In Paper Review

Notebook Review: SIX Japanese Notebooks from JetPens (Tsubame, Teranishi, Tomoe River, Kukuyo, Yamamoto, & Nuoto)

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Notebook Review: SIX Japanese Notebooks from JetPens (Tsubame, Teranishi, Tomoe River, Kukuyo, Yamamoto, & Nuoto)

There are several that the community has been talking about recently like the Canopus and the new Teranishi notebooks but I dug deeper and found a few others worth considering. I went through the whole inventory on JetPens and purchased every  A5 Japanese paper-filled notebook I could find. I found six notebooks that I had not tested and some had paper I was not familiar with so this was quite an adventure.

All six of the notebooks are A5-sized, all feature some variation on a soft cover and all are designed to be fountain pen friendly. (There are some details that I left out of this review for brevity, like if you want to know about the color and texture of the end papers, drop a comment below).

What I wanted to do is see what the differences are, what features might be a make-or-break for you, and what the cost breakdown was for each of them. I’ve seen other breakdown the cost per ml for fountain pen ink, today I’m going to give you the cost per sheet for these six notebooks.

To start, let’s run down what these notebooks are:

Notebook Price Sheets Pages Price/sheet Available formats Paper Weight Paper Information Paper Color Construction
Nouto Nombre Notebook $24.00 94 188 $0.25 Grid 58.1 gsm Siebundo Paper Natural White Exposed spine
Tsubame Fools Cream $7.00 32 64 $0.26 Graph, Blank, Lined 81.4 gsm foolscap paper Cream Taped spine
Guitar Taisho Roman Haikara $17.00 64 128 $0.26 Dot Grid, Blank, Graph 95 gsm No add’l info Natural White Taped spine
Kanso Noto $20.00 160 320 $0.13 Dot Grid 52 gsm Tomoe River Sanzen Natural White Taped spine
KOKUYO Century Edition THIN Paper $24.00 184 368 $0.13 Blank, Dot Grid, Lined 52 gsm same THIN PAPER as the KOKUYO Jibun Techo Natural White Wrapped cover
Yamamoto Paper Canopus Note $25.00 88 176 $0.28 Blank (includes guide sheet) 73 gsm “Inspired by the discontinued Cosmo Air Light “ Bright White Taped spine

(* formats used in this review are in BOLD)

This review is long so I’m putting in a break here….

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In feature

Pen Show & Stationery Fest Calendar UPDATED!

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Pen Show & Stationery Fest Calendar UPDATED!

Just wanted to let you all know we continue to regularly add events, new dates and any updates to our Pen Show Schedule. Most recently, we have added two new Stationery-related events: the Northwest Stationery Fest (NWSF, which looks like Not Safe For Work to me because I keep inverting the letters) and a new Little Craft Fest, the Fall Market + Spooky Little Craft Fest.

Thanks to an eagle-eyed Patron for tipping us off to these events. If you know of an event in your area, drop info in the comments. We will continue to keep the Pen Show Schedule updated.

In Link Love

Link Love: World Cup Fever

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments
Link Love: World Cup Fever

I mentioned last week about the tendency in the stationery community to end up talking about the same things around the same time. Do we influence one another? Maybe its a new release? And sometimes, its just kismet like the two reviews about the Pentel Multi 8 Lead Holder that I recently reviewed as well.

In other news, the World Cup (for better or worse) is coming to America and I live in one of the host cities (Kansas City, if you’re curious) and I’ve been seeing the Fan Festival areas being set up on the lawn of the WWI Museum and World Cup merch in every shop imaginable. I don’t do well with crowds so I think friends will gather at various homes to watch a few games. Besides, tickets and venue food stalls are crazy expensive this year! Are you going to watch any of the games?

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Check out our Patreon where you can get inspiration, gossip and free printables plus our exclusive biweekly podcast and more. Your patronage supports this site. Without our Patrons, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In photo

Inkspiration: Happy Pride!

Author Laura CameronPosted on 2 Comments
Inkspiration: Happy Pride!

When looking for inspiration today, I decided it was time to go RAINBOW for Pride Month. So I gathered all my pens and my favorite rainbow of inks.

What colors would be in your rainbow?

L to R: Pelikan M205 Ruby Star, Kaweco AL Sport Mercury Orange, Red Dragon Pen Co., Ink Joy Gel Yellow, Jinhao Shark Pen, Pilot Metropolitan Green Marble, Sailor Mizutama, Esterbook Estie Blueberry Ice, Jinhao 82, TWSBI Diamond AL Mini Grape, Kara’s Kustoms Fountain K Violet

Also I guess I need a yellow fountain pen?

In feature

Customizing a Soolla Pouch

Author AnaPosted on 4 Comments
Customizing a Soolla Pouch

When I started stocking the Soolla Pouches in the shop, I received one that had a tear in the side. I was able to get a replacement from Soolla but I didn’t just want to throw away a pouch that was 98% completely usable. So, I decided to embrace the kintsugi vibe and do some visible mending to make the case completely usable. Kintsugi is the Japanese tradition of making repairs visible and embracing flaws and imperfection.

I grabbed some gradient colored embroidery floss in a contrasting color so that the repair is recognized and acknowledged — part of its journey through life. I started calling it my “FrankenSoolla” because I stitched the repair on the lavender lilac pouch with green thread, like Frankenstien’s monster.

Surprisingly, this repair made me love the pouch even more so this weekend, I decided that the pouch needed even more customization. I’ve been wanting to get better at embroidery — I’ve only ever really done a couple stitch samplers in my life — so I thought I’d take a chance and stitch my astrological sign onto the pocket. Stitching on an already-assembled object is tricky and definitely challenging.

I used a free embroidery pattern from DMC (available on Lovecrafts) and plain black floss. The design was a little quirky and imperfect to begin with so the fact that my skills are just so-so aren’t as noticeable. The design is supposed to look a little wonky.

Now, I’m wondering if I should do more embroidery or sew some patches on as well? What would you do?

Do you like to customize or personalize your stationery items too? Do you stick stickers on notebooks, recover the outside or add other embellishments to make your stuff “yours”? Let me know in the comments!

In feature

Giveaway Winner: Diamine Deadly Nightshade Ink

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Giveaway Winner: Diamine Deadly Nightshade Ink

Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway for the rare, elusive and slightly dangerous Cult Pens UK x Diamine Deadly Nightshade Ink.

Our winner is:

I love the idea of venomous animals for inks! And a little octopus in the bottle? Yes, please!

I have reached out to the winner via email. If this is you, check your spam filter. If I have not heard back from the winner within 7 days, a new winner will be selected.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog and enter our giveaways. Stay tuned for more!

In feature

My Top 5 Stationery Favorites for 2026 (so far)

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments
My Top 5 Stationery Favorites for 2026 (so far)

I wanted to capture some of my favorite products for 2026 (so far). I tried to choose one notebook, planner, pen, ink and tool but I broke my own rules before I even finished the post. What’s been your favorite products so far this year?

No. 1 Notebook: Mark’s EDiT Notebooks

I absolutely love the Mark’s EDiT notebooks and the B7 Semi Size has been my little side kick all year for random notes, to-do lists, thoughts and ideas on-the-go and even a few. silly little doodles. The paper is thin and great for fountain pens but I like it just as much with gel, felt tip, markers and rollerballs. The plastic cover keeps the book safe and durable without making it feel precious. This is a work notebook, not an heirloom. If you haven’t tried one yet, the paper is called NEO AGENDA and was created for Mark’s to be all the things we love about lightweight, fountain pen friendly paper. Not to promote my own shop but I have new order of these notebooks scheduled to arrive on June 13 so stayed tuned.

No. 2 Planner: Aura Estelle B6 Classic Daily Magnet Planner

I have been using the Aura Estelle B6 Classic Daily Magnet Planner and it is a great system. It combines all the things I loved about the Hobonichi (fountain pen friendly paper, page-a-day layout, etc) and added in the weekly layout like the Hobonichi Weeks at the beginning of each week. The layouts are simple, there’s no space occupied by quotes I didn’t choose myself and the gird lines are light and unassuming. 100% would buy again. My only issue is that I would love to see an Aura Estelle “Avec” with two smaller books for each half of the year as my Aura Estelle has already doubled in size with all the thing I’ve glued into it that I’m worried how impractically large it will be by the time November and December roll around.

No. 3 Pen: Kaweco Sport DIY Glow-In-The-Dark

I haven’t purchased a ton of fountain pens this year but I was able to acquire one the Kaweco Sport DIY Glow-In-The-Dark models and I love the color of the body whether its glowing or not. I appreciate Kaweco pushing the boundaries of what materials to use when making their flagship pen. My suggestion for the next model would be to do something translucent day-glo with sparkles — in green it could be Alien Invasion, in pink it could be a real Barbie Princess vibe, blue could feel like crystal caribbean waters and day-glo sprkly yellow could feel like a solar supernova.

No. 4 Ink: Diamine Deadly Nightshade

I know its not fair to most US pen fans to choose this one but I am absolutely loving Diamine x Cult Pens Deadly Nightshade ink. A delicious purply ink that sheens, has shimmer and floaty skulls in the the bottle. Be still my little goth heart. But don’t dispair, there’s still time to enter to win a bottle. May the floating skulls be yours!

No.5 Tool TIE: Soola Studio Pouch and Hobonichi Drawer Pouch

Darnnit. I was really hoping not to break the Top 5 rule but when it comes to tools in my stationery collection, the bags I use to hold all my pens, markers, stickers and ephemera, its hard to pick just one.

The Soola Studio Pouch is great for doing a bag-in-a-bag scenario and having “all the things”. All the pockets on the outside make it a great way to grab various pens and then the interior compartment with its various pockets can hold stamps, ink pads, stickers, washi, glue and more. I like that it sits flat on my desk or table when I use it as well.

But I still love using my Ukranian Flowers Hobonichi Drawer Pouch for the more diminutive carry. This case is used when I just need a few things or I’m trying not to look like a pack mule when I go somewhere. It has enough space for the pens I’ve selected for my monthly planning, a pair of scissors, washi tape on cards, a glue stick and maybe a few other bits. Slim and trim and can then be unzipped on my desk to create a landing spot for all the tools that it easy to see and easy to access.

Soola for ALL THE THINGS and Drawer Pouch for on-the-go.

Bonus Humble Brag: The Retro Rainbow Sticker collection

My new Retro Rainbow Sticker collection are my new favorite stickers. I can grab a color to match my theme of the month and have a great variety of vintage ephemera like tickets, stamps, typewriters, flora and fauna and more. But even I have been “these are too pretty to use” even though I have a drawer full of more of them. So, don’t worry and if you have any of these, use them. I’ll keep making them. And I may be convinced to add more colors to the rainbow in the future.

Links included in this post are for previous reviews and places where you might find the products. None of the links are affiliate (I don’t get any money, products or special deals for these link placements) EXCEPT links to The Well-Appointed Desk. That’s my shop. So, I do make money when you shop there. And I do genuinely appreciate it when you buy from my shop.