I was delighted to meet Lauren Phelps at the Little Craft Fest event in Houston a couple weeks ago. Owner of Lauren Phelps Designs and journal goddess, she is a fountain pen fan herself, she produces journal/planner/notebooks that feature Tomoe River 52gsm paper in her date-free planner/journals called Live | Plan | Dream series.
These notebooks are available in Standard Travelers, Weeks, A5, A6 and (oh joy!!!) B6! I sampled the A6 size (148 mm x 105 mm, $32.99) with a flexible leatherette cover in a muted peachy-pink color. The notebook includes 392 pages of 52gsm white Tomoe River paper and the majority of the pages feature 4mm dotted grid. The notebooks is threadbound and flays flat and has slightly rounded corners. The quality is excellent.
In the front of the notebook is twelve, 2-page monthly calendar grids making it possible to start your planning in May or August or whenever you want to jumpstart your journal or planning goals for a whole new year.
On the back page is a page spacing and tab placement guide. This is such an interesting addition. I totally understood the tab placement guide on first glance but the other guide info took me a minute to understand. The guide info includes numbers to indicate the number of grid boxes on the page both horizontally and vertically as well as marks to show how to divide the page into sections. Its a pretty clever way to help if you like to divide your pages.
I also got a Moon Child Planner Cover – a collaboration with Nib & Fleur ($23.99) which is a clear, flexible vinyl cover, printed with an opaque white design of flowers, moon and stars. The inside front cover features two small horizontal pockets to store extra ephemera. I love this cover and can still add additional decorations on the notebook cover under the vinyl cover.
At present, the prices for these undated Tomoe River planner/journals are less expensive than most Hobonichi branded notebooks while the quality is on par or exceeds the Hobonichis.
Of course, I do not have information as to the notorious Tomoe River paper issues regarding the Lauren Phelps Designs but the sample I tested performed well and met all my expectations for paper quality. I love that these planner/journals are available in a variety of sizes for whatever size you prefer, are undated and less expensive than Hobonichi. They are worth the investment.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Lauren Phelps Designs for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I have re-embraced my love for reading this year. It’s my safe place and my way to escape the doomscrolling. Instead of Pod Save America, I am listening to audiobooks while doing household tasks or exercising and instead of nightly news reports, I read fantasy and sci-fi and all kinds of other fiction. Even my knitting has taken a backseat since I often watch tv or movies while knitting and I just haven’t felt called to watch anything — even fictionalized shows. I prefer to fall head first into a book.
As a result, I blew past my personal reading challenge goal in March or April and keep reading. I visit my local library to pick books up off the “new releases” shelf or books I’ve requested from the hold shelf. I download ebooks through Libby/Overdrive onto my Kobo Libra 2. Our Patreon (Inktellectual and Pen Champs tiers) even have a book club that makes sure I read more diversely. I am even involved in a local book club that also pushes me to read books I might not have chosen myself or sometimes to re-read a book which I seldom do because “there’s always more to read.”
I have even started a book journal where I log each book I’ve read with a small photo of the cover to help me remember the book. Since so many books I read are ebooks or on loan from the library, these little thumbnail images are the only way to “keep” the books and my memories of them alive.
These are a few of the books I’ve read in the last month or so.
With the exception of the purchase of the Kobo device last year, the hobby of reading books is relatively inexpensive. What I don’t borrow from the library digitally or physically, I either buy secondhand or through online ebook sales (bookbub.com is a great source for deals).
What is bringing you comfort and respite in these tumultous times?
If you join our Patreon today, you can listen to our exclusive podcast tomorrow! I’ll be talking about the Little Craft Fest Stationery Event and lots of other gossip and news from around the pen community. For our current Patreon supporters — thank you! I love you for all your support!
I was so surprised how much I liked the Writech Dual Color Multi-Pen (Vintage Color Set) that I went ahead and purchased the Writech Dual Color Multi Pen – 0.5 mm – 4 Vintage & Black Color Set ($8.25 for the set). This set uses four “vintage colors” — one in each pen body paired with black. At first, I didn’t quite get the appeal of having FOUR pens with black until it dawned on me that I would most likely carry just one of these pens at a time with my monthly journaling kit and would have TWO pens in one barrel. So convenient!
The “vintage colors” are really just subtle colors: Milk Tea, Burgundy Red, Dark Blue and Lilac. All these colors are paired with the Black so I have a lighter, interesting color plus the ever-functional black for those everyday uses.
The only duplicate color to the Dual Color Multi-Pen Set is Milk Tea which I don’t mind in the least as it is my favorite and one of my favorite gel pen colors to date. I wish there were options to buy refills when I use up all the ink in these pens.
Once again, I am impressed with the quality and colors available in the Writech gel pens. If you have not tried these out yet, now is the time.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Thanks to everyone who read our recap of the Little Craft Fest in Houston. And of course, for entering our giveaway for our tote full of goodies graciously provided by many of the vendors who were at the show. A list of the most of the vendors that contributed are in our original post. Please consider supporting these small businesses.
Now, for our winner:
If anyone knows how to fix this weird glitch in my comments, let me know!
Sailor is a great place to start. I hope to see you at the event next year, Yen Draws! I’ve emailed you directly so check your email and reply soon!
Stay tuned for future recaps and giveaways. There’s lots more shows this year!
My key tools: Galen Leather 3-pen case with Hot Dang Press Iron-On transfer, Hobonichi Pocket Drawer in Ukranian Flowers and my B6 leather notebook cover from Etsy with B6 Stalogy and Creeping Moon Draco Clip
This month, I wanted a clean, simple theme for my planner set-up and decided to go with “Black & White & May All Over”. Printables in a variety of sizes with calendar and artwork are available to download FREE to Patrons if you want these files too.
I have recorded another video where I babble about all the tools and materials and even test drive a few new items I picked up at the Little Craft Fest stationery event last week.
My goal will be to post more “plan with me” style videos later this month. Please let me know if you’re interested in this type of content.
Now, for a whole laundry list of all the tools I used this month.
If you want access to our FREE printables each month, consider subscribing to our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site and allows us to make more cool stuff. Thank you!
I thought I’d share the vision board that I created in the Plotter workshop at Dromgoole’s last week. It was a fun little process to write a list of three or more things that you’d like to do, do more of or improve how you’re doing them. My key phrases were to make more time to exercise (go for walks and bike rides), play more often and work a little less and replant some of my houseplants (I am not an outdoor gardener). These are not BIG goals but I think with everything going on in the world, I wanted to focus on things that will make me feel better and help my mental health.
If you want to try making your own vision board, the steps are simple. Make a list of 3 or 4 things you’d like to do in the next quarter (or month) and then collect images from ephemera, old books and magazines, washi and stickers and work out a layout that appeals to you. Be sure to figure out your layout before you glue your items down. Fun!
The Well-Appointed Desk is a resource for you. If you’d like to help keep us going, get extra bonus content like a bi-weekly podcast, printables and more consider joining our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!
My pal Cheryl from Rickshaw Bagworks out in front of Dromgoole’s
Dromgoole’s & Plotter Event:
My trip to Houston for the Little Craft Fest started with a trip to Dromgoole’s to experience the Plotter Event that included custom corners for your Plotter and a workshop on how to create a vision board for your Plotter.
Disassembling my Plotter for best corner application.Material color choices for Plotter cornersPressing in progress!I got corners that match the spine on my bible-sized Plotter.
Hard at work making our Vision Boards in the Plotter workshop.
On Thursday, I helped the Dromgoole’s team packing up and shuttling a mini-store worth of product into the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Conroe, Texas. From the shop to the hotel took over an hour. I had no idea how big the Houston are was and how busy the freeways are there!
The Little Craft Fest 2025:
It took about four hours to set-up and a lot of bending time and space to get it to all fit.
The whole set-up of the Dromgoole’s booth was envisioned and executed by Ashley who is an amazing illustrator and a wonderful lady I was honored to work with this weekend.
The show ran from Friday through Sunday. Each day was a Stamp Rally event that allowed attendees to go to designated tables each day, collect stamps and once the page was filled, they could take their program to the stamp rally table to collect a “gift bag”. Dromgoole’s participated on Sunday and we spent the first couple hours of the show stamping programs for folks before regular shopping resumed.
The Dromgoole’s Booth!Why yes, you could buy Well-Appointed stickers and more at the Dromgoole’s booth.
Licia Letters and her momKate MasonOnce More With LoveAM Paper & Art Co.Belle & UnionCalliope Pencil Factory
Aoi Little StudioMy favorite! Creeping Moon!Michaela Made and her fabulous dress!Robo RokuI was so excited to visit LCN Studio booth and spent quite a bit of money here.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on the contents of the Stamp Rally gift bags. Some folks on Friday and Saturday received oodles of high value merchandise and goodies while others on Sunday said they mostly got totes with stickers and postcards or business cards and were not as “glorious” as had been promoted.As a vendor, the frenzy of the stamp rally events made it hard for folks who weren’t participating to shop since the gift bags were first-come, first-serve and a limited number were available each day. It also meant people raced around to get their stamps and could not take the time to shop, if they did come back, until much later after they’d been run off their feet. Chicago Stationery Fest held a stamp rally event as well but somehow, the rules or process for the rally seemed less chaotic to me and less frenzied. If you participated in either rally event, please provide your perspective if you enjoyed it and if it was worth it.
Peko.PuffWall of Diamine at Elite Accessories
Outside of the stamp rally event, there were classes and workshop held all day long, some starting as early as 8:30am and some running as late as 9pm. From what I’ve heard from other instructors, the classes were largely well-attended and enjoyable. There were a couple sessions that were too much lecture, not enough hands-on but that was the only complaint I heard all weekend. It seems like a lot of people came for the classes and workshops.
Overall, the vendors in the Marketplace featured a range of products but there was a heavy concentration of cute stickers both available in sheet and as die cut vinyl stickers. There were also lots of washi tape, charms, enamel pins, some paper products like cards, prints, postcards and such. Elite Accessories (distributor for Kaweco and Diamine in the US) had a table as well as Kenro (Ferris Wheel Press, YStudio and Esterbrook) and Sailor/Penlux North America. I think that was all the US distributors. The fountain pen shops were Dromgoole’s, Vanness Pen Shop and, of course, Little Craft Place. I think the grand total of vendors was about 100 or so. I don’t know the official count but it was more than was at Chicago Stationery Fest.
All the attendees seemed happy and friendly and looked to be having a good time. None of the issues that had been present at the Yoseka Stationery Fest or the Chicago Stationery Fest were present at Little Craft Fest. Some of this was a result of a larger hotel venue with plenty of places inside for people to enter the event, more space indoors for shoppers, and better lighting.
While the event did have two food trucks park outside the entrance, many people said they had to wait 30 to 40 minutes to order which was frustrating.
My darling friend Lupe at the Sailor/Penlux table!The epic Little Craft Place booth
As for the marketplace, I heard mixed feedback from the vendors in attendance. For some, this was their first ever show, for others who may have been at the Yoseka Stationery Event last summer or the Chicago Stationery Fest a few weeks ago. The feedback I received was mixed. Many of the vendors I spoke to who had been in Chicago felt that, despite the issues with that event, they had stronger sales and enjoyed the event more. Some even said they would be unlikely to return to Houston because of low sales. Others had strong sales and felt good about the event and look forward to returning.
I would love to hear feedback from anyone who attended the event. Did you enjoy yourself? Did you spend more or less of your budget? What kinds of things did you purchase?
And now….
The Giveaway:
And of course, I know you’re all really here for the giveaway. The vendors at Little Craft Fest were super generous and filled a Stamp Rally tote with about 5lbs of products including (but not limited to):
I’ve also added (purchased with my own money) a bottle of CoffeeMonstersCo Forgotten Iced Coffee Ink from Esterbrook. I’m also throwing in some new Well-Appointed Desk stickers, a roll of Inky Dreams Washi Tape and the last remaining Chicago Stationery Fest Ltd Ed Col-o-ring!
Plus a ton of stickers, postcards and ephemera including a program.
And that’s not all!
We are also including the limited edition canvas tote donated by Dromgoole’s!
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me which vendor would be your first stop if you had attended the Little Craft Fest. 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 Friday, May 2, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. 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.
