24th Birthday Presents!

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So on Monday it was my birthday and I aged another year closer to my mid 20’s, boy I feel old! I’m hoping 24 will be a good year as being 23 was bloody rubbish!

Now I just want to add that I’m not doing this post to show off at all, I’m doing it because I want to show any nosy people out there (like myself) what I got as I love seeing what presents and gifts other people are bought and plus I love everything I was bought this year, especially the presents my boyfriend bought me, although one isn’t shown in this image as due to something that has happened I won’t be receiving said present until after the 24th of this month, although I know what it is.

I can’t really talk much about it on here sadly but the Pandora charm my boyfriend is buying me for my birthday is The Waving Cat charm! Due to not having this charm just yet my Pandora Bracelet post will be postponed until the start of February, but it will be worth the wait!

Anyhoo I received lots of lovely presents from my boyfriend, his parents, my parents and my aunt. As of yet I know my best friend has a present for me and I’m not 100% sure if my brother has a present for me or not, we shall see sooner rather than later.

So onto what I was bought and I apologise right now for dark images, when I took them it was pretty late at night (9pm to be exact) so I had to go with what I had I’m afraid!

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The cute little teddy key ring wasn’t so much of a present but just a cute little thing that I got on the birthday card my Dad bought for me. I don’t know what I’m going to do with said key ring, I have contemplated putting it on my car keys but I’m not certain as of yet.

The butterfly bracelet here is by Bibi Bijoux and was a complete surprise when I opened the present on my birthday! Due to receiving my Pandora bracelet in November, I didn’t expect my Mom to buy me another bracelet. This is a gorgeous bracelet and has some little butterflies, a dragonfly and a crystal gem on it. It’s a very simple bracelet and can be worn for any occasion. My only problem with this bracelet us due to it being elastic it catches the hair on my wrist, which on quite a lot of occasions pulls them out, I won’t lie it bloody hurts! I probably won’t wear this bracelet as much as my Pandora, as I love my Pandora so much! But if I can try and wear this as an ankle bracelet during the summer, I’ll do just that. 🙂 Either way it’s gorgeous and I love it very much.

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As I mentioned on Sunday my boyfriend and I went to West Midlands Safari Park on Sunday as an early birthday outing, as I didn’t see my boyfriend on Monday, which was sad for me. Still we had an amazing day out together and he bought me this Souvenir Guide Book which has been nice to look through after our day out. I’ll be making a post about our afternoon out on Sunday!

For my birthday he bought me this massive Yankee Candle in Sweet Strawberry. The sneaky devil asked me before Christmas what my favourite scent of Yankee Candle was and I told him this one and that IF he wanted to buy me one, to get a small jar. Bless his little cotton socks, he bought me a large jar and on Sunday night whilst we watched The Cat Returns, I burnt the candle. However I’m refusing to burn it anymore until I can pick up a large shade as it’s already started to well and I don’t want that! It was so lovely of him to buy me such a massive candle and it smells beautiful too, it’ll be perfect for spring and summer.

We have another present from my Mom, Paul Smith’s Rose EDP in a huge 100ml bottle! Back in my third year of University my Mom was bought this by my brother after I mentioned to her what a gorgeous smell it was. Whenever I smell Rose it reminds me of my best friend, as she wore this all the time when we were at University for nights out. After a while my Mom began to dislike the perfume and passed it down to me. Only recently I used up my 100ml bottle that she gave me and noticing this, she bought me a new one. It was lovely of her as I’ve really missed using this perfume. As well as my best friend it somewhat reminds me of my Gran, as whenever I wore this she would comment how lovely I smelt.

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My boyfriends parents bought me three lovely presents for my birthday and when my boyfriend passed me the present and informed me who it was from, I was pleasantly surprised! I wasn’t expecting anything from them and it was lovely of them to get me something.

I was bought this real leather notebook with my name added to the front alongside a pink Parker pen! I LOVE stationary and it’s been years since I had a Parker pen so it’s lovely that they bought me one. It’s blue ink too which is lovely. After taking these pictures I started using the notebook and pen and so far I’ve written some blog post ideas down! I don’t know what else I’ll be using this blog for, possibly somewhere to write things down to help with my spending ban too. But for now, it shall be my blog book!

You can see my Pandora bracelet on the notebook, but that shall be saved until last!

DSC_0006The 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die was also a present from my boyfriends parents and I have to add how this book weighs a lot! I do read a lot (although in the past year I don’t recall even finishing reading one book! :S) and my boyfriend commented on the idea of every time I read a book featured in this book, to tick it off which I think I will do. I know when I move out and such I’m going to have a huge book shelf, as I use my window shelf for books at the moment and it’s pretty full now.

Okay now The Body Shop products aren’t actually presents from anyone, I bought them myself on my birthday. As a Love Your Body member it means I get £5 off purchases on my birthday, as well as 10% off purchases anyway! So I decided to use that to buy myself some hand related products as I don’t exactly need any body products and I was rather close to buying some face products to keep at my boyfriend for whenever I go to his. I picked up the Hemp Hand Protector in a huge 100ml tube, which retails for £10.00. When I opened up my membership for LYB I got a small 30ml Hemp Hand Protector for free, which was nice and since then I have kept it in my handbag and use it throughout my shifts at work. As well as that I picked up a bottle of their Sweet Lemon Hand Cleanse Gel, which retails at £2.50. This has actually been discontinued from The Body Shop now, which is a real shame as it smells amazing! I think every time I’m near The Body Shop in future I shall have a look for one of these to pick up as they’re lovely to keep in your handbag!

So my purchases were meant to come to £12.50 but I paid less than £5.00 for all these as I also had 25% knocked off of my purchases too! I love The Body Shop and since November they are fast becoming one of my favourite shops!

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Firstly I apologise for the first image being a tad on the bright side, but due to how dark my room is I couldn’t get a decent pictures of my shoes without flash being used. Although I have paid for these myself, my new DC skate shoes are going to be another present from my Mom who insisted I buy some new skate shoes as my near 10-year-old Vans are seeing their last years now (I hope not!) and that a New Year should mean some new shoes! I knew I wanted some DC skate shoes and especially the Court Graffik style, which is what these babies are. My boyfriend has a couple of pairs of these trainers and so does one of my friends and they just look awesome with both skinny and baggy boyfriend jeans! My boyfriend has a pair of these in black and purple, which I wish would fit me otherwise I’d have stolen them by now! I’ve wanted a pair of these style DC skate shoes since the age of 17 after finding a pair of black and red ones I wanted, sadly when I want back to Schuh to buy them, they’d gone and they weren’t online to buy either. I haven’t found them since then, but if I do in my size I’ll soon snap them up! Anyhoo I tried these on as soon as they arrived and I love them!

Yes they aren’t exactly fashionable but deep down I’m still a skater kid and I love to dress down in my baggy jeans and baggy or tight fitted t-shirts, alongside with my skate shoes. PLUS skate shoes are some of the comfortable shoes to wear when you have to walk a lot, fact!

DSC_0004Elephant Charm

Finally we have come to my Pandora bracelet and what charm my Dad bought me for my birthday. I haven’t yet had chance to wear this out with my new charm on it, but I’ll be doing that over the weekend, which will be great! I didn’t know which charm I wanted and had a good look on Pandora’s website for some ideas. It had stated on their website that this elephant charm had infact sold out and had sold out in stores too, so I gave up hope of getting this one and looked at another elephant charm instead. When we got into the store I had a look at the charms to see that the elephant charm I had seen in the first place was in there and for sale. So after a while of deciding between this, the other elephant and a turtle I decided upon this one! I love this charm, it’s so cute and right up my street. My bracelet so far is mostly animals, which is strange to me!

I have seen some more charms I would like, so I’ll be making another wish list later on this year (probably June) and surprise, surprise, I’ve found charms with some colour to them!

As well as that I also received some money, £10 from my aunt and £30 off of my brother which was lovely of them both! I’m going to put my money away in my savings, as I don’t really need anything right now and as I mentioned earlier this month on this post, I’m currently on a spending ban.

I also received a Fearne Cotton dress from my Mom but I’ll be featuring that in a What I Wore post sometime soon!

Anyhoo, apart from my best friends and my boyfriends Pandora present which will be added here as and when I receive it those are all the presents I received for my birthday! I love them all so much and couldn’t ask for better presents.

I don’t have a favourite out of everything I received but the present I am the most excited for is the notebook and pen that my boyfriends parents gave to me as I love notebooks so much and I was after a new Parker pen so I couldn’t be happier with these.

I hope you liked this post, if you have any questions about anything I received for my birthday then  please feel free to ask in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care and I hope everyone’s week is going well!

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Birthday Wish List

As it’s my birthday tomorrow, I thought I would post a birthday wish list here! I’m actually out for my birthday today with my boyfriend, as he couldn’t get tomorrow off work to celebrate my actual birthday, but we shall FaceTime in the evening where we can talk about things, such as how our days have been so far, as we always do.

A lot of this stuff is things that may have been ordered for me (dress and skate shoes) and things I may have been bought by loved ones already without me knowing, but either way this is my wish list and even if I don’t get this stuff, I won’t care as Christmas just proved what lovely things my family, friends and my boyfriend buy me.

I’m really excited for my birthday and at this moment in time I’m probably having one of the best birthday’s I have ever had, but at this moment in time I am just sat in bed, writing up this post with a cup of peppermint tea and Let’s Play Minecraft on my iPad.

So, let’s get on with the post!

Birthday Wish List

  • Pandora Charm(s).

This isn’t on the image above but that’s because they have a post all of their own, here on the Pandora Wish List post I made for them. Due to my boyfriend being such a cutie, he hacked my wish list and typed at the bottom how he had actually bought me one of the charms on my wish list, but of course I will probably have to wait until this evening to find out which one he has bought me. I am rather excited! I know my Mom and Dad have both said they want to buy me some charms and asked for my wish list so that they’ll know which I would like, of course they knew which charm my boyfriend has bought me too. So maybe I’ll have more than one charm, who knows!

  • Red Panda from Build A Bear.

Me and my boyfriend spotted these cute little guys in Build A Bear and as he has always wanted to make one himself and I call him my Red Panda, it seems like the best time to finally go and make one together! We both looked at all the clothes we could dress him up in when we ventured into Build A Bear after Christmas whilst we were sales shopping and both decided that we would go back there to make a Red Panda for me to keep. I know my boyfriend won’t have got me one of these in time for my actual birthday but I’m hoping once he’s back from his holiday that I’ll be able to go with him so we can make one together!

  • Eileena Jumper from Animal.

I mentioned this a few months ago in a wish list post and I still want this jumper! It’s currently in the sale for £32.00, down from £45.00. It isn’t much of a saving to be fair but I do really want it. It’s a gorgeous red jumper with a fox on the front of it and when I went into town before Christmas with my boyfriend we had a look in Animal at the jumper, as he hadn’t seen it before. I tried it on and it felt lovely and soft and something that I could snuggle up in! I would wear this with the black skater skirt I bought from Topshop, which you can see in my sales haul post. I’m hoping the price of it lowers soon as I really want it but £32.00 still seems like a lot of money to me.

  • Sticker Jeans from Element.

Since my boyfriend introduced me to Two Seasons I have gone mad looking at what they have for offer in their sale and I stumbled upon these jeans on their website in the sale. I’m after some new jeans as I’m a tad bored with the pairs I have at the moment and I think these would look great with my Chelsea boots and a jumper to keep me warm. They’re £30.00 in the sale, down from £60.00! I think they’re gorgeous and I love the effect on the top of the thigh. I would rather prefer some boyfriend jeans mind, as I love my baggy jeans on lazy days.

  • Fearne Cotton Velvet Swing Dress.

I already have this dress as I’m wearing it today but it was on my wish list for my birthday or Christmas present for quite a while but my Mom offered to buy it me for my birthday present and I’m wearing it today. I’ve teamed it up with some thick black tights to keep me warm, my Chelsea boots and I’m still trying to decide which coat or jacket to wear with it. It’s a gorgeous dress and I know I’ll wear it quite a lot over the winter season. I love the colour purple too and as this is a swing dress it has a weird cut to it. The sleeves are tight, but not too tight. I find them comfortable but I know a lot of people who haven’t, judging by their comments on the website my Mom ordered this from. I’ve never been a fan of the cut of swing dresses as I find they make you look bigger than you actually are, but at the same time I hate my tummy and hips/love handles, which this dress does a good job of. I have wanted a new velvet dress for quite a while so this was a perfect buy and it gets better, this was meant to be £49.00 but my Mom snapped it up for £29.00! Bargain!

  • DC Court Graffik Vulc Se Women’s Skate Shoes.

On Christmas my Mom asked me if I wanted some new trainers, as my Vans were starting to look worse for wear and that I could do with having some new ones. To be fair they are nearly 10 years old and I have started to notice that if I go out in them when it’s raining, my feet get soaked and soggy feet isn’t a pleasant thing, especially when it’s cold! So I told her I would have a look online for some new ones and I found these gorgeous DC ones! My boyfriend has quite a few pairs of DC trainers and lust after his black and purple pair all the time, telling him how much I want a pair of his for myself. These babies are pretty cheap in the sale at £30.00 down from £60.00 so I’ve ordered them and my Mom has been kind enough to offer to pay for them for me as a birthday present. I can’t wait for them to arrive so that I can start to wear them with my boyfriend jeans. I love my lazy days with trainers and DC’s are pretty great quality, from owning a pair before.

I think that’s pretty much everything from my birthday wish list! It wasn’t ever going to be a long list because I don’t really mind what I get for my birthday as it’s always the thought that counts, isn’t it?

I’ll be writing and posting about my birthday anyhoo especially after today as well as tomorrow if I do anything for it, but chances are I’ll probably stay in bed, or maybe venture out for a walk, we shall see!

Either way I’m excited for my birthday tomorrow and I haven’t been excited for a birthday for quite a long time.

I hope everyone’s had a good weekend, I know I will be!

Until next time, take care all and see you soon!

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8 Most Worn Things Tag

Happy Bank Holiday everyone! I hope everyone’s day is going well so far! I’ll be at work when this post is made live on my blog, but by the time I get home I’ll have met my boyfriend at work and be cooking us dinner and having some much-needed cuddle time after not seeing each other for over a week. Which believe you and me, has sucked!

But anyway, another week, another tag!

I really enjoy doing tags, they’re so enjoyable to read so even more enjoyable to join in on too.

After reading Maliberry’s 8 Most Worn Things on Friday I decided I would give it a go myself after she tagged anyone who read her post. Go and check out Mali’s blog, she’s a wonderful person and an amazing beauty blogger.

It was really hard to try and answer some of these tags as I couldn’t pick one item for the majority, but the more the merrier eh?

1. Most worn lipstick/gloss?

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Left: MAC Rebel.
Right: MAC Lickable.

I couldn’t pick one lipstick, no matter how hard I tried to pick between these two I just couldn’t decide. When it comes to autumn and winter I just use both on and off over the course of each week. These are my two favourite lipsticks and depending on what I’m wearing, where I’m going etc will depend with one I reach for to wear, whether it be day or night. FYI reviews for both of these are scheduled for this Thursday and next.

2. Most worn fragrance?

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Left: Freak by Illamasqua.
Right: Loverdose by Diesel.

Once again, I couldn’t pick one and I ended up having two choices for this question. These are both 30ml bottles so I usually throw these into my handbag whenever I’m going to work, a night out or over to my boyfriends for the weekend. The less I have to carry in my weekend bag when I stay over, the better! I love Freak, it smells like nothing I have ever smelt before and as soon as this bottle runs out I’ll be buying another one.

My Mom bought me Loverdose as a Christmas present years ago and I’m only coming towards the end of it now. I nearly bought a 50ml bottle when it was on offer in Boots, but I didn’t have enough money and had to leave it. As soon as I have spare cash I’ll be repurchasing it. It smells really unique too. Both these perfumes are great to use throughout the entire year whether it be day or night.

3. Most worn nail polish?

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Frilly Knickers by Butter London.

This is by far my favourite and most used since my Mom bought it me in May. It looks lovely on its own as well as applied over darker colours. It dries matte so I often use this over nail print designs so that they dry quickly and look nice at the same time. I love this polish so much, I’m going to paint my nails with it later today me thinks.

4. Most worn hair product?

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Left: Head & Shoulders Citrus Fresh.
Middle: Philosophy Summer Grace Shampoo, Bath & Shower Gel.
Right: Liz Earle Botanical Shine Conditioner.

I don’t really use products on my hair and whenever I have I’ve fast regretted it. I don’t use dry shampoo as it annoys me how it is pretty much talcum powder and gets everywhere! Plus I don’t really straighten my hair or design it in any way so I don’t really use gel or hair spray. I just wash my hair with Head & Shoulders to get any dirt and dandruff out, then wash with a nice shampoo, which is currently Summer Grace until I have money to buy some nice shampoo and finally my Liz Earle conditioner, which I love! It makes my hair so lovely and soft.

5. Most worn handbag?

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Front of tartan backpack from New Look.

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Back of tartan backpack from New Look.

I love this bag so much. It suites everything I wear and it’s such a huge bag that you can throw everything in it and still have room for more things. I remember buying it after a crap first day at my work experience at a well-known newspaper (which shall not be named…) and I wanted some retail therapy. This bag isn’t available anymore and at the time I had wanted this bag for months so I was glad to finally have it. I have thought about adding some studs onto the pockets on the front and along the straps too, but whether I do this or not, I’m unsure, we shall see. I definitely want to stick some badges on it… Think I’ll do that after I finish this post…

6. Most worn earrings?

… Okay I don’t have my ears pierced so I’m having to change this to:

6. Most worn jewellery?

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Closed red heart locket necklace.

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Open red heart locket necklace.

My Mom bought me this locket back in 2009/2010 and it’s one of the nicest things she could have bought me. It didn’t cost a lot but it’s the thought that counted. We were in Argos when she was buying herself something, she could see I was looking at the necklaces and said, “Nat you don’t have any proper jewellery do you?” to which I shook my head and she asked which necklace I would like, to which she bought me this locket. Still to this day I haven’t put any pictures inside of it and I don’t really have a reason why. Whenever I wear this I get such lovely compliments and it always makes me think of my Mom.

7. Most worn shoes?

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Studded flat shoes from Topshop

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Yellow, red and black skate shoes by Vans.
Checkered black & white laces by Vans.

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Brothel creepers from Shoe Zone.

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Triumph 12 Eyelet Leather Boots by Dr Martens.
Post about them here.

I’m sorry but I just couldn’t wear one pair of shoes, I just couldn’t! I wear a different pair all the time. I bought my Topshop flats at the start of 2012 but never started to wear them until spring this year. They’re the most wonderful shoes and I doubt I’ll wear them as much in the autumn and winter time.

My Vans skate shoes are the oldest shoes I own and I bought them when I was 16 years old, so they’re seven years old and still to this day they’re pretty much my favourite shoes. If I could wear them for work, my life would be complete! They’re just so damn comfortable and have never let me down during the winter time when it’s icy.

My creepers are great and out of all the pairs here were the cheapest. I don’t wear these as much as I used to but I know as autumn and winter comes along these will replace my flats. This my second pair of creepers as my first pair got massive holes in the bottoms.

Finally my Dr Martens. I’ve owned these over a year now and they’re also my favourite shoes. If you check out how they used to look when I first bought them, you’ll see how well-worn they’ve grown over the year. I’ve worn these in spring, summer, autumn, winter, to Stratford Upon Avon, to Coventry, to Wolverhampton, to Cheltenham and in pretty much every club in Birmingham. I love these boots so much and will wear them lots throughout autumn and winter.

8. Most worn shirt?

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Black poodle t-shirt by Altru.

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The Amazing Spider-Man sweatshirts both from Forever 21.

I actually have five shirts altogether but I cut out two from being in this post due to realising I don’t wear them all as much as I do with these three. I bought my poodle t-shirt back in 2009/2010 from Urban Outfitters during one of their sales. I wore it to university all the time and also on nights out. One afternoon it wasn’t traceable anywhere in the house and it upset me that I could have lost one of my favourite t-shirts. Two days later still with no luck of finding it I purchased another, only to arrive at home to my Mom saying, “Nat I found that t-shirt, it was inside a pillowcase!” but I never returned the second t-shirt so now I have two of them. That t-shirt is also slightly famous, it features on an advert that I’m in for the university that I attended, which is pretty cool.

I love Spider-Man and I have done from a young age and when I saw these in Forever 21 (on different occasions/years) I just had to try them on and buy them. The red one was the first I bought in 2012 and it was something I wore quite a lot throughout the winter months with a pair of baggy jeans during the day and shorts for nights out. I’ve worn it for bed before now too just because it’s so damn comfortable, as well as looks really nice with your hair down and some bed shorts. The grey one I bought a couple of months ago and while it was a silly thing to buy at the time due to the warm weather, I knew if I didn’t I would never see it again and I haven’t since, so it was a good idea to buy it. I wore it for the first time the weekend before last and it was so comfortable to wear with skinny jeans. I’m planning on wearing either one of these at work tomorrow, not sure which one…

So we have come to the end of my 8 most work things and thus the end of this tag.

I really enjoyed doing it and I tag ALL OF YOU to do it too!

Please link your blog down below if you do it, I’d love to see your answers to the questions.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I also hope your bank holiday is going well.

Until next time, take care all and have a great day!

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