Manchester Christmas Markets 2018 | Photo Diary & Haul

Hello guys! I'm sure I am not the only one who's having a super hectic start to the weekend, with all the last minute preparations for Christmas. I've been so busy and I haven't even wrapped a single present yet!! It's going to be a lonnnnggg weekend! Who else is a member of Team Leave Everything Until the Last Minute, this year? I'm usually a lot more organised than this! It's the curse of 2018, I cannot wait until its over with, haha! Anyhow, today I thought I'd share with you all some photographs from my annual visit to the Manchester Christmas Markets! I've gone every year for the last several years and have blogged about it each time (well expect in 2016, but let's ignore dreadful December!), so why break the little tradition I have going on :) Hopefully no one is sick of reading about it yet! I usually do a separate haul post showing you guys what I picked up at the markets, but this time round I'm going to include my haul in this post too. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and try not to pressure yourself too much in the run up to Christmas! Make sure you take breaks from the present wrapping mayhem to look after yourselves too :) 

One of my favourite things to do during the festive season is to visit Christmas Markets! I always missed out on these when I was younger because I don't live in a city and my local town doesn't host everything like this around Christmas. Well for the last couple of years, they've made an attempt to dot five or six random cabins around the town centre and called it a market :D The closest big city to me is Manchester, and ever since I've moved back home after university, I have made it a tradition to mine to hop onto the train and go to the markets! 

There's just something so appealing to me about markets, of any kind. I love how you can find all sorts of things there! There's always the most random stalls next to one another, from candle makers to fancy bakeries, et cetera. There is just something new to see around every corner! Christmas markets are especially lovely because of all of the festive goodness thrown in amongst the other stalls. They are almost like a little piece of winter wonderland to me, like walking into Santa's workshop, especially with the stall I photographed above. It's actually part of a collection of stalls grouped together that all sell decorations, and I love to have a nosey around it each year. I'm such a fan of over the top/in your face Christmas décor, and love the traditional red and green theme :) 

The Manchester Christmas Markets, like so many markets set up across the UK, are made to resemble the stunning market stalls of Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, and lots of other places across Europe of course. I have dreamt of visiting one of the famous European festive markets for a long time, so getting to visit these markets in the meantime is super fun for me! I love all of the wooden cabins and huts as they reminds me so much of log cabins and at night when they are covered in lights, the glow makes me think of an open fire blazing away in a cabin somewhere. It's kinda magical! I have a vivid imagination and my mind likes to romanticise everything, haha, but I don't care, it makes me happy and so do Christmas markets :) 

Something that I love about Christmas Markets are all of the decorations on display! Not only are there the jolly and fun kind like these fabulous albeit garish elves from the North Pole, but there are lots of more traditional, almost rustic, wooden tree ornaments, which I just adore so much! I think they are really beautiful & I keep coming home with more and more each year! I love how intricate so many of the designs look and they usually feature animals that I associate with Nordic countries. I have forever wanted to visit Finland in wintertime and so I'm lovin' these decorations. You can bet that I picked up some more! 

I don't know what it is about things made of wood in general but I just love them, anything from wooden ornaments like the ones above to wooden instrument toys made for children. I just think they are super cute! Are any of you guys the same? I really wanted one of these adorable little owls but they were so pricey! That's the only downside to Christmas markets, they charge a lot for things! Sometimes the items you find there are just so unique that you can't resist the mighty need and spend half your budget on something that you could probably get for much cheaper online. Everything just looks so fancy and shiny and eye-catching nestled into their displays, surrounded by fairy lights and the festive cheer that's in the air!

I didn't take as many photos as I usually do this year because me & my best friend had so much Christmas shopping to do in the Arndale shopping centre that we were exhausted by the time we visited the markets! However I'll link my previous posts at the end of this one so you can see more of the markets if you're interested :) Another of my favourite things that you'll find at Christmas Markets are the food stalls. There's usually lots of European traditional foods on offer, as well as mulled wine and beer. There's whole cabins that are like mini bars dedicated to German beer! Me with my sweet tooth however always hunts for the Dutch Sugar Waffle stall.... they are so delicious! If you haven't tried one then I cannot recommend them enough :) 

Okay, so now it's time for me to show you what I bought on my day out in Manchester earlier this month, both from the markets and also just from shopping around the city. Enjoy! 

I only picked up a few things from the actual Markets themselves this year, and they are the same things that I purchase each time I go because I'm a creature of habit! :D As promised, there are more wooden decorations! I always find the stalls that sell them 3 for £5 because I think that's a great price! I picked up one of them for one of my friends for Christmas so I can't show it in case they are reading this post. I love the colourful one and I've never seen it before, so I just had to get it :) The other one I chose (top right) is actually layered so it's 3D in person, it looks really cool! 

The third decoration in the photo is actually from one of the stalls around the one in my second photo (with decorations galore!), and it's a very traditional Northern European handmade decoration. I keep buying one every year and somehow managing to loose it before next Christmas, but I am determined to keep this one safe! I have loved this type of decoration ever since I was sent one by one of my penpals. If you didn't know already, it's a Yule Goat! It is a Christmas symbol from Scandinavian countries, and has some origins in ancient pagan traditions. They are always made of straw and I would love to make my own some day! Maybe I will have a go in 2019 :) Until then, I'll keep picking one up from the markets because they are only a quid. 

The final thing that I bought at the Manchester Christmas Markets, just before we headed to the train station to go home, was this official mug. They are available at several café stalls dotted about the markets, which are found on multiple streets all over the city centre, and you can either get one with your hot drink of choice, or just buy one on its own. They have a different design each year and even though I have enough mugs to open a small café myself, I just can't stop buying them! Is there anything that you buy every Christmas that you don't need but can't resist? 

Along with visiting the markets, the highlight of my day out was discovering the most fantastic little store called Kenji! It is a Japanese shop that sells all sorts of products, from kitchenware and useful household items, to stationery and accessories. It was like I'd found paradise and I got so over excited in this store, hahaha! I must have literally looked like a child in a candy store, I bet my bestie found it hilarious! I was 'AWWWW!' and 'oh my god, look at this!' at pretty much everything I saw! I was very good though and didn't buy too much because I had a budget to stick to and I hadn't gotten many Christmas presents up until this part of our trip. Most of the things I bought are cat-related because we all know how much I love them :D 

I also couldn't resist these super bright coloured bobble things... they are made out of something that reminds me of telephone cords! Gosh, it's been so long since we had a telephone that wasn't wireless. Most kids today won't even know how much these bobbles resemble those cords. Saying that makes me feel my age for once XD I picked up a few more bits and bobs from Kenji as presents for my loved ones. This store is awesome and I'm hoping that there's another store closer to my hometown! The products were really cheap too, everything I bought was either £1 or £2, and the adorable cat ornament above was £2.50. 

I also included in this photo a little bee pin that I bought for my dad because he doesn't know how to use a computer so there's no risk of him seeing it! It is too cute not to show you guys, and it only cost me £1.30 from a telegraph shop inside the Arndale. He's wanted a Manchester bee pin for a while and they are usually pricey, so I was really happy to come across this one :) 

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I am a fan of vinyl figures and that I have a bit of an obsession (who am I trying to kid? A lot of an obsession*) with those that come in blind boxes. I watch a lot of YouTube channels dedicated to toy collecting and I have really wanted to get my hands on some of the TY Mini Boos Collectibles ever since I watched unboxing videos of them! It's been so long and I didn't think they were sold here in the UK, until I found them in the toy store, The Entertainer, on my trip to Manchester! 

It was seriously such a challenge not to buy loads of boxes! I have always been a massive fan of TY, I collected the beanie babies throughout my childhood and I just love all of their plushies! The newer varieties have these big eyes that make them irresistible to me because they are just too cute. Well, these figures also have those eyes and I just needed some in my life. Keep scrolling to find out which ones I found inside my boxes :) Oh and before I forget to mention, they were only £3 each in The Entertainer, and they stocked all three series! 

*Apologies for the lighting quality, I love Autumn/Winter time but it sucks for photography! 

In my Series 2 TY Mini Boos blind box, I got Blueberry!! He's super cute! I have to admit though that he was my least favourite character available in this collection, but I would love to collect them all some day so I need him. Plus he's flocked (flurry textured) so that's awesome! I love the colour of his eyes and his name is so sweet :) My favourite figures in this collection are Tabitha, Tundra, Skylar and Glitter. Which one(s) would you most like to get? Now onto my Series 3 box...

How gorgeous is this little leopard figure!? Before I opened this blind box, I wished to get Speckles, Cracker, Muffin or Bubblegum, and I was so surprised that I got one of the ones I wanted! Speckles isn't flocked like Blueberry, but I love him so much! His eyes remind me of the amber that is found on trees, they're gorgeous :) I think they will look so pretty in the sunshine so I can't wait to take these out and about, and get some photos of them. Something that I really adore about these figures is that they have included the iconic TY heart tags on their ears! Let me know in the comments which of these figures you would like to receive most. I'm super happy that I found out where I could get these blind boxes from, but goodbye money XD

Every year I try to get a decent close-up photo of the fan? windmill? thing (whatever it's called) on this fabulous tower that is on top of one of the traditional German stalls, and without fail it always blurs because I cannot keep my hands still :D Nevermind, I think this one turned out pretty cool! I had an awesome time visiting the Christmas Markets and I can't wait to go again next December! To top off a great day, my best friend and I went to Frankie & Benny's and enjoyed a scrumptious meal. I arrived home exhausted and my fibromyalgia was flared up for days, but it was worth it and next year I am determined to be more organised with present shopping so I don't have to do everything in one day! Someday I will learn! I hope this post wasn't too rambley and that you enjoyed reading all about my little adventure to the Christmas Markets. 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

Have you ever been to the Manchester Christmas Markets?

How about any others? Do you go each year like me?

What's your favourite thing from my haul? 

Wanna read about my previous visits to the markets? Check out these posts:

| Manchester Markets 2017 | Haul 2017 | Manchester Markets 2015 | Haul 2015 | 

Christmas Day Photo Diary | Blogmas #25

Merry Christmas Guys! I hope you've all had fabulous days, filled with delicious food and lovely presents, and spending lots of time with your favourite people :) It's been so nice to see what you're all up to on social media today! Christmas is truly such a wonderful tradition! So, I've reached Blogmas Day 25 and I honestly can't believe that I've gotten this far. I've been so close to giving up on it quite a few times this month, but I'm glad that I didn't... I feel a little proud of myself :') I'm not sure if you're supposed to keep going until the end of the December, so I'm just gonna! I've had such a busy day and I'm exhausted now. Christmas is always super taxing when it comes to my fibromyalgia and also my mental health, so all I want to do now is sleep! I thought I'd just share a photo post with you all showing you some snippets of my Christmas Day. I hope that you all enjoy reading! 

The good thing about being an adult and having no children living at my family home is that I don't have to get up to check if Santa Clause has come at ridiculous o'clock in the morning, hahaha! It was of course marvelous when I was little, but when you have insomnia and eventually got to sleep at a little past 4am, you do not want to be getting up at 6! I went downstairs to open my Christmas presents at half 9, wearing my extremely cosy new unicorn onesie from Yours Clothing. It's pink and fuzzy and soft and so so warm! I love it and I felt very snug opening all of my presents in it :) I was certainly spoilt and got such lovely gifts, including the ones I'd asked for: Gemma Correll's feminist activity book (which is fabulous by the way!), a 3D printed bulbasaur planter and a haul from UK based kawaii website, Cutesy Kink. I love all of my prezzies, but my absolute favourites were the feminist activity book, a Neko Atsume bag, a super cute Spirited Away No Face pen and some of my other stationery bits! 

After opening up my presents, I spent a few hours listening to Christmas music and having a good old sing along, so that was really fun! I feel sorry for my neighbours, oops :D I also did some singing along to Rammstein, because German metal is good for all occasions! Oooh and I also taught myself how to say Merry Christmas in German... Frohe Weihnachten!

Later my house got pretty hectic with three of my older brothers there, my niece, my mom and dad, plus my sister & I, so I spent the day in and out of the festivities because it gets a little overwhelming for my anxiety. I did have a great day though! The food was scrumptious, and it was awesome spending time with my niece :) Anyhow, here are some photographs from my Christmas Day! 

I got my rabbits so many Christmassy themed toys and chews from Pets at Home, and they got an abundance of parsnip and carrot peelings as well as brussel sprouts, which they adore so much, especially my oldest furbaby Malakai! I bought a lot of treats, but I just decided to give them two kinds today... some little dried banana nibbles and some heart shaped ones too! The lucky bunnies were munching all day, and also refusing to stay still for a decent photograph as always XD Managed to take a quick photo of Jacob though as he investigated some brussel sprout pieces!

Aurora had a great day too! She got to rip up a lot of wrapping paper and help people open their presents. My sister also got her a lot of Christmas goodies! I bought her some presents too but I seem to have lost them somewhere in my bedroom in the process of decorating, so she's going to get another little Christmas from me when I eventually find them :) I got my niece a few things, including one of my Christmas gift baubles that I blogged all about on Saturday. Today she got from me her first ever Funko Pop vinyl; I got her one that she'd said she wanted a while ago... Disney's Cinderella with glasses aka hipster Cinderella! She's also a big fan of the Japanese song Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP), so when I spotted this pencil case on Grindstore I couldn't not get it for her. She thought it was hilarious! I too love this cheesy, catchy as heck song, and I am not ashamed of that one bit XD

I was very happy that my mom decided to get some parsnips basically just for me for Christmas dinner this year. I've loved them ever since me & my flatmates in my second year of university made our own Christmas dinner, and I ate them for the first time :) My Christmas dinner was so filling, that I could barely eat some of the dessert, which was trifle. I have no idea how I am managing to now be devouring some chocolates from my quintessential tub of Quality Street. Which chocolate is your favourite everyone? I love the orange creams and the coconut ones! Or do you have another favourite chocolate brand that you always get at Christmas? Among me and my siblings, we all either prefer Quality Street, Celebrations or Heroes, and I don't know how my mom manages to remember who wants which! 

So, I've spent Christmas Day 2017 listening to festive songs (and Rammstein and PPAP and my favourite foreign songs, like Numa Numa by O-Zone!), being constantly pestered by Aurora to play catch with her new toys, eating so much food that I thought I was gonna burst, hiding from social interaction, stroking/petting bunnies who are super fluffy right now in their winter fur... and so much more, and I've very much enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, since we always have a buffet on Boxing Day *nom nom*. Also let me know in the comments guys if you want me to share a post about what I got for Christmas. 

I hope everyone had a fantastic day, and that you have another one tomorrow whatever you do! How do you all spend Boxing Day? 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

 What did Santa Clause bring you all this year?

What to you is the best food on your Christmas dinner plate?

I'd love to hear all about your day! What did you do? 
Do you have any special festive traditions?

Manchester Christmas Markets: A Photo Diary | Blogmas #13

Happy Wednesday! It seems like this day of the week in particular has been an eventful one for me throughout December so far. Last Wednesday, I went to a concert over in Liverpool with one of my best friends, to see Steps and Vengaboys perform at the Echo Arena (which was an incredible gig!) and today, I visited the German Christmas Markets in Manchester and did some shopping around the city. I had a really great day, even though it was a super challenging one for my anxiety disorder because ALL THE PEOPLE! I spent too much money and my feet are killin' me, but it was lovely to immerse myself in some Christmas culture, which has left me feeling more excited for Christmas Day and also a lot less worried about having everything sorted in time, since I was able to get some more Christmas gifts for my loved ones today too :) Anyhow, I thought that it would be nice to share some photographs with you all from my trip to the Christmas Markets, and I hope you all enjoy reading! 

The Christmas Markets in Manchester are absolutely awesome :) I love exploring all of the streets lined with little wooden cabin-esque huts that remind me of Santa's grotto. Each one is filled with something interesting, whether it's an independent artist's creations, Christmas deco from around the world, or some kind of delicious sweet treat! I have been visiting them each year now for the last three years, and it's nice that many of the same stall vendors come back everytime so you can usually get something that you were tempted to buy the year before, never did and ended up regretting it all year! There's also lots of new stalls there too, so it's great fun having a nosey at everything. I love the aesthetics of the Christmas markets, which are traditional German and Dutch ones, with all of their festive decorations and lighting strung along the roof of each hut. It's like they've bought a little piece of Christmas in Germany here and I love it! It's a dream of mine to go to Germany, The Netherlands or Belgium during the festive season. Before I get carried away with talking about what else I love about Christmas Markets... here are some photographs, haha!

You can read more about these scrumptious German treats on one of my previous Christmas posts here! 

It's so tough not to come home with too many Christmas decorations than your house needs or can actually hold when you go to the Manchester Markets, because there are stalls and stalls (and then some more stalls!) filled with a variety of fabulous traditional European decorations! I can't wait until I have my own place one day to decorate so that I can finally buy some of them! I always come home with one or more small tree decorations though; my favourite are the wooden handmade/hand-painted style. And I didn't break from tradition this year... I'll show you all what I bought in tomorrow's post :) Another thing that I do every single time I go to the Christmas Markets is buy a Dutch Sugar Waffle! Omgosh, they are amazing! The stall makes them in front of you, so you eat them warm with whatever topping you choose. I always get a Nutella one, sprinkled with icing sugar. To be honest, Dutch waffles are one of the main reasons that I go to the Christmas Markets! That's just how good they are... 

Of course I bought myself some of that fabulous, yet pricey as hell, fudge! I can't wait to try it although it cost me just under £5 for four pieces because they weigh so much! They better be nice! I also got myself one of the annual Christmas Market mugs. How lovely is this mug!? I didn't like the design much last year so I didn't get one, but as soon as I spotted these I just couldn't not get myself one! So, here's my little photo diary of my afternoon/evening spent in Manchester city. I took a lot of photos!! It was awesome as always, and I definitely recommend it!

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

Have you ever been to a Christmas Market? 

I'd love to hear all about it in the comments :) 

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 |