One of My Favorite Things... Victoria Magazine

http://www.victoriamag.com/

It's hot again, and a thunderstorm just skirted us, leaving some threatening rumbles of thunder, a few moments of rain, and a lot of sticky humidity. But I love sitting here at my desk and looking out at the big, billowing cumulus clouds above full summer-green trees tossing in the wind. Nice weather... lemonade weather.

I walked to and from the library this morning. I was pretty hot when I arrived home at lunchtime. I fixed a big, icy glass of that  (sugar-free) lemonade, turned on the fan to mid-level, and settled down in my big armchair to knit. Just then Petey, the sleepy little dachschund snoozing on the quasi-cool wood floor of the dining room, came to alert and made his few token barks. The mail had arrived. And with it was the July/August copy of Victoria Magazine. Heaven. Lemonade, the breeze of a fan, and Victoria.

I have always loved Victoria - it became my favorite magazine  back in the 90s. But I have been subscription-less for almost a decade. Victoria is mainly eye candy, as they say, but I find the photography quite beautiful. It evokes gardens, homes, countrysides, and all with a bit of the flavor of a bygone time. Idealized, yes, but also gentler. Anyway, it was discontinued back in the early 2000s, a tragedy to many of its faithful. A few years ago, it was resurrected by Phyllis Hoffman of Hoffman Media. It's not quite the same, but Phyllis was obviously a lover of the original magazine, and she's done well with the new model. I believe the photography is even better.

Still, I bought individual copies when I ran across them at the grocery, and was sad when I didn't find them. It's not as widely distributed as most of the major magazines. I could usually find it at Barnes & Noble, although they usually ran out in a couple of weeks. Why didn't I just get a subscription?

Well... I've been trying to do a paperwork reduction project, you see. And I decided magazines are the devil's own temptation for me, because I love them, used to get too many and not even read them all, and worst, I have a lot of trouble throwing them away. Plus, I was trying to be frugal. But eventually, and recently, reason overcame me and I sent in one of the little cards... and here is my Victoria magazine!

I'm not an advocate of magazines, in general. They are transitory by nature, and I always feel better served by books. I have recently had subscriptions to Atlantic, Martha Stuart's Live, and Woman's Day. I let Atlantic lapse, and Martha Stewart will be gone soon... pretty, but to my mind a bit contrived and sometimes a little tacky. Woman's Day has some useful content, but it will be history in my house before long. But Victoria is my go-to feel-good magazine, and I would find myself looking at years-old copies rather than looking at the current Martha Stewart. (Yes... guilty pack-rat admission. I have a box full of treasured old copies of Victoria.)

So if you really like something that much, if it adds value to your life, and leaves good and gentle feelings, I think you should try to fit it into your budget if possible. That's my philosophy. Now if that something is a BMW, you may have to rethink a little. Maybe rent one for a short vacation, or cultivate a friendship with someone who drives one. But a magazine is a very minor expense!

And if one likes a magazine well enough to read it regularly, as I do Victoria, then it is much more frugal to just get a subscription. Most magazine subscriptions are half the newsstand price, and they deliver right to your door. I have pulled a subscription card insert from a magazine I was interested in, on the rack at the bookstore or grocery - cards inserts often offer the best deals.

The bottom line: I don't want to deprive myself of happy little things, in the name of frugality, that don't cost much but give a lot of pleasure. I'm going back downstairs to look more closely at the recipes. By the way, several of my all-time favorite recipes are from Victoria.