July 7

Review of the Artful Box: Watercolor

Photo of the cover of the artful watercolor box with a big leaf drawing done with watercolor with the artful logo.

I am back with another mystery/ subscription box review, this time it’s all about the Artful box, which is done by the same people who do the Papergang boxes too, so I had to test it out eventually 😉 The concept of both boxes is pretty similar, only that in the Artful box instead of stationery you get art supplies for a certain project and you don’t get it every month but one box every quarter of the year. I did not have the money for it in the first quarter of 2021, so I had now reordered the box and got it shipped in May.
Sadly same way with my Papergang boxes, there was a shipping/ delivery problem that led to the box that was shipped in May being lost. I did get sent a replacement box of course, but in the whole chaos, I kinda overlooked that instead of just buying one box, I actually made a subscription, so I got sent the next box already too. But to be honest, I am not mad about it, since it also sounds very interesting. Let’s have a look at it together!
So many things can be considered art, so there are many possibilities of what could be inside an Artful box. The people behind it thought it would be the best idea to highlight a certain type of art with every box, focus solely on that, and give the best supplies needed to start a project. This Mai box’s theme was Hand Lettering, which I actually did some years ago, so it was a great box for me to restart an old Hobby! The next box I got has watercolors as its theme and since the watercolor box actually arrived first, I will also review it first 😉

Insides of the box: a small glas container with white liquid, a blue box, a big aquarallpaper pad with an orange cover, blank greetingscards and a light blue metalcase for the watercolors.

The box came with a set of 24 watercolor half pans, a 29.5ml masking fluid bottle, special watercolor paper, 4 blank greeting cards, 5 different brushes, a pencil such as a pipette, and a 100 pages magazine with tips and tricks. The book was actually what I was interested the most in since the last time I painted with watercolors was in primary school and I absolutely hated it. I really hoped to get new motivation and learn new techniques which helped me use this type of art in a different way. The artwork on the book and within is very pretty, they even show how to draw one of my favorite animals a red panda! They start with some pages of general information about watercolors, assuming that you don’t know anything about it, which was great for me! But this information only uses up about 10 pages in the book, so if you already know how to work with it, you could start right away and still have enough input and ideas for your new projects 😉 So only judging from the book, I would say the box is both beginner-friendly, but also useful and interesting for people who search for art prompts, step-by-step guides, or interviews with artists who work with that particular craft.

Photo shows the metalcase from the inside, it's white, has 3 sides with diffrenty patterns and you can take the colors out one by one.

Like I mentioned, working with watercolors always felt like a chore to me, since it was the go-to color technique in almost all of my art classes and I still never seemed to fully master it. I also don’t think we were really introduced to how to work with them properly. For example, I never heard of a masking fluid before, even though it does sound like a cool way of creating certain patterns and would have been surely helpful!
As I am writing this part of the review, I still have not used the art supplies yet, but I wanted to let you know what I am planning on doing and later I can tell you if it has worked out of not 😉 I am actually a bit scared to try the very professional-looking animal drawings in the magazine and wanted to try something more abstract first. Since I also like to design greetings cards for my friends and family and there were some birthdays recently, I wanted to play around for a bit with the blank cards and use the watercolors to create an interesting background. Sadly there seems to be no real chapter on how to do that, only on some blending ideas in general. So I guess I will have to look for some other tutorials on the Internet. Maybe a small negative point: I would have loved to not only see realistic drawings, but some guides create abstract art too.

Close up of the artsupplies in from the blue bos: brushes, a pencil and a cartrage.

When starting to use the appliance from the box, I opted for watching videos on youtube in the end instead of using the magazine itself. I just learn better with visual input and the guides in the books were a bit too advanced for me. I watched a video by Shayda Campbell and tried to recreate a flower greeting card she made, testing out different colors and trying to blend them together.
One of the things I learned right away is that the colors are way more potent than anything I have used before! When using watercolors at school, we would mix them in the pan with the pigment itself and put it on paper, repeating the process over and over when the brush was dry again. With these watercolors, I take a bit of it on my brush, use the pipette to get some water on the mixing palate, and mix the puddle with my brush. Then I use this puddle for my illustrations and I only use the color again, when I am mixing a new one. It might sound kinda dumb to you, if you have worked with good watercolors before, of course, that’s how you would use it, right? But I have never done that, so it was all new to me xD What I realized because of it is that the half pans you get, which might seem very small at first, last longer than expected^^
The brushes felt like very good quality, but when working with watercolors, the liquid has a mind of its own. So even though they did not shed, but glide over the paper, the water often finds its own way xD If you will be more trained to use it, things like that won’t happen that often I guess, but for a beginner like me, it was not avoidable. The paper was really great to work with too! I did use a lot of water on it, because I wanted to try out different techniques and it never leaked or ripped, it only warped a bit, nothing some heavy books couldn’t fix. I did not get to test out the masking fluid, since it felt a bit too advanced for me yet, but I still appreciate having it in there for future use, when I got better 😉

Picture shows a greetingcard done by me, with diffrent colored flowers, vines and a text saying "Alles Gute"(german for Good wishes).
It’s was a birthday card, “Alles Gute” means “Good Wishes” in German^^

I would say I was pleasantly surprised by the box! The contents were very high quality, though all of them are produced especially for the box, which some people seem to be mad about(they even talk about it in the magazine). The way I understood it, there are certain brands being associate with “good art” and if you use any other brand, your art might not turn out as good, in some people’s opinion. I can’t really speak for them, since I have not used many different art brands when it comes to watercolor, but I would say it’s always good to try out new things 😉 And what I can say is, that the contents: brushes, colors, and paper were lightyears better than everything I have worked with so far and I can highly recommend it^^ The magazine itself is pretty interesting, especially the interviews, the guides are a bit to advances for a beginner. Of course, you could say that this box is just not made for beginners, but I do think it’s made to suit everyone. They are releasing a new box every quarter and it’s all about learning new things, so maybe there should be more projects for people beginning the craft. So I am looking forward to using my next box!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Art, Artful, Mystery Box, Review, Subscription Box | LEAVE A COMMENT
June 30

Papergangbox June 2021

As you have read in my last Papergang Post there were some problems recently. From what the lovely people from the helping team could tell me, OhDeer had a general delivery problem with their parcels getting to Germany, something with the carrier so they switched it. But it seems like all of my recent packages have been lost because of it: my Aprils and Mays Papergangboxes but also the artful boxes I wanted to get and review. Since I got a replacement sent for all of these, I am not as mad and just waiting patiently for them 🙂 But that’s why after the review of April’s box, you now get to see Junes 😉 Let’s take a look inside!

Photo shows the cover of the box from June 2021, it says "Papergang by Ohh Deer" in golden foil and has colorful jungle leafs and flowers in the backround.

I have to say since it’s my first time getting a Papergang box in June and I kinda heard about them doing something more pride-themed last year, I was expecting something more… pride-themed xD I would have even liked it if it would have been more subtle, maybe less rainbow more other flags, or something like that but the June 2021 box, has nothing to do with pride at all. I guess it’s not too bad, but I was a bit disappointed.
Moving on to the actual contents of the box we have an A5 Notepad with 85 sheets printed in a flowery, jungly-vibe design the whole box is themed after, 4 blank greeting cards to design yourselves that come with 4 differently printed envelopes, 3 rubber stamps with a big leaf, a bird and “happy birthday” as their motive, including a blue ink pad, 3 gel pens in the colors green, blue and pink and 4 sheets with washi stickers on them 😛

Insides of the box: 3 diffren colored pens with a jungle pattern on a transparent backround, 3 stamps with and inkpad, 4 diffrently designed envelopes(jungle theme), a sticker sheet with birds, leafs and flowers on it and a lined notepad.

I love the DIY vibes this box has since I like designing greeting cards myself 🙂 Basically, you can make a card only using the stamps, but you can also be inspired by the other artworks in this box and maybe draw some birds or special leaves yourself. I would have liked it better if they would have included a marker or something since the gel pens they did include seem like they would be better used for writing or maybe outlining. But I like that we don’t only have the stamps and stickers to use for making our own cards 😉 And I really like the already made envelopes, since envelopes are harder to draw on and individualize. I am looking forward to using them^^ I guess you could also use the notepad sheets to write a letter on to include with the card or just take notes in Home Office 😉

Orange packingpaper with a golden sticker that says "Papergang".

I would have loved to switch out the notepad with maybe some washitape to be used to customise the greetingcards even more or something similar. I guess I can’t really get over the fact that there is not a single pride item in here …So I can’t really hide my dissapointment xD But all in all it was a pretty avarage box, not much to critisie, but also not too much cool stuff to get exited about, at least in my opinion. But maybe you would have fun with it^^

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Papergang, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
June 11

Papergangbox April 2021

You all might be wondering where the post for the Aprils Papergang box went or why it was missing: The reason actually was that my Papergang box for April got lost in the mail :/ But the nice people over at OhDeer helped me out and send me a replacement box which arrived today(the 02.06.2021)! So now we can take a look into what we got together 😉 Enjoy!

Cover of the box from April 2021 with the words "Papergang By OhDeer" in golden foil.

This month was a bit special since 4 different designed boxes were sent out. I got the one with the orange dots, if you want to see some of the other designs check out Papergangs Instagram Channel^^ But even though the outside of the boxes was different, the contents were the same for everyone! We got 16 letters with the 4 different designs the boxes were designed in too, 32 letter sheets in different colors a small stencil made out of metal with some geometric shapes, a 60 sheet sticky notepad(also with the 4 different designs on it), 2 transparent penicils filled with rainbow gel ink and last but not least a washi tape 🙂

Inside of the box with a notepad that says "Hello it's me", a template with diffrent geomatric shapes, diffrently designed envelopes, a chalcered wahitape, a checkered sticky notepad and some pens.

I have to say when I saw the designs of the boxes on Instagram I was not very hyped, since they looked very geometrical and I just thought April’s box will not be for me. Geometrical is not my style which is why the washi tape and the stencil impressed me the least, even though I like that the stencil is made out of metal! All the stencils I own are made out of cheap plastic, unfortunately, so I guess they have at least somewhat impressed me with that 😉 There is always a use for sticky notes, no matter the design or size, so I won’t complain about them at all xD The idea behind the rainbow ink in the gel pens is cool too since you will first write in purple, then pink, blue, green, orange, and yellow until the pen is drained. But what I would have liked better(and I have no idea if that is even possible to do with gel pens) is writing in rainbow colors the whole time. Do you know these pencils which look like a colorblind test at the tip? They change colors way quicker and back again and I love the effect that creates! And I kinda expected that when I saw this pen, but of course it works a bit differently 😛 Still, a cool idea to not only have a one colored pen^^

Photo shows only the four envelopes your are getting in the box. The one on the upper left say "oh hi" and is mostly white with some blue boxes. The one on the upper right has a white backround with big organe circles on it and the text "happy mail". On the lower left the envelop has a white backround with orange stripes from left to right and up to down, creating big white boxes, the text says "greeting." the last one has blu strips from left to right and says "hello".

I do really like the envelopes, especially the blue one which says “Oh hi”, I don’t know why it just made me smile 🙂 The only problem I have with those in the size. I already own a letter set from Papergang(from the November box 2020) so I have already used them and they are quite strange. I measured them just for you and they are 8x16cm, for comparison a normal envelope would be 12,5×23,5cm 😉
Of course, the letter sheets are a perfect match for those small-sized envelopes, so there is no problem there, but you can’t write as much, without using many sheets. Maybe that’s just a problem for people who like to write long letters like me, for others they might just be cute 😉 The letter sheets themselves fit better into this month than they would have in April since they are bright-colored in almost rainbow-like order 😛 But we only have yellow, blue, pink and orange, which still look very intense and very great. I think I never owned such colorful lettering paper and I will definitely use it soon!

This is a GIF of the letter blog, shwoing the diffrent coulors the papers come in. From last to first: yellow, blue, pink, orange.

So, all in all, I can say this box pleasantly surprised me with its colorful theme and I am glad that I have got a replacement. The may’s box also has not arrived yet, but I hope it will come soon 😉 If it’s there I’ll let you all know!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Papergang, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
May 22

Bookreview “Fangs” by Sarah Andersen

Photo of the book Fangs by Sarah Andersen, with the main charackter in a black dress with a black frame around it and a red backround.

Blurb:
New York Times bestselling love story between a vampire and a werewolf by the creator of the enormously popular Sarah’s Scribbles comics.
Elsie the vampire is three hundred years old, but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets Jimmy, a charming werewolf with a wry sense of humor and a fondness for running wild during the full moon. Together they enjoy horror films and scary novels, shady strolls, fine dining (though never with garlic), and a genuine fondness for each others unusual habits, macabre lifestyles, and monstrous appetites.
First featured as a webcomic series on Tapas, Fangs chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different. This deluxe hardcover edition of Fangs features an red cloth cover, dyed black page trim, and 25 exclusive comics not previously seen online. Filled with Sarah Andersens beautiful gothic illustrations and relatable relationship humor, has all the makings of a cult classic.

Publisher: Simon + Schuster Inc.
Published: 1st September 2020
Length: 112 Pages
Genre: Cartoon / Comic
Price: 11,59€ on Amazon

Photo of two pages from the book. On the left it's the main vampire characker getting dressed infront of the mirror, but the mirror only shows her floating clothing not the rest of her. On the right are 5 diffrent penals. 1.: The werwolf man and the vampire lady are going for a walk, the vampire asks "If you can speak to wolves, how about dogs?", he answers "them too". 2: Picture showing the werewolf man walking alone, seeng a dog in a hand bag with the word "earlier" in the left corner. 3: Zoom in on the dog, it's a Chihuahua. He looks happy and content. 4: The werwolf man is going near the dog, looking at him funny. 5: He is telling the dog "You're a discgrace".

Summary:
The story revolves around Elsie a 300-year-old vampire in the body of a 26 years old woman and her boyfriend, which happens to be a werewolf. It’s not exactly a continuous story that is told, we just get glimpsed of what the life between two different kinds of monsters look like while playing with stereotypes from movies and what we might think monsters like that would behave in daily life 😉

Review:
Comics and cartoons have been around for quite some time now, but I think they have become more popular with the rise of webcomics on the internet! They have changed the way comics and cartoons are written to appeal more to a modern audience and that’s when they started catching me with their stories too 😉 Sarah Andersen better known as the author of Sarah’s Scribbles is one of those modern cartoonists since 2011. I love reading her funny cartoons for years now and when I heard that she made a book with VAMPIRES in it, I needed to get it!

The story started on Tapas, which is a whole website dedicated to publishing webcomics and illustrations 🙂 I have not read it on there, but I have heard that the story was not concluded! So if you consider reading it on there, because it’s for free, of course, you can do that and it’s a great reading sample, but you won’t know how the story between the sweet couple will end. Also supporting your favorite artists is a great thing and the book is not that expensive, so if you have the money, I highly recommend getting the hardcover^

Another reason to get the book is how beautifully it’s designed. The cover is strung with red cloth, as a homage to the old Dracula books, which I absolutely love! The black dyed pages trims makes it look even more special and really adds to the whole gothic vibe. The thick pages have a matt finish, which feels very nice in the hands. I really love it and don’t regret getting it for my little library at all 🙂

The Story is very different from what the author creates in her Sarah’s Scribbles comics, it’s still very funny, but it has a much darker vibe to it. The style of the comic is also very different, but also in a good way. I don’t think you have been able to tell the same story with the more silly-looking figurines Andersen uses for her semi-autobiographical comics. For me, it all matched very well, the style of drawing, with the design of the book and the story that is told.

Final Verdict:
Reading the book did not take me that long, that’s the only complaint I have about it 😛 But the comics can be enjoyed over and over again and the presentation of the book is gorgeous and having it in my home alone is a plus! I am looking forward to more from this artist, preferably more vampire content 😉 So I give it 4 out of 5 comic books!

Rating of the book shown with the book: 4 out of 5 books are colored.


Category: Book Review, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 21

Gamereview “Quantum Break”

I know, I am kinda late to the party since the game came out in 2016, but it only came out for the Xbox(which I did not own) and the PC. I grew up being a console kid, owning different Nintendo handhelds and a Wii. Today I am kinda in love with my Playstation 4, desperately waiting for the Playstation 5 to be available in stores again! I did try PC-Gaming for quite some time, but the hardware gets old so quick o_O But since I married an IT-Guy we do own a good Laptop again, which he used for programming and I use for gaming 😛 And after playing Quantum Break I just to write a review about this game, because I think it’s something really special and also some kind of an underdog. Let’s get into it 😉

Offical Quantum Break Wallaper with the main charackter on it and diffrent shards with vague images from the game on it and the titel on the game in the left corner.
Found the picture on: *here*

I stumbled upon this game by accident, after looking through the bio of Adain Gillen. You might know him as Littlefinger from Game of Thrones or the many other characters he played on television and cinema. He is just one of the all-start cast, playing the roles in this game’s story. Accompanying him are Shawn Ashmore(X-Men), Lance Reddick(Fringe), and Courtney Hope(The Bold and The Beautiful) in some of the leading roles. And you can see them in two different versions, as their live-action and in-game counterparts. This brings us to the next great thing about the game: it’s not just a game!

I don’t even know if there is a word for this hybrid experience you have when playing this game. Apart from the actual gaming part itself and cutscenes we also get 5 live-action episodes with 20-30 minutes of running time. That’s really great because Quantum Break is all about its story and the players’ decision to play a role in how it turns out to a certain degree. The ending seems to be fixes but your actions can decide the fate of some of the side characters and how everything progresses. Which to me makes it more like a tv show, you can take part in and I loved it!

Of course, there is a gaming element to it, and it’s mostly about shooting your way through waves of enemies. That’s not as bad as I might make it sound, but definitely not what I will remember this game for. It’s made a bit more fun with some timy-wimy powers like stopping the enemies in time, rushing to them, or creating a time-shield, that stops bullets and heals you faster. It’s all cool and it looks very great, but for me, the shooting was just a way to get to the next point in the story 😉

The story itself is about the age-old question: can you change the future by altering the past? Finding an answer is made even more important because of an imidate danger: time is breaking down. The hows and whys and the possible solution(if there is one) are for you to find out, but together with the brilliant acting, it makes for something really great! Sadly it’s over pretty soon, the game is told in 5 acts, each ending with an episode and I played about 2-3 hours in every act. Normally I am all for longer games, more hours to play in the new worlds, but Quantum Break was less about gaming and more about storytelling and it did a good job 😉

Offical Quantum Break Wallaper with the two most important charackters in the games, back on back.
Found the picture on: *here*

So all in all I think this game make for a very special experience, an interactive story with great actors and some amusing gameplay 🙂
Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Gaming, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 28

Papergangbox March 2021

So I think what I can say now most indefinitely is that the Papergamg boxes are always arriving at my doorstep right at the end of the month xD I am okay with that though and it’s at least something to plan with. But like I mentioned in the previous reviews it’s almost impossible not to get spoilered about the items inside that way. I am okay with that but maybe you are not, so keep it in mind 😉 And let’s have a look at the march’s box:

Cover of the Papergang box of March 2021 with a pink backround, multiple diffrent designs and the word "Papergang" with golden foil.

This months box was designed by Amy Hastings and I am kinda in love with it xD What you see on the outside is basically what you get on the inside too small cartooney icons designed with much love^^ This time there is so much different stuff in it too! You get a small enamel pin labeled “creative juice” which we all need from time to time, an A6 so-called “detective notebook” you can open up upwards, 2 greeting cards one happens to be a birthday one(thanks for the late birthday wishes Papergang^^), 4 sticker sheets with gold finish and a small sack functions as a pencil case with 12 colored pencils in it!

Inside of the box with two greetigcards a stickersheet, a pin that looks like a juice package, colored pencils with diffrent quote on them and a pink pouch with white flashes, and a notebook with the same design from the cover.

Remember last time, when I said how the theme in the papergangboxes seemed to get less quantity more quality and it felt like they would just put less stuff into the boxes? Well, I take it back, or at least I think I get it now, it’s not about one theme it’s about variety! And I think that’s really the perfect strategy to try to please as many customers as possible. One month there will be a simple design, very minimalistic just a bit less. And maybe next month or the month after it will be a bit more of everything again! The month is more of the ladder 😉

Photo of all of the colored pencils with all of the quotes written on them such as "Creative Juice", "Get it done" and "Be Brave".

I also love the different kinds of stationery you get, like this time for example We got a notebook again, just like in the January box, but it’s a totally different kind of notebook! We don’t get another set of normal pencils, but colored ones and so on. It’s really great for someone like me who got a big subscription, it does not get boring or repetitive easily^^
As for the practical theme in the box, what to do with the contents, I say it’s all about writing someone a letter or gifting a card 😉 You can use the sticker or colored pencils to decorate and make every card or letter special. And I might already have someone in mind, I can send the result to!

Phot of the greetingcards, the one on the left has a pink bachrpund, a drwaing of a tiger the word"Go get'em" in blue and the word "Tiger" in golden foild with a blue shadow. The card on the right has a dark blue backround, a cake with 3 candles on top, 5 start in golden foil around it, the word "Happy" obvoe the cake and "Birthday" under the cake both in golden foild with a pink shadow.

All in all this box was a pleasant surprise for me! I really like the design and the many different contents in it. I will look forward to working with them, especially the stickers, I have not used stickers in years 😛

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Papergang, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 18

The Flower Letters

My birthday was coming up and so was the same old question, what to wish for… It was easy as a kid, right? There was always a toy, a book, or something that you just needed to have! These days there are things you need too, a reasonable income, a new car maybe? That’s why most people gift money today, you will use it for something 😉 But it’s not a surprise, not something you can keep, it’s just not a gift – at least in my opinion and I hate to wish for it. That’s why I am so happy to have found something really great for my wish this year! And I want to tell you all about it^^

Downloadable Giftcard from https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0419/4517/0084/files/Audrey_Rose_Email_Gift_Card.pdf?v=1608700733

My recent search for mystery and subscription-related things, let me to an advertisement for the Flower Letters. They are made by a couple from the USA as an interactive way of storytelling! They are like a Letter Novel but told through actual letters :O Maybe it’s just the immense book nerd in me, but that already sounds SO AWESOME xD To go more into detail, the letters tell the story of two lovebirds in the world war two era, and seemingly they have more to do with the events that follow than anyone would have expected. The story is told through them, writing each other and two times in the month, we can read their exchanges^^

The story is comprised of 24 letters, you get two of them each month, so you can experience the story over the span of one year. I think it’s really great because most things are just over so quickly nowadays. If I have enough time, I can finish a book within days, I watch multiple films a week, and even finish a whole tv series! Sometimes that can feel like some kind of superpower, but it’s also quite sad when things end that soon :/ That’s why I am really looking forward to it, experiencing a story for such a long time! And I think it also adds to the realistic feel of it, 2 weeks do sound like it could have the waiting time for letters back in the day^^

Downloadable Giftcard from https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0419/4517/0084/files/Audrey_Rose_Email_Gift_Card.pdf?v=1608700733

I have started my subscription in February because I hoped to get at least one letter to open on my birthday. Delivery time from the USA to Germany was said to be between 2 and 6 weeks, so I just wanted to up my chances 😉 The first batch of letters that were sent out after I made my subscription were on the 8th of February and the first one got here on the 4th of march. It was the only one so far, but there was also a little mistake on my address. The letter was not sent to Germany but Denmark, most likely because Germany is “Deutschland” in German and the abbreviation is DE, but Denmark begins with those letters too xD Anyway, the post managed to get it here despite the odds, I just don’t know if the delivery time is accurate because of it. But as of now, I can say a letter will take about 3 weeks to a month to get to Germany. Let’s take a look inside.

Photo of letter one from the Collection, together with the envelope that has a flower pattern and a dancing card in vintage style.

The first letter was double-sided and beautifully designed. It’s not just blank, but illustrated paper that does not distract from the written words. As you may see, some words are marked in red, those words are not used anymore today, most of them can be understood in the context of the letter. But if you don’t understand them or just want to learn more about the time, you can go on their website and look them up 😉 I really like that aspect about the letters, you not only experience a lovestory, but also learn about the era it’s set in!

Aside from the main act, being the letter, there were some other things in the envelope. There are said to be some surprises along the way like postcards for example, in the first letter I got a dancing card. If you don’t know, back in the day, for an event like a public dance men would ask women to dance with them and when they accept, they would write their name on the women’s card. I also got a magnifying glass, to help people with eye problems enjoy the letter without problems too, which I really appreciate^^

Photo with blurred out text (so that readers are not being spoilered about the letter) zoomed in on a drawing at the end of the letter.
I censored the picture, so your eyes are fine 😉

All in all, I am very happy to have gotten this subscription as a present and I really looking forward to experiencing the whole story. There is nothing comparable in Germany, at least I have not found anything, even though I can’t understand why. If everything works out as promised, it’s such a great idea and I hope they make more stories like this one to enjoy in the future 😉 I’ll update you on the progress of the subscription and if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask them!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Review | 3 Comments on The Flower Letters
March 3

Papergang Box February

This month’s box arrived at my door on the 26th of February, right before the month ended! For those who don’t know Papergang is a subscription service from the UK, that delivers boxes with exclusive monthly stationery to your home. It’s my second box, and I will review it for you today, enjoy 🙂

Cover of the Papergang box from february 2020 in light purple with diffrent dried plants on it.

The artist for this month was Maddy Gale, who is a gardener and photographer, which can be seen very well in this month’s theme. I really loved the colors of everything, the many different shades of purple really speak to me^^ It’s a different kind of art, seeing that almost all of the old Papergan Box have something drawn onto them, but it’s cool to see a photographer designing a box too! I look forward to what kinds of artists will be designing the next boxes, maybe some letterers or graffiti artists? So many cool possibilities, but let’s focus on this month’s box and take a look inside.

Inside of the box with a golden ruler, golden scissors, a pink amd golden pen and a lined notepad.

Having reviewed the last few boxes, I see a theme of the contents getting fewer but the quality getting higher with every box. This month’s box had a hefty metal ruler(20cm), a stainless steel scissor, and a ballpoint pen with some metal features. It also contains a big note block and the photo from the cover printed out on sustainably sourced paper. And as always a little origami sheet plus a little booklet with an interview with Maddy and instructions on how to wrap a book with the paper they provided into a beautiful gift.

I have to say this box is a little underwhelming for me and I don’t really see a coherent theme in it. Everything is beautifully colored, I love the purples mixed with the gold metal shine. But I randomly get some office supplies and nothing to do with it. The last box was all about organizing, you got a big notebook, pencils to write in, a sharpener for the pencil and some sticky notes for important information. You could use it as a package and I really appreciated that. This time I got a scissor, which is awesome in general and not what I had thought of when subscribing to the Papergang, but instead of getting wrapping paper, I would have liked maybe some stencils to cut out or an inspiring idea to use the pen with the ruler and then cut it out.

As I said in the beginning it feels like the people behind Papergang are going for quality over quantity, which is not a bad thing in general! I love the weight of the ruler and scissors are very comfortable to hold and sharp enough to cut through cardboard. The pen, which has a black ink cartridge in it, writes well too and the note block has 85 pages, with about 30 lines each, so it will get you a long way! I guess I am just still a bit spoiled from the contents in the octorbow 2020 box, which I got in my haul and maybe they are just changing the formula a bit and there is nothing wrong with that^^

Photo of the paper inside of the box, checkeres in purple and white with a golden sticker that says "Papergang".

This box was filled with many high-quality stationery items, which I will be definitely using in the future. I think I never owned scissors that cute xD The colors really appealed to me, but I felt like there was a theme missing or the one present just did not really catch me as much as the other boxes did. But that’s always the risk with mystery like subscription boxes like this, it can be a hit and miss sometimes and maybe this time it was a miss, but next time might be a hit again 😉

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Papergang, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 24

Review of “In An Absent Dream” by Seanan McGuire

Image of the book that is on review laying flat on a table, the cover says: "In an absent dream by Seanan McGuire".

Blurb:
A stand-alone fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire’s Alex award-winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every Heart a Doorway
This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.
When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

Publisher: Tor.Com
Published: 1st February 2019
Length: 204 Pages
Genre: Magical Realism
Main Place of Action: A small town in America (1960-75)
Price: 14,95€ on Amazon

Summary:
Katherine is a young girl who has her life already planned out on her 6th birthday. She likes to keep her head in a book whenever she can, gathering wisdom, going on adventures with Alice, Peter, and Dorothy. When one day her own adventure awaits, she does not hesitate for long. Behind the door in the big tree is a world that would have made her heroes want to tag along. But it comes with consequences and life lessons, Katherine maybe did not want to learn that early…

Review:
As the blurb suggests this book is part of a series, but I got it as part of a mystery box and I can assure you that you need no knowledge pre-reading to enjoy the story 😉 It reminded me very heavily of Alice in Wonderland(with a splash of Pinnochio!), the story is even referenced in the book, but for me, it’s not a bad thing at all. I am a big fan of the old story and I really liked this one^^ It might be similar, but it does not take place in wonderland and tells its own tale.

All in all the story is about a young girl who does not seem to fit in the world she was born into, so a magical different one appears before her and she takes the chance to visit it. Unlike Alice in Wonderland, it’s not a one-way trip, she actually changes between both worlds multiple times, but you have to read the book to know in which world she ends up 😉
As a rather strange girl myself, I know the feeling of not fitting in and I have always dreamed about getting an opportunity like that, which made it even more fun reading about what world another person has made up^^

Reading the book and getting to know the world, understanding its rules was very intriguing, but only at the end is where the reader really begins to understand, what price has to be paid. The end actually has confused me a little bit and make me wonder if maybe the other books in the series do have some kind of meaning in this story too. But only a small one, so you would still be good, not having read the other books in the series. But I think about getting them now 😛

In between the story, there are some illustrations sprinkled in, to make help the reader imagine the world. But there are only about 3 illustrated pages, so there is still enough room for your own interpretations^^ Still I really appreciate the ones being there and their art style. They are somewhat sketchy and have this kind of magical flow to them, which really made them fit into what I have imagined while reading the story.

The only thing that really bothered me with this book is how fast the story is told. We have the adventure of a girl, growing up from an 8-year-old to an 18-year-old woman, having to make harsh decisions, told on about 200 pages, even though it could have been maybe even double the amount. There are many time skips and things that happened “off-screen” or in this case “off-page” which we are only told about very briefly, never really grasping what has happened. It also makes it quite hard to understand the protagonist sometimes. As I said, she has to make some very hard decisions, but I personally can’t really tell how she decided on them. In some ways, I even feel like I never really got to know her.

Picture of an illustrated page from the book, where a girl is looking ar a skteched out market with many diffrent stans, smoking coming from them and animals running around, it's very busy.

Final Verdict:
I was so looking forward to experiencing a story that could be compared with my all-time favorite and in some ways, this one has met my expectations. But I am still very sad about it being told in such a fast way, making it seem more like a short bedtime story, not giving me enough room to bond with the protagonist and really accompany her on her adventure. And there was some story happening behind the scenes, it’s not like the author did not have enough material, she just chooses to not include it and I can’t understand that at all. I would have loved to read a more detailed story, but I still would recommend reading it. If you are into short stories or want to experience something Alice in Wonderland-like and you see that book somewhere, definitely pick it up! But just know, that you won’t get to dive too deep into an otherwise fantastic story and a cool new world. That’s why I give the story a 3 out of 5 rating.

Rating shown with the book: 3 out of 4 books are colored.

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Book Review, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 17

A Review on the Concept of Mystery Boxes

Maybe you already know the concept of a “Mystery Box” but in Germany, they are not as common, at least not as a cool idea. We know mystery boxes mostly as a way for shops to get rid of the stuff that is broken somehow or does not sell well. So you would get some items for a lower price, but they would also most likely be trash xD But on Etsy, for example, the shops will have a themed box, maybe showing you some of the contents, giving you a glimpse of what you might be getting, or not. But they don’t just pack the broken items in their shops, some might even be buying stuff just for you, or they at least give you some of the good stuff 😉 I have bought some of these boxes and want to share the experience with you, enjoy! I also made an extra post to some of the boxes, if you want to read it, just click on the link^^

Blind Date with a Book
I actually bought two book-themed boxes from the shop CoffeeAcademia on Etsy, one for me and one for my husband. I got a box with a well-loved(used) book and I only choose the genre to be magical realism and to get hot chocolate as a drink. My husband chose to get 3 randomly chosen books from the Penguin Black Classics edition. And here is what we got:

Picture of the inside of box one (mostly still wrapped) withe one book wrapped in brown paper and string, a bookmark, a postcard, a candle a white mug and a letter sealed with golden wax.
Picture of the inside of box two(mostly still wrapped) with three books wrapped in brown paper and srting, multiple postcards, a vinatge letter sealed with golden wax, a white candle and a light blue mug.

My book was “In an absent dream” by Seanan McGuire and my husband got a poetry book, a letter novel, and a normal novel. We were very lucky because the books matched our taste very well! We both got different bookmarks and postcards in a vintage style, porcelain cups, different mixes, and teabags for making beverages and scented candles. Everything was individually and beautifully wrapped, so the experience and the mystery did not stop after opening the package, which I really loved. All in all, I was really surprised and happy with the box and I can really recommend it^^

Picture of the inside of box one (unwrapped) with some sweets, two hot chocolate packages, one vintage style bookmark, a white mug, a candle with decorative rope round it, a postcard with a leaf and the book "in an absent dream".
Picture of the inside of box two(unpwrapped) with 3 diffrent books from penguin, sweets, 3 postcards, a hot chcoloate and a instant coffee package, a white candle, two tea bags, 3 small bookmars and a light blue mug.

Papergang
Papergang is the name of a subscription box from the UK that can be delivered monthly. You can’t choose any of the contents, but they work with a new artist every month to design exclusive stationery items such as pens, notebooks, and greeting cards. I did sign up for a subscription this year and already got my Januarys box. But I also bought the leftover of an old box they had(the box of October 2020), so that will be the one on review today:

Cover of the Papergang box November 2020 with a pattern of diffrent leafs, sticks and bones, flowers and wood and the name of the box inbetted in organe foil.

It contained lots of cool things like a full letter set with designed paper to write on and enough envelopes to send some letters to your friends. They also put two fully designed greeting cards with extra envelopes, if you have a special occasion^^ Also included were 3 different stamps with an ink pad and some washi tape with the moon phases on it. Last but not least there was a sweet little notebook and a calendar sheet for a month, but there is not October written on it so I can still use it, despite the box being outdated already, which I really appreciate!! It was the best box I got so far and I loved everything about it^^

Image of the inside of the box with three stamps, an ink pad, a wahitape roll, a notebook in mind green with orange foil, two greetingcards, a calander sheet, and a letterpad with the desing of the cover of the box.

Funny Mystery Box from OhhDeer
OhDeer is the same company from the UK which make the Papergang boxes and when I searched through their shop I saw that they had a normal mystery box too. But there was no glimpse of the contents what so ever, the description only said that it might contain stuff to make you giggle. So I went totally blind on this one and here’s what I got:

Image of the artsy cover the box came in with diffrent doodles of hands doing creative things like sticking washitape, cutting paper, drawing lines and so on.

The contains left me pretty disappointed not only because just a few items were actually fitting my own taste but also because the box was said the be worth 80€ and I just did not see that. I did even calculate how much the worth exactly was by looking through their website again and finding all the prices and it did not even reach the 80€. The contents were pencils with funny quotes on them, a Fight Club inspired soap bar, two enamel pins, a fragrance spray(against farts :P), a thin A4 notebook, two prints, and a photo frame that is made to look like a comic strip with speech bubbles to write on.

Inside look of the box, with two prints(one is not really visible) one is of a fortune chookie with a paper that says "Don't be a dick", tweo sets of diffrently colored graphite pencils, a read soaps that says "Dirty Bitch", two pins, a note book that says "Awake-ish" and a mystery looking bottle.
Image of the product "my comic life" that consists of a comicstrip with 3 example pictures and unfilled speechbubbles in diffrent shapes and a marker on the side.

My final verdict on my first mystery boxes
Well, I guess my haul has shown the many different sites of the concept of mystery boxes. There are the ones that let you choose what you get, those are the ones that guarantee some kind of success because, in the end, you will definitely get something according to your taste. If not, you might end up with a B**B pin and lame prints 😛 On the other hand, you could also get gems like an anti-fart spray which you might have never bought for yourself xD For me, mystery boxes are a great way to gift yourself and get nice surprises from time to time. And in a crisis like a pandemic where we can’t go out much and have many thoughts troubling our mind, a positive surprise like this can cheer us up^^ So I will be looking forward to my Papergang boxes for 2021 and the Blind Date with a Book Box really put a smile on my face, I will definitely get one again in the future!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Review | 46 Comments on A Review on the Concept of Mystery Boxes