Levenger Decathlon Pen @Levenger

Work and knitting are keeping me busy, though I've got some new posts on the way, hope to have them up soon.

The new Levenger catalog came, and I noticed their new Decathlon pens (ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain). The deep wine-colored resin coupled with the 10-faceted barrel reminds me of the Nakaya Decapod Aka-tamenuri series.

This looks like a beautiful addition to Levenger's collection, and I am definitely marking this on my "would be nice" list. Thoughts?

Went Sketching's Three Sisters Mural

Absolutely amazing, now I'm going to badger some friends to drive me out there.

Writing Wrong(Handed)

I have to admit, being a righty I don't give much thought to those left out/behind (pun intended) by the manufacturers. Take a look at Ferguson Cumberbatch's Writing Wrong(Handed) blog, I do like his handwriting.

Smencils at Lost Scribe

A review of the Smencil, a pencil with watermelon scent, over at the new blog Lost Scribe. I can almost smell this, do go take a look.

Looks Familiar

Roaming through Art Brown's website I came across this, and thought it looked familiar. I have an Edison Huron bulb filler in Silver Marble, beautiful design if you're thinking of taking the plung.

Any Plans for the Weekend?

This weekend. Next weekend. I'm going to need time off to recuperate from my weekends.

My Supply Room Giveaway

My Supply Room is having a giveaway, some BIC Accountant Pens that look really great. So go leave a comment and read through his blog as well.

Publish Post

Waterman Hemisphere Pens and a Guide

PenFountain has a great post on Waterman Hemisphere fountain pens, as well as linking to a guide they've put together on identifying Waterman pens.

The Cloister

Some pictures from a trip to The Cloister last week, enjoy. Vacation is almost over, so I'm lining up posts for the new year.

A saint riding on a donkey.

This is interesting, these are reliquaries for the skulls of three female saints. They are beautiful although a tad grisly.

A very detailed statue of the Virgin Mary.

One of the lower rooms, filled with various noble tombs.



Out in the herb garden, looking at one of the towers.

The iconic image of the Cloister is this unicorn tapestry. Couldn't get a good picture from the front, too many people (like me, lol).

A side chamber with a magnificent vaulted ceiling.

JetPens & Field Notes Giveaway Winners Plus One More

Many thanks to everyone for their comments. Listed below are the winning posts, along with a third giveaway that I decided to do on the spur of the moment.

I used Random.org for the winning numbers, entering 1 and 41 (my post is excluded from this, obviously) but the below copy shows 1 and 100.

Congrats to the lucky three people below. They should email me (diane.fennelATgmail.com) by Wednesday noon and I'll arrange deliverly.

Again, thanks to everyone who commented and a big thanks to Brad and JetPens.com for spreading some cheer.



The winner of the JetPens gift certificate:

True Random Number Generator
Min: Max:
Result: 21
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

CPTN said...

JetPens is trying to steal all my money. I am assured of this. But that Field Notes steno pad sounds pretty great... I've never tried Field Notes before!

The winner of the Field Notes Steno Pad:
True Random Number Generator
Min: Max:
Result: 15

Post #15

v4ever said...

Definitely love Jet Pens.
I love gel pens with different colors, and Jet Pens is the perfect place to get them!

Just this week I received two limited edition Ecosystem Geometry lined journals for review, and I really want to share this with a reader. The winner has a choice of black or red (see this post), and the lucky person is #37:

True Random Number Generator
Min: Max:
Result: 37

Aisazia said...

Would love to purchase from Jetpens and would love to write on a Field Notes book! <333

JetPens Gift Certificate Giveaway (and more) @JetPens

Brad Dowdy, first known to all of us as the Pen Addict and more recently as the marketing chief for JetPens.com, has very generously offered a $10 JetPens gift certificate in a giveaway here at Pocket Blonde.

In addition, I've gone through my stash and have a second giveaway item to add to that, a new Field Notes Steno Pad, a 6 by 9 inch spiral top stenography book that's great for all your note-taking needs.

So here are the rules:

Leave a comment to this post below. Comment 1 is #1, comment 2 is #2, etc. Comments can be on anything, but please do muse on the wonderfulness of JetPens and/or Field Notes if you are so inclined.

The contest starts now and closes on Saturday noon. Two winners will be drawn using a random number generator, the first will win the JetPens gift certificate and the second will win the Field Notes Steno Pad.

Winners will be posted Saturday, December 3 around 5 pm, and they will have until Wednesday, December 7, at 5pm my time (NYC) toPost Options contact me to arrange for their gift to be sent.

If the first winner doesn't get in touch with me, then the second winner moves up a place and a new comment will be chosen for the Field Notes Steno Pad. If the second winner isn't available, then a new comment will be chose for the Field Notes Steno Pad. All decisions are final, but please do enjoy the giveaway.

Thanks again to Brad and JetPens for their thoughtfulness to Pocket Blonde's fans.

Another Fantastic Post!

Went Sketching's at it again with all his talent, I'd be jealous if I wasn't so tongue tied.

Peacable Kingdom

I've never seen my three girls lounging this close. But as we all know, the best place to sleep is (left to right) on the windowsill (Seranne), on the radiator (Mally), or on mom's knitting (Theia).

American Cursive Handwriting @FPGeeks

Check out this blog post by Fountain Pen Geeks on Michael Sull and his American Cursive Handwriting, a 349 page guide to traditional cursive handwriting in the US. That is amazing, I'm thinking of ordering the Reference guide.

Carpenter Pencils at Went Sketching Blog

Great post on drawing with carpenter pencils by Tom Lynch at his new blog, Went Sketching. Take a look at the Halloween cut outs as well, spooky!

Notebookism Reviews the Writer's Diary

Notebookism is back, and has a great review of the Fabriano Boutique Writer's Diary.

Economy Pens Giveaway

Do go over to Economy Pens and enter the giveaway, lots of great items going to a few lucky somebodies.

The Winner Is Penemuel

Can't seem to get a screen shot, but this is the result:

True Random Number Generator Result: 6

Penemuel said...

I love prompts/story starters - this looks like it could be fun!

Congrats! Send me an email at diane.fennelATgmail.com with your mailing info and I'll get this out to you in the next few days.

Many thanks to Allegra Newman for her guest post and for a copy of her book to give away.

Guest Post & Giveaway: 365 Things to Write About

I'm really excited to have this guest post by Allegra Newman, the author with P.C. Trauth of 365 Things to Write About. It's a simple system to help you write, and is available in Kindle format. Check out Allegra's website and Facebook page as well for great ideas to write about (jelly wiggles?). Keep reading for the giveaway, I think you'll be very pleased.

365 Things to Write About, by Allegra Newman

When I was a teenager, journaling reinforced my goal to be a writer. I scribbled countless poems and story ideas into my entries, convinced that when I graduated from school, I would finally have all the time in the world to focus on writing them. What a lovely dream that was…

It gradually disappeared within a year of graduating college. Working a “practical” job didn’t leave many free hours for writing novels and poems, although technically at my job, I was creating stories…from endless hours of camera footage for reality television shows where families traded their wives and husbands or hired famous chefs to revamp their ailing restaurants. Not exactly the quality writing I’d been aiming for when I fantasized about being a writer, but it paid the bills.

Unfortunately, journaling also took a backseat to twelve-hour days in edit bays, re-working scenes to be more dramatic. I’ll write tomorrow, I’d assure myself as I tiredly climbed into bed every night. Then the next evening, I would find myself making the same false promise. Let’s just say it is a black-letter day when you realize that you’ve been writing in the same 120-page journal for two and a half years. It becomes even more depressing when a lame attempt to pen ONE descriptive sentence takes SIX hours.

This January, I confronted my old pals, procrastination and denial, and ended our ten-year relationship. I had switched career paths to have more time for pursuing my creative interests, and I was committed to putting that plan in action – which was easier said than done. Where colorful scenes and characters once poured effortlessly from my head onto the page, now sputtered lame, monochromatic sentences like “I was upset so I got in my car and drove around town.”

It was embarrassing. My vocabulary had dwindled to generic, one-syllable words. In my mind, I could recall a hot, sticky summer in the South, but when I tried to translate that image on paper, my brain drew a big blank. If I was going to write again, I needed a way to jumpstart my creative flow. Taking another artist’s advice, I took up journaling again, but this time, I forced myself to get up half an hour earlier every morning to write in a spiral notebook I’d found in the closet. Instead of perusing Huffington Post while I chugged coffee, I made myself fill three pages with whatever was on my mind at 6am. Surprisingly, I usually found I had more to say at that ungodly hour than I ever had when I wrote in the evenings.

Journaling got me writing something, but it was a cup of coffee which helped me to come up with a method for challenging myself to write better. One morning while I impatiently waited for the pot to brew, I found myself scrawling almost a page’s worth of words about the scalding, black liquid which would soon fill my favorite ceramic mug. Intrigued, I tried the exercise again the next day and brought my living room to life on paper. And that was my “Eureka!” moment. I thought about the various stories I’ve read in books or watched in movies where everyday objects or places become characters – a garden cultivated by a young girl, a tumultuous climb up Mt. Everest, or a spider that saves a terrific pig from becoming bacon. The smallest things in our lives have the potential to become the greatest stories of all time.

Each day since, I’ve challenged myself to write whatever I want about one thing. Instead of laboring over the perfect words to convey a story or poem, I let go and allow the object, person, or place to invoke the scene I set on the page. Are my efforts helping me to write? Well, between May and June, I penned 150 pages of a story which I started eight years ago and never got around to finishing…but it looks like that might be possible now. I can’t say it’s always easy, but I’m having fun and enjoying the art of writing again, which is why I loved doing it in the first place.

The Giveaway

Allegra has donated a copy of 365 Things to Write About for a giveaway at Pocket Blonde, which starts today (Wednesday) with this post and ends Sunday noon EST. I'll pick a random winner using a random number generator, and will post the entry at 5 pm. You'll have one week to get in touch with me to claim your prize (diane.fennelATgmail.com). Shipping will be by media mail.

The Rules

Leave a comment below, a sentence or two on anything that takes your fancy. Comments will be considered numbered by their order (i.e., first comment = 1, second comment = 2, etc.).

Enjoy!

And while you're enjoying Allegra's post, tell your friends and family to enter the giveaway, stop by Allegra's website and check out her writing, and take a look at her Facebook page.

The Best Brother Ever

This showed up today at my office, a gift from my brother: a Parker Duofold Senior Lucky Curve fountain pen and pencil set in jade green. The barrel imprint is quite good, and is marked "Geo S. Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Janesville, WIS Lucky Curve Pat 4-25-11." The pen was manufactured in the 1920s (1923 to 1927 for this cap band from what I've read), and the barrel shows the ink discoloration typical of this pen. Posted the pen measures about 6.75 inches. And there's a matching pencil for added glam!

My brother bought the set and had it totally overhauled by Ron Zorn of Main Street Pens. It's a great looking pen, with just a small crack in the cap that's not really noticeable (pushing down too far when posting it is the likely explanation). I've wanted a Duofold for some time, and getting both a Senior and a Lucky Curve (the nib and filling system, although that may have been switched out) are heaven. Many thanks DFB!