Where would I spend my last dime, you might ask? Travel, certainly. Maybe a trip to Buenos Aires or Marrakech. On a good tailor, no doubt. On a terrific bottle of wine, perhaps a Super Tuscan. And most definitely upon fabulous stationery. I truly believe that handwritten notes are absolutely essential in today’s helter-skelter world of e-mail, Tweets, text messages and other electronic-driven ephemera.
If you do not write handwritten thank-you notes, frankly, you need to stop reading this blog right this instant and purchase a stash. And now is the perfect time since we are just before the holidays, and you will be able to pen glorious missives in thanks for the lovely gifts that have been bestowed upon you for Christmas, Hanukkah, et al.
So where to turn?
If you can afford the most luxe of the luxe, there’s nothing better than Smythson of Bond Street, the bespoke British stationer who crafts glorious notecards as well as travel journals and luscious leather goods like backgammon sets and boxes for cufflinks and jewels.
But if you seek a bit of economy in your epistolary, might I suggest the terrific wares from BirdDog Press, a custom—and eco-minded!—letterpress studio run by the delicious Allison Bozeman, the so-called “soy ink siren.” Working out of her press in Lyons, Colorado, Ms. Bozeman turns out such nifty notations as bespoke business cards (as well as calling cards, an essential in my roving repertoire) and all sorts of other paper-driven pleasures.
The very cool Allison Bozeman at work at her press in Lyons, Colorado.
I am off to Miami this weekend and then Antigua, Guatemala, for Thanksgiving, so expect some far-flung epistles of my own coming to you straight from south of the border.
Olé!