My Ink 100: Part 3 - Swatch-a-thon

I have moved on to the “swatch the unswatched” phase of my Ink 100 Project. Check out my previous posts including, Part 1: Admitting I have a Problem and Part 2: Color Inventory is Hard. I needed to swatch 37 bottles of ink in order to move forward in my Ink 100 project. It was a whole afternoon project to just get all the inks swatched in order to move forward with this ridiculous project.  As…

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Link Love: The Most Friendly Niche on the Internet

Jesi sent me a link to this video above because I get dizzy on TikTok. For your convenience, I am including the YouTube link if you too are not TikTok savvy either. The point of this video is that when the pen community has controversy, we end up being pretty nice about it. It just goes to emphasize why I love pen people. Also, just so you know, pink hair is soooooo retro (via Vintage…

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You Can Only Keep One

Last week I was intrigued by Ana’s You Can Only Keep One post, and then saw several others in the Pen Addict’s weekly roundup. So I decided to dive into my own today! Let’s start with pens in my favorite color: TEAL! L to R: Kaweco AL Sport, Blue Iguana – It is insanely hard to pick my favorite Kaweco AL Sport. I have 6 and they’re basically all the same – fabulous writers that feel good in the…

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My Ink 100: Part 2 - Color Inventory is Hard

My phase two of my Ink 100 destash project is not going AT ALL according to plan. I needed to pull swatches for every color ink I own from my numerous Col-o-rings and sort them by color in an effort to streamline the sorting process. So many Col-o-ring swatch books This was a slow process which required pulling ink out of the drawers so that I could see all of them and align a swatch with each…

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Link Love: Slacking into Next Week

Next Monday is Memorial Day in the US, the official start of summer and the gateway to white trousers until Labor Day. As a result of the lead-in to a 4-day work week, everyone I know is lazing through this week, too. So, enjoy Link Love today – all day if you need something to make it look like you’re busy. We are here for you. Link of the Week: Swatching with Coco (via Claire Coco on…

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Link Love: Eclipse After Effects

I feel like I am  still feeling the lingering effects of the eclipse. The magic of doing something with hundreds of thousands of other people, witnessing a cosmic wonder, and just playing hooky from work or school to do so has really fueled my last week. I hope you are still feeling the cosmic wonder this week too. (photo shown above was from the 2017 eclipse but the spirit of the eclipse lives…

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Notebook Review: Sakae TP Iroful Notebook - A5

A few weeks ago I was browsing through JetPens and came across a notebook I hadn’t tried. I’m always up for testing new paper so I ordered a Sakae TP Iroful Notebook ($9.75). This slim volume is composed of 96 pages of 75 gsm white paper with a 5mm dot grid in Indigo (it also comes in plain and graph if you’re interested). The cover is cardstock, and the binding is held together with thread and…

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Tag: You Can Only Keep One (the pen edition) #youcanonlykeepone

The concept and tag, You Can Only Keep One (#youcanonlykeepone), was sent to me by Rachel from Rachel’s Reflections. The idea is to go through your collection of pens and choose just one example from each brand. My list is going to be a completely theoretical game because their are many pens brands that I must have more than one. I mean, in the case of the Nagasawa Sailor Spring Green, I actually…

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My Ink 100: Part 1 - Admitting I Have a Problem

For some absurd reason I got it in my head that I’d like to pare down my ink collection to 100 bottles or fewer. This random number, 100, seems like more ink that I could ever use in my lifetime or need, right? Thinking about the ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) color spectrum — that’s seven colors and if I add brown, black and grey to this, then that’s 10 color…

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Ink Review: Wearingeul Anne of Green Gables

I’ve found that bright red inks on the market seem to contain too much of a cool undertone and lean too far towards the blue side of red. Occasionally I can find a red that is bright but ends up look too orange. When I first saw this ink, though, I knew I found a great ink. Thank you to Dromgoole’s for providing a bottle of this ink for the purposes of review. Anne of Green Gables – one could…

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Link Love: Dark Sky Day

My friends and I had a grand time watching the eclipse on Monday. We met in my pal’s backyard and we ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the eclipse. In the Kansas City area, we were able to see 89.3% of the full eclipse. It was totally worth it to not drive anywhere, and get to see a cool solar event and then go get sandwiches. Did you get to see the eclipse? Eclipse: 20+ Incredible Images from the 2024…

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Fountain Pen Review: Opus 88 Mini Fountain Pen in Sakura Cherry Blossoms

I have always been a fan of Opus 88 pens for their look/style. Unfortunately, they’re also often quite large pens which makes them not as comfortable for me to use. So I was thrilled a few weeks ago to find out about Goldspot’s Opus 88 Mini Fountain Pen in Sakura Cherry Blossoms ($79) and ordered one immediately. The Sakura Cherry Blossoms is made much the way other Opus 88 models are. It…

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I joined the PLOTTER posse

After humming and hawing for months about getting a Plotter, one magically appeared in my mailbox. (The Plotter fairy knows who they are and I am eternally grateful!) The binder came in a bright orange, paperboard box with glossy black foil logo and branding. The box is sturdy and worth holding onto to store your inserts. I chose the Bible size (aka Personal size, if you speak Filofax) Horse Hair…

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Follow-Up: Endless & Ajoto Notebooks

Last week, I wrote reviews about the new Ajoto Pocket Paper Notebooks and the newly updated Endless Recorder Regalia notebooks. Having written these while I was ill I was not as thorough in my reviews as I normally try to be. Luckily, kind readers requested some additional details about the paper performance so I thought I’d do a little follow-up specifically about how these two products handle…

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Notebook Review: Dominant Industry Ink Archiving Book

My favorite part of the fountain pen hobby isn’t the pens, it’s the ink. While fountain pens aren’t required in order to enjoy ink, paper is necessary. Typically my ink reviews will use several types of paper – I believe that gives a more in depth understanding of how the ink will behave in any situation – but I stick with the same 3-4 notebooks and rarely branch out. But I’ve found something…

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Link Love: First Steps

With just days left at my jobby-job, I see both adventure and (a little) terror in my future. I have been making lists of projects big and small to tackle in the coming weeks and months. Some would say that I am starting a new chapter, but it feels like I am opening the first pages of a new book of my life. What first steps would you take if you had a chance to start a new chapter (or new book)…

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Journaling: A Q2 Check-in

I feel like Ana and I are sort of running on the same wavelength. Each month she prepares for a new month by pulling out her best supplies, and making small changes based on what worked the previous month. I decided that since we’re just past April 1 (no fooling!) that I’d check in and share how my journaling project is going. January and February were GREAT! I wrote in my journal most days and…

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