Portrait Of An Obsession
If we’re being honest, we can all admit to a few fetishes. For some it’s jewelry, scarves, or tattoos. For others it’s shoes, make-up, or hats of all shapes and sizes. I myself like earrings and purses, and anyone who has spent any shopping time with me knows I have a passionate, ongoing love affair with paper.
My fondness for all things printed–be it cards, journals, address books, invitations or just day to day stationary–began in my most impressionable and tie-dyed decade, before I can remember knowing how to properly write cursive, and has since grown exponentially over the years. If I walk by a paper and print shop, like say this one, or maybe this one, I am going to stop. All the time, every time, and even if I walked out with a bag of miscellaneous papyrus the day prior.
Exhibit A, or: My Current Collection Of Blank Journals I Have Yet To Touch Ink To, But That I Needed, Because, Did I Mention Torrid Love Affair? :
These are blank note-cards I picked up to use for wedding announcements:
A journal I found at Borders before we moved to Portland; my sister soon after sent me a letter on the exact same stationary:
A wide-ruled journal I purchased for Hans, but that I liked so much, I bought myself one, too:
Fun details found on the back cover and inside the red circus-themed notebook I found last week at Powell’s:
Cover of a 2008 desktop calendar with simplistic seafaring monthly designs that reminded me of the Oregon Coast:
The front cover-stamp and inner details of two recycled journals made from old children’s story-books that I found in Manzanita, Oregon:
Small business-card holder I found when Theresa and Will visited this past Thursday:
An actual (tiny, pocket-sized) notebook whose sole purpose is to hold myriad to-do lists, amen:
What do YOU collect, notwithstanding necessity and (sometimes even) sanity?
Those are very beautiful…but yes, I’d have to agree that there seems to be quite an obsession going on! :)
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It really is ridiculous. Chris is scared. I need an intervention. Or, another notebook.
Alright. We should not only start a bookclub in the common sense of the word, we should also start a “book club” with book meaning journal or paper, because I totally share this obsession with you and I can hardly stay away from any stationary store.
We could send Chris and Jon on some kind of different adventure after they have dropped us off at one of those stores… deal?!
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I love the way you think.
We have the same obsession! I have hundreds of cards, dozens of journals, A CORRESPONDENCE TABLE in my house. My favorite online store is http://www.paper-source.com and I know they have physical locations sprinkled around but none in Texas.
Also shoes. Always shoes.
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I just! ordered a silk pencil-case from paper-source. Like, five minutes ago. Not paper, surely! But having to do with paper. I LOVE that site. I don’t know that we have a store here, either, but I’m definitely checking. (I also bought a new pair of shoes today.) We are awesome.
I may have the same obsession in fact I have the exact same journal with the birds!
I was just in Portland a few weeks ago and spent a lot of time and money in Oblation in the Pearl - have you been there?
I love pretty paper. I like to make cards with the paper. Or frame it and hang it on the wall. Or just gaze at it lovingly. I’m always scared to start using it in case I run out. So I buy more.
I have a serious stash of pretty paper.
I have also started collecting photography equipment. WAY more costly than paper. But oh, so fun!
I have moved WAY too much to collect anything. In fact, I often resent all of the crap I have sitting around — the stuff I seem to be collecting but not intentionally. As you probably know from your recent move, stuff becomes quite a burden when you have to pick it up and carry it to a new home. More of a burden when you do that seven times in three years.
But. I. Love. Paper. Love it, love it. I love to use it — to cut it and affix it and weave it and fold it and write on it. So while I resist the urge to hoard it, I completely understand your obsession. We have a giant Paper Source in Georgetown, and I could stand in front of the racks of flat paper for, um, hours. Touching and oohing and aahing.
Rocks! It’s an illness, I know. Whenever I travel, I bring back a rock. I am partial to crystals, and have more than a body should.
Crystals, however, are perfect to give to someone who needs their energy at the time. that’s the only time I don’t mind parting with them, because I love them.
Moving day makes for some heavy lifting.
i also collect journals.
oh, and men. i’m sort of obssessed with them. :)
OK, first of all, did you see my post a couple days ago about Design Design? (www.designdesign.us) Once a year they have a HEEYOUGE clearance sale of all their paper stuff…I think you might have exploded from the excitement.
I also! have way too many completely unused journals. They just cry out for your thoughts to be written in them! And there is the other pile of journals which only has a few pages written in it…sigh.
I have over 1200 little glass animals on my walls. No insanity here.
*cough*
I finally found someone who has more blank journals than I do! Now if only I spent more time writing in my journals than posting online, they might not all be blank still! I love Papyrus…I always find pretty ones there.
I have an accidental collection of mostly blank journals. Similar to the alarming number of bookmarks I acquired in my youth (what do you give a young girl who likes to read? bookmarks. what to do you give a young woman who likes to write? journals.), they are useless as very few of my well-meaning aunts and even friends apparently had any clue as to my own personal taste.
I actively collect well-designed business cards, old newspaper advertisements, postcards and personal ads.
I too love blank journals! Although I am also a closet office supply addict!
OH MY GOD.
i want your collection of paper goodness. i think i suffer along with you in your obsession. *sigh* i love the paper with the pretty things on it.
i collect elephants, and that is why i tried to reach out and grab your last photo right off of my computer screen.
WAAAANT!!
it didn’t work.
i have far too many collections for one girl, sometimes i think i collect collections and yes i too have far too many journals scattered about :) i am coveting yours ~ soooo beautiful!! xox
Mine is perfume. I never buy the same perfume twice. I don’t have my own “scent”. It’s because I must have different perfume and perfume bottles. I don’t really “collect” them per se but I do love them. I always walk out of Macy’s wearing at least 4 different fragrances on my wrists, arms and neck.