Journal Writing Wednesday: 14 pages

Tags

hollow city, inspired blue, italix english curate, jinhao 159, kindle, library of souls, miss peregrine's school for peculiar children, ransom riggs, twsbi eco, united inkdom, waterman

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Executive Journal, and the Seven Seas Writer. Finished the Believe In Yourself journal!!

Total pages written since this post (Oct 21): 14

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1328

Total pages written in 2015: 488

Ok so I will put my red Visconti Rembrandt away and take out my…….Jinhao 159! Yes my fave Jinhao is the November pen. It will probably be inked with Waterman Inspired Blue. I love that combination.

Purchases: I wrote about my Nemosine Singularity this past Sunday. I’m not sure what I will write about this Sunday because there haven’t been any new purchases. I’ll think of something.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• I entered a contest on United Inkdom to win an Italix English Curate. Lovely pen, great site. I didn’t win 😦
• My TWSBI is squeaking when I write with it. I think I just have to clean it out so that’s on the list for this weekend. Really annoying.
• I hadn’t plugged in my Kindle for a long time but I did this week. I got a great surprise: Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs was delivered! It is the conclusion of the Peculiar Children trilogy. Apparently I bought it months ago as a pre-order and completely forgot about it. Such a good series. Check out Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children and Hollow City, the first two books in the series.
• We had a sobering and shocking event happen on our street last week. There was a double homicide and the street was completely blocked by police vehicles for 5 days. Scary and incredibly sad for the community. Our prayers are with the families.

Until next post, happy writing!

Monday Miscellany

Tags

cursivelogic.com, dave rea, gourmet pens, knight's writing company, linda shrewsbury, twsbi eco

I found myself inspired and hopeful for the future when I found the Cursive Logic website. Linda Shrewsbury has created a system that teaches cursive writing in 4 lessons. Amazing. Read about the touching desire that got it all started: a student wanted to be able to sign his name. Support them and keep cursive writing alive.

As a TWSBI Eco owner (and new to the TWSBI brand) I was heartened by Dave Rea’s post on why my TWSBI Eco won’t break. He talks about the phenomenon of certain TWSBI models breaking. Sometimes. And he illustrates why some models break and why the Eco probably won’t. He’s an engineer so knows what he’s talking about. The science he presents is easy to understand and super interesting. Go TWSBI Eco!

Many thanks to Gourmet Pens for introducing me to Canadian pen company, Knight’s Writing Company. I get the sense they are relatively new but they have an impressive selection and low shipping rates (within Canada at least; not sure what their international shipping runs). I enjoyed the blog as well. It’s so great to have one more Canadian online pen resource!!

 

Journal Field Trip

Tags

cadence, earl grey latte, good earth, healing through writing, monteverde prima, paperblanks, parker urban, pierre belvedere, prayer journal, seven seas writer, staples optiflow, stations of the cross, theory of everything, twsbi eco, ventaglio rosso midi

Do you ever have those days, where you are constantly replaying conversations in your mind and carrying around an anxiety about a certain situation? Well that was me on Saturday. And I knew I had to write it out or it would just fester. But I had lots to do outside of the house so I went on a Journal Field Trip.

I packed up my messenger bag with the supplies: journals (Seven Seas Writer, Paperblanks Ventaglio Rosso Midi, Pierre Belvedere Green), pens (Cadence, TWSBI Eco, both Parker Urbans, Monteverde Purple Prima, 4 different colours of Staples Optiflow, pencil case and some markers), glue runner, paper inserts, and scissors. My aim was to figure out why I was carrying this anxiety around but I also had projects to distract me if the words just wouldn’t come.So I ran a few errands, which included returning a movie to the library (The Theory of Everything – great film). I noticed my favourite library carrel was free so I settled in. I didn’t feel ready to confront the issue in my journal so I thought I would play with paper and glue for awhile. I’m going on a spiritual retreat soon and I printed the prayers for the Stations of the Cross for my Prayer Journal (I am using the Ventaglio Rosso Midi for this purpose). I grabbed the journal and the prayers but realized I had forgotten the glue runner and the scissors. That also meant I couldn’t work in the Pierre Belvedere journal either (keeping track of the solicited reviews for the blog). I still really wanted to write so I had no choice but to jump right in to what was bothering me.

Forty-five minutes later I stopped and re-read my journal entry. I felt freer, lighter. I checked in with my anxiety and found peace. This has happened to me before, of course, as I know the power of journalling to clarify thoughts and feelings and to let resentments and upset go. But this was a complicated burden I had been carrying for a while and I wasn’t sure one 45-minute session would do it. But it did. I left the library with new resolve and a much better frame of mind.

I ticked a few more things off my list and then I was finally able to go to my favourite coffee shop, Good Earth, for an Earl Grey Latte. My reward.

This time I found myself writing about the previous evening we spent with a friend, eating spaghetti, watching a movie and laughing. And of our plans to take some vacation in September and how excited we are about a last-minute treat David and I have planned for our birthdays. I spent about an hour an a half writing. By the time I finished the latte my hand and shoulder were cramping.

Two different writing sessions, same journal, same pen even. One intense, short and focused, the other carefree, long and playful. The second wouldn’t have been possible without the therapeutic first. I am just so grateful that I have this outlet and can soothe myself with words when needed.

I hope your journal can do the same for you.

 

 

TWSBI Eco

Tags

brian goulet, tender purple, twsbi eco, waterman, wonder pens

I was reading the Wonder Pens blog, as I do frequently, and browsing their website, when I decided I needed to try the new TWSBI Eco. I’ve been interested in TWSBI for awhile, reading about them online and seeing video reviews of the various models. They sounded interesting but were a little pricey. I haven’t seen them at my local pen shop and I don’t know anyone who owns one, so I was hesitant to take the plunge. Until I saw the new Eco model on the Wonder Pens site.

“Eco” stands for Economical, and it is the cheapest model on offer from TWSBI. From the reviews I know they have modified the body to cut down on cost, but they haven’t touched the nib, which is fantastic. This model is available in two colors, white and black, and Wonder Pens has them for $37 Cdn each. I ordered the medium nib but 5 sizes are available: Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, and 1.1 mm. It is a good size: 14 cm capped, 17 cm posted. And a good weight: 20 g. According to the TWSBI website this model is intended for the beginner and is a “good, everyday worker.”

It’s a striking pen; I like the demonstrator feel, and the piston filling system means you can really load it up with ink. I hadn’t tried a piston filler before so I was excited to try it out. I tried to fill it up completely three times but was unsuccessful, not sure why. But it holds so much ink that I didn’t really mind. I inked it up with Waterman Tender Purple.

The writing experience was very pleasant. The nib is beyond smooth, especially on the Rhodia paper shown above. No skips or hard starts and the pen started writing immediately after filling. I’ve been using it now for about two weeks with no issues.

Here’s a closeup of the nib and feed, with the distinctive TWSBI logo.

I forgot to take a photo of the packaging but it comes in a plastic box that can be re-used as a pencil box. It also comes with the iconic TWSBI wrench and the world’s tiniest bottle of silicon grease. In other models, so I’ve read, the wrench is stainless steel; the Eco comes with a plastic one. It is used to completely disassemble the pen for cleaning. I have not done this yet but I believe there is a video by Brian Goulet for reference.

So that’s my new TWSBI Eco. I really love it and would recommend it without reservation. If any of you have one let me know what you think of it.

Journal Writing Wednesday: 19 pages

Tags

cellphones, giveaway, twsbi eco

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

Total pages written since this post (July 29): 19

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1122

Total pages written in 2015: 282

I’ve been using my Parker Urban fountain pen in black for the past few days, as it is the August Pen of the Month. This is what I love about this pen: I haven’t used it in well over a month, maybe even two, and when I popped the cap off and started to write, it wrote beautifully, with no hard starts or skips whatsoever. I find that so impressive.

My next Pen of the Month will be chosen on August 26.

Purchases: OOPS! I was so excited about my giveaway I forgot to write a review of my new TWSBI Eco. I promise I will write one this weekend. I haven’t made any purchases this week.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• I was trying out my TWSBI Eco – what a pen! I’m very impressed with the nib. More on that this weekend.
• I made a ton of notes for my giveaway, trying to figure out what prizes I would put together and how I would run it, this being my first time. Thank you so much to those of you who have entered/commented, and for the rest of you the giveaway runs until Aug 22 so enter now to win one of five prizes!
• My poor father came to me Saturday morning, in a panic, because he had lost his phone. I told him I would phone it from my phone to see if it was in the house (he lives in our basement apartment). His face lit up; clearly he thought I was brilliant! So we phoned it and sure enough we could hear it faintly ringing. We went into his bedroom and tried to move toward the sound. We moved clothes and the comforter on his bed but still couldn’t find the phone. I must have phoned it seven times and still we couldn’t find the blasted thing. But we could hear it and it seemed to be right under our very noses! And that’s because it was. I dropped to my knees in frustration to search in the closet and there it was, under the bed. We both had a good laugh over that. It occurred to me that we are so connected to our phones; from the besotted teenager to the 40-somethings to the elderly, we can’t seem to live without them. Sad but true.

Until next post, happy writing!

Journal Writing Wednesday: 11 pages

Tags

crystals journal, hector and the search for happiness, parker urban, rosamund pike, simon pegg, twsbi eco, wonder pens

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

Total pages written since last JWW post (July 22): 11

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1103

Total pages written in 2015: 263

Ok so the Pen of the Month for August is…..Parker Urban in Black!

I first wrote about this pen in February of 2014; I purchased it in a Parker gift set from Amazon with Christmas gift certificates that year. I really love this pen and it is still in my top 5 (hey now there’s an interesting idea for a blog post…) Anyway I will use this pen every day for the next month and I’m sure I will fall in love with it all over again. Which isn’t really accurate because I don’t think I have ever fallen out of love with it, I’ve just been dazzled by other purchases of late. True love lasts a lifetime and all that.

My next Pen of the Month will be chosen on August 26.

Purchases: My package from Wonderpens arrived today so look for a review of the TWSBI Eco this Sunday. My first TWSBI! I’m excited to try it out.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• We watched Hector and the Search for Happiness, which was very good. Turns out happiness is a mixture of sadness, happiness and fear. Without two you can’t recognize the other. Love Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike.
• I worked late on Monday night; it was in total a 15 hour day. Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often but it is the reason I didn’t post my weekly Monday Miscellany.
• I wrote a post about my Crystals Journal and I made lots of notes in my regular journal beforehand.
• And of course, the wedding narrative continues!

Until next post, happy writing!