Office supply love

Tell me you know about my addiction to 3x5 cards.  If you didn't before, you do now!

I come by this quite naturally.  Dad never left his office or the house without a few 3x5 cards in his shirt pocket.  There was always a necessity to take some notes or to leave a note.  When he would stop by a parishioners house to visit with them and they weren't home, he'd leave a note letting them know he'd been there.  If he went to visit someone in the hospital and they were sleeping or out having tests done, he'd write a quick note on a 3x5 card and leave it for them.

When we opened Insty-Prints, one of the first things Dad wanted from us was personalized 3x5 cards.  Even after he retired, he was still using 3x5 cards.  I continue to find them strewn through his stuff as he jotted down a note and then tucked it somewhere so that when he needed it, he'd find it again.

How many of you remember High School speech class and preparing your notes on 3x5 cards?  It seems to be the perfect size for nearly everything.  On Sunday mornings when I just need to remember a few words, I don't want to deal with the entire piece of music, so I jot those words down on a 3x5 card and they're there when I lose my memory!

I have an entire stack of notes that I keep beside my computer.  Addresses that I haven't gotten into my digital address book, a list of people to send Christmas cards to, ideas for writing projects, things I need to remember to purchase, on and on and on.  I'll get most of these transferred into digital form at some point, but a lot of them will expire and get tossed away before that happens.

I carry extras in my purse - you never know when you need to write a quick note, or sketch out words for a song on Sunday morning, or write something down that you have forgotten 5 times and it just came back into your head.

One of the things I really wanted was a good container for my 3x5 cards.  Something on my desk.  There are lots of travel pack things and items that aren't terribly sturdy.  I just couldn't find what it was that would be perfect ... until I walked into Dad's house to help finish packing out the stuff before his wife moved to Denver to be with her sons.  I was sitting at his desk, clearing out the junk and packing up things I wanted to go through again when I saw this:

That was it!  Dad had used it on his desk for years.  I think Mom made it for  him out of clay.  In a heartbeat, I had a piece that was made by Mom, designed especially for 3x5 cards and a treasure from Dad's desk.  Could it get any better?

Surprisingly enough, it did.  My other office supply passion is writing utensils.  All of 'em.  Pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, sharpies ... oh, I love 'em.  I also found THIS on Dad's desk:

This had come from my grandfather's desk - he ran the printshop at Harvard University and when he retired, a lot of his pieces came to us.  Dad snagged it.  It's leather and has started to look a little beat up now, but it still carries a lot of memories.

I'm such a dork - I know it.  I can't help it.