My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Random Reflections
I have a fairly short post for you today.
With pen show season well and truly underway, I’ve seen a plethora of posts and videos about pen show hauls — I’ve shared my own, too. And it’s great.
It makes me happy to see people keeping the pen world afloat. Even better when posts/hauls feature indie-made pens. The world is tough right now, and every pen purchased helps keep an indie maker afloat. And that leads to my — currently — unanswerable question.
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. 😉
This time, I have a somewhat different pen porn post for you. The focus here is the unique shape of the pen, rather than artwork on it.
This is the Willow model from Fountain Telling, which Kristen debuted at BWIPS this year. According to Jonathon Brooks of Carolina Pen Co — and Kristen’s dad — who had Kristen’s pens on his table at BWIPS, I was lucky enough to be the first purchaser of this model.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Stub. Italic. Smooth italic. Cursive italic. Smooth cursive italic. Formal italic. Sharp italic. Daily italic. Crisp italic.
These are all variations of the nib modification that reduces the top-to-bottom width of the nib tipping to produce narrower cross strokes. There are probably even more names for grinds in this spectrum of nib modification that I’ve either forgotten or have never heard of. You need to ensure you are writing with the nib properly positioned against the paper — how forgiving the nib is depends on the properties you request.
Note: This post focuses on the standard stub-italic grind spectrum, purposely omitting the oblique variations.
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. 😉
After a longer break from my pen porn posts than I’d intended, I’m back with another special commission. I’ve wanted one of Lana le Roux’s “layered” pens since Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) posted one for the first time. But, I could never quite figure out exactly what I wanted. Then it hit me. While I have my “Stacked Pride” rainbow pen, I didn’t have a bisexual pride pen.
I reached out to SPS and asked if Lana would be willing to take on this commission, and, happily, the answer was yes. I left the motif, design, etc. up to Lana, only asking that she use the bi flag colors.
What I didn’t mention was that I was commissioning this as my 300th fountain pen. So, Lana, and Di and Dave, thank you for making my 300th pen so special!
Now, time for the pen porn.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Uncategorized
For the past 7 shows — with one exception — I’ve shared one or more posts about my BWIPS experience. This year, I decided to do something different. On Sunday, when the show was quiet, I talked to every small, independent pen maker I could, and followed up with the rest via Instagram.
I asked each maker, “Would you mind sharing how you got into pen making?” The stories I was told were, of course, as unique as the makers themselves. And so, I present to you Indie Maker Origin Stories.
To the wonderful makers: if I missed or messed up part of your story, I’m sorry. Drop a comment below or send me a message on Instagram and I’ll fix it ASAP.
Posted in Ink
In my 25 Days of Dupes wrap-up post, I asked if you would like to see writing comparisons for each best match as “bonus content.” 95% of respondents said yes. So, here are the — possibly — anxiously awaited writing samples.
I went with a style similar to my Inktober Skirmishes, since you all seemed to like that style. This time, though, I chose winter poems. Given the recent East Coast snowstorm — and how much ice we still have — it seemed appropriate.
For each comparison set, the first and third lines are the Inkvent ink, and the second and fourth lines are the dupe ink.
As always, you can click an image to view it at full size.
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 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?
Edit 2/13/26: I’ve posted the writing samples.
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 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.
