Christmas Presents!

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

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

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

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

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

So, here are my presents!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing Day Sales and What I Picked up!

Oh sales, we all love them, don’t we? However over the years I have found sales shopping has become more of a chore than a joy and after the chaos that I faced last year, I was put off going out shopping in them this year.

I waited a week before I ventured out and whilst it was still a little busy, it wasn’t too crazy. I also shopped online, which was good as I got to sit on my lazy arse, in my nice soft bed and not worry about any queuing or cold winter breezes.

So before I go away for two weeks I thought I would show you what I picked up.

This first thing I picked up was this beautiful clutch bag. Although this is a sales haul, I didn’t actually pick this up in the sales. I bought it Christmas Day as a little Christmas gift to myself. I’d had my eye on it for ages, ever since Lily Melrose wrote a blog post about it back in December. The stock of the back was running low so I decided to pick one up whilst I could, and with being a student I got £3.00 knocked off of it! Can’t complain at that, eh? I have to add how this isn’t the cheapest clutch bag in the world at £30.00… But I wanted it and I only really paid £27.00 so it isn’t that bad… Is it?  This bag is lovely though, it’s described as mermaid which I thought was amazing as it really does resemble a mermaid’s tail. This is also real leather, which is probably one of the reasons why this clutch bag is a little on the expensive side. I used this on New Years Eve and I loved it! It’s really roomy inside and feels a nice size to carry around. I’m taking it on holiday with me so I can use it in the evenings, I can’t wait!

These items are going to turn into a little bit of a rant… On Boxing Day I ordered some goodies from Lush and have I received them yet? NO! This is the first and last time I’ll be ordering from Lush online again as quite frankly their online service is rubbish. Rant over, onto what I bought. I picked up So White, Golden Wonder and Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bombs in their sale. These were all going at less than £2.00 each, so I picked up 5 So White’s, 2 Golden Wonder’s and 1 or 2 Luxury Lush Puds. Considering there were probably over £3.00 each, I think I got some pretty good deals! When they finally arrive I’ll be so excited to give these a go! Going to use So White on my birthday tomorrow, so will smell of yummy apples all day.

For the past four or five years I’ve had a Simon’s Cat diary and this year was no different. When I went to Cheltenham this weekend me and my boyfriend had a look in the Calendar Club shop to see what we could pick up nice. This was meant to be £8.99 but I picked it up for just over £4.00 or £5.00, which is a bargain in my eyes! So glad I have this again. I know I received an amazing organiser for Christmas, but I want that to take out and about with me, this diary will stay at home.

Alongside that whilst I didn’t buy it, my boyfriend picked it up in the sales for me. I’ve been lusting after Yoshi’s Island for months and when he saw it for £30 in the sale, he picked it up for me, which was really nice. I think this game has always been around that price anyway but either way it was lovely of him to pick this up for me as he knew how much I wanted it. I’ve been playing it quite a bit, but I know I’ll play it loads whilst I’m on holiday!

This was an absolute bargain! I had actually popped this OPI set on my Christmas wish list and no one bought it for me! So on a quick shopping trip out I had a look at what was on sale in my local Sally, as they always have some good sale items on offer! Of course this set wasn’t cheap when it was full price at an astonishing £12.00, so when they told me it only cost £4.50 in the sale I was gobsmacked. So glad I picked this up in the sale though as it’s such a pretty polish and one I know I’ll be reviewing when I’m back from my holiday. I might even wear this whilst I’m on holiday!

This was another item my boyfriend bought for me, but I was going to buy it myself! The reason for his offering to buy this for me is that he really liked it, obviously so much that he was willing to buy it. Can’t moan at that can I? This is an Iron Fist dress and one I had been contemplating buying for a while now. Originally £44.99 and in the sale for £26.99. However when this was put into our basket the price was dropped an extra £10.00 so it only came to £16.99! Bargain or what!? I wore this dress out for New Years Eve and I really did love wearing it. I was really worried that this would be too short for me as it looks really short on the model, but alas this was the perfect length on me. I will definitely be wearing this in the evenings when going out for drinks and for the odd meal. I really love this dress and I can’t wait to wear it again.

This is the last sale item I picked up, and whilst I’m sure I’ll buy more before I go away I just wanted to save one of my favourite bargains until last. I wanted to get myself some new shoes for holiday and whilst I was after a pair of grunge style sandals or some flat shoes I ended up getting these. Whilst in Cheltenham I had a nose in Schuh at what they might have on in the sale and I spotted these Star Wars Vans slip on trainers in the sale. I had my eye on these a few months back but forgot about them until I ventured back into the shop. These were originally £50, down to £29.99! I left it to get some lunch and came back to try them on. Due to my feet being a size 7 and Vans not going over a size 6 in women’s shoes, there was an issue… Although these shoes are for both men and women the men’s ones weren’t in the sale. The women in the store were lovely though and sympathised with my problem so offered to knock the men’s size 7 down to £29.99, which I thought was really nice of them. So after more thinking about it I picked these up! My aunt gave me £20.00 for Christmas so I decided to use that on these shoes, so all I had to pay was £9.99! I can see these being worn a lot over the summer season this year as they’re my new summer trainers. I’m taking them on holiday with me to wear in the day if it isn’t too warm and during the evenings. I wouldn’t say I’m the largest Star Wars fan, but I do really like it! When episode one came out my brother tried to get me into Star Wars as much as possible and he succeeded pretty well. My favourite character is R2D2 and I’m so gutted they didn’t make a pair of Vans with him on them… There is still hope for the future!

So that was my Boxing Day sales haul!

Did you go sales shopping? If so, what did you pick up? Let me know in the comments down below.

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

What I Got For Christmas 2014

I first of all I would like to say that I am in no way shape or form showing off what I received for Christmas. I just thought readers may want to read and see what I received for Christmas this year. I did a post last year about this too and whilst I had no issues, I just wanted to say what I just did.

I really was spoilt this Christmas and I want to say thank you to my friends, family and my boyfriend for what I was given, I loved everything I was bought.

I still have a couple of presents to add to this post, as one of my friends has sent her over to me, and another I haven’t got a picture of so as and when I can get pictures I will update this post.

As you can see, there were lot’s of presents! Due to this, this post will be image heavy.

I’ll start off by talking about what my friend Poppy bought me.

My friend Poppy went over to America before Christmas and each time she’s gone over the pond she’s asked me if I’ve wanted anything brought back. Apart from the perfume and the lip balm, I asked her for all these goodies from Bath & Body Works. I LOVE their Pocketbac’s, as regular readers of my blog will know so the fact she picked these up for me and gave them me for Christmas was really sweet of her! As well as that she gave me a Chloe perfume sample, which I’ve grown to love, and a Burt’s Bee’s lip balm in Pink Grapefruit, which is really nice. I’ve been using this around the house and it’s lovely to use. I’ve never tried the foaming hand wash before but I have been converted and already eying some up to buy from eBay when I get back from my holiday. Thank you Poppy, I love my presents!

Next is a present from my cousin.

I wasn’t expecting anything from my cousin and when I saw her Christmas Eve she didn’t mention that she had bought me anything either. So Christmas Day when I saw the tag on this say “Saw this and thought of you.” I was really touched when I opened this and saw it was fox related. Everyone knows someone who loves foxes, or owls, or butterflies and will always pick them something up with that animal on it. Of course mine is foxes. I tried one of these out before I headed to my boyfriends for the weekend and they’re lovely! These will be perfect for my walks to uni and into work when it’s chilly.

Onto my nephews and sister in law.

They picked me up this lovely Sanctuary Spa wash bag with little wash sets inside too. I’m actually excited to try the hand cream! I’ll probably have these for my boyfriends house, as little bottles like this come in handy! I could also take some on holiday with me too, but I shall see. It makes me laugh how I picked up a Sanctuary Spa gift set for her too!

My boyfriend’s parents bought me some lovely presents this year too.

This is a Nintendo 2DS holder and one that my boyfriend had been trying to get me to buy for quite a while. He has a black and blue version and now I have the red one! This is a hard shell case which keeps your DS nice and safe. Inside it also comes with a USB charger, an in car charger, and a pen stylus. This is really nice and will definitely come in handy when travelling and definitely for our holiday!

My boyfriend’s parents were also lovely enough to pick me up a Lush Christmas gift box that I had been lusting after, as well as some Santa’s Lip Scrub which I had also been thinking about picking up in the sales! Before I even upwrapped this present I could smell it was Lush. For ages my boyfriend had told me that I hadn’t been bought anything from Lush, what a good liar huh? This box set contains some lovely little pieces and I’ll be making sure to enjoy some of those for my birthday in the New Year. I still have my Santa’s Lip Tint (review here), which will go perfectly with the scrub. They also both bought me a bottle of Black Tower wine, but that’s probably been drunk now. Hic!

I knew what I was getting from my Mom for Christmas as I went and picked them up with some money she gave me. Apparently she does have a few surprises for me, but they haven’t arrived in the post yet.

I’ve decided I want to start using Clinique’s 3 Step system again so I picked up the facial wash, the clarifying lotion and the moisturising gel. I’ve really missed using it, so I’m glad to have them back in my daily routine! As well as that I decided to pick myself up a new face powder. I’ve been using this one the past few days and it’s REALLY good! I need to get a little powder mitt for it, as whilst I thought you automatically got one with the powder, you actually don’t… Which I thought was bad. I’ll pick one up when I’m near a MAC counter next. I’ll be reviewing this at some point after my holiday, it’s amazing!

My Dad on the other hand got me some surprises, which I really loved! I knew I would be getting Pandora, but I didn’t know that he wasn’t picking something out for me that he liked, he usually just gets a list of charms I like and picks from those.

This one is definitely picture heavy and I did realise after taking the pictures that they aren’t the best of quality either… I will be doing an updated Pandora bracelet post soon mind so I can show them off properly then! My Dad got me this cute little angel and telephone box charms and explained the meaning behind them. The telephone box has such lovely detailing on it, such as the little Pandora logo about Telephone, as well as the red Union Jack print on the top and “Call me” on the bottom. They’re the most thoughtful charms on my bracelet to date and for that these are probably two of my favourite charms on my bracelet right now, I love them so much.

Finally I have the presents my boyfriend bought me. There’s loads!

My boyfriend spotted the Gorjuss range ages ago and asked if I liked it, which I admitted I had for years. So what did he do? He bought me some, some fox themed stuff at that. He knows I love my notebooks and he didn’t buy me one, he bought me two! These are both really high quality and I know already that I’ll be taking the larger of the two away with me on holiday so that I can do some creative and blog writing whilst I’m away. I love these so much, so nice that he picked them up for me.

I knew I had the stickers, badges and the little Pokemon charms as my boyfriend picked these up for me when we went to Comic Con in November, however I didn’t know I had the cute little box and it really did make me tear up when I opened it. As you can see the box says “Smile you are beautiful” which is a really nice message and one my boyfriend says to me quite often. He didn’t make the box himself, but the thought is still there. I’m not sure what I’m going to use it for yet, but I’m sure I’ll find some use for it soon. The charms that he bought me are official and from Pokemon Center in Japan! I love the Eeveelutions, (which also explains the stickers) and to have these cute little charms makes me smile. I don’t know what to use them for yet, but I would love to get a charm bracelet for them so I can collect more.

These were a cute little surprise, but I knew I had something from Sugar Bunny Shop as my boyfriend told me but it was a surprise as to what I would be receiving. These stickers are so cute that I can’t see me using them, it has however made me want to buy some more Doki fox items from the store as I’ve always loved this little guy, but never bought anything before.

 I had my eye on this coin purse for ages, and I should have known that my boyfriend would pick it up for me. One thing I have to say about this is that it is MASSIVE! I wasn’t expecting it to be like a mini clutch bag, but it really is. This isn’t a bad thing mind, as I wanted this for my holiday. It’ll be perfect for taking out in the daytime if I just want to pop down the road to the shops, as not only will this fit my money in, but my iPhone also fits in here really nicely. Can’t wait to start using this, especially as it goes with my wallet!

This is another present that I knew I was getting, as we both bought each other little alcohol gift sets. I bought him a Jack Daniels Honey set and he bought me Bailey’s. As soon as I opened this I ate the chocolates, which were amazing! I love Bailey’s and sadly didn’t have any this Christmas as we didn’t have any to enjoy. My little bottle is being saved for my birthday and the glass in this set is gorgeous and is going to be my wine glass.

 I love Nana and only decided to read the manga after watching the anime but for ages I couldn’t find books 8, 9, and 10 and when I did find them online to buy they were costing me a fortune! How my boyfriend picked these up for cheap, I don’t even know! Sadly I have book 7, which he sadly hadn’t noticed at the time but I was so happy to see that I had Nana as Christmas presents. I have been tempted to take these on holiday to read instead, but I would get through them in no time, which isn’t what I want really. I can’t wait to carry on reading this though as I’ve had it on hold for months though.

Another present my boyfriend knew I wanted, and I had a hunch that he had picked up for me. I saw this in Paperchase months ago and fell in love. I nearly bought it too, but I knew it would be a good Christmas present to receive from someone. This is a gorgeous organiser and I’ll be keeping it with me whenever I go out, as I’m terrible when it comes to trying to make sure I don’t “double book” things and know what shifts at work may clash with classes at uni! So this will come in handy and because Paperchase do their insert able yearly pages, I can use this year after year. The print is the best thing about this, as it’s a gorgeous woodland print, which of course includes foxes. I just love the colour scheme too, as I love a bit of blue.

Another present I knew I would be getting. Please excuse the use of presents to hold this down, but it worked! My boyfriend bought this for me at Comic Con and I’m now hooked on the artist who drew it! I don’t know what I’ll be doing with this picture, but I’d love to frame it in the future to put in my kitchen when I move out… But I do not know when that will be right now. But back to the picture, how cute is it, really? Little Pokemon characters eating rice balls and such? Adorable. Couldn’t say no to this picture. It’s by an artist called Ry-Spirit, whose work you can check out here.

This was a bit of a jokey present from my boyfriend, but a very apt one. Whenever I’m at his house I’ll constantly ask for a cup of coffee and this bell says, “Ring for coffee” on it. We’ve actually left it at my house as the bell is really quite loud, but when we move out I’ll be ringing this for ages. I can eventually see him burning this or throwing it away mind. 😛

This was a must! I’ve used the Simon’s Cat calender since it first came out in 2011, that’s 4 years of Simon’s Cat every month, how crazy is that?! I do really like these calendars though and I also pick up the diary to go with it… Although I don’t know whether to or not this year… I can see me picking it up though. Either way, amazing present.

I KNEW I had this present. I text my boyfriend the day I saw it saying how much I wanted it, so when he asked me what shop it was and such, I knew he was off to buy it. However this being said when I went to open said present I wondered what he had bought, as it weighed a ton! Was a lovely surprise considering I’d forgotten all about it. These smell divine though and I have had my eye on Candy Cane Lane for ages. I can’t wait to start burning this next week when I’m back home. As for Sugared Apple I’ve always wanted it, but never bought it. It smells delicious and I know I’m going to enjoy using it during the summer too.

I knew I was getting a Pop Vinyl from my boyfriend as we had eyed them up a lot at Comic Con and both made a huge list of ones we wanted. I had a feeling he had bought me Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy and my suspicions were correct. He’s an awesome little character and my favourite from the film, but what makes this figure even better is that he’s a bobble head! The detail of him is really nice and he just looks so cute as well. I’m going to be keeping him in the box until me and my boyfriend move out together, as I want to have him displayed nicely. If I didn’t care I would keep him in my car, but he would get stained by the sun and ruined. He’s so awesome though, nice little character to start my Pop Vinyl collection with.

This was definitely the best present out of all the presents my boyfriend bought me. He had hinted he had a big present for me and when he showed me the present all wrapped up and such, it did look pretty big. I saved it until last to open and I had been guessing on and off that it was either a huge Totoro plushie or a huge Pokemon plushie. At one point I guess it was a huge Lady from Lady and The Tramp plushie but I was right with my first guess. He’s a very big teddy as you can see my the picture of me holding him, but he’s also very sturdy too which is really nice. We have been debating whether or not he’s real… We’re unsure at the moment but either way I don’t care as he’s bloody amazing! This was such a great present and I really love him. I nearly picked up a Totoro plushie when we went to Bristol for our anniversary in the summer but I left it. Glad I did in a way as I may not have this guy now.

So those are all my Christmas presents. I was really spoilt by my boyfriend this year and I feel so lucky because of it, but I would like to add, I spoilt him too. 😛

Thank you to everyone who bought me something, my friends, family and especially my boyfriend. I love you all!

What did everyone get for Christmas? I would love to hear what you got nice, so please feel free to do so in the comments down below.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and although I will say it a little closer to the time, I hope everyone has an amazing New Year too.

Until next time, take care all and enjoy your weekend.

Sales Haul!

As most of us have probably done, I went sales shopping after Christmas! I wasn’t at all tempted to try and hit the sales on Boxing Day and I wouldn’t have been able to anyway, as I went to my boyfriends Gran’s with his family for a party. Either way we hit the shops last Saturday and bloody hell it was frustrating! Not the shops may I add, the parking!

We went to Merry Hill as we wanted to go to Nando’s for dinner after shopping and I knew all too well how bad The Bullring can be for sales shopping, so I suggested Merry Hill. As my boyfriend is from Coventry he didn’t knew what to expect as he had never been to Merry Hill before and for what he seen of it for the first time, parking wise, I felt somewhat sorry for him.

It only took us 20 minutes to drive there, but to park it took an extra and therefore necessary 20 minutes! I was about to give up and drive us back home when all of a sudden we found a space in one of the tower car parks and I quickly zoomed into it before anyone else has the nerve to steal MY spot. We parked, got ourselves ready and ventured to the shops!

I have to add I was extremely disappointed with what shops are offering in sales for the majority this year and the only thing I actually managed to pick up in the sale that was on my list was one of the diaries I picked up.

We visited two Calendar Club stands in Merry Hill, the first one I wasn’t able to find the Simon’s Cat diary and instead I bought this cute fox one instead, because everyone knows how much I love foxes! It’s an organiser that has loads of various sections inside of it. This is going to be kept in my handbag for my hours of work, my photography business that you’ll be reading about soon, as well as any other dates I need to know and such. Originally it was £7.99 but I snapped it up for £4.79, total bargain!

When I ventured to the other Calendar Club stand I found that they had one Simon’s Cat diary left and I quickly snapped it up with both hands before someone else came to take it away! It was £8.99 but I snapped it up for the bargain price of £5.39! I nearly bought this on eBay for over £9.00, so I’m really glad I didn’t! This diary I’ll keep in the house but my bed, like I have done with all my previous Simon’s Cat diaries! This is probably my third or fourth Simon’s Cat diary now. I’m not obsessed!

Sorry to show these off to my lovely readers but I bought myself some gorgeous knickers from Ann Summers to match the bra that I bought in November. These were originally £14.00 but I got them in the sale for £8.00. As my boyfriend and I walked around Ann Summers I began to wonder if they were too much but he persuaded me to buy them (I wonder why!). But either way these are gorgeous and everyone woman loves a gorgeous lingerie set. I did have a look at the other items in Ann Summers sale and whilst some were nice, I wasn’t overly impressed, although my boyfriend and I did both see something we liked the look of, but sadly they didn’t have my size left and by the looks of things have sold out online too. Sad times.

I’ve always loved Element clothing since a young age, but I’ve only ever owned one t-shirt by them and that was a huge large t-shirt with one of Bam Margera’s designs on the front. I only wear this for bed! Either way since meeting my boyfriend he has introduced me to shops that sell Element clothing for women and one of these is Two Seasons. We had a look on Merry Hill’s website to delightfully discover that they had a Two Seasons shop there and as we walked around we spotted it and went in for a look. The women’s section was TINY but when I asked one of the shop assistants why this was, she told me that it was a massive section, at least half of the store but due to the sale they’d sold most of the women’s clothing and had to make it smaller so that the shop didn’t look bare. Seems like a logical reason! I found two Element t-shirts to try on and upon doing so I ended up buying this t-shirt! It’s a gorgeous crimson red and is a size large, which is too big for me but it was the only size left and at the moment I like that baggy look and this tucked into a skirt or with some skinny fit jeans will look great any time of the year! I’m probably going to wear this on New Years Day with some skinny fit jeans and a boyfriend cardigan. This was originally £20, but was reduced to £10 which I thought was a bargain! On Two Seasons website this is still for sale at its original price. Two Seasons have some amazing stuff in their sale for both women and men, so go and check it out if you like this sort of clothing.

BTW as well as seeing this t-shirt in the store, I saw a gorgeous Solomon snowboarding helmet that I may buy in the near future! I just hope the next time I pop into Two Seasons that I can find this helmet again as it was a steal at just £55! I tried on the one on show and it fit me perfectly. I just wish I had more money or I would have bought it there and then.

I knew I wanted to pop into Topshop whilst we were at Merry Hill as their sale is usually great and I always find something good in store as well as online. I was in search of some new jeans and maybe a jacket but when I had no luck with either I was tempted to leave the store, but I hadn’t had a good look through the clothing so I sifted through each item and low and behold, I found this gorgeous black skater skirt! There were a couple there one in the size I bought and one a size up from this. The one I bought said on the label that it was £15.00, but the one a size up said £10.00. So I asked one of the customer service assistants if she could check how much it was and to my delight she came back over and told me it was coming up as £10.00 on the till! I didn’t want to worry that the skirt may not fit me if I didn’t try it on, so I went over to the changing rooms and tried i on. It’s a very thick skirt which will make it perfect for autumn and winter and was originally £28.00! I knew I had to have it and took it straight to the check out. This was probably my favourite purchase of the day as it was just a great find and for an even greater price! I know I’ll wear this loads during the rest of winter, maybe even during spring and I know I’ll wear it with all sorts too, so that £10.00 will go a long way!

After this we ventured to Nando’s for some dinner. My boyfriend received a £20.00 voucher for Christmas so he decided to use it on us. We bought a whole chicken to share with large peri salt fries and two drinks. We enjoyed our food and after this wandered off to HMV to grab some DVD’s to watch for the night, which were both Studio Ghibli films as we both fancied watching some anime.

As we were walking out of Merry Hill we walked past Build A Bear and I’ve never seen my boyfriend so excited! He’s never made a Build A Bear before and I think it’s one of his goals now to go and make one. Upon going inside for a look we joyfully discovered that you can make a Red Panda! We both love Red Panda’s and it’s what my boyfriend reminds me of as he’s ginger and when we first got together I dyed half his hair black, with his permission of course!

So we have both said that soon we shall be going into Build A Bear to make one of those together. I’m excited!

This wasn’t a sale buy but I wanted to show it! This was one of the things I was after in the sales, as online Game have this in their sale but not in store… What the hell is with that!? On the way home we ventured to Tesco to buy some food to have for lunch the next day and as I went to the toilet my boyfriend popped this into the basket and offered to buy it for me. It cost £25 and it was lovely that he bought it for me as he said he knew how much I’d wanted it and he wanted to play it too.

My boyfriend has really spoilt me since we got together and I just wish I had more money so that I could spoil him back.

On the Sunday we played this all day and when he went home I finished off the level I was on and I won’t continue to play it until he’s back here for New Year’s Day as I want him to see what happens in the story. If he had a PS3 I would lend it him, but alas, he’s a 360 owner…

So that’s all I picked up in the sales! I have ordered a few pieces in the sales, one is a dress and one are some new skate shoes as my Mom said it was about time I get some new ones. My Vans that I wear pretty much most of the time alongside my Chelsea boots are nearly 10 years old and when it rains my feet tend to get wet. Although I have ordered these, my Mom is giving me the money for them as she’s offered to buy them me for my birthday, bless her!

Those will be shown off in a birthday present post mind.

So, what did you pick up in the sales? Let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all!

Christmas 2013!

To start off this post, I am in no way, shape or form trying to show off about what I received for Christmas and if you already feel a bit sore about this post then I advice you to leave now. Around this time of year I like to read of what other bloggers have been given for Christmas and the reasons behind why they may have received such items from loved ones, family and friends, so I thought I would make one myself as I’ve always wanted to. Plus regular readers may wish to know what I had nice.

I’ve never written a post like this before (from memory anyway!) as I haven’t received this much stuff since I was a teenager! I love everything I was bought and I know everything had some kind and lovely thoughts behind them.

So without further ado, let me show you what I got! 🙂

So this is the big pile of presents I received Christmas Day! As well as two presents from my boyfriends parents, which I will mention and show pictures of at the end of this post.

These were a mixture of presents from both my parents, my best friend, my sister-in-law and nephews and my boyfriend. I also received £20 from my aunt and £40 from my brother, which was lovely of them all! I intend to go shopping with my boyfriend Saturday morning to buy myself Beyond: Two Souls for my PS3 as well as a new diary. The rest of the money will be saved until I find something I really want or need.

A lot of my presents this year were fox related, which in itself is amazing as I love them so much!

This gorgeous fox wash bag with some toiletries in there was from my best friend. We met up Monday afternoon to have a catch up, a bite to eat and to exchange presents. We were going to wait until Christmas Day to open these but decided to there and then as she just got me worked up as to what she had bought me. I had been eying this up every time I went into Boots but never thought to buy it for myself, I’m so happy my best friend bought it for me mind! In the set you get a body butter, body wash and bubble bath and look how cute the packaging is for the body was and bubble bath! They also smell amazing! It reminds me of a mango and passion fruit lip balm I had when I was at school, but my boyfriend commented how he thought it smelt of strawberries. Either way it smells amazing and this little wash bag will come in handy too.

This is a lovely Liberty London Hello Kitty set was from my sister-in-law and nephews. I wasn’t expecting anything from her as she’s been so busy and such lately with the boys so it was lovely that she was able to get myself and my Dad something nice. In this set there is a shower gel and body lotion, along with a shower cap which has a gorgeous pattern on it! I used the body lotion yesterday before my boyfriend and I went over to his Gran’s with family for a party. It was lovely to meet the rest of his family and his Gran is so sweet and Irish so that’s a definite win! 😀 With the shower cap, I can’t see me using this unless I use some special conditioning mask on my hair, but otherwise when I shower I usually put my hair up in a high bun. The last time I used a shower cap was when I last had head lice! Shower caps freak me out to this day and always remind me of when I had head lice. *shudder* Either way this is gorgeous and the body lotion and shower gel smell amazing! I’m keeping the body lotion at my boyfriends to use when I’m over here.

This is all the goodies my boyfriend bought for me and as regular readers will know (as well as my friends who read my blog) this is  our first Christmas together and it sure is a wonderful one to have started off with. He really did spoil me this year and I love all the presents he bought as I know each and every one had thought behind it and for that it’s made each present as special as the next. However I do have my favourite one…

Running up to Christmas Day my boyfriend told me how a lot of my Christmas presents were fox related and I thought I only had one fox related present (which I already knew about) but this wasn’t the case and I received three fox related presents from him! This was probably my favourite Christmas present as I have been in search of another fox jumper for ages (I have my eye on one from Animal… It’s in their sale!) and when I saw this, I was over the moon! It’s a gorgeous cream colour with various different coloured dots running throughout the wool, which is lovely and looks different! Of course as you can see in the middle is a gorgeous fox, which is super soft and fluffy to touch! I’m going to wear this tomorrow when me and my boyfriend go shopping. I can’t wait to wear it! I’ll be teaming it either with a tartan skirt and my Chelsea boots or my wine skinny fit jeans and my Chelsea boots. Also with whatever I chose to wear I’ll be throwing my pleather biker jacket with spiked shoulders.

This is another one of my favourite presents from my boyfriend! He’d sneakily wrapped it up inside the snowboarding pants he’d bought me, which I knew about him buying me back in October. We’d ventured into Forbidden Planet whilst shopping in Coventry one afternoon when I spotted this Lumpy Space Princess beanie. I mentioned this on my December Wish List and was close to buying it myself the last time we went in there, but I’m glad I didn’t as it was a lovely surprise! This hat is gorgeous and soft, as well as warm and I’m wearing it today. It’s probably one of the nicest hats I own and I’ll be wearing it a lot over the winter season, as well as when I start snowboarding! BTW Lumpy Space Princess is from Adventure Time, a show me and my boyfriend started to get into recently! Here’s a video all about the gorgeous purple diva! She’s amazing and I know so many Adventure Time fans who love her. I also love Princess Rainicorn!

These are my banana pants, to you, my yellow snowboard pants. My boyfriend bought these for me months ago but then stated how he was going to get them me for Christmas. They weren’t cheap and probably cost him near to £50, if not over that amount and these babies were in the sale! They’re super comfortable and super baggy, which is exactly what I wanted! I just love the colour of these and how awesome they look on too. I so far have my snowboarding pants and some gloves, all I need to get now is a jacket, a helmet and some crash pants. Then as I learn and get better I can get my own boots, as well as some more protective gear and in the future a snowboard!

My boyfriend wanted me to open this before Christmas but I declined and said I wanted something to open on the actual day. He had told me it was a game and showed me the top left hand side of the box and hinted at, “This is a  game you’ve wanted a while but haven’t bought. Also we thought it was only available online too.” At first I couldn’t guess what it was but after asking if Pewdiepie on YouTube had played it and him saying yes I guessed it was The Binding Of Isaac and alas I was right. I have indeed wanted this game for a long time but after attempting to play it once, whilst tired after Christmas dinner and then once again after Boxing Day after yet being more tired I as yet haven’t really played this properly. However, my boyfriend hasn’t been able to stop playing it!

Everyone always gets me chocolates or biscuits and this year I got this gorgeous tin with two foxes on the front, with some chocolate chip cookies inside. My boyfriend and his Mom spotted this and picked it up for me. I love when people can see things in shops and think of me, which is why I’ve probably received so many fox related things this year. I probably won’t eat the biscuits out of this tin, but I’ll certainly re-use the tin for something! Maybe my lip products.

I always love receiving a new calendar at Christmas time and last year I received a Domo Kun one, when deep down I did really want a Simon’s Cat one. SO when I saw a calendar shaped present inside the big bag I had a feeling it was this calendar. I remember spotting it in Waterstones when my boyfriend and I went into there for a look one Sunday afternoon and I spotted this, his reaction being, “It has stickers!” So I’m really pleased to have received this, as I love Simon’s Cat! When I go sales shopping I’ll be picking up the diary to match, as I’ve had one the past three years now.

This is the final present I’ll be talking about that I received from my boyfriend, and also one of my favourites! I knew I had this present as the one time I visited the German Market with my boyfriend and our friends I stopped at the plush toy stand there and looked at the cute little fox plushies, as well as searching for a red panda one. My boyfriend offered to buy me this and I didn’t really turn his offer down so I said yes and he said I wouldn’t be able to accept it until Christmas Day, which of course was the other day. This fox plush is super soft and fluffy, I think I’ll be keeping it on my bed as it’ll always remind me of my boyfriend. I don’t know what to call him (or her!) at this moment in time, I don’t mind taking name ideas! 😉 Here’s a cute picture of me holding it! My boyfriend took loads, but this one was the best out of the bunch.

These are the lovely beauty related things my Mom got me for Christmas. I actually wasn’t expecting anything from her, as she said to me, “What would you like Nat? I haven’t bought you anything.” What a bloody liar! Bless her though, when I was handed three or four presents off of her I was pleasantly surprised and I love everything she has bought for me!

She bought me three Elemis items, Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, Quiet Mind Room Mist and Fruit Active Rejuvenating Mask. I haven’t yet tried any of these products but I intend to Saturday night or Sunday morning when I’m back in Birmingham (I’m in Coventry at the moment…) and I can tell you, I’m excited to try these! The milk bath smells of vanilla and honey, which is one of my favourite scents so I know I’ll enjoy using this in the bath to help me relax. I did give the room mist a spritz and it smells amazing! I’ll be using this on my bed when I change the covers every week and maybe on the curtains in my room once a month. It’s said to help you have a peaceful nights sleep, which I always long for! Finally the mask, I really can’t wait to try this, however I do have rather sensitive skin, so I really hope this doesn’t burn my skin whilst I’m wearing it, otherwise I will have to donate it back to my Mom.

It’s really quite funny about my Mom also buying me L’Occitane for Christmas, as I didn’t actually know she knew this brand existed, so I bought her some lavender soap and hand cream from L’Occitane in Birmingham, hoping she would like the set. We opened our presents at the same time and we were pleasantly surprised and both said how we had a L’Occitane hand cream to start 2014 off with! All four products are almond related and the only one I have tried so far is the Smooth Hands hand cream, which not only makes my hand feels amazing, but it smells delicious too! I think I have been converted to L’Occitane! As well as this I got a Foot Cream, Shower Scrub and Shower Oil, but this is an Eco Refill version, which doesn’t bother me. I can’t wait to try these out on Saturday night or Sunday morning too! I’m somewhat excited to smell of yummy almonds.

These were the last presents I received on Christmas Day (thus the reason for the iPhone pictures) and it is a Keri Smith book and a dressing gown with my name on off of my boyfriends parents. The dressing gown is a gorgeous dark pink colour and as you can see has my name (spelt correctly) stitched onto the right hand side of the gown. My boyfriend’s Mom bought me this to use whenever I stay over and it was a lovely buy from her! As I mentioned I received one of Keri Smith’s books, Finish This Book. I already own Wreck This Journal and I loved it! I want to soon enough own all of her books but this one had been on my wishlist for years (two or three to be precise) so the fact that I finally own it, makes me super happy! I’m going to give it a go over the weekend whilst I’m back in Birmingham. I can’t wait!

Finally we have the last of my presents that I received and my favourite ones this year too. My Dad bought me two Pandora charms to add to my bracelet that I received in November and whilst it wasn’t a surprise, it was lovely that he bought them for me.

I received two gorgeous charms off of my Dad and whilst he knew I wanted the Mrs Hedgehog charm he didn’t know I wanted the Bunny charm  until we popped into Pandora and bought these two charms, as well as two for my Mom. I love the two little charms I received and even popped the Mrs Hedgehog charm on my December Wish List. I mentioned over there (I think anyway!) that Mrs  reminds me of my Gran and has done since a young age so I knew I wanted this charm when I saw it on Pandora’s website back in November. As well as that after looking at the Bunny charm I loved the look of it. The detail on both of these charms is amazing! The Bunny has a little rucksack on, which has two Easter eggs inside. The Mrs Hedgehog charm has a cute little bow in her spikes, as well as a spotty dress on and a little handbag in her right hand. You can also see her little feet popping out of the bottom of her dress. The detail for them both is amazing and I can’t stop looking at my Pandora. I’m rather proud of the charms I’m starting to get on my bracelet and in the next week or so I’ll have a post on here all about my bracelet and which charms I own, as well as a wish list of which ones I’m wanting!

So, those were all the presents I received for Christmas this year! As I stated at the start of this post, this wasn’t written up to intend on showing off, or upsetting people. I like reading posts like this, so I thought regular readers, as well as new ones might want to read about what I received.

Any negative comments made on this post (as well as anywhere else on my blog) will be removed straight away and reported.

Anyhoo, what did you receive this Christmas? And did you have a lovely day? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I really enjoyed mine, as well as Boxing Day!

Until next time, take care and see you soon.