Review: Hey Kessy Washi Tapes

"It's here! It's finally here!"

My mind literally screamed when I found that little package sitting on the table with my name on it. I have always been leery of ordering online because I have this fear that I might be scammed or something. The only other time I ever remember purchasing something online were a couple of the most adorable book bags for our insanely huge medical textbooks. Even then, I ordered them from my friend's burgeoning business so...

Anyway, I finally caved in and ordered several rolls of washi tape from an online shop called Hey Kessy last Tuesday.

I have been stalking their shop for a little over a month and dreaming about those super cute washi tapes in between. I was rather happy when Hey Kessy responded immediately and confirmed my order, giving me payment details and such. Since last Tuesday was a national holiday, I wasn't able to pay right away and had to wait on Wednesday to drop the money off at the bank.

I sent the shop an email right after I made the payment (I was just that excited) and they responded almost immediately, saying they will check with the bank. A little over an hour or so, they confirmed my payment and promised to drop my package over at the courier's on Thursday. That meant my washi tapes would arrive on Friday and arrive they did on Friday morning!

I was ecstatic! They even sent me their October postcard, pictured below. Sadly, it was a bit wrinkled from the journey.

The washi tapes were all bundled up in blue paper and pink tape. At first, I thought it was a bit tiny and wondered if they sent in all the orders.

They did, apparently. These are all the tapes I ordered.

This is their color set. It consists of five thin washi tapes of a single color each. All in all, this set costs a little over Php. 100.00.

The one pictured below is their Light Pink with White Dots. I've had a crush on this since I laid eyes on it! Really. You can see the shop's logo in the inside of the roll.

The one pictured below, I planned to give to my little sister. I've offered to give her some of my Rilakkuma deco tapes but she wanted to have something a little more flowery. So, I ordered this Flowering Mint washi tape for her and guess what? She loved it! I hope she still finds it in her heart to share...

The one below is the Purple with White Dots washi tape. I thought it would compliment the pink one. And pink and purple go together like ice cream and warm brownies. Of course, I had to throw this one into my cart, too.

I just used the Purple with White Dots and found it lovely. The thing I love about washi tapes is that you can move them about, unlike with most deco tapes wherein they stay stuck on the paper FOREVER. At least my OCD can rest easy if I make a mistake with these because I can simply lift them up and stick them back and they won't deface my works a bit. 

I think they would look lovely on planners and calendars, too. You can write something on the tapes, like "Dentist Appointment", stick them on your calendar and if you have to postpone for one reason or another, you can simply move it to another date. Just wonderful!

Hey Kessy has really lived up to my expectations. My brothers have been urging me to buy my arts and crafts supplies online instead of calling them up all the time with all my wants and needs and having them send the packages over to my side of the world. I would definitely be ordering from Hey Kessy again. Not only were they so quick to respond to orders, they also responded to my thank-you email.

Thanks again, Hey Kessy!♥

Organization: Keeping Your Bag Organized

I love big bags.

Ever since grade school, I have been lugging around larger bags than the rest of the school population. I just needed to have everything I need on hand and the thought of going without my extensive list of "essentials" makes me feel a little vulnerable. Of course, I also have to have a complete array of pens, pencils, erasers, scissors, etc. with me all the time because I color code almost everything.

When mommahood came, the "essentials" only grew in number. My three-year-old daughter eventually realized that my bag was a treasure trove of doodling materials on those long trips.

All that stuff jumbled up in my bag is enough to make my neat-freakiness go crazy, which is why I am oh-so grateful to the wonderful person who created the bag organizer. You must have had our best interests in mind when you designed this little darling.

Below is a picture of my bag organizer from the front part. Most bag organizers available back then were black. I came across this one with a pink strip to satisfy my feminine little heart. A little.

This picture below shows how my some of the "basics" are neatly arranged inside the organizer. That's my planner in the larger pocket with one of my favorite pens, a black Pilot Hi-Tec in 0.3 (they call them G-Tec here in the Philippines), tucked into the pen holder. Beside it (shown with the pink zipper) is a pouch, which houses my pens, highlighters, etc., because I'm not a big fan of pens sloshing around in my bag either. The smaller pockets hold my pink Tinkerbell journal (which is mostly filled with doodles by a three-year-old who just loves to draw caricatures of our family) and a couple of Post-Its and in the adjacent pocket, my pink purse, which holds any loose change in place.

And this is how it looks like from the bag. That green pouch to the left holds my toiletries. I absolutely cannot go on without some wet wipes, facial tissues, my Hair Doctor, and my favorite VMV Armada lip balm (I am a huge fan of VMV Hypoallergenics!). The red stuff peeking out from one of the pockets of the bag organizer is a huge shopping bag I got free from one of my splurging sprees in Gift Gate. I think I am bound for a lifelong addiction to the utter cuteness that is Sanrio.

This is how I manage to keep my sanity on the move. Another big plus for the bag organizer is that I really don't have to take its contents apart when I change bags and believe me, I change bags a lot to match either my clothes, my mood, or what really works best for the activities of the day. I can just take the whole thing out and transfer the organizer to another bag. Easy-peasy.

I recently surprised my mom with a pink-and-gray bag organizer with zippers. She absolutely adores the thing. It's a perfect fit inside her pink Lacoste bag. I think my love for all things pink and organized is a genetic trait I inherited from her.

How do you keep your bags organized?♥