The Well-Appointed Desk

As Week Two of our 10 year celebration commences, I’ll start with the readers’ favorite posts this week. This part is easy. Thanks to hit counts, it’s pretty easy to see what posts get the most views and, chances are, you’ve probably visited these pages at least once.

So, without further adieu:

1. The Epic Refill Reference Guide: Rollerball, Gel and Ballpoints: This resource provide a guide (not definitive) of comparable refills for the most common rollerball, gel and ballpoint pens on the market. Not every refill in each category will fit in every pen but, depending on tolerances within a pen, there’s a decent chance they might.
2. Turn a Blank Notebook into a Lined Notebook, AKA The Guide Sheets: This free resource page provides a plethora of downloadable guide sheets to use with blank notebooks to provide lines, graphs or dot grids. We are delighted to be able to provide this free resource to the community. Feel free to include a link to this on your site or share it with the community, we just ask that you credit us. Thanks.
3. A Beginner’s Dive into Ring-Bound Planners: This 6-part series written over six years ago at what was probably the tail-end of the ring-bound planner craze is still accessed regularly. Of greatest interest is part two which features some great graphics illustrating the various binder sizes and some common paper sizes available.
4. 13 Things to Do With All Those Blank Notebooks: There are endless Buzzfeed posts on the internet of “XX of XX” and sometimes we are not above stooping to this if it means we will actually use all those notebooks we buy. I hoard them like they might stop making them one day, don’t you? We also did a follow-up to this post, 15 Things to Do with An Empty Sketchbook, leading up to Inktober the following year because I’m the same way with sketchbooks.
5. Ask The Desk: Storing Pens Up or Down?: It amuses me to no end that this post is in the Top Ten most viewed posts. I wrote this in 2013 and re-read it to make sure, seven years later I still agree with the information. Surprisingly, I pretty much do. I might store more brush pens upright these days or horizontally, but I have a lot of double-ended brush pens and felt tips so it’s harder to decided which end is up but otherwise, I still agree. Crazy.
6. Customizing a Midori Traveler Notebook: This post, along with a later post about Hacking a Traveler’s Notebook also get a lot of regular views. Neither are super thorough but have some good links and ideas to get folks started on the wide world of Traveler’s Notebooks.
7. 22 Planner Alternatives to a Filofax: This post is over five years old. Initially I thought it might be tired but it does mention most of the popular brands. It’s missing some of the newer Japanese planners (like the Jibun Techo) that have popped up in the last couple years so it may be time for a refresh… assuming we need to keep planners again, right?
8. Pen Show Schedule: Our Pen Show Schedule seems to have fallen down the list this year but under the circumstances we realize most people aren’t planning to travel and there aren’t many pen shows left on the calendar at this point. Laura and I have been frantically trying to keep it updated with the cancellations and rescheduling this year, something we have not had to do in the past. Hopefully, 2021 will bring about a fresh new pen show season. We can hope, right?
9. Review: ALL The Erasable Pens (Pilot Frixion + Uni Fanthom): Pilot Frixion is the best known erasable pen on the market and they have created gel pens, highlighters, markers and more but at the time of writing this review, Uni had released their Fathom line of erasable pens to compete and this was my first experiences with a competitor to the Frixion. It’s one of my earlier reviews so it’s not incredibly thorough. I guess it’s time to take another look.
10. Reconsidering Moleskine: Boy, did this post create a lot of controversy when I posted it. The review was written four years ago and I specifically went out and bought four different notebooks off-the-shelf to test. Since then, it’s possible that Moleskine has continued to change where and how it sources it’s paper but, at the time, my findings were above average. My photography though was sub-par!

Now, I thought it would be fun to make a list of our favorite posts… in no particular order. I asked Laura, Jesi and Tina to contribute to the list as well.

1. 1. Why Does All This Matter: A manifesto of sorts.: Reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and then listening to Magic Lessons rekindled such a passion in me. just this quote: “Live the most creative life as a means of fighting back against the ruthless furnace of this world.” is readymade for 2020, isn’t it. (Ana)
   2. Dudek Modern Goods “The Lady” Display: This post, while about the lovely pen display stand that Mike Dudek made for me is just as much about the pens IN the stand — my ever-growing collection of Lady Sheaffer Skripserts. (Ana)
   3. Planners: Where are they now? – We all buy them, sometimes sight unseen, and hope that they work with our processes. It was a fun exercise to go back and see what worked and what didn’t and it still informs my buying decisions today! (Laura)
   4. 5 Things You Should NOT Keep in a Planner: This was another of those posts that was written a long time ago and I needed to go back and re-read it to see if I still agreed with it. I do. These apply to any notebook. (Ana)
   5. Kickstarter: Wancher True Urushi Fountain Pen in Red: This post means a lot to me because there was a great deal of kismet in the timing of it. My dear friend Kasey was passing through town at the moment I was working on it and kindly loaned me his Nakaya Decapod for comparison. It added exactly what I needed to feel more knowledgeable and hopefully, make the review more well-rounded. (Ana)
   6. Blackwing Eraser Hack-a-Thon Tina says, of this post, “It was such a geeky thing to do (and to want to do), let alone in public.” (Tina)
   7. The “Upstairs” Typewriters: Since this post, I have sold several of these typewriters, and acquired several more. When people ask how many typewriters I own, I think it’s like asking a lady how old she is. My only response is “How rude!” Needless to say, there’s a bit of shame in my typewriter hoarding. But I am proud to say there are only THREE typewriters upstairs at present. (Ana)
   8. Chicago Pen Show Recap 2018 – Technically my second pen show, but the first that I got to experience pen shows after dark. I met so many people, ate chocolate cake bigger than my head and picked up some gorgeous pens that I still love to pieces. (Laura)
   9. Ink Review: Colorverse Sunspot, Black Hole, Vortex Motion and Dark Energy: I must have been punchy when I wrote this. I did about a week straight of writing Colorverse ink reviews when the inks were first available in the US. Everyone was reviewing them and I think I was trying to find how to put a new spin on them. I think this was it. I might have gone too far but I cannot ever look at these three inks the same way since this review. (Ana)
   10. Flashback: Pen Addict World Tour Toronto Video: This is just so silly and off-the-cuff and really summed up how much fun Brad, Myke and I had been having traveling together over the course of the year essentially. We could not have done it without the support of Kickstarter backers and Pen Addict listeners and I couldn’t have been a part of it without the kindness of the guys letting me tag along and be the third wheel. Like so much of the pen community, I am endlessly awed by the kindness I have found.

Honorary Mention: Coming Soon: Col-o-ring Ink Testing Books: This was the public announcement of our first Col-o-ring product and our real launch into the pen community as a business. It was scary and exciting all at the same time. It has changed our lives. It felt good to put something back into the community that we loved so much. And now we leave a trail of little white dots wherever we go. (Bob)