the furry friend tag!

Q. What is his/her name?

A. Her name is Winry. Originally, before we got her, she was called Lexi and that's the name that's on her birth certificate, but we didn't like it so it got changed as soon as we got her home.

Q. When did you get Winry?

A. We got her June 2012, from a family of professional breeders just after the Scottish Borders.

Q. What is something Winry does that annoys you?

A. She is very clingy and cuddly with me, which I do really love, but when I'm leaving for work she meows and climbs on me which makes me feel really guilty when I'm heading out the door. It's cute but annoying at the same time!

Q. What type of breed is Winry?

A. She is a Maine Coone, which is more commonly known as an American Longhair, a large, furry breed of cat. They are also called "gentle giants" because they're the second largest breed of domestic cat, but are incredibly loving.

Q. Has Winry ever had a near death experience?

A. Thankfully, no. We've only ever had to take her to the vets once because she had a small infection in her left eye, which was cleared up within a week with some eyedrops!

Q. Does Winry know any tricks?

A. I wouldn't say she knows any tricks, but she does know how to jump onto my shoulders/back to cuddle or sit like parrot, which is really cute.

Q. Does Winry love to snuggle?

A. Yes, yes, yes! She tends to cuddle more with me than with Craig, which is fitting as I spend a bit more time with her. She is incredibly cuddly with me, even choosing to sleep under the covers in bed next to me like a little baby! Apparently being cuddly isn't a train of the Maine Coon, but I suppose there are always exceptions.

Q. Where did you get Winry?

A. We got her from breeders who were pretty much giving her away. She gave birth to a scheduled litter and after recovering from the birth, she lost a lot of weight and was very poorly. The breeders also decided that she wasn't big enough to show professionally so they were putting her up for sale. Luckily enough, Craig's mum had bought kittens from them previously so we only had to pay for the cost of the procedure to get her dressed, which we were more than happy to do to get her! It took a while to get some weight back on her and to get her fluffiness back, but after that she went back to her big cuddly self.

Q. Does Winry get along with other animals?

A. Yes and no. She doesn't really like other cats, or more specifically, Craig's mums cats, they bully and attack her, so she's quite wary with them. She gets on well with dogs though, surprisingly. 

Q. Does Winry get along with strangers?

A. Again, yes and no. She's very to attached to me and with Craig too, so she's wary with other people that don't smell like us, if that makes any sense at all. After a little while she'll warm up to you and be purring on your lap wanting your undecided attention.

Q. How much does Winry weigh?

A. She weighs around 4.5/5kgs, which is around average for a female cat of her breed. I would like to fatten her up a bit more though, but at her last vet check we were told she is at a very healthy weight for her size.

Q. Do you ever dress Winry up?

A. I can't say I do, to be honest. I was going to buy her one of those little cat unicorn things from ebay, but I doubt she'd be too happy if I stuck that on her!

Q. Has Winry ever tried to run away?

A. She's been an indoor cat since we got her, as we've always lived in a flat, so she's never really been given the chance to run away. However, we did take her to Craig's parents house for a weekend and she got outside for a bit then, but she did come back an hour later thankfully!

Q. How did you come up with Winry's name?

A. We actually took a little bit of time deciding on the name. Like I said above, her name was Lexi originally, which we wanted to change as soon as possible. I wanted to call her Zelda (for obvious reasons..) and Craig wanted to call her Tifa, from Final Fantasy, which I wasn't keen on at all. We weren't going to come to an agreement with either of those names and so we scrapped them both. After a few hours of thought, we both agreed on Winry, which is a character name from Fullmetal Alchemist, a Japanese anime that we both love!

Q. How much does he/she mean to you on a scale of 1-10?

A. I don't think 10 is a high enough rating, she is honestly like my furry little child. I don't know what I'd do without her now, she's a huge part of my life and I love her to bits. She's actually curled up under my chin as I type this with one finger on my ipad... It's taken quite a while to finish this, but she looked too cute to move! It sometimes feels weird knowing that I have something that is completely dependant on me to stay alive, as that's a lot of responsibility, but she's my baby and I'd do anything to keep her safe and happy!

I'd love to see other people do this tag as I really do enjoy reading about other peoples pets and animals. People always say "you're either a cat person or a dog person", but I think for me it's more an "animal or human" person... I'm an animal person, humans annoy me a lot of the time.

Please link me to your post if you do decide to do this tag!

7

oops... I spent too much money!

I've been pretty bad with spending money this month! I didn't think I had bought that much to be honest, but when I put it all together to photograph earlier this morning, I realised just how much I'd spent. I could have probably bought a lot more if I wasn't so incredibly fussy with clothes etc, but what I've managed to pick up so far has came to quite a bit. However, in my defence, I'd like to point out that working in a retail park plays havoc with my wages and being right next door to New Look and across the road from Boots is pretty dangerous for my bank account. That being said, I thought I'd put together a little mini haul post!

top - internacionale: daisy print dress // new look aztec dress, hamsa print dress, flower print dress with peter pan collar   --   middle - new look: black and white jumper // primark: grey jumper   --   bottom - boots: real techniques eyes brushes, gel liner brush // benefit: they're real mascara // rimmel: true match powder compact, infallible 24hr foundation, salon pro nail polish // nivea: moisturiser // revlon colourburst balms

For some unknown reason I've bought a fair amount of dresses over the past few weeks, which is really weird because I'm not really a dress type of person, I much prefer a comfy pair of jeans. However, I've decided to try and broaden what I feel comfortable in, which from now is going to include dresses. I also thought with the nicer weather coming shortly (hopefully) that I'd better get prepared for that sooner rather than later. I also can't go shopping and not buy a jumper or two. I have a wardrobe full of jumpers already, but I continuously feel the need to buy more. Oh, the brain of a female is a strange thing. Jumpers are so comfy though, so can you ever really have too many? No is the correct answer there.

I also took advantage of the Boots 3 for 2 deal that's going on. I managed to hold off for a while but I was inevitably pulled in by all the pretty make up. I initially went in for new moisturiser and came out with a few more items than expected. However, I did have a Boots card with some money on it leftover from Christmas, which helped encourage my spending. After getting the moisturiser, I went straight to the Revlon counter and looked at the new colourburst balms. They are so pretty, but I settled on just three. I also picked up a foundation and powder from rimmel as the ones I've been using are still too dark for me, so hopefully this combo will be a better match for my skin tone.

While browsing around the make up counters, I picked up one of the most famous mascaras every one talks about, Benefit They're Real, and now, as of last weekend. is my new favourite mascara ever. Speaking of things that go on eyes, I got the Real Techniques eye brush set and gel liner brush, which I'm so excited to start using! I've been using simple little eye brushes and I'm so excited to try and perfect that smokey eye with these little beauties. Last thing I couldn't resist on getting was another little mint nail polish, and after having heard so much of these polishes already, I thought I'd try them in mint first, as always.

So there we have it, a lot of money spent, all boiled down in one little post. I think when I get paid at the end of the month I'm going to be saving most of the money, for two reasons: I'm going on holiday this year with Craig and some friends and I also want to buy a new laptop as this one is starting to give up on me. There is a third reason that I'm going to try and save money, but it's simply just because I spend so much and it'd be nice to see my savings build!

Now I'm away to go and spend the rest of my day off tidying the flat, as usual!

2

Cute little home touches.

I am one for buying things from the home section of every shop I'm in. Constantly. The above items I bought when my mum was coming to visit under the excuse of  "mum would like them, so I'll buy them for her to look at when she comes over, she'll think that's nice".. Yeah, not much of an excuse, but I have to tell myself something when I buy things so I don't end up with buyers remorse. I do love home sections though, all the pretty candles, flowers and blankets that I'm just drooling over and not buying because I already own a lot of each. However, when browsing through Poundstretchers on my lunch a few weeks ago I came across these cute little bird cage candle holders that were on sale at two for five pounds! I thought that I'd be silly not to get them considering I own a lot of candles and could do with a few more holders. They currently sit on my windowsill annoying my cat as she doesn't have free roam on it any more and has to sit around them when staring at the birds outside. They're so cute though, aren't they?

The tulips were from our local Aldi, which is just at the end of our street. We were doing our food shopping that week and I decided to pick up some flowers to add a little colour to the living room, which is currently dominated by the green carpets and matching green couch. If only I owned this place, it would be so much nicer! I actually use the blankets I buy to hide the green colour of the couch so I don't have to look at it when I spend time in there. Flowers are a nice addition to any room though.

At the side of the picture is the light tree that I got in Primark, on sale. I think it was around fifteen pounds down to seven. It's a cute little ornamental tree that has little fairy lights on the ends of the branches. The lights on it are quite bright so I tend to just have that lit up itself and not have the need for any other light in the room, which Craig hates. He always has the big ceiling light on, which bugs me to no end as it's just too bright and harsh which inevitably gives me a headache.

I think I'll always be drawn to the home aisles in shops, mainly because it just gives me inspiration for when I own my own place eventually. Until then, I'll just continue to swoon.

4

getting colourful, creative and organised

PIYO Journal - Ver.3 Flower Bouquet // $21.99

When I was younger, while still sporting my lilac pedal shorts and scrunchies, I was seriously bitten by the stationary bug. If you ask any member of my family what I would ask for as gifts, when birthdays or Christmases were coming, I bet they'd all say either stationary or a horse, and much to my disappointment the latter never sat under the Christmas tree as mum would always say that it was too big to fit down the chimney.

Now, years and years later, it seems as if that little stationary bug has bitten me once more as all I seem to do now is buy cute things online. I now find that my number one searched for thing on ebay is "cute stationary", which is amazing as it quells my want for pens and notebooks etc (after having bought them of course), but havoc for my bank account. I suppose it's my own fault for having my paypal account directly linked to my ebay account, it just makes buying things on impulse so much easier. However, whilst scrolling through the endless pages of cute things ebay has to offer, I came across this journal and squeaked at how amazing it looked. An undated journal / planner with each page individually illustrated with different designs, monthly layouts, weekly plans, note pages at the back and it comes with cute little stickers! I literally couldn't resist. I think it's the coolest thing I've ever bought online!

The journal itself costs $21.99, which is roughly £13. and comes with free shipping. It was being sent all the way from Korea so I wasn't holding my breath on the delivery time. When I placed my order, the confirmation email said that delivery time would have been two to four weeks, but I think mine came in just under two, which was really impressive considering the postage was free. I was so happy when I heard it thud through my letterbox that I jumped off the couch and ripped the packaging open right away to look at all the lovely pages inside. To start with I wasn't going to use it because I thought I'd ruin how pretty it looks, but then decided I was being silly and reverting back to my child ways regarding stationary, so I started jotting in all my work hours, plans for days off and any appointments / events that I have coming up. I plan on using it for generally staying more organised and keeping a note of what I do with my days and such. I'd like to be able to look back at in a years time and see what I was doing or what I was thinking at the time.

I'm so excited to be using a diary again, I used to always keep a diary but then fell out of the habit a few years ago, so hopefully this will kick my creativity block away and I'll be back to my old arty self in no time. I've also bought a few more sticker sheets from ebay, cute little kitty ones, washi tape and some fine liner pens, all very cheap but amazing quality. I think I'll be buying everything online from now on.

After finishing up this post, I'm going to get the journal out of my bag, as I now carry it everywhere, and find more cute ways to organise my life. Although my phone is sitting right under my nose and is screaming that ebay has millions of cute stationary items just waiting for me to find...

uh oh, send help, I'm about to spend more...

6