Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for the Laban 300 Skeleton Fountain Pen in Rose Gold. So many good ideas for inks! And so many of you who focused on the morbid skeleton/blood connection….
Alas, there can be only one winner, and that winner is Karen:
Karen – I can’t wait to see it!
I took a long time to settle on a planner set-up for 2022. I spent the better part of December waffling about whether I wanted to purchase a pre-printed planner, use a ring planner, design my own planner or try the bullet journal method again. I assume I’m not alone in this sort of planner indecision if the number of planner systems and page layouts available are any indication.
What finally coalesced for me was figuring out that as much as I love the size and cover of my Filofax, the rings pose challenges for effectively using both the left and right pages without having to hover my hand or arm over the chasms created by the rings in the center. Once I figured out that the simple, sturdy leather cover was the key to my planning systems, I knew that some version of a Traveler’s Notebook would be required.
Then I established the “right” sized notebook/paper for me — I settled on the B6 size which is essentially 5″ x 7″. This size is actually in between an A5 size and an A6 size. The A6 size is basically 4″ x 6″ size which I find a little too small but A5 (almost the same size as half-letter) can become too large to carry around on a daily basis, especially if it is in a leather cover.
|
A5 |
148 x 210 mm |
5.8 x 8.3 in |
|
B6 |
125 x 176 mm |
4.9 x 6.9 in |
|
A6 |
105 x 148 mm |
4.1 x 5.8 in |
So, I invested in a custom leather cover from Bassy & Co (via Etsy, approx. $85). The cover includes four elastics for notebooks as well as pockets in the front and back to store cards, ephemera and loose paper. I ordered mine with the jade green cover, aqua stitching and requested that the pen loop be left off.
Inside my new planner cover, I custom designed a monthly calendar insert using my design skills and some starter elements from the 2022 Deluxe Moon Kit from Ra Element (via Etsy, $30). The original files were sized for a personal planner and did not include a month-on-two-pages calendar so I built that myself and then added in some moon phase info, astrological associations and other holidays.
Next in my planner set-up is a Paperblanks Midi size notebook with blank pages. I realize blank notebooks aren’t ideal for a BULLET journal but it was what I had on hand that fit the notebook and had decent, fountain pen-friendly paper.
I have been using guide sheets behind the pages to keep my text relatively straight but my goal is to upgrade to a dot grid notebook for the bullet-portion of my planner in the next month or so. In the mean time, I am working out kinks in my bullet-y system.
Each day, I write the date at the top of a page and jot to-do’s and appointments. Then on the rest of the page (plus any additional pages) I use the space to log anything I want to note. I might write down the podcasts I listened to, the books I read, music I listened to, shows or movies I watched, food I ate, new project ideas, project notes, funny things someone said, etc.
So, really, I’ve combined fancy Bullet Journaling with Austin Kleon’s log book and I am pretty content with what I have so far. I am using my monthly calendar for any “forward planning” like a doctor’s appointment, haircut, vacation (HA!) or other event and then add those to my daily page.
The nice thing about the Bullet Journal method is that if you need to start a project planning page, just flip to the next page and start it. Monday, I had to add a page to start a list of all the places I needed to update my credit card info after my card number was stolen this week. Just knowing that I have a list and can mark when I’ve updated the CC info has reduced my anxiety about the whole event.
I did a lot of reading and research about how people Bullet Journal and, while most of the examples online are the super pretty pages with no cross outs, leaky pen marks or shoddy scrawl, there are a lot of good ideas for what kinds of info it was possible to get granular about. Also, knowing that this is a record for me and no one else, I feel better trying Bullet Journaling again for 2022.
I am sure that, over the year, my planning system will evolve and change but I think I am headed in the right direction.
What system have you found works best for your planning and/or journaling?
I have an obsession with finding new inks. An obsession that is a bit ridiculous – except I blame it on writing for Well-Appointed Desk!
Cult Pens is an amazing store located in Great Britain with a huge selection of inks, pens, paper, storage containers – everything to delight a fountain pen user. Cult Pens recently celebrated a big anniversary – 16 years. To celebrate this event, they released a new line of inks that are made by Diamine and expanded another line of highly sheening inks (the inks are each named after Cult Pens staff members). While ordering, I found that they had also received new Sailor inks exclusive to their store.
The three inks are Nori, Suiseki, and Momiji. The boxes are labeled on the side with Green, Brown, and Yellow. Helpful.
The ink is available at Cult Pens for $27.95 for a 50mL bottle – just a bit more than $0.50 per mL. Quite reasonable pricing for Sailor inks lately! Free shipping to the US is available with a $135 spend and shipping is available to anywhere.
The three inks all behave like the Sailor Manyo inks although I did find the brown (Suiseki) to be a bit on the dry side. I wouldn’t classify it as a dry ink, but it was different than the other two inks.
The first ink is Nori – seaweed. This color is closest to Sailor Epinard (Spinich) but a bit softer. Maybe the word should be dustier? Even in writing, the color is soft – a bit less saturated – giving it a vintage feel.
Suiseki is the word for small landscape rocks – meaning rocks that look like a natural landscape in and of themselves. (I’m not a translator and cannot speak or read Japanese but I can use Google and this color is supposed to be rock color). Kobe #40 is very close but doesn’t shade as nicely. It is a soft greyish-brown with a hint of peach.
Sailor Momiji (a Japanese maple tree) is a honey gold color with beautiful shading. It is closest to Robert Oster African Gold but a bit darker – less of a green undertone than KWZ Honey. With the steel nib I used for the swatch, the writing varied from medium gold to dark brown.
I was surprised by these colors – they don’t seem to fit in with current ink trends which seem to be towards multi-chromatic or color-shifting inks. These are, however, color groups that do not have many options already available. When the group of three is seen together, there is a calm tone – nature in ink.
The first swatches below are on Tomoe River paper:
And then again on Cosmo Air Light paper:
Finally, Tomoe River paper on the left and Cosmo Air Light paper on the right. Suiseki shows the most change between the two papers. Nori looks so much softer on the CAL paper!
I’m very happy I found this trio and I’ll be presenting more Cult Pens exclusive inks in the near future. Do you have a favorite store-exclusive ink?
This meme got sent around my friends last week. At the time, I wasn’t convinced that 2022 had really started out all that badly. Then I had three different people tell me they were exposed to COVID, two that are suffering from it and I live in a community where the politicians have chosen to just avoid the issue altogether. Monday, I had a stress-filled day at work and then got home to discover someone had stolen my credit card number. If you’re going to steal my credit card and use it at a sporting goods store, trust me, my bank is going to flag that as a suspicious purchase. I will be spending the next week updating every web site or auto-payment linked to that card. So, on second though, I’d like to unsubscribe from 2022. Maybe, if 2022 sends me a coupon, I might consider resubscribing at a later date.
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Back in February 2020 (I know, it seems like 10 years ago doesn’t it?) Goldspot Pens gave us the opportunity to borrow and review a Laban 300 Skeleton Fountain Pen in Rose Gold. You can find our review here. Today, we’re able to give that pen away to one lucky blog reader!
So let’s get on with the giveaway shall we? The giveaway includes the gorgeous pen pictured here, with a F nib. This pen has been inked once and reviewed for the blog, but will be sent to you all clean and in like new condition!
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling me what ink you would put in your new pen! (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 Sunday, January 16, 2022. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. ONE 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: This pen was generously given to us by Goldspot (a lovely sponsor) for the purposes of review and this giveaway!
Review by Tina Koyama
For more than a year now, I’ve been keeping what I call my “scribble journal” (you can learn about how it originated on my personal blog). Somewhere between a sketchbook and a daily log book, it’s a mix of doodly sketches from imagination and short notes. Although keeping a sporadic, longer-form written journal has been a lifelong habit, and I also keep separate sketchbooks, I have not been able to keep up this type of daily scribble journaling – until now. I’ve made other attempts in the past at combining writing with sketching, but somehow those habits never “stuck” for more than a few weeks. I seem to have finally hit on the right format that is both satisfying and is easy to maintain.
The format is simple: Like the log book I used to keep, the writing is a sentence or two describing an event about my day. For some of these log entries, I also make a small sketch – nothing more than a stick figure or a doodle that encourages me to draw from my mind (not an easy task for someone who has focused on drawing almost exclusively from observation for the past decade). They’re really just visual notations to go with the written notes. The sketches make the pages more fun to look back on than when the log was filled with writing only. I also find that the doodles trigger memories more easily: I see the sketch, and I recall more about what happened that day or related to the event, even if I haven’t written much.
I typically fill one page in an A5-size Leuchtturm 1917 hardcover notebook ($21.95) per day. I usually spend no more than about 15 minutes a day, usually in the evening, which makes it a sustainable, low-maintenance habit. Instead of thinking of it as a task I “must” do (as I sometimes used to feel about formats that didn’t stick), I look forward to it.
Since I put no effort into designing attractive page layouts, using readymade date labels makes the pages look better. Last year I used the colorful Mark’s Maste Perforated Writable Washi Tape date set ($12.25/set), which was exactly what I needed to give the pages some consistency.
This year I decided I wanted to work on my lettering, so instead of pre-dated stickers, I got a pack of Mark’s Maste Writable Brush Paint Title washi tapes ($8.25) and a roll of Mark’s Maste Writable Watercolor Title washi tape ($8). Both give my pages a quick splash of color where I can write the day, date and maybe a heading.
For those dates and headings, I’m using Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens with hard tips ($22.50/set of 10). Basic black Fudenosuke brush pens have long been a favorite for sketching, so these colorful versions containing water-resistant ink are a fast go-to. Easy to control like an ordinary pen, the brush tip is firm enough not to mush down under my heavy hand. They write beautifully without feathering or bleeding on washi tapes and on Leuchtturm paper (and the ink dries quickly for this lefty). I usually color sketches with colored pencils, but this year I might add color with the Fudenosuke pens, too.
Finally, for writing and sketching, I’m using Uni Pin black pigment ink pens with a brush tip and a 0.5mm tip ($2.45 each). I sometimes use the brush tip to write the date on washi tape, too. Like the Tombow Fudenosuke ink, Uni’s pigment ink shows no feathering or bleeding and also dries quickly.
Let’s face it: I have and love having lots and lots of stationery and art supplies, but sometimes too many options can be stymying. This simple tool set keeps my scribble journaling process simple (and therefore easily doable). The year is fresh: I hope yours is off to a good journaling start with whatever format you use.
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.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
I’ve had a roll of the Yamato Tape Roll Sticky Notes (15 mm x 10 m in Lime, $4.85 per roll, refill packs available) in my knitting tool bag for a couple years now. This tape is perfect for marking the row in a knitting chart. I can peel it up again and again and move it up the pattern as I knit each row. Depending on how long the chart is or how many times I need to repeat the chart, the tape may lose its stickiness. I just pitch the dead bit and tear off a fresh piece.
It’s helpful on long charts so my eye doesn’t accidentally jump to the row above or below. I can also write notes on the tape, add lines to help mark the chart or otherwise streamline my process. I think this tape would well for other sorts of project tracking: recipes, assembly instructions like those epic Lego kits, cross stitch patterns, etc.
Since the Yamato Roll Stick Tape is just small bits of Post-It note, its great fro covering up mistakes in a bullet journal or other notebook too. It’s more opaque than washi tape.
Because there is a bit of adhesive transfer on the front side of the tape, I recommend using pencil or ballpoint on the tape (YMMV) as the surface isn’t super conducive to fountain pens or other water-based inks.
There is also a magnetic dispenser available but I’m not sure why my refrigerator would need post-it tape. An office fridge where you might need to label your food though… might be a great place for a magnetic roll and a fine line Sharpie!
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.
