After years of stubbornly resisting planner season, I finally succumbed to the lure of trying a Hobonichi. The plan is to use it as a daily art thing.  But it’s a particular kind of torture to have all these fancy new planners arriving and then having to wait until 2027 to use them.  (Or December 2026, since the planner has monthly calendars that start then.)

So I picked up an A6 notebook and decided I could experiment a bit with how I wanted to do my updated health/creativity trackers, and I could draw daily.    It’s an Oasis notebook from Profolio and I got it on sale for $10 at the art store and it felt so absurd to get such a nice little notebook for so little after all the time I spent mentally shopping the hobonnichi lineup.  It’s not the same paper, but it’s similarly thin and coated so hopefully it’ll help me ease in to 2027.

So far my favourite is a joke I drew for my kid: He likes the new fire-dog Pokemon starter Pombon but he is very concerned over the question of whether it’s going to evolve into some bipedal monstrosity instead of staying dog-like.  So of course, being the terrible parent that I am, I had to draw it as if it evolved the other way and got 6 legs.

Watercolour paintings of the new pokemon Pombon, which looks like a fiery pomeranian, then a fake evolved version which is a giant puppy dragon with 6 legs drawn like a big asian serpent.

Maybe I’ll draw another one with even more legs like a centipede or an inchworm later?

I’m getting better at using the watercolour pencils on thin planner paper and I’m having fun taking pictures of things and then drawing them, or coming up with goofy ideas like the pokemon above.  Very excited to talk about all my planner, uh, plans, but I’m waiting for my last order to show up before I sit down to write a post about the whole setup  Still, I’m excited to already be using the Hobonichi cover and pencil board, and I’m hopeful that my daily art plans for 2027 are going to work out.

Stationary setup for October 2026

Fountain Pens & Inks

• TWSBI Eco glow green <M> – Jaques Herbin Orange Indien
  • Love this pairing.  The ink is a bit light compared to the Noodlers Southwest Sunset sample it was replacing and the shading is less dramatic, but it doesn’t have dots that take forever to dry and wind up smearing because I missed one tiny point.    So overall, absolutely better.
• Hongian Maple <long blade> – Diamine Red Dagon
  • Last time I used this pen I found it a bit hard to use for longer writing sessions, but I’m not having any trouble this time so I’m not sure if the ink is just a bit more lubricated or my hands are just a bit stronger from all the extra drawing time?  It’s a pretty pen and an interesting nib and pairs well with this ink.  This is the first time I’m using Red Dragon in a pen and it’s working out as I’d hoped.
• Pelikan Pura <B> – Wearinguel Mary Shelly Frankenstein
  • I wasn’t super impressed with this ink the last couple of times I used it, but it is waaaay more impressive in the wetter Pelikan so I get to actually see the shimmer more in the writing.  Glad I gave it another shot, but I still won’t be buying a bottle because I use dark purple maybe twice a year so this giant vanness sample may last me a decade.

Stickers

I think all of these are from the stickii halloween countdown circa 2024 or maybe 2024?  I haven’t bought another since then because it was so many stickers, but I picked up the 2026 cute one for my kid’s birthday because he loves countdowns, and he’s been anxiously awaiting 12 days before halloween to start it.

• Square halloween icons by Laurel Mae Art
• Green frankenstein doggies by Cytusss__
• Vampire bears and bunnies by Pippustudio
• Kitties ghosts and bats by Ilbyde

Butterflies

A friend gave us her extra tickets to the butterfly show at the university greenhouse and my kid was very excited to feed the butterflies:

A child’s hand holding an orange with a butterfly on it, having a drink.

Kid and I painted some thank you cards.  Apparently I forgot to take a picture of my kid’s but here’s mine and the butterfly that inspired it!

A glasswing butterfly at perched on a leaf.

A painting of the same glasswing butterfly with some creative liberties taken because my kid was using my phone so I couldn’t look at the reference photo. It’s painted on a card that we gave to the person who gave us her extra tickets, though this is before I wrote thank you on the painting.