Stationery Cart Organization Update (2022)

Another year, more updates! Since last year there were quite a few changes made to the stationery cart and so I am back to provide a complete breakdown of how things are sorted. If you wish to see how it was last year please click here!

One major addition I got was a wooden cover to cover the top tier and basically be a side table. The cover helps to protect my favorite fountain pen inks that are in the top tier. What is always on the wooden cover are my ink drying tray, stamp cleaning tray, and my watercolors which I keep in Kaweco tins.

The second tier has an exploding pouch filled with letter sets and letter supplies I need to use up, a box of pen maintenance supplies, a Gloomy Bear pouch holding my camellia/tsubaki washi tapes and a bag of all of my Superior Labour pen rolls with clean but not currently used fountain pens. On the side is a basket I bought from Daiso that holds all of my clips and keychain supplies.

The bottom tier has my journaling supplies which include a hole puncher, corner rounder and my Classiky toolbox filled with wooden stamps, my engineer Superior Labour pouch with Midori stamps, print-on stickers, washi tape cards, a reusable sticker book, PET tape holder, and clear stamps. On the side is another basket with paper lace rounds. My plan is to use the basket for Instax photo refills once I use up the paper lace rounds.

The double bear holder on the side now has my sampling supplies for ink, stamps, stickers, and washi tape! Really been enjoying sending and sharing stationery with everybody so placing these here really makes it easy for me to grab and avoid a mess.

Overall this setup is a lot more organized for my use and I hope to fit more in here once I finally start using up supplies and making more space. 

Thank you for reading! As always, stay hyped!

Micro/Mini 5 Budget Setup in Moterm A8 Pebble Rings

I am back with another setup, this time in a cute little ring binder from Moterm! This post will have links to all accessories used in case anybody wants to use things in their ring binder. Please do note that the paper size for this is A8 but depending on whom you buy the binder from it is called micro 5, mini 5, or A8.

This setup is only for budgeting as I felt like I needed a system that only focuses on money-related items. I did attempt to write my expenses in my Hobonichi Weeks... but it did not work out. 

Let us start with the binder itself. This is an A8 Pebbled ring binder in olive from the brand Moterm. This brand was recommended to me by several friends and thankfully they had the size and color I liked! I was researching micro5 and mini 5-ring binders on Youtube but mostly only found Japanese binder brands that didn't or don't ship to the US, thus I am happy Moterm has multiple planner options and ships to the US. The binder came with two refills (one dot grid and one grid) and a dust bag. The binder was $42.99 and shipping with FedEx was $25.00 which was what I expected since shipping is very expensive. I love how it feels and that the pen holder has an elastic to fit wider pens. It has two back pockets, perfect to keep your bank and atm cards, two card slots to fit your ID and a most used debit or credit card, and a large pocket great for cash and receipts. 

Now for accessories! I ordered four leather flyleafs and a heart bookmark from ThinkThankKay to fit some other credit cards in and mark my page. The flyleafs are natural leather with camel thread since I felt it was a good match with the olive. Everything together was $81.00 with $24.00 which is great considering ThinkThanKay hand makes all leather products and they are known for great quality! I also ordered a natural leather ring protector later which was about $11 with $13 shipping (I ordered another ring protector but the other one is more a different system). The paper used is from the brand Knox and was ordered off of Amazon Japan with several other items as the shipping alone was about $24. Each paper pack came to about $8 each. One monthly calendar was also ordered which was about $6. Once I use up these papers I wish to order from Plotter since I haven't found many US retailers selling this paper size.

How it looks from the outside

Some inside deco

Dashboards in monthly section to show amounts to be paid and how much spending money is left

Monthly calendar

Dashboard for credit card balances

Flyleafs to hold credit cards

How I have set this up is the monthly calendar in the front with all of the bill payments, all of my credit card charges in the following tab with the leftover balances, and the flyleafs with my credit cards. There are dashboards I made to hold sticky notes on the amounts that have to be paid, amount I have left to spend and my credit card balances. The calendar helps me time my bills with my paychecks to make sure I always have enough, especially if I am trying to pay down any debt. I still want to understand my spending habits so I continue to keep track of what I spend on my cards.

Extra bonus: The Kaweco Sport fits perfectly in this pen slot! Other pens that I think fit perfectly in here are Retro 51 and Esterbrook JR.

Let me know your micro 5 setups and or your budgeting setup! Always happy to learn how others are doing. Until next time, stay hyped!

Using Stationery for my Day Job

When I started this 9 to 5 job I felt inclined to use the boring office yellow note pads and BIC pens that come in packs of a hundred which they had available to everyone. After using a yellow pad, a notebook, and having a load of pens die on me I took it upon myself to have good quality stationery at work. Another reason why I took it upon myself is that some days I am not in the office to get some supplies.

To be clear no one reads my work notes since they are personal. My performance is based on how well I do my tasks and comply with standards each year. Me using a planner to keep myself organized is fair game.

Many people use digital planners but I like having a physical system to track daily tasks and keep a digital calendar to time block important items during the day. After researching many planners and systems I decided to use a personal-sized FiloFax with cream Tomoe River paper from PaperPenguinCo on Etsy. I laminated some bookmarks and cute cardstock of my favorite characters to add some color. With the Tomoe River paper, I can use my Pilot Cavalier fountain pen to write all my notes. The pen is less than $40 so I don't mind it getting damaged from work. 

Now I do write my tasks and notes every day but I only take up as much space as I need to so this is not a one-day per page. It is more like a day-free system where if I have short days I only use up space for tasks and if I had some really long detailed meetings I use as much space I need to write down everything. I decided not to use a notebook because I want to be able to put months and years together easily when I take them out and buying already punched pages that are fountain pen friendly are less money than some notebooks.

Overall my productivity and task tracking have improved significantly while my ink sample pile is slowly becoming smaller. I do recommend the FiloFax but you want to use a ring system and be able to pull out paper when you need to, but please do check out all your options as some planner books might have the setup you need and the right paper for your favorite pens.

Hope this helps someone realize they have more options than the stationery they give out in the office. Until next time, stay hype!

Stationery Cart Organization Update

Since the last "How I organize my Stationery" post, I made some changes to the cart to help me find things faster. I will break down what I have on each tier and where I purchased the extra stuff I added in case anybody else needs it.

On the top tier, I now placed all of my ink bottles, samples, and extra ink cartridges (in Kaweco tin). I try to group them by brand however there are a few single ones that are placed anywhere. The 10ml and ink samples are on this plastic tray I found at Daiso. I do cover the inks with a furoshiki I got from Baum-kuchen a while ago, so the sun doesn't get to them. I have some open space but I plan to finish more small ink bottles and samples before I buy more.

The middle tier actually stayed the same but I have obtained even more pencil cases which is why this mountain looks higher. All of my pens, custom multi-pens, markers, erasers, lead pencils and refills are all here along with my two fountain pen rolls.

The bottom tier is now all notebooks and notepads. All of these are brand new or empty and I pull these out when I use up anything. I have a few notepads for letters, Hobonichi plain notebooks, Traveler's notebooks for regular and passport size, and other papers for me to use up.

The Sentimental Circus Shappo holder is still on the side but now it has fountain pen supplies. It has three clear pockets which are pretty deep and can hold the cleaning bulb and Kaweco tins. Currently, the top section has the bulb, Ink Misers, and Q-tips; the middle has cleaned out ink vials for ink trades; the bottom has two Kaweco tins with a dip pen and all the flush and tools I use to clean out pens.

On the cart, I added two baskets that hook on the sides, one on the bottom to hold my tripod and another on the top to hold Scotch tape, white-out, adhesive, and address blocker tape. 

Lastly, I added two hanging bags that I found at Daiso which I attach with a hook I also bought at Daiso. One holds my Instax printer and film refills while the other has my Kitta Tapes and corner puncher. Thanks to these I was able to organize the bottom tier after sticking everything else there for a while.

Must say that it is so nice having all your pen-related items in one place where you can see them. I finally don't have to strain myself on remembering where my supplies are. Now the biggest challenge is trying not to buy more ink when I run out of room.

I do hope that in the future if I get more room I can have shelves to hold all of this or a better desk but until then I am working with what I got. Let me know how you organize everything and until next time, stay hyped!

Kurutoga, Dr.Grip and DelGuard: Mechanical Lead Pencil Review

I don't know why it took me this long to finally get to this lead pencil review but here it is! This post will be covering three mechanical lead pencils which are Uni Kurutoga, Pilot Dr.Grip, and Zebra DelGaurd. All three of these I have been using for a while now and wanted to do this to help people figure out which one is right for them.

I personally constantly switch between all three of these especially while drawing so I will give examples of when I use each of these.

Kurutoga has a special feature of rotating the lead each time you lift it off the paper to keep the lead pointed. There is also the Kurutoga advance which rotates at twice the speed of the regular Kurutoga for an even sharper lead while writing or drawing. That makes this lead pencil optimal for people that need a consistent thin line while working. The Kurutoga advance also can retract the lead to protect it while not in use. The Kurutoga can come with a plastic or rubber grip depending on if you bought a special or limited edition.

Left regular Kurutoga. Right limited edition with rubber grip.

Kurutoga Advance

Dr.Grip is the widest lead pencil compared to the other two but the main feature is that the grip section is very comfortable and soft, making this great for people that grip their pens and pencils hard enough that their hand starts to hurt after working for a while. Dr.Grip also releases lead by shaking the pencil which is amazing for people that don't want to keep clicking the cap.

Dr.Grip

DelGuard has a plastic grip and plastic body and the main feature is that the protective piece where the lead comes out from does not retract and protects the lead from breaking. This is great for people that press down on the lead causing it to break often while working, especially if using softer lead.

DelGuard

I personally like using all three of these and use them depending on my focus, stress, and task. If I am just going outside with my Traveler's Notebook I will bring my DelGuard as I will be doing light sketches and might not have a table and thus might press down on the paper harder. For long-term drawing and finishing a project, I use Dr.Grip. For shading and details, I use the Kurutoga for shaper and consistent lines. I wouldn't recommend buying all three of these unless you love collecting cause you might only end up using one brand if it suits you the most. If you can go to Kinokuniya or a local stationery store to try them out I very much suggest it!

Overall as a stationery collector, I am very much impressed with these lead pencils and how they are built specifically for certain issues! In the future, I hope to find some other lead pencils to review but that might prove to be difficult as I love using these so very much. 

Onion Skin Paper Review

I am finally making moves on trying out different kinds of paper cause there is so much out there! I have mostly been using Tomoe River paper and ca.crea notebooks and I believe it is about time I try out other paper.

Onion skin paper has been showing up on my feed and YouTube recommendations lately and I went and bought some cause it looks amazing and very useful. I did in fact buy it for my own personal use and everything here is my own opinion.

This notepad came nicely packaged that I hope to buy other products from them in the future!

The shop is called Remy Road and the notepad was priced at $22. It has 125 sheets of 5.4-inch by 8.5-inch premium quality onion skin paper, and a guide with line and grid. The cover has an ouroboros design on it. The pages are easy to remove with a tug which makes it great for people using a few sheets for journaling and letters.

At first glance, the paper looks like tracing paper cause it is very translucent however many people have been using fountain pens on it from what I see in other reviews. Below will be my test of almost all the pens and inks I currently have on this paper. Now the main reason why I bought this is to write letters with my fountain pens since I am trying to make more space to have a reason to try out even more inks. The letter pens I own do not fountain pen friendly so I am hoping this will help me solve that issue. This paper is also very light making it most optimal for letters.

Overall this paper does handle J. Herbin, DeAtramentis, Lennon Tool Bar, and Sailor Jentle inks well but poorly for Robert Oster and Ink Institute as it doesn't look crisp on the paper possibly cause of how the inks are made. Noodler's ink looks better than Robert Oster and Ink Institute on here but I personally won't use it. DeAtramentis looks like the safest one on here which is good cause I hope to try more colors of the document ink line it in the future. The good thing is everything dried pretty quick! 

I do recommend this paper if people are willing to use certain inks on it. However, if people are looking to journal with this I think it is a great investment cause you could layer this on stuff and have an awesome effect on the page. Either way, I plan to keep this and use it quite often.

Kaweco AL Sport Golden Espresso Review

Yes, you read the title right, this is another Kaweco AL Sport review! I think it is clear that I really like these as this is the third one I own now but either way, let us get into the Golden Espresso.

This was released in December 2020 and it is a U.S. exclusive with 700 in production. I was debating on getting this since December but it did sell out in the nib size I wanted but thankfully Yoseka Stationery restocked it and I finally have it in my hands.

I purchased this from Yoseka Stationery for $85 which I think is a great and reasonable price for a limited production AL Sport. This is also considering that I paid over $100 for the other two limited productions Kaweco AL Sports which sadly were harder to find and less widely available.

The clip was purchased separately for $6 which is standard for all Kaweco clips. I got the gold clip to match the gold finial and gold-plated nib. On the cap in gold lettering and a very classy font is "Golden Espresso" which you can see is printed on top of the cap, not engraved or lasered in. The matte espresso color really goes together with the gold details.

Kaweco Sports are pocket pens so it is small but I lean more towards small pens. The size is great if you have a Traveler's Notebook in Passport size since while it is capped it is slightly shorter than the notebook making it look like it was made for it. The fact that it is an aluminum body makes it perfect for travel cause it feels sturdy and ready to hit the road.

I used up the royal blue cartridge it came with and filled it with Robert Oster Caffe Crema because it looks like a great match plus I love coffee and espresso-themed anything. This is a fine nib and it writes great! Below is how it compares with another Kaweco fine nib. Robert Oster is my favorite traveling ink so the fact that it has no problem with it makes my day.

Overall and again, I can't recommend Kaweco AL Sport pens enough! Especially if you can get one for under $100 it is a great sturdy pocket fountain pen.

Sarasa Grand Review

Over the last three years I been collecting many limited editions Sarasa clips. The same goes for Sarsasa Grand since they are not making any more limited edition Sarasa clips.

First off, I need to talk about the price. The regular Sarasa clip with plastic body goes for about $2 each however the Sarasa Grand goes about $15 each. Now the price is actually due to material difference.

The Sarasa Grand is a brass pen with a metal clip and a plastic ink window. The pen itself weighs 24 grams compared to the regular Sarasa at 11 grams.

As a person who stands by refills. Sarasa Grands can be refilled with the same refill as the regular clip. This makes the pen a great investment because you can refill it with any ink color you like plus have it in a super sturdy pen body! Besides the refills are like $2 each so it is easy to stack up on a bunch.

I got a few Sarasa Grands from Kinokuniya and the rest from JetPens and TokyoPenShop. The price does differ between shops but if you want all the colors it is worth getting them all. The other limited edition Sarasa Grands were bought from TokyoPenShop and Amazon Japan.

There are very popular for a good reason and I can't recommend them enough. Sarasa's ink in general is so nice and smooth on paper. The vintage colors are neutral which is why these are in everyone's pencil case and the limited colors are nice colors. All the swatches will be below! 

I Hope Zebra keeps making more Sarasa Grands in the future cause I love how the brass feels overall!

Favorite Stationery, Planner and Fountain Pen Podcasts

I started listening to podcasts back in 2019 when I finally hit my first full year of being at my day job. I realized I needed something to listen to during my long commutes to the office, so I been really into a few that I would like to share!

First is The Stationery Cafe which I think I been listening to since February of 2020. Really enjoy the guest speakers and happy hour cause I not only get to learn about more people in the stationery community but also what is new and interesting. Everybody on here is very relatable and it is so nice and friendly but also great enablers to buy more stationery and try other planners. I highly recommend this podcast to people that want to try a lot of new things cause everything on here is tested to poked at one way or another. They cover everything from fountain pens to Traveler's Notebook, Hobonichi, Plotter, letter sets, washi tape, and even adorable stickers. They are amazing to find more small businesses to support as they always drop websites and names to the awesome sellers that have everything they are talking about.

Next is Tokyo Inklings which is perfect for pen collectors wanting to know what's happening in the stationery hotspot which is Japan.  I started listening to this earlier this year and I feel so updated on pens and events around Japan. Highly recommend this podcast to people that want to know what is coming out and events in Japan you should go to when you visit! I love hearing their experiences cause they are very down to Earth with their opinions and will tell it how it is. If they recommend it you will know it's good. Additionally, they are always talking with nib grinders and testing paper, inks, and nibs which is great for anyone not trying to buy everything but really looking for something specific.

Last is the podcast The Pen Addict which I also started to listen to this year. They cover all pens, paper, and even stuff in the works. I adore how they relate everything back to pens plus they even designed their own pens which they sell! They have been around the bush and are very on top of what is happening. They test everything one way or another and I like that they really break down the pros and cons of all the items they tried. If you haven't listened to this podcast it is the best to binge listen to as they have over 450 episodes.

I adore all of these podcasts and hope to continue listening to them as well as more podcasts about stationery.

Analog: Helping me Live my Best Life

Why do I use a paper calendar over Google calendar and digital calendars? Why do I like to send postcards and letters instead of emails? Why do I use a notebook instead of typing it up and saving it to a drive? The general answer is that I really love writing and being analog! However lately, it came to mind that analog does benefit me in ways I had not realized before, which is what this post will explore.

For a while, I thought I wouldn't have a digital dependency until I noticed that most of the apps I was using were taking up most of my time. I had to delete many apps and force myself to go on my laptop to go on certain sites instead. Going analog helped me not be on my laptop and phone all day and definitely gives my eyes a break from a screen.

Writing helps me organize and think better and faster, even if what I write gets typed up anyway. I learned that my paper drafts are a lot better than typed-up drafts and I can catch mistakes quicker than on a screen. This has helped me keep up my blog and expand it to what it is today! In the early days of this blog I did type up the drafts and they are not so good in my opinion.

Thanks to me posting my journals and analog systems, I found a nice warm community to chat and share ideas and information with! At one point I was searching Reddit after watching all the stationery video I had on my YouTube feed and stumbled upon a Discord for Hobonichi and now also one for fountain pens. I do check the Discords often and it helps me think of more ideas to blog and write in my journals.

I love having a paper calendar cause I get to decorate the holidays, birthdays, when I take a trip and when I finally take days off. Surprisingly I also remember holidays and events a lot better than my coworkers and friends. 

Handwriting is one skill I practice daily thanks to journaling and my analog systems. I feel like my handwriting is slowly improving even if people, in general, think my handwriting is good. Over my few years of working in my day job, I noticed a severe decline in handwriting with people that depend on digital organizers. This is one major reason why I will keep journaling, at least my handwriting will hold up in the long run. The secondary reason is to keep up cursive as it seems to be on the decline due to schools not teaching it. I find cursive beautiful and quicker in some cases so I hope to influence people to keep doing cursive.

Since I mostly use notebooks I haven't had to expand my OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive, or any other cloud storage. The most I do is use storage for pictures and then clean them out when I print them for my journal or share them with friends in chats. Life is simple without having to remember storage.

Analog helped me connect with stationery stores. Yes, I do spend a bit of money on ink and paper but I get to communicate and share my opinions and what I learned with stores I trust and will keep buying from for years to come. The people that keep these stores going really love when people tell their stories about the products they bought from them and I am happy to provide them with some.

Overall going analog and writing has connected me with so many people that I very much recommend trying out journaling, messing around with planners, or just having a notebook for notes.

Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot Review

So happy to finally get to this post because these markers are so cool. Kuretake also has brush markers and even special brush markers for calligraphy. However, we will only focus on what I bought every single last color of which is the Clean Color Dot!

Now as you can guess by the name this marker has a spongy dot end on one side which is perfect for making interesting dot art or adding little dots in a blank background. The other end is a felt tip. The felt tip is 0.5mm unless its the metallic which has a 1mm tip. In total there are 18 standard colors and 6 metallic colors.

The price of these is really good at about $3.50 each if you only want a few, or if you want them all you can buy the 12 colors set, the six-color set, and the metallic set for about $80 in total which comes down to $3.33 per marker. I bought most of mine from TokyoPenShop and a few from Kinokuniya when they had them.

This marker design is a standard dual marker with a clear cap on the dot end and a solid color cap on the tip end. It doesn't feel too thick cause you know you have a good grip on it. It is a long marker but it does fit in my standard pencil case which is good since it has it must be kept horizontal. So far none of these have dried out or leaked so I think as long as you keep them horizontal they should be fine!

What makes this marker great is that you can create dots from 1mm to 5mm with ease. It does need a bit of time to dry but that is why I always have some blotting paper on me. 

There is no issue with using them but there is a bit of ghosting on Tomoe River Paper especially if you are using the Hobonichi Techo. They will bleed through Tomoe River if you press down hard enough.

Overall I do recommend these if you like to add dots and a little bit of color to your journals.