New items and DIY planner update!

So I bought some new things over the past couple of months. I have had a chance to use all of them and I will give some brief opinions, there is a lot to cover!
At the top are several Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel .4 gel pens. I feel like they write a little more reliably than the non push clip Zebras. If you have been disappointed in the past, give Zebra another shot with these.

The Copic AtyouSpica in lipstick is next. This has a nice glitter to it and a marker/felt tip pen feel. I plan to buy a variety of colors but will use them as craft pens versus daily writers.

The Zebra Midliner Soft Color Highlighters are great! I will probably buy every color set offered. Again, I use these as more of a craft pen than a highlighter. The colors are a nice change from the typical fluorescent colors.

The next two pens I picked up at a bookstore, a Pilot Bravo and a pen marked Liquid Stylist, but don't see a brand name. The Bravo is like a marker where as the other pen has a needle felt tip. Both write very marker-ish and bold. Especially the Bravo.

Up next is a Morning Glory Mach II. This is a great pen, I like how it writes without a lot of skipping. I won't use it every day, but I know I will seek it out when I want a bit of a purple splash.

The Sailor Recruit is a great pen. I love the nib and although the pen is narrow I don't find it uncomfortable to write with. I bet it would fit in an agenda pen loop fairly well if you are searching for a classy looking, inexpensive fountain pen.

If you are looking for a pen to clip to a notebook the Tombow OnBook pen may be a great choice for you. The pen is just a pen, I didn't buy it for the simple ballpoint, I just liked the unique design!

The next two pens I purchased at the Pendemonium store in Fort Madison, IA. The yellow is a vintage Sheaffer fountain pen and the maroon pen is a cartridge roller ball. I haven't used either one on a daily basis, but I really like the the cartridge pen. The fountain pen was my first adventure in using bottled ink and truthfully that could be a whole separate post. It is apparently rocket science because I can not make it work!

The notebook is what I am using for my journal this year. It is a Kokuyo Campus High Grade MIO Paper notebook, A5 size. The string around it is my homemade elastic band to keep it from getting completely beat up. I'm crafty.

I also picked up a couple of notebooks while looking for the perfect journal. I almost used the Oxford Block book because I liked the layout and the simplicity of it. (The picture is blurry, but it says "date" on each page.) To be honest, I hated the Whitelines book. The lines are way to wide and the paper quality was not good. I really have no use for it. I didn't even include a picture of the paper. It was a waste of money.

Now an update on my DIY planner. I changed formats! I really wanted something that would match my purse and wallet so instead of using the large piccadilly, I bought a Louis Vuitton Desk Agenda cover. It didn't come with an agenda and they were about 100$ more. I wanted to keep my DIY spirit so I bought a multiple subject, grid format, wire bound Clairefontaine. The size is about A5 and it fits perfectly in the agenda after I trimmed the covers just a bit. The paper quality works well with most of my pens, except for sharpies, and it gives me a chance to still be creative!

I printed off some 4x6 cards for monthly calendars and keep them tucked in the front.My layouts aren't quite as interesting as my old planner. I find the grid pattern kind of stifles my creativity just a little. Also, my life hasn't been all that busy, but I will share the first few weeks. I start a new (great!) job tomorrow and I expect things to get a little more interesting, however I am not sure I will use this planner for work or have a separate one. Next week I am going to try a two page per week layout.




Back of planner...

That was a lot of pen and paper info in one post! If you want to know more details about the quality of the items I have recently bought, leave me a comment!