Christmas Eve!

[lunabee34]

1. Moar Christmas cards from chelseagirl, spikedluv, and aurumcalendula!

2. Since I complained here, I feel I must tell you that my MIL received the card I sent 18 days after it was postmarked instead of misplacing it as I had feared. I am starting to worry that I should not have put the power bill in the mail last week. The bills we get in the next few weeks I will pay online or by phone because I don't trust them to be delivered on time.

3. I am super stoked about Yuletide!! I wrote my main gift plus one treat. One is for one of the most obscure fandoms in Yuletide, and the other is for one of the most popular. Feel free to guess!

4. I'm so new to fountain pen use that a lot of the time I don't know what more seasoned users are talking about when they describe phenomena, but now I know what a dry ink writes like, and I hates it!! I put a red, random cartridge in my Yafa Icona, and I really did not like the way it wrote with that ink. I've read over and over again that the ink really affects the writing experience besides looks, but I didn't quite believe it until this experience. I cannot abide waste, so I used up the whole cartridge, but now I have a random blue in, and the pen is writing beautifully again. I cannot wait until after Christmas. At some point in January, probably the end given how slow mail is going right now, I'm going to place a Jetpens order and get some bottled ink and some Tomoe River paper to try.

Comments

[havocthecat]

Endless Pens notebooks are all Tomoe River paper and you can get them lined, FYI, not just blank or dot grid. Do they sell them on jetpens?

IIIIIIIINK. What bottled ink are you getting? Tell me more!

I got an Amazon gift card through a work incentive program so I splurged on a fancypants pen. (A new one.) So now I'm waiting for that to get here. I may get more ink to go with it.

Did you post a pic of your pen or pens here yet? Did I ask you to?

[lunabee34]

I don't know how to do pictures anymore now that photobucket is kaput, but here are links to them:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/YAFA-FOUNTAIN-PEN-ITALY-M-NIB-PICK-ONE-OF-PICTURED-COLORS/362968042402?hash=item548294cba2:g:OzsAAOSw2uhekeaH

Mine is black.

https://www.gouletpens.com/products/lamy-al-star-fountain-pen-purple?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrImR0Ivn7QIV0vrICh0yrwWwEAQYASABEgKqSPD_BwE

I want to get Monteverde Brown Sugar, a pack of eight colors of Diamine cartridges (if I like, I can buy a bottle), and a couple of the 3-packs of Pilot Iroshizuku inks in smaller bottles. Particularly keen to try Kon-peki and Yama-budo of those.

Thank you for the notebook rec! I will check those out.

What pen did you get? I think you may have told me, but I forgot.

[havocthecat]

I have kon-peki and yama-budo! You will love those!

I have, ah, a number of pens. I bought a Lamy 2000, but I just ordered a new Pilot pen. But the Lamy Al-Stars are super nice too! I don't know the Yafa pens, so I have to take your word on those.

[lunabee34]

Well, I don't know that I'd call the Yafa pen *nice* LOL, but I really like it. It looks like it's made of resin or acrylic or something and metal, but the whole thing is plastic so it's really lightweight and it feels great to write with. It posts, which I have discovered I like, and the part you grip is a kind of rubber or something that's comfy.

What's your favorite ink you've ever used?

[havocthecat]

Resin and acrylic are great for being lightweight! Also posting just makes a pen rest better in the hand, it weights it properly, seriously. Sometimes "nice" pens aren't expensive, you know?

Hm. My favorite ink ever? I'm torn between the kon-peki that you just ordered (it's so blue and I love that shade), but Organics Studio makes these sheening inks that are to die for, and I love all of those. But there's something really compelling about that kon-peki blue.

[lunabee34]

Yeah, being lightweight is important. When my friends bought over all their pens, I quickly realized that a lot of the styles I like visually with lots of metal or whatever are really heavy and not easy to write with for long periods of time.

I am really excited to try the kon-peki now. :)

I definitely want to try a sheening ink at some point. They look so cool.

[havocthecat]

Now you make me want to have a pen party! Not that I can, no one local is into them. But also, yes, you definitely want to have pens you can write with comfortably, that is SUPER critical.

The kon-peki reminds me of the ocean in the tropics.

They do! If you do, I recommend getting a pen with a stub nib. They show off the sheening qualities the best. The TWSBI Eco pens are both reasonably priced and very, very light, they might be good ones to look into buying.

[lunabee34]

Pen parties are so much fun.

Another time my friend brought over all her bottled ink and a couple of dip pens and we tested everything.

Aren't the TWSBIs the piston filler ones? Those really intimidate me although perhaps they shouldn't.

[havocthecat]

They say "piston filler" like they're really intimidating but honestly, you just twist a knob and the internal mechanism is basically a plunger inside the pen that goes up and down. The ink capacity is unbelievable too, you won't have to refill it for a long time.

Do you want a video of me filling one of my TWSBI pens? I bought a mini-tripod for my camera so it's a good reason for me to set it up and test it! Or you could just watch me on Zoom sometime, that's fine too.

[lunabee34]

Yes, yes! Make a video. That would be very cool.

:)

[musesfool]

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a lovely celebration and also an awesome Yuletide!

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

Right back at ya.

:)

[solo]

I'm really only commenting to say your Cthulhu icon rocks.

[lunabee34]

It's made by angstpuppy and is shareable!

[solo]

Ahhh! Grabby hands!

[spikedluv]

Yay, I'm glad you got it!

Wow, that card took a long time to arrive! (My sister is sweating over missing Christmas presents and I placed a Chewy order on Tuesday that arrived (FedEx) today, so go freaking figure. *shakes head*)

[lunabee34]

Mostly I'm worried about the power bill I put in the mail last week like a ding ding. I just wasn't thinking.

[executrix]

I had to reply because I realized I've hardly used this icon!
I also hate to waste stuff, but I bet that in the community of people who love writing supplies, someone would be DELIGHTED to swap a partially used random red cartridge for something you like and they don't.

[lunabee34]

That is a very good point!

I have an IRL swapper nearby. :)

[lunabee34]

Also I meant to say that is a fabulous icon.

[amejisuto]

I'm glad your card finally made it to your MIL. It must have been the mail going wonky. I got notice that my package is being shipped from Walmart today. I didn't buy anything from Walmart that I know of unless the vitamins I ordered from Amazon is coming from there. It's a mystery!

[lunabee34]

Me too! And I feel a little guilty now that I just assumed it was her forgetting she'd received it. LOL

Mystery package! I hope it's good.

[amejisuto]

Merry Christmas!

I really don't know what's coming tomorrow. I guess I'll find out when it gets here!

[timespirt]

When I went to the post office the other day looking for a package that should have been here already I was told they were 2 weeks behind. I try to pay my bills in person. Thank the Republicans for our slow mail deliveries because they wanted to put the post office out of business.

Glad the card showed up though.

Happy holidays hon.

"HUGS"

[lunabee34]

I know, and it's so baffling why they would want to destroy the postal service.

I hope you had a good Christmas!

*hugs*

[executrix]

I don't think it's baffling at all--if you couldn't get to a polling place, and you couldn't vote by mail, then you wouldn't be able to vote for Biden.

[lunabee34]

Okay. That's it. I get it now.

*sigh*

Such shortsighted people. Many Republicans live in the rural areas that would be the hardest hit if the post office goes kaput. They would very quickly get very upset about no/unreliable post even if the scheme won them the White House.

[timespirt]

Very quiet. Hope you had a good Christmas too.

"HUGS"

[lunabee34]

We did. It's been really nice.

[likeadeuce]

Ahh I did NOT guess but you wrote that 'Locked Tomb' diptych with the Palamedes I loved!! That dear boy!

[lunabee34]

Your comment made my day! <3