My family spent a February holiday weekend in Munich, and while we had a great time walking all over the city, I must confess that in my planning I was most excited about finally having the chance to visit Papierladen, the retail outlet for the utmost in utilitarian luxe® stationery, Carta Pura. Papierladen is a meticulously curated boutique, replete with beautiful papers for gift wrapping, book binding, and writing as well as the perfect minimalist planner, practical-yet-gorgeous office and desk supplies, and an eclectic range of ephemera. The shop packs a lot of visual stimulation into a relatively small space — there is an entire wall devoted to their range of Carta Varese papers, and it commands your attention while you contemplate the merits of the various patterns. Vera Schwamborn, a long-time employee who serves as Carta Pura’s wholesale and public relations liaison, graciously gave me a tour of the shop: after years of exchanging emails, it was lovely to finally meet her in person! After our chat, I spent a bit of time poking through the displays and shelves, carefully considering which little treasures would make the trip home to London. Once I’d decided, my assortment of goodies was carefully wrapped, my bill calculated and documented — on a gorgeous handwritten receipt, naturally — and I was ready to take on Munich, paper souvenirs in hand. A sampling of my “take”, including Carta Pura’s business card and receipt, is pictured below. You’ll notice, glassine envelopes are my weakness at the moment, but I must confess, I also bought some ribbon to add to my ever-growing collection: it was simply too pretty, and special, to pass up.
paper sample packets
some of the treats i brought home
carta pura’s iconic green till
all photos by jane potrykus, with the exception of the green till photo, which is courtesy of (and copyrights to) carta pura. for a set of larger pictures from my visit to carta pura, see my flickr set.
‘forte’
Paperless Post continues to impress with its smart assortment of designs for every greeting-sending occasion. With wedding season fast approaching, I took a gander through their save the date options + picked out a few that, if I were getting married — again — would definitely be on my short list. Love this clever option: send a Paperless save the date, and request your guest’s mailing address via the online reply card! Browse all of the styles, and find your favorite, at paperlesspost.com.
‘memo: she’
‘mirabillis’
‘paille maille’
images from paperlesspost.com
Happy April! We spent the weekend in Paris, drinking in the beauty, and the flowers, and the food. (Can’t wait to go back — this was our first visit since moving to London and it needs to become a regular “thing”.)
If you’re in need of a jolt of pretty to start off spring on the right foot, have a click through my favorite photos from Flickr and Instagram during March:
- Watercolor snowdrops
- DSC 08091
- Untitled
- One size fits all.
- Untitled
- Untitled
- Work in progress.
- Letterpressed rabbit liners ….
- Sunday
- Untitled
- oh margarita.
- Untitled
- We are freaking out ….
- A fine night for a @citybike ride to Brooklyn.
Happy Spring! Hope you’re inspired to find and follow your bliss.
photo at top: “poissons d’avril”, a french april 1 tradition i am more than happy to adopt.
cards i purchased at the rizzoli bookshop | somerset house
On a recent sunny Saturday, I came across these cute and clever greeting cards by artist Gemma Correll while exploring Somerset House. Once home (as is my habit) a bit of Googling brought me to Gemma’s blog, filled with her wry, adorable illustrations. Am now a fan: you should be, too.
“body shapes”
“monday punday”
“completely non-biblical plagues”
image credits: top photo by jane potrykus; remainder from gemma-correll.blogspot.com
look 1
The fall collections continue to trickle in, and Jasmin Shokrian’s arty-elegant designs caught my eye — the metallic shoes are a nice detail. See the complete presentation at Style.com.
look 2
look 26
image credits: jasmin shokrian courtesy photos for style.com
