Diamine Inkvent - Advent Calendar madness!

[LizEF]

36 minutes ago, Ashenden said:

I love greens that are a bit on the yellow side vs. the blue side

I'm right there with you!  Plant-y instead of mineral-y.   (Though the brown, murky side is the best!)

 

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours, and your guests!

[Misfit]

@Ashenden this thread has been very fun. I’ll miss it too. My advent calendar also stops at 24. Should be the other Lindt bear chocolate.  Thank you co very much for sharing this. I hope you find more cool advent calendars in 2025, and share them here again. 

[AmandaW]

Thankyou. This thread has been a highlight of the season. I didn't have an advent calendar this year, but didn't miss out because i so enjoyed watching yours! 🎄

 

Merry Christmas from Western Australia

[inkstainedruth]

@Ashenden -- Ooooh!  "Pine" looks like just the sort of green I like -- just slightly yellow leaning (without being bilious).   My wallet!  My poor poor wallet!
This is such a DANGEROUS thread....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ashenden]

Inkvent Calendar Madness, Day 24

 

Christmas Eve! This is our main day to celebrate. We had our kids and grandkids over for the festivities, and like always, it was like a tornado blew through and left complete destruction in its wake. They are excellent grandkids—awesome grandkids, and their parents are raising them right—but imagine how hyperactive four kids under seven can be, after eating way too much candy and with a pile of presents under the tree there just to tempt them. It was a madhouse—but a good madhouse—and I wouldn't have it any other way. We had a soup party (who doesn't love hot savory soup on a cold winter evening?), several salads, cheese sticks that are a family tradition, a couple of pies, and all the chocolate and sweets and wine and cocktails you could manage. The kids ran around and chased each other while the adults got caught up on the latest family news. After we had dinner, we snapped open English crackers with kazoos inside (their parents may never forgive me) and then it was 20 minutes of ripping paper and tossing bows as the kids dug into their new toys. It was loud and raucous and so much fun!

 

I got some nice prezzies... my daughter brought me a wonderful ink sample that I can't wait to try, a penpal sent two bottles of space-themed ink, and from my spouse an entire new set of Calphalon cookware (I needed it, and asked for it). I also got a "What We Do In The Shadows" game (I love this show, it's hilarious if you haven't seen it), puzzles, perfume, a nice wallet in my favorite color, a throw, charcuterie board, and a smattering of other lovely gifts. All wonderful and given by very thoughtful and generous friends and family, and the neighbors even brought treats over to share. But the best present of all was having my whole family at home for the day, including a daughter who drove several hours to be with us. I love them all.

 

Now on to Day 24, including our last day of candles, wine, and chocolates:

 

Spoiler

Doesn't that look just like the color of Salted Caramel????  This one is right up there for me along with Nutmeg, although this is a much warmer, more yellowy-orange brown. It has some very good shading, and again, some shimmer—a gold colored glitter that enhances the warm tone of the ink. There have been some super nice inks near the end of the calendar, am I right? I really like this one. Nutmeg is my favorite of the two, but I wouldn't turn down a bottle of this one, either.

 

Our last day of wine, chocolate, and candles! It's kind of funny, because that chocolate down there on the left side was—you guessed it—Salted Caramel! It was super good. Caramel is one of my favorite candies and I was happy to have it be in this year's calendar (in more ways than one). And look at the pretty snowflake edible decoration on the other one—it looks as good as it tasted

 

 

 

[Misfit]

Merry Christmas @Ashenden thank you again for sharing the Inkvent, and other advent calendars. Where did you get the Chocolate one? If it was a grocery store, which one?  Thank you. 

[Ashenden]

Inkvent Calendar Madness, Day 25!

 

And here we are folks—Christmas Day. Our last day of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2024 Black edition. I want to thank everyone who followed and made such nice comments on this thread. It really makes it worth the work and time spent to know that people enjoyed the calendar. It has been fun to get to know some of you through your comments and common shared love of all things pen and ink. 

 

I will be doing this again next year, I hope, and may have a couple of ink calendars going since Colorverse also came out with one this year and perhaps will do so again next year as well. I've also thought about doing a weekly "advent" post throughout the rest of the year. As I have over 300 inks in my collection, there's plenty of material to share with you all in case you are interested in seeing the colors especially if you're considering a purchase. 

 

Oh the other thing???? IT SNOWED TODAY!!! I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, and I got one! Yippee!!!

 

23 hours ago, AmandaW said:

Thankyou. This thread has been a highlight of the season. I didn't have an advent calendar this year, but didn't miss out because i so enjoyed watching yours! 🎄

 

Merry Christmas from Western Australia

 

Merry Christmas to you, too, from Western USA! On a side note, the spouse and I will be visiting Australia for the first time ever next April! I am so excited, although I'm not looking forward to the plane ride! 

 

To the rest of you, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, or best wishes for whatever wonderful thing you celebrate this time of year. These festivities bring much needed light, kindness, and joy into our dark winter season. I hope all of you found good friends or family to celebrate with, and if you are alone, know that you are valued and important nevertheless. Lots of joy to all of you!

 

And now for our last ink:

Spoiler

Good Tidings...

 

Good tidings of great joy, because we have another super sheener here! It's a deep black ink, but over the top there is a brilliant green sheen, a tiny bit of which you can see in the photo near the T and D of "tidings". This one didn't seem to leave the piles of dry ink bits like some of the other extreme sheeners have. I quite liked the coverage and will use this bottle to create my calligraphy templates in the future. The bottle is a bigger one than the rest of the calendar. The days 1-24 are 12ml I believe while the big one is 30ml, the normal size plastic bottle that Diamine makes. So there's a good amount of this one and it will last quite a while. No need to purchase a full bottle. 

 

Thank you all for following, and have a wonderful day today and a new year full of all the best things. Over and out!

 

 

 

 

[Ashenden]

8 minutes ago, Misfit said:

Merry Christmas @Ashenden thank you again for sharing the Inkvent, and other advent calendars. Where did you get the Chocolate one? If it was a grocery store, which one?  Thank you. 

 

I bought it at our local Christmas market. It's a local chocolate vendor called Condie's Candies (condiescandies.com). They've had a booth there at the market the last couple years. We bought one last year and it was delicious, so I made sure to look them up again this year. I don't know if they do mail order, but you could certainly email and ask them.

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, Ashenden said:

kids and grandkids ...—but imagine how hyperactive four kids under seven can be

Congratulations!  And thank you!  Being a parent is an underappreciated profession, and being a good one is a service to society.  I, at least, am grateful to you and your kids for doing your best.

 

2 hours ago, Ashenden said:

perhaps will do so again next year as well. I've also thought about doing a weekly "advent" post throughout the rest of the year. As I have over 300 inks in my collection, there's plenty of material to share with you all in case you are interested in seeing the colors especially if you're considering a purchase. 

I would love this!  Regardless of whether I might purchase the ink, your calligraphy and surrounding decorations are a treat for the eyes.

 

2 hours ago, Ashenden said:

To the rest of you, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, or best wishes for whatever wonderful thing you celebrate this time of year. These festivities bring much needed light, kindness, and joy into our dark winter season. I hope all of you found good friends or family to celebrate with, and if you are alone, know that you are valued and important nevertheless. Lots of joy to all of you!

  Speedy recovery from your "tornado"!  You have made my Christmas more merry with your beautiful posts.

 

Whoa!  So black, and yet that sheen - that's cool.  I'm not sure, but that might be enough to make me interested in a black ink - in a wet stub, anyway...

 

Thank you for this thread and for sharing your skills.  Wishing you a very happy New Year!

[yazeh]

Thanks @Ashenden for your marathon multi X-vent calendar extravaganza. Glad that the family tornado was fun and enjoyable. It was gracious of you sharing the joy of connection with us. Looking forward to next year in cursive  🙏

[inkstainedruth]

@Ashenden -- Thanks for doing this.  The Salted Caramel looks interesting, so I may see if they release it as a larger size bottle in the future, but I may also have to see how it compares to other brown inks I have.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[knarflj]

@Ashenden, thank you so much for sharing your inks with us!  I have been too busy this year to be on FPN every day, or to comment very often anywhere, but I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your beautiful reviews and look forward to more.  I'm glad you had a merry Christmas celebration, and wish you the best for the new year.

[Sailor Kenshin]

@Ashenden, thanks!  It was like opening the InkVent bottles myself, only prettier.

[PithyProlix]

@Ashenden I am truly very grateful that you gave me the opportunity to experience this Inkvent vicariously and in such a beautiful and personal way! Thank you!

 

For me, this was the best Inkvent by far. For my tastes, there were 12 great colors and probably 10 of those I would like to buy full bottles of. (Team Wishy-Washy here ...) Last year there were only 5 I'd seriously consider buying in full bottles and the year before that 4, for instance.

[Carrau]

Thank you for the beautiful and substantial creative effort you put into this project, not only the artful writing and photography, but the discussions as well.  Quite the gift to the FPN community.  (Maybe the wine and chocolate gave you the fortitude to stick with it all the way).

[Anne-Sophie]

Thank you so very much for doing & sharing those advent calendars!

 

I am grateful that you took  the time to share all of them, in the middle of a really busy time of preparation for a big family gathering.

 

Your crochet pieces are gorgeous!

 

Your calligraphy is more like enluminure, true masterpieces.

 

 

When you have the time, please consider making and sharing your other inks in a sample masterpiece.

 

 

[InesF]

On 12/24/2024 at 9:01 PM, Ashenden said:

Inkvent Calendar Madness, Day 23

 

I don't suppose there will be many folks online today, [...]

You are right, @Ashenden, but we come online later, curious about how you put all these inks in scene!  👍  

Thank you for making 2025 advent so special! I enjoyed all your ink interpretations and the still life scenes you arranged for the photos! 

All the best for 2025! 🎉