Planner Madness: The Sequel

Wow, it's been more than a year since I posted anything here at SC-Chron. Sorry about that, folks. I've been concentrating on my book blog this year, and while I was doing that, somehow 2014 has buzzed right by, no matter how hard I tried to slow things down. And now 2015 is right around the corner. And we all know what that means, right?....

NEW PLANNERS!!!

But before talking about what I'm thinking of for next year, I thought I'd say something about my adventures in planning during the year that's about to pass on. So to start with, here's a shot of all the planners/diaries/journals/notebooks I've used in 2014 (well, most of them, anyway). I'll save most of the details for the next post, so check back in a day or two. Or three or four (things are crazy around here right now.) OK?

OK.

Click on photo to enlarge

1. Filofax A5 Finsbury in black.
2. Filofax Personal Finsbury in black.
3. Erin Condren Life Planner
4. Lett's Pocket Week-on-two-pages Diary
5. DIY Full-size Discbound Planner
6. DIY Household planner in Staples 3-ring binder
7. The Basic Scheduler from MochiThings.com
8. DIY Half-size planner in a Staples Arc Notebook
9. Paperblanks Day Planner in the Maxi size with the Grolier cover

I want to talk a little bit about each one of these -- why they did or didn't work out for me. But I'll do that in my next post -- the sequel to the sequel.

Ya'll come back now. Hear?

Enough With the Diaries Already!

Following up on my last post, about my search for diaries for next year and the last two months of this year....

(Yes, I know you've all been on the edge of your seats out there, just waiting breathlessly for the next installment. The excitement in the air is positively tangible!)

Seriously folks, I have devoted an annoyingly huge amount of my time to this problem these last few weeks.  Finally found the elusive daily diary for 2013 (see the post about it here), but that still left me with two months of 2012 to cover (my current diary only made it to the end of October).  So I was in something of a quandary.  (Which is right next to a kankedort, and a painful position in which to find oneself, believe me.)

But (drum roll, please) after much searching and comparing and hemming and hawing -- I think I've found my book. When I was surfing Amazon, I discovered ECOeverywhere, a line of journals, sketchbooks, and photo albums created by Sun Graphix.  All recycled material (which is good), and made in the USA (which is even better).  Dozens of gorgeous cover designs available, and the journals were the perfect size (about 7.5 by 8.5 inches).  And they were really inexpensive, too!  Couldn't resist that, so I ordered a few just to test.

That one on top is adorable, isn't it?  Haven't decided on a use for it yet.  And the one pictured below, I bought just because I collect Alice in Wonderland books and ephemera, so I had to have this one:

And here's the one I'll be using as my diary for November and December (called "Autumn Leaves"):

The back cover is just as cute as the front (the back says 2011, Helen Dardik, so I'm assuming that's the designer's name):

They have a Smyth sewn binding so they lay pretty flat for writing, and the spine is a nice coordinating color:

Here's a shot of the inside pages:

Each page has the little green leaf graphic down in the corner at the bottom -- cute, but I think I'd rather have that space for writing.  Also, the paper seems OK -- not quite as smooth as I'd like, but the Quo Vadis diary I've been using has probably made me over-finicky about paper quality.  This should be fine.  The specs on Amazon say it's acid free, but I can't find anything in the actual product that makes that claim -- just that it's 100% recycled.  Each one has 80 sheets, making them 160 pages, front and back.  And the lines are made of light green dots -- not sure how I'm going to like that.  I think I'm OK with the green -- the dots...maybe not so much.

Anyway, at $4 apiece, I thought they were a great buy.  I checked Amazon just now and found that they've gone up to more than double that price, which is way more than I'd pay for one.  So I guess I just got lucky with these.  Now I just need to do something interesting enough to write about!

Blog Fail?

Can't believe how I've neglected this blog. Haven't posted anything for six months! Just got it started and then abandoned the poor thing. And it's not that I've conquered my addiction to office supplies, diaries, planners, etc. -- far from it. No, it's just that the last few months have been really hectic around here, and I've had all I can handle just keeping up with my book blog.

But I didn't want the new year to get too far along without posting something here -- nothing earth-shaking, just a post to get me re-started. Maybe that will be the nudge I need.

So here's my latest haul from JetPens (it's becoming my favorite place to hang out):


Starting over on the far right, we have:

• 1 Uni-ball Jetstream Color Ink Series Ballpoint, 0.5mm, Blue Black Ink
• 1 Uni-ball Jetstream Ballpoint--Basic Series, 0.5mm, Blue Ink
• 1 Zebra Techno Line Limited Edition Ballpoint, Light Green Body, 0.4mm, Black Ink
  and:
  
• 3 Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pens, all 0.4mm: Viridian Green; Cobalt Blue; and Blue Black
• 3 Uni Signo 207 Retractable Gel Ink Pens, all 0.38mm: Blue Body/Blue Ink; Light Blue Body/Light Blue Ink; and Black Body/Black Ink
  and finally:
  
• 1 Rotring Tikky Graphic Drawing Pen, 0.3mm, Black Pigment Ink

And here's a little writing sample/test (click on photo to get a little better view). Sorry the photo isn't as clear as it might be -- it was hard to get a good shot today because of the weather. Also sorry about that dotted "e" in Jetstream!


I went a little overboard on the ballpoints, I'm afraid. I don't really use ballpoints that much, but once in a while they do come in handy; and these looked so tempting. I ordered the Limited Edition Zebra Techno pen because it's tiny and I was looking for something small to carry in my handbag. It's not terribly easy to handle, but it writes an extra-fine line that I like a lot; and since I won't be doing a great deal of writing with it, I think it'll work. Of the three, I believe the Basic Series Jetstream is my favorite -- writes really smoothly, even on cheap paper, and seems not to blot or smear as much as the other two.

I've only recently discovered the Zebra Sarasa Push Clips. So far, I do like the feel of the pens and the variety of colors. Not sure they're going to replace my favorite Signo RT's, though. Lately, I've been using one of the 207s with light blue ink for just about all my everyday writing. I love that the pen is slightly chunky (good for arthritic fingers) and yet very lightweight (ditto), and the ink color is almost a turquoise (which is, of course, the loveliest shade of ink).

Not sure exactly why I thought I had to have the Tikky Graphic Drawing Pen. I'm not an artist and don't do a lot of drawing, so I'll probably end up using it as a marker pen more than an artist's tool. But it's definitely a great little drawing pen -- feels very solid and lays down a nice smooth, even, very black line. Doesn't seem to have that "sticky" feeling on the page that a lot of drawing pens have. Not much feathering that I can see, and only a slight amount of bleed-through on the back of the page; but I used a Levenger's Circa notebook for the test, and the paper is pretty thick. I was expecting the 0.3mm pen to provide a slightly finer line, but that's the only quibble I have with it. Maybe I need to order another one in a different size, hmmmm?

Feeding the Addiction: Recent Sightings

Well, it's been a little over a month since I started this blog, and I'm still under construction here. I really need to get myself in gear.

And speaking of gear....

I'm always on the look-out for interesting examples of notebooks, fountain pens, organizers, etc - especially in movies and TV shows. And lately, I've had a lot of sightings. Probably helps that I watch a lot of older movies and "classic" TV shows - those made back before Blackberries and other electronic gadgets became so popular. Last night the hubby and I watched one of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries on DVD - A Man Lay Dead from 1993 - and there were several very enjoyable (dare I say exciting?) "supply cabinet" moments:

• Inspector Alleyn's fountain pen. He's signing off on police files with it, in his first scene. Couldn't tell exactly what model or make it was, but it was hefty and black. Most likely a Parker pen. The series is set just after World War Two, so it would have been pre-1950s vintage. The Brits are, after all, pretty fastidious about prop details in their shows.
  
  
• Troy's sketchbook. A gift from Alleyn to his lady friend, the artist Agatha Troy. It's a lovely one, with a marbleized cover in pink and gold tones, with what appeared to be a leather-wrapped spine and corners. And, of course, her sketches in said book helped solve the case.
  
  
• The two mysterious Germans and their notebooks. They're observed comparing notes while sitting at an outdoor cafe (or pub, I suppose). One had a small soft-covered book that was almost certainly a pocket-size Alwych notebook. The other had a larger, thinner black-covered book, approximately A5 size. Looked a little like a Moleskine, but without the rounded corners. Have there been Moleskines with square edges? And were Moleskines the notebook of choice for the Cold War era espionage community, too?
  
  
• Inspector Alleyn's leather notebook. Most noticeable during the questioning of the guests at the country house where the murders were taking place. Tan leather, again looked to be approximately A5 size. No clasp. Couldn't tell about ring size or placement. Possibly an early Filofax?
  
  
• Leather address book. Sighted briefly in a couple of scenes when Troy was searching the apartment of one of the suspects. Flat, square or rectangular, black covered, white interior pages. Couldn't tell much more about it, but I like to think it was a Letts.

Other recent sightings:

The Vicar of Dibley. Not sure which episode this was. At a meeting of the Parish Council, Geraldine has to consult her Filofax at length. Looks to be a personal size Filo, black, mid-1990s vintage.

Seinfeld. "The Pilot" (2), Season 4, Episode 24. Studio exec Russell Dalrymple (played by Bob Balaban), at the taping of Jerry's TV show, is seen toting what appears to be an A5-size Filofax. Beautifully overstuffed.

The Ninth Gate. In his attractively weather-beaten book bag (which I'm told is a reproduction of a 1930s-vintage French ammo bag), Johnny Depp carries around a very nice leather organizer (below). This one also looks to be approximately A5 size. Tan or brown leather, and no clasp that I could see. Wonderful movie, and not just because of the book bag and the notebook.