You may have seen yesterday's Blogmas post all about the Manchester Christmas, which I visited with my mum on Monday. I wanted to show off some of the beautiful stalls and the lovely Christmas gifts they were selling so I made the post quite pic heavy. Because of this I decided to plan a seperate post about what I bought whilst I was there (I hope you are all enjoying pic heavy posts haha). I really look forward to going shopping in Manchester as I can visit all my favourite stores that we don't have in my local town centre. I purchased most of my shopping in the Arndale, but picked up a few things from the Christmas Markets. I was determined to come home with one of the mugs, so I'm really happy I now have one of my own to feel even more Christmassy when I'm drinking hot chocolate & marshmallows. I'll show you all what I got from the Markets first; the stalls sold an array of quirky gifts and traditional decorations but were quite pricey and as I had a budget to stick to, I couldn't spend too much.
How cool is my new handcrafted dragon pencil!? It was from a stall selling lots of wooden carved items and traditional wooden instruments. I almost bought a peruvian wood flute but this was the last stall I visited before going to catch the train home and I'd ran out of money by this point. I love dragons & this one reminds me of Drogon from Game of Thrones. I love the detail of the head especially the teeth and the colours used, and I also really like how the pencil looks really rustic. I couldn't resist getting some German treats whilst I was at the Christmas Markets and since I love original Lebkuchen (a traditional German gingerbread-like biscuit), I thought I'd try a new flavour. I was told this variety is coated in dark chocolate with a layer of rice paper underneath and bits of orange throughout the biscuit. I'm looking forward to trying them! I love my new wooden tree decoration! I think the detail is amazing and I loved the little doll decoration too because it's just so so cute.
I couldn't resist buying this gorgeous alpaca plushie! It was from a stall selling jumpers, blankets and other items all made from Alpaca wool. Alpacas are sheared just like sheep and their wool is used to make clothing and other things. The companies listed on the bag were 'Cosy by De Luciano' and 'Alpacapaca'. This adorable plushie feels so soft and I'm in love with it (it was also the most expensive item I purchased all day). Hugging this will have to make do until I'm rich and can afford to buy land to have some pet alpacas of my own! ♥ I've named him Alfonzo.
I wanted to try a traditional macaroon, even though I still haven't tried French macaroons yet :( It was filled with mushy coconut and was hard & crunchy on the outside. I do like coconut flavoured things but now I've tried them, I probably won't eat one again because I didn't really like the texture. The other treats shown above tasted awesome!. They are called Schokoküsse, a German treat that is basically chocolate-coated marshmallow. We thought they would be firm inside but they are actually like those snowball treats we can get here in England... the ones that are covered in bits of coconut. It was a shame that they gave them to me simply in a paper bag, because they were crushed by the time I got home... because we thought they were like traditional marshmallows we didn't take care not to squash them *oops* I loved them! I paid £5 and got to choose 6 flavours (£1 each & one for free when you buy 5). I picked: After Eight, Marzipan, Cappuccino, Orange, Vanilla and Coconut. My favourite was the After Eight one. The gooey marshmallow inside was really flavoursome. I recommend buying some if you get the chance!
I wish my local town centre had a Yankee candle shop! I can still buy some of their products at Clinton Cards and ASDA but they don't have all the range so I usually can't just pick up my favourites when I've ran out of them. I've wanted a wax melter for ages now but didn't want to get one online in case I didn't like it when it arrived. I loved this one when I saw it in store and since I'd asked for one for Christmas, my mum treated me to it and also let me have it early. Let me know if you'd like me to do a review on these votives and wax melts. I'm really looking forward to using it!
I literally can't go shopping without coming back with some form of stationary and it's usually stickers that I end up buying. I feel like I'm becoming a sticker hoarder haha I really like the stickers available from Accessorize and I've had some of the owl ones before, just in a different colour, and they are really good quality and puffy which I like; some of the owls also have googly eyes! How cute is that? I was in need of some mini stickers to use on postcards so I purchased the panda ones from Accessorize and the fox ones from Paperchase. I was so excited to go to the Paperchase in Manchester. I've never been to it before and it's such a huge store! I'm going to go back soon when I've got more money to spend. This time I just picked up the stickers and some of their awesome postcards, which I've wanted to get my hands on for ages. I purchased the peppermint chocolate bar and the little Hello Kitty charm from the Christmas Markets :)
The first store I shopped at on Monday was the Disney Store. I'd seen that the new Winnie The Pooh Collection & the Jiminy Cricket tsum tsums had been released online so I knew exactly which ones I was looking to buy before I set off to Manchester. I'm really happy to add more kawaii tsum tsums to my now massive collection! I'm disappointed that Disney UK have ran out of the gold limited edition collectors pins and so have stopped giving the tokens when you purchase tsum tsums because I have more than enough for a silver pin. I hope I can find a way to get one! I also went into Lush to get a few items but I've decided to show you them in another post.
I hope you all enjoyed today's post. Sorry it's not very Christmassy!
♥
Have you bought anything nice this week?
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