Stationery Mini Haul #2
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Wow, it’s been well over a year since the last mini haul! Time flies, as they say, but that also means a lot of stuff to unpack!
I haven’t been able to attend many shows, or generally get into any form of stationery-fueled debauchery since the last haul, but I still have a large variety of things from Sarah’s usual care packages, as well as some surprise things from the Traveler’s Factory Store in Kyoto (although there are still a few things I’ve picked up on my own here and there).
The 2025 PNW Pen Show
Starting with some of the things Sarah brought back from the 2025 Pacific Northwest Pen Show! On the right is a special 3-pen coozy by Rickshaw Bagworks, made specially for the 2025 PNW Pen show with a Sasquatch print! It didn’t take more than one look at it to decide I needed to have it, and it was the single thing I knew that I needed Sarah to hunt down for me when she got there. No regrets. On the surprises side, she found a hardcover Apica Premium CD Notebook, and that’s something I’m very interested in. I’m a long-time fan of the classic Apica Premium CD notebooks — they’re not the most ink-resistant notebooks out there, but they’re lovely to write with when you pair them with the right combination of pen and ink. As soon as I discovered that the hardcover existed, I had to have it so I could take a closer look (probably more on that in the future). There is also the reformulated Sitka Spruce and the new Oregon Marionberry inks by Oblation Papers and Press! I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be reviewing them, but it’s on the table. While we’re talking about Oblation, Sarah also picked up some adorable sticker sheets from her visit to their store after the show!
These gorgeous Dominant Industry swatch cards were at Dromgoole’s table. The paper is slightly off-white and surprisingly thin (I wonder if it’s the same as their archiving book?), but despite the thinness, the cards seem to be very resistant to bleeding and feathering.
I love the design on them, too! I particularly like that they allow you to note what type of pen you used. I filled out this test card using Dominant Industry’s Ink Muddler. I wish there were a second line for the name of the ink, since the lines are relatively short, but I think these are a really cool and unique option for swatching.
And last from the show, we have the cutest engraved JoWo nib from Pen Realm with a cat on it!
Daiso
Sarah also recently took her first-ever trip to a Daiso (oh, my jealousy). She picked up a large helping of notebooks available there so we could take a closer look at them (and thus far, I’m impressed). I’ll be talking more about the notebooks in the near future, so if you’re interested, keep an eye out for that.
As expected, Daiso also has a large variety of stickers, and I got this adorable cat sheet, but also these sick 3D bat stickers that are going to be perfect for next Halloween’s photo sets!
Some Leather and Some Pens
Next, we have a leather croissant, and I don’t think that requires any further explanation, but beside that, there is a small wrap journal by Portland Leather Goods. I’m a big fan of these because they’re inexpensive, come in a lot of colors, and fit a pocket-sized notebook (or A6 if you like to live life dangerously). The mediums are nice too if you like the B6 size. This one is in the “Optical” color, but it has a great resemblance to Tiffany Robin’s Egg Blue, and that is a fantastic thing! It has a slight sparkle to it that’s hard to get in the photos.
She also lent out a few pens for me to use with upcoming ink reviews! The fountain pen version of Retro51’s Autumn Leaves special edition — I had an ink in mind to use this, but with the recent hiatus we had to take, among other things, it looks like I won’t get any of that done for this Fall, but maybe I’ll still do something. (Or, if anyone has any ideas for a great matching ink for this, feel free to comment below!). Either way, photos don’t do justice to how good this pen looks in person. Glorious autumnal excellence!
The second pen is an Orange Custom 74 that I’m delighted to see in person because the color doesn’t seem so easy to get anymore, which is a shame because I love an orange pen, and the Custom 74 is no different. This would probably look fantastic for a reshoot of Pilot’s own Fuyu-gaki this winter! Yeah, I’ll do just that.
The last time I went to the DC Pen Show I completely missed out on the Nahvalur playing cards they had. Even though I wasn’t able to go last year, I had a friend grab a pack for me. They’re slightly smaller than a standard deck and the quality of the cards themselves is nothing special, but if you love pens and collect playing cards too, these are a cool deck with custom face cards using Nahvalur’s own pen designs.
Something else that came are these Field Notes reporter’s notebooks that I’ve been having fun using them to take notes for the series of Monteverde Noir Collection reviews that I’ve been working on, and they are awesome!
They’re packed with cool features like a US time-zone guide and a back pocket printed with useful things like a common proofreading guide. I love how much thought went into their design.
And lastly, some baguette cat stickies. Cats. Baguettes. No further explanation needed.
A trip to Japan
So some of you may know that I can’t fly because my health has betrayed me (humbug), so I am landlocked, BUT I can still take advantage of other people’s travels, and that’s exactly what I’ve done with my brother’s trip to Japan, whether he likes it or not.
Since I’m a kind and reasonable saint of a sibling, I only had him stop at the Traveler’s Factory in Kyoto to get me some charms and a notebook, but my oh my, were there so many charms! I didn’t even know most of these existed (I’m sure there’s more). On the left, there are the two Mizuhiki charms. Mizuhiki are decorative cords made from washi paper. These charms were made in Iyo, Shikoku — a city that’s been a large producer of Mizuhiki for many hundreds (seriously) of years! These are tied in the shape of a plum blossom.
On the right is a Yosegi charm made by Yuta Shimizu (luthier43) in Hakone. I’ve had one of the house-shaped Yosegi Charms for a few years now, but when he showed me this one in a pattern of colors I hadn’t seen before, I had to have it!
Next up, there’s the more familiar Traveler’s Factory “Fly to the World from Japan” that I’ve seen available and some stores and pen shows here in the states, but on the right are the Two Traveler’s Factory Kyoto charms! I knew about the one in the center, but I had no idea the one on the right existed!
The last charm is another one that I didn’t know about, but it was a fun learning experience — it’s for the Hokutosei train, a popular sleeper line that ran from Tokyo to Hokkaido. Unfortunately, the train line was discontinued in 2015, but it looks like they repurposed the cars to be used for Train Hostel Hokutosei in Tokyo! The Charm is a recreation of the sign on the front of the train (which is also used for the hostel). It’s somewhat bittersweet to have the charm because I know it’s something I would have loved to check out if I could have gone.
Also by Yuta Shimizu is this yosegi bookmark. It feels a little fragile, but it’s impressively thin.
Another thing I didn’t know about are these acrylic keychains. There’s also a record one that was sold out at the store when my brother was there, but these are seriously cool. It’s incredible how much stuff there is that we don’t get over here.
For example: this Traveler’s Company branded Victorinox Swiss Army Knife AND an accompanying leather sleeve for it. I’m pretty sure the small leather piece goes on the knife itself, but I’m not positive on that.
Or maybe this wooden card holder. In truth it’s just a notched piece of wood, but still, it’s cool!
Anyway, I couldn’t have my brother leave without grabbing me one of the Kyoto Traveler’s Factory exclusive notebooks, so here it is! I think this is my favorite of the Traveler’s Factory exclusive covers. It’s hard to do justice to it in photos (in fact, my camera had a hard time focusing on it for some reason). Before moving on from Traveler’s Company stuff, I was also able to get ahold of the “Let’s go on a Road Trip!” cover! My family had a van like this when I was growing up, so it’s something I really wanted to have.
A little more difficult to get a hold of (because it sold out so fast) was the matching clip, BUT thankfully, they did more than one drop. I also got the plane clip to get over a free shipping threshold from a supply order I had to make recently. On the far right isn’t a Traveler’s Company clip, but it’s the funniest clip I’ve ever seen. “Nice Trip” with a UFO abducting a deer. Love it.
Wearingeul
Well, I was going to wrap up this post at Traveler’s Company, but then I got a surprise box from Wearingeul! Of the 5 inks, I was able to choose 4 of them, and that’s completely fine with me because the 5th one is Annabel Lee, and as a happy Poe-loving Maryland native, I most likely would have chosen that anyway. I figured I may as well try out the recently released The Raven ink while I’m at it (because again, Marylander — I should probably do The Black Cat, too). Lastly, I chose Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, and Dorian Gray because those are the two novels that I used (and finished!) for my writing samples this year. They also sent in some notebooks, one of their paperweights, and their Swan Elixir flow enhancer, which I’m especially interested in taking a deeper look at with a full review.
The paperweight is for The Phantom of the Opera, and while I had an awfully difficult time photographing it (it’s very reflective), it’s beautiful!
A holiday surprise!
Well, it happened. A good friend of ours sponsored a 2025 Inkvent Calendar. So, it looks like I’ll be doing that. Some of you may have seen my update on the 2025 Inkvent situation, but in short, it’s something I’ll be working on in my own time, and I’ll try to get it out in the summer.
Thank you @caffeinatedxoctopus!
It also came with these adorable cat clips, and the 2025 Goldspot exclusive Sea Spray Kaweco Sport!
And that’s the haul! I hope everyone reading enjoyed it, and even more so, I hope there might have been something in here that you can look forward to seeing more of later on!
Stickers!
A final note for everyone who might be interested: I’ve been working on setting up our sticker shop. These are all drawn, printed, and cut here by myself and include our blog mascots, the Nib Knight and his Lazy Cow, as well as all sorts of fun little variants like the Noir Knight and Phantom Knight (shown above)! All of our sticker sales will hopefully allow us to continue to operate this blog and keep making the best content we can! I hope everyone enjoys them, and if you’re interested, keep an eye out for the new shop page in late January/early February!