My Waterman Family

Tags

kultur, waterman

In June I saw a review of the Waterman Kultur on YouTube by Jennifer of Best Fountain Pen. She was so enthusiastic about it I had to check Amazon and sure enough it was available in Canada too. So I picked up two: the blue and the red.

I have a Waterman pen already; you might remember my vintage Waterman Junior. But as a vintage pen it’s delicate and I always worry when I use it. I wanted a Waterman I could use every day and throw into my bag. And I didn’t want to spend a ton of money. So when I saw this beauty and Jennifer’s excellent review I knew I had to have one. Or two.

The nib is advertised as a fine but it writes more like a medium. Very smooth writer right out of the packaging. These pens do not come wit a converter but the cartridge supplied with the pen has a bigger ink capacity than any converter anyway. These are demonstrator pens, meaning most of the pen is transparent so you can see the inner workings. The section is especially fascinating as the ink comes in. The plastic body makes it light in the hand, perfect for long writing sessions. The cap is a pull and snap cap so no threads on the fingers. There is a tiny step down on the section but I didn’t find it bothering me as I wrote. I’m very happy with this pen.

I haven’t opened the red one yet; I recently bought some Waterman Audacious Red and once I have an empty cartridge when the blue one runs out I will fill it with the red. Audacious Red is the last colour of Waterman ink that I needed to complete the set. Love it! Love them all!

Audacious Red and Serenity Blue.

Tender Purple and Inspired Blue. You can tell I use these two the most. I have a bottle of Inspired Blue at my desk at work too!

Intense Black, Mysterious Blue, Harmonious Green and Absolute Brown. Great inks for your pens. Amazon still has a few of these pens at great prices. I understand Waterman has discontinued the model which is a shame. If you have a chance to check out the Kultur, do so!

Custom Notebooks from Bookblock Original

Tags

bookblock.com, castelli, custom notebooks, gf smith, moleskine, monsieur notebook, waterman

Hello everyone! Apologies for the two weeks between blog posts; it’s been a busy couple of weeks. But I really wanted to share this post with you today. I’m really excited about the product so couldn’t wait to share it with you, after it finally reached me (due to moving, sigh).

Imagine being able to take any photo or piece of artwork and turn it into a journal cover! That’s what the folks at Bookblock in the UK do. They’ve been offering custom notebooks to brands and agencies since 2013. They recently added a new offering, Bookblock Original, which allows individuals to create a completely unique, one off notebook on their website, with full bleed digitally printed covers. And they have created custom notebooks for this website!!

For about the same price as a Moleskine anyone can order a notebook with any artwork digitally printed onto the covers. The notebooks are printed in the UK on recycled paper. And the price includes shipping: $26 US or thereabouts. You can add your own photos or artwork plus graphic details such as stickers or speech bubbles. You can choose the colour of the elastic and the colour of the background (spine and edges). You can choose the type of paper: Ruled, Plain or Dot Grid on 90gsm ivory, or Sketch on 140gsm Cartridge.

Back in February of this year the folks at Bookblock contacted me, to see if I would be interested in reviewing one of their notebooks. I agreed and the process began. We discussed artwork and ended up with them designing something around my blog name. I really love the finished product.

Image Bookblock sent me during the customization process.

It took awhile for the books to reach me. A LONG while. As I’ve mentioned here before we had some major problems with our mail forwarding. And the customer service at Bookblock were really fantastic about it. The three books shown above were sent to my previous address as we were starting the move process. And when I still hadn’t seen them by the end of May Phoebe at Bookblock sent me two more. So generous of them and I really appreciate it. In a crazy twist, BOTH packages arrived at my new address on the same day! Strange how the postal system works sometimes.

First let me say the notebooks are gorgeous. The soft-touch, vegan leather covers are smooth and lovely to touch. They have collaborated with a bookbinder in the UK to create the hand-crafted notebooks in small batches. And the quality shows.

Image from Bookblock. You don’t often see a white elastic and I quite like it!

The binding is excellent; the book lays flat out of the box. I received two lined and three blank.

There are several different kinds of custom notebooks you can choose from on the website: Monsieur Notebook, Moleskine, Castelli, GF Smith, and of course the Bookblock brand. The digitally printed notebooks look to be exclusively Monsieur Notebook (sound familiar? Check out my review of their notebooks here); all of my journals are Monsieur Notebook.

Each notebook has a place for your details, but no index.

The Moleskine A5 is slightly smaller than this notebook, which comes in at almost 6″ x 8″. Both notebooks are 0.6 mm ruling. The Moleskine has a pocket in the back cover; these notebooks do not. (It is a feature you can add with a custom order.) Both notebooks have an elastic and a ribbon but of course you can add your own combination with Bookblock, which I think is super cool. Blue and Green, Green and Pink, or Orange and Orange, it’s up to you. They actually have a long list of add-ons: in addition to the pocket you can add a custom presentation box (always an elegant touch), pen loop, belly band, and printed inserts. You could also have a full colour logo, foiled or debossed logo. These customizations are not all available for the one off notebooks.

Now my poor photography looks even poorer against the beautiful images from Bookblock! But you can see in this photo the Bookblock notebook is slightly wider than the Moleskine.

The ribbon on my much-loved Hobbit Moleskine is definitely fraying, compared to the brand new ribbon on the Bookblock notebook. Time will tell if this ribbon will remain so pristine.

No notebook review would be complete without the ink test!

The paper is 90 gsm as mentioned previously, and it takes fountain pen ink relatively well. You’ll notice I smeared the ink on purpose to test the drying time and it is about 4 seconds. The Waterman Kultur pen didn’t show feathering but the other fountain pens definitely did.

The blue ink above is Waterman Serenity Blue in a Waterman Kultur. I was very impressed with the performance on this paper. The gel ink of the Pilot Coleto was perfect but then again it’s always perfect! And actually every other writing instrument (gels and highliter and pencil) looked flawless on this paper.

I was surprised at the feathering with the TWSBI and the Visconti, inked with Waterman Absolute Brown and Paradise Pen Vineyard Burgundy respectively. It’s not terrible but definitely noticeable.

Arguably the Jinhao is the wost for feathering, and understandable I guess because it has the wettest nib of the three pens. Again it’s a Waterman ink: Inspired Blue.

A bit of show through but not the worst I’ve seen, that’s for sure. 

Undeterred by feathering I wrote three pages with my Waterman Kultur (review coming) and I think the writing looks great. Really enjoyed the writing experience; paper is smooth and the Kultur sailed over it. The messy bit at the very top of this page was created by me, trying to get one of my pens to start writing.

I was disappointed that the fountain pen ink had such varied results in terms of feathering. I also would have liked an index. As a notebook collector I have a number of A5 journal covers, it being my size of choice. It’s too bad that these notebooks are an inch too wide to fit in a standard A5 cover.

Having said all that, I do not hesitate in recommending this company. They did provide me with free notebooks but that did not sway this review. My words and thoughts are my own. They wanted honest feedback and I have given it. I like how individualized these notebooks can be and I do not think the price is too high, considering it includes shipping. The customization possibilities are vast and if there is something you want but can’t figure out on the website their customer service team is excellent. And the books are excellent quality that take fountain pen ink reasonably well.

If you want one custom notebook or one thousand, check out bookblock.com and bookblock.com/original.

 

Another Nemosine and a Free Pen!

Tags

amazon, goldspot, jinhao 599a, marketfair stationery, nemosine, singularity, waterman

Way back in January of this year I received two pens in the mail from Amazon. I had placed an order for a Nemosine Singuarity in brown, with a medium nib, and the vendor had sent along a free pen as a “Thanks for Your Business” gift. I wrote about it in this Journal Writing Wednesday post from January 13, and I’m finally getting round to the post!

The vendor was Marketfair Stationery and I had no idea that they were Goldspot pens until I opened the package. Apparently Goldspot was giving away Jinhao 599a pens during the holiday season as thank you gifts. I received a blue demonstrator model, with a fine nib I suspect (it’s not marked).

The pen looks like an homage to the Lamy Safari. The translucency is a nice touch.

Here it is uncapped. The section has flattened sides, which again brings to mind the Lamy Safari. I prefer this one, as it is not as pronounced and seems to fit my hand better. The cap has a black liner for the nib to fit into when capped.

Here’s a closeup of the nib. There is a Goldspot “g” stamped on it but no size anywhere; certainly no “F” that I could find. The barrel is also stamped “goldspot”. The pen came with a cartridge converter and it wrote very quickly after inking. No skips so far so ink flow seems fine. Pretty amazing for a free pen!

And now for the writing sample.

I wrote this in my Rhodia lined pad, and the ink I used was Waterman Serenity Blue. The nib was pretty smooth, with a bit of toothiness. I’m very pleased with this pen. I’d been wanting to order one from ebay so this was a most pleasant surprise from Goldspot.

So that was the free gift that came with my purchase: another Nemosine Singularity, but this time in brown and silver with a medium nib. This is my second Singularity; I wrote about the first in this post, the blue marble finish with a broad nib. I wanted to try the medium nib and I love brown pens, so I ordered it from Amazon on Boxing Day.

This Singularity came with the same box and cartridges as the blue marble one.

Here it is uncapped. The finish is a flat lacquered brown, a little plain as compared to its blue marble cousin.

Once again we see the Nemosine nib, with the distinctive butterfly pattern.

Here is the writing sample with the Nemosine medium, and a comparison between the medium and broad nibs. The medium nib leans more toward fine than medium, in my opinion. There isn’t a huge difference between the broad and medium nibs, at least in this writing sample. The ink in the broad is Waterman Mysterious Blue and the ink in the medium is Waterman Absolute Brown. Both pens wrote instantly after being inked, with no skips or hard starts. Nemosine continues to impress me with its quality.

All three pens are excellent writers, and I would not hesitate to recommend all three as inexpensive every day pens.

My New Pen and Ink Journal

Tags

arc notebooks, de atramentis, delta journal, ink journal, pen journal, pilot plumix, waterman

I was running out of space in my last Ink Journal so I decided to create a new one. And this time it is housed in a binder instead of an ARC Journal. Lots of room to expand!I chose a plain white binder with a clear pocket on the front. I put in some spare scrapbooking paper. I really like how it turned out.

I used the scrapbook paper as dividers inside the binder as well.

My pen list. I add to it as new pens come in, obviously, and make note when I give a pen away.

And I do the same with the ink list. I generally use my Pilot Plumix to write the lists.

A colourful index. I decided to combined the pens and inks in this section, and simply go alphabetical. So Delta pens and De Atramentis ink will be in the same section: D.

I used puffy alphabet stickers to mark each division. The index goes up to 31 so not sure what I will use the extra sections for yet.

I have quite a few empty page protectors so I’ve filled them with pen and ink “stuff”. Here are the paper booklet, serial number and sleeve from my Delta Journal.

And here I’ve put in some flattened Waterman boxes. Alot easier to store this way and I like seeing the colourful boxes.

So that’s a quick tour of my new pen and ink journal. Saying goodbye to the ARC notebook was sad but I’ve simply outgrown it. I will have to find another use for it because it is one of my favorite in the ARC range. Let me know in the comments how you keep track of your pens and inks.

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!

Nemosine Singularity in Blue Marble

Tags

amazon, blue marble, fission, mysterious blue, nemosine, neutrino, singularity, waterman

My beautiful niece gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday and not surprisingly I bought a pen. I’ve been looking for a broad nibbed cartridge-converter pen and the Nemosine Singularity ticked those boxes. I ordered one in the Blue Marble finish.

Nemosine (nee-moss-sen-eee) is a Taiwanese company and these pens have a good reputation in the community, at least as far as I have researched. I read online reviews and I watched a few YouTube videos and really it was the footage of the Blue Marble that sold me on this particular finish. It is also available in Aqua Blue, Aqua Demonstrator, Blueberry, Cardinal, Clear Demonstrator, Granite, Green, Ivory, Magenta Demonstrator, Magenta, Pink, Velvet Black, Walnut, White, Black and Coral, according to the Nemosine website. On Amazon I did find a Black Marble finish as well. The Blue Marble finish is gorgeous and has such dimension for this price point: $38.66 + $7.54 for shipping.

This gives you some idea but I also took the same shot with my flash on. Not sure if I like it better or not but I’m including it here to give you a better idea of the real-life colour of this pen.

It’s a true royal blue with chrome accents. The resin body is lightweight (86 g) and the pen measures 14 x 2.9 x 1.8 cm.

Here is a close-up of the broad nib. I love the detail. It kind of looks like a stylized butterfly to me, with an N at the top and a B (for broad) at the bottom. There are 6 nib sizes available: Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, 0.6 and 0.8, which is a pleasant surprise for a pen that retails for less than $40. The box says the “precision nib” is made in Germany, while the pen body is made in Taiwan, and the pen is “inspected and packaged in USA.”

I actually find the box really interesting, and most other reviewers commented on it too. It’s just a plain white rectangular box, with Nemosine Fountain Pens on the front. But you’ll notice in the bottom left corner of the box a series of dots and dashes. I read that this is actually Morse code so I searched for a morse code translator and typed in the sequence. It returned a single word: MEMORY. Others have theorized that this is a nod to the alternate spelling: Mnemosyne, in Greek mythology, is the personification of memory and the mother of the nine muses. Pretty cool stuff for a fountain pen!

The other side of the box is pretty darn interesting too. So much info on a pen box! I think this is unique in fountain pen-dom. We see the nib info, the pen body info and where it was inspected and packaged. We also see a confirmation of the nib size ordered, and the initials of the person who installed it! Seriously how cool is that? CS or GS or maybe even SS took the time to write their initials on my box after installing a broad nib. To me that speaks volumes about the company and how much they care about their product. And further to that, check out this 3 year perfection warranty from their website:

We’re positive that you’re going to absolutely love our pens and that they’ll continue to perform with the precision and consistency that you expect with your daily writing instrument. Every one of our pens includes an unconditional 3 year warranty on the ink flow, from converter to nib, even if the issue was caused by user error. If within 3 years you have any flow issues with your Nemosine fountain pen, return it to us along with $5 to cover testing, labor, and return postage… we’ll fix up and return your pen, guaranteeing that you’ll enjoy your pen for years to come!

* A single unit can be returned to us a maximum of 3 times within 3 years (to ensure that new part replacement is not abused.)
** To forego a bunch of fancy legal jargon, we must reserve the right to rescind our warranty offer at any time, at our sole discretion, without notice. We certainly don’t foresee any chance of resorting to this kind of action… but instead of paying a lawyer buckets of money to state the same thing within 3 pages of legal jargon, we figured we’d just protect ourselves by saying it outright.

This knocks my socks off. I can return this pen 3 times in 3 years if the pen stops working, even if I cause the problem! That’s customer service people. I even doubt that paying considerably more for a pen would ensure such an amazing guarantee. And I bet they can offer it because they very rarely have to honour it. Outstanding.

And there is just one more thing to say about the box: it contains 6 cartridges. Yes, 6. Icing on the already terrific cake.

A quick comparison with some of my other pens.

I inked it up with Waterman Mysterious Blue and started writing. I have to say the nib is super smooth – like writing on glass. And each time I uncap it starts up immediately. No priming needed. It posts securely as well, and almost too securely as it squeaks when I try to move the cap. I’m nervous the resin may crack. I just have to be gentle with it.

The broad nib puts down a slightly thicker line than the average medium – not much, but enough to be noticeable. I like my medium, broad and italic nibs for their ink showcasing abilities. My writing gets bigger in proportion to the size of the nib! But that’s ok – fill up the journal faster LOL

In only two spots did the ink hiccup a smidge on the downstroke of my Ts.

Overall I’m really pleased with the pen and would not hesitate to recommend it. They also offer the Fission and the Neutrino, which are more expensive but only by a little and are also metal-bodied. And with the myriad choices for the Singularity you’re sure to find something you like. 🙂

One Night in Portland

Tags

aurora, cartier, cross, edelberg, filofax, harmonious green, j. herbin, leuchtturm, lierre sauvage, montblanc, oberon, online switch, paradise blue, paradise pen company, portland, rhodia, schmidt converter, scully, vineyard burgundy, vintage trouble, visconti, waterman, wonder ballroom

As a birthday present to ourselves David and I flew to Portland, Oregon to catch Vintage Trouble at the Wonder Ballroom last week. It was a magical 24 hours which included staying at a fabulous hotel (the Crowne Plaza Portland), grooving with the band (we got to meet them!), eating amazing food and shopping. We crammed three days into 24 hours and just one of the many highlights was visiting the Paradise Pen Company, a retailer of “high-end writing instruments offering fountain pens, leather goods and accessories.” And when they say high-end they aren’t kidding.

The Paradise Pen Company is located in Pioneer Place, alongside Kate Spade, J Crew, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors, just to name a few. Very swish. According to their website they have 15 locations across the US. We had great fun looking at the Montblanc, Aurora and Visconti offerings, as well as Cartier and Edelberg. I had never seen a Cartier and their fountain pens do not disappoint. But like their jewelry they have a considerable price tag ($1,000+). Lovely to dream and drool over though.

They had an impressive selection of notebooks and planners, such as Filofax and Rhodia. I got to fondle an Oberon journal for the first time and I’m so glad I did, because I have been considering purchasing one. Although the leather craftsmanship is breathtaking I am not a fan of the paper in their notebooks. And they don’t lie flat, which is disappointing. But at least now I know.

I was introduced to Scully notebooks and promptly fell in love. This beautiful “Old Atlas” journal has wonderful paper and lies flat as a pancake. But the price ($113) was just a little beyond my budget (especially when you consider the exchange rate these days). At least I am familiar with the product and can order one from their online site if I save my pennies.

Stephanie was very friendly and interested in our very quick trip and the reason for it. She was very touched that we took some time to visit their store in our whirlwind tour of her city. I had done some research on their site before arriving so I had an idea of what I wanted.

The pen is from ONLINE and is the Switch model. Designed for students, it has a medium fountain pen nib at one end and a stylus at the other. I thought it a wonderful metaphor for modern but elegant note-taking: casually surfing the net, finding something interesting, flipping your stylus round and writing it in your notebook with a fountain pen. And it was on sale! So I picked a green one. And amazingly Stephanie offered me a converter to go in it, a Schmidt. I did not know that brand of converter fit the ONLINE pens so that was a real bonus. I also found a Cross notebook in a size I have never seen before, so I chose one to match the pen. And finally I chose two bottles of ink: Vineyard Burgundy and Paradise Blue, made exclusively for the Paradise Pen Company.

It occurs to me now I should have purchased a bottle of green ink to match the pen but I thought two bottles were enough. I really love these two colours. I also enjoyed the label although Stephanie told me they had a new label, with some new colours just released (Vineyard Burgundy being one of them). I like the old label, shown below on the blue bottle; what do you think?

I haven’t inked up any pens with these inks yet. As for the new green ONLINE Switch I inked it up with Waterman Harmonious Green. I was thinking J. Herbin’s Lierre Sauvage would be nice too.

Here’s a writing sample on Leuchtturm paper. The slight shading in the ink comes through. The nib is a little hooked, much like my Waterman Junior, and is very smooth. The Switch is part of the Youth line and indeed, it feels very sturdy and puts down a solid line. It wrote right out of the sleeve with no skips or hard starts. It’s a fun pen to use.

I’m very happy with my purchases and will write more about the trip in my Journal Writing Wednesday post. Thank you so much Stephanie and the Paradise Pen Company for a wonderful experience. Check out their online shop and if you are in Portland include this little shop in your travels; you won’t be disappointed.

 

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.

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!!

New Ink and Some Wreck This Journal Pages

Tags

audacious red, diamine, harmonious green, inspired blue, matador, pilot iroshizuku, reid's stationers, sailor jentle, waterman, wreck this journal, yama-dori

A couple of random things for you today: I have two new bottles of ink and I have made some progress in my Wreck This Journal, and I thought I would share.

Yesterday we celebrated my sister’s birthday by going out for lunch and then shopping at Reid’s Stationers! (She actually loves the place too; I wasn’t being selfish!) We were on an ink mission of sorts and the staff were really wonderful and swabbed a bunch of inks for us. Diamine Matador Red is really amazing; think the red flags in a bull ring, or the colour of blood – vibrant and bright. And the Sailor Jentle inks are lovely; we looked at swabs from the Colors of Four Seasons collection. My sister settled on a bottle of Yama-Dori, which is a breathtaking turquoise. We both bought bottles of Waterman Inspired Blue, and I picked up a Harmonious Green as well.

I’ve said this before but buying French ink is like buying French perfume; I feel spoiled and fancy. And in comparison with other inks it is affordable; Reid’s sells Waterman for $11. And they sell Pilot Iroshizuku bottles for $40. I will probably buy a bottle of Iroshizuku one of these days but at that price you REALLY have to love the ink. I should buy some samples from Goulet before taking the plunge.

Anyway this morning I updated my ink journal and swabbed both of these. When we were comparing swabs at Reid’s yesterday I was struck by how bright the Waterman inks are. They swabbed the bottle of Waterman Audacious Red and I know I will never buy that ink. It’s too bright and pink for my taste. But I loved the blue and green.

The blue reminds me of Bleu Pervenche by J. Herbin, which I love. It’s such a gorgeous turquoise. And the green is very close to Monteverde Green. Love them both and I know I will use them in many of my pens.

So that was yesterday, and we did a lot more than shop for ink; I didn’t get her back home until past 6pm and I picked her up at 11am! More details will follow in my post on Wednesday because I’m writing it all down in my journal. 🙂

This morning I was up early (those darling cats of ours!) and I started catching up on my Youtube video subscriptions. The very first video was an update on the progress made in a Wreck This Journal. So I was inspired and for the rest of the morning I worked on mine.

I had so much fun! It was hard to “wreck” a journal in various ways but I managed it and it was great.

I actually did this, although you can’t really tell from the picture. My feet didn’t need to be wiped and they were clean as I was inside so there’s no evidence I jumped on it, but I did. I invited David to do the same but he declined. He laughed watching me do it though! As I said, so much fun.

Yup did what the instructions told me.

This was the last page I completed and I’m really happy with it. I’m feeling the effect of this journal already; much more liberated and free with journaling. Maybe I won’t be so precious with my other “fancy” journals. That’s the aim anyway. I will share more as I progress through the journals.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!