I have many notebooks with empty pages in them, but that number went down by one!
My new notebook is actually one I had used before, but only filled about 20%. Looking at the old notes, it appears I stopped writing in it in maybe 2018… so there’s quite a gap! But that’s fine.
Actually, I kind of like that this notebook will be a mix. Notebooks are not meant to be perfect.
On the right side of the photo are my three go-to pens, including my newest pen, the Pearl White Pilot Cavalier. I love it so much! It writes smoothly, is slim yet comfortable, and the color is beautiful.
On the left side of the notebook are a bunch of disassembled pens which I just cleaned and will give away. Most are inexpensive Jinhao pens which are fine, but they just don’t spark joy for me. The Sailor Fude (gold) is one that I may keep because the nib is unique in my collection, but the rest I will be saying goodbye to. Thank you for your service!
Today I changed up the lineup of my fountain pens a bit. I still love my Lamy Safari with broad nib, but have been enjoying the Pilot F nib more lately. Although I have several cheap Jinhao pens, only the Lamy and my Pilots have ink in them now, so maybe it’s time to pare down the collection and give the Jinhaos away.
Here’s my current lineup:
Lamy Safari (broad) / Iroshizuku Ama-Iro – The broad nib lets me see bright blue ink in all of its glory. Ama-Iro is my favorite ink that I’ll never get tired of.
Pilot Metropolitan (F) / Namiki Blue/Black – A general-purpose set-up great for basic writing. I have a bottle of Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, but that ink takes a long time to fully dry, and I end up with a lot of smears.
Although I have 4 colors, I like to limit a page to just 2 or 3 if I can. Any of them work well as a 3-color set, but 4 on a page will reveal a clashing pair, in my eyes. It may seem like a silly thing to mention, but I think it’s fun to think about these little things!
Koa was moving his pens and pencils to a new pencil bag and decided that he didn’t want his Kuru Toga pencils anymore. He prefers writing with wooden pencils over mechanical (plus the mechanical pencils poke holes in the pencil bag) so he gave me the Kuru Togas. Score!
The Kuru Toga pencils are so cool because the lead automatically rotates a tiny bit every time you lift the pencil from the page. That way, the lead maintains a a consistent edge. It’s kind of amazing how it works, and also how they actually thought it was a worthwhile feature to develop. Innovation!
Today’s photo is of the daily sketch I made, with my Timex Weekender watch and a few other items for fun. I wore this watch today because I saw an online friend’s Instagram post and it looked so nice that I was inspired! You know how you watch a movie where the characters are drinking, and it makes you want a drink, or they’re smoking and you think a cigarette might be nice? I guess that same sort of thing came over me. 😆