Eight Years and Here’s to Many more

Today marks eight years and 795 posts — including this one — since I started my blog. Surprisingly, this is my first non-tag blog anniversary post — I answered some questions for my blog’s 5-year anniversary. I don’t know why I haven’t shared one before, but better late than never.

And while on that track, allow me to divert for just a moment to announce that I have — finally — posted an About page. Also, in response to a few questions, I’ve added a Ko-fi button to the left (desktop) or below (mobile device) — you may have already noticed. I don’t intend to make any changes to monetize my blog. I dislike visiting a website only to be bombarded with ads, and I won’t do that to you, either.

Anyway, with that digression out of the way, I want to thank everyone who reads my posts, whether you’ve been here for years, months, weeks, or if this is the first of my posts you’ve seen. I write for myself, but it’s nice to know that people enjoy what I write.

Evolution

In the years since I started this blog, it has seen some serious evolution. I imagine few, if anyone, remember — or know — that Rachel’s Reflections started as a book blog attached to my author website. These days, it’s a jane-of-all-trades, with a major in stationery and a minor in cats.

Stat	Yr 1 17-18	Yr 2 18-19	Yr 3 19-20	Yr 4 20-20	Yr 5 21-22	Yr 6 22-23	Yr 7 23-24	Yr 8 24-25
Book Posts	81	58	15	6	7	20	10	2
Fountain Pen Posts	5	24	1	15	66	49	42	49
Ink Posts	1	15	27	0	36	10	29	25
Cat Posts	0	0	2	4	1	13	6	14

Stats

You may have seen one of my previous annual blog review posts. Since I already have so many end- and start-of-year posts, in future years, this post will serve that function. Although there’s only been 6 months since my 2024 blog review post, I do still want to take a look at some data — come on, it’s me!

Posts and Views

I recalculated my blog stats to reflect the 365 days for each year my blog has been up, rather than each calendar year.

Total Views: 230,578 | Total Posts: 794 | Total Words: 615,018
as of 6/14/25, 8:52pm

Stat	Yr 1 17-18	Yr 2 18-19	Yr 3 19-20	Yr 4 20-21	Yr 5 21-22	Yr 6 22-23	Yr 7 23-24	Yr 8 24-25
Views	2,335	9,561	16,630	7,821	23,670	43,461	58,984	68,114
Posts	128	127	48	50	130	114	102	95
Words (rounded)	92K	69.7K	30.2K	37.4K	83.6K	109.5K	97.3K	95.2K
Avg. Words per Post	719	549	630	749	643	961	954	1002

Top Countries by Views

I’m hardly surprised that the USA, UK, and Canada are the top three, and I don’t really ever expect that to change. What is interesting is how steep the drops are between the first four before dropping more evenly for the remaining 6.

Blog Posts

Top Posts by Views

As I mentioned at the start of the year, the Lume and Kencko reviews are skewing my numbers. But, where I was getting all sorts of weird comments on the Lume review, I’m not getting that on the Kencko review, so I’ll leave it as discoverable by search engines for now. I’m pleased to see a FIP post in both top tens, and, apparently, Plotter is still a hot topic. I find it interesting that two vintage posts are in the top ten of all time as well.

My Favorite Posts

Because there have only been 159 days between my 2024 blog review and me writing this post, I kept the favorites from that post that fell within blog year 8 (6/15/24 – 6/14/25), but filled in the empty spaces with my favorite posts since January.

• Am I a Weirdo?
  This post was just a lot of fun to write.
• Athena: 1 Year Cured
  I was so happy that Athena hit such a big milestone, then, on top of that, I got to include the news about the FIP treatment being decriminalized in the USA. Definitely a fantastic post.
• FIV: Feline Immunodeficiency Virus
  I really enjoy how much I learn from these types of posts. Especially in this case, that information relieved my worry.
• Fountain Pen Alignment
  This one was an interesting thought exercise, and a lot of fun to write. It’s more than a bit tongue-in-cheek.
• Fountain Pen Rainbow 2025
  I had just as much fun choosing this year’s rainbow as I did last year’s. I’m still planning a post for the Bi pride colors, probably in the next week.
• I Like Mechanical Pencils, Too
  This post was fun to write and got me to catalog what “lead” is in which pencil, so I know what pencil to reach for when I need something specific. I also got me writing with pencils more, which made me realize how much I enjoy them.
• Inky Madness – Diamine
  This was fun, but also difficult. I’ll probably do more of these in the future, since this post really made me think about my ink.
• Keeping Nibs Straight
  This is the kind of post I always feel a little odd sharing — the “here’s how I do things” posts — but they do so well that I keep writing them. Based on the comments, it proved useful to several of you.
• Long Live the King
  It’s hard to call this tribute to my dear Bumbledore a favorite. But, I heard from several people how well they thought I managed to put into words what they had felt at the loss of a beloved furbaby. That connection, even though it was over shared feelings of loss, was important to me when I was feeling so low.
• Stanford Pen Studio Series
  Is it any wonder that I loved this series. I got to know the SPS artists better, and I had a blast looking at all the art.

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How long have you been following my blog journey? Do you have a favorite post? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.