my pencil case

Can we talk about one of the things that makes me happiest again? We are going to need to break this down into manageable chunks, the master topic is stationery and the joy and delight that the right pen / pencil / notebook can bring but today, I'm going to spend half an hour just thinking about my pencil case.

Here it is...

I love this pencil case. It was bought for me in the very early days of our relationship by HWMBO(I) when the poor chap was under the impression that I was the sort of girl who would get good use out of an expensive and luxurious makeup bag. The  man took the news well that I would rather use it as a pencil case and in the intervening 12 years I have received a steady supply of beautiful stationery related gifts (7th wedding anniversary in a few weeks - modern American, for 7 years you get wool and / or stationery - frankly my perfect anniversary).

There is something lovely about sitting in a lecture or a meeting and knowing that in this little bag there are lovely things that make me feel grown up and in control. The 15 minutes or so I spent a couple of weeks ago making sure the fountain pens were full of ink (from a bottle, lovely, lovely) and there was lead in the propelling pencils were so happy! 

I've just undertaken a brief audit of contents, and, oddly (proving my potential as a blogger) taken a photo of them...

The lip balm, the chewing gum, the pebble and the crochet hook should really live somewhere else but I love that they are in there. The clear plastic thing attaches papers together using metal clips and is reassuringly mechanical. Two different propelling pencils (different size leads - there are times when this matters!) - the same company used to do a mustard yellow one for wider leads that my Grandad used to use to do the cross word, haven't seen one in years.

For those paying close attention, the silver and grey pen fourth in from the right is a retractable fountain pen - a marvellous thing that I didn't even know existed until the fateful evening I discovered it (after a glass of wine) on ebay and it was purchased (who knew it would cost so much to ship something from Japan!)

My only disappointment is the highlighter - not that it doesn't do exactly what it says it will do, but I object to its florescence. Non-fluorescent highlighter pens are terribly hard to come by and Bob has voiced objection to my 'borrowing' all of his yellow felt tips.

Any way - there you go, my pencil case happiness. Just popping upstairs to change my clothes because in the half an hour I've been doing this the weather has changed beyond all recognition - but that's a topic for another post.