The Ex Expat

21 August 2012

I don’t know when the idea really took off, but I first came across it when I stumbled upon the website ‘Not Another Bill’. The idea is that you subscribe to receive a monthly box of, well, that’s a surprise. The monthly gifts from ‘Not Another Bill’ are wonderfully random, ranging from useful things like a dustpan and brush made from beechwood and horsehair or a goodie bag full of the most elegantly designed haberdashery you could imagine, to more whimsical things like silk scarves or handmade jewellery. As much as I liked the idea, the selection was a bit too random for me to spend money on though.

I did, however, during my pregnancy, subscribe to Graze, a service that delivers a box of healthy snacks anywhere from once a week to every day. I’d have a box delivered to work at the beginning of the week, and then munch my way through the selection of four different healthy snacks as the week went on. It really helped me to cut down on junk food snacking. And as a habitual urban gardener I’ve also tried out an ‘allotinabox’, which includes everything you need to grow yourself some vegetables and herbs on your window sill or balcony (both box subscriptions were before I started blogging about anything other than museums, so sadly I never took any photographs).

Since then I’ve discovered boxes for all kinds of things. There’s the Glossybox, which delivers a surprise selection of the latest beauty trends each month. However, I prefer to stick to my same tried and tested beauty products, so that one was not really the thing for me. Or the Wummelkiste, a monthly arts and crafts box for kids with 2-3 projects to develop their various sensory skills. I really liked this idea, but it’s for kids age 3 and up, so the boy is still too young to try it out.

Then I discovered a new box that’s just been launched, where I could not resist the temptation - the Supercraft Box! It’s basically a bit like the Wummelkiste, but for adults. Not that I don’t already have enough arts and crafts materials at home, but I do like a bit of a surprise, so I signed up for a taster box right away when they were announced in June, and then of course completely forgot about it! Until now, two months later, so it was indeed a surprise. Unfortunately no one was in when the Postie came round, so it took another couple of days to retrieve it from the postal depot and finally get my hands on my Supercraft Box.

Appropriately for the summer, a favourite time for parties, the theme of the first box was celebration with not one, but five different types of garlands to make as decorations. For me personally there weren’t that many new things - for example I blogged about mini pompoms only last week (I guess the trick with the fork isn’t just known on Iona^^), and our house is still overflowing with bunting from our Jubilee Party - but the box is stocked with really high quality materials, which alone are worth the money I paid for the box, and I can always use them to make something else. It’s not Supercraft’s fault that I’m already well versed in pompoms, bunting and origami. That’s all part of the surprise. And I am really looking forward to trying out the fabric flower garlands, which were also part of the box and is something I’ve never tried before.

(Photo of the instruction leaflet; all instructions & images (c) of Supercraft)

So, in conclusion, if you like surprises and want to splurge out on a little treat (or you can also give the boxes away as surprise gifts), then pick the box that sounds right for you and give it a try. I definitely don’t regret testing out the Supercraft Box.