February Hearts & Flowers

I have a love/hate relationship with February. By now it always feels like winter should be over but it’s not. I love having flowers in the house during February just because it makes winter feel a little lighter.

Valentine’s Day is halfway through February, but it’s also my birthday. I always try to make cookies with my kids on Valentine’s so they have fun decorating and I get a birthday cookie out of the deal.

My in-laws gift my kids with Conversation Hearts every February. It’s a fun tradition that the kids love. Everyone agrees that the pink ones are the best, right?

At the end of February I’m just ready for spring to come already, and flowers are usually the first sign.

I hope everyone is having a great February! What’s your favorite ink today? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post does not contain affiliate links and is not sponsored in any way.

Winter Blues Ink Palettes

We are knee-deep into January which means I’m reaching for icy blues, dark greens, gorgeous blue blacks and cool greys. The weather has been cold and snowy, and we are spending most of our time inside.

I love the color of this water-it’s teal and gorgeous while still being wintery. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use Papier Plume Lake Michigan Winter to match it, but let’s face it, I’ll use any excuse to pull out that ink. Someday they’ll make me happy and do another run of it. There are a lot of other inks that would work as an alternative to Swan Illusion like Kyo-iro Stone Road of Gion or Sailor Ink Studio 373.

I’m still crushing hard on Sailor’s Sailor-it’s so gorgeous and has the prettiest shading. Sou-boku, Smoke Noir and Thunderstorm have been long-time favorites of mine.

I would love to live here-a cabin in the middle of nowhere, as long as I get to keep my inks with me.

I hope everyone is having a safe January! What’s your favorite ink today? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post does not contain affiliate links and is not sponsored in any way.

Doughnuts and Tulips Ink Palettes

We are on day 51 of our self-imposed quarantine, and luckily we are all doing pretty well. I’ve been sick since Monday, so we are taking one day at a time. Today it hit me that I miss doughnuts. We are not big on eating out, but the one exception is when I take my son for doughnuts after appointments with his specialist. I could seriously use an Oreo doughnut from Legendary Doughnuts in Tacoma right about now (never mind that it’s 9 o’clock at night and they are probably closed-please tell me I’m not the only one that craves doughnuts late at night). Oreos+doughnuts=amazing and you really can’t go wrong, right??? Well you can’t go wrong with these inks either, because they are fun and bright and match these doughnuts that I wish I was eating.

I miss tulips. They are pretty and come in a million different colors. Coral oranges are my favorite oranges, so Sailor Ink Studio 473 is good one.

Gimme all the pastel shading inks in spring, but I also need some great classic inks too. Sailor Jentle Black is one of my favorite inks-I always have it in at least one pen.

I miss farmers markets. I miss being able to take my kids to help me pick out food each week and see what new ingredients they want to try. We have had really good luck with a local company delivering produce to us each week during stay-at-home and appreciate them so much. Sailor Jentle Irori is a really good tomato red and is one of my favorite reds. I’m still deep in my love affair with Platinum Carbon Black, I don’t think we will be breaking up anytime soon-I’m pretty sure we are going steady at this point. Try it because it’s amazing.

I hope you are all staying safe and well. What’s your favorite ink today? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post does not contain affiliate links and is not sponsored in any way.

Quarantine 2020 Ink Palettes

We are on day 24 of our self-imposed quarantine, something I’ve avoided talking about so far, but this is life right now and it doesn’t seem right to avoid it altogether. We live in Washington State and have three little kids so we decided to stay at home pretty early on and do our best to keep everyone healthy. It’s the first Sunday of the month so I thought I would post this month’s ink palettes based on what we’re doing and missing right now. I know a lot of us are struggling and my heart is with everyone having to deal with this. I’m doing my best to keep our routine as consistent as we can. My day job is on hold for now, but I’ll still be here posting ink content like usual for as long as I can.

One of the biggest things I miss right now is taking my kids to the park. We usually spend a lot of time outside-we go to a lot of local parks, splash parks and hiking trails. Since this isn’t really an option for us right now, I’m looking forward to days where chalk can be a fun part of our lives again. Diamine Soft Mint is one of my favorite Diamine inks, and has been for years.

My youngest is super into aquatic life right now and we have spent a lot of time on YouTube watching different sea creatures-have you seen the video of the octopus dreaming and changing colors the whole time?!? Coral and light orange are some of my favorite colors for spring.

Easter is coming up soon and my kids ask everyday if it’s Easter yet. They love dying eggs-mostly just so they can crack them open later, but it’s a good indoor activity when so many of our Easter activities won’t happen this year. I’m loving these colors together, they definitely have the spring vibe but are still pretty readable.

I’m struggling to keep everyone hydrated. It seems like such a silly thing but it’s something we are working on. I love teal inks and all three of these are great ones. Platinum Carbon Black is my new black ink fling, I don’t think we will be breaking up any time soon.

I’m hoping you are all well. I’m going to spend the rest of the evening sewing up some masks, but check back tomorrow for a new ink review. What’s your current ink obsession right now? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post does not contain affiliate links and is not sponsored in any way.

February Pinks

I had this master plan to get this post done and published on Sunday, but sometimes my plans go out the window, so it’s happening today instead. In February I reach for a lot of pinks and purples. By the end of the month I’m so ready for spring I could scream. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and so far this month has been nothing but rain and snow. This first palette is all about the purples. I love all five of these inks-Sailor Jentle Black is one of my go-to basic blacks, and it pretty much lives in my Pilot Custom 823 (one of the best pens ever designed).

Pink is rather cliche for Valentine’s week, and since my birthday is on Valentine’s day I grew up hating pink, but it has really grown on me. Sailor Peche is too light for me to use in small nibs, but it works in a flex nib or for sketching. I’m pretty sure I use Robert Oster Cherry Blossom and Pinky every spring, I just love the colors.

And we’re back to purples. Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi is another of my go-to black inks. It behaves so well and is a great basic black. I love that Sailor Jentle Chu-shu rides the line between grey and purple.

I try to bring flowers into the house, especially at the end of winter to help beat back the winter yucks. Lilies are my favorite, and I couldn’t pass up these vibrant pink ones. Monteverde Moonstone is one of my favorite brown inks, and I use Papier Plume Garden District Azalea often. What inks are you loving this month?

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and this post is not sponsored in any way.

January Blues

It’s January now, so it’s time to pull out some new ink palette combos! This month I decided to pull the whole month’s worth into one post rather than posting 4 individual ones.

This first week I’ve been using blues and purples. I’m obsessed with Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi and have been looking for any excuse to use it.

I used Bank paper to create these trees. It really brings out the undertones of these two Sailor inks.

I love neutral inks so sometimes I love a palette full of nothing but neutral. Monteverde Moonstone, Sailor Jentle Black and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun have all been long-time favorites of mine.

Train doodles make even the best inks better right?

This ink palette is all of my favorite colors. I love all five of these inks!

The Bank paper pulls a bit of the blue tone out of the Sailor Jentle Fuji-musume.

I love this combo so much! It would also work well for early spring.

I used a Waterman 452 1/2 V to draw these flowers, and a little bit of water and a paint brush to soften it up. I love the softer vibe with the pastel colors.

It seems I’m focusing on blues, purples and neutrals this month. What inks are you using lately?

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page, and this post is not sponsored in any way.

2019 Fall Trees Ink Palette

I’m still obsessed with fall colors this week. I’m enjoying browns, reds and oranges. This week we have been managing the kids’ karate lessons, rain storms and kid colds.

I fell in love with this picture last week and decided to use it as the base for this week’s ink palette. The trees near my home are all orange, yellow and red right now, despite all the rain we’ve been getting.

I decided to doodle little trees this week, I stink at doodles but that doesn’t stop me from doing them.

This week’s Col-o-dex swabs. Every time I swab Robert Oster Grey Seas I fall in love with it a little more.

I used: a Franklin-Christoph 45L in Italian ice-M, Pelikan M205 Star Ruby-F, Pilot Vanishing Point Crossed Lines-M, Pelikan M605 White Transparent-M, and an Edison Collier Persimmon Swirl-M.

What did you have inked up this week? Let me know in the comments below!

Fall September Inks

If you were to look at my life, you might think I hate color. All of my furniture is brown, beige or white. 99% of my clothes are neutral and most of the time I even choose neutral-colored notebooks whenever possible, but when it comes to ink and pens I want all the colors of the rainbow. I’m a bit odd in that I like to switch up my colors with the seasons-pastels and light colors in the spring, bright happy colors in the summer, jewel tones and deeper colors in the fall and dark colors and icy blues in the winter. So while I love all the colors, I try to stick to a few carefully chosen colors that coordinate well with each other. Lately I’ve been using 4 colors per week-a great neutral, usually black or blue-black, and three coordinating colors. This lets me have a few options to play with while still having a great basic in there too. This month I decided to plan out my colors in advance. I picked up this Col-o-ring Oversize at the San Francisco Pen Show and thought it would be great for keeping my color palettes.

This week I’ve been holding onto the very last of summer here, sticking to some brighter inks.

• Sailor Sei-boku

• Monteverde Garnet

• Montblanc Lucky Orange

• Diamine Aurora Borealis

• Sailor Kiwa-guro

• Monteverde Pumpkin Cake

• Monteverde Cherry Danish

• KWZ Chicago Blue

• Sailor Black

• Robert Oster Australian Shiraz

• Monteverde Olivine

• Robert Oster Midnight Sapphire

• Robert Oster Thunderstorm

• Sailor Jentle Yama-dori

• Robert Oster Berry d’Arche

• Robert Oster Caffe Crema

How many pens do you use each week?