Holly Journals April 2017 Box

          I was really looking forward to the Holly Journals box to arrive. I wanted to see what sort of journal the curator was going to include this time. So when it arrived, I was very excited. As usual, Kuwait customs had to take a look inside but they only got as far as opening the box this time. 

          Well, I opened it the rest of the way and the first thing I saw was the information packet. The packet includes a page for April prompts, a page that explains what is in the box and a page that explains how the box came together, plus a little something extra.

  

          If you are interested in finding out in advance what is in the box here is a closer look at the information page. The theme of the box is Spring Ride.

          As you can see at the bottom of the page, that little bit of extra I talked about was a packet of daisy seeds and a garden marker. I'm not much of a gardener but I do know someone who is and she will love to have this packet of seeds, so they already have a home. As to the garden marker? I'm going to use that as a bookmark 😊.

          Now let us get to the good stuff. The reason for the box and the centrepiece, which is the journal. It was wrapped on its own in a really pretty tissue paper, which of course, I am saving. 

Drum roll, please...

Look at this pretty! Also, check out the video below for a look inside.

What I forgot to show at the end of that video is the pretty pocket on the back cover of the journal. It also included a bookmark.

I think I'm in love with this journal. 😍

          Okay, now it is time to fawn over the pens in this box. The box included three pens. One pen I am familiar with, the Sakura GellyRoll Star. The colour of the ink is grey with glitter in it. It writes like a dream, very smooth. The second pen is a Purple-happy day pen (the pink one with polka-dots), and as the name suggests it has purple ink. It has a really thin head, sort of like a Micron Pigma pen. Finally, the third pen is a Mr.Rabbit pen...never heard of it, but it has cute bunny ears. It's filled with black ink.

          Finally, we have two more items in the box. The first is the journal bling, which is really cute and very indicative of spring, and the second item is an envelope full of paperclips and stickers.

      

          Another amazing journal from Holly Journals and a good selection of pens and embellishments. 

Spotlight Stationary Review

          As you'll be able to see from the picture I have two boxes to review for Spotlight Stationary: February 2017 and March 2017.

          My February box was lost in the big badlands of snail mail and when I contacted the curators of the box they were awesome. They followed up with me a few times then said they will resend the February box with the March box.

February 2017

          I'm going to start my review with the February box. The poor box obviously passed through the hands of Kuwait customs. The seal was broken and the tissue paper ripped. Still, there was enough pretty tissue for me to add on to my tissue paper stash. 😀

          I enjoyed reading about how the theme of the month, Letterpress, came about. I also loved reading about the small businesses that the products come from.

          Blue is the dominant color of the box and it is a very beautiful shade of blue. I love it when boxes include an envelope with my name on it. It feels personal and all about me.

          Inside the envelope were four postcards with the fifth one telling you where to find the artists of the illustrations on the cards. They were all cute but my favorite was the one with the sheep.

          I love writing cards to people and sending snail mail, so the next two items in the box were right up my ally. Two packets of writing cards with a cute bunny running, one in blue and one in red, with matching envelopes. There were also 3 tags with a duck on each one and 3 small cards with their envelopes.

          Finally, a small personal sized notebook, hand stitched with a detachable cover that can be used with other notebooks of the same size.

March 2017

          Now I'm going to review the March box. Again the poor box was opened and searched. The theme of this box is double act. I was intrigued. 

          In the personalized envelope there were four beautifully illustrated postcards. My favorite is the bird.

          The next item is the green or orange notebook, which depends on whether you are looking at the front or back cover. I have a sleeve bag that has the same illustration so I'm in love with this little notebook.

          The box also includes a jumbo double sided red and green pencil and an art pen. I can't wait to use both in my lettering and drawings.

          Finally, there was the most beautiful and unique notebook I've ever seen. It is a Daycraft Signature Due notebook. And the reason it is unique can be seen in the video below.

          All in all, I loved both boxes. They had a lot of enjoyable items and most of all I am very excited by the Daycraft notebook.

Robert Mason March Box 2017 Review

          The poor Robert Loves box arrived a little banged up but non-the-worse for wear. Aramex can be tough on the poor boxes and Kuwait customs are no better.

          I opened up the box and the first thing I saw was the beautiful tissue paper. The second thing I saw was the box theme, which is "Craftsmanship - Reclaimed".

According to the paper that came with the box, there were 14 items in the box.

       The first items that caught my eye were the ruler and pencil. They are handcrafted from reclaimed wood. They have a rustic vintage feeling to them and the craftsmanship is really refined.

          I've never seen a landscape pad here in Kuwait...well I've seen on now ☺. It is made from recycled paper, and I think it is hella cute. 

          The box also contained two Field Notes memo books. They have 48 pages each, with one being a ledger (ruled) and the other had graph paper. I'm a mechanical engineer and these two memo books will come in handy. 

          I think my husband is going to love the slide wristband. He loves handcrafted items and this one is made from cowhide which is something he's not worn before.

  

          Next is an assorted selection of cards and accompanying envelopes. The smaller ones are really colourful and cute. They were clipped together with a binder clip. The bigger ones have a satin look and feel and feel more formal than the smaller ones. They are really pretty.

          The curators of the box also included some crumbles, which are bits of wax left over from making candles. The add Pillars to the wax so it can be used in electric warmers. We don't have those in Kuwait BUT I'm sure I'll find a new purpose for them...probably in my compositions. 

          Last but not least, pens and pencils. The box included a great selection: 2 mechanical pencils and four pens.

Orange: Paper Mate clear point mechanical pencil 0.7mm. What I love about this pencil is that the lead inside it is actually orange and not black.

Red: Pentel Sign Pen, touch, read ink.

Blue Cap: Sakura Gelly Roll 06

Black: Pentel Slicci 0.25mm ball, black

Blue: Pentel Twist-Erase GT 0.7mm, mechanical pencil. This one had an interesting system where the eraser comes out and can be twisted back inside the cap.

Yellow: Paper Mate Flair, medium, yellow. I'm glad I got that. I had heard so much about them and was thinking of getting some to try out. Now I can try it out and see if I like it.

          Overall, the box was a great introduction to this subscription. I can see myself using every single item and I'm totally looking forward to what Robert Mason has in store for us next.

OwlCrate March 2017 Box Review

          OwlCrate was the first subscription I looked at when I was looking for subscription boxes for books. I'm a book-dragon, (I refuse to be called a bookworm 😜) and I wanted a box that catered to that. I read the description but wasn't sure so I shopped around some more. However, I kept coming back to check it out. Finally, I decided  "What the heck, I can always cancel it if I didn't like it."

          It took a while for the box to arrive, but that was down to Kuwait customs and Aramex rather than the people at OwlCrate. They sent it on time and it arrived pretty fast to my holding box in the USA. 

      

          Opening the box, the first thing I saw was a postcard with a beautiful picture that tells you about the theme of the box. On the back of the postcard, you see an explanation of what the box is all about and where the items came from. 

I really liked that. I liked knowing where the items came from, this way if I wanted more of them or something along similar lines I knew where to look.

Under the postcard, I found a pouch and a button. The button was really cute, it had an owl pirate on it and it made me laugh so hard (yes...silly things will make me laugh).

The pouch contained a compass pendant necklace, which was designed by the people at OwlCrate and produced by The Geeky Cauldron. The necklace is really pretty and I can totally see myself wearing it. 

          The next thing I saw was cloth. At first I didn't know what it is (I have a habit of not reading content lists until I look at all the items in the box) and when I opened it I realized that it was a tea towel. It had a beautiful hand printed design on it and it came from Kitch Studios.

          Underneath the towel were two things that I tend to hoard: a notepad and a roll of washi tape. The washi tape had scales on it, which was inspired by the mermaid picture on the postcard and it was made by Simply Gilded.  

The notepad had a cute octopus and came from Boygirlpart. 

Apparently, there were two designs made for the notepad and which one you got was random.

          The next few items were my favourites of the favourites from this box. In fact, it can be said that they are the reason I got this box.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller, is a book that I have not read from an author I had not heard about before. This is perfect for me because I love to try new authors and expand my horizons.

The letter from the author, the signed bookplate, and the temporary tattoo were all beautiful touches that made the box and its contents special for me.

          The people at OwlCrate also included a sneak peak for next month's theme, which is "Head Over Heals". I can't wait!

          I'm so glad I got this subscription box, it is well curated and the items are all a delight. Even if it had been just the book, I would have been happy as it was by someone new to me. New authors and new books were the reason behind me getting a book subscription after all.