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!

March Wish List ’22

It’s well and truly March already and I can’t believe it! 2022 is flying and I’m not ready to be a quarter of the way through the year so soon.

I feel like I said the same last month, but I’m rather excited for March, purely for a new month after how crap the last one was. Don’t get me wrong, February wasn’t as bad as January for being really poorly and skint after Christmas, but with everything that’s happening in the world right now, I think a few of us can agree that February was shite… Especially towards the end.

This being said, we can’t bad mouth the end of February too much and if you’re a Pokemon fan, you’ll know exactly why! We had the Pokemon Presents for the 26th Anniversary and DAMN the ending was amazing and something some of us didn’t see coming. The announcement of Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, generation nine in the franchise was announced, with some sneak peaks of the game as well as the three new starters. The generation nine games will launch later this year, which I’m so excited for! I’ll definitely be booking some time off work to play it like what I did for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield as well as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Anyhoo, let’s get on with this wish list! I’ve really struggled with it this month as at the start of 2022 I said to myself I’d be better with money and so far, it’s going pretty well, which I’m really proud of! I’ve got to a point however where I go to buy things and instead sit and think, “Do I REALLY need this?” and “What could that items cost get me instead/be used towards?” which has really helped. I recommend it for anyone who is trying to save monies. 🙂

• Pokemon Center Eevee Greatest Hits T-Shirt – (link)

Since the UK Pokemon Center opened online, I’ve kept my eyes peeled every other day for what new items they may add to the website (I have grails I’m hoping to get eventually!), and a few weeks ago I noticed this Eevee t-shirt landed on the website. I love the Eevee design, it’s so adorable and the “Quick Attack” text above it just reminds me of whenever I play with Eevee in my team. This isn’t exactly cheap at almost £25, but it’s definitely cute and official Pokemon gear is always great as well. I don’t know if I’ll pick this up anytime soon, but I would love to snag it eventually.

• Ocean In Space/Ocean Club Patreon Club Spirited Away Print – (link)

This is a print I’ve already ordered technically, as I signed up for the Patreon at the end of February. Ocean In Space‘s designs are so beautiful and really are works of art and I adore them all. However, when they announced they would be doing a Spirited Away design with Chihiro, I knew I had to get it! I waited until February payday and made sure to back their Patreon and snag it as soon as I could. I’m honestly so excited for this to arrive already! I already own the Nana print from Patreon at some point last year (which I also wrote about and you can read here) which I adore, I just need to get a frame big enough for it. 😛 I semi regret not backing for the washi tape and stickers now, but meh… I wanted to save money and just get things I’d make use of. I think I’ll look at having this print up in my office by my desk, the same as my plans for the Nana one too.

• Sol de Janeiro Bum Bum Jet Set and Sol de Janeiro Coco Cabana Jet Set – (link) and (link)

If there is one thing I’ve really missed having in my shower the past fortnight, it’s a yummy scented shower gel. My bottle of Snow Fairy finally ran out at the end of February and I’ve been after something nice to replace it since. I thought about getting something else from Lush but their shower gels are shockingly priced for what they are, plus, I didn’t like the look of anything. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Sol de Janeiro and their bum bum cream (especially its scent!), so I thought I’d have a look to see if they do shower gel, which they do! 😀 The scent of this sounds divine, as it’s described as being caramel-pistachio. HOLY SHIT GET IN MY SHOWER! I was too busy trying to be good that I missed out over last weekend when offers were flowing. However, as Mother’s Day is coming up and I know my mom wants to try Sol de Janeiro, I decided to grab a couple of the jet set gift bags for us, one each of the Bum Bum and Coco Cabana, making each set less than £20 with the discount codes I had. I’m so excited for these to arrive and I really hope me and my mom love our goodies. I’ve really been meaning to keep on top of my beauty regime now, my body has been struggling and felt really tight and dry. I’ve been slathering body cream on more than ever this week and my body is already appreciating it. 🙂

I’m going to pop my Look Fantastic referral code here. You’ll get £10 off your order if you use the code, but bear in mind you must spend a minimum of £30. Click the link and the discount will auto apply at checkout. 🙂

• Disney Store Turning Red Mei Plush – (link)

My friend Sacha on Instagram brought my attention to the fact the Disney Store had released Turning Red merchandise, as well as a HUGE Mei plush! I’ve been so excited for Turning Red coming out, that I vowed to buy one or two pieces of merch when it launched in shops. This plush is large and is something I knew I had to add to my collection. My only worry at the time was, “Where is it going to go?!” I’ve had it a few days now (at the time of writing this post I’d just ordered it…) at the point of this post going live and I adore it. I’ve also found it a home, my office chair. When I’m working on stuff at my desk (work and personal), as well a playing games I can have a snuggle of it to relax me. So far, it’s really helped my anxiety and kept me calm. Ironic really considering what Turning Red is all about, eh? 😛

So there we have it, my wish list for March. I know it’s a little bare this month, but I really am trying to be better with my monies. Some of the items in this post have been ordered/arrived but this makes a nice change, as usually I add stuff to my wish lists and either wait months to purchase and sometimes don’t buy at all!

What do you guys have on your wish lists this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time guys, take care and have an amazing weekend!

Pokemon Center UK – We Finally Have One!

Image taken from Pokemon Center UK

UK fans, it’s finally here, the moment we have all been waiting for, a Pokemon Center in the UK! Back in 2019 a Pokemon Center opened in London for a brief period of time to promote Pokemon Sword and Shield coming out. I for one was super excited for it and went with Dane, which you can read all about here.

The hype around that Pokemon Center brought people from all over the UK to queue for hours just to go in and buy limited edition and regular merchandise. I think even people from Europe travelled for it too! Due to the hype around it, a lot of Pokemon fans cried out for an official Pokemon Center to be opened in the UK, or at least an online store.

In November 2020 Canada got an online Pokemon Center and I remember UK and Europe fans being annoyed about the fact. Little did we know, just over a year later the UK would get an online site of our own!

It came very suddenly last week and I was so excited about it. I saw my friend Emily mention it on Instagram and I quickly headed to Google to search for the website. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t order stuff there and then. It took nearly a week for me to create and place an order.

As a massive Pokemon fan, it would have been wrong of me NOT to talk about the Pokemon Center coming to the UK (as well as make a cheeky order…). I know I stated before I wanted to purely have December for Christmas content, but let’s be honest here, the Pokemon Center getting a UK store is kind of like Christmas Day to me and many other Pokemon fans. 😛

This won’t be a terribly long post, as I’ll be mostly sharing my experience of ordering from Pokemon Center UK, sharing what items are on my wish list, as well as sharing items I hope come from the Pokemon Center US website! Grab yourself a hot drink in your best mug (Pokemon preferred… :P) on this chilly day and have a good read!

First of all I have popped the link to the Pokemon Center UK website above at the start of the post, but I’m going to pop it here for you too.

If you’ve ever ventured onto the US website, you’ll see that the UK version is practically the same, so the website is fairly recognisable and easy to navigate around. At the time of writing this post (Thursday evening), the website is currently in beta, so due to this some bugs can be found at times. Some examples of this being you might go onto a page and get a Pikachu telling you the page hasn’t been found. A simple refresh of the page soon fixes this however.

Something I’ve found daily from refreshing the website is they seem to be updating and adding new products daily, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. They do state on the website that they’re trying to add new products often, which is showing and is good!

If you want to place orders items can only be delivered to addresses in the UK and have a flat rate of £5. Expensive yes, but worth it for how quickly items arrive. I’ll go into this a little more later. Overall the website is really good to navigate around so far, which is always good!

As mentioned, the range of products on the website is changing daily with lots of new items being added, for example lots of Pokemon Fit/Sitting Cuties plushies are popping up daily. We’re yet to see some more home items added, but it is early days.

Finally one more thing I want to add is you CAN pay by PayPal! I know for myself and others this is important when shopping online, it’s my go for payment method. Alas, Pokemon Center UK has it which made me really happy!

Oh and apologies in advance, the photos aren’t the best for todays blog post but this is mainly due to being short on time this weekend to take proper photos. I’ll do this another time and do a mini Christmas photoshoot with Dane. 😛

Enough of the “boring” bits about the website, how did my first order go? Well, really good to be honest with you! I decided to stop eyeing up the item I was after and instead just take the plunge to order it, which is the Eevee Holiday Lights Knit Sweater. A perfect sweater for Christmas and not going to lie, all year around if I really want to!

I was unsure what size to order, a lot of people online had said they’d ordered a size up so it could be nice and baggy. The size chart is good and I should have really gone off of that. I wear a lot of Gildan sweaters and usually go for a unisex L which fits perfect with lots of bagginess. Due to the recommendation of sizing up, I went for an XL with my Eevee sweater. I semi regret this.

I placed my order on Tuesday morning and just 48 hours later I received an email from Royal Mail Thursday telling me it would arrive that morning. I was really surprised but happy all the same. I can only assume this is why the shipping is so high, but I won’t complain with that kind of turn around! I wasn’t expecting my sweater to arrive until at least the weekend, maybe even a week later, but since it arrived in good time I started to plan all the days I could wear it in the run up to Christmas Day!

Back to the sizing. Ordering the XL was a bit of a regret as when I tried it on the sizing was HUGE and the sweater fast turned into a jumper/sweater dress. The sleeves are really long, as is the body. This being said, it’s incredibly soft and snuggly and I’m already planning on rocking my Eevee sweater with a nice pair of leggings and my checkerboard Vans trainers.

So, size wise I would order the size you usually would for a sweater or hoodie (Gildan is popular so go by them if you own any of their stuff!), or just measure yourself if you’re unsure.

The quality of the Eevee sweater is really good! Not stupidly thick but thick enough for me that I know it will keep me toasty warm. I think it being oversized makes it feel a bit thicker, if that makes sense? The inside is lovely and soft, the kind of sweater where it feels like you’re wearing a big hug or a marshmallow. I was gutted to take it off to put it into the washing machine to be honest with you! 😛

Can we talk about the print though and how bloody cute it is?! As you can see it’s an Eevee holding some fairy lights, which are wrapped all around it. One thing I didn’t realise/notice from the images on the website is how on the back of the sweater, the fairy lights are trailing along the back too! I love this little detailing so much! The fairy lights themselves and the cable they’re attached to is a sparkly yarn which really stands out when you see the sweater in person, which again is something I didn’t notice when looking at the sweater on the website.

Overall the sweaters colour scheme is typical Christmas with the red, green and white, which I always adore. I especially love the festive patterns along the top and bottom with the Pokeball against them. Everyone knows how much I love Pokemon so this Christmas themed sweater has been a long time coming! I have a Deadpool one too from a few years ago that I’m sure I’ll wear soon, but this Eevee one has definitely stolen my heart!

I could have ordered so much more, but with Christmas looming I thought I’d be good and just get one item. Not going to lie though, the Pokemon Center opening a UK store is seriously going to be the death of me… 😛

However, I wanted to show you guys what’s on my wish list and why, just in case it shows you some stuff you’d like too. 🙂 There’s only a couple of items, but I hope you guys like to see regardless.

Image taken from Pokemon Centre UK

Cinccino Comfy Friends Plush – £30.99 (link)

I’ve had my eyes on this fluffy Cinccino plush since it first released in Japan a couple of months ago. I contemplated ordering one but left it as I wanted to save money. Now it’s available on the UK store, this is more affordable than ever! I was tempted to buy one of these when I ordered my sweater but left it. I don’t actually know what this cutie would go due to how busy my plushie cabinet is! This being said, I’d soon find it a home if I decided to take the plunge and order. 😛

Image taken from Pokemon Centre UK

Gengar Themed French Terry Zip-Up Hoodie – £49.99 (link)

I also have a hoodie on my wish list. The first thing I checked out when the UK website opened was the clothes side of it. I’m always happy to buy new Pokemon garments, especially now they’re easier to come by more than ever. I love my Pokemon Center London hoodie I bought in 2019 and have lived it most of the past 2 years since buying it, especially during lockdown and working from home. I’d love to pick up another one and so far the Gengar themed hoodie is one I like. I honestly can’t see myself buying this, as I would like to see an Eeveelution themed one come up eventually, maybe even Dragonite!

Now I’ve shown you my wish list from the UK store, I want to show you items I’d love to see come from the US store to UK! 😀 I won’t go into too much detail on each, but I’ll pop a collage below! All links next to item names will link to the US website.

Phanpy Sitting Cuties Plush – (link)

Believe it or not, Phanpy is one of my favourite Pokemon from gen 2! I remember seeing the little elephant inspired Pokemon and falling in love with it! I kept one and refused to let it evolve due to that fact! I did look to buy one when I went to Japan in 2020 but when I looked I could never see one, which was a shame. Eventually I’d love to pick one up to add to my plushie shelf.

Sleeping Umbreon Poké Plush – (link)

I regret not ordering one of the sleeping Eeveelution plushies when they came out years ago! They weren’t too badly priced at the time but I didn’t really have the money to splurge and I didn’t think I had room either. Fast forward and I regret not snagging one now… They’re hard to get and when you DO find the Umbreon one, it goes for hundreds! I recently saw one for sale over £200… Ouch! Currently on the UK store they have Jolteon, Flareon and Glaceon for sale and for under £40 too.

Pokémon Center × RockLove: Pikachu & Mew Admiration Pendant Necklace – (link)

If there’s one thing I’ve always wanted, it’s Pokemon jewellery. The RockLove Pokemon pieces are so gorgeous and I’d love so many of them. However, they are just based in the US right now, with the option of shipping to the UK direct from their website. Of course, if RockLove did hit the Pokemon Center UK, I’d snag something pretty for myself and it would definitely be something Mew or Eevee themed.

Furret Poké Plush – (link)

Finally we have a long boi and one I would seriously purchase! This Furret plush is a massive 71 inches long and as the picture shows, he biiig! I know loads of people on Twitter who would love one of these too and have been tweeting Pokemon about it. If they don’t bring these back AND to the UK then they’ll be missing out on some serious orders, if you ask me. 😛 I’d have this guy in the bed to cuddle up to when Dane doesn’t wish to. 😛

So, there we have it guys… It’s official we now have a Pokemon Center in the UK and just before Christmas too! I’m already excited for what other Pokemon goods we have to look forward to seeing on the website in the future.

Have you already placed an order, or hoping to in the future? Let me know in the comments. Also, don’t forget to let me know what you hope to see in the future too!

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