Chic Comeback

Mrs John L Strong stationery is back in business. I discovered this because I took the chance of going to their shop on Madison Avenue and was pleasantly surprised to find them open. Last September, news came that they closed. The people at Mrs Strong told me that the company has a new financial backer and that they have resumed operations.

While at the shop, I picked up note cards with a shell motif and envelopes lined in orange. I also bought menu cards with a Chinese pagoda design.

The gold lizard magnifying glass and letter opener are from L'Objet which I found at Saks. And the orange shagreen pencils are from Dransfield & Ross.

Chic Discovery - Adrien Linford

While we were darting in and out of shops along Madison Avenue one Friday morning, we came across Adrien Linford, a home accessories store which was teeming with shoppers. The reason, we were told, was that the store was closing its business and everything was on sale. Inside we found very nice table top accessories such as clear oil lamps — which we found out are the store's signature — plate chargers, silver napkin rings, shagreen boxes and coral accessories made of resin. We ended up buying a silver salt and pepper shaker set that looked like bamboo for less than $30 and  a coral accessory mounted on a Lucite platform (less than $120.) The latter was the last piece in the store and we clutched it close to us as other shoppers were eyeing. Thankfully it made its way back home to us intact and without any damage. It now sits proudly on top of coffee table books in our home(see photo above.) 

It's such a shame that businesses like Adrien Linford and Mrs John L Strong which sell the most beautiful things are forced to close because of the economy.

 

Chic Discovery - www.paperlesspost.com

                                           

We were in New York when news broke that Mrs John L. Strong stationery closed its business. We had plan to visiting the store months ago to get ourselves a box or two of the famed stationery but just as we were mapping out the location of store on Madison Avenue we came across a news item on www.nymag.com that the business closed that day. 

This came as a very sad news to us as we are all about personalized stationery and thank you cards. We like to send thank you notes to people who send us gifts or guests who come over dinner. We are old fashioned that way.  A couple of days after hearing the news, we decided to try our luck and went up to Madison just to see if they have a closing out sale. But as feared, they've closed with this note on the door: "Closed for inventory. UPS guy ring the door bell." We trudged back to our hotel rather disappointed.

On the heels of Mrs. John L. Strong's closing is a customized online stationery company called www.paperlesspost.com. Like Mrs. John L. Strong, paperlesspost.com also has beautiful stationery and they can custom-make cards according to your style and taste. The only difference is that the stationery is electronic so you won't get an actual card. The designs are quite elegant and are nothing like the ones you get from Hallmark's website. As an added feature, paperlesspost.com can also help electronically send out letters and invites (they have designed an e-stamp) and track RSVPs.

While we still prefer actual cards, paperlesspost.com is quite a novel idea which we may embrace if only for sending birthday cards and Christmas cards to friends and family overseas. This way we'd be reducing our carbon footprint and become a little green.