The Well-Appointed Desk

In the hotly debated Safari vs AL-Star I think the Aquatic AL-Star squeaked past the rest but there were lots of shoutouts for the Safari Violet Blackberry as well. Early in voting, it looked like the AL-Star Fiery was a real contender and the Safari Pink Cliff had lots of votes too. Overall, the votes were pretty evenly divided.

Here’s how the voting broke out:

Aquatic -22
Violet Blackberry – 17
Fiery -15
Pink cliff -10
AL-Star-8
Safari – 4
Undecided -3

So, the AL-Star Aquatic won but just by a few votes over the Violet Blackberry. If I tally all the Safari votes and all the AL-Star votes, it breaks out to 45 votes for AL-Star to 31 votes for Safari.

This year seems to be a #ALStarAlways year. Congrats, Team AL-Star. Better luck next year, Safari fans.

So, what did the winner of the giveawaay drawing select?

A Safari! Maybe this is Safari’s year afterall!

Thanks to everyone who voted and a big congrats to Carolyn! Also, thanks to JetPens for sponsoring this giveaway!

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Robert Oster Peach

Laura CameronApril 30, 2024April 30, 2024Leave a comment

I only have a few more ink samples in my quest to find the perfect peach fuzz ink for 2024. I can let you know that not only did I buy one sample twice (oops!), none of them are going to give us that ethereal look like the Pantone color. And today’s color is no exception.

Robert Oster Peach (50mL, $18) is all that a ripe juice peach should be, with lovely orange shading. It screams of summer and stone fruits and peach bellinis (my favorite!) and vibrant, lovely orange. It is not that delicate peach fuzz, but it is lovely just the same.

The ink shades lightly with various nibs, and those gorgeous splotches are ink are orange perfection.

When it comes down to it, I have a few things in my ink swatches that come close. Lamy Bronze is actually quite close. It’s a little more yellow, and has more shading depth on the light end, but the colors are very close. J. Herbin Orange Indien is another close match. I thought Mont Blanc Lucky Orange might be close, but it’s brighter than the others. There’s a subtle dusty note in the Peach and Orange Indien.

I’ll say it now. I’ve never really been an orange person, but as I see these deeper, more sophisticated tones, I’m finding there’s a lot to like about orange. And give me a juicy peach color any day!

Papers: Crossfield Journal ($24.00) and Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Inspiration Notebook A5 ($10.50)
Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80).
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10),
Ink: Robert Oster Peach (50mL, $18)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Planners & Organizers

A Poor Person’s Plotter

AnaApril 29, 2024April 29, 20246 Comments

After falling in love with the Plotter ring-binder system, I started wondering if there were any more budget-friendly options available. There’s lots to love about the Plotter but there are a couple big cons: they are VERY pricey, they are only available with leather covers and the rings are extremely small at just 0.375″.

I found a vendor on Etsy who makes a slightly less expensive Plotter alternative but its not what I would consider “budget-priced” (prices start a $83.99) called Wuhzi Studio. They also make leather covers so it doesn’t solve for the cons listed above. I dug deeper until I found Personal and A5- sized translucent plastic binders which were less than $5 a piece. The binders ship from China and took about two weeks to reach me.

I think $5 each is definitely budget-priced. The binders are plastic which isn’t ideal but its not leather so it checks the second box on the cons. Finally, the rings measure about 0.75″ which is larger than the Plotter which can be a plus or minus depending on your preference.

For your $5 investment, the binder comes with a sheet of plain white diecut stickers to put on the exterior of your binder and two additional elastics in red and brown. The binder shipped with the black elastic pre-installed.

Go ahead, tease me about the tab divider that says “You’re so pretty!” It makes me laugh every time I see it. Does you planner dividers make you smile? Maybe you need a “You’re so pretty!” sticker too.

I hesitated testing this binder because I was concerned that the plastic cover would not lay flat. But lo and behold, it does lay flat! I’m stunned!

I found all my pre-existing papers and tab fit into the binder without issue, even my Plotter paper refills.

With a similar volume of paper in the translucent binder as my Plotter, there is still plenty of room to add additional paper.

When compared to the Plotter on the left, above and a traditional Filofax Original in Personal size on the right, the translucent binder is definitely in-between. It’s a bit larger overall than the Plotter but its not as bulky as the Original which is actually one of the slimmer Filofax binders.

When stacked, you can see the size differences based on the ring sizes and the material thickness. The thin covers help to keep the overall bulk of the translucent binder. The absence of any pockets or slots inside the translucent cover also helps keep the cover slim as well. It’s also comparable to the Plotter which eschewed any built-in pockets or slots so if you need anything to hold ephemera, pens or business cards, you’ll have to purchase additional components.

I purchased the A5 sized translucent binder (also about $5) as well but could not figure out what to use it for right now. I have been using the A5 Filofax Domino to store notes and research and it absolutely requires the oversized 1.25″ sized rings. Like the Personal sized (AKA Bible Size), the binder shipped with extra elastics and a page of stickers.

I think I might end up using both of these binders to hold my extra refills and/or completed pages through the end of the year.

I am not going to give up my Plotter for these budget binders but I like knowing there are some other options.

Are you convinced to try a ring binder system yet?

In feature

My Ink 100: Part 3 – Swatch-a-thon

AnaApril 26, 2024April 26, 202410 Comments

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 I was swatching, I realized I have WAY TOO many blue-greens, turquoise and teal inks. I also buy a lot of grey and dirty purple colors.

How do I pick which one stay and which ones go?

I swatched seven different greys and blacks. I person, the Colorverse Under the Shade and Dominant Industry Downpour look almost identical. Sailor Ice Gray shipped with my Sailor First Snow fountain pen and is very light. Each of these groups will get compared with the inks I’ve already chosen and then pared down.

I sampled the Manyo and multichromatic Sailor inks … the ones in the grey boxes. Do those have an official group name? I had a bad case of FOMO when the Sailor multichromatic inks came out so I bought them all. Now I realize that was a rash decision. I need to stop buying ALL the inks and think about which ones I’ll actually use. I prefer fine nib pens so, as much as I get enticed by light, bright colors, they often do not work well in my pens. They end up being too light to be readable. These multichrome colors are so pretty to look at but I’m not sure if I’d ever actually use them in a pen. These might be good candidates for one of those inky journals Jesi reviewed.

Above are the few purples in the “need to be swatched” pile. Delightfully, they were all notably different from one another. Next step will be to determine how different they are from the inks I’ve already put in the “to keep” pile.

The above two images are the shameful number of swatches of even more blue and green inks. I need to be stopped!

The last grouping was the orange and green inks. Despite loving green more than any other color, I have a hard time finding the perfect pea green ink. Folks always recommend then to me but I am still on the hunt.

Of the 37 inks I swatched, about half of them will be leaving. Kicked off the proverbial ink island.

My box of “keepers” has been added to but I’m not done yet. I still have another two drawers to review. Then I need to review the selections I have made and see if there’s any additional inks I can let go of.

I already have 77 inks in my Col-o-ring and I’m sure to exceed my goal of 100 inks — and probably by quite a bit– I will have to do a final culling to reach my goal. Ink brands still left to review: Pen BBS, Kaweco, Pelikan, Ferris Wheel, and a lot more. Stay tuned for Part 4 where I end up in a puddle on the floor.

I think Marie Kondo would have classified my ink collection as personal items to be culled last and not like clothes which she feels should be the first thing to be weeded. Where do inks fall on your hierarchy of tidying?

In feature

Giveaway: 2024 Colors of Lamy AL-Star or Safari?

AnaApril 25, 2024April 30, 202480 Comments

For years, my friends and I have played the “Safari Forever vs AL-Star Always” when we see the “colors of the year” released by Lamy.

Some years, we have felt like Safari won and other years AL-Star. One year, we all agreed that Kaweco’s release of their five fruity colors stole Lamy’s thunder. We even made pin badges and distributed them at pen shows to show your enthusiasm for your favorite. A rep from Lamy saw us handing out pins and was shocked at the strong enthusiasm for one or the other. Clearly, they aren’t acquainted with the enthusiasm of the community. The whole Dark Lilac nonense this year only amplifies my belief about this.

Now, onto the the voting and giveaway.

Earlier this year, Lamy announced the release of the 2024 Safari colors: Pink Cliff, a matte finish, deep purple exterior and a bright pink grip section and Violet Blackberry, a glossy, plum purple with a matte purple grip section. Many people felt this was a cash grab based on the success of the Dark Lilac ink and pen from 2016.

In the last couple weeks, Lamy finally announced the AL-Star colors for 2024 are Aquatic and Fiery. The Aquatic is a light blue aluminum body with a bright blue translucent plastic grip. The Firey is a deep red body with a bright red translucent grip section. Both feature black clips.

So which pen color is your favorite? Do you think the AL-Stars or the Safaris are more successful this year? Type your comments below to be entered to win you selection. Good luck and I can’t wait to hear which one is your favorite!

Thanks to JetPens for sponsoring this giveaway!

THE GIVEAWAY: One winner will be selected from the comments and will have the option for the LAmy 2024 color of the year pen of their choice: Violet Blackberry, Pink Cliff, Fiery or Aquatic. Winner can even choose fountain pen, rollerball or mechanical pencil (subject to availability).

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and pick one of the 2024 Lamy colors of the year: Safaris or AL-Stars. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Monday, April 29, 2024 . All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, Instagram, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Tuesday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this post were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: The Most Friendly Niche on the Internet

AnaApril 24, 2024April 24, 2024Leave a comment

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 Hairstyling)!

We need each other and I need to buy pink hair dye. Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without you, we could not continue to do what we do and my hair would look like crap. Thank you!

In feature

You Can Only Keep One

Laura CameronApril 23, 2024April 22, 20246 Comments

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 hand. It’s like candy, collecting all the fun new colors. But if I have to pick only one, I guess I’m keeping the teal one because it’s so pretty.
Franklin Christoph P45 Vanness Limited Edition – You can pry this pen out of my cold, dead hands. I’ve owned (and sold) a few P45’s but there’s something about the nib on this one that makes it my hand’s down favorite. The nib was originally worked on by Jim Rouse, and then Audrey, the “Nib Doctor”, worked her magic on it and it’s perfection.
Pelikan M205 Apatite – Even though they tend to be wetter and wider writers than I prefer, I do love my Pelikans. This one was a tossup between this one, which is always inked, and a Pelikan from the 80’s that my dad passed down to me. But this one always sits on my desk so it won.
SchonDsgn Cheerio Waterpen – I have ooh’ed and aah’ed over Ian’s pens for years, but when he and Mike (Inkdependence) put together a special edition in teals and blues? I was in all the way!

Now let’s move on to the pens with fun designs and extra embellishments:

L to R:

Opus 88 Mini in Sakura Cherry Blossom – Normally I wouldn’t put such a new pen into a “you can only choose one” selection, but I’ve tried tons of Opus pens through the years and this is the first that’s mini enough to be comfortable in my hand. Add to it that I love the graphic cherry blossoms, and here we are!
Platinum Procyon Maki-e, Brush Warbler on Plum Tree – I’m a sucker for Maki-e and Raden (as you’ll see in the next 2). The Procyon is a really great pen. Not only does it have a fabulous Platinum nib, it’s also got the patented screw cap that keeps it from drying out. It’s always ready to go. That and it’s just darn pretty, and was not super expensive. What more could I want?
Pilot Vanishing Point, Raden Stripe – This is the most expensive pen in my collection and was my 40th birthday present to myself. If I’m honest, I don’t use it as often as I should, and it’s a little big for my hand, but it’s still special and beautiful and I don’t think it will ever leave my collection!
Retro 51 Cioppino – A few years before they re-released this model, I found one from the 1980’s in excellent condition. It combined my love of Raden with my love of Retro 51s which were among my first fountain pens. (I also have a roller ball collection I love!). My favorite part of this one is the special two toned nib. Check out the photos in the link above.

Did someone say sparkle?

L to R:

Carolina Pen Co. Charleston – This is the sparkliest pen I own and I picked it out myself when I attended my first Chicago Pen Show. Add to that, it now has a Regalia Writing Labs flexi nib and it’s a favorite for sure!
Sailor Pro Gear Slim Purple Cosmos – This isn’t my only Sailor, but it was my first and I love it dearly. It’s got a F nib and writes beautifully. Plus it’s the perfect size to carry with me anywhere!
TWSBI Diamond Mini AL Grape – I love TWSBIs. My first fountain pen was a TSWBI Eco and I’ve got several more, but the Diamond Mini was a surprising and delightful experience. The feel of it is so much smoother than the Eco and it is one of those writers that is always on. This might be the pen I reach for the most!

And there’s always a few oddballs:

L to R:

Caran D’Ache 849 Fluorescent Pink – It’s faceted and so bright you need sunglasses, but it is an amazingly fun pen. Pop in a cartridge and go!
Diplomat Traveler Flame – This one was a gift from Ana and I love it! It’s super slim and sleek, writes beautifully and I do love that fire-kissed anodized barrel. It’s only an oddball in that it doesn’t fit into a lot of the standard size pens, but I don’t let that stop me.

Ok let’s hear it – what are your You Can Only Pick One selections?

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things: