Petty Bones Club – I’m A Brand Rep*

I have been so excited about writing this blog post with you guys the past couple of weeks now and it is safe to say that I can now FINALLY talk about it!

As you can see from the title today’s blog post is about Petty Bones Club, who were originally called Ayloulou Apparel and who I’ve spoken about in the past on my blog, which you can read here.

If you follow me on social media you will have seen that recently I announced that I had become a brand rep for Petty Bones Club! AHHHH!!! This is like a bloggers dream come true, well for me anyway.

Not only am I excited and happy to be a brand rep, but I am so happy to be a brand rep for Petty Bones Club, whose designs I have loved for nearly a year.

So on today’s blog post I will be talking about the goodies I was sent in my Petty care package, as well talking about what it means to be a brand rep for them.

First of all I’ll talk about what I was sent.

In my package I was sent three stickers and six pin badges. I feel incredibly spoilt, especially considering some of the badges are ones I’ve had my eye on buying for AGES!

The two badges I’ll talk about are the Pokemon messenger ones. There are four altogether in the collection and I was sent two of them. As you can see I got the Charmander* and Squirtle* pins. I love the designs so much as they’re adorable and show each Pokemon’s personality. I love how each of these pins have certain coloured metals to match the colour scheme of the Pokemon.

As you can see there’s gold for Charmander to match the orange, yellow and red theme and silver for Squirtle to match the blue theme. I also love that the backs for these also match the colour of the Pokemon, it’s those cute little touches that really make it for me. I’ve never seen that before and I love it so much.

I honestly cannot wait to use these pin badges and pop them on my cardigans for work, especially in autumn and winter. I recently bought myself another rainbow cardigan so I’ll definitely be rocking these cuties on it throughout the rest of the year!

Another Pokemon pin I was sent was the Sailor Scout Sylveon* which I’ve actually had my eye on for ages!

The PokeScout badges are a mixture of Pokemon and Sailor Moon, which is such a cute concept! I’ve never been anyone do this to date and it’s such a great and original idea! I know Petty Bones Club have a couple of different PokeScout designs out including Pikachu and Vulpix, as well as a Kickstarter which recently finished. I really want the Eevee PokeScout!

The pin badge itself is just perfect and is a gorgeous gold metal which really suits it. The Sylveon has a little crescent on their forehead too which really gives it a slight touch of Sailor Moon, which I like. As I said I’m not a massive Sailor Moon fan so this is perfect for someone like myself.

This next pin is for sure my favourite out of the bunch of goodies I was sent, for various reasons, which I will bore you with. 😛

It was thanks to the first two Studio Ghibli pins that Petty Bones Club that I not only discovered this brand when they were originally called Ayloulou Apparel, but it’s also what started me collection pin badges!

I just fell in love with the Haku pin badge that Petty Bones Club came out with and I had to have No Face too.

SO when I opened my Petty care package and found the Catbus* pin in there, I was so happy. Since then I’ve worn it a few times and had so many compliments on it!

I love how all the Studio Ghibli pins by Petty Bones Club have glitter on them and the glitter on the light in the Catbus windows works so well! It’s also got the gold metal, which again works really lovely with the colour scheme of Catbus.

This is a pin badge I am really excited to wear alongside my other two Studio Ghibli pins, as well as in the autumn months. I’m going to try and hint here (as well as other parts of social media…) for Petty Bones Club to make a Totoro and Soot Sprites!

The last 2 pins that Petty Bones Club sent me are the same ones and they’re the Machamp x Hercules pins, which are so quirky!

As you can see it’s a mash up of Disney and Pokemon which in turn have created this pin badge, which is pretty cool. But you know what the best bit of these are? I’ll be giving these away very soon so keep eyes peeled! 😀

Finally the other things I was sent in my Petty care package, were some adorable stickers! These are a cross over between Sonic and Mario! They’re all adorable and I especially love Tails as Princess Peach. These are going to be stuck into my 2018 journal.

Although you can’t buy the stickers of these on the store you can buy the pins, which I’ll link here… Sonic X Mario, Knuckles X Luigi and Tails X Princess Peach.

So those are all the lovely goodies I was sent from Petty Bones Club!

Now I just want to briefly write a little thank you to Lauren over at Petty Bones Club for picking me to be one of her brand reps. It is an honour to be perfectly honest with you and I really hope I make her proud!

If you love the look of Petty Bones Club pin badges then make sure to check out their store, which I’ll link below as well as go and visit them over on Instagram.

Petty Bones Club Etsy

Petty Bones Club Instagram

I now have an awesome discount code you can use on their store, which is COFFEE10. Don’t worry if you lose this post on my blog and cannot find the code to use, it will be on the side of my blog from today!

What do you guys think of the Petty Bones Club? Which pin(s) do you like? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below, as well as over on the Petty Bones Club Instagram page!

Until next time though guys, take care and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Ayloulou Apparel Studio Ghibli Enamel Pins

I’ve owned these pins for so bloody long now and it’s only now I’m actually writing about them! I sorted out my office yesterday and dug out so much stuff I had forgotten about or just put to one side for another time, these included. I had bought these in December last year to put on my coats and cardigans at work, but I just never got around to it as I wanted to write about them first. As many people will know, life gets in the way, especially at Christmas time!

SO I am FINALLY writing about these and after wearing the one at work today, I am so damn excited!

Lauren is the amazing designer behind Ayloulou Apparel and is in charge of creating cute and kawaii pieces, inspired by Sailor Moon, Disney, Pokemon, Nintendo and of course Studio Ghibli.

These pins are limited edition, or at least they were at the time so I made sure to pre order both Haku and No Face from Spirited Away. It’s my favourite Studio Ghibli film as well as one of my top 3 films.

When these arrived I was thrilled by what I was met with. I didn’t think the quality wouldn’t be good, but oh my they really did wow me!

They’re an amazing thick enamel and have two pins in the back which thick hard pink plastic pin holders. In the past I’ve collected and worn pins, which have nearly been lost due to dodgy backs. When wearing my No Face pin today at work, I felt like he wasn’t going to come undone and fall off of my cardigan.

Both Haku and No Face are of high quality, with the enamel on No Face being gold and Haku being silver. They also both have glitter on them with No Face having a pink glitter heart and Haku with his green mane being glittery too.

Since then Lauren has since released another Studio Ghibli inspired piece, this being Catbus! I’d love to pick him up next to wear on my yellow raincoat during the rainy spring and summer days to and from work, as well as on my weekends off.

At the time I paid £7.00 each for these pins and that was definitely worth the money! That was a special pre order price, as they’re not £8.00 each. I also received some matching stickers with my pins, which I’ve stuck into my 2018 journal.

You can still pick up No Face from her store here, but Haku doesn’t appear to be available anymore.

Again, I loved wearing my No Face pin today with my burgundy cardigan, but it’s my new Honey Punch rainbow cardigan (which you can read about here) that I cannot wait to pop Haku on and wear throughout the summer months!

If you’re after either of these pins, or maybe even Catbus or any other designs then check out all of Lauren’s links below!

www.ayloulouapparel.co.uk

Etsy Store

Instagram

Facebook

I’m sorry if these seems like such a short post today, but I just wanted to do a quick post to share my love of these pins, as well as Ayloulou Apparel!

Do you love things like this? If so what pins do you own and who by? I’d love to see what pins you own.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you had an amazing weekend!

MCM Comic Con – Birmingham

On Saturday me and Dane went to the Birmingham Comic Con and it was one of my favourite ones to date! Maybe not over Hyper Japan for obvious reasons… 😛

It was pretty much a last minute decision to go after umming and ahhing for a couple of weeks and due to this we weren’t able to grab priority tickets like we did back at the 2014 Comic Con. This being said it turned out well as we booked our parking in advance so we didn’t have to pay after etc etc. We got there an hour early and had to wait what felt like 10 minutes to be let into the convention. Then we had 6 hours of browsing around the stalls, doing some shopping, admiring all the amazing cosplayers and have a good time.

Before I go onto what amazing cosplayers I met and had pictures with throughout the day I want to show off what I wore as I loved it so damn much and got loads of compliments on it!

A few weeks prior to Comic Con I did my weekly eBay search of Black Milk Clothing bargains and came across this Adventure Time dress. These came out YEARS ago and are now museum pieces, meaning they aren’t coming back unless Black Milk decide to release a limited amount. I wanted this dress back when it first came out but due to money and such I didn’t get it. What probably would have cost near to $100 AUS dollars I go for £35. What a bargain! Of course the pattern as you can see is Lumpy Space Princess who I adore!

It’s a skater dress so it flares out a little which I find to be the best style for my figure. The material is lovely and think meaning if it needs to stretch a little the pattern on it won’t get ruined. I teamed it up with a long white t-shirt as I knew it would be too cold outside to wear it without anything underneath. All about the layering in the winter time! I also teamed it with black tights (which I wish had been thicker!), my triumph Dr Martens boots, my new red coat from M&S and a navy choker.

So when we were ready to go we set off to Comic Con!

This was one of my favourite comic cons I’ve attended to date for one reason, all the amazing pictures I managed to get with cosplayers! I’ll be talking about who I saw in the order I saw them!

The first cosplay we spotted was this amazing Totoro from Studio Ghibli My Neighbour Totoro, which is one of mine and Dane’s favourite movies. I never usually have pictures with anyone at conventions as I often feel too shy or they walk off and I never get chance to have a picture at all. However I shoved my way in the best I could and got my picture.

The next cosplayer we saw was another Studio Ghibli related one, which is from my favourite movie, Spirited Away. This person was dressed as No Face and was definitely one of the best cosplayers I saw all day! I’ve never really seen anyone dress as No Face before so I was so excited to see him. Again like Totoro I waited for my turn to have a picture and got it. By this point I was like a little kid, I was so happy!

This next cosplayer felt kind of official due to where you had to stand to have a picture and although there wasn’t an official queue, it did feel like you were queuing to have your picture with him. Of course it’s Deadpool and oh my God he was a legend! Of course it would have been better if it was Ryan Reynolds, but hey it was a guy dressed as Deadpool, a proper costume too not a shitty morphe suit! No offense to anyone who wears/wore a Deadpool morphe suit… 😛

When I went over to him I didn’t expect him to talk, but he did! He say hello, asked if I was okay and even complimented me on my dress and said, “Purple really suits you!” WHAT A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING!

Ahem… Anyway! He got me to put my hand in a backwards C shape to form a heart and thus our picture was taken. I loved how chatty he was and how into the role of Deadpool he was. It was amazing and I hope everyone got the chance to get a picture with him who loves Deadpool just as much as I do. OH and he even has his little unicorn. 😛

This cosplayer was one of the hardest to get a picture with and I’m so glad I did to be honest, even though I did feel like a pain in the arse. I was tired, as was Dane and I couldn’t be arsed to push and shove to get a picture BUT by not doing this a lot of people were being rude and barging their way through. One girl in particular was very rude and as I went over to have my picture she barged past me. I ended up calling her something very nasty (begins with a C…) and walked off. Later on however I saw the Totoro again and this time with the cosplayers family who were dressed as Satsuki and Mei and not only did a somewhat get a picture of them all together, but I finally got my picture with Totoro.

After taking some photographs of me by the big MCM Comic Con sign we were just about ready to go home when we saw the last cosplayers we had pictures with and by far the best ones we had pictures with. Dane had wanted to get a picture with a Stormtrooper (or two) all day and we never got the chance to. So we saw them having pictures with some other people and went over to have ours done too. Dane had his picture taken first which he loves, but then it was my turn and it got funny very fast!

They had proper Stormtrooper armour on that also had voice changers inside so they sounded like the ones from the movies. They told me to get down on my knees as I was being arrested and proper went for it! The officer in black wasn’t there beforehand but when he saw how I was having my picture taken he got into the picture without me knowing… Until I saw the picture anyway! I loved the two pictures that me and Dane got with the Stormtroopers and a part of me wants to pop them in a frame at some point so we can remember what an amazing day we had.

Haul wise we bought each other a couple of Christmas presents, as well as some pictures for the house, but in Dane and Natalee tradition we always get at least one picture drawn of us, which is this one. We both love it so much and it’ll go in a frame and put in the house somewhere.

After a long day we came home cooked some dinner and relaxed. We had a lovely time at Comic Con and it was definitely better than the first one we attended together in 2014. My only negative about it this year was how many fake Nendoroid’s were flying around. One stall in particular annoyed me as it just sold nothing but fake items. You could tell they were fake too… I wanted to say something to some guys buying them but I couldn’t, I didn’t want to worry I would be kicked out for being rude or offensive.

Other than that it was amazing and I can’t wait to either attend Comic Con again or even Hyper Japan next year!

Did you go to an MCM Comic Con event this year? If so let me know which one and which cosplayers you saw and loved! You may have even attended Birmingham like I did! If so what did you do there? Make sure to leave all your comments down below!

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

May ’16 Wish List

Hello May, we’re nearly halfway through the year! Surely you aren’t due yet? Oh, what? You are? Oh right. I’m hoping that May will bring plenty of awesome things, as well as some better weather considering there has been some snow!

I am going to try to continue with a spending ban, only buying things I actually need, and every two months I’ll treat myself to some Jeffree Star liquid lipsticks. Woop woop!

There are more clothes on here than I imagined there would be, and there would be even more if I had included the Star Wars clothing Hot Topic have just come out with! I’ll save that for another day.

• L’Occitane Almond Velvet Hands SPF15 – £18.00 (link)

I mentioned a few days ago on my April favourites how I love L’Occitane’s hand creams, and when I found out they were bringing a new version out of the Almond one, I was even more excited. This one is a little different as it includes SPF15, and it’s said to leave your hands looking smooth, and basically not old. 😛 My hands look haggard lately due to my eczema flaring up, so I imagine this hand cream would help them look a little more youthful. I would love it for the summer. Plus who can say no to the lovely light pink tube!?

• M&S Denim Playsuit – was £ 39.50 now £19.75 (link)

I wouldn’t really describe this as a playsuit, more of a pair of short dungarees… I love them! I’ve seen them when popping through my local M&S and they do look really good quality. They’re currently in their sale, which is how I discovered that their price had gone down. I think I might try to pick these up soon as I would wear them to death in the summer. I’d team them up with a geeky t-shirt, tights, and my Jake Dr Martens. I’d look proper geeky and everything! 😛

• Fujifilm Instax Share Printer – £129.00 (link)

I have a cool and funky DIY idea in mind which I want to do soon, and I need this awesome printer to do it with! I want to make a photo frame where there is string inside, with pegs attached onto it, and on the pegs I would attach pictures of me and Dane, but Polaroid  ones of course! This isn’t cheap, but considering you can print any pictures you want, it’s pretty nifty. I don’t know when I’ll get this, as it’s pretty expensive. But nonetheless I would love it at some point in the future.

• PuppyCat Wallet – £34.99 (link)

I love Bee and PuppyCat, both the show, as well as the comic book! So when I found this wallet on Amazon a couple of months ago I instantly fell in love with it. I don’t need a new wallet, and to be honest I don’t wish to replace mine anytime soon but this one is just too cute not have in the future. I’ll be keeping my eye on it as a treat, or a gift idea. I like when people buy me wallets… I don’t know why.

• MAC Cosmetics Versicolour Stain in shade Resilient Rose – £20.00 (link)

I have been pretty excited for these coming out since they were announced, and when I recently popped to my local MAC counter I decided to swatch a couple of the shades, including this one. I loved the other shades I checked out, but this cherry red won me over! I won’t be buying this anytime soon due to how expensive this is, but fingers crossed in the future that I can pick it up as a treat. I’d apply it over a lip liner or on its own. This isn’t as long-lasting as a liquid lipstick, but the stain it left behind on the back of my hand didn’t wash off properly for a few days, which was a good sign for me!

• Hot Topic Studio Ghibli Spirited Away No-Face Girls Sweater – was $44.50 now $33.37 (link)

I have been in love with this jumper for a long time, since seeing someone on my Instagram wearing it! I nearly ordered it at the start of my holiday last month when I felt like crap, but left it due to wanting to save money. I love Spirited Away, it’s definitely my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, so what better than a jumper with No Face on, eh? I’ll definitely buy this in the future, and team it up with leggings, and my Jake Dr Martens to really geek it up.

• Pokemon TCG Mythical Pokemon Collection: Mew – £29.94 (link)

I used to play the Pokemon trading card game when I was growing up, and I loved it! I soon stopped mind the older I got. Over the past couple of years I’ve wanted to take it back up again and play with people, but alas as of yet I haven’t… Although now that Pokemon have brought out the mythical collection’s, I want to start the old hobby up more than ever! These aren’t cheap though, and considering there’s 12 to come out in total this year… I could be pretty poor if I do take the plunge and get them. Oh woe.

• Killstar Bad Habits Dress – £34.99 (link)

I’ve always lusted after clothing by Killstar. They’re very gothic looking, and beautiful, so right up my street pretty much! I have a dress similar to this that I’ve owned since I was 20 but that’s starting to see its last days now, and I’d love an upgrade! I’ll be keeping my eye on it in the future for a naughty purchase.

• BB-8 Droid by Sphero – £129.99 (link)

I’ve wanted this adorable BB-8 since it was announced before Christmas, but alas I don’t own it yet. I can get this £100 brand new which is awesome, but even so if I was to buy this for myself, it would be a very expensive and luxurious gift to myself. I know Dane wants this too, so at some point soon we could buy it and split it. Maybe as a treat to ourselves in June for our third anniversary together? We shall see!

Those are some of the items I am lusting after for May. I am pretty sure I have missed things, but as I cannot think of them right now they’ll have to be missing until June now, which I’m sure will be here before I know it!

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

Until next time all, take care and I hope everyone is having a great week.