Every year, for the past few years, color experts Pantone chooses what it thinks will be the color of the year. This year, they selected a deep wine-y red they call Marsala. I immediately thought of all the inky possibilities available in the burgundy, red-black and deep berry range. There were so many to choose from but I chose Private Reserve as the closest match to Marsala. Which inky color do you think is most “marsala”?
Rifle Paper Co Blank Card – Burgundy Vintage Blossoms $6.45 (via Notemaker)
Pilot G-2 Gel Ink Pen – 0.7 mm – Burgundy Red $1.50 (via Jet Pens)
Kokuyo Enpitsu Mechanical Pencil – 0.9 mm – Wine Red Body $2.95 (via Jet Pens)
Private Reserve Black Cherry $11 (via Goulet Pens)
Field Notes Arts & Sciences Edition $9.95 for a set of two (via Field Notes)
Antique Silver Ruby Red Glass Inkwell Desk Ink Well $12.99 (via Amazon)
(Fashion inspiration from Pinterest: man’s tie, office space and woman in skirt, respectively. The central photo of the desk came from an article on Apartment Therapy about marsala burgundy used in home decor, if you’re interested.)
Congrats to Jen, the winner of the Jet Pens $25 Gift Certificate giveaway. You have your own little “green” now! I’ll be emailing you directly today.
Happy Holidays to all my wonderful readers. I wish I could give everyone of you a gift certificate. Maybe if these scratchy lotto tickets amount to anything… (scritch, scritch, scritch)… nope, nada. Better luck next year!
After discussing* how much the Karas Kustoms new Tu-Tone RETRAKT reminded me of the classic, “Mad Men” good looks of the Parker Jotter (prices start at $9.50), I realized I didn’t actually own a Jotter. So, I immediately remedied that. I purchased the teal-y blue version which is called “grey-green”.
The model I purchased is half metal, half plastic. The grey-green portion of the pen is a lightweight plastic, the rest is metal. Other options of this pen are available in stainless steel ($18) or polished stainless steel ($18.50) which probably would have been a more accurate comparison to the RETRAKT but would not have featured the familiar tu-tone look.
The RETRAKT is clearly a heftier tool but you can see that the lengths are comparable. Since the barrel on this Jotter is plastic, its really like comparing a featherweight to a heavyweight, but the slimmer barrel of the Jotter certainly makes it a more pocketable tool.
Also, the Jotter utilizes the Parker-style refill — this is the pen that started it all — so there are quite a few options for refills if blue or black ballpoint ink is not for you. So, in terms of flexibility, the Jotter holds its own against the RETRAKT.
I love the etched arrow on the clip. I’m so glad Parker has not tried to modernize or alter the look of the Jotter. It is an icon in its simplicity.
In writing, it honestly took me awhile to get used to writing with a ballpoint. I only use ballpoints when a waitress hands me a receipt to sign so I am seriously out of practice. Ballpoint, especially on this silky, smooth Rhodia paper is slick. But ballpoints are god for everyday office situations where one might need to write on a variety of paper types. And this pen sure looks better than a Bic Stic. To be honest, the stock Parker ballpoint refill is one of the cleanest ballpoint inks I’ve used.
I went ahead and replaced the standard blue ballpoint ink with a Monteverde blue-black gel ink cartridge I had. (You think my pen stash is large, you should see how many pen refills I stash! If the apocalypse comes, I’ll be able to write for a millennia with all the gel and rollerball refills I have stashed.) Again, the gel ink was super slick on the Rhodia paper but the color coordinated nicely with the barrel color.
In the end, I think I might have preferred the metal barrel models of the Jotter for a more durable feel. Or maybe the RETRAKT has spoiled me? Either way, the Jotter is a classic and at less than $10, it deserves a place on every desk.
Happy holidays from The Well-Appointed Desk and Jet Pens! I just want to share the holiday spirit and thank all of you for reading, commenting and supporting this blog so I’m giving away a e-gift certificate for $25 from our friends at Jet Pens. You, my darling readers, make it all worthwhile!
The GIVEAWAY: To enter, tell me something you’d like to see on The Desk in 2015, your favorite posts or any other helpful tip about content for this blog.
The FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Wednesday, December 24 2014. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Friday, December 26. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your 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 30 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Open to all readers. One comment per person.
Just like the pen, ink and pencil community, there is an extensive network of blogger, video bloggers and independent shops that specialize in all things planner-related. I wanted to include a short list of the sites I found most helpful in my research and that I’ll regularly be referring back to.
YouTube is a huge resource for unboxing videos and tours inside filled planners. Some show how people are using their planners, comparing various planners; and reviews of specific binders, brand or sizes. Just try searching for the brand, size or name of a given planner to find dozens of review videos. Some will be useful to you and some will not but it is a great way to see these products in use.
There are so many more options for printable pages, just start searching on Etsy or the web for “printable planner” and then add your preferred planner size like “personal”.
There was way more to choosing a planner than I ever imagined. I hope my research has helped you to see the possibilities of using a ring-bound planner for organizing your best year ever.
Once I started researching planners, I discovered that there was more to a planner than just calendars and contact lists. There are pages and inserts to track and account expenses and budgets, track fitness, and so much more. What are your goals for the year and what do you want to accomplish? Whatever it is I bet you can find insert pages to track and organize your goals and activities.
I’m not a good, nor a particularly enthusiastic, cook so I’d like to have my dozen go-to recipes with me so I can stop at the store and pick up the necessary ingredients on my way home. I’d also like to find printables for book lists and web sites to check out. If I can’t find any, I might end up making my own.
The great thing about a ring bound planner is that once I’ve accumulated enough recipes, or “books I read” pages, I can move them into a binder of their own.
Dividers & Pockets:
There are also other planner considerations like tabbed dividers, movable book marks, and storage for loose items like zipper pouches or pockets. Some binder companies will include a starter kit with at least a few of these items included. If they are not your taste, you can make new ones with decorative paper, office supply files folders or whatever else tickles your fancy. Many independent sellers offer downloadable or purchasable designs on Etsy, Ebay and web shops.
A lot of people use a “dashboard” in the front of their planner which is a decorative piece, usually laminated or plastic, and attach sticky notes. This is where to put the “hot notes” or to put a stack of stickies to use inside the planner. This page is also referred to as a flyleaf or page turner.
Other Add-Ons:
If you are interested in trying to create your perfect planner using a ring-bound binder you’re probably going to want to invest in a couple things. A hole punch of some sort will make it possible to add additional pages to your book, be they scraps of notes, stray index cards, or printable add-ons. A single hole punch will work fine for on-the-go needs. Just use one of the tab dividers as a guide to punch holes in your new sheet. But, if you plan on adding a lot of customized sheets or printables, you may want to invest in a multi-hole punch with the correct hole placement for your chosen binder. Brand specific punches can be pretty pricey but I found a reasonably-priced adjustable 6-hole punch on Amazon.
I also discovered that I really like my pages to have rounded corners so I’ve been using a small corner rounder I got at Muji to round the corners. Any craft supply shop should sell a corner rounder that will accept about 6 pages at a time for less than $10.
If you get really serious about making your own dividers and dashboard, you may want to invest in a laminator or a Xyron. I have a old Xyron 910 and the nice thing is that you can swap out rolls mid-use and use adhesive, magnet or laminate — if you are feeling extra DIY crafty.
Some folks like to add a charm to their binders to add a little personal touch as well. I’ve seen cell phone charms looped around the rings as well as specifically designed planner charms. So if you feel the urge to “bling it up”, you have options!
Fauxbonichi and Fauxdori: (updated!)
I think the allure of a ring-bound planner is the same thing that makes the Hobonichi Techo and the Midori Traveler’s Notebook so popular — the endless capacity for them to be whatever you want them to be.
In my research, I found an assortment of “fauxdori” pages to turn a Traveler’s Notebook into a planner or vice versa. I also found printable pages for planners that looked like the gridded pages from a Hobonichi (dare I say “fauxbonichi”?). I even found a video on YouTube where someone cut down sheets of Tomoe River paper to fit into a ring binder. So, clearly, with some ingenuity, a ring-bound planner can be whatever you want it to be. While much of this series has been about traditional ring binder planners, there are other options to create a flexible planner. Using a Midori Traveler’s Notebook cover (or one of the many similar style leather covers available from other sources), you can print and bind your own booklets to include inside these covers.
Alternately, you can take the best things about a Hobonichi Techo and integrate it into a ring-bound planner, whether that’s the paper, the layout or something else you love about it.
In the end, we each have to chart our own path to organization and success planning. What method do you think works best for you?
Fountain Pens:
