Unparalleled Orla Happiness

If you prefer content centered around design and not the day-to-day D-I-Yizzle, this post is for you. I don’t consider myself a design hound like some of my favorite big dog bloggers who feature fancy home decor and fashion on a daily basis, nor do I explore online, or in-store merchandise, or network with designers enough to feel like I’m showcasing unprecedentedly cool things. And as much as I like Project Runway All Stars (kick ass season, right?), in no way did I partake in #NYFW except for listening to Wake Up With Taylor reports and heart-ing instagram photos while trying to fall asleep at night.

Me + fashion design = appreciation, but we’re not totally BFF, I’m usually about one page behind.

Which brings me to announcing some very old but new-to-me news: Holy zoinks, Orla Kiely had a line of stationary for American Eagle. Stationary. At American Eagle. Of all places. My heart stopped, and then miraculously revived it’s thumping to permit me to jump up and down and run around the clearance section with dollar signs and colorful iconic vines in my eyeballs. I was also spurting fragmented sentences loudly across the store to Pete, who immediately understood why I was so enthusiastic when the kid sales associate did not. Man, he’s cool. This is getting graphic.

Graphic, not as in unnecessarily visual, not as in graphic tees, I mean graphic like Orla Kiely, who still remains one of my top favorite print designers everrrr, creating graphic pieces that I. Can’t. Get. Enough. Of.

OK, that’s about as much design-fashion-wanna-be-buying-expensive-bags-lovin’ as you’re ever going to get from me. True story, I’m a thrifty girl now, but I do own a $400 Orla Kiely laptop bag. I was expletive-ly stupid to buy it in 2007 when instead I could have paid off 2 months of student loans, but now I’ll have it forever. So, there. Will never do it again.

Oh yeah, and I even used it on a business trip last week, still awesome, especially against Logan Airport carpeting.

Clearly, I’ve been living under a rock. And maybe for good reason – if I had splurged on all of these notebooks and pencils when they were first launched (which we all know I would have), my bill would have been $55.50 + tax.

With that said, guess how much I paid buying them not only on clearance, but at a time when the clearance section was discounted an extra 50%?

$17.89

Really, remarkable. Three large notebooks, three small notebooks, and 10 flawlessly unsharpened pencils, for under $20.00. As any O.K. fan would expect, each piece is loaded with details too. So, onward with some pretty pictures.

Drooling? Or is it just me. Honestly, this whole blogging thing might turn into a pencil + paper journaling thing. I want to use them all. Now. At least I won’t have to buy notebooks for the next two years.

Did you notice that two of the notebooks have preciously scalloped edges? I die.

Get your blog-reading butts to American Eagle now. I hope there are still some available for you to swipe up with the loose change in your car’s ash tray.