Hi guys. Welcome to the third meeting of SAA. If you're are not familiar with this by now, please take a look at the minutes of the previous meetings: one / / two / / three.
This week, we meet Kate. Say hi to Kate :) We will now hear her story.
-----
Hi, I'm Kate and I'm a stationery addict!!
I can't remember when I first got into stationery, but at school I always had a few favourite pens, which were like my comfort blanket. I remember during a fire drill I dropped one under a table and I had to go and get it, even though the rules were to leave all our belongings in the classroom! My mum used to buy me pretty stationery, e.g. notebooks, pencils and erasers from museum gift shops etc, but I could never use them because I thought "Once they're used up, they're gone!"
When I was about 11 or 12 I got about £5 pocket money per week, and we moved to a town with a W H Smith, so every weekend I used to buy a new pencil case and folder- I had quite a collection! Ever since, I have loved stationery so much. When I lived in France during my teens, I couldn't buy much because I didn't visit shops very often, but the stationery I did have (like a folder with a picture of an x-ray of a hair dryer with little gremlins hidden inside) were my pride and joy!
When I was preparing to move to university, one of the things I was most excited about was stocking up on stationery! I decided that it was best to buy great quality stationery less often, rather than cheaper quality items very often because they were rubbish!
Since then I have discovered the world of Filofaxes, and all the cool stationery things that go with it! In the past year and a half I have discovered and bought some amazing stationery, and I love them so much! Here are 2 of my favourites (unfortunately, I couldn't choose a third that stands out about the rest of my rather large stationery and craft stash!!)
Lamy Fountain Pens
I love these pens! I have 6 Lamy FPs in total, but I could buy a lot more! I have 2 types, the Safari (plastic) range and the Al-Star (metal) range, but I guess the Vista (transparent) counts as a separate type, and I also have a red Safari mechanical pencil!
I love these pens because they are lightweight, perfect for my little hands, and are so cheap! I'm not scared about damaging them like I would be if it was a £100 pen! But they are so cheap that I can buy lots in different colours!
My pens have different thicknesses of nibs, because I selected which nibs I wanted when I bought them- from Extra Fine, to the standard Medium- I think this is ones of the beauties of the Lamy range, where the nibs are so cheap and easy to replace!
I use bottled inks in them, except for the Apple Green pen, in which I'm using the standard blue cartridge you get when you buy a Lamy FP. I love playing with fountain pen inks in proper bottles, which you put into a converter into the barrel of the fountain pen! Many a messy finger!!
These are the Lamy FPs I have:
• Aqua Safari, my first one!! I think it is 2011's limited edition special one! This currently has an EF nib, which is actually quite scratchy- I need to use it some more so it softens up! It has my beloved Diamine Registrar's ink in its coverter, but I find that the colour of the ink comes out a bit lighter than I would like!
• Pink Safari- I just love the colour of this one! It has a Fine nib, which I think is actually very similar to the Medium nib. I have a Diamine Cerise ink in here, but I don't really like the colour of this ink.
• Apple Green Safari- this year's limited edition colour! I love this colour- I was so annoyed that I had missed the lime green coloured pen from a few years ago, but when I bought the Apple Green I was really happy, because the colour is much nicer than the lime green Lamy, which is actually quite a yellow colour in comparison!
• Lamy Vista- this Lamy range originally served as a demonstrater pen, so that people could see how the pens worked- but they were so popular, they made them into a real range of pens! I mixed the ink myself, from the Diamine Cerise mixed with some Waterman purple, which has produced a nice dark pink colour. This has a Medium nib, which makes the ink come out a bit too thick for my liking!
• Black-Purple Al-Star- This is a lovely pen! I use it in my purple A5 Malden Filofax, with Waterman purple ink- I have had a real purple thing going on for a couple of years! It currently has a Medium nib, which makes the ink colour come out less deep than with a F or EF nib, so I might change it!
• Raspberry Al-Star- This is my main pen, with my favourite Diamine Registrar's ink in it, and an EF nib. I use this for my normal writing (unless I am using a cheaper pen).
It is my dream to eventually use up my cheaper pens, so that I only have my fountain pens left to use as my every day pens!
Sticky page tabs
I love these things- they are so useful! I use them in my Filofaxes, notebooks and uni books to mark sections, show where I finished my work, or as a 'Today' marker. I like using them on dividers instead of proper tabs because they are so flexible.
The beauty of these things is that they are completely movable. They aren't permanent, they are easy to remove or add as necessary, easy to carry so you can use them on the go, or you can build up quite a collection at your desk!
I use ones mainly from Avery, including the pink and blue medium sized ones, and the Martha Stewart for Avery tabs, which are a lovely range of pastel colours. They come in a range of sizes, from tiny to large. I also use some from 3M Post-It notes.
Here is a photo of my collection!
-----
Thank you, Kate, for being brave enough to talk about your addiction this week :) Aren't you just jealous of her Lamy Collection? And also those sticky tabs! A girl can never have too many ;)
Together, we can fight this addiction (or enable it hehe). If you don't already know, Kate blogs over at The Life of The Perpetual Student and also tweets as KateB_TPS, and she is lovely (trust me on this!) :)
No comments
Post a Comment