I have been super happy with my Aura Estelle B6 Magnet Daily Planner that when the company reached out to me last week asking if I’d be interested in sharing my love for Aura Estelle planners I said “Yes, please and thank you!”
The advantage of the Undated versions is that you can start with these ASAP. If you are starting back to school or just want to jumpstart your planner journal, these will get you going. Or you can hoard them for the start of the 2027 calendar year.
Example of the monthly page spread in both Aura Estelle Magnet planners (this is from a dated version of the planner). Both planners in this giveaway are undated.
Both planners include a Yearly Overview (2 pages), Year Goals (2 pages), Monthly Calendar (2 pages x 12), and Blank Pages (2 pages x 12) after the monthly overview calendar.
Weekly and Daily Page layout in the Aura Estelle Magnet Daily UndatedSample layout in the daily pages in the Aura Estelle Magnet Daily
The Daily Planner then includes a Weekly page and seven Daily pages (x 53) with 30 blank pages in the back.
Weekly spread in the Aura Estelle Magnet Weekly Horizontal UndatedSample layout in the Aura Estelle Magnet Weekly HorizontalSample layout in the Aura Estelle Magnet Weekly Horizontal
The Weekly Horizontal alternately includes the Weekly page with one Grid page (x 53) and 124 blank pages in the back for journaling and notetaking.
Both books feature soft leatherette covers, stitched spine, 3.81mm grid on classic 52gsm Tomoe River paper. The Weekly Horizontal Undated has a deep red cover and the Daily Undated has a traditional black cover.
I will also include an assortment of Date Dots and Typewriter Days sticker sheets to embellish your new planner (additional $30 value).
TO ENTER:Leave a comment below and be sure to tell us if you want the Weekly Undated or Daily Undated and why. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person. One planner option 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 unpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Instagram, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winners will be announced on Wednesday. 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 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 review were provided free of charge by Aura Estelle for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
We love Kawecos as much as anyone so check out the JetPens Blog comprehensive guide to the Kaweco Sport this week. I am really loving the new colors they are doing like the Lunar Sport collection and the newest Marble Ocean Collection. The Marble OCean 100% goes with my mermaid vibe this month!
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Thanks to a wonderful Redditor, Ana and I were able to update the Pen Show Calendar with a few new offerings, mostly under the paper and planner category (scroll down below the first list which is all Fountain Pen Shows.)
As always, if we’ve missed your event, hit us up and we’ll get a link on the page!
Thank you all for entering the Daigo Tea & Diary Time giveaway. I’ve been making note of funny quotes or things that happen every day since I started with the weekly/weekend version and I’m loving it. But without further ado…
The winner of the morning version is Paula:
And the winner of the evening is Marjorie:
I’ve already contacted both under separate cover and will mail those out this week!
I picked up the Kuretake Ink-Cafe Meiji No Iro Bottled Ink in Ebicha (20ml bottle for $19.30) last year and have been meaning to post a review. I had been waiting to get all six colors but I can never find all in stock at the same time.
The “MEIJI NO IRO” series of inks is nspired by popular colors from the Meiji era of Japanese history that occurred between 1868 to 1912, the Japanese equivalent of the Edwardian period. The full collection includes 6 colors.
Ebicha is a deep reddish purple. In full coverage, it looks almost like a purple-brown. The color was purposely “sort of purple”. In the Meiji era, purple was considered a noble color used by the aristocracy. This was similar to how purple was seen in Europe as well until about 1865 when William Perkin started his experiments with coal tar and quinine to create a commercially viable mauve color (which was still expensive but started the trend of commerical dyes). Since Japanese people were afraid of using purple for home and clothing, “EBICHA” was often used instead of traditional Purple. EBICHA had become a popular color for Hakama (Japanese traditional pants) that female students wore. EBICHA is “shrimp tea”.
The swatch looks like a warm reddish brown with a hint of reddish-purple in the warm tone. Its a very deeply saturated ink color so it shades a little bit and also can sheen just a bit too, depending on nib and paper choices.
On various papers:
Ink swatch on Iroful
On Iroful paper, Ebicha is a little bit more reddish. While on Cosmo Air Light, the ink appears a little more brown. Tomoe River shows off the most red shading than Iroful or Cosmo Air Light.
On Cosmo Air Light.On Tomoe River 68gsm
On Tomoe River, I thought the color had a bit of that Strawberry Chocolate vibe that people like so much but its much darker brown than Kobe Strawberry Chocolate which is more of a dusty pink. But I think if you have Strawberry Chocolate and feels too light, Ebicha might be a good alternative.
Ink Comparisons:
Ebicha is definitely in my sweet spot for a warm chocolatey color compared to Kaweco Caramel Brown (one of my all time favorites), Monteverde MP1Collection Mocha Mousse or Ferris Wheel Press Beaver Dam Brown. Mocha Mouse and BEaver Dam Brown are no longer available so Ebicha feels like a good alternative.
I included Robert Oster Claret which is a brown/burgundy that sits about halfway between Ebicha and Strawberry Chocolate.
I am a big fan of Kuretake Ebicha. I’m tickled that its named “shrimp tea” which I imagine this to be an ink drink that shrimp prefer. If you’ve read Maya’s Blogs series, you’ll know which shrimp I am thinking of. Its a solid warm brown color with a reddish-purple undertone. It definitely makes me want to get my hands on some of the other Kuretake Ink-Cafe colors soon.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I found a magical package on my door step this week, filled with the sweet Moomin stationery in celebration of The Summer of Moomin, an event at the New York Botanical Gardens. This summer, NYBG has filled their gardens with the creatures of Moominland and of course produced an array of goods to celebrate the event.
If you’re not familiar with Moomin, they are the characters from Moominland created by Tove Jansson. The stories were first published in the 1950s and continued into the 1970s as novels, comic strips, animated series and so much more. Considered a national treasure in Finland, Moominland and all the books continue to delight nature-lovers of all ages.
Its an unusual collaboration for Esterbrook as the collection does not include any pens, just notebooks and stationery goods.
Moomin Nib Bookmark ($15.95) (could not find a link)
As adorable as I think Moomin are, I of course want to know how well the notebooks and stationery perform. So, let’s get started.
A6 Journal and Tote Bag Set
I’m going to go ahead and give away the big reveal, the Moomin A6 Journal and Tote Set is my favorite in this whole collection. At first, I was a little skeptical about the tote bag. Its a canvas-style tote with just one strap and an orange grosgrain ribbon but I put everything from the collection in the bag and it all fit. The tote is a fine option for that “home purse/analog tote” for moving your journal and pens back and forth from your desk to the couch to the coffeeshop.
I wish the ribbon had been sealed or cut at an angle to prevent fraying and I’d also have loved for the tote to be a wide, short bag rather than the tall, vertical design but it works and the A5 notebooks fits so I appreciate the desire to do something different but a Moomin mini Trader Joe’s tote would be epic.
Okay, on to the A6 journal…
The A6 Journal features a soft, matte vinyl cover with graphics screen printed onto the cover.
When the cover is removed the journal has a simple, linen textured PU material cover with two grosgrain ribbon bookmarks and a light 5mm grid inside.
The only branding without the clear cover is a small mark for NYBG x Moomin and Esterbrook on the inside front page. So, if you like the A6 journal, you can use the notebook in an another cover or without the cover altogether. And if you love Moomin, you can reuse the cover on another A6 notebook.
The inside of the A6 Journal.
I couldn’t find any info on the page count so I manually counted them. It appears to be about 216 pages in the A6 Journal. You’re welcome.
So, now for the big reveal:
Esterbrook claimed the paper was fountain pen friendly and guess what? It is! The paper is a warm white and relatively smooth. I’d compare it to the texture on Midori MD, smooth but not slippery. I like the paper.
The reverse side of the writing samples on the Moomin A6 Journal.
I normally find A6 to be too small for me but this A6 Journal feels good in the hand, has nice paper and a good amount of pages.
The website lists the A6 Journal is a “refillable” notebook so I am hoping that Esterbrook will offer the refills soon.
