Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing for the Frankie Daily Journal. Let’s have a drum roll for the winning number….
Congrats to Dawn! I’ll be contacting you via email to get your delivery information. I hope the planner helps you meet all your resolution goals for 2014.
From Peter:
I am a fellow KC dweller, and have had a hard time finding anywhere to pick up quality stationery. Know of anywhere local to find it?
If you are specifically looking for paper for letter-writing, I would recommend the Paper Source on the Plaza. They carry an assortment of options from companies like Rifle Paper and Chronicle Books. Paper Source also carries paper and notecards in small packets in lots of colors with matching envelopes.
If you are looking for notebooks and other stationery goods, a lot of boutiques and small shops in places like Brookside, Crestwood and Prairie Village often have a table with products. Hammerpress in the Crossroads stocks a variety of desk products like Field Notes and they stock a few Kaweco Sport ALs and a few other writing tools as well as their fabulous cards, postcards, posters and calendars.
I also like Utrecht and Creative Coldsnow (both near Westport) art supplies for a variety of tools. Pencils, erasers, sharpeners, Sakura Pigma Microns, Moleskine and such can be found in these shops.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum Store has some lovely products as well. The museum is always free admission so popping by just to scout out the shop is an option. And lunch in the Rozzell Court is quite a pleasant affair.
For ink and fountain pens, the Pen Place in Crown Center is your best option. They have a wide variety of pen brands, from inexpensive like Retro 51, Lamy and Kaweco to much more expensive options like Waterman, Montblanc and Pelikan. They also stock lots of ink (Noodler’s, Private Reserve, Mont Blanc, Pelikan Edelstein and many more). The nice thing is that you can see a swab of the inks before you purchase it but their costs tend to be a bit more than online retailers. If you go in informed and take into consideration shipping costs versus must-have-it-now, it might be worth a visit.
Let me know if you have any other sources for paper, ink, pens or office supplies in the KC area or if I left anything out. Hope this helps.
At the close of a year, who doesn’t love a good Top 10 List. I’ve been collecting all my fellow pen and paper bloggers’ lists of their most popular reviews and products for 2013.
In no specific order, here are 10 end-of-year/top 10 posts:
Here’s a round-up up the most popular posts from 2013 that appeared here on The Desk.
I’m surprised to see the Bullet Journal and the Pipe Desk in the top ten but they are both great things to know. Thanks to all of you for continuing to read my reviews, leaving great comments and feedback and inspiring me with your own adventures in paper, ink and writing tools.
Happy New Year to all and happy writing!
I have always been curious about the incredibly popular Frankie Magazine Daily Journal ($26.95AU). So, I ordered one. In the time that elapsed between ordering the book and it arriving here in the States, I also received the Hobonichi which stole my nerdy heart.
This does not mean that I was not completely blown away with how lovely and romantic the Daily Journal is. Its full of gorgeous illustrations, decorative patterned borders and hand-lettered dates.
The planner is approximately 7.5″x5.75″. The cover is a beautiful heavyweight sage twill with the text stamped into it in cream. There’s a matching satin ribbon bookmark too. The binding seems sturdy but the book opens nicely. The paper is weighty (I’d compare it to American 80lb or 100lb text weight. Copy paper is about 20-30lb weight, if that gives you an idea of the sturdiness). My only concern for usability is all the printing on the paper may have added some coating to the paper that might resist some inks.
In the back cover is a printed pocket for loose sheets. There are also perforated cards, stickers and other goodies bound into the back of the book.
In the front of the book are month overviews with floral illustration. Weekly pages span two pages with Saturday and Sunday sharing a small space.
Its such a lovely book that I couldn’t bring myself to blemish it to do pen tests. Instead, I’d like to give it away to one lucky reader. In exchange, I hope that you’ll report back to me how well the paper performs so I can decide if I want to use one next year.
Let’s make this a quick giveaway so I can get this to the winner ASAP to start the new year off right. Leave a comment and tell me one of your goals, plans or resolutions for 2014.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Wednesday, January 1, 2014. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Thursday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 30 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money.
Since one of my goals for 2014 is to cook more meals at home, I need a system to store and organize recipes. Office supply geek thing at work, clearly! I’ve been searching the internet for good recipes and culling the stacks of magazines all over my house for potential recipes and sticking them in a file folder. This is not an ideal way to find a recipe so I am headed out to the office supply store today to pick up a binder ($3.89) or two, dividers ($0.99) and an assortment of plastic sleeves ($12.79/box of 50) to store my recipes in a more orderly fashion. I like that the plastic sleeves will keep the recipes safe from spills too.
I’ve been searching all morning for a good source for standard 8.5″x11″ sheet protectors that are divided to hold two 5.5″x8.5″ sheets since I have a bunch of smaller pages from Everyday Food (now defunct) and to hold recipe cards instead of a box. Sadly, I have been unable to find any at a reasonable cost (most seem specific to holding archival photo prints and are quite pricey). I may end up with a small binder and sheet protectors for the Everyday Food recipes, specifically, if I can’t find a better option.
I will probably keep dessert recipes in a separate binder to keep all the binders light and agile. Besides, I don’t tend to use them with the same frequency as dinner recipes.
In case you are curious, I found a lot of great recipes on Budget Bytes, including easy-to-make crock pot dishes. Also, the Dragon Noodles dish is delicious, easy-to-make and infinitely customizable. I added frozen edamame to mine for some extra protein.
Does anyone else have a good system for organizing recipes?
(photo via Freesytlin’ Beth)
I love the few, quiet days between Christmas and New Year’s. I use the time to potter around the house, tackling piles of papers, cleaning out my in-box (paper and digital), using Christmas cards to update addresses in my address book and other organizational projects. I try to write my thank you notes, catch up on correspondence, read books and catch up on movies. I really need a month but a week gets some of the projects checked off my list for the new year.
I love using the New Year as a chance to do things better. Lots of people talk about resolutions, but I think of them more as plans and goals. I often choose things that should be attainable in theory rather than things that are completely new habits or lifestyle.
So far, my personal goals are pretty humble:
What are your goals for the New Year?
