Life Lately – March – July 2020

Just over four months ago the UK was told to lock down and stay inside. It was scary but at the same time I was relieved that the UK FINALLY did something about it and was happy to stay inside for a while and hermit away. I wanted to share with you all how lock down has been for me, as well as how things have been throughout July so far. Not going to lie, it’s been good but very tiring! You may want to grab yourself a hot drink as this post mayyyyy be a long one.

To get this out there swiftly, I’ve been working from home since the lock down happened in March and I don’t have a date set yet for when I’ll be heading back to the office. Working from home has been amazing to be perfectly honest with you, but I do miss seeing my colleagues five days a week and having a laugh with them all.

Working from home has made me think more about adding an addition to our family… One with a wet nose and grey fur… No babies here I’m afraid! As well as that, working from home has also made me think lots about how much I loved our trip to Japan in January and just how much I’m craving to go again. I already want to look at going again late 2021 OR early 2022 for Dane’s birthday this time around. Try and visit when the cherry blossoms are out and travel to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and of course Tokyo! That will be a big trip, may even go for three weeks if we can justify it!

Although I have bought loads of shit over the past four months, one of the best things me and Dane bought was a new bathroom! Back in May around one of the bank holidays we discovered a leak in our kitchen ceiling, which had come from the bath. We called our insurance and called someone in for a quote. Two months later the work has been fixed and our bathroom COMPLETELY redone. We are both over the moon with it! Sadly I won’t be sharing it on my blog, which I had contemplated before. I want some privacy for us two from my little space on the world of the internet. I know my readers will understand. 🙂

As we all know, Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March JUST BEFORE lock down happened in the UK and I know so many people who have loved and enjoyed it, and who still are. I also have a couple of friends I helped source Switch and Switch Lite consoles so they could get their hands on Animal Crossing to play. It’s amazing having more of my close friends playing the game than ever before and that makes me so happy! I’ve calmed down a little of late with Animal Crossing, although I have picked it up of late to redo parts of my island.

I’ve done some baking during lock down and more so of late I’ve REALLY stepped out of my comfort zone to make something I hadn’t before, Millionaires Shortbread. I added a twist by adding salt to the caramel, to of course make salted caramel. 🙂 It was amazing and it was so simple to make. I was just worried about the caramel more than anything as I’ve never made it before. It took 30 minutes, which felt like too long, but it was worth it. Instead of milk chocolate, I put dark chocolate on top instead. They were amazing and really went down a treat with Dane, as well as my family.

As I mentioned previously how I’ve bought loads of shit, mostly shit I don’t need but has cheered me up during lock down and passed the time. I happened to save money too, even though I’m not 100% sure how I’ve done it! There are many brands I have wanted to order from for years and I finally have during the lock down, including Happy Place Cosmetics, Bath Bake Love, Cushty Co, Kittynaut and Jenni Illustrations who is pictured above.

I have been showing off the bath and home products on my Instagram pages stories (theremightbecoffeeblog) so if you’re intrigued by this, make sure to go and check out those stories highlighted on my profile.

I’ll be talking about the goodies I bought from Jenni Illustrations very soon, as well as when the enamel pins I’ve bought from Kittynaut have arrived. I for one am excited to share those with you. 🙂

Another item that I am planning to talk about in the future is my Yapfrog Isabelle ita bag! I’ve recently filled it full of enamel pins and although I may change them around in the future, I’m really happy with how I have it at the moment! I bought a piece of green gingham cloth to fabric to keep inside the bag so it looked a little more like Isabelle. So far I have enamel pins in there by Yapfrog, Quirkory (which you can read about here), Appleminte and Illustrator Jake. By the way guys I have a 10% discount code you can use on Illustrator Jake’s website which is – THEREMIGHTBECOFFEE10. 🙂

I honestly can’t wait to share this bag with you, but I want to make sure to spend plenty of time on it, as I’ve been excited to share it for God knows how long now! 😀

I’ve missed many things during lock down, including seeing my friends, going for coffee dates, sushi, spontaneous geeky shopping trips to town with Dane and my friends and getting my nails done! The nail salons opened up again recently and I finally went and got a much needed manicure. The last one I got was just before Animal Crossing and I got blue and green similar to the joy cons that came out for the limited edition Switch.

It was amazing to go and get my nails done against though and I went for this gorgeous creamy purple colour and a holographic blue/purple on the ring finger and thumb. I love them so much and have felt myself again in regards to feeling pretty. I’m getting them redone next week and I’m already torn at what I’m going to have. I get them done every three weeks, but I am a bit tempted to go every fortnight… We shall see! Any suggestions of what colour(s) to get, pleased let me know!

One of the last things I’m going to natter on about on here is how I have started reading manga again! 😀 Been too bloody long, I swear to God! I’ve been reading all the volumes in the Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid series, including the two spin offs too about Kanna and Elma. I plan to read and catch up on all my manga series I have to buy more in the future. I need to continue on with it, but lately playing games or watching crap on my iPad have taken place.

So, that is everything I can think of lately and that I wanted to share with you all.

Throughout July my blog feels like it’s been quiet, but that may have just been because I had a break last week as I had a lot going on. The bathroom took a while to get started and finished, but now it’s done we are so happy! That was stressful though, which you can only imagine why.

Alongside that I’ve been busy at work, as well as personal matters. For some reason this week I have been so tired throughout the day and especially in the evening after work. I don’t know why, but I hope some lie ins this weekend help sort it all out.

I’m excited for August now to be honest with you. I want to be able to go out and do more. Me and Dane treated ourselves to a McDonald’s last weekend as we really needed food and that was the easiest thing to get at the time. I’ve missed their fries and milkshakes so much! We also popped to Homesense and The Range to get some house stuff we needed and for a while I felt a little bit normal, even with a face mask on.

Eventually the world will be back to some normality and we’ll all relax a little again.

For now however, make sure to let me know in the comments how you have been during lock down, what have you been up to and most of all what you have missed and can’t wait to do again!

Apologies for what may feel like a rambling post, but I wanted to get a lot off of my chest onto this post today. 🙂

Until next time all, take care, keep safe and can’t wait to speak to you all soon!

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Yapfrog Patreon – June 2020 Siberian Husky Enamel Pins

If there is an independent artist I have been excited to share with you all, it’s Yapfrog (formally known as faerieniamh. Niamh emerged at the start of the year in February with a Kickstarter campaign for an ita bag, which I won’t say too much about here as I plan to write all about it on a separate blog post in the future.

Since then I have followed Niamh on Instagram to see how the ita bag I pre-ordered was doing, as well as what else she had in store for the future. I am so glad I discovered her for so many reasons, including supporting Niamh through her new Kickstarter Shiba Ita Bag & Friends (which ends in a week!), Black Lives Matter Buddy enamel pin (which is currently sold out…) and especially Niamh’s Patreon page, which I have backed and will be talking about today.

If the title of this weeks post didn’t give it away by now, I am going to be sharing the Patreon enamel pin reward from June 2020, which was not one, but two Siberian Husky designs! I have decided that every three months I will be sharing with you all the Yapfrog Patreon rewards that have come out over that time, as they’re so damn cute and you guys all know how much I love to share new enamel pins I have bought.

Plus, Niamh is such a lovely person that I feel compelled to share her work with you all, especially dog related pieces, as they’re one of my favourite animals!

It was only recently that Niamh opened up her Patreon, so I made sure to go over and back as soon as I could! There are various different tiers to choose from:

Little Yap – £2 per month – Access to my Patreon feed and access to my Secret Shop.

(UK only) Normal Pin Club – £10 per month – 1x enamel pin, 1x collectible card, access to my Patreon feed and access to my Secret Shop.

(UK only) Special Pin Club – £15 per month – 2x enamel pins (one dog, one puppy), 2x collectible cards, access to my Patreon feed and access to my Secret Shop. This is the one I have!

(Non-UK) Normal Pin Club – £15 per month – 1x enamel pin, 1x collectible card, access to my Patreon feed and access to my Secret Shop.

(Non-UK only) Special Pin Club – £20 per month – 2x enamel pins (one dog, one puppy), 2x collectible cards, access to my Patreon feed and access to my Secret Shop.

For two enamel pins a month, I think £15 is more than reasonable! This makes them either £7.50 each, or say £10 for the dog and £5 for the puppy. Either way, I think it’s a bargain.

The updates you get in the Patreon are amazing, but to be honest, overall Niamh is great when it comes to updates. She’s constantly on it over on her Instagram page, so why would her Patreon be any different?

So, finally I’m going to talk about the enamel pins themselves and show them off to you guys!

We have the two Siberian Husky enamel pins, one being the adult and one being the puppy. Both designs are adorable and before they arrived I did not expect them to actually be different in size, which I thought was a really nice idea!

The adult is dark grey and the puppy is a lighter grey. I love the different colour schemes as it really doesn’t make them look exactly the same. The pink colour on the tongue and ears is so cute too! The designs themselves are adorable with the adult lying down and the puppy sitting.

Both designs are on a gold enamel, which really compliments them too. The pins themselves feel really smooth to the touch, which is always something I love and they just overall feel like really good quality! The backing cards they’re on are really cute, which resembles a park.

I’m already planning to keep these in my new ita bag that was designed my Yapfrog… I mean, why not eh?! 😀

Alongside the pins came some collectable cards too. These have a matte finish, which makes them feel smooth and have the numbers along the top. The adult being #001 and the puppy #001-P. On the back is Yapfrog’s logo against a park background design. The logo itself is raised and in gold, which looks so nice! I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do with these yet, but I’m thinking of keeping them somewhere safe to look at when I need a reminder of something cute!

Overall, the pins are absolutely adorable and for the first set of enamel pins for Yapfrog to bring out, they are AMAZING quality and whilst I’m not surprised, I am taken back by just how great they are. I have followed and bought from many independent artists over the years and I personally feel like Niamh is on her way up to the top with her store and the future of it.

Next month is already beginning to take shape with the next dog designs, which are… Labradors! 😀 You can see both the adult and puppy designs over on Yapfrog’s Instagram page.

I’ve linked all of the relevant websites/social media pages on the post, but as always, I’ll list them below too so they’re all in one place!

Instagram

Patreon

Store

Shiba Ita Ba & Friends Kickstarter campaign (ends June 27th 2020)

I honestly can’t wait for more puppy enamel pins to come from Niamh in the future, as well as other things.

What do you guys think of Yapfrog? Will you be checking out the Kickstarter campaign, as well as the Patreon dog pins? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and stay safe.

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