What I got for Christmas 2021

Hello Everyone! Let's just pretend that it's not now almost March, so I can say a Happy New Year to you all! I wish each and every one of my lovely readers a wonderful 2022!! Seriously though, how is it almost three months into the year!? It feels like only yesterday since we were celebrating Christmas... and not just because I'm only just getting around to blogging about what I got! *insert awkward-face emoji here*. I feel so loved to have received so many fantastic presents, so I couldn't not talk about them. I hope you all enjoy reading and having a nosey at my gifts. This post is not meant to be a brag or make anyone feel bad, but a way for me to express how grateful I am, and to celebrate the thought that my loved ones put into choosing presents for me ♥(You guys are amazing!!). I'd love to hear all about what you got in 2021 for Christmas, so please let me know in the comments :) And so, without further ado, here's what I got!

I received the majority of my marvellous presents from my sister, so a huge THANK YOU to Nicole!! After our mom passed away, my sister & I decided to help make getting through the 'most wonderful time of the year' that little bit easier, that we would spoil one another (as best we could, anyway). In the past, we basically never bought each other anything for Christmas, haha! Oops... we have sure been making up for that over the last few years! My sister did a fantastic job as always of picking out great presents for me!! And I hope she loved the things I got for her just as much :)

If you are new to my blog, then you won't know that I have been an avid collector of figures all my life, starting when I was a little kid. As soon as I got to the age when I had my own money to spend on whatever I liked (even though it was supposed to go on adulting things...), I have been very much into vinyl figures. Although, my main love is for blind box collectable series, with those by Tokidoki being a firm favourite of mine, I couldn't help but fall in love with Funko Pops. I own over 100+ now, and I am trying to slow down with my collecting, because I was struggling to find space to store them all, haha. Can anyone else relate? 

Anyhow, when Tokidoki revealed that they were doing a collaboration with Funko, I pretty much lost my shit, as the saying goes XD And now have a mighty need to acquire ALL of the Pops they made (despite the fact that the unicorno looks strange to me in Pop form....). As you can imagine, I was over the moon to unwrap one of these Pops on Christmas morning, especially since the cactus characters are my absolute favourite by Tokidoki. I mean, just look how adorable Sandy is!!

Something that I really enjoy is receiving little gifts, you know the kind that are typically classed as 'stocking fillers'. And my sister always manages to find such awesome ones!! Like these Sanrio squishies! I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to bring myself to take them out of the packaging and risk ruining them because they are too cute. Are you a Sanrio fan? Who's your favourite out of the two I got for Christmas: Chococat or Hello Kitty? It's the latter for me. Hello Kitty will always hold a special place in my heart as she was the reason I got into Sanrio in my early teens. The best Sanrio characters, in my opinion, though are Kuromi and Pompompurin :) 

If you follow me over on Instagram (if you don't, you totally should), then you will likely have seen how much I was craving lebkuchen over the Christmas period! Being a spoonie, I can't get out of the house as often as I'd like to, and when I do, for example to do my monthly grocery shop, I have to try to get my shopping done all in one location, so I don't have to venture out again. As a consequence, I can't go to my local Lidl or Aldi stores to pick up all of the European festive goodies that I love so much, including the fabulous German spiced treats, lebkuchen. Oh my goodness, they are so yummy, and I was so happy to finally get my hands on some thanks to my sister. Yay!

I will be forever obsessed with plushies, and there is almost never a plushie that I don't love as soon as I set eyes on it. If you want to capture my heart quickly, give me a plushie and I will love you for all eternity. Obviously it's not that simple, but you get the picture! :D HOW BRILLIANT IS MY NEW GREEN MONSTER FRIEND!? My sister came across this one-eyed, floppy-eared dude in the sale for only £3 or something crazy like that!!? I am so happy that Ugly Dolls merch became popular in the UK over the last few years, as before then, I could never get any of the figures and such, without ordering from the US. And now I have a whole ass plushie!

Isn't the cover on that Harry Potter book just stunning? Thestrals are one of my favourite creatures from the Wizarding World, and the colour scheme appeals so much to the alternative part of me. The book is filled with intricate paper cut-out art (I have no idea what the proper name for that sort of thing is, so apologises if my explanation is crap...), depicting some of the locations featured throughout the Harry Potter stories. My sister thought it would make for a collection of interesting backgrounds I can use for my toy photography hobby, and I am very much looking forward to trying it out. I wish that I was skilled at doing intricate crafts because everytime I look through the book, I want so much to have a go at creating something similar myself! Alas, I struggle to even cut in a straight line with a pair of scissors...

As you can see, I received another Funko Pop for Christmas. It has become a little tradition for my niece to choose a Funko Pop for me as a gift, and it's just the sweetest thing knowing that she chose a particular character with me in mind :) In 2020, it was a Lion King (live action version) Pop of the character Scar, and this Christmas just gone, when she was deep into her obsession with Disney's Frozen, she wanted to gift me an Anna Pop, which was perfect for wintery toy photography! Little cutie ♥

This is the 'main' present that my sister got for me, and I was so surprised, in the happiest way!! My sister collects snowglobes, and so I always get her one for Christmas, or whenever I go on holiday and such. I really wasn't expecting her to go and get me one, too!! I also collect globes, but on a much smaller level. I think they are really pretty and will buy one as a keepsake from places I've travelled to. I think if I didn't already collect so many other things, I would allow myself to get even more globes, but I need to be sensible XD My life is overrun with enough things and stuff already, haha. I'm like the human equivalent of a magpie!

This Nightmare Before Christmas globe is SOOOO beautiful, and I couldn't have been more thrilled to receive it. I had been ummm'ing and ahhh'ing about getting myself an official Disney globe, but I always prioritised spending my money on adding to my various collections, so it's really nice that someone else took that step for me :) And what a phenomenal one to start with! My most favourite feature of this globe is the fact that it isn't filled with snow, or glitter, but bat confetti!! Yes, tiny little bats float around Jack and Zero when you shake it, and I think it is the most amazing idea ever! Whoever added that design needs a promotion, Disney! The detailing around the base of the globe is so eye-catching, and think of Lock, Shock and Barrell singing 'Kidnap the Sandy Claws' every time I look at it. Sally with her black cat in hand is the star of the show for me though :) Do you have an official Disney globe? I'd love to know which one(s)! 

My brother very kindly bought me a Lush gift set for Christmas (Thanks so much, Chris! ♥), and everything smells so good!! If I'm being honest, I always get a little nervous when someone says they are going to buy me a gift that involves fragrances, because I have so many sensory issues when it comes to certain scents. I can easily become overwhelmed, for lack of a better word, and so I am very 'picky' when it comes to perfume and the like. I told him that my favourite bathbomb by Lush was the peppermint-based Intergalactic, and whoever put together this Happy Daze box did an excellent job of pairing it with another bathbomb, and two bubble bars, with similar scents, in terms of their 'mildness'. 

The relief I felt when I unboxed it all!! It includes The Comforter, a bubble bar that I've used before and love, and then two new-for-me items, that luckily have citrus fruits and ylang-ylang as main ingredients, which are another of my go-to's, the Groovy Kind of Love bathbomb & the Brightside bubble bar. I cannot wait to see what the bathart they create is like! Something I really like about Lush is how colourful the packaging of their gift sets are :) 

Now, I'm going to show you all presents that I was gifted by my friends, who are incredible and I don't understand how I managed to have such great friends as them in my life :') A shoutout to Kim, who blogs over at Chimmyville, for buying me this Harry Potter origami book off of my Amazon wishlist! It was a lovely surprise. Thank you for being awesome!! Everyone go have a read of her blog :) I received some more Harry Potter themed goodies for my best friend, Jess, who knows I love her the most-est ever ever!! We recently spent a weekend in London, and thanks to her family, I finally got to visit the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour!! I will share some posts about it next month for those of you who are fellow fans of the book series and movie franchise, that we all know conjured themselves into existence and have no creator. Keep your eyes peeled for that (I hate that saying because of the imagery it creates, but still continue to use it. Why...). I think it's cool that my bestie chose a Hermione pin for me, since even though she's not my favourite character from the franchise, I relate to her book-counterpart so much! 

My other best friend went all out and did a haul from one of my favourite stores for me!! Thank you so so very much, Aaron, for getting me so many kawaii wonders from Kenji! It is too tough to choose a favourite, because I adore everything!! Notebooks are always welcome, as they are another thing that I cannot ever get enough of. And one of them has a froggo on it!! A round amphibian buddie that's facial expression speaks to me on a personal level XD The long boi panda is so squishy and soft, and somehow my friend managed to pick two of my favourite Asian snacks, milk flavoured Hello Panda biscuits, and cookies & cream (or white cookie, a new name used for Christmas branding?) Pepero. I was in need of some cutesy snacks for some tiktok ideas I have, so what perfect timing to get these as a gift! 

Another Funko Pop from my wishlist has come into my life, and it's all thanks to my amazing blogger-bestie, Natalee, who writes over at There Might Be Coffee. Seriously, if you are of the nerdy persuasion like myself, you need to go read Nat's posts! Ever since, Funko announced that they were working with the brand Tasty Peach, I was delighted!! I have wanted a Tasty Peach plushie for the longest time, but couldn't afford to get one, so vinyl figures of the beloved characters are the next best thing, right? The one I love most of the Funko X Tasty Peach Pop's is the Queen Bee Meowchi, and now it's mine!! Eeeee!

She might be the cutest Pop I have ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on before! I mean, LOOK AT HER! Everything about her is super sweet!! It's fantastic that she's so photogenic as well, and I cannot wait to feature her in some Springtime photography. Who else is counting down the days until Spring is here?? I enjoy Winter (even though my brain does not) but I am craving more daylight and eye-candy in the form of flowers and fresh green buds. I need it to hurry up and get here already! 

So, that's (almost) all of the gifts that I have been given for Christmas, and I hope today's post has put into words how truly thankful I am for the people in my life. I know that love isn't about material things, and my friends give me so much more with their conversation and being there to listen to me and all of my life problems (of which there's A LOT), and making my days better just by existing, but when they take the time to look for a gift that they know will make my little nerdy heart smile, it is so meaningful :') I cannot say thank you enough. Thank YOU, THANK you, THANK YOU! And that also extends to everyone who has taken the time to read today's post, because I know that I have been the world's shittiest blogger over the last several years, so it still baffles me that people take the time to check out my ramblings whenever I am sporadically hit with the motivation to share a snippet of my life with the world. You guys are the best! 

Thank you for reading!

♥

What's something that you gave or did for someone special in your life for Christmas 2021? 

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What I got for Christmas 2018

Hello & Happy Thursday lovelies! How is everyone enjoying the snow? It feels a little surreal, but wonderful nonetheless, that I am sat writing a Christmassy themed post and with the ground outside covered in snow, it feels more like Christmas now than it did on the big day! I wish it would snow more though because I want to get out and enjoy it while it lasts! Also I've been ever eager to take some toy photography in the snow, since all of my friends in other countries inspired me throughout December with their beautiful snowy shots :') I shouldn't be going outside at all at the moment, because I have a chest infection! And this is the reason why my post is going up a little later than I had planned, but I hope you all enjoy having a read about the lovely presents that I got for Christmas :) This post is of course not to boast about what I got, but to celebrate and share my happiness with you all, and I know I love reading about what presents people get from their loved ones, it fills me with joy for them, and so I hope my post might do the same for my awesome readers! 

My mom always finds the most wonderful wrapping paper that she knows I will love!? (Thanks mom!) That shiny emerald green one though! I almost never want to open my presents because it will ruin how pretty they look all wrapped up, haha! I always try my best to open a few of them carefully so that I can save some of the wrapping paper. I have been doing this for years and as a result, have random bits of wrapping paper hoarded away in boxes... Does anyone else do this? I used to scrapbook things more as a kid, maybe I should start up that hobby again? Each year I am so touched by how wonderful my mom is, I only ask for a couple of things but she surprises me with so much more! Keep reading to find out what I got :) 

When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas just gone, the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was at the top of my list :) I have been after this book for ages now! Just look how beautiful the artwork on the cover is!! I am so happy that there's a barn owl on it, as they are my favourite species of owl. Who else has a favourite owl? Also what pet would you take to Hogwarts with you? I'm sure you can imagine how stunning the rest of the book is; I am in love with it! Jim Kay has done such a wonderful job! I have always been a big fan of seeing artists interpretations of my favourite books and their characters, because it's fascinating to see how other people picture things in comparison to my own imagination :) 

I also asked for this book! I have always wanted my own copy of Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, so when I spotted this wonderful illustrated edition on a YouTube video, I had to have it :) I went to university for Zoo Biology, and if I worked in the Wizarding World, I would totally be a Magizoologist like Newt! Something that is very interesting about the artwork in this book is that Olivia Lomenech Gill seems to have been inspired by so many of the beautiful and diverse species that exist in the muggle world. I think it's awesome to imagine these creatures living alongside the species that they resemble, basically hidden within groups of them :) But then again, I personally picture the creatures to look otherworldly, and therefore nothing like species we see on the planet today. Regardless, I am delighted with this book and all of it's facts about the creatures! I like how many of the papers are made to look like they would come from a scientists field notebook too. I can't wait to have a good read through it :) Let me know guys if you would like me to share a post showing more of the inside of the two books I got for Christmas. 

I was surprised with more Harry Potter goodies, including this awesome version of Trivial Pursuit. I'd seen it earlier in the year in a magazine, and mentioned how wonderful I thought it was and so it was lovely that my mom remembered and bought it for me :) I'm really looking forward to playing it! As someone who is a little addicted to buying notebooks, I am always over the moon to get more, and I think the design on this one is gorgeous! Even though I'm not a huge fan of the colour gold, it goes so well with the black on this notebook so I can't not love it! Something that is cool about the pencil you can see on the side of the notebook, is that it's actually a pen in disguise!! 

I love the Hogwarts crest on the front of this tin of playing cards, which my mom bought for me purely because I have a bit of a thing for tins :D I don't know why, but ever since I was little, I have been a fan of products that come in a decorative tin. Playing cards are always handy to have, and I was in need of some more since my old ones got covered in alcohol during a drinking game and had to go in the bin, oops! 

Yes I'm 26 years old, and yes I was extremely happy to unwrap a Care Bear plushie :D Funshine Bear has been my favourite Care Bear since childhood, and I am very glad to now have a plushie to him to add to my collection. I love how vibrant the yellow they've chosen for him is, it makes me feel a little uplifted each time I look at him, and of course his smiley sunshine belly and heart-shaped nose help too! The plushie is made of lovely material and I can't decide whether I want to keep him in the box or not, because he looks super cuddly! Do you have a favourite Care Bear? Let me know in the comments. 

I love how when I was younger, I would always dislike getting socks and would think like, socks? as a present?!. However, as an adult, I am always happy to get more socks, especially when they are as cute as these! Primark makes such awesome socks, and it's marvellous that they have been doing collaborations with so many cute brands! I was surprised to see that they'd made Molang socks!! Does anymore know if they have made more Molang productions?? If not, I hope that they do. I have loved Molang for the longest time! Oh my gosh, I need Primark to do a Sanrio/San-X collab next! How cute is this super fluffy, grey bunny thing that I also got!? 

Awww, this little cat trinket dish that I got is really sweet! I love the simplistic design of it, and how it's got raised pointy ears :) I got another notebook, and it's got such a groovy design on the cover. I think it looks like water that has had a paintbrush dipped into it several times. The pages inside are a cream colour, and I always prefer notebooks that are like this, especially for using for any writing projects I am working on because, I don't know, it almost feels like you're writing on old fashioned paper and I just love that aesthetic. It's the little things :) 

If you're a fellow toy lover, then you'll love the rest of today's post! It's going to get picture heavy from now because I was surprised with lots of blind bags, so there's many little toys/figures to show you all. I'm very curious to know which of the figures I received are everyone's personal favourites, so please let me know :) 

I got several Disney Tsum Tsum blind bags and packs; some of them I didn't manage to photograph the packaging for because they were plastic and I cut them open with scissors on Christmas Day! I have a few unboxing videos saved from my story posts over on my toy photography Instagram if you're interested :) Find me here. It's a shame that the popularity of Tsum Tsum's has declined here in the UK because I can't get hold of the ones I would love to get for my collection anymore! The last time I visited a Disney Store, which was last month whilst I was in Manchester city for the Christmas Markets, there wasn't a Tsum Tsum in sight! The only advantage is that the blind bags and such have become a lot cheaper and it's probably easier to get the figures that you don't have if you're a collector, since a lot of people don't buy them anymore. I only collect the mini plushies, but I am a big fan of figures so I can't help but pick up a blind bag whenever I see them for a reasonable price! 

One of the packs I got was the kind that you get one mystery figure in and the rest you can see in the packaging; my mom picked it specifically because it had Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas in it and she knows how much I love the movie :) The surprise figure that I found inside this pack was Flynn Rider from Tangled (2010). I love his little goatee beard! The other pack I got included flocked (furry-textured) Tsum Tsum figures, one mystery and one was the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland. I was very happy to find Sully from Monster's, Inc. (2001) inside my pack, because who doesn't love Monster's Inc? 

Above are the figures that I got inside the circular Tsum Tsum blind bags, which include two from Series 8, one from Series 7 and another from Series 6 :) My favourite by far is the Series 8 Rafiki figure, just look how pretty it is with the tree! The Lion King 1 & 2 have forever been my favourite Disney movies, and you don't see much merchandise of good old Rafiki, so I'm so glad  to have gotten this figure! I have to admit that even though these figures are super adorable, the little props that they come with can be a little annoying, especially when you are trying to sit your figure on them the way that the packaging shows! The other figures I got are Winnie the Pooh's Piglet, Mr Big from Zootopia (2016) and Heimlich the caterpillar from A Bug's Life (1998). Seriously, how cute is the Heimlich's face!? 

Yayy! More Care Bears! I'd never seen these Care Bears blind bags before, and it was such a fun surprise! The bags are so colourful and that just made me even more excited, I'm such a sucker for pretty packaging! I was really hoping that I would get Funshine and it must have been a case of Christmas luck, because I got him, eeee! That literally never happens to me when I have one or two blind bags, I always seem to get the figures I don't want as much, so it was fabulous to get him!! I also got a bear that I don't remember from the old cartoons, called Laugh-A-Lot Bear, but she's cute! Who do you prefer: Laugh-A-Lot or Funshine? 

On my birthday back at the start of October last year, I started collecting the new Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts Lego figures, from the blind bag series, after seeing lots of unboxing on YouTube and Instagram. Although I have always thought Lego was brilliant, I never played with it much as a kid and I didn't want to end up getting obsessed with another collectable figure series, however when it's a Harry Potter related thing, I find that my power to resist goes out of the window, and thus I am now a Lego collector XD On Christmas Day, I 'unboxed' Cedric Diggory to go with my Cho Chang and Voldemort figures :) I love that this figure looks a lot more like Robert Pattinson who played Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) than the Funko Mystery Mini Cedric that I have. I think his Hufflepuff coloured uniform looks fantastic too! 

The final mystery toys that I got are a very lovely Dalmatian puppy called Fetch, from a TY Mini Boos blind box (series 3) and a Sylvanian Families 'Baby Band Series' teeny yellow Labrador figure :) From being very young, I have wanted to collect Sylvanian families but they were always too expensive, and you had to buy all of the houses and other accessories separately too! When I got older, I was very tempted to start buying them myself but I know that I don't have the room so I'm waiting patiently until the day I can start collecting them! My mom hasn't helped me by bringing this blind bag series to my attention though! XD Now that I know they exist, I want them all :) They are such pretty little figures with the cutest instrument accessories! 

To conclude my post, I want to show you guys the gifts that one of my brothers bought me for Christmas. He got me so much this year! There was also supposed to be a packet of those American sweets called Nerds in the photo, but I love them and couldn't resist devouring them! I'm looking forward to trying out these fabulous-looking unicorn horn bathbombs, I want to see how differently they react once they are added to the water! They are almost too pretty to use, and I'm hoping that they smell good! It's going to be very interesting to try and make this sheep plushie though, considering I have never been any good at stitching, and haven't knitted in my life! Oh well, new year, new adventures, right!? 

How cute is the packaging for the bath salts!? Foxes are one of my favourite animals, and I don't think I'm going to be able to open this item because I don't want to risk ruining the fox packaging! I'm very happy to have a new plushie to add to my little Teenie TY collection (read more here). My brother didn't even know that I had started collecting them so it's great that he got me one that I don't have already. I have wanted to try Hershey's kisses for years now so it's awesome to receive some of those too! 

I've been very spoilt this year by my loved ones and I am so thankful to get so many excellent and thoughtful gifts! ♥ I also got some new Funko Pop! Vinyl figures but I forgot to snap a photo of them, as usual, I always miss something! I hope that you all enjoyed my post, and please share a link in the comments for me to check out any Christmas present posts that you shared, I'd love to have a read :) 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

What was your favourite gift that you received this Christmas?

Did you treat yourself to anything, especially in the Boxing Day & January sales?

Present Wrapping: Using Alternatives to Wrapping Paper

Hey everyone! Here I am with my first post of 2019! I'm hoping that this new year brings with it lots of motivation and that it will be a better year for my blog, and for my day-to-day life in general :) Thankyou so much to all of my regular readers who stuck around and kept reading my posts, despite my very delayed and sporadic blogging schedule throughout last year. Your continued support means the world to me! And if you're a new reader, hello & welcome to my little corner of the internet :) 

I know I usually kick start the year with a reflection and/or goals post of some kind, however I've decided not to share one of those this year because I don't want to begin 2019 by making myself feel any pressure to succeed when I feel like I'm only just getting back on my feet again, as the saying goes. 2019 is going to be dedicated to looking after myself. And instead, I'm beginning the year by sharing a post with you guys all about some changes I made to my present wrapping routine over the Christmas period, changes that I'm going to try to keep up with throughout this new year :) Even though Christmas is over with for another 11 months, I still wanted to write all about this alternative to traditional wrapping paper, and how I made sure that the presents I wrapped for my loved ones still looked as pretty as usual (if they can look past my horrendous wrapping skills that is, haha!). Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy reading!

Back in around October/November, I kept seeing ads all over Instagram, and across other social media too, about using brown paper for present wrapping at Christmas. It was encouraging this as a more environmentally-friendly option VS the rolls of wrapping paper most of us usually buy. I had been wanting to make little steps towards being more eco-friendly for a while and actually considered using brown paper before. After I became a Pinterest user, I was very tempted to switch to brown paper after seeing so many beautiful yet simplistic gift wraps on the website, made up mostly of plain paper or paper/cardstock. 

Did you know that most wrapping paper is not recyclable, because its made up of certain dyes/inks, plastic and foils? Well like most people I've asked, I didn't even think about all of the wrapping paper I use and throw away over the festive period. It's easy to get caught up in the fun of the season and not consider how you can minimalize how much non-recyclable waste is piling up in your dustpans. I decided this year to try to reduce this by wrapping all of the presents I bought for my loved one in brown paper!   

This is only one step in the right direction, as I still used some non-recyclable plastics but I tried to use them to the smallest degree possible. This includes sellotape and the shiny plastic bow/rosette/thingies you can see in my photo above. I challenged myself to use the tiniest amount of sellotape I could, literally applying just a few approx. 3cm snippets to each gift. To work around the fact that my gifts were not as secured in their wrapping as usual, I bought some paper string from Wilkinson's (which was on offer at 3 for 2!) and used this to tighten everything together :) As far as the plastic present decoration thingies, I'm currently on the lookout for some paper-based options for the next time I have to wrap presents! I am intending to use brown paper each time now, so if you receive a present from me at any point, expect it to be wrapped in this :D 

Although you can buy gift tags that are made purely out of card or paper that is safe to go into the recycle bin, a lot of tags are decorated in glitter or in shiny card/foil, especially when it comes to Christmas. As such, I decided to just make my own! I've had some Christmassy paper pads in my craft collection for a while now, as I like to use them for festive photography backgrounds, but it was about time that I actually made something with them! 

The paperstock pad that I used was purchased from Poundland back in 2017 (A tip for my fellow stationery lovers: Poundland always has some fabulous craft items in store!). I also get a lot of my paper and cardstock pads from The Works, and I've bought them from The Range before but they are always a little more pricey from there. You could pick up a festive one and use it each year, or you could get a pad that's a lot more versatile and includes designs that can be used as well for birthdays, and any other celebration really. There's lots of different varieties out there :) All you need additionally is a holepunch to make a neat hole to thread string or ribbon though, so that you can attach your homemade tags to presents. 

I have to admit that I was very worried that my presents would look crap wrapped up in brown paper and with homemade tags, because I don't have much faith in my crafting abilities and I am so bad at putting things together neatly. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked my finished results, although my friends & family were the ones who made me feel much better about them :) They really liked how they looked, thankfully. It's about time that I showed you guys how they turned out! 

Ta-da! What do you all think? When I sent a photo to my best friend she told me they looked like something off of Pinterest and so you can imagine how much that made my day! With the red and white striped paper string, they made think about the North Pole and Santa's Workshop, and also of candy canes, all of which are super nostalgic and made me smile whenever I looked at the little pile of wrapped gifts slowly growing in the corner of my bedroom. 

Also, I literally couldn't stop singing '...brown paper packages tied up with string. These are a few of my favourite things' from The Sound of Music, whenever I saw my presents, haha! (I know for a fact that I'm now not going to be able to get it out of my head again for a while after writing this XD oops. And to all of my lovely readers that will also be in the same boat now, you're welcome :p)! Seriously though, I loved how rustic and old-fashioned my brown paper Christmas presents looked. They kept making me think of people being delivered packages like these by the postman back in the day :) 

Something that is really awesome about using brown paper, other than the fact you are doing your little bit to help the environment, is that it's so cheap. I paid £1 for a roll of 6 metres from Wilkinson's, and I bought two in total and it was enough to wrap all my family and friends gifts. I still have a bit left over! The Works also stocks a 6m roll for the same price. It is a bit thinner than I would have liked, because it meant that I kept tearing it before I got the hang of how to wrap everything without using much sellotape. But eventually, it was fine and I would buy this paper from Wilkos again :) 

So, that's how I have now changed my present wrapping routine, and hopefully by next Christmas at the end of the year, after practicing with birthday presents and such along the way, I will have found other ways of securing the brown paper without sellotape, and have some paper-based decorations to jazz up my gifts too! If you know of anywhere that sells these rosette thingies but made from paper, or something similar that's also recyclable, please let me know :) I hope you all enjoyed reading my post, and that I have inspired you to start using brown paper, or maybe opt for a 100% paper variety of gift wrapping of some kind. If you used brown paper for Christmas this time round, I'd love to hear how you decorated your gifts in the comments. Have a lovely weekend guys! 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

What are some ways that you try to be more eco-friendly at Christmas Time?

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Funko Harry Potter Pocket Pop Advent Calendar

Hello guys! Well, it's the last day of the year, and wow I feel like I blinked and somehow ended up at December 31st! :D Is anyone else feeling the same? Christmas went by so quickly! And as much as I love the festive period, I am still really glad that we will soon be seeing the back of 2018; I know I've mentioned it quite a few times but this year has been such a hard one! I just want to move forward into a new year, with an optimistic mindset and a determination to try my best to make 2019 a good year, or at least as much as is in my control! Before I end up going off on a reflectionary tangent (hahaha, I totally think I just made up that word XD but it sounded right), I want to share with you all the fantastic advent calendar that I bought this year! 

I was really excited when Pop in a Box announced the arrival of an advent calendar made for toy/figure lovers! For years, I'd seen so many awesome calendars online, designed for adults and filled with things other than chocolate. There's advent calendars available that are packed with all sorts of goodies, from makeup to washi tape! They all looked fantastic but none of them appealed to my personal interests much. That was until Funko created this amazing Pocket Pop calendar!! Most of you by now will have heard of Pop! Vinyl figures, well, Pocket Pops are a series of miniature versions of those. As you can see above this calendar includes 24 days worth of these fantastic little characters, and just like a traditional advent calendar, there's one waiting behind every door :) Before I reveal which Pocket Pop I got for each day of December, I wanted to talk to you guys about how brilliant the packaging and overall presentation of the Funko Harry Potter Pocket Pop calendar was! 

So much attention to detail has gone into the design of this advent calendar. It is so aesthetically pleasing, and every single part of it looks fabulous. The calendar itself came within a sleeve, and the colours on the back of this sleeve are gorgeous! I've actually been using it as a background for my toy photography throughout the month :) I really love all of the gold, silver and white, dotted with shiny snowflakes, it's like a little piece of how magical the Wizarding World must be at Christmas Time! 

How gorgeous is the Hogwarts castle scene printed across the calendar!? All of the shades of purple are so pretty! I really like the pop-up style of this calendar too; it came with two cardboard cut-outs to set up a scene for your figures, one being Hagrid's Hut and one the Whomping Willow tree. That is such a cute idea! I also love that these cut-outs are snow-covered to add to the wintery theme. The Funko calendar looked so cool set up next to my Christmas tree. 

The calendar was expensive, but it was actually excellent value for money because you get 24 different figures and it is a lovely calendar! It was £49.99 to buy from the Pop in a Box website, however because I'm a subscriber, I got a discount (and also free shipping) and only paid around £44. I am so happy that I bought it because I had a lot of fun opening it, and now I have lots of pretty little Harry Potter figures to add to my toy collection. I'm hoping that Funko release another Pocket Pop calendar next year, and fingers crossed it's filled with characters from a franchise that I am a fan of. Oh, and I pre-ordered it in late October/early November which I'm glad about because it sold out quickly closer to Christmas. 

The rest of this post is going to be very picture heavy as there's a lot of figures to show you! I have photographed them in the order that I received them :) Apologies to those of you that are not fans of pic heavy posts, but I wanted to showcase the figures as is deserved! 

I got so many wonderful figures; each and every one of them has an awesome design and they are so photogenic too! I was very happy to get so many of my favourite characters, especially Professor Lupin and little Hedwig, because I wasn't sure if they would make it into the calendar! Even though there's a few things that I didn't like about the calendar, the pros outweigh the cons and it made me happy each morning when I woke up to see who I'd gotten that day. I am a big fan of Harry Potter so you can imagine how excited I got :D What do you think about the selection of figures above?

These five are my most favourite that I received inside my Funko Pocket Pop advent calendar. Severus Snape is my favourite character from the entire Harry Potter series so I couldn't not love his figure! Another of my favourite characters is Remus Lupin and this is one of the reasons why Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of the books and movies. The magical creatures have always been something that I adore about J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World and Thestrals are one of my favourites; I thought it was epic that they added one into the advent calendar, because I didn't even consider that they would. It was a great surprise! 

How could I not choose this figure of Hermione as one of my favourites!? This version of her from the beginning of the story reminds me of myself, and I think it captures book Hermione a lot better than the movies, even though it is obviously designed after those. I love the pile of books in her arms, it's such a lovely detail. Finally Hedwig has made it into my top 5 because awwww, she's so tiny and adorable! I love owls and she just looks so sweet! 

So what did I not like about the Funko Harry Potter advent calendar? 

Well, mostly it was the design of some of the figures. It look me a long time to take this photo, and some of the others in this post, and this is due to the fact that so many of the figures refuse to stay upright. They continuously fall over, because their legs are either too narrow to withstand the weight of the upper body/head, or because they've not been designed properly. 

For example, almost every single person I've seen with the calendar has found that their Moaning Myrtle Pocket Pop won't stand up! You can see in my close up photo showing her and two other figures, that one of her feet is raised and this is what causes the problem. As well as Myrtle, the Dobby figure has a very heavy head compared to the rest of his body, and so I mostly have to lay him flat on the display. My George Weasley figure also has a problem standing up and this is why Fred & George are leaning against the cardboard at the back of my photo above. Whenever I walked across my bedroom floor, some of the figures fall over :D It can get very annoying to have to keep propping them back up. As well as this, some of the figures have small paintjob errors but this is common enough with the standard Pop! Vinyl figures, so I kind of expected that!

Another issue that I had with this calendar isn't really too much of a reflection on the design itself but maybe more due to personal preference. Although a few people have told me that they agree with the fact that I am a little unhappy that we got multiple versions of the same character. If Funko hadn't have included these extras, then they could have added others in their place. Like I know it's all about Harry Potter, the protagonist of the franchise, but did we really need three versions of him? I would have liked to get a Voldemort figure at least! I know that some of the exclusive versions in the US got Voldemort, usually instead of Professor Lupin. I'm happy I got Lupin, but I'm not too keen on Hermione's Prisoner of Azkaban figure, so I would have liked a different figure. What do you think? 

All in all, despite the few things I would change about the figures.. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention! The figure of Nearly Headless Nick has a completely attached, almost fully upright head, whereas my figure of Snape has a lob-sided one! It's just typical that the character I wanted most of all isn't perfect, ugh! It would have been really cool if Funko would have been able to make Sir Nicholas' head moveable in some way. But anyhow, back to my conclusion! :D So issues aside, I really did love my Harry Potter Pocket Pop calendar and I would still recommend it to anymore who loves the franchise themselves, as well as to anybody who just likes cute figures :) I know that a few places had some of these calendars on sale after Christmas, so you might be able to find one if you're still interested and you could totally put it away for next December. I am super happy to have lots of Harry Potter characters to use for my toy photography throughout 2019. I can't wait to see what Funko release next Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed reading this post and having a nosey at what I got inside my advent calendar :) Happy New Year guys! May next year be filled with happiness for you all! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Are you a fan of Harry Potter?

 If so, I'd love to know your favourite character/movie/book! 

Which is your favourite of the Pocket Pops that I featured in today's post?