The Paperie Blog

Countless lines of prose, poetry, and music have been written in hopes of capturing the magic of a summer night, but leave it to FIELD NOTES to take an inexplicably transcendent feeling and distill it down to basic science: it’s the stars. If you live in the city, you may often forget that there are more than a handful of ‘em up there. But if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere without light pollution, seeing the Milky Way stretched across the sky on a moonless summer night never gets old.

The nineteenth edition of FIELD NOTES COLORS celebrates the wonders that cross the summer sky each night, and as usual, The Paperie is stocking these. The “Night Sky” 3-Pack features French Construction “Blacktop” covers, mapping out three sets of constellations that have graced the northern hemisphere summer sky long before “summer” was given a name. Constellations and popular asterisms are highlighted in silver holographic foil. Inside is their usual beloved Finch Opaque text paper, with a new “Reticle Graph,” sort of a hybrid of their popular dot-grid and graph papers. It’s all bound together with shiny black staples.

THE STARS AND THEIR COURSES

Choosing the sections of sky to depict involved a lot of research. Illustrating thousands of stars was a lot of work. After a self-taught crash course in astrophotography, FIELD NOTES spent two amazing nights at Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada to come up with the superb images that grace the covers of these notebooks. Here’s a short video reel from one of the darkest spots in North America.

There’s only so much information you can cram into a 3.5- x 5.5-inch pocket notebook, but their love of 4-point Futura is well known, and the books are crammed with info. The three books are roughly aligned to midnight in the northern hemisphere in early, mid-, and late summer, and replacing the usual “Practical Applications” the inside back covers features corresponding facts and tips to help get your stargazing underway. After a clear night and maybe a cocktail or two, you’ll impress your friends by finding Arcturus, pointing out the Summer Triangle, and locating the “Andromeda Galaxy” M-31, all with your naked eye!

To see the full range of FIELD NOTES at The Paperie, and to buy this superb edition, do please click here.  Be quick though – we only have a limited allocation of the “Night Sky Edition”, and when they are gone, that’s it!

Don’t forget The Paperie stocks the full range of FIELD NOTES 3-pack notebooks, and the excellent Clik Pens and Pencil Packs.

So the Stationery world has been buzzing with excitement for some weeks now – National Stationery Week (22^nd-24^th April) has linked with the National Literacy Trust – the only national charity dedicated to raising literacy levels in the UK – to promote the importance of writing by hand to teachers and children in particular as part of the ‘Get Britain Writing’ campaign. This is supported by the Government’s decision to reintroduce handwriting onto the Secondary School’s curriculum.

NSW organiser – Chris Leonard-Morgan says “Handwriting and stationery is for all ages, and children are the stationery users of tomorrow”

He is, of course absolutely right – how many of us – parents or grand-parents, aunts or uncles, have kept the first ever note written to us by a ‘new writer’?  I don’t know about you but I treasure each and every single card or note I receive from my grand-daughters. There is nothing nicer than taking delivery of a card or note that reads: Happy Birthday Grandma love from …..… written in strange spidery shapes with each letter shakily formed and followed with kisses.  I have to confess too – I still hoard the letters and cards written by their parents 30+ years ago. Which is why, here at The Paperie, we have begun to stock lots of new stationery for children including Rachel Ellen, Belle & Boo and Hello Kitty – we are passionate about keeping the written word alive!

Rachel Ellen Writing Set

Yes, e-mailing or texting is deemed to be quicker – and each has its place – but sitting down and putting pen to paper takes thought, time and concentration. Encouraging our children to write, whether it be thank-you notes, keeping a journal or diary, or a special notebook where they can express themselves through poetry or story writing, is probably one of the most valuable skills we can pass on to them.

Re-discover the joy of writing with pens, pencils and paper and pass on this priceless gift to your children……………..#GetBritainWriting #LoveStationery #StationeryAddict

Yes – on both counts – ESMIE is without doubt elegant and most definitely made in England.  In fact, Kim Brook – the founder of the Company – graduated from the very English Bath Spa University College with a First Class degree in Graphic Design.  Kim then spent a year travelling around the world absorbing the cultures and traditions that have inspired her own beautiful designs.  On her return to England, Kim spent time working as a stationery and product designer for Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the prestigious London bookbinding company. During this time Kim worked on commissioned pieces with clients such as Swarovski .

Kim’s desire to produce unique stationery using only the finest materials to emulate quality and elegance, honouring techniques and traditions of times gone by, resulted in the launch of her own design studio. In 2009 ESMIE was born!

ESMIE’s exquisite Notebooks are beautifully hand-bound in England and use stunning hand silk screen printed paper.  Various printing techniques are used but they specialize in die-stamping.  The Notebooks come in different sizes, the small and medium are filled with plain luxurious soft 120GSM paper – the hard cover is beautifully printed in one of several unique designs. You can choose from 6 gorgeous floral designs in soft pretty pastels or more intense but subtle colours.

Our latest website addition  to the Esmie range is a larger (approx A5) ruled notebook available in six different designs with a beautiful fabric binding to complement  the  silk screen print cover.

These fabulous notebooks are a delight to own and would make a stunning gift for someone special.  Kim has designed and produced notebooks to be proud of and, at the same time, has succeeded in her mission to resurrect time honored techniques and traditions that, like the written word, have almost become lost in our modern times.  These gorgeous notebooks are a perfect opportunity to record your thoughts and inspirations and come all wrapped up in a very elegant package!

To buy one of these beautiful notebooks from The Paperie, with free UK p&p, then please click here.

Goodness me! Real leather notebooks for the price of a regular Moleskine™?  You’re joking? No, it’s true – Monsieur Notebooks are genuine hand-bound notebooks with real leather covers for just £10.00 ea for an A6 notebook (£13.00 for A5).  Hand crafted in India, using an ethical vegetable tanning process for the beautiful covers, and with traditionally stitched inners to allow them to lie flat, these notebooks really are the business.

The covers are soft and supple, but not too flexible, and the 192 pages of off-white 90gsm paper are fountain pen friendly (if you have a really ‘wet’ fountain pen, there is a special fountain pen version with heavier paper still – we will have these in stock soon!) There is a ribbon marker of course, and an elastic strap to keep your notebook closed.

We love the A5 and A6 versions, and carry stock of both ruled and plain in the classic notebook colours of black, brown and tan.  Over the next few weeks we will be adding new colours and styles so if there is a version you particularly want, then please call us and we will get you it.

We think these are a great new addition to our range of leather notebooks – there is nothing to beat the unique smell, look and feel of real leather, and the grain and texture just keeps improving with age. Treat yourself to an authentic, affordable real leather notebook – you won’t want to go anywhere without it….

Just click here to see the full range and buy from The Paperie with free UK p&p.

Busy Mums need as much help as they can get when it comes to being organised.  Gone are the days when one simple wall calendar and a few sticky notes would be sufficient to put everyone in the right place at the right time!  No, no, no………organisation is key, control is essential to make sure everyone’s needs are met. With so many out-of-school activities, birthday parties and sleepovers to co-ordinate, systems have to be put in place.

Emma Fletcher of MUM’s Office knows all about this!  As a then mother-of-three, later increasing to four, Emma realised that she needed to call a halt to the scheduling chaos.  The MUM’s Office Diary was born – with enough space to include more than one user and with room for a ‘to-do’ list, pages for information and useful telephone numbers, calendars and planners for the current and following years and space to record the regular weekly routines – peace was restored.  Following this brilliant concept Emma gradually introduced new products to her range and now offers an organisational aid to cover every eventuality!

Now available, and in three fabulous colours, is this year’s MUM’s Office School Year Diary 2013/14. Large enough to contain all the essential information that busy mums need, yet small enough to fit into your handbag this little gem offers a grid format for the week-at-a-view spread with one page for Mum and 4 columns on the opposite page for everyone else. Dated for 13 months from 1^st August 2013 through to 31^st August 2014 – the whole family’s weekly schedule is available at a glance!

The MUM’s Office Family Address Book is so much more than an Address Book – it provides the space to store information about your friends’ whole families, a record for sending and receiving Christmas cards and sections with popular dates to remember, need-to-know numbers and need-to-know e-mail addresses.

You will never need to write on a sticky note ever again with the MUM’s To Do List – every page offers three levels of ‘must-do’s’ for the day – ‘What needs to be done’; ‘I must do today’ and ‘I should do today, if I get time’ – all your tasks on the same page and a neat little box to tick off each job when it is complete!

And Mums aren’t the only ones who need a helping hand – MUM’s Office have just launched their brand new MUM’s Office Dad’s To Do List with sections to cover ……’What Mum needs me to do’; ‘What the kids want me to do’ and, of course ‘What I would like to do’………..Obviously these are a must for the organised Dad and come appropriately enough in blue!

There is the ever popular MUM’s Office Shopping List with a section for Meal Plans for the week and alongside you will find enough space for your shopping list – you will never forget those essential items again!

But Emma from MUM’s Office is not sitting back on her laurels – this year MUM’s Office brings us the excellent new MUM’s Weekly Planner – an undated weekly planner that can accommodate up to 6 schedules. It includes ‘to do’ lists and a detachable shopping list that can be be updated by any family member.  Following hot on the heels of this new addition is the brilliant new MUM’s Notes – a gorgeous journal to record anything and everything in your life.  Your thoughts, memories, funny moments and inspirations and your favourite quotes of the day.  These beautiful Notebooks come in four fabulous colours and each one contains 128 thick white pages with gorgeous silver gilt to the edges!  A fabulous gift for yourself or a special friend………

Last – but not least – and completely new to Emma’s collection, is the fabulous MUM’s Party Book – the perfect answer to planning and recording all your entertaining with friends and family.  In a gorgeous mock croc silver finish you can store all the details of parties and dinners you have been to and plan to organise, you can record your guests and their gifts and the perforated tear-out pages are perfect for when you are in planning mode.  You will never repeat the same menu or buy the same gift for your hostess ever again!!

MUM’s Office products offer you a solution to most of your problems or needs – each item is designed with mums and families in mind and they do what they say on the wrapper!

Check out all these fabulous items at www.thepaperie.co.uk – simply choose, your product and colour and place your order – let your organised life begin……………

Three circles, one big and two small.

Black Toast has always been one of Emma Bridgewater’s best-selling offerings and this re-invention of the original retains all its whimsicality while bringing the look bang up to date. Matthew Rice has, as usual, designed each and every item, ensuring the collection has that magical Emma Bridgewater signature so popular with the brand’s many fans.

This beautiful collection would not be out of place in the kitchen, lounge or, indeed, the office.  The black and cream design incorporates Matthew’s idiosyncratic but basically Roman lettering and is an instantly recognizable domestic design classic.

Brand new to The Paperie website and in stock now, these Black Toast products will become firm favourites.  The range includes two gorgeous Pencil Cases, an exquisite Photo Album for safekeeping all your precious photos and memories, and a fabulous Recipe Journal to store all those hastily torn-out recipes and those special ones handed down through the generations.  The Expander File will prove invaluable for gathering together all those invoices and bits of paperwork that would otherwise get lost or misplaced.

As you have come to expect from any Emma Bridgewater collection there are the old favourites: an A5 hard-back Notebook, a set of three Journals (perfect for your handbag) a very handy Address Book, a beautifully boxed set of Notecards and the all-time favourite Memo Block.  Many of these items would make lovely gifts especially for that special Mother on Mother’s Day.

See the full range now on The Paperie website, and click here to buy now (we offer free UK delivery on orders over £10.00)

At last!  A way to carry your pen along with your favourite notebook – no more fishing around in the bottom of your bag for your pen (ladies!) or looking a dork with it in your shirt pocket (chaps!)

These revolutionary products from Quiver Global fix easily to the front cover or wrap around the spine of your notebook, and hold your pen safely, and poised for action.  They fit easily and quickly to most brands and sizes, don’t add to the bulk of your notebook, and can be reused, unlike adhesive pen loops.  Best of all they are handmade from oh-so-soft tanned leather which only gets to look and feel better as it ages, and will add a real touch of class to your humble notebook.

What’s the Story?

One of the designers at Quiver (in Aurora, Illinois, USA) is an avid Moleskine notebook user and was continually frustrated with losing his favourite pen in the bottom of his bag, or worse, leaving it on his desk at home. Clipping a pen to the cover or spine was always awkward, and loose pens and pencils have a way of not being easily found when they are needed most. Boy was he frustrated – get the picture?

So, like the true genius he is, he set about trying to find a way around this eternal problem. The idea of finding an elegant way to attach a pen to a notebook inspired him to learn about various leather grades, tanning, cutting and stitching; as well as vigorously studying the sizes and styles of pens, pencils and markers to develop the best designed and most versatile pen holder possible. After months of work he came up with not one, but two, brilliant designs that make holding and carrying your pen (or pens) a cinch.

The Solution(s)

#1 great design is the Quiver Single Pen Holder – so, so clever, it wraps around the spine of your notebook, is secured by elastic straps, and has metal strips sewn into its leather casing to hold it rigid and flat against your notebook.  It adds virtually nothing to the thickness of the notebook, so its brilliant for carrying around, even in a pocket (well, a fairly big pocket, depending on the size of your notebook.)  It’s the slimmest, most elegant thing we’ve seen for a long time, and couldn’t wait to get our hands on one.  It does however only hold one pen, and it needs to be a fairly slim pen at that – OK for Parkers and Sheaffers and (slim) Mont Blancs, but not for you if you like one of those big chunky pens like a Montegrappa or Visconti (or even a Lamy AL-Star).

Enter great design #2 – the Quiver Double Pen Holder.  Fiendishly simple, this holder just slips onto the front cover of your notebook, again it’s secured by an elastic strap, but this time its wide enough to take the chunkiest of fountain pens, or indeed will easily carry two slimmer pens – great if you like to carry a ballpoint too….(or like me, an eraser pen!)

Both designs come in a range of colours (remember they are all in full grain leather), so you can coordinate your Pen Holder with your notebook, and some even have swish contrast stitching for a real deluxe look.  For the outdoor types amongst us, the Double Pen Holder even comes in Black Ballistic Nylon for that rugged look.

Soft Cover Notebook?

OK, I hear you saying, but I like to use a soft cover notebook – what about me?  Well, don’t fret, Quiver’s intrepid designer (have you forgotten him already?) came up with a natty solution – a slip-in reinforcement strip, made from paper and plastic laminate that stops the elastic strap on the Pen Holder from damaging the edge of the notebook cover.  Just choose the right adapter for your notebook (or call us and we’ll sort you out.)

Get Quiver Pen Holders from The Paperie

As we said above, when we first saw the Quiver Pen Holders, we couldn’t wait to get hold of them – we really really wanted them ourselves!  Buying them direct from Quiver in the USA is possible, but by the time you add shipping & handling costs, and the 20% import duty, it works out expensive, so we decided we just had to stock the whole range.

The Paperie carries the full range of Single and Double Pen Quiver Pen Holders, a range that will fit pretty well all of the quality notebooks available today. Join the Pen-Holder revolution, and get a Quiver today!

Once you use a Quiver leather pen holder, we are confident that you will agree that Quiver pen holders enhance your notebook experience and will become one of those accessories that you just cannot live without.  To see the full range, please click here.

Bold prints,

Floral designs,

And pattern galore.

Orla’s work we do adore.

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With vellum sheets,

Printed endpapers,

The craftsmanship’s plain to see.

It’s the small details that make Orla’s work super classy.

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From notebooks,

And writing sets,

To memo blocks.

We’ve got a wonderful collection,

And some exciting new stock.

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Writing,

Remembering,

Recording and more,

Put pen to paper

With a little Orla Amour!

See our lovely new for Summer 2012 collection right here

Can you hear a gentle thud…? It’s come to that enviable time of the year where teachers across the land spontaneously break into a Grease-style flash dance and gleefully leave the double doors swinging closed behind them as they skip into a well deserved summer sabbatical (provided they did their homework during term-time). Ah, the heady thought of adventurous days and balmy evenings spent somewhere totally new. Holidays.

And whilst the teachers amongst us are heading off, it seems the rest of the world are heading our way for the Olympics with every nation you could ever possibly want to visit camped in our very own capital. Exciting times ahead for Victoria P, Jessica and the rest of Team GB. Go, Go, GO!

Travel (and gold medals) seems to be the hot topic of the moment so we thought it prudent to point you all in the direction of our finest selection of paper travel companions. We’ve got all sorts, from the oh-so-clever K Two Travel Journals, Cavallini City Guides (a Paris one for Cavendish) and Leuchtturm1917 London Skyline Notebooks, so whether travelling to far-flung places or just to East London is on the cards, grab one of these.

For more details, just click here and remember as always we have FREE UK delivery when you spend £5.00 or more!