Tomorrow is February 1st and that signals the return of International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo), otherwise known as a great excuse for us to use our pretty stationery and fountain pens (and ink!) to write to all our nearest and dearest. Not only that, but it is the tenth anniversary of InCoWriMo!
Obviously InCoWriMo takes its inspiration from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and suggests that participants write and send one letter or postcard a day in the month of February. If 28 letters or cards seems daunting, I’m of the opinion that you should participate at whatever level feels good to you! Catch up on your overdue correspondence, write a long letter to a friend you haven’t seen in a while, send a fun “thinking of you” postcard to a loved one just because.
In the last few years many of us have gone quite virtual, but there really isn’t anything like receiving a handwritten letter in the mail. (Yes I’m one of those weird folks who is cheered by going to the mailbox – it could be yarn! Or letters! Or pens or ink or notebooks!)
If you’re wanting to participate, but haven’t anyone to write to, InCoWriMo can help – you can share your address, and write to others who have shared their addresses! (just a note – your address will be publicly searchable, so if you’re keeping a low profile because of that last fountain pen heist, you may want to skip this step.)
So stock up on stamps, ink up those pens, find all your stationery and airmail paper, buy some fun postcards, and let’s do this thing!
The Curnow Bookbinding and Leatherwork Fountain Pen Friendly Notepaper & Box ($15) was an item I picked up on a whim at the Curnow table at the St. Louis Pen Show. The Curnows only do a couple pen shows each year: San Francisco and St. Louis, but their table is always a treasure of paper goods. Their products can be ordered online by emailing (address is on their Facebook Page) or reaching out via Facebook.
The unfinished wood box is assembled with tongue and groove laser cut and is filled with more than 100 3″ x 5″ sheets of lined paper. The paper is probably about 24 or 28 lb bond — we used a micrometer but it was also what my printer husband guessed just by holding it in his hand. It’s not index card weight but not too floppy. The paper is very smooth and features medium-grey 5mm lines.
I love to have 3 x 5’s on my desk for a quick calculation, grocery list or other random note. This box gives me a perfect coral for the stack of paper and it looks great too.
I tend to use 3 x 5s in portrait rather than landscape so the lines are a bit odd for me and they are printed on both sides so I can’t just flip them over and use the other side. Personally, I prefer blank paper for 3 x 5s — years at Hallmark hammered them into me head.
pen tests, front viewClose-up view of fountain pen writing tests
As for the claim that the paper is Fountain Pen Friendly. I can attest that, yes, it is.
writing sample, back view. No show through or bleed through
The only thing that stumps me is the lines on the paper. It’s fine but I think when I use up the sheets in the box, I’ll just have Bob cut some scrap paper to size for me.
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.
With January almost over, it probably seems a little late to consider a planner. However, if you are ike me, you might have waited to make a decision or discovered that you needed something your current planner wasn’t delivering. This is where the Midori B6 Pocket Diary in Clover Design (currently on sale for $21) comes in.
I had been trying to do all my planning freeform in a B6 Stalogy notebook but I realized I had not built in any “future planning” for myself. I don’t mean lofty 5-year goals or anything as grandiose as that. I mean I didn’t have those month-at-a-glance pages in my Stalogy unless I drew them all out myself. Color me lazy but I realized a small pocket diary/planner could be added into my notebook cover that would provide me with a place for those planning pages. Things like birthdays, holidays, trips and other events that are not happening today. My Stalogy is for tracking the daily to-do’s — go to post office, print outs for meeting today, etc. But the sort of bird’s eye view pages weren’t there. The “I have X weeks before this project is due and I’ll be out of town for these days so….” view that a monthly calendar or a week-on-a-page can provide.
So, I went searching for planner/diaries that were still available. Trust me when I say by the middle of January the pickin’s get pretty slim. I lucked out (pun intended) when I found the Midori B6 Pocket Diary.
First, it fits into my leather cover and is the same size as my Stalogy so I can corral both books together and flip back and forth between my daily page in the Stalogy and the weekly or monthly view in the Midori.
Utilizing the notes pages in the back of the planner for pen tests. The last few pages of the diary are Japanese subway maps which are fun to see but wont be too handy here in KC.
Second, the paper quality is excellent. I know the expectation with Midori is that the paper will be fountain pen friendly but because of the size and cute graphics, I thought the paper quality might have been skimped on. Nope. Lovely paper. The paper is slightly ivory colored and the right hand page on the weekly pages is lined with light grey lines that don’t bother me too much.
The paper works well with my finer nib fountain pens which are appropriate for the small spaces available to write notes. I’m not going to use a big fat nib to try to write holidays and birthdays in the boxes on the monthly calendar but the paper withstood the ink just the same, if I needed to.
Reverse side of the writing tests. There’s a tiny bit of show through but it’s minimal.
Third, the die cut tabs for the months is super convenient and makes flipping around to different months fast and efficient.
Finally, I am actually kind of charmed by the graphics. I bought the Clover designs because I like the color green but was worried that the graphics would be too busy of cutesy. After using the planner for a couple weeks, I actually like the designs. Each month has an animal featured. January is a pig, May is a deer. I am not sure what that means but I find the artwork cute and adds a bit more color to the largely green pages.
Should you decide to use the Midori Pocket Diary without a cover, it does ship with a plastic slipcover over the softcovers to provide durability. Overall, I think the Mirodi Pocket Diary is a good value with a lot of great features. If you miss out on ht remaining stock of 2023 editions, be sure to put a 2024 on your wish list.
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.
I have been hoarding the delightful little set of business card-sized Washi Cards from Inky Converters ($2.50 for one card, $10 for a pack of 5) since the St. Louis Pen Show. These cards are foil-printed plastic with a matte finish that are designed to wrap strips of washi tape around for travel or for sharing with friends. Unfortunately, the design printed on the cards are not currently available in her shop but there are a couple other designs that are all equally as cute.
The grid lines printed on the cards help to keep your tape wraps parallel which I didn’t realize I needed until I started applying tape to the cards.
I wrapped tape two to three times around the card to give myself a “week’s worth”. I color coordinated the tape on this card to all look nice together and will probably wrap up some other color coordinated cards as well. The cards are sized to fit into the business card pocket on the inside of a Hobonichi or other planner covers.
I have so much washi that I will definitely wrap a few cards up to send to friends in an effort to help pare down my stash. Also, being able to easily carry around a bit of washi will help me use it up… at least I hope it will.
Sometimes, in my pen adventures I find an item I didn’t know I needed until I had it. These Washi Cards are just that type of product. I didn’t know I needed it and now I don’t think I could live without them.
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.
Inspired by my post from last week, I added lots of celebratory days to my calendar. Today is A Room of One’s Own Day which is inspired with Virginia Woolf’s essay about being excluded from spaces considered “men’s domains”. Many women can relate to wanting to have a space for themselves, be it a room or just a comfy chair to read and just be left alone for a bit. Do you have a space for yourself? Can you carve out a little spot for your personal reflections, reading or working on your favorite hobby or craft?
This week’s inks are notably blue and since last week was Blue Monday, it seems pretty appropriate. And of course, here in the US, January can very much feel like a Black Hole.
We need each other. Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!
I ordered the Navy Version ($24.00) featuring Snoopy and Woodchuck Woodstock (oops!). The Paco-Tray pen case isn’t new (just the Peanuts editions are). It’s a sturdy zippered case featuring 3 handy compartments to store pens, pencils, and other stationery tools. And the best part is that it opens fully to lay flat and feature a stand up tray. The outside is a dark blue polyester canvas, and the insides is a BRIGHT pink fabric (likely also polyester) featuring bits and pieces of the characters with fun quote bubbles.
The case measures 7.5″/19cm long, and (when zipped) 2.25″/5.5cm wide and 2.5″/6.5cm tall. It’s pretty much the perfect size to throw in a purse or a backpack and have all your essentials corralled in a sturdy case. It says it can hold up to 19 pens, although my guess is that depends on how big the pens are, and whether or not you like your pens to touch.
To me, the most special thing about this handy case is the Peanuts theme. It takes me back to reading the Sunday comics in the LA Times growing up. Or maybe it’s that as a teenager in musical theater, I have fond memories of our 1992 production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (yikes, I feel old). Or maybe it’s that I just love a little Peanuts themed music.
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.
Although I haven’t been buying many Moleskine notebooks in recent years, every now and then a design will capture my heart, and I can’t resist. This year it was the Year of the Rabbit design by Minju Kim (I purchased mine at the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s gift shop; available on Amazon for $22.75).
The 3 ½-by-5 ½-inch hardcover notebook has 176 ruled pages. (It’s also available in the 5-by-8 ½-inch size.) The distinctive cover material is not Moleskine’s usual faux leather; it’s a linen-like fabric befitting fashion designer Kim. The red elastic band is an especially nice accent against the dark green and cream design. Even the Moleskine logo on the back cover, a fabric label, is a nice touch. The lovely, understated motif for Lunar New Year 2023 tickles this bunny lover.
According to Moleskine, award-winning Korean fashion designer Kim “is known for her unique imaginative style that combines bold silhouettes, feminine characteristics and an overarching sense of joy.” The Year of the Rabbit notebook is part of Moleskine’s Asian Collection 2023, which also features art by Japan’s Kosuke Tsumura and China’s Angel Chen. “Created to empower creative energy and celebrate the diversity of Asian traditions, each distinctive notebook design enriches the Moleskine mission to support creativity and inspire the ideas of the future.”
In addition to the usual attached ribbon bookmark and back cover pocket, the notebook comes with two sheets of themed stickers. According to the product description, a “lucky envelope” is also included but seems to be missing from mine. (Perhaps it comes with the large-size notebook only.)
Although I didn’t have high expectations, since Moleskine does change its paper occasionally, I scribbled with the usual test materials, just in case it was different. It performed the same as it has in a while: My juicy Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink bled through, as did the Kuretake brush pen – no surprises there. All other pens and pencils did fine.
It’s a delightful little notebook that I will enjoy jotting notes in throughout the Year of the Rabbit. (Shown below is another rabbit that was purchased at the same museum gift shop. At last – rabbits are everywhere! Happy Lunar New Year from Weather Bunny!)
DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.
