Fun Work

I think I may have mentioned that things are a bit different around here now.  I'm working six days a week, I'm juggling all those other things that working Mums need to juggle and I'm beginning to find the rhythm of it all.  And it's fun.  It's fun work!  Look what I'm surrounded by all day long.  Funny faced, googly-eyed spacemen for one thing, who would have thought?  Seriously though (do we want to get serious? maybe not) I'm having a ball.  I'm connecting with my inner seven-year old stationery lover and she's very happy.  Very Happy Indeedy.

And I'm also connecting with my inner (and possibly ever present, bubbling at the surface) obsessive compulsive *me* because I can line things up and put all the matching things together and be happy when those little pencil-ended Chinese girls are behaving and looking the right way.  I can shake them up and put purple next to green, next to blue if I want, or walk them around the store and put them somewhere else.  Ahh, bliss.  Hours of faffing about, playing working to my heart's content.

I've always loved stationery.  And it doesn't even need to be grand and gorgeous.  I love the everyday, the bottles of Clag and the pencil grips, the rulers and the staplers.  A Newsagency has always been a favourite place because the possibilities are endless as to what you can find hidden in the corners or on the bottom shelf.  And so much colour!

With Easter fast approaching (sorry, I know you don't want that reminder) I've created a little Easter corner with activity books and stickers, baskets, chicks and lovely spotty and striped egg cups.  I'm slowly selling off old stock that we started with and am now purchasing bright and fun craft supplies for children, novels for holiday-makers passing through town, a fun and bright range of stationery for kids, and big kids, art supplies and gift stationery.

When a box is delivered to my door it's like Christmas to open it up and then there is the fun of displaying it just right.  Most of the shelving is new after a shopping day at Ikea for Billy bookcases (I won't even mention the illegal and very uncomfortable bouncing around in the back of the little Postman-Pat van all the way home because there was no room in the front any more.  I'm guessing we're not the only ones who visit Ikea with one thing on our minds and come home absolutely squished to pieces because we've purchased one or two extra things or miscalculated how they will fit in!!)

For those who love pink, or if you don't then maybe green or blue or purple or black you can have matching pens, erasers, sharpeners note books etc. etc.!!  Can you see how much fun this is for this little black duck?

And magazines.  I love magazines!!  I have ordered over 50 new titles!  Firstly because my favourites weren't stocked (no Country Living UK, no Country Style, no crochet magazines at all, no Mollie Makes, only one quilting magazine etc. etc.) but lots and lots of 4X drive and hunting magazines!!  I have to cater for all tastes, I know that, and I'm being asked for all sorts of fabulous titles, but I needed to rework the mix, find the balance, until there is something for everyone.

It was exhausting moving from the old store to the new.  Shopping trolleys filled with stock were being raced up and down the street at the hands of our fabulous team of family and friends.  And much organisation was required to get it all ready for trading, not that we closed for business!!  Everyone was quite happy to pop in among the disarray and grab their paper.

So that's where I've been, why I've been so spasmodically present on this blog and yours.  It's not that I haven't wanted to be keeping up with what everyone is doing, but I'm pooped by the end of my day, and I'm dreaming of what I can do in that little store down the road.  In my head I'm planning new displays, contacting new suppliers, thinking about possible new lines and what I need to be doing tomorrow.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.  We're off to celebrate the engagement of my nephew!  And more of that later because there is a very exciting wedding destination coming up at the end of the year!

Trudy

Shinzi Katoh, Sukie and Others

Sometimes I think I'm trapped inside the mind of an eight year old girl.  I have a passion for stationery of the most innocent, naive, adorable kind.  So far I have been able to hide this passion in the guise of buying it for my two daughters, but even they are a wake-up to my antics now!!

One of my favourite illustrators is Japanese artist, Shinzi Katoh.  Apart from the stationery, I have a tea tray, beautifully illustrated, with the words "every Sunday a bee comes to our house";  makes me smile every time I see it.  Here is a little memo pad.

And on the inside.  How cute is this?  Makes list writing all the more fun.

Book plates, oh yes please.  Books of stickers depicting Paris, I think so!!

And see that little box on top, the one that says Detem pro zdravi (whatever that means?), want to see what's inside it?

Stickers, and lots of 'em.  Swoon!!  But wait, there is more,oh yes!  Sukie is another favourite and here is a box full of woodland critters stationery.  Sukie are a team based in England, and have a blog.  Do have a look at all their products.

And a Chinese-style stationery set which features radishes with legs.  What's not to like?

So there you have it ... my childlike stationery passion.  No longer hidden away, but out in the open.  Do you have any secret collections/passions that you want to share?  I'd love to hear about it!!

I'm off to write a letter.  I think a greeting from the Dumpling Dynasty might do the trick.

Trudy