Random thoughts: Of courage and other things

A while ago, whilst browing Book Depository, as one does, I stumbled up on 4 upcoming edition year long journals with writing prompts by Insight Editions, all house themed. I figured they looked really nice, so I preordered the Gryffindor one. And whilst I'm on the subject of Gryffindor, I'll also cover a few other house themed bits I used as props for these photos, after I'm done talking about the journal :).

This review is only about the Gryffindor one, as I obviously only bought the one of the house I'm in. They're close to €20, and whilst I feel that isn't extortionate for what you get, it's still a bit too much to spend on the full set. Now, let's talk about why I feel that this is worth the money.

Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into the design.

The cover has an almost linnen feel, the pages have red and gold edges. It very much looks stunning, however, it is the kind of material that stains, so if you're going to be using this for a full year, you will likely end up with a stained journal. Which might contribute to the look in the end, depending of the state of it, I suppose.

It is an officially licensed product, and mine had this little yellow round sticker on the front stating this. Which I took off and stuff in the inside of the cover. It came off without leaving residu so that was ace. The first pages are, as is traditional, for leaving your own information and the title page. I like the look of these.

You get 4 pages in total per week.

The first set of 2 pages is a weekly journal spread. They list at the top which week of the year it is. It needs to be said, this is organised to be started on the first week of the year, but if you really don't feel like that, you can just ignore that and start whenever you feel like, of course.

The pages that aren't journal spreads are very, very diverse. They're all prompts that encourage you to be creative about your life as a Gryffindor, or how your house influences your life. Sometimes it goes just a little too far and feels actually restrictive, but you can of course interpret the prompts any way you want, or tweak them to your own liking. Its your journal and you should do with it as you please! But yeah, prompts. Some are colouring pages, others are a blank lined page opposite a page of concept art, I feel it is really well varied! And who doesn't like looking at concept art?

The only downside to this journal is that the pages are quite thin, so I would recommend writing in it with a ball point pen or something else that you know won't show through on the next page. If you prefer not to write in your journal and keep it pristine, you could always get a companion notebook and write in that instead. Which is probably what I will do, if I decide on using the journal.

I personally bought it as a collector's piece, because I love books and notebooks and stationery items. It being such a versatile and beautifully designed piece is really the entire reason to spend money on it. I would recommend it. Especially with Christmas around the corner, this could be good for a collector, or a writing enthusiast.

Now onto the other things!

My quill is from Les 4 Maisons. Well, I bought it at Les 4 Maisons, I can't quite remember the brand. It came with a more pen style nib pen, several nibs and a little bottle of brown ink. The brown ink is far from the best ink I have ever seen, the nibs are alright (not the best quality but certainly not the worst either) and well, just like most of these sets, this is more meant as a display item of a gimmick more than an actually functional item. I knew this buying it, and thats why I usually use it just for photos. It also doesn't help that I prefer fountain pens anyway (yes, I write with fountain pens, I am that person!).

The ink is Fire Embers, from the Diamine Inkvent series. You can find it at a lot of places that sell fountain pen ink such as Cultpens and PenStore. It's more in the vermillion red/deep red range (definitely more red than orange) I feel. Even though this is a fountain pen ink, it is also excellent to paint with. When used for painting, I would say it is very much akin to using ecoline liquid watercolours. But I do prefer painting with Diamine inks over ecoline.

It is pricier than ecoline to be sure, but you get much nicer colours, and let's face it, much nicer quality (not a huge fan of ecoline to be honest, but I am a huge fan of Diamine inks).

Of course the name and colour could refer to the famous Gryffindor common room fire, which makes it excellent for Potterverse flatlays I feel that Diamine (and not just Diamine) have a very good range of interesting bottles and a lot of them have very magical world type names such as Dragon Blood and Triple Chocolate (for all you Honeydukes fans out there) and thus they make a very good alternative to much more expension potion props. I certainly have several in my display case for that very reason!

The string lights are by a brand called Pyramid. I bought them via Shop for Geek, but I've seen them on different sites, even Modcloth of all places. They are 12 led lights covered with little Gryffindor emblem shields. Now, these look great in photos, and they do give off rather more light than I had expected. I am also pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to put them back in the box them came in when not in use. They have that typical battery (2 AA) operated plastic light compartment at the end. Now, I really like these, but one of the little covers keeps falling off, and one has half come off. They've been out of the box 4 times now, so it is a little fiddly and not the most amazing quality. But as these guys go for about €10 and will likely just stay put if you hang them somewhere, it's a nice bit of house fun to have. I certainly would buy other designs like these if I find them (I know there is an owl one, and I do want it).

The colouring pencil, a Kohl-i-Noor Hardmut one, is one of their “magic” ones. Meaning it doesn't have just one colour lead like a traditional colour pencil, but several different ones. This one has yellow, two shades of orange, red and burgundy. Meaning that if you colour with it, you get all sorts of colours alternating, which I personally really enjoy. Yes, it's a little gimmicky, but it's also a LOT of fun. Its an art supply I personally like using a lot.

Last but most certainly not least is the Gryffindor scented candle by Baxic Hexes. Its a soy wax candle from a UK/Polish small shop that smells of vanilla and Felic Felicis (my favourite potion). In reality it smells like a rich, deep vanilla. Not that cheap vanilla scent you find in a lot of candles such as the IKEA ones.

I would say that quality wise it is more leaning towards something like Yankee Candles. I must admit I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to candles and their scents, but I've been burning this regularly lately, and I really quite enjoy it. The scent really carries, and it burns rather slowly so it has a good life to it. It's comes in a basic liddle glass jar with a pretty sticker, which I am ok with. In the end, it's the candle that matters, and this is actually easy to get rid of or reuse once you're done with the candle, which I can really appreciate.

Good stuff!

Basic Hexes does a whole range of Wizarding World inspired candles, and they do have (differently scented) candles for every house. And this is it for my Gryffindor review post! I hope you guys found it useful!

Did you see anything you would get if it's available in your own house?

What kind of (Wizarding World) things do you collect?

Wednesday, 2 December 2020

Of courage and other things

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