Loungefly x Pokemon Duffle Bag

I’ve owned my Loungefly Pokemon bag for roughly a month now and I LOVE IT SO MUCH! It really does gain some attention whenever I’m out and about which is always nice. If I ever go out shopping it town or anywhere else

I thought I would show off the bag a little more than what I did on my recent geeky haul post (which you can read here) including inside the bag as well as what is in my bag, as I know people love those kind of posts!

This isn’t really a review, but more of a show off of my new bag really. I just love it so damn much that I can’t NOT share it with you guys!

Over the past 10 years I’ve owned various pieces by Loungefly but of course this is my favourite one to date. My first Loungefly bag was a Skelanimals one which sadly broke and I had to return it to the store I bought it from. It didn’t put me off however and a few years after that I bought a bag with Bambi, Thumper and Flower on. I still own this bag, even though I don’t use it much anymore, if at all! After that the only other two items I bought from them were wallets, both fox ones. Sadly one was stolen when I worked in Costa but I still own my current one.

I wasn’t exactly in need of a new handbag, especially considering that the one I was previously using was a Michael Kors one. Although I love that handbag, I wanted something that reflected my personality and a handbag covered in the Red, Blue and Yellow starters is definitely the way to go!

I know a lot of people are going to ask me where I got it from and for how much. Well, I didn’t get it directly from Loungefly due to them not shipping to the UK. I’m pretty sure places like Hot Topic stock it, BUT I’d decided to go down the eBay route to prevent spending a fortune on customs. It took a while to find one but eventually my bag went up for sale and at first it was £50.00 but the seller put it down to £45.00 which is what set me off to buy it. I haven’t regretted it or looked back! Technically this was an anniversary present from Dane as he bought himself a new part for the computer, which cost around the same price as my bag. Instead of us buying them for each other we just bought them for ourselves instead. 😛

After I bought my bag I noticed that Loungefly were coming out with more designs in the Pokemon series for the duffle bag style (which is what I have). They came out with 3 new designs which are the tropical starter, Pikachu/clouds and Gyarados Magikarp waves. They all retail at $70.00 each, same for my tattoo flash design as well.

When I converted this online (I used XE… This is not a promotional post! xD) it said that $70.00 in pounds is £53.30, which is obviously more than what I paid. That obviously wouldn’t include any import tax that may have been added on top! I can only imagine the person who sold  me the bag paid out nearly £80.00 for this. SHIT.

So now I’ll FINALLY get onto the bag, because I know you’re probably waiting for it. 😛

This is a duffle style bag which you can carry using either the handles on the bag, or the shoulder strap which can be taken on and off the bag as and when you wish to use it. I didn’t like the shoulder strap myself so I carry my bag on the crook of my arm, or just by the handle. It depends on where I am and how I’m feeling. You could JUST hook it around your shoulder but it isn’t comfortable for myself. This being said though the handle loop is huge, which I love!

As I mentioned the shoulder strap is removable. It removes and is attached via a clip, which is the same colour as the hardware on the bag itself. As I don’t opt to using it the loops on each side of the bag are left bare. Soon enough I’ll be adding a keyring I recently bought from Roo from their online store (http://cosmicolor.tictail.com) which is Joker/Akira from Persona 5. I intend to buy more from there in the future, but for now I’ll be attaching him to one of the loops when he arrives. I honestly can’t wait!

The size of the bag itself isn’t too small and it isn’t too big. I did worry that it was going to be smaller than the image on eBay showed but alas it wasn’t. It’s a perfect size for me and I love it! I does feel like a bit of a Mary Poppins bag and I often feel like certain items get lost at the bottom of it.

The print on the outside is amazing! It has that alternative pin up look with the tattoo flash print with the Red, Blue and Yellow starters on it, which of course are Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and everyone’s favourite Pikachu. You also have a Pokeball print too. Everyone compliments me on this bag due to the print and you can tell when you meet a die hard Pokemon fan (like myself) when they go crazy over that alone. 😛

My favourite Pokemon on the bag has to be Bulbasaur. He just looks so happy and I love the blue rose underneath him too. It just looks really good and works well. It’d be a very nice tattoo to actually get done on my thigh… Not that I will. xD

So as you can see the Loungefly/Pokemon logo isn’t on this side of the bag, making it the “back”. WHEN in actual fact this is the front of the bag when I carry it… I hope that  makes sense. 😛

On the “front” of the bag you have a metal badge that has the Loungefly logo on, as well as the Pokemon logo. I love this as it makes it feel more like a designer bag. The reason I used ” for the front description is because the logo doesn’t face at the “front” for me, but actually at the back. I like the zip to be near to me so I swap the bag “front” around. I’ll show in pictures what I mean.

Not only is the print on the outside amazing, but the print inside is also pretty damn nice too. It’s a cream coloured fabric inside with black images of all the starter Pokemon, Pokeball and even a tudor rose. To fill a bit of empty space there is also some little stars and diamonds dotted around.

Inside the bag you get a zip pocket on the one side to keep things in and a phone pocket on the other side. Nothing really too special about the inside of the bag… Other than the awesome print. 😛 The pockets themselves are really deep, which is amazing as it means you can store loads of things inside of them. I always keep my phone in the phone pocket and in the zipped pocket I always keep my beauty related things, such as lipstick, lip balm, face powder, tablets, etc.

Both the zip of the bag itself and the zip for the pouch inside share the same zip. The hardware on the bag itself is like a rusty gold colour. I don’t like gold hardware on bags but this works really well and I love it! The zip has the Loungefly logo on and the zip is big and chunky so it’s easy to grab and use.

This of course is faux leather, although for $70 I would want it to be real! 😛 SOOOO this is a great company for vegans to buy from to be honest.

Overall I LOVE my Pokemon handbag and for years now I have always said how I’ve been after a bag that really does reflect me as a person. I know this sounds really weird, but if I’m going to be carrying around a bag all the time I want people to see me in the bag, as well as myself holding it. Pokemon is something I have been in love with since I was 5 or 6 years old and that love hasn’t died or calmed down.

I’m so damn excited to take this bag on holiday with me. I know it’ll turn quite a few heads.

Loungefly have LOADS of different designs and bags to choose from, not just Pokemon! They have Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, Hello Kitty and more.

The official website doesn’t delivery to the UK, BUT there are a couple of stockists in the UK that you can buy certain Loungefly pieces from. The biggest one and one I’ve always gone to previously is Beadesaurus, a Birmingham based alternative fashion company. I remember when they used to have their own stall in the Oasis Market in town! Now they’re all online and as I said, stock Loungefly. They don’t stock Star Wars, Pokemon or Disney stuff though so you’ll have to probably track certain stuff down online.

EMP also stock Loungefly BUT they don’t state that it is Loungefly. If you’re after Star Wars stuff you’ll have to just search for Star Wars and narrow down what you’re after (e.g. accessories and wallet) same goes for anything else. They stock the Deadpool bag and wallet on there that I used to want. Not SOOOOO much now but I’d totally get the Deadpool bag for nights out! They also stock some Disney stuff, but again you’ll have to go and have a good search.

Amazon are said to stock SOME Loungefly stuff too but whether it’s legit or not, I don’t know. Same for some eBay sellers. When buying off of eBay make sure you can see a picture of the actual product. That’s what I looked for when buying my Pokemon bag.

ANYWAY do you like Loungefly? If so what piece(s) have you got your eye on? Have you ever owned any Loungefly stuff? If so let me know what!

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

Christmas Presents!

Merry Christmas one and all! Even if it is a tad too late to say now… Everyone is saying, “Happy New Year!” at the moment, aren’t they?

ANYWAY! Christmas has come and gone once again, and as you can tell from my absence the past couple of days, I’ve had a really good one this year. I spent the morning over at my boyfriend’s house with his family, which was lovely. We hadn’t done this yet, so it really did make a nice change. Then in the evening we came over to my house, which was super chilled out. Perfect Christmas!

I worked Boxing Day, which sucked but it was a laugh with my colleagues and we all talked about our Christmas Day’s, and what we got for Christmas.

Tonight I’ll be sharing what goodies I received for Christmas! As I’ve stated the past couple of years when writing these sorts of posts, I am in no way bragging, or showing off about what I received for Christmas. I love reading posts like this (because I’m a nosey cow!) so I always imagine people would enjoy reading mine too… Especially anyone who loves foxes, and anime/manga related goodies, as that’s what the majority was which I received.

I also want to apologise for crappy pictures. These were taken late at night, I was shattered after a busy day, and I knew if I didn’t get something taken, I would have nothing to write about now as I’ve literally not had any time.

So, here are my presents!

As you can see I received a lot of gifts, and this isn’t even all of it! Nope, there is more…

As I mentioned in my holiday haul post here my dad bought me this gorgeous Michael Kors Riley handbag! It has been my go to bag ever since the holiday, and I can see it being used pretty much forever now… I love using it for work as it’s so light to carry and it fits the right amount of items in.

One of the best presents I received for Christmas was nightwear. I haven’t received any for quite some time, so when my boyfriends parents bought me this fox slipper socks, and my boyfriend bought me these woodland animal pajamas, I was thrilled! The pajamas he bought me are so damn comfortable as well! I wore them from Christmas Day to this morning, and I wish I could be wearing them now. I love long-sleeved pajama tops!

My boyfriends family were really generous and lovely this year with their presents to me. My boyfriends brother and his girlfriend bought me Lush, and although my boyfriend states that they didn’t know which gift set I was after, they bought me the exact one! I’d eyed this set up only a week ago in Lush, due to it coming with Twilight Shower Gel, which is a limited edition product, and only comes out in the Lush Kitchen. I haven’t used it yet, but I can’t wait to.

My boyfriends parents bought me various little bits and pieces, from the fox slippers mentioned earlier, a cute little candle with squirrels on it, and this beautiful fox pillow. I snuggled it all morning after opening it, and it now sits lovely on my bed… I’m leaning against it right now, and it’s so fluffy and comfortable! They also bought me some Pandora, but I’m saving that until last.

My families gifts were lovely, and to the point. Alongside all these my mom also bought me a navy dressing gown, but I never got a picture of it, sorry. One of the nicest presents she bought me was this gorgeous fox mug! I had told her I wanted it from Avon for a while, and she offered to pick it up for me. Alas she told me it had sold out, and had secretly hidden it for Christmas. She also bought me a cute little fox purse. I’m unsure what I’ll use it for at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll soon find a use for it. The hair towels were a complete surprise, and I was keen on getting some new ones, so these pink ones will do just the job! I love using these towels to dry my long hair, they really do the trick. As my mom did last year, she has done it again and bought me a new face powder, only this time on by Laura Geller. So far since getting it a few days ago I’ve been using it and it’s lovely, I cannot complain.

My brother is great when it comes to presents, he always gets good ones, and usually he’ll get perfume. He never knows what perfume I’m after (because I don’t really talk to him about that sort of thing) but he always seems to get me something that I think, “Ooo that’s nice… Meh too much money…” and it makes me smile. This year he has bought me the latest scent by Marc Jacobs, Decadence. I can’t even describe the scent for this. It’s pretty unique, and reminds me of something that Thierry Mugler would come out with. The bottle for this does astonish me too, with its little handbag design. This came in a gift set with a shower gel, which I used on Boxing Day. I intend to wear this on my birthday.

My boyfriend bought me so much stuff! Like SO much stuff! But in return, I also bought him lots of things. The majority of what he seemed to pick up for me, they were fox themed. He’s never bought me this much fox related stuff before, which surprised me. He bought me a fox umbrella, and a fox car air freshener from a company called The Fox Project, a charity which helps foxes that have been hurt, and need urgent treatment. Along these he also bought me two pairs of fox socks from M&S, as well as a fox mug. Said mug now lives at his house, as I’m always pestering him for tea and coffee.

Alongside fox related items he had a habit for buying me lots of books this year (as I did for him too), and Umaru-Chan related goodies. He bought me two of these later items, one being a t-shirt, the other this adorable little notebook! I’ll be using that for work as a blog writing book. As I already mentioned, he bought me books, four in total. Three being books 10, 11, and 12 from the Nana manga, and one being the Pewdiepie book, This Book Loves You. I intend to go through it on my day off Wednesday.

As well as that he also picked up this cute little polar bear, as something I can snuggle when at his house, a Simon’s Cat calendar for next year, and a little Yankee Candle Christmas Eve votive candle.

He also bought me a special Pandora charm, but I’ll be going into more detail about that shortly.

These were two of the best presents I received from my boyfriend. I knew I was getting the Umaru-Chan Nendoroid, but the Baymax Pop! Vinyl was a complete surprise to me! I had told him I wanted it, but I didn’t know if he would buy him for me or not.

I am a massive fan of Big Hero 6, and Baymax really melted my heart. I can’t even remember how many times I cried when we went to watch Big Hero 6… It was a lot though! I’m not a huge Pop! Vinyl fan, I think the majority of the figures they release and sell look crap with how their paint work has been done. HOWEVER some of them do look amazing, and Baymax is one of these. He’s pearlescent in colour, and is bigger than normal Pop! Vinyl’s, which I actually really like.

As for Umaru-Chan she’s a gorgeous little figure, and one I fast fell in love with. I have spoken on my blog before about how much I love the anime that she originates from, and so when I got into the anime, my boyfriend knew he had to order the figure for me. I want to open her so badly, but she’s just too nice to open her. Instead I shall just gaze at her from afar and one day-dream of opening her.

Finally we have the two Pandora charms I was given this year. One from my boyfriend, and one from his parents. His parents gave me the little puppy charm (on the right) that is wearing a cute little red Father Christmas hat. It is such a little cute charm, and I wish I could have got some better pictures of it, but alas I couldn’t at the time. He’s sitting down, with his tongue sticking out. It’s a real cutie to add to my bracelet.

The charm my boyfriend bought for me is the fox (on the left) and it isn’t actually an official Pandora… But I don’t care about that! Pandora are taking too long to release a fox charm (you watch, they will now!) so when my boyfriend saw this one for sale on The Fox Project he snapped it up. It’s a cute little fox lying on a log, and I imagine trying to have a snooze. I love this charm so much because it really does stand out on the whole bracelet.

So that’s all… Wait… That isn’t ALL my presents? Is it?

My mom bought me a Kitchen Aid for Christmas. You know, like the ones they use on The Great British Bake Off? YES ONE OF THOSE! I was gobsmacked when I opened a massive present to not only see this, but a ceramic bowl, as well as a five piece kitchen/culinary set to use with the mixer as well. For weeks my mom has been lying about this massive box in the living room, saying it was something my brother had ordered… But it never budged. Until I came home for Christmas, and it had moved and was covered in wrapping paper. I am so excited to use it, even though I’m not 100% sure when I will yet. When I do, I’m sure I’ll have some sort of blog post about it.

Now, that IS all I received for Christmas. Although I did receive a wash set from my sister-in-law, and nephews, and I am yet to see what friends have bought me.

But yes, that is all my presents from Christmas ’15! What did you get for Christmas? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below, or even link me to your blog post about it if you’re a blogger.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have a nice rest after Christmas. I would love one, that’s for sure. 😛

Disaster Designs Paper Plane Satchel & Bonus What’s In My Bag

Recently I bought myself a new bag and after a few weeks of using it, I’m finally getting around to showing it off on my blog!

It’s my gorgeous new Disaster Designs bag! It’s the Paper Plane design and it’s been about for ages, since my second or third year of university and that was back in 2009-2011! One of my favourite shops in Birmingham used to sell the whole Paper Plane’s range but as a skint student I just lusted over the expensive bags, never buying one for myself. At the time it was out in the shop in question it cost either £40 or £50, a lot of money for a bag and I couldn’t justify paying that much. To make matters worse a girl in one of my classes at university had this bag and I envied her every class we had together!

As regular readers will have seen, I mentioned this bag in my February Wish List earlier this month and how much I was in need of a new one and when I remembered back to this satchel that I had wanted all those years ago, I went straight to eBay to try and find a good bargain.

There were a couple of these on there but they were either new but too expensive or used and in terrible condition for nearly just as much as the new ones on there. Eventually I stumbled across this bag, brand new and bloody hell did I have to do some bidding to get it! Eventually I won the bid and snapped this beauty up for £30.00, with £4.00 for P&P.

Since test driving this bag over the past 2 weeks, I knew I had to do a post about it, and as well as writing about my new bag, I thought I’d show you what I keep in there too. Think of it as a bonus!

But first of all, about the bag!

This is definitely a different satchel than ones you would normally buy, and that’s what I like about it! I love the Paper Plane theme and it looks so pretty and cute. You can buy all sorts of bags from the Paper Plane collection but this one just grabs my eye that little more than the others, probably because of its letter and plane theme. It just seems frightfully romantic and really does bring out the writer in me.

Not only does the bag look gorgeous with the style of it and design, but the cute little features on it too really do stand out and make it rather unique to anything else you would find out there. The front of the bag has little features such as a bird, which looks to be a swallow, as well as a red and white bow on one of the buckles, a hanging postage stamp shaped piece that says, “travel in style” with a swallow in the middle, and in between the two buckles on the flap of the bag it reads, “Return to sender” which I love the most about this bag.

Even on the back of the bag there is some detail, but only one! In the middle of the back of the bag there is a little white square with a red envelope inside, underneath it says “S.W.A.L.K” and quite frankly I don’t have a clue what it stands for! So, I went to Google and I found out exactly what it means (I found out the meaning on Wikipedia):

S.W.A.L.K. is an acronym usually seen on a love letter of a courting couple. It stands for “sealed with a loving kiss” and is one of several acronyms that seemingly originated during the Second World War. A variant is S.W.A.K., sealed with a kiss.

If I didn’t love my bag before knowing this, then I must be IN love with it now! It’s such a gorgeous think to put on the bag and makes the bag seem even more beautiful than I already thought it was.

I love this bag so much and whilst some websites do still sell it, your best bet might just be to pop onto eBay like I did. I typed in “Disaster Designs paper plane satchel” and you should at least find one bag if not a couple.

So, what’s IN my bag?

Yes it’s time for the bonus part of this post where I show what I’m keeping in my new bag. I took these pictures after a close shift at work, so this is what was in there when I got home. I didn’t add or remove anything either, so I’m not cheating. 🙂

I always make sure to throw a book in my bag if I’m going to work or if I’m meeting a friend as I like something to read before I head into work or if I turn up somewhere early or a friends running late. I’ve recently started reading Simon Pegg’s autobiography called Nerd Do Well. I’m only on chapter 2 and I love it already! It’s such an amazing book and so far with the way he’s planned it out it’s great. I can see me writing a huge post about it once I’ve finished reading it.

Of course I must have my iPhone 5 in here. I actually slipped it into the case I use at home, which is my rubber Game Boy case, but when I’m out and about I use my hand red case as if I were to drop it with my Game Boy case on, it could smash… Which isn’t good!

Another necessity for anyone, whether you have a bag or not are house keys and some money. I love my house keys, they’re multicoloured tartan but it’s my key rings that I like the most. Three of them are Lego related, one being R2D2 from Star Wars (this is my second one of him, as my first was 10 years old and the print faded), whilst my other two are of Frodo Baggins and Bilbo Baggins from Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. Finally I have a glass seahorse that was a recent purchase when my friend Poppy and I visited The Sea Life Center in Birmingham. She bought the same one, so now we have matching key rings, which is somewhat cute.

I love my wallet so much, as I love foxes, but also because it reminds me of my Gran. For my 22nd birthday in 2012 she gave me some birthday money, which I used to buy this wallet and as regular or old readers will know, she passed away nearly a year ago. Not only is it a gorgeous wallet, but it holds so much stuff in there too! It’s by Loungefly and whilst it wasn’t cheap, for the two years I’ve had it, it’s doing me well! I thought about buying the matching purse and bag for this but sadly I can’t find them anywhere to pick up!

As I drive I keep my car key and my car stereo in my bag whenever I’m at home as I drive pretty much everywhere now! I really don’t know how I could travel via the bus, it’s all cars and trains for me now. I love my car and what better way to show it than a couple of cute key rings! I was going to have small key rings on my car key but I knew it would be impossible to find them in my bag and I didn’t want to keep my car key with my house keys… So I opted for a massive plushie key ring for my car key! As well as that when I saw this cute 101 Dalmatian key ring in the Disney Store years ago, I couldn’t leave it behind and bought it to keep on my car key too.

My stereo is pretty standard, I listen to must a lot whilst driving, but I HATE having to make a new CD to listen to every few weeks.

Just some standard things a woman will keep in her handbag… A mirror for when I top up my lipsticks, hand sanitizer, paracetamol, tissues and some hand cream. Nothing special!

Finally we have what I keep in the little zip pocket inside my bag… I know I have a lot of lip balms, but I shall explain why! I bought the Carmex one on a whim that I was loving the original and wanted one to keep in my handbag. As you can see this one is in Strawberry and it’s vile! I can’t wait to use it up, but at the same time it does do a good job when applied over lipstick, but it tastes fowl! I think my favourite lip balm every has to be my Apple Chapstick and I think I’m running low on this too. It’s not the best lip balm in the world though, it just tastes and smells delicious! The best one out of the three is my Palmer’s Cocoa Butter. It’s really creamy and out of them all is the only one that I can actually feel working when I apply it, but at times I think my lips are allergic as they tingle and hurt. Either way I keep three in my bag incase I lose one… Good enough reason, right?

As well as those I keep a little hand cream in here which is the same as the large one in the previous photo as well as a lip product. The one I’ve been using a lot this week is this lip gloss by Collection 2000 called Lock N Hold. I might review this soon but I know one thing I will say, it doesn’t last 6 hours at all! I wear this at work and have to top it up every hour, which doesn’t bother me, but when I’m on a shift for less than 6 hours, it’s concerning. Let me know if you want me to review this!

So with an empty bag, I’ve thrown everything back in and got into bed!

I love my new bag so much and it’s going to be featured a lot on future What I’m Wearing posts, which I want to try and get back up on my blog again.

So, what do you think of my new bag? Love it, hate it, or not arsed? 😛 Let me know in the comments!

If you have any questions about the bag, or anything else mentioned in this post, please feel free to ask in the comments too.

I hope you’ve all had a great week so far and here’s to the weekend!

Until next time, take care all.