My last birthday present and a reason to visit Paris

This is my last birthday present I’ll be writing about – promise! (this year anyway…)

This time from my friend Annie who found a couple of items for me when she went to Paris. Apologies in advance for the photos – a thunderstorm rolled in just as I set up so the lighting is terrible!

I’ve seen these pens “Color On You” pens from Korean brand LiveWork before, and although they look great (the different colours they come in are listed on the packaging above – not sure about the one called “mayonnaise” though…), I’ve never been that interested as they just seem like a normal ballpoint pen. However, after writing with it, I absolutely love it!
I assumed that a 0.7mm would be really thick but this has a pleasingly thin line and feels really nice to write with.

She also got me this card:
It’s by Papier Tigre, who I now am totally in love with… It’s a great geometric design – I’m not sure if it’s a French things but I noticed that Season Paper Collection also leave a blank space on the front of cards, to allow you to write “Happy Birthday” or ‘Congrats!” or whatever the occasion on them. Which is a nice idea.  I really like to logo on the envelope too.

Papier Tigre have a shop in Paris. I have been to France probably at least 20 times but have somehow still never been to Paris!

This shop gives me even more reason to make it happen! Now, excuse me while I go and look at Eurostar tickets…

David Meowie and other cat puns…

I finally got round to going to Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium a couple of weeks ago, and when I was there I picked up this BRILLIANT card:

It’s by Mister Peebles, and is £3. The owner of Lady Dinah’s mentioned that they had spoken to the company about doing a whole series of cat related pun/singers cards, and my boyfriend and I couldn’t help but come up with a few (terrible) suggestions…

• PAWl Weller
• CAT Stevens (even though he’s changed his name to Yusuf Islam now…)
• PUSSY CAT Dolls
• CATrina and The Waves
• Super FURRy Animals

Can you think of any more???

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside…

The week before last, my boyfriend and I  drove down for a few days in Cornwall, where we stayed in a Yurt. The weather was amazing, and it was pretty much the perfect holiday, full of seriously idyllic things like making dough and cooking pizza in the wood fired oven on the camp site, whilst watching the sunset…

Me and said pizza and oven…

Cycling through rural Cornwall

Our home for the week

We also did one night in a hotel in Penzance before hitting the road back to London. Penzance is a funny ol’ place. It seemed to have one road with lovely old pubs and great shops and restaurants, and then a slightly grotty high street. But I did find a great independent stationers on that high street, and some cards in the window caught my eye. They were beautiful designs and we thought they summed up our holiday pretty well – so of course, I had to buy some. They’re by Kate Broughton. I knew I recognised the name and it was only later that I remembered that I had bought some of her nail art transfers a couple of years ago. Deckchair card, £2.50. This one represents all the time we spent on Cornwall’s gorgeous beaches. This is part of the Summer Cards series. Oystercatcher card, £2.50. This one doesn’t represent anything necessarily, but I just really liked it. This is part of the Coastal Bird Cards series.  Bicycle card, £2.50. And this one represents our bike ride from Mawgan Porth to Padstow (turns out Cornwall is a lot hillier than we realised…). This one is also in the Summer Cards series. You should check out her stuff, she has some REALLY lovely cards – including a vegetable series, with seeds attached, and a bird series with bird seed attached.

1940s Parsons Desk Calendar

It was my birthday on Friday, and a few of my lovely friends went down the same route with presents and I ended up with several amazing vintage stationery pieces. I wanted to share these items with you, and I’m starting with this Parsons Desk Calendar which Ashley bought me.

Here it is in all it’s glory on my old school desk, accompanied by some of my birthday cards (stationery and cats… That’s a given)

And here’s a close up, you turn the wheels on either side to change the date, like so:

I’m told it’s 1940s. I done a bit of searching and I can’t find anything out about Parsons… Not sure if it was a stationery company, or a different kind of company that gave these out as promotional gifts. Does anyone by any chance know anything about them??

Either way, I think it’s completely gorgeous and it’ll definitely have it’s place on my future dream desk 🙂

Thanks Ash! x

Rifle Paper Co.’s New Website

Pretty dreamy isn’t it? I love the redesign and going on the site is very dangerous as I want EVERYTHING! How that they even made a boring old legal pad look desirable?!

I just a quick look look through the new pages and these are my top picks:

Certificate of Awesome $4.50

Passport notebook, set of two, $10

Legal Notepad, $8

City Toile Wrapping Paper, 3 sheets, $8.50

I Pine For You Card, $4.50

This last one is mainly because I’m currently in the middle of a fairly intense addiction to Pineapple…

Anyway, nice one Rifle Paper Co! As usual, all your stuff is GORGEOUS.

New Brand Find: Lovely Pigeon

I think the first time I saw Lovely Pigeon‘s notebooks was in Smug, but I didn’t know who they were by. It was only once I discovered their Instagram that I found out what their name is, and that the Scottish company make lots of lovely stuff!

Their trademark look is copper foil in geometric shapes:

The notebooks are £4.

And the cards are £2. Pretty nice eh?

Also, I feel strangely like I absolutely NEED this copper tape:

Which is £4.50.

They also have jewellery, screenprints and some really nice vintage homewares on sale on their site.

I’ll be watching this brand closely!

National Theatre Bookshop Haul

What’s in this crumbled bag, I hear you ask… Well, the other day I was wasting time on the Southbank before meeting some friends and I thought I’d pop into the new National Theatre Bookshop. What I didn’t know however is that they have some AMAZING stationery! So of course I couldn’t help myself and this is what I came out with:

La Crayon Aimant, £3, Tout Simplement

Really like the packaging on this one. It’s a pencil with a magnetic end! Having recently renovated a house, this could have really come in handy, like this, for example:

Next up:

Brass Double Sharpener, £5.50, Carta Pura

I’m VERY excited about this one. Such a classic, quality product. It’s almost too nice to use.  And from the same brand:

Black Rubber, £2, Carta Pura

This one doesn’t photograph so well, but everything’s cooler in matte black right? Even a rubber.

Brass Template Bookmark Alphabet, £13.50, Midori

I love Midori stuff, and have often looked at their brass rulers online but thought they were a little expensive. I hadn’t seen this bookmark/template before though (I suppose you could also use it as a ruler if you didn’t need measurements…) and I’m a lot more tempted to buy when it’s right in front of me!

Grafika cards, @2.80 each, Nineteen 73

Really like the graphics on this range (they look a lot better in real life…). In fact they had a lot of great cards in the shop but I limited myself to 2 on this visit.

So yeah, I’ll definitely be going back, but maybe after my next payday…

Food Glorious Food (cards)

As I sit down to write this it’s approaching lunchtime, so there’s only one direction I can go. Food. Cards with food on them anyway:

This is very silly but I like it a lot! Especially as someone who eats far too many carbs…

Complex Carbohydrates card, £2.50, by Gemma Correll at Ohh Deer

There’s more to this next one than meets the eye, as it’s an A-Z of cheeses. It’s quite hard to work them out but, if you’re a cheat like me, one of the pictures on the site lists the cheese names.

Cheese Alphabet Card, £3.25, by Becka Griffin Illustration at Not On The Highstreet

I actually really struggled to find any cheese pun cards, which surprises me. I mean, surely there are some great ones! Have a BRIE-lliant birthday! GOUDA luck in your new job! Jeez guys,  I’m just giving these away. Sort it out card makers… (and do feel free to comment below if you can think of any others – we could really be on to something!)

La Sandia card, £6.50 for 5, by CL.AM

Lovely fresh summery watermelon vibes by CL.AM (above) and while we’re feeling fruity…

Part of the Fruit Salad Card Set, £12 for 5, by Telegramme.

Simple print but I think really effective.

More classic carb lolz below. Plus extra point for letterpress.

I Yam Sorry card, £3.06, by Nourishing Notes on Etsy

I couldn’t very well not have a cake card could I? It’s a fairly overdone concept with the potential to be boring, but Rifle Paper Co always seem to get it right (sorry couldn’t find a UK stockist for this particular card).

Birthday Cake Card, $4.50, by Rifle Paper Co.

I’m pretty obsessed with biscuits, and actually have an entirely biscuit card based post up my sleeve… Love this one by Present & Correct using a classic, the pink wafer.

Pink Wafer Card, £3.25 at Present & Correct

Finally, I just wanted to share a card that I found whilst doing my research. They don’t actually seem to sell it anymore, however, it’s worth sharing because of the – what I think is – terrifying birthday song that the card sings! You can get an idea on the extended e-card version here (note: make sure you turn your headphones/speakers down!). Pretty weird eh?!

Yakety Yak Hamburger card by American Greetings

Right. Lunch time.

I tried to think of a wedding pun for ages and failed… So here’s a post on wedding cards!

My big brother is getting married tomorrow (!!) and in honour of this, and the fact that the wedding season has officially started, here are some of the internet’s best wedding cards:

Floral Congrats Card form Rifle Paper Co.

Gummy ring card from Paperchase. A personal favourite! In fact, I’ve given this one a couple of times now so I probably can’t give it again! It’s very cute though…

Just Married card by Rifle Paper Co. (who get a right again!)

Pop Up Dove card by O-Check, from Katy & June

And so it’s not all too lovey DOVEy (^^^^ geddit?!)

From Craft Colorfully on Etsy.

‘TACHE CARDS

How great are these!

“THE GENTLEMAN” MUSTACHE CARD by Doo Daa Studios

“THE HOW DO YOU DO” MUSTACHE CARD by Doo Daa Studios

“THE WILD CARD” MUSTACHE CARD by Doo Daa Studios

And my favourite:

“THE SPIFFY” MUSTACHE CARD by Doo Daa Studios

Doo Daa Studios are based in Brooklyn, NY and I think their Moustache cards are prettttty fun! They’re a tad pricey at $5.50 each, but they do do a set of 8 for £8.