Happy new year!

Just in time for the holidays we got sick at home, so I wasn’t able to write any of the ink reviews I had planned. So we’ll have to accept the fact, that I can only write reviews about inks from time to time when my evenings aren’t used for relaxation.

But nevertheless, I’m still around and I’m still doing ink reviews.

Here’s a short overview about my collection: I’m meanwhile at around 100 inks and all of them are swatched on little swatch cards. Almost everyone of them was inked up in one of my approx. 15 fountain pens (I’m afraid to count the exakt number haha) and I wrote a lot of tests in my Tomoe River notebook. Some of them need to be tested in my Leuchtturm Journal, so there’s a lot of fun time waiting for me.

So there’s a huge backlog that I have to work on! And I hope you’re curious with me too about all the inks I’m testing and the thought that come to my mind when I’m using them!

For the new year I changed my journal set up once more – for all of those who a re interested in my journal history. Again I won’t be using a bullet journal like I did in 2022 (except for january trying to keep a journal with black pages…), to be honest I even didn’t set up a collections journal or anything else for the new year. I’m down to a smaller number of journals now:

• Midori Hibino as daily diary (A6 Tomoe River, 2 pages per day, grid, pale blue cover on the picture)
• Hobonichi weeks as daily planner (TN size Tomoe River, 2 pages per week, grid)
• Hobonichi Techo as creative journal (A6 Tomoe River, 1 page per day, grid, sunrise/-set cover on the picture)
• Sterling Ink Common Planner as work planner (B6 Tomoe River, Monthly&weekly pages, 370 notes pages, grid)
• Hobonichi A6 notebook for ink swatches (Tomoe River paper, grid)
• Leuchtturm A5 notebook for ink swatches (80 gsm, dotted)

I already started in all of these journals in the last few days or continue using them from last year. So far it works well and I am really happy about it. My system though is still based on the Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. It works fine for me and helps me to stay organized. If you haven’t yet, I’d suggest to watch some of his videos, read his book or get to know to the system in any other way. I made some older blog posts too, maybe they’re helpful!

By the way, I downsized my decorations too. It’s just too time consuming, now that I work full time in an amazing job! But there so many other great creators who can give you inspiration. Nevertheless I will be going on with inks – all those amazing colors are waiting to be tried out.

I still love to take a fountain pen in my hand and write down my notes, thoughts, shopping lists or whatsoever in amazing journals.

Wishing all of my readers and soon-to-be-readers a wonderful start in the new year and all the best!