Back to school cool

It's tragic to admit but, come this time of year, I quite miss going to school. It's not because I get a kick out of learning German vocab or quadratic equations or that those were the best days of my life by any means. With September around the corner, I would daydream that somehow this would be the school year when the boy I really fancied looked beneath my greasy fringe and specs and saw the beautiful inner me.  While I never got the boy, I always made sure I got a new pencil case and school bag in readiness for the new term. And therein I learnt a valuable lesson in the comforting powers of consumerism.

Flash forward fifteen to twenty years and that lesson still applies. If your woe is that you really miss going back to school, take a look at these school inspired products for your home. Then rejoice in the fact you have a job and can afford to buy them. They're an awful lot prettier than a chewing gum covered desk, believe me.

I still don't know much about science books or indeed the French I took but I do know I love these experimental flasks from Anthropologie. Made from glass, I can guess they'll look a lot better filled with flowers than they ever would filled with sulphuric acid. They range in cost from £8 to £22.

Maths more your style? Dare to deviate from the standard with the Graphkin designed by Colin O'Dowd. Yep, graph paper + napkin = graphkin. Clever stuff. There's twelve in a pack for £3.50.

More poetic types may favour these zippered cases available from Pilosale's Etsy shop. Made from fabric embroidered to look like writing paper, I'd definitely give these an A. Priced at £13.13, they're suitably sized for make-up or pens. So that's the new pencil case sorted. Time to get onto the satchel and to start plotting an unobtainable crush ready for September.