Moving Into My Hobonichi Techo – Finally

Tags

hobonichi techo, moleskine pocket planner, pilot coleto multipen, tomoe river, wonder pens

Cast your mind back to Oct. 4 of this year when I wrote this post about my 2016 planner, the Hobonichi Techo. This week I could finally move into it! I wanted to show you the cover I bought for it, and also talk about my initial impressions.

I ordered the cover from Wonder Pens, which is where I purchased the planner too. I love blue and green so this cover was perfect. I don’t know for sure what the material is but it feels like nylon. Very soft to the touch and durable feeling. I’m using the double pen loop to put one pen through, so it acts as a closure for the book as well. Currently I am using my 5 barrel Pilot Coleto in blue, with 0.5 mm refills. I always have a fountain pen with me and it takes fountain pen ink beautifully as well.

The inside cover has lots of slots for cards, post-its or page flags. I will probably put a couple of paperclips in here too.

And here is the back cover, with two secretarial pockets. The Techo fits perfectly and it is still slim when closed.

Here is the back cover, with another long pocket. The cover comes with two bookmarks attached, one ending in a square piece of vinyl (not sure on the material but it feels like vinyl) and the other in a triangular piece of vinyl. You can use them however you like but I guess they are to mark your place in the monthly calendar and the daily calendar.

I’m really enjoying the monthly calendar on two pages. I felt I didn’t have enough room in the Moleskine Pocket Planner but there is more than enough in the Techo. And I love the grid; I actually find myself color coding certain things (appointments and birthdays) because it’s just so convenient to colour in the square.

David and I have ongoing chiropractic and massage appointments and I’ve assigned colours to them to save space. This way I can easily see that on the 12th we have appointments from 10 to 12.

And of course, the paper. The Tomoe River paper was the big selling feature of this planner for me, and it does not disappoint. There is a whole year in this thing, of monthly pages and daily pages, and it really does not feel thick at all. It’s very portable and comfortable to use. I find myself writing down all kinds of different action items because I have the space. It’s true what they say: if you have the space your ideas will grow to fill it. For the remainder of December I have half a page per day and the pages are filling up fast (I know there are more Christmas to-dos than in other months, but still) and I cannot wait until January when I will have a whole page per day. I don’t think I will have trouble filling up the pages but we shall see.

This picture shows the months in a shortened form, perfect for important dates throughout the year. It’s like a year at a glance but spans eight pages. There is some show through but nothing major.

I’ve only been using this planner for 5 days but I find myself going back to it often throughout the day, to write down things that pop into my head, especially with the preparations for Christmas. I took it to the grocery store with me today and had it open to today’s to-do list. Very convenient and a joy to use. And that’s why so many people are using these planners. I hope to use this for all of 2016 and I will keep you posted on how it all works out. 🙂

Journal Writing Wednesday: 19 pages

Tags

ebay, massage therapist, myofascial cupping, pilot coleto multipen

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Leather Journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal (I am so close to finishing my Winnable Leather Journal; maybe next week)

Total pages written since last JWW post (May 27): 19

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1010 (huh – feels good to break the 1,000 page barrier)

Total pages written in 2015: 270

Monthly Pen for June: Monteverde Artista Crystal Demonstrator. I’m LOVING my Artista pen. The Visconti ink ran dry so I filled it with De Atramentis Heather Violet. Such a great writer. My next monthly pen will be chosen on June 24.

Purchases:

I wrote a post about my Elite 1745 in this post. This Sunday I plan to write about some journals I picked up this week in a moving sale.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• My friend had a birthday party this past weekend and we had a great time, seeing old friends, watching the hockey game and stuffing ourselves with great food. Her birthday present hasn’t arrived yet; fingers crossed it will this week! I ordered a Coleto Multi-pen on ebay for her.
• My massage therapist has been trying a new (to me) technique called Myofascial Cupping. I’ve had 4 or 5 treatments so far and the pain in my leg has been reduced by 90%. I am so grateful for this reprieve; I feel good and like my old self again. I definitely recommend it to Sciatica patients.

Until next week, happy writing!

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! 🙂

Journal Writing Wednesday: 14 pages

Tags

de atramentis, goulet pens, monteverde prima, nanami paper, phasha, pilot coleto multipen, tomoe river, waterman

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Leather Journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Apr 15): 14

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 921

Total pages written in 2015: 181

Monthly Pen: Monteverde Prima in Purple Swirl

Next monthly pen will be announced on April 29

Purchases:

My new Coleto arrived this week and I will review it this Sunday. I am still waiting on another ebay pen, as well as the Goulet ink mentioned last week. And today I ordered a bunch of stuff from Nanami Paper; they finally have their Tomoe River paper notebooks back in stock. Stay tuned.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• I am still using my Purple Prima and the miracle I hoped for has happened: I’m in love with it again. I’m taking it to work everyday and using it as much as possible. I’ve run through the MI6 (De Atramentis Aubergine) ink and now I’m onto Waterman Purple. I used it to write a thank-you note for a co-worker and he admired my handwriting and the beautiful ink colour. 🙂
• I’m getting over a cold (again) and the recovery for my leg is taking forever. With colds comes coughing and sneezing, and it feels like for each cough/sneeze I’ve earned a week of excruciating leg pain. I’m waking up in the middle of the night again, but it’s not so bad that I have to actually get up, which is a plus. One day at a time.
• I spent a few hours working on my Letter Journal; I’m slowly filling up the Phasha journal and I love the look of it! I wrote in my journal how happy it makes me to revisit old letters.

Until next week, happy writing!

2015 Planner – Personal Filofax Finsbury

Tags

filofax, filofax flex, finsbury, pilot, pilot coleto multipen, pilot g-tec c4, reid's stationers, toffeenut

I have a new planner for 2015, which kind of surprises me. I was very happy in my Filofax Flex, and used it for a number of months (wow, from May to December 2014, which is something of a record for me). I had no plans to change but I found myself in December with no calendar drawn for January. December was super busy, more so than normal, and I really needed a January calendar to record things but couldn’t find the time to draw one. I grabbed an undated planner and used that for a couple of weeks (similar to the Toffeenut Planner) but then I found myself with a gift card in Reid’s Stationers. And they had a personal Finsbury Filofax in Raspberry, and well, I was sold.

Obviously I like this style, as I already have a Filofax Finsbury in Raspberry in the A5 size, which I reviewed here. And I did consider using the A5 as my everyday planner, but it is heavy and I’ve been trying to cut down on the weight in my purse of late, so I was thrilled to find the same binder in the Personal size. The Personal is much easier to carry around. And it was a bargain at $66.

There are a couple of drawbacks to moving to the smaller size however. I didn’t think to research “lay flatability” before buying but while the A5 size lays flat out of the box, the Personal size does not and probably never will without breaking the mechanism. Not a deal breaker for me but disappointing. And the smaller size only has one pen loop. Who can limit themselves to one pen?? Not I. 🙂

In this picture it’s laying flat because of the silver paperweight in the upper left corner. Otherwise it would lie about half open. Anyway the inside of each is laid out in a similar fashion. The pen loops are tight but I had no problem with my Pilot G-TEC C4. And I keep my Pilot Coleto 5 barrel tucked into the rings. I created a plastic dashboard out of the packaging and keep it at the front to protect the pages. Sorry for the glare!

I don’t like to stuff my planners so I just keep a couple post-it notes, flags, paper clips and a single sheet of calendar stickers.

 

The planner didn’t come with monthly pages and I find it hard to get by without them, so I was back to drawing boxes! But at least I could draw them on graph paper, which did come with the planner.

The week on 2 pages format comes standard but I wanted this one, with the week on the left and a generous space for notes on the right. The lovely folks at Reid’s swapped them out for me at no extra cost.

And of course I had to add a little bit of bling!

I’ve been using this planner since the last week of December. So far I have no problems with it. It goes in my purse with me every day. I’m quite happy with it. I’ve never been one for decorating the pages, and I don’t colour code, although I do enjoy using different colours of ink for contrast. I do like that it matches my A5, which I leave at home. The paper is not good for fountain pens and ink but that’s ok – on such small spaces I prefer the gel pens.

We’ll see how long the love lasts!

 

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!