Happy Fountain Pen Day 2017!
Happy Fountain Pen Day!
Today is the 1st Friday in November. That means it’s Fountain Pen Day!
From the Fountain Pen Day Website:
Taking place on the first Friday in November each year, Fountain Pen Day is celebrated by enthusiasts worldwide as a time to embrace, promote, and share the use of fountain pens.
I’ve had a busy, busy day. I had planned on wearing my Fountain Pen Day T-shirt all day and writing a lot of thank you notes with my favorite pens, inks, and paper. That’s a great way to celebrate! Instead, I spent the day at the hospital, praying with a dear lady on the day of her passing. As a pastor, I find it a great privilege that families invite me into these moments.
Now that the day is nearly over, I will finally slip into my Fountain Pen Day T-shirt, ink a couple of pens with new inks, browse the big fountain pen day sales for a bit, and enjoy some quiet time with my family.
That’s worth celebrating everyday.
Happy Fountain Pen Day!
-Pat
Chicago Cubs In My Pocket
Pen: Jinhao 159 Chicago Cubs Edition
Ink: Namiki Blue
Paper: Muji
Coffee: Cafe Bustelo Bialetti
I enjoy using pens and pencils that match a season or occasion. I’ve pulled out my orange pens and ink for fall. Around July 4th I always slip my Retro 51 Betsy in my pocket.
I’m celebrating the Chicago Cubs return to the NLCS by adding some Cubs themed tools to my October carry.
- Jinhao 159 Chicago Cubs Edition (requires buying a blue and a red 159) with Namiki blue ink.
- Chicago Cubs Souvenir Pencil
- Wrigley Building Bullet Pencil
I’ll be using these often until the cubs win their first World Series since 1908. Or until their season ends. Again.
GO CUBS!
-Pat
Analog Blog
Inked: October 2016
It’s October! The mornings and evenings are finally cool. The leaves are starting to change color. And Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is back! I just couldn’t resist pulling out some fabulous fall fountain pens and inks to use this month.
Inked this Month
TWSBI 580 AL Orange M [ Anderson Pens | Amazon ]
Diamine Autumn Oak [ Goulet Pens | Cult Pens | Amazon ]
Lamy Al-Star Copper Orange M [ Amazon ]
Lamy Copper Orange [ Cult Pens | Amazon ]
Retro 51 Lincoln F [ Jet Pens | Amazon ]
Diamine Ancient Copper [ Goulet Pens | Cult Pens | Amazon ]
Pelikan M200 Café Crème B [ Amazon ]
J Herbin Café des Îles [ Goulet Pens | Amazon ]
Lamy Logo Twilight [ Vanness Pens | Amazon ]
Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts [ Goulet Pens | Amazon ]
Edison Noveau Premiere Autumn Embers 1.1 [ Goulet Pens ]
Pelikan Blue-Black [ Amazon ]
Retro 51 Tornade Pen Addict Limited Edition [ Pen Addict ]
Schmidt P1826 Blue [ Goldspot | Amazon ]
Coffee of the Month
Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, of course.
Let’s Go Shopping
Check out the The Lanier Briefcase on Kickstarter by our friends at Nock Co.
It looks like a great case, but I’m even more excited about the A5 notebooks!
The British Pound is quite low against the Dollar. Now is a great time to grab a Pelikan or the Diamine Deep Dark Inks from Cult Pens. I know I did!
National Coffee Day 2016
Pen: Pelikan M200 Café Crème Bold
Ink: J. Herbin Café des Îsles
Paper: Exacompta Forum Journal
Coffee: Starbucks Italian Roast
Happy National Coffee Day!
2016 has been quite crazy. Life continues to move faster than the speed of blog. I can’t believe I haven’t posted yet this year.
Well, National Coffee Day seems like the perfect day to break the post drought. I’ll make a great effort to post regularly moving forward. I’m itching to post about my favorite tools again. Perhaps more coffee will help.
Today we celebrate!
I’m drinking my current daily driver coffee in my new coffee mug gifted by a friend. Thanks Teresa!
I’ll also be sure to stop by a favorite local coffee shop today to get a Goat Island Mocha. Here’s a reminder to support your local independent coffee shop.
I’m wearing my favorite coffee t-shirt. Yes, I have more than one
.
And I’m writing with the prefect coffee day pen – my new Pelikan M200 Café Crème. I missed out on this special edition last year and was super excited to discover Cult Pens still had it in stock. With the favorable exchange rates (Thanks, Brexit!), I was compelled to grab one. It’s gorgeous, a great writer, and perfect for the pens ‘n’ coffee guy.

This pen looks good enough to drink!
What ink for today? I had to use Café des Îsles. It has a coffee bean on the label! I love its shading. It may have to be the permanent partner with this pen.
Enjoy the day!
May your coffee be strong and your nibs be smooth. [Tweet this.]
-Pat
Analog Blog
Life Moves Faster
Life moves faster
than the speed
of blog
The desire to write
is often stronger
than than the writing
The use of pen and ink
continues
-Dr. Pat Hannon
8.3.15
TWSBI Eco 1.1
Sailor Yama-dori
Holy Pen Show, Batman! (Atlanta 2015)
It’s been 10 days since the 2015 Atlanta Pen Show. Finally, here’s the official Pens ‘n’ Coffee report.
The Lead-Up
I’ve had the Atlanta Pen Show on my calendar for a year. Last year Brad hosted a small soiree at the show. Upon hearing him share about this experience I did two things. I checked for a pen show in Charlotte. Not finding one, I placed the Atlanta show on my calendar. Who knew that things would heat up as they did. Brad’s soiree turned into a full blown bash (a #sassafling even). I backed the Pen Addict Kickstarter and knew I had to attend.
However, driving three hours to look at pens sounds fabulous when it’s months away. The week of the show gives a different view. It was a very busy week. Could I squeeze in the trip? I tried to convince my daughters to skip school on Friday to go to the show. They choose school. (Is this a parenting win or a parenting fail?) I nearly attended on my own on Friday, which would allow me some time at the Big Party before I made the drive home. The final decision? Get up early on Saturday, throw the Hannon 5 in a minivan, make the 3 hour trip to Atlanta, look at pens for a while, and make the 3 hour trip home. Crazy? Possibly.
The Show
Finally, we arrived at the show, the first pen show for our family. Holy pen show, Batman! Sensory overload! Pens! Ink! Paper! People! Yes, it was crazy. Crazy awesome!
Someone recommended making a lap around the show and viewing everything before settling in and making purchases. I tried to do that, but it was hard. We couldn’t even get past the hallway. Lovely pens everywhere. The kids were almost as excited as I was. And of course, there was two rooms full of venders as well, selling most anything pen related you could imagine. Vintage pens, modern pens. Ballpoint pens, fountain pens. Pen parts. Cheap pens ($3), expensive pens ($1,000+). Ink and paper, oh my.
We loved seeing and touching all the different options. I handled many pens that I had only seen online before. Pilot Vanishing Points and Lamy 2000s are on my wishlist now, when before I considered them just too darn expensive. (This is certainly a danger of going to a show.)
The People
As wonderful as all the products were, the people were even better. Vendors were eager to chat, sharing about their pens, eager to teach onlookers whether or not a sale seemed promising. Meeting people I only knew from the interwebs was worth the drive.
Brad Dowdy and Myke Hulry from the Pen Addict Podcast were the rockstars of the show. Still they took time to engage with everyone. It was great to talk with them. Brad chatted like we were old friends, even though I doubt he even knew me from online.

Mr. Pen Addict with Dr. Pens ‘n’ Coffee
It was also a treat to meet Brian and Lisa Anderson from Anderson Pens. Great people with a great shop! And Lisa Vanness from Vanness Pen Shop. And Jeff “The Beard” Bruckwicki from NockCo. And Dan Bishop from Karas Kustoms. And…
People didn’t only shop, we shared – pens, ink, and life. I’m pretty sure I sold some Field Notes to a sweet lady who had never heard of the brand and a TWSBI USA to someone else. Two of us randomly shared our Muji Aluminum Fountain Pens with Myke Hurly and discussed converters that fit (Retro 51 does).
The Haul
So, what did I buy among all this awesomeness?
- The new FodderstackXL and Dot Dash Notebooks with improved fountian pen friendly paper from Nock Co. Also see my Nock Co sticker, soon to go on my MacBook.
- The Limited Edition 2015 Lamy Al-Star in Copper Orange with a bottle of Lamy Copper Orange ink and a Pilot Plumix from Anderson Pens.
- 3 half price bottles of ink from Vanness Pens Shop: Monteverde Blue-Black, Monteverde Brown, and Conway Stewart Tavy.
- And, somewhere along the way, a Pilot Varsity.
The Kids
Among all this, the highlight of the day was experiencing the kids excitement. They looked and looked. Several vendors gave each of them a free pen. They also each picked out their own Pilot Varsity. Lisa Anderson made their day truly special. She sent the kids on a scavenger hunt, looking for things you can only find at a pen show. When the kids had their scavenger hunt cards filled up by other vendors, Lisa gave each one a free pen and a bag crazy full of cartridges. Such joy!

The Kids with Lisa Anderson

The Kids with Brad and Myke
When it fas finally time to go find some pizza and make the 3 hour trek home, the kids were begging to come back next year. You can count on it! And I may have let it slip that there is a Pen Show in Raleigh in May…

Don’t forget the pizza!
By the way, my wife isn’t in any pictures because she spent most of the day in the corner reading. She loved it!
St. Patrick’s Day Tools
St. Patrick’s Day is kind of a big deal around my place. So, here are my tools for the day. Since there’s way more here than I can use today, I’ll be pulling from these all week.
Pens
- Parker 21 clone with De Atramentis Pine Green ink
- Retro 1951 Tornado Umbra Orange hacked with green G2 refill
- Vintage Esterbrook SJ 1551 Nib with Organic Studios Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass ink
- Jinhao 599 Orange Demonstrator with Noodler’s Green ink
Pencils
- Staedtler Wopex HB 2
- Tombow 8900- HB with orange cap eraser
- Orange Ticonderoga HB 2
- Green Ticonderoga HB 2
- Vintage green Sunday School pencil
- Green Musgrave Cub 3030T
- Orange Home Depot Pencil
- Green Dixon No 2 HB
- Orange Palomino Golden Bear #2
Notebooks
- Rhodia A7 Pocket Notebook
- Field Notes green Unexposed
- Orange Scout Books Composition Pocket
- Field Notes Expedition
- Field Notes Ambition Ledger
Other
- Orange Nock Co Hightower
- Orange Contigo Coffee Tumbler
In My Pocket and Therefore Not In The Picture
- Green and brass Twist Bullet Pencil
Analog Blog
A Very NockCo Christmas
Some of my very generous Christmas gifts. A very NockCo Christmas to me!