March Kawaii Box

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a fantastic Saturday. I'm looking forward to tonight; I'm going on a night out with one of my closest friends and I can't wait! It's time for another review of the lovely Kawaii Box :) I hope you enjoy reading! 

Inside this month's box: (1) Kawaii Pets Sticker Sheet, (2) Friendly Bear Colour Pen, (3) Panda Sleepmask, (4) Happy Mini Towel, (5) Emoji Plush Charm, (6) Cute Travel Lock, (7) Polygon Bracelet, (8) Stick Chewing Gum Eraser, (9) Apollo Chocolate DIY Kit & (10) Kokeshi Notebook. 

It was exciting opening this month's kawaii box and being greeted by a big bright box! When I noticed that it was a DIY chocolate-making kit, I was really happy and although it looks like there's going to be strawberry flavoured chocolate inside (which I'm not very keen on), it's made by Meji which a popular Japanese chocolate brand so it should be yummy! I can't wait to have a go at making these super cute chocolates!

 

The Kawaii Box never fails to send me an adorable sticker sheet every month, and this month is no exception! It's great because they are stickers that I can't easily find here in the UK. I received these lovely puffy dog stickers, which includes little paw prints and dog accessories too. I love puffy stickers! It's always good to have a big supply of pens so you can always find another when the pen you're using runs out! This pen is cute, but it's not my favourite as it's very thin and I just prefer to have thicker pens. The tip of the pen reflects the slenderness of it's appearance and I don't like writing with pens like this at all. The colour of ink in my pen is purple, but this might vary in other boxes. 

One of the things that I love about the Kawaii Box is that I  get some really random little items that I wouldn't typically search for to buy but are quite useful and will come in handy at some point :) It does suggest in the item description that the 'password lock' can be used for travel but it seems too small so I'm not sure what luggage it could be used for. I think it's more appropriate for a little locked trinket box. I like the pink and aqua colour combination with the coloured 'dials' or whatever they are called, as well as the cute little bear? face on the lock. How adorable is the Kokeshi notebook? I love a nice mini notebook that can fit easily into my handbag. Although this notebook is very thin so won't take me long to fill up, the sweet illustration on the cover makes up for it! It's a very bright, cheerful design. Apologies for the light glare on the eraser/rubber! It makes it difficult to see the cute frog on the front of the product. It's a simple little rubber, but this is good as it will fit into a small pencil case. I'm hoping that it's scented because there's an orange on the sleeve which is making me curious. 

This item is so bloody adorable! I don't use sleepmasks because I haven't found one that doesn't annoy me yet! I get easily irritated with things on my face haha does anyone else experience this? Hopefully this will be my dream sleepmask! I'm not too sure though because it has a waterproof plastic texture which I don't like. It's a really nice item nonetheless and is quite padded and squishy so I'm sure lots of people will love it. I love things with polka dot patterns and this bobble (hairbrand) is a lovely shade of pink, but I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed with the item. It feels like it's made from cheap material and isn't very well made in my opinion. There's some loose threads on it and it feels like it might fall apart if it was used, which is a shame because it is pretty. 

 This emoji plush charm is my favourite item in the entire box! Emoji products have been really popular lately and I liked the emoji cushions that have been all over the shops, but I don't have enough room for any more things on my bed now as it's filled with Amuse plushies! This mini plush charm is the perfect alternative! It's amazingly soft, I love it! Plus this cheeky tongue face is one of the most used emojis on my iPhone. I especially love how bright the yellow is! 

This 'happy mini towel' is probably my second favourite item in the March Kawaii Box. It's super lovely with all the happy cats and the little smiley clouds! I've been planning to buy a new flannel so this came at the perfect time. It's a lovely colour and design, and it feels pretty soft. The blue colour is fantastic too. The final item is this bright, almost neon, pink bracelet. It's not really something that I would wear and I know I would find the polygon-shaped beads irritating on my wrist. I will likely give it to one of my nieces. Overall, I liked the majority of the items that came inside my March Kawaii Box and I think it was another great box!

Thankyou for reading!

♥

What are your favourite items in this Kawaii Box? Have you ever tried any chocolate made by Meji? (If so, what did you think?) What's your most used emoji? 

 

World Stationary Day

Hi everyone! Today is World Stationary Day and as I promised yesterday, I'm going to show you all the stationary that I've brought this month. I absolutely love stationary! I can't go shopping without coming home with a new notebook, another sticker sheet or some more pens! So many of my hobbies involve using lots of stationary so I always like to have my supplies well stocked. I've been writing to penpals for ten years now and I love to send my snailmail on pretty letter paper, with lovely envelopes and decorated with lots of adorable stickers. I also do postcard swapping with people all over the world and like to use colourful pens and cute washi tape when I'm writing postcards. For as long as I can remember, I have loved receiving and sending hand-written letters and postcards! It just feels so much more personal and is a lovely tradition! 

World Stationary Day has been launched for stationary lovers to share their passion for writing and to encourage people to write more letters instead of corresponding via text or email to help keep this wonderful tradition alive! So if you love stationary, show it! Write about it, share photos of what you've bought or have a go at making something crafty using your stationary! Celebrate all the awesome stationary that is available, and try to send something hand-written to your loved ones this year. I hope you all enjoy reading about the newest additions to my stationary collection (it's going to be another pic heavy post!) :) 

The first stationary haul that I did this month was all stickers! I adore stickers; I just love how many different designs, colours, shapes and sizes that they are available in. Whatever kind of stickers you are looking for, there's probably going to be a shop online that sells them! I ordered these gorgeous stickers from an etsy store called kawaiistickers4you which is based in Japan. Japanese stationary is amazing! So adorable and well-designed! I've been ordering stationary from Asia since I first started writing snailmail when I was a teenager as there's so many awesome stationary brands there. I was really happy with this order, all of the stickers are great and were a fabulous price at £2-£2.50 per sheet. 

I purchased the flower stickers because they are the perfect size to add to postcards or to use in my planner. They are so pretty, especially the ones on the left, which are really bright and will be great to use on any mail I write in summer.  

How adorable are these animal stickers!? Alpacas and rabbits are two of my favourite animals so I couldn't resist buying these! I don't come across alpaca stickers very often and when I do, they are always cartoon style so it was nice to see some with actual alpaca designs. They are beautiful alpacas, so fluffy and photogenic! I also loved these stickers because their shape resembles postage stamps. The bunny stickers are so kawaii! The grey bunnies remind me of one of my own pet rabbits so I fell in love with these stickers as soon as I spotted them. 

This lovely etsy store sells so many cute bunny stickers so of course, I had to get more! These stickers are super cute because they are so tiny! Like the flower stickers, they will be perfect for using on postcards and in my planner as they will neatly fit next to any writing. The final item I choose was this Alice In Wonderland inspired sticker flakes pack. It contains 71 stickers in 10 different designs and that's fantastic for the price. I really love these sticker flake sets and this one is awesome. I love Alice in Wonderland and I can't wait to start using these on my letters! 

Last week, I went to Hobbycraft for the first time and I was so overexcited in the car on the way there! I've been wanting to go for years but there's no store in my town, but since I was travelling to Liverpool to get my passport renewed, I just had to visit Hobbycraft whilst I had the chance. So here's what I bought...

 Yes, more stickers! I will never have too many stickers! Is there even such a thing as too many stickers!? :) I'm so happy with these dinosaurs! I'm a big fan of dinosaurs and I love puffy stickers, so there's so much awesome on this one sheet! I also really like these dessert stickers as I thought they'd be nice and bright, and I can use the ice-cream ones for summer! 

I've been after some of these enamel dot stickers for ages as I kept seeing them used by all of the amazing snailmailers and scrapbookers on instagram! They are just so pretty and I'd never seen or heard of them before I started postcard swapping via instagram. I'm thinking of using them to decorate envelopes and to use when I'm decorating pages in my scrapbooks. Talking of scrapbooks, that's what I purchased these awesome 'stick-on decorations' for. They will look great in my scrapbook! 

Another thing I've been meaning to buy for a while is some letter stickers, which I also want to use for scrapbooking or smashbooking (when I eventually get around to purchasing a smashbook!). I think it's awesome how many stickers you get on this sheet for the price, I think they were £2 or £3, and they are available in so many different colours. They are glittery, too! 

I couldn't walk past these lovely gift tags and not buy them! I love the bright pink and gold together, it looks fantastic. Like with the stickers, they are a great price for the amount you get in the pack. They are so pretty and I'm looking forward to using them when wrapping gifts for my loved ones. I've needed some new silver and gold gel pens since I used up my last ones writing Christmas cards and colouring in the stars in my Christmas themed colouring book. I bought them mostly to use in my Game of Thrones colouring book for the weapons, the sigils of the different houses and all the gold that the Lannisters wear! 

 

I'm a sucker when it comes to pastels and I really love this card and envelope set from Dovecrafts. You actually get 8 cards/envelopes in the pack, two of each colour. The colours are beautiful and I think the polka dot design is awesome! They are perfect for Spring and Summer snailmail, and I like how I can mix-and-match one colour of envelope to a different colour card. The cards are blank so I can fit lots of writing inside. I'm really impressed with the quality of the card too. I'm going to check out the other products by Dovecraft.

 The final stationary item that I got from Hobbycraft are these AMAZING dinosaur rubbers/erasers. They are so cool! I love the vibrant colours and the textured detail on them. I love how they are free-standing so I can display them on my drawers. I'll never be able to bring myself to use them as they are super adorable, especially the pink triceratops! I also purchased two none stationary items from Hobbycraft, a pack of really pretty paper cases for baking and some chocolates :) 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

Do you love stickers? Can you recommend any stores for me to check out.

Have you purchased any new stationary this month? I'd love to hear all about it. 

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Things I've bought this month | April

Happy Tuesday everyone! I can't believe it's the last week of April! This month has flown by so fast! It's been such a busy month for me with lots of medical appointments and planning for my little trip abroad next month. One of my best friends & I are heading off to Sweden for a few days and I'm super excited! I'll blog all about our plans very soon :) Over the last month, I've done quite a bit of online shopping and I thought it would be great to show you all in one big post. Be prepared for lots of photos!

I've had my eye on this fantastic brooch for ages now! I featured it on my monthly Kawaii & Geeky wishlist back in November and I am so happy that I've finally got it! I think the overall design of the brooch is so pretty. I absolutely love how well-detailed the T-rex skull is! I've been after some awesome feminist merch for a while to wear on my jackets and bags, and I can't wait to show this one off! 

 I purchased the 'Dinosaurs Eat Man' brooch from Kate Gabrielle's fabulous etsy store sweetandlovely, and it came in such nice packaging! It was lovely to be greeted by a bright pink padded envelope when the postman arrived. The brooch was packaged inside a cute box with a lilac band wrapped around it... I love how it was tied into a little bow! I also love the tiny card that came with my brooch, which has the most adorable 'Cutie Pi' illustration on it! I'm looking forward to buying more items from this great shop soon. 

How gorgeous is my new phone case!? It's such a lovely shade of blue & the puffin print is adorable! I've not seen any animal designs that are similar to the ones from the etsy shop where I purchased this phone case, with realisitic illustrations VS cartoon ones, and the animal nerd in me much prefers the realisitic designs. I think this phone case is just wonderful and I've already got more from this seller on my wishlist! I purchased my puffin case from Clorty Cat Crafts. 

I absolutely loved the packaging of this item. It was my favourite of all the orders I received this month! Inside the box, the seller packaged my phone case in a striped blue and white paper bag, and also included the yellow and white paper bag (shown above) which contained my order details, a super cute cat postcard and a caramel biscuit in the most adorable blue polka dot wrapper. The seller wrote a hand-written note on the postcard thanking me for my purchase, which I thought was really sweet. Another addition to the packaging that I loved was the colourful tissue paper circles sprinkled inside!

I am really over the moon with my order from the Candy Doll Club, an amazing etsy shop run by Jade Boylan. All the items I bought are gorgeous, so eye-catching and colourful! I mean, look how pretty this Selfie Girl postcard is! It's such a fantastic illustration and so detailed, especially her tattoos and hair. Her eyes look amazing and the entire postcard is just so bright! The Selfie Girl instantly reminded me of one of my favourite singers, Melanie Martinez. I'm really looking forward to finding a pretty frame so I can display it on my bedroom wall. These fabulous patches are the reason for my order. I kept spotting them on instagram and I just had to have some! There are really great especially with their awesome feminist slogans and are so well-made and soft! 

Something I really enjoyed was the presentation of my order. My items were sealed inside a lovely pink and white paper bag. I just love receiving items in these paper bags because it always makes me think about buying penny sweets when I was little :) There were some lovely additions found inside this paper bag, including a little membership sticker for the Candy Doll Club's Girl Gang and a print covered with the cutest illustrations. I think it's really sweet when seller's add little freebies in with their orders.

At the beginning of the month, I was browsing the new products on Tofu Cute, which if you haven't heard of it is an amazing UK store that sells items from Japan & other East Asian countries, and as usual this always ends with me having a shopping cart full of items! haha They sell much awesome items so I just can't help myself. This time, my order included an adorable neko atsume memo pad, some kawaii wrapping paper with gift tags, some delicious milk chocolate pocky (which I ate before taking my photos, oops!) and a packet of Japanese candy that I've been wanting to try for years! I've been a little obsessed with the neko atsume game for a while now and have been lusting over all the adorable merchandise since the very first time I played it. I'm so happy to finally have my first neko atsume product, this lovely A6 memo pad. It has four different page designs inside and the pages are a great size. It's just amazing. 

I actually squealed when I set eyes on this Pastel Alpaca Skies gift wrap, it's perfect in every way. The lilac background colour is so pretty and all of the kawaii pastel cartoons of alpaca, sheep, hamsters, tofu and shooting stars are gorgeous! I don't think I'll ever be able to use this wrapping paper to actually wrap presents because I want to keep it forever. The tofu cute gift tags are really cute too. 

I can't believe I actually have these sweets! If any of you are fans of the Studio Ghibli movies, you should recognise them straight away. They are the colourful star-shaped candy featured in Spirited Away, the ones that Lin feeds to the adorable soot sprites in Kamaji's boiler room. They are traditional Japanese sugar sweets called Konpeito and they look so yummy and pretty! I'm a massive Ghibli fan and I was so giddy when these arrived in the post! Not sure if I'll open them any time soon though, because I just want to treasure them *my precious*. 

Of course I had to include a gif of the soot sprites scrambling to collect the Konpeito! I absolutely love this scene :) I hope you all enjoyed today's post! I actually have a few more items to show you all but I'll save them for tomorrow's post for World Stationary Day. If you love stationary then be sure to check back tomorrow evening (hint: STICKERS!). 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

What's your favourite item featured in this post? Have you ever ordered from the shops I've mentioned? (if so, what did you buy?). I'd love to hear all about what you've been buying this month, let me know in the comments. 

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An Afternoon in the Woods | Earth Day 2016

If you didn't know, today is Earth Day :) It's an annual occassion that was established in the 1970's as part of the environmental movement, to remind us all that we need to look after our beautiful Planet. We need to do our best to contribute to the current efforts that are being made to protect the natural world, even the smallest contribution can help make a difference! Every Earth Day, I try to make sure I go out and surround myself with nature, even if it's just sitting in the garden, listening to the birds sing and watching the leaves blow in the wind. I feel close to nature this way and it gives me the opportunity to truly immerse myself in it's beauty. I've always felt so relaxed and at peace when I'm surrounded by nature! This year I decieded to take a trip to the local woods with my mum and I spent a lovely few hours there this afternoon. 

One of my passions is nature photography and after having a difficult last few months due to mental health, I didn't get out much and it made me really sad. I was so happy to explore the woods with my camera today! Woods and forests are my favourite places; there's just so much gorgeous fauna & flora to see there. I saw some lovely animals... squirrels, a big bird of prey, ducks and lots of adorable dogs. I got to hug the cutest black labrador puppy! However, the highlight of my day was seeing a Eurasian Jay for the first time! Being the animal nerd I am, I actually got a little teary-eyed, and got so overexcited that I managed to get a photo of this gorgeous bird. It was honestly so beautiful with it's colourful feathers. At the end of the journey, I stopped at the pretty little 'Olde England Kiosk' to treat myself to an ice-cream. I had a wonderful time, and I hope you enjoy my photographs!

-Photographs taken in Sunnyhurst Woods, Darwen-

Happy Earth Day Everyone! 

Thankyou for reading! 

& Remember to Reduce. Reuse. Recycle to help protect our Planet! 

 ♥

 What did you do this Earth Day? What little things do you do to help the environment?  

 

The Sad Ghost Club

Hey everyone! Today's post is going to be about my recent order from The Sad Ghost Club, an awesome project set up to spread awareness about mental health. It's Depression Awareness week so I thought it would be a great time to blog about the project and show you some of the comics and merch they make to get people to talking more about mental health. 

The Sad Ghost Club project is really awesome! I absolutely love the work they are doing to promote mental health awareness, such as working with mental health charities. The illustrations they create are beautiful and all their messages are positive and encouraging, and aim to help people who are struggling with their mental health. I ordered a few items from them, which all came wonderfully packaged in a little box with the super cute ghost logo on the front. The box was lined with red tissue paper and it had the appearance of many subscription boxes I've seen... I was really impressed with the packaging. Inside was a pack of four badges, a self care booklet and a pack of four postcards, along with a few little extra things. 

 The first items that I took out of the box were these adorable little button badges. I love how each badge has a unique design and that they are all beautifully illustrated and colourful. Three of the buttons have a lovely statement on them and I can't help but smile when I look at them. They are sweet little reminders that you are doing great and everything is going to be okay. The final badge simply says 'Sad Ghost Club' so it will be nice to put this one on my bag where people can see it, helping to spread awareness of the project. 

 The next item that I looked at was the 'Guide to Self Care' booklet. I was really curious about what this booklet would contain inside and I discovered that it's such a helpful little book filled with comic-style illustrations, information all about how important self care is and sections to fill in yourself. This would make a fantastic gift for any of your loved ones who are struggling, just to remind them to look after themselves. Included with the booklet was an adorable sticker reading 'Take Care of Yourself' bordered with pretty little flowers and a gorgeous postcard/print. This states 'Be Kind to Yourself, Love from The Sad Ghost Club' surrounded by fantastic illustrations of mountains, leaves and ghosts with tiny speech-bubbles filled with kind words. 

 

 One the back of the postcard/print, there is a membership certificate to fill in with your name to state you are an official member of The Sad Ghost Club. I think this an adorable addition to the order and I really like it! I love the level of detail that's gone into the design of the self care booklet and this certificate, the artists' work is amazing!

The last items I purchased were the postcards: a set of four exceptionally illustrated postcards, all with a different design. One of the many things that I love about the design of these products is all of the natural elements used in the illustrations: mountains, the weather, leaves, inserts, and more. They are just gorgeous! The postcard above on the left is my favourite design out of all the postcards. I adore the cute little skulls, the flowers and leaves of various colours, and there is even a little pair of green socks! :) It's so vibrant! The little sticker you can see in the photograph above is one of the freebies added to the box. 

 Here are the other two postcards, which again have stunning artwork. I especially like the under the sea theme on one of the postcards, featuring seaweed and other aquatic plants, as well as shells and bubbles. I think the quote of this postcard is also my favourite in the entire box, 'Allow Yourself to Be Where You Are'. This is a nice reminder that recovery takes time and that it's okay to do things at your own pace. Remember that you are trying your best and you should be proud of yourself for that. I wish I'd taken a photograph of the back of the postcards to show you all the pretty leafy border that surrounds the area where you write your message; it's another cute addition to the design. The little blue heart sticker is the second freebie that came with my order, and I think it's another lovely reminder that it's okay to be sad sometimes. 

Overall, I was very happy with my order. I feel good that I have been able to support all of the hard work and effort that goes into the running of this project. I can't wait to get more of their merch! I think it's so important to get people discussing mental health more openly, and projects like The Sad Ghost Club can really make a difference in changing people's attitudes towards talking about their feelings and their own mental health. The more we talk about mental health, the less stigmatised it will become and making little steps towards this goal are crucial. Even wearing something like the gorgeous button badges can make a difference to at least one person's day, they could see the statement 'You got this!' and it might put a smile on their face and give them a little boost of confidence to get through whatever challenges they may face that day. 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Do you know of any of other mental health projects? I'd love to hear about them.

Also, who else has purchased from The Sad Ghost Club? What did you get? 

 

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