Rachel's Next Adventure

As you probably saw in yesterdays post, 2015 has been a big and busy year, and its been a really great one! So I thought i'd take this opportunity to think ahead for 2016 on what I want to do to make it ever better than 2015, if thats even possible. This year i've decided to try and be less specific with my goals for the year after my long to do list from a couple of years ago ended up going wrong around 1/3 of the way through plus I don't know how much free time i'll have what with work and everything my fiancé and I have planned for the year already. My Goals Photography More of it! Save Money Stop Spending! De-clutter Throw/Donate/Sell Get Back Into Baking It's Been A While Relax Seriously. My Current Plans Turn 25 Japan Trip Number 2! Europe Trip or Two - Prague in March? Work on/fix/decorate our house Newcastle Film & Comic Con Sunday Only Sunnycon 5 Sunday Only What are your goals and plans for the new year? ...

I started 2015 by naming it the 'Year of Rachel', and yes, I did steal that from Sue Sue Heck. Somehow though, it went wrong, so 2016, you're going to be the year of Rachel! So, what can I say, 2015 has been an amazing year, 6 holidays in 5 countries, our 10th anniversary, and a few events and shows thrown in. Here are the highlights of my year... Paris for Valentines Week including our trip to  Lovelock Bridge and our first trip to Disneyland Paris together since I was still a BA student! Our usual trip to London and finding the candy floss machine in the Namco arcade. Our big trip to Japan and our first visit to Tokyo Disneyland. Climbing Mt Fuji. Finding Max Goof! And even experiencing our first earthquake. Our trip to South Lakes Safari Zoo in the summer. Mainly because we rarely have time off together. Barcelona for our 10th Anniversary, even if it was a little cold and the fountains weren't on at all during out trip. The t...

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I've never really been one for the 'Christmas haul' posts, but I do enjoy having a look through them so I thought this year i'd share everything I got with you all! The next four photographs are a mix of things I got from my Mam, Nan, brother and Dad, I got money from my other relatives. You may recognise a few of these from my New York and Disneyland Paris haul posts, and thats because they're the same ones! My Mam and Nan paid for a few things so they could keep them back for Christmas for me. The Asda envelope has the first 19,000¥ I got for my September trip! Simon's Cat calendar - ever since way back when I was an FD student i've got the Simon's Cat calendar for Christmas, I don't even watch or read Simon's Cat anymore but I really like the calendars and because they're mostly white they fit perfectly on the black wall in my room. I also love that its one of the box date calendars as it gives me more space to write ...

This month's Monthly Meow is technically from November. It's from the day I gave Tim a new catnip toy, she loved it so much that I got her a new one for Christmas because with all the vigorous playing the banana went through in it's first few days as Tim's toy I was pretty sure it wouldn't last too long. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Just a quick post today, so here it is... M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ! I hope you're all having a wonderful day. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you all have a lovely day and a warm and cosy night. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

As my fiancé started a new job just after our trip to Barcelona we've been pretty pushed for time to bake gingerbread this year as he's been busy in York until and i've been picking up extra shifts at work so this year we decided to pick up a gingerbread house kit - and thankfully Tiger has just opened in Eldon Square! Theres also a Tiger open in The Bridges now too, but the gingerbread house kit they sold wasn't as nice as the one in the Newcastle store. I left my fiancé in charge of getting decorations for the gingerbread house, so he bought three bags of sweets - ALL the same! This is what we ended up with. We're hoping to pick up another kit and i've picked up a few sweets so hopefully we'll be able to get a kit after Christmas and be a little more prepared decoration wise. Although I have fallen in love with our gingerbread house from this year already. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Last Christmas I took this video of my cat, Tim, and I just wanted to share it with you all, enjoy! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

As you may remember me mentioning in last month's New Tsum Tsum post I wasn't too interested in this month's new Tsum Tsum, so these are the ones I picked up instead. Obviously, one of them is from the new release but, he was just too cute to pass up on. I'm obviously looking forward to January's releases! But my bank balance isn't. I think I need them all! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Back in May I first posted about the Japanese iPhone game Neko Atsum e   -ねこあつめ-  and explained how to download it from the app store, but since then they've now released an English version of the app - don't worry, if you have the original just update the app and the English option will appear - and as more of my friends have started to play it now, I went back to playing too, although not as much as I used to. I'm still missing a few cats but I can definitely say having an English version of the app has made the game a lot easier to understand and play as I can now see which toys each cat likes to play with for example. Here are the cats I've met up to now - Here are the mementos the cats have given me - I'm not too far off completing the collections at this point, so fingers crossed a new update with more additions comes out soon! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

A little while back I read about the limited edition Butterkist Gingerbread Popcorn over at Cocktails in Teacups and ever since then i've been on the hunt to find a bag of it. After a trip to Boldon and Newcastle and no luck, I finally found them in the new Tesco in Sunderland! As soon as I got home with it I had to try it straight away and thought i'd share what I thought with all of you. The Butterkist Gingerbread flavoured popcorn is ideal for sharing but not really great for snacking on alone as after a few pieces the spices really start to overtake the sweetness but before you get to that point the sweet and spicy blend of flavours will definitely give you that warm, festive feeling.  My recommendation for this would be to pick up a bag for a cosy Christmas Eve night in with the family and stick on your favourite Christmas movie, maybe even throw in a round of hot chocolates to add that little extra heat to a hopefully snowy winters night. Foll...

As always, I left my fiancé in charge of the review writing. Firstly I am trying to keep this as free from spoilers as I can so it might seem a little jittery. I have a few problems with the movie which I don’t want to leave out if I am honest so I am just gonna put them out there and if I spoil the movie I apologise relentlessly. Firstly, This movie was good, there is no denying that. I don’t want to spend the whole time bashing the movie because I did enjoy most of it. There were some parts which seemed very lazy, a lot of nod-backs and references to the original movies which I think maybe for this movie were ok but if they continually happen in the next two movies they’ll get old very quickly, much like the characters from the original movies! The action scenes were turned up a notch, a lot more tension in some scenes which was well balanced with the humour of some other scenes. So, what didn’t I like? Well, I’m gonna talk about Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. Origina...

As I write this i've not actually had time to make a gingerbread house from scratch this holiday season, so heres how I made one a couple of years ago - the photo of it got me into the final round of the Canon Christmas photo competition! I'm guessing I didn't win because I use a Nikon! Ingredients List 350g plain flour 175g brown sugar 100g butter 1 medium egg 4 tablespoons of golden syrup 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1½ teaspoon of ground ginger Icing Sugar Sweets to decorate Step 1 Rub in the flour, butter, ginger and bicarbonate of soda together. Step 2 Add the sugar, syrup and egg and mix everything together until it forms a dough Step 3 Roll out your dough and cut to the required shapes. I got a house template online and used a cookie cutter for the trees. Step 4 Bake on a baking tray for 10-15min at 180ºC Step 5 Decorate and display/enjoy. I used green and red Nerds sweets as Chri...

As the UK Disney Store don't seem to be selling Vinylmation at all anymore, I made sure I got a few on our trip to Disneyland Paris. Here are the ones I unboxed there, and I also have a few more waiting for me to open on Christmas Day so keep checking back to find out which other Vinylmation I got! Christmas 2015 Mickey Mouse Mickey's Really Swell Diner Mickey Mouse Topper Goofy Peter Pan Series Jealous Tinker Bell Pixar Series 3 Wall E Guido Bruce (unboxed twice) Edna Mode CHASER Haunted Mansion Series 2 Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook