“What on earth is that noise?” asked Boyfriend at about 9pm one evening. A gentle buzzing, that sounded a bit like a dentist drill, was coming from the ceiling.
“Oh that’s just Belle in bed, playing with her automatic pencil sharpener,” I told him.
“Oh right,” he said, and went back to reading.
We’d been given a voucher to spend in Ryman, courtesy of the Ryman blog team, and Belle had fulfilled a lifelong wish that day and become the owner of an automatic pencil sharpener. That’s not to say that the trip went completely smoothly…
We were in the car on the way there, chatting about what we might get. Belle and I are both big fans of stationery and had been looking forward to the outing all week.
“Money wise then,” said Belle, matter-of-factly, “I was thinking 50-50?”
“Pahahaha!” I spluttered, thinking it was a joke.
She stared at me. “What?”
“Well,” I said, realising she was deadly serious, “I’m happy for you to choose a little something for yourself, or for us to pick something we can share, but I am going to be doing all of the work writing up the post, so it doesn’t seem fair that I should give you half the money.”
“Fine,” she spat, “I’ll just buy nothing and stand in the corner and watch you spend it all shall I?” (Or words to that effect.)
Not a great start to the trip.
In the end we agreed she could have £10 to spend on something for herself, and the pencil sharpener came in at £6.99, so all was well. I must admit that I have always had the suspicion that shops like Ryman might work out to be much more expensive that just going somewhere like Asda, but I was very impressed at what we managed to pick up. In the end we got all of this for just over £40, which I thought was excellent:
- Three packs of refills for my ‘wear on your hand’ tape dispenser (A must for Christmas wrapping and on 3 for 2)
- The automatic pencil sharpener (in the shape of a penguin)
- A magnetic bookmark
- An A3 sketch pad
- A Brother label maker, including label cartridges and batteries (half price)
- A pack of 8 Duracell batteries (half price)
Like Belle, there are certain stationery items I have always lusted after, one of them being a label maker. In a world of hi-tech gadgets there is still something thrilling about typing a few words into a little screen and watching it pop out as a label. Belle was eyeing it greedily in the shop and although I was tempted by the large pack of fineliners, I was feeling indulgent and opted for the label maker.
I cruelly made Belle wait a few days while I got round to unpackaging it, but when I finally did she wasn’t disappointed and set to work labelling everything in the house. (As if anyone would dare touch her brioche.)
“Thank you so much for choosing this!” she said. “It’s worked out well, as I really like it too!”
“Well fancy that,” I said. “It’s almost like I love you!”
There was a couple of seconds where you could see her brain working and then her eyes lit up, she smiled, and gave me a massive hug.
I am such a soft touch.
Are you a stationery fan? What would your dream stationery shop look like?
Disclosure: We were sent a £40 Ryman gift card for the purposes of this review.
Awwww! Belle should make you a label saying ‘lovely mummy’ :)
I bloody love stationary! Not even sure why, perhaps it’s just holding onto the excitement you used to get when you chose your new pencil case and rubber when you went back to school. All new and shiny…….
I have to admit to having both a labeller AND a laminator. I’m very tempted on an automatic pencil sharpener too – but no I definitely haven’t got a problem.