Advent calendar

On December 10, 2020December 9, 2020 By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Misc..., StationeryLeave a comment

Finished stuffing every pack with something

There was more chocolate than anything else

My eldest wanted to make her own advent calendar this year. Not that we have ever been making them all these years. She just decided she wanted to make one this year. Mind you, we are not religious. So much so, that this year is the first year we have a Christmas tree at home. We just never got round to it before. We were usually never home anyway for the holidays. But we are doing it this year for the kids.

I bought all the items needed and got them to design their own boxes. It took them 3 days to finish colouring everything. Then one morning when the girls were in school I packed and stuffed each packet with stationery and chocolate.

Now every evening after school, they will run to the boxes to open their surprise for the day. Sometimes it is fun but sometimes they fight. Kids! Though I put in the same things for both boxes but because they get to choose their boxes everyday, they both get different items each time.

What most interesting about this whole thing was that M doesn’t know what an Advent calendar is? I looked at him incredulously and laughed. I mean, he is the Christian in this house and he doesn’t know what an Advent calendar is! Now he knows. 😄

This is our Advent calendar adventure. Our first, and I see it, the first of many more to come.

Toodeloos!

Life in Photos – Day 29

On November 1, 2012November 15, 2012 By mouseytongIn Italy, Life in Photos, StationeryLeave a comment

Found this old calculator in a restaurant. Was very impressed with it. Stood there staring and staring, trying to figure out how it works. The best part was, when I posted this on my Facebook page, my Uni professor commented that he used this before!!! I was so excited. Of course I had to ask him how it worked. It seems that you key in the number you want multiplied then crank the lever how ever many times you wanted to multipy it by. So, I think it is just for multiplications. He couldn’t remember any more how to use it besides for multiplication. I had to be contented with that info. But it was really exciting and interesting for me!!! Ah…..I love history!

P/s : Just found out that this was my 100th post!! wohoo!!!

I love Stationery!!

On February 20, 2012 By mouseytongIn Musings, StationeryLeave a comment

I just ❤ LOVE ❤ stationery!! I hardly ever write anything now but every time I pass a stationery shop, I must stop and take a look. The stare wishfully at the beautiful notebooks available, the colourful pens, the rainbow coloured papers…the list goes on. In our whirlwind trip to Barcelona 2 weeks ago, we walked into a modern interior store. A store sort of like Iwannagohome. While we were browsing..guess what caught my eye? They had a whole shelf of dreamy notebooks in all sizes. I stood staring and caressing the books so long that M told me to get them.

I sadly told him…I don’t need them. He continued that they are so “belli” (beautiful). I said, I know but I again insisted that I don’t need them. Truth be told, I have a few more unused notebooks lying around. If I don’t stop myself from buying every nice one that I come across, I can open a little school for needy kids and they all get free notebooks! After pulling myself away to browse the rest of the shop, i inadvertently came back to it. 😦 Finally, when M was paying for our purchase, wollen gloves for the family, he insisted I get one. How sweet of him. In the end I did get one but I am determined to not hang on to it. I bought it with a friend in mind and I am going to give it to her as a gift when I see her next. I bought the design that reminds me the most of her. 🙂

While on this topic, don’t you just love coloured pens!! I can’t get enough of the pens that MUJI carries. I still only buy my coloured pens from them. Though now I hardly use them anymore. if anyone knows me from my Uni days, my notes are all taken with coloured pens and are divided by the different colours that I have decided to use that day. A colour for the heading, another for the content, another for the sub-headings and another for side notes. So, actually reading my notes is very easy. I already colour coordinated and subdivided them just by writing them down.:D Too bad there is no MUJI here in Italy. But I found one in Barcelona! Another great find in MUJI is a pair of gloves for anyone who has a touch phone! You know how troublesome it is to have to take off your glove to use them because they are all heat sensitive now and not pressure sensitive, which is one of my pet peeves with the new touch phones, especially in winter. This new gloves at the cost of €20 has a heat sensitive pad on the index finger tips and the thumbs! I tried them on and it works!! You don’t have to take them off!! But the price tag put me off! I don’t actually live in such a cold place that I need to wear gloves all the time. Besides the Siberian breeze blowing through we are now back to 8˙C and above. Might dip a little if it is raining but other than that it is warm when the sun shines. I couldn’t justify the €20 price tag. 😦

My latest purchase, see I told you I have to literally stop myself from buying stationery, is a mousepad notepads! Featured in the photos above. By the way, I am trying to use the photo gallery thing that wordpress offers so I don’t know how it is going to turn out. If you see later that it is not in a photo gallery mode anymore, you will know that I didn’t like it and I changed it. Back to the notepads. I bought 2 though I liked like 5 of them, I had to pare my choices down. The little vespas on the side is so cute. I thought it was the best choice as we do buy, sell and restore antique vespas! I am thinking of giving them to M. Vespas are his passion afterall.

I got a new company notepad today!! I am stationery-ly happy!!! OOOooo…and M got me a Swarozski pen for Valentines!! I got to get started at writing old fashioned letters just to use up my stationery! Anyone wants to receive snail mails from me??

p/s : I think stationery is so important to me that it merits its own Category! 😛