Shopping Highlight: Arturo Manuel Papeleria in Valencia

Last week I was going through the pictures in my phone and I noticed that I have not yet told you about the wonderful stationery shops I had found in Valencia while being on vacation there last March. Well, let me correct that mistake and share one of them with you today, Arturo Manuel Papeleria. This is a picture of the storefront and judging by the advertisement displayed, it looked promising and let me tell you it definitely was!

This is the view when you come in. It's actually quite a large store and they have a variety of items for sale, from from office furniture to luxury fountain pens and even art supplies!! Let me tell you, I was like a kid in a candy store!

The view from the opposite end of the entrance. The kind lady you see at the counter helped me a lot, showing me pens (there were a couple I wanted to see) and I found more of my fave turquoise ink ever and made it my Unicorn Ink!! Yep!! Ok, this is going to be picture heavy, so you can see more pictures of the store below and all will be revealed about the Unicorn Ink as well :)

Shopping Highlight: Papeleria Ferrer in Seville

A bit behind schedule, but I didn't want to keep this gem, which I found in my travels in Seville, from you any longer. A true paradise for fountain pen lovers alike, Papeleria Ferrer in Seville.

They are located on the Calle Sierpes #5 and it's really hard to miss with this gorgeous storefront. It's a small-ish store but packed full with fountain pens, craft supplies, notebooks and other fun stationery types. Pictures say more than words, so here follows a visual impression of the store.

And a glaring selfie. Yes, I'm wearing my doctor who shirt, one of many, actually. It was super bright when we came past it so all the window front pictures have a glare. Nothing can be done about that, but I do apologize for the lack of better quality pics of the storefront. Hopefully you can make out that it´s a well packed store and has very diverse stationery goods. There is a lot more to see on the inside too!

A variety of stationery and other fun goods

Kaweco and Cross display cases.

The Pelikan display case gave me pause...

I gaped upon this gorgeous LE Pelikan, The hanging gardens of Babylon, and it was impressive to see it in person. At 3500€ well it's definitely one for the serious collector.

After you´re done shopping, head out to the right side where you will find La Campana for some delicious pastries.

My husband just could not resist this cream filled puffed pastry... it looked a bit fishy to me ;)

Papeleria Ferrer also has a facebook page where they update the new arrivals and when you´re in Seville it´s definitely worth a visit. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté

Shopping Highlight: Maspapeles in Seville

One of my fave things to do while I am on vacation is to spot some great stores (esp. stationery ones obviously) and I like to share a few I spotted in Seville when we were there earlier this month. There are a few so I'm doing this in a couple of posts. I am starting off with this gem we found while doing a 3 hour walking tour in the city.  By the way, the tour was via Feel the City and very informative and fun to do (but oh boy, we walked a LOT!)

So along the way in our tour to the Triana aria, we walked past Zaragoza street and on number 17 we saw this storefront of Maspapeles. We immediately took note of where it was on our map because it looked promising to return to. It definitely was as we returned to the store twice. The first time I was in awe of everything they had (incl. A very special Kaweco that went home with me, but more about that later) and forgot to take pictures. I corrected that the second time around though. Lots of pictures coming up:

It's a big store filled with a lot of fun stationery goodies.

A wall with journals, diaries and tools and boxes to help organize your desk.

Like this fun set inspired on the Real Alcazar motives.

Displays with pens (lamy, faber castell, kaweco to name a few) and even rubber stamps and craft supplies! This is like my dream store!!

They also sell handmade and unique jewlery.

And look at that beautiful wall of gift wrapping papers. They are also quite bike friendly, as you can see :) They allow customers to park their bike inside while they shop, how neat is that?

This is the view from the back of the store to the front. The employees are a super friendly bunch and have great customer service. The second time around I got to chat with a very nice lady, her name is Maria and I think she is the owner of the store (forgive me if I am mistaken...) She told me a lot about Seville, fun eating places and other stores. She was so kind to give us a "real map" of the city because she found the tourist maps to be really crappy and wanted us to have something proper :D The reason I came back to the store was to get more cartridges of Kaweco Summer Purple which I received with this pen 

The Kaweco Art Sport Samba. It's such a gem and I'll post more about it in a future pens and ink post, but this combo was golden so naturally I wanted to buy more cartridges. Well Maria actually gave me 2 packs of this gorgeous color for free, ontop of the one that I got when I bought the pen. I think it was mainly because of the fact I was so very enthusiastic of the pen and color combo, haha! SO very sweet of her to do so and I thank her and the other employees wholeheartedly for their kindness and time they provided us when we were in the store!

You can find more info, including opening times, on their facebook page and when you are in the aria, definitely stop by their store to have a look.

Calle Zaragoza is a fun street and here is another shopping tip for a vintage and scandinavian inspired clothing and housewares shop which is catty corner from Maspapeles:

It's called Hameväki and they sell clothes from Marimekko and Orla Kiely among others. I just love that style! If you're done shopping and a bit hungry, head further down the street to number 5 for an excellent lunch at La Azotea. Hopefully these tips were useful for you when planning a trip to Seville :) Next week I'll share more of my fave places.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté

Disclaimer: This posts contain no affiliate links and nor have I been  sponsored in any way to write a review about these places. These opinions I shared here are my own.

Thriftfinds Thursday - Inky goodness from across the border

On a recent impromptu trip to Antwerp for my wedding anniversary last weekend, we came across a few fun pen stores: Penworld, Kockx and Pen and Pencil. They are definitely worth the visit! I found a few vintage fountain pen ink gems I want to share with you here.

At Penworld I found the Caran d'Ache blue in a J. Herbin bottle. They are pre Colors of the earth series and I was lucky enough to find a turquoise bottle not too long ago at de Roos in Heemstede, NL. 

Also at the same store, in a little corner tucked away, I found these super cute mini baby bottles of sheaffer skrip inks. 

They are the size of those tiny baby bell cheeses, super cute! I do love cheese, but I rather have these inks than those baby bells though. Just saying in case you were wondering ;)

Then over at Kockx which is the oldest fountain pen store in Antwerp (and also has a lot of exclusive and expensive pens) I found the montblanc violet ink. I am very curious how this compares to the lavender purple. 

I can't wait to swab these on my Maruman Mnemosyne word card tabs. 

What is your latest lucky vintage find?

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Shopping Highlight: Posthumus in Amsterdam

To say that this is a dangerous place for a rubberstamp aholic like me, is an understatement. Posthumus store in the centre of Amsterdam is a well known place since 1865. They are in an Ally next to the Amsterdam Museum, a tucked away little gem of a shop. As their blurb on the 'about us' page from the website says:

Set in one of the most historical parts of the city center of Amsterdam is the Royal Posthumuswinkel, a  "winkel" (shop) that has been making and selling custom-made stamps of every kind since 1865. The store is a landmark for lovers of rubber stamps and stationary.You can find not only a seemingly limitless array of stamps, but also beautiful paper, envelopes, inks of all colors and sealingwax. The store is somewhat of a museum too, with antique letters with embossed letterheads an monograms, antique engraving machine, and old photographs of the store.The time-layered ambience gives a lovely sense of nostalgia, but the diverse stock accommodates modern times.

 And true to their word, the store is packed full with gorgeous stamping and stationery materials. A few examples of their stamps on display:

Gorgeous Zenspirations stamps

And I could not leave without this stamp because of the true statement of this sentiment:

You can also follow some workshops and make and takes at the store mostly given by Miranda Degenaars. I was lucky to have done a few, which were very inspiring!

1. End result workshop roses , 2. Roses rubberstamping workshop , 3. Inspirational rubberstamping workshop at #posthumus #amsterdam result of part one, 4. Inspirational rubberstamping workshop at #posthumus #amsterdam

Hope this inspired you and when you are in the aria, don't forget to visit this wonderful shop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Namaste

Midori Goodies Galore!

This great pack of goodies I received from Misc Store as a thank you for making them a Yellow/Orange Color Chart Wheel. A single sheet cutter with ceramic blade, Midori stationery set, MT tape and heart stickers, photo post it notes , Cherry Blossom D-clips and the Pan Am Travelser's Notebook stickers. They are not widely available in Europe so I am esp. grateful for those. Thanks so much for the goodies Brigitta! I can't wait to try out the single sheet cutter! will be a great use for cutting out masks for my mail art!

Also these paperclips are just SO PRETTY!!

Thanks for stopping by!

namaste