In feature

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Author AnaPosted on 13 Comments

I say this every year but I love the start of the New Year. Its a chance for new beginnings, opening that brand-new planner, journal or notebook and starting on a new path, or course-correcting the one you set last year. I hope that 2016 will be a year of great adventures and great joys for everyone, myself included. I know a lot of us had rocky moments in 2015 but I know there were also some great triumphs as well.

(Photo reposted from Pen Compass)
(Photo reposted from Pen Compass)

For me 2015 was filled with wonderful ups and some hard downs as well. The Atlanta Pen Show was the absolute pinnacle for me and was my saving grace in what turned out to be a rather tumultuous year that followed with work- and health-related stresses. Brad and Myke and all the pen community welcomed me so warmly and openly in Atlanta and the whole world over that I felt like I had the whole world at my back this year and, for that, I am eternally grateful.

As I move forward into 2016, I want to stay committed and actively involved with the pen-and-paper community and be a resource and asset to the wonderful people that are a part of it. Expect to see more ink, paper, pen, and pencil reviews here as always. Holler, if there’s something particular you’d like to see more.

This summer, I started taking drawing and painting classes to try to be more creative and its something that I’d like to continue to do in 2016. I hope that in spending more time making art, I’ll also add more art material reviews to the site as well with the occasional watercolor, colored pencils, and other art material reviews for people who may want to try their hand at more sketching, drawing or mixing of media in their notebooks. By no means, will I be changing the focus of the site but I want to help people feel comfortable using pens with other materials. To be brave and to experiment! Even the most expensive piece of paper is still cheaper than a pizza from the take-out joint down the street, right?

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One of the most meaningful pieces I wrote all year, for me anyway, was the post Why Does All This Matter? which came hot on the heels of devouring half of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic book (I promise there will be a review of the whole book in a week or so!) and it still resonates in my mind. All these pens, pencils, notebooks and accouterments are all a means for us to be thoughtful, creative, to remember, to relive and to explore our ideas. However those tools help you do that is good but we have to remember not to let them impede the acts themselves.

This is something I plan on tackling quite a bit this year. The nature of doing product reviews is that I acquire a lot of samples. Its not that I have anything that is not good quality, its just that I am buried under a lot of it and it often leads to indecision and fretting over which ink to use, which pen to pick up or which notebook to write in next. One of my goals for 2016 is to pare down the stash dramatically. If anyone has a good idea about redistributing the wealth without breaking the bank, please let me know.

So, my goals for 2016:

  • Make more art
  • Daily journaling in my Hobonichi Techo A6
  • De-stash the pen/paper/ink/supply clutter
  • Take some personal time for little luxuries (30 minute coffee shop stop, a quiet walk, read for pleasure, etc)
  • Don’t work so late at the jobby-job

My keep-on-keeping’ on:

  • Reviews and more on the blog
  • Atlanta Pen Show 2016, look out!
  • Put all those planners to good use
  • Keep knitting (maybe finish some of those half-baked projects?)
  • Keep biking, and maybe more regularly than I have the last few months

Do you take the end of the year to re-evaluate and make plans? I never think of this end-of-year planning as “resolutions” but as a chance to re-tool, re-focus and start fresh. What do you want to accomplish in 2016? Let’s do this together!

In news

New Products for 2016

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment

There are lots of new products hitting the market for 2016 and some are already available for pre-order so I thought I’d include a few here if you wanted to squirrel away some of your holiday funds for a few of these.

Lamy Al-Star Charged Green Pens

The limited edition Lamy AL-Star color for 2016 is called Charged Green and is definitely a Well-Appointed Desk-approved color. Fontoplumo has the pen available for pre-order in all its forms and will be shipping it in early 2016. Pen Chalet has the pen listed on their site but its not available for order yet but should be available soon.

The Lamy Safari for 2016 will be Dark Lilac but is not expected to ship until mid-year. The Dark Lilac will also have a matching ink! First confirmed sighting of it came from Goldspot Pens.

Kaweco Skyline Sport Metallic Purple: Special Edition

Goulet Pens has the new limited edition Kaweco Skyline Sport in Metallic Purple. The pen is still a reasonably-priced plastic pen with pearlescent coloring in the plastic to give it the metallic look. There is also a solid deep purple Skyline Sport if you like that better. Prices are $25-$27.

Kaweco Skyline Sport in Purple

Filofax UK 2016 planner covers

Filofax UK has already unveiled some of its new planner covers for 2016 in the UK. I’m not sure if any of these will come available in the US yet but you can get them shipped over if they are covers you must have. They are currently available in Personal and Pocket sized only. I really like the Tweet Organizer — just stick a bird on it!

In news

Kickstarter: Leftybooks

Author AnaPosted on 8 Comments

How can I not support a Kickstarter project that is attempting to create a product to make writing easier and more comfortable for left-handed writers? I couldn’t. So I put my money where my mouth (or in this case my keyboard is) and backed the Leftybooks project which is a notebook designed to help left-handed writers write more easily without dragging their hands through their ink or graphite.

I pledged for the Ambidextrous Couple Set with the B5 Lefty notebook as well as an A5 dot grid notebook. The total with shipping will be around $35. The one aspect of the books not included in the video is the paper stock weight which is always a subject of heated discussion amongst the fountain pen community but the video specifically talks about environmental factors and FSC certified paper so I suspect the paper is not going to be fountain pen friendly but fine for gel, rollerball, pencil and ballpoint.

The project was the creation of a team out of Spain called Imborrable and offers lines that are angled downward ever so slightly to help keep lefties with any hand position from smudging quite so much.

The campaign has 19 days left and they are only one-quarter to their goal of $10K. Let’s help them get there — one Leftybook at a time! And let’s put an end to the smudge!

In Link Love

Link Love: Gift Guides, Top 5s & Cocktails

Author AnaPosted on

rp_link-ana1111111111111111.jpgPens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Planners & Organizers:

Gift Guides:

Other Interesting Things:

In Book Review

Books for the Pen & Paper Set

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments

woman-with-blue-pencil_webOccasionally, a book will cross my path that I think will be very interesting to Well-Appointed Desk readers and I think Woman With A Blue Pencil by Gordon McApline is just such a book. The premise of the book sounds both strange and intriguing blending noir detective tale and WWII Japanese-American internment camps and the book publishing world and so much more. Every review I’ve read makes me scratch my head since no one seems to describe the book the same way. It makes it even more intriguing.

More information and reviews can be found on GoodReads.

The book is available in both hard copy and ebook formats but it seems appropriate to read this one in hard copy, though the choice is yours. If you do read it, please let me know what you think of it.

typewriter-revolution

The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century by Richard Polt is a book about typewriter’s for the modern enthusiast. The books contains both the history of typewriters as well as how and why people are using typewriters in the 21st century. There’s information on cleaning on old typewriter, how to trouble shoot why your machine might not work and how to “gussy it up”. There’s lots of photos of typewriters throughout history both machines that you’ll recognize and others that are strange and marvelous devices. One of the coolest touches of this book is the bookmark ribbon which is, of course, a  red and black ribbon like a typewriter ribbon.

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While I’m talking about typewriter books, I must include The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine from Uppercase. This is a huge coffee table tome that was exquisitely and lovingly produced by Janine Vangool of Uppercase magazine. The book includes hundreds of photos of typewriters, advertisements and ephemera in 300+ pages and organized by decade from the turn of the century through the 1980s. Often with Uppercase publications, once the book sells out, it is not reprinted so if this is something that might be of interest to you, I’d order it now. I pre-ordered my copy last year and I’m so glad I did.

For an inside peek, check out this video included on the web site.

Letters to the LostLetters to the Lost by Iona Grey is the latest selection chosen for the Letter Writers Alliance online book club. The live video chat will be Sunday January 10 at 12:30 CST so there’s plenty of time to pick this up and read it, especially with the holidays approaching. I just got a copy from my local library so I’ll be reading it by my non-working fireplace with a blanket, a cat on my lap and a cup of tea between now and New Year’s Day. And this book sounds tailor-made for me. An epistolary tale about World War II? Sign me up!

Do you have any pen-related books to recommend? Leave a comment and maybe I’ll start a regular series with books for the pen & paper set!

In feature, Link Love

Local Pride: 10 Things to Love about Kansas City

Author AnaPosted on 11 Comments
(3-color, 18″ x 24″ screenprintposter of Kansas City. Print is signed and number in an edition of 100. 2nd edition. $25 via Tad Carpenter)

I’m feeling a little sentimental today about my adopted home, Kansas City. We’ll be spending the holidays here this year and we have a friend coming into town so I’ve been mentally preparing a list of things to show him, places to take him and food to feed him. I thought I’d share it with you. Maybe it’ll inspire you to stop in Kansas City some day. Be sure to let me know if you’re in town and I’d be happy to buy you a coffee or a beer and talk pens with you. So here goes, ten things to love about Kansas City:

This list is in no particular order, especially since anyone who knows me will know that I am actually a Chicago Fire MLS fan. However, the enthusiasm that Kansas City has put behind its professional sports teams this year, including its soccer team and, in return, the awesome support the teams give to their supporters make KC a great place to be a sports fan. The post-World Series parade and celebration for the Royals was EPIC. This town knows how to throw a party.

(PS: You can spot my pal Madeline and her black Scottie in the video if you don’t blink!)

Christopher Elbow. This man makes chocolates that make you cry because they are both delicious and beautiful but he also created an ice cream shop called Glacé that elevated ice cream and sorbets to new gourmet heights with a rotating assortment of flavors. I just noticed the seasonal ice cream flavors like Peppermint Flake and Jude’s Rum Cake. I might have to pop over over a taste this week. Yum!

Boulevard Beer. Rieger’s Whiskey. Dark Horse Distillery. Why stop at chocolate and ice cream? Kansas City has a great assortment of booze locally made. Boulevard is our flagship brewery offering an array of seasonal and limited edition brews. Rieger is a small batch distillery recreating pre-Prohibition whiskey, gin and vodka. Their whiskey has been a staple at The Desk but I’ve yet to try their gin and I’m itching to. And Dark Horse is another local liquor staple in KC best known for their white whiskey though they also produce a rye whiskey and a bourbon whiskey.

Joe’s BBQ. Joe’s KC, formerly known as Oklahoma Joe’s and still referred to by locals as Okie Joe’s is a KC classic. Its a BBQ joint started in a gas station that still has a line out the door on most nights. Their BBQ (in all its forms) in to die for and even ended up on some pretty fancy foodie bucket lists. Even my vegetarian friends go, if only for the “crack fries”.

(Country Club Plaza Lights Mini Hanging Banner $16 via Tammy Smith)

The Plaza. There is a more official name for The Plaza, its The Country Club Plaza or something like that but locals just call it The Plaza and everyone knows what you mean. Its an outdoor shopping area designed to look a bit like a Spanish courtyard with fancy clock towers and fountains galore. On Thanksgiving night, there is a holiday lighting event where the whole place is lit up and it looks beautiful. There are lots of fancy, upscale shops like Tiffany, Kate Spade, Sephora, Apple and more and lots of restaurants and bars. There’s also a creek that runs down one end that people run and walk along. Its just a nice place to watch people, window shop and eat a nice meal.

The Pen Place. Yes, Kansas City really does have its own pen shop. Its not very big and its tucked back into a dark corner of the very touristy Crown Center Mall but we have a pen shop. The staff is very pleasant and they stock a wide variety of brands of pens and inks that they are happy to let you hold and will even swatch out inks on paper for you to see before you buy. They also have a wide variety of pen refills and have patiently helped me with my refill guide on occasion. So if you’re in the neighborhood, definitely pop in and say hello.

The World War I Museum. Kansas City is lucky enough to have the only and official World War I museum in the United States and it is a moving and memorable experience to visit this museum and surrounding grounds. I work in a building across the street and often walk the grounds on bright days at lunch admiring the amazing views from atop the hill. As a history buff and knitter I have also enjoyed attending the regular lecture series Mrs. Wilson’s Knitting Circle which will enter its second year in 2016. It’s an extraordinary place and an amazing opportunity to learn more about a singular event that changed the course of history. There are also many other amazing museums in Kansas City like the Negro League Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, the Truman Presidential Library, and the Toy & Miniature Museum just to name a few.

The local art scene. Not only does Kansas City have an amazing art museum in the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, but there is the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and several areas that feature a thriving local art galleries like the Crossroads, the West Bottoms and Brookside. There are many art festivals, craft shows and first Fridays (third Thursdays and other open studio events and the like) all over town, plus there is the Kansas City Art Institute training new artistic talent as well as other local colleges and universities that are helping to develop new creative talent. Add in the music and performing arts in Kansas City from the new Kauffman Center for Performing Arts shell featuring the Kansas City Ballet, Lyric Opera and Kansas City Symphony to the local bars and clubs hosting bands and open mike nights. When I moved here, I didn’t think Kansas City was a cowtown per se but I had no idea how amazingly talented it was.

Coffee. This town loves its coffee. We have local coffee shops and local roasters and all sorts of combinations of the two. Some of my favorites are The Filling Station, Benettis, Messenger Coffee, Kaldi’s Coffee and the king of the coffee bean hill The Roasterie. If you’re a tea drinker, I recommend Kaldi’s Double Vanilla Tea Latte or the London Fog from either the Roasterie or Kaldi’s. Delish!

Hallmark Cards. I feel silly plugging the firm but if it wasn’t for Hallmark, I never would have come to Kansas City and discovered what a cool place it is. I would not have met some of the most amazing, talented and special people I’ve ever known and I might never have started this blog which gave me the chance to meet all of you.  I once read an interview with a Hallmark employee (colloquially called a “Hallmarker”) who described working at Hallmark as grad school and it really is. So many of us refine and hone our skills surrounded by people who are so incredibly talented in everything they do. And everyone is willing to share their knowledge and encourage other people’s success which is unlike any place I’ve ever worked. So, thank you, Hallmark for all the opportunities.

In Planners & Organizers

Review: Agendio Planner

Author AnaPosted on 8 Comments

agendio-6

The Agendio planner was my first twin-ring planner and my first customize-to-order planner. So there are a lot of firsts for me and I will be making a lot of comparisons to ring-bound planners like Filofax or bound planners like a Moleskine or Leuchtturm1917 rather than other twin-ring planner systems, so bear with me.

I ordered the smallest size which is the Journal size (5.5×8″). The paper size is pretty comparable to A5 sheets in a Filofax planner or a medium Moleskine/Leuchtturm 1917 planner and the overall Agendio Journal book is just a little taller and a little thinner than my personal-sized Filofax. So, size-wise I didn’t make a big change in my planner size form what I’m generally comfortable with using. It makes this book quite portable, easy to fit in my bag or purse as needed and doesn’t require its own desk. Because of the hardcover, leatherette cover, the exterior feels good and looks understated and professional. In a very out-of-character move, I ordered the black cover with a dark green elastic closure. With a couple of weeks usage though, I’m finding I’m not using the elastic nearly as often as I thought I would. It probably wasn’t totally necessary to add the elastic but I like knowing I can secure it closed and I like the aesthetic accent.

agendio-3

Inside, I ordered the combination of monthly calendar (Model 32060) with weekly calendar (Model 32057) and then spent an inordinate amount of time customizing the details. There are so many elements that can be tweaked to your personal taste from fonts and colors to the placement of the numbers on the monthly calendar. Then I was able to add personal events to the calendar like important dates or repeating activities. I added family birthdays and my weekly Knit Night. Agendio allows you to choose holidays to add to your calendar as well by country and/or religious preferences. You can even add specific US State holidays.

agendio-5

On the weekly page layouts, I have a simple layout with the days of the week on the left and a space for notes on the right but the notes section is divided up into Divisibles to help organize my activities. I have a section for Work, Home, Blog and Misc. At the top is a Top 3 Goals and the inside left column is for general notes. Sunday is listed at the bottom of the right hand page but gets equal space as the other six days which I appreciate.

agendio-1

I also had some extra notes pages added to the back of the planner, just in case. And this is the perfect place to test some pens. For the most part, since my planner is on the small side, I tend to use fine gel pens in 0.38mm or thereabouts but I thought I’d test a bunch of pens to verify if there might be any issues with pens bleeding. I tested an array of fountain pens, some gel and rollerballs and even a couple of the brush pens I carry with me for drawing and lettering.  There was no feathering with any of them. Ink dried quite quickly and when I turned the page over…

agendio-2

Very little show through at all! There were a couple tiny dots from the Retro 51 stock rollerball refill which I always find to be a gusher. I always swap it out for a finer refill or hack in a gel pen refill anyway but I thought I’d test it for your benefit. I think heavy fountain pens with dense black ink might cause some show through but overall the performance was very good. Grab that rainbow assortment of gel pens, Frixion pens, or your favorite multi-pen and keep it close to your Agendio and you’ll have a match made in heaven.

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There were a couple more extras that I added to the planner as well. I got the pocket in the back so I could pack rat some goodies and I got the Agendio page markers which are simple laser-etched steel clips to mark your week or month page. The clips are low profile and good looking. Etched on the back of each clip is the message “Follow your own agenda” which I think is charming. Its a lovely addition to the planner.

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Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the whole experience and the incredible level of customization. It took about 10 days from placing my order for the planner to arrive and it was totally worth the wait. And again, the prices on the Agendio planners, even with all the extras like the extra pages, page markers and folder pocket is quite competitive with the Erin Condren, Day Designer, Inkwell Press and other wire-ring planners with or without customization. Agendio is also offering customizable inserts for Filofax and Franklin Covey planners in both A5 and Personal sizes now too. The best part of the Agendio system is that the planner can start on any month. Mine started with December 2015. I didn’t even have to wait for January 1 to start a brand new planner. How awesome is that!?! So many great options!

Due to a slight printing variation the folks at Agendio actually sent me two planners. My husband saw the extra one laying on the table and asked “Are you going to use this? Can I have it?” From him, that’s high praise! So, he now has his own Agendio with all my Knit Nights already marked as a reminder for him. I’m pretty excited to see how he’ll use his first planner. Aren’t you?

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Agendio for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.