Never knew people celebrated stationery with “National Stationery Week”! Growing up as a compulsive reader and a scribbler, stationery was fascinating even when I was 3 or 4. My parents recall that when they take me to the shops, the only thing I’d ever ask for was a pencil or a pen. Also according to my grandma (bless her, she told me innumerable stories), as a toddler, my favourite pastime was “Writing ABC”. I never asked for toys and stuff as a toddler.
Wherever I travel, I try and find the stationery shop in that city and look at what innovations they have – like newly shaped post-its, notebooks on keyrings, different types of notebooks – shapes, sizes, thick lines, thin lines – the myriad of stationery.
And then I find out there is a National Stationery Week in the UK. How cool is that? Here are what I’ve come up with that I should try:
- Buy a new notebook
- Open and write something on a notebook that has been waiting for a long time.
- Write a few pages by long hand and decorate with color pencils and crayons
- Send a post-card to someone for no reason
Hmm, can I get more creative than that?
How about I create the Notebook Fairy? She controls the movements of notebooks, she manages the lines on the notebooks, she decides how big the margins should be? She decides whether a notebook has to be or stitched. A Notebook Fairy to whom you can pray for the perfect notebook that never challenges you with a blank page. A notebook where every word you write is perfect!
And then notebook fairy has an army of workers – the eraser fairy and the crayon elves. The notebook fairy has an arch-enemy – the badly-spelling-text-message devil. He hates writing anything down. He controls his world in badly formed text messages that spell cud for could and LOL for laughing.
Before I get carried away and write an entire novel from these characters (they are my characters, invented on the fly, as I am writing this blog), I’ll let you celebrate your stationery week with pens, pencils, notebooks, sharpeners, erasers and paper-clips
I understand. It must feel a bit more closer than having emails. Although I am a pack rat – I keep all old emails . 🙂
I notice I actually start to salivate in a stationery shop! My sister and I corresponded for decades with stationery and cards, post cards, note cards, etc. and when she was killed suddenly in a car crash, I was so grateful for the treasure trove of handwritten correspondence I have from her. My two daughters are just as close, but they only communicate through texts and on-line, so they have nothing from each other to hold. It’s sort of a shame, but times change…
Hi Nina, I wish I was religious as you in sending notes. I’m trying to at least keep in touch with electronic means as possible. 🙂
Chitra,
I too love staitionary. I have so many people to send notes. On a regular basis, I go thru my address book, YES a real address book not digital, and pick out people to send notes on beautiful staitionary. I probably spend 3 – 4 hours a month doing this. Some write back, many don’t. That’s okay with me because I didn’t do it for the response but for letting them know I was thinking about them.
Nina
Nina Johnson
Graduate of The Picture Book Academy