Help Japan!

We have all seen the awful pictures that have come from the aftermath of the Earthquake in Japan. As the story starts to disappear from the main news, we need to ensure that the situation does not fade from our minds, and that we realise it os going to take alot of time to recover the country and that Japan will need help! So if you can, please make a doantion in any way that you can! The easiest is direct to the Japan Tsunami appeal, via the Red Cross - http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now
or if you want to support Japan through your love of Kawaii, then you can do that through various generous peeps. Just a few that I've found are - http://www.rilakkumashop.com - This shop is selling limited editions Rilakkuma plushies to help raise funds for Japan. So not only can you bag yourself something unusual, but you will also be helping a worthy cause!!
www.askingfortrouble.org - The very talented and kind Marceline from Asking for trouble is giving donations of £4 for every copy of her Kawaii Japan book to the red cross. This runs until April 9th. This book is "A self-published book of writing, photography and illustration from three trips to Japan", if any of you haven't looked at Marcelines site, I reccomend it, as her illustrations are amazing and she has really cute stuff for sale in her shop!
If you check out the Gorilla mouth blog (http://www.gorillamouth.com) you will see that is planning Kaiju for Japan, with people submitting art, which will go on sale April 22nd to raise funds. I would check it out, as the pics show some amazing pieces are being submitted!!
I was reading the Modes for you facebook group yesterday and saw this pic/info on Project holding hands, all popular characters coming together, to raise a smile, and to encourage people to be positive, especially children. I think thats what hits home most, the Japanese peoples bravery and positivity. They have been through such trauma, but they are already looking to the future. My friend Nao is Japanese, and lives in Tokyo, and I was so worried when I saw the headlines. I emailed her immediately, and thankfully she was able to answer back, saying she was ok, very scared but ok. I've only heard from her once since then, i'm sure she's doing fine, but I feel that doing what I can from this end, is showing my support to her!
So help where you can!!

First Giveaway - Enter to Win March 27th - April 3rd 2011

Well this will be my first giveway competition!! It will be a test to see who is looking at my blog. (Fingers crossed some do, my page count keeps going up :{)
So this giveaway is open to all readers, both local and international (I may regret the postage costs on this, lol). Giveaway runs from tonight through to Sunday 3rd April 2011. The winner will be announced Monday 4th April.
As you may remember a few posts ago, I wrote about the Cute Character Rebecca Bon Bon, the adorable little french bull dog who is my namesake. Well in keeping with the theme, you could win some Fab Rebecca Bon Bon stationery! This includes a Ringbinder, set of gel highlighters and a pencil, which has a Rebecca Bon Bon charm attached.
To enter - leave a comment on this blog stating what type of cute character you'd like to be represented by! When posting please make sure that I will be able to contact you, either my email or a live link, and can check the blog on 4th April 2011. One entry per person (Is that just being too optimistic, lol!?!)
Good luck, and hopefully I will see some entries!! Fingers crossed!

Another year older!

Hello!!! I've been away for a while! Work has been uber busy, and I just haven't had chance to do anything at all, we have a new regional manager, he was coming to visit etc, so yeah busy busy! Then before I knew it, it was my birthday!! I have officially turned 28 now (Boo!) I suppose i'd better change my personal info, bleh! But I must say, it was a lovely birthday, that has spanned over many days! For example I was still receiving presents today! I have been incredibly spoilt, and received some amazing presents (Dave got me an Ipad for one!). At the last count I had 49 cards!! My family and friends are so generous, it's unbelieveable. I spent the weekend in Manchester with my friend Lizzie and on the Saturday, all of the Manchester crew met up for a meal at the Spicy Hut, which was lovely! Just a few samples of the amazing presents I got -
Jimmy got me the Cute Book and the Bad Book - I cannot wait to try and make some of these things!
Loui got me a Manga and then this cute Happy Birthday Hello Kitty model.
Lizzie got me dvds, rollerskate keyrings, this amazing Russian Doll face purse, which came with a really cute hairclip! Then as an added surprise, she got me this amazing Noodle Bowl from Paperchases Tokyo daytrippers range!
Then today I was given a gift from Diane and her daughter Anna from work, these really unusual Hello Kitty bands, which I love! (I have no idea why this photo has gone sideways, it's saved the right way!)
So all in all I have been a very lucky girl! Maybe turning 28 isn't so bad!!
I will hopefully be updating more reguarly again, and in the next couple of days I will be attempting my first giveaway competition! So watch this space!!

Birthday updates!!

See I knew I wouls forget!!!
This week Big Happy Birthday wishes went to my friend Kaye, and extra big ones because they had to make it all the way to Japan, to my friend Nao!!!

Hops you had a great day both of you! xxx

My cute Namesake!!

2 weeks ago, my Mum bought me a cute little shopping bag featuring a little black bulldog and the name Rebecca Bonbon, from a local shop called Home Bargains. It stocks everything from food, to toys, to books, and it constantly gets new stock, and I have been very lucky in the past getting Hello Kitty items, plus other kawaii things, all at really good prices. My Mum's main motivation for buying the bag for me, was A)The cute dog, B)The fact it had Rebecca on it! I absoloutely love it, and it's amazing how handy a small shopping bag can actually be.
Then on Saturday I popped into Home Bargains for some cereal, and they must have had a delivery, because they had a load of Rebecca Bonbon stationery! The prices ranged from 49p - 99p, so I couldn't really resist and bought quite a few items! (Well at work, it'll scream out it belongs to me!) So I treated myself to the Ringbinder, pink notebook, muti-colour pen (which is also a mechanical pencil), a small gel pen (very handy), pencil with a dangly Rebecca Bonbon, than lastly a small notebook, which isn't actually a notebook, when you open it you find it's full of sticky notes! Which for me, is very handy indeed! After I wobbled home, with my bagful of purchases, I decided to look up this cute little character and find out more about her.
I found the official site www.usarebeccabonbon.com, which has the character bio -
The character Rebecca Bonbon is a super cute French bulldog who was born in Paris and adopted by a young American. Rebecca has impeccable fashion sensibilities and a knack for the finer things in life: travel, shopping, and sweet bonbons. She now lives with her American friend in a fabulous apartment overlooking Central Park.
The site also gives info on Rebecca's creator, who is none other than Yuko Shimizu! Here is her bio -
Yuko Shimizu began her career in 1969 at Sanrio Co., Ltd. after graduating from Musashino Art University. While at Sanrio, Ms. Shimizu created the beloved character Hello Kitty, who is celebrating its 36th anniversary in 2010. As an independent designer, Ms Shimizu oversaw the creation of several publications for Hello Kitty including: "Kitty's Errands," "Kitty's ABC Book," and "Kitty of Candy Land" published by Sanrio.In 2005, Ms Shimizu created the adorable fashion property Rebecca Bonbon for Crown Creative Co., Ltd.
No wonder she's so cute, coming from such design heritage!
Just from a quick look, there's alot of cute merchandise out there, unfortunately mostly in America. I love this top, it would be fun to walk round in an "I heart Rebecca" top. Plus this hat is awesome! I have a penchant for animal hats at the moment, and this one would definately look good in my collection!
Guess i'll have to keep going into Home Bargains!

New Hobbies

"Contemporary roller derby is an American-invented contact sport with roots in sports entertainment. The game is based on formation roller skating around an oval track by two teams. Points are scored as the designated scoring player (the "jammer") of each team laps members of the opposing team, including its "blockers,"[1] hence offense and defense typically occur simultaneously.[2][3]"

Ok here is the proper post! As you may have noticed, a few weeks ago I saw the film Whip it, which I thoroughly enjoyed and it made me look back in fondness, of when I was little and used to have my roller skates (purple and yellow), and what fun I used to have on them, (blocking out the memory of thinking that taking Buster out on his lead whilst wearing said skates, was a good idea! Buster was super fast back then, and it was a painful meetup with a lampost that stopped me ending up in the docks). Plus the night I watched it, I was wearing my Panda Hood, which everyone admired, thus me deciding if I was a Derby girl, my Derby name would be "The Pert Panda". Anyway I bought the dvd myself, and showed it to Dave, who really enjoyed it, but also he was like "Beck, I could totally see you doing this". Then I found out that my town, yes little old Barrow has a Roller Derby team! They are called the Furness Fire Crackers and they started in October last year. Dave went rock climbing at the leisure centre on friday,and from his viewpoint he saw the team practising, at the moment they are learning the basics of skating. I was very interested, but due to lack of gear, and the fact that second hand was still exspensive, I didn't think it was going to be a possibility. Then Valentines came and along with my Boofle Mug! Yay! Dave had ordered me skates, a helemt and Panda laces!! Now i'm just sat here waiting for them to arrive. My plan is to take time practising, and using it as a form of excercise (weightloss thing part of work, another story). So The Pert Panda will be hitting the streets soon, hopefully not literally!
Anyway sticking to my theme, I have found some cute skate related items -
First this lovely collage "Roller Skate girl and bird" by Valerie, she is a freelance designer and runs her own company and blog called Cabin & Cub.
Next, plan on having a party, how about this cute invite by Telma Takara. I love the robot!
Then I found this awesome Etsy shop called Sweetheart sinner, which has this Cute "Hell on wheels" design! I couldn't resist and ended up ordering the necklave version and a Derby girl broach! Very good prices too!
Then last but not least something that would be perfect for my persona! This cute Panda cupcake necklace! Love it!

Celebration!!!

This is just a small post, to celebrate the fact that my blog has been viewed over 1000 times!! Somebody somewhere out there must be taking a look, so thank you!! Now if I could just build up some followers, that would be awesome! Anyway main post coming soon!!

So Yay and Thank you!!!