I’m still in the Netherlands (cat/house sitting), so it’s been a bit quiet around here. I’ll be back in London next week, so hopefully I’ll be in a better blogging mood then.

I wrote about Avril Loreti’s Etsy store a while ago with the cute Squeeze Me pillows, but I discovered another cute item she sells. Blackboard coasters!

Pwetty… The coasters are $14, but with an added shipping cost of $4.50 if you’re outside the US or Canada (it’s $1.50 shipping to Canada and $2.50 shipping to the US). Check out Avril’s Etsy store for more details.

During my teen years I got completely addicted to all things Ancient World: Egypt, Rome, Ancient Greece, I read everything I could about them. Somehow during those years the ankh became my lucky symbol; every time I had an exam or something else important I would always try to have an ankh with me. This went on for some time, so eventually my mum gave me a simple silver ankh necklace.

Nowadays I still wear that necklace occasionally, although not as ardently as I used to. Up until moving to London, I used to wear that necklace every single day, never even bothering to take it off. The reason I stopped wearing it that much? Having a kitchen with a proper oven.

Anyway, I love the simple design of the ankh, and have always wanted another larger necklace. But most designs with ankhs are so embellished, with too many curves or colours. I finally came across this simple one though from Etsy store Ajewelryboxx for only $20:

Nice, right? Not too big and lumpy, but still not too small. Check out more from Ajewelryboxx.

For the past 8 years I’ve always had a swiss army knife on my keychain. It’s super handy to have with me! But I am the type of person who manages to forget to not have them in my hand luggage when traveling by plane… I had a A Life Less Ordinary pocketknife which I had found for only €1 at a sale and lost this at an airport. I still haven’t found an exact replacement (anyone got any tips?), but these summer designs look great:

They aren’t available anymore on the actual Swiss Army knife site, but there are quite a lot of online stores that still stock them. Just search for swiss army knife and the name of the design (Lobster, Summer Blue, Summer Green and Summer Lt Blue).

I am quite tempted to get these Ghostbuster earrings:

They’re only $5.00 on etsy…

I love the idea of these! Blackboard brooches!

I’ve never really been into brooches at all, but I can imagine using these for all the events that I go to. Much handier than those stupid white stickers, where you have to scribble your name on. The downside though of these brooches? The £72/$105 pricetag. Way too steep for me!

Via swissmiss

Aren’t these cute? I’m not really sure I’d ever use it for proper letters though… hmm, maybe for Christmas?

The address stamps are available on Primele’s Etsy store and are $62-$64.

They also do a personalized name stamp which I quite like for $43. I’d so use this to stamp all my books! (which I do already but with a butterfly stamp)

I found out via the Geek In Heels blog that Nintendo will be releasing three special decks of playing cards of Super Mario. Alas they will only be in Japan! There will be 3 different versions: 2D, 3D and 8-bit.

My personal favourite is the 2D version; I’d love to get a set like this! I wonder what the other cards would be? The Princess as Queen? Luigi as Jack?

Via Geek In Heels

I came across Chocomize yesterday and I so so wish that they shipped to the UK! The idea is simple, but brilliant: you can make your own customized chocolate bars.

Just pick a type of chocolate (dark, milk or white) and then add up to 5 ingredients… whatever you want. They’ve got a great range of nuts and fruits (the usual suspects), but also some more unique, eccentric ingredients, like black peppercorns, rose petals and even beef jerky.

Besides letting you create your own chocolate bars, Chocomize also has a couple of premade popular bars, just in case you have trouble deciding what to put on your own bar. Some of these look great with bars like the Smores bar (mini marshmellows and Graham teddies) or the Tropical Island bar (banana chips, coconut flakes and cantaloupe melon dices). Or my favourite: the ‘I Feel Lucky’ bar, where you get a mystery combination of ingredients!

As I said, I so wish they’d ship to the UK (or is there a UK equivalent?) cause I’d love to make my own personalized bar! I’d probably end up mixing white chocolate with macadamia nuts, and adding some special stuff like lavender to liven it all up. What would your personalized bar be?

This pillow from Etsy seller Avril Loreti is just too cute:

The description:

Add up the 10 points each for the Q and the Z, plus the 50 bonus points for your 7 letter bingo word and you get a pretty spectacular scrabble scoring “Squeeze Me” pillow. With the red backing inspired by the Triple Word Score Square you’re shooting into the stratosphere of word nerd style!

Check out Avril’s store for more wonderful items.

Love these pencils!

Each pencil set costs $11 and comes with a bag with the pencil set name stamped on it. Check out the Paperpastries’s Etsy store.