{"id":13189,"date":"2024-07-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=13189"},"modified":"2024-06-30T22:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T02:31:00","slug":"2024-mid-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2024-mid-year\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 Mid-Year Check-In"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p>I can hardly believe we&#8217;re already half-way through the year! But, it&#8217;s true, and that means it&#8217;s time for a mid-year check-in on my purchasing resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My rules for this year are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add 36 pens max to my collection (including non-fountain pens and gifts).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Limit mainstream brand acquisitions to 18.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don&#8217;t buy pretty ink sticks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how am I doing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>To date, I&#8217;ve added 15 pens to my collection, with 2 commissions in the works. I had a pen-buying spree in late May \u2013 early June. But, even with that spree, I&#8217;m still 3 pens under my max purchases to stay under 36 pens this year \u2014 assuming a 3 pen per month average. I&#8217;m also 4 pens behind where I was <a href=\"\/blog\/mid-year-check-in-2023\/\">this time last year<\/a>. Go me! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Jan<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Feb<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Mar<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Apr<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">May<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Jun<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">0<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">2<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">0<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">5<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Of those 15, in no particular order and with several instances of overlap:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>3 were <a href=\"\/blog\/wish-list-jan-24\/\">wish list<\/a> commissions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 were gifts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5 are indie-made<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and 3 were secondhand<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my pending commissions is also from my wish list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve acquired more mainstream brand pens this year than I would have expected, but I&#8217;m not far off \u2014 just 1 over \u2014 my target for mid-year, assuming my purchases are evenly distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did buy two &#8220;pretty ink sticks&#8221; so far. One was so I could finally have a pen made from Brooks Warm Primary Manipulation. The second was this year&#8217;s Goulet Pen Co. x Franklin-Christoph collaboration. That material is gorgeous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve only managed to sell 4 pens so far this year, but I have 18 currently for sale, 14 I&#8217;m planning to sell, and 14 in review to potentially sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, I feel like I&#8217;m doing pretty well this year. I long as I don&#8217;t have another buying spree, I think I&#8217;ll actually end the year under my limit! And, if I can sell the pens I want to, I have a chance of a minimal collection increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>How have you been doing with your pen purchases this year? Have you sold any pens? Are you happy with the state of your collection? Let me know in the comments! I&#8217;d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.us16.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=d9c28d9c11226013eb8c0544e&amp;id=fb56c60d55\">subscribe to my blog<\/a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/randomly_._rachel\/\">follow me on Instagram<\/a>&nbsp;so you don\u2019t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the year half over, It&#8217;s time to check in on my continuing resolution to purchase no more than 36 pens this year. Find out how I&#8217;m doing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2024-mid-year\/\">Keep Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2024 Mid-Year Check-In<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-13189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fountain-pens","tag-retrospective","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/checkIn2023_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Z77k-3qJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10644,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/mid-year-check-in-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":0},"title":"2023 Mid-Year Check-In","author":"Rachel","date":"July 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"With the year half over, It's time to check in on my resolution to purchase no more than 36 pens this year. Find out how I'm doing.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/checkIn2023_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15545,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2025-mid-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":1},"title":"2025 Mid-Year Check-In","author":"Rachel","date":"July 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"With the year half over, it\u2019s time to check in on my various purchasing resolutions and wish list. Find out how I'm doing.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/checkIn2023_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12404,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2023-purchasing-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":2},"title":"Reviewing My 2023 Purchasing Habits","author":"Rachel","date":"January 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time to review my 2023 purchasing habits and see how I did. I'm also sharing my plans for 2024.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2023-purchasingHabits_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2243,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/fp-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":3},"title":"Fountain Pen Series Wrap-Up","author":"Rachel","date":"October 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is it for my fountain pen series. I've gathered links to every issue of the series into one, easy-to-share post. Enjoy!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fountain Pen 101: So you're interested in fountain pens?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5723,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/fp-series-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":4},"title":"Fountain Pen Series + Updates","author":"Rachel","date":"November 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I finished my last Fountain Pen series post in October of 2018, I've written several updates. So, I've gathered links to them all into one, easy-to-share post. Enjoy!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fountain Pen 101: So you're interested in fountain pens?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/wrapup-101.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14707,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2024-purchasing-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":13189,"position":5},"title":"Reviewing My 2024 Purchasing Habits","author":"Rachel","date":"January 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s time to review my 2024 purchasing habits and see how well I kept to my goals. I\u2019m also sharing my ambitious plans for 2025.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fountain Pens&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2024-purchasing_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13195,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189\/revisions\/13195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}