In feature

Giveaway: Owl Paper Co. A5 Undated Planner

Author AnaPosted on 11 Comments
Giveaway: Owl Paper Co. A5 Undated Planner

I have a beautiful planner from Owl Paper Co. to give away today. I reviewed another Owl Paper Co. planner last week that uses the same 80 gsm Delphina paper and a similar layout if you’d like to see pen tests and ink swatches.

The Owl Paper A5 Undated Bullet Journal features a Caramel Macchiato leatherette cover. It is a 6-month, undated bullet journal. For each month, there is:

  • a two-page monthly calendar spread
  • followed by a two-page habit tracker spread
  • followed by a two-page vertical weekly spread
  • then there’s eight daily pages with a timeline lightly printed in the margin

There are also 50 additional pages in the back for additional notes.  This planner also features Delphina 80gsm paper and has a total of 384 pages. The cover is a camel leatherette.

The planner feature a very light grid printed on the pages, a two-page monthly calendar and a vertical weekly calendar spread.

(There is a slight ding in the upper corner but it will not effect the binding or usability. Thanks, USPS!)

GIVEAWAY: We have ONE Owl Paper Co. A5 Undated Planner in camel leatherette to giveaway to one lucky winner.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and let me know what size planner or journal you usually use OR if you’ve tried or heard of Owl Paper Co.?  Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Wednesday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual 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 5 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. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

In Link Love

Link Love: Another Pen Show!

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Link Love: Another Pen Show!

I’m headed off to Dallas for the pen show tomorrow. If you’re attending the show, please come by the Dromgoole’s corner in the main ballroom and say hi. I’d love to see you!

In Link Love news, its a very arty week and art markers get some serious love. USPS provides shipping guidelines for the upcoming holiday season and there’s some tips for reusing old planner inserts from Philofaxy. Enjoy!

Pens:

Ink:

Planners, Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

In case you’re curious, I build each Link Love illustration from bits and pieces of vintage artwork collected or purchased through reputable stock illustration sites. No AI is used in making the art or building our curated list of links each week. 

If you love Link Love, you’ll love our Patreon where you can get inspiration, gossip and free printables plus a  biweekly podcast and more. Your patronage supports this site. Without our Patrons, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Sailor Manyo Ayame

Author Laura CameronPosted on Leave a comment
Ink Review: Sailor Manyo Ayame

A few weeks ago when I was preparing a yarn and ink palette I realized that I didn’t have any mint or sage green in my ink stash. I’ve got bright grassy greens, kelly greens, greeny teals and forest greens. But nothing muted or minty. I immediately went to JetPens and remedied that; I purchased a bottle of Sailor Manyo Ayame ($24 for 50mL).

Ayame is a dual shading ink. It starts as a muted darker green (more of the sage) and then shades into violet and pink tones. I can also see bits of a brighter green there in closeups.

This ink is gorgeous! I don’t know that it’s my original intended, but I feel like I want to put it in every pen now. Obviously it shows up darker in my splotches and brushing, but I do think in a medium nib it would be dark enough for decent writing.

As far as comparisons go, I don’t have anything that’s even close. Ukikusa is bright green and not close at all. Styx Valley Forest Green picks up the darker tones in Amaye, but is way too dark. I love that I’ve filled a whole in my color options!

DISCLAIMER: Special thanks to Jet Pens who sent us the ink sample for the purposes of review. Other items may have been received for review, or purchased with our own funds. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fountain Pen Review

Surprise Pen: Sailor Pro Gear Slim Celestial Grey EF Fountain Pen

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Surprise Pen: Sailor Pro Gear Slim Celestial Grey EF Fountain Pen

For months, I have been looking at the Sailor Pro Gear Slim 2024 Celestial Grey EF ($280) on the JetPens site. It is one of the last places that had one in stock and the price was more 2024 than 2026. However, I have been on a budget and even at the reasonable 2024 prices, the Celestial Grey was still pricey.

So, on Sunday, with the window still open on my laptop, Bob says, “Hey, hon… I have a little present for you.” And he pulls a bubble wrapped packed from his backpack and puts it in my hand. I open it seeing the “Sailor” logo on the side of the sleeve and look quizzically, “You didn’t?!?!” and he said “I did.”

I slid the navy box from the white sleeve and popped the lid open and immediately ripped the plastic wrap from the pen and held it to the light. “It’s so pretty!!!”

The Celestial Grey is a dark, translucent grey with sparkles. It’s a distant cousin to the Whisper of the Witch Pro Gear but without the custom nib and end cap and several hundred dollars cheaper.

Bob smiled and I hugged him. (Good husband!) And then carried the pen around with me all day. I introduced Celeste (yep, she has a name now) to her cousins Stardust Galaxy and Purple Lamé.

Stardust Galaxy, Celestial Grey and Purple Lamé

I told him I would fill the pen on Monday because I needed to think about what color I wanted to use.

Late on Monday, I decided to fill it with some purple ink I had from Pen BBS (don’t ask which color, it’s not in production anymore) and I started testing it. The nib is extremely smooth for being one of the finest nibs in my collection. Because so many of my planners and journals have tiny 5mm grid, I do tend to prefer finer and finer nibs. I also write small so finer nibs make sure my letters are legible and not blobs.

The Celestial Grey with EF on the far left, center is the Starburst Galaxy with H-F and the far right is my 21K H-F Sailor nib which is a bit wider than the 14K nibs.
Writing sample and comparison with a Sailor 14K H-F and 21K H-F for line weight difference.

There is a slight line difference in the Sailor 14K nibs in EF and H-F nib width that remind me of a blade-style nib where there is some line variation between up-and-down strokes and side-to-side strokes. It’s visible in more script writing or the curly-q’s above. The 21k nib has a more uniform line width and is a little wider than the 14K H-F.

The EF Sailor 14K nibs can feel super sharp depending on your writing angle and have the most feedback (scratchy sound like a pencil on paper) depending on your angle, firmness in writing and paper choice.

I tested the pens on 68gsm Tomoe River and its gave lots of feedback with the EF nib. I’d definitely compare the Sailor EF to a 0.25-0.3mm gel pen tip. If you prefer a wider gel pen, than go for the H-F, MF or M nibs from Sailor. Its a special kind of crazy that likes these super sharp extra fine nibs. On other papers, the EF can feel smoother or even scratchier depending on the tooth or texture of the paper. My daily 52 gsm Tomoe River journal feels smoother with the EF than 68 gsm but it could just be my perception.

In the end, there are some times when using what you have is the best way to go. Other times, its really nice to have a new tool to love on. Happy new pen day!

This pen was purchased with real monies by my sweet husband. JetPens is a sponsor of this site but this pen was not gratis for the purpose of reviews. All opinions are my own.

In Paper Review

Planner Review: Owl Paper Co. 2026 B6 Dated Bullet Journal (80gsm Delphina Paper)

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Planner Review: Owl Paper Co. 2026 B6 Dated Bullet Journal (80gsm Delphina Paper)

Last year I did a review comparison of lots of different planners papers following the Tomoe River issues in Hobonichi and other planners in 2025. Since then, several planner companies have changed or updated their paper selections. Owl Paper Co. is one of the companies that has switched from Tomoe River paper to a very unique 80gsm Delphina Paper.

As far as I can tell, Owl Paper Co. is the only planner/journal company using Delphina 80gsm paper. I’m excited to give it a try.

Since the paper is thicker than Tomoe River, Owl Paper Co. splits the year into two books so I was sent the Jul-Dec 2026 dated version (currently $25) in order to try it out.

Planner Details

The Owl Paper Co. planner has a flexible leatherette cover and a stitched spine that allows he book to easily lay flat.

The planner includes index pages (2 pages), goals pages (2 pages), forward planning pages from Jul 2026 – Jun 2027 (4 pages) and then a month-on-two-pages calendar (2 pages) followed by a tracker page with notes area and an inspirational quote  (2 pages). There are six sets of calendar and tracker pages that are then followed by week-on-two-pages (27 sets for the 6 months) and then blank grid pages for journaling, notes, planning, etc. (247 pages, more than enough for a page-a-day for six months with space for additional notes).

Monthly Calendar
Weekly Calendar

The weekly pages are vertical with time marks from 6am to 9pm. I don’t time block so these weekly pages are the hardest for me to figure out the best way to use them effectively. I do like the open space at the bottom for adding some decorative elements and random notes.

Blank pages

The dotted grid lines are quite light, comparable to Hobonichi and Stalogy — just enough to keep my lines straight but not so dark as to compete with lighter ink colors.

Pen Testing

The Delphina paper is much thicker (obviously) than Tomoe River but, in using it, I was surprised. I use so many TR or TR-like papers that I realized how long its been since I used a thicker paper for daily writing. It feels a bit more sturdy.

Pen Testing page (the smudge was a result of a drip off my iced water cup, not the paper or pen… just messy me).

I did some standard pen tests and the paper performed beautifully. There was mild show through but not nearly what thinner papers tend to show.

Back of pen test page
Ink swatch testing page

I even did some ink swatches to really dump some ink on the pages and wanted to see the sheen potential and was delighted to see sheen, shimmer, and almost no showthrough or bleedthrough from the larger swatches. I am falling in love with this paper!

Back side of ink swatch test page

Planner Testing Pages

For the weekly pages, I tried a couple different layout options: a simple checklist of tasks as well as a more time blocking approach. The weekly pages definitely seem most useful if you time block.

The blank pages are perfect for my goofy planner approach. I added date and day stickers as well as some washi and stickers to create my pages.

The pages for today and tomorrow are waiting for me to add my thoughts, to-do lists and random nonsense.

Final Impression

I freaking love this paper! Even without finding a way to make use of the weekly pages effectively, I love this planner. I do hope that Owl Paper Co. will start selling simple graph paper notebooks to pair with the planners for other projects and uses. The Delphina paper is too yummy to be missed!

Owl Paper Co. also sells plastic covers or vegan cover leather covers for the planners which I think is also pretty cool.

Owl Paper Co. only sells the dated planner in B6 but there is an undated A5 option as well.

Pre-orders for the 2027 B6 Dated Planners are available now. They can be purchased as a set or just the Jan-Jun if you want to try it before committing to a full year. But once you try this paper, you’re gonna want a year’s worth.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Owl Paper Co. for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fountain Pen Review

Fountain Pen Review: Jinhao #59 EF

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Fountain Pen Review: Jinhao #59 EF

I spend way too much time on Reddit and the Jinhao #59 pocket fountain pen ($9.99-$12.99) is a popular pen amongst the folks in r/fountainpens. So, I finally broke down and purchased one. I was iffy as to the quality and I am fully aware its a dupe of the legendary Pilot E95s ($176) but the price of the Jinhao version makes it a very appealing alternative.

I don’t actually own an E95s but I do have a vintage Platinum pocket fountain pen which I’ve included in the photos for size comparison. The #59 is very similar in size and weight to a classic Platinum pocket pen.

The Jinhao #59 features a steel nib and a captured converter (it might be removable but I couldn’t figure out a way to get it out without making a mess right now). The cap is friction fit and can be posted to create a full length pen.

The nib is surprisingly smooth. I wasn’t sure if the EF nib would be too fine and potentially scratchy but it absolutely was not. Its quite smooth but also a bit wider than I expected.

I compared the nib width to some of my other fine and extra fine nibs and noticed that the #59 is similar in width to the Kaweco EF and as smooth as my Sailor 21K H-F nib. Pretty impressive for a $10 pen, for sure.

If you are looking for a Japanese fine or extra fine nib, the #59 will not meet your needs. I would compare the EF to a Japanese MF or M nib.

The nib is super smooth, comparable in width to European nib sizing and a stiff nib (no bounce).

If you’re looking for a good pocket pen option, the Jinhao #59 is surprisingly good option. Shockingly good.

DISCLAIMER: Some items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: It’s Okay Not to Be Okay

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Link Love: It’s Okay Not to Be Okay

I am slowly starting to feel better after a long bout of bronchitis and FluA (me and just about everyone else who went to the SF Pen Show. As I slowly come back to the world, get more energy and see my ever-growing to-do list, I agree with Rachel’s post that, right now, in our current world, its okay to not be okay all the time. The world is a crazy place and sometimes we need to protect ourselves. Use your paper and pens to document the good, the bad and the could be’s. Through our analog tools, we can take care of ourselves.

Pens:

Ink:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

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