Do you have any colors you dislike? If I’m being 100% honest I’ve never been much of a yellow fan. Sure it’s sunny and bright and happy, but somehow I just never cared for it much. In recent years I’ve come to appreciate a good honey or mustard, but they’re never my first choice.
This week’s chicken knitting is yellow. I didn’t pick it, and it wouldn’t be my first choice, but it got me thinking about yellow yarn in my stash, and yellow inks.
Do you use yellow inks? Some of the light ones are so light that they’re not super legible. I can get beyond a deep honey or gold ink though. Yellow is definitely a color that I don’t stock up on. Here’s what I seem to have in my stash:
Ban Mi Yellow
Vinta Hanan
Papier Plume Yellow
PenBBS No 134
Robert Oster Aussie Cold
Platinum Classic Citrus Black
Colorverse Gluon
And those last two? I’m not even sure they’re yellows – they sort of stray into the more green area.
I love the idea that washi tape could be made from recycled materials (though washi paper is probably recyclable as is) so I was excited to see that MT is making Upcycle washi tape which is made from 70% recycled paper including coffee filter scraps.
The Upcycle washi tape is sold in kraft bags which would be challenging to figure out the colors of the tape in the bags if we were purchasing them in store but luckily I ordered them online. There are two rolls in each pack and there are currently 6 different packs available in solid colors. One pack is two rolls of natural colored tape but the other sets include two different colors. I purchased the Rose Pink x Uguisu (Pink & Green, $7 per set). I like all the other color options too so it was very hard to make a decision.
The Rose Pink is a warm, coral-y pink and the Uguisu is a lovely mossy green color.
In my first uses of the tape, the quality is on par with every other roll of MT washi tape I’ve ever used. IT tears easily, is good and sticky and the rolls include 7m (21 feet of tape on each roll) of tape.
Overall, I hope to see more recycled paper products especially for ephemeral items like washi tape. Thanks MT, for raising the bar.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I love Kaweco Sport pens. It was one of my first fountain pens and I continue to acquire them when I find a design or color in particular.
So, today I thought I’d show off my latest acquisition: the limited edition Kaweco x Hello Kitty Sport ($80) called Stardust Purple. It is transparent purple embedded with silver glitter. The nib is engraved with Hello Kitty’s adorable face. It came with a little acrylic keychain with Hello Kitty riding a unicorn and a charm with a purple bow. I immediately stuck the charm onto my pen show badge holder. It made me so happy to have this silly little Hello Kitty charm. Deep down, I am a nine-year-old girl.
This pen was only available with a F nib, or that was what I was told when I purchased it. Luckily, I prefer the F nib on Kaweco so it just meant I didn’t need to make any decisions.
I picked this up at the Houston Little Craft Fest and it was 100% an impulse purchase. It’s pretty and makes me smile but it is ridiculously expensive for what should be a $30 pen. Would I do it again? Yeah, probably. But I feel like I restrained myself since I didn’t buy a Hello Kitty AL-Sport ($185) which is even MORE expensive. But if I won the lottery, I would 100% buy one… or all of them.
My takeaway: there is no price tag on happiness. Buy what you love and love it.
Mostly the pens I tested were gel or fiber-tipped but I threw in two marker/highlighter pens just because I wanted to see how they looked next to the more writing pens.
I really thought the colors in the gel pens would be closer to a chocolatey tone. Some colors leaned more purply and other were darker, more espresso colored. The Zebra Mildliner and Pentel Brush Sign Pen were no where near the Mocha Mousse Delight but it was nice to see them in comparison.
Despite the name, the UniBall ONE Cappuccino Brown was too light.
I think the winner is the Pilot Juice Up in Brown. Its chocolatey with that hint of golden undertones. The color is the warmest without edging into a reddish hue.
I think the Pilot Juice in Brown is a close second but is a bit darker. Sakura Ballsign iD 0.4 Mocha Black and the Pilot Juice Up in Classic Glossy Brown is tied for third being much darker in color but feel like a dark, 75% cocoa style mocha mousse.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Today’s Link Love is being written from my basement while the tornado sirens are shrieking above me. The likelihood of a tornado hitting us is probably (hopefully) pretty slim but, boy, does it make me think about how fragile our world is.
I didn’t “go-bag” my pens or ink or even my journal when I ran down here. I grabbed my phone, my laptop and the cats. Oh, and my cup of coffee, of course. I am reflecting on my lack of planning as I would be very sad if I lost my journal and many of my pens but I’d be devasted to lose all the products in my shop all stored in my studio. But I supposed if my house blew away, I’d have way bigger problems to worry about.
I know that wherever you are when you’re reading this, there is some severe weather that you fear from personal experience. I hope that you are safe and comfortable wherever you are and that the sun is shining or the stars are twinkling. Stay safe, have a plan for severe weather and remember that you and your family are more important than pens but you might want to pack one or two, just in case.
(Oh, side note: If I don’t get blown away, I’ll be in the Raleigh-Durham area for the Triangle Pen Show this weekend. Come see me at the Dromgoole’s table where I will be slinging ink and notebooks. Please come and say hi!)
I might need a new pair of ruby slippers to get me out of Kansas (or more specifically in case I get blown into Kansas) so consider joining our Patreon. You will get an exclusive podcast, free printables, and more. Your support keeps us in “no place like pens and home”. Thank you!
This book, told in a series of five vignettes, is a story of how ordinary people interact with and love their stationery. At the center of the story is the proprietor of a well-stocked stationery shop in the Ginza district. He’s surrounded by other lovely shops and people whose aim is to make your day more pleasurable. There are lots of little stationery details: specific notebooks and fountain pens, paper and envelopes that make people’s hearts sing.
If you want a feel-good, slice of life book, I can heartily recommend this one!
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As we have reached the mid-point of 2025, I thought I’d do a little Techo Kaigi to check in with where I am at with my planners, journals, and notebooks.
“Loosely translated [from] Japanese, Techo Kaigi is a journaling or planner meeting that you have (with yourself) where you reflect on what you’ve been using and whether you want to continue that into the next year.” (From Pen Addict)
I am currently using two books on a daily basis: my B6 Stalogy for my page-a-day journal/brain dump and my Hobonichi Weeks that I use for my Gamify My Life project. Then I have a 3-pen case from Galen Leather for my fountain pens currently inked and the Hobonichi Pocket Drawer that I keep markers, gel pens and ephemera.
My additional notebook options: an old Leuchtturm 1917, Endless Explorer B6-sized cover made from cactus leather and an A6-sized Lauren Phelps Designs notebook with custom cover.
I also have been using a repurposed Leuchtturm1917 A5-sized notebook for a reading journal. This is the first year I’ve been trying to do a reading journal so this has been an experiment and I am working to streamline my book journaling process.
I am considering switching to the Lauren Phelps Design A6 planner for my book journal. It would also be a re-used/repurposed notebook and would give me them option to create a page-per-book instead of my current 3 books-per-page set-up.
And the Endless Explorer Cactus Leather cover is a really cool cover option and I would love to use a non-animal material cover more (as a vegetarian, it seems on-brand). I discovered that the cover is B6-ish sized which means that I have lots of inserts I can you use with it so I am really excited to start working with it more. I have inserts from Studio Ghibli, Midori and more that would all fit into the Explorer cover. As it is right now, I use a Ghibli B6 for day-to-day work notes so maybe the cover can be used as my “work notebook system”?
Finally, I discovered that I have a brand new, unopened Traveler’s Notebook in Camel and a ridiculous quantity of inserts that would fit into it. I would like to find a good use for it.
So, overall, I think my current system is working pretty well but I would like to use more of the massive stash of notebooks I have so I need to figure out good uses for some of these notebooks and journals.
All my notebooks and planners in my “house purse“.
DISCLAIMER: Some items in this post include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.
