Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Stationery.

I don't know how long I've kept this. Decades for sure, because it reminds me of Sister 2.
I'm Linus and Lucy is Sister 2.

I can hear you thinking... "she has that much stationery to sort through, she can do a whole post on it? Come on!"
Letter writing pads from days when I wrote letters.

Oh yes, I do. And yes, I can. 


My father wasn't around when I was born. He was gallivanting around Asia and Europe with some buddies. To be fair, it was a trip of a lifetime for him, and I'm sure he had at least 1 good reason why it couldn't be postponed. 

Legend has it, my mother joined him a month or so after I was born [presumably after she'd recovered enough to wear a cossie and ride a camel]. 

Being #4 [and an accident], I think my parents were just a little over babies.

It's not like they forgot us though! They sent a lot of postcards.[Remember - this was way, waaaaaay before emails and mobile phones.] 

And those postcards are what is in the can.
I could tell you what year they were sent, but then I'd have to kill you. Suffice to say, it was in the 50s.
The little Dutch girl postcard is very cool. Those are real threads on the skirt.
There were souvenir booklets and pamphlets as well.
More postcards, from later travels around Australia. A couple of these were from Sister 1.
Toowoomba! Seriously?
I don't remember much about these old postcards below, but they're rather sweet.
 Does anyone recognise the drawings?
They're Hallmark cards, illustrated by Betsey Clark.

And, from the 70s...envelopes!
 I love these to bits. They really send me back in time somehow. Uni days, all night parties, boys. You know what I mean.
For some odd reason, I went through a brown bags phase.
 And I wasn't particular about what they were used for either. [Though I hasten to add that these are NOT used ones!]
This has to be my favourite and was from a provision store [I think] in Kuala Lumpur.

Like any good would-be hippie, I collected and used handmade and recycled paper.






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Some things that I no longer have g*!rr!^rrr!*!^!! are stickers and decals from the 60s and 70s. I had many of them back in the day, but had to resort to the internet to show you some of the designs I miss. Of course, I could still buy them today, but it wouldn't be the same.
This pic from HERE.

This pic from Wikipedia.
This pic from RedBubble.

This pic from eBay.
This pic from Etsy.

Isn't it amazing how many iconic designs and typefaces come from that era of love, peace and getting stoned? I can't seem to find the swirly time tunnel one anywhere though. Does anyone remember that design? 

I could go on! But I think I might have taken up enough of your day already. So what do you think? Did I have enough stationery for a post?


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No questions today.

Instead, please click this song.




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Is it playing?


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Dear Everyone,

Guess what?



Have a GReAt day!

Peace out for now, The Typist :) X

The card was from Sister 1 to Sister 2 and was snail mailed on 21/6/73



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PostScript. Though I managed to do a whole post on stationery, I won't be doing one on music because every CD we have is going. Every. single. one.

Viva ripping, iTunes, youtube and Shareaza!



Update 1.40pm. How rude! I forgot to thank you for sharing your fashion lows with me yesterday. It was very brave of you! Can we agree the 80s were the abyss? 

Also, thank you for your suggestions on what to do with my old Ts. I like the quilt and cushion cover ideas best and think I should be able to handle that, even with my limited non-existent sewing skills. You see? I can be an optimist when I want :)




38 comments:

  1. I think we must be kindred spirits! I had all those things until my last move, when I finally chucked everything except the postcards.
    Oh, sigh, what memories!

    I remember the Betsey Clark cards, though I don't have any. I used to have a little note pad holder with one of those images on it though - something else I turfed in one of my frenzied 'gotta get rid of this stuff' moments.

    One day I shall do a post of my postcards......perhaps before I finally toss them out or rehome them to someone else who has more space than I.

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  2. I had a friend who papered her guest bathroom in old stationary and other paper accumulated through the years. It was fantastic.

    The problem was that when people went in to use the bathroom at a party, it was hours before they came out.

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  3. Of course we're kindred spirits, Jean! I don't need some postcards to tell me that :) Does your daughter like old postcards? If so, there's hope.

    Jan - That was a super idea! I assume it was a w/c toilet and not a shower/bath type bathroom.

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  4. Ha ha, my daughter is even more of a minimalist than I am. No hope of ever passing anything on to her. She would feel the same way about my postcards as she does about my clothes! :)

    Maybe I'll paper the bathroom with them!!!

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  5. Stationery doesn't take up that much room though... and the idea of using it to paper another room is great.

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  6. That's true, Flo. But my goodness, everything adds up. And what good would carting them around do?

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  7. Have you ever thought of yourself as a procrastinator.....?! ;-) Deccy x

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  8. Only by a few decades, Deccy. I eventually get there, as you can see ;)

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  9. SO where is the stationery now??

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  10. The brown bag from Kuala Lumpur reminds me of my grandma... who used to visit us with bag of goodies from KL, mainly biscuits and dried stuff. We were staying in a small town about 300km away from the city then.

    Thank you for taking us on a journey to the past. I enjoyed the stories.

    Licks, hero and the hoomans

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  11. With me still, Grrl. I would eBay [at least some of] them, but feel a bit sad.

    Hero, I love that bag! I wish shops would go back to using paper. Not only were those bags more eco-friendly, they're so much nicer to look at :)

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  12. This post is so groovy, I can barely wait to see what you come up with for the next one! I am amazed at what you've kept and for so long - our gain though, this is such a 'trip' - pardon the pun.
    How romantic imagining your parents gallivanting around the world in the late 50's/early 60's..... such an exciting time for travel. And you do have all those marvellous postcards. By the way are the Australian ones 'Murray View" per chance??
    Hehehe, no point whiting out the year Typist, I've figured what year just not the birth-day. If Ms Pea was permitted to do a post she would take pity and shed light upon this most perplexing of mysteries. Perhaps it lurks within your posts and I just don't know where to look. Perhaps I've read it and forgotten (eek)
    As cute as they are the Hallmark cards don't ring a bell of familiarity at all with me :(
    The 70's envelopes are REALLY something. Haha vintage sanitary bag! Nothing is going to surprise me for the next post! Aw shame about the stickers....is this link what you were thinking of for the swirling vortex?
    http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-38270083/stock-photo-hypnotic-black-and-white-swirl-optical-illusion.html
    I'll groove on outta here for tonight with groovy Georges Here comes the Sun .....la la la.....



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  13. Are you tripping, Rose? I am :) I'm very happy to have finally been able to share some non-dog things and hope that one day, Georgia will forgive me for abducting her blog. I promise tomorrow's post will be short and sweet! Well, maybe not sweet. I'll check that link after this.

    Hah! You do NOT know my age. You're blindly guessing. Good night, peace and love X

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  14. Wow, what a lot of memories this triggered for us, thanks :)

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  15. Those postcards are freakin' awesome...sorry but I wouldn't be ables to part with 'em eithers. Mum don't like a lotts junk but there are some things worth keepin' her says regardless of da space it takes up.

    Puddles

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  16. Wow, those post cards are awesome! I honestly don't have much left from my childhood... even my growing-up years seem to be lacking in momentoes. =[

    It's amazing you were able to keep so much!

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  17. Until I did this post, I don't think I even realised myself, how much I'd squirrelled away. I kept finding more things to shoot. LOL.

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  18. Those are incredible postcards, how cool that you saved them all these years.

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  19. OMD, you has so many stationery that you could wall paper the house! BOL!!! My mom thinks you, like her, is a Snoopy lover! She loved the last cartoon!!

    ~Higgins

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  20. I used to save all kinds of stuff, but I'm slowly weeding it out. I think you have way more than I ever did though. How big is your house? LOL

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  21. The house is snug, Jodi! Have you never noticed how cluttered and cramped it is in the pictures? :)

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  22. They certainly don't make postcards like they used to! You have some really cool ones there.

    I love the idea to make your old t's into a quilt! If you cut them in squares it will be all straight lines and the sewing will be a snap.

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  23. At least all the stuff you saved is super groovy! :)

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  24. Your stationary is fantastic! What a great collection. I still have a collection of notes that friends and I passed during high school, complete with some rather funny little illustrations. I doubt I could give any of mine up, either (in spite of the fact that my husband says it's a fire hazard)!

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  25. Tootsie's Mom Here: I recognize the Betsey Clark cards! My friends and I used to give each other those cards in the Seventies! And the post is hilarious. I have a framed postcard from my mom in the BATHROOM. It feels like THE PAST is such a gentler time.

    Tootsie sends wags.
    :)

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  26. Old notes, Bunny! You must NOT give those up! I used to have class autograph books, the kind you pass round to your classmates at the end of term and everyone writes something like "You're going to be famous and rich. S.W.A.L.K!" I remember one teacher wrote "Your mouth is going to get you into trouble one day." What a rotter she was! even if it turned out to be a little prophetic.

    I wish I'd kept those books!

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  27. I *love* vintage epherema! Thank-you for sharing your collection with us.

    While I'm sure that Cairns is a nifty place to visit. A picture of guys cutting down sugar cane probably isn't going to encourage me to visit.

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  28. I actually kept a copy of the Peanuts comic too..that reminded me of my mom. If i could find it again :) and i remember the dutch girl postcard.. though i don't remember any threads on the skirt.. hehehhehee

    i think i still have my old letters to a penpal somewhere in the house.. and a bunch of letters from some guy when i was a teen somewhere too.. *LOL* Half of my life stuffs are in storage in my sister's big house.. a lot of my books are in their library... i don't even know where most of my things are anymore since i came home in a flash 5 years ago.

    but i do remember those hallmark cards that you have... i use to adore those drawings.

    and those envelopes.. i used to love them to bits! i should start dragging stuffs out from storage :D

    i still have stickers.. *nyeh nyeh nyeh* though they don't stick very well now i think.. *LOL*

    i seriously think you DO keep a lot of stuffs.. hahhahahaa.. thanks for sharing them with us :)

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  29. oh.. btw.. i love the song by George Harrison.. one of my favs!.. yes yes.. there's always a 2nd comment to follow :p

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  30. It's funny...I loved looking at all your stationery but all mine makes me crazy. But, I will not think about stationery; I will only think of photos until I resolve that issue. You may find this interesting. I'm in love with the Dutch girl postcard. That must have been a style of the time because I have one from Spain. You can see it on this post (http://whatremainsnow.com/memorabilia-sorting/). Now, the little hoarder in me want to hop on Ebay and start collecting them from around the world. This is what gets me in trouble. I loved this post.

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  31. Just came back fom your blog. That card is gorgeous!

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  32. Love this post! What a lot of memories... And so beautiful stationery.
    Thanks for sharing, I know that did a post like this one demand much work for sure.

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  33. Incredible stuff! I love the iconic hippie designs. Seeing stuff like that really takes you back. I love having a relatively clutter-free house but there's no way you can get rid of some things...the memories are too intense!

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  34. Oi Sonia! Yes, it's true. ALL the posts this week took a lot of work. Not much cooking or cleaning done LOL!

    I know, Kirsten. Incredibly, I discovered MORE travel booklets and pamphlets after this post, 3 plastic bags full. Some day, not today, I will have to be ruthless :(

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  35. I'm totally with you on the CDs. Records would be another story, my husband collects them. (He once left me alone to break the news to his friends he'd convinced to help us move that they had to move 40 boxes of them - 100 records in each box - in additional to all of our things.)

    And I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but please don't get rid of any of the postcards of stationary.

    The paper bags are the only other things of yours I can part with so far. Did you see how invested I've become in this?!

    -c at ddy.

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  36. I'm loving these trips down memory lane. It makes me want to go through a lot of my old stuff, especially all the old vacation photos.

    The cards by Betsy are all Precious Moments aren't they?

    In response to Jan - I know a house that took all their New Yorker magazine covers and covered their bathroom walls with them. Like Jan said, it took forever for anyone to come out of the bathroom. :)

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  37. Chandra, that's over 40,000 records! WHAAAAAT?!!! And you've moved how many times over the last 10 years?! That's nuts! I have a feeling you're going to be very rich one day though ;) I also kept a lot of old records, some were my father's. LPs and EPs. But they're all gone now because one day, many years ago, I tried to get them cleaned and was told it'd be too hard or cost too much. So into the bin they all went! Do I regret that now? :(

    I'm with you on the bags (except for 1 or 2) and the recycled paper and writing pads.

    Melf - sounds like this wallpapering bathroom thing is done quite a lot. I imagine that will make it very hard for those people to move LOL.

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