Illumicrate May Box is HERE!!

Hiya there guys!

Today I'm oh so very happy to share Illumicrate May's box!!

It arrived last week but since I had just returned from BEA & vacation and even if I took some pics and flailed very much about it on Twitter and I was beyond happy about all the goodies... it's taken me a while to get my s... eerrrm, well, it's just taken me a while to find the motivation and the time to write this post!

I've said this before, but Illumicrate is a quarterly subscription box based in the UK, which means it was my obvious option when I decided to go for one. If want more info about it, you can go HERE!

Now, let me show you the goodies!! As you can see Dylan was as excited as I was to dive into the box!

And here's the full loot! Book, sampler, mug, pins, bookmark and more!

The main book is When We Collided by Emery Lord, with a signed bookplate and gorgeous artwork postcards! - I had heard so many good things for this one and now I can check it out!

There was also a sampler of the UK edition of Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor - Now that I have both the US & UK samplers, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna preorder the UK edition because I adore that cover!

Then we have an extremely cool mug from Shanelle of Mother of Books Designs! I now want a physical book club to take the mug to the meetings!

A super cute notepad perfect for every reader from Goodnight Boutique!

An adorable bookworm bookmark from My Bookish Mark.

More cuteness in the shape of a "Readers Gonna Read" pin from Literaryemporium!

And again more cuteness in stamp shape "Ex Libris" from LittleStamp Store!

To top it all, a few more extra promo goodies, like postcards and pins!

And that's all folks! I'm completely in love with this box and I'm already getting excited to see what will be in August's box!!

Being Thankful Tuesday: A bookish GIVEAWAY!!

Hello everyone!! Happy Tuesday!

This last year has been quite exciting for me in the blogging front! I started reviewing and blogging more about books, and doing that I met loads of nice people that are book bloggers that have been very nice with me and helped learn things about this world. I've met and interacted with authors, I've had the chance to read books that hadn't been published yet and many of those wonderful stories I've discovered this year have helped me get through some very rough patches that I had this year.

That's why I've decided it's only fair that I hold an end of year giveaway! It's my way of saying thank you!

Recently I got an amazing parcel full of signed matte paperback copies of books by LeighAnn Kopans (it's brilliant when authors offer that possibility on their websites!) and she sent me quite a bunch of awesome swag, with some really cool postcards!

I already had a paperback copy of TWO I had got from Amazon, so now I have two copies one of them signed and dedicated, so I've decided that I'm giving the other one away!

It's in perfect & pristine condition, only read it once and I think more people need to read this duology!

One winner will get the paperback copy of TWO by LeighAnn Kopans and 5 people can win some cool swag postcards.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sandygrafik: Sandra Vargas's Art & Goodies!!

Aaah, Friday! Today I'm enjoying the day off, even if I have to work the weekend. Errands, some shopping and something in the mail, always a good start of the day!


If you remember a previous post about my Haut Totes' bag, I went for a Sandra Vargas design, and I obviously had to check Sandra's own Etsy shop: Sandygrafik. I'm absolutely in love with her Wizard of Oz designs (particularly her Elphaba, cause after reading Wicked, I'm quite a fan of the Wicked Witch) and with her Alice in Wonderland series, all females in her view and all gorgeous, my favourite has to be the Lady Hatter, her version of the Mad Hatter, though her Queen of Hearts is fantastic too!




For my first purchase from her shop (cause I do intend to go back for more) I went for her Alice in Wonderland set of bookmarks, since a bookworm like myself can never have too many bookmarks, and her diecut vinyl stickers with the Lady Hatter & Elphaba and her choice of other two.



When I got my order, Sandra had also included a wonderful postcard of her Lady Cupcake design. I love how vibrant the colours are in her pieces, and what a lovely attention to details all her characters have! I got two Elphaba's stickers, and I'm planning to use one for my suitcase and the other for my car.











I love the tassels the bookmarks have, cause sometimes bookmarks can get lost in big books, but not with a tassel clearly hanging from the book!







For my next order, I'm thinking of a set of the Alice postcards and probably either postcard or print of her Little Prince illustration, I've always had a soft spot for the Little Prince!

Immortal Longings: Shakespeare Art & Illustrations from London!

Friday is here! But for me, this week is just one more day in the quite long chain of days in a row I have to work, but it's all for the good of spending one full month in India with the bf, so I will not be complaining!


I want to share a shop that is a must for all book lovers, writers, aspiring writers and lovers of art in general! I discovered this shop while doing a search for journals on Etsy, and when I saw Immortal Longings' The Tempest leather journal, I just fell in love! I started checking out their entire shop, and wow, all filled with gorgeous illustrations by Elisabeth E. Schuch all inspired in the works of the Bard, in the shape of prints, calendars, postcards, journals, bookmarks, or even wrapping paper (Hamlet wrapping paper, ain't that amazing?).


It goes without saying that I've spent quite some time looking at this shop, wondering what to get, cause "everything" wouldn't really sit too well with my wallet nor my bank account, so I narrowed it down to choosing between all the available sets of leather journal & bookmark, and that was a hard job in itself. Midsummer's Night Dream? Maybe Romeo & Juliet? Twelfth Night? Macbeth? Much Ado About Nothing? Waaaay too many choices!


What to do? Well, I decided to go back to what drove me to the shop, and I settled on The Tempest set, not only is a play I like, but also it's blue, and that's my favourite colour! So, I went ahead, and ordered my Tempest bookmark & journal set!


When the package arrived, in less than a week, from London (apparently Royal Mail is back to normal again) the first thing I noticed was how well protected the journal arrived. There was this thick wrapping of giant bubble wrap around it!


Not only I got my amazing journal & bookmark, but I also got a Tempest postcard, and I absolutely love the illustration!






The journal is the perfect size to take with you in your handbag (unless you have a small one or a clutch) and I absolutely love the combined smell of the leather & inks... smells like a new book ready to be written or read! Sort of like the smell on old style bookstores... Forgive the crazy bookworm talk! ;)






What can I say, I'm in love with my journal, and I'm really hoping it'll help me get back into writing... it's been way too long since I've managed to write something other than my little ramblings here.







Hopefully, I'll be able to fill it up with short stories, ideas for shoots, all sort of things, so I can buy another sort of soon! ;) I'm still trying to decide which one would make the perfect Guest Book? Any ideas? Also, I'm thinking I really need that Hamlet wrapping paper...

The Nebulous Kingdom!

This week is getting a bit work busy, but it'll mean getting a few days off when G comes here (if the Spanish Embassy sees it fit).


On Monday I got a nice package from Anne-Julie, the artist behind The Nebulous Kingdom! I had already bought a few prints, greeting cards and her 2010 calendar, but looking at my entries, I've realized that I didn't write a blog entry about these lovely pieces! So, after taking photos of the prints and calendar, and of the new postcards I got on Monday, I decided to show them off to you all!






When I got these prints, she had an offer to get two prints and get another one for free, so I even if I had hard time choosing only three, I managed! I'm absolutely in love with the three prints I got, and I love how vibrant the colours are!














Her calendar features a lot of her newer illustrations back then at the beginning of the year, and it makes for a such a lovely calendar! It hangs from a ball chain, so it's quite easy to turn the month pages!












And I also got myself a lovely set of greeting cards, with a lovely winter illustration, as with all of Anne-Julie's art, very much out of a fairy tale!






This time I got myself a bunch of postcards of some her more recent illustrations, including her two Burton inspired ones, Sally of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands! Postcards are a great way to get in a very affordable price some of her gorgeous illustrations, and even to collect them!
















I will be getting some more postcards for sure!