Sunday Reads - September 30. 2012

• Check out Melody's art supply drive for at-risk kids! If you have extra supplies or remaining balances on gift cards, Melody can put them to good use.
• Dutch Apple Pie Bars. I love apple pie. Especially with ice cream (even though ice cream kills me). So worth it. 
• Have you seen Julie's new pen? I want. 
• The Oatmeal's Matt remembers his dog, Rambo, with this adorable, sweet, tearjerker of a cartoon. My cats are not unlike this as well. RIP Rambo. 
• One of the coolest pencils I've ever seen - at Palimpsest.
• This one may be next on my wishlist... As seen on Pens, Ink, Beer, and Books's Inkdependence - I love this color: Ku-Jaku. 
• How people can look at this face and not fight to save them is beyond me. So go look at this face so you'll fall in love with it and want to save them too! 
• Pig rescues baby goat in water. This is sweet! 
• Dang. I need to get one of these ASAP! Except which cat would I use??
• Beautiful pictures of Colorado, at Pet Meadow. 
• A great Fabriano bouquet review at Ink and Nibs.
• Mini whole wheat chocolate chip cookies? These just scream healthy. Right? Mini AND whole wheat!
• Gorgeous ink review of J. Herbin's new Bleu Ocean at This is Suzy.
• This is some creepy, unsettling watercolor art.

Ink Samples

I have lovely friends who are extremely sweet and generous, and have shared many ink samples with me! I have a hard time finishing them because then I'll be out of the colors I love. But then, I get to buy bottles. MUAHAHA!

 The glass dip pen is made by J. Herbin - see some here!

And here is a quick dip of the new inks I picked up at the Dallas Pen Show!

Winner of the Pentel Goodies

The winner of the Pentel goodies is Bonnie Jean!! The winner has been emailed!

Thank you as always for entering and sharing! If you didn't win, don't worry. There will be more giveaways!

Whiskers & Paws: September 2012 Edition

I'm not sure why cats are so obsessed with hair ties...

Rough life.

This is usually my welcome committee when I enter the study.

This tree is located in the study. Good thing because Tyco likes to watch what I'm up to.

I can't even identify this expression. Mania?

Cuddle puddle (thank you Mr. Guilt for this great term!)

Half awake cuddle puddle!

Handsome boy.

Not her most flattering series of photos but it was hilarious. STRING!

IT'S GOING TO KILL ME!

Or not.

Yummy snacks.

Review: Daycraft Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant

You may have noticed a lot of Daycraft diary reviews in the blog-verse recently! Well, that's because 2013 is coming up fast and Daycraft has a great selection of planners to suit anyone - be it smart looking planners, or absurdly cute planners.

Mr. Lee generously sent me an Animaland 2013 Diary in the Elephant design, and a Signature 2013 A6 Diary in green. I decided to do the Animaland diary first because it's my favorite!

Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant

Features 

• Yellow/Elephant
• Laminated pearl paper cover
• 106mm x 150mm
• 216 pages
• 60 gsm paper
• Week-to-view
• International holidays
• Nutritional labeling information
• Gift ideas
• 71-week planner (from August 27, 2012 to January 5, 2014)
• Sticker attached

Wow. That's a pretty extensive list of features in this tiny little diary. Not bad tiny though! I mean, compact and well-designed tiny.

This adorable diary is very pretty and very cute! The pearly yellow cover is very attractive, and the entire design is heartwarming and cheery. The cover is firm and the pages are bound to the covers so the whole diary can open easily without breaking the spine. It does lie flat! This is something special for a hardcover notebook to lie flat!

Inside, each week is laid across two pages. Saturday and Sunday, as usual, share a space. This may be something you don't care about, or if you usually need a lot of weekend planning space, this may drive you nuts. I am easily able to overlook this because I'm in love with the diary otherwise. It's just too cute for words!

The paper is not fountain pen friendly. Wet inks such as liquid inks and Sakura-type craft pens will bleed through and show through, but normal gel pens, pencils, and ballpoints will be just fine. Gel highlighters would be the way to go as well.

Colors look great on this paper.

Bleed through with liquid inks.

Each month has its own drawing and a color theme, as well as a little doodle on the Wednesday of each week.

There are a few perforated pages at the back that look like little gift tags. I have no idea what their intended use is but I'd say they'd be perfect for leaving someone special a little note!

Okay. The pièce de resistance of this diary is without a doubt the stickers. Oh. My. God. You know I'm sticker crazed, right? Well, I didn't even realize there were stickers in here until I opened it up and out fell these adorable. Whimsical. Ridiculously cute. Little sticker sheet. I wish there were like five sticker sheets, but alas, I will settle happily for one. I love love love that Daycraft made stickers for the Animaland series. Why you'd want any other series at this point, I cannot imagine.

Because this diary is very slim and has a firm cover, it's ideal for a purse or bag. It's almost pocket sized but is just a wee bit bigger. I really like its size - it's very comfortable to write in and to hold. As mentioned by Life Imitates Doodles, an elastic closure would be great on this diary.

Price
Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant - ~ $15.00 USD (or $119 HKD)

Daycraft offers free worldwide shipping. That's a pretty awesome deal! Pay attention to what language you want to order, as well as color and size.
Overall
Daycraft makes lovely products - they make a range of notebooks and diaries in a variety of designs that will please almost anyone! They're simple, look good, and are well designed. While Daycraft diaries have paper that is not fountain pen friendly, they can be both whimsical and sweet, or classy and refined. 

I realize the Animaland diaries may be too much for some folks to bear, but I also know it's going to win a lot of you over!

Wordless Wednesday

Dallas Pen Show 2012

On Saturday, September 22, Kevin and I left Austin around 6:30 a.m to head for Dallas for the Dallas Pen Show! This was our first pen show ever, and it was a good introduction to pen shows, I think. It was about a four hour drive to get to the show but it was well worth it. At first, we were both a little overwhelmed by everything but we quickly got our bearings.

We did bring our camera but you know... with so many pens and goodies around, it's really hard to remember to take pictures of things instead of petting them...so...there aren't many pictures. I swear, for the next show, I'll be able to handle it better!! We spent a good seven hours walking around, talking to people, looking at things, picking things up, testing things, etc, etc.

Kevin took this of me, gazing longingly at things I couldn't buy. EYE CANDY!!!!! Do you spy me, with my crazy pink tote bag?

I had a very short mental list of things I was interested in (Mabie Todd/Esterbrook). I was quickly distracted from this mental list and kept adding things to it as I walked around.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Julie (@FPOkami), which was really great, and we even went for dinner after the show (a hard-earned dinner because lemme tell you, walking around for that long and looking at pens really works up an appetite). It's so awesome to meet pen people in real life!!

Please keep in mind that I woke up at like 5 a.m and we drove for four hours before walking around for seven hours before eating a proper meal. We had a delicious Italian dinner and great conversation!

I'm sure you're all curious what we came home with... I'm a little ashamed. I did go with no pen budget but some of the things were irresistible. Big surprise, right? Poor Kevin.

Inks: Visconti purple, Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline, 2 Noodler's Comanche Rouge, Diamine Aqua Blue, Diamine Apple Glory, and J. Herbin Green Apple scented ink. 

Isn't the baby Diamine bottle SO CUTE?

Paper - Quo Vadis Habana - with WHITE paper! Score!

One of my favorites.

Pens - Waterman 12 vintage + wet noodle nib and a Peter Pan celluloid lever filler from 1939 + XF or F nib. I was generously gifted a Conklin SS crescent ringtop + F (?) flex nib from Kim at Penquest, and Kevin was gifted a Pilot Varsity in green (hi Arnie!).

Sure, they look pretty unspectacular in this picture. But just wait until the reviews. They are NOT unspectacular at all.

I was also able to spend awhile with Mauricio from VintagePen.net and I was able to try out several (extremely delicious) pens from his personal collection!! What a treat! We also chatted about pens in general and he shared his wealth of knowledge with us.

Overall, we had a grand time and it would only be more fun with more pen friends! If you've been on the fence about attending a pen show, make it happen Cap'n! FPGeeks have some pen shows compiled here. Pen people really are awesome. I can't wait until next year to attend the Dallas Pen Show again!

Giveaway Round Up

These beautiful multi pens are available at JetPens and they are gorgeous works of art, wouldn't you say? Plus you can enter to win some JetPens monies ($25 gift certificate)!

The Create Mixed Media blog is having a giveaway of Margaret Peot's book "Alternative Art Journals: Explore Innovative Approaches to Collecting Your Creativity". Check out the blog and enter to win!

Mailbox Goodies: Pen Pal Doodlelope, Stickers & Sketch Giveaway Win

Another awesome doodlelope from Estivalia! I'm too embarrassed to post a picture of my letter that's is going out to her... it's shameful.

This is art!

KITTIEEEEE!

And inside this cutie envelope is a sweet letter, and a whole whack of wicked, unique stickers!! LOVE!

Last but not least, I received my second sketch giveaway win from Aisazia (Ethereal Voices)! Aisazia drew Princess Peaches for me! And if you missed it, you MUST check out the Tyco sketch she did! Thank you so much for the amazing sketches - you totally nailed their personalities. Beautiful work!

Sunday Reads - September 23. 2012

Ok. I've gotten tired of separating my links into categories. I hope you enjoy them nevertheless.

• Cocoa baked quinoa bars sound interesting, healthy, and are apparently a good to-go snack.
• Enjoying Colin Purrington's cat pictures! Colin takes lovely pictures and obviously, cats are a fantastic subject!
• As seen on Twitter, shared by Julie (Okami) - the "Not-To-Do List". I think we could all use this as a reminder every now and then.
• We have been on a diet and exercise plan since returning from our trip (you know... because there was soooo much food!!). However, tonight we have decided to cheat and make these lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon meringue buttercream icing. 
• Terra Cibus: food photographed with a scanning electron microscope.
• Have you ever tried Clif bars? I really like them, especially because I always like to have some sort of snack in my purse "just in case". The Brown Eyed Baker has come up with a homemade version of them!  
• I love these gorgeous journals reviewed on Whatever! Especially the wolf one. 
• Paint rainbow! 
• An interactive cloud made with 6,000 lights. I love things that light up or glow or shine (i.e. distracting things)!
• Drawing People at Comfortable Shoes Studio. I so must pay attention to this. I would really like to learn how to draw people.
• Have a look at Zeynep's adorable drawings!

Cool Pencil Case Loves

Since I have no life, I like to browse online and find things I don't need but...you know...still need. Like the following adorable articles from CoolPencilCase.

I like multi pens. I'm not sure why, since I am obsessive about having equal levels of ink for all colors, and not running out of one ink before another (very hard to do, might I add)...Nevertheless. CoolPencilCase has adorable multi pens that I must share with you.

Toma and Kuma 8-color retractable ballpoint lanyard pen - $4.25

Sweet Parfait 6-color lanyard ballpoint retractable pen - $4.25

This kind of counts as a multi pen, doesn't it? The colored crystal pocket crayon - $4.45

All these goodies need to be stored somewhere. This pencil case would do the job - the animal pals pencil case - $14.85

The Eiffel Tower butterfly pouch would be pretty awesome too - $22.45

Or to change it up - the Blossom Asian Roll pencil case - $18.85.

Last but not least, I have an obsession with stickers. I don't know where it came from or why I am so sticker-crazed, but I am. I'm a sucker for all sorts of stickers. But especially these:
Adorable Animal Stickers - Elephant - $2.25

I also love donuts, so naturally, I can't get these stickers out of my head. I would even sell my soul for them. Darling Bear Adventures Marshmallow Stickers - Delectable Bites set - $6.25

Le sigh. How do I pick?