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Review of the Artful Box: Watercolor

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

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 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 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

February 10

A Blind Date With A Book

A blind date sounds like a mystery right? Because that’s exactly what it is, another mystery box from my big haul xD This time I found it on Etsy and actually got two boxes from the shop CoffeeAcademia one for my husband and one for me. They are both very similar but the books are the main actor in it. In my husbands’ version, there are 3 books randomly picked from the 80-anniversary Black Classics collection from Penguin. And in my version, I could only choose the genre of my book and I choose magical realism. I knew that we would get some stuff with the books, but tried not to spoiler ourselves too much, and that’ what it looked like:

Everything we got was beautifully packaged and individually wrapped so that every single piece could be enjoyed as a surprise. I did unwrap the candles and cups for the photos already, but they were well-secured too^^ I really loved how much detail got into putting everything together, with the wax seals on most of the paper and I also loved the strings <3 It really added to the whole feel of the box!
In my box, I got the book “In an absent dream” by Seanan McGuire, which is said to be very similar to Alice in Wonderland, so it seems to be the perfect match for me! I also got a vintage style bookmark, that looks really awesome and a postcard in a matching style. I also got a scented candle, a withe porcelain cup, hot chocolate mix to go with it, and some sweets 😉

My husband got his three black classics each wrapped individually with small bookmarks that were bird-themed. The black classics consisted of a poetry book, a letter novel, and a normal novel. He too got three postcards, which did not match the bird theme and his taste in general with different botanical drawings on it, but I guess I will just steal them 😉 He got a light blue porcelain cup and a white candle in a glass bowl, which seems to be scented too but there was no label on it. Because he was not able to choose a beverage to go with his books, he just got a bit of everything: one hot chocolate mix, two tea bags, and a coffee mix too^^ He drinks everything, so he liked them and the bag of sweets very much.

What I did not mention up till now is that those books were described as “well-loved” meaning they were used before. But it’s hardly noticeable at all! My book had some light scratches on the cover and a little rip on the first page. My husbands’ books had nothing we could see at first glance. So even though they were read before, the readers must have been really gentle with them and I really aprreachiate that^^ I am a bit of a cautious reader myself and I really hate it when the back of the book breaks and if the books we got would have had flaws like that, it would have been more of a problem 😉

Zoomed in picture of the wax seals from the shop, which are golden, have an open book in the middles and text going around it saying "Coffee Academia".

I did not get to read any of the books yet, but I am sure they will be good 🙂 Because I do think both me and my husband got really lucky, that we got books we liked so much. I was able to choose a genre, but I could have gotten anything like a book I already own, or a story I would not have been interested in, but I got something that felt perfectly suited for me. My husband had to gamble a bit more because he could not choose a genre but he got three different kinds of books and loved all of them! The experience we had while opening the package was better than I had imagined when ordering, so much love and thought went into preparing it! It was one of the best mystery boxes I got so far and I really recommend^^

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Review | 4 Comments

February 4

The Funny Mystery Box

Mystery Boxes are a tricky thing. Are they just a clever way for shops to get rid of their unwanted products, none wants to buy? Or are they a cool gift idea for others or even for yourself to get really surprised once in a while? The “Funny Mystery Box” was being sold on the website OhDeer and it was the first of its kind I’ve ever tried. Let’s see how it went 😉

I actually bought the mystery box without knowing anything about it. I was scrolling through the website in search of something completely different and the funny box appeared. It was even on sale and because I was always interested in trying something like that out, of course, I had to buy it! But the only thing I knew about it was the fact that “contents will make me giggle” and that it was normally priced around 80€, but I got it for around 20€. Because it was sold by OhDeer and I spend quite some time on their website, I was prepared for anything from a sock, greetings cards with funny quotes on them up to even a cactus. And here is what I’ve got:

I was actually a bit surprised that for a mystery box for about 80€ I would get only get about 10 items. Of course the questions is how much would the things cost if I would buy them each on its own, so I went back in the site and tried to find them.
The B**B enamel pin was nowhere to be found on the site as a normal pin, but I did find it combined with a greeting card for 4,48€. I had the same problem and the same result for the NERD pin, so 4,48€ each.
The pencils are normal pencils but they have different quotes written onto them. For the wizard pencils, you would get spells like “Expelliarmus” or sentences like “Dobby is free!” and the Crackin’ pens had quotes like “I have had some wines” and “Alright, sugar t*ts?”. Again I was not able to find the exact ones but other pencils sets like this in the shop cost 5,61€.
The dirty b*tch soap was the first item I actually found on the website and it costs exactly 4,48€. It’s a Fight Club inspired soap bar smelling like roses with some glitter in it. But I kinda like the idea and what they wrote on the back of the box: “You dirty b*tch; time to wash away those naughty actions […] Clean yourself up and your act! “
Total Eclipse of the Fart Lavatory Mist seems to be the priciest item I got at 10,14€. It sounds kinda epic and seems to be a fragrance spray to chase away bad smells like a fart. I have not tried it yet, but I have high hopes for it xD
The Awake-ish A4 Notebook was 5,61€ again and it’s basically what you would expect. It has some preprinted columns for the date, things to remember, and some columns to reflect your day. It’s not the kind of notebook I like to use, but there is nothing wrong with it.
I was not able to find the exact prints but on their site prints like those vary in price between 8-20€ and let’s face it those are not that great. One is even just some not very motivational text, at least I can kinda laugh about the fortune cookie. But I still don’t know if I would pay 10€ for any of them o_O
The last item I got is a DIY photo frame for 4,25€, which makes your pictures look like a comic strip. Basically, it just aligns them properly and gives you the option of putting some speech bubbles on them, making it look kinda authentic. There are two strips in that package and they are both magnetic, so you could technically put them on your fridge if you want. That’s at least pretty handy.

If I am generous and grand the prints 16€(which I would not pay for them) and count everything together I end up at a price of 60,66€, which I am actually pretty surprised about. I would not have counted the items to be over 30€ maybe 40€. That’s why I am a bit disappointed to be honest, I was just looking forward to more stuff or at least more interesting stuff? But there is something I have to praise OhDeer for, which is how they dealt with the other things being inside the package. Instead of taking old newspapers, or even buying new stuff like bubblewrap, they just shredded an old cardboard box that might have been used for shipping stuff to them. I really appreciate the reclyling^^

Just a picture of the packacking from the inside, which seems to be an old package that has gone through a shredder.

My final verdict on this box is not as great as I would have hoped. With mystery boxes, you always have the risk of getting stuff you don’t need or don’t want. At least some of the items in here are things to keep and they did manage to make me giggle a bit like promised! So I don’t want to say the items are bad in general, have bad quality, or are not fitting the theme, they are, but I just would not have paid the 80€ for it, if I would not have seen it in the sale. I just don’t see the price as justified. Just look at the other boxes OhDeer puts out, where I would pay about 15€ for one box and would get so much more for the price. I just don’t get why this box gives me the exact opposite feeling, it’s not made for the customer to enjoy, but for the shop to dispose of unwanted stuff. Maybe it was just this box and other ones are better, maybe I will try one of their boxes again in the future. But this one just did not really live up to the hype.

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Mystery Box, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT

January 25

A Review About DARK

The following will be a mostly spoiler free Review of the show DARK, to give you an idea what’s it like and if it’s a series for you. DARK is streaming on Netflix.

Offical DARK Promo Picture that shows a boy in a yellow coat looking into a dark cave and it looks to be mirrored above.

Where to watch: Only Netflix (because it’s a Netflix Original)
Published: 1 December 2017 – 27 June 2020
Length: 3 seasons (concluded), 26 Episodes with a running time between 44-73 minutes
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi
Main place of action: Winden (A made-up town in Germany)

What is it about?
Winden is a small town, quiet and boring for most of its inhabitants. Especially the teens feel trapped there, knowing everyone and every place. But things change when in late autumn 2019 children starting to get missing. They are not killed, no bodies can be found, but there is also no trace of them whatsoever. Things are getting worse when adults are disappearing too. But finding them reveals secrets that change everything forever.

Was it good?
DARK is very different and not what I had expected at all! It’s a Netflix Original but produced in Germany with german actors. But it’s not like all the german productions I have seen up till now, it’s better, to say the least. You should be all up for mysteries and solving them because without the will to do that DARK is not for you. It’s one of those series where you understand what’s going on, in later episodes, fully understanding everything at the end.

The story is told through 3 seasons because symbolism is a big thing in DARK. It’s not a show where there is a small story every episode, like say a murder that has to be solved and it’s not exactly concluded at the season finales. You can only connect the dots to what’s exactly going on when finishing the last episode. It has some more sci-fi elements than the description might show, but I don’t want to spoil the details. It gets more and more complicated with every hour you watch. Every answer gives the viewer even more questions.

Those questions are mostly solved at the end, but I still had to watch some videos on youtube, explaining everything. I don’t think that’s because I did not pay enough attention while watching, I would say it’s pretty normal after watching DARK for the first time. Just because much is happening in a short amount of time and you can’t explain everything in detail, without cutting on the story part. It’s not that there is no explanation at all, I would just say watching the whole thing once or twice would best for getting to the root of everything.

The characters are all very interesting and have their unique life stories which you get to see told onscreen. There is even a deaf girl using german sign language with her family which I found pleasantly surprising! Of course there are either subtitles or people speaking while signing, so you will understand everything.

Final Verdict
DARK is a complex mystery series with very competent actors and writers that accomplishes its goal of keeping the viewer invested in what’s going on, while also confusing him with almost every bit of information that he gets. If you are into that, DARK is a series that provides enough things to think about, to use post it’s to write down important information, even tracing back whole family trees. Some say it’s a masterpiece, I would say there is at least one paradox at the end, worth taking half a point of the finals score. But 4 1/2 out of 5 popcorn bags is more than a german production ever scored for me, so I highly recommend it!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Review, TV/Web-Series | LEAVE A COMMENT