Practical can be pretty. It may not be as sturdy, or dependable as the logical choice, but it’s more fun. Pretty is to be enjoyed ever how long it lasts but holds no guarantee of how long that’ll be.

I don’t recall the whole story but remember the gist of it to share. My daughter was in college and needed a stapler to take to class. All we had at the time was a mini stapler, covered with red rhinestones. You know who bought that stapler and my daughter was mortified to use it, much less be seen with it, but she placed it in her backpack and left for class. I imagined my daughter stapling papers in secret while keeping the stapler hidden, but you can hear the sound of a stapler. Someone sitting next to her asked to borrow the stapler and I can envision the look of horror on my daughter’s face as she apologetically hands over the stapler.

Her classmate had never seen anything like it, much less held one to use. My daughter came home from school that day and the little blingy stapler was the hit of the class. Everybody loved it! That little stapler was carried back and forth to school so much and used so often it’s missing many of it’s rhinestones, but I can’t imagine discarding it because of the joy it brought others.

Eventually I purchased a stapler for my daughter to use but asked her to pick it out. She chose one that you’d find in an office supply store, and it looked just like a regular stapler. When she moved out, the stapler went with her, but recently I found a need for a stapler again. Writing the monthly letters, I wanted to keep an account of each letter and staple anything mailed with it to the letter, to keep track of the topics covered. I looked at some vintage ones, but this is where practical kicked in. The stapler needed to work properly, so that excluded vintage.

Last week I sent this photo to my daughter showing her my new stapler and she squealed with delight. I often wonder if it ever bothered her to not find one ‘normal’ thing while living together. She purchased black ink pens and mechanical pencils, while I purchased pens in pretty colors and the pencils had an inspiring saying stamped on them. Our life together wasn’t normal, but it was magical, and it didn’t surprise her one bit to see that my idea of a stapler is the glitter stapler.