Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine consisted entirely of sleeping in and lazing around... after two days in Manchester, I was zonked! Today's post is all about these two days that my best friend & I spent in Manchester city. We had a fabulous time and I couldn't not blog all about it! As is usual on my blog, expect too many photos, haha! Enjoy reading guys :) 

If you follow me over on Twitter, you may have seen my excited tweet when I ordered tickets to see Joseph & The Amazing Tenchicolour Dreamcoat, the musical! Well on Thursday, it was finally time to go see it at the Palace Theatre in Manchester! Even though I'm not a Christian, I went to a Catholic primary school and high school, and so bible stories and hymns were a part of my childhood. I've always loved singing so I very much enjoyed hymns, and still remember the lyrics to so many of them. There's just something so awesome about people singing in unison, especially in a big echoey hall or in a Church. The bible stories they taught us as children were all lovely with a message about love, of truth or some other positive theme. So yeah, biblical based things will forever be nostalgic for me!

This is why 'Joseph' has always been one of my top ten musicals... the songs are AMAZING, the storyline is lovely and it's just a really fun take on the original bible story. I love Andrew Lloyd Webber's work so much! 

 The leading role in this musical was played by 2009 Xfactor winner Joe McElderry so it was interesting to see him so many years on and hear how he sounds performing musical theatre. I was certainly not disappointed! Joe and the rest of the cast did such an amazing job. I was miming along to every song throughout and even though I went along with a few nerves about how it would compare to the film version of the musical with Donny Osmond as Joseph (which I adore!), it surpassed my expectations and then some! 

I was a little sad that they'd changed up my favourite song from the musical 'Benjamin Calypso', but other than that... it was incredible to see the show live and omgosh Trina Hill as the narrator was absolutely brillant! The dude playing Reuben (one of Joseph's brothers) was pretty hot too ;)

We decided that despite the fact that our musical was in the afternoon, that were going to make a proper trip of it! So, we booked a hotel closeby. It was actually in such a great location, so close to the Palace Theatre, the Oxford Road train station and quite a few fast food establishments. Later in the evening after having a few hours to relax in our hotel room, we decided to go for a meal. For years and years we had passed 'The Printworks' on our days out in Manchester and never once gone inside. The Printworks, if you're unfamilar with Manchester city centre, is this huge old building that is home to lots of restaurants and a vue cinema. Most people I know who've been there, went to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, which sounded very tempting but wanting to save money, the Harvester was where we settled on. 

It took us almost an hour to get over to The Printworks from our hotel because apparently there were no taxis available, the city was very busy surprisingly for a weekday night and once we finally booked a cab, we had to wait soooo long for it to arrive >.< This just ended up making us even more hungry and so we would have happily eaten anywhere by this point. I'd only ever been to a Harvester restaurant once before and I loved it, so I was really looking forward to eating there again! As a fussy eater and with irritable bowel syndrome added into the equation, it means I tend to avoid so many types of food when I'm out. Therefore classic British pub-style meals are my favourite. There was a meal deal available that meant that even with a refill drink, our entire order with dessert included was under £20 each. Can't complain about that! It was so yummy, and I was impressed that the restaurant was empty! And by that, I mean LITERALLY empty!! We were the only two customers in there, shortly followed by two other women who finished up and left before we did as well! It was paradise for my social anxiety :) 

Anyhow, we both ordered a rump steak meal (steak, fries and some salady bits, oh and onion rings which I always give to my best friend). The Harvester offers a free salad bar which you can use with every main meal purchase, and although there wasn't a lot that I liked on it, I was very happy to have some fresh salad to nibble on with my meal. Our dessert was scrumptious, a 'Rocky Horror' sundae filled with chocolate brownie pieces, dairy ice-cream and whipped cream *nom nom*. How awesome is it that we went to see a musical and our dessert was named after one!

On Saturday, we of course went shopping! Manchester being a popular city has all of the stores that my hometown's shopping centre does not. PAPERCHASE, LUSH, THE DISNEY STORE, WATERSTONES, BUILD-A-BEAR- all of my favourite places to shop! There's also a place called Affleck's Palace which is a really cool old building filled with lots of quirky, alternative stores. I've been going there each time I'm in Manchester since I was 15 years old, and I blame it for the start of my need to buy all the kawaii things! It was the only place back then where I could find cute Japanese & Korean products. If you're ever in the city, I recommend that you check it out! 

I spent way too much money on our final day in Manchester, oops. The Primark there is massive and so I took advantage of the homeware section, picking up a few things in preparation for my new bedroom! (Have you seen my bedroom inspiration post? If you're interested, you can read it here). I regret now not getting any PJ's but there were so many that I loved so it was impossible for me to settle on just one set! One thing thought that I could have cried about is the severe lack of Ravenclaw merch in the Harry Potter section T_T  I'm used to there being a lot of Gryffindor and Slytherin things and nothing for the other houses... but not this time, Hufflepuff stuff was there, just no Ravenclaw. Why do you have to do us like that Primark!?  I wanted my house jumper so badly. Wahhh!

We headed next to Lush, to pick something up for Jess' mom, and also just to take photos in there #LivingThatBloggerLife! I told myself that I wasn't allowed to buy anything since I had Lushie goodies back home. Did I take my own advice? Nope I did not XD I really wanted to try one of the new Lush jellybombs and when I came across the lovely Snow Fairy one, scented like candy floss... it smells just like the Candy Mountain bubble bar from the Christmas range, I couldn't resist getting my wallet out. Now my designated bath drawer in my bedroom smells amazing! 

As you will all know by now if you're a regular follower of mine, I love Pokemon! Build-A-Bear have just released another of my top five Pokemon, Vulpix this time! I love love love my new plushie! I named her 'Enya' which apparently in old Irish means little fire so it seemed perfect! The Build-A-Bear experience is so fun; I'll never get bored of it! You get to help in the process of putting together your new plushie: choose your plushies 'skin', choose a sound to put inside if you want, then head to the stuffing machine where a member of staff will help you to make your plushie as snuggly as you like, and finally choose any clothes and accessories you want before going to the certificate machine to name your new cuddly friend! Here are some photos to show the process to you all... 

The other stop that was on my shopping list was the Disney store. I have have a mighty need to get my hands on some of the new Japanese plushies called Ufufy :) You may remember me including these on a previous wishlist... so I was over the moon when I discovered that they were finally coming to British stores! There was a special offer on them, £3.50 VS their standard price of a fiver for that week only, and I had a 20% off voucher too! I choose two Ufufy plush; keep scrolling to find out which ones as well as to see all of the other goodies I picked up...

JUST LOOK AT MY VULPIX PLUSHIE GUYS!!? She's so bright and vibrant and oh my gosh, she's wearing a matching Pokeball onesie! I'm in love! 

I went into Primark with the idea that I was just going to buy homeware items, but as usual my obsession with cute, animal-themed things got the better of me. Just ask my best friend and she'll describe how when I turned every new corner of the aisles, I squealed and ran towards something else! I'm sure that I'm a very comical person to shop with, haha. I really wanted a fake plant of some sort after my sister came home from a recent shopping trip with some but all of the pots that the mini succulents in Primark came in were grey and that wouldn't go with the colour scheme I have in mind for my bedroom. I was delighted when I spotted this adorable fake plant in a cheerful little pot :) I couldn't walk past this gorgeous purrmaid bedding without picking it up so yeah that came home with me too. 

There was a 30% sale on the Hello Kitty range in Paperchase so I had to get something. I already have the Hello Kitty multi-section notebook and it's so nice. I have been after the smaller of the list pads for ages now, because I can never have too many of these as I write a ridiculous amount of lists! The other list pad is a giant desk pad which is absolutely awesome and so big. Inside on each page, there's a section for your to-do-list, with two other smaller sections for categorising urgent tasks and ones that can wait until another day.  The postcards available in Paperchase are so so pretty and I absolutely LOVE puns and play-on-word's, plus how awesome is that die-cut unicorn postcard!? These new additions are up on my art wall already! 

Last time when I was in Manchester with my best friend celebrating our birthdays, we came across a Cath Kidston stall in the middle of the Arndale and even though I was lusting over so many of the products, I didn't buy any and I regretted as soon as we were on the train home! This time if it was there again, I was determined to get something from the super adorable guinea pig collection (it's called the Party Pets range by the way!). After struggling for another ten minutes, I at last settled on this pretty case/pouch which since it's got a plastic covering, I'm probably going to use as some sort of wash bag. I also added the eraser to my basket since it's so sweet but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to bring myself to use it! Finally, the two Ufufy that I got from the Disney store included Donald Duck (who I'd already decided ages ago was my favourite from the set) and Marie because she just looks so precious. I didn't know it beforehand but these plushies are apple blossom scented! I'm not usually a fan of apple scented or flavoured things but this fragrance is pretty nice! 

As you can see, I went a little overboard haha, but with the crappy week I had, I was definitely in need of some serious retail therapy. I tried to stick to more practical items that I actually needed (yes, I absolutely need plushies!). I hope that you all enjoyed today's post. Have you had a spending spree lately? I'd love to hear all about what you bought in the comments. 

Thankyou for reading!

  ♥

Do you own a Build-A-Bear plushie? A pokemon one or another?

Also, what are your favourite stores? 

Are you a fan of haul posts? If so, check these out:

 | North Wales Holiday Haul | Comic Con Haul | Support Holiday Haul | 

Things Are Finally Starting To Pick Up | Life Update

Hi everyone! I thought for today's post I'd write a little life update for you all, as it's been so long since I shared a more chatty style post about how things have been going for me lately. After a rough start to the year, with so many things going wrong in my life, and with nothing to really look forward to, I really struggled with my mental health. As a result, my physical health was affected and so was my motivation to do the hobbies I love. I barely blogged and I felt so bad about it :( However, for the last two months I've been getting into the swing of things again and I now feel like I've got my blogging bug back! Woohoo! 

In my previous life update post, I discussed how my financial situation suddenly changed when I went for my ESA reassessment and even though my health was in the same state, if not worst, as when I'd first been granted the benefit, the health care practioner who 'interviewed' me decided that I was no longer eligible. I felt like she wasn't listening to me much at all thoroughout my appointment and it was clear she was just looking for ways to catch me up on what I was saying. It is ridiculous how they do this! Oh you have a shower sometimes without being prompted? You must be able to work a full time job then! You are able to walk around the supermarket with your mom and catch up with your friends once a month? Again, you must be fit to work!

It is so stressful going into the appointment not knowing whether you are going to get a practioner who understands, a practioner who actually wants to help people and really takes in what you are trying to explain, which for me is hard enough with my anxiety without the added worry of how the practioner is deciding to word my answers on the computer in front of them. It just happened that I was unlucky enough to get someone who decided make my life even more difficult and as a consequence, leave me in a shitty situation for the first half of 2017!

Because of my chronic health conditions, I currently have to live at home with my family and so thankfully, I had somewhere to live rent-free whilst I was stuck with no money! It's horrible to imagine how someone who lives independently and has a health problem would cope if the same thing happened to them... the government really need to sort themselves out when it comes to these health assessments! After my ESA was stopped, I had to request something called a mandatory reconsideration, and to be honest I wasn't very hopeful as I just thought that they were going to be awkward and not back-track on their decision. This turned out to be the case, and I then had to go through the tribunals service/appeals court to get the decision over-ruled. 

The appeals process can take a very long time and in the mean time, it was very hard to handle what was going on since I had no sense of security and was so uncertain of the outcome. I was scared and it was beyond stressful thinking about what their decision would be. I had to write a lot of letters, fill in a lot of forms and do a lot of waiting, until I was eventually told that I would be getting an appointment with the tribunals service and would need to wait on a date to be sent to me. At this time, I was going to my weekly psychological therapy sessions and periodically seeing the psychiatrist that worked for the mental health team to check up on how it was going with my anti-depressants. It was difficult to make any real progress when my financial situation was having an impact on so many aspects of my life. I hope I'm not sounding dramatic or anything, but it meant that I couldn't afford to go anywhere with my friends and family, I couldn't treat myself when I was feeling crappy, I couldn't work on my public transport anxiety because I didn't have any money to pay for a ticket. Worse of all, I couldn't afford any of my medication and I couldn't pay for my rabbit's food, meaning I had to rely on my family members to lend me money to pay for these two necessities for months and months! 

One day when I went to see the psychiatrist to get my medication increased, I decided to ask him whether he would write a letter for me for the tribunals service. I wasn't sure if it would help since I'd already provided evidence of my health status to ESA with doctors letters and proof that I went to the therapy, etc, but I decided it couldn't hurt to have more to back me up. This decision turned out to an awesome one since a few weeks after sending it to them, behind the scenes the tribunal service and ESA had had a meeting, and ESA randomly contacted me out of the blue to tell me that they had done a second mandatory reconsideration... not sure how that works, haha! But I'm not complaining! I was then given back my benefit and everything was put back to normal, just like that. I had lots of medical professionals saying that I couldn't work, but the psychiatrist saying it seemed to change everything! I am over the moon that everything worked out in the end. Even though my mental health recovery has been knocked back and I feel like I'm having to start over again, if that even makes sense!

Not only has this reinstatement of my ESA helped with the obviously financial struggle that I was in, it has been such a positivity boost for me, being some optimism back into my mind because months of worry. It has given me some security and normalcy again, and now I can start focusing on the important things and doing the things that makes me feel good. I don't have to carry the bad feelings I had when I was having to borrow money, and I've been able to pay everyone back. I've been able to finally go to the dentist, which I would rather not because eeeek dentists, but gotta look after your teeth and all that. I can now start making plans and giving myself stuff to look forward to, stuff to keep me going, do the things that makes that make life just a little less tough. I feel good for the first time in ages!

If you've made it this far through my post, well done!! I hope that I havent rambled too much or bored you guys! I just felt like sharing my experience meant be helpful for others dealing with a similar situation with their benefit, and I also just wanted to keep you all updated. As well as this whole ESA pickle being sorted, lots of other things that were causing me stress have also settled down and I'm just looking forward to Autumn now! It's my favourite time of year for so many reasons and there's so much I'm excited for. Not long now!

Thankyou for reading this mega wordy post! 

♥

Let's end this post with more positivity :) 

I'd love to hear what you are looking forward to!

Here are some related posts:
| Thoughts On Not Being Able To Work | The Sad Ghost Club | 

July Wishlist

Hi lovelies, I hope you've all had a fantastic day! I spent mine having a very long lie in after not being able to sleep until 7am! It was incredibly annoying! For the rest of the day, I've just been watching TV and planning posts for next month, plus I received some lovely things in the post that I will blogging all about very soon. Anyhow, it's time for another monthly wishlist. Enjoy!

 1. Sweetheart 2-in-1 Dress I just love the pretty floral design on this dress! As someone who feels most happy in black clothes, it can be difficult to find something that has summery vibes so as soon as I spotted this dress, I wanted it. I really like the sweetheart neckline of the dress too and I think it would be perfect to wear both during the day and for nights out. 

2. Bronze Coloured Fox Ornament As most of my regular readers will know by now, I absolutely love foxes! As soon as I see anything fox related (or bunny related, or alpaca related, or lizard related.. the list is endless! I just seriously love animals), I need it. DuneIm has some really lovely home deco, and this fox is just one of the many items I want. Just look how cute it is, with it's little sleepy face! Who else adores foxes?

3. Dose of Color Liquid Lipstick in 'Kiss of Fire' This collection of gorgeous matte liquid lipsticks have recently been taking the blogging world by storm and it's no surprise with the stunning shades available. I have been lusting over them since I saw this post by the lovely Beth over at Mermaid In Disguise. I instantly fell in love with the frosted glass packaging and the vibrant colours, and although 'Kiss of Fire' wasn't original my favourite shade, it's really grown on me the more I've seen of it all over instagram. 

4. Dose of Color in 'Chocolate Wasted' Another shade of this wonderful collection that I adore. I've been looking for the perfect true brown lipstick to experiment with for ages now, and this colour looks fabulous! There's literally so many pretty lipsticks by Dose of Color that I would love to get my hands on! 

5. Portico Zodiac A6 Notebook It's so hard to narrow it down to one notebook per wishlist because I honestly want about ten new notebooks each month! This notebook appealed to me because of the gorgeous papercut art on the cover. I have always loved papercut art, it is so pretty and intricate, and I admire the artists so much. I would love to have a go myself but I'm so bad with anything that requires tiny, intricate precision :) Nevermind, I can just buy lovely notebooks like this instead! There are twelve of these notebooks available, one with each sign of the zodiac on the cover. Being born at the start of October, I am a Libra and I've always been jealous of the awesome designs of all of the other Zodiac signs. This is the loveliest Libra design I've ever seen so of course, I need it in my life. 

6. Whimsical Woodland Makeup Bag After managing to ruin the inside of my other make-up when I got liquid eyeliner all over it, I am now in need of a new one. This one is perfect for me as it's covered in woodland animals. Forests and Woods are my favourite places and I love anything with a woodlands design. Plus, I love how colourful this make-up bag is and that the zip is my favourite shade of blue.

7. Cinnamon Donut Bath Bomb I have been following the instagram of Oh Deer Sugar for a while now and have been fascinated by how gorgeous their bathbombs look! They remind me so much of Lush and I would love to try them out for myself! I love the cake and donut designs they make and how bright they are. This Cinnamon bathbomb is my favourite because the colours it makes in the bath remind me of Intergalactic, my favourite Lush bathbomb. If you love bathbombs and haven't heard of Oh Deer Sugar, go check them out :) 

8. Heart Wooden Shelf Unit I've been searching for a heart-shaped shelf ever since I saw someone displaying their tsum tsum collection in one as it looked so awesome! My collection of now 63 tsum tsums are currently sitting on top of a some plastic drawers that I brought home from university and I constantly keep knocking them off when I walk past, thus scattering tsum tsums all over the floor. It's getting more annoying the more tsum tsums I get, and I'm so addicted to the adorable little plushies that I just can't stop adding to my collection. My mum went shopping with my sister the other day and when they popped into The Range, they found these lovely wooden shelves in an off-white colour, however I couldn't find those ones on the website and if I can't get the off-white ones, I will just get these and paint them. If anyone knows where I can find some white heart shelves, please let me know in the comments. 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

 What do you think of the items on my wishlist?

I'd love to hear all about what's on your wishlist this month.

If you are looking to treat yourself or get some gift inspiration for your loved ones, check out my other monthly wishlists: 

 | June | May | April | February | January |

July Kawaii & Geeky Wishlist

Happy Thursday! How has everyone been spending the past few sunny days? I've been mostly hiding indoors, complaining about how hot it is and feeling like I'm gonna melt. I'm not a summer person at all! I'm glad that the night feels a little cooler today so I might be able to go to bed without feeling like my bedroom is a sauna! It's time for another kawaii & geeky wishlist. I hope you all enjoy reading! 

1. Purr Maids Multi Pen I absolutely adore the new Paperchase purr maids collection! It's so pretty and just all of the pastel colours and lovely illustrations of shells and creatures and cat-mermaids are wonderful! I recently bought the Purr Maids stickers and notebook with dividers, which are beautiful. They have very much tempted me to buy the entire range. I love having a pen like this handy so I always have a few different colour options!

2. Beauty & the Beast Tsum Tsums oh my gosh! I am so excited for these tsum tsums! Unfortunately, they have not been released yet but I just had to include them on my kawaii & geeky wishlist for this month. Beauty & the Beast is my second favourite Disney movie after The Lion King so of course, I've got to get one of every character for my tsum tsum collection!

3. Sugar Glider Bow Tie Necklace This necklace is so gorgeous! I love sugar gliders, they are such sweet little creatures. The lovely bow design of the necklace resembles a sugar glider soaring through the air as they do in the wild moving from tree to tree. I really like this design and it's a quirky, unique necklace that I would love to wear. 

4. Purr Maids Multi List Book A second Paperchase purr maids item has made it onto the wishlist, because I'm lusting over all of the collection. I'm lovin' the illustration on the front of this book, so cute! The book opens up to reveal an amazing selection of stationary bits: sticky notes, a list pad, note paper, stickers, a ruler. It's great that you get all of that for just £10. It's the perfect desk accessory! 

5. Unicorn Emoji Power Bank I love love love the unicorn emoji so when I spotted this portable charger on instagram, I of course needed it! It's a little pricey at £30 but it's something that I will get lots of use out of, especially now that I'm playing Pokemon Go all the time and draining my battery when I'm out and about. I love the colours and design of this charger, it's fabulous. 

6. 'Kawaii Babe' Enamel Pin How pretty is this pin badge!? I love the pastel colours, the gold details, the glittery lettering and stars. I would love to add this pin to my pin badge collection and wear it proudly to show the world my love of kawaii things! 

7. Cuttlefish Enamel Pin Awww, this pin is so bloody adorable! It looks like the cuttlefish is really happy. I love unique pin badges and a cuttlefish is definitely something I wasn't expecting to find. I seriously love it! The colours are so bold and vibrant, it's just a really eye-catching, funky pin. This shop has an fantastic deal too, 3 pins for $25. An offer too good to resist! 

8. Funko Fairy Tail Natsu Pop! Figure Fairy Tail is an anime series that I love so I was delighted when I spotted this Pop! vinyl of Natsu, one of the main characters, sold by Hot Topic. It's a exclusive that's available at this year's San Diego Comic Con. I love how bright Natsu's hair is and the addition of the flame in his hand. It's a brilliant figure. 

9. Purr Maids Whiteboard Meal Planner My final item on this wishlist is another Purr Maids product. Sorry, not sorry :) haha! I've decided that I need to start being more organised with my meals so that I can get back into the habit of eating more healthily, so something like this would be purrrfect! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

What do you think of the new Purrmaids collection by Paperchase? What's your favourite item on this wishlist?  

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April Wishlist

 

Happy Saturday! I hope you're all having a wonderful start to the weekend. It's been a while since I did a monthly wishlist! March was just not my month and as a consequence, I didn't get round to posting one. So without further ado, here's my April wishlist. Enjoy!

 

| Hell Bunny Vintage Dress | Safari Porcelain Mug | Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bon Palette | Morning, Sunshine! Bath Bomb | Parma Chameleon Bath Bomb | Under the Sea Cookie Cutter | Roald Dahl Tape Set | Jelly Belly Jar Candle | Brave by MAC | Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation

 

 

I've absolutely loved Hell Bunny dresses for years, so when I spotted this gorgeous dress on YoursClothing I was really happy. The design is lovely with the skulls and roses, and I love vintage style dresses. I'm also really impressed with this mug from Paperchase. It's refreshing to see a less well-known species on it. The animal nerd in me was delighted when I found it. Tarsiers are adorable little primates native to Southeast Asia; they have big eyes and cute ears! How pretty is this palette!? I love the baby pink colour of the case and the heart-shaped eyeshadows are so pretty. I think it's awesome that the eyeshadows are actually chocolate-scented and the names of the different shades sound delicious, such as 'Cashew Chew' and 'Dark Truffle'. I'm really curious to try with palette. 

I just think yellow bathbombs look fantastic, so refreshing and summery. This one is perfect for me, too, since it's citrus-scented (orange & grapefruit). I'm excited to get my hands on the other bathbomb! Parma violets are one of my favourite sweets, so I'm hoping it smells as good as the real thing. There are so many Ohh Deer products that I want right now, but these have to be my favourite. They are so cool and I really really want them! I'm in need of some more washi tape and I think the Roald Dahl book illustration by Quentin Blake are amazing. I especially like the tape covered in peaches. 

I've been wanting to try Jelly Belly candles for a while now. I'm a fan of sweet scents and I think this bubblegum one will be great. For the last few weeks, I've been watching countless youtube videos showing different MAC lipsticks searching for a pretty shade to wear this spring and summer. I want one that I can wear everyday, that will go well with any outfit. I love the mauve/pink colour of this lipstick so I'm going purchase one as soon as I get the chance. If you can recommend some perfect spring/summer shades of lipstick, I'd really appreciate it :) Let me know in the comments. I've been using Rimmel's Wake Me Up concealer for a month now and I love it so I'd like to try the foundation. 

Thankyou for reading!

♥ 

 

What's on your wishlist this month? & 

Have you ever tried any Bomb Cosmetics products? 

 

Do you enjoy wishlist post? Check out my previous wishlists

| February | January | December | November |

 

Liebster Award- Estellosaurus

Heya everyone! I hope you're all having a fantastic day. I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the wonderful Estelle over at Estellosaurus. She's awesome, has the most quirky and cool fashion sense (seriously, go check out her instagram to see some of the fabulous clothes she has!) and is such a lovely person. Thankyou for nominating me! :) 

I will expalin the rules of the Liebster Award at the end of this post. Estelle asked me 11 questions so here they are with my answers: 

(1) When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I have always loved animals and knew I wanted to work with them one day. When I was little, I wanted to be a vet but as I got older, I realised that I don't think I could deal with the emotional pressure of being a vet. My dream job is now to be a zoo keeper. 

(2) What was the last terrible book you read? Why was it terrible?

Hmm, I haven't read any terrible books for a while now. Probably the last set of books that I really didn't enjoy were the 50 Shades of Grey books. It was an okay read for some of the first book, but then it was terrible! I'd bought all of the books so it felt like a waste not to read them all but yeah, I really didn't like them. They were cheesy, so much of the book was ridiculous, and I feel like it masked an abusive, controlling relationship as BDSM, which is presenting the BDSM lifestyle in such a bad way. 

(3) If you could bring back one TV show that was cancelled or has ended, what would you bring back? 

When I was around 13 (in 2005), there are a show that aired for one season called Invasion. It was a sci-fi alien drama that was set in the US in the aftermath of a hurricane in a town in Florida in which aliens invaded and were living in the swamps, attacking the locals and taking over their bodies. I really enjoyed it, maybe I wouldn't now all these years later (I've just decided I'm gonna re-watch it) but it would be cool for it to be brought back. Does anyone else remember this?

(4) Summer or Winter? 

I prefer winter, but there's still so many things that I love about summer and I'm really looking forward to it this year!

(5) What did you have for dinner last night? 

Chicken fried rice from the Chinese takeaway :) 

(6) What's your favourite breakfast cereal?

Golden Grahams, Weetos and Honey Cheerios

(7) Cats or Dogs?

This is such a hard one to answer! In the past my answer would have been dogs right away, but a few years ago my neighbour got a cat and I absolutely fell in love with her ♥ and since then, my love for cats has grown so much. I don't think I prefer either! I can't wait until I have my own place and I can get a dog and a cat. 

(8) A blog you would recommend? 

I would recommend Jenna's awesome blog, Princess Parasox

(9) Sum up your day in three words

Sunny, Anxiety, Slow 

(10) If you had to interview someone for a job, what one question would you ask them?

I'm not sure.... Do you like animals? because if not, we have a problem! haha

(11) What is the third word of your last text message? 

 'dear'

Here are my questions

(1) What's your favourite scent?

(2) List three things you love about Spring

(3) What's your favourite sweet snack?

(4) How many countries have you visited? List them.

(5) What's the last movie you watched at the cinema?

(6) Do you have a favourite breed of cat? If not, a favourite colour of cat?

(7) What are the cutest pair of socks you've ever owned? Describe them.

(8) What's your favourite game? (board game, video game, etc.)

(9) Name one thing on your to-do-list today

(10) Do you prefer tea or coffee?

(11) Name something you love about yourself

The bloggers that I nominate are: Jenna, Christie, Emily,Courtney & Nicole Marie

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 The Liebster Award Rules

- Mention the blogger who nominated you and be sure to thank them and link back to their blog 

- Answer the 11 questions you were asked

-  Write 11 questions of your own

- Nominate 11 bloggers and let them know they've been nominated

 (oops, I know I didn't nominate 11! haha)

 ♥

Thankyou for reading!

 
 

Yay! 100th blog post!

Happy Spring everyone! I'm so glad that it's finally here; I cannot wait for sunny days when I can get outside with my camera and spend more time in the garden. This year has gone by so quickly, how is it already almost the end of March!? This month for me has been a hard one and I've been struggling with my mental and physical health a lot. I've been finding it extremely hard to get things done, some days it was impossible to even find the motivation to get out of bed. It was very stressful wanting to blog so much, but not being able to. I love my little blog; I really enjoy sharing snippets of my life and my interests with you all. I want to say thankyou to all of you for reading my blog, leaving comments and for just being awesome! Today's post is my 100th one and so I thought I'd do a little giveaway to celebrate this, as well as the fact that I've been blogging for 6 months now! I can't wait to see what the next 6 months will bring :) 

100th blog post giveaway

This is my first giveaway! Sorry that it's only small... I promise that my next one will be bigger! This giveaway is open to international entries and it's going to be running until Monday 28th March. If you win, you'll get....

- a box of milk chocolate pocky

- a one4all giftcard, that you can spend in so many stores, worth £10

- & 'Can Can' the tokidoki unicorno

 (I got this vinyl figure in a blindbox and since I'd already received it in a previous box, I've decided to give it away so the box I send to the winner will already have been opened).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  

Good luck everyone! ♥ Thankyou for reading!

23rd Birthday Celebrations | Lifestyle

Earlier, you may have read my Part 1 post all about how I celebrated my 23rd birthday. Here's what I did later in the day after opening my presents, taking photographs for today's post and going for a nap since this chest infection I have is making me so exhausted. I received a lovely birthday parcel from one of my friends (containing American style jelly beans, a white rabbit tsum tsum, an adorable kawaii sticker pack & pen from TofuCute and a lovely postcard) so that was a great surprise! An online order I made earlier in the week also arrived so I was greeted with 7 new yankee candles... I'll write about them over the weekend :) 

So, in the late afternoon me & my mum had a little BBQ, which is something I've wanted to do on my birthday for a few years now. It was my mum's first time doing her own BBQ and we had fun sitting in the garden with my bunnies, eating yummy food. The weather was great and there were Speckled Wood butterflies flying around so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get some photographs for a photo-a-day challenge I'm taking part in on my instagram (Check out the collage I made here). Two of my brothers came over to see me later in the day so joined in with our BBQ, which was good because there was too much food for me & my mum to manage on our own! 

 ^ I'm quite a fussy eater, and I prefer my salad off my burger!

After the BBQ, my dad arrived and we all tucked into my birthday cake, it was a chocolate fudge cake *nom nom nom*! My mum attempted to write '23' on top using the candles, it was cute. For my birthday, my dad paid for the skater dress I wore for my party last week, and bought me an adorable Ty beanie monkey teddy. Here are some photographs of my other presents... 

My favourite characters from the Song of Ice and Fire novels/ Game of Thrones TV series are Tyrion & Arya, so I love this little book of Tyrion quotes which my mum thinks is 'inappropriate' and 'rude', even though she enjoys watching the show! Who's your favourite GoT character(s)? 

My best friend bought me a very cute notebook that will be my next blog planner when the tokidoki one I'm using now is full, and she also got a lovely thoughtful book for me with motivational quotes and messages to cheer me up when I'm having a bad day. The pages are beautifully coloured, it's really pretty inside. Thanks Jess ♥ 

The last gift I'll show you is my new hare duvet cover from George at ASDA. It's only £10 and I adore it. It's a pale brown colour so I think it matches really well with my dark brown rabbit blanket and has an autumnal feel to it. It has another pattern on the reverse side with brown dots on. I love the look of my bed right now. 

Thanks for reading! 

 ♥

What are you most looking forward to this month? 
Other than Halloween! OMG HALLOWEEN! ^.^ too excited.