What I got for Christmas 2020

Happy February, lovelies! It's taken me a while to get this post written up, but today, I'm going to show you guys some of the wonderful gifts I got for Christmas! I love having a nosey at what presents people get for special occasions, especially Christmas and so I hope that you guys enjoy checking out the things I was very kindly given by my sister and friends. I think it's nice to bring a little Christmas magic into February, and it was lovely writing up the notes for this post as it reminded me of some of the positives of 2020. There were some good things that happened in that mess of a year, after all :') Anyhow, that's enough rambling... time to show you all what I got for Christmas! 

I've tried to organise this post into loose categories, but to be honest, I'm just going to talk about the presents I was given according to the way I decided to photograph them. My sister absolutely spoilt me and you'll see how in a moment, and then we also decided to get one another presents 'from my niece'. My amazing friends sent me the most lovely and thoughtful gifts! Christmas just made me feel super loved, so a big thank you to all of you!! 

My sister only went and bought me Animal Crossing: New Horizons!!?! I have really wanted this game ever since it was released in March 2020, and it was tough to watch the hype going on with what seemed like every single person on the internet playing it! My friends were always asking me for my code so we could play together :') The problem is that I don't own a Nintendo Switch. I just couldn't afford to buy one last year with all of the extra expenses that occurred from being cooped up at home with access to online shopping and with using the lockdown as an excuse to finally redecorate my bedroom (about time!). Consoles are expensive and I will need to save up!

Luckily, my sister bought herself a switch for Christmas, along with her own game... we didn't actually know that you could only create one island per switch (it's clearly a cheeky way for Nintendo to make households have to purchase multiple consoles); however, she's been super awesome and has been letting me play around on her island. I cannot wait until I get to create my own!! I am obsessed and have been playing the game daily since December! I might be late to all the fun, but I don't care about that :D

When it came to wrapping my Animal Crossing game, my sister got creative! She wrapped the tiny game inside several boxes, so that I had to open a smaller box that was inside each and it was very reminiscent of a game of pass-the-parcel, haha! She certainly did a great job in keeping me guessing because I had absolutely no idea that I was just about find AC:NH in the middle of all those boxes!! To say I was over the moon would be an understatement. I seriously almost cried :D 

Around half way through the boxes, there was a little gift that my sister included to give me a clue, but I was so invested with opening all of the layers that it didn't even cross my mind what could be at the end of it all. And I never expected to be getting the game... I mean, I don't have a switch, and my sister had wrapped her new one and put it under the tree to not give away the surprise. The little gift was the most adorable Animal Crossing phone case. I think it's based on New Leaf, and it's wonderful! I still can't believe she did all that!! Eeeeee!

Another present that she got me was this super cute mini Hello Kitty backpack. I love how colourful it is and the texture of the fake leather material it's made out of feels really nice :) Hello Kitty will always have a special place in my heart because she was the first kawaii character that I became obsessed with back in my early teens (well, aside from all of the anime characters I loved growing up), and she helped to kickstart my love of Japan. Therefore, I can't not adore anything that is Hello Kitty related! Can you guys remember the first kawaii character you loved? 

Oh look! More Hello Kitty. She really is the way to my heart when it comes to presents! Now I'm going to talk about all of the fabulous Funko Pop! Vinyl figures that I got for Christmas 2020. For those of you who are new to my blog, I am a collector of vinyl figures, starting with Tokidoki one's and eventually getting really into all the various products produced by Funko. My collection is currently 150 figures strong! (And that's not including all of my non-Pops, oops). 

Five of the figures above are from my sister; one of them is 'from my niece' as it was something she picked out for me when my sister and her were out shopping :) I mean, my sister helped her by taking her straight to the Funko section but she chose the figure of Scar from The Lion King (2019). It's from the 'live action' movie, which I have no plan of ever watching because The Lion King (1994) and The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride (1998) are my favourites, and I'm sure I won't enjoy a CGI adaptation of the classic. Have any of you guys ever seen it? If so, what did you think? Regardless, I think that it's super cool that my niece happened to opt for Scar, as he's my favourite Disney villain! I am very much into toy photography (you can check out my dedicated instagram here), so I always appreciate new figures for taking photos. 

I have a Pop in a Box subscription, where you are sent a random Pop each month from your wishlist. You can go through the 'catalogue' on the website and mark a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the figures, and also record any that you have in your collection. Using Pop in a Box makes it easier for my loved ones to buy me Funko that I don't have already and that they know I'm going to love. I just gave my sister my password so that she can log in and purchase items from my wishlist for my birthday or Christmas or whatever. So that's what she did this time around and from my thumbs up list chose the tempted version of the Lord of the Ring's Galadriel, Mulan as Ping, the classic Hello Kitty: flocked edition (that means it's furry), and Monster Hunter's Lute & Navirou. Oh my gosh, I loved them all so much!! 

The rainbow Hello Kitty was a marvellous surprise from my Amazon wishlist :) My friend and fellow blogger Kim bought her for me and it's such a gorgeous Pop!! Thank you very much!! Be sure to go and check out Kim's blog: Chimmyville. This Hello Kitty is a Pride edition Pop! and part of the proceeds from its sale are donated to the It Gets Better project. That's another reason why I am so delighted with it! 

Another of my fabulous friends, who is also a fellow blogger over at Estellosaurus, made me the most amazing scarf for Christmas! She actually handmade it!? And it's so soft and snug and beautifully put-together. It makes my heart so happy when I think about all of the work and thought that went into the creation of this scarf! Estelle used different shades of green because she knows it's my favourite colour. I adore it! It screams Slytherin vibes, too, which I'm all for because when I wear it, I'm repping my main man Severus Snape ;). Whenever I wear it, I don't want to take it off which is a big deal for me as I've never liked wearing scarves. They usually annoy me so quickly and make me feel stuffy, but not this one. Thanks so much, Estelle!!

The candle jar above was what my best friend got me for Christmas, and I cannot wait to display it on my Harry Potter shelves! I'm still in the process of decorating and constantly rearranging things in my bedroom, so, for now, I'm keeping it inside the box she packaged it in to prevent it getting smashed as it made of glass. On the jar is some gorgeous artwork of the Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter, along with the Patronus' of several characters. There's a doe on there, which might represent Lily Potter, but I've decided it's for Snape, whether it is or is not! I love the monochrome colour scheme and the twine wrapped around the rim of the jar, along with the charm attached to it, is a very nice touch. It's gonna look even more pretty when there's a candle glowing in it. 

My friend Sophie sent me a box of goodies, that included gifts for my birthday and Christmas all together. I picked out two of my favourite things to show you guys, a pretty little notebook from Sass & Belle and a bauble filled with a pair of the cutest Pusheen Socks. I am a big fan of Pusheen and who doesn't love new socks? And I really like that the llama on the notebook actually looks like a llama, and not an alpaca. Even though alpacas are one of my favourite animals, it seems that companies don't know the difference, but the designers at Sass & Belle clearly do! I love it!

These presents are from another of my best friends, who got me a load of cute stuff from one of my favourite stores, Kenji! I am in love with all the these cute gifts :) I mean, look how flippin' adorable the duckling pencil case is!! It has such a unique design and I feel like I'm never gonna be able to bring myself to use it because it's super soft and I don't want it to get messy. The bright yellow is so eye-catching and pretty! I am looking forward to displaying the rainbow cushion on my bed once I get my new double... which should be very soon! Yay!! My favourite thing about this cushion is that the colours are pastel. The bathbombs from Bomb Cosmetics smell great, and it's a little tough to see but one of them has an orange squirrel on top, which is so sweet! I can never have too many bathbombs. I want to say a huge thank you to both of my besties, Jess & Aaron for their awesome gifts! Love you, guys!!

The final bunch of Christmas presents that I'm going to talk about were all sent to me by my wonderful friends that I've met via the instagram toy photography community. They have all become great friends, who give me and my photography so much love and support. I cannot thank them enough for being so amazing!! Many of the friends I've met are German, and have been so kind when it comes to helping me to approve my knowledge of the language (if you didn't already know, I am trying to learn German. I have a long way to go yet!). They are so awesome!! For Christmas, many of my toy photography friends surprised me with gifts! We had agreed to exchange Christmas cards, but they sent me more :') I can't show off everything that I received, so I just picked out something to represent everyone. 

The Harry Potter sticker pack is from Dinchen, and I cannot wait to use them eventually, when I can convince myself to not keep them in the packet forever! Haha! They are too cute :) Dinchen also sent me some lovely mermaidy stationery and a tiny monkey plush, as well as a brilliant pop-up Christmas card! My friend Thorsten & his wife, Lena, sent me the incredibly adorable tiny snowman & pink Santa Claus erasers in the photo above! Accompanying the erasers was a box of wonderful presents, such as figures and chocolate and the cutest wrapping paper I've literally ever seen! Rebekka sent me the pretty calendar bookmarks along with chocolates, spiced tea drinks and some lovely bookmarks and postcards showing her books. She's an author, which is fantastic!! 

My friend Stina sent a box with presents for me, my sister and my niece, and I chose to include the Pusheen tote bag because of how much the design stands out! It's very cute and as I mentioned earlier, I love Pusheen!! How nice are the pink and white 'candy stripes'? I'm going to be taking this cutie shopping with me and showing it off :) Lastly, I received a huge box from Stefan & Romy, with so much inside that I could have written an entire post just about that! Romy picked out this epic The Nightmare Before Christmas colouring book and it's so detailed! I've never had a colouring book like it before, and it's another gift that I don't know if I ever want to use as it's too nice :D Just look at the artwork on the cover! It's even more intricate and fancy inside!! The tiny pink Pusheen figure was also from Romy and Stefan, and it went onto my cute Japanese shelf right away. It's so precious. 

I also received a beautiful enamel pin from Natalee who blogs over at There Might Be Coffee, but I am planning to do a separate post dedicated to that because it's from an awesome independent business called Quirkory, who's pins I have been lusting after for ages and I want to give them a proper shout out :)  

THANKYOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR GIFTS!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

So, there's my favourite things that I got for Christmas 2020! I feel so blessed to have such phenomenal people in my life. 2020 was a mess and the only thing that kept me going was all of my loved ones, all of my wonderful friends, who make me feel special :') I hope that they all enjoyed my presents and cards just as much! And that this post was an interesting read for you all. I just want to give a little disclaimer that I'm showing my presents in this post because I want to share my joy with you all, and I in no way mean for it to come across as bragging, etc. As I said, I enjoy reading these kinds of posts and I know that lots of others do, too. I'd love to hear about what you got for Christmas, so please leave me a comment telling me all about your favourite gift that you gave or received. 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Are you a fan of Christmas Time?

What's your favourite thing about it? 

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January 2021 Kawaii & Geeky Wishlist

Hi guys! It's time to share my first wishlist of 2021, and also my first kawaii & geeky wishlist post for MONTHS now!! To be honest, I felt really unmotivated last year when it came to writing wishlists (and blog posts in general, oops...) because well, 2020 was a shitshow; I found myself feeling gloomy for most of the year and not really wanting anything other than books and yummy snacks and gifts for sending in snailmail to my lovely friends across the globe. However, I am crossing my fingers and toes that twenty-twenty one is better! And thus, I'm trying to get back into my usual way of blogging, which includes finishing off each month by sharing a list of cute and fandom-related goodies from around the internet that I am currently lusting over :) Enjoy! 

1. Funko Tokidoki Sandy Pop! Vinyl If you've been a regular reader of my blog for a while, you will know that I am a big fan of the super cute Italian brand, Tokidoki. I have been collecting their vinyl figures for years now and I especially love their stationery, too. You may also be able to imagine how excited I was earlier this month when Funko announced that they have teamed up with Tokidoki to bring us four Pop! vinyl figures. As unicornos were the first tokidoki figures that kickstarted my love for the brand, there's just something about the look of the unicorno Pop! that I don't like, but I will be hopefully adding the other three to my collection! Vinyl toys are one of my most favourite things in the world, and this wishlist, as you can see, is pretty vinyl toy heavy! Sorry, not sorry :D 

2. Kawaii Cat Paw Pastel Switch Case Those of you who follow me over on my social media, particularly on instagram, more than likely know that for Christmas, my sister surprised me with Animal Crossing: New Horizons!! Eeeee! I am very late to the game, as I don't own a Nintendo Switch and definitely couldn't afford one last year with decorating my bedroom and whatnot, so I had to watch everyone playing during the release hype and it sucked T_T. Well, my sister only went and bought a switch, and she has been letting me play around on her island ever since, until I can get my own switch and play the game she got for me! I have recently been looking around for some accessories ready for when I can get a console of my own, and I came across this lovely pastel blue cat themed case. I need it in my life! 

3. PomPomPurin Kitten Plush Keychain This item almost didn't make it onto this month's wishlist because I actually wanted another similar item from Artbox, the larger PomPomPurin Kitten plushie. It's sold out though *cry cry*! I decided that the collection is too cute not to feature at all, and so wanted to show off the keychain version to you guys. My all-time favourite Sanrio characters are Kuromi and PomPomPurin, and I LOVE cats, making this PomPomPurin kitten mascot collection purrrrfect for me. I hope I can get my paws on that plushie some day! Do you guys have a favourite Sanrio character? 

4. Funko Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Eduardo Pop! Vinyl Ever since I started my Funko Pop! collection back in 2015, I have been hoping that they would create a figure of Eduardo, and they finally have!! The reason why there is so many Funko figures in today's post is because there's been a release event throughout the month called the Funko Fair, and we are getting to learn about all of the upcoming products from the company. This means that the items I've chosen are only available for pre-order right now. Are there any that you guys are excited about? Anyhow, when I was a kid, I absolutely adored Eduardo from the Cartoon Network show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004-2009). He was such a sweetheart, an anxious wreck which I could very much relate to, and I just wanted to give him a big hug! (I loved Coco, too, and would constantly imitate her, haha! Let's hope they create a Pop! of Coco as well). He's gonna look so cute on display in my room :) 

5. A5 Gudetama Spinout Notebook The Sanrio character Gudetama has definitely grown on me! More so after learning about the backstory of this little egg character, and finding that it resonated with me. I'm still not 100% sold on his sad expression, but there's so much cute merch available for him that it's difficult not to like him! This notebook, for example, is lovely. I have to admit that the main reason I want this is because of the Japanese writing, so Gudetama is a bonus. I liked it even better than I read that it's made from recycled paper, which is cool and I am curious to discover what the quality is like. I've not purchased anything from Typo before. I want to change that in 2021! Do any of you like Typo? 

6. Funko His Dark Materials Lyra Pop! Vinyl Early last year, I watched the BBC series that was adapted from a book of the same name by Phillip Pullman, after I saw so many people recommending it. I'm glad I did because I loved it and immediately had a mighty need to acquire the book series. I am very much looking forward to reading them! At the moment, I'm around half way through the season 2 of the show, and it's just as great so far! I'm delighted that Funko have chosen to make merch :) Who else has read the books or watched the show? 

7. The Witcher Wild Hunt Yennefer Nendoroid My favourite watch of 2020 was by far Netflix's The Witcher. I thought it was brilliant!! I've never played the games and am yet to read the books that inspired them all, so I don't know how accurate the show was to the original storyline, but as a late birthday present to myself, I got the book set (thanks to my best friend's parents and the birthday money they very kindly gave me!). I showed it off over on my tiktok when it arrived! Yennefer was my favourite character, and I cannot wait to learn more about her. I have wanted to get a nendoroid figure for the longest time, and I am thinking that this one should be my first! 

8. AMUSE KuneKune Utsubo Moray Eel Plush This is another plushie where I had to opt for second best! Tofu Cute were selling the big eel plushies and they sold like hot cakes, as they saying goes. I really need one in my life!! But a mini one will have to do for now :) I am a collector of plushies from the Japanese brand, Amuse (I collect too many things, haha!), and I think it's so fabulous that they have made eels. It's so random! How could I not want one!? Tofu Cute's Instagram reels and tiktok videos with the eel plushies in haven't helped though!! 

9. PopMart Pucky Forest Fairies Blind Box I have had my eyes on PopMart's wonderful figure collections for ages and I thought it was about time that I looked for a seller in the UK! Earlier this month, I bought my first from Didi Inspired Gifts, and I have fallen in love with them!! They were from the PopMart X Momiji range, so now I want to venture into Pucky territory, starting with a super cute fantasy/nature collection. I blame my friend Estelle, who blogs over at Estellosaurus. Her latest Youtube video is an unboxing of Pucky and more, all of which she purchased from the website linked here. The packaging was so cute and I'm going to have to do a haul soon. It's all your fault, Estelle! 

So, there's my first kawaii & geeky wishlist of the year! I hope you all enjoyed reading, despite it being so full of vinyl figures! I am just a little obsessed with them, and it was a challenge not to include several on every wishlist I've ever written :D I'll be back with another wishlist at the end of February, but for now, I would love to hear what's on your wishlist this month! 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

Wishing you all a wonderful February! 

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New Years Tag | Hello 2021

Hi lovelies! I hope the start of the year has been good for you all ♥ (if not, sending you virtual hugs!). During the lead up to January, I was trying to think of a New Years themed post, because well, it's just the obligatory thing to post on a blog. However, I'm not a huge fan of goals or resolutions posts, at least for myself, anymore. I just find that they make me put a huge amount of pressure on myself to complete the tasks and then give my readers updates, and when it comes to my own mental health, it is not a great idea... so yeah, I searched my brain for something different I could share with you all. And I eventually thought why not create a tag? That way, those of you who feel the same as I do when it comes to sharing your goals for the year on the internet (or even making concentre goals at all) would still be able to chat about the start of a new year on your blog! I hope you guys enjoy reading my answers and please feel free to do the tag, but be sure to tag me so I can check your post :) Happy New Year Everyone!! 

Tags always include rules, right? So, here's mine: 

1) Copy the questions to your blog,

2) Link back to my original post, and also thank the person who tagged you (linking theirs, too),

3) Answer the questions, 

4) Add your own question (if you want to), 

5) Tag 4-6 friends to answer it,

6) Give yourself a pat on the back. You blogged!! You're awesome! 

And here are my answers. Enjoy! 

1) Let's start by looking back at 2020. What were three good things that happened to you?

If you follow me over on instagram, then you'll more than likely know that last year, my sister & I welcomed our niece into our home. She cannot live with her parents, for reasons that I would never disclose on the internet, so she's living with us permanently; although, technically with my sister, but we live together at the moment so yeah, we have a very curious and energetic two year old in our lives now! She's honestly brought so much joy back into our home, which hadn't felt the same ever since our mom passed away. Now, the house is filled with laughter and constant adorableness. So of course, Fifi is the best thing that happened for me in 2020 :)  

Also, throughout the year, my amazing friends seriously spoilt me with all of the gifts and letters and packages they sent to me!! It was so very kind of them and I am ever so grateful! I feel very loved :') And good thing no.3 has to be Animal Crossing coming into my life at Christmas Time!! Eeee! I'm already obsessed, and it was even a struggle to pry myself off the game this evening to write this post, haha! 

2) What was a positive to come out of spending all that time at home?

To be honest, living the chronic illness life means that I spend the majority of my existence at home anyway. Alongside that, I've always been a hermit who prefers my own company, tucked away indoors with a good book or show/movie to get lost in. So, 2020 wasn't a massive change for me when it came to lockdown. The only struggles I've had is not being able to see my best friends (and the challenge of trying to get a grocery delivery slot, and in the end being forced to venture to the supermarket, even though I have asthma and a crappy immune system... ugh). 

Negativity aside, something that happened due to being at home and seeing so many people decorating whilst browsing online is that it gave me the kick up the butt that I needed to finally decorate my own room! I'd been delaying it for years because of life problems, so it feels awesome to have my new furniture assembled, wallpaper up and I'm a few steps away from finishing converting the built-in cupboard into my wardrobe! Hooray!! 

3) Did you start any new hobbies in 2020? Discover any new interests?

My answer to this question is a boring one, because I didn't begin any new hobbies! I already have too many hobbies and interests than I can handle as it is XD I fixate on one of them for a while, and then end up moving onto something else, but I will continue to partake in them all. I guess, I did end up colouring a lot more than usual, and that's mostly down to the fact that my friends bought me so many lovely colouring books from my amazon wishlist. Love you guys! 

4) What was your best watch and/or read of 2020?

The best read for me was The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende. I absolutely adored it! It was really enthralling and a wonderful journey to go on with the characters :) I haven't seen the movie since I was too young to remember, so it was a lovely surprise! I've been putting off re-watching the movie until I read the book, so I need to do that soon. It's actually one of my best reads ever! 

As for movies, that's a tough one. I watched 56 movies in 2020 (I keep a list... nerdy, I know!), and there were many that I enjoyed a lot. I finally watched Wreck It Ralph (2012) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) with my sister for her birthday back in April, and they were epic!! I regret not watching them sooner! The sequel was my favourite of the two. How about you? I also wanted a movie called Hippotamus (2017) that had a very interesting storyline.  Oh, The Nightingale (2018) was another good watch, and Netflix's Enola Holmes (2020). When it comes to TV shows, The Witcher was the highlight of my year. I watched it three times, and bought all of the books to read this year! It's amazing!! I also watched the adaptation of His Dark Materials and loved that (I've purchased the books now, too). Netflix's Cursed was awesome, as well. I've heard that it's been cancelled... I hope not! I finally watched the two part adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time from 2004, and it was fantastic! I need to add the book to my TBR list... 

5) Name five things or people that helped get you through the gloomy times?

- Music (and doing a lot of theatrical singalongs... my poor neighbours :D),

- YouTube (I watched way more YT than shows or movies in 2020. I practically live on YT!),

- Nature (my garden has always been my happy place, but even more so this year!),

- The internet!

- Writing (it's been a big help to focus my thoughts on a fantasy realm VS real life, haha),

And when it comes to people, my sister and my niece has been a massive help! As well as one of my closest online friends, Stina, who has become a best friend of mine through 2020; we have grown so close through talking almost everyday, and I don't know what I'd have done without her :) All of my online, and fellow blogger, friends had a huge impact on my life last year and I cannot thank them enough! I have the most fabulous friends!! 

6) Okay, phew! We can forget last year now!! Share something you want to achieve this year.

I want to read more. I said that at the beginning of 2020, yet for some reason, I just couldn't do it. My mental health wasn't great because of all that was going on in the world, and then I was super busy preparing for the arrival of my niece and then adjusting to all of the changes to my life. So yeah, I need to read all of the books that I kept on buying last year and not reading... oops. I also want to, of course, complete my room decorating, and I want give more attention to writing my novel. 

7) Tell us three things you're looking forward to.

I am always looking forward to the joys that nature will bring into my life every year, the changing of the seasons and what delights will come with them. All of the wildlife encounters I might have, and the shots that I may manage to get on my camera. It's so exciting to me because I'm a massive nature geek :D

That, and Animal Crossing!! Getting a switch of my own (because right now, I'm playing on my sisters) and all of the games I'll be able to play. It has been a while since I've been able to game, and I cannot wait to play more!! 

8) Other than our current global situation, what's one thing in your life that you'd like to change in 2021? 

Umm, the only aspects of my life that I would like to improve upon this year that I can think of right now, are my German language skills and my confidence. I have been learning German for a while now, and I haven't got as far as I would have liked to, thus I need to up my game and practice every single day! And even though I have come a long lonnnnnng way with my self-love, there's still a lot that I need to work on :) Maybe 2021 will be my year!

The Questions:

1. Let's start by looking back at 2020. What were three good things that happened to you?

2. What was a positive to come out of spending all that time at home? 

3. Did you start any new hobbies in 2020? Discover any new interests? 

4. What was your best watch and/or read of 2020?

5. Name five things or people that helped get you through the gloomy times?

6. Okay, phew! We can forget last year now!! Share something you want to achieve this year.

7. Tell us three things you're looking forward to.

8. Other than our current global situation, what's one thing in your life that you'd like to change in 2021? 

I tag: 

Jess from Little Piink Duck

Natalee from There Might Be Coffee

Estelle from Estellosaurus 

Kim from Chimmyville

Cate from Cateaclysmic

and Eleanor from MxrshmallowQueen 

Well, it was quite cathartic to look back on 2020 in a positive light :D I hope reading my post helped you guys feel better about that shitshow! And that it's gotten you feeling at least a little optimistic about the next twelve months :) Here's to a year full of fun moments, lots of happy mail, yummy food, good movies and vaccinations! Yay!! 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

One final question for today, what new releases are you excited for in 2021? 

movies, games, shows, products... whatever it is, tell me :)

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Dinojar Ghibli Friends Kickstarter Goodies

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!! Thank goodness 2020 has been and gone... it feels great to say goodbye to those dreadful days. I know the start of this year at least won't be very different, but I'm trying to embrace the whole 'new year, new leaf' thing, and after a year of getting used to the changes, I feel more prepared for deal with this new normal. Fingers crossed I can be more productive because of that, starting with my blog! Anyhow, gloom and new leaves aside, for today's post, I'm serving you a dose of cuteness ♥ Calling all Studio Ghibli fans, especially! I hope you guys enjoy reading :) 

So, back in April 2020, towards the end of the month, I backed a kickstarter project that I was super excited about!! Dinojar/Dinojar Studio, a lovely artist based in Singapore, had set up the most adorable project dedicated to Studio Ghibli characters, focusing on pins, but also offering stickers, too. As soon as I set eyes on the designs over on Dinojar's instagram (be sure to go give them a follow), I had a mighty need to add some of the pin badges to my ever-growing collection! However, the struggle was real when it came to choosing which pins I wanted most!! I limited myself to two enamel pins, and after a few days of deliberation, I finally had my favourites settled on. I cannot wait to show them to you guys!! Although, if you follow me over on instagram then you'll have likely already seen the gorgeous items I received (because they arrived a few months ago now and life has just gotten in the way of me blogging about them, oops...). 

How sweet is this thankyou note! I love when artists/businesses do this :) 

Before I show off the super cute 'rewards' I got, a little more about the kickstarter project. If you've never heard of/used this website before, it's basically set up so that small businesses and independent artists can create products via crowd funding. They will set a goal of how much money they need in order to make the product(s) they are proposing and people can pledge to contribute to the project. If the artist doesn't manage to reach their monetary goal, then the project backers will be refunded. But if they do gain the support they need, then they can make the products, and everyone is happy! Kickstarter is a wonderful idea and it feels great to support small businesses that little bit more than if you were just pursuing something from their online store :) Many artists also offer special reward tiers that will be unlocked once they pass their initial contribution goal, and what's more? Most kickstarter projects come with a promise of a freebie for backers, which is so lovely!

The Ghibli Friends Enamel Pins kickstarter project launched by Dinojar Studio offered twelve potential characters, and as more of the goal was reached, each of these designs was unlocked. Here's a list of the Studio Ghibli characters included: Totoro, Haku in his human form, Chihiro, Pazu, Kiki & Jiji, a Soot Sprite, Mei, the Catbus, No Face, Dragon Haku, Chibi-Totoro with a little acorn in hand, and Sheeta. Honestly, each and every design was stunning and so sweet and I wanted them all T_T. I unfortunately have a budget to stick to, so in the end I opted for Mei and Dragon Haku. The latter pin I knew I would be backing for as soon as I saw the design on Dinojar's instagram. I love dragons so much and the spirit of the Kohaku river is one of my favourites!! So let's see these cuties... 

I am not sorry for the cuteness overload, haha! JUST LOOK HOW ADORABLE EVERYTHING IS!!!! *squeals*. My heart is happy everytime I look at my rewards from the Dinojar kickstarter. How could it not be?! Awww! As you can see above, I also decided to get a sticker, too, because I was torn between whether I wanted Dragon Haku and Haku in his human form more. I am yet to add a pin to my collection of Haku as a human, so I really wanted to, but everyone's favourite dragon boi won in the end... I mean, just look at him!! And Mei was just too cheerful not to get, but again, it was a tough decision between the Kiki & Jiji pin and this one :) It's all Dinojar's fault for designing too many brilliant pins!! :O 

Since it's been a while now, I can't remember prices exactly, but I'm pretty sure the pins were $14 (Singapore dollars) which works out at just under £8 each. What a fantastic price!! And I think stickers were $1! Wow... I was so impressed by the pricing for such adorable and intricate designs, so a big thankyou to Dinojar for being so awesome!!

I fell in love with this little dragon baby as soon as I saw him! This is such a precious interpretation of Haku/Kohaku and I adore it! I really love the mint shade that has been chosen for his mane and tail fur; it's really pretty! I am a big fan of the overall pastel colour scheme of this pin, and think it's fantastic that his horns and whiskers stand out so much. Those whiskers though!! They might be my favourite feature of the entire pin. The depictions of dragons in Asian folklore is so unique and different to European folklore, and the whiskers as well as the snake-like appearance are something I think is beautiful! So, I very much appreciate the attention to detail that has gone in to making the whiskers look so eye-catching. At a very close second, in terms of favourite things, comes Haku's facial expression. It's so solemn and it looks like he's in deep contemplation/ is lost in thought, and I don't know, I can just relate it to a lot. Little solemn and/or moody faces are just too cute!! Wouldn't you all agree? I want to mention just how fluffy Haku looks!! I want to cuddle him! Also, those rosy cheeks go so well with the gold-plating. 

Guys, how sweet is this pin of Mei!? If you're not a Studio Ghibli fan... firstly, get off my blog. I'm only kidding; it's practically impossible to not be a fan of the creations of this amazing Japanese production company!! But if you have yet to enrich your lives by watching the movies, Mei is a character from My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Dragon Haku is from Spirited Away (2001). I barely ever see any merch of Mei, and so I just couldn't pass up on backing this design. I really love how delighted Mei looks! She's going on a little adventure and has that expression of childish wonder and carelessness. It makes me think of my childhood when I was very young (Mei is supposed to be five, I believe but don't quote me on that) and my little adventures about the garden, collecting cool things I found and looking for bugs. Whenever I look at the pin, it puts a smile on my face, and furthermore, I picture the scene from the movie that inspired this design. It's so very cute! 

I love the contrast between the colours of the Dragon Haku pin and the Mei one. Her outfit and overlook look is bright, with vibrant, strong colours. Very summery and happy, and I especially like Mei's tiny yellow shoes and bag. One of the most precious features, in my opinion, is that Mei is swinging her bucket and water is spilling, because again, this just highlights the careless, free nature of children without a care in the world, whilst they are at play. She's skipping along, and probably hasn't even released that Chibi-Totoro is perched on top of her head. It's the sweetest image! 

Here's a close up of the Haku sticker I also backed. I've already popped this little cutie onto my laptop and he looks perfect, standing out so well due to the bold blue shade of his hair mostly! It's one of the best things about this design for me, as blue is up there in my top five favourite colours. How can a design be beautifully simplistic and somehow detailed at the same time!? Dinojar achieved that with their human Haku design, though! I absolutely adore that Boh (the chubby mouse) and smol version of Yubaba's bird have been incorporated into the design! Haku's got buddies with him and I love seeing these two characters in this form because it reminds me of when they didn't want to change back in the movie (sorry for the slight spoiler there!). 

The tiny smile on Haku's face just completes the whole design, and makes me audibly 'awwww!' every time I see it on my laptop. I don't know if it was a freebie, or I accidently ordered two stickers of the same design, or Dinojar didn't notice they'd packaged two by mistake, but either way, I was sent two of these lovely stickers so I will definitely be giving one away in the future :) 

The backing cards used to display the pins are super pretty. I'm lovin' the green ombre effect, and the dotting of little sparkles looks lovely. I almost wanted to keep them on their cards forever, but they are too stunning not to show off! So, alas, they are now in my ita bag :') Look how shiny the gold-plated enamel is!! I used to prefer silver-plating but gold makes everything glow and just highlights the colours so well. It draws your eyes into the design, and I think that's wonderful for when you out and about to get people to really notice your pins. Both of these pins are double-backed as well, so you don't have to worry that they might fall off your clothing/bags/whatever you pin them onto. Anyway, guys, I'd love to know which is your favourite of the two pins I purchased?

A final note that I'd like to make is that Dinojar launched a second Ghibli Friends kickstarter last year, featuring more adorable character designs and I so wish that I had the money free at the time to back another of their projects. I will certainly be trying to get my hands on some of those pins in the future, via Dinojar's Etsy shop. Most recently, Dinojar hosted another campaign for Avatar pins, so if that's something you're into, definitely go have a look at their instagram account to see the designs! 

I want to give a huge thankyou to Dinojar for creating such beautiful pins, and for always being so lovely on instagram. I am very happy to have some of your work in my enamel pin collection, and I am looking forward to your next projects! I hope you all enjoyed reading my first post of 2021!! Wishing you a marvellous year, guys, with good health and happy moments for you and your loved ones :) 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

What is your favourite Studio Ghibli movie and/or character?

Are you a fellow collector of pins?

Or not, do you collect anything else? 

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Playing Ichiban Kuji with Japan Award: Plushies Galore!

Hello & Happy Sunday, guys! Apologies that my post is super late and that I randomly took a week off, but last week was filled with hard work in the garden, mostly lots of clearing and loading old junk into a skip. I was too exhausted to function afterwards and it took me a good few days to recover, but most of the pesky garden stuff is out of the way for now. I also had more clearing of stuff inside to do, since we finally had the opportunity to throw things out with hiring the skip. Woo! Adulting sucks... :D I have also come down with a cold, which isn't helping! Currently, my concentration levels are almost non-existent. Oh well, nevermind. At least a post is here now! 

It's been too long since I last blogged about one of my favourite YouTube channels, Japan Award. This fantastic channel is dedicated to Japanese nerd life: ichiban kuji, arcade games & toys! Some of the things that make my kawaii little heart super happy :) 

I've shared all about playing kuji through Japan Award before; click here if you'd like to read my previous posts ♥ However, it's been quite a while since then and I've played lots! A few of my friends have told me they'd be interested in reading all about the adorable plushies I have gathered, and so being the ever-eager-to-please person I am... I'm delivering, haha. Enjoy!

I usually start off my Japan Award posts by giving an introduction to the fabulous game that is ichiban kuji, so I guess that's what I should do now! Ichiban kuji, mostly referred to as simply kuji, is Japanese for 'number one lottery'. It's an activity that involves buying tickets to win prizes :) Something that I absolutely adore about kuji is that you always win, so it's not like those ticketed fairground games you guys might remember playing during your childhood, where most of the time, you walk away after spending far too much money trying to pull a ticket ending in a 0 or a 5, with no prize to show for it! 

As I said, each and every ichiban kuji ticket coincides with a prize, all of which are usually brilliant because they are themed, and you wouldn't be playing that particular lottery if you weren't interested in the fandom/theme itself anyway!  The aim of the game is to pull one of the top prizes, which are typically A, B & C. There are fewer of these tickets up for grabs, and obviously more of the lower letters, i.e. F prize. Most people I know actually want to win some of the lower prizes, and so you can play the game however it suits you. For example, I am a huge fan of charms/keychains. These are usually in E, F or G categories and often come in blind box form. If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'll know that I LOVE blind boxes!! 

Anyway, most of the time, A prizes, and even sometimes B & C, are big plushies that are exclusive to the kuji and thus are highly sought after. I see a lot of them ending up on eBay being sold for ridiculously high prizes >.< ugh. It's really not fair when you are normally looking at only £7-£15 per ticket. It really does feel epic to win a massive limited edition plush for like £8, one that would easily cost you £30+ from kawaii supplies in the UK!

I hope I explained that well enough :) I tend to go off on a tangent when I'm excited! I still can't believe I won these plushies though!! Despite having pretty much ran out of space to store and/or display them, I couldn't be happier to have them in my collection! The quality is always superb, as well. But, it's about time you guys saw them for yourselves.... 

LOOK! It's everyone's favourite round pink boy, Kirby! This is the first A prize I ever won, so I had to show him off first. He was a part of the Banpresto KIRBY STYLE Relax ichiban kuji. Almost all kujis are hosted by the company Banpresto, which you might of heard of already if you're a fan of anime figures. I won him back in November 2018, but didn't receive him until early 2019 as Japan Award always lets me start a box that I can fill with kawaii goodies over time, until it's full and ready to be shipped. It's amazing :) 

I was over the moon when I won this adorable guy! Because throughout my life, I'd never seemed to have much luck when it came to winning prizes and whatnot. Since then, the magic of Kirby seems to have unlocked my winning streak! And thus, I've got a bunch of top prizes to show you all. 

I love the texture of this huge Kirby plushie; it makes him so fuzzy to snuggle! The design is so sweet. I mean, look at those rosy cheeks!! I've always loved Kirby's big feet/shoes, so naturally that's one of the best features for me. They are usually bright red, but I really like the more muted salmon shade that they've chosen for the design of this plush. I like the overall colour scheme in general, as I'm used to Kirby being super bright pink. It's a nice change to see him in pastel. 

His vibrant blue eyes are precious. They are very 'puppy eyes', wouldn't you agree? And his hat is lovely, especially with the pom-pom on top. Are you a fan of round pink boy? What do you think of this plush? 

It's Tokage!!! My favourite Sumikko Gurashi character ever! Oh my gosh, I am soooo delighted that I have a plushie of him now. And how amazing that it's so big and squishy and special!! *imagine squealing here*. Tokage is the word for lizard in Japanese and if you didn't know already, lizards (and reptiles in general) are my favourite - herpetology is my jam :)

The story behind this character is too cute: 'Tokage is actually the last of the dinosaurs. It pretends to be a lizard to avoid being caught'. Awww! I can't help but love him the most out of all the other Sumikko Gurashi characters. I very much love the sky blue colour of this character, and it matches so well with the green 'clover' crown. Green is my all-time favourite colour, and blue sky follows that, so the colour scheme is perfect for me! 

This particular kuji was called 'I Met Brother Neko'. Neko is another character in the franchise by San-x. The A Prize was a plush of Neko himself and as you can see, B prize was the lovely Tokage. I played this kuji back in February 2019. Japan Award actually bought out an entire set of ichiban kuji because it was in very popular demand with viewers. He did a live stream on YouTube, pulling our names at random and getting his adorable daughter, Vivi-chan, to open tickets for us ♥ It was super fun to watch! 

My name was pulled last in the draw, which is fantastic!! This is because all ichiban kujis have a 'last prize', meaning there's a special prize just for the person who purchases the last remaining ticket available. You get two prizes for the price of one! It's such a lovely gesture for Banpresto and the other companies involved to offer this, because kuji is amazing so people would play regardless of this, which makes the last prize like a huge thankyou for your patronage gift, and I won it! Eeeee!!

And so, I got another massive, huggable plushie, this time of Shirokuma, a polar bear who dislikes the cold weather, haha! Isn't she the sweetest? I absolutely adore the flower crown she's holding. It's so bright and eye-catching, since it stands out against Shirokuma's white 'fur'. Her little pastel pink ears are super cute, too! Do you prefer this plush or the Tokage one? 

Now it's Eevee's turn :) I won the adorable plushie, that you can see in the first photo on today's post, playing the kuji 'Eievui & Melodies'. Eievui is the Japanese name for the Pokemon Eevee. This was such a gorgeous kuji for a Pokemon fan like me! Vaporeon happens to be my favourite Pokemon so I couldn't have been more thrilled when I saw that the kuji was themed on Eevee and all of its eeveelutions. I was delighted at the prospect of winning some Vaporeon goodies! 

And I did just that! I got a blind box charm of Vaporeon, plus a towel featuring it, along with lots of other wonderful prizes! It was an spectacular kuji and I still cannot get over the fact that I actually won the B prize. Let's take a closer look at it! 

If you hadn't guessed from the name, this kuji was music-themed. All of the keychain charms, for example, featured each Eeveelution with a different instrument. Vaporeon had a harp, and I also won an Eevee & Umbreon. Umbreon was standing on a keyboard and Eevee had a background of music notes. I actually won a duplicate Vaporeon, but luckily, I had a friend who also played and she wanted to trade her duplicate Leafeon charm for my Vaporeon. Leafeon is my second favourite of the Eeveelutions, and he came alongside a violin. How pretty they are all! If you guys are interested in seeing my charms, let me know and I can share a photo over on my instagram. 

Anyway, the B prize features a sleeping Eevee on a piano. What's not to love about this design!? I've always wanted one of the sleepy Eeveelution plushies that are sold at the Pokemon Centre stores, and now I have one... and it's so much more cool because mine's also a cushion. The cushion is made of a smooth, satin-like material which isn't something I'd enjoy resting my head against, but it's lovely for displaying nonetheless. The Eevee plush itself is very soft, and I kind of wish that he was detachable. But I'm still happy with winning him. The A Prize was an Eevee plush dressed in a bow-tie, fashioned to look like a orchestral composer! Super cute :) 

I also have a couple of smaller plushies to show you all. I won them playing two of the Sanrio ichiban kujis, 'Sanrio Characters All Stars' and 'Sanrio White Winter'. When it comes to Sanrio kujis, the prizes are categorised using numbers VS letters, and instead of having various colour and style options available for specific prizes, such as E prize being a towel, where the winner will get one of four different designs, with Sanrio kujis, each individual variation will be lettered. That was tough to explain in a sentence... I hope it made sense :D This means that there ends up being 50+ prizes available and it can get confusing. 

One of the tickets that Japan Award pulled for me whilst playing the Sanrio Characters All Stars kuji was a 5, which won me a plush puppet of Pochacco. It's really sweet and I used to love these kinds of puppet plushies when I was a kid. However, Pochacco is one of my least favourite Sanrio characters and I would have preferred to win one of the other puppets available: Cinnamoroll, Hello Kitty or Keroppi. I'll probably end up giving this prize to my niece when she's a little older, so it's still an awesome win :) Who's your favourite Sanrio character, by the way? Mine are Pompompurin, Corocorokuririn and Kiki of the Little Twin Stars. 

Speaking of Kiki! This is him; the blue-haired boy twin from the Little Twin Stars franchise. He has a sister called Lala who has pink hair, and they are the loveliest pair of pastel buddies ever! I have never seen something Little Twin Stars themed that I didn't love! These cuties have a story behind them, that they were born on a star inside a dream cloud and that they travelled to Earth so that they could learn to be the shiniest, greatest stars they could be. Cannot get more adorable than that, right? I love stars and anything starry-patterned, so along with the pastel colours, I think that's what drew me to these characters as a teenager. 

You can imagine how happy I was when I discovered I had won Prize 2, of which you could get either Kiki or Lala, and thankfully I got Kiki! The quality of this plush is so fantastic. The fabric used is so smooth and the attention to detail on his outfit is marvellous. I love the ribbon bow with pom-poms under his chin. And the star on his back, of course! 

The final plushie that I'm including in today's post wasn't one that I won playing kuji. But as I mentioned before, Japan Award also shares videos featuring the wonder that is Japanese arcades. They look incredible & the prizes you can win there compare to nowhere else in the world! Before the corona virus came along, Japan Award would often visit arcades to pick up certain toys for his customers and share videos over on Instagram stories. I spotted the most adorable Amuse plush ever whilst watching Japan Award's stories and I had a mighty need!! 

I collect Amuse plushies and I have several now. Each time I go to Comic Con, I can't come home without something by Amuse, as they make the most fabulous plushies ever! I once blogged about my collection, which has grown quite a bit since then but click here if you would like to have a look at some of my other Amuse plushies :) I asked Japan Award to try to win me a super cute pink hippo plush!! I've only ever seen probably two hippopotamus plushies in my life until seeing this one, and none of them were nearly as precious as this one! It reminds me of a Moomin!! 

If you also loved the show The Moomins growing up, you will understand how much this resembles one and I couldn't not get it because it's massive and so soft and perfect and squidgy and he is now the best plush in my entire Amuse collection (sorry Alpacasso's!). I don't remember how much Japan Award won it for now because so much has happened in my life since then, but it was a fantastic price for such an amazing plush and nowhere near the price you'd be looking at for a Japanese plush of this size here. My photo doesn't really show how big it is either, but its head hangs off the top of my square unit! I am very impressed with this plush and his name is Smushy-Smush, if you guys wanted to know :D 

The labels for Japanese products are like no other! They are always so cute and colourful and enticing for a kawaii lover like myself! I am super thankful that I stumbled upon Japan Award's channel in my suggestions one day. They're so brilliant and I am very happy that I'm now able to get so much gorgeous Japanese merchandise :) Thankyou for always being so lovely to talk to and for searching for things I want; you're awesome, Japan Award!! Definitely go and give their channel a follow, and don't forget to check out their instagram, too. I can't recommend them enough! 

I really hope you guys enjoyed reading all about my ichiban kuji haul/entire collection of plushies won via Japan Award. I had a lot of fun writing all about them and showing you guys the cuteness overload! I guess that's a positive to me not blogging as often this year... you get to see a load of cute things all at once :) Please let me know if you'd like to see similar posts in the future, because they are my favourite to do. I hope you've all had a great weekend, and wishing you a fantastic week to come. It will be my birthday week!! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Have you ever played ichiban kuji? Or purchased some of the prizes online afterwards?

Do you have a favourite Japanese franchise/character? 

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