Highlights from the National Stationery Show 2018

The 2018 National Stationery Show was a fabulous showcase of so much stationery goodness! Booth after booth offered eye-catching displays and products as well as having super-friendly and passionate people.

 This pictures were from the Sakura of America booth. My favorite is the seahorse stationery!

Who doesn't love beautiful quality lined envelopes?

All in a lovely stationery set.

The images below are from the Lily & Val booth. I fell in love with these prints of store front images. Aren't they gorgeous?

I love them so much I can't pick a favorite.

The only thing missing is a storefront image of a bookstore.

This lovely Keepsake Kitchen Diary from Lily & Val is a combination cookbook, journal and scrapbook. There is so much inside there that it would be best to watch the video on this page of their website.

 This is just a portion of what I saw at the 2018 NSS. More to come in future blogs.

Getting Ready for the National Stationery Show 2018

The National Stationery Show (NSS) is held every May in New York City and this year, for the first time since 2011, I will be attending.

This annual trade show showcases product and trends from 750 vendors/booths to over 8,000 visitors, mostly store owners and product buyers.

Years ago I visited the Rifle Paper Co at the show when they were just starting out. Now, I see their product everywhere, including this lovely postage stamp that was released earlier this year and was designed by Anna Bond (co-owner and founder of the Rifle Paper Co) for the USPS.

I wonder what treasures I'll find this year? I plan to take lots of pictures and maybe some video and will share all when I return from the show next week.

Stay tuned.

Pilot Fountain Pen Review

I recently purchased this affordable fountain pen to add to my small fountain pen collection. I don't use fountain pens too often but I'm trying to improve my skill level and comfort with them, so I selected the Pilot Metropolitan Collection Fountain Pen.

The pen was less than $13 on Amazon. The description calls it a medium nib, but it looks and writes more like a fine point to me. I usually prefer fine point pens but had opted for a medium nib to change things up a bit.

The pen comes with both a converter and an ink cartridge. So far I've only used the converter as I have so many bottles of ink (14 and counting).

In the images below I used Private Reserve Ink Bottle Copper Burst which is a lovely shade of brown.

The pen writes smooth, but I've found that it skips occasionally causing me to have to go back and rewrite a letter.

There is no bleed thru in the Moleskin notebook, but you can see the outline of the words through the paper. The weight and feel of the pen are good - not too heavy and not too light. I find the smooth barrel of the pen beckons to me from its perch when I'm using a different writing instrument. Each pen has a different purpose. Not all are meant for every day use.

Overall, the pen writes fairly decent, and for the price it is a good buy.

I haven't tried the ink cartridge and probably won't for awhile as I have so many bottles of ink to dip into. I'm glad to be back to having a hand fountain pen at my desk and may look at what it will take to get my others out of their boxes.

What's your favorite writing pen these days?

Journal Giveaway

Fox Chapel Publishing has recently sent me some journals to review and give away. You can click on any of the four titles and it will take you to the page on the Fox Chapel website that includes a video and more info about each journal.

My favorite is the Hello Angel Lined Journal. Isn't this a gorgeous image? This same photo is also featured on their DO Magazine (issue 6) which they also publish. There are no guided entries, but there are plenty of illustrations that are colorful and whimsical.

They have a few different prayer journals, including the one below, My Prayer Journal. This has pages of illustrations and daily prayer journaling questions by Joanne Fink.The font choice is lovely and the guided entries are very useful: Today I Pray; Today I am in Awe of: Today I Regret; Today I am Grateful for. There's also a monthly listing for each month and a prayer tracker for your prayers or those you are praying for.

The Tangle Easy Guided Journal is a lined journal with mandalas -some to color and some that are in color. Here are some sample journal entries: What animal is most similar to you? What kind of friend are you? What did you want to be when you grew up? What is your earliest memory?

Here's a better view of the mandala on the front cover.

The Woodstock Dot Journal is filled with dot pages and has a few pages of bullet journal instructions and examples included at the beginning of the journal. 2019 will be the 50th Anniversary of the 3-day Woodstock Celebration that took place in 1969.

The Woodstock journal is paperback and all of the others are hardcover. Each of the journals has a retail price of $7.99.

I didn't test the paper quality as I opted to do the giveaways instead. I can tell you that none of these lies flat as the binding is not flexible.

You can enter by doing any of the following:
1. Leave a comment on this blog with the choice of journal you would like.
2. Use #LandJgiveaway on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (limit one per venue) along with your choice of journal.
3. Mail a card, letter or postcard to me at:
Letters & Journals
PO Box 120052
St Paul, MN 55112
Limit one entry per type (ex: 1 on Instagram, 1 letter, 1 comment, 1 Twitter, 1 Facebook). Winners will be announced on June 1, 2018. Limited to US entries only.

Good Luck!