My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Work has been intense lately, leaving me without much brain power to work on my blog in the evenings. I’m hoping that will change soon. But, for now, I give you this quick look back at the pens I’ve owned the longest.
Of the pens still in my possession, the Lamy Safari Dark Lilac — Lamy’s 2016 special edition — is the one I’ve owned the longest.
Posted in Ink
I’ve revamped ink dupes to bring them back. Where, previously, my ink dupes posts were more like double reviews, going forward they will be about art. I know that isn’t a perfect translation to writing with the ink, but I’m doing my best to include “wet” sections with a lot of ink and “dry” sections with less ink to simulate broader and finer nibs, respectively.
I have no set schedule for ink dupes, and they won’t replace my ink battles, but they will help me get rid of some inks.
I hope you enjoy the new ink dupes!
Posted in Fountain Pens
How many times have you missed out on a limited edition? Or discovered a product you want only to learn that it was introduced — and discontinued — years ago? I’m guessing you can think of at least a few instances of each.
Now, how often has a product you considered a lost cause made it into your collection? I’d bet this time you have less instances. You likely consider those occasions when you managed to snag something you didn’t think you would to be rather lucky. I certainly do, and I want to share a few lucky catches that are part of my collection.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Ink
This post is inspired by Glitter Fallout‘s video FAVORITES THAT HAVE BEEN DETHRONED 💔 Make way for the new! | GlitterFallout. In that video, they credit Samantha March with coming up with the idea.
In working on this post, I surprised myself with how few favorites I’ve abandoned. I expected to have plenty to choose from, but I struggled to get enough for a full post. Whether I’m highly loyal to my favorites, or I’m super picky about what makes it to “favorite” status, I’m not sure, but they equal out to the same thing: a short list.
Posted in Fountain Pens
I don’t remember where the idea for this post originally came from. I may have read something somewhere, it may have just popped into my head one day. I don’t know.
Regardless, in the way I discussed 10 pens in my Would I Buy Them Again Today? post, I chose 10 pens I’ve gotten rid of to discuss why they are no longer in my collection. I’m sure some of my answers will be expected, while others will likely be surprising to some. I hope you enjoy, and that my reasoning may help those who are trying to sell some of their own pens.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
I’m back with Part 2! Once again, please use the form at the end of this post to vote for pens you want to see “pen porn” posts about.
Like the “less expensive” pens, I keep these categories in rainbow order.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.
DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.
We’re back to posts you requested! I’ve been considering dedicating a post or two to showing off my pen collection for a while. When I saw that quite a few of you were interested in that as well, I started thinking about how best to manage it.
I knew I couldn’t share them all in one post. That’s WAY too much at once. Instead, I’ve decided to break this into three roughly equal parts. This one will focus on my less expensive mainstream pens. I’ll link to part two and part three once they’re posted.
DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.
DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.
After the fun I had with The Fountain Pens Tag post, I decided to jump on the round 2 version that’s been going around. Except this time I’m just focusing on nibs.
This post is inspired by Heather Austin‘s video THE PALETTE TAG ROUND 2 | ALL ABOUT EYESHADOWS! In that video, she credits Samantha March and Allie Glines with coming up with the idea.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
The other day, I watched a video on Theresa is Dead’s YouTube channel covering The Eyeshadow Palette Tag. It was an old video, from a year ago, and based on an idea from Allie Glines and Samantha March. However, it occurred to me that I could have fun with it — with some modifications — for fountain pens.
Some of these questions were hard for me to answer, but, let’s give it a try.
At the time of writing (9/5/21) my newest pen is the Retro 51 Wings of the Monarch fountain pen.
I decided not to get the rollerball version last year, and regretted it. So, when a fountain pen version was released a few days ago, I jumped on it. No regrets here. It’s stunning, and I already did a Makeup Monday look with it.
Posted in Fountain Pens
DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.
DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.
In working on blog posts for the new year, I wanted to revisit last year’s favorite pens, only to realize I hadn’t previously written such a list. So, to have something to revisit next year, I give you my top pens as of the close of 2020.
I tend to sell or trade pens that don’t make me very happy to own. I’m hoping to eventually get to a point where all of my pens are favorites, but I was able to come up with a top 10 and top 20 this year. It was difficult to do, but these are basically the pens you’d have to pry out of my cold, dead hands.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Stores
Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the DC Pen Show and shared my favorite fountain pen story: how I got pen #19 of 88 of the Stipula Etruria Prisma 88 limited edition. It’s been my favorite pen story every since, but it has now been dethroned by the story I’m sharing with you today. Allow me to tell you the full story behind my acquisition of my grail pen.
Posted in Stores
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I like “pimping” companies that I’ve had good experiences with. So far, I’ve discussed Edison Pen Company, Goulet Pens, and Surreal Makeup. This time I’ll be telling you about Bertram’s Inkwell.
Bertram’s holds a special place in my heart as the store where I bought my first fountain pen. It was a red-nibbed Platinum Preppy 05. I don’t have a picture of mine, as it sadly disappeared in my recent move, but I did find this photo from WonderPens. It was my gateway pen, and the experience of purchasing it was so pleasant that Bertram’s was forever fixed in my mind as a top-notch store.
The next time I visited, I picked up a Lamy Safari Dark Lilac, completely oblivious to the fact that I was buying a special edition. I just knew I liked the color and feel of it. I also picked up bottles of Diamine Meadow and Diamine Aqua Lagoon because they were beautiful, bright colors. I’ve since learned that just because a color is pretty doesn’t mean it will make a good writing ink. Meadow hasn’t gotten much use because a full-page of it can be hard on the eyes.
While we were there, Jim bought a Namiki Falcon as a birthday present to himself. I can’t recall if it was Bert or Adam (or both) who helped us out that day — I was too focused on buying my first “nice” pen — but whoever it was was incredibly patient with me as I went through all of the Lamy colors, and let me dip test a few different nib sizes. Jim was also treated very well as he tried to decide if he was actually willing to buy such an expensive pen (oh, how our views have changed).
And now the really fun part. I get to tell you about some of my customer service experiences that I feel went above and beyond what your typical store offers.
Yikes, what a mouthful of a title! Anyway, we’re about a month out from the DC Pen Show, and I’ve been meaning to post an update to my Stipula’s attitude problem and Jim’s pen’s problem.
As you may recall from my post about meeting Brian Goulet, my Stipula was a bit “skippy” when writing (I just considered it had an attitude problem). Jim’s pen suffered from a bit of overuse. While at the DC Pen Show, a lovely gentleman at the Yafa table (Twitter user @stevetweeting pointed out that it was probably Ross) tweaked both of our pens.
I am very happy to report that Prisma is MUCH better behaved now. I don’t have any problem with it skipping now, even when I write quickly. Check out the difference in the before and after. See how smooth and pretty the after writing is. Both are Diamine inks. Tudor Blue from the new anniversary inks on the before page, and Eau de Nil on the after page.
It’s certainly a rather wet writer, now. Almost too wet for me, but thankfully it’s still within the “ok” range. It does mean I get some nice shading when I use the right inks.
Posted in Pen Shows
Alright, this is it, the final installment in my 2017 DC Pen Show series. I can’t believe that when I set out to write my overview, I thought it was all going to fit in one post. Silly me.
Allow me a moment to geek out over Brian Goulet commenting on and tweeting about yesterday’s post (W-O-W!) and Brian Gray commenting on — and Edison Pen Co retweeting — my post about getting a pen from them. That felt pretty awesome.
Ok, enough fangirling. Yesterday’s post ended with heading off to check out the rest of the large room after my epic meeting with Brian Goulet.
First stop was the Modern Chocolatier booth. Because chocolate. They had little sample pieces cut for people to try (unfortunately, without signs, so you didn’t know what you were tasting). The piece I tried was really tasty, with an intense chocolate flavor. If they were local, I’d probably check them out. But my money for the day was earmarked for pens and ink, so I gave them a pass.
Welcome back for the third installment of my experience at the 2017 DC Pen Show. I finished yesterday with spotting Brian Goulet of The Goulet Pen Company. Allow me a few moments for some backstory here.
I was really getting into fountain pens, mostly because you have such a rainbow of inks to choose from. Hooray for color! If I recall correctly (it’s been a VERY busy year), I discovered Goulet Pens when I was looking for pen subscription boxes. I found some posts about their Ink Drop ink subscription box. Unfortunately, it had been discontinued a few months prior, but there was a silver lining. Goulet Pens sells ink samples! So I could test out any ink I wanted for a couple bucks. Needless to say, I quickly placed an order.
It was soon after that I discovered their YouTube channel. If you have any interest whatsoever in fountain pens and haven’t seen their channel, do yourself a favor and check it out. If you have seen their videos, I’m sure you can understand why I was hoping to meet Mr. Goulet. He’s so personable. But it goes beyond that.
On June 21, I ordered the super limited edition Stipula Etruria Rainbow Prisma 88 from Goulet Pens. It was an impulse buy, but after seeing the photo of it on Instagram, I just fell in love. And I have no regrets. After I placed my order, it occurred to me to ask for pen #19. After all, I’d spent so much money, I might as well ask for my favorite number. Not only did I get a quick reply assuring me that it wasn’t a silly request, a few days later, I got pen #19!
