I sort of wanted to title this post “Another Swing, Another Miss,” but I figured it was better to make it searchable right? I’m referring, of course, to my quest for the perfect brown matching the Pantone Color of the Year Mocha Mousse (spoiler: this isn’t it).
I’ll be honest, I have not been terribly impressed with Ferris Wheel Press inks in the past. Most of the ones I’ve tried have feathered and bled on my papers (old Tomoe River and Maruman – see details at the bottom of the post for paper specs). This one didn’t do that at all.
This is just a nice rich brown, with a hint of red. Umber is a pigment, and steeped makes me think tea?
One of the things I love when I start looking for Pantone color dupes is that I end up building a nice collection in whatever that shade is. Here’s quite a few of my browns. Some lean yellow, some lean red, some lean pink…. none of them look exactly alike. Is that a win? I don’t know!
Overall I like this one!
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I picked up extra goodies from the Chicago Stationery Fest to share with one lucky reader.
Paper & Pencil Canvas Mini Tote (AKA “a house purse” purchased at Paper & Pencil)
Endless Recorder STEALTH “Chicago” Notebook (donated by Retro51)
Pouch Magazine (purchased at Paper & Pencil)
Chicag-o-ring Special Edition Col-o-ring Ink Swatching Book (donated by me!)
Roll of Inky Dreams Washi Tape (donated by me!)
Stickers, postcards, event brochure with all vendors listed and assorted swag
I hope that our winner will like this little bundle of goodies as much as I do and gives you a little bit of that “I went to a Stationery Fest” without having to travel.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what the last pen show, pen event, meet-up or pen shop you visited. If it hasn’t happened yet, what event are you planning to attend this year? Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.
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FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, April 4, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. 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.
March, for me, was a bit of a planner/journal mess. I traveled a lot in March which threw off both my rhythm for regularly updating my planner while I was on the road but also made getting caught up in the time I was home difficult because I was also trying to catch up on work. Oh, and I caught “con crud” — twice. So, that also threw my cadence for keeping up with everything way off.
I tell you this to encourage you not to give up or blame your planner or system. Sometimes, stuff just gets in the way. My solution for planner/journal mess-ups are as follows:
Try to do a little back filling: if you can remember something that happened on a particular day that you can go back and add in your journal or planner, do it. Even if there are 4 blank pages or slots in between. It’s better to document a few things then nothing at all. As you add in those one or two things, other memories might come back to you. Maybe you have to jump around. “Oh yeah, we ordered that delicious take-out on Thursday and Tuesday I spent an inordinate amount of time on hold with tech support.” Maybe there’s nothing for Wednesday? That’s ok.
If you are traveling or sick or something else majorly disrupts your regular writing, go to those days and just write “SICK!” or “In Chicago”. Later, it will at least trigger reminders of the big events, even if you weren’t able to remember anything else.
Use the start of a new month, or your birthday, or the day back to school after Spring Break as a chance to renew your commitment to keeping up your journal or planner or memory keeping.
Find the right time to write. Some people are morning people and want to get all their to-do’s into their planner first thing in the morning. Some people just want to drink coffee (that’s me). I find I am most planner productive at lunch. So, I grab my lunch and my journal and sit somewhere that is not my desk and update whatever I need to. On particularly busy days, I may wait and do it after dinner. I have a lovely lap desk that I will set on my lap while sitting on the couch in the evenings and add doodles and what not while watching an episode or two of a favorite show.
The bottomline is that you want to write or doodle or memory keep or whatever brings you back to those lovely paper notebooks, pens, washi and whatnot. So let yourself love the time you set aside and don’t punish yourself or throw the planner out with the bathwater (that sounded better in my head) just because life got away from you.
So with all that said, this month, I will walk you through my not-so-well-done planners and give you a little insight on how I plan to reignite my planner passion in April.
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Please check out our Special Edition of our Patron-exclusive podcast TL:DR. I breakdown all the good, bad and in-between from the Chicago Stationery Fest. So, tune in and enjoy the recap. Photos below illustrate the event and our road trip adventure.
The trip:
We lucked out and the weather for our drive was pleasant which is not always what will happen in March in the Midwest. Our hotel was cheap and looked like it. I’ll spare you photos of the peach bathroom but I’m sure you can imagine it after seeing the polyester bedspreads.
We ate our way across the city like good Chicagoans. We ate vegan Italian Beef at Buona Beef, donuts at Parlor Doughnuts, coffee everywhere, and amazing Pan Asian at Alice & Friends.
The Event:
Check it out! A sighting of Kelsey Doodles! (far left of the image in white blouse)
Vendors started setting up on Friday around noon. It’s always amazing to see a space go from empty tables to full-fledged paper lover’s paradise in hours.
On Saturday morning, VIPs were allowed access to the event at 9am and by 10am, the floodgates were open.
So many people at our table!!!!
The Marketplace was super busy on Saturday. Everyone was really happy and nice, even if they had to wait to get into the event.
Bob is waving on the far right of this image.
Workshops:
I taught workshops on both Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday. I entirely forgot to take any pictures of the Secrets from the Ink Collector class but I got some positive feedback from students. It was a huge inky brain dump and I hope everyone left with some new techniques and tips.
My workshop on Sunday was a new workshop: Carve Your Own Stamps and it was so fun! We made a huge mess and had a great time!
Making New Friends:
Our nearby table neighbors were the delightful Hot Dang Press from the Atlanta area that makes iron-on transfers that they could apply on-site or you could take them home with you.
Isn’t the flag iron-on look fantastic?!?!
I had them iron-on the beloved Chicago city flag on my traveler’s notebook. I will definitely be applying even more of their amazing iron-ons onto other notebooks, clothes and bags. These two were a total delight! I hope they start attending other pen shows (Atlanta Pen Show, call these folks!!!)
I am familiar with Itoya and Sailor North America but I was not familiar with the retail face of this company: Top Drawer. I met a couple members of the team and was introduced to their new high-end pen line called Kolo and it includes a some beautiful resins and an interesting soft triangular shape. Certainly worth checking these out more in the future.
Top Drawer Kolo pens
Celebrity sightings:
Field Notes legend Bryan Bedell hopped behind our table for a photo op!Pinkies unite! Me and KB of Calliope Paperie.Bob met the delightful Tom from Sugar Turtle Studio.
Wrap-Up:
Overall, we enjoyed the event. We had good sales, met lots of great people and ate lots of great food. Yes, there were some issues with some aspects. Be sure to listen to the podcast to hear a more in-depth description.
Post-pen event, I go completely introvert. I am delighted to be home after a great event in Chicago (check back tomorrow for a full recap). But I miss having a cup of tea at hand and cat in my lap which is my life when I am not on the road. I do my best to be upbeat and receptive at pen events but I drain my little introvert battery that takes days and sometimes weeks to recharge. Any of you feel the same thing after a big event? What do you do to recover more quickly?
I defy you to find someone who doesn’t love a neon rainbow. This month I have been working on a cowl using some of my handspun yarn. Despite the yarn coming out not quite the way I wanted, it is still really fun to work with, watching the colors subtly change as I knit through them. Although maybe there’s nothing subtle about a neon rainbow?
Of course I don’t always have exactly what I want in ink colors, but I don’t think this is too shabby!
Sometimes it’s nice to shop your own pen stash. I pulled out my assorted collection of Japanese gel multi-pens and realized a couple needed new gel refills so I did a little testing and reorganizing of which refills were in which pen barrel.
I like these for the color variety and the option for VERY fine tips (as small as 0.25mm). Since I started collecting these pens, both manufacturers have added metallic color options which adds some extra zing.
I filled one Coleto multi-pen with all metallics: Gold, Silver and Metallic Purple. The metallic purple just looks like silver on dark paper but on light paper, more of the purple shows through. The gold and silver are fun on both light and dark papers and the 0.4mm is one of the smallest tip size available for metallic gel pens which means the metallic particles must be super tiny. In years past, the smallest size for metallic gel pens was 1mm so this is awesome for me!
Overall, multi-pen gel pens are great ways to carry a bunch of colors with you to work, school or travel with minimal space needed. I even added a mechanical pencil to one of the Coletos. These are just fun to build your own color collection, tip size and even if you want gel pens, pencil, or an eraser! If you haven’t given a Japanese multi-pen a try yet, now is the time. You can easily build a 3-, 4-, or even 5-color variety with the barrel for under $20.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
