My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Book Blogger
This is an informative post for those who enjoy my book review posts.
This year, I decided to start a reading journal. As part of that, I’ve redone my book rating system so I can rate books more evenly. I still intend to share book reviews, but only those where I have a lot to say, good or bad.
I created a decision flowchart to help me with this new system in the beginning.
NOTE: This post closes out my 2025 end-of-year and 2026 start-of-year series, and I’m looking forward to a break. I will likely post once a week at most through the end of February.
To start, allow me to review last year’s wish list — you can also check out my earlier wish lists: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021.
I received my commission from Stanford Pen Studio — pen porn post coming soon — and my two Intwana models — Chameleon and Seahorse. I also got my Tailored Pen Co. commission. And, as you almost certainly know, I finally got a Drewnem Pisane pen.
Posted in Fountain Pens, Ink, Paper, and Stationery
Wow, this is the 5th anniversary of this post! You’re welcome to check out my previous years’ answers: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022
I’ve changed the questions quite a bit since I first started, mainly to make this series last longer, because I enjoy it. I was originally inspired by a YouTube video from one of my favorite beauty YouTubers.
Answer from 2025: I’d like to keep to under 30 pen acquisitions this year. With ink, I’d like to not buy any bottles without trying a sample first, or at least seeing a swatch in person when it’s not possible to get a sample. Well… you already know I didn’t succeed with the first goal. I didn’t do much better with inks. But, I did better than in previous years, so that’s a plus.
A year ago, to the day, Jim and I said goodbye to my familiar, Bumbledore. He was the best cat and most amazing familiar anyone could have ever asked for. You can learn more about him — including his backstory and our relationship — in the posts I shared about him.
I still miss him terribly and have several different tributes to him. However, this new pen from Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) is definitely the most impressive, and tied for most important.
I seriously debated skipping this post this year, but I wanted to review the information for myself, so I decided to go ahead and feed the content monster, too. I also purposely left hard purchase numbers from my pen collection stats so that this post isn’t just a repeat of existing information. If you don’t want to read this whole post, the TLDR is that I only met one of my goals for 2025, so most of them will be recycled for this year. I give myself grace, though, because it was such a difficult year.
This year I’m starting with what I think is the most interesting part of this post, reviewing my goals for 2025.
I added two unexpected pens right at the end of 2025: a Tamenuri Studio pen as my Christmas present from Jim, and the TWSBI Obsidian since I’m collecting that series. With those two, and with the Retro 51 x Pen Addict “Pen” arriving, I ended the year with 38 pen acquisitions. Oops.
I just met this goal for my fountain pen purchases, assuming I consider vintage a separate category — which I do. I can’t really include ballpoint and rollerball pens in this, since I haven’t purchased any from small/indie companies. Of my 30 fountain pen purchases, 14 were from small/indie businesses, 14 were from mainstream manufacturers, and 2 were vintage (although also, technically, from mainstream manufacturers) that were purchased from independent resellers (loophole, anyone?). That puts my mainstream manufacturer purchases at 46.67%.
Posted in Fountain Pens
The day this post goes live — January 9, 2026 — marks 10 years since I bought my first fountain pen. That’s a significant milestone, and a bit hard for me to process.
Granted, as I’ve said before, I didn’t dive headfirst down the rabbit hole. 2016 only saw me buy two pens, although I got a third as a gift. But, that first pen is what got the ball rolling.
And what was that momentous — although I didn’t know it then — purchase? A red-nibbed Platinum Preppy with a 03 nib bought at Bertram’s Inkwell for a whopping $4.22.
Posted in Random Reflections
In my final look back at 2025, I’m looking at my blog performance and favorite posts again. You know that I love data, so this type of post is a lot of fun for me. If you enjoy data, too, take a look at the Data tag for posts you may have missed.
My yearly reminder: I’m aware that the stats I have available to me are almost certainly tainted by bots, VPNs, etc. But, they’re still fun to look through. I know there are some other data nerds out there, so this post goes out to you.
Posted in Book Blogger
We survived 2025, here’s hoping 2026 is better.
Anyway, another year gone means another reading challenge complete. I’m surprised at how much I managed to read around all of my crochet. I certainly didn’t come close to last year’s numbers, but I did still read more than expected.
I continued my manual tracking for 2025 — despite Goodreads tracking my reading accurately this year — and have even decided to start a reading journal. Let me know if you have any interest in hearing more about that.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
It’s the last weekday of the year, which means it’s time for another installment of my end-of-year pen collection stats posts. As always, you can click any of the images below to view them larger.
I’m sorry to anyone who needs or wants an accessible version of the graphics below. This year, I just didn’t have time to create the text-only version. However, I’ve made certain to include all of the information in data tables or lists that can be expanded or in the main text of the post.
Here’s a quick overview of my current fountain pen collection.
Posted in Ink
Phew, that’s a wrap on another 25 Days of Dupes! While I was more rushed this year than I have been in previous years, I’m happy to have gone back to the Inkvent calendar from the Colorvent.
Doubtless, these Inkvent inks will get released as full bottles next year as all the others have. Hopefully this series helped you decide which — if any — to get.
I don’t know if I can call this a lesson learned (we’ll find out next year), but I really need to stop underestimating the amount of time it takes me to prepare these posts. I enjoy this series, and I’m happy they seem to be so helpful to people, but I had quite a few late nights.
Because of my time crunch, I didn’t get a chance to do the additional writing comparisons I wanted to add, so hopefully I can do that next year. Would you like to see writing comparisons for each best match as delayed bonus content?
Posted in Ink
Welcome to the fourth post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for the remaining days (19-25). If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
I’ve included a dupe status this year to show how well I was able to match an ink. The rating scale includes 5 levels: success, successful color match, close, OK, and fail.
Success: all properties are matched including sheen, shimmer, and/or multishading
Successful color match: only the color has been matched
Close: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches, but the inks would likely be indistinguishable when writing
OK: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches and writing samples, but the inks are very similar (e.g. they are the same hue, but the match is too light or too dark)
Fail: all inks have noticeable differences from the Inkvent ink in the ink swatches and writing samples and have multiple properties that are different
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Posted in Cat
Precisely three years ago, Athena was diagnosed with non-effusive Feline Infectious Peritonitis, AKA “dry” FIP. The disease used to be a death sentence, but we were able to get her treatment, and she’s doing really well. Our little FIP warrior was declared cured about 2 and a half years ago, without dealing with a relapse. If you’re curious about her journey through treatment and observation, you can read through the backlog of posts on her tag page.
I can hardly believe it’s only been three years, because it seems a lifetime ago. There continues to be a lack of information about a cat’s life after being declared cured, so we’re taking it day by day. Or, well, technically, vet visit by vet visit.
Now, without further preamble, it’s time to dive into my biannual update on Athena’s health and life post FIP.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
I’ve been remiss in not saying thank you to Patrice K. for their kind donation on Ko-fi. Thank you, Patrice! I appreciate it, and I’m happy you enjoy my posts.
Well, last year was an anomaly. I went over my self-imposed fountain pen purchase limit for this year. Although, to be fair to myself, it was a difficult year, and I would have been under my limit if I’d kept it at 36. I’m ending the year with 35 new pens in my possession, 8 more than last year, and 5 above my goal of 30.
I am, however, proud of how I feel about my pen purchases, looking back at them. Over 97% of my acquisitions fall into the good, great, or best categories. That’s the best I’ve done in all 8 years I’ve been actively collecting.
In a successful attempt to make this ranking post a bit easier on myself, I defined each category, rather than going with “vibes”:
Per usual, I’ve included photos so you can see the pretties. Where one exists, I’ve also linked the pen images to my dedicated blog posts. Now, enough chit-chat, onto the ranking!
Posted in Ink
Welcome to the third post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 12-18. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
I’ve included a dupe status this year to show how well I was able to match an ink. The rating scale includes 5 levels: success, successful color match, close, OK, and fail.
Success: all properties are matched including sheen, shimmer, and/or multishading
Successful color match: only the color has been matched
Close: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches, but the inks would likely be indistinguishable when writing
OK: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches and writing samples, but the inks are very similar (e.g. they are the same hue, but the match is too light or too dark)
Fail: all inks have noticeable differences from the Inkvent ink in the ink swatches and writing samples and have multiple properties that are different
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Ink
As I do each year, I’m sharing my current top tens. *screech* Except I’m not. I’ve decided to rename this entry to my favorites of the year. It has nothing to do with my inability to stick to just 10… Really.
My inks list started the departure from my “top 10” format. As you’ll read later, I could either have a top 5 or a top 15. Then I tried to do nibs, and I have so many amazing nibs, I simply couldn’t rank them normally, so I provided my top nib(s) for several categories. And, then, when finishing the pen section, Stanford Pen Studio was 90% of the list, so I decided to give those pens their own list so that other pens would have a chance to shine.
You can also check out my top tens (AKA favorites) from previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021
Now, without further preamble, enjoy my top tens favorites of 2025.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Ink
Time for another addition to this yearly tradition. If you’re curious, you can check out the 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 entries. This idea was originally based on the “New Makeup Releases | THE TAG” video from Angelica Nyqvist.
This tag is about evaluating the releases — in this case, pens and inks — from the past year. Unfortunately, I was significantly more out of touch with pen releases this year — I blame it on crochet and an absolutely crazy year — and had to do quite a bit of research to answer some of these questions. Let me know if you agree or disagree with me.
Posted in Ink
Welcome to the second post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 5-11. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
I’ve included a dupe status this year to show how well I was able to match an ink. The rating scale includes 5 levels: success, successful color match, close, OK, and fail.
Success: all properties are matched including sheen, shimmer, and/or multishading
Successful color match: only the color has been matched
Close: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches, but the inks would likely be indistinguishable when writing
OK: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches and writing samples, but the inks are very similar (e.g. they are the same hue, but the match is too light or too dark)
Fail: all inks have noticeable differences from the Inkvent ink in the ink swatches and writing samples and have multiple properties that are different
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Posted in Fountain Pens
Another year almost gone! How? Regardless, it’s time to start my end of year retrospective posts.
Gentle reminder, this isn’t a list of brands I didn’t know about before this year. It’s a list of pens I purchased this year from brands I’ve never purchased from before.
For the first time since I started the brand discoveries post in 2021, I actually purchased from more new brands this year than last year. I purchased pens from 4 new-to-my-collection brands, and added pens from three new Stanford Pen Studio artists.
Posted in Paper
As I mentioned in my binder system post from late October, after about a year with my current binder setup, I’ve realized I need some additional changes. Sometimes I wonder if I should have just stuck with a single notebook, but I do so prefer being able to add, remove, and rearrange pages.
I’ve done a lot of research since my October post, and I’ve pretty much narrowed down what I’m going to try to have ready for the start of the year, with some additional things to incorporate as get comfortable with the new system, maybe quarterly.
Since it’s been a while, let me remind you about my current binder setup:
Posted in Ink
Welcome to the first post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 1-4. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
I’ve included a dupe status this year to show how well I was able to match an ink. The rating scale includes 5 levels: success, successful color match, close, OK, and fail.
Success: all properties are matched including sheen, shimmer, and/or multishading
Successful color match: only the color has been matched
Close: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches, but the inks would likely be indistinguishable when writing
OK: there are noticeable differences in the ink swatches and writing samples, but the inks are very similar (e.g. they are the same hue, but the match is too light or too dark)
Fail: all inks have noticeable differences from the Inkvent ink in the ink swatches and writing samples and have multiple properties that are different
Enjoy, and happy inking!
