I'm A Sad, Pathetic Stationery Junkie.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Having a hard time finding A5 notebooks in the exact configuration I like (soft,cover, fountain pennable paper, pale lines).

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

A5 notebooks in the exact configuration I like (soft,cover, fountain pennable paper, pale lines).

 

In what way is that rare or difficult to find?

 

[A Smug Dill]

On 12/24/2024 at 3:23 PM, A Smug Dill said:

Wow, notwithstanding this is Christmas Eve, the order I placed with Soe & Soe this morning has already been lodged with the post office!

 

And here it is, delivered this morning which is only the next business day following two days of gazetted public holidays:

 

Colour me impressed and grateful. I was never one to decidedly prefer to buy from local retailers instead of the likes of Amazon Australia and AliExpress, but Soe & Soe outperformed Amazon in every way for this order. 👍 The song Who Could Ask For Anything More? keeps playing in my head.

[inkypete]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

And here it is, delivered this morning which is only the next business day following two days of gazetted public holidays:

 

Colour me impressed and grateful. I was never one to decidedly prefer to buy from local retailers instead of the likes of Amazon Australia and AliExpress, but Soe & Soe outperformed Amazon in every way for this order. 👍 The song Who Could Ask For Anything More? keeps playing in my head.

Impressive service. I will have a closer look at their range.

[USG]

On 12/26/2024 at 3:53 PM, Sailor Kenshin said:

Having a hard time finding A5 notebooks in the exact configuration I like (soft,cover, fountain pennable paper, pale lines).

 

I had a similar problem, especially finding ring bound notebooks with my paper of choice.  My solution was to buy a binding machine and make my own notebooks.  The style I was looking for was thin, A5, ring bound and predominately Cosmo Snow, Iroful and Tomoe River-s paper.  I just made my 5th Cosmo Snow notebook.  Easy Peasy.

 

 

 

[Doug C]

Just an FYI: postalco snap pads are available in the US for $5 shipping from Baum Kuchen.

[A Smug Dill]

I made a bunch of purchases (or, more accurate, placed a bunch of items on order that ended up unilaterally broken down into many different orders by AliExpress, as the marketplace platform does) this morning — and, by that, I mean between midnight and when I went to sleep some time after 5:30AM.

 

I woke up to an “endless scroll” of automatic notifications from Cashrewards with the framing of, “Your cashback order has been tracked…” completely pushing everything else off Outlook's widget on my phone to tell me about new mail. More precisely, 34 of them, plus another one from a local store. Not a single order was for a fountain pen, or ink to be used in a fountain pen, or paper (although many of the items have something “remotely” to do with that).

 

Among the items I ordered are these rubber/silicone stamps:

 

and my wife likes (among other things) macabre stuff, and she's a published writer of (adult) horror/macabre fiction (with witches, mummies, etc.) as well as of children's books set in space, under the sea, etc. so I got her these:

 

 

 

 

I think some of these could look cool, either in ink resist (thus appear white when swatched over) or in black, on swatch cards.

 

 

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

(continued)

and then these for me, to experiment with the aforemention swatch cards/pages idea, partly inspired by the multicolour “renditions” of what the seller/marketer has suggested can be done with the stamped images, and now that I have so soooo many chromatographic multi-shading inks from China/Taobao:

 

 

and then more stuff for her:

(I had a bunch of US$1 ‘coupons’ from AliExpress that were/are due to expire, so I'm looking for cheap stuff to order as long as it triggers the discounts but also include free shipping)

 

 

 

 

[lamarax]

11 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

 

😮 I love these Tarot stamps. What's the name of the store on AE please?

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, lamarax said:

What's the name of the store on AE please?

 

I ordered that set of stamps from Arricraft Real Gold Trendy Jewelry DIY Craft Store; but there are at least two sellers or storefronts selling those on AliExpress.

[mke]

On 12/27/2024 at 1:05 PM, A Smug Dill said:

but Soe & Soe outperformed Amazon in every way for this order

 

In Japan, the same happens sometimes/often with Yodobashi vs Amazon - it depends, of course, on what you order.

[Penguincollector]

On 12/26/2024 at 12:53 PM, Sailor Kenshin said:

Having a hard time finding A5 notebooks in the exact configuration I like (soft,cover, fountain pennable paper, pale lines).

  Have you looked at MUJI notebooks? The lines and dots are rather pale. I don’t know if covers are soft enough, though. What material do you want the covers to be? That can help narrow down the search. The Clairefontaine 1951 notebooks have a nice soft cover.

[USG]

5 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

The Clairefontaine 1951 notebooks have a nice soft cover.

‘Nice choice… always ahead of the curve. 😀👍

[Sailor Kenshin]

6 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  Have you looked at MUJI notebooks? The lines and dots are rather pale. I don’t know if covers are soft enough, though. What material do you want the covers to be? That can help narrow down the search. The Clairefontaine 1951 notebooks have a nice soft cover.

Covers are less important.  Can even be paper/cardboard.  Right now I got two Kokuyo Campus A5 books and crossing my fingers about inkability!

[A Smug Dill]

OK, these aren't exactly stationery, but I was there because I was stationery hunting.

 

 

Although they're quite suitable for DIY ‘inkvent’ calendars, having now removed all the stickers and cleaned up the glue residue as best I could (without damaging the paper exterior), we'll probably offer these to two sets of parents of young children that we're having lunch with today, and only keep what they don't want.

 

 

[Penguincollector]

4 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Covers are less important.  Can even be paper/cardboard.  Right now I got two Kokuyo Campus A5 books and crossing my fingers about inkability!

  I’ll take a look at what I have that has light lines and report back. 
 

5 hours ago, USG said:

‘Nice choice… always ahead of the curve. 😀👍

  Thanks! I’m just trying not to get caught up in traffic 😊 

[Penguincollector]

  @Sailor Kenshin, I looked through my notebooks, and I found that besides the Clairefontaine 1951 and the MUJI, M by Miquelrius and  Pluma Paper Company (TR68). The Pluma notebooks are super nice, but the price went up significantly. Oh- Paper Penguin makes beautiful thin covered notebooks and the dot grid is really faint, so I think the lines would be. You can buy samples before buying a notebook as well. They use a ton of different kinds of papers.

[Sailor Kenshin]

9 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  @Sailor Kenshin, I looked through my notebooks, and I found that besides the Clairefontaine 1951 and the MUJI, M by Miquelrius and  Pluma Paper Company (TR68). The Pluma notebooks are super nice, but the price went up significantly. Oh- Paper Penguin makes beautiful thin covered notebooks and the dot grid is really faint, so I think the lines would be. You can buy samples before buying a notebook as well. They use a ton of different kinds of papers.

Thanks!

[Penguincollector]

  You’re so welcome, @Sailor Kenshin.  Meanwhile, I managed to pick up a pack of Yu-Sari paper and a beautiful vintage Japanese Airmail tablet- here’s a screenshot of the cover:

 

 

  There’s little drawings on each page as well. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

4 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  You’re so welcome, @Sailor Kenshin.  Meanwhile, I managed to pick up a pack of Yu-Sari paper and a beautiful vintage Japanese Airmail tablet- here’s a screenshot of the cover:

 

 

  There’s little drawings on each page as well. 

 

That's beautiful, @Penguincollector