Monday Miscellany

Tags

bestfountainpen.com, business insider, fountain pen geeks, inkluminati, montblanc, montblanc boheme bleu, visconti, yard-o-led

Hector Padilla has created a wonderful site called inkluminati, where he showcases his photography and beautiful handwriting. He is a fellow Fountain Pen Geek. He has some amazing stationery that I’m sure will be for sale, once it’s in stock again!

This is a fascinating article from Business Insider on how to become a better writer. I totally agree with writing conversationally and having someone else (an editor like me!) read it to see if it makes sense. And I must admit I was thrilled when the author used the word “orient” correctly, instead of the oft-used “orientate” {shudder}. Worth reading, which coincidentally is one of the ways to become a better writer.

And finally, I fell in love today. I’ve never been much of a fan of Montblanc pens. I’ve never actually used one but I’ve always been put off by the price and the appearance. If I’m going to spend $500+, Visconti or Yard-o-Led appeal to me more than the Montblanc. Well until today that is. Jennifer over at bestfountainpen.com reviewed the Montblanc Boheme Bleu and it’s just the neatest thing ever. It’s gorgeous looking, it’s made for a smaller hand and it has the coolest filling mechanism ever. It does not have an attractive price; I figured I would have to work for 3.5 years for World Mail Panel to make the current purchase price on Amazon.com: $695.00. And that doesn’t take into account the exchange rate. Sigh. And it only takes cartridges; I would miss my beloved bottled ink. But take a look and end your day gazing at something beautiful. 🙂

Monday Miscellany

Tags

fountain pen geeks, fountain pen studios, nanami paper, smitten by britain, victorian, words

Just a short miscellany tonight:

Fountain Pen Geeks uploaded a video about Fountain Pen Studios and here is their website. Beautiful pens, with a lot of amazing presentation options.

Here are some fantastic Victorian words that have, sadly, gone out of fashion. I love Gigglemug and Skilamalink!

I found this fantastic website, Nanami Paper. They have Tomoe River paper pads and neat paper clips. They also have a Resources section where they give you links to all kinds of great pdfs to enhance your writing experience. Great site!

🙂

A Rose from England

Tags

fauxdori, fountain pen geeks, fpgeeks.com, notebook cover

As some of you know I frequent the forum on fpgeeks.com. In the Notebook Covers thread a user named Michael posted pictures of some leather notebook covers he was working on. I saw this purple leather and fell in love.

I contacted Michael and he was willing to make me one, in my preferred size (8.5 x 5.5) and with the capability of holding 3 notebooks. And he chronicled his work in the Notebook Covers thread, which was very cool. I contacted Michael on June 7 and had the finished product in my hands on July 14.

The finished product! Of course it was empty when it arrived but Michael measured it to fit my preferred notebooks exactly (with overhang so the notebooks don’t slip out the side).

I love the “hand made” charm he attached to the spine.

The inside is a beautiful turquoise-y green, which I was also able to choose. I told Michael I wanted to keep a maximum of three notebooks in the cover so he sent me an extra piece of elastic for the extra two booklets. Even though I’ve covered this before I thought I would go over how to insert three notebooks into a cover of this style.

Here you can see two of the notebooks attached with the elastic threaded through the middle of each book. Both books then lay flat, next to each other. Treating the notebooks as one unit, it slides under the attached elastic in the notebook cover.

And in the photo above you can see I’m sliding the third notebook underneath the attached elastic, so that the elastic will sit in the middle of the third notebook. When closed all three will sit perfectly.

I really love this notebook and it was delightful working with Michael to customize it. He is a real gem, a meticulous craftsman and enthusiastic innovator who will try his best to accommodate even the craziest design. He’s also very honest about what he can and cannot do and often just jumps in and tries anyway. He redid the green on the inside cover twice before he was happy with it. If you are interested I wholeheartedly recommend him and encourage you to contact him on the fountain pen geeks forum. Michael if you are reading this, thanks again!!

I need to borrow some money…

Tags

classic fountain pens, fountain pen geeks, omas, shakespeare

I love anything to do with the bard and I recently watched FPGeeks’ video about the OMAS William Shakespeare Limited Edition fountain pen. What a thing of beauty. And only $2,800!!

And you can read all about it here at Classic Fountain Pens. I LOVE how the handmade box turns into a mini writing desk. Sigh.

Maybe I can dip into my RRSP…… 🙂

 

Journal Writing Wednesday: 32 pages

Tags

alan bradley, fountain pen, fountain pen geeks, journaling expo 2014, parker urban, pens, writing

Journal I’m currently using: Navy Blue Cross Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Jan 8): 32

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 109

Total pages written in 2014: 54

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze: 2 on Jan 14    (Sigh. Almost made it 2 weeks. But I am not giving up the experiment. Setbacks were expected. Read more below.)

Topics covered:

• Grumpy ramblings through a very bad cold
• The delights of the Fountain Pen Geeks website
• Thoughts on The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bow by Alan Bradley
• Notes taken during Journaling Expo 2014 (about 28 of the 32 pages)

Ok so it is confession time. Kinda sorta. We were given Amazon gift cards for Christmas. Both my husband and I have been very sick over the past two weeks and last night we decided to have some fun and go shopping on Amazon. I tried EXTREMELY hard not to spend my portion of the gift cards on notebooks or pens or ink. I succeeded in choosing four items that fit the bill but I couldn’t resist this Parker fountain pen set (I recorded it as two purchases above because the set comes with a pen and ink).

The pen is a Parker Urban and the reviews I’ve seen on Amazon and youtube are favorable. The set is an excellent value pack when you take into consideration the individual cost of the parts. So yes this is the first setback, I’m sure there will be more this year, but I want to continue the experiment. I am committed to buying less this year so we’ll see how it all unfolds. What will be the next thing that I cannot resist? Stay tuned!

Until next week, happy writing.

InCoWriMo

Tags

fountain pen geeks, handwriting, incowrimo, letters

So the folks over at Fountain Pen Geeks launched an initiative last year called InCoWriMo (a nod to NaNoWriMo of course) to celebrate International Correspondence Writing Month. They even launched a separate website.

You simply agree to hand-write a letter, note or postcard every day for the entire month of February. They have a list of participants already who would love to hear from you, ranging from the sponsors of the event to the CEO of Lamy! Anderson Pens, the aforementioned sponsors, even have these nifty InCoWriMo writing kits. Love the bowtie notecards.

I have signed up to do it and I can’t wait! Of course I will have to spend money on postage but I have enough paper and ink to get me through.

Check out this video and join us!