Pokemon Center London – My Experience & Haul

This is a post I am writing literally 3 hours after I have arrived back home from our short trip to London… I am tired, unsure of what to do with myself right now and kinda poor. 😛 If you haven’t gathered from the title, I went to the Pokemon Center in London with Dane and we bought some stuff… A lot of stuff as a matter of fact.

I wanted to talk about my experience of the Pokemon Center in London here on my blog, because not only have I been excited for this pop up store to come to the UK (as mentioned in my October wish list here as well as on my October Newsletter) but I am also a MASSIVE Pokemon fan and have been since 1999 when the first generation games  came out in the UK.

So when I heard that we would be getting a Pokemon Center here in the UK, I knew I had to go… However there has been some ups and downs with this since it opened on the 18th October, which is over a week ago now. It shuts on the 15th November, when the new Sword and Shield games come out.

I went yesterday on the 28th October and I’m going to tell you all about it, including the good, the bad and the annoying. I’ll also be showing you what both me and my boyfriend Dane bought too… Because I just HAVE to show you all the awesome goodies we bought!

As you know as my reader(s) I’m from Birmingham and the Pokemon Center is in London. That’s either a 2 hour train or car journey to London for me. We did at first book a hotel and plan to leave early on the Monday to go and start queuing for the Pokemon Center at 5am… This plan didn’t wash with both me and my boyfriend though. We felt it was a waste of a hotel payment when we weren’t even sleeping in the room we’d paid for for long. So we cancelled our hotel, got our money back and decided to drive down early on the Monday morning.

We toyed with the idea of going stupidly early and semi stupidly early in the morning. Eventually we opted to arrive in London for 5am to begin queuing. We both woke up at 2am to get ready and at 3am we left to make our way down to London. It was a lovely quiet drive and we spoke about all sorts on the way down, including what we planned to buy, whether or not we would go upstairs to play the demo of Pokemon Sword and Shield as well as other things.

Before we knew it we arrived! We parked in the Westfield shopping centre and made our way through the quiet and empty shopping centre to join the queue. As we got closer to the queue people were bring brought inside by the security, which was good! It wasn’t exactly warm outside! Not long after we joined the end of the queue we were also led indoors into the warm, which I was grateful for! We joined the queue and sat down to make ourselves comfortable, we were due a lonnnnng wait!

Food and drink wise we made sure to take plenty with us to keep us going for the wait. We took Red Bull and Lucozade, some sweets and we even cooked some pizzas for us to have for lunch… Which we ate half of for breakfast and the rest for dinner in the evening! It was so odd, but that pizza was so yummy yesterday morning. 😛 Some of the restaurants and cafes open at 8am, but I did see some people leave the queue and later came back with McDonald’s breakfast.

We were waiting by Love Coffee, which I toyed with going to for coffee when it opened at 8am. We didn’t bother in the end however, as I was feeling really dehydrated and caffeine wasn’t something I was all that arsed about… Which is a shock for me!

Toilets were close by to where we were queuing all of the day and there was also some drinks vending machines too and were contactless payments, which was handy! I never carry cash. 😦 Security were amazing and if you don’t happen to be queuing as close to a toilet as we were, they’ll allow you to go and do your business and rejoin the queue when you return. Just make sure there is someone around to hold your space, or at least someone nearby who will remember you!

Entertainment… This is something you will definitely need to think about, especially depending if you’re on your own. No matter what time you join the queue, you will need to take some form of entertainment with you so that you don’t die of boredom! We didn’t take our Nintendo Switch in the end as I know Dane was worried about us being outside with it… What a shame we didn’t take it though as we were inside straight after we started queuing. I saw a lot of people playing their Switches together, as well as alone. We only took our phones for entertainment, which didn’t bother me too much, but I could tell that Dane was really bored!

If you don’t take a handheld games console with you, at least take a book and a battery pack for your phone! My phone didn’t go down to 10% until after we had left the Pokemon Center, which was good! But I know Dane’s ran low not long before we headed into the Pokemon Center.

Whether you’re going alone or not, both me and Dane regretted not taking earphones/headphones with us to tone out people talking and to kill some time as well… I made sure to connect to the free WiFi in Westfield as I didn’t want to eat into my data. I just regret it so much… It would have killed a lot of time as I could have binged YouTube videos and listening to podcasts.

I can’t think of anything else here in regards to what to plan for with waiting times… If you have any questions, just ask!

Something that annoyed me at this point of queuing was the amount of people who were taking up LOADS of space, when others (including us) were confined to hardly any space. If me and Dane both sat down next to each other we were practically on top of one another! A couple next to us had more than enough room to move over and give us more space, but the guy next to them wouldn’t move over. Behind that guy there were two guys and a girl who took up so much space. So much so, the guys were both lying down with their heads next to each other. It really pissed me off and they weren’t the only people don’t this. Security should have really nipped this in the bud, but didn’t, which pissed me off. I’ve posted the photo to show you guys what it was like. I’ve blanked out their faces but if you’re reading this who did this, shame on you.

Another thing that annoyed me was hearing people gossiping about stuff to do with the Pokemon Center that just wasn’t accurate or true. I could hear them telling people who hadn’t yet been (I have a feeling the person in question had been maybe once or twice) and what they were saying felt very scaremongering to me. I won’t mention what was being said as I don’t want to openly out someone, but it was frustrating me. I didn’t want to hear it, but I couldn’t help it. It was at this point I regretted not having some earphones/headphones on me… I don’t mean to sound nasty but I just want to be honest. I understand people sharing experiences or things they have read from the official Pokemon Center Twitter page, but to gossip about facts that are not true, is downright annoying…

A lot of people have mentioned online of how they have made friends with people in the queue, but sadly we just didn’t do this… We were tired, bored and hardly spoke to one another. Plus the people around us just didn’t seem that sociable.

Eventually around 8.15am we were moved forward and stood up for the remainder of out wait before entering the Pokemon Center. Security will keep you as bunched up as possible and don’t like you sitting at this point as it can take up more room! This was fine, but I was shattered. We were standing for 3 hours before we entered the Pokemon Center. I appreciated the sit down in the coffee shop we ventured to after.

Obviously we weren’t here at 8.15am! This was us at 11.15am.

Security were amazing! They were friendly to talk to, any questions you wanted to ask they were happy with answering and they made sure that people weren’t pushing in!

There were a couple of incidents where people either thought the queue started where we were and needed to be redirected and a few times people blatantly tried to push in. One guy was “on his phone” and stood at the end of the queue. Security asked him to move and leave and he was pretending to be on his phone, he blatantly wasn’t! He eventually got moved, but he clearly knew what he was doing was wrong.

Another great example of the security was how someone wasn’t feeling very well in the queue and they seemed to be having a panic attack. I think they were dehydrated and hungry, plus anxious so they were taken out of the queue to be sat and calmed down by security. Not long after we entered the store, I saw them in there. It was good to see they had perked up and been able to enter the store after queuing!

Please excuse my fat, tired, anxious face! 😛

Eventually after six and a half hours later we entered the store! We were greeted by happy staff at the front of the store, which was lovely! The store is tiny… Smaller than I thought it was going to be! It was really busy too, which was a shame because it meant I couldn’t “enjoy” the aesthetic of it as much as I had planned to.

For all the time we waited outside of the Pokemon Center, we realistically only spent 30-45 minutes in there. Crazy, right?

Wait… What is that pink thing on the back?

Mmm let’s look closer at that pink thing…

Would you look at that! It’s a lonely Ditto. 😛 Honestly if it wasn’t for the fact both me and Dane had picked up our 5 items each, I would have grabbed this forever alone Ditto. 😛

Look… He’s still there. 😦 😛

You go into the store and on the right you have the tills and on the left you have a section the Detective Pikachu merchandise and the new Galar starters. Still on the left you also have a mixture of the Galar starters again and some London exclusive merchandise.

We made sure to grab a London Pikachu plushie each! We kept one and we also bought one for a YouTube friend Found on Film, which I sent off today for her. FYI she paid for the Pikachu as well as the postage costs and I didn’t charge any extra for doing this for her. Yes, I am annoyed at people buying and selling stuff on eBay, but I don’t mind when people help out others.

Then you can go through a tunnel style part of the store to go to the back of the shop. On the left there was loads of Nintendo Switch stock for sale, including the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles, games and accessories for the Switch and Switch Lite. Next to that was a section FULL of various plushies, especially the cute Eeeveelution plushies! I toyed with the idea of picking up a Vulpix plush, but left it. I can always pick one up when I go to Japan if I really want one.

All along the right hand side were Pokemon Trading Card related merchandise and London exclusive clothing merchandise. I knew I wanted both of the London exclusive hoodies (one has a zip and one has a pullover) and when I went over to both of the hoodies in their sections there weren’t many sizes left! I made sure to grab XL’s in both and shoved them in my basket! I’m definitely not an XL in unisex, but I wanted to make sure that both of these fit me as I’d heard things about the sizes come up small. Plus, if Dane wants to wear the zip hoodie, he can, as it fits him too! 😀

Dane also picked himself up one of the white Pikachu pocket t-shirts too, which he quickly grabbed a bigger size in due to the sizing issues. I’m glad he picked that t-shirt up for himself!

Sadly I did not get ANY photos of this part of the shop, apart from me standing in front of the photo at the back. This was just due to how manic this part of the shop was… The only images I got were of the Eeveelution plushies. 😦

Then for the rest of our time in the shop we made sure to relax a little (we grabbed the bits we really wanted first) and have a nose around the shop. We ventured back over to the London exclusive items and picked up a poster, some stickers and I found some of the London socks thrown on top of the Galar starter merchandise, which I gave to Dane. The socks had actually sold out so we were VERY lucky to have found these!

We finally went over to the Detective Pikachu merchandise to have a nose at what they had. As regular and older readers will know, back in May this year I bought the lifesize Detective Pikachu plushie from Pokemon Center Japan (which you can see and read about here) through YY Kawaii and I still to this day love it! They were selling this plushie at the Pokemon Center in London, but it had sold out by the time I got into the store. However, they did have the smaller versions. I picked one of them up and instantly fell in love with it. It looked so happy with it’s face and it really did make me smile. I put it into my basket and Dane even picked himself up a little key chain version too! Now we have a big happy Detective Pikachu plush family! 😛

That was it! We were happy with all our purchases and headed to the till.

In regards to stock levels, when the queue closes for the day and any other updates in regards to the Pokemon Center, their Twitter page PokemonPopUp is the best place to go for updates! I constantly watched it whilst I was in the queue after the store opened at 10am for updates of what had sold out as we queued. For example I did toy with the idea of picking up the fleece blanket they were selling, but this sold out before we went in… Which I was gutted about! This being said, I’ll live. 😛

We decided to go upstairs to have a go at the Pokemon Sword and Shield demo, as whilst we’ve pre-ordered both the games I fancied having a look upstairs, take some photos and of course give them demo a go on a Nintendo Switch Lite. I’ve actually ordered myself the limited edition one for Pokemon Sword and Shield which I’m excited about! So, I wanted to have a go on a Switch Lite to see what it was like.

One of my favourite parts of the Pokemon Center was actually the photo wall they had upstairs! You could pick up and hold one of the Pokemon that is going to be a part of the new generation and I decided to grab Grookey for my photo. This is the Pokemon I’m planning to choose right now for my starter! I have to be honest (and vain) and say how much I love the photos that Dane took of me here! I’m not as keen on the photo from downstairs in the Pokemon Center and same can be said for the one outside too. I don’t know why… I guess I look a mixture of tired, anxious and stressed due to the waiting and then how busy it was inside the Pokemon Center. Upstairs where the demos were taking place was lovely and chilled, which I enjoyed. 🙂

The demo was fun, for the 10 minutes it lasted for. You were playing through one of the gym puzzles before you go and play the gym leader. I never got to finish battling the gym leader, but Dane did. We both loved it and enjoyed playing it on the Switch Lite! I plan to talk about the Switch Lite on my blog when it arrives next week (maybe the week after) by the way. 🙂

Once you’ve started to go upstairs by the way, you will not be allowed to go back into the Pokemon Center… You’ll be told this as you’re about to go upstairs so make sure you’re happy with everything you’ve done before going to play the demo.

Then when we had finished the demo we headed downstairs for one more photo of the Pikachu in the window and headed to a coffee shop for a sit down, something to eat and drink and chilled with my favourite independent artists Chibi Shibby (check out her store here!).

Shibby kindly picked up the umbrella for me from the Pokemon Center when she visited the weekend it opened! Due to how busy it was I started to get anxious that I wouldn’t end up going. Not only that, but I also worried that when we did go, the umbrella (which at the time was the thing I wanted the most!) would be sold out too. It wasn’t when we went, but we couldn’t see it anywhere!

We sat and chilled with Shibby for a bit and before we know it, we were all ready to head off home. Two hours later we got home at 3.30pm. We were shattered for the rest of the evening, ate our leftover pizza from the morning and I even filmed a video of a live haul and feelings about the Pokemon Center on my Instagram page.

FINALLY I am going to show you the goodies I picked up, the prices and why I picked things up. You know, the usual stuff I say when I write a haul post. 😛

• London City Pikachu Umbrella – £29.00

This umbrella is really hefty and it feels like a “professional” one, if that makes sense? It’s an automatic spring umbrella too, so when you push the button on the handle the umbrella opens up. It’s a navy umbrella with a Pokemon Center London logo and Pikachu on, but it’s inside the umbrella where the magic happens! Inside it’s grey with all the different London Pikachu poses, as well as some UK related things a Pokemon inspired red postbox, a lamp post, green bushes, clouds and even an Eevee. I am beyond excited to use this umbrella, but also anxious as hell because if this breaks, I will cry! xD As I mentioned in the post, Chibi Shibby was kind enough to pick this up for me (of course I paid her for it).

• London City Pikachu Scene Poster – £10.00

This wasn’t something neither me nor Dane contemplated picking up but when I saw it on show in the store, I just knew I had to get it. It was shown to the public a week or so before the store opened, which I fell in love with! I know a lot of people thought it wasn’t anything special, but honestly I did really like it. Granted, they could have done more but in my mind if they had of done more it would have looked too much and then people would have complained about that. You know? So yeah, the print made me happy! This will eventually be put into a frame and put on the wall somewhere in our house! I would have taken this out of the tube to show you all, but I want to keep it in there until we decide to take it out and frame. Dane picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Socks – £12.00

As I mentioned this was something I saw on the starter plushies and I grabbed them quickly for Dane! I would have loved to pick these up myself, but I feel like I had picked up enough stuff and I knew Dane would really like and get some use out of these. More so than I would have, for sure. I’m glad we managed to grab these considering they had been sold out. 😛 These socks feel really quite thick and they’re also really long, which is awesome! I know for a fact Dane will wear these in the summer with shorts. 😛 Dane picked these up in the store.

• London Pikachu Hiding T-Shirt – £24.00

This was originally a t-shirt I wanted to pick up, but left it as I wasn’t all that arsed considering I wanted the hoodies more. I was really happy when I turned around and saw that Dane had picked this up! I had read loads of people saying to pick up a size larger in the clothing as it seemed to come up smaller, which Dane did for this t-shirt. It fits him perfectly, but one issue we both have with it, is that it’s rather see through… This isn’t a problem, Dane can always wear something underneath it. 🙂 This t-shirt is really cool and I’m glad he picked it up for that alone! The London Pikachu is hiding in a little pocket on the front. I love t-shirts with these pocket designs. 🙂 Dane picked this up in the store.

• Detective Pikachu Plush Key Chain – £12.00

This little key chain version of the Detective Pikachu plush is adorable! Dane plans to keep it in his card, which I think is such a cute idea! A part of me was tempted to do this myself, but I don’t think I will do currently with my car. This is so soft and very small! They had loads of these left for sale, which isn’t a surprise. This would be cute to keep on an ita bag or a backpack, as it has this little clip so you wouldn’t need to worry about it falling off. 🙂 Dane picked this up in the store.

• Detective Pikachu Plush – £20.00

I cannot tell you how bloody happy this plush has made me. As I am writing this post I am currently every now and then looking over at it, as it is peering out of the top of the bag with all the goodies in from the Pokemon Center. I cuddled with this a little last night as me and Dane chilled out in bed and I really enjoyed it. I sound like such a kid, but sometimes things like that really do make you feel like a kid again. I just love it’s little face. It just looks so perfect and happy! I definitely have the perfect plushie here out of the bunch… 😛 I have to add here, I loved Sooty as a kid and not going to lie, I still love watching it now for the nostalgia and this plush sort of reminds me of Sooty due to the yellow colour and it’s cute little face. I think that’s one of the reasons it has made me so happy haha! I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Poke Plush – £20.00

Of course I had to pick this plush up… I’d have been crazy if I hadn’t. These sold out not long after we left the Pokemon Center (including the demo section upstairs) and I’m glad we were able to grab one. These were in pretty good stock when we grabbed ours, but this was something I wanted to make sure we grabbed first! I do not have a clue where I’m going to keep this little guy, but at the moment I am contemplating my manga cupboard, if not my cabinet that is full of Pokemon Center plushies from Japan. I love this plush, he’s got so much detailing to him and he’s just perfect! He has a bowler hat on, a Psyduck style umbrella, a tie that is covered in Poke balls and all around is pudgy and cute! He was well worth the £20 I paid. 😛 I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Stickers (4 Stickers) – £6.50

This was a random purchase and was a toss up between these and the greetings cards. I feel like if I’d have bought the greetings cards, I would have never used them… However with the stickers I’m planning on making a little scrapbook for our Japan trip, so I would like to stick loads of cute stickers I am accumulating together right now onto a scrapbook cover… OR do the same with a notebook for myself! I’m also planning on sending one of these stickers to someone in a Christmas card. 🙂 I picked this up in the store.

• London City Pikachu Crest Hooded Sweatshirt – £65.00

This was something I REALLY wanted as I’d seen photos of it and it just looked really comfortable, different and it’s limited edition… Why wouldn’t I want it! I’m not a small girl and usually when I buy hoodies I pick them up in a L… A man’s L more often than not. I can rarely pick up clothing from the Pokemon Center’s in Japan due to the sizing, as Asian sizes are usually a lot smaller than ours are here in the UK. So getting genuine Pokemon Center clothes is rare for me (I say this but I do own one Flareon tee…) so I knew I wanted this. I grabbed an XL to make sure it was lovely and baggy and damn it is!

It’s a dark grey zip up hoodie, so this will be perfect if I’m popping out for a while and just want to throw something on quick. It’ll be perfect for work too whenever I have dress down days and in the summer when I want something light to wear on the way to and from work. On the back there is a gold photo of the London Pikachu, with the year 2019 and London. There is even Mew and Mewtwo on the back too, which I didn’t notice until just now! The hood also has all the London Pikachu designs in, which is amazing! Finally on the left side of the chest is a Pokeball logo. I cannot wait to rock this this week. It wasn’t cheap by the way, I know but this is limited and worth every fucking penny to me! As this is an XL Dane can wear it too. 🙂 I picked this up in the store.

• London Sweatshirt Black – £55.00

This is the final item on this list and it wasn’t a sweatshirt I wanted originally, but the more people I saw sharing it and talking about it, the more I wanted it. I’m so pleased I picked this up and especially glad that I grabbed an XL in this too, although I feel like an XXL would have been better. This fits perfectly with a long sleeved t-shirt underneath, but I would have wanted it a teeny bit baggier… There is so much detail on this sweatshirt and for that I love it!

This is a black pull over hoodie, but it’s being called a sweatshirt with some yellow detailing in places. On the front on the left hand side there is a London Pikachu in a sitting position, which is adorable! This design hasn’t been on much merchandise alone, so I’m glad they did it on this sweatshirt. Below the pocket on the right hand side there is the coordinates of the Pokemon Center in London! Which is amazing! This store will never be there again (unless the petition actually works and Nintendo keep it permanently!) and it makes me feel cool to wear something like this. It’s just an awesome idea and I love it. It’s the main thing I loved about the sweatshirt. Then on the back there is a yellow Poke ball stitched on the left shoulder, which I didn’t notice until I tried the sweatshirt on and Dane pointed it out to me. I honestly love this and can’t wait to rock it during the colder seasons and especially in Japan! I picked this up in the store.

I want to make a disclaimer here, I am in no way showing off how much I bought and how much I spent… I mean let’s face it, why would I show off how fucking skint I am now?! I saved up for the Pokemon Center as I planned to spend a lot of money and I have zero regrets. I am a massive Pokemon fan… No matter what and it’s not like it’s everyday that we get a Pokemon Center here in the UK!

I wanted to show prices so that if people were/are planning to go to the Pokemon Center themselves, at least they/you could see the prices for items. 🙂

That was everything I bought anyhoo and now it’s time to wrap up this VERY long post…

So, what did I think of the Pokemon Center London? I have so many feelings about it that I will list below:

• I loved the Pokemon Center London, even with all the queuing. I waited 6 and a half hours, people have waited a lot longer than I have so I cannot complain. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t love queuing but before I knew it, we were going in!
• I hated how busy it was inside. Some people were rushing around and grabbing what they wanted, whilst others were relaxed and taking their time. I was actually one of the people rushing to grab what they wanted, as I was worried I had travelled all that way to find all the stuff I wanted was out of stock. I didn’t want that worry!
• I HATED how much anxiety I had in the run up to going, as well as moments before entered the store and even when I was in there.
• BUT I loved the relief of when I got the goodies I wanted the most (two hoodies and London Pikachu).
• If anything the thing I have hated the most from the Pokemon Center London is how selfish people have been. I’m not going to go into detail on my post but this store opening has really brought out how people can be.

This being said, I loved it. The child deep down inside of me was really excited for the pop-up store and I’m so pleased that both me and Dane went and we had a lovely time. 🙂

Would I go again? No. Not at all. Honestly I don’t need to. I don’t even think I would go with a friend because I honestly can’t be arsed to queue again. 😛

If you are looking to head to the pop-up store yourself then I will pop all the information down below for you, as there is plenty to take in! 😛

The store is open from Friday 18th October until Friday 15th November 2019.

Opening times are – Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm and Sunday 12pm – 6pm.

You’ll find Pokemon Center London at Westfield London, located at Ariel Way, Shepherd’s Bush, London, W12 7GF in the United Kingdom. The store will be fully accessible for guests of all abilities, and an elevator will be available for travel between floors. Taken from Pokemon website

Pokemon Center London Twitter – Make sure to read this for all the updates! They update it daily including when the store opens, when queuing ends, which products have sold out for the day and even have FAQ’s on there too.

So, are any of my readers planning to make a trip to the Pokemon Center London before it closes, or have you been already? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, including how crazy I am! 😛

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far.

What I Got For Christmas 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all had a lovely day, whether it was with loved ones, friends or even (sadly) on your own.

I can’t believe how quick both Christmas Day and Boxing Day went! We just have that little slum between New Years Eve now and as depressing as it sounds, I’m working today and tomorrow… Which was completely my own choice! YES I chose to work. 😛

However, at the time of writing this, it’s Boxing Day morning and I’m snuggled up in bed and looking through all the gifts I was spoilt to this Christmas and as I always do, I share with you those lovely gifts I received.

Now I understand not a lot of people like posts like these because it’s seen as, “showing off” which I completely understand! I’m not showing off though, I’m just sharing what I received. I love reading and seeing what people get for Christmas, especially when they’re heartfelt and special gifts, where the receiver has clearly been thought about.

If you’re one of those people who think it’s showing off, you can bugger off because this post clearly won’t be for you. 😛 HASHTAG – honesty is the best policy.

Not all my Christmas presents have made it into this post sadly as I’m still yet to receive some from my best friends, but I can always share those in a separate post, can’t I?

Anyhoo, on with the post! There’s a lot of goodies to show off. 😛

The first gifts I’m going to talk about is what one of my best and oldest friends Sophi bought for me! She gave me my gifts back at the start of November so it’s been hard having to wait until now to open them! She bought me so many awesome bits and pieces and they’re all so fab! I’ve got so many Pusheen items it’s amazing.

These items include a Pusheen pyjama top, three pairs of shoe liner socks, Christmas Pusheen fluffy socks (which will be HEAVENLY to wear around the house!), a stationary pouch (which includes a notebook, blue pen, purple gel pen, two pencils, a sharpener and a rubber), a gorgeous notebook (which in turn I’ve had my eye on for agggges!), a pencil case/make up bag and finally some cute little pin badges! There was also some Japanese sweets inside the pencil case/makeup bag which taste AMAZING!

As well as Pusheen, Sophi also bought me a few Lady and The Tramp items, including a pyjama top and some shoe liner socks. I honestly love all the bits that Sophi bought for me, especially the Pusheen stationary to be honest with you! I’ve always been a sucker for stationary but I love using this sort of stuff at work and seeing as Dane bought me something lovely (stationary wise!) these bits from Sophi are perfect. 😀

The next gift I received is this gorgeous fox origami necklace and I got this from my gorgeous friend Sophie… Yes, another Sophie! 😛 I wasn’t expecting this so it was such a lovely gift to open when we met up recently. Since she gifted it me I’ve worn is everyday and I adore it so much. It’s definitely one of my favourite gifts I received this year. 🙂

The next gifts I received were the ones from Dane’s parents, which were all so lovely! The first thing I opened was the Empire Cinema voucher, which I found really random but when I read what they wrote inside it was so thoughtful and cute! It’s definitely the sweetest gift I’ve received so far. As you’ll probably see it says it’s for when Detective Pikachu comes out! You’ll see that I’ve blocked out some information, this is just to keep Dane’s parents names private, as well as how much is on the card.

They also gifted me this gorgeous fox hair towel from The Body Shop, as well as a cute patchouli fox candle, which I doubt I’ll ever burn! I think I’m going to keep it by the front door on our shoe cabinet, but I need something to stand it on before I pop it down there. It smells gorgeous to be honest.

Finally they bought me The Body Shop peppermint candy cane sack gift set. I’m so glad I got this as I LOVE the peppermint candy cane scent and I’ve already picked up a few items in the sales. I’ve tried a bit of the body butter on the back of my hand it’s so creamy and smells AMAZING! I can’t wait to try the shower gel out now, as well as the body scrub.

Next up we have the gifts my mom bought for me, one I knew about and two I didn’t. My mom knows me so well when it comes down to buying me gifts and every year not only does she surprise me, but she just reminds me of how much she knows me. 🙂

This was actually a gift for both me and Dane and that’s a massive refill bag of Australian Bodycare’s tea tree skin wash. I LOVE this stuff so much and have done since my mom bought it me as a teenager. I mostly use it on my face these days but I do occasionally use it all over my body, especially in the warmer months. I’ve already refilled my bottle with this, so I’m really chuffed! 😀

The second thing she bought me is this cleansing brush and it was such a surprise when I opened it! I’d mentioned to her a while ago how I’d stopped using the facial brush she bought me years ago as I found it didn’t work for me anymore… Not as in power, as in what it does to my skin. So when I opened this, oh man I’m so excited to give it a go! 😀 It’s easily charged and turns on and off easily! Not going to lie though, when I opened it on Christmas Day Dane made a lewd joke… 😛 Either way though this will hopefully work wonders on my skin!

Finally we have what is probably my favourite gift this Christmas. My mom had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I mentioned this watch to her, which isn’t the cheapest in the world… So when she said she was more than happy to buy it for me, I was over the moon! I love gifts when they’re bought from someone, as they have some meaning behind them. I’ve wanted a new watch for some time now and have eyed up the Olivia Burton ones since I started my job just over a year ago. As many readers will know, I LOVE foxes, so when I finally saw that Olivia Burton were doing a fox design, my heart was kind of set on it. I showed it to my mom and she sent me the money to order it for myself. I mentioned how you could get your name stamped on the band and she told me to make sure I did just that! As you’ll see, I did and THANK GOD they spelt my name right. 😛

I adore my new watch so much and when I wore it Christmas Day it was so comfortable. I love it. :’)

Finally we move over to Dane and the gifts that he bought for me. He really spoilt me this year and although I feel lucky as anything throughout the year, when it comes to Christmas, birthday and anniversary he always reminds me just how loved I am, as well as just how well he knows me.

These were mostly in the stocking he made up for me, we started to do stockings when we moved into the house and I really do enjoy doing them. 🙂 So some of the items Dane gifted me were matcha/green tea related, which was lovely but so bloody random! 😛 I LOVE green team KitKat’s from Japan and I’ve already eaten one of these whilst writing this post. 😛 He also bought me some matcha knock off Oreo’s, which look yummy, I can’t wait to try those. Finally he bought me a matcha ramune drink… I can’t imagine how this is going to taste! I think I’m going to wait until my birthday to try it. 😛

I didn’t think Dane would buy me squishes, but he did and he did good! I’m not a squishy person to be fair BUT I do like them as they help me relax whilst when I’m anxious or overthinking. I find they’re great when I’m a passenger on the motorway. He did actually show me these and I can’t remember if he said he’d bought them for me  before or after showing them off to me. I LOVE the fox ninja so much and it’s definitely my favourite of the two, but this being said I love the panda ninja for squishing. Due to the way the paint is on the foxes face, I’d worry it would crack, so the panda is going to be my go to for squishing!

It seems to have become a tradition every Christmas now that Dane buys me Nichijou! I never really pick it up for myself throughout the year, so he does it for me. 🙂 I do really love the Nichijou series, it’s something different and a manga series everyone needs to read! They have an anime version of it too, which I also need to watch through, I’ve only watched the odd episode… I might suggest me and Dane watch it tonight whilst we have dinner. ^_^

I love getting calendars for Christmas and when I opened this one from Dane, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect… So when I saw it was Juniper I was so chuffed! Dane bought me the Juniper calendar for 2018 so it’s nice to have that lovely Instagram famous fox hung up in our living room again! I love writing down stuff me and Dane plan, as well as days off, birthdays and even blog events!

This was something I had a feeling Dane had bought me as he showed it me before Christmas and asked what I thought of it! It’s so adorable and I LOVE Pompom Purin. 🙂 I actually saw this when I was in the Japan Centre in London and I rather liked the look of it to be fair. I’m just not sure whether to have it for work, or for the house to keep my stationary in downstairs in the living room… We’ll see but either way it’s so adorable. 😛

Bless Dane, he’s such a cutie! When we went to EGX in September he asked if I liked the Spyro pin badges that had been released to coincide with the game as he wanted to buy them me for Christmas. Sadly I didn’t like the look of them… They just weren’t for me in all fairness. So he asked me to have a look around to see if there were any other Spyro items I liked the look of online, alas I found this incense burner and hey presto! He bought it for me. 😛 I haven’t had chance to use this yet as I need to get some incense cones for it, but how it works is you pop a cone into this and as it smokes, the smoke comes out of Spyro’s nose. Funky, eh?! 😀

This is definitely one of my favourite Christmas presents this year and one I had a feeling Dane had bought me. I spoke recently about this item here and how much I’ve wanted something for the wall behind our bed. Alas I found this awesome wall tapestry online at Redbubble and I just knew I had to have it! Me and Dane plan to buy some easy stick on and remove hooks, as well as some fairy lights and we’ll soon have our room taking some shape after a few years of it looking bare. 🙂

I was rather shocked by the size of this in all honesty, I thought it was going to be bigger like my other Morgana cushion (which you can see here). This was an ichiban kuji prize and as YY Kawaii was selling it, I asked Dane for it for Christmas. Alas here it is! It’s such a cute little pillow and will be nice to use as a head pillow whilst in bed, especially if I’m feeling poorly or under the weather and need to rest my head on something a little more.

These again are some of my favourite gifts that I received from Dane! Again, I had a feeling I was getting something like this for Christmas as I’d hinted to him about it and he’d asked me to put in order which ones I’d like. I’m not only 2 short of having ALL the Eeveelution plushies and I’ve now pre ordered them from YY Kawaii! Some of these were in my stocking and some were in my present bag, so it was a nice surprise when I found out I had another two to open! I cant wait to show all nine of the Eeveelutions off to you in the New Year!

I know I’ve said this for a few gifts now, but this is definitely up there in my top three Christmas presents! I know it’s just a pop vinyl figure and I know it’s just Wall-E BUT it’s Earth Day Wall-E and he’s pretty damn rare now! I mentioned on my post a few days ago how he’s now worth a maximum of £50 on places like Amazon and eBay, so the fact Dane managed to get him new for £15 on eBay is such a bargain. He’s how the original Wall-E should have looked in all honesty and I just love the look of him so much! He’ll be going into mine and Dane’s manga cabinet and he’ll be staying in the box. 😛

Finally we have my number one present, which of course is a Nendoroid! I was surprised to only see one in my Christmas bag as Dane and me usually go Nendoroid happy over Christmas, birthday and anniversary. I bought Dane three and he only bought me one. This being said, a lot of Nendoroid’s I want at the moment aren’t THAT easy to get a hold of, or I’ve already ordered them for myself. There’s quite a few of the Yuri On Ice Nendoroid’s I want, mostly the casual versions at the moment BUT I was missing Yuri Plisetsky, so I’m glad that Dane managed to get hold of him for me! I’m going to pose him as a cutie with kitty ears on with the other two guys. 😛

So that’s all the Christmas gifts I have received so far! I know I have a few bits left to get from two of my best friends, but that’s okay, they’ll be worth the wait. 🙂

I can’t believe the whole hype of Christmas we work ourselves up for is now over. It’s only 4 days now until New Years Eve and then it’ll be 2019. It’s crazy, I don’t honestly know where this month has gone. It’s flown and it’s rather scary to be honest with you.

What did you get for Christmas from family, friends, significant others and more? 🙂 I want to know! I love hearing about what gifts people receive.

Until next time all, I hope you had an amazing Christmas and Boxing Day!

Wish List Wednesday – Deadpool 2

This is a post I never thought I would make and HOLY SHIT am I excited for Deadpool 2! I loved when it came out and I still do love that film. Me and Dane discussed for ages if Ryan Reynolds would return to do another film and we weren’t shocked when it was announced. We booked to go and see it at the end of April and I cannot wait to go and see it next week with Dane. We’re going to make an evening of it, go watch the film and have a meal. I’m so excited!

If you’re an old reader of my blog you’ll know that my boyfriend Dane did a wish list Wednesday post for me 2 years ago when the first Deadpool came out. If you’d like to read that post, you can find it here.

Now we have another film out, I thought it would be fun to do a wish list post myself this time! I’ve wanted to do this since we finally booked the tickets to go and watch the film. I cannot explain how excited I am for it. ARGH!!!

Anyway, enough! On with the wish list!

• Deadpool 5-Pack Ladies Socks – (link)

First of all for an officially licensed product, 5 pairs of socks for £6.99 to me is such a bargain! I’d love to get these as I’d wear them with my Vans at work for whenever I wear my short trousers (I don’t have a clue what they’re called!) at work. I recently started to wear my Eeveelutions socks like this for work and it’s cool thinking that I’m bringing a bit of my geeky self to work, without being out there about it, you know? Also as well as that these would be great to wear around the house, as well as out and about.

• Deadpool Mystery Minis – (link)

My friend Sophie brought these to my attention quite some time ago and I’ve always had them at the back of my mind, but when doing some research for this post I stumbled across them and remembered how much I did want them a few months back. I’d still love one or two of these to have on my desk at work and in my car. You can buy a whole set of them from forbiddenplanet.co.uk but I don’t need to do that. I’ll just get myself (and maybe Dane for shits and giggles!) a couple to open for a laugh.

• Loungefly Marvel Deadpool Tattoo Flash Print Mini Faux Leather Backpack – (link)

Oh man if anyone knows me, they’ll know I love Loungefly. Even recently I bought myself a new Loungefly bag (which you can see and read about here) and I love my Pokemon Loungefly bag to bits (which you can read here)! When I discovered Geek La Chic recently through Estellosaurus I had a nose on their website and discovered that they stock Loungefly bags! I’m not going to lie, they’re bloody expensive in comparison to some websites out there (GAME and EMP come to mind right now) but man, would I LOVE a Deadpool Loungefly bag. Deadpool is my favourite Marvel character, I have to show that love through Loungefly at some point in the future.

• Deadpool Notebook – (link)

I don’t need a new notebook… But if this was being sold for cheaps I’d want to pick it up to keep on my desk at work. My 2017 journal was Deadpool and I loved it so much! I currently have a 101 Dalmatians Cath Kidston notebook as my 2018 journal right now and sadly I don’t use it half as much as I did with my Deadpool one. I really need to tbf.

• Deadpool Wipe Your Feet Door Mat – (link)

Me and Dane already own a Deadpool door mat, it isn’t this one BUT I think we both need this one now. We want to get a door mat for our back door and this is just the best timing ever. I’m going to pick it up at some point in the future. Why not have Deadpool for both our front and back doors, eh?

• Deadpool Katana Umbrella – (link)

I don’t need an umbrella, but how amazing is this one? The picture above isn’t really doing this justice. When you open it you have a picture of Deadpool, of course. The main thing I love about this umbrella is that you can carry it across your body! This would be handy to have when out and about, as the one thing I really hate doing is carrying an umbrella! It’s so tedious and it can’t be just me who feels like that?! It looks like a huge umbrella too, which is even better.

• Deadpool Geeki Tiki – (link)

This is by far my favourite item on this wish list! I mean, do I really need to say fuck all about it? Look how awesome it is!!! I’m not a massive tiki glass person but only in the sense of I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy one, BUT these are awesome. I’ve already had a nose at what others you can buy, but my favourite just has to be the Deadpool one. I especially love that it’s red, which would match with my kitchen perfectly! I wouldn’t just keep this for alcoholic drinks, I’d use it for any drink imaginable.

• Deadpool Ladies Eyes Tee – (link)

I’m really after a new Deadpool tee lately. I recently had a look at the ones that Primark have for sale and whilst they’re pretty good for the monies, they’re nothing special. I love both the colour and style of it and it’s one of the best I’ve seen for ages. They do this for men too, as well as women.

• Deadpool Spatula With Removable Mask – (link)

I think I’ll end up buying this because 1. It’s cheap and 2. It’s absolutely amazing! I mean look at it! I’m never going to say no to adding a Deadpool spatula into my kitchen in all honesty. I might try and pick these up soon and actually gift them to Dane for a giggle for our fifth anniversary next month, which I can’t believe that in all honesty, it’s really flown! I love that you can change Deadpool’s faces on this though, I wouldn’t know which to use really. 😛

So that’s my wish list Wednesday this time and as I’ve already said, it just HAD to be Deadpool related! I’m so stoked to go and watch it next week. It’s officially out Friday 18th but I know it’ll be around from Tuesday 16th so if you haven’t booked tickets or made plans yet, get on it! Deadpool 2 will be here before we know it.

Will you be going to watch Deadpool 2? If so let me know after you’ve seen it what you think! Is there any Deadpool merch you’ve seen lately and think I need to know about? Let me know in the comments, as always.

Anyhoo, I hope you all had an amazing bank holiday Monday, as well as an awesome weekend. Until next time, take care all and see you soon!

 

What I Got For Christmas!

Christmas is nearly over and bloody hell it went by fast! I can’t believe we’ve had the three magical days fly by us and leave a coating of snow behind.

I hope all of my readers and blogger friends had an amazing Christmas and (although it isn’t important) I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas! I know I did and more!

So, (as pretty much most bloggers do now!) I thought I would write about what lovely gifts I got from Dane, my family and friends this Christmas.

I want to disclose here that this is by any means me showing off what I got this year and I never feel like when I read fellow bloggers posts, or watch YouTube videos about it that people are meaning to show off. I love reading and seeing what my fellow bloggers received (as I’m a nosey bitch! :P) as it’s nice to see goodies they’ve wished for throughout the year as well as special meaning behind them! If you feel this is me showing off, click off of this post now because, ain’t nobody got time for that!

NOW! On with the post!

When writing this post I haven’t actually received all my gifts and one of my best friends still hasn’t been able to give me hers, but I’ll be seeing her around my birthday so I can definitely mention it then!

The first gift I want to talk about is the gorgeous little Sylveon print that Sarah over at Raiin Monkey sent me in the post! I wasn’t expecting it and it’s so sweet of her! I’m going to pop it up in the office somewhere so I can look at it whilst doing blog work. 🙂

My friend Jacqui was able give me hers from both her and her boyfriend Chris and it was such a thoughtful and beautiful gift! It may not look like much to many, but we’ve had quite a few cocktail evenings together and my cocktail shaker isn’t the best. It gets stuck and then you struggle to get the lid off. So they bought us this Smirnoff kit, with a gorgeous red and silver shaker in (it matches our kitchen!) as well as a glass and measure cup in! I couldn’t be any happier with it to be honest.

My friend Sophi sent me a little box of goodies and I love them all so much! She sent us some little Japanese sweeties (which sadly we ate before I took my pictures! :P), a Pusheen tote bag and some Pusheen socks, as well as a pair of fox socks. I can’t complain at getting socks and I’ll be wearing them to work to keep my feet toasty over the rest of the winter months! OH and she also put in a cute little Pusheen keychain too, which I’ll pop on my tote bag!

Speaking of Pusheen! Dane’s brother and his girlfriend bought me a gorgeous boxed Pusheen mug with socks! I love it so much and am currently drinking some lemon green tea from it. The socks that came with it are so adorable and have paw prints on the feet. As well as that they also gave me a cute Minnie Mouse face mask as well as a Winky Lux flower balm in green. When you apply it to your lips it works with the PH and turns into a gorgeous light pink! I can’t wait to use this and I’ve wanted one of these since they first came out!

My aunt and cousin both bought me and Dane this gorgeous dachshund pillow which I’m going to have for the chair in the office! As well as that they also picked me up a gold fox keyring which was popped into my Christmas card.

Dane’s gran bought me a little something for Christmas and that’s a Bailey’s gift set with a little glass and some Lindt Lindor chocolates, which I LOVE! This will be enjoyed New Years Eve or on my birthday for definite! 😀

My sister in law and  my nephews bought me a cute little lip butter set, and it’s so strange! They’re lovely and you get three flavours, coconut, cherry and peppermint.. I’ve never used a lip butter like this before but I’ll definitely be keeping these for work and around the house!

Dane’s parents bought me some lovely gifts and one that really did make me chuckle! The first gift I noticed they’d bought me and one they get me every year is a Lush Christmas gift set! This year they bought me The Snowman gift set. This one contains The Snowman bubbleroon, Butterbear bath bomb, Man In The Moon bubble bar and Snow Angel bath melt. I’m super excited to try Man In The Moon!

They picked me up three hot chocolates on sticks! I LOVE these and they actually bought these from one of our friends coffee stalls in Coventry! These are so amazing and work really well! They bought me a normal one, a mocca one and a peppermint one! I can’t wait to try the peppermint flavour and I’ll definitely make it in my new Pusheen mug. 😛

One of my favourite presents from Dane’s parents has to be the Your Name Blu-ray that they bought me! This isn’t just the ordinary Blu-ray either, but actually a collector’s edition so it comes with both Blu-ray, DVD and also a CD of the films soundtrack! It’s such a beautiful film and was one of my favourites I’d been to see in the cinema last year. I definitely recommend watching it if you get the chance, or if you have Amazon Prime as it’s on there to watch in both subbed and dubbed right now!

Finally the present that made me chuckle is this little pom pom… That is actually a panic alarm! You pull the keychain and it makes a very loud noise! I doubt I’ll pop this onto my handbag but I’ll definitely keep it inside of my bag for emergencies! You never know to be fair. I get why she picked this up for me though to be honest! In my old job I would get to the car park at 5.30am, I would be the only one, it was dark and at one point we had issues with people hiding in the dark on the level of the car park I was on. It did frighten me! So this gift whilst being strange, as very thoughtful all the same.

Now onto the gifts that Dane bought me, I’m going to save the present my mom bought me until last. Usually I would save Dane’s until then, but wait until you see what she bought for me!

Since moving into our house we have a tradition now of making stockings up for each other, which consist of cute little bits and pieces, as well as Japanese sweets! This was no acceptation this year and we both gifted each other Japanese gifts!

He picked me up an assortment of Japanese treats, which includes some Puccho sweets in ramune flavour (Japanese soda), some sour candy sweets which are also ramune flavoured, some Pokemon grape gummy sweeties and some green matcha flavoured Kit Kats which are MY FAVOURITE! Finally he bought me a Gudetama DIY kit where you get to make a pudding version of Gudetama to eat! I cannot wait to do this and I think I’ll be saving it for my birthday. ^_^

Also in my stocking I had a few other bits and pieces such as a new refill for my Filofax and what a cutie he is, he bought me on in pink! I need to use my Filofax more this year!

Also in my stocking and presents overall was a couple of little Pokemon goodies, all of them are so cute! The first thing I opened was this Eevee pouch type bag, which is an official Pokemon Center item! I don’t know quite yet what I’ll use this for, but I can see it being for feminine products once a month and maybe some random handbag bits and pieces. This was a gift he’d asked me if I liked the look of when we were both having a nose online for gifts for one another. I wasn’t all that fussed at the time but all the same when I opened it Christmas Day I still loved it! It’s a little Eevee which you’re meant to rest over a glass, but I can see me sticking it to the PC monitor or even by the side of my bed. Another Pokemon gift he bought me was this blind box (although he knew which one he’d ordered) which contain desk buddies. Dane bought me this Pikachu one which holds your mobile phone for you. He bought me this to have for work but I want to have it for by my bed! It’s so cute and such a thoughtful gift all the same.

One of my favourite gifts from Dane just has to be this onigiri squishy keyring from Tofu Cute! I get anxious during long car journeys, as well as in other certain situations! This not only feels relaxing to squish over and over, but it’s also scented with (what I think anyway) strawberries! On the way to and from Coventry for Christmas Day I was squishing away at this, as well as whilst at Dane’s parents on the day! It’s going to end up living in my handbag for when I feel anxious or angry and need to relieve some tension.

One of the presents I had asked for for Christmas after discovering its existence are these Haku chopsticks. Haku is the dragon from Spirited Away and is my favourite Studio Ghibli character! I didn’t know if these chopsticks would be real or fake, but when I inspected the packet they are in fact real and Studio Ghibli approved!

The first main gift that I opened was this, The Manga Cookbook, which also came with a pack of chopsticks! I love cooking Japanese food, especially if I’m craving Japanese and I can’t and don’t want to go out and eat or buy any. This is a cute little gift and I can’t wait for me and Dane to cook recipes together from it.

The next gifts are these two little Pokemon Center plushies, which are like Beanie Babies! I’ve been collecting these for a few years now, thanks to Dane but they’re now so hard to get hold of! I found someone in the UK selling these 2 for a decent price and I didn’t know if Dane wou;d pick them up or not… Alas he did and they’re so adorable! We have a Flareon and a Raichu here and they’ll go so well with my other Eeveelutions, as well as with my Pikachu!

If you got back and take a look at the Christmas wish list I made on Christmas Eve (which you can read here) you’ll see that I wished for a lot of anime shows/films on Blu-ray and apart from one, all of the ones I asked for I got! Two of those being A Silent Voice and Your Lie In April part 2. Alongside Your Name, A Silent Voice was one of my favourite films from 2017 and I’m so stocked to have it on Blu-ray! The box itself is gorgeous and I cannot wait to binge watch it with Dane one of the evenings this week. This is the collector’s edition Blu-ray too, which also includes a DVD and a special booklet that tells you all about the film, as well as about the manga.

The second Blu-ray Dane bought for me is part 2 of Your Lie In April, which is the final part of the special collector’s edition! He bought me part 1 and the special box at the start of the year for my birthday, so now I’m so happy to finally have the box set completed! This is definitely the first thing I’ll be watching with Dane out of all of the Blu-rays I received as I want to binge watch all of this with him! I haven’t continued to watch anymore of it until I had all of the box set for us to binge watch!

Aside from my main presents this was probably one of my favourites to be honest! It’s The Art Of Persona 5 and I have been lusting after this book since they announced it way back in the summer! I’m so pleased Dane bought it for me to be honest as on Christmas Day after I opened it I had a good flick through the whole thing and I cannot wait to sit down with a cup of coffee and read the whole thing, cover to cover. This year I discovered Persona 5, as well as the Persona franchise! I haven’t fallen in love with a franchise this hard since Pokemon and I am so chuffed that back when it came out at the start of the year that I bought it.

Finally we have the main gifts from Dane and my favourites! These are the 2 Nendoroid’s that Dane bought for me this Christmas and I was so surprised to be honest with you! I mentioned on my Christmas wish list that I had a feeling Dane would have bought me Yuri but when I opened Viktor and THEN Yuri I was so happy! I couldn’t have asked for better Nendoroid’s to have received this Christmas and I feel like such a lucky girl. We have no room right now to put these up anywhere so sadly they’ll be staying in the boxes until we have room. But I love my 2 YURI!!! boys so much and I cannot wait to play with them and display them in the future! So many YURI!!! On Ice Nendoroid’s have been announced lately that we will definitely be getting in the future!

Dane really spoilt me this year and I am so grateful for everything I received! I know I have another present arriving that he ordered me, it’s nothing special but it’s the thought that counts! FYI it’s a Macaroon Treats Yankee Candle!

Now onto my final present and definitely the one that blew me away the most. I was so surprised when I opened it to discover my mom had bought me a Dyson hairdryer! I know these aren’t cheap to be honest and I’ve lusted after one since they were announced, so the fact that my mom bought me one makes me feel so loved and special. I still can’t believe she bought it for me and after trying it, I really do adore it. I wish she could read how thankful and grateful I am.

So those were all the goodies I got for Christmas and I am so, SO thankful to everyone who bought myself, as well as Dane gifts this year!

What did you get for Christmas? Big or small I would love to hear what you got from loved ones. You know where to tell me. 😉

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re all resting after loads of Christmas and Boxing Day dinners!

Last Minute Christmas Ideas

It’s only a week until Christmas now and although myself and Dane have finished our Christmas shopping I know of a lot of people who probably haven’t even started yet! My parents for example leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute.

SO this Christmas ideas list will be handy if you’re like them! This list will cater to men, women, children, and teenagers.

• Zoella On My Travels Back Pack – £50.00 *currently £30.00* (link)

This is a great present idea for a woman of any age but I would say this is more for a teenager or student, especially if they’re a fan of the YouTube star Zoella, who has teamed up with Boots this year to create some lovely gifts for Christmas. Inside this gorgeous grey backpack you get a ceramic takeaway cup for those hot drinks, a keyring for your keys and some pencils. You can’t really go wrong with something like this. Hell I’d love it but I have enough bags to last me a lifetime. 😛

• Stormtrooper Decanter – £21.00 (link)

This is the perfect gift for anyone who loves Star Wars, but I would say more so for your boyfriend, brother or even your dad. It’s a decanter which you can pop any alcoholic choice in. I was going to get one of these for Dane and fill it with Jack Daniels, but I left it. BUT you don’t have to fill this with alcohol! You could always buy some cheap battery operated fairy lights and put them into the decanter, leaving the on and off switch outside. This was another idea I had for Dane for Christmas, but again I left it. May have to do it though now as he loves this.

• Lush Rudy and Pip Gift Set – £11.95 each (link) & (link)

Look how adorable these two little gift sets are! These will make lovely last minute gifts for children and even secret Santa gifts. My favourite of the two is Rudy. If you want to get one or even both of these though you will have to hurry as Lush run out of things like this super quickly as Christmas grows closer.

• Pokemon Christmas Pikachu Mug – £7.99 (link)

Who doesn’t like to get a mug for Christmas? Or any occasion for that matter! I have eyed this mug up myself many times over December so far but I don’t really need anymore mugs… BUT this would make a great addition to any Pokemon fans cupboard, or even their desk at work! Yeah it’s Christmas themed, but sod that, I’d use it all year around. 😛

• Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cupcake In A Mug – £9.99 (link)

It’s funny because I’ve actually bought this mug for Dane for Christmas as he spotted it in Lakeland last night and really liked it. It’s also a present he’s received early which is kinda nice. On the mug there is a guide and ingredients as to how to make a chocolate and peanut butter cupcake in the microwave,  which Dane really liked. So this is a definite mug for anyone you know who doesn’t just love cake, but loves anything chocolate and peanut butter flavoured. It also makes an amazing mug for big cups of coffee!

• Pusheen Shaped Purse – £7.99 (link)

I LOVE Pusheen and although I wouldn’t be bothered about receiving something like this, I know a lot of little girls who would! I loved when I was bought my first coin purse as a little girl. I was able to keep my pennies in there for sweeties and pound shop treats. Pusheen is starting to become a more known thing in the UK now after being out in America for agggges and little girls go crazy for her. So why not get a lovely little coin purse and pop some silver in there for good luck. 🙂

• Hamster Hottie – £9.00 (link)

I LOVE hotties and I recently bought myself a new one, as well as buying one of my best friends one for Christmas. They’re a lovely gifts to receive for Christmas due to how cold it is, as well as in general! I bought my friend Jacqui hers as it was Gromit, who she loves! But also because I know she would appreciate the warmth of it. I love mine because I like to snuggle it when I have bad period pain, or in bed and on the sofa if I’m chilly and need something to warm me up a little bit. These are great for anyone of any age and you can pick so many different varieties and animals up which is great!

• Christmas Slipper Socks – £12.00 (link)

This a cheesy Christmas gift, but a nice one if you’re stuck for ideas on what to get a male secret Santa, boyfriend, brother or your dad. I’ve bought these for Dane as his feet are always cold, I wanted something nice/cheesy for him to wear Christmas day and he wanted them! They have cute little bells on which jingle as you walk and some support on the soles so that you won’t slip on wooden flooring (which is handy in our house seeing as all downstairs is wooden floor!). I am just so excited for him to wear these Christmas!

So those are just some of my ideas for some quick last minute Christmas presents! There are hundreds more I could have added to be honest. Check out Boots for some good ideas, as well as your local supermarkets! M&S had a 50% off gifts sale recently, which I’m sure is still on so that is definitely worth checking out!

I hope everyone isn’t stressing too much with presents and even food for next week. Have you finished all your Christmas shopping? If so what was your best purchase this year for someone? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope everyone is getting excited! Only 7 days now!

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April ’16 Wish List

Oh hello April, you’re here early?! Easter has come and gone, and the kids are currently on their Easter holiday’s still. Spring is officially here too, the clocks have gone forward, and people are moaning about not getting any sleep. Oh wow is them! 😛

I’m still on a spending ban, and apart from buying my boyfriends birthday presents last month, I have been really good so far! Alas, a spending ban doesn’t stop me from creating my monthly wish list, so here is it for month number four of the year.

• Pokemon I Love Mew Plushie – £27.55 (link)

I remember these cute plushies being announced back before the start of 2016 and I just KNEW that I would need one in my life, mostly this one pictured about. The little cutie is giggling with its eyes closed and hands on its cheeks. I don’t think these are very big plushies, which is nice for popping on the side, or on your bed. There are various people on eBay selling these, at various different prices, and from mostly Japan. I love Mew, they’re my favourite Pokemon (alongside the Eeveelutions) so I kinda need one of these in my life. Childish as it may be, I don’t care. Life is short!

• Deadpool Pewter Keyring – £4.50 (link)

I love Deadpool… I think people who come onto my blog know this from just reading my profile alone! I loved Deadpool before it was cool by the way 😛 I don’t like to hoard keyrings, this is something I used to do when I was younger and I’ve grown up from that now! I’ve been looking for a pewter Deadpool keyring for ages, and as of yet I haven’t been able to find one. Whilst my hunt for one has somewhat come to a stop, at the same time I’m still waiting, as this is out of stock at Forbidden Planet. OH WOE IS ME! This was actually one of the items I would have bought for my boyfriends birthday, but alas I wasn’t able to.

• Lady and The Tramp Boypants – £4.00 (link)

There is a lot of Lady and The Tramp items in this wish list this month… I don’t know why! For once there just seems to be a lot of said items on the market at the moment… Which makes me happy! I have enough knickers to last me a life time, but I just can’t say no to anything with these two cuties on. Topshop don’t only do their 3 for £10 on their knickers, but they also do student discount. So whilst I’m meant to be on a spending ban, I may just have to treat myself to these very soon. You can never have enough knickers!

• Reese’s Pajamas – £25.99 (link)

Just want to first of all say, these are from Primark but as I rarely go out shopping anymore and don’t step foot into Primark when I do, I’m having to resort to eBay for these. I love Reese’s peanut butter cups. Fattening, but oh so yummy! I know loads of people who love them too, and I’ve made my own “healthy” versions of the yummy snack. In the summer last year I picked up some short pajamas from Primark with the same Reese’s logo on. I love the look of these pajamas as they look snug and comfortable, with the awesome Reese’s logo all over the bottoms. I could just buy the bottoms for £14.99 but for another £11.00 I may as well get the whole set.

• Lady and The Tramp Letters Mug – £7.99 (link)

As I have previously stated, I love Lady and The Tramp so when I saw that The Disney Store had a new mug up for sale, I just fell in love. I want to order it as soon as I get paid from work, or at least pop into the store and pick it up, alongside the Eve mug, which I’ll be talking about shortly. I love Disney mugs, and whenever I get my own house that’s pretty much what all my mugs are going to be! xD

• Billabong Iti Jacket in Black Cherry – was £96.00 now £48.00 (link)

I am after a new jacket for spring and summer. I fancy something red or yellow. 😛 This is a winter jacket to be honest, but I still really like the look of it for autumn and winter time! It is pretty damn expensive at £48.00, so I am keeping my eye on it to see if it’ll go down even further. I’ve seen this in person and it is a gorgeous jacket and one that is perfect for seeing you from season to season. I love it in the black cherry colour, it’s a gorgeous colour and something different. You can also pick it up in Off Black and Grunge Green, so if you like the look of it but want a different shade to the dark red, you have a couple of options.

• Shades of Kawaii: A Cute Colouring Book – £4.99 (link)

I LOVE colouring books, and recently me and Dane spend out evenings and days off colouring in together, and watching movies. They’re just so damn relaxing to do, and we just both enjoy doing them together. He has a Deadpool one which I bought him, and I have three, a dog one, a seasons one, and an animals one. Yeah, I have enough to last me a lifetime… But I’m sucker for anything Japanese and kawaii, so of course I really like the look of this colouring book. I can see us doing more and more colouring over the next couple of months.

• Eve 3D Mug – £9.95 (link)

The other mug I said I was going to talk about from The Disney Store. I have the Wall-E mug that goes with this one, and when I finally get my own house I really want to get this mug so that I have the cutest (and my favourite) Disney Pixar couple ever. I love my Wall-E mug and how it’s a square shape, so it’d be nice to get this one too, which is a more “normal” shape. Perfect for hot chocolates, and cups of tea. It is more on the pricey side, but sod it. We only live once.

• Lady and The Tramp Socks – £3.50 (link)

The final item on my wish list that I’ll be talking about is of course Lady and The Tramp themed. Oh boy! 😛 As you can see, they’re these lovely ankle socks, again from Topshop like the boyshorts. I don’t really need any socks, but meh I can’t deny these! Like the knickers Topshop do an offer on socks, 3 for £8 so I think I may have to take up this offer when I buy the knickers. 😛

So that was my wish list for April! I’m still on my spending ban, but I may have to treat myself to a couple of things on this list, it depends how I feel, and also how my bank account feels. 😛

What do you have on your wish lists for April? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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

Christmas Presents!

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

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

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

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

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

So, here are my presents!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Very Much Needed Haul!

I’m meant to be saving money, but for some reason towards the end of my second semester of uni I suddenly felt the urge to buy myself some things. Things that whilst I can afford, I shouldn’t really buy. However a majority of these items were in the sale, so it wasn’t too bad! Plus a couple of things were free and one was a gift, but I’ll go into detail about this.

I’ll talk about each item in order of when I bought them.

Towards the end of April me and my boyfriend decided to treat ourselves to a new game for our 2Ds’s and that game was the latest Pokemon, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Since then we’ve played them loads, but my boyfriend has already completed his! I’ve been too busy with my uni work to play but when I’ve handed my last assignment in Thursday, I’ll be able to complete the story!

I’d read a review recently about Makeup Revolution’s new Iconic Pro lipsticks and whilst I didn’t need anymore (or any new ones for that matter) the two I had spied were dupes of MAC Heroine and possibly Violetta, two lipsticks I have had my eye on for quite some time. So, for £2.49 each I thought, what the hell! I ordered Liberty in both the matte finish and the standard finish, which looks creamy, yet glossy. These are gorgeous lipsticks and since buying them I’ve worn them  nearly everyday. I’ll definitely have to review these in the future as not only are they MAC dupes, but the packaging also reminds me of MAC too. Really can’t go wrong for the price. The only thing I disliked was how much the postage was, and what made it worse was how long it took them to arrive! Not very pleased about it, but they’re here now and were definitely worth the wait!

This was intended to be the only treats I was going to buy myself this month, but alas after ordered those lipsticks, I couldn’t stop.

I use Love Sales to tell me when products I want to buy go into the sale. The second said item goes down in price I get an email about it. This happened a lot that same day due to New Look having a sale. I’ve seen a lot of items I wanted from there, so alas those items were put on sale. A lot of items I wanted weren’t available in my size, but the ones I picked up were.

I picked up this crop top, which I’ve been wanting for ages! It was listed under New Look’s 70’s trend, which I’ve really been liking this spring so far. I’ve wanted some more crop tops for a while as whilst I don’t like my tummy, my waist is pretty awesome! I can wear something high-waisted (probably black shorts, jeans, disco pants, or a skirt) and it’ll look awesome all year around. When I tried this on it felt a little tight, but I think this is how it’s meant to be. It makes my boobs look awesome too, so I’m glad I picked this up! It was originally £7.99, down to £4.00, bargain! I’m really pleased I picked this up. It’s going to be the start of me getting more body confident again. Although this being said, I haven’t yet found anything high-waisted that I like the look of. I’ll have to keep looking.

I’ve wanted this dress for months and looked in every store imaginable to try and track it down to try on and buy. I looked in two Coventry stores, three Birmingham stores, Milton Keynes, Cheltenham, and Leicester, and no one could help me! They all told me to order it online. But I left it, I don’t tend to like ordering clothes online… However when this popped up in the sale, I couldn’t resist. At the time of ordering there was only one size left, which is one-two sizes too big for me, but I could get it taken in and it would be okay. And to be honest, with how self-conscious I am about my weight lately I thought, “You’ll probably fit into it anyway… You’re getting fat.” However, when it arrived and I tried it on, it turns out it was too big for me! Deep down I was so damn happy! But the story doesn’t even here about that dress. The next day I had a look online to see if they had any of my sizes left, which they did! So my boyfriend was nice enough to order it for me and so, when that dress arrived and fit okay, I took the one I ordered back to the store. Happy days! I’m so pleased I finally got this dress and at a bargain too, it was originally £22.99, down to £10. TEN WHOLE POUNDS! So pleased! I already know how I want to wear this and will wear it all year around. I wore it to a party recently and I loved it. I had nothing but compliments and it really did make me feel like a blast from the past with its 60’s/70’s look to it.

Both of these items were spoken about on one of my wish list Wednesday’s posts, which you can check out here.

Something else I decided to pick up from New Look were these cute little poodle socks. I’m a sucker for anything with a poodle on it and of course I just had to get these. You can never have enough pairs of socks, especially me! These were originally £1.99, down to £1.00. Can’t complain for that money.

Without flash

With flash

Out of pure boredom on my day off from work I had a look at Topshop’s sale to see if I could spy anything nice for a bargain and I came across these shoes. I have had my eyes on a pair of Vagabond sandals for nearly a year now and I still don’t own them. Why? Because they’re just too damn expensive! Like the New Look items I had them on Love Sales and waited patiently for them to drop in the sale, but they didn’t drop to as much as I hoped they would. However, on the Topshop sale they had some shoes somewhat similar to the Vagabond ones. I wasn’t sure whether to order them… So I waited until my boyfriend was home from work and asked for a second opinion. He agreed on the reasons why I wanted them and so I ordered. Instead of paying £3.00 to have the delivered home, I decided to opt for free delivery to my nearest store. The sales assistants were lovely in store and I tried them on there and then. They fit me lovely and I was so excited to take them home! These were the best bargain out of the lot at a cheap £15.00 down from £40.00! They’re not real leather, but I’m not fussed about that. These will go with loads of things over the spring and summer months, hell even the warmer autumn days! I’ll probably team these up with the crop top, as well as the dress. I’ve already worn them with the dress and they looked awesome! When I first tried these on they did seem a hell of a lot higher than I thought they would be, but they’re really easy to walk in and very comfortable. I can’t wait to wear these more throughout the summer.

L-R: Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub, Soap & Glory Whipped Clean Shower Butter, and Garnier Pure Active 3-in-1 Wash Scrub & Mask

I needed to pick myself up some bits and pieces from Boots, these being a face and body scrub. So I took advantage to Boots 3 for 2 offer and decided to treat myself to Soap & Glory’s Sugar Crush Body Scrub and although I haven’t tried it yet on my body, I have tried it on the back of my hand and it feels gorgeous and smells delicious! I love the Sugar Crush line and it smells delicious, just like key lime pie! I’ve owned the shower gel in the past and was tempted to pick it up for this offer, but left it this time. This cost me £8.00.

Instead I picked up Soap & Glory Whipped Clean Shower Butter, which I have had my eye on to try for quite some time. What really encouraged me to buy it is the fact it smells JUST LIKE pistachio ice cream, which I adore. This shares the same scent as Smoothie Star Body Milk, and I can only imagine it does with the Smoothie Star Body Buttercream, and the Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub. I tried this out the day after I bought it and it’s really nice to use! I imagine it’s like the Nivea in shower moisturiser as it did leave me feeling moisturised for a while, but my skin soon went dry in patches. This being said, my skin is very dry. I’ll be test driving this out more throughout June! This cost me £7.00

The item I picked up for free was what I settled on as my new face scrub, this being Garnier’s Pure 3-in-1 Wash Scrub & Mask. I’ve heard nothing but good about this and have wanted to try it for a while, but never did. However I thought what the hell this time and also gave this a go as a scrub the day after I bought it too and it really did feel nice to use! I of course haven’t noticed much change yet, but it didn’t dry my skin out which I liked. I can’t wait to try this as a mask as I really want to start using face masks again. This was on sale at the time of purchase for just over £3.00 but it’s now priced on the website as £5.99.

L-R: Ocean Salt, Ultrabland, and Let The Good Times Roll

Whilst I was out shopping with my boyfriend and before I picked up my items from Boots I ventured into Lush to check out their face and body scrubs, as I contemplated buying one from them. I had Ocean Salt and Rub Rub Rub in mind. The woman who served me was lovely and very chatty about Lush products. She also let me try out loads of products which was nice! However some of the things she was telling me about products I know from my personal research in the past were incorrect and I was somewhat confused about that. But I know she meant well and was speaking more from her own experience, as opposed to what they’re taught about the products. She was so lovely though that she gave me enough samples to last me for quite a few weeks. I nearly picked up Rub Rub Rub or You Snap The Whip, but I left it as to be honest, Lush is expensive and in my mind is something you only pick up as a treat.

The samples she gave me are Ocean Salt, Ultrabland, and Let The Good Times Roll. I’m really excited to try Ocean salt and Let The Good Times Roll, not so much for Ultrabland though. I tried this out in store and it felt so greasy on the back of my hand. This isn’t something I want to feel on my face… But I’ll still give it a go!

My family recently came back from a holiday and were lovely enough to bring me back this set of OPI Nail Lacquers with some of the Hawaii Collection inside. I’ve painted my nails and toes with some of the shades already and they’re gorgeous! I’m so grateful for the thought behind these and I know I’ll be rocking them throughout the summer! I’ll definitely be reviewing these soon.

I’m so pleased with my purchases and I’m really happy I treated myself to a few goodies. I’ve just about finished my second semester of university and I won’t lie when I say I feel like a weight has been lifted… Somewhat. I need to wait to see how I did first before the weight is fully gone. But for now I am due to start working on my dissertation, which will be a lot of work, but not as much as before.

This means more blog posts! I’ve really missed writing for my blog, so I’m glad to be back.

Have you been buying anything in the sales? Drop a comment and let me know!

Until next time all, take care and I’ll see you soon.

November Wish List

I can’t believe that there are only two more months of 2013 before we enter a New Year… It’s gone by really quickly, hasn’t it? It’ll be Christmas soon, which I’m sort of excited for, but that’s a whole other post!

So, seeing as I did a wish list last month, I’ve decided to do one this month too! There’s loads of stuff I really want this month and I suppose whatever I don’t get my hands on, I’ll be asking for Christmas… Maybe, anyway.

As well as that I’m going to be a busy bee during November with the NaNoWriMo challenge, so my blog will still be running, as well as me writing updates for you all every Friday of how I’m doing with my novel, word count, etc!

Anyhoo, on with the wish list!

• Black Fox Knee High Socks from Topshop – £6.00

Okay now these say on the website that they are out of stock, but this is the second time they’ve said this, so I am hoping that they’ll come back in stock asap! I love these socks and as regular readers will know, I love foxes so much and if I see anything with a fox on and it looks nice, I’ll usually buy it. Last month I spoke about a fox jumper from New Look, which I ended up buying in the sale, as well as it being featured on a what I wore post in October, which you can check out here. As these socks are knee-high, I’d be more inclined to wear them around the house with a pair of shorts and/or with a baggy t-shirt. If I wore them under my trousers it would be to keep my legs warm during the winter. I haven’t owned a pair of knee-high socks since I was 16 and those were typical black and red striped ones… How very punk of me! I do hope these come back in stock, as soon as they do, I’m ordering them.

• Ciaté Red Velvet Manicure Set from John Lewis – £14.00

I saw The Sunday Girl reviewed this on her blog in October and I really do like the ideas Ciaté come up with for their manicure sets and I’ve wanted to own one myself for quite a while now. I love Red Velvet cake and pretty much anything that has its name. I love my Red Velvet Yankee Candle and I’ll be burning that over the rest of the year, hopefully buying myself a new jar in the New Year too. But the idea of this manicure set is to leave your nails looking velvety and pretty and red is a great colour for the winter season, as well as the Christmas period. Now this is just a personal thing but I HATE wearing red nail polish on my nails. Why? Because it actually makes me look like a transvestite, just like wearing make up does too. I know that sounds mean but I really do look like a man when I wear a full face of make up and red nails and I’d prefer to stay away from looking that way… Ha! That rhymed! However, I reckon due to this manicure’s unique velvet looking effect, I reckon I could get away with this red manicure and not look the way I feel I do when I wear red on my nails. This is an exclusive manicure set for John Lewis, so if you want to get your hands on this too, here’s the link for you. Again, I rhymed, double ha!

• Illamasqua Freak Scarab 75ml EDP – £85.00

I wrote about Illamasqua’s new perfume release on this (post) in late October and I can’t express once again how excited I was about this when I heard about it on their YouTube channel. When the actual scent was unveiled with details about the notes for this scent, as well as what the bottle would look like I knew I needed to smell it as soon as possible! At £85 for a 75ml bottle, I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be purchasing this yet, as I would prefer a small 30ml bottle to go with my little Illamasqua Freak bottle that I already own (and need another bottle of stat!). I can’t wait to get my hands on this scent, it sounds so yummy and unique, like Freak.

• MAC Lipstick in Speak Louder – £15.00

I’ve wanted to swatch this lipstick since the summer but every time I went to a MAC counter to do just that, I forgot the name of the lipstick and thus ended up leaving the counter disappointed and feeling rather silly. Eventually I remembered the name and swatched it in October. The colour of this lipstick is described as a clean poppy blue pink, which is pretty accurate. I don’t own a shade like this and as it’s a cremesheen finish too, it’ll look and feel lovely on my lips throughout the cold winter season, especially around Christmas time. I can see me buying myself this as a treat in one of Debenhams special deals online, which I have mentioned on my MAC lipstick reviews before. I know I would wear Speak Louder quite a lot, especially to work as it’s a wearable colour for any occasion.

• MONTH Chelsea Boots from Topshop – £45.00

I saw these featured on quite a few beauty and fashion blogs during October and I can see why so many women are loving them. They’re gorgeous chelsea boots and yes they are expensive but upon looking at them myself, they’re worth every penny! I’ve never owned a pair of chelsea boots and at the start of the year I was after a pair, but nowhere and I mean NOWHERE was stocking them, so I gave up the thought of owning a pair and stuck with my Dr Martens boots and my Vans skater shoes instead to get me through the cold until spring. However they’re back again this autumn and winter and I’m rather glad. Everywhere is stocking these boots at the moment but none of them look as good as these ones from Topshop. I contemplated buying a cheap £10 pair from Primark to see me through until I could afford this pair, but I decided against it, I may as well save that £10 towards these boots instead. I know I’ll be buying these by December as I have so many looks I want to create with them. I worry though that these will replace my Dr Martens boots, but then I realise that they won’t and if anything, they’ll be replacing my creepers, which are too cold to wear during the colder months. I actually can’t wait to get these boots and they’re probably the number 1 thing on this list I want.

• Flared Skater Skirt in Wine from eBay – £4.99 + £2.99 P+P

One of my friends bought this skirt recently off of eBay and after her posting a picture of her wearing it on Instagram, I fell in love, knowing I needed one myself for autumn and winter. I love wine and burgundy colours and this will go perfect with the chelsea boots I want, as well as the punk Disney Alice In Wonderland sweater that I have in this wish list, which will be spoken about underneath this item.  This would also look great with my pleather spiked jacket, as well as my navy military coat. eBay can be a bit risky sometimes with clothes, bags, shoes etc as before now I’ve bought a bag from an eBay seller and within just a month of use it’s started to rip, which really is a shame but I know for just under £8.00 for this skirt, I wouldn’t be losing a lot of money if it ripped and as I was taught how to sew from a young age, I’m sure any minor rip or tear, would fix this no problem. I reckon I’d wear this loads during winter, as with a good coat, thick leggings and boots I’d be toasty warm!

• Punk Disney Alice In Wonderland Sweater from eBay/Twisted Apparel – £25.99 + Free P+P

Funny story behind this sweater, but also a great one! I got a random follow on Twitter from Twisted Apparel and whilst most follows from online clothes stores on Twitter piss me off, this one was rather pleasant as their clothes are amazing and I haven’t wanted a sweater so much since I bought my grey  Spider Man one back in June! I wasn’t sure what size I should add with my watch list for this on eBay so I messaged the store via a Twitter DM and the guy was really nice and answered my question with no problems and such. I can’t wait to order this sweater and I know for a fact I’ll wear it loads. I love Alice In Wonderland anyway and out of all the punk, emo, gothic, etc editing that have been done on Disney Princesses, this is by far the best one I’ve seen! They also do the Alice In Wonderland design as a vest and a t-shirt, plus they also do a Little Mermaid design too but I’m not as keen on this one, go check it out though if you like this sort of thing! Literally can’t wait to get my hands on this! If I don’t buy it for myself, I’ll try and ask for it for Christmas off of someone. 😛

• Pocket Full Of Monsters T-Shirt from teeturtle.com – $20.00 + Not sure of P+P

Years ago I mentioned Tee Turtle’s store in a post when I wanted one of their t-shirts but I never bought that t-shirt in the end. I heard about this company through a friend of mine, who loves geeky t-shirts, just like the ones that Tee Turtle designs and sells. They’re an American online store and apparently it can be expensive to get their t-shirts to the UK, but I think this t-shirt would be worth every penny. I’m a total nerd when it comes to Pokemon, my favourites being the Eeveelutions, as well as Pokemon like Dragonite, Mew, Vulpix and many more! This t-shirt would be such a geeky thing for me and I’d probably wear it when I was chilling around the house, hey maybe even try and be fashionable and when I eventually buy the Cut Out High-Waisted Black Skirt With Shoulder-Strap from Choies which I mentioned in October’s Wish List it would look awesome! It looks like a dull black/dark grey t-shirt so it would look great with a pair of baggy jeans too, as well as a cute pair of shorts for evenings out if you want to try and look nice without making too much effort. I’m unsure if I will buy this anytime soon, but I’ll damn well try to! If you like geeky t-shirts like this one, go and check out their other t-shirts. They have four other Pokemon pocket t-shirts like this one and they’re all as cute as each other!

• Beyond: Two Souls for PS3 from Game –  £ 42.99 for special edition and £40.99 for standard edition.

Since the age of 6 I’ve been addicted to games and after waiting for years for this game, it’s finally here and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! I’ve played both Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain and now I’m ready to play this next. I don’t buy games for my PS3 as much anymore as I used to due to lack of funds and sometimes I will buy a new game and not play it for ages, however I know I would play this game day and night until it was finished, 100%! I’m on 98% for Heavy Rain at the moment, but due to it crashing all the time, I don’t think I’ll ever complete the 2% I need for that platinum trophy, which sucks so much! This game is pretty new so it’s still going to be pricey so I don’t mind waiting for this to drop in price, however if I was to find a second-hand copy of this going cheap, I wouldn’t let it stop me from snapping it up in a heartbeat. If I don’t buy it before Christmas, I know I can always rely on my Dad to offer to buy it me for Christmas or my birthday, he’s great with presents as he’s the only one who buys me games.

• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes for PS3 from Game – £37.99 for super pack edition and £34.99 for standard edition.

Another game huh? I love LEGO games and LEGO have created another one to add to their collection, Marvel Super Heroes. I remember earlier this year researching this game after hearing it was being made and knowing that I would want it when it came out. LEGO always seem to bring new releases out in November and this comes out on 15th November this year, exciting huh? You get to play as Marvel characters such as Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Captain America, Spider Man, all of The Fantastic Four, Thor and even Loki. Exciting huh? I don’t care if these games are aimed at children, I loved playing with my LEGO as a kid and these games are so much fun to play that they just remind me of my childhood! I’ll probably ask for this for Christmas, but I thought I would  mention it here as I am really excited for it this month.

So that was  my wish list for November, but with Christmas just being around the corner, I doubt I’ll be able to buy much for myself due to both lack of funds and needing as many funds as possible for the Christmas period.

Once again I want to thank my boyfriend for allowing me to use his MacBook Pro to edit together the image on Photoshop, as well as type this post up. I’ve been sat listening to Four Floors Of Whores rehearse ready for their tour… As I’m actually writing this post up towards the end of October.

I’m going to be so terribly busy this month that most of the posts throughout it will have been written during October.

So, what’s on your wish lists for November? Let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care and I wish you all a good November!

Snowboarding wish list

Recently, as regular readers may have noticed, my blog has been a little on the quiet side the past couple of weeks and I apologise for this.

I’ve just been a mixture of busy and stressed with work and haven’t had much time to think about what to write-up next for my blog.

My boyfriend has been lovely enough to suggest this blog post idea to me one night whilst I was whining to him about not having much up on here for you girls (and guys) to read.

He loves snowboarding and I think the day I ask him, “Will you come with me to buy some snowboarding stuff, please?” he’ll be like an obsessed woman searching for a matching handbag and shoes for her next night out. 😉

As you may have read over on my goals, I was hoping to go on a snowboarding at the start of 2014 but due to lack of funds I won’t be able to go in the big group I intended to go with. Instead my boyfriend suggested me and him go somewhere for just us two, which I thought was a lovely idea.

In October I intend to go and learn how to snowboard in a day, which I’m super excited about!

Until then I’ve been looking at snowboarding gear that I’d like to buy for myself for both practicing in, as well as for holiday.

Even if you aren’t interested in snowboarding, you can take a look at how awesome the pants are that you get to wear out in the snow!

Or even if you’re a newbie snowboarder like myself, you can read this post and get an idea of the sort of equipment and attire you will need for your first time in the snow.

So I hope you enjoy this post, I haven’t made a wish list post for aggges!

This picture was kindly edited for me by my boyfriend. It’s long because he tried to make it look like a person was wearing it, lovely touch if I do say so myself. 🙂

On this picture are some vital things you will need as a snowboarder, whether you are a newbie like myself, or even if you’ve been doing it quite a while like my boyfriend has been. Here I’ll go through what you need for your head (face included), torso, legs, feet and your snowboard. Protective gear will be included in the leg part.

• Head gear.

It’s really important for most sports that involve fast speeds that you wear a helmet. It protects your skull and essentially your brain from getting some serious damage. You don’t want your head to get damaged whilst riding fast down a snowy hill, do you?

It’ll get cold so as well as keeping your head safe from bumps and knocks, you’ll want to keep it warm too and you can’t go wrong with a fluffy beanie. I love beanies and I don’t own enough of them! This beanie by Burton is a gorgeous blue colour with flecks of blue and white throughout it, which makes it look great for in the cold weather. They have it in red too! I can see me buying this for wearing during the cold winter months, not just snowboarding.

Goggles are necessary for when going down hills at fast speeds to keep the cold and the wind out of your eyes, plus I’ll probably need a big pair to accommodate my glasses. I saw these purple ones by Electric and fell in love with the colour. I wanted a pair of Electric sunglasses for years, but after a while I changed my mind and bought Ray Bans instead. These goggles are ideal for in the snow and the purple would look so nice with the blue beanie. However the main reason why you need to wear goggles when snowboarding is to prevent snow blindness. The amount of sun, being at higher altitudes, and it all reflecting everywhere is very bad for your eyes and can cause blindness. The air and such also doesn’t help and think about it, it’s very hard to keep your eyes open going that fast in snowy conditions, isn’t it? 😛

You’re keeping your head warm with your beanie, but what about your face? That’s where a face mask, buff or a balaclava comes into the picture (literally! xD) I liked the look of this one with the white and red as it reminded me of red paint being dripped into water. Very poetic, I know! Either way I found it hard to choose a face mask for myself, as most of them have little mouth holes and it really creeps me out. These will keep your nose, cheeks, lips and well the lower part of your face warm and free from cold burns, which is ideal. As well as it being cold out, it can also be really quite warm up at the top of those snowy mountains and hills and people tend to get sun burnt, which is why a face mask can also be ideal.

• Torso.

You NEED a jacket when it comes to snowboarding, or you’ll probably find yourself shivering and with a bad cold, if not phenomena the next day… Well I image anyway! I couldn’t find many jackets I liked the look of but I saw this one and it just looks really autumny with the orange and the black. You wouldn’t go unnoticed in this, that’s for sure. I’m not 100% sure about how waterproofing and breath-ability works with both the jacket and pants yet so that hasn’t really affected my choice at the moment.

Gloves are an essential when out in the snow, even when walking around in the cold in winter in the UK you need a good pair of wooly gloves, but wooly gloves aren’t enough when snowboarding and you need something thicker. I chose these because they look thick, warm and are nice colours too.

• Lower body.

Before I took up the idea of snowboarding, I had always loved how baggy and comfortable the pants look. I’ve always wanted a pair of flare jeans since I was a teenager and I never got to own a pair, so I may as well own a pair of snow pants. For some reason the colour red just attracts me the most and these are just perfect for me. You need comfortable pants so that you can move about easily, as well as be warm at the same time. I like the bright colours that you can get pants in, means you won’t ever get lost when you fall in the snow. As I mentioned on jackets, I’m not 100% sure about how waterproofing and breath-ability works with both the jacket and pants yet so that hasn’t really affected my choice at the moment.

“When you first start learning to snowboard you’re going to fall on your bum, a lot! So you’ll need some protection (impact shorts) for it, otherwise you’re going to leave the classes with a really sore bum.” Honest to God, this is what my boyfriend said to me when we first started looking for snowboarding gear for me. So yes, newbie or not you need some protection and it seems bum protection is where it’s at. At least with two layers, my bum won’t be cold. 😛

• Feet.

Due to the pressure that snow boots can cause on your feet, you need some good snowboarding socks to ensure that whilst you’re riding you have comfort. Plus they’re probably extra thick so that your feet stay nice and toasty whilst riding around. I decided to pick some purple ones, as they go with the colour of the boots and the goggles.

Of course you need a good pair of snow boots and when I saw these ones I thought how gorgeous they looked. They look colourful, thick, warm and like they would do the job for me when riding and walking around in the snow. From their description they seem ideal as a starter boot and at a decent price too, can’t go wrong. A plus is that the colour purple matches my goggles and socks, whilst the white matches with my helmet and gloves. Woop!

• Equipment.

To ride a snowboard you need bindings to keep you feet attached to, it isn’t like a skateboard where you just jump on in your best Vans trainers and that’s it. I decided to find a blue pair of bindings to go with the board that I like the look of. They’re really quite expensive but I hear the more you pay, the longer they’ll last.

Finally we have the most important thing you will need, your snowboard. Whether you buy one or hire one for the day, you can’t go anywhere without one (well you could try… I guess) so it’s best to try and get a good one if you intend to buy one. I don’t know when I’ll buy one, due to the money but when I do I know I’d like to get a high quality one, for a decent price and of course have a cute image on it as well. My boyfriend told me ages ago that the DC BIDDY was a great one to go for as a newbie to snowboarding so I took a look at this blue dolphin design. You can also get it in a purple eagle design (which I love the colours for) which is the one my boyfriend said would be ideal for me. I could see me buying this snowboard in future as it seems like the perfect first board to get and it’s a great price too for a high labeled board too and I really like DC.

So that’s my snowboarding wish list! I know it’s not usually the kind of thing I post about, but it made a change, didn’t it?

Providing I go for my snowboarding in a day class in October, you’ll see a huge post about it all and I reckon it would be image heavy too.

I’m so excited to start snowboarding in the next month!

Have you ever been snowboarding? If so let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all!

P.S. With some of the gear mentioned on this post, I haven’t been able to go into detail as to why you need to wear them for snowboarding in and such because I don’t know the exact details of all this, but in time I will do. However if you have any questions, please feel free to ask, as I’ll have my boyfriend on tap to help me answer these. 😉