In Fashionable Friday

Fashionable Friday: We Are All Mad Here

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment

FF-Alice

This week, I spied a beautiful photo of the costumes from the new Disney Alice Through the Looking Glass film and I thought “This is definitely a Fashionable Friday”. The rich, cacophony of colors and brocade fabrics, not to mention a dappling of pop culture, is the perfect basis for a 3-day weekend Fashionable Friday. And this weekend looks to be a stormy one here in the Midwest, so going to the movies is definitely an option.

And my project is all wrapped up so I’ll be getting back on schedule with reviews too!

  • Funko POP Disney Alice: Through The Looking Glass McTwisp $8.95 (via Amazon)
  • Retro 51 Slim Tornado Electron Rollerball Pen $30 (via Goldspot Pens)
  • Alice Through The Looking Glass Lipstick in Alice $18 (via Urban Decay)
  • OPI What’s The Hatter With You $9 (via HB Beauty Bar)
  • Sailor Storia Pigmented Fountain Pen Ink (30ml) $24 $18 (via Pen Chalet)
  • Ecridor Chevron gold fountain pen € 285 (via Fontoplumo)
  • Alice Through The Looking Glass Chronosphere Bluetooth Speaker $49.99 (via Amazon)
  • Grand Street Zip Around Personal Organizer in Sweetheart Pink $198 (via Kate Spade)
  • De Atramentis Gold Fountain Pen Ink (35ml Bottle) $12.95 (via Anderson Pens)
  • Kaweco Special Nib Holder + Nib $36 (via JetPens)
  • Paperblanks Ultra Lined Journal in Silver Filigree Aubergine $29.95 (via Anderson Pens)
  • Funko POP Disney Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts $9.79 (via Amazon)
  • Visconti Purple Bottled Ink (40ml) $17.50 (via Pen Boutique)
  • Midori D-Clips Cat Paper Clips (Box of 12) $5.50 (via JetPens)
  • Platinum Modern Maki-e Fountain Pen Phoenix Fine Nib $144 (via Pen Chalet)

Don’t forget to check out all the Memorial Weekend Sales! Goldspot Pens, Pen Chalet, and Kate Spade are all offering extra discounts on their sites through the weekend so if you’ve been planning to order, don’t forget to use those coupon codes! Goldspot and Pen Chalet are both sponsors of this site. Kate Spade isn’t but her deal was too good not to mention.

In Link Love

Link Love: More Link Fury Than Ever!

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments
Awesome new Link artwork by Chris Grine, illustrator of the web comic Wicked Crispy.
Awesome new Link artwork by Chris Grine, illustrator of the web comic Wicked Crispy.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Paper & Notebooks:

Planners & Organizers:

Other Interesting Things:

Super shoutout this week to Chris Grine for the new Link artwork. I ran into Chris at Planet Comicon and he kindly offered to whip up a new Link for me. If you think Link is awesome, you should check out his web comic Wicked Crispy or his Dark Horse graphic novel series Chickenhare. Thanks, Chris, you totally made my week!

In news

Anderson Pens Ink Comparison Tool

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments

AP-inkcomptool

Have you seen the new Anderson Pens Ink Comparison Tool? The tool will allow for up to five ink color comparisons from their inventory and will allow sorting by brand, color family and will even allow selecting out colors that are unavailable.

I tried it out today and I have to say it wasn’t until I scrolled down to see the tables, that I was blown away by the level of detail it contained. Each table lists the price of the ink per ounce/ml, the country of origin, if its available in cartridges, if its water resistant, shimmery, pigmented, quick-dry and so much more in a quick, easy-to read comparison chart. The ink color comparisons are shown side-by-side so its also easy to see to color differences. I added in a color I already owned as a visual “control” so I could gauge how much bluer or greener the other turquoise colors might appear. And that helped me make a more accurate comparison for myself and figure out how color accurate my computer monitor is. This is a really thorough, easy-to-use tool and its a little TOO easy to buy either a sample or a whole bottle of ink right from the comparison tool. I think I’m going to be spending a lot of money this way.

Full transparency, Anderson Pens is a sponsor of this blog but they did not ask me to mention this new feature nor was I specifically compensated to mention it here.

In Link Love, news

A Quiet Week…

Author AnaPosted on 7 Comments

quiet hallway

FYI, I just wanted to give y’all a “heads up”, I am in the final week of a huge project at work which is requiring a ton of overtime including being in the office on a Sunday in order to finish it up. (Please refer to the somber photo above as proof.) This means its  going to be a little quiet around here this next week. My apologies! I’ll be sure to get Link Love up this week, and there’s going to be a big surprise for that! By Saturday, the project should be released and I can think about pens and ink and paper again so I can get back to the regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

sketchbooks-1

Side note: there’s another project in the works that’s going to be kind of exciting. There will be more information about that sometime next week but its gonna be kind of big. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out the archives, click some old Link Loves and say hello to our lovely sponsors. Next month it will be six years, gang! I’ve  been doing this for six years! Can you believe it?

In feature

Is this the definitive modern office?

Author AnaPosted on 29 Comments
No obstacles: Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California Washington Post

No obstacles: Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California Washington Post (via The Independent)

I was listening to Cortex yesterday and Myke and CGP Grey were mentioning the new Menlo Park headquarters for Facebook and the large, open-plan work space. This space is not a trend unique to Facebook. Many companies and office spaces are transitioning to open-plan work spaces for more “open communication” and collaborating. But is this type of space really the solution to that? Do people really collaborate more and do critical thinking in a space like this or do they end up trying to drown out all the distractions with headphones or go hide away in a closet somewhere to get some actual work done?

I find the interior space of the new Facebook office neither aesthetically appealing nor engaging for working or collaborating. It just looks cluttered, messy and noisy. The fact that no one is given any storage space nor are they encouraged to have personal items on their desk seem to only make it more disheartening and cluttered. The overly high, unfinished ceilings with cables descending down are even worse! I think of something Trevor Noah said about not moving into Jon Stewart’s office after he left the Daily Show… he talked about how the whole point of moving up in the worked and getting out of poverty meant he didn’t want to have to live in a space with exposed brick walls again and what was it with white people and exposed brick? I feel the same way about wealthy tech companies and exposed wiring? You can afford to have that sh*t covered up! This whole space gives me a case of the hibby jibbies!

For a more in-depth view of the new Facebook work space, there is a 3+ minute video tour on YouTube.

I really hope that the pendulum of the open floor plan office starts to swing back the other way because I don’t believe that this much openness is genuinely conducive to non-distracted working and thinking. I believe it leads people to seek out other places to work, or they choose to come into work either early or stay late in an attempt to avoid distrations. I think the myth of multi-tacking needs to stop. It makes people sloppy and tired. We can multi-task for a little while but, in the end, I don’t think its effective, efficient or healthy. I don’t think we, as idea workers, can come up with our best ideas when we are constantly distracted by co-workers, bleeps, or other disturbances. Yes, its nice to have a way to bounce ideas off other people, but we need to find a better way to do it other than forcing people to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with headphones on while they madly type into their laptops and mobile devices. That’s not really collaborating, is it?

Thus endedth the tirade.

In Fashionable Friday

Fashionable Friday: Planet Comicon 2016

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments

FF-Planet-Comicon16
It’s that time of year again, its time to get my nerd girl on… this weekend is the Kansas City Planet Comicon and while I will not be able to meet the goddess that is Hayley Atwell AKA Agent Peggy Carter who will only be at the event today, I will be cruising around on Saturday picking up comics, toys and nerd wonderment on Saturday. But I did ask friends to give Hayley a kiss for me and a promise not to lick her though, if it were me, I might. But I am still totally bummed that Agent Carter was not renewed for a third season! It’s time for Amazon or Netflix to step in and save the series!!!!

So, in keeping with tradition, this week’s Fashionable Friday is geek themed!

  • Diamine Shimmering Red Lustre Ink (50 ml Bottle) $20 (via JetPens)
  • Montegrappa Wonder Woman Fountain Pen $475 (via Pen Boutique)
  • Fortuna fountain pen white and ruthenium €205 (via Fontoplumo)
  • Rhodia 5-3/8 X 8-1/4 Orange/Dot Grid Top Staplebound Dot Pad Notebook $5.50 (via Pen Chalet)
  • Shachihata Artline Blox Mechanical Pencil – 0.5 mm – Type 3 (Orange/Blue) $2.60 (via JetPens)
  • TARDIS Print 13″x19″ $30 (via Bryan Fyffe)
  • Piper V Dark Brown Boots (AKA Rey’s Boots from The Force Awakens) £125 (via Po-Zu)
  • Akkerman Residentie Blauw (60ml Bottle) $29 (via Anderson Pens)
  • BB-8 $149.99 (via Sphero)
  • Pelikan Souveran 805 Vibrant Blue Medium Point Fountain Pen $699.95 (via Goldspot Pens)
  • Midori Brass Pencil $16 (via Fresh Stock Japan)
In Ink Review

Ink Review: Lamy Dark Lilac

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments

Lamy Dark Lilac Ink

I feel terrible that I keep reviewing inks that are sold out already but what can I do? I buy them as fast as I can but, when they are limited edition, they sell out. But you want to know if they are good, right? So here it is… my take on Lamy Dark Lilac $10.50. Some shops are saying they will get a restock towards the end of May, beginning of June so keep your eyes peeled.

Lamy Dark Lilac Ink Writing Sample

I tested Dark Lilac with my new-to-me Lamy Safari Lime (the 2008 edition, thanks to Susan Wirth for this wonderful pen!) with an EF nib. I’d heard there was not a lot of shading with the Dark Lilac so I didn’t think using a fine nib would be doing the ink a disservice. I did do a few sentences with my Esterbrook 9315F relief stub, just to check, but the color is so dense that it really did not shade much. As a result, Dark Lilac really is a good color for legibility in fine and extra fine nibs and a great alternative to a black or blue-black ink as an everyday use ink. It flowed beautifully in the Safari with an EF nib and I think would be equally effective with a Japanese F or EF nib as well. It might even look a little lighter in an even finer nib and might show off the vividness of the color a bit more.

Lamy Dark Lilac Ink Comparison

In the ink swabs, the Dark Lilac shows a slight gold sheen but its also evident how dense and the vibrant the color is compared to the other inks. Noodler’s Purple Wampum is really the only ink I could find that was close in hue. KWZ Gummiberry Iron Gall was close in color density. I’m not sure if the regular version of Gummiberry is as deep as the iron gall formula but that may be another alternative.

The last few special edition colors of the Lamy Safaris and AL-Stars with matching inks have offered ink colors that have been way too light to be genuinely usable until now.  Dark Lilac is one of the most usable and interesting ink colors from Lamy since their BlueBlack. If you happen upon a bottle (or even some cartridges), grab it while you have the chance. This is definitely one of the better limited edition ink offerings from Lamy.