Dear Everyone ~
Yesterday was the first day of spring, an auspicious time to begin anew, to renew and refresh. It was also the three-year anniversary of my first Bundles of Stationery Joy. At the time (March 17, 2020), I had no idea that the bundles would quickly become such sentimental favourites with customers whose lives-as-usual were suddenly suspended by the pandemic.
Literally overnight, I closed the retail shop and stopped teaching in person. I remember being on the phone with my dear friend & postal muse Alyson Kuhn. We reflected that sending & receiving mail would be a beacon of connection for people during this time. And so my very next blog post was renamed Stationery for the Socially Stationary. Each bundle of bundles felt more like a care package than an “ordinary” order.
I began to send out weekly, oftentimes twice weekly, blog posts to cheer people up & on. Later in 2020, I began teaching via Zoom. Now I teach students across the globe in various time zones simultaneously. The shelter season also inspired me and my dear friend & co-teacher Cat Bennett to create our Bookful series. Our next four-session workshop will be announced soonish, and will be our tenth (10th!) series!
Meanwhile, back to the bundles: The original Bundles of Stationery Joy have gone on to enjoy several incarnations. There have since been Spring, Deluxe, Dressiest & Mixi-Matchi. Perhaps the most “personal” for me was the Booster Bundle in the summer of 2020—which raised $700 for Move On’s #SaveThePostOffice campaign. Assembling the bundles—or bundling— is always a nostalgic meander for me, as seeing and touching the papers, envelopes & postcards reminds me of their provenance. It’s also when I see a particular card that I will think to myself, “Oooh, this would be perfect for a particular person and missive”.
To honour the third anniversary of bundles, I have gathered Blooming Bundles of Stationery Joy, high in happy harbingers of spring. Each primer-of-primavera bundle offers 30-some assorted envelopes with notecards and at least eight postcards. We don’t see how a sampler could be ampler! The inner bundle is enveloped, cosseted, even swathed in crisp white tissue, tied with French embroidery thread. The outer wrap is a 12 x 16 sheet of Wanderlust paper, in your choice of Blue Flora or Pink Flora, gently washi’d and beribboned natch, ready to reuse for wrapping, bookbinding, collage, origami, or enveloping.
I am endlessly grateful that my shop, parcels, and workshops continue to bring so much joy and bookbinding inspiration to customers & students, whether you live down the road or across the globe. I look forward to communing with you in the shop, my inbox, and especially in my mailbox for many moons to come.
Blooming Bundles of Stationery Joy
Always blossoming, Bari
PS:
If you’d like me to do special beribbonment on Easter gifts, I’ll be happy to hop right on it. Seam binding ribbons are available for pairing (and wearing) in a panoply of pastel perfection, from palest pink to subtlest menthe.
