What I Bought in London | Haul

Hey Everyone! Happy Spring!! I'm so delighted that the season of flower growth and newly-emerged butterflies and blue skies and cute baby animals is here :) Goodbye season depression, and hello days of being able to read outside in the mild sunshine. I cannot wait to get out and about more with my camera in nature, and for the stores to start filling up with cutesy pastel things! What are you most looking forward to this Springtime? 

At the beginning of February, I went on a trip to London with my best friend and her family. It was my first time properly visiting the city. I went there once with my university to go to the Natural History Museum (which is fantastic, by the way!), but it was a straight-there, straight-back kind of trip and I never got to explore the surroundings. This time round I was actually able to experience London, and despite hearing how much of a nightmare it can be for people with social anxiety, like myself, I was surprised by how similar it was to other cities I've visited with regards to how crowded it was (well, apart from how busy the restaurants were!). Even the infamous London Underground wasn't the hellish experience I had tried to prepare myself for, but I didn't actually have to do any of the navigating myself, so that helped a lot! If you're like me, I recommend going this time of year, and also planning where exactly you want to go beforehand, because London is massive and it can be so overwhelming. But this isn't a post about how to survive London as an anxious wreck of a person, so on with the topic at hand, haha :D

I personally love a good haul post, and so I thought I'd share one of my own, for those who are curious to see what I spent my money on whilst visiting the capital of my country. I hope you all enjoy reading anyhow! 

So, I didn't actually pick up many things whilst I was in London, or go to many shops for that matter, because that wasn't the main objective of our trip. We were there to go to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour, and we were only staying down south for the weekend, so ended up with just a couple of hours to actually shop. My best friend & I chose to head to Covent Garden, because it's just one of those places that's an iconic part of the city, and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Plus, ARTBOX is there and as a lover of all things kawaii, I felt it would be atrocious for me to not go! There are not many stores dedicated to 'kawaii culture' in the UK, ones that sell only officially licensed goodies from Japan and Korea, so I wasn't about to miss an opportunity to visit. Now that it's obvious that I went to Artbox, I guess I'd better show you what I picked up from there first :) 

The first thing that went into my little basket was one of these Hamtaro Re-ment blind boxes!! I have been a fan of this super adorable anime since I was a kid, and this was my first time ever encountering official merch in person. I could have cried with excitement, and it didn't take me long to circle back around after browsing the store to pop another into my basket, haha! If you want to read more about my love for the anime, and are just a fellow fan of this adorable bunch of hamsters, check out my previous post all about my new Hamtaro nendoroid :) 

If you've never heard of Re-ment before, it is a Japanese company that makes miniature toys. Their most well known products are blind box series, like the Hamtaro ones I bought, containing a selection of tiny set ups, which once all variations are collected can be display together to create a scene. This series in particular will allow you to create the perfect little Ham-Ham Club House, with all the furniture and accessories needed to add character to the scene. The ones that I was hoping most to get where set 4 with the little sunflower-print bed & hamster slippers (featuring the characters Howdy & Dexter), and also set 1, which comes with ham-ham desserts and a tiny figure of the main man himself, Hamtaro. To be honest, I would have been happy to unbox any set because I would love to complete the entire scene some day. I'll show you guys the two sets I had inside my blind boxes later on in the post :) 

I seriously cannot go anywhere without buying a new notebook! And London was certainly no exception. I picked up this super sweet hamster notebook because how could I not when I had hamsters on the brain? The design is so eye-catching, and the back of the notebook shows the little ham-ham's butt, which made me laugh. It's blank inside so I can use it for anything: a journal, a small scrapbook, a sketchbook for crappy doodles, and it was less than £2 if I'm remembering correctly. 

As I rarely get the chance to buy blind boxes by Japanese brands in person unless I'm at Comic Con, I was determined to get a few different ones in Artbox. If I'm honest, I was expecting there to be a lot more selection in store, considering their website is packed full of goodies, but I discovered the shop was small and they didn't have a lot of the products I was hoping to see. I was sure I would be leaving the store with a big plush, and also some Pusheen blind boxes, but that didn't happen. I admit I was a little sad about this, especially because we had to queue outside for half an hour just to get into the store! Nevertheless, it was still fun to finally be able to visit Artbox, and I love the things I picked up, including this Sanrio My Melody & Friends keychain blind box. I kind of regret not buying another one now after seeing how pretty the keychain was!! Have you ever been to Artbox in London? If so, I'd love to know what you bought, and also what your thoughts about the store itself were. 

Before I share my unboxing finds with you all, I wanted to talk about the other store that was at the top of my list of places to visit in Covent Garden, The Moomin Store! When I was really young, I adored watching The Moomins cartoon, and still know all of the words to its lovely theme song (which I now have to take a momentary break from writing to sing and get out of my system so I can continue... oops!). I have only ever found a few official Moomins products whilst out shopping, so I was very much looking forward to the array of products I would find in the London boutique shop, and it did not disappoint! Sure, the store is super small and very tough to get around with lots of people also in there trying to squeeze past one another down the narrow 'aisles', but I feel like the size of the store gave it more character. It was so cute! And I adored the way that they decorated in the entrance and up the stairs leading to the boutique. It was really difficult to choose what I wanted to take home with me! 

I decided as soon as I walked through the doors that I was leaving with a plush of Moomintroll. He just looked so small and cuddly and precious; I couldn't resist :) I love the simplistic design of these iconic hippo-esque trolls! Who else is a Moomin fan? I'm pretty sure that they had a few other plushies available, but I can only remember Moomintroll and Snork Maiden for definite. I am super happy with this new addition to my plushie collection! He's so smooth and fantastic quality, and he wasn't overly expensive. I was expecting everything to be super overpriced because I've heard that's commonplace in London, but all the items were priced similarly to what I've seen online. 

I collect pin badges, among so many other things, and was hoping to find one I liked in The Moomin Store before I even got there, as I was yet to own a Moomin pin but also because I wanted a keepsake to commemorate the trip. I love how cheerful the design I chose is! Moomintroll looks like he's living his best life dancing in the sunshine, and I thought the quote on the backing card was sweet! It says 'I only want to live in peace and plant potatoes and dream!' And it made me instantly think this is something Samwise Gamgee (from The Lord of the Rings) would say, and I just had to have it. I bought the postcard because a) I also collect postcards XD, and b) I wanted something to display in my bedroom that I can look at and have remind me of the trip. This one caught my eye because of how colourful and vibrant it is, and also because Snufkin is on it. Snufkin, the flute-playing guy sitting in the tree, was my favourite character when I was a kid. I also love Moominpappa's top hat, aka the Hobgoblin's hat.  

Here's a closer look at the eight different designs you could get inside the My Melody Acrylic keychain blind box. I wish I knew the name of the product to tell you guys, but I think it might be something like the 'Good Friends Share' series, featuring My Melody & Piano. My Sweet Piano was this adorable fluffy little sheep characters original name and she's My Melody's best friend. The charms I wanted to get most were the first one shown, My Melody holding a tiny plushie of her bestie, and also Piano with tiny bunny ears. Am I the only one who thinks it's a little 'weird' for My Melody to be wearing extra bunny ears? I've heard that she's supposed to be a little girl dressing as a bunny, just like Hello Kitty is in fact not a cat, but why wear a bunny hood and then another pair of bunny ears? :D So that's the design that I was hoping not to get, as well as the one with Piano & My Melody's backs facing towards us, because I want to see their cute faces! Who's ready to see which one I received?

YAYY!! I got the one I wanted most! That almost never happens to me, so I was over the moon :) And I was so impressed by the size of these charms! I was expecting something tiny but this keychain charm is big and so pretty. I love the pastel lilac outline, and the way the shading has been done, with an almost airbrushed look. I don't know if that's what it's even called, but I love how the colour is faded around the edges. My Melody's rosy cheeks are the sweetest, but by favourite feature is the tiny plushie of Piano, which I feel like I need for myself in the real life now! The charm itself is thick and well-made, and features the design on both sides. It looks sturdy but I won't be risking putting it on my bags and ruining it. I don't trust those types of keychain not to come loose either. Which would have been your favourite to receive?

As for the Re-ment boxes, here's what was inside the first one I opened. I got number 8, the bench set! How flippin' cute is that bench though!? I need a life-size replica in my own garden :D Even though this set wasn't one of my favourites, I couldn't be more happy to have unboxed one that came with a tiny hamster figure!! This pigtail-wearing cutie is called Bijou, and I'm lovin' that the tiny present matches her in colour. Included with this set are some stickers to decorate the green book, however, I decided not to try to stick them on before I took the photos because I am very uncoordinated and will properly misalign the stickers and mess everything up. My favourite character from the anime series has always been Sandy, and she's one of the tiny hamsters on the pages of the book, so seeing that made me smile! Here's what I got in the final blind box...

It's number 3, which I think is supposed to be a living room type set! As you can see, you get a wooden cabinet, a little lamp(?) type decoration, a picture frame and a tiny Bijou figure! It was a bit of a shame to have gotten another Bijou, however, this doesn't really matter because it means I'm another step closer to completing the collection :) 

This re-ment came with some cut-out's instead of stickers, but again, I might ruin them so I am hesitant to try to cut them out. There are two photos to display inside the frame, and also a rug. I love that Sandy is there again, with her rhythmic gymnastics ribbon in hand! The other photo is of Hamtaro munching on a sunflower seed, and on the rug, we have the sister characters, Pashmina & Penelope. My favourite part of this set has to be the tiny Penelope decoration, which I assume is supposed to be a little lantern. What do you think? Penelope always makes me think of a little ghost, so this piece reminds me of a Halloween decoration and that makes me love it even more. For those of you who aren't familiar with the series, Penelope is incredibly shy and so she permanently wears a blanket over her head. Sometimes I feel like doing the same when I leave the house, so I vibe with Penelope, haha!

How cool do these sets look when they are displayed together!? And that's only two of them. I cannot wait to see a full completed scene. It will look marvellous! After setting up this photo, I realised how much smaller the other Bijou figurine was so I feel like one of them is supposed to be a plushie of Bijou, because why would there be two of the same character? Plushie bijou is a treasure and must be protected!! I think it's awesome that the cupboard doors can be opened and there's space inside it to store things. So much attention to detail! I need more re-ments in my life! Which is your favourite of the two sets? 

So that's all of the adorable merchandise I picked up whilst visiting London, aside from what I bought at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. I am kind of glad that I didn't have much time to shop whilst there because I might have been recovering financially for a long while *insert embarrassed emojis here*. I am really chuffed with everything I got, and I hope you all enjoyed checking out my haul. I wish you all the loveliest of Springs, lots of yummy snacks at Easter time, and months of sunshine wherever you live :) 

Thank you for reading!

♥

What was the last cute thing that you purchased? 

Have you ever visited London? Tell me your favourite thing about it!

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Fox Leap! Haul & Review

Hey lovelies! I hope you are all well, and that you're looking after yourselves during these stressful times ♥ I wanted to bring a little brightness into your day, especially since its been so overcast today... (well, it has been pouring it down in the North West of England anyhow), by showing you guys some of the most gorgeous pins ever!! So if you are a fellow collector of pin badges or just enjoy all things pretty, then you're going to love this post :) 

I have had my eye on a fantastic online store called Fox Leap! for quite some time, after first having it brought to my attention by my awesome blogger friend Natalee from over at There Might Be Coffee. Ever since, I have absolutely adored Fox Leap's artwork and it makes me smile whenever some of it pops up on my feed over on Instagram. Sophie, the artist behind Fox Leap!, creates the loveliest art; her style is so adorable and unique *all the heart eye emojis*. All of her fanart and original characters have these big eyes that make your heart melt, at least that's the affect they have on me! 

I noticed back in April that Fox Leap! was having a sale and so I jumped at the chance to finally get myself one of Sophie's beautiful pins. I wanted the Kovu and Kiara pin, since The Lion King 2 is my all-time favourite Disney movie & I barely ever see any merch of the characters, but it was unfortunately sold out. I instead opted for my second favourite Fox Leap! pin :) 

So, which character did I choose? 

Scar, of course!! This devious, sarcastic lion is my No.1 Disney villain; he has been since I was around 5 years old. I think he's hilarious and even though I should 'hate' him, I just can't! Who else loves Scar?

This 'Be Prepared' pin design is just so stunning! LOOK AT IT!! I really love that Sophie chose to design the pin after this scene because I am such a big fan of the song! Each time I see my new pin, I instantly want to start singing :D Jeremy Irons' version is obviously marvellous, but I always think about the performance from the Broadway musical, which was the first ever musical theatre show I went to, back in 2013 with my mom, so of course, it's a memory I hold very dear to my heart. The fact that this pin makes me reminisce about the musical will mean that it will forever remain one of the most beloved pins in my entire collection! 

Here's what the pin looks like when tilted in the light (if that makes sense!)... 

Super bright & eye-catching!! I am in love with the colour scheme :) Black and green are my favourite colours so it's hard for me not to adore this pin based on the colouration alone. But there are so many more things I love about Fox Leap's Scar pin! 

I have mentioned many times before on my blog that pins with gold outlines aren't really my cup of tea, even though I'll admit that lots of pins do look lovely being gold-plated and so I have several like this in my ever-growing collection, however, in general, I'd prefer a pin with another coloured outline/plating. And so as you can imagine, the fact that this Be Prepared pin is backed in black is one of the details that drew me to it. It really love the outline colour, and how it can be subtle yet still shine just as nicely in the sunlight as any gold-plated pin can! 

Another feature of this pin that I love is the shape... I think it just has a very unique structure to it and your eyes are instantly drawn to the yellow and green smoke, and then to Scar's big eyes. They are super cute! Who can resist a chibified version of a baddie, though!? His little smirk is so endearing, too. Oh my gosh, I can't express how delighted I am with the entire design of this pin! Sophie has really captured the unique look of Scar's mane, which is another thing I love! And those swirls/wisps of smoke look super cool, don't you think? 

It's so awesome how the colours change depending on the angle and lighting. I can't wait to wear this pin out and about (eventually!) and show it off! 

You may have noticed the little sneak preview of another pin in the photo above ;) And that's what I'm going to talk about next. Sophie was amazingly kind and gifted me the loveliest pin, and I have been super excited about showing it to you guys!! 

Ta-da!! HOW STUNNING IS THIS PIN!!? Just look how intricate and detailed the design is. I was so wowed when I opened my package and found this little cutie inside!! I can't get over how beautiful it is. THANKYOU so very much, Sophie, for sending me your Silver Fox* pin!! ^.^

If you guys didn't already know, a silver fox is a colour variation of the Red Fox, where instead of having bright red/orange fur, the fox looks black or very dark grey. If you've been following my blog for a while now, you'll probably know that foxes are one of my most loved animal species, and so I was over the moon to receive a fox pin!! Fox Leap!, as the name would suggest, has created several gorgeous foxy pins, so definitely go check them out if you are a fox lover like me! Talking of foxes, how brilliant is Fox Leap's logo!!? It makes me super happy... especially because of its huge, floofy tail! I can just imagine a real Red fox sleeping in a meadow full of summer flowers when I look at the logo! 

So, what is it about this pin that I adore? 

Where do I start? haha :D I love the boldness of the colours, they are striking! There's also so much to look at, from the detailed facial markings, to the pointy pink ears, to the leaves in the background, the flowers & the glittery tail and paws. You can definitely see how much attention to detail has gone into the design of this enamel pin! 

I'm not sure if this makes much sense to anyone other than myself, but the Silver Fox pin really reminds me of a mountain! Let me explain... the tail makes me visualise a snow-capped mountain, and the surrounding blue makes me think of photographs I've seen of Japan's Mt. Fuji against the backdrop of a cool evening skyline. The blossoms represent sakura/cherry blossoms for me, and the leaves could be the forests surrounding the mountain. This pin makes my imagination run wild and that makes me love it even more! 

Despite the pin having a gold outline/plating, I actually don't mind it because I feel like it really helps to make the colours stand out more. They are vibrant and wouldn't look as pretty on a black or silver plated enamel, in my opinion. The gold has a lovely warm shine to it, and could totally be the sunset for my mountain! :D Oh, and another element of the design I love are the fox's green eyes, because it's almost like they are reflecting the leaves. So pretty!

Anyhow, those are the two new pin badges I got from the fabulous Fox Leap! I am very impressed with the design and overall quality of them, and I loved how nicely packaged they were. The backing-cards were lovely, and I don't know why but I just think it's wonderful when I receive items in paper bags. I guess it subconscious;y reminds me of getting pick'n'mix sweets or something! Is anyone else a sucker for paper bags, or am I just weird? :D

Before I finish up today's post, I just wanted to let you all know more information about the pricing of my new pins. As I said earlier, I got the Be Prepared/Scar one on sale, during which it was only £6.40. It's usually £8, which is a great price for such a brilliant pin, although I love a good bargain, haha! All of Sophie's pins are £8, but you can get yourself a foxy pin from her website for only £6.40 at the moment. The P&P for me in the UK was £1.50, so altogether I paid £7.90, which I was very pleased with. The package arrived pretty quick as well, considering all of the corona-related delays going on. 

I'd love to know which of the pins is your favourite and why, guys! I hope you all enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing about these gorgeous products! I will certainly be shopping from Fox Leap! again in the future. They even have a monthly pin club on Patreon, where, for just approximately £9 a month ($15 for international backers) you can get a pin, a vinyl sticker and a mini print, and I'm so tempted to sign up! A big thanks to Sophie for kindly gifting me the fox pin... I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I hope you have a wonderful week, everyone! 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

Have you been buying any new pins lately?

Do you have a favourite species of Fox, or Disney character, or both?

Let me know in the comments!

Keep up to date with my boring quarantine life over on social media:

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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? 

Toys For A Pound Haul

Hi guys! Here I am again, bringing you a post about another thing that I should have written ages ago. Story of my life... better late than never should be etched on my tombstone some day XD Oops, getting a little dark there... a little too much spirit of Halloween, haha! Talking of Halloween, I can't believe it's only 4 days away. *cry cry* I don't want my favourite month to end! Should we start a petition to make every month Halloween? :) My entire year is filled with lots of spooky goodness anyhow, but I want to hold off the colder months a little longer. As much as Autumn is my favourite time of year, the latter part of the season is usually dreary, the trees loose all of their fiery foliage, and the colourful leaf-littered ground becomes coated in brown, decaying sludge. Oh, and Seasonal Affective Disorder comes along just as I begin to mourn the crisp, crunchy piles of colour underfoot whenever I venture outdoors, making it easier to brave the cold. Well, this is becoming a miserable intro XD I'm sorry guys, but I'M REALLY GONNA MISS ALL THE PRETTY AUTUMNAL VIBES! T_T

So, on a brighter note, today I want to tell you all about a fabulous little online store I stumbled across earlier this year, thanks to an Instagram ad. As you have probably guessed from the title, the website is effectively a pound store, however it has some great bargains on there, a lot that I personally haven't come across in any pound stores I've visited before. I thought I'd share my haul/review with you guys and bring Toys for a Pound to your attention :) Enjoy! 

Toys for a Pound is such a great website for picking up stocking fillers or small gifts for your loved ones. I mean, the intended audience/recipients are children, so it's mostly got toys that cater towards them; however, there are some gems on there that kids who've never grown up, like myself, will love! The standard shipping is £2.99 so it's best to only do an order if you are buying several things, in my opinion. I personally find it a great resource for when I'm looking for some goodies to fill the Christmas shoeboxes I put together for charity each year. Plus, it's nice to have access to a virtual pound store when you're living with chronic illnesses/ disabilities and don't get out as much as you'd like. 

Almost everything on the site is £1 each, although there's sections of items up to £5, but they are such brilliant deals that should be snapped up and put away ready for December :) Just a heads up... they update their stock pretty regularly so it's best to pop anything that catches your eye into your basket as soon as possible. Most of the items I'm sharing in this haul are no longer available (sorry for my delay in posting!). Nonetheless, they have many wonderful items at the moment. I actually placed another order the other day, which I have to thank for giving me the kick up the butt to finally get this post up. Proof that retail therapy has its benefits! 

Well, here's what I picked up from Toys for a Pound... 

Look at all of this adorable stuff that I managed to get for only £10!!! How could I pass up Funko products for only a pound each... that's amazing!! I have seen a few Funko products here and there popping up in my local Pound stores and B&M for the same price but they are few and far between, as well as being for franchises that are a lot less popular nowadays. However, the ones I found at Toys for a Pound were fantastic!! And they even had Pint Size Heroes, another Funko product, too! I've never seen these in pound stores before. Have you? 

As much as I adore Funko, which you'll know if you've been a regular reader of my blog for a while (I own well over 200 products by them now, 107 of them being Pop! vinyl figures... I have a problem XD), my favourite find has to be these Eevee ears!! As someone who enjoys cosplaying, these are perfect! And Eevee is one of my all-time favourite Pokemon. They were an absolute steal at just £1... they are made by TOMY (so they are great quality) and usually retail at around £8.99+. 

So these are all of the blind boxes/bags that I bought; they were the main reason that I visited the website in the first place since the fact that Toys for a Pound were selling Funko products is what popped up in the ad I saw, whilst scrolling through Instagram. Some people get annoyed by ads, but to be honest, I love that they keep bringing products to my attention based on the things I search/buy online. They seem to be a lot more tailored over on Instagram, VS other platforms like Youtube. I respect why people have ads on their videos, but oh my gosh, do they get annoying! Before I go off topic, haha... I was delighted to find that Toys for a Pound had such a variety available, because I honestly expected to find maybe five products at the most. 

Since getting very into my toy photography... I mean I've always been into it but ever since finding the toy photography community over on Instagram and setting up my own dedicated account (find it here), I have found that I am happy to collect figures from franchises that I might not have bothered buying otherwise. This is because it's always nice to have a varied collection of figures to use for different photography themes, etc. I'm finding a lot of cool new figures this way, but my bank account isn't impressed :D My addiction to buying blind boxes has intensified, oops! 

Here are the Funko Mystery Mini's that I found inside my boxes. This post is apparently also an unboxing, as well as a haul and review... but I couldn't not show you guys what I got! I am a big fan of fun surprises so I wasn't too bothered about which of the figures I got. Nonetheless I still had my favourites and least favourites. I am very happy with my finds when it comes to the Warcraft and Barbie boxes, but I did get the figure I liked least of all from the Suicide Squad box. Nevermind, that's the nature of blind boxes! 

I was never much of a fan of Barbie growing up, although I did love the horses and would always ask for the sets with them and then just ignore the barbie doll to play with the horse :) I did love the 'working out' barbie that I had when I was around 6 or 7, but that came with a soundtrack tape and so I was bound to enjoy it. Did anyone else have this? But yeah, I was still intrigued by these mystery minis because a) they are adorable, and b) because they have an interesting history based theme. Each of the figures in this collection are themed around a date, and are designed to resemble a barbie doll that was popular in that particular year. 

The ones I loved most were 1971 (which is the one I got!!) because she's dressed in hippie fashion, the 1980 because she is designed after the first Black Barbie doll, 1986 because she's lookin' fabulous in her 80's outfit that makes me think instantly of Cyndi Lauper, and 1992 because it would be cool to have a figure designed after the year I was born :) I feel like I'm rambling... I just get so excited about toys! 

As for the Warcraft blind box, I am super happy with the figure that I got because he looks wicked! If you haven't seen the movie (and played the World of Warcraft game that it was inspired by), this character is Blackhand, he's an Orc and is a warchief known as The Destroyer. The mystery mini of Blackhand is so detailed; I absolutely love it! I think it is brilliant that one of the dragons skulls on his armour has a septum piercing like he does :) I'd love to add more Warcraft figures to my collection because in my opinion, they all look epic! 

I was hoping to get one of the badass women from the Suicide Squad: Harley Quinn, Katana or the Enchantress (I like the Captain Boomerang figure, too), but I got Diablo and I just don't like his design at all. Oh well! Hopefully, I'll be able to trade him for another figure some day :) 

I couldn't not get a couple of pint size heroes. There were a few different ones available at the time but I opted for a Power Rangers bag & a Street Fighter one. These two franchises are super nostalgic for me! I had a lot of fun playing Street Fighter on my PlayStation back when I was a kid, and loved the Power Rangers as well. I absolutely adore the design of Funko's Pint Size Heroes! They might be one of my favourites of all the figures that he brand has brought out, and would love to see more in the future! 

So the figures that I wanted to get most from these blind bags were the yellow Power Ranger as she was my favourite. There's two versions of the characters available... in their full suits and also without their helmets so you can see their faces. I would have been happy with either versions of the yellow ranger. I got the green guy though, which is still cool. Green is my favourite colour at least :) For the Street Finger figures, I wanted Chun-Li or Ryu the most as I always played as them in the games. I got Guile, who I didn't really care for as I think his design is the worst one from the collection. But again, that's the catch with mystery toys, and he'll still be fantastic for photography, especially when I get some of the other characters. 

It was lovely to find some other non-Funko blind bags on the Toys for a Pound website. As soon as I spotted these Super Mario keychain/dangler charms, I immediately popped one into my shopping cart. I was trying to keep as close to a tenner as possible or else I would have bought more of these cuties. I wish I had now! Out of all of the available keychains, I wanted Toad in the Tanooki (Raccoon/Raccoon Dog) outfit, Mario riding Yoshi, or Tanooki Mario. Toad is my favourite character from the franchise so I was over the moon that I got him!! 

Awww, how sweet is he!!? I really love his design with the Racoon ears and tail, and he is surprisingly detailed for such a tiny figure. I am a little scared to actually attach him to my keys or one of my bags because I feel like he'd be so easy to lose. Those chains with the little balls aren't very sturdy either. He's just going to live on one of my shelves :) Which figure would you have most liked to get in this blind bag?

The Toys for a Pound website even has a party supplies section, which is where I came across packs of the prettiest confetti ever!! It's table confetti so it's a lot bigger than other types of confetti and is made from cardboard so it's more sturdy and durable to be used on a party table where there are likely to be lots of mayhem, such as spilled drinks! I just had to get a pack of these mermaid ones (they also had fairy and unicorn themed packs), because they are so colourful and cute! You get lots of confetti too, and I've seen similar packs in craft stores for £3+.

I'm going to using them in both my photography and also to add a pinch into any snail mail I send :) I say that, but then I don't know if I'm going to be able to bring myself to use them as they are so gorgeous!! I also picked up the unicorn pack in the recent haul that I mentioned earlier... it was a bargain that I just couldn't ignore, especially after seeing how much more pretty the mermaids confetti was in person. I even picked another mermaid pack for my sisters birthday as she's a mermaid lover! 

So that was my entire haul from Toys for a Pound. I was very impressed with the products that I received. They all arrived in great condition, however I feel like I was just lucky because there wasn't any protective packaging inside the box such as noodles/bubblewrap/ brown packing paper, and in my latest order, my items were sent in a much bigger box and one of the item's packaging arrived all squashed, which wouldn't have been great if it was intended for a christmas present. But based on my first order, everything was fine and I was pleasantly surprised that the Funko mystery mini boxes were in such excellent condition considering they were being sold for £1, when their RRP is anything from £4.99 upwards. I was super happy with everything I received and I would certainly recommend them! I will definitely be doing more orders in the future :) 

Oh, as usual, I forgot to individually photograph an item, and this time it was the Triceratops figure that you can see above. This wonderful little dinosaur is an official Jurassic Park figure, and sort of arrived like a mystery bag considering you couldn't choose which dinosaur you wanted on the website. I wanted a Raptor because those are my favourite species. Nonetheless, I'm glad I got a Triceratops because they hold a nostalgic place in my heart, due to the amazing Land Before Time movies. Even though Cera the Triceratops wasn't my most loved character, I loved that she had the same name as me! Although, I know now as an adult that it was spelt Cera, I didn't at the time so I thought it was fantastic! Maybe I should start spelling my name as Cera….. 

I'll finish up today's post now before I get carried away even more than I already have! Thankyou to everyone who reads my posts because I know they are long! I can't help it, it's so hard for me to stop writing once I get going :D Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed reading all about my haul. Let me know if you place an order with Toys for a Pound, I'd love to hear all about what you buy :) Also, let me know in the comments guys.... which were your favourite items from my haul? Which of the mystery figures would you have liked to get? 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥ 

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