There’s something just so horribly satisfying about new stationary; the fresh smell and smooth pages of a new notebook, the perfect potential of an unused pen the comforting colours of desk tidies that promise a clearer workspace. As far as I’m concerned, there’s something far too appealing about stationary altogether – hence the need to ration my visits to stationary and bookshops to avoid massive overspending on items I don’t need.

As addictions go, it’s a pretty harmless one and therefore one I’m generally happy to indulge, so what’s the problem? Well, I started using my favourite kind of pen about four years ago and my favourite notebooks about two and a half years ago – what does that mean for the stationary addict? A burning desire to satisfy the need for new pretty things and no space for said pretty things in her life. The solution? To start buying new mugs instead!

I don’t care what mugs I drink out of at work or at other people’s houses, but when I’m writing I get hella fussy (go figure) and in the same way that I need a certain type of music or a certain type of setting, I really like to drink out of a certain type of cup. At the weekend I completed a few rubbish tasks so I rewarded myself with a trip to Paperchase, where I quite successfully refrained from buying too much in the way of stationary (one notebook ok, just one, and only because the cover was so cute) and bought myself a new coffee mug instead.

You know, the more I write about my habits on this blog, the more I realise how many of them I’ve picked up over the years. It tempts me to spend some time trying to break them all for a while, just to see what would happen.