Monthly Planning MTN: September 2016 update

After a bit of an underwhelming August, the month of september was filled with bright and colorful days!  I was excited to start on this spread because a lot of cool things happened and I wanted to use a fun combination of rubber stamps to set this month's theme which was "Ink, pens and writing". But before I got started I had to lay some ground work.

I really enjoyed the use of Carabelle stamps and Tombows in my spread of last month, but it bled through a bit on the back. A while back a friend gave me an A5 pad of cream colored Tomoe River paper and I used a couple of pages to cover the next pages I would be working on. The paper is really thin but sturdy and holds up ink like a trooper, so it was a good choice to add that as an extra barrier. I drew the month's grid with Faber Castell Pitt pen and stamped the carabelle ink spatters and journal stamp on it with various memento ink colors. Then I used the date stamper from the top picture to mark the days.

The page needed some images on pens on them and this was a great excuse to use the fountain pen and nibs rubber stamps from Impression obsession (calligraphy 1 and calligraphy 2) and Viva Las Vegastamps (fountain pen and nibs). Definitely liked the way how it all came together. Now it's time to fill up the month!

I wrote it all down with my Faber Castell Pitt artist pen because it's water proof. I colored the grids with different colors Tombows and highlighted the best days in green. For some more decoration I added a couple of my home made arti-stamps! Yes, I know I still need to do a post on how I made those!!

The best days definitely happened on the weekend. The first ever Pelikan Hub on Friday the 16th and a week later on saturday, the 28th edition of the Tilburg Penshow were definitely highlights of the whole year! And the fact I had a nice 2 week holiday in which I enjoyed wonderful " Indian summer days" at a spa resort with my sisters :)

The completed spread in full color! I thought about adding a quote like I have done in most spreads, but I felt it didn't need one. This might be my fave spread so far! I am excited to work on October's spread because I am going to use a stencil in combination with stamps. And maybe try a bit mixed media. Having experimented covering the pages with Tomoe River to counteract bleed through on the back pages, opens up exciting possibilities!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

namasté

Pens and Ink: Swan Green Marble with Diamine Safari

When I saw this gorgeous pen on Sarj's table at the Tilburg Penshow a few weekends ago, I knew this one had to go home with me. Well, basically I wanted all the pens he had to go home with me but alas, due to budgets I had to make some tough choices ... and this one definitely made the cut!

It's a vintage Mabie Todd Swan Green marbled bodied self filler (ca. 1940-1945) with a stellar 14C gold Fine Flexible nib! It writes absolutely amazing! I've chosen to pair it with Diamine Safari It's a beautiful moss green which, I think, highlights the pen body really well.

I have written a page in my loving kindness metta meditation journal with it (it's now the Rhodiarama softcover dot grid A5 notebook I got in the Spotlight Stationery July box) and this is a really amazing match! The ink does make the pen body shine, but the flex nib also makes the ink look really good! Under the right light you can even see a bit of golden sheen. I am very happy this pen got to go home with me, because it also made me appreciate this ink a lot more!

For some awesome reviews on Diamine 150th anniversary Safari ink; see Gourmetpens' review and some beautiful HD inkshots at The Clumsy Penman. 

 What pen and ink combo made you appreciate an ink more?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

namasté

Tilburg Penshow 2016 recap (and spoils)!

This past Saturday was the 28th edition of the Tilburg penshow which took place at the Natuurmuseum. It was an awesome sunny day and the car ride over to Tilburg was filled with sunshine and excitment :) And once again when I entered the building and saw all the gorgeous pens on the tables and met up with great friends at the show, I totally forgot everything else existed, so not a lot of pictures were taken.

You would be blinded by all this too, right? And this is only ONE table, from you guessed it Sarj Minhas.

He also had a bunch of gorgeous Limited Edition pens in glass cases with him. All out of my budget unfortunately but great to look at :)

He even brought a whole case of vintage and some modern Omas pens with him! To taunt me I am sure as last year I got a gorgeous Omas paragon with Mottishaw BB stubbed nib from him. I really oogled them a lot and tried a few when I asked if he has any specialty nibs he really gave me something special...

Some pens I tried with great nibs on them! From left to right Omas club with Mottishaw B stubbed nib, Omas Lucens Extra with fine flex nib, Nettuno also with a B stubbed nib, which wrote amazing! But the last one of the line up, was something I have been looking for for years! A Wahl Eversharp Doric 2nd generation in grey shell with adjustable #9 nib. But not just any nib...

It has a oblique broad adjustable nib which is not something you see everyday (to put it mildly ;) So needless to say, this one went home with me.

Yes in my excitement I spelled Doric wrong, but look at how awesome it writes! So I finally have my adjustable Wahl Eversharp Doric with an amazing nib thanks to Sarj!

These beauties were also purchased from Sarj:

Swan Leverfiller in jade green marble with a wonderful #2 flex nib and a Conway Stewart 15 in blue marble with a flexible ob stub. Super happy with my new vintage beauties!

Another find of the day was in a grab box filled with random cartridge boxes:

Parker Penman Mocha, Sapphire and Ruby :) Not all a full box, but definitely still usable! And I have started using them in my parker pens right away!

Talking about ink, I would not leave without a bottle of the KWZ Monarch ink esp. made for Fontoplumo store. They are opening their brick and mortar store in Delft this weekend! I am super excited for them :) 

It's a beautiful warm orange and smells delicious! It also has great shading in a juicy broad nib. More of this in a future pens and ink post!

But of course it was not all about finding great pens and inks but also connecting with great friends, old and new. Was so great meeting them again and one of them was hard not to miss...

SBRE Brown in his colorful suit in front of La Couronne du Comte's shop. He also posted a more flattering picture on his instagram which I also took  ;) 

This picture taken by Dries captures the crazy fun of the day  for sure

My #tilburgpenshow haul is nice and all, but believe me when I say that that ☝️ bunch of crazy, awesome, kind people is the reason I love going to the Tilburg pen show! It's not about the pens, it's about being together with a bunch of like-minded people and geek out about pens for a couple hours, without any 'normal' people judging us ink nuts! Thank you for the great day @janinescribbles @sbrebrown @gourmetpens @mrericorozco @missthundercat @mrmgward @cornelius.grayl @mcvanwijk1! PS: @cornelius.grayl and @mrmgward were trying to block @sbrebrown's face, his suit alone was enough awesome for one photo 😂!

Een foto die is geplaatst door Pencilcaseblog (@thepencilcaseblog) op 25 Sep 2016 om 7:30 PDT

I could not have said it any better, Dries! Thank you for this fab group picture!!

And thanks to everyone for contributing to such a fun day!

For more Tilburg penshow fun,
see a great recap from Dries at The Pencilcase Blog and
 from Michael at Pens N Inks blog for many more awesome High Res pictures. 

Until next year!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
namasté

Tilburg Penshow 2016

Today is the Tilburg Penshow at the Natuurmuseum Brabant!

A bit late with the announcement, sorry! But if you are in the aria, you should definitely stop by! 

I'm pretty sure it's going to be a lot of fun, if it's anything like last year. 

And there are a number of special guests making an appearance :) 

We're on our way there now and I am pretty darn excited!

If you are going too, hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend.

namasté

Thriftfinds Thursdays: The Tilburg Penshow edition

My weekend activities were cut a bit short due to feeling under the weather, though I could not miss out on the yearly event that is the Tilburg penshow on saturday. It was the 27th pen show and it's been a bit obscure as it has practically no online presence, but the show was amazing none the less! Met some great pen people and an amazing seller whom has a nick-name of 'the one-man pen show' and I've found some sweet vintage fountain pen beauties there (they also sold a lot of newer fountain pens, but I go to these shows to find some older gems!) My wallet was hurting at the end of it, but it was a great day!

First an impression of the show:

The show was held at the Natuurmuseum in Tilburg. There were two rooms in which the vendors placed their goods for sale and I think there were about 30 vendors in total. We arrived right on time though, but still a lot of pens to look at during these 5 hours the show was open.

A new vendor to the show was Sarj Minhas and honestly there were so many good pens there it took a great portion of my time just staring at them!

La Couronne du Comte stand looked impeccable as always and they also have their own store front in Tilburg to which we went to after the show ended.

I did not have a list of things I wanted to buy and I figured I would know what I wanted when I see it. And boy I did see a lot of beauties, but I went home with 'only' 3 pens and 1 ink bottle (well technically two as I bought one later at Couronne du Comte...)

And these are the 3 pens:

My tilburg penshow spoils Omas Paragon with BB Mottishaw stubbed, Omas Extra Lucens with flexible Omas Extra Stub and Waterman England with 2A Flexible stub.

Writing samples are below:

I bought this pen at Sarj Minhas's stand for a really good deal! I love stubs and this is just a beauty of an Omas older paragon and fallen in love with it ever since I saw and wrote with Azizah's Omas Paragon which had a semi-flex nib. And steel blue is the ink I bought at Couronne later on. It's such a beautiful petrol color!

This is the Omas Extra Lucens from around 1937, which I got from Tom Westerich, a vaccuum power filler that needed a bit of silicone grease and TLC to work! This nib is such a gorgeous wet writer! Still needs a bit of work like heat setting the nib and feed properly because it has some start up issues, but wow, the Omas Extra nib just glides over the paper.

And this was a lucky grab on a 'needs repair/sold for parts' table. The only thing that needs work is the threads in the cap. But everything else just works great! There was even a sack in there so it was ready to write! And man, that stub nib is really stunning!

Last but not least, the unicorn find of the day:

Parker Penman Sapphire ink! And half full! For under 10€!! It was tucked away at a far corner of someone who sold a lot of older ink bottles and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted it! I can't wait to test this in a pen!

We left for home satisfied and happy and I am already wondering what next year will be like at the penshow :) And I am curious: What was your greatest find at a pen show? 

Thanks for stopping by! 

namaste