Addicted to Pens and Paper

Happy Fountain Pen Day

In celebration, Pen Heaven has some interesting and fun fountain pen facts for you today.
Click here to check out their blog. I hope you are all showing your fountain pens some love today.

Who knew that fountain pens have their own day? It seems perfectly sensible to me. Lots of other things have their own day - donuts, bosses, talking like a pirate - fountain pens are better than any of those (well, let me think about the donuts). Anyway…there is, of course, a Fountain Pen Day website right here - Fountain Pen Day.

This is the second official Fountain Pen Day and it is always celebrated on the first Friday in November, which happens to be November 1 this year. There were approximately 600 people participating last year, and the number has grown to over 2000 in 2013! That’s good news! As for how to celebrate this auspicious occasion? Well, the Fountain Pen Day website has some suggestions and you are welcome to come up with your own creative way of celebrating.

Here are some ideas for celebrating the day!

Write a letter to someone with your favorite fountain pen and ink. Under your signature you can write the pen & ink you used.
Go through your stationary collection and use some of those you have saved for a special occasion. Surprise a friend with that vintage paper.
You can make up a FPD “intro to fountain pens” pack for a friend like this.
Post on your favorite forum or blog by writing it out with your fountain pen. Then take a picture of it and post it. Again, under your signature write what pen & ink you used.
Instead of typing Facebook status updates and tweets on Twitter, write them and upload a picture of them (mention the reason that you’re doing it at well.)
Take one of the pens you don’t use anymore and send it off to a friend with a handwritten note. If you don’t have any pens you want to part with you can shop one of the online retailers and have it sent direct to them.
Make that the weekend you have your pen club meet up.
Turn off your computer and put down the phone and spend some time writing.

There are also 51 vendors participating. Some are offering discounts, specials, and even giveaways.

So click on over to the Fountain Pen Day website and browse around. Enter a giveaway. Leave a comment on their blog. Check out a new vendor. Visit their Facebook page. But above all, be sure to show your fountain pens some love this Friday!

Four Words, Four Worlds Giveaway

Danni is hosting a very nice giveaway going on over on the Four Words, Four Worlds blog. You - or I :-) - could win a J. Herbin Rollerball pen, one cartridge of every color (30!) J. Herbin ink, one of the author's lovely handmade rainbow pocket notebooks, and a brand new Leuchtturm1917 Neon notebooks in orange, donated by lovely folks over at Bureau Direct.

It's easy to enter, just answer a couple of questions and your name is thrown into the hat. The giveaway ends September 25. Hop on over and sign up!

Fun reading

What does your handwriting say about you? The study of handwriting is called graphology, and how you write can indicate over 5000 personality traits. Check out this infographic from Pens.com.

A Little Organization

I’ve been searching for the perfect storage solution for my address labels, stamps, return address labels, etc. and I think I may have finally found it. I tried boxes, envelopes, CD sleeves… none of them worked for me. Then I remembered this pretty little treasure. It was right here all the time. Yes, Dorothy, right in my own ~~backyard~~ closet.

You see, I had big plans to be an extreme couponer once upon a time. You know what I mean, you’ve seen the show, right? One of those people that buys a van full of groceries for $3.57. It never really worked out that way for me. I didn’t have enough coupons for one of those humongous binders, but I had too many for just an envelope. I wanted something pretty, something that I could carry in my purse. So I sat down one day, drew out a pattern, bought some pretty fabric, and whipped this up. Well, maybe it didn’t go as smoothly as all that, but I did manage to get a presentable finished product. I used it for quite a while, it worked well, but eventually I gave up on the whole extreme couponing dream. I downsized my coupons to a plastic organizer from Staples and stored this away. Once I remembered I had it, then it was time to play another rousing round of “Where the Hell Did I Put It?”. That took a little while, but find it I did. Never give up, never surrender (name that movie). I just changed the words on the dividers and Voila!

I’ve got everything neatly divided into sections - forever stamps, international stamps, postcard stamps, misc. stamps, address labels, etc. - and it’s portable. It has an elastic closure that slips around the bottom to a button on the back. I could clip a pen or two on there if the mood strikes.

I like the fact that it isn’t a rigid plastic. It’s soft, somewhat expandable, and holds more than I thought it would.

I keep stamps in these little things. They started out as zippered pockets for stamp sets, but I never used them for that purpose because the zipper was too hard to open and close. So I just zippered them shut and cut off the bottom to fit in the organizer. They are made of pretty sturdy, semi-soft plastic and it’s easier to keep them in there than to file them loose in the bag, even with the dividers.

I keep a stash of these in there, too. They are Super Sticky 3M labels that I use to address my handmade envelopes.

I bought these before I found the pretty colors - at least these have lines. You know how I love lines. (Apologies for the blurry photo)

This is what my stationery collection has expanded to these days. The box on the left is just for envelopes and stickers, and I have some sealing wax (which I always forget about) in that little tin. The one on the right holds my paper & postcards - most of it, anyway. At the far left is where I keep my stamp organizer bag. It’s an evolving system and subject to change at any time, but it’s been this way for several months. So far, so good!

How do you organize small items like stamps and labels? I’m always open to new solutions. Hit me with your best shot!

Look What I Found!

I was searching for who-knows-what in the closet and I found this baby!!

Yes, it’s a small wooden lap desk which was a gift from a friend at least 10 years ago. She painted it, stamped it, and put a durable lacquer finish on it - it looks like the day I got it! I had completely forgotten about it and I was so glad to find it that I totally forgot whatever else it was that I was searching for. I’m sure I will remember someday, but for now I am enjoying a visit with this lovely piece of functional art.

She even painted my initials on the inside of the lid and there is a cushioned felt pad in the bottom.

Here is a closer look at the stamping. Isn’t it gorgeous? It measures 11-1/4” x 9-1/2” and is 3” tall in the back. It slopes down slightly in the front, the way a good lap desk should. It sits perfectly on my lap and is just the right angle for writing comfortably. It’s a little tricky to use full 8-1/2 x 11 sheets on it, but it can be done. I don’t think you can even buy unfinished pieces like this any more. It may have come from a Hobby Lobby, or some similar craft store, but I haven’t seen one in any craft stores in recent years.

Inside, I found this. Yep, writing paper - with lines, thank you very much. I have NO idea where I bought this, but since paper like this seems to have gone extinct I can only guess at its age. It’s old. very old. Sorta like me :-)

I’ve never been one for plain ol’ white paper and I know I bought it because of the lovely rainbow colored sheets. It’s thin, cheap paper but I imagine it came from somewhere like Eckerd’s or maybe even K-Mart back in the day, and was probably pretty inexpensive. Not meant for fountain pen ink, I’m sure. But it will get used soon. Gel pens should work just fine on it.

I am off to write some more letters… I’ll see you in the mailbox.

Happy Mail

This is one of the many reasons I am so glad I started writing letters and having pen pals again. It’s such a delight to find a letter in my mailbox, and doubly delightful to find letters with envelopes such as these in the mailbox!

This is original artwork on the envelope, she is so talented! It’s beautiful and I just want to frame it!

A sweet pen friend visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter recently and sent me a letter from there, written on Owl Post stationery and enclosed in this wonderful envelope:

Complete with a faux wax seal on the back. Perfect!

I’m smilin’.