And We’re Back! (Florida Haul)

Wow, how long has it been since my last post! Apologies for the delay, I was ill before I went on holiday, the I spend two weeks in Florida, then I came back with a cold! Since then I have been doing a lot of overtime at work and I haven’t had chance to write up this post! To add to the complications, my laptop has been shipped off for repair so I can’t even share any of my holiday snaps with you! So for now I will just share my shopping with you instead!

I will split the shopping into sections; souvenirs; clothes; beauty and crafts, so hopefully that will cover something for everyone!

Souvenirs:

Since my last trip to Florida in 2006, I have been collecting pins. My primary collection is of Hard Rock Cafe pins, but I collected plenty on this trip to boost my holiday ones too. I picked up one for each of my two favourite rides (the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean), the Pirates of the Caribbean one opens up to reveal a skeleton. I got a penguin from Seaworld because James’ love of penguins has rubbed off on me and how can you resist those eyes??? I also got some cute mini Marvel characters and a Perry the Platypus pin…who was my character obsession this visit!

In keeping with every holiday (or every holiday destination that has a Hard Rock Cafe anyway…) I bought myself a Hard Rock Cafe pin and this time I also got a patch to sew onto my blanket.

I also got a postcard to add to my collection! I loved this black and white photo of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse peering over the desk. It’s such a lovely postcard, I’m tempted to get it framed!

As we wandered around Epcot I picked up this Perry (!!!) which came in very useful as a fan! And I got it stamped in each ‘country’. On the back, I had my name written in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, as well as getting drawings of the flags from each country. I still need to colour him in though!

Also from Epcot, I got this cute dish from the Japanese shop which I couldn’t resist and I am going to sit in on my dressing table to put some earrings in.

My final and possibly favourite souvenir that I bought was this book written by the Disney Imagineers. The book is about different ways the Imagineers exercise their creative muscles, which is fascinating but also very relevant to a creative writer! I was so excited to get hold of this book that I read it within two days of buying it, around busy days at Disney! Some of the activities they suggested were so inspiring and I will shortly be reading the book again to make notes of tips and things that I want to try!
Clothes

Here are the clothes that I bought on holiday. I can’t believe the amazing value of clothes in the outlets in the US! The only problem is that it is tricky to get clothes suitable for UK weather in Florida! However, I did treat myself to a selection of dresses that I can wear with tights as well as some other things. Also, apologies for the poor modelling on my behalf…I don’t like having my photo taken!

The first outfit that I bought was from J C Penny’s, where I got the top for $9.99 and the shorts for an amazing $6.99! I loved the pattern of the denim jeans and the fit really well! I also loved the style of the top, particularly the zip front.

This dress is my favourite item of clothing that I bought, and I got it from Papaya, which is possibly my new favourite shop! This dress was such a bargain at $15! I loved the floral pattern of the skirt and the shade of pink is really unusual!

On the same trip to Papaya I also got this sheer mint jumper. I love jumpers and the baggy fit is perfect. I was in need of some clothes to go back to university in and this will be great for autumn.

Because I loved Papaya so much, I was sure to squeeze in a second visit before I left and I was so glad that I did! They were selling off some dresses at buy one get one free! That is an offer you never see in the UK, particularly on clothing! The first dress that I picked was this daisy pattern one, which has a really nice fit and looks nice and summery!

This second dress was the one that I got free, making it $13 for two dresses! It is just a basic skater dress but it is quite thick so with some wool tights and boots it will come in handy for university as it starts getting colder. The darker colour also makes it more of a winter dress.

 

This last item isn’t exclusively clothing, but it is jewellery, so it seems most appropriate to group it here. These are two magnets designed by the very talented Mark Poulin, and you buy a necklace that they stick to so that you can wear them, and then change the magnetic design as often as you like! The shop where I bought these didn’t have the starter set that I wanted (which includes the necklace and three magnets) so I ordered one from his Etsy shop, along with another pack of 4 magnets of my choice. They have arrived (and very quickly for that matter, including a free greetings card and a free magnet!) but they are one of my birthday presents so I can’t show you them until December I’m afraid!
Beauty

I only bought a few beauty items when I was away, but I just limited it to things that I an’t get in the UK. My first stop was at Walmart, where I picked up a few bits of make-up.

I bought two Maybelline Dream Bouncy blushes, mainly because I have seen a video of them on Youtube and the fact that they bounce amuses me! I spent ages playing with them after I bought them. There was a pretty limited choice of shades as a lot had sold out, so one is much brighter than I would usually use but I am eager to try it to see how it looks.  I also got a Maybelline Baby Lips from the electric range, as this one is slightly coloured, and the only ones available here are not coloured. I also bought a Hard Candy palette in green shades, as someone said that green eyeshadow suits me and I haven’t got many greens. I loved the lace palette and I have tried a few of the shades, which all look lovely.

While I was away, I had to visit Bath & Bodyworks, as I have heard so many amazing reviews of their items, and I can’t get them here!!! Their pocketbac hand sanitizers were on offer 5 for $5, so I bought ten on my first visit, then another 10 on my second visit because they were still on offer and I had a 20% off coupon. I got a huge range of scents that all smell amazing! I was in the shop for 45 minutes just smelling everything that they had!

I also got two of the holders for the sanitizers, to attach them to my handbag and my uni bag. I got one plain pink one for 50 cents and one fancy one with diamantés on it, which cost $3.50.

Not exactly beauty, but as they were from Bath & Bodyworks I am putting them in this category. I got three of their mini candles for $10. They smell amazing and I don’t want to burn them because they smell so good! I chose Pumpkin Caramel Latte (I also got two of the hand sanitizers in this scent because it is AMAZING!) Harvest Coffee…good for the mornings! And Pumpkin Apple, which smells mainly of apple but it is very sweet and VERY good!

Crafts

The last section of my shopping is the craft section! Possibly my favourite section, I was so excited to find so many wonderful craft supplies at great prices!

One of the first items that I bought was a rubber stamp with penguins on it! I loved the adorable penguins and it was a bargain for only $2! I found it in a lovely craft shop in a small town called Lakeland, quite out of the way of the main tourist attractions in Florida. The second rubber stamp that I bought was from Michael’s…I wish it existed here in the UK! I fell in love with all of the Halloween items available in the US, as I have always loved Halloween but it isn’t really celebrated here. I couldn’t resist this stamp though, and for $1.50 I couldn’t really go wrong!

Also while in the craft shop in Lakeland, I picked up some lovely sheets of paper. They were priced between 99 cents and $1.50 each, so I chose a few. I loved the pastel colours in this one, as well as the cupcake and the bunting!

This one had such a summery feel to it that I couldn’t resist it! The bright colours are really fun and vibrant.

The final sheet of paper that I got was double sided, so I will cut out the images then scan them, so I can print the images on both sides to use. I liked the travel themed images of this one, and it pretty much confirmed that I am going to make a holiday scrapbook!

So when we went to Michael’s I picked up this lovely Reflections Smash Book to put all of my holiday treasures in! I really liked the fact that this book came with a collection of patterned pages it, making it easier for someone like me with little experience of scrapbooking. Here are three of my favourite pages:

 

 

 

I love the fact that the book has such a wide variety of pages, and it means that all of my papers will match certain pages, even though they are all very different.

 

To go with my scrapbook, I picked up a few more supplies from Michael’s, including this set of stickers. I loved this set because the bright colours matched my scrapbook pages and I really liked the bike, the typewriter, the camera, but more than anything, I LOVED the owl with glasses!

 

On a second trip to Michael’s I got a few more stickers for my scrapbook. I chose the’Florida’ pack for my first page, the owls just because they were cute and they match the pastel pages of the book/paper, and the haunted house just because I loved it! At fist I wasn’t sure what to use it for, but I have decided that it can feature as my ‘Haunted Mansion’ in my holiday scrapbook.

 

The final craft item that I bought was this copy of ‘Holiday Crafts’ magazine. I bought it to read on the plane back, but because I was full of cold, I never had chance to look at it! So I can still look forward to having a thorough read of this one some time this week 🙂

I hope you like all of the items that I got from Florida. I had an amazing time and I really wish I was still there! I hope I can go back soon! Once I get my laptop back I will share some of my holiday photos with you too 🙂