In feature

Link Love: The tale of two rainbows

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: The tale of two rainbows
My original (and now lost in SF) Suzon Shawl

In the spirit of color week, I thought I might share a little story about my favorite rainbow — a shawl I made in 2015 that featured white lace mixed with rainbow stripes. It was my constant companion when I traveled – particularly to pen shows as I was often chilly in the ballrooms and lobby areas. In San Francisco in particular, I think I wore that shawl wrapped around my neck everyday at some point to ward off the cold. This year, however, the shawl disappeared. I had it on Thursday at the opening of the pen show but by Sunday, it was gone. Did I drop it? Misplace it? Did someone take it? I do not know. I put multiple calls and emails to the hotel in hopes that it might turn up but, alas, several months have passed and it remains absent. In the interim, I found a kind soul on Ravelry who still had a few skeins of the delightful rainbow gradient yarn and was able to purchase it in an to attempt to make a replacement shawl. This week, I started the process of building a new rainbow shawl.

When I made the first one, I did not think for a second think it would become my favorite shawl. But here we are ten years later and I making a replacement for it. I guess I love color more than I though I did. All the color, all at once.

This week, thinking about and talking about color makes me realize how much I celebrate color from inks, to pens, to colored pencils, to the covers of my notebooks, accessories and ephemera. Color is such a joy and a pleasure to me and part of why I love the stationery world where I can inject a little bit of color into my day.

Do you have a favorite accessory, stationery-related or not that is your signature piece? A favorite book cover, bookmark, hat or bag? Share it in the comments.

In links, this week, I was recommended a link by one of my Patrons that aligns with my Digital Declutter project, called the Analog Life Project by Little Truths Studio. If you are looking to kickstart a less online life in 2026, check it out!

Link of the Week:

Looking back and Looking Forward:

Pens:

Ink:

Planners, Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

It’s a new year! Make a commitment to yourself by subscribing to the Well-Appointed Desk Patreon. You’ll receive a bi-weekly podcast of pen and stationery goodness, printables, downloadables and more. Patrons supports this site. Without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In photo

More thoughts on Pantone and the disappearance of color.

Author Laura CameronPosted on 7 Comments
More thoughts on Pantone and the disappearance of color.

As Ana indicated in yesterday’s post, we have thoughts about color! Or rather, thoughts on where Pantone’s lack of color has gone.

A few years ago a colleague of mine wrote an article called “Where Have All the Colors Gone?” and it got me thinking about this trend. All of a sudden I was noticing that our world was becoming significantly more beige. I’m not exactly sure the cause.

Some studies posit that in today’s world we get blasted with marketing content, tv, digital streams and more, with everything in bright colors and that using more neutral colors in decor, clothing, etc. helps us reset and calm in between. Others look to the influence of Nordic cultures and the concept of “hygge” which tends toward soft, neutral colors and a sign of coziness, particularly in winter.

In the knitting industry in particular, there has been a huge rise in garments and accessories in beige, ivory, ecru, tan – the “natural” colors. Here I think the idea is it inspires coziness and also allows the knitter to imagine themselves in the garments, even if they tailor them to their own color preferences.

Frankly, I’m so confused by it all. To me, most hobbies exist in technicolor. Sure our fountain pen experience can be in black and white (or blue and white, or blue-black and white), but there is so much color to be had in thousands of beautiful inks. Sure you can buy your Hobonichi planner in a plain black, but the covers are part of the fun right?

My 2026 Planners and Notebooks

And most hobbies have an element of color. Do you love to garden? Tons of natural color. Cook? An abundance of fresh colors in produce, spices and other elements. Photography? Studying the world through light and color. And I won’t go into all the artistic hobbies (painting, drawing, all the needle arts….).

My most recent spin (turning this into yarn!)

To bring it back to stationery, I love color. Give me all different colored pens, and all different colored inks. Even my notebooks aren’t plain!

What do you think? Do you prefer neutrals or more color? How do you think this slow bleeding of color will affect pens and inks and stationery?

In feature

Color Week: Where We Talk About the Pantone Color of the Year

Author AnaPosted on 7 Comments
Color Week: Where We Talk About the Pantone Color of the Year

We have waited long enough to talk about the uproar that has surrounded Pantone’s announcement of their Color of the Year for 2026.

For 2026, Pantone announced that Cloud Dancer is the Color of the Year which is white. We can certainly bicker as to whether Cloud Dancer is a warm white or a cool white like we are picking paint colors for our new rental apartment but the bottomline is that many saw Pantone’s choice as tone deaf for a multitude of reasons. First, the name sounds vaguely Native American which feels disrespectful to a whole culture of people who were not asked about it.

Second, in our current US cultural climate, the choice of white feels — extremely cultural white-washed. And that’s downplaying much of the language that filled my social media streams for days.

Why is this important to us in the pen community? It’s not really. To be honest, Pantone’s Color of the Year isn’t important to anyone but it was something that has, in the past, brought us joy and thoughtfulness. This year, it’s just brought anger and frustration.

For this site, Laura loves to sample and review inks that coordinate with the color chosen for the year. I often put together a Fashionable Friday inspired by the color choice too. Ink samples are out for 2026 to match the Color of the Year and I’m not very inspired to build an all-white pen and stationery suite. So….

Some Color Alternatives:

Laura and I chatted at length about color alternatives for 2026. She works in the fabric industry and recommended the Kona Cotton Fabrics Color of the Year for 2026, Wander which is bright, saturated green like moss on the forest floor.

Culture Hustle hosted a contest for folks to vote for the color of the year for 2026. Anarchic Venom was the winner and became their “color of the people”.

The international trend forecasting company WGSN and Coloro chose “Transformative Teal” which I quite prefer to white. I even put together a Fashionable Friday recently with a similar palette.

In 2026, WGSN predicts that old ideas will be challenged as people demand urgent changes to how we treat our societies, organise our industries, and cooperate with our environments.

Transformative Teal is a fluid fusion of blue and aquatic green that reflects the diversity of nature and taps into an Earth-first mindset. It represents change and redirection, and can help encourage resilience in the face of complex climate challenges.

Choose Your Own Color of the Year

I like the idea of choosing your own Color for the Year. In the same way that some people choose a word of the year, I think I will pick a color for this year. I’d like to use the color throughout the year in pens, ink, paper, clothing and even household items in hopes of creating a visual touchstone for hope, kindness and generosity. I think the Wander Green or Transformative Teal might work. What would you pick?

*All images link to their original posts on Instagram. I recommend clicking through for the full details as their are often multiple slides and lots of comments.

In feature

Digital Declutter: Step 2 Subscription Clean-Up

Author AnaPosted on 8 Comments
Digital Declutter: Step 2 Subscription Clean-Up

A few weeks ago, I started my own person Digital Detox/Digital Minimalism journey which started with reading a lot about why I should create a healthier relationship with my technology but also why it is so vitally important to my health and well-being. What I didn’t mention was the impact a lot of apps and services have on my wallet.

So, today I want to take a dive into some my digital distractions.

I have a lot of  streaming media subscriptions that directly relate to the amount of content I consume.  I’m going to come clean with what we were subscribing to and where we are now:

  • PBS $5/mo
  • Apple One (which includes AppleTV): $37.95/mo
  • Disney = $18.99/mo
  • Paramount  $5.99 (with ads)
  • YouTube Premium $17.99/mo
  • NY Times $4/mo
  • Netflix: $17.99/mo

Total: over $109/month (that’s $1308 per year!)

I realized that I am spending more now than we used to have a standard cable package back in the days before we all “cut the cord”. Not great. I already cancelled our Amazon Prime subscription at the end of 2024 and we cancelled Spotify last year as well after they decided we did not constitute a family and kicked me off the family plan. Spotify said I could submit a request to be added to the family plan in a year and I said “Nope! Goodbye” and had Bob cancel the plan and we fully switched streaming music to Apple Music which we had been paying for with the Apple One suite.

After some serious heart-to-heart with Bob, we made some shifts. We downgraded out Apple One account to just iCloud backup and Apple Music and downgraded Netflix to the lowest tier plan which now includes commercials. It wasn’t a huge savings there but neither Bob nor I really used the additional apps included: Games, Fitness or News so really we just removed apps we felt like we should be using since we were paying for them. The biggest “loss” was AppleTV but we will probably swap out Netflix or Paramount at some point and swap in AppleTV for a few months.

I think trimming these apps down reduce the endless scroll that we often do looking for “what to watch” on any given evening. I get so bored scrolling on some nights, I end up just going to read a book instead because my decision had been made by what I got from the library or downloaded to my ereader. Am I the only one who get frustrated trying to find just the “right” thing to watch?

The hardest for me to give up was the YouTube Premium subscription which provided me hours and hours of ad-free content and access to the YouTube Music app. I don’t think any of the subscription services realized that those “end of year” wrap ups that show how many hours you used the service would actually be an impetus for me to cut it out of my regular content. “I watched how many hours of YouTube last year?!!?!” So, for me this was the hardest to let go but for my time and brain, probably the one I needed to use less. I will still be able to access YouTube for information and entertainment but the commercials will be enough to snap me out of the endless hours or algorithmically served content I had been consuming.

We also parted with Disney which has become more expensive. We left it with the caveat that, at any time, we can switch services in a one-in/one-out rotation.

So our new subscription list:

  • PBS $5/mo
  • Apple downgraded to Music and iCloud: $26.95/mo
  • Paramount  $5.99 (with ads)
  • NY Times $4
  • Netflix: $8/month (with ads)

Total: $49.94/month (a little less than $600/year)

By removing and changing services we trimmed our monthly media content bill by over half. I don’t feel like we are living an austere life as a result, just a little more curated. Will we change or adjust this list over time? Most definitely.

We will still watch lots of shows and movies but maybe we rent a movie from our local library or (gasp!) go to a friend’s to watch a sporting event or series together?!?! Remember when going over to someone’s house to watch a movie or tv show was a common occurrence? I think its time to bring that back. The idea that we might watch things as a social activity or be more choosy about when and what we watch seems like an important step to reclaiming our attention instead of turning on the tv and then mindlessly scrolling on our phones.

Have you taken an inventory of the streaming services you currently subscribe to? How many do you actively use and how many are you paying for “just in case”? Have you considered paring back?

In Planners & Organizers

A Commitment Phobic Journaler Tries a Midori 3-Year Diary

Author Thien-Kim LamPosted on 8 Comments
A Commitment Phobic Journaler Tries a Midori 3-Year Diary

I’ve always loved the idea of keeping a multi-year diary. I’ve envied people who keep 3 and 5-year diaries. I have this romanticized fantasy of flipping through them once they’re complete and revisiting all the great memories.

Except for two things: I suck at daily challenges, and I hardly ever look back at my journals.

Exhibit A: Here are some challenges I’ve tried and failed to complete: 

I’m usually good for 3-5 days, sometimes more, but once I miss 1 or 2 days, I quit. Why continue when I’ve already failed? Hello, I’m Thien-Kim, a recovering perfectionist and overachiever.

Ever the masochist, I bought a Midori Mini 3-year diary. I know.

I’ll try my best but I need your help. But first a little more about the multi-year diary I chose.

Why the Midori Mini 3-Year Diary?

I’ve lusted over the Midori 3-year diaries for years. They’re gorgeous. Made to last. A keepsake for future generations. (See? More romantic notions.)

I opted for the 3-year version over the 5-year because it felt less of a commitment. I would waste less if I fell off the wagon.

Midori also makes 5-Year and 10-Year versions that are closer to a slim B6 size. And carries way more commitment than I’ll ever be ready for.

Midori Mini 3-Year Diary: Specs

The Midori Mini 3-Year Diary is a hardcover journal and comes in a cardboard slipcase. The journal has a fabric hardcover with a debossed gate design and lettering in gold. It has a satisfying weight and feel. It’s available in a dusty lilac and light brown. I chose the former which JetPens calls blue-purple. We pen people call that blurple.

The mini measures 4.5 inches across, 6 inches long, and about 0.9 inches thick. In metric: 11.5cm x 15.2cm x 2.5cm. Here is the diary next to a Midori A6 notebook. The mini diary is slightly bigger and thicker (due to the number of pages). 

The slipcover is slightly bigger than the mini diary so it fits snugly. It also has 2 bookmark ribbons in dark blue and gray.

A look inside the diary

The cream paper is Midori MD paper, the same as my A6 Midori notebook, so I knew it would be fountain pen friendly. I did some quick pen tests with some wetter nib/ink combos for you. The last page has a section for your personal information. It even has a space for your blood type.

The brown endpapers compliment the brown text inside the diary. The first page has a cute drawn-image of a key with space to note when you started and finished the diary. 

There’s also a prologue page, which I’m not sure how I want to use it. There’s also a similar epilogue page at the end. Each month has its own title page with a drawing.

Each daily page is separated into three sections, one for each year. Each section is comprised of a blank space followed by three lines. You could write or draw in the blank section, if desired.

I like that I can add the exact year for each section in case I skip a year (maybe I will?) If for some reason I didn’t start the diary in 2026, I know I can use it whenever. You could also technically start this diary in any month of the year, but I like the clean start in January.

Each page has a drawing that acts as a colored index on the page edges. It’s very clever in its simplicity. There’s no extra bulk or cutouts needed.

How Should I Use It?

Now that you’ve seen what it looks like, I need your opinions. I’m not sure what I want to document for 3 consecutive years.

Here’s what I’m considering so far:

  • One thing that delighted me that day
  • Daily gratitude
  • Whatever the f* I feel like putting that day
  • Something else???

Because of my past history with daily challenges, I know what works best for me is:

  • A general guideline/prompt that gives me flexibility
  • It should be an easy lift
  • I can quickly backfill when I miss a few days in a row

The last bullet point is important because I have days of brain fog (thanks perimenopause and chronic illness!) and can’t always remember all the things I did two days before or even yesterday.

I’ll try to update you periodically throughout 2026 on my progress.

If you keep a multi-year diary, I’d love to hear how you’re using it. Hit me with your suggestions on how I can use mine. 

I purchased the diary with a gift card and my own money.

 

In Link Love

Link Love: Onward to 2026!

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: Onward to 2026!

Happy New Year’s Eve and the happy night before new planner day! Some of us may have already jump started our planner/journals this week. No matter when (or if) you start a new journal or planner, with the turn of the calendar, we all have a chance to start (or restart) our goals and plans. Whether the plans you have for 2026 are big or small, a fresh start is always a good thing. Take some time today or tomorrow to review your goals, plans or desires for the coming year.

May your plans be successful and your 2026 joyous. Love to you all!

Love Ana

2025 Reflections:

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Ring in the new year by becoming a Patron. You’ll get access to an exclusive podcast, printables, downloadables, and more. Patrons support this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Planners & Organizers

2026 Journal Set-Up: New Planner, Same Techniques

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments
2026 Journal Set-Up: New Planner, Same Techniques

For 2026, based on the conversation and exploration I did in a YouTube LIVE last week, I have decided to proceed in 2026 with the Aura Estelle 2026 Daily Magnet Planner in B6 size. This planner combines the usefulness of a page-a-day planner like the Hobonichi Techo with the addition of the weekly layout of the Hobonichi Weeks all in a B6 size using a New Sanzen version of the legendary Tomoe River 52gsm paper.

My historical stack of planner/journals dating back to 2023. Mostly Stalogy B6 and my Paperblanks for the last 3 months of 2025 plus my Hobonichi WEEKS for 2025

What the Aura Estelle Daily Magnet Planner does for me is allow me to have just ONE planner/journal combo notebook. At the beginning of each week, there is the week-on-a-page on the left-hand side with a page for notes on the right, then each day is a full page like a Hobonichi Techo (which was also how I had been setting up my planners for the last couple years).

The new Aura Estelle safely stored in my green leather cover, purchased on Etsy many years ago.

The biggest change for me is that the Aura Estelle Daily Magnet Planner daily pages are pre-dated. I had been using undated Stalogy notebooks and added my day and week information with stickers, markers and such. Having pre-dated pages means I do not need to label each page with stickers or writing the day and date on each page like I have in the past. However, I like adding creative elements on my pages. It makes them fun, and brings joy to what can otherwise be a bit of a grind — lists, projects, appointments, to-do, to-do, to-do! So, I am mixing in some day and date stickers with theme looks through washi tape and stickers. I have to add some bling to the pages and break up all that white space.

The other issue I faced was that I make custom calendar inserts for Patrons which can be printed and added in to a journal or planner that adds some thematic art and a two-page monthly calendar for blank or undated planners (available in A5, A6, B6 and Weeks sizes. Join today to download them!). I love making them and love using them but the Aura Estelle Daily Magnet already has a 2-page monthly calendar at the start of each month. In the end, I decided to just tip-in my calendar in the middle of the existing calendar. It looks a little silly as is but I’m thinking I will use the built-in pages to make monthly mood boards or to track the books I’m reading and save the tip-in calendar for my monthly activities — I use it mostly for birthdays, holidays, and travel tracking. Maybe having two monthly calendars will be a good thing?

The monthly calendar pages with my Patron-exclusive printable tipped in-between. TWO monthly calendars!
Inside of the printable with stickers and dates highlighted.
Close-up of the Aura Estelle monthly calendar page.

So, right now, I think the Aura Estelle will be an interesting experiment. In the plus columns: B6, both week spreads AND daily pages as well as bonus monthly tracker pages and a few extra pages in the front that I’m not sure how I’ll utilize but not so many that I feel like I’m wasting part of the book. There are also a handful of blank pages (30 total) in the back that I’ll use for random notes, pen testing and maybe adding some extra details. Again, I’m grateful that there are not 100s of blank pages in the back. My Hobonichi Weeks from last year was a MEGA and those additional pages kind of got wasted as I never found a good way to utilize those additional pages.

Two blank pages follow the monthly calendar and monthly tracker pages before the weekly and daily pages start each month.
Year-at-a-glance at the front of the book.
Yearly Overview calendar
Monthly Tracker pages

What I’m Using:

Pens & Inks:

Stickers & Ephemera:

My set-up is both in flux and somewhat stable. I am looking forward to being essentially all-in-on planner/journal for daily logging. I think it will streamline my process. I do have other notebooks I use for specific projects and purposes but I’m excited to see if the Aura Estelle Magnet gets me to “stick” to my goals (see what I did there? pun!).

I added tabs to be able to quickly flip to the month. I aligned them with the color tab on the notebook.

What is your preferred planner/journal set-up? Are you mixing it up or have you found what works for you? Let me know in the comments!

PS: There was plans and attempts made to create a companion video for this post. Let’s say it didn’t go according to plan. I may attempt to re-record the video when my cold clears up a little but irght now I sound like a frog.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Aura Estelle, Vanness Pen Shop, Dromgoole’s and JetPens for the purpose of review. Some items are from my own shop (self-promotion FTW!). Please see the About page for more details.