Monthly Archives: February 2026

2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 21-25

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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 an hour of video. But hopefully by the time this posts, everything will be great and this frustrating day will be a distant memory. In the meantime, I have pretty inks and a nice crisp apple to eat.

A view of the "green" space by the power lines, with trees and ground covered in snow and with the sun breaking through the clouds near the horizon.
A view of the “green” space by the power lines, with trees and ground covered in snow and with the sun breaking through the clouds near the horizon.

Let’s talk inks:

A set of 5 ink swatches from the last of the Diamine Inkvent Teal calendar. Day 21: Chaos, deep burgundy with grene sheen. Day 22: Pineapple Spritz, two-toned yellow with yellow sparkles. Day 21: Let It Snow, bright light blue with blue shimmer. Day 24: Antler, light brown with a bit of a pink tone. Day 25: Myrrh the Merrier, rich medium blue with blue shimmer and red sheen.
A set of 5 ink swatches from the last of the Diamine Inkvent Teal calendar. Day 21: Chaos, deep burgundy with grene sheen. Day 22: Pineapple Spritz, two-toned yellow with yellow sparkles. Day 21: Let It Snow, bright light blue with blue shimmer. Day 24: Antler, light brown with a bit of a pink tone. Day 25: Myrrh the Merrier, rich medium blue with blue shimmer and red sheen.

Showing 5 samples to finish out the calendar!

An ink swatch of Diamine Chaos, a dark burgundy ink with green sheen (although it looks more red and less purple in this image)
An ink swatch of Diamine Chaos, a dark burgundy ink with green sheen (although it looks more red and less purple in this image)

Day 21: Chaos. Deep burgundy with green sheen. I think this ink is considerably more attractive than last year’s Sleigh Ride, so it might actually get used. Not in love with it, though.

A swatch of Diamine Pineapple Spritz showing the yellow shimmer in the yellow ink. It isn't very legible, though.
A swatch of Diamine Pineapple Spritz showing the yellow shimmer in the yellow ink. It isn’t very legible, though.

Day 22: Pineapple Spritz. Yellow with yellow iridescent sparkle. This ink is very pretty but only barely legible in my journal even with a dip pen so it may get relegated to decorative status because I doubt it’s going to be better in a regular pen. It’s really pretty with all that shimmer so I’ve got some hope that it might be fun for painting or filling in tracking squares or something.

A swatch of Diamine Let it Snow fountain pen ink. It's bright blue with blue shimmer.
A swatch of Diamine Let it Snow fountain pen ink. It’s bright blue with blue shimmer.

Day 23: Let It Snow. Bright blue with blue iridescent shimmer. Absolutely the kind of fancy holiday ink that I wanted out of this calendar. Love it. Describing it makes it sound similar to Brrr! but it’s not a pigment ink so it should be a bit less of a hassle in a pen. And it is a very different bright blue instead of the more moody Brrr! blue.

Day 24: Antler. Light brown. Fairly similar to Smoky Tobacco from day 4 but with less yellow and more of a pink feel to the brown. Also, it doesn’t stink. Basically better in every way than Smoky Tobacco thanks to the lack of scent. I’ll use this one and possibly never open Smoky Tobacco again.

A swatch of Diamine Myrrh the Merrier fountain pen ink, a jewel toned blue with blue sparkle and red sheen.
A swatch of Diamine Myrrh the Merrier fountain pen ink, a jewel toned blue with blue sparkle and red sheen.

Day 25: Myrrh the Merrier. Blue with red sheen and blue sparkles. This is the 30ml bottle and it’s completely over the top holiday ink. I expected something more green-leaning for Inkvent Teal and this really reads as blue to me especially with the blue shimmer, so I would have swapped this with day 1’s Celestial Skies if I were Diamine. But it’s a really lovely ink and I’m excited to use it.

 

Overall: I had fun with this year’s calendar despite how busy my December was! Most of these inks are good additions to my collection: I’m glad to try some pigment inks, I’m excited about a lot of the colours, and there were only a few disappointments. If I’m honest with myself about what inks I reach for most, I’ve got to admit that I don’t really need more shimmer or sheening inks so maybe I shouldn’t get an inkvent calendar next year. If I’m talking purely about inks I use most, I should focus on getting a few more “standard” inks. But if I treat it as an experience, it’s definitely been fun! It expanded my ink collection in a few ways I might not have done otherwise: I was curious about pigment inks but hadn’t worked up the nerve to buy any and now they’re right there — I’m especially excited to try them in art. Some of this year’s colours wouldn’t have been on my radar if I was shopping but they’re going to work so well in my monthly palettes. So I’m absolutely not sad to have done it again this year, and I’m excited to play with these more in 2026!

 

Moving continues, February 2026 life and ink

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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 moved the other way where, among other chaos, my work visa claimed that I was an 11 year old with a PhD and understandably that wasn’t going to fly at the border but without a valid work visa I couldn’t do import paperwork. Le sigh. So now we have a move that has been both extremely expensive, slow, and caused huge amounts of stress and labour that we didn’t expect. But it’s nearly done so I guess that’s something? I’m excited to finally set up my office maybe later this week, though!

 

Stickers and Inks and fountain pens for Febrary 2025. They are described in more detail in the text of the post.

Stickers

  • dinos with shiny hearts (stickii, no artist listed)
  • doggies with sweaters (stickii, no artist listed)
  • valentines objects (Neko Mori Arts via stickii)
  • Katrinkles (from an advent calendar)

Using up some unfinished valentines sheets from last year!

Fountain Pens and Inks

  • Pilot E95S <m> – Diamine Blush (Inkvent 2025)
  • Kaweco Liliput <b> – Van Dieman’s Underflow
  • Pelikan Pura <b> – Diamine Ruby Taffeta (Inkvent 2025)
  • Pelikan Pina Colada <m> – Diamine Celestial Skies (Inkvent 2025)

Leaning into the new inks for this month: three from the Inkvent calendar I just opened and one new ink from Fountain Pen Day (November 2025).  Celestial Skies is continuing from last month.

Commuter Stationary

My "Commuter Notebook" setup with two foutain pens, described in more detail in the post.

  • TWSBI Eco T <m> – Organics Studio Nitrogen
  • Pilot Kakuno <m> – Robert Oster Rose Gold Antiqua
  • Lochby TN-sized dot grid refill
  • Traveler’s Notebook zipper pouch (used as a cover)

The new part of this is the Kakuno — I was finding that I really missed swapping in colours day to day to make it really obvious where yesterdays’ stuff started.  I’d bought the Kakuno to be my purse pen (cheap, light, easy to write with) but it hasn’t gotten used in a while because I was rotating other pens in and out.  I’m not sure I’m going to love Rose Gold Antiqua in this pen (I’ve had trouble with it clogging in other pens) but I’ll give it a shot since I’m trying to use up some samples and it is a pretty ink when it works. 

The Eco has been working beautifully, and I love Nitrogen’s shine on the Lochby paper.  The notebook itself has worked out nicely for commuting — I mostly write with it at work and it’s a mix of work notes, todo lists for home, journal-style entries, and creative writing.  I may eventually get a second TN-sized refill to be just a work notebook, but for now the everything notebook format is working well.  It’s a little bit less weight, I can get by with the zip case as cover, and I’ll use up the refill faster this way.

In the same vein: the plan is to write these pens dry unless I run into clogging problems, so you likely won’t see these next month!

And In Unrelated News…

I finally went and found a plugin that replaces WordPress’s Block Mode editor.  I’ve never been a huge fan, but lately it’s been… hanging?  Not switching blocks?  Whatever is happening, it’s actually been getting in the way of writing a lot lately.  So far this is the first thing I’ve written with the new old-style editor and it’s really helped.