((little fat notebook))

Yogi Surprise May 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: decorations, food, foot rub, home, jewelry, necklaces, pictures, products, reviews, snacks, subscriptions, teas, vegan, yoga, yogi surprise

11 May 2015

I’m seeing some familiar brands! There are some nice reusable items too, that will last a long time to come. Let’s get ready for summer with this box…

Yogi Surprise is just under $36 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with yoga gear, skincare, food, and other lifestyle products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

Luv Superfoods almond beegan-bites – These look like fun little chocolate cups, though I’m hesitant to try them because they’re raw and vegan so I’m not sure about their flavor. I will definitely eat them though, since they should really pack a nice punch of energy.

Moon Valley Organics Peppermint Foot Rub – Much like the Rejuvenating Rub that came a few months ago, this is a minty tube of cream that smells great. It melts with your body temperature and just a little is enough to cover a lot of skin. I don’t quite feel the mint on my feet so I would have liked more of the cooling effect, but it sure does leave my feet nice and soft.

Star Essence Yoga Mind Mouth Mist – Haha! I had just mentioned the mouth mist I’d gotten when we got a different spray from this brand in my very first Yogi surprise box. So now I have another one, which works since my original is back at my parents’ home.

Tea Tibet Harmony Spiced Tea – Oh yay! Definitely excited about this tea since I don’t usually have spiced ones and I enjoy tea of all kinds. I’ll take this to work to drink since it’s always cold there and I end up drinking a ton of hot water or tea throughout the day.

Tibetan prayer flags – These will be a nice decoration to put up in one of the rooms. We don’t really buy things to put up or on display, so this will help spruce up the place.

Yogi necklace with Om pendant – I don’t typically wear large pendants like this, but I’ll try it out and see how I feel. I can always gift it to someone!

I’ll try to make good use of all the items here. We’ll see how it goes – I can always share if I’m not a fan.

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Sleeping positions

laelene Post in lifestyle glimpses，Tags: bed, behaviors, cats, family, home, household, panda, pets, positions, preferences, sleeping, styles

09 May 2015

How do you like to sleep?

Since Panda sleeps much earlier and I sit in bed on my computer, I’ve noticed some strange sleeping habits and positions that he’ll get into. He loves to be tightly tucked in under the blanket, complete with a tight tuck under his chin. It shuts in the hot air so much that he’ll sweat at night and I recently observed a drop of sweat making its way down his face and neck (ick). I prefer more air flow and will sometimes lay on top of the thick blanket with a light blanket or have various body parts sticking out of the blanket (typically my feet or one leg). I also like to have one leg bent up and one straight out. Since I leave a low light on, Panda will sometimes find creative ways to block the light – usually he’ll crook his elbow over his eyes, but I’ve found him with my nightgown wrapped around his head like a turban before.

There are some commonalities we share though – for one, we both like to sleep with our arms laying next to our heads, elbows bent. Perhaps we like airing out our armpits? We also like to take up a lot of space. For me, this generally means spreading out and draping my leg over him if necessary (he hates that). For him, it’s usually some strange contortion he managed to get into while twisting in his sleep. I’ve had to provide photo evidence of his transgressions to prove how he overran the bed and left me no space!

I also like to keep things fresh by changing where we sleep in the bed. At first we’d swap sides every now and then. A few times we oriented our heads and feet the opposite way. Most recently we are sleeping sideways, parallel to the wall that the bed is against. Each time we change, Panda complains and hates the idea, but I’ve found that if I keep pushing, he tries it out and ends up enjoying it. Then that new spot is the default and the next change is another little battle (it’s like he forgot he didn’t want his “spot” the last time we changed either).

Even the cats have their funny sleeping preferences, like Smokey’s “happy nap” where she lays on her back in the middle of the floor, belly up and all paws facing the ceiling. As soon as she notices someone trying to take a picture of that, she quickly rolls over and runs off. When she’s in boxes, she loves to prop her chin and one paw over the edge. Meanwhile Missy is a huge fan of crawling in under the covers to snuggle up next to you. Or, if she’s on top of the blanket she’ll often end up belly up, chest to the side, and head twisted back. That’s when you know she’s really sleeping well. 🙂

So do you also have your own sleeping quirks?

Homegrown Collective April 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: almonds, eco-friendly, food, green, homegrown collective, milk, pictures, projects, reviews, seeds, sprouts, subscriptions

07 May 2015

Hmm, I guess they reverted back to printing out inserts. This box is similar to a combination of two previous boxes (my very first one with sprouts and one with almond milk). I like that sprouts are completely different ones and the focus was a unique theme of raw foods.

The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX is $39 per box + $9 shipping (or as discounted as $429 for an entire year, with options in between) and comes with fun and easy projects to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program you can apply to join.

Project #1, growing sprouts/sprouting: Wow, there are so many different sprouts to try! I’ve really only had bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts before (pretty sure brussel sprouts aren’t actually sprouted). I’ll have to test each of these to see which is tastiest. Maybe they all are, and that would be great. These would be super easy to throw in a salad or atop my regular meals. Seeds are powerful things and I have no doubt that sprouts offer great health benefits.

Project #2, chocolate almond milk: While I am not a fan of almonds, especially anything made from them, I’m curious how a chocolate milk would be. I started to try to make the original one I had from the other box, but I left the almonds sitting too long and it grew mold so I had to throw them away. I haven’t quite gotten around to retrying just yet, but I will!

These are simple projects yielding all sorts of edible results. I would have liked to see one project using some of those seeds and making a face mask or something from them. Otherwise, this box was good, with a variety of easy plants to deal with.

Interested? Subscribe to the Homegrown Collective get your own projects!

Julep May 2015: The Set Sail Collection review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: beauty, brownies, nail art, nail decals, nail polishes, pictures, products, reviews, stickers, subscriptions

05 May 2015

It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a box from them and I seem to alternate between mystery boxes and one of their monthly themed ones. This time around, I didn’t want an eyeshadow so I thought I might skip the month again, but I found myself drawn to the High Seas Box. There’s something about the patriotic, summery colors and the nail decals that I couldn’t resist. It was also the perfect opportunity to snag the brow gel that I had my eye on, using some points!

Julep ranges from just under $25 to $40 per box based on tier (or as discounted as just under $20 to $35 per box when prepaid three at a time) and comes with combinations of nail polish colors, skincare products, and beauty products (depending on your style profile choice). They offer plenty of upgrade and add-on options too. Boxes are sent monthly unless you choose to skip. You also have the option of gifting your box to a friend. They offer a referral program that earns you $15 store credit per referral.

julep maven may 2015 set sail collection box contents

May’s Set Sail Collection High Seas box with add-on

Polish colors in Ilsa, Brigitte, and January. While I might have a pretty similar shade of red, I’m quite sure I do not have a blue or white that is just the right shade for this American combo. I look forward to some awesome nail art or French manicures with Brigitte!

gold anchor nail decals
I’m a sucker for these and they were a pretty big reason I went with this box. I can totally see myself doing fun designs with them for Memorial Day, Independence Day, etc. Stripes, polka dots, and anchors all the way!

lock down your brows Iconic Brow Gel in clear
I was surprised at the small size of the brush, but it’s perfect for brows. Other brow gels I’ve used have larger brushes more similar to mascara and they end up putting too much gel on my brows. At first I couldn’t tell if there was even enough gel on the brush, but it works wonderfully to tame any stray brows without looking like there’s anything there.

julep set sail collection card, discount offer card, and refer friend card

The Set Sail Collection cards.

The Set Sail Collection quote card.

I’m very pleased with the brow gel I got with points – totally worth it! The combination of colors and the decals was really well-themed and right up my alley. I had considered trying their new “Surprise Me!” box, but I couldn’t quite take the risk blindly like that. Hopefully I can track down someone’s review and see if it might be worth a try another month…

Join as a Julep Maven to get polishes and/or beauty products sent to you monthly! Use code FREEBOX or FREEMAVEN to get the first box free (you pay shipping).

My pet Hawaiian shrimp

laelene Post in photo blog，Tags: cats, experiences, hawaii, pets, pictures, shrimp, smokey, stories, timelapse, travel, videos

03 May 2015

Back when we were in Hawaii, I finally got myself a little Hawaiian red shrimp ecosphere. While I’d seen the crazy expensive closed systems before, I liked that the one I found includes a lid that opens. Just in case I need to feed them or change the water, right? So I happily bought the travel set, which included the jar with sand and a fake little plant plus a separate plastic bottle with the shrimp and some blue pellets (food, I presume). All I had to do was put it in my checked bag for transport back home!

I also decided to get a set of snails to add to my new little ecosystem, just to help clean the water. While in Hawaii, I kept them in the bottle together and spent hours watching them. The snails liked to hide up on the lid, out of the water. Whenever they did go down, the shrimp would immediately gravitate towards them and pick at their shells. They must have some tasty algae growing on those shells! When it came time to travel, I carefully wrapped the bottle in paper towels and put it in a box, just in case anything leaked. I then wrapped the box in some of my clothes to try to offer the best buffer between potential jolts and coldness.

Upon arrival many hours later (and a good 30-degree drop in temperature too), I gingerly opened everything and found minimal leakage of water. The shrimp and snails were just fine. I then set about setting up their habitat and enjoyed a beautiful jar to put on the counter or table. Check out the pictures below to show you what has happened since…

The original habitat I saw at the store! I couldn’t leave without my own.

hawaiian red shrimp eating off black snail shell

The shrimp, snails, and blue pellets in the travel bottle. Those shrimp loved following the snails around!

cat sniffing glass jar with sand and fake plant

Smokey sniffed at this mysterious new jar while I was putting it together.

hawaiian red shrimp and snails ecosphere self-sustaining ecosystem

I loved sitting and watching them. I mostly kept them on the coffee table or the island in the kitchen.

After awhile, some shrimp and my snails died. The water began to get murky, so I got a nerite snail from the local pet store.

hawaiian shrimp and nerite snail timelapse from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

I did a timelapse video of the super active new snail and its four little shrimp friends! Little did I know what was about to happen…

spilled water and sand on hardwood floor

The very next day, disaster struck. Smokey clumsily jumped on the counter, but slid and took the entire box and the jar with her.

tools used for shrimp habitat spill cleanup

We painstakingly got the shrimp back in (one was already dead) and sucked the water back in the jar.

It was too much trauma and the water sucked back in was gross with dust and cat hair. Another one died promptly and I was so upset, until I realized that both my two remaining shrimp and snail are used to not just brackish water, but fresh water and salt water. They’re pretty good at adjusting to different levels of salinity, so I decided to clean out the jar and give them fresh water for awhile. Except I had no idea what sort of fresh water to use, so I used a water bottle. By the next morning, that seemed to kill the other two shrimp (or maybe they were already beyond help 🙁 ). And so it was just my poor little snail. Even it gave me a scare a few days later when I thought it had died. Thankfully, by that night it was climbing up the glass again.

After this happened, I immediately decided I needed to order some shrimp to replace the ones I lost and found Shrimp Mart after some searching. I felt they had really reasonable prices, especially when it came to shipping, so I opted for their 20 Opae Ula selection. I wanted to get their live Angel Hair Moss too, but they were out of stock at the time. Too bad! Maybe another time, or hopefully I can get some locally.

Smokey was in a time out during our recovery and cleanup period.

packaging for mailed hawaiian red shrimps

The new shrimp arrived in the mail about a week later.

plastic bag with twenty-plus hawaiian red shrimp

Very well packaged! All shrimp were alive and they gave well over 20 (I think I counted 27, but with so many it’s hard to say).

I’m not sure what the pink thing is, but it seems to be a food source. I think it just allows algae growth on it and is just a sort of sponge that the shrimp wouldn’t eat. I carefully transferred the shrimp into the jar and the amount of water they came in was just perfect! I then noticed a strange thing squirming around, which I figured it couldn’t be parasitic or dangerous since it’d been in the bag with all the shrimp on the trip and they were fine.

The strange worm-like thing jerking around turned out to be a larva!

over two dozen hawaiian red shrimp in jar with nerite snail

And now they’re happily settled in their new home. I’m thinking about splitting them into two for more space.

I need to make sure I get the right kind of brackish water for them before I use another container for some of them. I hope they don’t feel too crowded in this jar. I’ve since put the pink thing in with them, so they have a place to hide and eat from. And yes, I am much more paranoid about where I place the jar now. No place feels safe, even the ground!

hawaiian shrimp eating

Check out the video of them settled in their home!

Treatsie April 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: candy, caramels, chocolates, food, pictures, products, reviews, snacks, subscriptions, treatsie

30 April 2015

I still had some store credit to use and they were offering some of my favorite brands! I just couldn’t resist. I really loved the Dallas Caramel Co armadillos and they were selling them along with the horned toads, so I got double just to make sure I got my share of armadillos. I already re-ordered the Tahana Confections caramels before and I’ll probably keep getting them. This time, they also changed up their packaging and info card a bit.

Treatsie is $15 per box + $4.95 shipping and comes with artisan candy from 3-4 brands (I am grandfathered in for $15 for 2-3 brands and fewer items). That means about 6 or 7 different flavors of treats (or 4 or 5 for me). Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral link program to earn store credit. Use my referral link to get your first box FREE!

B. T. McElrath Chocolatier chocolate bites in Super Red, Buttered Toast, Prairie Dog, Dark Chocolate Caramel: Yuuuuummy! What a luxurious bite of chocolate with each of these. They’re very firm, crisp pieces bursting with flavor. I found the bite-sized pieces to be perfect so I sure hope they offer them like that. These are wonderfully tasty morsels.

Tumbador chocolate Pretzel Poppers, Corn Nut Dragée, & PB&J: Adorable packaging, but I couldn’t figure out how to open those boxes without ripping them entirely (oh wait, I just used the bottom instead). The pretzel poppers have a nice powdery coating and are larger. Both the poppers and the corn nut dragée are delightfully crunchy and fun to eat. The chocolate bar had a surprising layer of raspberry pâte that was sort of like fruit leather, so when I tried to break off a piece, it wouldn’t break. The peanut praline is contrasted against that with a nice crunch. This is a great twist on PB&J, though I’m not into those snacks.

Malvi Marshmallow Confections cookie sandwich in Vanilla Salted Caramel: Wow, these are rich. Each sandwich is a fluffy, crumbly mouthful of sweetness. The vanilla is fragrant and the salt helps even out the sweetness. They’re more heavy than my typical fare, so one at a time is more than enough.

Dallas Caramel Company Armadillos & Horned Toads: These are made from the same ingredients – caramel, dark chocolate, and pecans. I prefer the armadillos because of the crunch of the dark chocolate and pecans against the soft caramel. With the horned toads, the caramel and chocolate are swirled so the whole thing is softer. I enjoy crispness though. Unfortunately the deal to add this to my box did not allow me to separate the two and only get the armadillos that I really wanted (so I just ordered twice as much instead).

Tahana Confections caramels in Salted & Vanilla: When I was ordering this, I mistook the salted for ganache with sea salt (my ultimate fav). Alas, I didn’t get my favorite flavor, but I do love the fragrance of their vanilla and I certainly like the salted too. Next time I’m getting just vanilla and ganache again, since those are my top picks!

I love the treats and have been getting better about eating them all instead of trying to hoard some for a rainy day. I mean, what sort of rainy day am I waiting for anyway? Which treats would you want? To get Treatsie, sign up with my link and get your first box free!

Petit Vour April 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: konjac sponges, nail polishes, pictures, reviews, subscriptions, sunscreen, towelettes, wipes

28 April 2015

Am I the only one who noticed the change back to the lighter pink box this month? And funny how most of the items matched too.

Petit Vour is $15 per box (or as much as $30 for international subscribers) and comes with vegan beauty, skincare, and other personal care products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes (email contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you if you sign up!).

The Konjac Sponge Co pink clay konjac puff sponge – How funny that I finally got around to using the konjac sponge I’d gotten in a Julep box quite awhile ago and then I get two more! The other was in the Escape Monthly box this month. It’s cool this one has pink clay – that’s a first. I’m used to plain or black konjac sponges (typically with charcoal for absorbing oil). I’ll break out this one next once my current one needs replacing.

Box Naturals Luxe towelettes in Rosewater & Lavender – These feel like a fancy little treat I can keep in my bag/purse/car. I’m obsessed with wipes and I can’t wait to make good use of these. I’ll probably want to get more, but dang they’re expensive!

Suntegrity 5-in-1 Natural Moisturizing Tinted Face sunscreen in Medium – This brand must be promoting itself because it also showed up in the summer Yuzen box I just got! I’m glad I got medium, which should match my skin tone well. I like that this is a bit of a sunscreen and BB cream in one. Less work for more gain, you see.

lauren b beauty nail polish in #ImSoLA – It’s as if they made this shade just for Petit Vour. It’s a bright, bold color for the warmer months that I will definitely be trying out on both fingers and toes. It just seems like the type of shade I should have on my toes with flip flops. (And back in LA I’d be wearing flip flops pretty much every day.) This is more of a luxury nail polish brand that costs a pretty penny.

This box felt pretty high-end overall and I liked all the skincare stuff. I’ll be using every single product! What items do you want from this box?

[This post mentions a referral program. Signing up and emailing contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Glass fusing art project

laelene Post in lifestyle glimpses，Tags: art, artwork, experiences, glass fusing, glass fusion, panda, pictures

26 April 2015

For Panda’s birthday, he found a deal for a glass fusing class. At first we were looking at stained glass classes, but once I heard about glass fusing, I knew that’s what we wanted to do. I also figured that we could make plate or bowl-like ones that the cats could then use for their food. Our normal bowls were a bit too deep for their liking whereas they’d lick food right off a plate onto the floor, so neither ware worked well.

Firehouse Pottery and Arts is in Mt. Airy, MD (near Damascus) and it’s a cute shop that does pottery painting, clay pottery sculpting, and canvas painting classes in addition to their glass fusing ones. When we arrived, there was a bit of confusion and it turns out that they’d booked us for one month later. We were an hour too early for their jewelry glass fusion class and about 2 hours too late for their trivet glass fusion class that day, but since we were already there (and far from home), they cleared a table and showed us the ropes to make the geometric trivets that we thought we’d signed up for.

Take a look at the experience and what we made!

firehouse pottery and arts studio in mt airy

There are a couple of areas to work in. So many colors everywhere!

glass scoring station at firehouse pottery and arts

For larger pieces, you can score your glass at the station to get a long straight line.

glass fusing samples of tack, contour, and full fuses

We were shown sample pieces to decide the fusing we wanted – tack (bumpy), contour (moderately fused), or full (smooth).

glass piece with tack fusion - the most bumpy option with minimal fusing

The tack fuse piece was quite bumpy!

We gravitated towards the full fuse (with slump, which gives it a shape so it isn’t flat).

We got some tools, a piece of 6×6 clear glass for our base, and some instructions. Always use the nipper “eyes up!”

pieces of colored glass sorted into plastic tubs

There were a lot of glass pieces to pick out!

designing trivet with three layers of colored glass

I started layering to see what color combos I liked.

standing up to score the glass with hand glass cutter

Scoring the glass can be hard work so standing up for greater leverage helped.

piece of purple colored glass with dfferent shades of layers

Most pieces were the same color all the way through, but the purple (incidentally my fav color) was unique.

cracking glass from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

After scoring, breaking the glass piece was as easy as squeezing on the running plier. Watch how easy it is to break the glass along the scored line in this video.

layers of colored glass cut and layered into design

After finally getting all the pieces I wanted and making sure the bottom colors fit with almost no gap, I was ready to start gluing.

gluing colored glass to clear glass base

We had white glue and hair spray to adhere the glass together. I tried both!

other students' glass fusion trivets ready to go in the kiln

As we were wrapping up, I checked out some other people’s work.

completed glass trivets ready to go in kiln

Our completed pieces, ready to go in the kiln! It takes a long time to first fuse, then slump glass and they had a queue of pottery going in too.

completed fused glass projects with gift bag and cat in background

Weeks later (actually exactly 2 months) I finally got them! They’d had to get a new (bigger) mold for our pieces, which were larger than normal.

fused glass piece of house, tree, sun, driveway, and yard

Panda’s creative landscape (aka Smokey’s plate).

colorful fused glass piece of geometric design

My modern art piece dubbed “straight edge” (aka Missy’s plate).

geometric glass plate layered over house glass plate

Don’t they look cool? I look forward to doing this again sometime.

house glass plate layered over geometric glass plate

Panda decided they were too nice for the cats to use, so there goes that plan.

They weren’t perfectly smooth the way I thought, which is probably because our pieces were thicker than they expected. I wonder if we could have them re-fused and slumped to make them oh so smooth… alas, the place is too far and these are fine, especially given that they won’t be used as plates! I think we’ll end up treating them partly as art and partly as trays. In fact, mine currently holds a bit of money and a receipt.

Tide PODS Plus Febreze review

laelene Post in reviews，Tags: chores, home, influenster, laundry, pictures, reviews, tide pods

24 April 2015

I’ve tried a different type of Tide Pod before, which was fun in itself. This new Febreze version is even better! I love the colors and upon opening the pack, you immediately get that refreshing scent. You just have to be careful if you have kids or pets, in case they mistake these adorable pods for a treat. Be sure to store them away from reach and sealed in the resealable package!

I’m typically not motivated to do laundry, so I try to get large loads ready to maximize the effort each time. It’s always so messy trying to measure out the amount of detergent to use and I end up with a sticky cap and detergent drawer. I love that these pods not only take out the guesswork, but the mess too. All I have to is drop one in a load and set the machine to go! My clothes come out smelling amazing and it lingers on the clothes, keeping that fresh feel over many wears. In fact, I went out once and thought that the restaurant was using a special perfume, but then I realized the whiff I got was my own clothing’s Febreze scent.

I don’t think these could be any more convenient and I’d love to see them start to offer other Febreze fragrances to spice things up. I’m totally grabbing these in the aisle whenever I need more detergent for my washing needs. Why make laundry more complicated than it needs to be?

[I received these products free from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions are my own.]

Escape Monthly April: Japan Box review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: chopsticks, drinks, escape monthly, fans, food, japanese, konjac sponge, pictures, products, reviews, snacks, subscriptions, tea, travel, wind chime

23 April 2015

Who could say no to Japan? I totally had to see what kawaii things might come in this box. I totally thought there’d be those funky little erasers shaped like sushi or other food. Alas, maybe next time. While waiting for this, I got an email that Escape Monthly had changed their billing and I needed to re-subscribe. To entice me, they offered 30% off for life… I decided to go with it, though I seriously debated letting that be a rather natural cutoff with this box. But I like it enough to keep it at the lower price point.

Escape Monthly is just under $40 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – see end of post) and comes with a variety of food, home, skincare items themed around a city/region. Each box comes with a guide for that area. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral commission program.

(click to enlarge and read full messaging)

It’s great to see a mix of items so I have things for the home, personal care, kitchen, and of course my tummy. Some things reminded me of home and others were new to me.

Here’s what came in the box:

Moon Handbooks guide to Living Abroad in Japan – While I’ve been through the airport two or three times, I’ve never truly visited Japan. I even stayed at an airport hotel when I was a young teen, being escorted by airport personnel since I was traveling solo. I just never went further than that and other than a van driving on the other side of the road, some smoking Japanese airport workers watching strange game shows, and a hotel I no longer recall, I haven’t gotten to experience Japan. I do look forward to it though, and I’m sure Panda and I will make our way there in our coming trips so I’ll see what this booklet has to offer then.

The Tao of Tea Japanese Sencha tea – I love the packaging of this tea. This brand is new to me, though I think I’ve seen it before. The tea is well-preserved in a tin that doesn’t let in light and has an inner lid for extra sealing power. The scent is a nice, rich green tea. Just the type of thing I can bring to work and sip on all day long.

The Japanese Konjac Sponge bamboo charcoal – I still don’t quite understand konjac sponges, but this is already my third. The first I got in the UK at a Boots, the second I got from Julep (and am currently using), and funny enough, I received my fourth in my latest Petit Vour box today! So I am now quite well-stocked on these and really hope that they help my acne-prone skin. It definitely feels like a good oil absorber and it’s so gentle on skin. I love that it’s eco-friendly too.

Glico Pocky Matcha biscuit sticks – I love Pocky and matcha green tea! So of course it makes sense that I love matcha Pocky too. I wish they would have gone for something a little harder to find, since Japanese candies and treats are quite plentiful. While this flavor isn’t super easy to find, many Asian markets do carry it. I guess it’s a mostly safe bet for those completely new to them though, whereas some things might be unusual enough that people wouldn’t want to try it.

Syokuzen chopsticks – I could always use a pair of chopsticks. I’m thinking of taking this pair to work, since I feel bad with all the disposable ones that I end up using when I carry out for lunch. These are nice simple chopsticks with a minimal design and thin points that help with picking up small pieces of food.

sandalwood fan – I’ve had many of these in my childhood and I never knew the scent was sandalwood. It totally makes me think of China and my grandma. Such a soothing smell to enjoy. The intricate carvings on the side allow some air to flow through and it offers a really cool design. I’ve had ones like this and some with painted images too. Maybe I’ll lay around and fan myself this summer!

Japanese wind chime – This is a hefty little bell that I believe is made of cast iron. It makes a nice tinkling sound that I think I will try to train the cats to respond to for feeding time. Or maybe I’ll hang it on our porch somewhere and let it do its thing.

Culturally, there’s enough overlap that it feels much like a Chinese box to me and I’m comfortable with that. Plenty of good memories! Which items in the Japan Escape Monthly box would you want? If you want to sign up, try one of these codes (not sure which ones are still active): YOURESCAPE or JAPAN for 20% off the lifetime of your subscription or GIFTESCAPE for 25% off.

Next month is themed Rocky Mountain and I’m excited for nature-y stuff. I haven’t been, so that should be fun!

escape monthly april japan box info card back with chance to win a trip details

Looks like they started customizing the back image to match the destination instead of using a generic beach image.

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