When I give a gift, I want to see wide, happy eyes. I want to see my loved one dive into the gift and find joy in it. However, my stationery joy lays in picking my stationery apart, separating out what works from what works less-than-well for me — in addition to digging writing itself. My picky, choosy, sticklerish obsession makes me a bad stationery gift-receiver. Oof.

I like to take an inventory of my pen collection now and again. A check-in with myself as to which pens are working for me and which would be better housed with more eager owners.

No plan survives a week entirely intact. The first two weeks of summer break strayed widely from my original plan of reading and commonplacing. Yet, there’s a strong silver lining. Summer months offer me the time and freedom to follow projects as they capture my attention.

And put them into new journals.

Some of my favorite and most useful stationery tools are unexpected discoveries. Lovely little surprises I stumbled into. New tools that were thrust upon me by loved ones and the universe: a sample vial stand and a wood pen tray.