Things That Make You Go Oooooo (December 2015)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2015 has been a bit of a strange one for me it's had it's ups and it's downs, I nearly died and now I'm sitting here in Tokyo a place I have dreamed my whole life of seeing and life is fine. Needless to say I've been having so much fun here I haven't had much time for blog reading so I searched my bookmarks for most of these links. I am so excited to see what 2016 brings and one thing is for sure it's going to be an adventure so enjoy these links and I wish you all the best for the new year 明けましておめでとうございます!

♥ 15 Reasons to Start Following Your Dreams Today

♥ Why Should You Love Yourself Now?

♥ Career Advice That Actually Matters

♥ The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change. Embrace It.

♥ Taking Risks vs Being Reckless

♥ 10 ways to de-stress your day hour by hour

♥ Keeping Blog Content Fresh

♥ How to Say Thank You in 50 Languages

♥ Spoiler Alert: How to Talk About Geekery Online

♥ 7 interesting, innovative blog posts ideas you haven’t seen a million times before

♥ Do What You Love: On Making Decisions

♥ 50 Lessons From a Decade of Blogging

♥ How I Started Appreciating the Simple Things in Life

♥ 5 Things to Tell Yourself When Feeling Down

♥ Ok With Being Alone

♥ Molly Crabapple's 15 rules for creative success in the Internet age

♥ Your Body Is Not A Temple

♥ How to Get Your Cat Fix Without Actually Having Any Cats

♥ Caitlin Stasey and Miley Cyrus: Nudity Is Only Sexual If You Want It to Be

♥ 25 Ways to Feel Happier Right This Second

Love & Shooting Stars

Cate

xoxo

Out and About in Palermo

Palermo is an easy city to explore on foot with most of it's major attractions within walkable distance of each other. Our AirBnB apartment in the Piazza Bellini was situated right in the historic center and not only houses the best pizza I've ever eaten but some really beautiful churches and a gorgeous fountain, so what better way to end my Palermo adventures but with a few snapshots of some of my favourite places we visited.

Chiesa si San Cataldo

Fontana Pretoria

Church of the Gesù



Teatro Massimo







Chiesa di San Domenico


Where is your next adventure going to be?

Love & Gelato

Cate

xoxo

Outfit Inspiration: Sparkly Magical Girl Sailor Moon

♥ Cat Eye Sunglasses ♥ Crisis Moon Compact Necklace ♥ Moon Wand & Luna Pins ♥ Artemis T-Shirt ♥ Sparkly Galaxy Skirt ♥ Sailor Purse ♥ Glitter Sailor Moon Pumps ♥

Back in August I did a guest post on North East Nerd for my birthday and this was this outfit I put together for the magical day so I thought with me being in Japan for Christmas that I'd share it here because it would be perfect to wear to celebrate the occasion although I would probably swap the sunglasses out for a nice warm coat as it is a bit chilly outside...

Who are your favourite magical girls?

Love & Glitter

Cate

xoxo

Inspirational Quotes #69

I do what I love to do at the moment. If I wake up tomorrow and decide I want to dance, that's what I'd do. Or design clothes. I think I'd throw myself into whatever I'm doing now. It's not about abandoning what I was doing before, or giving up. It's about knowing that if I die tomorrow, I lived the way I wanted to.
- Ayumi Hamasaki

Valley of The Temples (Agrigento)

Whilst in Palermo we decided to take a day trip to Agrigento to visit The Valley of the Temples which is one of Sicily's largest attractions and understandably as it has some of the best preserved Grecian architecture outside of Greece.

We started the day off with a trip to the museum to see some of the items that had been escavated from the site and I was very impressed at just how many things were on display from little things like coins and urns to statues and column, in fact they're still finding new items to add to the collection.

After a rather delicious lunch at a local restaurant we were all fuelled up and ready to explore the temple ruins. I'll admit I know nothing of ancient history that's pretty much The Dad's area (I think he knew more than our tour guide!) but I was really impressed as I've only ever seen things like this in movies and it blew me away to think of the effort and man power that went into building these huge structures.

What UNESCO World Heritage Sites are on your must see list?

Love & Sunshine

Cate

xoxo

Goodbye U.K. Konichiwa Japan!

Today is the day I'm leaving for my Japan adventures and I'm so damn excited, I still can't believe it's actually happening, there is a very real chance of me breaking down and crying with happiness when I finally land there.

I've got a bunch of blog posts scheduled for the next couple months as I'll probably be to tired to blog about my adventures real-time but be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter as I will be there documenting every millisecond of my trip so be prepared for lots of Japan Insta/Twitter-spam!

Love & 果報

Cate

xoxo

Wishlist Wednesday: Weeaboo Wants

♥ Hello Kitty Soy Sauce ♥ Totoro Dress Sailor Moon Scenery Crop ♥ Princess Mononoke Tank ♥ 

♥ Rilakkuma Space Poncho ♥ Shirokuma Cafe Mugs ♥ Sailor Moon Wallet ♥ Polar Bear Cafe Teapot ♥

Only 2 sleeps until I leave for Japan!!!

Love & Penguins

Cate

xoxo

Things That Make You Go Oooooo (November 2015)

Sayonara November! This month has mostly involved me eating all the foods in the house, cleaning all the things in the Batcave and packing my big pink suitcase for my adventures in Japan which I leave for in just a few days. I can't believe how fast this year has gone it's been so crazy, at the moment my brain is so focused on Japan everything else has become a blur, too much excitement ahead so I hope you enjoy this months links xoxo

♥ One of my Direwolf scarves was featured in this Buzzfeed quiz so check it out and let me know which Direwolf you are, no surprises here as I got my fave wolfie Ghost.

♥ 7 Easy Ways To Be The Ultimate Focused Geek

♥ How To Get Your Shit Together in 60 Seconds

♥ We're just weeks away from the new Star Wars movie and by some miracle I have managed to avoid all trailers so when I finally see it it will be a big surprise, I'll have to think of a special outfit for the occasion and I may just have to add these R2D2 shoes to my crafting list

♥ My awesome friend Yume has done yet another awesome cosplay shoot so check out her X-Men x Jem mashup, I am constantly inspired by these awesome ladies, so much AWESOME!

♥  How to Practice Self Care

♥  25 Ways to Make a Difference in the World Everyday

♥  Seven Things I Did To Reboot My Life

♥  20 Things I Learned for Kamala Khan

♥  How to Budget for Travel

♥ When I first started watching Supernatural a DECADE ago it was so rare to find anyone else that had heard show but now the fandom is bigger and stronger than ever so here's a guide on how you can join the SPN family (or any other fandom) to!

♥ I am absolutely loving these printable blogging calendars, I'll definitely be using them myself.

♥ Loved this article from Gala Darling on how she found and brought happiness into her life

♥ If you're looking to monetise you blog check out Mia's monthly income and traffic reports for some help and ideas.

♥ 28 Things I Know at 28

♥ This comic from The Oatmeal really hit me in the feels!

♥ I love these nerdy anniversary gift ideas and you may recognise a little something for wool

♥ Not only does Gail have awesome style she tells it like it is and I love her for that as the blogging world, especially the fashion blogging world can be so disingenuous at times

♥ 5 Reasons Why Big Blogs Bore Me

♥ On Starting Your Own Business and Becoming a Productivity Unicorn

Love & Ginger Snaps

Cate

xoxo

Wishlist Wednesday: STAR WARS STUFF!!

♥ Darth Vader Mug ♥ Sith Cowl Neck Dress ♥ Admiral Ackbar USB ♥ Sphero BB8 ♥ Lego Millennium Falcon ♥

Love & Lightsabers

Cate

xoxo

Inspirational Quotes #68

If you are wearing clothes that you enjoy wearing, everything you do in life becomes fun.
- Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

107 Steps Closer to Heaven (Palermo Cathedral)

I stumbled upon Palermo Cathedral on my first afternoon there completely by surprise, I wasn't looking for it, I was just aimlessly wandering the streets and all of a sudden there it was, this huge beautiful building surrounded by the scent of oranges and coffee from neighbouring cafés.

The sun began to set as I walked around the courtyard so I decided to explore it properly the next day and grab myself some food and some sleep. Palermo Cathedral is a lot bigger than the Capella Palatina but less ostentatious albeit a bit more fancy than any of the churches I had ever visited in the U.K.

For a small charge you can visit the treasury, the crypts and the roof which is a must because the views up there are amazing. To reach the roof we had to walk up an old stone spiral staircase of 107 steps which was a great workout for the thighs after indulging on all that gelato and pizza but totes worth it! I loved being up high and seeing the whole city, it was the perfect sunny day so you could see the ocean and the mountains surrounding the city, it was just so beautiful up there.

Palermo is such a beautiful place and even better than Rome in my opinion, I really enjoyed just wandering around and visiting random churches and cafés, amazing places can literally be found on every corner and this was one of them.

Love & Sunshine

Cate

xoxo

The Superhero Giveaway

As this will be my last giveaway of 2015 I wanted to make it a little bit special so I thought I would make it superhero themed and giveaway some of the awesome nerdy little charms I've collected over the past year. The Marvel charms all came in Kinder Eggs (apart from Lego Loki) and the DC Heroes I got in Thailand after collecting stickers from Tesco Lotus stores so you'll have a hard time finding these anywhere else, I also included a Wolverine bottle opener I got from my London Comic Con goodie bag and a special Hulk necklace I made especially for this giveaway.

Prizes

♥ DC Heroes Charms

♥ Lego Loki Keychain

♥ Marvel Kinder Egg Toys & Charms

♥ Hulk Necklace

♥ Batman Figure

♥ Wolverine Bottle Opener

♥ Avengers Mini Book

For your chance to win all this geeky loot just follow the instructions in the widget below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway will close on midnight (GMT) November 22 and the winner be notified shortly after.

Good Luck

Cate

xoxo

Things That Make You Go Oooooo (October 2015)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! It's the most wonderful night of the year candy, movies and costumes, fun, fun, fun! I have to admit I've spent the majority of this month planning out my adventures in Japan so that's left little time for anything else but tonight I plan to take a break, treat myself and catch up on all the TV that I have missed over the past few weeks so I hope you all have a really great Halloween.

♥ These fashion sketches of Tim Burton characters are gorgeous, I would wear any of these in a heartbeat!

♥ 19 Simple Daily Habits for a Happier Life

♥ Nothing makes me happier than Tom Hardy and his love of dogs, it's so damn cute I can't even...

♥ Don't be a pushover here are 20 Things to Stop Letting People Do to You

♥ 100 Ways To Show Yourself Love If You Hate Pink And Bubble Baths

♥ Having trouble sleeping? Here are some interesting tips to help you get a good night's sleep

♥ The Life-Changing Power of Books

♥ The Real Secret to Loving Your Body and Yourself

♥ Supernatural is back y'all and if you've not joined the family yet then check out the awesome guide dePepi wrote

♥ Remind me to check out these tasty looking Vegan restaurants the next time I'm in Manchester!

♥ Break the routine: 3 ways to get inspiration back into your everyday life

♥ This is just the perfect list on how to make your days that much better, trust me it works!

♥ I always think I'm a much better version of myself on holiday so these tips on How to Use Holiday Habits in Your Daily Life are perfect!

♥ Letting Go of Guilt About What You “Should” Be Doing

♥ 23 Very Famous Quotes You Probably Have Wrong

♥ How to Become a Full Time Blogger

♥ This is an interesting read about "friendship" and The Beauty YouTuber Economy

♥ This is why kids scare the crap out of me at times!

♥ 9 Female-Authored Comic Books You Need To Read

♥ Your Job Doesn't Define You

Love & Pumpkins

Cate

xoxo

5 Fandom Friday: Favourite Halloween Episodes of TV Shows

Halloween is tomorrow and I'm so excited I love this holiday so much! I always watch so much TV during this time of year and the Halloween specials are my absolute favourite thing whether they be creepy as heck or humorous. Growning up in the U.K. Halloween wasn't really celebrated so I always loved watching American Shows and seeing how they did Halloween and I know it's probably not really like that but I'm still a little bit envious because I would love to see houses all decked out in spooky decorations and costumed kids running around everywhere having fun, so as usual I will celebrate the season by watching copious amounts of TV and eating far too much candy, HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror

I love The Simpson's and the Halloween episodes are so much fun, I always like seeing their humorous takes on popular TV shows and movies and I love the credits to, the Halloween names are a great touch and I definitely need to think of a cool Halloween name for myself.

Supernatural

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester" is one of those classic SPN episodes you've got the humour, the mythology, angels, demons and the real punch in the feels at the end. This is one of my fave "Winchester" episodes as Dean is at his comedic best and Sam.... whoa, you'll just have to watch and find out...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

There's been a few Halloween episodes of Buffy but "Fear Itself" is my fave because Anya in a bunny costume is the cutest thing ever! Seriously though I love this one for much the same reasons as Supernatural it's got humour, lot's of spooky stuff and The Scoobies all really shine in this episode, also I love the twist at the end to SO GOOD!

American Horror Story

So I kinda have a love hate relationship with this show I loved Murder House, Asylum was so weird but OMG Zac Quinto was awesome, I loved all the characters in Coven but the story not so much and Freakshow.... meh but the Halloween episodes were some of the best in the entire series so I will be watching yet again this year.... Goddamnit I wish I knew how to quit you!

Modern Family

If I ever decide to become I mother I was to be just like Claire I love how obsessive she is over Halloween. Modern Family makes me laugh so much and Gloria reminds me so much of my mum it's ridiculous, I think I've seen this episode a million times but it always makes me giggle and it's so warm and loving to they are the best family.

Check out #Fandom5 creators The Nerdy Girlie & Super Space Chick & join in on the Fandom Friday fun!

Tricks & Treats

Cate

xoxo