getting my nails done and it’s actually been a really positive change in my life in regards to my anxiety. Before I started getting my nails done I would cute them so short they would bleed. They’re not incredibly healthy, grow quickly, don’t break and it’s stopped me from cutting them short, as well as chewing them when nervous.

My reason for especially posting my nails this month as this set has been one of my favourites to date. The colour shares its name with my gran and is such a beautiful colour to boot. I’m actually getting my gels redone tomorrow and I’m a little sad as I honestly love this set. They’ve lasted so well and they just make me happy to look at. I don’t have a bloody clue what new set I’m going to get yet. xD

Dog sitting again.

Me and Dane dog sat Eddie again for a couple of days and we loved it. If you read my favourites from July, you will have seen that me and Dane had Eddie at ours for a week and we loved every moment of it! We didn’t have him for as long but it was nice to have him around for cuddles, fuss, playtime and walks were lovely to do with him too. I wanted to share this adorable photo of him that I took during my lunch break. He was having a lovely snooze and I felt so guilty when I had to return back to my desk and wake him up.

Claire Likes To Doodle‘s Bernard takes over Birmingham Cass Art!

First of all I want to say how fucking proud I am of Claire, she has come so far in such a short period of time with her art and it’s just growing more and more as the years go by. Over the bank holiday (Saturday) Claire posted on her Instagram page how she was doing something exciting in the Cass Art in Birmingham city centre. I kept my eye on her Instagram stories and she revealed she was actually drawing one of her Bernard’s on the window of Cass Art! I watched the process of it throughout the morning and as me and my best friend would be in town that day, we made sure to take a diversion over to Cass Art to go and take a look, as well as take some photos!

I wanted to show this off and share with you guys, as well as say if you’re in Birmingham and see Claire’s Bernard in the window of Cass Art, make sure to take a photo, post on your Instagram stories and tag Claire’s Instagram page (linked above under the photo) as I know for a fact she would love that! 😀

There we have it then guys, those are my favourites from August! August was a very strange month for me and I feel like September is going to be a nice month, but a very anxious one too.

What were your favourites from August? Also, what are you looking forward to about September? Make sure to let me know in the comments below.

Until next time guys, I hope you’ve had a great start to September and here’s to spooky season finally beginning! 😛

What I Got For My 29th Birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time all, have a lovely weekend!

A Geeky Collective Haul

I can’t actually remember the last time I wrote a haul post on my blog… A part of me feels like it was May 2016 when I was brought back some stuff from Fuerteventura… *goes to do some research* Okay I tell a lie! The last haul I did was back in October 2016 when I did a haul of what goodies me and Dane picked up from Birmingham’s anime and gaming con (I’ll pop a link here if you want to read that!).

BUT the time has come for yet another haul and a collective one at that! I’ve got stuff in this haul that I’ve picked up for about a month and everything in it is geeky! 😛 I was originally just going to call it a Pokemon haul considering most of the stuff is Pokemon related. But meh I don’t wanna do thaaaaaat! 😛

• Loungefly x Pokemon Tattoo Flash Print Duffle Bag.

This is definitely one of my favourite buys of 2017 so far and it’s a bag I have wanted for quite some time now! Everyone I know knows how much I love Pokemon so to be able to own a grown up handbag makes me happy. That and I also love the products that Loungefly come out with. I own a couple of their items and they’re all amazing. I didn’t buy this brand new from the website however, I’d need to take out a loan. 😛 I got this second hand from an eBay seller in the UK and it’s in great condition for how much I paid for it. It’s pretty much my anniversary present from Dane. I bought my bag and he bought himself something for the computer. So an all around win win situation! 😛 FYI I will be doing a post about this bag properly VERY soon! I’m too excited not to show it off on my blog. 😛

• Nendoroid Gumi.

FYI I was too excited about displaying her to wait a week to take pictures for this post, so I do apologise for all sorts of pictures… 😛 This was another eBay purchase and one I am so damn happy with! I have wanted the Gumi Nendoroid for as long as I can remember, but the problem was being able to find her at a decent price! Due to her being a Vocaloid and her being made and released back in 2013 it makes her rare I suppose and she can be pricey to pick up. Someone had her up on eBay for bidding and I JUST won the bid! She’s second hand but I don’t care. She’s been very much looked after and loved so that doesn’t bother me too much! She’s going to go on display next to Deadpool in our Nendoroid cupboard.

• Pokemon Center Eevee Collection Poke Dolls Vaporeon and Sylveon Pin Badges.

This was a random purchase and one I am SO glad I made now! YY Kawaii was advertising that she had some of the Eevee pin badges for sale and at the time I thought this was the only bit of merch I was going to snag from this amazing collection. Honestly this is the second Eeveelution collection I have bought from now and it is just as good as the last one. ANYWAY! I couldn’t decide on one Eeveelution so I picked two of my favourites, Vaporeon and Sylveon. In my opinion Sylveon looks the cutest out of all 9 for the pin badges! I have contemplated popping these on my Pokemon bag… But we shall see! 😛 I’m not 100% sure if YY Kawaii has anymore of these left to sell, I ordered mine with her over a month ago now sadly. You can always drop her a message and I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to help! If anything I regret not buying all of the Eeveelutions to be honest… But we can still try. 😛

• Pokemon Center Eevee Collection Poke Dolls Flareon Plushie.

This is definitely something I am SO HAPPY TO HAVE! If there was one thing I really wanted from this collection it was a plushie as they’re all so cute. I knew I couldn’t have all of them and my only option was going to be to pick up one. I then had the hard choice of picking just one, JUST ONE! Do you know how hard that can be? Well I ended up picking Flareon as I found it was the cutest one out of the bunch. Then after settling on one I wanted it was time to find someone who was willing to sell it at a decent price. Again YY Kawaii came to my rescue and sold this little cutie to me at a great price! It’s so fluffy and now lives with the rest of my Eeveelution plushies in the living room, it makes  me so happy. A part of me doesn’t want to keep this in the cupboard with all the others, but on the fireplace next to my Vaporeon and Flareon picture and figures… I want it to be safe away from direct sunlight though… 😦

• Tamagotchi 4U.

This is something I’ve wanted for a while after watching a couple of YouTubers I follow talk about them. These are only made in Japan and therefore are only available from there. I got this from a seller in the UK so it’s secondhand. I think it’s only had one or two owners which isn’t a bad thing! It wasn’t exactly cheap for what it is but it cost me less to actually buy this than our up to date Tamagotchi here in the UK! It’s a colour screen and sadly is ALL in Japanese. With a bit of Googling I’ve managed to work out what stuff means on here. The only problem I’m having with it so far is trying to work out how to keep my Tamagotchi alive whilst I’m at work… But that’s what the babysitter is for. Yeah there’s a babysitter in the game. 😛 Sadly when it came to taking pictures of my Tamagotchi it was telling me how the batteries were dead. Fuck sake. 😛 SO I attached a picture I took the day after I got it. 🙂

• Primark Pokemon Pyjamas.

I wanted to get myself some new pyjamas due to the weather getting warmer and I thought why not get some Pokemon ones! I had to pick these up from eBay as 1. I don’t really get near a Primark store these days due to how busy I am and 2. They probably don’t stock these anymore. I didn’t pay much for them and let me tell you, they are hella comfortable! After getting the ones from eBay I ended up buying more when visiting an actual Primark store recently. I ended up buying a Pokemon pyjama top as well as some Pikachu shorts. The first set is from eBay and the second is from where I went into an actual Primark store instead of paying extra and being a busy/lazy bitch. 😛 I decided to go a size up when buying all of these and whilst I don’t consider myself to be a skinny moo, these are HUGE on me, especially the second set I bought. This isn’t a bad thing as it means that I’ll be comfortable, but i’m just saying it as it’s something to be wary of. I also picked up some Pikachu boyfriend boxers too but I don’t need to show them off.

So those are all the geeky goodies I picked up over the past month. I have bought a lot and thus spent a lot of money… *smacks hand* NAUGHTY NAT! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SAVING MONEY! No in all honesty though, a lot of this stuff to me felt like things that if I left them I probably wouldn’t get them again for a while, or at the price I paid. Examples of that being the Loungefly x Pokemon bag, the Tamagotchi (which I have discovered eat batteries like a motherfucker!), Gumi Nendoroid figure and possibly the Pokemon Center goodies too… So practically most of the shit on this haul. xD

For the rest of this month and well, until the holiday in September I’m going to be as good as I can with my cash! It’s now time to stop being daft and spending my money willy nilly and save it towards the holiday, as well as things for the house! Yesterday I bought some flowers for the garden, which is really exciting! I can’t wait for our house to be 100% done so that I can show off my favourite parts of it to you guys!

SO what items have you accumulated recently? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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