My latest currently inked is a study of triplets. A change-up to six new pen-and-ink combinations. | Continue reading
Egging myself on is a reliable way to ensure I delve deeply into the ideas my intentional self wants to think through. I’m prone to short, targeted bouts of writing otherwise — especially during weeks off from teaching. The perks of embracing the wider side of stationery life. | Continue reading
One of the perks of having a sizable pen collection is rediscovering what I enjoy about pens I already own. A dopamine kick without a new purchase. That feeling of “oh now I recall why I really like this” that follows escaping my rut of choosing the same pens over and again. | Continue reading
I’ve started keeping two running lists to keep myself afloat as school day schedules change rapidly, rip currents of unplanned assemblies and lessons that need to dialogue with ongoing world events. A “just before” meeting agenda and a lesson sequence list. | Continue reading
I pulled six pens with demure colorways and narrow nib sizing for this week’s return to a currently inked sextet. Blacks and greys, a murky, metallic blue, and rose gold. And used a six-sided dice to choose one. | Continue reading
I’ve learned that my weeklies need a brainstorming maker-space. A corner to house hastily scrawled ideas for medium term and future projects. | Continue reading
Scanning my penvelope unveiled an a-ha moment: I’m digging all seven of my pen-and-ink pairings. The coming week is therefore dubbed a commitment week . A week for writing my already-inked pens down to empty. | Continue reading
I’ve taken warmly to thin softbound notebooks of late — especially for my personal journaling. I just started my third in a row. Softbound notebooks are low stakes platforms for experimentation. | Continue reading
Slight tweaks tailor last week’s currently inked — which was chosen by my good friend, BF — for the upcoming heavy-hitting work week. | Continue reading
Interest in fountain pens is brewing amongst my youngest class of students. The stationery ‘good word’ is spreading. Extrinsic motivation, used pointedly, can be a net win. | Continue reading
Taking myself out of the decisionmaking for pairing inks with pens shakes me from my rut of rotating between the same inks and same nibs over and again. The excitement of trying a new pen-nib-ink combination is what starts me writing and working and scribbling. Novelty generates … | Continue reading
I aimed for a spicier monochrome. Spicy translates into a true blue ink to accompany Blizzard’s teal-forward hue and a yellow-green to stand out against the other five understated ink colors. Shading forward and true to hue. | Continue reading
My educational happenings are accompanied by a duo of index tabs in my work bullet journal, one for each course I teach. The tabs ease access to the lesson plan outline each course is presently on. Thumb-friendly flipping directly to the exact lesson I am set to teach each day. A … | Continue reading
Tracking is useful for me even when I am unable to maintain my trackers. Any practice that works even when I don’t actively use it is worth its weight in ink. | Continue reading
The Inkvent calendar facilitated a fun new tradition in my household: the Inkvent Draft. Here’s the rub: each person gets to keep seven colors, chosen NFL-style over six rotating rounds. The undrafted are gifted to folks at the next pen group meetup. Perks of having a family memb … | Continue reading
Consistency is a song. A procedural rhythm that’s catchy enough for me to repeatedly fall back into. Like the hook in a great beat or a sticky melody. I’ve struggled to find a writing rhythm since my July move. | Continue reading
Toying with taking up a new lens on pen types, JO and I considered use case as a sideways perspective into which kinds of pens populate our collections. And a novel perspective can unearth values and preferences and “what works for me” that I’ve only yet to subconsciously pull to … | Continue reading
Splitting the difference between work needs and the coming five days off for playing around with personal scribblings. A little somber and a dash of playful. | Continue reading
I enter this week with lesson plans sketched out, conferences planned, and meetings prepped. Wowza. All but two meetings will move methodically enough to accommodate intentional attention to my writing angle. This is what policy wonks call a “policy moment” — a nib grind moment. | Continue reading
The moment I know that a new pen is coming home with me is when I actively seek out reasons to continue scribbling. Cursive “s” shapes. Hash marks. Nonsense sentences. My dog’s name. Often done to a soundtrack of quiet, joyful giggling. | Continue reading
Dr. Nicole Sharp (aka. @aerognome) recently extended an invitation for folks to participate in their new study on how we experience inks as wet and as dry. I’m including an excerpt of their call to action here because it looks like a fun investigation. It’s a short, direct, and a … | Continue reading
I store my ink bottles in four white hard-paper boxes. Each box rests on a shelf. I use Col-O-Ring cards as labels to show me which color families rest in each box. The point is to minimize the number of bottles I need to search through in my hunt for a specific ink — when I have … | Continue reading
I revisited my nib choices for the coming week with my work planner’s THIN paper in mind. Kokuyo’s THIN paper is moderately absorbent, which leads to some line spreading and a dry writing experience with liquid inks. EFs write with F widths, and so forth. | Continue reading
Oh. Oh no. I have surpassed the dreaded cap. The point at which I have more pens than beds in my pen case. Wonderful woe is me. Time for hard decisions as to which pens should be shed. | Continue reading
I spent my birthday outing to Bertram’s Inkwell converting staid nib choices into new and exciting writing options. Seeking an expert to convert general round nibs into specialized writers. An excellent path to a “new pen day” without buying a new pen. | Continue reading
It makes me happy to welcome one of my best pen friends back for another guest post. Jo recently returned from an extended trip abroad. This is their thought process through planning a pen-and-ink complement for traveling there and back again. | Continue reading
When at first I don’t succeed, I give it one more go. This week is a second chance to make effective use — and enjoyable use — of my six currently inked pens from last week . | Continue reading
This weekend, I find myself wondering how I came to ignore three of last week’s six pens across the entire calendar week, from Sunday to Sunday? Seriously. I only used three of my six pens. Wild. | Continue reading
Twos and pairs and doubles this week. Duos grounded in details. | Continue reading
I woke up on Saturday with a realization: I now live within driving distance of new pen shops. Actually, two realizations: that I also have money left in my DC Pen Show budget line. The possibilities … | Continue reading
Notetaking, bullet journaling, and commonplacing all reinforce the habit of recording clear, concise headings at the top of every spread. Accurate recollection relies on clear headings to find the jottings I need weeks or months after I took the note. Easy searching breathes an a … | Continue reading
I feel excited when a new notebook enters the game. This was a banner week as two new notebooks have entered the game: a new personal journal and a new teaching bullet journal. New notebooks are wonderful and intimidating prospects. Because empty notebooks begin the fun process o … | Continue reading
Pen shows present me with wonderful opportunities to shake up my currently inked rotation. Considering my during-the-show kit sits me outside of my self — an outer-body experience of my collection. And my after-the-show currently inked typically revolves around newly acquired pen … | Continue reading
Five links. Ten sentences or fewer. On how even my most individual writing is built on relationships. Reflection is dialogic. Self-reflection, included. A journey through the looking glass self. | Continue reading
I opted for a narrow, boutique collection of nibs this week. Fancy? Sure. Needed? Also: sure. | Continue reading
I am beginning to settle into my new home post-move. Now is a great opportunity to reflect on how I’ve kept tabs on myself between January and July. I’m thinking critically about my organizational habits — before I restart writing, lesson planning, and running life this week. En … | Continue reading
A new city. A new home. New writing tasks for my new job. A desk full of novelty. The theme of “new start” fell right onto my desk. | Continue reading
Five links. Ten sentences or fewer. On pacing. The pace of accumulating new pens or inks or papers. The pace of researching new stationery. And the speed with which I jump across notebooks while thinking through my calendar. | Continue reading
The heart of this week’s currently inked is a collection of pens sporting novel nib assignments. Nib swapping has been the activity of the week at my desk. | Continue reading
This week, I’m sharing my twenty-one reflections on how I sit with my pens and inks and stationery. How I think about sharing and using my desk bound-comrades. This week: my # 21PenQuestions. | Continue reading
Five links. Ten sentences or fewer. On purpose. What is the point of what I work on, of how I work on it, and of the tools I choose to work on it with? | Continue reading
I broke down my recent accumulation of Jinhao 82s into their parts. I mixed pieces and matched parts to craft two fully personalized Jinhao 82s. The process of building my own pens was immensely gratifying. As a healthy hobby should be. | Continue reading
I feel guilty cleaning out a pen that still has ink in it. The value of ink maximalism abounds in our shared online spaces. That intention to squeeze every ml of value out of the expensive colored liquids we fill our pens with seems to resonate with a lot of people. I’m thinking … | Continue reading
Five links. Ten sentences or fewer. On how often unintentional mistakes lead to serendipitous discoveries. Accepting that as much joy comes from what I stumble into as what I plan my way into. | Continue reading
Three weeks of interviewing for a new job kept my currently inked pens a demure, professional color palette. It’s time to whip out some novel color and a new wild nib grind now that I’m newly contracted and into my first week of summer break. | Continue reading
The energy for personal writing proved lacking. I know, rationally, that comparing quantities of journaling across weeks is unfair. For me: successful journaling is about starting again — whenever “again” happens to be. | Continue reading
Five links. Ten sentences or fewer. On which notebook should house my next journal. Do I go with a trusted paper or a new-to-me notebook manufacturer? Graph or dotted or lined or blank or reticle or … Good thing this week’s blogosphere is replete with paper reviews. | Continue reading
I’m carrying a serious look into the coming week. Three pens in black and white and chrome. One’s suit pants, suit jacket and shoes. A white and black Visconti. One’s dress shirt. The Cypress’ muted earth tones serve as one’s classic leather watch band. And a tangerine Sailor for … | Continue reading