I did mention shopping didn’t I? On Cannery Row at Om Rhythyms I was really excited to find singing bowls. Jason and I struck each and every one to find the nicest tone. At the aquarium I picked up a nice little sea dragon print. I was also thrilled to finally have a chance to test out a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen which Jason urged me to get being more than a little tired of hearing about it. The lady at Bittner was great. She pulled out all the fine points until we found the one with the smoothest writing action. She also threw in some lovely royal blue Namiki ink when I said I preferred bottled ink over cartridges. A full set of photos is on Flickr here. I wasn’t brave enough to take photos at dinner last night but we had a really exceptional meal at the Plumed Horse.
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I’m up to ten pen pals now and this means my post office box has often got fun letters and things. This time I had three waiting for me including a lovely bookmark to boot!
A new little fountain pen arrived this week. An inexpensive little Kaweco Sport that I thought would make a good pen for purse or pocket as it’s leak proof. I’m not sure I can get around the medium nib though, it writes a very fat line. The past 4 or 5 years I’ve been shopping the 50cent-dollar items at Micheal’s for silly gifts for stockings for Jason and the boys. Pink rubber balls were a popular item one year and this year I emerged with two items that were well received- some re-useable handwarmers and these funny chia men. Daniel apparently watered his right away and it’s already growing some “hair”.
This week a few new pens and inks arrived. I took advantage of a sale and free shipping to get a pen with an italic nib to try as well as a fun ink that’s meant to mimic the color of mercurochrome. The italic nib will take a deal of practice and I’m not sure I like those really fat lines. I love the orangey red of the Dragon Napalm ink. The first few lines looked quite brown but it it’s clearly orange now and staying that way.
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The postman has been very good to me indeed. Two new bags arrived that will be very useful for putting things in as Piglet would say. I usually have several active knitting projects and it’s nice to store them each in their own bags so that pattern and needles don’t go astray. The larger bag has lots of useful pockets and may take over as my main knitting bag.
The first day of our visit we spent shopping the local yarn stores, fabric shops and assorted and sundry other shops. I found the “Enchanted Sole” which has been on my wishlist for awhile. It has several fun sock patterns that I would love to knit. In the remnant bin at 
My pen pal list seems to keep growing. When I stopped to check the po box yesterday I picked up some fun stamps for my letters. A couple of my pals are cancer survivors so I thought the breast cancer stamps were appropriate. I also tend to stuff my letters with bits of yarn I’ve spun, origami and recently fabric scraps from the quilt I’ve started so that sometimes it’s tough to keep the envelope sealed. One of my recent letters arrived with a lovely wax seal on it so I popped by the local stationer in search of a seal of my own and picked up supplies. At first I had the wax stick too close to the flame and burned it but after several tries I got the hang of it. This is a modern sealing wax that’s very bendy so it won’t chip or break in the mail. I love it!
I realized that a pen cup was not the best way to store my fountain pens. There are some wonderful boxes and roll-ups for storing pens available but I wanted easy access that would fit comfortably on my messy desk. This lovely stationery box fit the bill beautifully. It’s lid is hinged on the side and my pens fit in here easily with room for many more.
The heat was out for a little while yesterday so I put Gwen’s sweater on her for a bit. It turned out not to be necessary as I discovered the problem before it got very cool in the house and the repair man was here within an hour of Jason’s call. Thankfully the furnace only needed a bit of maintenance and the fellow was kind enough to explain how to do it.
The freezer is now a bit more filled. It did take me a couple days but all my pot pies now have crusts, 34 in total. Well it was 34 briefly because Daniel had to have two immediately. He pronounced the crust, “amazing”. The filling could have been thicker but it was hard to scale the recipe up and they are otherwise really good pies. You can also see I’ve got plenty of blueberries, some strawberries, peaches hiding under the sliding trays and a bit of CSA meat.
I recently bought a few more inks for my fountain pens. These are Noodler’s inks from the Eternal line which is waterproof once dry. I thought perhaps a waterproof ink would be best for addressing letters and things which could get exposed to inclement weather along the way to their destination. I’m just discovering all the fascinating inks that Noodler produces and I’m sure I’ll add more before I’m done. One of my new pen pals asked if I made scented ink which sent me questing for recipes. As a soaper I have plenty of essential oil so it would be an easy thing to try. (Don’t worry Melanie, I won’t ever send you anything scented!)
Yesterday was a good day at the post office with the arrival of my Sailor Kitty and packet of 10 Hero 266 fountain pens. Jason’s been snarking around my pens but feared he’d lose one of his own. The Hero pens are a grand total of less than 2 bucks each even after shipping. I heard the Hero pens were very nice for such a bitsy price and that turns out to have been very true. I love how they write and though I couldn’t find a clue how to load ink, it wasn’t hard to figure out on my own. I had thought the new Sailor pen would be a good purse pen but the cap is a screw on so it won’t work well for that. It does seem perfect for knitting notes. Perhaps I’ll put one of these Heros in my purse instead.
Despite the chaotic mess of my desk, I am fairly organized about most things. Having bought my first few fountain pens I quickly found myself a member of the