But it's like, not a bad problem to have. You know? Of all the things I could possibly buy too much of, stickers don't really rank on the list of "things that could bankrupt me."

 Another last minute post! To be fair, it's because all the semi-exciting stuff is happening this week.

 August? Already?! That certainly can't be true. I'm unsure if this year is crawling along glacially or whipping past me like a train. Every day feels like it's 50 hours long and then suddenly it's Friday again. Phew.

One of the great joys of working at a stationery retailer is that you're surrounded by people who are just as obsessed with stationery as you are. Last month, I joined my coworkers in making a big order from 10x10, a Korean online retailer. I got stickers from Iconic, Dailylike, Rihoon, as well as some smaller indie artists.

Where did May go?! My goodness. I did much less writing than I wanted to, but I still managed to swap out most of my currently inked. Instead of using newer inks I stuck with bottles that have been in my collection for a good amount of time. 

Just because this blog is pivoting to Other Content doesn’t mean I’ll stop talking about inks. I will never stop talking about inks.

I wanted to post this earlier, but as they say, life finds a way. I've cut down on my inked pens drastically: I keep three to four fountain pens on me now, which is a wild number considering I used to have my entire collection inked at once. So when I remembered that I used an ink I really liked and I should ink that up again for this post, well... it had to wait a minute. Or a month.

I thought it would be fun to write about what pens I have inked right now. Mostly I want to have a sort of diary that helps me keep track of how long I've had pens inked up for. With any luck my next post will have completely new pens in it.

Don't you wish you were having half as much fun as these little guys?

Mind Wave has been one of my favorite stationery manufacturers for a while. They specialize largely in what I like to call “mascot” stationery: products that feature a small cast of characters. They make stickers, washi tapes, AirPod covers, even branded Zebra DelGuards and Mildliners. I’m a big fan of Shibanban, a group of shiba inus big and small that get into all kinds of exciting trouble.

A recent addition to the Mind Wave lineup is Kotori Machi, which imagines a peaceful shopping street lined with beloved local stores. The original Kotori Machi “shops” included eight locations: Sunset Bookstore, Fleur Sereine (a flower shop), Pâtisserie Hitokuchi, Kasasagi Coffee, Restaurant Reshipi-tei, Fille Rêveuse (a dress shop), Cinema Scarlet, and Stand Bar 3329. The next four focused on classic and vintage shops, like Sento Yutosoyu (an onsen, or public bath), Kissaten Jiruetto (an old-school tea/coffee shop), Tailor Enaga, and Kasho Tsubame (a wagashi, or traditional Japanese sweets, shop)¹.

Since 2015, I’ve used the Seven Seas Standard as a journal. This absolute brick of a notebook has 480 pages in it. It’s an enormous and humbling undertaking to start writing in the Seven Seas Standard. Does it feel like committing to a long-term relationship? Yes. It took me about a year and a half to two years to finish a single notebook!¹

The Kanso Noto on the left (in a cover), and my three completed Seven Seas Standards on the right.

Though I’ve gone through (almost) three entire Seven Seas Standards at this point, I switched over to the Kanso Noto in the middle of last year—and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not just saying that because I had a hand in designing it (behind the scenes information: I helped pick the cover colors). I do have my reasons.

Can you believe that Mary Oliver has been gone from us for three long years? I devoured her poetry in college. I still remember finding Our World while looking for font type catalogs at my college library: I plonked myself on the floor, right in the aisle, and finished the entire short book in one sitting.

I've since wandered my way through many of her poetry collections, and added a copy of Devotions to my collection a few years ago. I prefer to check out books from the library now, but it just felt right to own such a dense book. I still revisit it from time to time. She retreads familiar territory, but there's an earnestness to each poem that makes it feel fresh. I could read about sand dunes all day if Oliver told me about them.

Poetry does still have a bit of cringe factor attached to it. I think many of us imagine brooding, rhyming texts written by a guy in high school. But if there could be a place to start, Oliver's poetry is so accessible and touches on many of the simplest yet most inscrutable emotions we could experience. And I'm sure you've read at least one.  

Above, one of my favorite poems. It's the final poem in Our World, a book of prose and poetry written by Oliver with photographs by Molly Malone Cook, her longtime partner.

If you don’t already know, I have a hoarding mentality. It no doubt comes from generations of saving perfectly sized boxes and jars for organizing household goods¹. It’s why I have so many fountain pens, stickers, washi tapes, inks, stamps, extra correction tapes, skeins of yarn, dice… I have the brain of a magpie, and I do appreciate my need for curling my claws around sparkly and cute things, but sometimes it’s a little out of control.

Well, it’s certainly been a while.

Hello everyone! Yes, I’m still alive, in great health and reasonably good spirits! I’m sure you’ve noticed that this blog has been quiet. To get right to the chase: I got bored of writing ink reviews. I like certain colors and gravitate towards them. Most reviews ended up being about the same handful of colors from different brands, and honestly—fountain pen ink manufacturers are pretty darn good at what they do nowadays. I don’t think I’ve experienced a bad ink in a while. Just find the colors you like and use them. It really is that simple (or, as I’m sure my fellow ink hoarders would understand, it could be that simple…).

So I took a break, and then a longer break, and now I’m writing this in the dregs of 2021. Time flies. I’ve been doing other things—reading, knitting, writing, working—and feeling satisfied. I made my way through 24 books, feverishly knitted four beanies in the last month, and wrote about 16,000 words of fiction (a big drop from last year's 100,000 (yes, that many), but still very laudable). I continue to be gainfully employed at JetPens (have you seen me in videos?). I never got the urge to come back and write another ink review, that’s for sure.

But I want to try and branch out into writing casually for an audience about one of my favorite hobbies, so here’s my resolution for 2022: writing at least one post a month for the rest of the year about whatever I want, as long as it’s about stationery. Please forgive me the occasional phone photo.

I guess we’ll have to see about whether or not the blog sticks around after this pivot, but maybe you’ll stick around to see if it crashes or burns.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season. Brighter days are ahead, even if we have to light the candles our dang selves.