Well in to my forties and still collecting stickers

One of my prized possessions from childhood is my sticker album. Sticker collecting and swapping was a huge craze back when I was in Year 8 - over thirty years ago! 

I loved collecting stickers. There was a gift shop in my Grandma's town that had a wall filled with rolls of stickers with individual sheets to tear off for pennies. I used to make special trips and spend ages choosing which ones to buy. Then I enjoyed swapping them with friends and arranging them on the pages of my album by type and design. 

Recently my daughter became interested in stickers, and of course there are so many more sticker options around now. Until now I've been watching from the side lines, but on her most recent order from Stationery Pal I couldn't resist adding a few packs in for myself. Then we did a joint order from AliExpress and added some more stickers to the collection. They are so cheap, there are so many varied designs, and really good quality!

As a teenager I favoured the felt and glittery stickers, particularly of animals. Now I find myself drawn to florals, botanicals and vintage designs like postage stamps or old pieces of writing.

I love anything related to travel...

...and I particularly adore stickers that come in little boxes or are bound into tiny books.

What do I do with all these stickers? Well I must admit that many of my purchases are purely for the joy of collecting them. I have some free pages in my album, and I've been filling those up with my absolute favourites! 

I also use them to decorate my bullet journal and as accents in my illustrated journal. I add them to cards that I'm sending and to letters that I'm writing. I have one on my water bottle, my phone case and on the fronts of notebooks. My daughter and I also have fun laying them out to admire together and to swap with each other. 

I think it's a harmless and cheap hobby!

How my recent shopping habits have been influenced by my teen years

This post contains Amazon affiliate links

Recently I was looking through my niece's birthday wish list to choose a gift. She will be 13, and I was struck by how all of the things on her list were things that I also liked very much, and in some cases already owned myself! It made me realise how many of my recent purchases have been inspired by things that I liked when I was a teenager!

Stationery

A while back I treated myself to a new pencil case to store my bullet journal supplies, and I chose this large capacity pencil case (affiliate link). Then Mia told me that almost everyone in her class had the same pencil case, and there it was again on the wish list. I've always liked a nice pencil case, and of course all the stationery that goes inside, and there is so much more choice available now!

Stickers

Another item on the list was a pack of boho themed stickers. I've always collected stickers, and back when I was in Year 8 sticker collecting was a big obsession. I still have my old sticker album and I love looking back through it and remembering where my favourite stickers came from!

About a year ago I discovered all the amazing sticker packs that you can now buy on Amazon. The first pack that I bought was a set of 100 Boho Stickers (affiliate link) and there are so many similar packs available. I've used these stickers to decorate my water bottle, notebooks and also to stick in my journal. I also own another pack of smaller stickers with space, nature, travel and ocean themes which I use for my bullet journal.

Toiletries

When I was a young teenager I used to love visiting Boots for my toiletries. I'm sure that I'm not imagining it, Boots used to have a pick and mix style counter where you could fill a bag with little shaped bath pearls and tiny soaps. I had a ceramic pot in the bathroom filled with them. I hadn't seen them in shops for ages but last Christmas I discovered that they were still available so they went on my wish list and I'm now the proud owner of a pack, they are like these retro bath pearls (affiliate link) which come in all the different ocean themed shapes.

Writing

I recently went back to writing in my journal with a fountain pen, or a cartridge pen as I used to call it, which we had to use for writing at secondary school. I bought the Helix Oxford Fountain Pen (affiliate link) which is a little fancier than the ones that I used to use, although the cartridges are the same. I love writing with it, sometimes it gets a bit smudgy but I have to write more slowly and carefully so my thoughts feel more important. When I was at school most of my homework time seemed to be spent copying out my draft essays into a final version, thank goodness for computers and easy editing these days!

Shoes

My favourite outfit as an older teenager was a black skirt, black tights, a band t-shirt and my Doc Martens. I loved my Doc Martens, they were expensive but I wore them for years until they fell apart. Last year I was treated to a new pair as an anniversary present and I love them again, I can't wear them for long periods yet as they are still quite stiff and I don't want them to get too creased so I save them for special occasions when I don't need to walk too far!

I'm obviously using nostalgia shopping to try and recreate some of those happy childhood times!