In the Mail… for Halloween!

Halloween always seemed wonderful to me! Unfortunately, my country does nothing about it... However, a very dear friend of mine sent me a whole bunch of amazing things from the United States so I could celebrate anyway!

Of course that means there's some candy involved... And it was all delicious and chocolate-y! I received marshmallow Jack-O-Lanterns, chocolate ghosts, and these amazing little chocolates, some of which were even orange-flavored!

I also burned an amazing smelling candle. Pumpkin-spicy-Fall-goodness is floating all through my living room!

I couldn't dress up and go trick or treating, of course, but all these items definitely gave me that Halloween-feel!

Are you going door-to-door tonight? If you have a costume, leave it in the comments, I'm always curious! And I hope you'll have a wonderful Halloween! Even if it's a makeshift one at home, like me, because those are awesome too!

Looking Back on October

This was the first month of proper Fall. It's getting colder. In fact, I don't find myself spending time outside for fun anymore. The season of impromptu walks is definitely over. But in it's place come cozy days at home.

• I reviewed a wonderful Kawaii Box!
• And am giving one away. Yes, you can still join!
• Tracked down a book I almost missed out on. (I'm sure I'll elaborate soon.)
• Went to Stephen Fry's live cinema event.
• Attended a local animal charity fundraiser.
• Had a lot of medical appointments, for both me and the cat.
• Got a quirky plushie in the mail.
• Tried out a cute little lunchroom to celebrate a friend's birthday.
• And received some amazing Autumnal gifts myself, from another dear friend. (More on that very soon!)

How are you handling the change of the seasons? Any exciting/cozy plans for Fall?

Sponsor Call: November

November will be here very soon. Winter is creeping up on us, as are the holidays. If you'd like to get a couple more Christmas shoppers in, or have some fun winter posts planned, an ad on this blog might be just the thing for you!

Here's the basic info:

-Large ad: $20 - includes interview, tutorial or guest post ONLY 1 AVAILABLE!
-Regular ads: $8 or $20 for 3 months
-Small ads: $5 or $12 for 3 months

Or if you have a product that fits the blog, giveaways and reviews are nice options to showcase your items as well.

Read more about it here. Or Email Me if you're ready to reserve a spot or discuss a giveaway/review.

Owl Things Considered

ModCloth will soon release a bag that combines two of my favorite things: owls and books! Granted, the purse is probably too small to be a practical everyday bag -and the owl is small too!-, but it would be perfect for special occasions.

Or it might come in handy for a quick trip to the bookstore! I also love that you can use it either as a shoulder bag or as a clutch. You could probably even put the strap inside and store the purse on your bookshelf!

The brand it came from seems really cool too. They also have a make-up bag that looks like a vintage sewing pattern. Check out all the other products by Disaster Designs by clicking this link.

"Back Then, Baby, It Didn't Seem So Strange…"

My favorite song of this whole entire year is definitely Dearly Departed by Shakey Graves and Esme Patterson. I found it somewhere during the summer and have been coming back to it again and again. It's just amazing!

The album version of the song is good too, but nothing beats this live version! Apart from it being a wonderful song, I love how you can see they're really having fun with it! Also, on a more shallow note, her hair is super cool.

Mixed Shelf #17

Rainy Fall days always get me in the mood for middle grade fantasy books. There's something extra cozy about that combination. Throw in a purring cat, a warm blanket and a good cup of tea and I am content for hours on end!

Wanting: Fire Spell by Laura Amy Schlitz

Was it the cover that drew me in? Absolutely! …but I am also curious about the story. It does sound quite sinister, but it's a children's book, so it might still be doable. It involves orphans, magic and an evil puppeteer that turns one of the protagonists into a marionette by controlling her body and mind. Creepy, right? Halloween read, maybe.

goodreads // available here

Reading: Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill

Where I live, we have "children's book week" each year. If you buy any children's books then, you also get a gift. I liked the gift book, so I browsed my favorite bookstore and happened upon Wild Magic. It seemed interesting, and the cover is gorgeous! It even has silver specks! Anyway, it's a retelling of the Pied Piper and I'm quite liking it so far.

goodreads // available here

Waiting: The Chronicles of the Chrestomanci Vol.1 by Diana Wynne Jones

This book has been sitting on my shelf for probably about a decade. I have read two other Diana Wynne Jones-books, and I did like them. They're not my favorite books, but quite enjoyable. I also got stuck in another one, twice. And I just never got round to reading this book, something else always distracted me. Perhaps I'll still squeeze it into 2014...

goodreads // available here in a different cover

How about you? What are your favorite Fall reads? Or can you recommend any good middle grade fantasy?

Lovely Movies: Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

My expectations pretty much ruined this movie for me. It was still a good movie, I was just prepared for something that would blow my mind and instantly knock all my other favorites down a notch in my top 10, which it didn't...

I love the special look of the animations! They were a bit eerie, breathtaking, and exactly my up of tea. However, the story, and even more so, the pacing, left a lot to be desired. It had plenty of amazing moments, but something was off.

Anyway, I'll definitely rewatch this some time. Perhaps the French version is better… And I'm also very much interested in reading the book it was based off. I'm guessing that something might have gotten lost in the movie.

Giveaway Time! -> Kawaii Box

You might have seen the Kawaii Box review I did on Friday. I was over the moon when my Kawaii Box came in, so I'm really excited I can make someone else happy with one too... because it's time for a Kawaii Box giveaway!

In case you've been living under a rock without wifi and have totally missed the hype…

Kawaii Box is the cutest subscription service! Worldwide shipping is absolutely free, so anyone on the planet can subscribe and find one of these adorable boxes on their doorstep. Every box is filled with 10-12 original/licensed Japanese or Korean products and the contents vary each month. All boxes get sent out at the beginning of the month, so if you subscribe now, you'll get the November box.

To join in on my giveaway all you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My New Phone!

As mentioned, I finally caved when I found a smartphone that seemed good and happened to be crazy cheap. I figured it didn't have to be super pretty as I could customize it anyway. And so the day it arrived I ordered myself a cute case.

Isn't it adorable? And I also ordered an earphone jack plug with a bunny and an ice cream cone, which happens to have the same pink cheeks as the girl on the cell phone case. You can't even imagine the joy that gives me!

As for the actual phone… it's a Sony Xperia M and I'm loving it so far. The quality of the screen is really impressive, the sound is nice and the pictures are quite good (not great, but way more decent than I was expecting). But my favorite thing is...

The fairytale background! This blew my mind! Not only is it a panorama shot that slides over five menus, it also changes with time. The trees stay the same, but the animals change. Sometimes Little Red Riding Hood shows up.

Occasionally there are even moving things. Like swimming ducks or turtles. And… as it gets darker outside in real life, the forest on my phone does so too! Consider my mind blown. This alone was almost worth the purchase.

Review: Kawaii Box

I love happy mail! So subscription boxes always got me excited, but few actually made it to my part of the world. Until Kawaii Box showed up! They are definitely the cutest subscription service and they kindly sent me a box to review.

My expectations were pretty high, but I was still blown away when my very own Kawaii Box actually showed up! I can honestly say that there wasn't a single thing in there that isn't adorable. So lets have a closer look, shall we?

When I opened the box I saw exactly what you see in the picture above and I instantly knew it would all be great! The thank you-card was very sweet with its handwritten note, and the bunny post card was the first actual product I saw.

After that it was a huge splash of color -mostly pink, of course- that contained one cute thing after the other! This make-up bag/coin purse for instance. I love the design and the fact that it has two zippers. So cute, yet so practical as well!

I also got some candy-shaped hair ties and a sheet of pink pearl stickers that might actually make it onto my phone.

An adorable Rilakkuma raspberry macaroon squishy. It looks quite edible actually, made my mouth water a little…

So it's a good thing they sent some actual candy along too. Here is some grapefruit flavored Puccho!



This towel made me super excited! I love those little Japanese towels, but they are hard to find outside of Asia. This one is actually quite big too. And it even has a little name tag in the upper corner. A very clever touch, I think!



This cute cat below is a pencil sharpener. It actually has holes for both regular shaped pencils, and for bigger ones.

I find these lovely bunny stickers quite hilarious. Some of their positions and facial expressions are so funny!

The Hello Kitty pen is one of my favorite items in the whole box! The fineliner pen itself is really cute and writes wonderfully, but the main feature, of course, are the charms on the top. One Hello Kitty and one chocolate bar!

And last, but definitely not least (in fact, another one of my absolute favorites from this box!), is this amazing cat plushy. It's so soft and so cute, I just adore it! It also reminds me of my actual cat. I'll need to find a good place to hang this one!

That's it for products, however, there was also a coupon for 10% off at Blippo so I can get even more Kawaii stuff!

Final Verdict:

I'm a fan! It's a very affordable way of surprising yourself with a whole bunch of kawaii items, in fact, thanks to the low price I didn't even have to worry about paying any extra custom fees.
Anyway, the anticipation of receiving this made me excited already, and the actual box made my day! I really enjoyed the things they picked and would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes adorable Japanese stuff!

In case you're interested in subscribing…

Kawaii Box is only $18,90 a month and worldwide shipping is included. You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time. So even if you're looking for something to just brighten your dark cold winter months, this is perfect!
Please note that the boxes go out at the beginning of each month. So if you subscribe now you'll get another box of 10-12 original/licensed Japanese and Korean kawaii items in the mail in November. It's still a surprise what's in there!

P.S. Alhough I did receive a one-month subscription for free, all opinions are honestly mine. It genuinely made me super excited!

Lady and the Siamese?

It's been ages since I last saw Lady and the Tramp. I didn't even remember there were Siamese cats in it. But my mom recently forwarded the little clip. She thought I might enjoy it now that I have a Siamese myself. She was right!

Lovely Movies: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

You're probably not surprised to hear that I will go and watch any Studio Ghibli movie, when given the chance. So when the latest one hit a cinema near me, I made sure to go see it while it was still playing on the big screen.

It wasn't directed by Miyazaki and definitely has a different feel from all the other movies. Not just story-wise, but it was also very visible in the style of the animation. This one was all watercolor, and visually breathtaking, really.

Like many of the others, the ending makes very little sense. But it was still a wonderful movie. Sad at times, as it shows the unhappiness tradition can cause, but it also had moments of great everyday joy. And beautiful music!

Wishlist

More books?! Yes, but they're total eye candy as well. I am so extremely in love with the Rifle Paper Co. & Penguin "In Bloom" editions of some girls' classics. They have released the perfect set of four and I hope to one day own them all!

I'm just so stoked! Everything about them is beautiful! The covers, the end papers... even the spines are gorgeous! And I'd love to read them too. And I'm already secretly keeping my fingers crossed that they'll do even more books.

I also love that they are hardcovers, but that they do not have a dust jacket. And the best thing is… they're not even expensive! $16.00 a piece. Very doable for these treasures, right? Also, they even come with matching bookmarks!

Mixed Shelf #16

Another book post? So soon? Yes! Why...? Well, I went to the library quite some weeks ago and need to bring all my books back within the next couple of days, so I'm now quickly making my way through the last one of the batch!

Wanting: By Blood by Ellen Ullman

This is supposedly a very heavy read. It follows a young man that is eavesdropping on a patient of the psychiatrist that is his neighbor. He finds himself unable to let her story go and decides to take matters into his own hand and tracks down the birth mother of the patient. He anonymously provides her with the info and so the story unfolds...

goodreads // available here

Reading: The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal by Sean Dixon

This is a seriously wacky book. I'm not even going to recommend it to anyone, because I imagine most people would be quite overwhelmed by the sheer chaos within these pages. I'm over two thirds in and still don't know if I'll be satisfied by the end of it, or perhaps slightly pissed off by it wasting my time. It's entertaining enough now though.

goodreads // available here

Waiting: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

An urban fantasy novel about what would happen if London was invested with vampires, gods and apparently also a wizard in the police force. I've heard many good things and picked this up in a sale quite a while ago. It might me about time I pick up this novel described as "What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz".

goodreads // available here

Have you read any of these? Or is there anything you think I should get from the library this week?

Owl Things Considered

I'm not what you would call short on owl coin purses, however it's also one of those things that you can hardly have too many of. Anyway, I spotted this cute one on the River Island website and thought you might enjoy it too!

In the Mail...

Chloe from Lazy Explorers recently did a giveaway with Champu Chinito, a really cute Etsy shop with amazing lunchbags and cool plushies. I joined in and got lucky! So last week I got a cute little plushie in the mail!

This design is also available as an insulated lunch bag or as a larger plushie, but I received the adorable mini version.

In the package I also found two cute sticker packs. One with cute sandwich toppings (and also one of what the sandwich looks like after you've eaten it, haha) and another one with funny monsters. Can't wait to find a good place for those!

Anyway, be sure to check out Champu Chinito on Etsy. They have plenty of quirky things that make nice gifts!