You Are Enough Planner by The Latest Kate

Hello, lovelies! Long time, no see read... (that sounded more funny in my head!). Please ignore my rusty first line, it's been so long since I've written a post intro and I was never particularly good at them in the first place :D If you follow me over on Instagram, you may have seen my gorgeous new planner! I recently shared a photo of it, and promised to blog all about it, so here we go. FYI: I'm obsessed with it already!

LOOK AT THAT COVER! Isn't it the most adorable thing you've ever seen!? That tiny bumblebee now fills me with happiness every single day. Most of my readers are also fellow lovers of the cute things in life, so will likely recognise the artwork style right away, but if not, Kate Allan, aka The Latest Kate, is the artist and you seriously need to give them a follow over on Twitter and Instagram, because their art is the loveliest, with each piece featuring a cute creature along with a signature uplifting quote. With the world seemingly getting more and more crap each day, seeing these types of wholesome messages is even more important for our mental well-being, and so what's better than a planner filled with them? Sometimes venturing online can be overwhelming, for so many reasons, and so being able to see Kate's artwork without logging onto social media has been great! 

I am so impressed with this planner that I just had to share all about it, and give you all my first impressions, plus show off the pages you will find inside :) 

The first thing you will be greeted with when you open up the You Are Enough planner by The Latest Kate (side note: how lovely is that title though?) is a sheet filled with the most wonderful little animal stickers. All of the bee ones include sweet captions and I absolutely love that. I can't possibly choose a favourite, but the rainbow dinosaur and the sleeping bumble on the flower are up there! Which is the best, in your opinion? 

The next page you will find inside the planner is a 2023 overview calendar. I've never required my planners to have sheets like these, as there's not really space to make a note next to the dates and I am a perpetual over writer! However, I'm sure lots of people find them very handy to be able to circle important dates to remember, that they can make a more detailed note of elsewhere in the planner. The back of the planner includes two more pages like this one, one for 2022 and another for 2024. Personally, I would have liked all three of these pages to be grouped together, especially because the 2022 one is at the back and easy to forget about as its located after the main planner pages. Maybe using this page will prompt me to be more organised when it comes to planning things in advance :) 

Something that I find adorable about this planner is that so many of the pages are in pastel colours! As a fan of kawaii culture, something that is very much pastel in aesthetics. I find this so visually appealing. I also feel like it will help my writing to stand out more, than if it was surrounded by darker shades, if that makes sense. I've always had a tough time sticking to writing in planners daily, so little things like this can really make a difference for me. 

After the calendar overview page, you will find monthly calendars, with a box for you to jot down notes for each date. These are the type of calendars that I much prefer as I can jot down people's birthdays, appointments, etc. As the You Are Enough planner runs from September 2022 until December 2023, these are the dates included for the monthly section, with each one being in a different pastel shade. They note important holidays and special days from across the world, such as Diwali and Earth Day, as well as the different moon phases, which is one of my favourite features. I love to take photographs of the full moon :) 

Cute bird alert!! The next section of the planner is where all of the beautiful artwork begins! Of course, the large majority of the planner is made up of weekly pages, with each of the seventy weeks being accompanied by an A5 print of Kate's art, and oh my gosh, they are all such a joy to look at! I am super happy with how spacious the weekly pages are; there's lots of room to write in each box, and I'm very glad to see that Saturday & Sunday have an equal amount of space. I've bought so many planners in the past that have made the weekend into one bigger box, and it's so frustrating! 

The only detail I would personally change about the weekly page set up is that the bottom left corner space is taken up by a mini calendar. Again, this may just be because I am not a fan in general of these number calendars, where you can only highlight a key date, but I would have liked to see a blank box, maybe titled as 'notes' so I could jot down extra things, or even just have a blank square to decorate with stickers, washi tape and/or a little doodle or something. What do you guys think? 

I am seriously in love with the artwork in this planner! Here's the design for my birthday week next year; I was so chuffed to find a cat there, especially when it could totally be a Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat (my two favourite breeds)! It's so great that when you have completed using the planner, you could cut out your favourite art pieces and display them on your wall/in a frame. You're essentially getting seventy The Latest Kate art prints for only around £10... it's amazing! I got mine from Book Depository here. The special days and also the moon calendar dates are printed onto the weekly pages, too, which is awesome, as I am always in need of a reminder. I have a tendency to forget things if I don't have some sort of visual reminder. Who's the same? 

I love that there's a variety of different colour schemes and themes included throughout this planner. One page may have a super colourful, bright illustration of a dragon, and the next has a couple of foxes coloured in calm shades of blue and purple. It's so wonderful! Such attention-to-detail has been put into these designs, with some of the themes matching up with the season. There's a pretty bird sitting in a pink blossom tree in the April section, for example. The margins/grids for each weekly page are a different colour, which is a very nice touch. 

At the back of the sixteen month's worth of weekly pages, you'll find two pages allocated for 2024 planning. On each, you're given a few lines for every month of the year. I think this is a great idea, as lines are a lot more spacious than an alternative design, such as grid calendar. After this are the 2022 and 2024 overview calendars I mentioned earlier, and I just think maybe these pages could have been used for something else, like a budgeting/expenditure planner, a page for your details in case you somehow lose your planner, etc. I mean, other people might need these kinds of pages in their planners, so it's all down to preference, and it's only 3 pages out of 176 that I won't use much :) 

The final section of the You Are Enough planner is made up of notes pages. I counted thirteen sides, so there's lots of room! I'll probably use these pages to write up detailed plans for special events, like if I'm going somewhere for a day out, I might make a note of important details such as addresses and local attractions, stuff like that. All of the note pages are blue, which for some people will be preferred as it categorises the section. I think it would have been cool to have these pages in different colours to keep in with the colourful theme of the rest of the planner, but the colours of the pages don't impact the functionality of the planner. It's fantastic regardless of my thoughts about little feature changes. 

Check out the sleeve/pouch on the back page of the planner!! It's so eye-catching being in vibrant yellow and with the most fabulous multi-coloured dinosaur, that matches one of the stickers at the start. They're iconic and I've named them Nijiro. Nijiro will now be the handy guardian of my cute little planner tabs and stickers! I really love how the yellow contrasts with the muted blue tone of the notes pages, Like bam! it's a surprise dino! 

Toadstool dragon!?! HE'S SO PRECIOUS!

All-in-all, I absolutely adore my new planner! I look forward to writing in it each day, and I hope that continues to be the case. As someone who seems to be a chronic starter- none finisher when it comes to projects, it has always been a struggle to keep up with these sorts of things, but I am feeling really confident about the You Are Enough planner. 

Just some final opinions I don't want to miss out of my review... I really like that this planner is spiral-bound, as it can be super frustrating not being able to lay a page flat when writing. I have fibromyalgia and one of the symptoms I struggle with is wrist pain, so I need notebooks and planners that don't make it unnecessarily challenging to write! Also, the paper used to make this planner is such nice quality and thick. I haven't tried out if felt-tip pen or highlighter ink bleeds through to the other side yet, but I feel like it's not going to be a problem. Another detail that is awesome about this planner is that it has been printed using soy ink! There's just so many things that make this newest planner by Kate Allan so brilliant, and I can't recommend it enough. What a great value for your money, too. I'm surprised it's so affordable for the quality :) If you're looking for a new planner, get yourself this one! You won't regret it! 

I hope you all enjoyed reading today's post and checking out this lovely planner by The Latest Kate. Be sure to go check out their artwork, and the other books and planners they've published. As the weekend approaches, I wish you all a marvellous one! Keep a look out my next post early next week, that will be all about what I bought on my recent trip to Manchester where I visited my favourite kawaii store, Kenji. 

Thank you for reading!

♥

Are you a fan of writing in planners? 

I'd love to hear all about your favourite ones!

Stina Glaas Jewellery

Hey lovelies! Can you believe it's August now!?! It's one of those years that feels like it's going by too fast, but super slow at the same time! How is that even possible?? I'd be happy if this year continued to speed by, or at least this pandemic anyway! I wanted to do so many things in 2020 and hope I get a chance to do if only a couple of them. But obviously, I'm more concerned with following the advice of the scientists and doctors and not the UK government, which has been so confusing with their guidelines... but the subject of this post isn't politics, so let's not get into that! Stay safe, my lovely readers! 

Today, I actually wanted to share something with you guys that has been one of the highlights of my year. Something that made me feel loved and I'm very thankful for that :) I've needed it! So, I hope you guys enjoy reading all about the gorgeous jewellery that my wonderful friend made for me ♥

As many of you know if you follow me over on instagram or if you've been reading my blog for a while now, one of my hobbies is toy photography. I've been collecting figures and toys for most of my life, and so you can imagine how delighted I was to discover that there's such a huge community of like-minded people over on IG. It's been amazing to share my passion for both photography and toys with people from all over the world, and I have made a lot of friends through the toy community. Friends that have really helped me get through the first year without my mother, and they provided me a place to escape from my sadness as my mother's health declined. I'm not sure where I'd be without the kindness of my online friends! 

One of those friends is a beautiful person, inside and out, by the name of Stina. We become fast friends once we got talking, because we have so much in common. Honestly, Stina has been a rock for me; she often helps me get distracted from my struggles, and to focus on the things that make me happy and keep me going. She's a ray of sunshine and colours, and also the perfect person to rant to about all the shitty things in life, which is equally important. It's cathartic and I need it... because I hate people XD (I'm only kidding, a little at least). So Thankyou Stina for being a brilliant friend!

Not only is Stina a fantastic person, but she's also a talented artist! And along with painting the loveliest colour-filled artwork, she makes jewellery as well! And as you know, that's the main reason for today's post. I wanted to show off my friend's handiwork, since I love what she made for me, but also because it's even more important than ever right now to show your support for independent businesses/artists. 

Before I show you all the creation from my friend, I just wanted to show how cutely she packaged it! She included a Pusheen badge!! Awww, it put a big smile on my face :) I love her little 'business card', too. The combination of all those colours, patterns and shapes makes my heart happy. She actually created a big painting and cut it up into small pieces to make her cards, and I think that's an awesome idea! It feels a lot nicer from a customer point of view to receive a note card like this VS a printed one (not that they can't also be lovely). 

Stina very kindly offered to make me one of her bracelets as a gift, because she is just that fabulous of a friend ♥ So let's talk all about the bracelets that she makes...

HOW PRETTY IS THIS!? As you can see, Stina creates leather bracelets that have a beautiful simplicity to them. You can choose from various colours/shades of leather, but darker shades will lighten over time. Stina can add any caption you like and I've also seen her add a little star or two along with the words! She offers the bracelets for 250 Swedish Krona, which is around £21, and for that you can have any one line of text added.  

So what do the words that I chose mean?

'Var nyfiken' means stay curious in Swedish :) I wanted my bracelet's caption to be in Swedish because I think different languages are beautiful, but also because I have always loved the Nordic countries, especially Sweden. Not only is the history fascinating and the natural landscapes breathtaking, but I'm a big fan of the Eurovision Song Content and Sweden always put on such a great show with their Melodifestivalen shows, to select the musician(s) who will represent the country each year. So yeah, I couldn't not get the wording I wanted in Swedish! 

But why 'stay curious'? For me, this statement has an important meaning. I have always been full of curiosity, since being a little kid. I have had an avid thirst for knowledge for as long as I can remember. Getting lost between the pages of factual books filled up so much of my childhood, and without getting too deep for a Saturday afternoon, I used to hate a lot of aspects about myself growing up... except my curiosity and need to discover all that I could about the world around me. And so this attribute of my personality has always been my favourite thing about me, and therefore I hold it dear to my heart. 

Furthermore, I love to encourage other people to keep learning and exploring and trying to soak up all the knowledge they can about everything around them. It is never too late to be taught something new and it's good for your brain to keep those cogs turning! I'm getting rambly, so back to my bracelet :D 

I opted for a dark shade of brown, because most of the clothing I wear is black so I thought this would bring a little colour to my overall look, but wouldn't be so bright that it clashed with any of the dresses I have that also have a splash of colour to them. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but myself XD 

I'm also a lover of earthy tones, and the brown shade of my bracelet from Stina makes me think of trees. Gosh, do I love trees! Because of this, it's like wearing a happiness reminder on my wrist. 

Here's a photo of the bracelet on. It's so comfortable to wear! The lining is very soft and doesn't rub/irritate my skin after wearing it for an entire day, which is brilliant :) I've had lots of problems like this with bracelets in the past, probably due to a mix of sensitive skin and crappy material choices. But you don't have to worry about that with Stina's bracelets!

They fasten via a press stud (also called a snap fastener), so they are easy to get on & off, but still very sturdy. My little niece tried to open my bracelet and couldn't, so looks like they are small child proof but don't quote me on that, haha! 

Something that I love about the bracelets that my fabulous friend makes is how they are very gender neutral/unisex. This very much appeals to me. I grew up as a 'tomboy' and although I am very happy embracing my feminine side as an adult, I still find that a lot of my tastes reflect my childhood personality(?). I don't think that those tendencies were un-girl like even if society does, to the point where they have to single out a girl who likes 'boy-typical' activities (whatever they are?) as a tomboy. However, that's a whole other discussion for another post! 

I love the outdoors and mud and moss and getting on my hands and knees in the overgrowth, and the colour of this bracelet appeals to my inner goblin child :D (I think I spend too much time on tumblr...).

Stina's bracelets are custom-made so you can get the right size for yours to fit snugly or loosely, whatever your personal preference is. I decided to get mine at a size that would mean it would sit a bit further down from my wrist. This is due to the fact that bracelets can annoy me when I'm writing or typing if they are on my wrist. I've had no such issues so far doing these things whilst wearing the bracelet crafted by Stina! 

I wanted to let you guys know that my friend makes other jewellery pieces as well, including necklaces and bracelets with different thicknesses and designs. All at very affordable prices :) You can find out more over on Stina's instagram and have a look through the photos she has of her pieces (plus lots of flowers and other pretty things!). Go give her a follow here. 

I thought I'd show off the adorable way that Stina packaged my bracelet. I absolutely love when artists present their work in such a lovely way, in which you can tell that a lot of thought and care has gone into it. As a customer, you feel that they really appreciate your order and it's just a sweet touch. I mean, who doesn't enjoy opening pretty mail!? 

Check out how fancy Stina's signature looks! Mine is like a child attempting to write cursive for the first time :D I'm not even joking... I seriously need to up my signature game. Anyhow, I am really impressed with the bracelet that my wonderful friend very kindly made me as a gift. It's aesthetically pleasing, goes well with every outfit I have worn it with, I've even gotten in soaking wet whilst gardening and it came out unscathed! These bracelets, and the other creations by Stina, would make such awesome presents for your friends and family; you should totally make an order now that Christmas is going to be with us in a few months time! 

I hope you guys enjoyed reading all about my stay curious bracelet by the fantastic Stina Glaas, and checking out my photography of it. Isn't it super beautiful!? Today is actually Stina's birthday and her artwork deserves your love!! I've been meaning to write this post for a while but I recently decided what better day to share it on than her birthday. I wanted to champion my friend and her talents! Wishing you the most marvellous day filled with cake and sunshine and relaxation and all things pretty, Stina! Thankyou for being an amazing friend to me!! Have a lovely rest of the weekend, people :) 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

What would you get written on your own personalised bracelet? 

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Naomi Lord Art Haul & Review

Hey everyone! I hope you're all had a lovely Tuesday, and that you still have lots of chocolate leftover from Easter, (or have taken advantage of the discounts!), to enjoy :) I am a firm believer that there's no such thing as too much chocolate, however I am currently living on a diet made up of almost entirely chocolate & I am scared I will get sick of it! :O That would be borderline illegal behaviour! I have some at the side of my laptop as write up this post, haha. Not many things make me happier than chocolate & nerdy merch... and if you, too, love the latter, then I'm sure this will be a fun read for you :) I hope you all enjoy reading &  checking out the fabulous artwork I have to show you guys today! 

If you follow me over on my Instagram, you may have already seen the items that I'm going to talk about today, and you might have even watched the videos I posted on my story showing them off, but I just had to blog about them as well, because it would be wrong not to... everything I received is so wonderful & needs to be shared with others!! I'm sure that most of you will have seen Naomi Lord's gorgeous artwork on various social media sites across the internet, and if you haven't, then I'm very happy to bring it to your attention :) 

Naomi Lord is a UK based freelance artist, who creates both original characters and fanart. She is probably most well-known for her Harry Potter artwork, which is not surprisingly how I first discovered her. She is super kind and hosts a giveaway once a month over on her Instagram, giving one of her lucky followers a chance to win a custom portrait of themselves (or a friend) as a Hogwarts Student, in their house colours & with their very own Patronus! It is through these giveaways that her beautiful art came into my life, and I have been wanting to order from her ever since. I am delighted that I finally could! 

As well as Harry Potter themed work, Naomi also creates art surrounding a wide variety of other topics, including Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Disney, Studio Ghibli and more! She designs a lot of mythology based characters and her own interpretations of fantasy creatures, deities, witches and astrology symbols. So many of my favourite things have been brought to fabulous, colourful life by Naomi Lord, and I adore everything she illustrates! 

So, it's about time that I showed you guys my entire haul from Naomi Lord's Etsy store. 

Ta-da! Sorry, not sorry, for hitting you all in the eyeballs with cuteness overload! … That might be the cheesiest/weirdest line I've ever written, but I don't care because LOOK!! :D How adorable is every single thing that I purchased, and even the business card & little thankyou note is incredibly cute! It is always so sweet when artists include a note, and even more so when it is includes a hand-drawn doodle :) That cat is an exact representation of me when I opened my order! It's nice to know when artists and independent businesses appreciate your purchase.

Let's take a close look at each of the items I added to my basket, and I'll tell you guys what I think :)

I knew that I would be buying some stickers, specifically the San/Princess Mononoke one, which I've had on my wishlist for a while now, but the other two were chosen after a very stressful decision making period. All of Naomi Lord's work is beautiful and it was super tough to settle on just two more stickers, but I had a budget so I had to rein in my mighty need to get ALL THE STICKERS!! 

Since it's Springtime, the season of pretty flowers and sweet baby animals, I opted for this lovely flowery Eevee design. The flower crown is gorgeous, and makes me think of the apple blossom that grows in our garden. It's very difficult to say what my favourite feature of this sticker is, because I love the huge floofy neck, the big teardrop tail, the bunny-esque ears and the tiny toe beans, as well as the sprinkle of grass and the tiny heart detail. What's not to love about this Eevee? 

Something that I adore about Naomi's characters is that they just look so cuddly! Detective Pikachu actually looks like a plushie and I just wish that I could give him a hug :) His big, friendly eyes are full of personality and make me 'awwww' each time I notice them. Pikachu's rosy cheeks and oWo expression is what made me settle on this sticker. It wasn't until I saw it in person that I really noticed just how stunning the sakura (cherry blossom) illustration in the background is, and how clear the steam rising from Detective Pikachu mug of coffee is. I love it!!

As I said, this item was one of the things that I knew I would be purchasing before I even started browsing through the wonders on offer. Princess Mononoke is my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, and San is one of, if not the main, most iconic character from it. Again, I cannot choose just one feature that I like best, because there are just so many intricate details. The trees and sky that make up the backdrop for one look spectacular. Each time I focus my attention on it, I can just imagine myself laying on the forest floor and looking up through the canopy. I really like the contrast of the green and blue against the colours of San's outfit and mask. Along with her bold outline, which is something that I absolutely love when it comes to Naomi's illustrations, this contrast really makes the character pop. I also find her solemn expression so cute, and it's just the best expression to use for San, in my opinion :) 

I couldn't resist picking up one of the 6x6 print's that Naomi Lord has available. All of her designs can be purchased in either a sticker form or a print, which I think it's really great! I struggled to pick between getting Princess Mononoke in print form or Kiki, the character that I eventually decided upon. Kiki is the protagonist from another movie by Studio Ghibli, Kiki's Delivery Service. It's one of my top five from this fabulous Japanese production company, and the reason why I ultimately went for Kiki as a print version is due to the expression on her face :D She looks incredibly excited and enthusiastic about whatever adventure she's going to be facing next, and her happiness is almost infectious, so I thought it would be wonderful to display this print up on the wall where I can see it & have it instantly put a smile on my face!

A lot of Naomi's art is coloured in more pastel shades, which is another thing that I love about it, however when it comes to this Kiki print, the colours chosen for her are much bolder and vibrant. Her red bow and shoes are especially eye-catching! Not gonna lie though, the main factor as to why I wanted this print might be because of Jiji (the cat).... I relate so much to his character & it's lovely to see him smiling, instead of looking gloomy or nervous, haha. 

And finally, if you know me well, I'm sure that you would have been fully expecting to see Snape somewhere in this post, as soon as I mentioned Harry Potter. If you didn't know, he's my main man, my favourite character from the franchise, one of my all-time favourites when it comes to fantasy in general. I have no shame when it comes to my love for this character, and if you don't like him... you need to leave my blog immediately XD I'm kidding, but we can't be friends, maybe...

Guys, look how adorable this version of Snape is! It's brilliant to see the stoic, grumpy Professor we all know and love (or should do!) designed in a chibi style, and I am all for it! I need more cute Snape merch in my life! But for now, I am over the moon with this print from Naomi Lord. 

I love that this kawaii interpretation of Severus is crossing/folding his arms and baring an unimpressed look on his face. I am very happy with all of the attention to detail when it comes to his outfit, too... the buttons along his sleeves, the high collar of his shirt, and the most importantly, the flowing cape! I am very impressed that the print features a 'softly simmering' cauldron :) It makes my little potterhead heart happy! And the addition of the potions are fantastic, too... and that tiny skull on one of them!! Cuteeee! 

Oh, and this is an 8x8 print and is the main reason I made my order in the first place. I am just a fangirl through and through XD I can't describe how much I love the way this illustration of Snape looks, and I cannot wait to get it a nice frame and be able to show it off. The only thing that would have made this print just that little bit more perfect would have been for it to have a more detailed backdrop. I do like that the background is pale as it ensures that the character stands out more, however it would be nice to see scenery like with the Kiki print & sticker artwork... maybe a mix of different shades of green to represent Slytherin? Nonetheless, I think this print is marvellous! 

Before I finish up this post all about my recent haul from Naomi Lord Art, I just wanted to share a little more information for those of you who want to get some of these wonderful products for yourselves or a loved one. The pricing of Naomi's art is superb, and is something I was super impressed by! The stickers cost me £1.30 each; the prints: £3.20 for the 6x6 & £5.20 for the 8x8. How amazing is that!? The shipping was £2.10 for me as I live in England, and my order arrived so fast. It was sent a sturdy envelope, with the cutest kitty doodle drawn on the back. I loved this little touch. Thankyou, Naomi! I can't recommend this store enough and I will certainly making more purchases in the future... I still have my eye on the Weasley family portrait & the artwork of the Egyptian Goddess, Bast :) 

I hope you all enjoyed reading my post, and be sure to check out Naomi's social media and Etsy because I guarantee that there's going to be something that catches your eye, too, so long as you appreciate all things kawaii. And who doesn't like cute versions of their favourites!? 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Which is your favourite of the items that I picked up from Naomi Lord? 

Are you a fan of Studio Ghibli, Harry Potter or Pokemon?

If so, I'll love to hear who your favourites of the franchise are? 


Did you know you can find me on tumblr? And Pinterest? Also over on Twitter? 

Aviakey Custom Print Commission

Hey everyone! How's Monday been for you? I've been recovering from my shenanigans at the weekend... I went to a Eurovision party (celebrating Sweden's Melodifestivalen final) and got a little too drunk :'). I hope that I'm feeling better tomorrow, because I have a busy week ahead of me! I know I've said this before, but I am now actually re-decorating my bedroom, after a few years of the process being put on standby and living with boxes of flat-pack Ikea furniture scattered here and there all over the house :D I've been spending the last week or so boxing up all of my belongings and moving them into another room, in preparation for painting and wallpapering. I'm already exhausted with the process and there's so much left to do...

Anyhow, today I finally get to share something with you guys that I've had to wait to talk about! I commissioned an artist, who's work I love, to create an art piece of my friend's beloved furbabies. I was thinking about the idea for months as I thought it would be a lovely present to gift her for her birthday. I've adored Aviakey's wonderful artwork ever since I was lucky enough to win a custom Animal Crossing character print from them in a giveaway over on Instagram (read all about my fabulous prize here). Ever since, I have been in love with their artwork, and as an animal lover, especially their more realistic illustrations of animals :) As soon as I saw a post by Aviakey saying they would love people to commission them to draw their pets, I just knew that I had to ask them to draw something for my friend ♥ This post is going to be all about the gorgeous artwork I received! It took me a while to send it out to my friend and so I've not been able to post anything about it, but she's received it now so I can show it off! I hope you all enjoy reading :) 

So, before I show you guys the super awesome artwork, I wanted to mention what I asked for and how much it cost :) My friend has two cat babies and a doggo, so I sent over some photos and let Aviakey have creative freedom when it came to the design. Although I did ask for my friend's pets to be outdoors on the grass and for there to be blue sky in the background, because this was something that I really loved about the Animal Crossing custom art I won. It looked so eye-catching and bright! And having a backdrop like that made the character pop, so I wanted my friend's pets to stand out in the same way. The commission cost £30 and I wanted a physical version VS a digital one so I paid £5 for printing as well as for the P&P. £35 for a beautiful, one-of-a-kind present for one of my closest friends was very reasonable in my opinion, and just wait until you see it!! 

Ta-da! HOW FLIPPIN' CUTE IS THIS ARTWORK!!? It's so colourful and adorable and oh my gosh, just perfect! I really love Aviakey's illustration style; my friend's furbabies look so cute and cuddly! Something else I love is the contrast between the animals and the scene, and I'm so happy with my decision to have the grass and blue sky. I'm not an artist, so I don't know the technical way of describing this, haha... but one of my favourite things about the print, other than the pets of course, is the brush effect of the sky and grass. I don't know if that makes sense, but I love how it looks!! 

Here are some close-up shots, so you can check out all of the little details. Let's talk about these three precious babies! My friend's dog is very energetic and happy, and after discussing more about her, Aviakey came up with this design, which I was delighted with!! Her personality just shines through and she looks like she's having the time of her life, playing in the grass. One of my favourite photos I had of my friend's cats was of them when they were kittens, cuddled up together sleeping. So I'm really glad that Aviakey was inspired by this photo! They look too cute!! I love that one of them is hugging the other... awww, brotherly love :) 

I can't get over how beautiful the artwork is!! It's super photogenic, too! It's going to look even more brilliant once it's framed. 'I absolutely love my picture of the animals!!! It's amazing' was what my friend said to me as soon as it arrived, so it's safe to say she's over the moon with it :D Thankyou Aviakey for creating such marvellous art for my friend and for being so lovely! Definitely make sure to go and check out Aviakey's Instagram everyone, and you should totally get yourself or your loved one's a commission piece, because how could you not!? I hope you guys enjoyed today's post and that you all have a wonderful week! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

I'd love to hear all about your own furbabies or scaleybabies 

or whatever animal companions you have, so please tell me all about them in the comments!

Have you ever had a custom art comission done before? What did you get?

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Aviakey Giveaway Prizes!

Hey everyone! I hope you've all been having a lovely start to September! I'd love to hear about anything you've got planned/are looking forward to this month :) Today, I wanted to blog about something that helped to brighten up my day on Wednesday, which feels even more special and important considering everything I'm going through right now. If you follow me over on Instagram then you probably know what I'm referring to.... it's still so hard to talk about though and I'm writing this post to celebrate the little things that make me happy, so let's get back to that! 

Last month, I won a giveaway on Instagram, and I was so excited!! The artist hosting the giveaway is called Aviakey and they create the most adorable and wonderful artwork! A lot of their work is based around the fantastic Nintendo game, Animal Crossing, but they also do lots of other fantasy and fandom-related art, such as pokemon and anime. I know you guys will love Aviakey's work, so please go and show your support and give them a follow over on Instagram & Twitter :) So, without any further ado, here are my prizes I won! 

I wanted to firstly say Congratulations to Aviakey for passing the 250 followers milestone, which is what this giveaway was in celebration of!! And for now having close to 400, you deserve it! Your artwork is absolutely brilliant and so cute ^.^

Before I actually show you guys my prizes (along with the fabulous stickers above), I wanted to explain what I won :) The prizes included an Animal Crossing-inspired original character commission, which is AMAZING!! As soon as I won and messaged Aviakey my address, we discussed what I would like and if you know me well you'll probably be able to guess which animal I went for. I also won an Animal Crossing sticker sheet! 

Ta-da! Here is the custom Animal Crossing villager that Aviakey created for me! It is, of course, a cat :D If you have been a regular follower of my blog for a while, you will know how much I love nekomimi (anime cat girls) and so when Aviakey asked me what outfit I would like my villager to have, I opted for a traditional maid outfit, which is what you often see nekomimi cosplayers wearing. I adore the character that Aviakey created for me, her outfit looks so sweet, and I love the tiny bow detail as well as the fact she has a bell collar!! 

I was also asked what accessory I wanted for my villager, and I thought it would be cool for her to have a little magnifying glass to look for pretty insects. Insect photography and surveying is what I've been doing all summer so it seemed like the perfect choice, plus collecting bugs was always one of my favourite things to do back when I used to play Animal Crossing: Wild World a lot :) I really love that Aviakey included the butterfly and tiny caterpillar, they are a fabulous addition! Also, how gorgeous is the background.. the bright summer grass and the blue sky with fluffy clouds!! And her happy facial expression!? She's so excited to be exploring nature! Thankyou so much for making me such a marvellous OC!! 

Here are all of the stickers that I received, too. I love how vibrant and colourful they are! They are so eye-catching, and it's going to be hard for me not to hoard them and never use them :D Although, I can't wait to add the little money bag stickers to my planner to represent paydays, haha! I love that all of the stickers are small enough that I can use them to decorate snail mail letters, postcards and planner pages :) All of the characters are fantastic! 

As for the single/loose stickers... I really really adore them!! They stand out so much! I especially like the bold outline of the frog girl and I'm going to call him newt boy; it just makes them even more eye-catching! The purple & yellow, and pink & bluey-green work really well together as well. I had a little accident when removing the stickers from the plastic sleeve thingie they were in, and frog girl got stuck on the sticky part... unfortunately, when I tried to remove her, it took some of her colouration off. Oops! But I think it totally looks like she has markings now, and I've decided she's a cool species of speckled frog from a tropical rainforest :) The expression of awe on her face is incredibly cute! 

It was a wonderful surprise to see something Pokemon themed with my prizes, and this sticker is so pretty!! I love all of the little nature details, such as the different colours in the grass and the long fern-like plants. Green is my favourite colour, so it's lovely to see so many shades of it :) The blue and pink bubbles are a nice touch too, and I love they are pastel coloured. The star of the show is of course, Oddish himself! He looks exhausted, poor little dude! I can relate, haha! 

I am so delighted with everything that I won from Aviakey! I was honestly over the moon when I realised I would be getting sent a print of my Animal Crossing OC, because I assumed that it would be a digital commission only. I feel so lucky to get a printed version, and it's now displayed on my art wall! It was packaged so nicely too, in a blue dotty paper bag! It sounds weird but I really like when things are sent in paper bags. Does anyone else agree? They always make me think of pick-n-mix sweets :D I just wanted to say a big thankyou to Aviakey for hosting this epic giveaway & for designing me the most beautiful cat villager!! Don't forget to check out Aviakey's art on social media guys :) Let me know in the comments what your favourite item was in today's post? Have a spectacular weekend everyone!

Thankyou for reading! 

♥  

Are you a fan of Animal Crossing? Do you have a favourite villager? 

If you could design your own villager, what would it be like?