For the past 10 years, rather than doing new year’s resolutions I’ve been doing “fiber goals.” The idea has always been to set goals around chasing joy, directing my creativity, and making space in my life for things I want to do. But I don’t think that’s going to be as much about fiber this year! So I’m changing the name to “Creative Goals” and opening it up to other types of creativity explicitly in 2026. Continue reading
As promised, here’s the second Wonder Pens exclusive ink I picked up. This ink is inspired by the other cat. It’s a nice dark orange-leaning brown, fairly dark in my dip pen but you can definitely see the shading. It was nice for painting and might get used for some tree branches in art one … Continue reading
Whoops, I took pictures when I swapped my inks but then forgot to post! This month’s inks palette was put together by my kid. I told him I wanted to use Brilliant Mint and he chose some he felt went well together: Teranishi Brilliant Mint (bright blue-leaning teal) Diamine Gala (purple) Diamine Winterberry (red with … Continue reading
I couldn’t resist getting this Wonder Pens exclusive ink inspired by cat eyes. Isn’t that just the cutest ink concept? And they did such a great job with the colour! I would have gotten both cat eye inks, but I thought the other one was probably too close to my recently purchased Brilliant Mint, so … Continue reading
It’s gotten warm enough that I didn’t have to worry about ink freezing in the mail! My first impression looking in the box was “oh no there’s something on the lid” because normally I put a label on top with the colour to make it easier to find the ink I want in my drawer. … Continue reading
We’re in the tail end of winter according to the birds, though there’s still chunks of snow in the shade and every time we think it might be warm for good we get a little bonus freezing rain. Still, it’s nice to feel the change of the seasons even when it feels like only a … Continue reading
This was a gift from a friend who said it was more for the fun little bottle than anything exciting about the ink. It’s a pretty cute little bottle and I didn’t have one since I think the only colorverse ink I have is a sample. Love that little picture on the front. The bottle … Continue reading
I have done my first stationary order since moving back to Canada! I was looking specifically for a clip for my Kaweco Liliput, which had unfortunately been falling out of my pen case enough that I was worried about losing it, and a couple of extra traveler’s notebooks in the regular size for my commuter … Continue reading
It’s March! Traditionally, February is the month where I used to feel the worst when I lived in Canada, likely because it’s when you’re sick of winter and the dark, but honestly it didn’t seem so bad this year, possibly because I wasn’t in winter in December so I haven’t really gotten sick of it. … Continue reading
At the time that I’m preparing this post (a week in advance), we’re still waiting on moving company nonsense, my internet keeps cutting out while I’m trying to do stuff, the furnace still doesn’t work, and the work training I took today got glitched somehow so I can’t finish it and I’m stuck re-listening to … Continue reading
As of this writing (happening on Monday), I’ve gotten the paperwork done at customs and in theory we get the rest of our stuff tomorrow. We left Oregon on December 29th and had theoretically paid for the truck to get packed and our stuff delivered ASAP, and instead this is more like the time I … Continue reading
Still settling in to the new house. We’ve prepped a couple of rooms for painting but then the furnace decided it would just sometimes not turn on in the middle of a cold snap, and cold rooms are hard to paint. New thermostat is supposedly coming today and we really hope that’s the problem. It … Continue reading
Another belated Inkvent post for swatch Wednesday! I didn’t bother doing inkvent posts in December because of the move, and in theory now that some of our stuff has arrived I could probably be unpacking instead of blogging about ink. But our stuff got separated into two shipments and a lot of the furniture is … Continue reading
Resuming the inkvent posts as swatch Wednesday posts. I took pictures of day 9-12 before I got totally swamped with moving stuff, but I’ll have to take the rest of the pictures in the new house. (I do have all my swatches, though!) Day 9: Bittersweet. Very bright green, no shimmer or sheen. I thought … Continue reading
We made it! Plan “get the dog and us across the country with an RV and our friend who loves driving across the country” was a total success. Continue reading
This year’s goals were as follows: I realized that my original plan to run a stash-focused social media event wasn’t something I wanted to do any more, so I swapped that one to be the more vague but intensely more fun “write more.” Here’s the mid-year check-in: Revisit Old Goals August: Used up some leftover … Continue reading
Second set of Inkvent inks! Yes, I’m behind. It’s been an absurd month as we prepare to move, with our entire plans getting derailed repeatedly, but most of this week’s news has been good so here’s hoping! Day 5: Marie Rose. Kind of an orange-brown that shows a bit of black at the edge of … Continue reading
Every week this month I’ve had to completely re-evaluate all my plans and expectations. So I got a late start with Inkvent after a sudden emergency, but I’ve been swatching inks daily since I caught up and it has been a nice ritual amidst the chaos. Turns out the chaos of a house in the … Continue reading
I knew that this month was very likely to go off the rails with our upcoming move, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have hopes even as I tried to build slack into my plans. One of the things I’d hoped was that I’d be able to take a little time out of my day and do Inkvent swatches and journalling as a bit of a meditative practice in the face of chaos. Turns out chaos was stronger than that and I’ve been mostly offline for the first few days of the month, but I’m catching up and getting into it now. Continue reading
Going with a spooky kitty theme this month, since I had a pair of good spooky kitty sticker sheets from last year’s stickii Halloween countdown. Also, some thoughts on advent-y stuff for December as I plan out the last of my year. Continue reading
Happy Spooky Month! I’ve got a lot of Halloween-themed stickers leftover from last year’s Stickii countdown, and I’m slowly trying to make a dent in my ink samples this month. Journal Stuff My Clairefontaine Triomphe journal is a few pages from done so it’s getting retired this month. (In theory I’ll use the last pages … Continue reading
I’ve been thinking a bunch about my fountain pen collection lately. I’m up to around 25 pens (I should probably count or something) most of which are relatively cheap ones that I got with the idea of trying a specific thing: a different nib, brand, filling mechanism, body material, size, etc. At this point I … Continue reading
For some reason, eink screens work significantly better for me when I have even the mildest of headaches, so my ereader has been an important accessibility device for me since it now means I can read something while I’m waiting for my painkillers to kick in. I currently use a Kobo Clara BW and aside … Continue reading
Yup, I bought the Pelikan Pura to replace my Pelikan Twist and I have zero regrets. Continue reading
It’s time to bid farewell to last year’s calendar, and set up a fresh one! I’m moving from the Traveler’s Notebook free monthly calendar to the KOKUYO Campus one, mostly because the latter is a bit bigger. (Spoiler: the squares are about 18% bigger.) Continue reading
I tried a Pelikan Twist for shimmer ink and it was noticeably better than any other pen I own. Continue reading
In my previous post about fiber goals I’d claimed not to have done anything new in July, but I forgot I made a book nook! It’s not apparent from the photo but it’s sized to fit on a bookshelf. This was a kit I bought online a year or two ago. I did decided some … Continue reading
This year’s goals were as follows: We’re a bit more than halfway through the year so let’s see where we’re at! Revisit Old Goals Started strong in January by finishing up a rainbow shawl that had been on the needles for quite some time: I’d intended to release the pattern since I had an old … Continue reading
We’ve reached August! House hunting is going ok but we’re back in the US while we push offers through our real estate agents. It was a good trip but I’m very happy to have air conditioning again: I had a few days without headache for the first time in two weeks once I got home. … Continue reading
I’m on a trip! I don’t travel as much as I used to, so I think this is the first time I’ve brought a vacuum filling pen on a plane. I picked up a Nahvalur Original Plus last year when I was collecting a bunch of different fountain pens mostly to see what would stick. … Continue reading
I decided to be a bit lazy with July’s stationary choices, so we’re continuing 2 pens from last month and just adding in the pen that I had been using for todo lists, and repeating the bunny sticker sheet that I hadn’t finished. I did get some new puppy stickers for my calendar (I’m currently … Continue reading