(Still life with Halloween donut and Kaweco). This is a daily carry I can wholeheartedly support. In truth, this was my breakfast this morning. And boy, was it yummy!
Memo Books from French
If you work in the print design field, you’ve heard of the French Paper Company. Its one of the few independent American paper mills left and they also have a fabulous marketing team that has wisely teamed French up with designers like Charles S. Anderson to create some great packaging and products. One of those products is the French Paper Memo Books. Yeah, sure, everyone is doing these now but a pack of two of these little books is just $2.50. Inside is 32-pages of top quality French paper and sturdy cardstock covers printed with graphics from the CSA Images archive. The memo books come in pre-selected sets but there is bound to be one you’ll like.
While you’re shopping, pick up some fun, reasonably-priced paper and envelopes and get a jump start on your promise to make your own Christmas cards this year. The Mod-Tone patterned paper and envelopes (shown above) sell for $30 for 50-sheets of 8.5″x11″ and the $20 for 50 A6 (4.75″ x 6.5″) envelopes. Solid papers sell for $15 per 50-sheet pack and solid A6 envelopes are $12.50 for a pack of 50. Obviously, you’ll get a better value if you buy larger quantities.
(via French Paper Company)
Vintage Pen Nib Boxes
This lovely collection of vintage pen nibs was collected and photographed by Dutch type designer Erik Van Blokland of LettError. They all still have nibs in the boxes. Stunning.
(via AdaLou Vintage)
Finding the best Read Later Option
After a post several weeks ago asking all you fine readers about the best options for reading news and saving articles, I narrowed down the list for the “read later” options to three of the most popular options:
Each offers bookmarklets or plug-ins for popular browsers, each offers apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, and all ofthem will integrate with a number of popular apps. Its gotten so complicated, I’m going to have to make a spreadsheet….
| iPhone/iPad | Android | Other Mobile Devices | Other Apps | Bookmarklet or Web Plug-in | Email to: | Twitter integration? | |
| Instapaper | yes | yes | Kindle, Nook | over 140 | bookmarklet | yes | yes and lots of app support |
| Readability | yes | yes | Kindle | Reeder, Longform, Flipboard and more | Firefox plug-in, bookmarklet | yes | Tweetbot, Twitterific, Echofon, more |
| yes | yes | Windows Phone, Blackberry | a lot incl. Flipboard, Reeder, Longform | Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera plug-in, bookmarklet | yes | yes and lots of app support |
Okay, that wasn’t too helpful unless you are using a Blackberry, own a Nook or you absolutely love having a web extension.
So, do you want my opinion about the options?
Instapaper is the original option and has lots of connections with tons of social networking apps and lots of other places but it is bland as the web interface looks. If you want a simple reader and the option that will most likely to link to all your favorite sites, stick with Instapaper. The web account is free but apps for your mobile device are paid apps.
Pocket is a great option if your “read later” needs lean towards visuals because the interface features a photo from the page if one is available. Pocket is a much more graphic interface, more colorful and pretty easy to read. I thought this was going to be my favorite and I have been using it for several weeks for reminders for the Link Love weekly posts. Pocket is free.
And then I finally started digging into Readability and I fell in love with it. The web interface is clean with beautiful typography but it was the mobile apps with typography from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The interface on iPhone and iPad are so lovely that I wish Readability would redesign all the ebook apps because the typography and color options for reading in bright light, at night or somewhere in the middle are just fabulous.
See what I mean? Lovely. So, for me, Readability has won out as my favorite “read later” app. Now, if only they add support for PDF and ebook/epub formats I would live in Readability. Readability is free.
Pencil Shaving Art
Fierzo Desk Organizer
This elegant Fierzo Desk Organizer holds notes, photos and other ephemera in its tensioned metal frame. The pale wood base can be used as a pen holder.
Small: 11.5″ W X 2″ D X 6.75″ H, $58.00
Large: 26″ W X 3.75″ D X 10.5″ H, $132.00
Design by Julie Richoz (ECAL), 2012.
By Alessi.
Materials: Beech, 18/10 stainless steel
Vintage office goodies from Life Japanese Stationery
For someone who loves the aesthetics and apparatus of the vintage office, the Life Japanese Stationery products will surely please. Life uses the same featherlight paper stock for their Airmail stationery that they used in 1946 when they opened their doors. They even have matching Airmail envelopes. Airmail paper pad is $12.95 AUD for 50 sheets and envelopes are $9.95 AUD for pack of 10.
If the Airmail stationery does not entice, what about the Typing Bond? The pad is standard A4 sized and includes 50 sheets. Oh, my growing collection of typewriters are going to enjoy stomping little letters across sheets of this fine paper! $8.95 AUD
And no office is complete without a couple steno pads for quick notes. These three lovely pads in subdued vintage colors. The green cover is the traditional Gregg ruled, the yellow with blue lettering is ruled and the yellow with red lettering is grid paper. Each sells for $12.95 AUD.
All products are currently available through Notemaker. Don’t forget to take advantage of the 10% discount at checkout by entering the code “WELLAPPDESK12” at checkout.