Christmas 2016 part 2

So this Christmas was always going to be a bit of a weird one. With my Grandpa passing away a few years ago Christmas has never been quite the same, and this year for the first time we had it at my Mum and Dad's house rather than my Grandma's.

My Sister and I wanted to go Ice Skating last year and this year and we kept just not going, so finally on Christmas eve after a nice peaceful day we chucked on our skates and went skating. I won't lie, I tried a teeny tiny Yuri!!! on Ice related move. Luckily I quickly realised this was not a good idea and carried on skating normally. I really enjoyed it though, I had a really nice evening and it was the perfect things for a Christmas really.

We had to stay over at Matt's Mum's house to look after the cat and she only lives a few minutes walk from my Mum's house. So I got home showered and watch Muppets Christmas Carol as you must on Christmas eve and then headed over to Matt's Mum's house around 11pm. 

AND then before you knew it, it was Christmas morning....... I was thoroughly spoilt as per usual and I was very happy with my gifts. I got lots of manga, a nendroid, books, necklaces, socks and my favourite biscuits. My best friend also got Placebo's new album signed for me and that is amazing! When we were younger we promised each other if she ever got Brian Molko's autograph she would give it to me and if I ever got Courtney Love's I would give it to her. She did in fact get Brain's and never gave it to me.... but this more than makes up for that! She even convinced them to sign my name. I was actually left speechless when I opened it and I absolutely love it!

I also got pun socks which keep making me laugh and Matt got me the Yuri!!! on Ice soundtrack which I haven't stopped listening to since Christmas.

Matt really wanted the Snow Miku nendroid back in October so I managed to find one and got that for him and he seemed really happy with it!

Christmas dinner was lovely with my family and super relaxed. My Mum can cook a bloody good Christmas dinner and it was all gluten free too! We just chilled out, napped and watched movies in the afternoon and Matt and I headed home for the evening. 

The rest of our time off was spent it pyjamas getting fat and being super lazy, which was exactly what I wanted to do. We did venture out to the sales one afternoon and I bought myself a lovely coffee machine which I absolutely adore.  

And now here we are in 2017 and I am sure before I know it, it will be Christmas time all over again! 

Christmas 2016 part 1

December was a generally busy month for me we held our Elektra awards at work again and then on the 8th we had our Christmas party. I wasn't going to mention this BUT not only did I have a fantastic night (I drank and danced way too much) but I won an award of 'Designer of the Year'. I was very happy to win that. It meant a lot to me as I have worked hard on a lot of projects this year and I was super excited and touched I won. 

It was great to have a fab night out with the people I work with, many of them I would consider friends too so that was a lot of fun. I also won a nice gift card with my award and treated myself to a coffee machine and a TV for our bedroom hurrah! 

Christmas as per usual came round super quickly and I packed up work on Wednesday 21st December so I had a lovely long break ahead of me. Thursday we cleaned the flat and had a friend round. Then on the Friday Matt and I had tickets to see Kiki's Delivery Service live in London. 

As travel cards to London aren't cheap for us now we live outside of London we made the day of it and went up to Winter Wonderland to get us into the full Christmas spirit. It was nice to look around and we had dinner afterwards and of course popped into Forbidden Planet for a little shopping spree. 3 for 2 on their manga who could say no huh? 

Kiki's Delivery Service was absolutely amazing. It was quite different from the film as it was just over an hour long, but that wasn't a bad thing at all. There was also only 6 actors but it was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! It was a really simple small space, but they were so creative with it and imaginative too. I loved all the imaginative ways they made it look like Kiki was flying! It was funny too, like really funny is some parts.

The acting was phenomenal and in all honesty I really wanted to watch it again, it is a same it had such a short run. If they do anything like that again in the future I will be straight up to London to see it!! That was a really lovely day out to start off the Christmas break and I throughly enjoyed it! 

Hyper Japan Christmas 2016

So I am going to fill in the last few months not quite in order! I will start with all the Christmas related things as that makes most sense to me as we are still only a few weeks after Christmas. Matt and attended Hyper Japan Christmas Market again this year. You can see previous Hyper Japan fun here. What with all the lovely train problems we are having here in the UK we decided to drive up and I would happily do it again as the parking was so reasonable. We got there pretty early as there were some live performances we wanted to see and we wanted to make a whole day of it.

We started off by watching the The Hoopers live who describe themselves as “eight girls dressed as beautiful boys,” and they are an androgynous J-POP band. They were amazing and I really need to download their album as I REALLY enjoyed their music! 

We then did lots of shopping, much to my dismay most the Yuri!! On Ice things were sold out, but I got a badge. However I bought plenty of other things! I really enjoyed looking around. We watched some live performances and thoroughly looked over all the stalls and shops. I also had the most amazing waffle cone thing that I have and expect will ever have again. Seriously it was just heaven in a waffle cone thing. mmmmmmmmm........

We then ended the day by watching The Tomboys, who were a sort of Japanese/English punk band influenced by the Sex Pistols. Although the music wasn’t to my taste they were amazing! They were also the happiest looking girls I have ever seen ever. They were fantastic to watch live!

One thing I do really love about the Christmas Market is when it gets dark and all the Christmas lights come on, so we stayed long enough to see those. Seriously they are sooo pretty and really get you in that Christmas mood! After that we jumper back in the car and then headed home after a very long tiring day. 

I was rather happy with my haul! I managed to get my first dōjinshis (Makoharu and Kurotsuki) I also got a lovely Free! (Makoharu and Reigisa) Christmas decoration. Along with a Victuuri badge, sweets, a choker and a Himouto Nendroid. All in all a good haul if you ask me! I also picked up some Christmas gifts for people that went down VERY well! 

Anyhow, I cannot wait for the summer one now! I MIGHT even cosplay for that one but we shall see as I never got to wear my Totoro dress I made. 

Silly Old Sea Dog

Back in August I believe I enter a competition with Marry Me Ink 'A wedding blog dedicated to the decorated bride' spend at Silly Old Sea Dog. I was SOO EXCITED as I had admired their dresses since seeing the Nutcracker dress on thesoubrettebrunette's blog back in 2014!

I decided to hold off until Christmas to spend it as I had wanted a Christmas dress for a few years now.

They announced the Christmas dresses and I was so excited which one to pick. The prices are quite high at around £100 for a dress. I do completely understand and appreciate why they are higher in price. As someone who has made clothes before I can appreciate the time and energy that goes into making these clothes and also the price of fabric.

Saying that and understanding why they are the price they are; unfortunately still left them slightly outside of my price range (with the new flat and Christmas coming)

So I waited until Black Friday in a hope that I would be able to get a dress and luckily they did do a discount. However I wasn't able to use my gift card and the discount code. I have to say I was a little disappointed with that, as to me a gift card is money not a voucher. As I had won the gift card I didn't say anything else. However had I bought one or had one bought as a gift for me I would be quite disappointed.

Anyhow my patience paid off and a few days before Christmas I managed to nab one in the sale and I was super excited when it arrived on the 23rd December just before Christmas day.

I had misjudged the sizing and went with measurements I had taken some time ago . Sometimes I still find it hard to order smaller sizes as I still have the mindset of 'GOD THAT WILL NEVER FIT ME!' but I misjudged it this time and a 14 was swimming on me.

I contacted Silly Old Sea Dog and they said ship it back and we will send you a new size. So after much remeasuring and checking the size guide (happy to report my waist and bust measurement have gone down since I last measured them!!) I ordered a 12. The 14 was so generous I was a little skeptical if this one too would be a little large also.

BUT then on the 2nd January my lovely packaged arrived and it fitted like a glove!

Firstly both dresses arrived in ADORABLE little polka dot bags and were both wrapped in green paper and ribbon with a little note that made me smile! There is just something about receiving your items like this that makes it all the more personal and special.

And you know what I do look fabulous! The dress is a beautiful material, it feels very durable but still soft and flows nicely. It is well finished and put together very well to a very high standard. 

As you can see the 12 fits perfectly! The sizing is definitely very generous and very true to their size guide so if in doubt I would size down! 

They do such adorable patterns and use really unusual fabrics. The cut of the dress is spot on and is really flattering. It hangs very nicely and I am GUTTED I have to wait 11 months until I can take this baby out for a proper spin! 

I am impressed with Silly Old Sea dog and I would highly recommend them! I really hope that maybe next year I will financially better and be able to pick up a halloween dress and maybe another Christmas one!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

This is just a quick post to say HAPPY CHRISTMAS. As another Christmas rolls to an end I am full of food, sleepy and throughly spoilt again.

I got some wonderful presents and ate some wonder food. I got to wear my brand new jumper today (the last few Christmas's I have gotten dressed up only to regret it half way through the afternoon when I feel like a prized potato.) So this year just casual and comfy!

Matt and I got up early this morning around 7am and we opened our gifts. It is our first Christmas in our flat so it was all new experiences but it felt great to be here with him!He got me Narwal slippers, a heated fox cushion and most awesome of all a large and a baby unicorn lamp. I of course got some awesome geeky gifts too including Crimson Peak pops and Firefly leaf on the wind necklace which is just beautiful! Also the Harry Potter blu ray set, yankee candle and some amazing boots.

I also got some vouchers and a bit of money. I was hoping to get enough money to buy a BB8 droid but alas I am a little short.. maybe a Christmas present to myself? haha? Maybe!

I now am back at home and I plan on watching Dr Who and vegging out for the rest of the evening/week!

I hope you had or are having a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve

So here we are at the end of the year and it is already Christmas eve. How on earth did that happen. I finished work on the 21st and on Tuesday I did lots of boring bits like the dentist etc. But on Christmas eve, eve (23rd) me and Matt planned a day up to London.

Last year we had a night away and went and visited the festival of lights at Longleat. I wanted to do something nice again so I booked tickets to wee War Horse. I decided to make a day off it and it turned out that the Coca-Cola Lorry was going to be in Leister Square that day so win win!

I got up early-ish and headed to London for about 10am and we started by visiting Winter Wonderland. I enjoyed a very nice Sausage and chips and then a Crepe and after a few hours there we headed off down Oxford Street.

I had booked tickets for 14:30 showing of War Horse so we headed over to The New London Theatre.

The show was STUNNING! I cried lots and our seats were just amazing right on the front. We saw the show live streamed into the cinema a few years ago and it was amazing then, but in person it was breath taking.

The puppets were beautiful and the operators were mind blowing, they really did look like real animals and you forgot at times that they weren't! I really didn't want the show to end.

We then had a look in a few shops (I got a new jumper for Christmas day) and headed to Leister Square and enjoyed the Coca-Cola Lorry in all it's festivities.

We got home eventually at about 10pm which was much later than I had planned but it was a really good day out. We then ordered way too much pizza and watched the last star wars film we had to watch before we go and see the new one in the cinema today.

I am hoping that from now until the 4th Jan it will be a easy relaxing time, and I CANNOT wait to open my presents tomorrow, judging by the big pile under my tree I think I will be very spoilt again this year.

We had a great Christmas eve, eve and my plans for Christmas eve is to watch lots of Christmas films and go and see the new Star Wars film in 4DX this afternoon. 

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!