monita review

Handmade Fabric Fauxdoris from
Lyra & Co

As you guys may have seen from my recent planner reviews I'm really into my journaling again after literally years. Life throws stuff at you and you realize its rushed past so fast you've missed the little things and with my Mum passing away a few months ago it made me realize how much I have missed.

So after watching many of you guys' planner videos I discovered Midori's or Fauxdori's; hand made travelers notebooks and covers to make your journaling more personalized and fun.

It was after watching one of Anna Brimbles videos I discovered Lyra & Co on Etsy and her handmade fabric notebook covers. I knew I just had to get one and 2 designs in particular just sang out to me along with some notebooks to match.

See my video box opening and/or first impressions with loadsa pikies below!

They arrived quickly and in the well padded packet and inside wrapped carefully.

Foxes, foxes...being a wildlife and animal lover these were just perfect for me.
Wow...dont they look just gorgeous I am just in love with these super cute foxy fabric designs. I chose the regular travelers notebook size but there are other sizes available.

They are both stunning front and back and camping fox has so much going on.

Foxy lady is so beautiful in her teal/mint background; she has a 1940's feel to her with her bow, scarf and pearls and horn rimmed specs and those gorgeous eyes.

I cannot express how much Im in love with this gorgeous fabric, its so me; I love the outdoors, I also love the night sky and being in the countryside. Plus this little fox obviously has a cheeky side to him.

Whats not to love!!

Inside Camping fox is a gorgeous salmon-orange coloured fabric with a matching salmon pen-loop. Then it has 2 contrasting turquoise elastics that will hold upto six 8.5 x 4.5 inch notebooks.

Inside Foxy lady is a beautiful pink fabric with matching pink elastics, so you can choose your inner notebooks to match or contrast whatever you want to.

Love the matching elastic pen-loops too.

I adore the choice of inner fabrics they work beautifully with each of the outer covers.

Just as an extra note you can add a pocket to your fauxdori if you wish for ONLY £3 which is definitely worth it.
(Pik by Lyra & Co)

These elastics are secured by gold coloured eyelets.

This will prevent any fraying or the elastic rubbing with constant use.

They even look colorful and bright laid on their side.

Plus looking good too if you wanted to stand them upright in a library or shelf.

I also purchased some Regular sized notebooks to fit inside and of course chose the teal coloured foxes.

Love Lyra & Co's logo...being a calligraphy nut I really appreciate the little things.

Inside you get 2 blank notebooks made-up by Jane herself; I love handmade products as they have such a lovely personal edge to them. In this pack you get 2 different designs.

The front covers have a lovely textured fabricky feel to them. Inside you have 20 blank leaves = 40 pages which are staple-bound and have a paper weight of 80gsm.
(excellent quality by the way).
These will fit any Regular/travelers size notebook cover.

I have to say...what a PERFECT colour match...wow..they look gorgeous together.

These match the inner camping fox cover better than the foxy lady as she has a pinky inner. So where I was actually thinking of putting them into the lady-lady cover; her pinky inner fabric would contrast too much for me...some of you may like the contrast...but for me the salmon of the camping fox fabric looks just perfect....what do you think?

They look great inside and just having the 2 notebooks fills it up comfortably; there's nothing like having a fat Fauxdori which is so satisfying...or is that just me lol!

Don't forget you can see more detail in my chatty 1st impressions video; see my 1st impressions as I do!

So I will be journaling in the camping fox as its design shows night-time stars and moon and I like to write at night and I will be keeping my book review lists in Foxy-lady.
I will also be enjoying using my calligraphy again and writing with my fountain or dip pens as I had forgotten just how much I love my calligraphy and hadn't picked up my pens and nibs for many years, it feel really refreshing to just pick them up again; like a best friend come home.

Many of my nibs were my Grandad's and over the years I have collected over 50 more different pen nibs and quite a few fountain-pens. I discovered I love working with ink and dip pens...you can see them above; its such a relaxing hobby and fun too.

I cant wait to start I may even try some ink art too...we will see. I absolutely love my 2 new LyraDori's as they are excellent quality, beautifully made and are flexible and soft in your hand.

I cannot recommend Jane enough; she uploads new designs every week....noooo....and you also have an option for an extra inner pocket added to your fauxdori for even more momentos.

Please go checkout Jane's site on Etsy Lyra & Co its an official warning that you could get addicted to collecting her stunning designs. Ive already spotted a few more I like too...eeep..

This stunning elegant design has a snap fastener rather than elastic giving a really gorgeous alternative.

Im such a geek as I love this Wonder woman this so different for a Fauxdori. Plus the darker fabric flowers and birds are just stunning.

But to keep upto date checkout Lyra & Co's Instagram... so many gorgeous designs. Let me know which your favorites are too, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for popping by and I will see you all very soon.

*I purchased these with my own money and was not paid for this review.

All my views and opinions are my own.

Mentioned in this post

If you liked this post; you may enjoy my previous planner posts too.

Websters Pages Colour Crush Personal planner

My 1st planner The Happy Planner

or my previous gadgety post

Thorfire S50 Ultra Bright 2000 Lumen Cree Flashlight

Hi everyone I hope you are all keeping snug and warm on these dark Winter nights.

I have another fabulous product from Thorfire for you today; with these dark nights you need all the light you can get out in the garden or walking the dog. Thorfire have just brought out one of their strongest torches yet with its 2000 Lumen's beam...yes...I did say 2000 Lumen's.

I just cant wait to show you just how bright this is, it lights the garden up.

I have posted a full video review and night time shoot so you can see this in action. Its made for the military and now sent to me and I'm so very pleased to show you guys what I perseve to be one of the best torches out there.

Have a look at how bright this bad boy is....

If you're been following my reviews you would have seen Ive reviewed quite a few items for Thorfire.

See below

ThorFire Telescopic lantern, rechargeable Torch and charger Review

Gadget Girl Reviews: Thorfire WF-502B 500 Lumens Torch Review

Gadget Girl Reviews: Thorfire multi functional camping light review

This is one amazing high powered Flashlight. I do have a thing for torches and have been on a mission to bring you guys the most powerful ones.

I have added a video review too so you can listen or read my ramblings...either way grab a coffee and bikky.

Packaging
It arrived well packaged as does every product from Thorfire. Wrapped in thin foam, the box is sturdy, strong and will stand up to very vigorous delivery drivers.

The box opens up to show you how secure the torch is inside its solid packaged foam padding.

Inside the box you get your Thorfire S50 2000 lumens. A bag of spare waterproof seals and 2 spare on/off buttons. Something of a surprise and quite unusual is a spare "glass" torch lens incase you break the one already attached.

I really love the idea of have the choice to swap out the black on/off button for either one of these green or orange ones. However Im more than happy with my black one.

You get extra of the waterproof seals which is really impressive.

Plus an easy to read user guide; which annoyingly does contradict itself in places.

Description

This large heavy duty rugged aluminum alloy casing has been designed and made for the military, law enforcement and outdoor activities; and now little old me. The aircraft aluminum gives exceptional durability and protection against corrosion is designed to be shockproof and IPX8 waterproof...this means;

IPX-8 Protected against water submersion - The equipment is suitable for continual submersion in water under conditions which are identified by the manufacturer.

It can be submerged down to 2 meters and it has a strobe mode for emergencies.

Features

Emitter type; Cree XHP-50.
Brightness; 55-2000Lm.
Powered by; 2 x rechargeable 18650 batteries.
5 Modes; Low-Mid-High-Turbo-Strobe.
IPX8 Waterproof and Shockproof.
Rugged Aluminum Alloy build.
Weight (excluding batteries); 450g.
Maximum runtime of 60 hours in low mode.

What I love about this flashlight is not just the 2000Ln but the fact they have thought about its cooling. At 2000Lm it will get hot, I have heard of some powerful torches frying eggs on their lenses. This wont get quite that hot because Thorfire have built cooling fins into the head of the torch; the hottest part.

You can see the fins surrounds the head of the torch and will distribute the heat away from the head. Even after a full 5 hours of being turned on it was cold to the touch.

Very much like the way a heat sync does in computers; but they are usually much bigger see above.

The head of the torch has a warning HOT as it does get quite warm, Ive yet to feel it actually hot, but then Ive not used it on Turbo for long.

Note: In Turbo mode the highest mode it will drop down to high after 3 minutes not only to save power but to prevent it getting too hot.

The handle is much thinner build allowing it to be held with more comfort especially when you have small hands like me. Most powerful torches are so wide my hand aches holding them for longer periods of time.

They have even added a ridge an inch from the end to prevent wet hand slippage...at least I think thats whats its for, and it has four protruding feet to stop it from rolling when placed on a flat surface.

It also has gaps to add a lariat to tie it to a belt or even round your neck or be tied to a rucksack.

Lumen outputs and runtime.

Low - 55 Lumens runs for approx 60 hours.
Medium - 350 Lumens runs for approx 12 hours.
High - 1200 Lumens runs for approx 3 hours 45minutes.
Turbo - 2000 Lumens (for only 3 minutes at a time, then drops to High).
Strobe 1200 Lumens run for approx 4 hours 30 minutes.

I have to say when we saw these output times we felt it was hard to believe; however after trying them.
It stayed on high mode for 5 hours, flashed 5 times then dropped to low for another 10 minutes.
We are so impressed, this is amazing, but we did thoroughly review the batteries and charger too, so that can make a difference.

Use This is the most powerful flashlight we've ever tested out on Gadget Girl and believe me we really do test them out as we live rurally and when its dark its black out here; you cant see your hand infront of your face in some places, so torches are essential for us. Both of us carry penlights around with us as quite often here we have power cuts.

Batteries and charger
As the torch dosent come with batteries I had to read up on other peoples reviews as to the best and non-fake rechargeable Li-ion batteries that would fit.
I have to point out this has no representation on Thorfire this was our choice. Although we did our best to track down the best quality for this flashlight.

Well you would think this would have been easy to find but actually it wasn't. We do review everything here at GGR...even down to getting the right batteries for this torch. If we had chosen cheaper quality this may have effected the effectiveness of this flashlight giving a false result.
So after some reviewing online my other half tracked down the better quality 18650/3.7volt batteries as we needed 2 for this torch and we used 1 in the previous Thorfire torch we reviewed.

So we decided to get 2 genuine Panasonic NCR18650B Li-ion 3400mAh 3.7 v Protected batteries from a company on Ebay and as they had very good feedback we got a new charger as well.

We were advised by Thorfire to try and stick to Panasonic or Samsung batteries. These were Panasonic, but I would have been happier to see Panasonic written on the actual batteries as there are so many fakes out there but as these came with a genuine guarantee and were hologram-ed on the storage box and I had learn't more about batteries in six hours than I would probably ever need to and it was four in the morning, Bought. Even so there are stories of some fakes that just set light in your pocket...that would never do.

So we have reviewed the charger and Panasonic batteries to save you guys the hassle too.

Note: when putting in new batteries they are quite tight and have alot of pressure so it could be easy to cross thread...just take your time.

You can see my First impressions in my video.

I love the feel of this as its slender body makes it easy to hold comfortably for hours if you need to; a thicker body makes it harder to carry. Even with the larger head its extremely well balanced in your hand.

I love that you can change the on/off button colour to orange or green but I actually prefer the black that it comes with. The base also has another 2 holes for attaching to a belt or rucksack, it gives you the choice of how to attach it.

Plus the fact you get a spare lens show its really been thought out and worth the money.

Low mode and Turbo.

Oh by the way no lizards were hurt during the making of this review as they are ceramic lizards on my wall not real. :-)

You can see here that low mode is the average brightness of most torches available. The Turbo mode doesn't really do it justice as it really is SUPER bright it actually lit the room up...see how bright the sofa is. Plus the lizard tail can barely be seen in the 1st image compared to the 2nd.

The Beam
The fact its so bright is because it uses a Cree XHP-50 LED which has a lifespan of 100,000 hours. Cree have a fantastic name in the bulb world and after owning a few Cree torches this has shown to be absolutely true. They are always brighter for much longer.
One of the differences I love with this torch is the fact once clicked on; you simply have to half depress the button to get to the next mode instead of a full click; which in this torch is very firm.

The instructions state that this amazing Flashlight has a beam length of up to 800m which would mean I can shine a torch to light up a rabbit 800m away. This is very probably true as Ive never used a torch with this much brightness. It has a brilliant intensity and a very direct beam with very little fall out.

Intelligent memory circuit-I also love the fact it memorizes the last mode you used; saving seconds in an emergency.
Many cheaper versions dont have this intensity of beam, the average torch is around 50-100 lumen which is quite adequate in most cases.

Opinion
I realize this torch is on the dearer side and if you are just walking the dog, finding your keys or just putting the trash out, a cheaper lower lumen torch will be absolutely fine for you.
We've been using the Thorfire 500 lumen for months and its been the best torch we've ever used previously.
However if you work at night or are in the emergency services, go night hiking or fishing and camping or live rurally a good quality torch is essential and in some cases could mean life or death in finding someone fast.

Its also a huge safety factor as it is with us, we can shine the intense beam across the whole length of the garden without leaving the safety of the cottage porch; this is a massive safety factor. With other weaker torches we almost have to walk across the whole garden to see the very end.

I can absolutely recommend this flashlight, if you are going to have 1 good torch in your home make it one with this power. We now keep this by our backdoor so its easily grab-able if we need it. The fact it lasts on High for over 5 hours is just amazing; plus it was cold to touch afterwards.
If you need more convincing checkout the video to see the length and power of this beam it has to be seen to be believed. It shows clearly a 50 foot treetop but I can say how good it is till I'm blue in the face. But if I can show you, you can actually see what Im raving about.