April Wish List ’22

I know I say it every month, but how are we already into April? Especially the first proper week of April too! Before we know it, it’ll be May and I’ll be repeating myself all over again. 😛

I’m not going to lie, I really did struggle with my wish list this month due to just not feeling like there’s a fat lot I want to buy? I’m still trying to be really good with money and with Dane’s birthday next week, I’ve been focusing on spending any monies I have like that, on him. That being said, I did manage to get some items to talk about this month with a mixture of pre-orders, items I hope to buy at the end of the month, as well as a special item I’d really love and will speak about at the end… 😛

Anyhoo, no time like the present, let’s get on with the wish list!

• Totally Emily Designs Stickers – (link) and (link)

The first item I’d like to talk about on my wish list is my friend Emily’s sticker store, Totally Emily Designs. Currently she’s only stocking glossy stickers and sticker sheets, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she has more ideas for the future! This being said, I definitely have some stickers from her I’d love to get to decorate my water bottle, but especially Magikarp at the moment! It’s such a cute design and would work perfectly on my water bottle for sure! 😀 Also to add here, Emily isn’t just a friend but she’s also a blogger like me! Make sure to go and check out her blog Totally Emily.

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons Friend Doll Vol.3 – (link)

First and foremost, I pre-ordered these back at the end of November 2021 and the past four months since then have really flown! You know when you order something you find yourself saying, “Urgh that’s going to take an age to wait for!” and then before you know it, the item is due! 😛 Edit, that being said literally 24 hours before this post was due to go live, I was told these won’t be out until May now… 😦 Anyhoo, I’m super excited for volume 3 of the Animal Crossing friend dolls to arrive, especially as they’re the cutest volume yet! However, I’m not looking forward to finding out how much it’s going to cost to ship the cuties to me! If you weren’t aware, currently Japan has suspended Airmail due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is fair. This being said, surface mail is still available, which is the cheapest but also the worst! You’ll be waiting up to three months for your goodies to arrive. Thankfully there is the DHL/FedEx option, so I’ll definitely be going for this and this is where my original however came in. I’m just hopeful it isn’t going to cost me a bomb! This being said, I’m so bloody excited for these to arrive! Goldie and Judy are definitely my favourites.

• My Dress-Up Darling Vol 5 Manga – (link)

As regular readers will know, My Dress-Up Darling has really grown on me (you can read how and why here) and I really adore it as both a manga and anime. I pre-ordered volumes five and six a month ago and according to where I pre-ordered, volume five is due out at the end of the month, which I’m really excited for! I feel like I can’t get enough of this since the anime’s first season concluded at the end of March. I’m waiting for all the dubbed episode to release so I can binge watch them all. xD Sad? Yes? Do I care? Not really.

• Nooks Needles Co Animal Crossing Vesta T-Shirt – (link)

This is something I’m planning to treat myself to as soon as April payday comes around at the end of the month. I own one piece by Nooks Needles Co already, my Cookie sweater and I adore it! I own an Animal Crossing stitched t-shirt by another designer and wear it to work often as it isn’t obvious it’s Animal Crossing. Due to this, I’d love to get another! This time, I’d like to get a navy t-shirt with Vesta the sheep villager on the left hand side. Vesta is one of my favourite villagers, even though I don’t shout about it! She was the first sheep villager I met and personally I love her. I never invited her to my New Horizons island as Dane had her on his, so instead, Eunice (also a sheep villager) came to live on my island instead. This all said, I really wanted to pick up the t-shirt sooner, but I’d rather spend that monies on Dane. I can wait. 🙂

• Nintendo Switch Sports – (link)

Okay, raise your hand if you loved Wii Sports… Most of you probably did, didn’t you? I know I did, especially the bowling game. I was obsessed with it growing up and when I met Dane and found out his family owned a Wii, I was ecstatic! Years have passed since I last played it (not going to lie haha) and finally we’re getting the same game (pretty much…) for the Switch! I’m going to pre-order it soon ready for the end of the month when it launches. My dad always loved the bowling game too, and only over Christmas did he ask if we could put it on to play. Now we can easily with it being on the Switch, which in itself makes me happy.

• Pokemon Center Mareep Poké Plush – 45 In. – (link)

Okay, so this is the item I said I would save for the end to speak about! I would really love the life-size Mareep from the Pokemon Center, and now we have the UK one to buy from, I’ve got even more chance than ever to make this dream come true! However, it is over £400… Which is a lot of money! I’ve decided that I’m going to save up for it over the next couple of months and get it at some point in the near future. In all fariness, I may save up for it, only to change my mind later on, but at least I’ll have some extra savings, I guess?

So, there we have it guys, my wish list for this month! I know it wasn’t anything special and if anything, it was probably incredibly underwhelming, but it is what it is and I enjoyed writing the post.

What do you guys have on your wish lists this month? Anything nice you’ve treated yourself to this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend!

Pikarar – Review

Guys I’m back after a weekend off and I’m so excited to be sharing with you an independent artist/store that I fell in love with towards the end of 2020!

As regular readers (and followers of my Instagram) will know, I do really love to share independent artists/stores with you all. If anyone needs our support (purchasing wise) right now, it’s these guys! Plus, their designs are so much better. 😉

I discovered Pikarar around October/November 2020 when Yapfrog shared one of Pikarar’s designs over on Instagram. It was a shiba version of K.K. Slider and was ADORABLE! I went over to her store to check out her work straight away and made an order. I also pre-ordered some goodies towards the end of November 2020 for the New Year. I’m already planning to buy from Pikarar again, but I wanted to talk to you guys about my experience (spoiler it was amazing!) as well as share the goodies I picked up. 🙂

I first of all want to mention here that the store isn’t open at the moment, but I have reached out to Pikarar to find out roughly when it’ll be open again. At the time of publishing, I haven’t received an answer in regards.

Pikarar is based in America so I already hear a lot of you in the UK worrying you may not be able to order… I don’t think we have to worry! Granted, I avoided the VAT related issues that began at the start of 2021, but I’m still in the frame of mind that Pikarar will offer to ship to the UK, which is amazing!

I want to get this out there first, shipping was NOT cheap, but it was worth every penny for how bloody quickly everything arrived. Both my orders arrived to me a week after they’d been shipping and as I had tracking with both too I was able to track the process. 🙂 I also didn’t get customs charges either, which was AMAZING! We all hate those, don’t we? I paid $20.00 shipping but personally this was worth every penny to me. 🙂

On the website there is a section where you can preview what will be for sale, but these are view only images. There aren’t any prices at the moment I’m afraid. I can’t 100% remember how much I paid for some of pieces I bought either, which is frustrating so sorry I can’t give exact prices on some of the pieces I picked up. I’ll mention what the rough price is on some items and the actual prices on others.

One thing to mention here is any clothing you buy, Pikarar will send you an apparel care guide, aka how to wash them etc. You need to wash the clothing inside out in cold water. I hate hand washing stuff and with my dermatitis on my hand, it isn’t something I can really “afford” to do. Instead I opt for popping the pieces into my washing machine inside out on a lot heat for a short amount of time and I hang it to dry naturally. You can tumble dry low if you want to, but I don’t personally.

I really hope you enjoy this blog post today guys! Alongside talking about Pikarar’s designs and the pieces I picked up, at the end of the post I’ll also share the website again, as well as their social media. 🙂

• Eevee Crane Sweater – Between $45.00-$55.00.

This was the first piece I popped into my basket! I love Pokemon and I’d seen this item shown over on Pikarar’s Instagram page shortly after discovering them. As many of you know, I love Pokemon and Eevee and the Eeveelutions are one/some of my favourite Pokemon. I couldn’t pass this sweater up in all honesty, the cream brown colour isn’t a colour I have in my wardrobe either so it’s something new!

As you can see from the design, this is a crane machine but instead of plushies it’s full of Eevee’s and they’re all doing different and cute poses. My favourite is the one at the front in my middle who is pushing its whole body against the glass of the crane machine. All the designs are adorable though and whenever I’ve shown me wearing this on camera to friends, as well as photos on Instagram/Twitter people have always commented how cute it is!

I’ll be honest, when it arrived the little white patches where the Eevee’s are smushing their faces, hands and bodies against the glass I thought the little white patches were a flaw in the print. I reached out to Pikarar in regards who was really lovely and understanding of my confusion and explained what it was.

Alongside how cute the design of this sweater is, the sweater itself is so bloody comfortable! It’s super fluffy and soft inside, as well as being really warm. It’s definitely been worn and loved loads since buying it in October/November last year. The sizing is unisex and I went with an L. I can get away with an M no problem but I wanted something really big and baggy which this sizing choice has done perfectly.

• Shiba Crane Sweater – Between $45.00-$55.00.

The shiba crane sweater is actually my favourite out of all the crane designs I own from Pikarar. Shiba’s are adorable and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like the breed. After returning from Japan I’ve kind of fallen in love with the dog breed more and more often now than before if I see a design of the breed I like, I may go for it. This shiba crane sweater included.

It’s the same sort of design idea as the Eevee crane sweater but with shiba dogs on it instead. I actually prefer the shiba design due to some of the poses the dogs are in. They’re very similar to the Eevee’s but there are some minor differences and such. My favourite shiba dog is squished by the drop/win section of the crane game. It’s little face is squashed up against the glass and it looks a little fed up.

I went for this gorgeous baby pink colour for my sweater. Pink isn’t a colour that you’ll see often in my wardrobe, so it’s nice to have some variety. I wear this sweater quite a lot and it’s fast become one I reach into my wardrobe for when I want to wear something warm and comforting.

When I recently went for an eye test at my opticians one of the women who worked there commented how cute this design was and asked me where it was from. I love clothing that can become a conversation starter, especially if people know of the artist whose pieces your wearing, or if they love that animal, character, game, etc.

Like the Eevee crane sweater, the sweater itself is so bloody comfortable! It’s super fluffy and soft inside, as well as being really warm. It’s definitely been worn and loved loads since buying it in October/November last year. The sizing is unisex and I went with an L. I can get away with an M no problem but I wanted something really big and baggy which this sizing choice has done perfectly.

• Shiba Samurai Sticker – Between $2.00-$5.00.

I actually bought this sticker for my boyfriend as since he bought himself a laptop in the summer last year, he’s started to pop stickers on it for fun. I saw this shiba samurai sticker and thought he would love it. I haven’t allowed him to stick it on his laptop yet as I wanted to show it off to you guys first! 🙂

As you can see it’s a black and white sticker of a shiba holding two katana style swords and looking a mixture of cute, serious, and ready to fight! I knew my boyfriend would love something like this. There was also a sweater with the same design on that I contemplated buying him for Christmas, which I didn’t in the end. I’d still like to pick this up for him in the future, or maybe even for myself as it’s such a cool design!

The quality of the sticker is really good too. It has a matte texture and it feels lovely and thick, so you know it’s going to last a long time on whatever you decide to stick it against!

It’s nothing to do with the design but I wanted to mention here that whenever you buy a sticker Pikarar pops it in a cute little envelope, alongside with a thank you care and your apparel care instructions, if you’ve bought any.

• Shiba Good Girls Hoodie – $55.00.

This was one of my pre-order items and one of the items I’d wanted to snag the first time I made an order with Pikarar. I missed out, but I was happy to wait for my pre-order. I went for the mustard yellow/gold colour hoodie and the “Good Girls” slogan on the back and arm of the hoodie. You could also choose black and the “Good Boys” slogan. I don’t have a mustard yellow/gold hoodie and whilst I was anxious to wear this bright a colour, I knew I’d be able to pull it off. Since it arrived last month I’ve worn it quite a few times now. It’s been my go to hoodie for when I want to look and feel cute, but I don’t want to be too warm.

There is a shiba design on the back where it’s wearing a black hoodie and underneath it says, “Good Girls” alongside with “Pikarar”. The shiba looks so cute and happy as it’s smiling and it sort of reminds me of the shiba cafe we visited in Harajuku, Japan last year. The hiragana on the arm reads something along the lines of “good”. I did work out what it said the first couple of times I wore it, but I’ve since forgotten. 😦

This hoodie isn’t as thick as I thought it was going to be, which I first thought was going to be a problem. Thankfully this isn’t the case and it’s actually been a great hoodie to throw on when I want to be warm, but not super toasty. It’ll be a great hoodie to wear for spring, cooler days in summery and autumn and winter days when I want to wear a long sleeved shirt underneath. This hoodie is also a little see through… Which is annoying from someone who wears a lot of dark t-shirts… This being said it could be worse. I picked this up in a size L, as like the unisex sizing for the sweatshirts this is nice and baggy. 🙂

I actually have a defect on the hoodie from where Pikarar has printed the design on the sleeve. There’s a green/black mark near the hiragana which I reported to Pikarar who has been kind enough to offer to send me from free stickers and a discount code when the store opens. At first the offer was for me to send the hoodie back to her and she would send a replacement. That sounded like it was going to cost Pikarar a lot of money, so I suggested a discount instead to make things easier and less faff.

• Pikachu Crane T-Shirt – $25.00.

The final piece I bought and own by Pikarar (so far anyway…) is the Pikachu crane t-shirt. I decided that I needed the other Pokemon crane design in my collection, but I wasn’t quite sure I wanted another sweater. A part of me regrets not getting the sweater, but at the same time I don’t. It’ll be good to have a t-shirt to wear in the warmer summer months.

This t-shirt is also the same colour as the shiba good girls hoodie, so that mustard yellow/gold colour. I wasn’t feel as anxious about wearing such a bright colour with a t-shirt as it can always be styled with a darker pair of jeans or a skirt. This being said I actually really love the colour and both pieces have received lots of compliments during work calls!

The Pikachu design on the t-shirt is really cute and is very similar to the Eevee and shiba designs. Unlike the other designs, I can’t pick one Pikachu that I love and adore more than the others. The Pikachu’s in this design are all so sweet and adorable to look at! The one in the claw about to get won is pretty adorable, but so is the cutie at the front pressed up against the glass. I’ve really loved wearing this design. I picked this up in a size L, as again like both the sweatshirts and hoodie this is a unisex size. I could have gotten away with an M in this, but glad I got the L for that slouchy, comfy fit.

It’s adorable and out of the three this one reminds me of my childhood the most. Hot summer days during the school holidays and miserable rainy weekend days me and my dad would venture to a local town in the countryside where there are loads of arcade games to play! We’d pay the claw games and he’d win me teddy bears. One year he won me a fake TY bear that looked like Harry Potter. I cherished it for years and it’s still in my parents house somewhere. I think that’s the last time he won me anything on the claw games before they got “rigged”. I have to say, when the world starts to go back to normal, I’d love to go there with my dad for a day out together. It would be my treat and we could play arcade games, grab fish and chips and just have a fun day together. 🙂

I would love some other things in this design, including a mouse mat if that’s something Pikarar would look into doing in the future.

That’s everything I picked up from Pikarar though! I’m really excited for when she opens her store again to potentially grab a few more pieces and maybe even snag some goodies for my boyfriend for his birthday in April!

Overall I’m so happy with everything I’ve bought from Pikarar so far! Her designs are so unique and adorable. I just want to snuggle and squish all the cute animals she draws. I’m really excited to see what she comes out with next. I know she recently announced she’s creating a sticker Patreon soon so if you’re interested make sure to follow her on Instagram.

The same goes for when Pikarar announces when she will be opening her store. Following her on Instagram for updates in regards is the best place to be. 🙂

I’m going to pop Pikarar’s links down below for you, including their store as well as social media.

Store

Instagram

Twitter

Twitch

For Fans By Fans (Store)

What do you guys think of Pikarar and her unique shiba and Pokemon designs? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, plus what you would buy from her store?

Until next time guys, stay safe and take care.

September Wish List ’20

We’ve been into September almost a week now and I am feeling autumnal and excited for Halloween, Bonfire Night and especially everything else this season brings.

September so far hasn’t been too bad and I’m really loving how each day you can see summer begin to fade and autumn start to show it’s true colours… Aka orange, brown and yellow. 😛

In regards to my September wish list, I toyed with having this up either this weekend or next. I felt it would be too long for a post if I didn’t have it up until next weekend, so here we are… Two posts in one week! 😀 Don’t think it’s going to become a habit though… It’s not. 😛

I don’t really have much to talk about sadly as it feels like it hasn’t been too long yet between my two monthly posts… I’m just super excited for autumn and Halloween at the moment, so please excuse how spooky this months favourites are. 😛 I even made the background orange for autumn… 😛 I hope it isn’t too bright for you guys. xD

• LittlestSpookShop Halloween Hijinkery Print (link)

Recently I discovered Littlest Spook Shop through YouTuber SimplySpooky and I have fallen in love with their ghost designs. I honestly want them all, but sadly I don’t have a clue where I would keep them in my house. I also have to add the fact Dane isn’t a massive fan of them… Purely because they’re ghost and gothic/Halloween looking. There is one design I may pick up in the future to keep by my side of the bed which is the Always Cosy Club design. It’s definitely me and it’s a print Dane likes too. However, the print I like the most from their Etsy store at the moment is the Halloween Hijinkery print. It shouts Halloween and the little ghosts are absolutely adorable! I think if I was to pick up this print I’d want to stick it up on my plushie cabinet. 🙂

• BeaconCandlesUK Pokémon Lavender Town inspired Scented Candle (link)

Everyone knows I’m a massive fan of candles and Pokemon, so when I heard of a UK seller merging the two together, I had to check it out. Lavender Town is one of my favourite places in the original Gen 1 Pokemon games and I think it’s obvious why. The scent of this candle is kind of obvious with lavender, vanilla and cedarwood. It sounds so lovely, especially for cold evenings. Cubone is also one of my favourite Pokemon, so for there to be a Cubone skull and crossbones on the top of this candle, is morbid but cool at the same time. This isn’t something I’ll pick up anytime soon as I have LOADS of amazing wax tarts from CushtyCo to burn, as well as some leftover Yankee Candle jars. This is definitely the kind of thing I will ask for when Christmas and my birthday is around.

• UNIQLO Lady and The Tramp T-Shirt (link)

Regular readers (and friends) of my blog will know I’m a MASSIVE Lady and the Tramp fan and have been since I was old enough to watch Disney and understand it. I knew UNIQLO were releasing a Disney collection soon, so I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for the collection to launch. I don’t 100% know when this came out, but I rather like it. It’s simple, not in your face with the design and it’s pink… A colour I don’t own much of in my wardrobe. I love the design across the chest as the black and white design fits perfect against the pink. It’s the classic scenes from Lady and the Tramp when the two are having the spaghetti meatballs. I’ve never bought a UNIQLO item before and have always wanted to. Maybe this will be the first of many pieces? I’d rock this tucked into a skirt or mom jeans. 🙂

• Quirkory Lunar Plushie Spookies Enamel Pins – Tab and A-ghostin (link)

Heads up, this is a pre-order item at the moment and I made sure to pre-order my goodies as soon as this went live on Quirkory’s Etsy store! As regular readers will know, I LOVE Quirkory and they’re by far my favourite independent store out there (make sure to check out my two posts about their enamel pins here – Eeveelutions and Animal Crossing) and I’ll always support them the best I can. So, when they redesigned their Lunar Spookies enamel pins in a cuter plushie form, I knew I had to pick up a couple. I went for Tab the bat and A-ghostin the ghost. They’re so plushie, kawaii and right up my street! I honestly cannot wait for these to arrive for Halloween and autumn. I already know I’m going to display all my Halloween pins throughout October.

• Black Milk Clothing Ghosties Longline Evil Tee Dress (link)

I have been a fan of Black Milk Clothing since 2014 and I’ve never looked back. I recently made a MASSIVE order from their Pokemon collaboration in July and I have zero regrets… Hint hint I’ll be talking about the pieces I bought this month. 😛 However, Black Milk have now announced and shown sneak peaks of their Halloween collection and I’ve seen one piece that I really do want in my collection. The Ghosties dress is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! The little ghosties all over it are so cute but I feel like this dress isn’t too in your face in regards to the spooky, Halloween design. I really don’t need to be buying Black Milk pieces again so close to the Pokemon ones, but come Monday night when this goes up in the store… I may just get it. 😛

So there we have it guys, this months wish list! I’m actually trying to watch my spending again, as I have some stuff to do on the house, as well as Christmas being here before we know it!

I don’t know why I’m soooo excited for Halloween this year, but I’ve been itching to go to Homesense and/or TK Maxx to look at all the Halloween goodies and how me and Dane can decorate the house this year. I actually think it’s due to being in the house so much that is giving me that “decorating” itch. 😛

What items do you guys have on your wish lists? Do you like what I added to mine? Make sure to let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, take care, stay safe and I hope you all have a great weekend!

July Wish List ’20

It’s that time of month again where I share my monthly wish list with you all! I know I say most months that I’ve struggled to put a list together, but this month I really HAVE struggled. In all honesty this is down to me buying things as and when I have wanted them.

During lock down I have saved quite a bit of money, which is great, but at the same time it’s also been nice having money to splurge on things I’ve wanted for a while, but now I’m running out of items from my wish list, which is a mixture of funny and sad. 😛

Half of the items on this list are Animal Crossing related… But is that such a big surprise? 😛

I hope you enjoy this months wish list, it’s sadly nothing special, but it’s better than nothing at all, eh?

• Fearless Illustration Danger Days Long Sleeved Top (link)

I don’t know why but I’ve really fallen in love with this top! I’m a sucker for baseball style t-shirts and have always loved them. They look great with anything, but especially jeans. I’d get this in the largest size too so I could have it baggy to tuck into my mom jeans and skirts. I know there is also a version with yellow/mustard sleeves instead of red, but I much prefer the red version. Also with the slogan on the top and it being called “Danger Days” it reminds me a little of My Chemical Romance… So this top could come in handy next June when I see them in Milton Keynes!

• Sugar Bunny Shop Animal Crossing Marshal Textured Print (link)

I’ve always been a fan of Sugar Bunny Shop and whilst people have bought me things from her store, I’ve never actually bought anything for myself. I’m LOVING the Animal Crossing prints the owner of the store has designed and I’ve especially fallen in love with this Marshal print. I never understood the fuss behind Marshal, until he visited my campsite and decided to move to my island. He’s one of my favourites now for so many reasons, but mostly because he loves coffee. This print would go in my bedroom along with my other Animal Crossing prints.

• Jenni Illustrations Froggy Chair Sticker (link)

This is another store that I have wanted to buy from for the longest time and never had. Well, recently Jenni opened up her store again with loads of new and old goodies. I decided I had waited long enough and made an order (which I’ll be showing you guys when it’s here, of course) BUT I made my order a little too soon. The next day Jenni added some more goodies to her store, some of them that I really wanted, including some Animal Crossing stickers, Blue’s Clues stickers and this Animal Crossing froggy chair sticker. It looks so adorable! I would have loved this for my iPad case or maybe even something else. With the amount of Jenni Illustration items in my wish list, I’ll be able to make another order in the future for sure!

• Eltamagotchi Isabelle Animal Crossing Cereal Vol.1 Enamel Pin (link)

This is an enamel pin I nearly ordered recently… But I went against it due to the cost of it overall to the UK with shipping. It wasn’t cheap and it made me cringe. This isn’t a massive enamel pin either, so I’m going to wait until I either buy someone else a pin as a birthday/Christmas present. The other thing that slightly puts me off is the fact it sort of looks like a “traced” copy of the Isabelle design from Nintendo? I don’t know if that’s just me? I do really love the idea of Animal Crossing characters in the size and shape of cereal. It would look adorable in my Isabelle ita bag… I’ll see. 😛

• Bobblejot Tori the Corgi Plushies Kickstarter (link)

First of all this Kickstarter campaign finishes Monday 6th July at 4.41pm, so if you like the look of this cute Tori plush by Bobblejot, then make sure to back the campaign before then! Okay, so I’ve been a fan of Bobblejot’s cartoon about Tori the corgi and Samuel the cat for as long as I can remember now, so when I heard they had brought out a Kickstarter with plushies of Tori, I KNEW I had to get one myself! Tori is an adorable young corgi who is finding out new things in the world, with the help of Samuel. I’ll link the Instagram page here so you can go and check out some of the cartoons for yourself.

• TK Maxx GC Home Decor White Giraffe Artificial Succulent (link)

Finally the last item on my wish list this month is this giraffe artificial succulent home decoration from TK Maxx. I’m not one for keeping plants in the house and I couldn’t tell you why… I love some flowers every now and again, but succulents and house plants aren’t for me. However, I would like to start potentially having some green around my house. This being said, I do not have a clue where I would keep this if I bought it… Maybe the office in the window or on the side by my front door? Who knows. I have fallen in love with the giraffe a little though!

So there you have it, my wish list for July. Again, I’m sorry there wasn’t anything “exciting” on there, but I like the items I popped on. I doubt very much I’ll be buying any of the items due to my bathroom being done. I’m going to be a little skint now until I’m paid at the end of the month. 😛

What item(s) do you like on my wish list? What items do you have on your lists? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and stay safe!

November Wish List ’19

How is it November already? OH and how am I already back at work after a week off? It’s crazy just how quickly this year has flown. Can you believe there’s only 8 weeks until 2020? It’s mad, it really is! I’m rather excited for November, I have lots of stuff going on and after a week off work to relax and refresh, I’m definitely going into the month, full steam ahead!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this months wish list, I felt constant excitement throughout it for at least half of the items as they’ve already been pre-ordered and will be with me soon… AHHH! 😀

• Pokemon Center Japan Dratini Neck Pillow (link)

I feel like I haven’t seen a collection from the Pokemon Center for ages that I’ve loved and the new dragon type Pokemon with their babies is absolutely adorable! As I’m going to Japan at the start of 2020 a neck pillow is something I would like to pick up for the trip. Me and Dane do own one, but I would like one of my own to use. I would love to pick this one up, but at the same time it’s expensive and I need to keep saving for my actual holiday to Japan! If this is available when I’m in Japan, I think I’ll definitely pick it up for the flight home.

• Invasion Club Otaku Essentials Ita-Bag (link)

I discovered this Ita Bag through Attack on Mew over on Instagram and I really want it for my Japan trip now! It’s only recently come back in stock in the holographic design… If it wasn’t for the fact I’ve bought myself some new shoes, I think I might have ended up getting this! I would keep Persona 5, Animal Crossing and Pokemon pins in there to really showcase three of my favourite things! Invasion Club is a Japanese company, so I could have waited until I get to Japan to pick this bag up… However, the store is located in Osaka which is a JOURNEY from where we’re staying. 😦 I can see me asking for this for Christmas, or just picking it up myself. 🙂

• Pokemon Sword & Shield Dual Edition (link)

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this game. Like seriously I am itching to play it now! Especially now that leaks have now flooded social media of what the new Pokemon will look like. I don’t care about spoilers in all honesty, I’m going to see them sooner or later! I had a go on the 10 minute demo at the Pokemon Center in London (which you can read about here) and I honestly fell in love! After the shambles that was Sun and Moon, they’ve brought back the old roots that we know and love with Sword and Shield! I’ve bought both so that me and Dane can play together, but I’ll be playing Shield and Dane will play Sword. This is due to exclusives… I want the Galar Ponyta more than he does. 😛

• Nintendo Switch Lite – Pokemon Zacian & Zamazenta Edition (link)

Of course me and Dane only own one Nintendo Switch, which is his… So, it was time for me to finally pick up a Switch of my own! I decided to go for a Switch Lite, but I can’t stand the 3 colours that Nintendo decided to come out with, however I really loved the colour scheme for the Pokemon Zacian & Zamazenta Edition. It’s blue and pink, you can’t go wrong! I’ll be getting this this week and I’ve even booked a half day off work on Friday so I can go and pick it up and play! 😀 Let me know guys if you would like to see a review on this! I might do a quick unboxing over on my Instagram page (theremightbecoffeeblog) when I get it, so keep eyes peeled for that!

• Quirkory Galar Pony Lilac Metal Enamel Pin (link)

Quirkory have fast become one of my favourite independent artist stores since their release of the A profusion of Eeveelutions & Lunar Spookies Kickstarter campaign, which is full of gorgeous Eeveelution designs in the form of Greek Gods. When they announced this gorgeous Galar Ponyta design over on their Instagram page, I knew I had to buy it. It was for sale on their Etsy page, but sadly this is now sold out and I don’t know if it will be back in stock or not… You could pick this up on either a gold or lilac enamel, of course I went for the latter. I don’t own any pins on coloured enamel, so I knew I had to pick this up purely for how unique it is. That and the design is gorgeous! I hope this and the Eeveelution pins I backed arrive in time for my Japan trip. I honestly need them so I can show them off as much as possible! When all of the pins arrive I will for sure be talking about Quirkory over on my blog! If you love the look of what they do, I’ll pop their Etsy store link here.

• TobySperring Persona 5 Morgana T-Shirt (link)

I love Persona 5… Everyone knows this by now, right? I love the fact that I am into a game series that actually has a decent amount of merchandise surrounding it. AND now that we’re getting Persona 5 Royal AND Persona 5 Scramble, there will be even more, which makes me a very happy nerd. However, I do love supporting independent artists too and every now and then I will have a search online for some cute AF Persona 5 goodies. This is one I recently discovered and I really love the design and the fact you can get it in a t-shirt makes me really happy.  It’s this cute design of Morgana in some blue pyjamas and talking to you about being tired and going to sleep. This is just Morgana all over, with his tagline being to tell Joker to go to sleep. Sadly however, the t-shirt is now sold out. 😦 I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled in the future for the t-shirt to come back in stock.

• Pokemon Center Japan Dragonite and Dratini Plush (link)

Finally we have another Pokemon item and that is from the same collection from the Pokemon Center as the Dratini neck pillow. I wish, wish, WISH I could pick this plush up. For years (and even still!) I have wanted a genuine Dragonite plush and the fact I can now get a massive one, cuddling its baby Dratini is perfect… But I can’t buy it… I just can’t justify it. This would cost between £35-£50 to buy which is a lot of money considering I am still making sure to save up for my Japan trip. If this is available there when I go, I’ll probably pick it up, but for now I’ll just have to go without… 😦 This whole collection is perfect and I really wish I could pick something up from it.

So there you have it, my monthly wish list for November! It was so Pokemon heavy and I honestly didn’t realise until towards the end of writing this post. There are only 2 items that aren’t Pokemon related and even then they’re of another gaming series I love AND something to house Pokemon related items in.

Image taken from GIPHY

Legit me at myself because of all the Pokemon this month… 😛

I still can’t believe how quickly October went and I already feel like this month will fly! I have so much going on (good things!) and I honestly can’t wait. I’m rather excited for November for various reasons… Most of which are gaming related, both video and board. Would you guys like me to do a little catch up post soon to talk about what I’ve been/will be up to?

Also let me know what you have on your wish lists for November! I always love hearing about things people are wanting/looking to buy. 🙂

Make sure to let me know everything in the comments down below!

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

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.

UK Games Expo 2019 – Haul

I am very much skint after the UK Games Expo that was on a couple of weekends ago and I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry… So instead I thought I would write a blog post about it! 😛

This was the first time me and Dane went to the UK Games Expo and we loved it so much! Not going to lie, it’s definitely the busiest con we’ve attended to date and definitely one we’ll talk about for a while for various different reasons. I’ll be mentioning them here too of course.

So come and have a nose at what we bought, as well as read about what we thought of the convention. 🙂

Our initial thoughts on the convention was that it wouldn’t be as big as it actually was for a start and as we walked through the entrance and looked around, we were shocked and a think a tad nervous that we wouldn’t get around everywhere. Spoiler, we did! 😛

Something we noticed quite heavily as we walked around was just how fucking rude people attending were. If they weren’t shoving past to get to stands and stalls, they were not even using, “please” or “thank you” as and when necessary. It pissed me off something rotten and depending how rude people were, depended how rude I was back. This put me off immensely but this isn’t due to the people hosting the convention.

This being said we will definitely be attending again next year, maybe on the Friday as we heard from quite a few people how this day is the best out of the three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as well as maybe Saturday so we can get two days in.

We wanted to play some games whilst we were there but due to how much is going on at the convention – we were far too tired for it, which was such a shame as there were loads of games we wanted to have a go at.

As this post shows from the photo, we bought a LOT of stuff, so I thought I would write a haul today so I could show you everything we picked up. I hope you enjoy this haul from us. Prepare for lots of geeky items! 😛

Also, as some of these (well maybe half actually!) items are Dane’s too, I’ll get him to write here when it comes to anything of his and why he decided to buy it! I’ll pop a “D:” when it comes to his sections so you know he’s talking instead of me. 🙂

The first thing we bought were D&D dice. Hey, you don’t go to a board game convention without buying some dice, am I right?! This was the first stand we really looked at properly as it wasn’t stupidly busy. They had the Chessex dice there and I had a specific pair and style in mind. These weren’t there, but the Borealis style I was after were! They had a couple of pairs (a pink and lighter blue pair) but I fell in love with these light green set and decided to pick them up!

Dane also bought himself a pair of dice too and opted for these blue and red ones. They’re so damn pretty and he doesn’t have anything like this so it’ll be cool for both him and me to try our new dice out at our D&D session on Sunday.

D: When we were walking around the convention the one stand that really caught my attention was the one for Barpig, a card game about pig adventurers in a bar. Even before I spoke to the people running the stand I was pretty much sold on buying the game anyway. They had a pretty good offer that both myself and my friend couldn’t resist after talking to the people running the stand, as well as being given a quick demo. I was sold and couldn’t walk away without buying the game. The day after the convention me and Nat played this game together only to discover it’s between 3-7 players, which is a shame as we were looking forward to an evening of playing it. This being said, we’re now especially excited to play it with friends!

For the convention they had a special price and goody bag for this game. For £19 you got everything in the photo including the game itself! This is what I was sold on the most and didn’t hesitate to pick it up.

They currently have the expansion pack BARPIG: After Hours up on Kickstarter until Monday 1st July. I’ll link it here so you can go and check it if you like the sound of the game.

These were some of my favourite items I picked up from the convention, just because they’re Japanese goodies and from some of my favourite things. I stumbled upon this stand about halfway through the day and spotted some Nendoroid figures, so knew I had to go for a nose. When I spotted two official Studio Ghibli puzzles on the table I KNEW Dane had to come and have a look around the stall too! I quickly snapped up the puzzle from the table and shouted for Dane to come over. As soon as he saw the puzzle he told me to get it, but not before I had a nose around the rest of the stall. It was amazing to be honest with you and was by far my favourite at the convention as they just sold so much stuff I love. I saw they had the Pokemon Centre Eeveelutions bell charms for sale too as a decent price so I decided to pick one up. I ideally want this for an ita bag I plan to put together sooner rather than later. It’s so cute, the perfect bag companion.

I honestly cannot wait for me and Dane to work on the My Neighbour Totoro puzzle together and hang up! I’m feeling like it can go up in our bedroom by my side of the bed. 🙂

Just when we thought we weren’t going to actually pick up more than one game, we found a stall where we fell in love with all the games on sale! We decided to pick up half of them and since then have played the one. The games are both by Jason Anarchy, who was a lovely guy to talk to as we looked through the games, asked questions in regards to them and even had a joke as we were paying and such.

I spotted Pretending To Grownup, a card game about doing adult things and scoring points through it. I spotted it through the artwork, which is by Megan McKay (Doodle For Food). She’s currently one of my favourite doodlers on the internet right now and I especially love her Dogs with Jobs sketches that she draws! Me and Dane have since played this game and it’s so much fun! It would definitely be more fun with friends to be honest with you, but considering just me and Dane played it, it was fab and I honestly can’t wait to play it more!

D: I was after a good party game, so as Nat had a look through the game she wanted I asked Jason what Drinking Quest was all about. He told me it was pretty much Dungeons & Dragons but with lots of drinking involved. This sounded like my sort of game so I knew I had to pick it up. I think I would have regretted it if I didn’t. Whilst I was paying for the games (it was £20 each or two for £35!) Jason wrote a little message and signed the lid of the game. As you can see he wrote, “It’s dangerous to go alone… Drink this” and drew a little drink as well as signed his name. Very cool! 😀

D: If there is one board game I really love it is definitely Zombies!!! I can’t remember where I bought this from but Nat has a feeling it was a spontaneous buy from Waterstones years ago. Since then I’ve wanted to buy the expansion packs and have added them to birthday, Christmas and anniversary gift ideas for years. It’s taken me going to the UK Games Expo to finally get at least 2 of them and from the actual creator of the game. He was lovely to chat to and even did us a cheap deal for these. Instead of £12 each he did them both for £20, bargain eh?! I regret not buying more in all fairness. Me and Nat played this game on our first evening together during our week off and we both forgot how hard this game can be, especially now we have more pieces and zombies to play with! We love this game however and cannot wait to play it with more people.

If there was a stand I really did enjoy shopping at during the convention it was at Oathsworn. I feel like this was the stand I spent the most time at as I was overwhelmed by how many miniatures there were, as well as how cute the little animals were. Everyone was looking at miniatures throughout the day, even though me and Dane struggled to find out D&D characters from one of our campaigns (I’m a Dragonborn bard and he’s a half goliath, half half-elf ranger) and had zero luck.

Instead I decided to pick up an animal miniature for any future campaigns me and Dane might go into or do in the future. NOW we’re working on some new characters for another campaign we’re doing with friends and my character for this will be a fennec fox rogue. I’m so excited to create my character for it already!

One of the stands I was rather excited to by from was TeeTurtle, a brand I’ve wanted t-shirts from for years! I actually have one t-shirt from them which is a Pokemon themed one with a Charmander sat in the a pocket on the chest. I picked this up on eBay years ago and still love it to this day.

We decided to take TeeTurtle up on their buy three t-shirts for £75 and get the fourth free. If you work this out you technically get all four t-shirts for less than £20 each. This may seem really expensive but TeeTurtle are an American brand and to ship to the UK costs a bomb! So we made sure to stock up at the convention whilst we had the chance. TeeTurtle were at the EGX convention in Birmingham September 2018 and I regret not grabbing any t-shirts there.

We decided to get two each and I regret not picking any t-shirts up earlier in the day. We picked these up a couple of hours before the convention was due to shut and the quantity of all sizes was very much small. Most of the sizes that me and Dane wanted had gone, which was such a shame. But this being said, we managed to grab some sizes in designs we wanted. The two on the left are Dane’s t-shirts and the two on the right are mine… Obviously the foxes are mine! 😛

Dane was actually going to buy me the Foxy Nerd design last year for Christmas but due to the prices for shipping etc he left it in the end.

The two designs on the bottom are both t-shirts we intend to wear during D&D session and we can’t wait to rock them this weekend! Honestly we could have bought so many t-shirts but due to most sizes being out of stock we didn’t get much choice of what we could buy. I hope to see them at another convention in the future so I can get the chance to pick up more designs.

This is a geeky beauty company that I am so happy to have discovered at the convention. Geeky Clean is a beauty company that sell bath bombs, soaps, bubble bars and more! I walked past the stand during the convention but didn’t think much at first. Dane went for a nose at a stand opposite so I decided to go and have a sniff of the goods at Geeky Clean. I fell in love with the bard scent, which is EXACTLY the same scent as Lush Snow Fairy. It’s a gorgeous bubblegum vanilla scent and I knew I had to pick some goods up with the scent. When I showed the soap to Dane he also really liked, so I made sure to pick it up. These weren’t expensive in my opinion (£4.00 or the soap and £4.50 for the bath bomb) and I’ll definitely be buying from the store again the future! When I’ve given these a go I will DEFINITELY be reviewing them on my blog.

D: We’ve been eyeing up plenty of miniatures and need a way of painting them. These brushes are pretty fancy and excellent quality feeling. I was going to go for the more expensive ones but as it’s going to be our first time painting miniatures I thought best not to just yet. Just need some paint now! I’m actually rather excited to help Nat bring her fennec fox miniature to life with some colour.

D: I want to start being the Dungeon Master with a couple of our friends that are new to Dungeons and Dragons and been looking to try and find a nice easy way to lay out the map for everyone. I have seen plenty of grid paper, laminated maps, DIY solutions and expensive pre-made maps but these seem like a good option. Hopefully, our group will be able to try them out soon! They cost me £30 and are by a company called Role 4 Initiative. I didn’t think £30 was a bad price considering the brand is American and it would have cost me a hell of a lot more to import from there.

This is the final item I picked up on the Saturday and it was actually from Collectormania which we were allowed free access to after 1pm due to attended UK Games Expo. I thought this was pretty awesome! Looking back I don’t fully know why I bought these lanyards… I used to use one on my house keys last year so it was easier to get them out of my handbag but after I was made a key holder in my old job I used said lanyard on my work key, only to have someone break it a few days later. I was gutted as it was a Deadpool lanyard. Now I’ve kind of replaced it with either a My Neighbour Totoro or Eeveelutions! I’m sure I’ll find a use for these sooner rather than later. 🙂

We actually went back for an hour on the Sunday just to buy a gaming table from Moby Geek! We actually saw this table on the Saturday and enquired about it and was offered it for £230 if we took it away that weekend. We decided against it and said we would order it at home. We fast changed our minds Saturday night/Sunday morning and ended up contacting the company to see if we could attend the event late Sunday to just come in to pay for the table and then take it away. They were more than happy with this and come 4pm I went into the event to pay, get Dane in and take away.

Since then we have not only used the table to play games, but to also eat on! The lid comes off of the table so that you can play games inside of the table – which is amazing. We are yet to give it a go without the lid but we are excited to start being able to have proper game nights with people.

So that was our (very expensive!) haul from the UK Games Expo! We really did enjoy ourselves and had a blast! We were shattered that evening however and couldn’t wait to be back at home and tucked up in bed.

I’m especially excited now to rock our D&D t-shirts to our next session, as well as use our new dice.

Did you attend the UK Games Expo? If so what did you pick up? Are you interested in board games, D&D etc? If so let me know which games you love playing, what your D&D character is like etc in the comments. I’d love to hear all about it!

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

May Wish List ’19

Wow as if it’s May already! It’s pretty crazy just how quick 2019 is going but at the same time it’s kind of depressing… It means I’m not only getting closer to turning 30 but also getting closer to one of my life goals. I want to go to Japan after my 30th birthday but at the moment I’m worried this is just going to continue to be a dream.

This is something I’ll go into another time. For now it’s time for my monthly wish list! I’ve been really loving getting a style again apart from baggy joggers and a t-shirt. I picked up a pair of mom jeans in April and I love them to death so I’m trying to get more geeky t-shirts lately so I can get myself a real geeky look going on! 😀

To be honest I need to really chill out with money lately as I do really want to save up for Japan and whilst it isn’t going bad right now, it isn’t going as quickly as I’d have hoped.

For now however, I hope you enjoy this months wish list! I feel like it’s a really boring list, but whatever. I love all the items that are on it and I hope you guys do too.

• Lime Crime Best Of Lip Reds (link)

This is a set I have wanted since Christmas to be honest with you, but I just never picked it up. I guess I wasn’t sure of the price at the time and I was skint due to Christmas, as well as both mine and my mom’s birthdays. I’ve been keeping my eyes on this set though for ages on the website and during Easter it went REALLY cheap, almost half price in fact. Finally I bit the bullet and purchased the set! I rather like Lime Crime and miss wearing liquid lipsticks a little for their staying power. This set is gorgeous and will work great for when I fancy wearing reds throughout the year, whether it be for work, in the beer garden or for blog events. 🙂 I’m glad I waited and picked this up for cheap!

• Monsoon Celleni Star Print Midi Dress (link)

I’ve had my eye on this dress for just over a month now. I saw it when I was out in Leamington Spa looking for possible new work pieces for when I was due to start my new job. I spotted this dress and thought what a gorgeous colour and print it was and had on it. I do rather like a good maxi dress but as of yet I’ve actually never tried a midi dress. I tried one on the day I was out shopping and rather liked it, the reason for not buying said dress was the fit on the arms was shit! 😛 This dress is really expensive so I’m waiting for it to go down in price before I make the jump at it. 🙂

• Detective Pikachu T-Shirt (link)

I’m so damn excited for Detective Pikachu! It’s less than a week away now and I’ve already booked tickets to go and watch it. I am THAT excited for this movie! Not only am I a huge Pokemon fan, but Ryan Reynolds is also my favourite actor. When I saw this t-shirt for sale on EMP I KNEW I had to get it! I’ve ordered it before this post went live and I’m actually hoping it arrives soon so I can dress it up with my mom jeans and my Vans.

• Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid T-Shirt (link)

This is a t-shirt I’ve had saved on my eBay account for the longest time, but as of yet I just haven’t ordered it. It’s from China, which to be honest I am always hesitant to order from for various reasons. The photos always look better than the actual product. I’ll see how I feel still in regards to this t-shirt, but again like the Detective Pikachu t-shirt I would really love to rock this with mom jeans.

• Himouto! Umaru-chan Vol. 5 (link)

Towards the end of April my reading just shot straight up! I haven’t been reading properly for ages due to having too much shit going on so now I’ve finally had the chance to sit and read during my work break, it’s lovely. When I’ve caught up on this series I’ll definitely pick up this volume to read next. I do really love reading manga and if anything I’ve forgotten lately just how much I love reading it.

• Pandora Bull Terrier Puppy Pendant Charm (link)

Pandora have recently released their adorable pets charms and I am in LOVE with all the puppy versions they’ve released, including this bull terrier one. Randomly I used to really want a bull terrier growing up so I would love to add this charm to my bracelet as a reminder of younger Nat and the pet that she wanted when she grew up. I’d never get one now to be perfectly honest with you, even though a part of me would still love to deep down.

• Chocolate Raisin Fury Starry Sky Of Creation Mew T-Shirt (link)

The last item on this list and it’s ANOTHER t-shirt! I was meant to mention Chocolate Raisin Fury’s t-shirts back in last months wish list post but I kind of forgot to be honest with you. I discovered Chocolate Raisin Fury at MCM Comic Con Birmingham back at the end of March and I am so thankful for it. I LOVE her designs so much and I definitely need to own more in my life! I have my eye on all of the Studio Ghibli designs but I REALLY love this Mew design at the moment and would love to add it to my geeky t-shirt collection!

So that is my wish list for May! What items do you guys have on your wish lists this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments as well as what item(s) you like on my list (if any! :P).

Until next time take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend 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!

UK Lingerie & Pole Dance Fitness*

If there’s one thing I never really treat myself to as I’ve got older it’s lingerie. Why? I guess I’m just not arsed anymore like I used to be, which I know is sad but meh. I’m boring and old. 😛

Where I lack in treating myself to nice lingerie, I do pick myself up cute and gorgeous pyjamas as and when I feel like I need another set in my life.

UK Lingerie contacted me recently to ask if I wanted to review some of their products and I jumped at the chance! I’m so anxious when it comes down to buying bras though and as I wasn’t sure about sizes I opted for some pyjamas instead and some active wear.

I’ve recently started pole dance fitness again with one of my best friends and I LOVE it! It’s been so much fun doing it with her and I can’t wait for us to do some hoop fitness too in the future. I was definitely in need of some new active wear though and although I didn’t pick myself a gorgeous bra to review, I did however pick up a good sports bra to try, as well as a t-shirt that was right up my street!

I have a little bit of a routine I like to do when it comes to my pole dance fitness and what clothing I wear during and after I’ve been to a class. The pieces that UK Lingerie sent me fit right into this and I was so excited to start wearing and using them after they arrived. Sadly I couldn’t use the active wear for over two weeks as I was really poorly and therefore pole dance fitness wasn’t on the cards.

Thankfully I’ve FINALLY had the chance to use them a few times at pole dance fitness classes and I’m so excited to get this post written this evening. I really hope you enjoy the post and don’t worry, there’s no pictures me of looking like a total tit on a pole. 😛 That being said, I’m not THAT bad at pole dancing.

Image taken from GIPHY

You can have a pole dancing Deadpool for now! 😛

UK Lingerie are (obviously) a UK company which started up almost 3 years ago following the success of their other two companies UK Tights and UK Swimwear. They cater to women of all shapes and sizes, which I think is amazing and they stock all sorts of brands too. They always want their customers to be able to choose from a wide range so they add new products almost daily.

The thing I have to say I love the most about their store is how they’ve laid out their “all about us” section where there are pictures of all of the staff as children. I thought it was such a lovely and different way to introduce your staff.

• Acai Activewear Spider Back Tee in purple* (link)

I love standing out when it comes to my pole dance fitness classes, not anything super out there but just a little unique. I don’t know why, I guess it just adds more fun to the class. This spider back tee is so awesome and definitely something unique to wear to any fitness session, whether it be a dance class, the gym or even for a run. It reminds me of a t-shirt I used to own years ago with a skull on the back. Also if you have a pretty sports bra on you’ll be able to show off the colour and design of it through the gaps in the spider web. I love the purple shade, it’s such a gorgeous colour, but this does also come in black too. The look and fit of this t-shirt is so comfortable, perfect and true to size. I was going to size up so it was baggy, but I was recommended by UK Lingerie that my actual size would be fine. I’m so glad they did as I do think it would have swamped me, or even be too big as a size up!

• Shock Absorber Ultimate Purple Run Bra* (link)

I found out this year that my bra size has gone up, which wasn’t at all a shock to me! So I thought I’d get a proper sports bra, one that’s actually in a back and cup size. I’ve only ever bought sports bras in dress sizes, which isn’t too bad. This sports bra is amazing to be honest with you! I feel it has amazing support due to both the fastening hook at the top and at the bottom of the sports bra. I feel really supported and like I’m not going to reveal too much cleavage and definitely not fall out! With my previous sports bra it was uncomfortable, awkward to put on and just didn’t feel like it was doing what it was meant to for the money. This sports bra however is such a Godsend and I love it so much for pole fitness classes. The colour of it is stunning and something different and underneath the spider back tee it works really nicely. I was a tad nervous when I received this that it would be too tight or too small but it fits really good! Honestly I couldn’t feel happier with a sports bra as I do with this one.

• Blackspace Noir Isabella Long Sleeve PJ Set* (link)

I’m a right saddo, when I get home from work, shopping, seeing friends and family etc and I know I’m not going out of the house again, I’ll get straight into my pyjamas and settle down for the day. The first thing I do after a pole fitness class is have a hot bath to soak my muscles and then get into some lovely fresh pyjamas and get into bed. I LOVE tartan pyjamas and I used to steal Dane’s tartan bottoms all the time when he had a pair. So when I saw these on the website I knew I had to have them to review! I asked for 2/3 sizes bigger than I actually am as I love my pyjamas baggy but I was advised that they might be too big for me, which I understand. So I opted for the 1/2 sizes bigger. The top is so soft to the touch, it actually feels luxurious to wear and it really does feel comforting when I wear it. It’s a lovely size too and is clearly 1/2 sizes too big for me. However, the bottoms don’t feel the same to me and I do wish I could have had them the 2/3 sizes bigger. As I mentioned I love my pyjama bottoms baggy and these aren’t exactly tight, but due to them having no stretch they just feel a bit taught when I’m in bed and sadly due to that I don’t feel comfortable to wear them whilst I sleep so I end up taking them off. This is a tad meh but I do love wearing them around the house, especially on lazy weekends where the most I’ll do is move to change the disk in my PlayStation 4. 😛

Overall I LOVE the products that UK Lingerie offer and they’re so luxurious and they have some gorgeous lingerie on there. If you’re after something for yourself this Christmas or a partner, I’d definitely go and check out UK Lingerie for some pieces you’ll feel glam and sexy wearing.

Alas, I just feel sweaty and tired whilst wearing mine, which is pretty standard for me. 😛 Excuse me whilst I go Google search what “sexy” means. 😉

What do you guys think of the pieces that UK Lingerie sent to me to review? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

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