‘Tis the season when unsharpened pencils and crisp notebooks make me a little giddy. I don’t buy packs of crayons any more but I like those, too. And each year, the school supply or office supply shopping includes more random weirdness, so we’re including some of that, too! I mean, we have to decorate our desks, right?
We’ve talked about Home Office and Vitual School Recs in prior Stuff We Like posts, too!
First: have you seen XOXO Sierra?!
I feel like I need to issue a very mild content warning before linking to any of the planners, notebooks, or stickers. And the custom book boxes, too.
(FULL BODY SHIVERS AHOY). (Seriously. Paper supply shopping gives me all the giddiness!)
Amanda: Speaking of xoxo sierra, I just bought this from them.
Book Daddy hat, $26AJ: Oh good, I’ve been wondering what my gender is!
Amanda: I also subscribe to a vinyl toy newsletter and I love looking at things even if I don’t buy them. Here is one thing that I coveted but didn’t end up getting:
Dr. Pain Half Pink by Snake Wong, $230
And something I treated myself to:
“This is Fine” Dumpster Fire by KC Green X, $30
Sarah: I don’t know where I got it, but I have a cobalt blue crystal ball on a stand on my desk. It’s similar to this one:
Crystal Ball with stand, $34I also love the notebooks from Yellow Paper House. I prefer dot grid notebooks for my traveler’s notebook (which I bought years ago from B’Nottee) and have tried so many different color combinations. I get a different color set each time. Sea Glass has been my favorite so far:
Sea Glass notebook insert, Yellow Paper House, $6
Carrie: I feel so seen.
SMOL BUT SCARY, $24Sarah: And then there’s this:
what I say: “I’m fine”
what I mean: “I’m thinking about the simone crestani bird decanter with the matching chicken foot chalices” pic.twitter.com/gzOO3oEJu0
— rae (@PAYOLETTER) August 9, 2021
Carrie: When you are sick you could fill it with chicken broth for a truly macabre healing beverage.
Catherine: The decanter, no, but Baba Yaga’s wine glasses work for me.
Sarah: The chicken set and similar are way out of my price range, but if you’re trying to drink more water while you’re working, and possibly alarm people in the vicinity, perhaps a Skull and Claw Goblet will help you hydrate fearsomely?
Skull and Claw Goblet, $20And while not as expensive as the chicken decanter (the more often I type that, the funnier it is) I am hopelessly intrigued by the newest Rothy’s: LOAFERS.
I love loafers. LOVE.
And they have them in PINK.
Rothy’s Driving Loafer in lavender, $185
If you’ve tried the new style, please let me know what you think?
And finally! A pen recommendation. This is the Preferred and Most Stolen Pen in my household, especially with Adam, who is a lefty. The ink dries very quickly and doesn’t smear, and he loves them – and so does everyone else in the house, so they tend to disappear and reappear in different locations.
Uniball JetStream pen assortment, $8
What about you? I know people have strong opinions about pens, and I’d love to hear about your favorite! What pens or paper goods or office/school essentials are you loving right now?
My newest Archer & Olive journal for next year just arrived (dot grid edition) and I am once again a huge fan – beautiful paper that works for paints/markers etc. Also they are just really pretty in and of themselves. At the moment I’m also hanging on to my favourite pens because the stationary shop that made them has gone out of business agh!
I can no longer live without my Pilot Frixion pens. In so many pretty colors and they’re erasable ink! They write well, and are refillable.
Ooh, I love the Pentel EnerGel Deluxe pens and Blackwing 602 pencils. (They are rather expensive for pencils, but I love how they write.)
Going to check out all the notebook recommendations—I have a fancy Moleskin journal but the paper quality is not good. Speaking of paper quality, I got some great stationery from Papier. The paper is so thick I can write on both sides with a fountain pen without it bleeding through.
I like Pilot V5 Hi-Techpoint pens. The .05 is a fine point, they come in a range of colours & they have a little window in the barrel so you can see when the ink is running out (although they’re not refillable).
I use Bic mechanical pencils with .7mm lead in HB#2 (refillable).
These are both reliable products & very inexpensive, so I don’t mind having to replace them when they’re used up or lost/stolen.
I love Jetstreams! I just never seem to be able to find them when I need new pens and have the cash.
I’m stocking up on Bic ballpoints right now, while they’re on sale. Not the greatest pens ever, but they last for ages and are budget friendly.
Does anyone else love pencils? Not mechanical ones (at least for me) but ones with somewhat soft graphite that just flows as you write? Palaminos, Blackwing, there’s a whole world of pencil aficionados out there (try pencils.com). Also a fan of fancy notebooks…
That chicken decanter is something else!
Thanks for this list.
I love Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens.
And the Jet Pens site. You can get groups of different brands of pens by color! And every stationery thing you ever wanted. In all the colors. Kitty pens holders, all sizes of file folders, Japanese planners,
And, oh, Palomino Blackwing pencils have replaceable erasers in fun colors.
And if there was a 12 step group for Levenger Circa notebooks, I would be in it. Because Leather disc notebooks. Special refills. All kinds of planner calendars. And you can get all the colors of YellowPaperHouse refills for Circa notebooks.
I love Tul pens.
Frixion erasable pens, HIGHLIGHTERS, and markers are the best! And they are truly erasable using heat-sensitive ink. I use them a lot at work.
I also love journals from Peter Pauper Press. They have lined, dot matrix, and grid paper journals with gorgeous covers. And if you get them through Amazon, they are very affordable.
Good quality graph paper is the best thing ever. Double-sided, strong, fountain pen-able, small enough grids to make big designs. Drool.
I’m partial to the Pilot FriXion pens. And I haven’t yet met a Sharpie I didn’t like. But I founds Post-It’s iridescent foil tabs, and I’m on office supply heaven.
@Amanda – can you please post the newsletter link? Cool weird stuff!
I found and love Zebra’s Mildliners (double-sided, highlighter and pen tip). They come in 25 colors – 5 sets of 5 or larger packs. So pretty.
Never heard of Blackwing pencils before today, but now I have my eyes on their set of colored pencils.
@Elizabeth: I subscribe to the My Plastic Heart newsletter, which is mostly cool vinyl toys.
@Carol S: Yes, I love regular, not mechanical, pencils. To see a pencil grow smaller and smaller as I use it is a concrete sign that I’ve actually done something (or at least written myself a note To Do Something). Having the visual sparks joy in my OCD heart.
Jet Pens is a rabbit hole of stationery goodness! I’ve got hooked on fountain pens and ALL the colors of ink you can use. Their recommendation blogs and videos also feed my new addiction.