So many books, so little time!

I have got a problem. A fairly serious problem and it is this. I am addicted to looking at books on Amazon and adding them to my wish list. There I admitted it!

I don't know why but I love it, I find myself on Amazon from time to time looking at one thing or another and those little marketing rascals keep giving me reccommendations based on books I have purchased. Of course I can't resist just having a little peek at that book which then leads me on to the next one and so forth. I basically find myself reading book synopsis like I would blog posts. I read book synopsis' and it is like reading little mini stories. I swear that I spend more time reading thosethan I do actual books!

It all started one day when I wanted to buy a new book and was trawlling round trying to find one but nothing really struck my fancy. Then another time I came accross a book that I really liked the sound of but was not in the market to buy so I decided to save it for later and that is how it evolved. Every time I come accross a book that I would like to read I add it in there so I know I always have something that I can go too.

I was on Amazon today looking for an ISBN and started adding books to my list again but then I thought this is getting into one great big jumbled mess so I decided to sort my books into their own list seperate to all of the other things that I have on my main wish list like art supplis and stationery. When I saw them all in one great big list, all together I realised that there were quite a lot. 70 to be precise! Right so sometimes I read a book a week sometimes less so on average I suppose I probably read around 25 books a year so at that rate I have enough for around three years. Of course that does not take into consideration books that I pick up from charity shops or am given as gifts etc so realistically we are probably talking four years, then of course I will no doubt add more and so it goes on. I could end up with a lifetime supply of books to be read in my wish list, crazyness. Or is it? Well it is not harming anyone, it is a painless little addiction, it is not as though I beat myself up because I can't read them all in one go, it is not like a massive to do list to get stressed over, it is just for fun.

I love purusing the net for just about anything and I came across this mug and I think it is so me and just the quote that fits how I am feeling...I need it I really do!

In fact it comes in cushions and bags etc too but you know me I love my tea and I usually drink tea whilst reading so it fits! This is available from Risa Rodil on Society6.

It is true though really isn't it that there are just so many wonderful books out there far many than you could ever read in your lifetime, that is without re-reading your favourites. In fact I don't tend to do that much anymore as there are so many new ones that I want to read. The fun for me though is finding new books, I find it exciting but you know me, I love to journal and other things too so I stagger what I spend my free time doing and that is fine with me because I always know that there are books waiting for me when I am ready,

So what was the very last book that I added to my wish list...

So the last book that I added was The strange and beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender based on the book review that I watched from My life as a tea cup, who incidentally has wonderful reviews on her youtube channel. It sounded fantastic so on to the list it went.

If you would like to look at my list so you can see the types of books I like / want to read you are most welcome. Just click here. I want to share the addiction of finding new books to read, I mean if you find some good ones, why keep them to yourself is what I say. Please do bear in mind if you do look at my list, I have recently moved it all into its own seperate book list so you won't be able to see them in date order that I originally added them, they will all show as today.

How about you? Do you share a similar addiction for finding books? Please tell me it is not just me, oh and as always if you have any reccommendations I would love to know.

Book Haul - September 2014

I have been reading loads lately and I needed to replinish my dwindling stash so I have accquired more books!

I thought I would share my book haul with you all in case you were interested in what I will be reading in the upcoming weeks / months or if you are looking for some new book ideas. I love watching book hauls, that is how I get reccommendations for books to read myself.

That little lot should keep me going for a while :D

Kawaii Box - September Reviewer of the month + GIVEAWAY!!

You know how YouTube works, that when you watch a video you get reccommended videos pop up on the right hand side of the screen, well I had been seeing Kawaii Box videos coming up over and over again. I decided one day to click on one and watch and I liked what I saw so I decided to head on over to the Kawaii Box website to find out more.

Whilst browsing the site I noticed a tab for bloggers which said that if you were a blogger you could apply to become a reviewer or unboxer of the month so I sent an email off to the to apply and I was delighted when they came back to me with a big fat yes. How exciting!

What is Kawaii Box? 

 Kawaii Box is the cutest monthly subscription service. Subscribe Now and  receive a box filled with hand-picked kawaii items from Japan and Korea directly to your home every month. Your box will be shipped in the beginning of each month and the shipping is absolutely free, anywhere on the planet! Each box includes 10-12 cute, original and licensed kawaii items.

Well the box arrived and it is now time to share with you my unboxing... Of course I video's the unboxing so please do watch the video if you would like to see more of the items and their scale etc.


So what was in the box?

In no particularly order, I liked all the things so I have just grouped the together for photographing purposes.

I received a key chain which has a double sided leather effect card wallet, this is really cute good quality and will come in really handy. Perfect for keeping your Oyster card in for the tube or other cards that you need on the go. Whilst Summer well and truly feels like it is over, this squishy, bright lollipop charm certainly made me feel summery. It is all squidgy and very fun indeed. And last on the charm side was this cute little doughnut with a sweet little face.

Next up was a box of sweet biscuit sticks. They are a lot like the Mikado that we get here in most supermarkets. They are thin, vanilla flavoured and truly scrummy! (I am eating them whilst I type this). I think alpaccas are so sweet so I am very fond of this cute little zip purse, perfect for keeping my sweetie money in! I have never used a phone plug before but now I have an adorable little kitty to use, or I might give it to my cat loving penpal as a surprise.

My most favourite thing in the box has to be these shoe laces with pink polka dot moustaches simply because I love to change out the laces in my converse ones for different ones when they get old and manky and these are super cute.

I also love the Alice band, do you think it suits me?

Loom bands are very popular at the moment and I have a few that I have made with friends children but never had any of my own, until now! The colours are fab. I also love the little fruit nail decals. They are miniture fruit slices, when my hand is better and I can do my nails again I can't wait to try these!

And lastly but by no means least, to satisfy the stationery lover in me there was this super cute bear notebook and the most adorable bear sticker flakes, I love them, I genuinely do.

Well that was everything that I received in my box which was the September box, some super cute items that I can't wait to play with. I think you will agree, good value for money if you were to tot the individual items up and I am not just saying that because they gave it to me. The box costs $18.90 (approx £12) a month with FREE international shipping so that makes each item just £1, pretty good when you look at it like that huh!

Kawaii Box are very kindly offering you on my readers the opportunity to win a free box all you need to do is enter via the rafflecopter giveaway below. Good Luck!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review - The Salem Witch Society

The Salem Witch Society by Shields. K.N. ( 2013 ) Paperback

 From the back cover:

Salem, New England, many dark nights ago.

It is a time of spells and shadows, of black magic and blood.

And the most famous witch hunt in history is about to begin...

Years later, a young woman is found savagely murdered, a pitchfork thrust through her neck, her body arranged in the shape of a star: the death pose of a witch. Someone - or something - is reviving the terror of the notorious Salem Witch hunts. And only one man - a brilliant, eccentric detective with a dazzling mind and a fascination with witchcraft - can keep the evils of the past at bay.

Rich in history, mystery, and witchcraft, The Salem Witch Society is a twisting, terrifying thriller - a dark fairy tale for readers who loved A Discovery of Witches and The Interpretation of Murder.



I love books about witches and about Salem, I find them fascinating I really do and I started this book with such excitement that I have to say I was a little bit disappointed and I really struggled to regain my enthusiasm, although I did tell my self to just keep on reading because the book may change and you might come to love it. My reason for this feeling of disappointed is not something that should neccessarily go against this book. I went into it thinking it was going to be full of witchcraft-ness but it wasn't, which is sad for me but for other people they may think this is a good thing.

The book starts out quite gory so if you don't like gory details the this one is not for you. There are some other gory aspects in the book but nothing particularly scary it is just that the author is quite graphic when it comes to detailing the murder scenes.

To be very honest I liken the whole book to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, as firstly the book starts out with a crime scene which is laid out with clues to unravel much the same way as Robert Langdon does in the Da Vinci Code. We then see the detectives in the rest of the book trying to solve the case and decipher the following murders. I am not really into crime / murder mystery books as a genre so I can only liken it to another book that I have read. the Da Vinci code, but if you like said book then you like like this book for sure.

I found the book a little heavy going at times and there were a lot of historical facts which for me also made it a little dry. I struggled to get my head around some of it at times, whilst very well written, I did find the volume of characters / suspects a little hard to follow, it doesn't help when I do most of my reading before bed I know.

It was an interesting read I will say that, it is not that I didn't like the book it is just that I started with misconceived ideas about what the book was about and I just don't like crime solving books that much. Go for it though if you do or if you fancy something a little bit different to your usual witch type book.

Let me know if you read this. I would love to know your thoughts.

So you wanna Filofax?

Hey Filofaxing friends, it has been a while now since I have done a 'proper' Filofax Friday but slowly but surely I am getting there. Well today is Friday and I am talking about Filofaxes so lets just call this Filofax Friday shall we lol.

Sorry it has been a long time coming, firstly they took a little while getting to me and secondly there was my accident but I finally have in my possession three brand spanking new beautiful Filofaxes to giveaway. Super duper exciting I think you will agree.

Thank you so so much for everyone who voted for me in the Pimp my Filofax challenge and also a big thank you to Filofax for firstly asking me to participate and secondly for providing such fab prizes. If you remember I gave the Filofax away that Filofax sent me to use. I was allowed to keep it if I wanted but I chose to give it away and I am pleased to say that it is now safely with Faye who is looking forward to getting cracking with her first ever Filofax.

So here, right now, I am giving away two of the Filofaxes. I love instagram and I love participating in the monthly photo challenges so I thought it would be fun to set one up for October and make the third Filofax the prize for that, so please stay tuned for that coming soon. I will post details both here on my blog and also on instagram so make sure you subscribe / follow to be notified of when that goes live. In fact I have more giveaways planned for this year so you are best to subscribe so you don't miss out on those too. If you are on Bloglovin you can follow me there or just follow by email on the right side of the blog ------->

So on to the prizes then...

Firstly we have the Pennybridge iPade Mini Case (A5 Raspberry) which retails on the Filofax website for £30.00

A grained leather-look zipped case to hold your iPad Mini securely. Designed for simultaneous paper and tablet use, the 360 degree rotatable tablet holder can be used for multiple viewing positions. Featuring internal pockets, a pen holder and an A5 notepad for keeping organised.

Left Hand Details: elasticated smartphone and card pockets, A5 notepad/document pocket, A5 ruled notepad with micro-perforated pages, elasticated pen holder.

 

Right Hand Details: 360 degree rotatable iPad Mini holder, which folds open to enable multiple viewing positions.

Closure Detail: zipped with leather-look zip pull
Height: 235mm

Width: 180mm

Depth: 30mm

I don't have an iPad, I am a kindle Fire user myself but if I did have one I would certainly give this a try as the quality is amazing and I like the idea of being able to have your note pad, pen and phone altogether in the same case. Personally, colour wise, the cobalt blue catches my eye.

If you would like to enter the giveaway to win the Pennybridge please use the widget below.  
To enter after you have added your email address and name make sure you click 'BEGIN' and then follow the instructions! It isn't that obvious so you need to look out for it - it is under the bit that says 'open to...' oh and liking on Twitter is optional not mandatory so if you are not on Twitter don't worry about it!

Entry-Form

 

Next up and actually my favourite is the Personal Original in Purple. I have the nude patent and have well and truly found planner peace...well I did until I saw the purple. I love the original, everything about it really, in fact it is hard to articulate a feeling but I will soon as I keep promising to do a set up of that. One day soon I promise.

Made in England, crafted from thick leather and styled using the original Filofax look. Beautiful in its simplicity and available in a range of striking colours, The Original personal organiser has an iconic design and features a bespoke button on the leather strap closure. Matching keyrings are also available.

Left Hand Details: two credit card pockets, one vertical slip pocket, one multifunctional elastic holder

Right Hand Details: one jot pad pocket, one vertical slip pocket

Diary Type: week on two pages 12 month diary 5 language

Height: 188mm

Width: 134mm

Depth: 44mm

Closure Detail: leather strap with branded popper and colour matched gel finish cap

Pen Loop: two elastic pen loops

Ring Mechanism: 23mm

If you would like to enter the giveaway to win the Pennybridge please use the widget below. To enter after you have added your email address and name make sure you click 'BEGIN' and then follow the instructions! It isn't that obvious so you need to look out for it - it is under the bit that says 'open to...' oh and liking on Twitter is optional not mandatory so if you are not on Twitter don't worry about it!

Entry-Form

Aren't they just fantastic prizes. I tell you it is so hard for me to give that original away, I love it so much, I so wish that was the one I was given to 'pimp' as I don't much care for the Cover Story. Am I jealous that some of the other participants got an original to keep heck yeah lol. Talking other other participants, don't forget to check out the other winners from the competiotion as they took have Filofaxes to give away...

DIY Fish: http://www.wondereland.com/diyfish/category/blog/
Letters in November: http://lettersinnovember.blogspot.com.au


Good luck everyone, see you soon x 

 

15th September 2014 (11:01)
Winner Announcement...

I am so sorry guys...when I created the giveaway I put 'follow on Twitter' as optional so I still thought this would enable everyone to enter but that I would gain new friends that I could follow on Twitter too. It turns out that is not the case and that if you entered the giveaway and didn't follow me on Twitter you were not a valied entry. I am so sorry, I didn't realise this and this was not my intention. So....rather than use the widget to only generate a winner from my Twitter followers, I took the total number of entries and put them into random.org to find a winner and then I manually told the widget who has won. I just wanted to let you all know this, to apologise for my mistake and to also say that I wanted to do this all fairly (by random) and I didn't want to upset anyone or anyone to think I had done this fraudulently. Congratulations to Lexi who won the ipad case and Barbara who won the purple personal. Both have been contacted and their prizes are on their way. I have more giveaways coming soon, so if you didn't win this time there are plenty more opportunities and I will know for next time re the Twitter follow. Thank you so much everyone for your understanding. x

Write with Fizz

I recently received the Pilot Soda pen in a Linkys Stationery Box and I was really intrigued.  I hadn't seen this pen before and I hadn't heard or seen any hype or talk about it anywhere. I can see why it was chosen to appear in my Linkys box, it looks very me doesn't it.

Before opening I decided to inspect the packaging, the whole 'write with fizz' thing left me wanting to know more, it really did have me intrigued to say the least. I really thought that this pen was going to be glittery or scented, something a bit different to the usual ball point pen but nothing was glaringly obvious, well to me anyway. So if it wasn't glittery or scented what was all this 'fizz', 'soda' and 'strawberry' about? Why was it so important to be on the packaging if it had nothing to do with the pen?

Whilst I didn't find it strikingly obvious it in fact turns out that this pen has been recycled from an old water bottle thus making it eco friendly and hence all the terms about 'fizz' and 'soda'. I only really fully appreciate the full weight of this concept when I watched this promotional video on YouTube:

Ok so I have established that the pen is eco friendly and has been recycled from waste plastic drinking bottles, which is great news, I think we are all now more conscious of what we are doing to the planet and I am grateful to see more and more products being produced in a more environmentally friendly way. I did my bit with the packaging and made sure to put it into the recycling of course.

But what about it's credentials as an actual pen? Well I am very pleased to say that it is a very nice pen to use indeed. I am not entirely sure what it retails for but from what I can see from looking in various places online it is around the two pound mark, maybe a bit less. kind of middle of the road, everyday pen in terms of price.

The price doesn't quite translate to the quality though. This little pen surprised me no end. It was comfortable to hold and wrote silky smooth like a dream. I had to stop and check that this wasn't a gel pen, no it was the ball point version although they do make a gel one too. I could quite happily see myself writing all day with that pen, it was devine.

The colour I have is Red which you can see from the test below, does have a pink-ish tone to it, although looking at the packaging I thought it was going to be more cerise, the outer pen plastic and the strawberry on the front led me to believe this but no definitely more red than pink. Having looked on the Pilot website these pens are available in: Blackcurrant, Ice-mint Blue, Strawberry Red and Lime Green. I have to admit I would love to try all the other colours, especially the blackcurrant. The marketing department did their job well there, I mean who wouldn't be tempted to try a pen with a name like blackcurrant, a coloured pen at that...full of temptation and promise. I hope I can find one somewhere.

Now then, what everone in the planner and journalling community want to know is about the bleed through and how the pen takes to paper. I can tell you that this writes very smoothly and glides over the surface of many paper types so no problem there - I tried it on various types just to make sure. In terms of bleed through, you can see from the image below that even on the thin Filofax paper this is minimal and I did press quite hard.

To add to the eco credentials this pen is also refillable but I have yet to test that because it has lasted really well so far.

So definitely a thumbs up from me and a pen that I defiitely will be using lots of and want to buy more of. However I still can't help but feel disappointed that it wasn't glittery or fizzy. I think they were a bit too happy on the packaging but then how else would they get you to buy what looks like an ordinary pen?

I just thought I would share this with you as it is not everday that you stumble upon a gem like this.

Image from Pilot website.

PLEASE NOTE: Any of the links in this post are not affiliate links. This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company and has not be sponsored or endorsed. The photography unless otherwise stated / credited is also my own.

Update & Answers to your questions: book, journals & Filofax

Hi guys, I am back with a weekly update / chatty vlog! I am doing so much better and I am hoping that it won't be too much longer getting back to my old self again. I hope not because I have ideas for blog posts and videos coming out of my ideas and very frustrated that I can't do them lol!

I also put out on my social media accounts that I was bored and really wanted to make a video and to ask me any questions if you have any and you did so here are my responses (in two parts as I talk a lot!)