HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I’m off to a great start, I already screwed up the date. (Couldn’t have been the bourbon.) I scheduled the previous post for January 1, 2015 rather than 15. (I re-dated it to December 31st so it at least makes some sense and it was already 2015 in much of the world.) One final mistake for 2015.

I hope you all have a great year!

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Holidays to those who celebrate other holidays during this time of year. Happy Thursday to everyone else.

That headline makes it sound like both of these items are related, but they’re not. Well, they both deserve some publicity and are pen related, but that’s about where the similarities stop.

Fountain Pen Day

Fountain Pen Day is Thursday Friday Nov 7th. (It’s the first Friday of November every year.) You can read all about it at Fountain Pen Day. There’s a lot of pen discounts including Pen Chalet which has coupons, discounts and giveaways. You can find a list of participating retailers at the Fountain Pen Day website.

Pens For Kids

Cult Pens is running their Pens for Kids Christmas Appeal again this year. Last year they sent 21,000 pens to kids that need them. They’ve lowered the cost this year by getting some help with the shipping.

The way it works is you buy a 10 pack of Staedtler Stick pens for £1.00 (£0.83 ex VAT) and Cult Pens throws in another 10 pack. All 20 pens go to children in Ghana who need them for their education.

If you order only the donation shipping will still be added during checkout. If you pay by debit or credit card they will remove the shipping before charging your card. Unfortunately PayPal fees prevent them from removing shipping if you use PayPal. Your credit/debit card may include foreign exchange fees  but that’s not from Cult Pens. Just as an FYI – the charge shows the full amount, including shipping, when it’s authorized but it will come through with the lower amount. The charge hasn’t hit my account yet but I did this last year and it worked perfectly.

Pens for Kids Donation 2014 | Cult Pens

My favorite pen/ink combo for the week

My favorite fountain pen and ink combo for the week was an easy choice, despite having several good choices. While I can be fickle, the Sheaffer Marine Green Balance is my favorite fountain pen based on looks. The stub nib doesn’t hurt its standing either. The Montblanc Daniel Defoe ink has grown on me over time and it really shines in this pen.

I updated my Resources Page with the newly (more or less) found pen blogs. I also deleted some dead and dormant links. If you’ve got a fountain pen or stationery related blog that’s not listed please let me know.

I’m changing up the “links” part of Sunday Notes and Links starting this week. They won’t be going away, but there will be fewer links. For one, ink reviews will nearly vanish. I used to link to them so I could search my blog when I wanted them in the future. Now I search Pennaquod : Pen Blog Searcher when I’m researching inks. There will probably be fewer links to reviews of common pens and paper for the same reason. Pennaquod is a great resource to find reviews when you’re researching a pen or paper.

I still go through my RSS feed every day and tag fountain pen related articles. These will now go out on a Tumblr hosted website for those of you who like lots of links. This will contain more links than I ever linked to in the past since it’s what I would typically start with and wittle down to the links post. The website is at Fountain Pen Links.

Some links of interest…

MI Pen Show // The Michigan Antique & Collectible Pen show is Friday October 17th and Saturday October 18th

Stipula Passaporto fountain pen – On Fountain Pens // I’ve never seen one of these in clear. Small, but as the review says up front – “Cute pen alert!”

Twist Bullet Pencil. Vintage Meets Modern with a Twist. by Metal Shop and Huckleberry Woodchuck — Kickstarter // Pencils still haven’t caught on with me, but this is the second bullet pencil I’ve backed on Kickstarter. They might just replace one of the Kaweco AL Sports that I carry

Tale of a Vandal Pen Collector: Unexpected Acquisition – Peaceable Writer // I love reading about these old cheap fountain pen finds. Double points since it’s a Sheaffer. And kudos for breaking the seal and inking it up.

A pair of Edison pens – Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb // Gorgeous photos

Beautiful recreations of the Ink Labels – Noodler’s Ink // I usually don’t link to blatant marketing, but I’ve always liked the Noodler’s ink labels, but I’m not sure they translate well to a larger size.

Epic ink test – R2M2t – Fountain Pen Physicis // I don’t know of anyone else doing ink tests like these

Sailor Kobe No:3 Sepia Ink Review / Sailor Kobe No:3 Sepia Mürekkep Incelemesi – Write to Me Often // I’ve had a recent interest in Sepia inks.

Off-topic: Software withdrawal and discontinuance of support: Lotus SmartSuite , Lotus Organizer and Lotus 123 // Wow, this brought back memorizes. I was a Lotus Organizer fan long ago. And Lotus 1–2–3 was a trailblazer. Times have changed.