a stressful week & food haul! 😍 weekly vlog

It's not looking good, bruv. Months in the making. Thought we could try a halloumi fry together. Oh, they're very squishy. This is the part of running a small business that people don't talk about. It's definitely been a bit of a stressful week. I love seeing other people's food hauls. Why am I excited about it? Hello! Tis me! I'm back with another weekly vlog. I'm excited to film this. Not that I've really got much going on this week, but we'll see what happens. I'm gonna mention this right at the start of this vlog so you all see it before you've clicked off. Because I know you do. I know I get boring. I know I waffle. But I want to know in the comments down below what kind of content would you like to see from me? I've been struggling a little bit lately with what content I should make. What I want to make. What you guys want to see. Do you want to see vlogs? Do you want to see small business content? Do you want to see what I eat in a day's challenges? Please let me know. Anything goes. I will take any suggestions. But it would be really helpful for me to get some feedback. Please and thank you. Anyway, it's Monday morning. I got up bright and early this morning because I had a UPS delivery arriving. It's here. Thank goodness. I've been waiting for this delivery for probably three weeks now. If not a bit longer. And it's here. It's a brand new product and I'm about to unbox it all and see it for the first time. It's always a little bit scary because obviously a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort has gone into this particular product. I have designed this from scratch. And I've seen a sample, but I made tweaks to the sample and haven't seen it since. So today, I'm seeing it for the first time. No biggie. I'm a bit nervous, but let's open the boxes together, see what the product is like. And my main aim for this week is to get this product on sale on Friday. So I've got five days. Let's see if we can do it. Fingers crossed. By the time you're watching this vlog, this product will be live on the website. So let's open some of the boxes. Please excuse the washing in the background if you can see that. We've been away for the weekend. Right, I'm going to go with this one at the back first because it's opened a little bit in the post. Oh my goodness. It is perfect. And literally exactly how I designed it. Oh my gosh. It's even better than I thought it was going to be. Hang on. Wait, no. This is not a drill. I need to find some more and then I'll explain fully. It feels so surreal. So this new product, it may look like a bag, but it's not just a bag. I don't know if I'm going to change the name of this, but at the minute, I've been calling this the matte bag. So obviously I sell dog accessories. I've got two colors available coming in this, by the way. There's black and white and then there is a beige and black version. But let me show you how it works. Excuse the dog toys, how on brand. So this is what the bag looks like and then it unpops just here, either side and opens up. Then there's a zip that runs down the middle and it opens out like so into a little mat for your dog to sit on and it comes with a human pouch to keep all your phone, your keys, your card holder, whatever you want. So when your dog's sitting on the mat, you can take the little pouch off. You've got a comfortable mat for your dog to sit on. It's padded. It's waterproof. This side, there's a waterproof layer inside. This side is really soft minky dot fabric. It feels lovely. There's a layer of padding in the middle to make it comfortable for your dog. The thought was pub gardens. I needed something for Sonny to sit on. It'd be really good for training, to train your dog to sit on the mat. If you've got a smaller space available, you can fold it up like so. I've used the sample like this with Sonny a few times. Zip it up. And then they've still got somewhere waterproof to sit. You can tuck half of it under your chair if you've got a small dog, so you've got a smaller area for them. And then pops back up. It's got detachable handles to make it easy for washing. A zipped pocket on the front as well for any little extras. If you want to carry your dog's water bottle, toys, treats, this is a fully functioning bag. Nothing is going to fall out of it until it's opened. Put the little human pouch back in. It's got a little ring on the side to clip it to, so it doesn't get lost. And then this is the beige option. This is such a lovely colour. I thought this would be perfect for summer. The inside of it is still black, still nice and practical. Again, it opens up. And the Minky Dot fabric is inside. Months in the making, and they're finally here. Got a little Sunnyside label on the front here as well. Every little detail of this bag has been thought about to a T. Honestly, I've overthought these for months now. Even the colour of the clasps, the shape of the clasps, the fabric of the straps. The original sample actually had faux leather straps, but I didn't think that was as practical to wash because this part was faux leather as well. And also the strap was a little bit too thin, so it's been made a bit thicker, so it's comfortable on your shoulder. I'm so pleased with this. I'm really proud of myself. I never thought that my future would involve one, designing a product from scratch on Photoshop, measuring things out with paper and rulers up in my bedroom, sat on the floor, and also dealing with manufacturers to explain exactly the product I want and have it made to be exactly how I imagined it. GCSE textiles finally coming in handy. Woo! My old textiles teacher would be proud. Good morning, everyone. It is now Tuesday. I am driving to the office currently. My brain today feels empty and full at the same time. And that probably makes zero sense, but hang on, let me put my window up. Yeah, my brain feels very full because I'm trying to launch these bags this week. I'm still missing one of the boxes and I can't launch until that arrives. UPS have no update. I phoned them this morning. They're waiting for the parcel to be scanned apparently. The annoying thing is the depot is like 30 minutes from my house, but there's nothing I can do. I can't go and pick it up. I've just got to wait for them to put it on the van to deliver it. So I'm a bit stressed because it's Tuesday. I want to launch the bags Friday, but currently I'm not able to do that. It also means that I can't fully count my stock. So I can't work out final prices of what it's cost me. There's also so much to do before a product launch anyway, like without issues. You've got to do the website, the graphics, the content, the TikToks, whatever. Like there's so much to think about. So yeah, my brain feels very full. I kind of want to write everything down that I need to do so I can visualize it because I know that will help me. But at the same time, I feel a bit like I'm floating today. I just feel, I don't really have much feeling. I don't feel sad, but equally I don't feel happy. I just kind of feel like meh. It's not looking good, bruv. I've just worked out my final costs for the new mat bags. And do you know what? It's all a learning process. Basically, I'm not making very much profit on these at all. The international shipping at the moment is horrendous because of so many different factors, but it makes each bag so expensive. So yeah, definitely not my most profitable item, but I'm really pleased with the bag. I'm really glad to have it on my radar, under my belt, on the website, and it's my first thing I've completely designed myself. So I've definitely learned from it. And to be honest, even if I was just breaking even with no profit, I still would have done it because I've learned so much from it and it's so nice to have an original product. Anyway, I'm about to package up a few of the bags for my brand reps. That's my next job of the day. Basically, the bags arrive in three different parts. So I'm going to, at some point, just sit and put them all together. So we have the big bag, the little bag for the inside, and the handles. The handles weren't put on before they were shipped out in case it damaged the bags. But that's fine, I'll just put them on myself. I've also made some new stickers for these bags because usually on my orders, I would use these stickers, let the walkies begin. But I thought for the bags, it was a bit more appropriate to have let the adventure begin. Adorable. Got a little note for my brand rep as well. Lovely. Also got a new little sticker. Made this yesterday too. I'm very lucky that my dad has a print business, so any stickers that I need can be made the next day. And he literally works around the corner from me. Right, there we go. So that's how the mat bags are going to be packaged. So it's now Wednesday morning and mum and I have come over to the range because I need to get some tubs for the new stock and the range is where I buy them from. For the mat bags, I've got no storage currently. So that's the plan today. They've moved around everything in our local range, so we were going to be quick, but now we've been distracted by all the sparkly things. They've got lots more boho things than normal, which is personally what I prefer. But you like the sparkles, don't you? Let me show you the aisle we're currently in. It is very, very sparkly. Not my decor, personally. I know a lot of people love this, so if you do, the range has loads. So it's lunchtime and we happen to be by McDonald's and it's the more convenient option today, that's what we're telling ourselves. And today's actually the first day of the Spanish menu. So I got the halloumi fries to try. I'm not that hungry, so I didn't want to get one of their burgers. I just got a McChicken sandwich. But I thought we could try a halloumi fry together. There's four in there for £2.50. It's not too bad, is it? It's more expensive than mozzarella dippers, I think. I'm not exactly sure. I think they've all gone, everything's gone up though. Cheeseburgers have gone up 20p. Oh, they're very squishy. Oh, they smell nice though. Mmm. Are they squeaky? No. Do you want one? Mmm. Yeah, I'll try one, please. They're a little bit spicy, but I think it might be this dip. Is yours spicy? Not too much. No. Oh, I like them. I'll give them a 9 out of 10. Anyway, I'm now going to eat my McChicken sandwich. Got it as a medium meal with a Diet Coke. Stop it. This is really embarrassing, but this is what you get excited about when you get old. So some of my mat bags that arrived came pretty crumpled. Not really, really bad, but like where they'd been so many shoved into a box for shipping, some of them are a little bit creased. And I wouldn't recommend ironing them anyway, so I'm not going to do that. Instead, I bought a steamer to try and get some of the creases out so that they're saleable. And I just picked up the steamer from Argos. Why am I excited about it? Here she is. This is the one that I went for. It had pretty good reviews on the Argos website. The Tefal Access Steam Minute. I can't believe I'm showing you a steamer, but it's quite pretty. A steamer's go. I've just filled up the water tank and I'm going to give it a try. I've laid out the bags that need doing. There's only seven of them, which actually isn't bad going considering how many I've got. It even comes with a little hook to go over your door so you can hang up your garments to steam them. So that was well clever. I'm very impressed. Is that all I have to do? I don't get it. Am I too far away? I don't know if I'm doing it right. Oh my God, it's working. It's working. I am a living genius. Have I not been on Mastermind yet? Ow, it's a bit hot. I think I'll get faster as I do more, won't I? This is the part of running a small business that people don't talk about. I think I meant to brush it like this. That's a lot quicker. I was basically ironing it from a distance. I get it now. It's very satisfying. It's now half past five in the evening and I've just got up to the office. I'm going to take the website pictures this evening. I'm currently sat on the table because this is the best place with the white background to take the photos of the bags. I would usually take them in my little photo box down here, but it's a bit too small for these bags. So luckily we've got big white background on the table. I've brought one of my lights up with me. I've got my camera next to me here and we're just going to do it on the table instead. We're going to improvise. I've just been to M&S and got some goodies and I love seeing other people's food hauls. So let's go. I got some cotton candy grapes. These are the best grapes ever. So, so good. I might actually pop some in the freezer as well. I thought that would be delicious. Little frozen cotton candy grapes. I also got some cherries. I haven't had cherries for ages. I haven't really fancied them. Then in the three, four, eight pounds deal, I've got these little chorizo and they've got like cheese in the middle. Little rolls. They're delicious. Chicken and chorizo empanadas. These go in the oven and these are actually my favorite olives ever from M&S. My dad doesn't like them. He thinks they're boring, but I think they're the best olives. Then I've got a couple of lunchy bits. So I got this Italian pasta. Just a little bit of pesto. You know how it is. Moroccan style fruity couscous. These two together are an elite combo. Not mixed together, just next to each other on the plate like little lunch neighbors. I got some diced chorizo. I thought this would be nice in a pesto pasta for dinner one night. Then I got some classic chicken fillets. I'm planning on doing like little lunch burgers, although I forgot to buy the buns. So we didn't do too well there, but I'm going to put some iceberg lettuce, some mayo, basically a McDonald's McChicken sandwich at home. Then I've been craving little gherkins for ages. Let me know in the comments down below. Do you love or hate a pickled gherkin? I love them. The mini ones are the best. I've been thinking about them for weeks now and then I saw them on the shelf and they were calling me. Picked up a few bits for a couple of dinners. So I've just got some 10% broccoli. We eat this with so many different dinners. It's our favorite vegetable. Gonna do a little stir-fry one night for everyone. So I got the vegetable stir-fry and these best noodles ever. Peanut Pad Thai rice noodles. I just put some chicken from the freezer in with this. Oh, I forgot to get a stir-fry sauce as well. Okay, I'll go back and get a plum sauce at some time. Not doing too well really, am I? These little potato croquettes. Croquettes? Croquettes. Croquettes, I would call them. Super yummy. I thought they'd go nicely with some salmon fillets. Then the last couple of things I got were some biscuits. These are my favorite biscuits ever. Biscuits, cakes, I can't be bothered to have a debate with you, if I'm honest. But the peach and passion fruit is unreal. And last but not least, these little almond biscuits. These ones are my mum's favorite. And that is everything I got. So not a massive food shop, just a few little lunchy essentials. When I move out, I will not be doing the weekly food shop in M&S. It is spinny. But sometimes you've just got to treat yourself and lunch is my favorite meal of the day. I feel like lots of people would think this plate consists of gross items, like the gherkins and the olives. But to me, this looks delicious. I've got a couple of chicken and chorizo empanadas in the oven to go with it. And this is today's lunch. I love an M&S picky lunch more than anything in the world. So it's now Friday. It's about 7 o'clock. Sunny won't walk because... Sunny, come here. Sunny doesn't like it when I'm not holding the lead, so she refuses to walk. Are you going to walk now while I vlog? Then I'll hold your lead again. Yeah? Deal? Okay. Anyway, like I was saying, it's about 7 o'clock. The bags launched an hour ago. I did manage to get them up Friday evening, which I'm really pleased about. It's definitely been a bit of a stressful week. A bit packed. Sorry, I'm looking at Sunny so I don't stand on her. It's been a busy, busy week. But we got there in the end. And the black bags sold out in 10 minutes. Less than 10 minutes. And most of the beige bags have gone as well. So it's gone really well. I'm really pleased. And now I thought I would share with you my little evening routine. What I'm going to do this evening. Something not work-based because I feel like this vlog's been very work-y. So, 7 o'clock. We're out for a walk with Sunny. We're going down to the park. Here she is. On our way. On our jolly. Is that what it's called? On our jolly. Is that the saying? Off on our jolly. To the park. For a bark. She's walking so slowly. Come on, Eeyore. Let's go. Ready. Steady. Go! There she goes. Sunny. Come! Good girl. What a good girl. What's this? While I've been sat editing some of this vlog this evening. Mum has cooked dinner. We've got spag bol tonight. And it looks delish. Spag bol. Pasta bolognese. Whatever you want to call it. This pasta shape. These little twirls are superior. It's got spag bol. A little bit of parmesan cheese on top. And obviously a side of garlic bread. I know spag bol is a standard. But it's one of my favourite dinners. My evening routine has turned really boring. Because since I had dinner. I carried on editing. It's now 10 o'clock. I usually edit my vlogs on a Saturday night. I'm a proper last minute kind of person with that. But I'm actually going out tomorrow. I'm at a barbecue pretty much all day. So I'm trying to rush and get everything done tonight. I think I've edited the vlog up to this point. With all the music and everything. And that's the bit that takes the longest. I'm doing quite well. Anyway. It's now 10 o'clock. So I'm going to stop for the evening. I'm going to go and wash my hair. I'm such an olaplex girl. But I can't rave about it enough. It has truly changed my hair. To the point where even my hairdresser noticed. She was like your hair feels lovely. When I last went in. I use the number 4 and number 5 shampoo and conditioner in the shower. And then I'll show you what else I use when I come out. Now that I slightly resemble a corpse. I have washed my hair. Just brushed through it. And the next thing I'm going to use is the olaplex number 6. You only need a really small amount of this though. And that will do for the whole ends of my hair. Rub it together with my fingers. And it just goes through the ends. And then the other product I use. I've got another olaplex. To be fair. I know olaplex is expensive. But these products have lasted me months so far. And I'm only half way through this one. As you can see. And this. I got this at the same time. This is the number 7 bonding oil. Look how little of that I've used. And I use it every time I wash my hair. It's insane how long it lasts. I just do 1, 2, 3 dabs of it. Rub it together. And comb it through. We stan Harry Styles in this house. Although we kind of don't. Because Harry Styles. Fun fact. Has robbed me of like £400. Not personally. Long story short. I bought tickets to his tour. It kept getting postponed. It got cancelled. I never got the refund. And those tickets were over £300. And then. When he did the one night in London. I thought you had to buy a vinyl. To get the pre-sale code. So I bought the vinyl for £30. Turns out you could get the code for free. And I didn't even get tickets with the pre-sale code. So. Thank you Harry Styles. At least I got a t-shirt from the last tour. Right. Anyway. Next step. I'm going to dry it. With my little Dyson Airwrap. By the way. I just want to point out. I did chase and chase. For the refund. From Ticketmaster. It's not like I just let that £300. Whatever it was. Go. I phoned almost weekly. For months. And the money basically got lost. Between them. And my bank. Because my card details have changed. The bank don't have it. Ticketmaster don't have it. It's just gone into the abyss. Apparently. Right. Let's give it a little whizz. And then once I've got sick of drying it. Which is pretty quick to be fair. I swapped the head. For this one. I swear by this. I'm going to have my hair straight. For the barbecue tomorrow. And this is the. Smoothing. De-frizzing. Head. I don't know what it's called. But it's going to basically give me a head start. For being straightened tomorrow. And it makes your hair feel lovely. I didn't use it for ages. When I first got the Dyson. Because I thought. What a waste of time. I've got a hairbrush. And I've got a hair dryer. Why do I need one combined? But. I was wrong. Watch this frizz transform. Tell me you can see a difference. Right. It looks so much smoother. Anyway. My hair is done. I'm going to head downstairs now. Spend some time with Sunny. And my family. I'll probably play with Sunny for a little while. Although it's quarter to eleven now. So it's nearly her bedtime. I put her to bed at about half eleven. So I might have a little bit of play time. Have a cup of tea. And a few snacks. I'm not sure what my snack of choice is going to be. But I'll bring you along for the ride. Obviously. I completely forgot. I bought these grapes to reminisce. Didn't I? The candy floss ones. Sorry. Tonight's snack is a healthy version. Not going to lie. It would normally be too sweet. But tonight we've got candy floss grapes. A little cup of tea. Lovely way to end the day. Sunny doesn't want to play tonight. So we're sitting down. Having a cup of tea. Having a cuddle. And watching Catfish UK. Aren't we? You love catfish. I actually much prefer Catfish UK to the American catfish. But I really like Uber as a presenter. And Nella's on this series as well. Nella Rose. There she is. And I really like them together. I just. I don't know. I prefer it in the UK I think because everything's close and you recognise the places more. So it's Saturday. I am almost ready to go to the barbeque. I've just got to do a few touch ups in my hair. The barbeque I'm going to is one of my boyfriend's friends and all my boyfriend's friends will be there. And I haven't met all of them yet. So it'll be a really nice day to meet everyone. Have some good food. And chill out a bit after this week. I'm really sorry if this vlog has lacked a little bit. I have just been so busy every day. I feel like I forgot about the vlog a little bit. But I hope you managed to enjoy it anyway. If you did please do give it a big thumbs up and don't forget to let me know in the comments down below what kind of content would you like to see from me. Do subscribe. Stick around. I would really appreciate it. Join the family. Why not? But anyway. Thank you very much for watching. I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday and I'll see you again next week with another little video. Bye guys. Love ya.