For the love of paper

I'm making stationery. Each page is stitched with paper and ribbon elements and comes with its own envelope. I've always loved paper, since my schooldays when I got all my supplies, including notebooks, cahiers and "agendas" by Rhodia at Gibert-Jeune in Paris (I loved that store so much). I used to collect stationery; at one time I had piles of writing paper of all designs, envelopes of all sizes. That was when I actually wrote letters and notes. Email has destroyed most of that, but I'm thinking of getting back into handwritten letters, notes to say hello, thank you, how are you.

In weather news, our seemingly endless Indian summer is over. Winter has arrived. I wore my goose down coat for this first time this season. It's time for all those winter terms: wind chill, lake effect, flurries, snow. Normal stuff.

Which brings me to hot chocolate. I made a cup of ambrosia this evening: I place a heaping tablespoon of Belgian hot chocolate mix (dark chocolate and sugar, in granules, no milk) into a mug, then poured in some boiling water (not too much), and whipped it with my little hand-held frother. It tasted sublime, but I went one further. I topped it up with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.

Heaven in a mug.