Shopping for Stationary

Stationary is my favorite gift - both to receive and to give.  I love the notion of  something permanent being penned.  I love the thought of the writing, the re-reading, the folding, the stuffing, the licking and the sticking.  I love writing the notes and reading the ones you've written to me.

Here are some of my favorite places to purchase the good stuff.

Pictures of Hope is the website Linda Solomon set up to sell the photos taken by the 9 and 10 year olds at Prince Elementary School last winter.  Juan was one of the photographers.  I was one of the judges.  The cards are just a tad bigger than 4x6 and are printed on slick heavy weight photo paper.  There is writing on the entire back side; you have to plan ahead if you want to write a long letter.

The photos are touching and some are terrific but they all carry the promise of hope.  Wishes for families to be together and for everyone to have good dreams are found under this picture of Jose's puppies:

The darker side is in evidence as well, as Cashesclay hopes to stop people from killing.  

The adult judges were stunned; where had he found those weapons.  Frighteningly, the other young photo-journalists were quick to point out that they were toys.... couldn't we see and immediately recognize the differences between these in the picture and real guns?  No, we couldn't.  The differences between our lives had never been revealed so starkly.

The cards are available at various locations around Tucson for $20 for 29 cards and envelopes; there's a $7 shipping fee if you want to order them on-line.  Photos of the artists and some of their art can be found here. All proceeds go to the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation.
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Paper Culture was at BlogHer'11,  Christopher Wu is the CEO/Co-Founder and he is as impressive in person as his wares are in your hand.  The company plants a tree for every new Facebook fan and with every order. The cards are 4x6 recycled heavy-weight stock, and the designs are fantastic.  Literally, fantastic :

can you see the peacock?

There are many many cards available to personalize for invitations and for different holidays, including Hanukah...

an unusual addition and one for which G'ma and I are very grateful. We are printing our cards this year... she's really not up to signing her name over and over again, let alone remembering who the recipients of the cards might be.  This option will help me assuage my pain as she gradually disappears.  

My favorite part is the kid appropriate stationary.  With a circle just large enough for a little one's love note 

monkey face

(perhaps just signing her name) it starts them out early on writing their own thank you's.  

There's also a category for gender neutral baby announcements.  Methinks that marketing might want to come up with a better name for that part of the product..... a gender neutral baby makes no sense to me at all.

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MOTG has some flora art cards.  Bostonian Andrea's sister's old store is also a wonderful place to shop.  I'll hold you in suspense for another Friday.  For now, I'm going to take my achy hip and lie down.