I can’t believe this is my third year answering this tag. Per usual, I’m answering all of the questions this year and revisiting the resolutions I made last year to see how I did.
This idea was originally adapted from Theresa is Dead’s video: OH 2021… | BEAUTY RESOLUTIONS TAG video. The Beauty Resolutions Tag originated with Mel Thompson.
1. What is something you do regularly in your pen routine that you will try to stop?
Answer from 2023: Since remembering to add pen cleaning to my weekly to-do list would get me to clean my pens, I need to get better at doing that. When I remembered to write pen cleaning on my weekly task list, I did better. But, when I forgot, well… I forgot.
Answer for 2024: I’m pretty happy with my pen routine for now, especially after the changes I made in November. I think I need to come up with a new question for next year.
2. What is a brand you will try for the first time?
Answer from 2023: Rockster Pens. I didn’t get a Rockster Pens pen, mostly because I barred myself from pretty ink sticks to slow down my collection growth speed.
Answer for 2024: Drewnem Pisane. I’m determined to get one of their pens, as I mentioned in my wish list post.
3. What is a brand you will let go in 2023?
Answer from 2023: Maybe Lamy. I can’t say for certain I won’t buy anything from them, but I feel I’ve “outgrown” their lower end pens … and I don’t have any real interest in some of their higher end pens… I didn’t get anything from Lamy last year. I wasn’t interested in anything they released. Have I written them off forever? No, but I don’t know that they’ll release anything that will tempt me.
Answer for 2024: Caran d’Ache. I’m so salty over the special edition 849 Dragon that I don’t want to give them any more of my money.
4. What nib would you like to try at least once?
Answer from 2023: Everyone is so enamored of the Sailor King of Pen nib that I’m curious to give it a try, even if it’s just by testing a friend’s pen. I don’t think I ever tried a King of Pen nib. Which is silly, as I have multiple pen friends who own KOPs.
Answer for 2024: I’d like to test a Journaler nib. I’ll have to see if the Kenro table has one at the next pen show I attend.
5. What product will you leave in 2023?
Answer from 2023: Shimmer ink. Well, that changed — more to come on Friday. But, no, I didn’t leave shimmer inks behind.
Answer for 2024: Very possibly, bound notebooks. In November, I switched to a ring binder system, away from a bound notebook system. It’s going pretty well so far, so there’s a good chance I won’t go back to bound notebooks.
6. What product will you give a second chance to?
Answer from 2023: I very rarely write off a product, so I don’t really have anything that I can give a second chance to. I think I’ll need to change this question next year.
6. What product do you want to use more or less than you currently do?
Answer for 2024: Mechanical pencils. All through school, I was a mechanical pencil queen. I hated pens. While, clearly, I’ve let go of my antipathy toward pens, in the past few years, I’ve virtually abandoned pencils. I bought a couple interesting ones last year, and I even found some erasable colored lead. Now to actually use them.
7. What is a resolution for your collection?
Answer from 2023: OK, we’re going to try this again. Let’s see if we can cap out at 36 pens, as 24 was clearly over ambitious. If you read my purchasing habits post, you know I did fairly well.
Answer for 2024: Use ink samples! My ink sample collection keeps growing. I need to go through them and decide if they’re worth buying, if I want to keep them as samples and use them occasionally, or if I want to buy bottles. I’d like to use each ink sample at least once this year, preferably 2 or 3 times.
8. Do you have any ink or paper resolutions?
Answer from 2023: Like last year, I want to continue reducing the size of my ink collection. But, I have a different approach. I’m changing how I choose inks for my pens so that I’ll know what inks I avoid using. Those will be going away near the end of the year, or middle of the year if I have enough data by then. I did pare down the ink I had at the end of 2022. But… I bough A LOT of ink last year, so there’s a good chance I actually ended 2023 with more ink bottles than I started it with.
Answer for 2024: I’m going to continue my ink battle series to help me pare down inks and to make sure that ink I buy moving forward is unique to my collection. Of course, knowing an ink is or isn’t unique is different than making the correct purchasing decision. So… wish me luck.
9. What new pen habit or behavior do you want to adopt this year?
Answer from 2023: I want to limit the number of pens I buy for the material alone. There are so many interesting pens being made that buying a pen just for the material doesn’t seem like enough anymore. I really stuck with this one. I didn’t just limit the pretty ink sticks I bought, I stopped buying them.
Answer for 2024: I love seeing Inks and Anchors‘ zentangles or Nibs and Flourishes‘ drawings, to name a couple. I’d like to play with inks more. But, I need to get over my intimidation to do so. Hopefully, I can get in on a class at one of the pen shows this year.
10. Do you have any continuing resolutions?
Answer from 2023: I still want to continue culling pens from my collection that don’t make me happy to own. And I definitely want to avoid “happy to buy” purchases. I won’t consider the latter resolution complete until I can say I managed an entire year without one. Well, I still had a couple of impulse purchases last year, so I didn’t quite make that resolution. I did, however, continue culling pens. Have I mentioned recently that I have pens for sale?
Answer for 2024: I’m continuing with my goal to only buy pens that I will be happy to own. I’m also going to keep with the resolution I made in the middle of last year to stop buying pretty ink sticks. I’m going to have to figure out if buying collaboration pens from friends — like from Gourmet Pens — count as pretty ink sticks, or if they’re “unique/special” simply for being a collaboration. Or, perhaps the rules go out the window when you’re supporting a friend.
What do you think of my answers? Do you have any pen resolutions? Please consider answering at least one question in the comments, I’d love to see what your resolutions are.
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