What’s in my bag? This is my Kokuya Kaddy which I purchased a couple of years ago from JetPens and it’s filled with my go-to tools — at least this week anyway.
For full details, click through to the Flickr photo and see the labels.
With a sense of whimsy and repurposing, Nancy from Felt + Wire found a secondhand couture sunglasses case and turned it into a travel correspondence kit. It fit her business cards, retractable X-acto knife, a small container of paper clips, glue stick, eraser, mini stapler and postage stamps. Genius!
I see these big glasses cases at TJMaxx all the time for less than $10. I think I’ll have to pick one up before my next travel adventure.
(via Felt & Wire)
Preferences
I thought this might be a good time to mention a few of my personal biases when it comes to office supplies.
- I do not like ballpoint pens. They never write smoothly for me and always looks cheap to me.
- I’m not particularly fond of rollerball pens either. They tend to choke when I use them. I have a theory that its because I’m left-handed. Does anyone else have trouble with them?
- I turn into putty if you hand me a brand new blank notebook. I collect them like lost puppies. Hardcover, softcover, and even composition books, I love them all. Now if I only spent more time writing and drawing!
- If you haven’t noticed, I prefer blank paper. I am so picky about how pale lines need to be for lined paper and how close the lines need to be that its almost impossible to find the perfect lined paper. The same with graph paper. I write very small with fine line pens and light pencil lead and I don’t want the guidelines to overpower what I write or draw.
- I have always been a Mac user so when it comes to digital products, I’m a little Mac-centric. I try to indicate when things are available on other platforms but often times they slip past my attention. My apologies, I’m not a snob just comfortable with what I use and hope that others can overlook my shortcomings.
- I believe every desk should have a tape dispenser, stapler, hand pencil sharpener and a good eraser at all times. These are the keys to the Well-Appointed Desk.
What are your preferences?
The Well-Appointed Desk is getting a new look with business cards and mailing labels thanks to quick and easy Moo cards. If you’ve never used Moo before, its a great way to make super customized, small run business cards, postcards and labels. With minimum quantities of 50 for business cards starting at $19.99, its a great option if you’re just starting out, on a tight budget or need some filler between larger business card orders.
If you follow us via RSS or Tumblr feed, I thought I’d give you a peek at the new logo. Click through to the website to see the new header that matches.
The Mongol Stenographic No. 596 slender pencils sharpened on both ends made by Eberhard Faber. Sold in boxes of 12, I was able to find this box with three unused pencils still in the package.
I may have missed Left Handers’ Day but I’m not going to miss World Photography Day. Check out PhotoJojo’s roundup of great ways to celebrate and keep on shooting!
Tomorrow’s World Photography Day!
World Photography Day — Ideas & Inspiration to Celebrate All Things Photo
Photo by Natsumi Hayashi
Vintage Repro Cahiers Review
Laughing Elephant has created these vintage reproduction French cahiers. Each notebook has the classic look of a vintage composition notebook with cardstock covers with rounded corners. There are eleven different designs in their line of French Notebooks, these are just two of the designs. Inside each book is warm white paper with pale sepia lines.
Each book has just 20 pages but the paper has nice tooth and would be the perfect size for a special project or short-trip, travel journal.
Under my fine writing instruments test, everything performed pretty well except for my Kaweco Sport fountain pen which splined along the fibers in the paper. I suspect its a cotton blend so other tools worked great and felt great. The fountain pens was a bit of a bummer.
The best thing is there is almost no bleed-through, even with a Sharpie so with the average ballpoint or rollerball, you could easily use both sides of the paper getting the most mileage out of your 20 pages. Each book is just $3.95 so its easy to buy more than one and share.
