Hi guys! Happy Friday! Is everyone excited for the weekend? Do you have anything planned? It's been quite a while since my last blog post; for me, May has just flown by so fast and it feels like lately I have been the busiest that I've been in a long time! If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I went to Portugal at the start of this month, to Lisbon for the Eurovision Song Contest. I spent eight days in this beautiful country, the weather was fabulous and I saw so many wonderful sights. I'll have some posts up all about my holiday very soon. I can't wait to tell you guys all about it! It's been just over a week now since I arrived back in England, and I decided it was best for me to take this week to relax and get myself back into the swing of things (I haven't used that saying in forever, haha!). That turned out to be the best decision, not only was I exhausted from my travels, but I also experience the post-holiday blues quite a bit! However, I feel ready to get back to blogging, and I'm very happy to finally have a new post to share with you all :)
Recently, I was contacted by Old English Company* to ask if I wanted to review some of their products, and they very kindly gifted me the most lovely items ♥ I've been looking forward to showing you all these pretty products and telling you exactly what I think of them. So if you're a fan of home décor, stationery and pins, then keep reading!
Old English Company is a business that creates a range of products in a gorgeous yet simplistic way. They produce giftware, wall décor, planners, all sorts! All of it really pretty and photogenic, especially perfect for bloggers! Their products are hand-lettered and have the loveliest 'fonts', as you can see from the print in my photograph above. If you're looking for present for your loved ones then I recommend checking out the Old English Company website, because there's something to suite the tastes of literally everyone. The website is very easy to navigate too, including various categories to help you find the right gift for your friends and family, which is great! They also cater for a range of budgets, with some gifts available for £5 and under! So anyhow, without further ado, I'll show you all the products that I chose :)
How wonderful are these greetings cards!? I am such a fan of fancy cards! I love looking through the card sections in stores, taking my time to check out all of the pretty and/or humorous designs, probably to the annoyance of anyone I go shopping with, haha. But there's just something special about cards. They help to illustrate emotions that people might not be able to fully express in their own words, and everyone knows how nice it feels to receive a card that is well thought out and seems to have been tailored with just you in mind. I have lots of fabulous, quirky people in my life that deserve an equally fabulous, quirky card! And Old English Company have some perfect examples.
I chose the 'You are fantastically brilliant!' card because the wording makes me smile, and so does the stereotypically English gentleman accompanying it. It's something different from your typical Congratulations card, and I know lots of people who would love it! The gold lettering makes it so eye-catching too. It comes with a brown envelope and I'm not sure why, but brown envelopes to me make a card feel just that little bit more fancier! Who agrees? I knew I wanted to find a nice Birthday card, and this 'You Party Animal!' one just appealed to the animal lover in me! I love Toucans; they are such gorgeous birds and they don't get near enough appreciation compared to some other birds. I adore this cartoon Toucan wearing a party hat so much and to be honest it's going to be tough for me to give it away :D The yellow envelope goes so well with the colourful card, and it is sure to brighten up anyone's special day :)
I chose the last card because it's iridescent colour scheme caught my eye right away. Iridescent things are super popular at the moment and I'm lovin' it as I have always liked colours like this! They will forever remind me of something magical, and take me back to my childhood when I was fascinated with spotting iridescent colours in nature. The design of this 'Love Heart' card is very simple and pretty, and is blank inside so can be used for any occasion. In fact, all of the cards I was sent are blank inside, which is what I prefer because I like to decorate my cards with doodles and stickers and such :) This card is much smaller than the others and this was great for me as I'm a penpal and also enjoy sending care packages to my loved ones, and a tiny card like this can be easily added as a notecard. Which is your favourite card of the three above and why? They are printed on fantastic quality card and I am certainly impressed!
As promised, the next items that I'm going to show you all are pin badges! Those who have been following me for a while now will know that I am a pin collector! I have loved pins since I was in my early teens and would pick them up everywhere I visited on holiday. So when I discovered the wonderful world of online shopping (my bank account doesn't agree, haha!), I was delighted to find that there were so many wonderful pins available. Old English Company has brilliant pins, and I am so happy to have added some to my ever-growing collection!
Just look how flippin' adorable this pin in!! I am all about spoopy things, and will happily rock Halloween-esque accessories all year around, especially when they are this cute! I can't stop saying 'Awww!' every time I look at this Pumpkin Enamel Pin, and so I know that whenever I wear it, it's gonna put a smile on my face! I love how vibrant the orange is, and the combination of this orange with the gold outlining looks so awesome. Some people enjoy gifting their loved ones on all of the special holidays around the year, and so instead of giving them the usual sweeties/candy on Halloween, why not give them a seasonal pin? A lot of people also have to work on Halloween or don't get the opportunity to dress up in a costume, so they could wear this subtle little pin instead in celebration. Halloween is my favourite holiday, and so I'll definitely be wearing this wherever I go this October!
I really like pin badges that are relatable, that showcase something about my personality or my life that others can look at and think 'me too!'. I am a spoonie, which means I am someone who has a chronic illness. Some chronic illnesses are invisible and that means that just by looking at you, people wouldn't be able to tell that you're in pain all the time, or that you have difficulty communicating with strangers, or that you haven't had a decent night's sleep in years. Pins like this 'The No Sleep Gang' pin are a subtle way for me to express the struggles I face, and although this pin might not be directly referring to someone who has insomnia, it is still for me, my little way of reminding myself when I wear it that I am a warrior. That I am still doing things and going to places despite my health conditions. Something that makes my insomnia even more challenging is the fact that I am also naturally a night owl, so I find that I am more productive when the suns gone down. This pin speaks to me on a personal level and I like that it says 'gang' so it will help me feel not so alone if I have had a particular rough night.
Aside from what this pin means to me, I really like the shade of pink they've used. I wouldn't usually choose a pink pin because it's not one of my favourite colours, but I really like this one. The same goes for the gold outline, I'm not usually a fan of gold things, I always opt for silver jewellery for example, however I illuminates the words on the pin. I can't wait to wear it when I'm out and about in the sunshine :)
Which pin do you prefer? I seriously cannot decide which is my favourite! I really like my new pins! Oh and I almost forgot to mention that these pins have rubber backs which is what I prefer because they don't rub on your skin through your clothes like traditional metal ones do. For only £7 each these pin badges are fantastic, the quality of them is great!
As promised, the next part of today's post is for my fellow stationery-obsessed people! I picked two stationery items from Old English Company, and it was so tough to decide which I wanted more because I was lusting over all of the gorgeous stationery that they have!
I was over the moon when I opened my mail from Old English Company and spotted this weekly agenda pad! It's just so Instagram-worthy XD I feel like such a blogger saying that haha but it's true. This 'Brush Stroke Weekly Agenda Notepad' is lovely; it's almost too pretty to write on! But I will most definitely be using it soon because I write A LOT of to do lists. Organising helps relieve my anxiety and so I like to schedule and plan everything in my life. This is why I like structured notepads like this one, which have the days of the week printed on there. It's easy to keep track of what I have to do each day with a notepad like this, and I really love that the tick boxes are already on there for you! The lines are wide enough for it to accommodate most people's handwriting too. My favourite thing about this weekly agenda though is the design. I like how subtle it is, it's not too busy to distract away from whatever you write, but is still eye-catching. I like the different shades of grey used, it's just so aesthetically pleasing to look at, don't you think?
I always give my honest opinion about things I review, so I want to mention something that I would change about the item if I could. This might be down to personal preference, but I've never liked how a lot of weekly planners have just one box titled 'weekend' VS individual boxes for Saturday and Sunday. I know that this would mean that there would be less space for each weekday, but for me, I'd rather have at least the weekend box separated into two smaller boxes. It's not a big deal though and I still love the notepad as it is! I am happy with the thick paper that has been used for it, because it feels great quality and like I'll have no problem writing lists in fine-liner pins and felt tips, which is handy for when I want to categorise or colour-code my to do lists. The pad is A5 too so it can be easily carried around in your bag or can be tucked into a planner of the same size.
I am a sucker for anything with a floral design, even more so when they include leaves!, so I couldn't not select this super cute A6 notepad! I know I've said this about almost every item I've mentioned but I'm such a fan of how simplistic the designs of these products are. As the Old English Company said on a sweet little notecard they added to my mail, 'there is beauty in simplicity' and they couldn't be more right! I really appreciate subtle designs, I think they look more delicate and when notepads are designed in this way, it makes me want to use my best handwriting everytime I write on it :)
This notepad appeals to me for more reasons than it's lovely border; I love when the pages are mostly blank so that I can fill them with to do lists or notes for blog posts. Having lots more space to write on also makes these notepads great for writing letters to my penpals on. There's nothing more I can say about this notepad other than I love it!
Okay, so trying to photograph my gorgeous new art print made me realise just how challenging it is to take a picture of something in a frame without also capturing the reflection of the entire room or yourself with a camera for a face too! Haha! I finally managed to get a shot of the wallpaper on my bedroom's 'feature wall' to show you why I went for a baby blue print. When you order a print from Old English Company you can choose from a variety of colour options, and additionally with my print, I got to choose whether I wanted a white background with coloured lettering, or a 'reverse' option so that the background was a solid colour of my choice instead. I decided to have my print blue with white lettering so that it would match my damask wallpaper, and I'm very happy with how it looks up on the adjacent cream wall.
This art print was the first item that grabbed my attention has soon as browsed the Old English Company website, mostly because the quote has a special meaning to me. 'She believed she could so she did' became one of my favourite quotes when I was studying at university. In my final year, when my mental illnesses started to have a serious impact on my daily life, I thought that I would not be able to finish my degree that I had worked so hard to get through. I started looking for anything that would help me pull myself through each day as it came so that I would graduate, and one of the ways I did this was by starting a little journal. In it I wrote some inspirational quotes and I didn't think they would have any impact on how I felt to be honest but I jotted them down anyway. One time, when I'd had like my fourth breakdown of the day, I opened my journal and read this quote, and it was just the affirmation that I needed and somehow gave me the drive to work my very hardest to just make it to the end of an assignment I was working on. Finishing this assignment allowed me to believe that I could do it, that I could battle through what I was going through enough to complete my exams and pass my course. I graduated with a 2:1 in the end and I am still very proud of myself for that. Whenever I see this quote, it makes me think of graduation day and how much it meant to me, and the words just help me sometimes when I'm having a tough day so I think it's wonderful to finally have those words up on my wall where I can see them everyday. I have put the print up across from my bed so I see it every morning when I wake up :)
Before I get even more off topic, I'd better explain what I think about the print itself! It is another fantastic item in terms of quality, the card used is thick and sturdy, and the colour is bright. The hand-lettering is lovely and I like how it differentiates throughout the design, from curly joined-up handwriting to bold capital letters. I think the garland of leaves surrounding the quote is a nice touch too, it helps to draw your eyes to the words. The fact that the writing is in white makes it go perfectly with a white frame (which I picked up from B&M Bargains in a 3-pack for around a fiver). The Old English Company prints are available in 8x10'', A4 and A3, and I opted for an A4 size. If you're a fan of this quote too, there's not just a print available with it on, but also a coaster, a pin, a keyring and much more! It would be lovely gift for any of the ladies you know, and I personally think it would be great for a graduation present!
So here's an overview of all of the excellent items that I was sent (except the print which was too big to fit into the shot, oops!). As you can see, they are all really pretty, with such vibrant and noticeable colouration and lettering! They were all of a brilliant quality and I was certainly impressed, so will be heading to the Old English Company website whenever I have a loved ones birthday coming up! I want to also say that I was very happy with how the items were packaged; they arrived in a big sturdy box and the company made sure that the pin badges were separated from the rest of the items so that there was so risk of them scratching the paper and card products, which I thought was a thoughtful thing to do. I hope you all enjoyed reading this post, and also Thankyou to Old English Company for working with me :) Have an awesome weekend guys!
Thankyou for reading!
♥
What was your favourite item that I featured in this post?
Have I given you any inspiration on what to get your loved ones for an upcoming special occasion?
(*) All posts/content marked with an asterisk signify that the item(s) featured have been gifted or sent to me for the purpose of review. I have kindly been sent the products featured in this post to review. See my full disclaimer here.
