Link Love: Finding Comfort

Pen Review: Writech Sprinkles Gel Pen 0.5 mm (5-Color Set)

Underappreciated Ink Brand: Vinta Inks Once upon a time, Vinta Ink was the darling of the pen world. They came onto the market with pretty bottles, history baked into their color choices and a beautiful array of multichromatic, sheening and shimmer inks before many of the popular inks of today…

Link Love: Is it Inktober already? I cannot believe its October already. I love pumpkins, crunchy leaves, and more sweater weather. But I completely forgot today starts Inktober. The list of the official prompts are available but I like to create my own list. In the past, I've created an A-Z list…

October Planner Set-Up: New Book, New Me Apologies for skipping my planner organization and set-up for September but I have been so excited to start planning for October AND I get to start a new book as well. Double trouble! Double joy! Hope this makes up for it! Products shown in this video:…

Pen Review: Writech Needle Tip Gel Pen 0.5 mm (Pack of 4 - Black Ink)

Friday Friends: Claudia at Cloudy Desk I love to see other folks' sketchbooks and notebooks. I love to see a beautiful but REAL sketchbook. I like the variety of ink testing and landscape sketches and Claudia @The_Cloudy_Desk has a beautiful balance of both. Now, I'll let Claudia of Cloudy Desk…

Pen Review: Writech Retractable Highlighters (6 Color Set – Neutral) I am such a sucker when it comes to unusual colors in pens and highlighters. So when I saw the Writech Retractable Highlighter (6-Color Set - Neutral) ($13 per set) I knew I had to give them a whirl. The set was particularly…

Link Love: Read All The Things I finished the Orilium Fall Equinox Magical Readathon Challenge this weekend. Its another in a long list of ways I'm gamifying my life. The challenge started on September 1 and is filled with various RPG-style challenges to inspire participants to read more. I read…

Why the Pentel Sign (Fude Touch) Brush Pen is my Favorite Brush Pen

Why the Pentel Sign (Fude Touch) Brush Pen is my Favorite Brush Pen I have reviewed a few sets of the Pentel Sign Brush Pen ($250 each) over the last couple years including the Fluorescent and the 2020 Special Color Set. What I've never 'fessed up to publicly is that I have slowly been adding…

In The Shop: Gamify Your Life Zine We have just listed our new zine: Gamify Your Life Players Handbook (2nd Edition) ($12 for zine, $20 for kit)-- "Make it Fun to Get Sh*t Done". This zine was created to accompany my workshops of the same name but I've packed it full of enough information that I…

Friday Friends: Paper Art with Yulia Brodskaya (www.artyulia.com)

Challenge: Use Only Starter Pens For One Week

Laura Answers the #12PenPersonQuestions List

Link Love: Fake Fall Faked Me Out

Link Love: Fake Fall Faked Me Out We had a few lovely, cool mornings about a week ago and I got so excited that Autumn was finally here. But no. I live in the Midwest and that was FAKE FALL. The temps have zipped back up to 90ºF for the past week and, even as a human lizard that prefers warm…

Challenge: Use Only Starter Pens For One Week

Link Love: A Little Paper Love I confess that for all my love for beautiful pens and gorgeous ink colors my true love is a notebook, planner, journal or sketchbook. The potential between the covers of any blank book is infinite. I could write letters, reflections, a novel, draw pictures, sketch a…

Ana Answers the #12PenPersonQuestions List Thanks to Olive Octopus for this great tag to share and learn a bit more about the pen community.  If you would like to play along, feel free to leave your answers or a link to your answers in the comments (which work now!). If you consider the different…

Store Updates: Restocks and more!

Pen Shows Are About Friends While this post is a little about The SF Pen Show, its mostly about how even the shyest, most introverted, awkward people* can find true, lifetime friends. The San Francisco Pen Show is probably the show I've attended the most and have developed some of my best, closest…

More Behind-the-Scenes News: The Fight Continues! We think we may have solved our spam problem thanks to an anti-spam plugin from CleanTalk. We have been having people testing our comments section. Please drop a comment below to let us know the new system is not blocking REAL people from…

Link Love: All About The Planners

Happy Hobonichi Day! For some, today is Labor Day, the last official day of summer but, for stationery nerds, its Hobonichi Day or the official start of 2026 planner season. Whether you have been clicking reload on the Hobonichi web site for the last month or have been waiting for the release of…

Friday Friends: Loving the Pen Community (JoyDesign.us) Welcome to the first post in our "Friday Friends" series. Laura and I had an idea a couple weeks ago to start featuring some of our favorite folks from the pen community. Every so often, we'll have a post of someone amazing we've found on…

Ink Review: Murky Purples (Grey Purples) It was actually cool this morning. Like, I needed a sweater and socks! I immediately went out and bought some Pumpkin Spice Coffee because in my heart, Autumn is coming and I'm ready to embrace it with two hands -- one with a steamy mug and the other with…

Link Love: Planner Season is coming! I am off to San Francisco today but I am getting so excited for Autumn and 2026 planner season. Next Monday is the official launch day for Hobonichi and, for us stationery folks, the official start of Autumn. To get prepared, check out some of these posts: All…

Review: Galen Leather Crazy Horse Havana Brown 10-Slot Zippered Case While in DC, I was able to pick up a Galen Leather Zippered 10-Slot Pen Case in Crazy Horse Havana Brown ($68). The Havana Brown color is a limited edition color variant and is only available in the US at present. I've loved my…

Ink Review: Finding my Purrfect Brown Ink I have been using Kaweco Caramel Brown ink almost all year long in my journal and planners. I have refilled the same pen with this deep chocolatey brown repeatedly. The bottle is actually starting to run dry so I wanted to poke around my collection to see…

Link Love: Back to Penmanship It's that time of year again. I watched the kids walking to school this morning on their way to the first day of classes. Some kids looked like they were on a mission, while others walked with the trepidation -- hoping they meet friends, fit in and like their teacher.…

Pen Review: Komamono Afternoon Tea Strawberry Cake Glass Dip Pen Set I've been meaning to pick up one of the Komamono Dip Pens that they've been stocking at Vanness Pen Shop but I always miss my chance at pen shows. In DC, I was able to grab one of the Komamono Afternoon Tea Strawberry Cake Glass…

Video: August Planner Catch-Up (I mean Set-Up) This is a very belated planner set-up video for August. Blame the DC Pen Show for the slacktitude! Materials in this video are listed in the description box on YouTube.

Book Review: The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi totally sounded like a book I should read. Kendra is a writer and podcaster and her previous books focused on her "lazy genius" method which is mentioned in this book as well.…

Link Love: Happy Lefthander Day

Paper Test: Wonderland 222 New Planner Paper for 2026

Fashionable Friday: Pool Party

Ink Review: Sailor 50 States New Mexico

Site update: Rhymes with Ham

Link Love: DC Recovery Zone

USPS x Pantone = What ink color is that?

Ink Review: Oblation Papers Oregon Marionberry (2025 PNW Pen Show Exclusive 2025)

Notebook Review: Midori MD A5 Thick Blank I have always been a fan of Midori MD products so when I saw the new MD A5 Notebook featuring Paper Thick ($23.50), I knew I needed to try it out. The MD Paper Thick is listed as 141gsm which puts it into the same category as a lot of the 120gsm (and up)…

Link Love: Strange New Worlds This month Paramount+ dropped season 3 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds which I have anxiously been awaiting and then followed it up with an announcement about an episode of Season 4 where the characters will appear as Muppets. First, they did a crossover episode with…

Pelikan Style Fountain Pen I'm always game to try a lower-end introductory fountain pen, particularly if I'm familiar with the higher end models the brand produces. All that is to say that when I saw the Pelikan Style Fountain Pen ($34) over at Jet Pens I was in. I'm a child of the 80's and I get…

Ink Review: Sailor 50 States: Wyoming (possibly the perfect green)

Hey, DC! Reminder: Sign up for Pen Show Workshops Hey, gang! I'm not very good about self-promotion but I wanted to make sure that anyone who might want to attend one of the upcoming DC Pen Show workshops, knows about them. You can sign up now so I know how many kits to bring (or if you're signing…

Ink Review: Diamine Medusa's Gaze (Dromgoole's Exclusive)

Link Love:

Pen Review: More Uni-Ball One Colors (0.38 & 0.5mm)