Quirkory Souls Of Nature Collection

I am SPOILING you guys! Less than a month ago I wrote on my blog about Quirkory and their previous Patreon collection, Baukery. Now, I’m coming to you with their Souls of Nature collection, which released last year through a Kickstarter campaign.

I’ve been so excited to share the goodies I backed through this campaign, but they have taken a while to arrive with me due to some issues Quirkory faced. I don’t know if this upset anyone at the time, but personally I wasn’t fussed, I knew I would get my goods from Quirkory eventually and in all honesty, they were worth the wait!

Quirkory’s Souls of Nature collection had been in the works for quite some time, with original sketches being drawn up in late 2019! The collection itself is huge, alone with a whopping forty four different enamel pin design combinations!

The collection included twelve enamel pin designs:

Twelve designs – Kitsune (fox), okami (wolf), tanuki (raccoon dog), kuma (bear), shika (deer), usagi (rabbit), uma (horse), habi (snake), tara (tiger), tatsu (dragon), neko (cat) and, inu (dog).

There was also four colour types to choose from, Hanami special edition, light, dark, and vaper wave.

Alongside the extensive variety of enamel pin designs and colours, there was also more rewards to choose, A5 sticker sheets, two different sets of mini pins, wooden and frosted charms, pop sockets, washi tapes, A5 art prints, enamel pin display banner, and deskmats.

I opted for two enamel pins, as well as a deskmat. Alongside the goodies I backed for, Quirkory also sent me some pop sockets, as well as wooden charms!

So first of all I will talk about the goods I backed.

Inu (dog) light variant enamel pin.

I have to say, this is my favourite design out of he twelve, mainly due to how playful and cute the design is, but I love dogs, alongside foxes, sea otters and raccoons, they’re my favourite animal. The inu design is adorable in itself, with the inu’s design in a running pose. I opted for the light variant for the inu design too as I felt it worked really well with the white body, blue accents and the red bell collar. I wish I’d backed for some of the other colour variants of this enamel pin so I could pop one on a backpack, or jacket. 😛

Tanuki (raccoon dog) dark variant enamel pin.

Definitely my second favourite design from the collection, and one I knew from the start I wanted to get in the dark variant! As tanuki are grey/dark grey, it made sense to go for a darker colour. I did like the look of the one variant which would have given the tanuki black and pink accents, but as purple is my favourite colour, the dark variant was a no brainer!

Hanami pattern deskmat.

This was probably the item I was most excited for! At the time of backing this deskmat I hadn’t long bought my Eeveelutions deskmat from Japan, so in my excitement I did also back for the Hanami pattern deskmat too. This thing is HUGE, it’s too big for my desk, as you’ll be able to tell on the photos above. It features all of the animal designs, which I think is adorable! It really is bringing a smile to my face whenever I’m working from home, or sitting at my desk. It’s going to be my new flat lay image too, which makes a nice change from the Eeveelution one.

I’ll also share with you guys the items that Quirkory sent me as little freebies! I was not expecting any extra goodies thrown in, so as always, a massive thank you for Quirkory for these!

Inu (dog) and Tanuki (raccoon dog) pop sockets.

Who doesn’t love a good pop socket, eh? I lived for mine during 2018 and then 2020. These days I don’t use one, but as and when I change my phone, I would like to get a case where I could use one! The two designs Quirkory sent me are adorable, especially the inu, which I can’t stop staring at whilst writing this post! They seem really sturdy and good quality! If I don’t manage to use them as pop sockets for my phone, I may end up using them as little hooks for my plushie cabinet… We’ll see. 😛

Inu (dog) and Tanuki (raccoon dog) wooden charms.

These were a massive surprise to see and to be honest, I’m so grateful for Quirkory sending me these, as I do love charms, especially cute ones! Again, they sent me the inu and tanuki versions, with the inu being a light variant, and the tanuki being a dark variant. The tanuki I received a while before my Souls of Nature goodies arrived, so that’s been hanging with a tanuki windchime I bought in Japan in 2020. I do plan on potentially popping the inu charm on my car or house keys… because why not! I’d possibly take the tassel off however as I’d worry about it getting ruined.

A5 sticker sheets.

Finally I received not one, not two, but five sticker sheets, with all twelve designs, as well as the four colour variants, and the special colour variant too! I definitely plan on sticking these places soon, which I’m really excited for!

Overall, I really love the Souls of Nature collection! I remember Quirkory giving their Patreon subscribers a sneak peak years ago and I was extremely excited for the kitsune design! I honestly hope they bring these designs to their store in the near future, as they deserve to be and not just a Kickstarter exclusive collection. 🙂

Some of the designs I’d love to own as enamel pins in the future are the kitsune, okami, shika, and tatsu. They’re such gorgeous designs and I do semi regret not getting them previously.

I’m going to add all of Quirkory’s social media pages and especially their store below:

Store

Store (Etsy)

Instagram

Patreon

Facebook

Twitter

What do you guys like the most about this collection? I do love everything if I’m honest! It was such a gorgeous collection from Quirkory and since then they’ve brought out some more adorable collections, including Delicows and Baukery.

Which design(s) did you like? What colour variants would you put with them? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments!

Until next time, I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend guys and take care!

Quirkory Patreon Baukery Pin Club Continued!

Earlier this year in February I told you guys I would be back at some point to show off some more of the Baukery enamel pin designs from the Quirkory pin club. Finally after seven months I’m bringing that post to you all today!

As regular readers (and followers of my Instagram) may know, not only are Quirkory my favourite enamel pin creators, but they’re also my friends, AND I’m their brand ambassador too! So, whenever it comes down to writing for Quirkory it’s always a pleasure to do and a blog post I really look forward to writing. Due to this I have been so excited to show off the rest of the designs from the Baukery collection, which was a Patreon exclusive. Maybe Quirkory will release these in their store in the future as limited edition items? Who knows, but even so I couldn’t resist showing these cuties off!

Since June 2022 Quirkory have moved away from their Baukery collection to other enamel pin collections  and Patreon tiers such as Pocketto Club (fan art), Pun Pals Club (animals and puns), and DELICOWS Club (cows and food). From what Quirkory has stated previously, the Baukery pins look to be coming back in the future, and by the sounds of through a Kickstarter! So, if you do love the adorable food and puppy enamel pins, make sure to keep eyes peeled for this in the (hopefully) near future!

So, for this weeks blog post I wanted to show you all the rest of the Baukery enamel pins, four in total running between February to May 2022.

As I said previously, talking about Quirkory and showing off their cute designs really makes me smile and it especially makes my day when I see new designs come from them. Their Patreon is amazing for showcasing any new and upcoming designs and for as little as £2.50 a month you’ll get access to all this and more! This price does not include their pin club. I’ll go into more detail of how much the pin club costs later on in the post.

At the start of October 2021, the Baukery officially opened! The name of the pin club comes from merging the Italian word “bau”, which means “woof” together with the English word “bakery”. Quirkory felt the perfect blend between the two languages represented them perfectly and hence, Baukery was born!

As you may have already gathered just by the name of the pin club, Baukery is all about adorable dogs from around the world bringing us their countries best and most knowable baked goods! I love dogs, (which I don’t think comes as a surprise to many) and as an avid lover of savoury foods, baked goods is something I adore, so, mixing the two together really did appeal to me when Quirkory first told me about their idea back in 2021!

The overall presentation of the Baukery rewards when they arrive on your doorstep is amazing and as always, Quirkory have really paid attention to every detail, which I always find to be unique to them.

The packaging for the enamel pins is adorable as it came in a white/brown jiffy bag for that month with a thank you sticker with the dog of that month on it. I loved these so much I cut out February to April to keep! Sadly I didn’t receive one for May, which made me a little sad. 😦

Alongside your enamel pin you also received a special sticker with the relevant dogs paw pad which also states which month it is. Unfortunately I’ve either misplaced the 7th month, or I wasn’t sent one.

Each pin comes in a little brown packet that resembles what you may get in a bakery when buying goods. Quirkory even went to the lengths of adding some nutritional facts about each enamel pin, as I’ve shown above. They’re all unique to each dog breed too, so it’s not like a generic sticker that has been added. Each brown packet is sealed with a ribbon sticker that has the Baukery logo on too.

The backing card is like a little book (if you will!) for the enamel pins and each one is the same with a bakery theme. One side you have the café door and the Baukery logo/sign and on the other side you had some seating outside of he Baukery café window. The café is decorated in wisteria flowers, which just give it such a gorgeous look and touch!

Then when you open up the backing card you are presented with your enamel pin of the month, as well as a “Puppy & Treat ID Card”, which Quirkory have partially filled in. I love how the “Puppy name”, “Adoption date” and “Owner Name & Signature” fields are blank for you to fill in.

The part of the backing card the enamel pin sits on is adorable too. When you remove the pin you get to see what the whole design looks like, which is a serving area in the bakery/café. I love that the dog of the month sits on the serving board.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Quirkory and their attention to detail is 100% and I’m here for it!!!

Finally, it’s time to show off all of the enamel pins with you!

February 2022 – Canada – Labrador and sugar cinnamon beaver tail.

If there is something I learnt from this enamel pin design it’s that Labradors are a Canadian dog breed! I always thought they originated from America! I mentioned previously in February that the baked good in the Labradors mouth reminded me of melon pan (Japanese sweet bun) and how this confused me as it’s actually a sugar cinnamon beaver tail! It’s basically fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar that is said to resemble a beaver, which Canada are known for! I’d never heard of one until Quirkory announced their February pin, so I definitely learnt something new through the Baukery pin club! I love the little detail on the Labradors cheek of the blush, it’s so cute!

March 2022 – Golden Retriever and Cornish pasty.

Out of all seven designs from the Baukery collection, the Golden Retriever design is my favourite! This is another breed I didn’t know was from the UK, I even turned to Dane to ask him and he didn’t know either. I don’t know why, but when I see Golden Retrievers, I think of Canada or America, but I think this is due to the breed being so popular on the other side of the pond. Of course the UK pupper has to be holding a Cornish pasty, it would be rude not to. My reason for this enamel pin design being my favourite out of the bunch is purely for how bloody cute the Golden Retriever looks with its fluffy fur and flappy long ears! I can just imagine a real Golden Retriever running along the beach after stealing a tourists Cornish pasty! Back in February I was so excited for this enamel pin to arrive and since it has, I can’t stop looking at it. 🙂

April 2022 – Siberian Husky and strawberry bun/vatrushka.

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I always wanted to own a Husky, but since then I’ve gone off of the idea. Huskies are an adorable breed, but they’re definitely not one for me! They’re known for shedding, as well as being very vocal, two no no’s for me. 😛 This being said, I’m happy to finally own a Siberian Husky in enamel pin form, especially when it’s as cute as Quirkory’s design is! As the Husky originates from Russia, this little cutie is holding a vatrushka, a pastry in the shape of a ring with quark in the middle, as well as fruit. Quirkory went for strawberry for their Husky, which I love! The red and pink colours of the strawberries work so well with the black and white of the Husky!

May 2022 – Shiba Inu and strawberry matcha roll.

Finally for the last Baukery design in the series (for now!) we have the Shiba Inu, a dog breed I would love to own at some point in the future! As a massive lover of Japan and their culture, the Shiba is also a huge part of that and I won’t lie when I say Shiba merchandise is everywhere there, even Shiba cafes! We went to one when we first travelled to Japan in 2020 and it was such a relaxing experience. Due to this, I was really excited for my Shiba enamel pin to arrive! The little Shiba baby is holding a strawberry matcha roll, not really a bakery item I knew existed previously! Since finding out it was a thing, I really want to try or make one! I love how the Shiba is winking, as well as one of it’s back feet showing it’s toe beans! This is such an adorable design, I can’t get enough of it!

So there we have it! All the Quirkory Baukery designs to date. I really hope Quirkory bring the Kickstarter they mentioned to life, as I would honestly love to own all of the Baukery designs. As I’ve mentioned before, I love dogs and I’m all for pastries and baked goods, so the two together are just perfect to me.

I’m still hoping in the future for designs such as an Australian Cattle Dog holding fairy bread, a Japanese Spitz holding a Taiyaki fish treat, and especially a Miniature Schnauzer holding Lebkuchen for a cute Christmas theme!

Overall I just want to say how much I love Baukery, as well as how proud I am of Quirkory for setting themselves this Patreon pin club goal almost a year ago and really fulfilling it by bringing adorable dogs and baked goods themed pins into our lives and more! Looking at their enamel pin designs daily in my home really does bring a smile to my face and I’m excited for what 2022 brings for them. I’m planning on creating an enamel pin hoop or flag that looks like a park with a café to add all my pins to!

As always I’ll pop Quirkory’s stores and their social media handles below.

Store

Store (Etsy)

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Patreon

If you’re interested in Quirkory’s Patreon make sure to click on the link about so you can go and check it out! They offer

Eight tiers to choose from:

Tasty Pastry ʕ๑•ᴥ•๑ʔ.:*☆ – £2.50 per month

– ̗̀ Stationery Frens club ̖́- ʕ❀^㉨^❀ʔ – £12 per month

Gacha Club ̖́- ʕ „•̪ o •̪ „ʔ – £12.50 per month

– ̗̀ Pocketto Club ̖́- ₍ᐢ๑● Ⱉ ●๑ᐢ₎ – £13.50 per month

– ̗̀ Pun Pals club ̖́- ₍=^･꒳･^=₎ฅ – £15 per month

– ̗̀ DELICOWS club ̖́- ૮₍⍝• ɷ • ⍝₎ა❀° – £15 per month

ᴍɪɴɪ DELUXE Club ʕ„´ ꒳ `„ ʔ❀°。 – £28.50 per month

DELUXE Club ૮ฅ „´ ꒳ `„აฅ ♡ ʕ„´ ꒳ `„ ʔ – £36 per month

Which Baukery design is your favourite? Which dog breeds and baked treats do you hope to see from around the world as well? Make sure to leave plenty of answers and love for me and Quirkory down below!

Also if you would like to save 10% off of Quirkory’s store then make sure to use the code TMBQUIRKORY!

Until next time guys, take care and I hope you’ve had an amazing weekend!

June Favourites ’22

I can’t believe we are already on day three of July! June really did fly by due to how much fun me and Dane were clearly having with our week off, Manchester, seeing friends and other stuff. But, at the same time it sort of dragged towards the end of June. I remember mid June having a phone call with my dad and saying, “It’s July next week!” and it was due to me thinking about payday… Oh dear! July wasn’t due for another two weeks at that point.

Speaking of payday, I was SKINT after Manchester in June and I’m already “skint” this month too. I made some big purchases I probably shouldn’t have, as well as recouping all the monies I’ve put on bills and such as well. Due to that, after my payday treats this month, I’m going to be really good with money from now on, especially as me and Dane are hoping to make a big purchase for our home in the near future…

That aside I’m not sure how I’m feeling about July yet. At the time of writing this post I’m miserable as fuck in general. A lot of crap news has come up in the news, as well as personal so right now I’m just going with it. I don’t really have a lot planned for July, aside from meeting up with friends I’ve not seen for years due to Covid, as well as lots of D&D game nights! I’m hopeful my mood will lift as the month goes on however, I don’t want a sad one. :’)

Anyhoo, enough of my woes, on with the favourites!

Beauty – The Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt.

Back in 2018 The Body Shop brought out their banana range and I fell in love with it! They brought out a shower gel, body butter and body yogurt and I bought all three of them of course. I managed to get through a lot of them, but I still have some of the products left brand new, including the body butter and body yogurt. As regular readers will know, I started to use body lotion as my skin was honestly screaming out for it and I feel so much better for it since. It’s come to the time where I need to start using the body yogurt as my stash is growing quite low. I’m sad to because I know I won’t be able to pick it up again anytime soon, but at the same time, it means I can get some new goodies in. Hey, maybe I’ll find another banana body lotion soon? The Body Shop body yogurts are amazing, especially during the warmer months as they’re thin, cooling and still very moisturising. Plus, a little bit of this stuff goes a long way! As strawberry is my favourite scent from The Body Shop, I’m planning to pick up the strawberry one in the near future!

Movie – Everything Everywhere All at Once.

First things first, this film is amazing and it isn’t what I was expecting at all. The trailer didn’t really do the film justice for me, but at the same time that wasn’t a bad thing either. I knew this was a film Dane wanted to watch and I was happy to give it a go, because why not. The film is about Evelyn, owner of a laundromat with her husband. Her father lives with them and their daughter appears to have moved out. Evelyn has a lot going on, along with accepting her daughters sexuality and girlfriend, her father needing her care, as well as her business being in trouble money wise. Everything Everywhere All at Once is broken up into chapters, like a play, and whilst the film is a little bat shit crazy, it’s done really, really well! I highly recommend checking this out, no matter what genre of movies you prefer, it’s amazing and I get the hype of it being titled film of the year.

Image taken from Giphy

TV Show – The Boys Season Three.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I love The Boys. It’s a hilarious show with a unique concept, with the show being created off of a comic book series. We’re not on series three of The Boys and it’s getting darker and more intense with each episode. I don’t want to say too much as I may end up spoiling it for some but lets just say there some hilarious adult humour, some fucked up deaths and stuff I didn’t expect Butcher to do. It’s also now been given the green light for a fourth season, which in turn makes me really happy! The original comic book series is by Garth Ennis who also wrote the comic book series Preacher, another TV Show both me and Dane loved. Both are on Amazon Prime Video, so make sure to go and check them out if you haven’t already!

Music – PVRIS – Use Me.

This is an album I’ve found myself listening to a lot towards the end of June and I honestly can’t stop. I’ve been listening to it when working from home, driving to work, and even in the office when I need to get my earphones in and head down to concentrate. I love all of the songs PVRIS work on and release and whilst Use Me isn’t my favourite album (All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell is my favourite) but it’s a close second to be honest with you. I keep meaning to book tickets to see PVRIS in January 2023, but I feel like each payday, the right time isn’t appearing. 😦

Game – Sniper Elite 5.

This is a game me and Dane randomly started playing together after he started to play it on his own. It’s on Xbox Games Pass, so was “free” for us both to pick up and play together. Sniper Elite 5 is set during World War II and your goal is to try and defeat the Nazi’s taking over parts of Europe. It was such a fun game to play with Dane and the more levels we got through, the better we got! We’ve completed the game now, but we’re planning on buying the DLC very soon so we can play some more of the game together. It didn’t take us long to complete the game, I’d like to say a week but that being said, it was a lot of fun! I’ve been asking Dane if he can find something similar for us to play next.

Just a few of my favourite things…

Image from greetings.nerds

For my other favourites this month, I wanted to talk about some small businesses I feel deserve to get some new shoppers, or at least some new followers on their social media pages. I read the above post on Instagram by greetings.nerds earlier this week and wanted to take a moment to share some people who I feel deserve to be mentioned. With the changes to the world from Covid and now the current conflict happening in Eastern Europe, the changes are affecting some people drastically, where others just slightly. Small businesses all over are being affected sales wise, and with social media platforms making it harder than ever to reach new customers, they could do with as much support and help as possible. Which is what I have strived to do since 2019 on my blog, and Instagram page. Even if you can’t afford to make a purchase from any of the mentioned small businesses today, please drop them a follow on their social media accounts. They’re all down to Earth, amazing and friendly people. They’re also my friends and I wouldn’t be friends with them if they weren’t any of the points mentioned. 🙂

Happy Place Cosmetics

Store, Instagram, TikTok.

Cruelty free and SLS free handmade cosmetics, based in Scotland. I’ve been a massive fan of Happy Place Cosmetics since before 2020, but it was only during Covid and lockdowns that I finally bit the bullet and placed my first order! Since then I won’t got anywhere else for my body scrubs AND I’ve become such good friends with the owner too. HPC don’t constantly have stock in, but instead release themed beauty and wax melts boxes for us to buy, with themes including 90’s, horror, pop culture and more! Alongside that HPC will of course release certain stock every now and then. I like the way they release their goods, because it means I can really treat myself to goods! I recently had some new wax melts arrived, with some smelling of Lush Tramp shower gel, an old favourite of mine and the owners! I burnt one yesterday and it smells AMAZING and to boot the scent lasted ages in our office, even after my tea light had gone out. She also included some Calpol scented wax tarts too, which I’m so excited to burn.

Claire Likes To Doodle

Website, Shop, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

Claire is one of my oldest friends and for years I encouraged her to turn her art from a hobbie to a job, which she did a couple of years ago! I’m so proud of where she has come, her work is unique and beautiful and every time she posts something new on Instagram, it really does make me smile. Recently alongside selling art, she’s started to play with clay to create pieces of her original character Bernard. In the near future I am hoping to commission her for a piece myself… 😛 Please make sure to go and check her out and maybe even give her some support over on Ko-fi and maybe buy some goodies from her too!

Quirkory

Shop, Pin Club, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Quirkory are by far my favourite enamel pin creators. Their work always makes me happy to see and really does brighten my day. I discovered them in 2019 and since then I’ve been supporting their work, as well as befriending them over the years. Currently I’m loving what Quirkory are doing with their Patreon/pin club and Discord communities, their new designs and ideas for the future are kawaii AF and I cannot wait to see more in the future! Plus don’t forget I have a discount code for Quirkory where you can save 10% on purchases with code TMBQUIRKORY.

Worlds Apart, Birmingham

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Worlds Apart is the oldest comic book shop in England and for that fact alone I’m proud to call them my local and favourite comic book shop! I can’t speak for Worlds Apart or other comic book shops but with places like Amazon selling comics and manga online, as well as bigger businesses such as Waterstones too, smaller comic book shops can struggle at times to get custom, especially during Covid! One thing that Worlds Apart did during Covid was open up orders through their Discord, as well as through Instagram, which I used often during lockdowns to get hold of merchandise and manga. I’m a part of the Worlds Apart Discord, which is full of amazing people! I highly recommend if you’re from Birmingham to support Worlds Apart if you can, even if it’s just promoting them online.

So, there we have it guys, my favourites from June! June did really fly by and I’m just wary the rest of the year is going to follow suit, which I don’t want. I mean, I’d love for cooler months to come by so I can start layering my clothes and feeling cosy!

What did you guys love throughout June, and what are you looking forward to in July? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have a lovely weekend and great start to July.

February Favourites ’22

I know February is a short month anyway, but 2022 is flying past and I don’t know how I feel about that. I’m glad, because I want spring to come for light nights and slightly warmer days/better weather, but at the same time, I don’t want time to go too quickly as before we know it, we’ll be back at Christmas all over again!

I was recently speaking to someone about the idea of going to Japan again in 2023 and was met with, “Wait, you only went last year?” I went to Japan two years ago… Proof that as you get older, the years fly by quicker!

Alongside that, since turning 32 in January, February has been a month of me going, “Jeez I’m really getting old now, aren’t I?” and that’s kind of made me feel weird. It’s crazy how quick time flies after you turn a certain age (want to say 21). I do sometimes wish I’d spent more time enjoying my twenties, but that being said I don’t have any regrets.

ANYWAY today’s post isn’t about that stuff and is of course my monthly favourites! February was a strange one as whilst I definitely have things to share with you all, I don’t feel like I have a lot of general stuff to share?

As always, I hope you enjoy reading about things I loved throughout February.

Favourite Beauty Product – SBC Cotton Sensitive Body Wash.

I’ve been so excited to share this body wash with you all today as since receiving it around the start of February, it’s really improved my skin, which in turn makes me happy! My mom is the person who got me into SBC and their skin care, especially their body washes which seem to live in our bathroom for at least half of the year! This SBC body wash smells just like fresh washing and leaves my skin feeling baby soft, which is something I don’t achieve often! I’m shite for looking after my skin with body lotions and potions, not going to lie! A couple of pumps of this on my new silicone shower sponge and I’m guaranteed to be left a cotton scented lather and soft skin after I get out of the shower. This body wash is dermatologically tested which is great for me and my eczema, which recently flared up on my legs. This body wash did really help with it though, with no discomfort or stinging during use. I highly recommend this if you want something fancy in your shower, but have sensitive skin like me.

Favourite TV Show – The Legend of Vox Machina.

The Legend of Vox Machina is a new animated series on Amazon Prime that Dane has been looking forward to since March 2019 when the Kickstarter launched, which he backed. So, when the show finally launched in February, he was all over it for us to watch, which of course I was down for. Vox Machina is based off of the first Critical Role campaign/series, which if you didn’t know is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign written by Matt Mercer and played by a group of voice actors (Marisha Ray, Sam Reigel, Travis Willingham, Liam O’Brien, Laura Baily, Taliesin Jaffe and Ashley Johnson). It’s really popular and has recently gone into it’s third campaign/series! Dane is all caught up on the campaigns and loves Critical Role, I’m not an avid watcher of their campaigns but if Dane has it on, I will watch it on and off. Although the show is based off of D&D (and the Critical Role campaign) Vox Machina can be enjoyed by anyone, even if you’ve never watched the campaign it’s based off like me, or even if you aren’t a fan of D&D! It’s got some amazing adult comedy, bit of singing, lots of fighting and action and all around amazing show!

Favourite Music – Spiritbox – Eternal Blue.

Spiritbox are a band that Dane introduced me to a while ago now and for some reason I thought I’d mentioned them on my blog previously, which doesn’t seem to be the case! The song that caused me to really get into this band is the one I’ve added above called, “Secret Garden”, which is such a nice, mellow rock song to enjoy. I’ve especially been listening to their first album Eternal Blue when I’ve gone into the office to work, as well as when driving to and from places. Eternal Blue came out towards the end of 2021, so it’s a fairly new album, which I didn’t realise until I was writing this post. The band themselves are described as metal (progressive, alternative, etc) so if you like this genre of rock, make sure to check them out!

Image taken from Nintendo Life/Nintendo.

Favourite Game – Pokemon: Legends Arceus.

How could I not mention Legends Arceus this month? It came out at the end of January and every other weekend me and Dane have stayed in the house the whole time playing it. During the weekends where we’ve played it, we’ve snuggled up on the sofa under blankets and with hot drinks as we play this together! I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t 100% sure about the game when I first started playing it and felt a bit nervous of all sorts of aspects, mainly because it wasn’t the same as I was used to, due to the RPG gameplay. However, the more I’ve played it, the more I’ve started to relax and enjoy it, especially with Dane. I’m yet to finish the games story and in all honesty it’s not one I’ve been hooked on/about. In typical Japanese RPG fashion, the talking goes on and on and whilst I’m happy with it in Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal, it’s something I don’t like for Pokemon. Due to this, I’ve mostly skimmed the story, which in itself is a shame. This being said I really do enjoy and love the game, bugs aside too! I’ve recommend it to so many people, it’s definitely one to play as a Pokemon fan, especially if you love RPG.

Just a few of my favourite things…

Pokemon Center Vulpix Plush.

I was so happy to get my hands on this Pokemon plushie at the end of January. It’s been on my plushie grail list for as long as I can remember and after January payday, I decided to finally order one! This cost me less than £20 with shipping from Japan and I’m so glad I finally decided to get it! It’s from the Chiku Chiku Sewing collection from 2015 and I didn’t realise when buying it that it was new with tags, which is even better. I had some people online query if it was a fake plush, which was a tad annoying, but alas it’s very much real.

Image taken from Black Milk Clothing. Unfortunately I don’t have any decent pictures of me wearing this yet… 😦

Black Milk Clothing Ghost Foxes Bishop Longline Dress.

This is a dress I decided to get to replace the Ghost Foxes Mini Strappy Dress, (which I have since sold) I bought back in July 2021. Although I’d removed the tags and washed it, I’ve never actually worn it and seeing the bishop dress style come out, I knew I had to get it. I LOVE the bishop style and already own three dresses in this cut, this one making it four. I’m planning to wear this dress for both work as well as in general. With it being white, it may be more the latter and especially for days out where I’m not eating or drinking anything that could stain and ruin this dress considering it’s white. I also picked up the longline so that it’s longer on me. The normal bishop cuts are okay on me, but if I can have a dress longer, I’ll always go for it! The length of this is amazing, it felt a little bit too long at first to me as I’m not quite used to it, but it’ll be perfect for work especially! The print is beautiful too with the ghost foxes on it. Foxes are my favourite animal, so I’m always a sucker for pieces with them on.

Cute outfits/clothes.

This is something I’m going to talk about in more detail in a couple of weeks on a post but I swear, getting myself some new staple pieces has been a big thing for me in 2022 so far. I don’t know what it is but I decided this year that I would love to do more with my style and change it up a bit. I’ve spent a lot of the past two years wearing the same baggy joggers, t-shirts and hoodies due to Covid and I want to change that. I want to dress up for the sake of it and feel cute whilst doing so, plus I think it would really do my mental health some good. I feel like a lot of pastel and cute prints have come into my wardrobe and I’m so excited to wear them all for work, as well as in general. If you want to see some of the stuff I picked up during February, make sure to keep eyes peeled for that post in a few weeks! For the time being, I’ve popped some of the items I’ll be talking about soon above, including Tallulah’s Threads, Disturbia and The Sad Ghost Club.

New enamel pins.

I ordered a couple of new enamel pins recently which was nice! I don’t know why but I feel like enamel pin purchasing has definitely slowed down a little, which is always good as quite frankly, I’m running out of space!

The sausage dog pin from MossFrogPress has been on my favourites list on Etsy for as long as I can remember. I made some monies from selling some pins at the end of 2021 so I decided to use the money I made to pick up this pin. As it was coming from America, the shipping was more expensive than the item itself, so this wasn’t a cheap pin in that aspect. Definitely worth it now! It’s such a cute pin I get to look at everyday when I get ready.

I finally decided to back FoxLeap’s enamel pin club on Patreon at the end of January so I could snag the Patreon exclusive Lady puppy pin that Sophie had made. Not only did I get my Lady pin (as this was a freebie), I also got a The Cat Returns pin too (which I chose), some prints and even a freebie Alolan Ninetales pin and mini pin! Sophie is one of the kindest and most generous people I know and definitely an enamel pin artist you should check out. Her Patreon is all about you picking what you would like that month, from a list of choices. No one else (as far as I’m aware…) offers this type of pin club.

Finally this is an enamel pin from Depop that I snagged second hand. This enamel pin is by Sugarbones, a Canadian artist I adore! I love her Studio Ghibli and Animal Crossing designs, but she decided in 2021 that she would move away from fan themed pieces, so whenever I see one I missed out on previously, I’m going to try and snag! Haku is my favourite Studio Ghibli character, so any gorgeous pins I see with him on, I have to buy! 😀

Kawaii AF Kickstarter campaigns!

Finally I’m here to share some adorable Kickstarter campaigns I’ve joined or at least had my eye on joining. They’re all so cute! I told myself in 2022 I wouldn’t back as many Kickstarter campaigns to try and save money, but some are just too adorable not to.

Image taken from Kickstarter.

Toast the Raccoon Cute Plushie Toys + Keychains – link (ends April 8th 2022).

This campaign is adorable and straight away as soon as it launched I backed it! It’s by Yencat and is based off of her popular and original character Toast, who as you can see is a raccoon. I LOVE raccoons, they’re my spirit animal due to their love of food and being chubby, I can relate to both of those. 😛 Yencat decided to create a plushie Toast, as well as an enamel pin and plushie keychain. I’ve backed for all of them and already counting down the days until it arrives! The Kickstarter ends in April, so if you like the look of this campaign, you have plenty of time to check it out and back it yourself.

Image taken from Kickstarter.

Delicows ~ enamel pins & more – link (ends March 19th 2022).

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this briefly on my post about Quirkory and their Patreon pin club (you can read all about it here) but if I didn’t, I’m mentioning it again as earlier this week Quirkory released a new Kickstarter campaign, all about cows! Delicows is a mixture between delicious (food and drinks) and cows. Hence, Delicow! There are loads of different types of designs to choose from and I’ve backed for five of the designs in question, Cowpuccino (ideally one with Shugarlump), Moocha Latte, Cowreo, Peppermint Moocha Latte and maybe Darcowness. It feels like there’s a design for everyone in this collection and considering there are 24 plus designs to unlock there’s plenty of choice for everyone!

Images taken from Kickstarter.

Cute Animal Knitted Sweaters and Enamel Pins – link (ends March 3rd 2022).

This is a Kickstarter campaign by Dogzsquadarts I really like the look of at the moment and one I’m tempted to back before it ends in a couple of days! I am trying to be better with my money in 2022 and so far, it’s been going really well! I’ve already bought a shit ton of clothes and I don’t know if I want to buy anymore due to this fact. This being said, two of the pieces from this campaign are adorable and I do feel like I’d love at least one of them in my wardrobe! There’s the Shiba Inu sweater, as well as the Golden Retriever cardigan that I would love to get, but… I don’t know if I can justify it? I’m going to see how I feel about it, they’d both be adorable to get but unfortunately they aren’t pieces I could wear to work, otherwise that would probably spur me on more.

So there we have it guys, my favourites from February! What did you guys love throughout February? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

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

Quirkory Patreon Baukery Pin Club

I feel like I’ve not spoken about Quirkory on here for quite some time and that in itself makes me sad (last post being in April 2021!), so this post has been long overdue!

As regular readers (and followers of my Instagram) may know, not only are Quirkory my favourite enamel pin creators, but they’re also my friends, AND I’m their brand ambassador too! So, whenever it comes down to writing for Quirkory it’s always a pleasure to do and a blog post I really look forward to writing.

This time I want to share with you Quirkory’s Patreon pin club called Baukery. I wanted to wait for the first couple of months (November, December and January) enamel pin rewards to arrive so I had more than one pin to talk about and show off, but I am planning to talk about February and March’s enamel pins too! SPOLIER, one is so bloody cute and UK related… 😛

I really hope you enjoy reading this post today just as much as I enjoyed writing it. Honestly, talking about Quirkory and showing off their cute designs really makes me smile and it especially makes my day when I see new designs come from them. Their Patreon is amazing for showcasing any new and upcoming designs and for as little as £2.50 a month you’ll get access to all this and more! This price does not include their pin club. I’ll go into more detail of how much the pin club costs later on in the post.

At the start of October 2021, the Baukery officially opened! I know opening up their own pin club is something that Quirkory has wanted to do for the longest time, so to FINALLY be able to launch it was a dream come true for them… And for me because Quirkory and cute designs are my jam… 😛

The name of the pin club comes from merging the Italian word “bau”, which means “woof” together with the English word “bakery”. Quirkory felt the perfect blend between the two languages represented them perfectly and hence, Baukery was born!

As you may have already gathered just by the name of the pin club, Baukery is all about adorable dogs from around the world bringing us their countries best and most knowable baked goods! I love dogs, (which I don’t think comes as a surprise to many) and as an avid lover of savoury foods, baked goods is something I adore, so, mixing the two together really did appeal to me when Quirkory first told me about their idea back in 2021!

The overall presentation of the Baukery rewards when they arrive on your doorstep is amazing and as always, Quirkory have really paid attention to every detail, which I always find to be unique to them.

The packaging for the enamel pins is adorable as it comes in a white jiffy bag for that month with a thank you sticker with the dog of that month on it. I loved these so much I cut out November to keep and will do so with December and January too!

Alongside your enamel pin you will also get a special sticker with the relevant dogs paw pad which also states which month it is. E.g. November is the first month, December is the second month and January is the third month.

Each pin comes in a little brown packet that resembles what you may get in a bakery when buying goods. Quirkory even went to the lengths of adding some nutritional facts about each enamel pin, as I’ve shown about. They’re all unique to each dog breed too, so it’s not like a generic sticker that has been added. Each brown packet is sealed with a ribbon sticker that has the Baukery logo on.

The backing card is like a little book (if you will!) for the enamel pins and each one is the same with a bakery theme. One side you have the café door and the Baukery logo/sign and on the other side you had some seating outside of he Baukery café window. The café is decorated in wisteria flowers, which just give it such a gorgeous look and touch!

Then when you open up the backing card you are presented with your enamel pin of the month, as well as a “Puppy & Treat ID Card”, which Quirkory have partially filled in. I love how the “Puppy name”, “Adoption date” and “Owner Name & Signature” fields are blank for you to fill in.

The part of the backing card the enamel pin sits on is adorable too. When you remove the pin you get to see what the whole design looks like, which is a serving area in the bakery/café. I love that the dog of the month sits on the serving board.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Quirkory and their attention to detail is 100% and I’m here for it!!!

Finally, it’s time to show off all of the enamel pins with you! I’ll include my images of the pins of course, but I’ll also include the mock up from Quirkory.

November 2021 – Croatia – Dalmatian and povitica.

The first enamel pin that was announced for Baukery is this adorable Dalmatian pin and it was such a good one to open up with as well! The design is (as always) really cute and recognisable as Quirkory, in my opinion. The Dalmatian is holding povitica, which I’d seen, but never knew the name of until now! Povitica is a sweet bread similar to babka and is made from a butter pastry dough which is rolled into thin layers and covered with brown sugar, spices and walnuts. It sounds amazing! I think the main design on the Dalmatian pin that I love the most is the little heart shaped black spot on its nose. So cute!!! I always love the little details like this that Quirkory put into their designs.

December 2021 – Germany – German Shephard and pretzel.

Now, German Shepherds always remind me of one of my friends (as she used to own them when we were younger) and my boyfriend, as he always wanted one. Unfortunately we won’t ever be able to own a German Shepherd due to how much they shed and the fact I’m allergic to pet hair. This enamel pin will make up for that for sure, I mean, look how bloody cute it is, with its pretzel treat at the ready too. I do love this enamel pin design for the reasons I stated previously, as well as the fact I always love getting pretzels from German markets at Christmas and Lidl when I go shopping. Me and Dane once made pretzels together too, which was so much fun! Pretzels are just so yummy and I think Quirkory definitely went for the right baked food when picking one for Germany!

January 2022 – France – French Bulldog and baguette.

The French Bulldog design is so adorable with the way it’s sitting, as it’s clearly sitting on its back legs in a puppy like stance. My friends dog sits like this and it looks so cute and derpy! PLUS there are paw pads on show! AHH! How can you not include a baguette for a French breed, eh? it’s just something France are known for food wise, alongside their other amazing pastries… and fries. 😛 This little cutie reminds me of Emma’s French Bulldog, Frank!

So, those are the pins I currently own, but I will share the designs for the other designs that have been announced and are yet to be released.

February 2022 – Canada – Labrador and sugar cinnamon beaver tail.

This design really confused me at first and from showing it off to you guys, I don’t know if you feel the same? As mentioned this is a Labrador for Canada, which I didn’t realise was a Canadian breed at all, but what confused me more is what baked good it’s carrying in its mouth. It reminded me of melon pan (Japanese sweet bun) but of course it wasn’t that at all. I had a read of the description of the pin on Patreon and it’s a sugar cinnamon beaver tail! It’s basically fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar that is said to resemble a beaver, which Canada are known for! I’d never heard of one until Quirkory announced their February pin, so I definitely learnt something new through the Baukery pin club! 😀

March 2022 – Golden Retriever and Cornish pasty.

Finally we have the most recent enamel pin design announcement and one for the UK, the Golden Retriever! I didn’t know that this breed was from the UK… Shame on me! I even turned to Dane to ask him and he didn’t know either. I don’t know why, but when I see Golden Retrievers, I think of Canada or America, but I think this is due to the breed being so popular on the other side of the pond. Of course the UK pupper has to be holding a Cornish pasty, it would be rude not to. This is probably my favourite enamel pin design to come out of Baukery so far, purely for how bloody cute the Golden Retriever looks with its fluffy fur and flappy long ears! I can just imagine a real Golden Retriever running along the beach after stealing a tourists Cornish pasty! I’m so excited for this one to arrive, that’s for sure!

So, those are all of the designs that Quirkory has shown off to us on Patreon so far! I’m really excited to see what’s to come in the future. I’m hoping we get a Shiba Inu holding a Taiyaki fish treat for Japan as well as an Australian Cattle Dog with an Australian treat… I don’t know of any off the top of my head. xD

Overall I just want to say how proud I am of Quirkory for setting themselves this Patreon pin club goal and really fulfilling it by bringing adorable dogs and baked goods themed pins into our lives! Looking at their enamel pin designs daily in my home really does bring a smile to my face and I’m excited for what 2022 brings for them.

I know that Quirkory will be bringing out their fandom pin club in the near future, so make sure to keep eyes peeled for that! Alongside this Quirkory will be launching a new Kickstarter campaign, more updates on their Patreon, as well as some apparel too, so make sure to go and follow their social media handles below to keep your eyes peeled.

Store

Store (Etsy)

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

If you’d like to see more from them behind the scenes you can also join their Patreon, I’ll pop all the details below, including the Baukery pin club details too with prices! If you want anymore information in regards, make sure to click on the Patreon link below!

Patreon

Three tiers to choose from:

Tasty Pastry ʕ๑•ᴥ•๑ʔ.:*☆ – £2.50 per month +VAT

Baukery PIN CLUB (WORLDWIDE) ૮ฅ・ﻌ・აฅ – £12.50 per month +VAT

Baukery Pin Club (WORLDWIDE) [TRACKED] ૮ฅ・ﻌ・აฅ – £20.00 per month +VAT

Which Baukery design is your favourite so far? What dog breeds and baked treats do you hope to see from around the world as well? Make sure to leave plenty of answers and love for me and Quirkory down below!

One final thing to add here is that Quirkory have announced their “Delicows ~ enamel pins & more” Kickstarter will launch on Monday 21st February! You can follow the project here, so you can be notified as soon as it goes live!

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

May Favourites ‘21

I honestly can’t believe it’s going to be June in just a few days time… It’s really crazy how quickly 2021 is flying by and I don’t know how I feel about it. 😛

The start of June is going to be hella busy with me, with both mine and Dane’s eight year anniversary, as well as our five year anniversary in our home too! Alongside that my best friend is getting married, which is really exciting! I honestly can’t wait for it.

Aside from that I’m not 100% sure what else June is going to bring… Hopefully some better weather to be honest! I’m always a spring and autumn girl for the cooler weather, but it would be nice to have some decent weather so both me and Dane can go into the garden to do it up, have a BBQ and more. Plus, I have some pretty dresses that need to be worn and right now it’s too miserable and cold to do that. 😛

June is also the month that I need to go on a serious spending ban as I’ve spent quite a lot of money lately and yeah… I bought myself some cool accessories for my desk, as well as LOADS of Pokemon Nendoroid figures too! I would share some of these later on in this post but I’m contemplating having a post for it because… Why not! 😀 My new desk accessories are too kawaii not to share on their own.

Hint – they’re Razer x Sanrio themed… 😉

May I finally add how gutted I am that I won’t be seeing My Chemical Romance in June… It’s been postponed until May 2022 now… I’m happy to wait but, I am gutted. 😦

Anyhoo on a lighter note – let’s get on with this months favourites!

Beauty.

• SBC Propolis Shampoo – (link).

This is a shampoo I started using a good couple of weeks ago now and I LOVE it! It’s one my mom gave to me as she bought one too many and as we’re both fans of SBC, she thought I’d love it. Well, she wasn’t wrong. 😛 This shampoo smells like honey, both in the bottle, whilst using and after drying your hair too. It lathers up really nice and a little bit goes a long way, which is always good for my hair considering how much there is of it. It leaves my hair feeling soft to the touch, thick and without any frizz. It’s honestly been a bit of a gamechanger to my hair care and after it’s finished, I think I’ll buy it again! It’s actually a shampoo for scalp care and personally I have found my scalp isn’t as dry as it has been in the past, which is always good!

So… Now it’s time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month! If there isn’t anything I’ve done I’m not going to mention.

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite TV Shows – Taskmaster and Line of Duty.

This month instead of a movie AND a TV show, I’ll be talking about two TV shows, as quite frankly me and Dane have been addicted to both of these in May and I know we’ll be obsessed about them in June too! We’ve been binge watching both of these TV shows recently and have fallen in love with them! Not going to lie, Line of Duty hasn’t been continued recently as we’ve been binge watching Taskmaster.

Line of Duty finished it’s sixth series recently and I decided that I wanted to watch the show from the beginning. I know loads of people who watch and love it and as I had nothing to watch I thought, why not? Dane started watching it with me too and we’ve both become hooked on the show. We’re currently on series four and DAMN so much has happened leading up to the episode and series we’re currently on. The show is about AC 12, a group of anti-corruption police with Steve, Kate and their boss Superintendent Hastings being the main characters. We follow them as they investigate “bent coppers” and sit on the edge of our seats as they do so. The show is amazing and I’ve been recommending everyone I know to watch it. As I said, we do need to continue watching it. You can watch for free on BBC iPlayer.

As I mentioned before, we’ve also been binge watching Taskmaster. I remember being told years ago when it first started to watch it and how funny it was. At the time it didn’t appeal to me and I thought it sounded crap, oh how wrong I was. We’re currently on series five of the show and hoping to get through the rest of the series before my free two week All 4+ subscription runs out. 😛 It’s such a good show to put on whilst we’re chilling out together, especially whilst eating dinner, doing work in the office, in the morning before work, etc. I highly recommend Taskmaster if you want something new to watch and want a laugh at the same time. A funny story to share, we went for a food shop over the weekend and we both occasionally commented on items used in challenges and how we would use them and such. Such geeks, right? 😛

Favourite Music – Tremonti – “Take You with Me” and Boston Manor – “Liquid”.

These two songs have popped up on my YouTube Music playlist this month and you know when you hear a song again and you forgot just how much you loved it? Yep, that. 😛 I have quite a few Tremonti and Boston Manor songs on my playlist and I often love hearing them come on and have a good sing, especially if they come on whilst I’m driving. I don’t really know what to say about these, aside from check them out and see what you think! Tremonti are heavy metal and Boston Manor are rock.

Image taken from Nintendo UK

Favourite Game – Miitopia.

Miitopia is a game that came out back in 2017 on the 3DS and it’s one both me and Dane owned and played to death! Now we play our Switch’s, we don’t touch our 2DS handhelds anymore, so when Nintendo announced that Miitopia would be coming out on the Switch I decided to order a copy for both me and Dane so we could play it all over again! The Switch version has some additional features, including better customisation for characters, as well as being able to have a horse in your party, which is pretty cool. I’ve been playing it none stop the past week as it’s such an easy and laid back game to play. To describe the game – a bad guy turns up and starts stealing people’s faces. You need to travel the land, fighting the creatures who have people’s faces. It’s a laid back and fun game and it’s one I thoroughly enjoy. There is a demo of this you can get from the Nintendo eShop but I highly recommend if you’re in the UK and want to purchase a copy, get it from Gamersheek! They have the best prices around. 🙂

Quite a few of my favourite things…

Animal Crossing and friends!

If there is one thing I have loved doing in May, it’s travelling to my friends islands on Animal Crossing to have island tours, meeting their villagers and exchange goodies! I especially love that my friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) has finally got her own island to decorate and make her own. I went on a long tour recently and we took so many cute pictures, including the one above! This photo with her favourite villager Lily is PERFECT and I just had to show it off to you guys! If you love Animal Crossing content then make sure to go and check out my friend Sarah, she has an Animal Crossing Instagram account – acnh_kireishima.

Cross stitch.

If there is one thing I recently rediscovered it’s cross stitch. My mom got me into it from a young age and on and off over the years it’s a hobby I’ve done. I feel though since COVID I’ve done more cross stitching more than ever, especially the past month. I’d finished my Cookie cross stitch kit last month and had decided to buy some more in April/May, these being Lucky and Bones. Bones is almost finished and as soon as he’s finished, I’ll be working on Lucky. Then when Lucky is finished I’ll be ordering Cherry, Goldie and Shep. These Animal Crossing cross stitch kits are from DIY Crossing, who creates and makes some AMAZING Animal Crossing goods. Make sure to go and check them out if you’re interested. 🙂

Commissions.

If there is one thing I like getting, it’s commissions. Not only do you support a small artist/business owner but you’re getting something unique and hella cute out of it! I commissioned quite a lot of of people in May and I have ZERO REGRETS!

First commission – Claire Likes To Doodle. Claire recently opened up for people to commission her to draw her original character design Bernard to be cosplaying/dressed up as whatever you want! I decided to go for a Bernard dressed as an Eevee and holding a sign advertising my Twitch channel! It’s so cute and adorable. I have it on my Twitch, as well as on the right hand side of my blog, which you may have already seen as you read this post. 😛 I’ve spoken about Claire and her amazing store on my blog in the past which you can read here and here.

Second commission – mellencrossing. I’d noticed Mel’s work around Instagram and fell in love. The style of her work was so cute and the variety was even cuter! Mel does various styles including full body and a plushie villager, full body and two plushie villagers and two full bodies which is what I went for! The turn around was super quick and Mel was really easy to work with. I told her I wanted me and Cookie playing Switch’s together and for Cookie to be wearing the dreamy sweater. I also sent a photo of me wearing my Bee and Puppycat dress. Mel sent me the commission once it was finished and asked if I wanted to make any changes. I altered Cookie’s mouth from the usual smile to a massive smile. I love the commission so much and plan to print it off to pop above my desk. I’m planning on getting another one or two commissions from her in the future, but instead full body of me with two plushies instead. The one thing I want to mention is how fair Mel’s prices are for how amazing her work is. 🙂

Third commission – lunaquete. Finally I’ll be talking about Leony and her ADORABLE Animal Crossing designs. Leony is quite well known in the Animal Crossing community for her Pantone x Animal Crossing artwork and it’s also how I discovered her. I decided to commission her to draw me a Twitter header with my blog name on, as well as some of my favourite villagers including, Lucky, Marshal, Cookie, Eunice and Bones. It’s such a pretty commission and like Mel’s commission, I’m planning on printing this off to pop on the wall above my desk! I highly recommend checking out Leony’s work if you love Animal Crossing. If/when I hit affiliate on Twitch, I’m contemplating commissioning her to draw me some emoticons. 🙂

Cookie amigurumi.

I HAVE BEEN SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS CUTIE!!! Back at the start of 2021 I discovered cotswoldscrochet through Instagram and when I found out she was going to open her commission slots for amigurumi, I was ON IT as soon as I could! As Cookie is my favourite villager, I decided to get a huge Cookie amigurumi made to display with my Pokemon plushies. Harriet was amazing when it came down to making Cookie, she asked me loads of questions of what I wanted and how I wanted her to be, showed me the colour of the wool before starting her and more. Harriet faced a few issues when it came to creating Cookie’s head as this was her first dog villager and more. I was happy to wait though for Harriet to work on Cookie a little more to get her perfect for me. Harriet was amazing and finally a couple of weeks ago Cookie arrived and she’s now comfortably at home with my Pokemon plushies. 🙂 I’ll be writing a HUGE review about cotswoldscrochet in June, so make sure to keep eyes peeled for that! Harriet’s commissions are closed but you can check out her Etsy store.

Homemade enamel pin hoops.

I need to add here in case anyone asks – NONE OF THE PINS ON MY ENAMEL HOOPS ARE FOR SALE. IF YOU ASK YOUR COMMENT WILL BE DELETED.

I decided in May that I was going to make my own enamel pin hoops. I’d wanted to buy some for a while but to be honest, the prices people charge for them on Etsy are a JOKE. I saw someone asking £10+ for one that was smaller than the ones I made. For two twelve inch hoops and two different types of fabric I spent £16. The amount of fabric I bought could make 8 twelve inch hoops too… Anyhoo! I decided to make my own as it seemed reasonable (price wise) and fun to do. I picked up the pin hoops and fabric from Hobbycraft whilst going bridesmaid shopping with my best friend and her bridesmaids. Making these was pretty simple and it took me max about an hour to do including popping the fabric into the hoops, cutting down to size and using a glue gun to stick the stray fabric to the hoop itself… I hope this makes sense. 😛

I decided to have one enamel pin hoop dedicated to all the Quirkory enamel pins I own currently. As and when I get more they’ll be added to the hoop. I would happily buy another hoop to create a second Quirkory hoop too! If you like the look of Quirkory’s designs, make sure to use my unique discount code on their Etsy store to snag yourself 10% off your order – “TMBQUIRKORY”. Also make sure to check our their currently Kickstarter campaign about Souls Of Nature. I’ve backed for some enamel pins and one of the deskmats.

I also decided to have a pin flag dedicated to all my Pokemon enamel pins. Aside from Quirkory, Pokemon designs take up the majority of my collection, with Animal Crossing and Ghibli hardly having any, which surprised me! I have more Pokemon enamel pins coming in the future after I backed Nyanzilla’s Eeveelution Kickstarter… I’ll be showing those off when they arrive. 😛 If you’re wondering who any of the enamel pins are by on this hoop, please ask.

Razer x Sanrio Characters mouse and keyboard.

Finally I want to show off something that arrived for bank holiday weekend! I recently ordered the Razer x Sanrio Characters mouse and keyboard from YY Kawaii and I HAVE NO REGRETS. As regular readers will know, back in March/April Dane decided to buy me my own desk for both working from home, as well as for my streaming on Twitch, playing games and working on my blog work. I wanted to have my desk be as cute as possible, so I decided to order the Razer x Sanrio goodies. You cannot get any cuter than this! Over the bank holiday

I’ve been using the mouse mostly (using at the moment!) which is perfect! It also came with the mouse mat seen in the photo which is adorable. It makes me so happy to look at. The design on the mouse is so sweet and not too OTT which is always good. I’ve also been using the keyboard on and off but I’ll be honest, it’s so fucking loud. I knew it would be due to the type of switches inside but yeah… I didn’t think it would be THAT loud. I’ve bought some stuff to try and help quieten the noise down a little. Aside from that, the keyboard is just as cute as the mouse and I cannot wait to use it more in the future for writing blog posts and maybe for work too.

What do you guys think of this months favourites? May has honestly flown by and I seriously can’t believe it’s June already. I know the first couple of weeks of June are going to fly by, which saddens me.

I’m just excited for June. I feel like I’m starting to sort of get back to normal. We’ve visited some friends, sat in the house with my parents to have a roast dinner, planning to go the cinema and planning to go for food and drinks. I can’t wait for the world to get more and more back to “normal” as the year goes on.

What were your favourites from May? Make sure to let me know in the comments. 🙂

Until next time all, I hope you enjoy the rest of your bank holiday as well as the gorgeous weather!

April Favourites ‘21

How is it May already? I can’t believe how quick 2021 is going and it’s making me feel old in a way! At the same time, as much as I’ve enjoyed April it’s been bloody cold this week. We are meant to be in spring, I need me some sunshine and warmer weather now.

I think the most I’m excited about for May is some pre-ordered goodies I have arriving, making my new desk look cute as fuck and playing lots of New Pokemon Snap.

April has been such a strange month. It’s the month I really started to get into Twitch and I even bought a brand new Animal Crossing edition Switch, which I LOVE. You can read more about that here. I’m excited for the future of my Twitch channel and by the end of May I hope to have made affiliate.

For the time being however, I’m going to get cracking with my favourites and what I loved in April.

Beauty.

• Bodyform Intimawear Period Underwear – (link).

I know this isn’t a typical beauty product to talk about but I REALLY wanted to share these period underwear this month after trying them in April. Three words – They are amazing and I’ll never look back. I’d been thinking about buying reusable pads for a while now, but was feeling a bit lost of where to look, start, etc. Whilst doing my monthly shop at the end of March I found these in Tesco on offer and decided to pick up a pack. I gave them a go on day two of my period and they were amazing. I could tell I had them on at first, but the longer I wore them the more I got used to and comfortable with wearing them. I felt anxious throughout the day but at the same time I felt confident of no leaks. I wore them to bed and woke up with no issues… If you know what I mean. 😉

From memory they last 50 washes and are as easy to wash as they are to wear. You rinse them with cold water until the water runs clear and then throw into the washing machine. Simple! I clean them with cold water when I jump into the shower in the morning, run under the cold tap and when I’m out of the shower I throw them into the machine.

There are loads of brands you can buy and try, my reason for picking the Bodyform underwear up is the price I snagged them for and more. Again, I highly recommend these, they’re amazing!

So… Now it’s time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month! If there isn’t anything I’ve done I’m not going to mention.

Favourite Movie – Midsommar.

This is a film I’ve seen a few times now and recently I had the urge to watch it again. It’s a horror film by Ari Aster (also directed Hereditary) who has seemingly come out of nowhere. Aster’s horror films are eerie and will leave you with questions and an unfamiliar feeling, which is exactly what Midsommar did to me. Midsommar is a film about a group of friends who travel to Sweden to visit their friends home. A festival is taking place during their stay and they end up finding themselves in part of a cult that they aren’t 100% sure about. Amongst the group of friends there is also a couple whose relationship is being held together by a tragedy that occurred years prior. The film is overall just eerie and the things that happen are strange and odd to say the least. I’ve watched so many videos analysing the film, which is what fuelled me to watch it again. Watching it for a second time has really opened my eyes to the film and if you don’t get upset easily (there are a lot of sensitive subjects such as suicide and gore) I highly recommend watching it!

Favourite TV Show – Invincible.

This is a new TV show I’ve literally finished just before writing my favourites and I LOVED it! It was a recommendation from my colleagues and when I mentioned it to Dane we decided to start watching it that evening. It’s based off of a comic book of the same name and is about Mark, son of superhero Omni-Man, who eventually becomes superhero Invincible. We see Mark juggling being a superhero and trying to finish high school. There’s more to the story, but I don’t want to worry whatever I share may spoil. I highly recommend watching! This is an Amazon Prime Video exclusive show by the way.

Favourite Song – Lil Nas X – “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)”.

This song. I don’t feel like I need to write anything about it because I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this song at the moment. I kept hearing this song on a Logitech advert on Twitch and I started to really like it, so Googled. This song came up on YouTube and it has literally JUST come out. I fell in love with it and I’ve not been able to stop listening to it since. I play it at least once a day in the week whilst working and maybe once or twice throughout the weekend. It’s blowing up the internet though and before hearing this song I’d never heard of Lil Nas X before. Now I’m quite excited for his new album to drop this year. I don’t know if it’ll be my sort of music, but I’ll definitely check it out.

Image taken from Twitter

Favourite Game – Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.

I’ve owned the remake of the original Pokemon mystery dungeon games since it came out at the start of March 2020, but I’d only played it for a short amount of time before Animal Crossing came out. Why? Because I got bloody stuck and gave up on it. At the start of April I decided to start streaming me playing it on Twitch and it’s been really fun. I decided to restart the game as I hadn’t played a lot anyway when I got stuck. So far it’s going okay, but I’m yet to get to the point I was stuck at before… I just forgot how much I like this game and it’s one I can see me playing outside of stream in the future. I highly recommend picking it up to play if you’ve never played the mystery dungeon games before, or if you want the nostalgia from the games back in the day!

Just a few of my favourite things.

Gel Nails.

As the salons were able to open back up in April I was booked in to get my nails done and it was WELL overdue! I decided to go for a duck egg blue colour with glitter. They’re still lasting now and I do love them. If there’s one thing I have really missed during the second and third lockdowns it’s getting my nails done. I feel like every three weeks it’s my time to get pampered, not have to do or think about much for an hour and I can just have a good natter with my nail technician. I’ve been going to her for over a year now, but due to COVID I’ve only had my nails done by her sixteen times, which isn’t as many as it should have been by now. I’m already excited to get a new set of gels done next week, but I do not have a clue what I’m going to get yet! maybe something pastel for spring? 😛

New Desk.

Me and Dane decided in April that it was time for me to get my own desk in our office. I’ve wanted my own space for a while to work at for both work and personal. I’ve had a few of my items dotted on Dane’s desk but I have to always move them at the end of the working day and put them back at the start and the same happened with my work laptop too. I’d put it away at the end of the day and set it up at the start. The desk Dane bought me wasn’t the one I’d thought he was ordering, so I was worried at first that it would be too small. However, this being said we’ve made it work and I’ve had it and been working at it for a week now. It’s amazing! I got my office chair from work so I didn’t need to buy a new one (although I may eventually) and we already had an old monitor that I could use. All that was left to do was decorate the desk and the area really!

As you can see from the above photo I have started to make it my own with my Danbo Nendoroid, Smoko ramen cup lamp, a Tokidoki plush and fox coaster that my friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) sent to me, my raccoon planter from Tesco and finally my Razer quartz headset and headset stand. I have a lot more work to do to my desk including making use of the white space above the desk and more. I’ll be showing it off more in my monthly favourites I’m sure!

Pokemon and Disney purchases.

I made some cute purchases during April and they’re all featuring towards the end of my monthly favourites. The first group I want to talk about are Pokemon and Disney themed.

I picked up this Loungefly bag second hand from someone via a Loungefly Facebook group (who I’ve since befriended) and I’ve been using it since. After I discovered this bag existed at the start of the year it fast became one of my holy grain and sought after bags. One weekend around February I searched all over for this and could only find it for around $200-$400 which I was NOT willing to pay. I gave up on the search eventually and had the frame of mind, “If it turns up at a decent price… So be it…” so when I saw it for a decent price, I snatched it up! I love it so much. The first shopping trip I wore it out I heard people commenting on it which was awesome. It’s my go to bag at the moment and one I’ll definitely use when I return back to working in the office. I have taken it into a work a few times now, which is good. Would you guys like to see a blog post about my Loungefly bags? I have one coming soon and I’ve bought a couple of new ones in 2021 so yes, let me know!

I picked up some Disney goodies from Fox Leap and alongside the two items I bought, Sophie sent me LOADS of extra goodies too which made me smile! She’s such an amazing seller and lovely person to talk to. I decided to finally pick up the Angel enamel pin and Lady and the Tramp print that I’ve had saved in my favourites on Etsy for the longest time. As regular readers will know, Lady and the Tramp is my favourite Disney film and I have fond memories of the sequel when it came out too. Alongside my purchases I also received a Scar print (which I’d been eyeing up for a while), Fennekin enamel pin, Bambi and Faline enamel pin, an Angel sticker and some Disney horse stickers. I don’t feel like I can thank Sophie enough for sending me so many lovely extras.

I’m giving Sophie a bit of a plug here (because she bloody deserves it!) but if you like watching streamers, make sure to check out her Twitch channel. Sophie’s streams are great to relax to and she’s even come to mine before, which is always lovely and supportive. I’m also part of her Discord which is so friendly. 🙂 I’m looking to join her Patreon in the near future.

Finally I ordered the Nickit plush from the Pokemon Center via YY Kawaii and it arrived in April. Nickit was my favourite Pokemon in Sword and Shield and as soon as I could catch one in the game, it stayed in my party for as long as possible! This plush is bigger than I thought it was going to be, which was great! It now lives on my plushie cabinet alongside my Dragonite, Eevee, Morgana and more. It’s just a nice plush to add to my collection. Don’t forget by the way that if you would like to save 10% off of the YY Kawaii website, make sure to use the code YYCOFFEE10 – which is my brand affiliate code with YY Kawaii!

Animal Crossing Cookie.

April appears to have been a month where I have been slightly obsessed with Cookie from Animal Crossing. Why? I don’t know but I’ve either bought items, received items or found and finished things with her featured.

As you may have seen from my last blog post, my Quirkory pre-order arrived for some Animal Crossing enamel pins, one of the pins was Cookie. It’s such an adorable enamel pin and it’s by far one of my favourites in my collection now! If you want to read a bit more about this enamel pin AND the latest Animal Crossing collection from Quirkory please make sure to check out the latest post all about it. 🙂 If you like the look of the Cookie enamel pin and would like to save 10% off of Quirkory’s store then make sure to use the code TMBQUIRKORY!

Alongside the enamel pin arriving, I decided to finally order myself something from Nooks Needles Co as I’d wanted to for a while. I noticed the store had started to stock Cookie designs, so I decided to reach out to potentially buy a custom order. I wanted Cookie on a light purple sweater, but I wanted the image of Cookie to be larger and in the middle of the chest area of the sweater, instead of smaller and on the left hand side of the chest. Laur the person behind Nooks Needles Co was happy to oblige and ordered a sweater in shade orchid for me. It arrived over a week later and I’ve worn it loads so far, as you’ll see from the image above, as well as my new picture on my blog too. I’m looking to review this store and sweater in the future, so please keep eyes peeled for this in May/June. 😉

Finally I want to share this Cookie cross stitch I FINALLY finished after owning it since March 2020. I don’t know why it took so long as it was practically finished when I picked it up again towards the end of this month. This cross stitch kit is from diyCrossing and although I bought this last year, they still have plenty of cross stitch kits available to buy! They’re really easy to follow, whether you’re new to cross stitch or not. I’ve been cross stitching since I was about ten why my mom first got me into it, so to be able to do this kit of a villager I adore, it’s been lovely. I’ve since ordered two more, Lucky and Bones, two more of my favourite villagers. I plan to buy and work on all the dog cross stitch kits from diyCrossing in the future and display them.

There we have it guys, those are my favourites from April! As I said at the start of the post, I can’t quite believe it’s May already! I don’t know what May brings, but I feel like it’s going to be good. I have some time off work in June so I feel May is going to be a month of planning what me and Dane are going to do.

What were your favourites from April? What do you think of my favourites? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!

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

Quirkory Animal Crossing Gimme My Joy-Con 2 Enamel Pins – Review

I have been so excited to write and share this blog post with all my readers since the start of 2021, but I’ve been eagerly and patiently waiting for these kawaii as fuck goodies to arrive!

I’m here to throw some much needed love around about Quirkory and why their designs make me so happy!

Towards the end of 2020 Quirkory announced via their social media and Patreon that they would be making another Gimme My Joy-Con collection after how popular the first one had been. They brought out a TON of villagers in the collection, twenty-four designs in total! A lot in comparison to the nine designs from their first Gimme My Joy-Con Collection, which you can read all about here by the way.

Here is a list of all the villager (and special characters) that Quirkory designs for the second collection!

Skye, Ankha, Beau and Fauna.

Maple, Goldie, Poppy and Pietro.

Coco, Audie, C.J. and Flick.

Roald, Raymond, K.K. Slider and Sherb.

Julian, Molly, Zucker and Marina.

Cookie, Diana, Rosie and Flurry.

I was so excited as Quirkory began to roll out and show off all the designs and I was starting to prepare myself for which designs I would order. I knew I wanted all of the dog characters in the collection – K.K. Slider, Goldie and I definitely had to order Cookie. However, I also ended up ordering Maple too, as she was a villager I had many moons ago on New Leaf, plus she’s cute. How could I NOT have her?

As these were pre-orders from Quirkory’s store I eagerly awaited snippets of them being made by their manufacturer. These were show both through Patreon (which you can find here) and their Instagram page too. I always love when you get to see the molds being filled with colour.

Then a month or so ago Quirkory announced that ALL the pins had arrived with them and were being ready to be shipped out! I was so excited and couldn’t wait to have them in my hands. They arrived earlier this week and I wanted to share my new enamel pins with you all as soon as possible.

Quirkory were kind enough to send me four free enamel pins too as gifts – Audie, Poppy, Julian and Diane. I’ll be sharing and talking about these on this post too.

Before I go into the designs one by one, one thing I noticed that was done differently with the second collection is the colour variants with the joy controllers. Not only did the overall colour of the controllers get designed based around the villagers in question, but the buttons on the joy cons and more got changed in colour too!

I know when I spoke before about the first collection I was able to go into detail about ALL the design joy con colours, but due to the amount this time, I won’t be able to do that. However, I will for the ones I’ve got to show today!

Cookie with a right handed lilac controller, which has white buttons and a darker purple side.

Goldie with a left handed light green controller, which has grey buttons and side.

Maple with a right handed dark green controller.

K.K. Slider with a right handed light orange controller.

Audie with a left handed yellow controller, which has white buttons and side.

Poppy with a right handed light purple controller, which has light pink buttons and side.

Julian with a right handed light blue controller, which has white buttons and side.

Diana with a left handed dark purple controller, which has teal buttons and side.

All the enamel pins are made out gold enamel and have twin backs to them. On the back of the enamel pins they all say have, “Quirkory Gimme My Joy-Con” which is something Quirkory did with the first collection, so I’m glad they kept this consistency and brought it to the second collection too.

I’ll be reviewing all the pins separately as always and want to state here that these enamel pins launch for sale again on Saturday 8th May! I’ll update the post as and when they’re for sale on Quirkory’s Etsy store, but make sure to keep eyes peeled on both Quirkory’s and my Instagram pages for updates when the enamel pins are available to buy!

Cookie Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

This is by far my favourite design from the whole collection and that’s purely because since New Horizons Cookie has become my favourite villager. Cookie is the pop princess of Animal Crossing and she’s stolen my heart. I mentioned to Quirkory that I would love to see Cookie become a part of the second collection, so when they announced that they’d drawn her design, I was over the moon! The design has turned out perfect and it’s fast become my actual favourite enamel pin in my collection.

Cookie is wearing her blue and white dress that she’s now known for in New Horizons. The lilac controller works really well with the pink of her fur and the blue dress. I really hope Quirkory bring out some stickers and prints with Cookie on soon. I definitely need them.

Goldie Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

Another dog villager to add to my collection and it’s a villager I have LONGED to add to my game since New Leaf. I feel alongside Lucky, Goldie is a dog villager everyone loves as she’s such a cutie and is perfect in everyway. I have Goldie on my island and she’s precious! Again, like Cookie, Goldie is wearing her New Horizons dress which looks exactly like the one in game! The details of the dress are amazing, something Quirkory is amazing with as always! The controller Goldie is holding is light green which compliments her yellow colour, as well as the dress she’s wearing.

I honestly would love for a third collection to come out with more dog villagers, especially Bones who is another of my favourite dog villagers.

Maple Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

This wasn’t a design I was going to purchase, even though I loved it. Purely because at the time it was coming up to Christmas and I wanted to make sure I had monies for anymore presents I needed to buy, etc. However, when I ordered myself the Mostari mystery pack I decided to snag the Maple design too. Maple is a cub I had back in New Leaf so she definitely holds a small place in my heart, plus her design is adorable! She has her cream jumper on from New Horizons and is cuddling a dark green controller which looks a similar colour to the three that is on her jumper. I know for a fact this wasn’t a coincide and was once again Quirkory showing off how much detail they put into their designs.

K.K. Slider Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

This is the only none villager design that I picked up from this collection and of course it’s our favourite singing dog, K.K. Slider. I really love his design, it’s not over the top and is different. I like how on his light orange controller has little musical notes on it! This is something unique to K.K. Slider’s design as the other villagers have stars. I know when they announced this design and the first sketches of it, I was waiting for a guitar to appear somewhere, but I’m actually glad it never did. He’s known for his guitar, yes, but it doesn’t mean he has to have it ALL the time! He’s cuddling the controller instead. 😉

Audie Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

Audie is a new villager to come to New Horizons and is said to be named after one of Nintendo’s oldest fans! She’s a cute wolf character who just shouts summer vibes. She wears a blue dress covered in pineapples and some fabulous shades on her head. Audie is definitely ready for a summer party or a beach BBQ, that’s for sure! I love that Quirkory decided to go for a yellow and white controller for Audie as this definitely works with the summer vibes! I feel out of all of the enamel pins I’m showing on the post, Audie is probably one that would get a conversation going with someone who doesn’t know about Animal Crossing. Purely for how bright the colours are!

Poppy Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

Poppy is such a cute squirrel who I had at one point on New Leaf. She always reminded me of an old friend of mine due to her name and personality, so when I saw that Quirkory had sent me her, it definitely brought back some memories. Poppy’s design is really cute and I think the colours for her fur are GORGEOUS! They’re perfect to say the least and match the character so well. Alongside with the light pink and purple controller, it just works so well. I especially love her little dress, which reminds me of lederhosen a little!

Julian Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

I’ll be honest, Julian isn’t a design I would have picked up for myself but after receiving him in the post, I haven’t been able to stop staring at him. This is in no way against Quirkory by the way! Horse villagers just aren’t ones I’m overly fussed about! However, the way Quirkory have designed Julian makes him look so pretty and fabulous! I love that his eyes are closed to reveal his purple eyelids/shadow and his cute little galaxy hoodie really make the purple colours pop against his blue body and mane. I like that Quirkory went for a teal and white controller too as I feel it works really well with his bodies colours.

Diana Enamel Pin (Coming Soon)

Finally we have Diana, who not only moved into my island not long after all the designs had been shown off on Quirkory’s Instagram page, but I also shared this design on my Instagram page too! Diana is a snobby little white deer who a lot of people told me to avoid, but I really love her! The enamel pin is gorgeous and the colours all pop and look amazing! I love the purple swirl on Diana’s forehead, it just looks really cool as it doesn’t have an outline to it or anything! It just looks cool. Alongside that I LOVE her controller colours! The dark purple and teal work so well together and I’d love a joy-con colour like this for real!

So there we have it guys! The collection will launch again on Saturday 8th May, so if you’re after any of the pins I’ve shown you today make sure to set your calendars for in a couple of weeks!

If there is one design I semi regret not picking up it’s Pietro. He’s so adorable and I just overall love how colourful his design is! I’ll definitely look to getting him in the future.

Overall, I would love ALL of the Gimme My Joy-Con designs, from both the first and second collections. I love Animal Crossing so much, it’s helped me over the past thirteen years I’ve been playing it, especially the past year with COVID. Not only do I want more Animal Crossing merchandise in my home, but I want to be able to support my favourite independent stores/artists whilst I’m at it!

As always I want to say a massive thank you to Quirkory! Not just for sending me my extra enamel pins and not for making me their brand rep, but for making such amazing designs that make me and others happy. Their designs make me smile whenever I look at them. I’ve not been very well mentally lately and whenever I’ve felt stressed or crappy I’ve looked at these enamel pins, which make me smile ear to ear every time.

As always I will of course link below to their store and social media platforms:

Store (Etsy)

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

So, what do you guys think of Quirkory and their second collection of Animal Crossing enamel pins? Will you be picking up any of them when they come out in a few weeks time? If you are which one(s) will you be picking up?

Don’t forget if you do decide to make an order with Quirkory to use my exclusive discount code “TMBQUIRKORY” on the Etsy store to bag yourself 10% your order!

Make sure to check out my previous posts about Quirkory below:

Quirkory – Mostari Mystery Pack Review AND An Exciting Announcement!

Quirkory Lunar Plushie Spookies Enamel Pins – Review

Quirkory Animal Crossing Gimme My Joy-Con Enamel Pins – Review

Quirkory Eeveelution Greek Gods Enamel Pins – Review

Quirkory – Mostari Mystery Pack Review AND An Exciting Announcement!

Guys I’m back to talk to you about Quirkory, what an amazing independent artist/store they are… As well as some exciting news, which I’ll be sharing first because I just can’t contain my excitement!

Image taken from GIPHY

Drumroll please… I have become Quirkory’s brand ambassador!

Not only has this made me really happy (because we all know how much I love Quirkory as a brand, he couple behind it and of course their kawaii designs!) but I feel honoured too. I’m honoured to be able to become an ambassador for a brand I really do love and especially love talking about on my blog, to people on messages/social media and more!

Quirkory were lovely enough to recognised how much I loved them and offered me to become an ambassador towards the end of 2020, with it all starting to become official on my birthday! If you didn’t know, Inari and Mosted are based off of the couple behind Quirkory and are their kawaii mascots for the brand. So, when they suggested me becoming an ambassador a while ago, we also discussed them creating a mascot all of my own to represent me! I gave them an idea and on my birthday they sent over the finished design, which I’m happy to finally show you all!

I went for a raccoon, as they are for sure my spirit animal (as well as one of my favourites alongside foxes, dogs and red pandas), so it seemed right for me. As well as that, I went for a purple bow around their neck, as that’s my favourite colour. I loved the idea of having my mascot with food/drink of some sort, especially considering the name of my blog is to do with coffee! We didn’t go with coffee however and instead opted for a matcha bubble tea, as this is one of my favourite beverages! The end design is so adorable and I couldn’t be happier with it! I’m planning to buy a print of it from Quirkory so I can pop it in a frame and hang it in the house. I’m honestly a mixture of happy and proud to now be more than just a fan/buyer of Quirkory, but now working with them too.

Of course, with being a brand ambassador I do get a special discount code for you guys to use to snag yourself a bargain or two! This code will be “TMBQUIRKORY” and gives you 10% off of Quirkory’s Etsy store. Don’t worry if you need to quickly grab the code in the future and can’t find this post, there’s a few ways this discount code will be accessible.

I’ll be adding the discount code and image, as well as this post under the “Quirkory” section of my blog, as shown in the image above. As well as that, I will of course have the discount code image on the right hand side of my blog, which will be added after this post is live!

Anyhoo, exciting announcement over, it’s time to talk about Quirkory’s Mostari Mystery Pack! This is an item Quirkory revealed and launched towards the end of 2020 and it’s something I KNEW I had to pick up for myself. It’s always nice to pick up a surprise box/bag to see what goodies you get. I know I often talk about Quirkory on my blog and for people who may have never bought anything from Quirkory before and interested, the Mostari pack may be a great way to introduce you to Quirkory!

I’m going to explain what the Mostari pack is all about, as well as prices, what you’ll expect as well as what I received in my pack! I have also done an IGTV video about this over on my Instagram account, which I will post here if you’re interested in watching that alongside reading this post.

The Mostari box comes in three different sizes, bag, mini box and large box.

Bag (£20.25) – You will receive three different pins or two different random pins and one surprise item.

Mini Box (£27.98) – You will receive three different pins or two different random pins and one surprise item. You will also received one art print and either two jumbo vinyl stickers or one stick pack/sheet.

Large Box (£41.59) – You will receive five different pins or four different random pins and one surprise item. You will also received one art print and either two jumbo vinyl stickers or one stick pack/sheet.

I went for the large box, because why not? 😛 It arrived before Christmas and I was SO HAPPY with all of the goodies I received. Quirkory made sure that I didn’t receive any duplicate items and I couldn’t thank them enough for this! To be honest, if I had of received some duplicate enamel pins, I would have gifted them to my friends. 🙂

Image taken from Quirkory’s Etsy store.

First of all the image that Quirkory designed purely for the Mostari pack is absolutely adorable! It’s Inari and Mosted looking inside the Mostari box in front of them, which is full of sparkle! The name Mostari is also a mash up of Inari and Mosted to sound like mystery!

Inside the box it is full of shredded pink and blue tissue paper, as well as the goodies all in their packages and such. I’m going to talk about all the goodies I received, honestly I couldn’t be happier with them! There is also a thank you card in there with some cute animal designs on! I’d like to think these are Quirkory’s pets…

Every box may contain common, discontinued or new/unreleased items. Due to this each box will have a random different rarity grade:

Common- if containing items with a stock of more than 30 pieces.

Rare – if containing items with a low stock.

Vaulted – if containing items no longer on sale or out of stock.

Surprize – if containing a new item not yet listed for sale/not yet shown to the public.

• Sticker Pack – Chillin’ Pals Sticker Set (link)

When I saw this in the box, I was so surprised! I’ve been meaning to buy this sticker pack for the longest time, but just keep leaving it for a rainy day when I fancy a treat. I finally have them and they’re so cute! The stickers themselves are matte and not shin. There are four stickers in the pack, all to do with dogs and cats and are original Quirkory designs and even have their own names.

Luci is a black cat and white cat with a blue beanie on and a book in front of them. The book has sparkles and swirls, which I assume are to show Luci getting into the magic of the book.

Doteki is actually my favourite from the bunch and looks to be a shiba who is chilling on Petflix with some film/TV show snacks and even a hot water bottle! Plus, he’s got cute little feet pads and a little cross to show his bum… So cute!

Snoozin is a ginger and white cat who is asleep under the blue fluffy blanket. They’re dreaming about sleeping in a box in the sunshine. Snoozin also has a cute little red bow around their neck.

Yuki is the final design and is a cute little shiba wrapped up for winter months. I don’t know why but this design reminds me of Japan in winter. Yuki is a brown and white suba, with pink earmuffs on, a massive chunky blue tartan scarf and some cute little pink mittens.

• Art Print – Happy Togedeer Art Print (link)

I’ve seen this print before receiving it in my Mostari pack due to being a Patreon and it was actually a design they released as wallpapers for computers, phones and tablets so it was so cute to receive in my pack! It’s two deer snuggling together, one is white and one is brown, with a little heart above them both. The pale blue background works really well and it says, “Happy Togedeer” at the top. It’s printing on photo paper and feels really lovely. I’m planning to keep either stick this on my plushie cabinet, or keep it somewhere safe for when I eventually get my own desk. 🙂

• Rare – Mew enamel pin from the Mythical Rising Star collection (link)

This Mew enamel pin is from Quirkory’s first Kickstarter which launched back in March 2019. It’s crazy to think that was almost two years ago! I hadn’t discovered Quirkory at this point but if I had I know for a fact I would have backed for this enamel pin design. Mew is one of my favourite Pokemon and they really captured how playful and cute the psychic Pokemon is with this design! Mew is sat against a blue stained glass design, with a purple bow design on its tail and some star designs hanging from its tail too. This is a chain design enamel pin so it does have something dangling off of it. With Mew the design is a pink and purple swirl, which I assume is based off of it being psychic Pokemon. It’s on a rose gold enamel, is a two back pin for the main body of the design and then another back for the pin for the dangle/chain swirl design too. As well as that on the back of the main design of the piece is Quirkory’s logo. There are loads of designs similar to this one including Diancie, Victini, Celebi, Shaymin, Jirachi, Marshadow, Manaphy, Zeraora and Meloetta.

• Rare – Flower Eevee enamel pin from the Cute Eeveelutions collection (link)

This series of flower Eeeveelution is from the Kickstarter that helped me to discover Quirkory after buying some of the Greek Eeveelutions designs through it, as well as after (you can read all about the Greek Eeveelution designs here). The first enamel pin I opened from my Mostari box was this design and it made me smile so much! This cute little Eevee is laid back on a white flower, with it’s fluffy tail dangling below it, I think it’s having a snooze! I love the big green leaves for this flower too, as it compliments the overall colours of Eevee and the flower. This is a gold enamel pin, with two backs and Quirkory etched into the back.

• Rare – Flower Flareon enamel pin from the Cute Eeveelutions collection (link)

Again, we have another Eeveelution design from the Kickstarter I backed back in 2019. As you can see I also received the Flareon design which really did make me smile. Back when I discovered Quirkory they thanked me for all their support by sending me the Flareon Greek God design, so it’s really nice to get Flareon again! The Flareon, like Eevee is lying on it’s back, but Flareon has its paws up to its face, almost like its giggling at something. It is lying on a purple flower, which like the Eevee design compliments the colours of Flareon’s orange and yellow so well! Alongside the Eevee and Flareon designs, you can also pick up the other Eeveelutions too – Leafeon, Vaporeon, Sylveon, Espeon, Jolteon, Umbreon and Glaceon.

• Rare – Yamper Corgi enamel pin (link)

The Yamper design is adorable and one I’ve toyed with buying for a while. I actually think the Quirkory design for Yamper is better than the original by Pokemon… 😛 It’s not an overly complicated design and the Yamper definitely shouts corgi when you look at it. It also has a little blep going on, which makes it even more adorable, alongside with the way it’s sat. This is a gold enamel pin, with two pin backs and Quirkory etched into the back of it.

• Vaulted – Bulbakura Enamel Pin (link)

Alongside the Mew enamel pin, this Bulbasaur enamel pin is also from Quirkory’s first Kickstarter from March 2019. To me this Bulbasaur design is different to anything Quirkory has done since and because of this I’m glad to finally own it! It’s a gold Bulbasaur with a pink cherry blossom on it’s back instead of the bulb we all know and recognise the Pokemon for. Due to the Bulbasaur being gold, of course the enamel is gold too and like pretty much all of the pins I received, it has two backs as well as Quirkory etched into the back of the enamel pin. It’s quite a thick enamel pin to be honest, which is really nice to hold. I can’t wait to display this in the future, the gold makes it lovely and shiny so it’ll definitely be a conversation starter in the future.

• Surprize – Totodile Patch

This was actually such a surprise and was the first thing I opened when in my Mostari box! I’ve never seen Quirkory sell patches before so if this is an upcoming project I’m excited for it! This is a patch with Totodile on and he’s holding a hose pipe which he’s shooting water out of. It took me a while to realise what it was, but coming out of his head is a needle and thread, which looks really cool and unique. I’m not sure what I’m going to put my patch on yet but I’m sure I’ll find something soon. 🙂

I also received some other goodies in my pack, but this was more of a thank you from Quirkory for supporting them, plus as I’m a Patreon, it was also a thank you for that too! As always, Quirkory also sent a really lovely thank you note. I’m not going to share it as it feels more personal, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before on my blog, but all the thank you notes Quirkory have sent me, I’ve kept. 🙂 They also sent me a special discount code for their store as a thanks for being a Patreon.

• Detective Pikachu Sticker (link for sticker pack)

This Detective Pikachu design looks to be from a sticker pack, but I honestly love the design I was sent. Detective Pikachu is holding his little takeaway coffee cup and looks adorable as anything! Why do I feel Quirkory sent me this because it’s to do with coffee? 😛 It’s a matte sticker by the way. I don’t have a clue where I’m going to stick him yet, but I’m sure I’ll find something.

• Whipped Ghost Sticker (link)

This is another design I’ve seen floating around Patreon and one that reminds me of autumn/fall in America. It’s a pumpkin pie with little candy corns on it, as well as a happy dollop of cream! It’s so bloody cute. This is a vinyl sticker. I think Quirkory should definitely do more food themed designs. 😛

• Inari & Mosted Christmas and Autumn Stickers (Sorry no link…)
  

Quirkory sent me some of their mascot stickers and I always smile when they send me some! They’re so cute and I actually have quite a lot of the mascot stickers on my iPad case, including the Christmas Inari and Mosted they sent me from last Christmas (2019). Inari has reindeer antlers on, whilst Mosted wears a Christmas hat. These are small stickers and matte. The other two designs they sent me look like they’re from autumn. Inari is dressed up a cream squirrel and holding onto an acorn whilst Mosted is dressed as a squirrel too but is a dark brown and is holding onto a toadstool/wild mushroom. These two designs are adorable!

Sadly neither of these designs are available to buy on the store, however here are some Inari and Mosted designs you can check out instead – Halloween Stickers and summer stickers.

So that is the Mostari box! I’m so glad I picked one up before Christmas as it was so exciting to open it up! I don’t know if any young Brits from the 90’s remember, but there used to be such a thing as a “surprise” bag you could buy from the shop where it was a sealed bag full of exciting goodies to keep you busy! It would have an activity book, some crayons, as well as a toy and sweeties. My mom would buy me one every now and then and I really did love it. I just googled it ad FOUND IT! It was called Dick Turtle Surprise Bag. This is exactly what the Mostari box reminded me of and it definitely brought back some nostalgic memories, which have been lovely.

I’m going to add all of Quirkory’s social media pages and especially their store below:

Store (Etsy)

Instagram

Patreon

Facebook

Twitter

So, do you think you’ll pick up your own Mostari box? If so, what size would you opt for and what goodies would you hope to get inside your box? Of course if you are interested in getting a box of your own, you can use my discount code to save yourself some monies as well, which is always good! 😀

Let me know what you think in the comments below and make sure to say hello to Quirkory from me if you find yourself making a purchase, posting on their social media and more. 🙂

Until next time guys, I hope you’re all doing well and keeping safe during lockdown with everything going on. Take care all! 🙂

Goodbye 2020!

Image taken from Pinterest

I can’t quite believe a whole year has flew past us as we prepare to go into 2021… Sorry but 2020 was a big year for me for so many reasons but of course it wasn’t a great year either…

2020 was the year I entered the 30-35 tick box and I don’t feel ready to turn 31 next week. :S It was also the year me and Dane travelled to Japan for the first time. It was amazing and I’m so glad we were able to go before COVID started to manifest. I remember my dad messaging me our second week into the trip and saying, “There’s a virus called coronavirus going around Japan. Be careful!” and us shrugging it off. Oh how times have changed, eh?

Going back to that trip, it was amazing and I have clutched onto the memories we made and photos we took to get me through 2020 when I felt rubbish. I’m really hoping 2021 will be better COVID wise as I would love to return back to Japan in 2022, maybe even 2023 if that’s the case.

Image taken from GIPHY

Me and Dane have already said we’d like to go around March/April time to see the cherry blossoms, travel around more (Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima) and especially go for Dane’s birthday this time around. We’ve also discussed going for Christmas/New Year at some point too as that would be lovely. We could eat KFC, stay at a private onsen for a few days and again, travel around and have the perfect kawaii/otaku Christmas… But we don’t know when this will be. It’s just an idea.

I wanted to briefly do a bit of a chat about how 2020 was for me overall (including my favourites), mention how December has been and of course talk about 2021 and what I’m looking forward to so far.

I need to get this off of my chest out of the way because it’s still semi ongoing and it’s pissed me off something awful.

I mentioned back in September 2019 on a post (8 Games I’m Excited To Play) about being excited for a game I’d backed on Kickstarter called Calico. The game released 15th December 2020 and was announced on the Nintendo Indie World Showcase. As someone who had backed the game I was pretty meh to discover that people who HADN’T backed the Kickstarter had access to the game before we did and may I add, for less monies… Just felt like a bit of a punch to the stomach. I’m on the Discord channel and started hearing nothing but bug complaints/feedback from people who had been playing the game. Turns out not much testing had been done… Not good! I waited a week for my game code on the Switch, but no sign and I was given excuses of, “we’re new to this, wasn’t aware how long it would take.” etc. Then North American codes were being sent to people in the EU, which of course wouldn’t work. It was just a bit of a shit show to be blunt. I asked for my money back on Sunday, which has been processed and I’m waiting for. I can’t be arsed to play Calico now. It sounds like a rushed out mess and I just don’t want to support a game like that. I’ve heard nothing but complaints from friends about it who have played. I’m happy to have supported the game and help it come to life, but I’m not happy to wait and constantly feel mugged off. The developers have now advised for UK backers to ask for refunds so they can go and buy it themselves on the eShop.

It’s just so poor and clearly rushed out. I was really excited for this game and especially when they announced it as coming out a few weeks back. Dane was away with work and with the game coming out I thought, “Awesome, something to keep me going until he’s back home!” which of course wasn’t the case.

If you’re thinking about getting Calico, get it on Steam if you can. The console versions are full of bugs (I think some may have been fixed?) and from what has been said it can take a while to get them fixed. Or just wait a while for it to go down in price, as I’m sure any bugs will have been amended by then too. I’m not saying don’t support the game, but be wary of the bugs…

I’m sorry if that above has come off as bitchy but I was so frustrated for those two weeks that I just had to be honest with you guys on my experience. I’ve got two other games backed via Kickstarter and from the start I’ve definitely had a better experience with them, so I have very high hopes for how the games will be when they release. 🙂

Now that little rant is out of the way, I thought I would mention some stuff I have loved this year!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Okay, who DIDN’T love this game in 2020? For some it was a sort of lifeline during the start of COVID, I know it was for me. I don’t play it daily now, but when I do pick it up it just relaxes me straight away and it’s also a game I love playing with my friends online. The Toy Day event on Christmas Eve was so lovely and started to get me in the Christmas spirit. I know a lot of people who ended up buying a Switch/Switch Lite due to the need to play Animal Crossing on it, I even helped two of my friends get a Switch/Switch Lite of their own so they could play!

The Mandalorian – I’ve honestly loved this series in 2020 and it’s actually one me and Dane binge watched over the Christmas period. I couldn’t get into it last year, especially with our Japan trip coming up so we just… Didn’t get into it. Season 2 is AMAZING though and I was all there for it. I highly recommend watching The Mandalorian even if you aren’t a huge Star Wars fan, as it’s just good all around show that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Plus some of my favourite Star Wars characters make appearances in season 2, which made me so happy!

PVRIS Use Me (Deluxe) – Use Me released this year and I had been excited for this album since it was announced. I discovered PVRIS when I started my job in April 2019 and I have since fallen in love. This album is one I’ve found myself listening to time and time again, whether I’m out and about driving/walking or working in the house. I’ve found myself dancing in the kitchen whilst making a cup of coffee, that’s just how much I love it. My top three tracks from the album are – “Gimme a Minute”, “Stay Gold” and “Loveless”. They’re all such amazing songs, with “Stay Gold” being my favourite on the album… And the one I danced to in the kitchen whilst grabbing coffee. 😛

Lyonsleaf Calendula and Marshmallow Balm – This balm has to be mentioned here because it really has helped with my hand in 2020. My eczema/dermatitis is still ongoing and hasn’t improved at all and I’m still waiting to see a specialist. Since about August I’ve been using this balm and it really does help with the dryness and cracking and since using it religiously, my hands haven’t cracked and bled for as long as I can remember. I’ll be continuing to use this for as long as I can as it really does help. 🙂

Aveeno – I’m just going to add Aveeno as a whole, as this is another product that has really changed my life since purchasing it, in so many ways! I use the intense body lotions on my hands, which has really helped recently and I even bought the shower cream to see if that would help too. It smells delicious and makes my body feel lovely and soft. I highly recommend Aveeno in general, let alone if you have really dry skin like myself.

There are a few things in 2021 that I’m excited to have come up!

31st Birthday – This is actually a week from today and yeah it’s scary how quickly it’s come around! I think for the day I’m going to bake some red velvet cupcakes, play with my new resin molds and get a takeaway. At the time of writing this post, Birmingham has actually gone into tier 4 and I’m gutted. Good job I’d planned to do something at home, eh?

Eight Year Anniversary – I can’t believe me and Dane have been together eight years in 2021… It’s really flew by and I hope we can do something for it in 2021. For our seven year anniversary we went for a drive around the countryside and grabbed a Japanese takeaway on our way home. Who knows what we’ll do this year, but I’m sure it’ll be good. 🙂

My Chemical Romance in June – That’s if COVID doesn’t come along and cause it to be postponed/rescheduled like it was this year.

Potential planning for Japan trip #2 – This would be amazing to do! I really hope it can be done towards the end of 2021…

Maybe a puppy(?) – We were really close to getting a dog in 2020 but due to the issues we faced with adopting we gave up and said we would wait and either try to adopt again (although doubtful…) or get a puppy in 2021. If we go for the latter, I already have a breeder in mind that we want to go with… We shall see what happens. Getting a pet is a big thing and we need to make sure we’re ready and able to do it.

Speaking of 2021, I also  wanted to mention what posts I am hoping to bring to you guys in 2021, these are just some ideas of what I have swirling around my head. This isn’t definite, as it never is but it’s ideas I would like to get down on my blog eventually. At the moment it’s mostly independent stores I’ve discovered/known about for years and bought from! There are a lot of USA based independent stores mentioned here as due to the changes in the UK with VAT, a lot of them have stated they aren’t able to sell to the UK anymore, so I went all out!

Quirkory – I’ll be writing a review of the Mostari Mystery Pack, as well as the Animal Crossing Gimme my Joycon 2 enamel pins I’ve pre-ordered. They won’t arrive until January/February.

Lunaticgumis – I’m planning to talk about the Puppycat Amigurumi, stickers and enamel pin I picked up a month or so ago. I wanted to talk about the goodies I picked up before Christmas but I just didn’t have time, sadly.

Pikarar – I only discovered Pikarar in October/November time and I’m already in love with their designs and items! I’ve so far made two orders, one being a pre-order for after Christmas. When my pre-order arrives, I’ll be showing you all what I bought! It’s mostly clothes. 😛

SleepingWolvesArt – Review where I’ll be talking about some notebooks (which have arrived) and enamel pins (literally just ordered) I’ve bought.

Sugar Bunny Shop – It’s still on it’s way to me but I ordered the Doki Fox sweater I’ve wanted for MONTHS.

So there is a sneak peak of what I will be sharing in the future on my blog! Of course I will talk about other things in between, but until the weeks/months come I won’t know 100% what may come up to discuss. As always I’ll have my monthly favourites and wish list too.

I can’t quite believe 2021 is just around the corner and we’re entering it with practically in lockdown, which sucks. Whatever though, it isn’t going to affect me much in regards to work, or my social life. I’ll just miss not being able to be closer to some form of “normality”.

I’m not feeling glum about 2021 and if anything I’m hoping to grow some of my hobbies, as well as see some of my friends again who I haven’t seen for ages.

What are you excited for in 2021? Is there any specific content you would like to see more of on my blog in the New Year? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time all, Happy New Year for tomorrow/Friday and I hope you’re all safe. 🙂