Monthly Archives: April 2015

Journal Writing Wednesday: 24 pages

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

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What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Leather Journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Apr 22): 24

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 945

Total pages written in 2015: 205

Monthly Pen for May: ONLINE in Black, currently inked with J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche. I first talked about this pen in November of 2013, and it hasn’t been in my current rotation for a very long time.

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Next monthly pen will be chosen on May 27

Purchases:

I reviewed my new Coleto and De Atramentis Aubergine ink in this post.

I am still waiting on my ebay pen and items from Nanami Paper. And just this week I purchased two pens from sellers on FP Geeks. Lots to talk about coming up!

Some points covered this week in my journals:

  • I really enjoyed using my MV Prima this month. With the 1.1 stub nib my handwriting gets HUGE, so that’s one of the reasons why I wrote 24 pages this week. And now I will be using my old friend, the ONLINE fountain pen. I really don’t think I’ve used it since early 2014. But that’s the spirit of One Month, One Pen; I want to rotate my pens and fall in love with them all over again.
  • My niece is getting married this summer and last week I was invited to her wedding dress fitting. My sister and I went for dinner first, which was great, and then met my niece at the bridal store. And when she came out of the dressing room I cried. She looked so strong and beautiful, she took my breath away. The amazing gown she chose makes her so happy, and it shows.
  • Had a wonderful evening with my friend on Saturday. We went for dinner and then did some shopping at WalMart. I wasn’t feeling the best but I pushed myself and I was so glad I did because we had a great time.
  • One of my pen pals has a YouTube channel: Gerald Taylor. He cautioned to be careful when putting certain inks in pens with internal filling systems. He referred to SBRE Brown’s experience with Noodler’s Liberty Elysium and his own disappointment with Private Reserve ink. Vintage pens can be especially at risk. So I asked Gerald about my vintage Waterman. I explained that I was using only Waterman ink in it, and did he think that was ok. He reassured me that Waterman inks are one of the safest inks, particularly their blues. Zero staining and zero pen damage. Good to know – thanks Gerald! Check out his blog as well, mycoffeepot.org, for more in-depth discussion of the pens he reviews.

Until next week, happy writing!

Monday Miscellany

27 Monday Apr 2015

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Marelisa Fabrega has a wonderful web site: daringtolivefully.com. Her post, 119 Journal Prompts for your Journal Jar, had some really great ideas for journaling. I like the honesty prompts about the biggest lie I’ve ever told, or nobody knows….. But I think my favorite has to be the 100 Things I Love prompt. Such a good mental exercise when the world seems hell-bent on making things difficult. Check out her other posts too. Great stuff.

Mary at From The Pen Cup wrote a very moving post about the loss of two beloved pets in the same week, and how a package from SBRE Brown cheered her up a little. The power of pens and tea.

And finally a video by Erica, also known as The Nerd Journals on YouTube, of all of her filled notebooks as of the end of 2014. They just look so LOVED!!

 

 

Purple Ink, Black Pen

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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So as promised, here is my post on my new Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multipen. And my new bottle of ink arrived this week so I will talk about that too.

I have been a Coleto pen lover for some time. The earliest post tagged with “Pilot Coleto Multipen” is from Sept 2013. And the love continues because I’m still using these pens, almost every day.

The Pilot Coleto Multipens are available in a number of styles. I prefer the “standard body” which can hold 3, 4 or 5 ink refills. For a really great explanation of the different body types available watch The Tokyo Pen Shop’s excellent video here. The bodies and refills are available at Tokyo Pen Shop, Amazon, JetPens and ebay. There may be others but ebay is still the cheapest option for me. I buy from a seller in Japan and I look forward to her beautiful packaging almost as much as I do the pens and refills.

The 5-barrel Coletos are available in 5 colours: Silver, Pink, Black, Blue and White. I have 3 so far: Silver, Black and Blue. I do plan on adding the Pink and White when the budget allows. With shipping and exchange the cost of each 5-barrel with 5 refills is around $20.

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There are 17 refills available, in a range of colours and tip sizes. Two of the refills include a mechanical pencil and a stylus. The tip sizes come in 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. I find the 0.3 very scratchy, but the 0.4 and 0.5 are just right. My 5-barrel Coletos all have the 0.5 tip size refills. Each refill shows the tip size on the side of the coloured fin at the top of the pen.

The writing experience with these pens is wonderful. They are very smooth writers and the ink is very bright.

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I selected the ink colours for this new black Coleto to match the colours I use in my World Mail Panel notebook. Previously I had been using 2 Slicci pens, because they are only available in a 3-barrel version, and I use 5 colours in that particular notebook. You can see in the photo below how bright the Coleto inks are compared to the Slicci inks (the top two entries were written with Slicci pens; the next two with the black Coleto).

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I have watched a number of YouTube videos and read many reviews where people complain about the life of the refills, that they run out very quickly. I have not found that to be the case with mine. I do not use them at work, nor do I use them to journal. But I do use them for my planner and my World Mail Panel notebook as I mentioned. I have not had to replace a refill yet. I highly recommend these pens if you are looking for a multipen with lots of options.

And now on to my new bottle of ink. I loved the Mystery Ink game on FP Geeks so much I had to buy a bottle once the name was revealed. So I hopped on to the Goulet site and ordered a bottle of De Atramentis Aubergine. If you want a more detailed ink review see the Mystery Ink link above.

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It arrived as always floating in a sea of bubble wrap, and I enjoyed the wee tootsie pop as my afternoon snack. Then I added the new member of the family to my ink journal, complete with purple swab.

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So there you have it folks, a couple of my recent purchases. They won’t be the last! 🙂

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

23 Thursday Apr 2015

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Happy Birthday to my favorite bard! This article, from USA Today, on the frighteningly low number of colleges that require Shakespeare courses to be taken by English majors, is rather sobering. And sad. Or as the great man himself said, in Sonnet 75:

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found;
Now proud as an enjoyer and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then better’d that the world may see my pleasure;
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight
And by and by clean starved for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight,
Save what is had or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

Journal Writing Wednesday: 14 pages

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

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What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Leather Journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Apr 15): 14

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 921

Total pages written in 2015: 181

Monthly Pen: Monteverde Prima in Purple Swirl

Next monthly pen will be announced on April 29

Purchases:

My new Coleto arrived this week and I will review it this Sunday. I am still waiting on another ebay pen, as well as the Goulet ink mentioned last week. And today I ordered a bunch of stuff from Nanami Paper; they finally have their Tomoe River paper notebooks back in stock. Stay tuned.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

  • I am still using my Purple Prima and the miracle I hoped for has happened: I’m in love with it again. I’m taking it to work everyday and using it as much as possible. I’ve run through the MI6 (De Atramentis Aubergine) ink and now I’m onto Waterman Purple. I used it to write a thank-you note for a co-worker and he admired my handwriting and the beautiful ink colour. 🙂
  • I’m getting over a cold (again) and the recovery for my leg is taking forever. With colds comes coughing and sneezing, and it feels like for each cough/sneeze I’ve earned a week of excruciating leg pain. I’m waking up in the middle of the night again, but it’s not so bad that I have to actually get up, which is a plus. One day at a time.
  • I spent a few hours working on my Letter Journal; I’m slowly filling up the Phasha journal and I love the look of it! I wrote in my journal how happy it makes me to revisit old letters.

Until next week, happy writing!

Monday Miscellany

20 Monday Apr 2015

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Great post by Jinnie on Three Staples on discovering Field Notes and how that changed her journaling habit. Great pictures too.

I really enjoyed this post on ATS (All Things Stationery) describing how the author uses stationery at work but keeps all the good stuff at home. I tend to do this too, although lately I’ve been bringing fountain pens and ink to my work desk to liven things up a bit. I really like the idea of a decoy pen pot. 🙂

And if you love orange (who doesn’t?) this post by Mary at From the Pen Cup will have you ordering something orange before you’ve finished reading it. Mary is always entertaining and so informative. I love my purple Al-Star and this post has me considering the orange one!

 

 

Monteverde Poquito

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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I realized today I have not reviewed my Monteverde Poquito fountain pen, which I bought for my personal Finsbury Filofax from Reid’s Stationers in December 2014.

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Here you can see the Poquito in the Finsbury pen loop, and it is an incredibly tight fit. So hard to find pens that fit that pen loop. But I wanted to have a fountain pen for my planner so I purchased the smallest fountain pen I have yet to see in person. It did not come with a box although the reviews on YouTube show a very nice green Monteverde box.

Poquito in Spanish means “a little bit” and this pen is super small. It measures 11 cm (4.4″) capped, and a respectable 12.6 cm (5″) posted. It is too small for a Monteverde converter, although a couple of the videos I watched mentioned smaller converters that could fit it. It comes with a standard international cartridge; mine came with black. If you want to use bottled ink you can use a syringe to fill the empty cartridge.

I found the ink was VERY slow to dry and made a mess of my fingers and my journal. And yes I realize now I spelled it “Paquito” at the beginning of the journal entry, and also in my Waterman Junior post.

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I originally bought this pen to use in my Finsbury but the paper is not meant for fountain pen ink; there was tremendous showthrough and the long drying time meant messy pages. But I do use the pen; it is a good smooth writer and very comfortable in the hand despite its small size.

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Here is the pen in action on a Filofax page.

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Definite showthrough.

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Here’s a closeup of the pen. I chose the silver, but it comes in turquoise, pink and steel grey. The turquoise and pink are metallic. I chose the silver to match the rings in my Finsbury.

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The section has a bit of a step down and the nib is standard iridium, made in Germany. I think the Goulet Pens video said it was a #5. Currently this model is sold out on the Goulet Pens website.

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I was given these Monteverde cartridges when I purchased my Visconti Rembrandt from Goldspot, so they will come in handy when the black cartridge that came with the Poquito runs out. But it will accept any short international cartridge.

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And here is that picture I used in my Waterman Junior post, comparing pens. From left: Monteverde Poquito, Waterman Junior, Monteverde Crystal Artista, Pilot Metropolitan, Cadence, Lamy Al-Star.

Overall I would recommend the Poquito for a small everyday carry pen. It is very comfortable in the hand and writes well. I’m not a big fan of the long drying time of the ink but that could be the paper I was using for my tests as well. Let me know in the comments if anyone has had any experience with this pen, good or bad.