My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Cat
It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since Athena’s diagnosis. So much has happened in the last 365 days that it feels significantly longer. The important part, though, is that Athena has improved, drastically, from the left to right below.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
I’m proud of myself for sticking so well to my fountain pen purchase limit this year. I went over by four, although one was an impulse purchase that may be a catch-and-release. I also didn’t expect my Stanford Pen Studio commissions to be ready so quickly. I thought I’d be counting them toward next year’s total.
Unlike last year, I decided to add photos so you can see the pretties. Where possible, I’ve also linked to my dedicated blog posts. Now, enough chit-chat, this post will be long enough as it is. Onto the ranking!
Posted in Fountain Pens
Once again, I’m sharing my current top pens. Last year’s approach to my top tens worked well, making me actually stick to lists of 10. I swear, this post gets harder every year. The nibs aren’t too hard, but the pens! It takes me more and more time to narrow down to ten, and then actually figure out the order.
Since I’m keeping to the same format as last year, I’ll compare my lists
But without further preamble, enjoy my top tens of 2023.
Posted in Ink
Hello, welcome back to 25 Days of Dupes 2023. 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.
Some reminders:
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.
Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉
I don’t know where to start with the Sketched Fashion. This is my first pen from artist Val Myburgh, one of Stanford Pen Studio‘s artist collaborators. Like all but one of my Stanford Pen Studio purchases, this was a commissioned piece.
Before I dive into the pen porn, allow me to say that I refer to the art on this pen as “sketches” and various versions of that several times in this post. I don’t mean that the work is rough or unfinished. I’m referring to the linework style and the fact that there isn’t any color fill. Sketch seems like the best word to describe the style, and I want to make sure no one thinks I mean anything insulting.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Before I dive into this post, I want to say I “discovered” these brands like Columbus “discovered” America. What I mean by “discoveries” is that I purchased from the below brands for the first time in 2023. That a brand is on this list doesn’t mean that I didn’t know it existed before 2023, although that’s true in a couple of cases. It means that the brand did not have any representation in my pen collection before 2023.
In an unsurprising reduction, I only purchased from seven new-to-me brands in 2023, down from the nine of 2022. It makes sense that with each year I’m in the pen world I will have less new-brand purchases, even more so when I buy less pens overall — more of that in a later post.
What is a surprise is that nearly half of them are mainstream brands. But, enough exposition, on with the plot! Per usual, let’s start with mainstream brands, then jump into the indie brands. FYI: The lists are in alphabetical order.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Ink
This is a yearly tradition, now, so I HAVE to do it. If you’re curious, you can check out the 2021 and 2022 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 & inks — from the past year.
Posted in Ink
Hello, welcome back to 25 Days of Dupes 2023. 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.
Some reminders:
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.
Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉
I wracked my brain for a while trying to figure out what to request for a Stanford Pen Studio pen painted by artist Hanna Farmer. That I wanted one, there was never any doubt. The intricate work she does is as amazing as it is beautiful.
When I finally decided on requesting a Pride & Prejudice themed pen, I couldn’t have dreamed of such a beautiful result.
Posted in Paper
No, this isn’t a mistake. Melz, a fantastic reader, submitted a comment with so much wonderful information, I asked their permission to post it as an addendum to my Plotter alternatives series. You can find even more information about “system techos” on Melz’s blog.
I have only slightly edited the content below to make it flow well (like adding headers). Where I have edited the text (as opposed to just rearranging something), I’ve placed it [in brackets]. Please don’t grant me credit for this knowledge, it comes from the fantastic brain of Melz.
While Plotter markets itself as a leather binder, it is completely categorized as a “system techo” (システム手帳) in Japan. If you throw that into your preferred search engine, you will start to see more relevant results in terms of matching binder sizes and refills.
Posted in Ink
Hello, welcome to the first post of 25 Days of Dupes 2023. 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.
Some info:
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Posted in Cat
This post is a continuation of my series on Athena — her diagnosis, treatment, integration into the household, and life after FIP. If you haven’t already, I suggest taking a look at my previous posts on her. You can find them on her tag page.
We’re just over one years since Athena’s health saga started, and just shy of one year since her diagnostics. This time last year we were desperately trying to get her to eat and gain some weight. I’m planning a post for the one-year anniversary of her diagnosis — Christmas Eve — looking back on everything that has happened this past year.
Posted in Ink
Thanks to David of the DC Pen Crew, I will once again be duping the Diamine Inkvent calendar. Like last year, I’m posting once a week with all of the inks from that week.
Also like last year, I’m basing my posting day on Christmas. Since Christmas is on Monday, I’ll be posting on Tuesdays. My first dupe post will be on the 5th, with the inks from December 1-4. My final dupe post will be on the 26th, with inks from December 19-25. And I’ll have a wrap-up/reference post on the 27th linking to the 4 dupe posts and listing the best dupe for each ink.
Posted in Paper
Welcome back for the sixth and final part of this series. If you haven’t read part 1, I’m sharing alternatives to the Plotter system. If you want the full explanation, I suggest you read that post. You can also review the A5, Bible and Narrow, Mini, and Mini 5 alternatives.
Welcome to the sixth and final installment of my Plotter alternatives series. While I researched the various binder sizes, I found several interesting binders that didn’t fit in as alternatives. These binders are too interesting not to share. I hope you find these interesting — and in some cases, unique — binders useful.
Some of these are more along the lines of categories, as there are multiple options for the type of binder. I can’t link to all of them, but I’ve added some links to various binders of that type.
PLEASE NOTE: The images included in the post have been taken from the listings I link to. They are not my images. You can click on them to view larger.
That said, let’s get into the bonus options.
Posted in Paper
Welcome back for part 5 of this series. If you haven’t read part 1, I’m sharing alternatives to the Plotter system. If you want the full explanation, I suggest you read that post. You can also review the A5, Bible and Narrow, and Mini alternatives.
This post was harder than expected. I thought it would be easy to find other Mini 5 sized binders. However, the majority of binders around Mini 5 size are 3-ring, not 5 ring. I was, though, able to find some alternatives.
I found that, despite Mini 5 binders and paper not being close to A8 size, , binders labeled A8 are the correct size. So, it’s likely that if you find a 5-ring A8 binder, it will be the right size. I’m including the paper size comparison again, even though we’ve learned by now that “international standard” sizes mean next to nothing in the binder world.
| Paper | B7 | A7 | Mini 5 | A8 Refill | A8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 125mm | 105mm | 105mm | 105mm | 74mm |
| Width | 88mm | 74mm | 62mm | 67mm | 52mm |
That said, let’s get into the Mini 5 alternatives.
Posted in Paper
Welcome back for part 4 of this series. If you haven’t read part 1, I’m sharing alternatives to the Plotter system. If you want the full explanation, I suggest you read that post. You can also review the A5 and Bible and Narrow alternatives.
While, once again, Plotter Mini size paper doesn’t match any international size papers, it’s closest to B7 paper. And, at 12mm narrower than the Mini binder, B7 paper should fit into it without any problems.
Unfortunately, this is where it gets weird again. Don’t search for B7 refill paper, because it’s virtually impossible to find. However, like I found with A6 refills, A7 refill paper is not A7; it’s much closer to B7.
What is the point of having internationally standard sizes if they aren’t actually used? If a company doesn’t want to make paper in a standard size, fine, don’t; but don’t label it as a standard size!!
Posted in Paper
Welcome back for part 3 of this series. If you haven’t read part 1, I’m sharing alternatives to the Plotter system. If you want the full explanation, I suggest you read that post. You can also review the A5 alternatives.
For this post, I’m addressing both Plotter’s Bible and Narrow sized binders because they are so similar in size. There is a 3mm difference in height between them, and an 11mm (0.43in) difference in width. The paper is similarly close in size, with no difference in height, and 15mm (0.59in) difference in width. You can easily use either size’s paper in the other size’s binder without any problems.
To make things even more confusing, the Bible and Narrow sized binders are smaller (both in height and width) than average A6 binders. However, the same sized Plotter papers are significantly taller than A6 — more in line with B6 paper — while narrower than both A6 and B6.
Posted in Paper
Welcome back for part 2 of this series. If you haven’t read part 1, I’m sharing alternatives to the Plotter system. If you want the full explanation, I suggest you read the previous post.
Unlike what I’ve found with other Japanese binder systems, Plotter only goes up to A5 size, rather than B5 or A4. Perhaps because it’s the largest size, the A5 binder size has the most accessories and refills.
There are, of course, MANY A5 binders available — including some well-known brands like Levenger Circa (OK, maybe not quite a binder) and Filofax — so I chose some top picks based on binder depth and compatibility with Plotter paper. That said, let’s get into the A5 alternatives.
Posted in Paper
EDIT: This is part one of a seven-part series. Access the other parts here: Part 2 – A5 | Part 3 – Bible and Narrow | Part 4 – Mini | Part 5 – Mini 5 | Part 6 – Bonus | Part 0 – Additional Info
A few years back when everyone was going nuts for the Traveler’s Notebook, I fell for the hype and got one. Since then, I used it maybe three-four times and ended up selling it. Now, I’ve been hearing more and more about Plotter and their binder system. It’s highly reminiscent of the hype for Traveler’s Notebook.
However, where there weren’t any alternatives — that I knew about — for the Traveler’s Notebooks. There are many alternatives to Plotter, most of which are significantly less expensive. Traveler’s Notebook seemed to be a fairly unique system at the time; Plotter isn’t.
Do you like the idea of Plotter, but object to the price? Are you curious about the Plotter binders but don’t want leather? This series of posts will provide you with some of the alternatives available for each size of Plotter binder.
Posted in Ink
No matter how much I try to sample or test an ink before buying it, sometimes that isn’t possible. Because of this, I have some inks that are incredibly similar in color. That’s where “ink battles” come in.
You can assume I have no problems with any ink that appears in an ink battle. I may decide, when using the inks side-by-side, that one performs better, but the point of the battle is to choose a favorite color. I use a pair of similar inks in pens with the same nib, then test them out to see which I like better.
Or, I may find out that, when used with the same nib, they’re sufficiently different to keep them both. Depending on how these “battles” turn out, I may tag some of the posts as ink dupes as well. You can find all of the ink battles posts on the tag page.
