In a recent post, I mentioned that I have taken an interest in Blythe dolls. Well, since then I have adopted two little dollies of my own! Their names are Grizel and Eleanor, and they are sisters. Eleanor is the eldest, and is reserved and level-headed. Grizel is more outgoing and confident than her sister, but can also be quite impulsive. She also has very long, thick hair, of which she is enormously proud.
Today we had our most decent snowfall yet this winter, although I’m afraid it is still too warm outside for it to stick, so I believe it shall all melt overnight. The girls were feeling very festive, though, and we took some fun and festive photos around the house.
I am among many adults who grew up loving Tamagotchi. There was something so gratifying about taking care of a tiny pixelated creature, and I’ve been wanting to relive that nostalgia. It turns out that not only does Bandai still produce Tamagotchis (now with fancy color displays), they also have done crossovers with many different brands, including one of my all-time favorite brands, Sanrio! I recently preordered the Tamagotchi Meets Sanrio DX, which just released on October 24. In this post I will give an overview of the product, plus offer some advice to anybody who is thinking of purchasing one.
Appearance
Like most Tamagotchi devices, the Meets is shaped like an egg. The shell is a pleasant candy-apple red, reminiscent of Hello Kitty’s red bow. The screen is set in a super-cute pink gingham faceplate with both Sanrio characters and Tamagotchi characters on it, surrounded by strawberries. The faceplate has lots of glitter in it, creating a very pretty shimmery effect whenever it catches the light.
The “DX” version also comes with an exclusive lanyard. Similar to the faceplate, the lanyard has Tamagotchi and Sanrio characters, surrounded by strawberries and hearts. It comes with a cell phone strap, making it easy to attach to your Tamagotchi device. Originally I thought I wouldn’t ever use the lanyard, but I’ve actually been using it a lot! It’s convenient to wear while doing chores around the house, so you can keep your pet with you without worrying about misplacing it.
Gameplay
If you ever played Tamagotchi in the 90s or early 2000s, you will find that the core gameplay of the Tamagotchi Meets isn’t all that different. Your tamagotchi character hatches from an egg and grows from baby, to toddler, to teenager, to adult. You must keep it happy by feeding it, playing with it, cleaning its poop, and giving medicine when it’s sick. It takes 48 hours for your tamagotchi to turn into an adult, and after that you can take care of it until it dies, or hatch a new tamagotchi egg by marrying another character. One thing that is great about this version is that you can leave your tamagotchi at daycare until 7PM. This is very useful if you need to go to school or work during the day.
The one thing about the Tamagotchi Meets that really sets it apart from its predecessors is the “Mix” function. If you marry another tamagotchi, their child will inherit genes from its parents. So for example, if your tama marries Hello Kitty, then their child may inherit Hello Kitty’s bow. They might also inherit their parent’s preferences for certain foods or toys.
This is an amazing feature because there are practically endless combinations of different genetic traits, significantly increasing the replayability factor of the Tamagotchi. It also really makes your tama feel like your own, because chances are nobody else has the exact same character as you! And best of all, you don’t need multiple Tamagotchis to enjoy the Mix feature. You can marry one of the NPCs, or you can connect to the Tamagotchi mobile app to meet and marry Tamagotchis from players all over the world!
Marrying someone else’s Tamagotchi character on the Tamagotchi ON app
Exclusive Features
The Tamagotchi Meets Sanrio version has several Sanrio-themed features and items that can’t be found in any other version. There is a lot of content, and I don’t think I can quite manage to list all of it here, but I’ll do my best to describe the bulk of it! I also translated the various items and foods you can buy at each location. (If you have a better translation for anything I listed, please feel free to leave it in the comments.)
Characters
There are several Sanrio characters that your tama can play with, and even get married to! The version-exclusive characters are Cinnamoroll, Badtz-Maru, Pompompurin, Hello Kitty, Gudetama, Kuromi, My Melody, Kiki, Lala, Keroppi, and Tuxedo Sam.
Backgrounds
You can remodel your tamagotchi’s home to change to different backgrounds. The Sanrio-exclusive backgrounds are: Sanrio Characters, My Melody Living, Kiki and Lala Living, Kitty Living and Strawberry Living.
My personal favorite is the “Kitty Living” room.
Game Corner
The Game Corner at the Tama Department Store has 2 exclusive Sanrio minigames. The first is a Character Quiz, where you can earn money for correctly answering Sanrio-themed trivia questions. The other is a memory matching game with Keroppi.
Keroppi memory game
Sanrio Character Quiz minigame
Café Cinnamon
Once your Tamagotchi pet reaches the toddler stage, it can visit Café Cinnamon, a Cinnamoroll-themed café.
Not to be confused with the U.S. state, Maryland is a magical forest in London where My Melody lives. You can buy My Melody items at the Mary Shop, or play a mushroom-collecting minigame with My Melody herself.
Meals: Mary Mushroom Salad, Kuromi Omurice, Melody Pot-pie
Snacks: Pound Cake, Kuromi Smoothie, Melody Choux
Toys: Anteater Plush, My Melody Car
Accessories: My Melody Bow, Kuromi Headband
Maryland with My Melody, Tamagotchi and friends!
Star World
This adorably pastel Little Twin Stars location can only be accessed by rocket ship. You can play with Kiki, Lala, and Nijifuwatchi at the Cloud Amusement Park.
Meals: Star Quiche, Kiki and Lala Stew, Kiki and Lala Sandwich
Snacks: Lala Pancake, Star Macaron, Kiki and Lala Cotton Candy
Toys: Cloud Slide, Cloud Machine
Accessories: Star Barrette, Kiki and Lala Balloons
Playing with Kiki at Star World
Strawberry Kingdom
The peaceful Strawberry Kingdom is ruled by the benevolent Strawberry King and 7 strawberry Angels.
Meals: King Set, Strawberry Pizza, Strawberry Pasta
Snacks: Strawberry Frappe, Strawberry Pancake, King Sundae
Toys: Strawberry Balloons, Strawberry Tea-set
Accessories: King Hat, Strawberry Staff
Strawberry Party!
Do you need to know Japanese?
The Tamagotchi Meets Sanrio has not been released outside of Japan, and thus the device is in Japanese. However, you don’t need to know Japanese to play it! The menus are simple to navigate using a translation guide online (I like the ones here). Once you play with it for a while, you’ll find that you will memorize the menu options without needing to look at a translation.
Is it worth the price?
I preordered my Tamagotchi Meets Sanrio from Amazon Japan for about $80 USD (not including shipping). Obviously, this is pretty pricy for a children’s toy. As a lifetime fan of both Tamagotchi and Sanrio, I personally think the price is worth it, but I can definitely understand if others find it too expensive.
Overall, I absolutely love this Tamagotchi. You can tell that a lot of love was put into it. Bandai could have just made a Tamagotchi with some Sanrio aesthetics and called it a day, but there are actually a lot of references to Sanrio lore. I also like how some more obscure characters, like the Strawberry King, make an appearance. This is easily one of the cutest things I have ever had in my possession, and I can see myself playing with it for a long time. I highly recommend the Sanrio Meets to all Sanrio fans, especially those who enjoy virtual pets.
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This is going to be slightly different from my usual post, so I hope my readers will excuse me. I was hoping to write a review on my new Blythe doll, but unfortunately I believe that the seller I ordered my doll from is a scammer. In this post I will discuss why I believe thisisblythe.com is a scam website and why I do not recommend their services. I do not benefit from making this post in any way. This blog is a passion project and I don’t make any income from it. This post is purely to warn other people who are looking to buy a Blythe doll so that they don’t end up in the situation that I did.
Shopping for Blythe
I have always loved the look of Blythe dolls, especially ones that have been customized. That’s why I was searching for customized Blythes on Etsy, and I came across this cute girl:
This is “Azalea”, or at least that’s what the item was called on ThisIsBlytheCom’s Etsy shop
When I first saw the doll on ThisIsBlytheCom (the Etsy store owned by thisisblythe.com), it was priced at $173 USD. You can call me naive, but I had thought this was a decent price. The other customs I had seen were over $200 USD, but those usually had very detailed face-ups and I preferred the more simple style of this doll. Plus, she came with a cute outfit.
This was not an impulse buy for me. I checked the reviews of the shop and found only positive reviews. I sat on it for about 2 months until the price came down to $138, and then I placed my order.
Where is my doll?
2 weeks after the estimated delivery date, the doll still hadn’t arrived. I never heard from the seller on any shipping updates, either. I checked the shipping status on Etsy and that’s when I noticed something strange. The package was marked as “Pre-Transit”, and it had a Chinese tracking number. I thought it was strange that it would have a Chinese tracking number when the seller was from Vancouver, Canada.
That is when I decided to do a reverse image search of the doll…
The same doll found on AliExpress for much cheaper
I found the same doll I had ordered on AliExpress, for less than half the price I had paid. Also, rather than being described as a “Custom Neo Blythe” like on ThisIsBlythe, it was called an ICY Blyth doll. Fake Blythes go by a few different names: ICY, Blyth, Factory Blythe, are some common ones, but no matter what they’re called, one thing they are for sure is fake. They are mass-produced copies of the original product by Takara, and to refer to them as “Custom Neo Blythe” is misleading.
I know what you may be thinking: Maybe this AliExpress seller stole the pictures from ThisIsBlythe, rather than the other way around? I will explain why I don’t think this is the case:
1.) While these may be fake Blythe products, they are really good fakes. There are video reviews of dolls from this AliExpress seller, and they look identical to the stock photos:
https://youtu.be/-F-utgZ9KEI
2.) If the dolls being sold on ThisIsBlythe are original products, why did they give me a Chinese tracking number?
Naturally, I had some concerns that I wanted to contact the seller about, but when I went to their shop on Etsy, the store had been deleted.
ThisIsBlytheCom Etsy store gone
Even though their Etsy store was gone (either deleted by them, or removed by Etsy itself) there was still one last place I could contact them. They have their own website, thisisblythe.com. (You can still see the doll I bought on their website here)
ThisIsBlythe’s website
The site has a live chat feature which I used to talk to a sales representative. They were prompt at responding until I brought up getting a refund, after which they stopped responding altogether.
It has now been over 48 hours since my last message, and I have heard no response from the seller.
At this point my only hope was the case I opened with Etsy. 5 days after you open a case with a seller, you can escalate the case with Etsy’s support team. Luckily, Etsy was very quick to give me a full refund after I escalated the case. I am lucky that I made my purchase through Etsy, because if I bought directly from thisisblythe.com I may never have received a refund.
Other sketchy stuff
I will detail some other strange things I noticed about this seller. They aren’t directly related to my purchase, but they provide more evidence why they may not be very trustworthy.
Lists other artists’ dolls on their site for 2x the price
Sadly it appears that not only do they sell mass-produced dolls at a marked-up price, they also sell other artists’ custom work. In my opinion this is even more insidious because it is capitalizing off of others’ hard work for a quick buck.
There are 19,116 reviews, every single one of which gives 5 stars. I don’t think I need to explain how unlikely this is.
Multiple unfulfilled orders
You may also find a link to their TrustPilot profile. At first glance, it looks alright, with a 4.4 star average. However, if you keep looking you will find several 1 star reviews. Several reviews mention their orders never arriving, with no contact from the seller.
Uses someone else’s photo
Here is the photo This Is Blythe / Jenna Anderson uses, both on their Etsy shop and the ThisIsBlythe Youtube channel:
Reverse image searching the above leads to several results of various companies’ “About Us” page. It appears to be a very common stock/placeholder image. Examples here, here, and here.
Domain history
My last point is that the seller uses the fact that their website has existed for 20 years to try to add to their credibility. It is true that the domain thisisblythe.com has been online for 20 years. However, a look into the history of the domain will show that it appears to have been under different ownership up until a couple of years ago.
Take a look at the website’s history at the Wayback Machine. From 2000 through 2015 the website was managed by Gina Garan, who wrote the book “This Is Blythe” in 2000. It was a fan site for Blythe and didn’t appear to sell any dolls. Looking at the archives from 2017 onwards it appears to be a completely different website, shifting focus from a Blythe fansite to a (supposed) Blythe manufacturer. Also, any mentions of Gina have been removed from the website, which now appears to be managed by Jenna Anderson.
Conclusion
The only way to 100% confirm my suspicions that they are reselling AliExpress products would be to order a doll from ThisIsBlythe and compare it with one from AliExpress, but that’s not something I’m interested in doing even if I had the resources. However, I believe I already have enough evidence to be suspicious of the seller.
In conclusion, I do not recommend ThisIsBlythe and would strongly encourage anyone to think carefully before buying their products. Like with any online purchase, especially an expensive one, I strongly encourage everyone to do as much research as possible beforehand. Especially on Etsy where reselling AliExpress items is common, you should do a reverse image search to make sure the product is original.
Updates
10/24/2020: I finally received my order yesterday, some weeks after the original estimated delivery date. The doll came in a plain cardboard box with, lo-and-behold, an AliExpress shipping label.
The label includes the name “Gally Liu” who owns the AliExpress store “The show!”
The AliExpress label is covered by another label but look closely at this picture, and you will see it
If you like the look of the dolls on thisisblythe.com, I strongly suggest saving your money and ordering directly from AliExpress instead. To the best of my knowledge, they sell the same products for a much lower price.
12/10/2020: Added photos of the box the doll arrived in, so you can clearly see the AliExpress labels mentioned above.
10/10/2023: The author of the article in my previous update created an entire website chronicling the history and details of this scam. They have multiple pages devoted to exposing TIB’s fraudulent business, in much greater detail than I have done in this post. If you are still considering purchasing from TIB or are just curious, I cannot recommend their website highly enough.
I’ve just finished reading the third book in the Chalet School series, The Princess of The Chalet School. This is the fourth book I’ve read by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, two being The School at the Chalet and Jo of the Chalet School, which are the first and second books in the series, respectively, and The Lost Staircase, a standalone title. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I have read by her and I’ve been wanting to write about her books, and I think this book is a perfect place to start, given it features a Princess as a main character, and you know how I love themes of Princesses and royalty!
About the Chalet School series
I most likely never would have heard of the Chalet School series if it weren’t for the Tea & Tattle podcast. The creator of the podcast, Miranda Mills, is a lovely woman based in London, and she has a whole Youtube video about the Chalet School and similar books, which is what really spurred me on to start reading the series.
The ChaletSchool series is a children’s book series containing 58 books (not including short stories and spin-off titles) originally published from 1925 to 1970. It follows the inception and subsequent success of the Chalet School, an international girls’ boarding school located in the Australian Tyrol. It is called the “Chalet School” because the main building was converted from an old chalet-style inn. This series is very interesting from a historical perspective because several of the books were being written and published as World War II broke out, and the plot reflects the massive changes that were happening around the world at the time. For example, the School started in Austria, but in the 14th book in the series, The Chalet School in Exile (published 1940) the members of the school flee the country following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. They reestablish the school in the British Channel Islands, but as soon as that story was published the Channel Islands were invaded by the Nazis, so they moved again to Hereford.
It is worth mentioning that while the Chalet books were very popular in the UK, they were never published in the US. So if you live in the US like me, it can be quite tricky to get access to the books, which are expensive even without factoring in overseas shipping! You pretty much have 4 options on the secondhand book market:
The original books published by W. & R. Chambers. I don’t own any (yet) because any that are in decent condition and come with a dust-jacket are usually very expensive.
The Armada/Collins paperbacks published in the 1960s-1990s. These are the cheapest and most easily available, but I have avoided purchasing any of them because they contain heavily abridged/cut versions of the text.
The Girls Gone By reprints. Girls Gone By is a publisher specializing in out-of-print vintage school stories, mostly Chalet books. Their books contain the full original text and also extras like short stories and essays. Unfortunately, many of their reprints have also gone out of print. You can order whatever is in print from their website, or you may be lucky enough to find their books secondhand at a decent price.
The Chambers facsimile editions published in the 80s. These have the original unabridged text, and the original dustjacket illustrations by Nina K Brisley. They look gorgeous on my bookshelf! I’m not sure which books received a facsimile edition, though. I think it may have only been the very early books in the series.
Whew, I think that’s enough context, now on with the book review!
Summary
The book opens in Belsornia, a fictional country located somewhere in Central Europe. We meet twelve-year-old Princess Elisaveta Margherita, the only child of the Crown Prince. She is in repose in her palace bedroom, recovering from illness. Both her father and her doctor are concerned about her health, and the doctor suggests that perhaps she is suffering from the stress and loneliness of her currently strict and sheltered life. He recommends the Chalet School in Austria, for he has a friend who sent his daughter there, and plus the fresh mountain air would do her good. The Prince of course agrees, and relays the plan to Elisaveta, who is over-the-moon excited to be done with lessons from governesses, and to actually join a boarding school like the ones in her storybooks.
The first part of the book is dually concerned with the assimilation of Elisaveta into the school, and with the new and universally disliked Matron. I hadn’t heard of a “Matron” before this book, but from what I can gather they are in charge of the domestic affairs of the dormitories, rather than having any academic duties. This Matron, Miss Webb, is particularly cruel and strict and seems to live only for scolding the girls at every opportunity and doling out punishments. Plus, she looks like a weasel and has a loud and grating voice. She’s basically a Roald Dahl villain. Even the Headmistress, Miss Bettany, doesn’t like her, but decides to give her a chance.
A few weeks after joining the school, Elisaveta is doing splendidly. Her health is better and she has made friends of her own age for the first time in her life, and is generally enjoying the schoolgirl life. The Headmistress is worried that the other students will treat her differently if they find out she’s a Princess, so she tells her to keep it a secret, but Elisaveta accidentally reveals her identity to her friends and it turns out nobody really cares one way or the other. The only glaring problem is the mean and nasty Matron. Elisaveta ends up joining the SSM, the secret Society for the Suppression of Matron, “sworn to be the bitter enemies of Matron, and to harry her till she leaves the place.” They come up with several schemes and pranks to annoy Matron and get her into trouble, but in the end Matron ends up sealing her own fate when she locks Robin, the beloved school baby, in her room. She is fired and both students and staff rejoice.
But the real meat of the story is yet to begin. One day while the school is on a hiking trip in the Zillertal, Elisaveta strays away from the other girls and meets a strange man from her home country. He tells her his name is Ternikai and he has been sent by her father to keep an eye on her. Elisaveta does not know it yet, but her Uncle Cosimo is actually an evil man and Ternikai is not her bodyguard, but an accomplice in a plot to kidnap Elisaveta for ransom. Luckily for him Elisaveta believes him and doesn’t tell any of the staff about this strange man she met in the mountains. This sets the stage perfectly for what happens next.
Late one night Ternikai and Cosimo show up at the dormitory and lure Elisaveta out under the pretense of her father giving an order that she must go into hiding. Joey, the Headmistress’s younger sister and one of the school’s pupils, is awake and witnesses all this. She follows them into the mountains, bringing only her loyal St Bernard and some bread rolls. Over the next two days she climbs up a cliffside, confident she is heading the right direction when she sees a ribbon tied in a style of knot she and Elisaveta had learned during one of their Girl Guide meetings. She meets Elisaveta and they make their perilous escape, scaling down a particularly long drop of cliff by tying together their stockings to use as a makeshift rope. In the end their escape is successful, and Joey is invited to Belsornia where the King gives His official thanks for rescuing his granddaughter, and presents her with a gift of pearls.
Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I did with the first two in the series. Of course the plot is pretty far-fetched and predictable, but honestly, I feel like the plot is of secondary importance in the Chalet books anyway. The real charm shines through the writing, the period details, and the setting. EBD was inspired to set her fictional school in Austria after a real-life vacation to the Achensee, and her love of the area comes through so clearly in the writing, it’s contagious. In this book as in the previous two, there are so many lovely descriptions of the lake, the bits of forest near the school yard, the train station, etc., so that you feel like you’re really there. I love the quaint details of boarding school life, from the little things like the girls turning out their mattresses on the balconies every morning, to the Girl Guide drills and patrols, to the “Court of Queen Summer” masque put on at the end of the term. The descriptions of food are especially some of my favorites, for example this picnic in the Zillertal:
It was a gorgeous feast. There were rolls, buttered, and with hard-boiled eggs beaten up with butter and cream, and shredded lettuce, in a way of which Marie alone knew the secret, slipped in. There were delicious little cakes, contributed by Dr Jem, who had brought them on the previous evening from Vienna, where he had been attending a congress of doctors, besides those which Herr Mensch had brought from his wife in Innsbruck. There were French chocolates and bonbons, there were piles of apricots and plums and greengages, and there were two huge melons.
In the previous two books the focus was mainly on Miss Bettany and her sister Jo. They are still the main characters, but Elisaveta also had a starring role, and I thought the focus was well balanced between each character. I would have liked to see more done with the secret Princess plot thread; we didn’t get any kind of reaction from the girls when they found out Elisaveta was a Princess, which is sweet in a way, but it was like there was no point in keeping it a secret in the first place. I suppose it’s a played-out trope but I really did enjoy the idea of a Princess joining the school, kidnapping subplot and mountain rescue and all. That’s the thing I love about these books, they don’t contain anything magic or supernatural in them, yet they feel like perfect fairy tales, this one especially. I’ve heard Elisaveta fades into the background after this book which is a little disappointing, but I’m still really excited to continue on with this series.
It was now the middle of June…strawberries, and only strawberries, could now be thought or spoken of.
Emma, Jane Austen
I’ve never really felt a strong connection with my astrological sign. What I do feel a personal connection with are strawberries. They have always been a favorite food of mine. As a young girl I would wolf down a carton of strawberries in one sitting with ease (a rare luxury in my adult life, now I know just how expensive summer fruits actually are). It’s hard to explain, but I honestly somehow feel a spiritual connection with the sweet, tart berries. It helps that my birthday falls right in the middle of harvest-time for strawberries.
I am trying to be more attentive to detail, especially in terms of the subtle changes in nature throughout the year. It’s probably owing to my own centeredness, but the time around my birthday really is special to me. It took me a long time to realize that my birthday technically is in spring, not summer, because of how hot it usually is by then. Of course, there are the strawberries. I have also noticed that the honeysuckles are in full bloom at this time. I think it is early yet for fireflies, but I think they will come around within the next week or two–It is hard for me to remember now that I no longer live in the countryside.
Am I the only one who likes to think about their birthday in terms of nature? What sorts of things do you associate with your birthday?
I have always been a neat and clean person. However, there is one crucial area where my organizational skills have not been up to par…the kitchen. This has been exacerbated by the fact that my pantry cabinets are quite narrow and deep, which… well frankly, it makes it hard to see and/or remember what all is in there. (*ahem* Of course, it doesn’t help either that my partner likes to whisper in my ear during shopping trips, begging to add various sweets to the cart…)
I think many of us have had a lesson in managing food and food waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, I always meant to improve my kitchen management skills, but the pandemic forced it into necessity. We are doing our best to limit our grocery trips to once a week (we don’t have a car, so that’s about as much as we can carry back at a time), so that means being careful about what we buy and making sure we can finish most of it within a week. Besides, I hate to waste anything, especially food. It’s wasted money, and more importantly it is needless waste of food that could have gone to those who need it.
What I have done over the past couple of days is review every single item in my pantry and fridge. I wrote down every item I owned, organized by category of type of food, with subcategories of what was thrown out and what was kept. Here are some data points from this experiment:
40 items were thrown out. The amount of waste ended up filling about three 13-gallon trash bags.
Most of what was thrown out was opened and at least half-eaten. I think that my boyfriend and I will often eat part of something and either forget about it, or get tired of it and move on to something else. We are not the kinds of people who would benefit from buying food in bulk.
If I buy something I don’t usually eat with the thought “Perhaps I will use this one day”, there is a 99% chance I will never use it.
We barely eat processed meats like lunchmeat and sausage. It would be better to spend that money on fresh, raw meat. It has a much higher likelihood of being eaten, and is much healthier besides.
I am so glad I decided to go through with this “experiment”! Our kitchen is far cleaner and more organized, I have a better idea of my eating habits and how to organize shopping trips around them, and I have a written inventory of food to refer to instead of rummaging through the pantry when deciding what to make for dinner.
What are your own tips for reducing food waste? Has the pandemic influenced your shopping habits at all? Have you ever tried cleaning your pantry in the method I described?
What lifestyle aspects do you want to improve in your life? This can be anything from “I want to be more grateful of what I have” or maybe even “I want to keep my living space tidy.” Why do you want to improve in this aspect? Do you feel this would help in your Quaintrelle lifestyle?
I am going to expand on this prompt slightly by describing the setbacks I believe have prevented me from achieving each goal. This is something that I have found helpful in reaching my goals in the past.
Goal #1: Sleep at least 7 hours each night
I have always been a night-owl, which isn’t a bad thing in of itself, but my habit of going to bed late and waking up late has really had a negative effect on my life. Firstly, and most obviously, is the effect it has had on my body. I am often tired, and that really affects my stress and productivity levels. Scientists have proven that sleep is essential to good health, both physical and mental, and that is really important to me. I strongly believe that a Princess should be health-conscious and take proper care of her body.
What is holding me back?
I am certain that the #1 cause of my lack of sleep is my excessive screen-time before bed. I find it very relaxing to surf the internet on my phone while laying in bed, but I think that staring at a bright screen late at night has messed up my circadian rhythm. Using night-mode on my phone has helped, but not enough. Perhaps I could implement a “bed-time” for myself, where electronics usage is not permitted after 10 o’clock.
Goal #2: Regular practice of handicrafts
I find it very relaxing and fulfilling to make things with my hands. I used to knit fairly regularly but have long been out of practice. I would love to take that back up. I also think sewing is an extremely useful skill and I have been wanting to learn it for a long time now. I find it interesting that sewing used to be an essential women’s skill that even young girls could do, and I think practicing it could help me engage with that part of history.
What is holding me back?
Right now, my main setback with this goal is my lack of supplies. I have several knitting supplies but they are all at my parents’ house, and with the current pandemic situation I have not been able to go back there yet to retrieve them. I also prefer to shop for materials in-person, but with store closings I may need to make some educated online purchases based on customer reviews.
Goal #3: Maintain a more consistent blogging schedule
I may not post on Gingham Rose very often, but I find it incredibly rewarding each time I do. It is a personal and creative outlet for me unlike any other, and I want to continue to take advantage of that!
What is holding me back?
Blogging is a hobby of mine, and I tend to “cycle” through hobbies. I may be very fixated on one hobby for a few weeks, and then I will move on to something else. That is why you may find there are periods where I am quite active here, and then disappear suddenly. I think that I need to make blogging a higher priority to be more consistent with it. For example, one of my goals for this year was to cook more often, and I made that one of my top priorities in my life. Because of that focus, I have been consistently cooking meals almost every day now since January. I know I have the ability to be consistent, I just need to have the right mindset!
Special Thanks to Lunaria for writing this blogging prompt! I hope you enjoyed this post and I will be back with another one soon~
No matter how my day has been, I can always have faith in the comforts of a hot beverage. Most of the time, this takes shape in a mug of coffee or tea, but sometimes (before bed, for example) it is better to enjoy something without caffeine. Or, perhaps you are hosting a tea party and would like options available for a friend who doesn’t like the taste of tea. I recommend everyone try some herbal teas; there is such a wide variety out there that I believe everyone can find one that suits their tastes. Besides, it is usually inexpensive, easy to make, and can provide a variety of health benefits. In this post, I will be talking about some of my favorite herbal teas.
Introduction: Herbal Teas vs Tisanes
The term “herbal tea” is something of a misnomer. The beverage the English-speaking world refers to as “tea” is made from a plant called Camellia sinensis, which naturally contains caffeine. Herbal tea does not actually contain any tea. Some people may prefer to use the term “tisane”, which can be used to describe any infusion of herbs and/or spices in water.
Chamomile
Chamomile tea is my favorite to drink right before bedtime. It is famous for its calming effects. I like to purchase “sleepytime tea” from the grocery store which contains mainly chamomile, mint and lemongrass.
Hibiscus
I’ll admit that I am somewhat biased against “fruity” teas. Usually, they contain a lot of cheap artificial fruit flavorings which make the tea smell good, but don’t provide the best flavor. Although hibiscus tea is made from a flower, not fruit, it naturally provides a tart and sweet flavor that complements fruit flavors very well. It is also a good source of Vitamin C and antioxidants. Hibiscus tea tastes best iced. You might enjoy it on a hot summer’s day with a squeeze of lime juice and some sliced strawberries.
Ginger
Ginger is great for relieving indigestion and nausea. I like to make my ginger tea by thinly slicing a piece of ginger root (with the skin peeled off) and boiling the slices in water for 10 minutes. It tastes lovely with some lemon juice and honey.
Chrysanthemum
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, chrysanthemum tea is thought to have a “cooling” effect on the body. Whether or not you practice Chinese medicine, I am sure you will find a glass of iced chrysanthemum tea refreshing on a hot day. You can buy boxes of chrysanthemum tea at an Asian grocery store, but these can contain a lot of sugar. If you want to try making your own, you can buy dried chrysanthemum flowers at an Asian grocery store. Here is a great recipe for making your own chrysanthemum tea using goji berries and Chinese rock sugar (you can use normal granulated white sugar if you don’t have rock sugar).
Rooibos
Confusingly, rooibos tea is often referred to as “red tea”. Actually, rooibos tea does not contain any tea at all. It is made from the rooibos plant that grows in South Africa, and is naturally caffeine-free. Like tea, it contains antioxidants, but it contains much less tannins than tea, which are the chemical compounds that give tea that bitter and astringent flavor. Rooibos has a caramel-y flavor which means it is complemented excellently by vanilla.
Barley
Barley tea is simply made from water and roasted barley grain. The roasted grains provide a malty and smoky flavor that goes nicely with milk. You can buy barley tea bags at an Asian specialty grocery store.
Once upon a time, there was a Princess named Skye. She was a kind and thoughtful Princess, and she made it her Mission to inform people around the world that they, too, could be Princesses like her. And so she enacted an International Princess Day, a special day for aspiring royals to treat themselves with the luxuries they deserve. It is said that even now, on May 5, a secret society of Princesses and Princes still celebrate this holiday.
(Thank you Princess Lunaria for reminding me about International Princess Day! If you are interested in learning more about Princess Skye, you can read one of my previous posts here.)
This year’s Princess Day Festivities did not begin until 4 o’clock, because I am currently working full-time (which I am very grateful for, by the way). My Boyfriend and I prepared an afternoon tea service of pink-and-white cookies, raspberry hearts from Trader Joe’s, cucumber sandwiches, and my favorite Thé Marie Antoinette, which is a black tea blended with rose petals and dried apples from the Versailles gardens. It may not sound like much, but this was actually very filling, and ended up doubling as our dinner. My Pullip doll Elise and a few of my stuffed animals joined in the festivities as well~ (I wish all of my stuffed animals could have participated, but our dining-table isn’t anywhere near large enough!)
After tea I relaxed for a bit with some video games. I don’t think I’ve talked about it much on this blog, but I love video games, and I’ve been playing them for as long as I’ve been able to read. Today I started a new game, Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo. It really made me feel nostalgic, which might sound odd given I’ve never played it before and it was published before I was born. I just really adore that era of games; they remind me of my childhood when I used to spend summer weekends at my grandmother’s beach-house, and my brother and I would come in after a long day swimming in the ocean and eating ice cream to play her SNES. Of course, my day wouldn’t be complete without me also playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons–after 180 hours of playtime it still brings so much joy into my life. It was raining on my island today, and even though I don’t like rain all that much in general, I love when it rains in-game. The sound is so relaxing, and lots of rare and valuable fish appear in the ocean, and all the animals look so cute walking around with their raincoats and hats on~
I ended this year’s Princess Day with a hot bath of epsom salts and shimmery bubbles. I lit a candle and settled in with a book for maximum comfort and luxury. I am currently reading Lady Audley’s Secret, which is a Victorian sensationalist novel published in 1862. It really is a gripping read so far. Even though it was written so long ago, somehow it doesn’t feel too different from a contemporary thriller novel!
That concludes my summary of my Princess Day~ Did you celebrate Princess Day this year? I would love to hear about it in the comments~
What an eventful day–today was both Christmas, and the last day of our trip.
My Boyfriend’s grandparents and aunts and uncles gave us all hongbao, for the upcoming Lunar New Year. (I still have the ones they gave me last year; they have been laying against the windowsill for a full year now, and the sunlight has changed the color from vivid red to a faded pink.) They gave me a few other gifts, too—Totoro keychains, and these adorable pastel pins. I was so touched~
We ate at a dim sum restaurant for lunch before saying goodbye. Our next destination was Singapore, where we would spend our final evening before flying to the US the next morning.
The first thing we did in Singapore was go to the barbershop. Yes, my Boyfriend scheduled a haircut on the final day of our trip, in our precious few final hours in Singapore. It sounds ridiculous (it still kind of is) but he has insanely thick hair that only very experienced Asian barbers know how to properly manage, and there aren’t any suitable barbers back at home so he was rather adamant about getting his hair cut while in Asia. I must admit that the haircut he received was the best he has ever sported. He looked so handsome, that any annoyance I initially felt melted. Besides, while waiting for his hair cut I also got to look at this absolutely beautiful Chinese temple, the Thian Hock Keng Temple. The glowing red lanterns looked gorgeous against the golden setting sun~
The rest of the evening was spent getting out our shopping itch. (Believe it or not, Boyfriend is even more into fashion than I am.) We bought mostly clothes, including matching Pocky shirts, his a yellow shirt with a black Pocky box and mine a white shirt with a pink box. I also bought CC cream from Etude House~ I loved seeing all the Christmas decorations in the malls! We also met up with Ben again and he gave us a gift, a box of Hong Kong style egg tarts~ Other egg tarts I’ve had in the past were made with a puff pastry, but these ones had a crust that was more similar to a shortbread cookie.
This is the final entry of my trip. I do hope you enjoyed it! If I made a similar series of posts for the next time I travel, would you have any comments or suggestions? I know I hope to bring my DSLR camera next time– I forgot it on this trip, so all the photos were taken with my mobile phone as you could probably tell from the quality. ;;
My Pullip doll Elise and a few of my stuffed animals joined in the festivities as well~ (I wish all of my stuffed animals could have participated, but our dining-table isn’t anywhere near large enough!)
Besides, while waiting for his hair cut I also got to look at this absolutely beautiful Chinese temple, the Thian Hock Keng Temple. The glowing red lanterns looked gorgeous against the golden setting sun~
