Link Love: Links

This week, I thought I’d share some of the other bloggers who do their own version of Link Love.

pencil pouch
Slide Sideways made this darling cotton pencil print pencil case.

Pens and Pencils:

Shades of Purple from A Penchant for Paper
Shades of Purple from A Penchant for Paper

UPDATE:

I left out Penthusiasm from Tiger Pens!

Letterpress Action Clips

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I cannot believe I stumbled onto these. This is a clear case of “small world” syndrome. A couple years ago, my husband printed these fabulous letterpress disks but I had no idea what they were for. Well, lo and behold, I stumbled upon them on Papercookie as Letterpress Action Clips for your office. They were designed by Meg Mateo Ilasco. Four clips are sold in a jar for $14.95 AU.

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(via Papercookie)

Limited Edition Kaweco Eyedropper 1910

 Kaweco 1910 Limited Edition

Normally, I don’t get all googly about fountain pens that cost over $100 but, of course, there is always an exception to the rule and leave it to Kaweco to tap all my damn buttons at once. JetPens are currently offering limited edition Kaweco 1910 Guilloch Eyedropper pen. I’ve already waxed poetic about the standard Kaweco Student and my not-so-limited-edition Guilloch 1930. This is a Guilloch-engraved body (swoon!) with a 14K gold nib. But its not actually an eyedropper filler. Rather, it utilizes the standard Kaweco (European short) cartridges or a converter. JetPens specifically states in the description not to convert the pen into an eyedropper.

Kaweco 1910 14K gold nib

The pen is engraved with its limited edition number (numbers go to 850 but only 800 pens were made available for sale). It was available in fine, medium and broad nibs but JetPens is already sold out of the broad.

Kaweco 1910 box set

The box set includes one box of each color of the available ink cartridges and the leather carrying case which are all available elsewhere in a limited edition book-shaped box with vintage pen graphics all over it.

The really un-swoony-y part? The pen costs $487. Despite how much I like the look of this pen, I don’t like it that much. Maybe they’ll do a similar design with their gold-tone standard nib in an open edition I can actually afford?

Field Notes: America the Beautiful Edition

Field Notes: America the Beautiful

The newest edition of the Field Notes Colors series is called “America The Beautiful” and features three different 4-color, big dot, slightly misregistered covers. Each cover was named: “Spacious Skies”, “Amber Waves” and “Mountain Majesty” respectively.

Field Notes: America the Beautiful

Inside is white Finch paper with loose-leaf blue lines which are classic nostalgia for me. I didn’t do any pen tests yet but I love this series so much, I’m hesitant to write in it. I don’t want to sully my set. I had two sets but my husband stole the “spare.”

Field Notes Water Slide Decal

The bonus item is a classic water-slide decal that reminds me of all the VW bus windows spotted while touring America’s National Parks.

Sets sell for $9.95 for a 3-pack or a 1-year Colors subscription can be purchased for $97 and will include 2 sets of the America The Beautiful (and the next three Colors Editions) plus 2 packs of Kraft Field Notes.

This is a limited edition series, when they sell out, they’re gone! I think I better order a couple more sets!

Finding a Google Reader Substitute

Google Reader screenshot

After whining and moaning and crying a little, I went ahead and tried just about every Google Reader substitute I could find. While there is no perfect solution yet that bridges across mobile and web options that all syncs together, I have found my temporary workaround. I do most of my RSS reading on my computer these days so I needed to solve for that first and I’ve found The Old Reader to be the most Google-Reader-esque experience. It did take about a week for my content to be uploaded to their site as they were flooded with new users after the Google announcement but it was kind of worth the wait.

the Old Reader Screenshot

Its currently only available in a web browser version but I can access the content on any machine with a web browser so its a decent solution at the present. I did like that so many other apps were integrating Google’s Reader feeds into their interface like Flipboard, Reeder and others so what will really determine the best replacement is which service becomes the de facto in other apps and services.

Its interface is simple and totally utilitarian and most like Google Reader. As a result, it had the least learning curve and shortest path to just getting back to reading. Have you found a good substitute for Google Reader yet?

Read more:

 

Link Love: Vintage Pens and Pen Addict Love

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(photo via Flickr, by Everyday Correspondence)

The big news this week is that Moleskine launched their IPO. Several of the links below are as a result of all the attention Moleskine is getting this week.

There is an assortment of goodies from Brad Dowdy over at Pen Addict including his Tools and Toys Guide to Fountain Pens which I’m willing to debate with him. There’s also a mix of new and vintage fountain pen reviews. Finishing up the Link Love this week are a couple ink reviews, some digital goodies and tips on writing a good thank you note. Enjoy!

Pens and Ink

Paper

Digital

(image from Casa Brutus, via Present + Correct)
(image from Casa Brutus, via Present + Correct)