Showing posts with label Kawaii/Cute on a budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kawaii/Cute on a budget. Show all posts

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

~*~SPONSORED REVIEW~*~ MIMO Pencil Case Shop ~*~POSITIVE~*~


Hello Everyone!

Today I've a very exciting review for you! If you read my site regularly you may remember that I recently posted a segment on Kawaii stationary and one of the featured stationary sites was MIMO Pencil Case Shop, in case you didn't, MIMO is a on-line shop that focuses on affordable cute and kawaii stationary. Based in the USA MIMO is run by the lovely Jeanette.

MIMO sent me a huge box, containing a planner set to review! Funnily enough this arrived on my birthday yesterday! The box contained everything you would need to start using a planner and some! I'd originally planned for this to be an un-boxing video - everything was so beautifully wrapped, but Harry had other ideas - he got very confused by me talking to the camera and thought I was asking him to come and play and the video very quickly became a write off! (I will try and re-film this in the next week as I really do think it'd be great to show you the products, especially the planner, up-close.)


One of the first things I found in the box was this adorable little note - I love little touches like this as it makes things seem more personal. I really like the design on this little note-let and have a plan for it already!


The first little package I opened contained these mini highlighters, a role of deco tape and a role of eraser tape! These will be so useful for me! 


I use highlighters a lot when I'm researching for articles and having lots of colours is really handy as it means I can colour code my research. I'll also be using these a lot to highlight important dates in my planner! Each highlighter has a cute character on and I really like the stripy design as it makes them bright and colourful. The little packet is mega useful as well as it means I can keep them all together and put them in my bag to take out and about. 


Deco tape is something that has always interested me - it's exactly what it sounds like, it's a tape you can apply to paper that has little decorations on, this one has bunting and butterflies - how cute is that? I'm definitely going to use this a lot as I think it'll be fun to use to mark important days. 


Corrector tape is always, always useful for me! I'm rather prone to making mistakes on paper, and I do tend to draft out things on paper first so this is super useful as well. It'll also come in handy if I put a date in my diary (I nearly always use pen) and I need to move it, rather than leaving a huge ugly scribble I can just use this to cover it! I love the design of this to, I find it funny that it looks like a milk shake bottle, it almost looks like milk is pouring out when you use the tape!


Next was a box containing two decorative tapes! I like that the front of the box shows the pattern of the two tapes in detail - this pack contains two kinds of lace style tape.


Look how pretty these are - I think they'd be fab for edging important pages or even for sticking in photos! The colours used are very vibrant which means they'll show up well on paper.


Eep! Totoro! Oh my gosh, I love, love, love Totoro! He's right up there with Rilakkuma! This is a little cellphone/bag mascot and he's so soft and squishy! This has already made it onto my handbag so I can take him with me where ever I go.


Check out these adorable paper clips - these have definitely been made with love. They are so detailed and such pretty colours! I'm going to use them in my planner to mark pages and hold in some loose leave notes.


Here's where I got to before the video ended - so I was able to get some photos of the lovely wrapping Jeanette does! I mean look how perfect that is! I am horribly useless when it comes to wrapping, and there's usually tape everywhere if I've had some kind of involvement, but this is sealed with a single cute sticker! I am in awe of her wrapping skills!


Inside this package: Animal stickers, Lovely days pages markers, Rilakkuma page markers and post-its and daily schedule post its.


If you know me, you know that I love stickers! These are adorable, puffy little animals with funny faces! No doubt I will use these everywhere possible! Page markers are always useful, I also use them to make little notes when I need to remember something important or when I need to reference something. These ones have such a cute bear and friends design, they remind me a little bit of Pinny-Mu.


My favourite Rilakkuma!¬ I have no doubt I will use these absolutely everywhere! This is one of my favourite designs too! The daily schedule will be very useful for me as I often have a few things I need to remember to do on a day to day basis. I love the giraffes face peeping in from the side of the page.


More of that awesome wrapping! I love that Jeanette has taken the time to match the tape or stickers to the paper!


In this package was a white kitty pen, a bunny ruler and an strawberry milk pen.


How cute are these little faces? The kitty pen is a black gel pen which is very smooth to write with. The bunny ruler has to be one of my most favourite things in the package, it's a great size and I love his expression! The strawberry milk pen matches the correction tape. This is actually an erasable pen which means it'd be good for draft writing or even outlining drawings!


Oh, ho, ho! It's my favourite Rilakkuma! Look at his squishy little face, he's made out of a super soft fabric and really well made. This is a pencil case.


Check out the details on his tummy - he even has little yellow paws.


Inside the pencil case were some colour gel pens! There is a whole set here and probably every colour imaginable - they are very fine tipped so perfect for writing in small spaces or even sketching with. I know I will use these a lot. Bonus: You can see that the pencil case has Rilakkuma's name embroidered on which is a really lovely touch.


The last thing I unwrapped was this pastel purple macaron planner - this came wrapped in a lovely box, which is a great idea as it'd protect it during shipping.


Look how beautiful this planner is! I've always, always wanted a pretty coloured planner, so much so that I have in fact ruined my boring black filofaax with spray paint in effort to kawaii-afy it! I adore this colour, it's just pefect. The material used is a high quality textured PU leather. It has a hand button snap at the front to keep it closed.


Inside the planner is a six ring binder. On the inside of the front cover there is plenty of room to put business cards, a bigger slot for notes or papers you may need and a loop for a pen.


The diary insiders are a perfect size for writing in. I've also found the filiofax ones way to squished in to get all the information I need in. I also like that these don't have printed dates - that way you can put your own in any format you like, and also if you bought this part way through the year you wouldn't loose out on use if the previous months were no good.


The back of the planner has another slot for loose papers and another pen holder! This is really handy as I like to keep a pen and pencil in my planner. I also tend to keep any useful bits of paper, such as directs or leaflets in my planner too so there is plenty of room for that.

Some dividers and extra inserts were also included with the planner. I'm going to decorate the dividers with some of the stickers and tapes that MIMO sent in the package.


This is the front page of the diary inserts and it's given me an idea for this planner! As well as using it as a normal day-to-day planner, I'm going to turn this into an inspirational and motivational planner too! I'll be doing an update on the planner in a post very soon so you can see what I have used it for and get an idea of how you can use it too!

I want to say thank you to Jeanette at MIMO pencil case shop for this beautiful set, I really do love everything she sent and it's been packaged with such care and attention. I can honestly say that I would purchase from MIMO and know that my order would be taken care of perfectly.Customer service is spot on and Jeanette is a lovely person to talk too and she is only to happy to help with any queries you may have.

Please go check out MIMO pencil cases shop, if you've seen something you like in my review you can be sure you'll find it on the store, but give me a shout if you need help finding it!


You can also find MIMO on the facebook below:

MIMO PCS FACEBOOK PAGE

Ta-ta for now,
x

Friday, 9 October 2015

Kawaii & Cute on a budget! Lunch time apparel!


Hello Everyone!

It's time for another Kawaii & Cute on a budget! Today I'll be showing you where you can find cute lunch time apparel - It thought this would be a great idea as this is something everyone can do whether you work in an office like me, are still at school or spend your days at home, everyone can have a cute lunchtime! My favourite places to buy this kind of thing online is eBay, Aliexpress and Taobao. I'll be concentrating mostly on eBay for this post as this is probably the place where most people have access too. It's probably work noting that you can also find Kawaii & Cute lunchtime bits offline in quite a few £stores, Paperchase & Paperchase (Likely to be expensive unless in a sale),  and, oddly Primark.


So let's start with lunch boxes! These are a pretty good staple for any lunch time - you can transport your food about without worrying about it getting squashed and ruined. The other great thing about using a box is that unless its a big single space type, you don't need to use individual sandwich bags which a) saves your money and b) saves the planet as there is less waste! I have quite a few lunch boxes now - different types for different foods. I have a couple that are air tight,  a few stackable and one thermos one (I won't be sharing this one as it's boring and really doesn't keep the food that warm! I'm looking for a new one).


I found quite a few cute lunch boxes on eBay very easily (you'll get a better selection if you set the search to world wide and don't mind waiting around 2 weeks for it to be delivered. Most range from £2+ but if you watch a few of the auctions many start at £0.01! You can quiet easily get a bargain - its worth looking at the store as well as you may be able to find the item with a relatively low buy it now price if the auction goes above your budget.


Just an example of what you can get if you look world wide - I bought this kawaii hamburger lunch box for a whole £1.42!! That included shipping as well. It has 3 sections plus a little fork and spoon included. I'd really recommend the store uarenice - They have a ton of cheap cute items and the people running it are very lovely - there was a problem with the delivery of my lunch box, the shipping label was damaged by the rain and returned to the store. They contacted me to let me know and to ask if I still wanted the lunch box or whether they should refund me. Since I was in no rush I opted to have it resent so they re-packaged and resent it out and it arrived around two weeks later. wrapped up securely in bubble wrap and cellophane. It's exactly as it looks in the picture, and is made out of a very durable plastic, so for the money it's an excellent buy as I think it will last a very long time.


Something else I've seen pop up a lot recently is insulated bags - these are a cheap and fantastic option for keeping your food cool with an ice pack in the summer months or for keeping thermos pots warm that little bit longer. I bought the bag on the left in pink from Glasscitypool - this arrived mega quickly considering it came all the way from Hong Kong! This fits my round pots and keeps soup or porridge warm for a couple of hours at a time. If I use it with my thermos pot it does keep soup just warm enough till lunch time if I heat it up at 7:30am. There are quite a few different bags like this on eBay at the moment and most are £2+ - if you buy one make sure you buy one with a foil lining to keep it insulated! The one on the right is really cute and I may well buy this one for keep sandwiches and drinks cold in the summer months as it looks like it might be a little bigger than the one on the left.


On the subject of drinks how about one of these cute bottles or mugs? I will point out though, that there is no point in buying a cheap bottle or flask - it'll just leak ever where and soak everything (Been there, done that!) You'll probably want to spend around £5+ for a decent bottle - preferably one that is leak proof or at least has a rubber seal around the top. For mugs and glasses though, go nuts! You can find super cute ones starting from as little as £0.01 and a lot will offer free postage, so you can really spend as much or as little as you want. Again changing the search parameters to world wide means you will get a better selection in your search results - there are some absolutely adorable cups from Japan available for world wide shipping.


On the subject of cups, how about one of these cup covers for £0.99? They come in a variety of designs and will keep dust and other nasty things out - they'll probably keep your hot drinks warmer for longer as well.


For those of you that just want a quick sandwich and don't need a whole lunch box, try looking for cute cellophane bags - there's a whole load of different baggies available to keep your food fresh in! These are usually very cheap too and can bought be bought in multiples of 10-100. You could also use these for giving cookies or treats to friends in.


Lastly I found these kawaii bento accessories! You could make all sorts for your lunch with these - just search for Bento accessories and see what you can find!

I hope you've found today's Kawaii & Cute on a budget fun and helpful! If you'd like to request a segement for K/COB you can let me know in the comments below or on the sites facebook page - I love getting requests from my readers so please don't be shy!

Ta-ta for now,
X




Sunday, 6 September 2015

~*NEW SEGMENT*~ Kawaii/Cute on a budget!

Hello Everyone!

Today I'd like to introduce a new segment called 
Kawaii & Cute on a budget!


There's a couple of reasons I thought I'd start this segment - firstly, thinking back to Hyper Japan and some of the scalping going on, I wanted to show you where you can find the same things, if not similar for a reasonable price, I'm also aware that some of my lovely readers are on a pretty tight budget or want to get the most value they can for their hard earned money (I know I certinaly do!) and lastly I wanted to share with you a few of the sites and sellers I use to buy for myself! I'll also probably be putting in some how-to's for you to make 

I thought I'd split this up into several posts so that I can add to the finds/make it easier for you to search via the labels - so if you're searching for something specific, say stationary or lunch boxes you can just click that label to find all the posts on that subject! (They'll be labelled with the prefix K/CAOB: so for example K/CAOB: Stationary so they'll be super easy to find!)

So far I've figured out a couple of different ideas for what you might like, but if you have any more please let me know in the comments or on the Facebook page!

Bento/Lunch Boxes

Home Wares

Clothing
Mascots
Plushies
Make-Up
Jewellery
Stationary

As always any and all suggestions are welcome!

Ta-ta for now!
X