Power Outage and MANY Year-in-Reviews - Logs & Links #4

Part of 2023's Acquisitions: Opus 88 Holiday Jazz, Traveler's Notebook Kyoto Edition. Need to stop taking photos last minute.

On Monday, we were woken up by a loud incessant beeping coming from the basement at about 5 in the morning (mind you, we sleep late!). Turns out the power went out and continued to stay off until 8:30pm. Luckily the generators were up and running just before it got too dark. This also means our fridge stuff was safe! Although not as harrowing as the 6-day outage we had a few years back, this was the weather's polite reminder of our life's true luxuries: light, running water, a working refrigerator and internet.

In terms of the structure of this weekly log, I'm removing the "Inspiration Gathering" section. I figure that whenever I finish something that's worth sharing, I'll just put it under "Interesting stuff I found." We're streamlining things here.

Also, I spent a couple days working on a DIY Secret Santa gift (DIY is the theme!). Since it's a secret until Christmas, I can't list what I used this week or post photos of it, but I'll try to remember to show you after the holidays!

What I used this week

Paper 26 "Morning Pages" written in a "Shooting for the Moon Land on the Stars" Journal - not great for fountain pens, but I'm not picky with morning page paper. They'll get burned eventually! "F.R.I.E.N.D.S." Planner

Sterling Ink Common Planner Part Two

Fountain Pens

Penlux Masterpiece Grande (Fine) with Noodler's Bulletproof Black Ink

Benu Scepter II (Extra Fine) with Pilot Blue Black Ink

Opus 88 Holiday Jazz (Extra Fine) with Private Reserve Ebony Green Ink 

Tools Harinacs Stapleless Stapler - Used it a lot and work great for a while, but now there's some paper stuck inside, and the corner keeps ripping. Anyone know how to fix this?

Wins this week:

Finished my DIY Secret Santa project! Procrastination much? Also wrapped many gifts. In an effort to be more ecofriendly (and save money!) we mostly use reversed paper grocery bags. Still have more to go. It's a multi-day affair. This year I used stickers as little hints as to what's inside. I wonder if anyone will notice?

Interesting stuff I found:

It's Year-End Review time! I love reading these and am tempted to write my own year in review post, but my own acquisition rate is so low (1 planner, 1 Traveler's Notebook, 1 fountain pen, 5 ink samples, 2 washi tapes) that I'm not sure it would make a very compelling post. Maybe a "most used stationery" post? Year in Review: 2023 Stationery Highlights (GatheringOfCuriousities) - I love that they kept track of everything. They also wrote a fantastic post reviewing their 2023 stationery goals! A practice that I might take into 2024! Year-End Review, Part 1: Five Favorite Acquisitions of 2023 (GentlemanStationer) - My favorite of their year-end review post series.

JIYU Monthly - 2023 Season Finale // A.C. (Baum-Kuchen) - Yes! Consciously be less stingy with stickers! I even used up so many stickers in the aforementioned gift-wrapping. It made gift-wrapping infinitely more enjoyable (than it already is).

Paper Explorations: Reflection on 2023 (DimeNovelRaven) - My issue with paper is that I keep every usable scrap until every cubic inch is filled before I can get rid of it. Luckily, even just using notebooks for morning pages finishes them off pretty quickly, and for those, a little bit of bleed through is okay since no one will ever see them (I’ll burn them before that happens). So, I feel free to write with fountain pens even on notebooks that don’t have quality paper. My sisters, however, may have a notebook problem. I may also be thinning their stash whenever I visit them. ;D

How did I not know about Goulet Pen's Pen Plaza!? Size and shape comparisons of pens photographed in a standard format! I figure, if I didn’t know about it, for years, maybe some other pen lover doesn’t know about it too.

Like I Thought I Was Going to Be a Famous Artist - (ComfortableShoesStudio) - A necessary read for any artist (or human, really) who has been told "Who do you think you are?"

Holiday Practice (Austin Kleon) - Someone said somewhere, “when times get busy the things we love are the first to go” and so far, that has been so true. But I don’t want to let it! It's a real struggle.