Love Momiji

One day, I was shopping with my friend in Little Tokyo, when I came upon some super funky stickers. I showed them to her and then put them back, commenting, “I never really understood what you are supposed to do with stickers.”

Without missing a beat, she responded, “Kristen. You put them in your sticker drawer, of course.”

And a light went on in my head. OF COURSE! YOU PUT THEM IN YOUR STICKER DRAWER!  It made sense! I should treat stickers the way I treated my Star Wars stickers from my card collecting days.  Which is to say: you put them in a box with a rubber band around them or a hair tie, and every few years you take them out and look at them… and then you put them back in the box!

This, to me, was like the moment in The Diggingest Dog when the dog finally gets the hang of digging, and then sort of goes out of control. Well, not sort of.  Absolutely and completely bonkers out of control. From that moment on, I bought all kinds of unusual and funky stickers – and please – don’t even get me started on the stickers I’ve found and purchased in Tokyo. Tokyo is the land of amazing stickers.  (I know, I know-thousands of years of culture, and I’ve boiled it down to COOL STICKERS. )

Let’s just say that when my daughter is old enough for me to finally reveal the contents of The Sticker Drawer, it will be like the glowing light of the suitcase contents in Pulp Fiction.

While visiting some friends in San Francisco this December, I found and bought a packet of delightful stickers made by a company called Momiji.  There was also a tiny wooden doll with Princess Leia buns carrying a cake, which, in case you don’t know, is exactly what I look like ALL THE TIME. So I bought that too. Since we were in Japantown, I assumed that Momiji was a Japanese company – but after doing a little research (which is a nice way of saying I wanted more stickers so I looked them up online) it turns out they are based in the United Kingdom. They’re a tiny company that creates vibrant and whimsical “message” dolls.  And even though I’ve never been much of a doll person – I find them oddly irresistible and mildly addictive.

What I really like about Momiji is that they’re more of an artist collective than a doll shop.  They partner up with art schools all over the world and give designers free reign to create their own lines.  And the collector in me likes that most of the dolls are only available for a limited amount of time. It triggers that MUST GET THIS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE button in my head.  It’s kind of like that itchy feeling you get in your palms on preview night at Comic-Con.  All those collectibles, so very, very limited edition…

Through a happy accident, I just discovered that I am able to feed my growing addiction to these dolls while supporting my local library.  The Library Store, part of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles sells the Luli Bunny “Book Club” collection.  This means that it’s totally okay if I buy all of these because it says RIGHT THERE ON THE WEBSITE – “All sales from the Library Store support the The Los Angeles Public Library.” I believe that’s called WIN-WIN.

I’ve already bought a hefty amount of stickers already – you can find them in their “zakka” section, which appropriately translates to “Bits and Pieces” in Japanese.  And I am pleased to say, and not a little bit smug as I do, that the little doll I purchased in San Francisco is not available anymore.

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