Stationery Gifts are Affordable Luxe

Last winter, my husband and I drove to Cedar Key for a long weekend. A cold snap hit Florida (after we had booked everything) and we found ourselves bundled in winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and sipping warm drinks wherever we could find them—hardly the tropical getaway we planned.

As frigid as it was, we hopped from art gallery to art gallery all around the seaside village. It was so inspiring, and I wanted to buy everything from every artist—glass, jewelry, sculptures, paintings. But we were on a strict budget, with two of our three girls still in college, so buying a $500+ original painting was out of the question. So, I settled on a refrigerator magnet, which sounds so deflating, but it wasn’t in the least.

Let me explain.

I picked the artist whose work I loved the most, and I bought a tiny, business-card-sized magnet of my favorite painting. I carried it around with me for the rest of the weekend. Even though I couldn’t take home the big painting, I had a piece of art that I loved, right in my pocket. It gave me the feeling of owning something special, without killing our budget.

That’s how I feel about stationery and why I think we’re all so addicted to it: it’s affordable luxe. It’s such a budget-friendly way to own something beautiful and share something beautiful with our favorite people.

So, let me know in the comments. What was the one thing that started your stationery obsession? I’ll go first… stickers and pencils with prints that matched my shoelaces (remember the ones with hearts, alligators, apples, etc.?) when I was in second grade.