Delicious Stationary

The other day I went for a little expedition to the mall with a dear friend of mine. As we were waiting for her Mac to get fixed, we wandered into Borders. I was in search of John Green’s first novel ‘Looking for Alaska’, however could only find ‘Paper Towns’ - disappointment.


In the search we stumbled upon some of the cutest stationary you could imagine; thank you cards with vintage polaroids of Paris on the back paired with tiny matching envelopes, notebooks masquerading as well-seasoned passports that had been on many an adventure, diaries thick with fresh paper and black and white pictures of New York and London on the cover.

Ugh! I wanted to buy it all. The journal was just begging for me to write juicy secrets on its clean white pages; I had visions of myself sitting in some cosy cafe, wearing a beret, sipping coffee and writing profound thoughts and musings with a fountain pen. I really needed those thank you cards to send to the hosts of those amazing dinner parties I frequent; I would comment (in perfect cursive by quill of course) on the cucumber sandwiches and peach pie, and the host’s lovely frock. The passport notebooks were an absolute necessity of course; where else was I going to document my journey of self-discovery in far away lands? Hmm?

Me writing a postcard to my Grandparents whilst in Paris - a rare moment of stationary usage.

In reality, I have about five journals sitting on my desk at home, with only the first ten pages used in each. I will say that those pages do make for exceptionally entertaining reading. Not because I was a talented writer, but because what I was writing about was incredibly lame; “Dear Diary, If I had to choose my favourite member of 5ive, it would be J because he’s a really good rapper”, “Dear Diary, the Blue Light disco is tonight and I bought the coolest top from Just Jeans to wear to it!’ Dear Diary, why won’t Mum let me go to the Year 10 Graduation party? She’s ruining my life!”, “Dear Diary, who’s a rebel? I’m a rebel - I drank my first Cruiser tonight!!!”.


Moving on...



Of course I don’t frequent amazing dinner parties which would require me to send a thank you card the following day. Replace cucumber sandwiches, peach pie and frocks with pizza, Baskin Robbins, uggs and the Mighty Boosh box set.

Booshing it with the girls.

And as for jotting my overseas travel experiences in my absolutely necessary Passport notebooks, the fact that I still haven’t put the photos from my Grade 10 school trip to Japan in an album is a good indicator that there is a slim to nil chance that I would be motivated enough to document my future journeys by hand.

Once it dawned on me that I would probably never use this incredibly cute stationary, it made me a bit sad. There really is nothing better than opening the mailbox and finding a letter waiting there with your name on it - not a bill, not your local politician telling you to vote for him and not the latest Harvey Norman catalogue - but an actual personalised letter written just for you. Someone took the time out of their day to think of you, sit down and write you a letter. (Bonus points if it’s written on pretty stationary or is from overseas.)


Gone are the days of a handwritten party invitation - Facebook has successfully driven them to extinction. I’ve even heard of people sending out their wedding invites by Facebook, eww.


I also really wish I did have the motivation to write in a journal regularly; whilst my past journal entries are very embarrassing and make me cringe, I’m glad I have at least a little reminder of that stage of my life. I often can’t remember what I did last week, let alone ten years ago.


Maybe my (very late) New Years resolution should be to incorporate more stationary into my life. It sounds weird, but it might be a good move. Maybe writing in a journal would slow me down a bit, allow me to reflect more, and give me a reason to stop watching Glee re-runs. And if I wrote a letter to someone, I’m sure it would brighten their day somewhat (I would ensure use of awesome stationary and bad ass calligraphy skills).


Ok it’s decided. I am going to embrace pen and paper (that's parchment and quill if you're Harry Potter) and the written word. This is my resolution. If you would like to contact me this year please do so by letter only; alternatively you can find me at your local cosy cafe (just look for my beret).