August Favourites ’22

How quickly did August go? Too bloody quickly if you ask me! I can’t believe it’s almost September already, as well as August bank holiday. I’ve started my long weekend doing sweet FA, aside from writing this blog post. 😛

This month was an up and down month, with some positives and negatives, so I am semi looking forward to September for many reasons. For a start, it’s my favourite time of year with autumn starting, but we also have some stuff booked too, which we’re excited for! I’m also hopeful that the month will cool down so I can meet up with some online friends for coffee, shopping and maybe yummy Asian food too!

With that, let’s get into my favourites from August!

Beauty – Fenty Skin Cherry Treat Lip Conditioning Oil.

I can’t tell you guys how long it took me to get this bloody lip oil! I’d heard about it through Instagram and then when watching reviews I was hooked on snagging it myself! I mentioned on my August wish list post how I’d ordered it after it came into stock. Not only was I checking the listing on the Boots website daily for it to come back into stock, but also which stores nearby had it in stock too! On a day out with my dad to Stratford-upon-Avon we popped into a Boots store that stated it was in stock, only for there to be none left, BOO! Finally the lip oil did come back into stock so I ordered one. Since it arrived, I’ve been using is almost daily. It smells like sour cherry sweets, is easy to apply and the conditioning feel lasts for hours! I find it use it at work mostly, as well as when I’m out and about. I’ve definitely become a lip oil fan and plan to try more in the future! ALSO please excuse the dust on the shelf in the photo, it’s cleaning day tomorrow. 😛

Gif taken from Giphy

TV Show – Adventure Time.

Recently I’ve decided I wanted to binge watch Adventure Time again, well, at least the first two seasons as this is how far I got originally. To get the Blu-ray it would have cost me a lot more than I was willing to pay at the time, so instead we decided to get a NOW TV subscription, so now I have until the end of the year/a year to watch all of Adventure Time! I’m currently on season five at the time of writing this post and I’m discovering more about Finn, Jake and the Land of Ooo, which I’m really enjoying! I find myself binge watching it whenever I want something to relax to and watch, including cross stitch, writing for my blog, whilst I work from home, and cooking. If you love animation like I do, and, are yet to watch Adventure Time, please give it a go! My favourite character is Lumpy Space Princess, hence the gif. 😛

Music – Beyoncé “BREAK MY SOUL”.

I heard the new Beyoncé song a couple of weeks ago thanks to Instagram and I’ve really fallen in love with it since! Sometimes it comes on whilst I drove home from work and I can really relate to it some days. 😛 I just really enjoy it as a song, some of the lyrics, but especially the beat. It’s so good! 😀

Book – Lore Olympus.

Lore Olympus is a web comic series I was into back in 2018 when it first came out, but I stopped reading it after a while due to one reason or another. A couple of weekends ago I found out that Lore Olympus had released omnibus comics of the series! I decided to order it last week in order to read over the weekend and so far I’ve really been loving it! I ordered volumes one and two, with three on pre-order. I’ve read volume one so far, and I’m yet to start reading two. I’m hoping to over the bank holiday weekend as the series is addictive! Lore Olympus is a romance comic of a modernised Greek mythology retelling of the relationship between Persephone and Hades. It definitely has some adult themes, but I honestly love it! I’ve linked the web comic, so if you fancy a read definitely go and check it out! 😀

Game – LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

I decided to pick up the latest LEGO Star Wars game as I had a £10 voucher for Amazon and had had my eye on this since it came out in April. Since buying this me and Dane have been playing it on and off since and it’s been something lovely to play together during weekends off, as well as in the evenings after work. My only gripe with it is how buggy it plays sometimes, which on the first day of playing really pissed us off! Thankfully since then we haven’t noticed it as much, which in turn has made it a lot more fun to play! If you play the original LEGO Star Wars games, then you should definitely get this one! It’s better than ever now and it’s so much fun too, as you get to spend blue bricks and money on upgrading your characters, which is something new to me for LEGO games.

Just a few of my favourite things…

OkieDoodleStitches Pokemon Eevee cross stitch is COMPLETED!

Last month I told you all about my latest cross stitch project, which was Eevee by OkieDoodleStitches. Well, last weekend I finally finished it and it looks so damn cute, as I’m sure you’ll agree from the above photo! This took me a couple of months to complete, but it was so worth it! I found myself getting lost whilst working on this, as well as binge watching a variety of shows (Adventure Time, Inventing Anna, and The Dog Rescuers to name a few!), which in turn has been really helpful for my mental health. I’m planning to pop this in a frame at some point to put up in the house at some point. I’ve already started my next cross stitch project, but I won’t be showing that on my blog for quite some time, as it’s a Christmas present. 🙂

Yuena Art haul.

I decided to place a cheeky enamel pin order with Yuena Art recently as I noticed one of the pins I really wanted was looking to sell out soon, and I didn’t want to worry I’d regret not getting it. The pin design I was after was mainly Yui the Kitsune, but I did love the look of Shino and Diana too! These are all either b-grade or seconds pins, but you wouldn’t know it as the quality of them all is really good! I’m yet to give them a home, but I definitely need to sort through my enamel pin collection(s) again!

Image taken from My Figure Collection

Image taken from My Figure Collection

Exciting figure pre-orders!

August was definitely a month of ordering figures, Nendoroid but also Hobby Max figures for the first time too! I wanted to show off a few I’m really excited about. I don’t feel like I talk about figures and our collecting of them enough on my blog, but it’s something I’d like to do more! First of all, I decided to pre-order the Hobby Max Nana Osaki and Komatsu figures. Nana is probably my favourite manga/anime series so I couldn’t really pass up not ordering these, even though they weren’t cheap, but worth it 100% as they’ll make me so happy to display in our house. Second of all I ordered Marin from My Dress Up Darling, an anime and manga series I’ve really fallen in love with this year! I’m so excited for this Nendoroid to be released! She’ll be going somewhere special as me and Dane love the series together!

So there we have it guys, my favourites from August! I still can’t believe it’s September soon, and before we know it, it’ll be Christmas. :O

What were your favourite things about August? Anything you can relate to from my favourites? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, have an amazing rest of your August bank holiday and as always, take care!

Ocean In Space Nana Patreon Exclusive Print – Review

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m so excited for a bank holiday this weekend! I have a fun day planned with one of my best friends over the bank holiday and I’m so READY for it! I’ve officially broken up for the long weekend now and wanted to spend the start of it writing about a brand I purchased a Nana item from recently. Those who know me, or have been around my blog or social media a long time (Twitter/Instagram) will know how much I LOVE Nana.

Ocean In Space is an independent artist/store I’ve known about for quite a while now but she especially came to my attention at the start of July when people were sharing a post on Instagram, which was a Nana print she’d designed. I was in awe of it and KNEW I had to buy! I’ve always wanted a Nana print to pop in a frame and hang in the bedroom/office, but I’ve never managed to find one I liked and was able to ship to the UK… Until now. 😛

I got it through Ocean In Space’s Patreon as it was an exclusive for backers for the month of July. I backed as soon as I could and towards the end of July my print arrived. Since then I’ve been DYING to share it with you guys.

I don’t know what it is… But I feel like through COVID a lot more people have discovered and fallen in love with Nana! I’ve seen it spoken about and plenty of fan art and fan made merchandise being shared and brought out on Instagram. I’m not complaining on bit. Nana was one of the first anime and manga series I watched and read and I’m still heartbroken neither of them are completed.

Get yourselves a hot drink (or an Asahi beer like Nana Osaki :P) now because this post is going to be a good and long one, especially for Nana fans. 😛

Nana is a manga series that ran between 2000-2009 before it went on an indefinite hiatus and is by Ai Yazawa. Yazawa both wrote and illustrated the manga series of Nana, I’m unsure about the anime. The reason for the hiatus is said to be due to Yazawa suffering health problems.

Nana is about two women of the same name (Nana, obviously) who meet whilst stuck on a train that is heading to Tokyo. Nana Komatsu is moving to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend and friends, whereas Nana Osaki is moving to Tokyo to kick start her career as a singer in a punk rock band. The two Nana’s lose each other after departing the train, but are joined together again when they both view the same apartment. As the apartment is meant for more than one person to live in, they decided to share it together and become roommates.

The series goes on to show how their friendship blossoms, as well as their relationships and how they impact each others lives. It’s an amazing series and I recommend it to everyone I talk to about manga and anime. Be warned though, it has heavy adult themes, some which have been discussed in a lot more detail lately. I won’t go into them too much, you can soon Google.

Now I’ve spoken about what Nana is about, I want to talk about Ocean In Space and the beautiful print.

Below is taken from Ocean In Space’s website:

Ocean In Space began in 2015 after I decided to make a t-shirt for myself. After an overwhelming amount of positive feedback online, I decided to start making them for other people as well! Ocean In Space was born from my love for all things bright, colourful, and happy. My #1 goal is to make people feel happy when they see my work. And what’s better when you can wear it!!

As soon as you venture onto Ocean In Space’s website it is incredibly colourful and you even get to see the artist behind the piece(s) you’re buying too, which I really like!

Via Patreon the print cost me £15.50, which included shipping too. I could have paid an extra £4.00 to sign up for the sticker club too, but I have way too many stickers as it is, so I left it… Which I semi regret.

The print came with a special thank you letter, as well as a image of Nana Osaki drawn as a cat (it’s a joke in the series) which I’ll show. It was really lovely to read Ocean In Space’s thoughts about Nana:

I’m super happy NANA won this month because it finally made me bite the bullet and watch the series.

The print itself is stunning and I honestly cannot get enough of how perfect it is. Of course, I’ll be talking about it in more detail. 😛

The print reminds me of the 00’s due to the bright colours and the stickers (they remind me of Lisa Frank too), which I love considering when the manga first came out.

Both Nana’s can be seen in a carefree and fun embrace, almost like a selfie sort of pose in a way. Nana Komatsu is the one with the long red hair, dressed in sweet clothing, whilst Nana Osaki is the one with purple short hair, the punk rocker clothing and of course an Asahi beer in hand! I love all of the details added onto both of the girls, but especially Nana Osaki. She loves Vivienne Westwood and has clothing and jewellery from the fashion designer, including the armour ring (something I’ve always wanted because of Nana).

I have one critique of this print, just one. I would have loved to see Nana Osaki’s lotus flower tattoo on her left arm instead of the tartan armband. This tattoo is (in my opinion anyway) a big part of Nana as it’s actually to symbolise her love of Ren. Nana Osaki argues with Nana Komatsu at some point of how it’s a ren flower, so…

Aside from this, the print is beautiful and I do really love it. You know me guys, I like to be honest here. 🙂

There is even a print of a “rough” sketch of the print as Ocean In Space was working on it, which I think is such a nice touch, especially with stating it was part of the July 2021 Patreon rewards too. You can also watch the process of this print over on Ocean In Space’s Instagram, which I’ll post a link to at the bottom of the post.

Overall I absolutely adore this print and cannot wait to get a frame for it so I can hang it up somewhere in the house. I’m undecided as of yet, but I’m thinking in the office about my desk so I can look at it whenever I need to feel inspired or a pick me up.

As mentioned, I’ll pop the links for Ocean In Space below!

Store

Patreon

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

So there we have it, a review of the Nana print that I bought from Ocean In Space’s Patreon page! What do you guys think of this beautiful print? Are you fans of Nana too and managed to snag one of your own? Will you be checking Nana out after me talking about it? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

Until next time guys, have a lovely evening, as well as an amazing bank holiday!