Details of the Thank You for 500 Subscribers Giveaway

Tags

inspired blue, jinhao 159, pentel slicci multipen, staedtler, studio oh!, waterman, winnable executive journal, zebra

As promised in my Thank You post, here are the details of the Thank You for 500 Subscribers Giveaway.

Prize No. 1 is a bottle of Inspired Blue Waterman Ink, a Jinhao 159, and a Winnable Executive Journal in black. All are brand new. Click on the links to see my reviews of each.

I love my Jinhao 159 and use it all the time, usually inked with Waterman Inspired Blue, in my Winnable Executive Journal in brown. I think it’s a great combination and I’m hoping you will agree.

Prize No. 2 is a set of three Studio Oh! notebooks, in the Chalkboard theme by Valerie McKeehan, a Zebra V301 Fountain Pen with refills, and a set of ten 0.3 mm Staedtler Triplus Fineliners. All are brand new.

I haven’t reviewed the notebooks so I will tell you that each of them has a quote on the cover: Where There is Great Love, There are Always Miracles – Willa Cather; It is Never Too Late to be What You Might Have Been – George Eliot; and Life is But a Dream. Here is a link to them on the Chapters website; they have 80 pages each and are lined.

I guess I haven’t reviewed the Staedtler Triplus Fineliners either, although I thought I had. Can’t find the review now so here is a link to the 0.3 mm version on Amazon.ca. Please note mine do NOT come with the thick plastic case; they are in a clear plastic bag.

I love these Studio Oh! notebooks; the paper takes fountain pen ink very well. I still really enjoy my Zebra V301 fountain pen, and you can find refills on Amazon at very reasonable prices. And of course Staedtler markers have their own solid reputation. I have a few sets and wanted to share.

Prize No. 3 is another set of Studio Oh! notebooks, this time in the Botanical Blooms theme, which I briefly mention in the linked blog post. I’m also including a smaller (5 x 3.5), lined notebook from Dollarama, featuring mugs, teapots, cupcakes and teacups on the cover. I love using these in my purse. And finally I’ve included a Pentel Slicci 3 barrel multi-pen in blush pink, with four 0.3 mm refills: Baby Pink, Blue Black, and two in Golden Orange. Each item is brand new.

Prize Nos. 4 and 5 are Pentel Slicci 3 barrel multi-pens with four refills each; enough to fill the pen and one to spare.

Prize No. 4 is a pink barrel with four 0.4 mm refills: Green, Purple, Orange and Milky Blue.

Prize No. 5 is a purple barrel with four 0.4 mm refills: Green, Milky Blue, Purple and Lime Green.

The rules to enter are as follows:

1. You must be 18 years of age or have parental permission to enter.
2. Be a subscriber to this blog.
3. Leave a comment on this post telling me which prize you would like, and your second choice if the one you want is already gone after I have chosen your name.

The giveaway is open internationally. It runs from today, Saturday, August 1, 2015, to Saturday, August 22, 2015. I will use random.org to choose the winners. I will announce all 5 winners on Sunday, August 23, 2015, on this blog. The winners will have until Sunday, August 30, 2015 to contact me with their mailing details, using the Contact Me button at the top of the page, next to the About button. If I don’t hear from a winner by midnight on Sunday, August 30, 2015 I will pick another winner and announce it on Monday, August 31, 2015.

I think that’s it. This is my first-ever giveaway so let me know if I’ve forgotten something important! Best of luck to everyone! And thanks again for supporting me, it means a lot!!

Purple Ink, Black Pen

Tags

amazon, aubergine, de atramentis, ebay, goulet pens, jetpens, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen, tokyo pen shop

So as promised, here is my post on my new Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multipen. And my new bottle of ink arrived this week so I will talk about that too.

I have been a Coleto pen lover for some time. The earliest post tagged with “Pilot Coleto Multipen” is from Sept 2013. And the love continues because I’m still using these pens, almost every day.

The Pilot Coleto Multipens are available in a number of styles. I prefer the “standard body” which can hold 3, 4 or 5 ink refills. For a really great explanation of the different body types available watch The Tokyo Pen Shop’s excellent video here. The bodies and refills are available at Tokyo Pen Shop, Amazon, JetPens and ebay. There may be others but ebay is still the cheapest option for me. I buy from a seller in Japan and I look forward to her beautiful packaging almost as much as I do the pens and refills.

The 5-barrel Coletos are available in 5 colours: Silver, Pink, Black, Blue and White. I have 3 so far: Silver, Black and Blue. I do plan on adding the Pink and White when the budget allows. With shipping and exchange the cost of each 5-barrel with 5 refills is around $20.

There are 17 refills available, in a range of colours and tip sizes. Two of the refills include a mechanical pencil and a stylus. The tip sizes come in 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. I find the 0.3 very scratchy, but the 0.4 and 0.5 are just right. My 5-barrel Coletos all have the 0.5 tip size refills. Each refill shows the tip size on the side of the coloured fin at the top of the pen.

The writing experience with these pens is wonderful. They are very smooth writers and the ink is very bright.

I selected the ink colours for this new black Coleto to match the colours I use in my World Mail Panel notebook. Previously I had been using 2 Slicci pens, because they are only available in a 3-barrel version, and I use 5 colours in that particular notebook. You can see in the photo below how bright the Coleto inks are compared to the Slicci inks (the top two entries were written with Slicci pens; the next two with the black Coleto).

I have watched a number of YouTube videos and read many reviews where people complain about the life of the refills, that they run out very quickly. I have not found that to be the case with mine. I do not use them at work, nor do I use them to journal. But I do use them for my planner and my World Mail Panel notebook as I mentioned. I have not had to replace a refill yet. I highly recommend these pens if you are looking for a multipen with lots of options.

And now on to my new bottle of ink. I loved the Mystery Ink game on FP Geeks so much I had to buy a bottle once the name was revealed. So I hopped on to the Goulet site and ordered a bottle of De Atramentis Aubergine. If you want a more detailed ink review see the Mystery Ink link above.

It arrived as always floating in a sea of bubble wrap, and I enjoyed the wee tootsie pop as my afternoon snack. Then I added the new member of the family to my ink journal, complete with purple swab.

So there you have it folks, a couple of my recent purchases. They won’t be the last! 🙂

Spencerian Penmanship and Pilot Frixion

Tags

amazon, mott media, pentel slicci multipen, pilot frixion, spencerian penmanship

I’ve often admired other people’s handwriting. I’ve tried to make my own legible, and some have commented that they like it. But I’ve always thought it could be better. And I envy those who are able to add flourishes and loops that make their handwriting look SO COOL. To that end I recently ordered Mott Media’s Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship from Amazon. And they arrived on Friday.

The original edition of this system was published in 1874. In 1985 Mott Media reissued the original from their fragile state. The book is intended for children learning how to write, of course, but also for adults who want to improve their handwriting. I’m sure this is the system I learned in elementary school although I don’t think we used this book in particular.

The original text has been unchanged except where needed (changing the spelling of hight to height) and is quite serious about posture and sitting in a desk properly, as well as using your inkstand correctly. I’m really excited to start practicing my letters.

These 5 numbered books are the copy books, where the letters and numbers are practiced. Each book focuses on a different area: book 1 introduces the short letters, book 2 adds some of the tall letters (like t and d) and the numbers 1 to 9, book 3 completes the lower case alphabet and introduces most of the capitals, book 4 completes the capitals, and book 5 presents sentences and sayings for writing practice.

Truth be told I fell in love with the covers of these copy books. Look at that detail! Just breathtaking.

Here’s a shot of the inside of one of the practice books.  That’s a lot of practicing. But you would be an expert by the end of the book. Can’t wait to get started!

In addition to these books I ordered a set of 8 Pilot Frixion Ball Erasable Gel Roller pens, along with a set of 3 Erasable Highlighters.

I’m coming late to the party with these pens, as there have been a lot of reviews and talk about these pens/highlighters. They do the job as advertised and they are fun to use.

Here are the pens, in their various colours. Very smooth, nice writers. Bright colours.

And  here is the same writing with a few letters erased. In some instances you can still see the ghost of the letters but I think that was more a problem of me not applying the eraser long enough, rather than a failure of the ink to erase.

I really like these pens, especially for use in my planner, where space is limited and I like to be neat and tidy. My only complaint is that the eraser tip is covered by the pen cap when I post the cap, which I like to do when I write. I have to undo the posting in order to erase. A small complaint but I did find it annoying.

I also ordered three erasable highlighters, in pink, yellow and orange.

I was less impressed with these. In the writing sample above I made the mistake of using erasable pen underneath the erasable highlighter, so everything went when I applied the eraser tip! And you can still see the ghost of the word and highlighting that was erased. In the 4th example I used one of my Slicci multipens and probably applied the highlighter too early; the words smudged. And the smudging is revealed in all its glory when the highlighter is erased. But this system is good if you are a die hard devotee of colour coding and a mistake is discovered. I wanted to try them but I doubt I will erase any highlight I apply. I suppose it is nice to have the option, again to keep things nice and tidy in my planner. I could always apply highlight to those items on my To Do List that are not yet done, and remove the highlight when they are completed.

So there you have it – my latest order from Amazon. The shipping date was originally listed as mid-March; so nice to get things early. If you have any experience with any of these items please let me know in the comments.

A Flowery Pencil Case and a Purple Metropolitan

Tags

lamy safari, pentel slicci multipen, pilot metropolitan, pilot metropolitan leopard, reid's stationers, ted baker london

A few weeks back some friends and I went to Reid’s Stationers to get started on our Christmas shopping. It was a lovely day and I wanted to share a couple of the items I bought for myself.

I spotted this pencil case as soon as I walked in the door.

Ted Baker London has some high end stationery items and this pencil case was not cheap but it was so beautiful I had to have it. The zipper and pull are rose-gold-coloured.

The case opens to reveal a bright pink interior and 6 pencils. The pencils are coloured on one end and black on the other. They have cute sayings like To Whom It May Concern and Straight to the Point. Once the pencils are used up you could use this case to house thin pens, which I intend to do. The loops on the opposite side were empty so I’ve added a purple Pilot Metropolitan, a Slicci multipen and my black Lamy Safari. They fit very well and the case closes with room to spare. Very stylish and lady-like for my purse, I thought.

I noticed the purple Pilot Metropolitan Leopard towards the end of the shopping and debated over lunch whether I should go back and get it. Obviously, I did, and I don’t regret it. It’s a beautiful colour and I think it’s a limited edition; at least the salesperson indicated it was and it would be gone in a few days so I should snatch one up while I could. I always believe what a salesperson tells me so the purple one came home to live with her silver brother.

And like her silver brother, the purple Metropolitan doesn’t disappoint. Such a beautiful writer. Reid’s didn’t have the purple cartridges so I bought a box of Mixable Colour which has 12 different colours, which is a great idea. Once the cartridge is empty I will just fill it with a purple bottled ink; have to match the barrel of course. The box says exclusive for Parallel Pen but the cartridges fit the Metropolitan.

Here’s a bit of a close-up of the barrel, showing the leopard print that gives the pen its name. Love the purple colour.

Until next time, happy writing!

My Coleto and Slicci MultiPen Collection

Tags

ebay, jetpens, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen, stationeryart.com

I’ve been contemplating buying a few more Pilot Coletos, and I realized I’ve never actually shown my entire Pilot Coleto/Pentel Slicci multipen collection. I’m a bit embarrassed because I have over a dozen Slicci and four Coleto multipens. And a veritable ton of refills.

I bought a lot of these supplies at stationeryart.com which I mentioned previously in this post. The web page went offline for a bit and the Facebook page closed down so I thought they were finished. However tonight I visited the web page and it is back. Yay! I thought for a brief, shining moment they had taken down the website to replenish stock but no. Sigh. I have found a brilliant ebay seller in Japan who sells the Coletos and the refills, and she offers free shipping. I’ve bought my last 3 from her. The Sliccis are harder to find. JetPens offers them but I don’t want to pay shipping. I continue the search on ebay for Slicci refills but actually when I was laying them all out this evening for the picture, I think I have quite enough!

I always hear people on Youtube complain about how the refills do not last very long. That has not been my observation, although I must admit I do not use them for sustained writing, like in my journal or writing letters. I use them mostly in my planner. But I have not found they dry out super quick. Which doesn’t explain why I have so many refills LOL.

Sliccis do not seem to be as popular as the Coleto multipens. The maximum barrel number is three for the Sliccis, which for the Coleto you can get up to five. Each has a slightly different filling system, and I suppose it is easier to tell the colours in a Coleto because of the plastic, coloured fin with which you engage the ink. For the Sliccis all of the fins are clear and they are built in to the pen; you insert the ink refills into the fin mechanism. But there is a window through which you can see the colour so really it’s a matter of which aesthetic you prefer. I like them both. And each pen costs between $2 and $7 and the refills range from $1 to $5 each.

So should I continue with the Coletos? For the five barrel there are five colours to choose from: white, silver, black, blue and pink. I have blue and silver. I like the five barrels because they seem like the most practical choice; more ink at your fingertips. I also have one four barrel and one three barrel. I think the same colours are available in each. I certainly won’t be buying 15 pens but I may want to have all five colours in one of the barrel sizes. From a collector’s point of view it makes sense but from a practical point of view…..

Anyone use Coletos and/or Sliccis? Which do you prefer? Should I go for the set? 🙂

Some notebooks

Tags

chronicle books, clairefontaine, cross, jane austen novel journal, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen, quo vadis, reid's stationers, twenty four seven

On June 22 I posted about the pens I bought at Reid’s Stationers on June 14. Now I want to share the notebooks I picked up on that trip.

I’ll start with the Cross Journal. It is exactly the same journal as my previous Navy Cross Journal, except for having a leather cover. Sorry for the glare in the photo but I haven’t taken the protective plastic coating off yet. I tend to keep the plastic on until I start to write in it, because sometimes I change my mind and give it away. I bought the Navy Cross Journal over Christmas last year, and they had a big display of them in the store. This time it was very difficult to find them, as they only had a few left, and they were in a glass display case. My friend and I both bought one. The cover is not as dinged up as it looks; those marks are on the plastic only.

Next up is a Jane Austen Novel Journal by Chronicle Books, which I’ve never seen before.

I instantly fell in love with the cover, with it’s beautiful fountain pen and ink well. It’s 7.5 x 5.25″ and is cloth bound.

Love the end papers: butterflies, Jane’s profile and initials, quotes, cups of tea and what do you think? Umbrellas? Flowers?

Front page.

An example of a two-page spread. Sorry that it’s blurry but the quote is “I did not then know what it was to love,” Willoughby, Sense and Sensibility.

I’m going to enjoy writing in different directions on these pages!

The back cover. Gasp, you can see the price! Oh well. Worth every penny, especially when it’s going on a gift card LOL

Next up, a small planner holder that was on clearance, meaning it was completely irresistible.

It’s a Quo Vadis Business Agenda Planning Diary for 2014. I bought it because it’s refillable. I doubt that I will buy the same refill for it next year; I’m thinking just plain notebooks would better serve me in this. I like the size and that it has a pen loop.

The paper is beautiful, which Quo Vadis is known for. It is a weekly planner without any monthly or daily pages. It also came with a separate little book for addresses. Currently I need to track my blood pressure so it’s perfect for that. My Slicci and Coleto pens love this paper.

I also bought two Clairefontaine notebooks that would fit it.

They are a little small but will fit. And of course Clairefontaine have fountain pen-friendly paper as well.

And last but certainly not least a strange little cloth covered notebook holder that was sitting in the passport holder section.

I have tried googling “twenty four seven” and “24 seven” to no avail. So if any of you have any info I would appreciate it.

I find it difficult to resist cloth covered notebook holders; see Botanical Slipcover Journal, Blooming Journal, and Toffeenut Planner. This little guy was also on clearance so was, of course, completely irresistible to me.

I suppose there is room on the left for my passport (which would explain why it was sitting with other passport holders) but passport holder doesn’t immediately spring to mind when I look at this. The notebook is a thick one, lots of space to jot down notes. The back flap fits snugly under into the cloth pocket. The notebook is ruled and the paper is fine but nothing special.

It has a pen loop which is great but I must admit those elastic bits on each corner flummox me. I’m guessing they are there to keep the cover closed but when removed they seem to get tangled up with the pen and generally get in the way. I have to flip them round in order to open the notebook. Strange design.

And on the back of the notebook there is a zippered pocket, which could hold paper money, change, bus tickets, etc. Such a cute little package, it had to come home with me.

So there is the latest crop of Reid’s products. I had so much fun that day; Reid’s is one-of-a-kind and always fun to visit. Support your locally-run businesses!

Journal Writing Wednesday: 11 pages

Tags

canada revenue agency, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen

Journal I’m currently using: Navy Blue Cross Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Apr 2): 11

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 233

Total pages written in 2014: 178

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze (Jan 1/14): 3

• 1 pen + 1 bottle of ink = 2 items in a gift set on Jan 14
  
• 1 bottle of KoninginneNach-Blauw from Akkerman on Feb 5

Topics covered since last update:

• Took the day off from work to accompany my friend to her eviction hearing. After just two minutes the judge found in her favor and suddenly the day became a fun day out with the girls 🙂
• Happy to see my husband getting interviews, finally
• Caught up with a co-worker who is expecting a baby any day now
• Rediscovering some old friends: using my Coleto and Slicci pens. Interesting observation after using them for a few months: the Coletos seem to be more sturdy than the Sliccis. Two of my Sliccis have cracks in the barrel; the Coletos do not. Yet.
• We submitted our income tax return electronically last night and it was announced this morning that the Canada Revenue Agency closed it’s public-facing website due to an “internet security vulnerability” known as the Heartbleed Bug. I phoned them today and of course they can tell me nothing. Fingers crossed our information was not compromised but only time will tell.

Until next week, happy writing!

A few things in the mail

Tags

leuchtturm, pens, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen, stickers

I’ve been shopping on online of late and three (!) packages arrived in the mail last week. Excited!

The first was an order from Hong Kong from stationeryart.com. I heard so much about the Pilot Coleto multipens that I had to check them out for myself, and stationeryart had the best prices, including shipping. Their refill selection was a little sparse (those darn low prices!) but I still managed to get a good selection. And to my utter delight I found that Pentel Slicci also has multipens!! So I purchased two Coletos and two Sliccis, with 12 refills.

The two Coletos are grey and blue, and the two Sliccis are clear and blue. I kept parts of the packaging so I could keep track of which refills I have.

The Slicci refills are 0.4 mm and the Coleto refills are 0.3 mm. I prefer the 0.4 to the 0.3 but the 0.3 mm refills were the only ones in stock for the Coletos at the time I placed my order. Stationeryart.com also carries 0.4 and 0.5 mm for the Coletos.

Purple is very popular; I purchased the last one for the Slicci.

I enjoy brown ink and that is one advantage the Coleto has over the Slicci; brown is not available for the Slicci. And a second advantage: Coleto offers pencil refills, Slicci does not. However, for me the Slicci seems sturdier than the Coleto; not as rickety.

So here we are with three of the pens filled with refills. I had no problems getting the refills in. There are videos on Youtube to help if you have problems loading the Coleto; none for the Slicci but it’s not difficult. The Coleto loads from the top and the Slicci from the bottom. Both give a reassuring click when in place so you really can’t go too far wrong. I’m keeping the blue Coleto in the packaging for now; when stationeryart.com has more colours in stock I will place another order. They have extremely reasonable shipping rates as well. Very pleased with this order.

Next package: from New Zealand! This ebay fellow sells Leuchtturm notebooks among other things.

I got a Jottbook (in purple!) at a ridiculous price, including shipping! Couldn’t pass it up.

And the final package: from Singapore! I ordered some Korean stickers for my planner from another ebay seller.

The stickers are super small and transparent. Very different from anything I’ve seen in the stores around here. Each package has 6 different sheets and the ebay ad did not show all of the sheets. Half of the text is in Korean! But that doesn’t bother me because I think the stickers are really fun and I want some more color on my black and white monthly page.

Cube Sugar stickers. You can tell English is not the first language for these companies. But they are incredibly endearing.

Hello Coco stickers. Isn’t she cute? And the little man with the big moustache that says “good”. Too funny.

Korea Cat SSBA stickers. My favorite. Will probably be buying more of these. Again, these were inexpensive, and the shipping was included.

Always so nice to get packages in the mail!