Friday Five - Fancy Writing Implements

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I love anything to do with writing. 

Here we have some pen and ink-related items.

1. This is an oriental-style ink and brush set. 

I have no idea where or how I got this. 

You grind up dry ink, mix it with water and write with the brushes.

2. Made of glass and given to me as gifts. 

The green pen and pot were custom-made for me.

They are only to look at, so don't touch them.

3. Not technically quill pens

as the hawk and black feathers have 

pens and nibs attached to them.

I found the white feather. 

It is not trimmed into a quill, but it could be.

4. Ink wells I found in second-hand shops.

They are only for looking, too.

I have no idea how old they may be.

5. My grandson gave me the sparkly pen for Christmas 2022.

He made the "splash" pen holder on his 3D printer in January 2023.

These are only for visual appreciation also. 

Let's just say they are all no-touchy.

Writing Your Life Away

 

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I've been writing a personal journal in one form or another for as long as I can remember, from writing in the sand while yellow jackets buzzed around me at the age of four in North Carolina to this new hard-cover Mead Cambridge Limited notebook I started here in my new home in Florida.

I believe in writing by hand as therapy, relaxation, and meditation. 98.567% of the words are boring, redundant, or complete bullshit. Some documented trauma and joy, extreme emotions, and ugly thoughts. None of them contained words I'd want anyone to see.

By the time I moved from New Jersey in September, I still had forty or fifty filled journals weighing me down. I toyed with keeping them because my ramblings are just that valuable, but those suckers weighed a ton. So I burned them all. 

After recovering from the sheer exhaustion of lugging them downstairs and out into the backyard and then guarding them so that I wouldn't set the neighborhood on fire, the process felt good. The purgative felt like a line in the sand, clearly delineating the life I'd be leaving behind and my new adventure.

I don't want to save future diaries for my daughter to find (look up death cleaning.) These are uncensored: one of the few places where I don't go through all possible permutations for ramifications before disgorging what's in my brain. 

From now on, on the anniversary of my birth, I will review what I've written (maybe) and then use however many I completed in the previous year as fire fodder.

Suleika Jaouad wrote about The Journal Dilemma in which she shares some more thoughts on journals and what to do with them.

The pens in the picture above are Thorton's Novice disposable fountain pens which are very nice.

Techless Tuesday - Letter Box

Sometimes, a handwritten note or letter is a must.

Since it doesn't happen often, 

I decided to make a ritual of the process.

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This is my letter box. 

I re-purposed a black simulation snake skin DVD box. 

The butterfly is a shiny neon purple/pink. 

The colors fluctuate depending on the light.

The insert is a deep red satin. 

The square depression holds folded note cards, 

my diamond and silver Disney pen 

(I collect pens. This was from my daughter.)

and the pink and rhinestone Martha Stewart folding bone. 

(Don't tell anyone I own something from Martha Stewart, especially my mother.)

The box is lined with black and white flocked paper. 

The insert lifts out with the baby pink ribbons

for space to hold stationary and stamps.

My note cards are plain, cream, textured and heavy. 

I punch a little butterfly in the bottom right corner

and I have personalized stationary.