For the past 10 years, rather than doing new year’s resolutions I’ve been doing “fiber goals.” The idea has always been to set goals around chasing joy, directing my creativity, and making space in my life for things I want to do. But I don’t think that’s going to be as much about fiber this year! So I’m changing the name to “Creative Goals” and opening it up to other types of creativity explicitly in 2026. Continue reading
Creative goals 2026 mid-year checkin
Time for a mid-year check in on how my Creative Goals 2026 are progressing! I’m a bit later than usual because I was busy doing some other creative projects at exactly the 6 month exact-middle-of-the-year point, which honestly feels like a good sign. 1. Set up my new creative space This has been such … Continue reading
A Traveler’s Notebook for travelling? Groundbreaking.
I wanted to jot down some techo kaigi style thoughts on what worked out of the notebook setup I took on my last trip. I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to and my needs have changed a lot from when I travelled on my own to academic conferences and would sometimes have … Continue reading
Aquatic August 2026: Ink & Life
I really wanted to have a sea themed set of stickers for August but apparently I don’t really own a lot of sea creature related sticker sheets, so I made do with what I had on hand. Stickers All from stickii this month, though mostly older stuff. Kitty dreams stamps by Jazlynn.art (I think … Continue reading
Sweltering July 2026, Ink & Life
Hot and thunderstorm-y so far this July. Went downtown for Canada Day and had regrets — so hot, so loud — but the war museum was air conditioned. Kid noped out just in time for us to get on the train and back to the car before the skies opened and the thunder and lightning … Continue reading
Warming June 2026 Life & Ink
We’ve made it to June! One more month left in the school year, and everything’s all leafed out and green and glorious. I’m enjoying the instability of the weather with the wind and sun and rain alternating so you never get bored. And we’re slowly discovering our garden as new things bloom every few days. … Continue reading
Swatch Wednesday: Dominant Industry Ginger Chicken (Wonder Pens Exclusive)
As promised, here’s the second Wonder Pens exclusive ink I picked up. This ink is inspired by the other cat. It’s a nice dark orange-leaning brown, fairly dark in my dip pen but you can definitely see the shading. It was nice for painting and might get used for some tree branches in art one … Continue reading
Belated May 2026 Ink & Life
Whoops, I took pictures when I swapped my inks but then forgot to post! This month’s inks palette was put together by my kid. I told him I wanted to use Brilliant Mint and he chose some he felt went well together: Teranishi Brilliant Mint (bright blue-leaning teal) Diamine Gala (purple) Diamine Winterberry (red with … Continue reading
Swatch Wednesday: Dominant Industry Tuna and Olives (Wonder Pens)
I couldn’t resist getting this Wonder Pens exclusive ink inspired by cat eyes. Isn’t that just the cutest ink concept? And they did such a great job with the colour! I would have gotten both cat eye inks, but I thought the other one was probably too close to my recently purchased Brilliant Mint, so … Continue reading
Swatch Wednesday: Teranishi Guitar Brilliant Mint
It’s gotten warm enough that I didn’t have to worry about ink freezing in the mail! My first impression looking in the box was “oh no there’s something on the lid” because normally I put a label on top with the colour to make it easier to find the ink I want in my drawer. … Continue reading
Thawing April 2026, Ink & Life & Space Dragons
We’re in the tail end of winter according to the birds, though there’s still chunks of snow in the shade and every time we think it might be warm for good we get a little bonus freezing rain. Still, it’s nice to feel the change of the seasons even when it feels like only a … Continue reading
Swatch Wednesday: Colorverse Black Hole
This was a gift from a friend who said it was more for the fun little bottle than anything exciting about the ink. It’s a pretty cute little bottle and I didn’t have one since I think the only colorverse ink I have is a sample. Love that little picture on the front. The bottle … Continue reading
An order from Wonder Pens
I have done my first stationary order since moving back to Canada! I was looking specifically for a clip for my Kaweco Liliput, which had unfortunately been falling out of my pen case enough that I was worried about losing it, and a couple of extra traveler’s notebooks in the regular size for my commuter … Continue reading
Chilly March 2026, Life & Ink & Knitting
It’s March! Traditionally, February is the month where I used to feel the worst when I lived in Canada, likely because it’s when you’re sick of winter and the dark, but honestly it didn’t seem so bad this year, possibly because I wasn’t in winter in December so I haven’t really gotten sick of it. … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 21-25
At the time that I’m preparing this post (a week in advance), we’re still waiting on moving company nonsense, my internet keeps cutting out while I’m trying to do stuff, the furnace still doesn’t work, and the work training I took today got glitched somehow so I can’t finish it and I’m stuck re-listening to … Continue reading
Moving continues, February 2026 life and ink
As of this writing (happening on Monday), I’ve gotten the paperwork done at customs and in theory we get the rest of our stuff tomorrow. We left Oregon on December 29th and had theoretically paid for the truck to get packed and our stuff delivered ASAP, and instead this is more like the time I … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 17-20
Still settling in to the new house. We’ve prepped a couple of rooms for painting but then the furnace decided it would just sometimes not turn on in the middle of a cold snap, and cold rooms are hard to paint. New thermostat is supposedly coming today and we really hope that’s the problem. It … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 13-16
Another belated Inkvent post for swatch Wednesday! I didn’t bother doing inkvent posts in December because of the move, and in theory now that some of our stuff has arrived I could probably be unpacking instead of blogging about ink. But our stuff got separated into two shipments and a lot of the furniture is … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 9-12
Resuming the inkvent posts as swatch Wednesday posts. I took pictures of day 9-12 before I got totally swamped with moving stuff, but I’ll have to take the rest of the pictures in the new house. (I do have all my swatches, though!) Day 9: Bittersweet. Very bright green, no shimmer or sheen. I thought … Continue reading
Happy New Year! January 2026 Life and Ink
We made it! Plan “get the dog and us across the country with an RV and our friend who loves driving across the country” was a total success. Continue reading
Fiber Goals 2025 – How Did I Do?
This year’s goals were as follows: I realized that my original plan to run a stash-focused social media event wasn’t something I wanted to do any more, so I swapped that one to be the more vague but intensely more fun “write more.” Here’s the mid-year check-in: Revisit Old Goals August: Used up some leftover … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 5-8
Second set of Inkvent inks! Yes, I’m behind. It’s been an absurd month as we prepare to move, with our entire plans getting derailed repeatedly, but most of this week’s news has been good so here’s hoping! Day 5: Marie Rose. Kind of an orange-brown that shows a bit of black at the edge of … Continue reading
2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 1-4
Every week this month I’ve had to completely re-evaluate all my plans and expectations. So I got a late start with Inkvent after a sudden emergency, but I’ve been swatching inks daily since I caught up and it has been a nice ritual amidst the chaos. Turns out the chaos of a house in the … Continue reading
December 2025 Ink and life
I knew that this month was very likely to go off the rails with our upcoming move, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have hopes even as I tried to build slack into my plans. One of the things I’d hoped was that I’d be able to take a little time out of my day and do Inkvent swatches and journalling as a bit of a meditative practice in the face of chaos. Turns out chaos was stronger than that and I’ve been mostly offline for the first few days of the month, but I’m catching up and getting into it now. Continue reading
November 2025 Ink and fiber thoughts
Going with a spooky kitty theme this month, since I had a pair of good spooky kitty sticker sheets from last year’s stickii Halloween countdown. Also, some thoughts on advent-y stuff for December as I plan out the last of my year. Continue reading
October 2025 Ink Palette & Stickers
Happy Spooky Month! I’ve got a lot of Halloween-themed stickers leftover from last year’s Stickii countdown, and I’m slowly trying to make a dent in my ink samples this month. Journal Stuff My Clairefontaine Triomphe journal is a few pages from done so it’s getting retired this month. (In theory I’ll use the last pages … Continue reading
Ranking my fountain pen collection
I’ve been thinking a bunch about my fountain pen collection lately. I’m up to around 25 pens (I should probably count or something) most of which are relatively cheap ones that I got with the idea of trying a specific thing: a different nib, brand, filling mechanism, body material, size, etc. At this point I … Continue reading
Getting epubs to show emojis on kobo clara bw
For some reason, eink screens work significantly better for me when I have even the mildest of headaches, so my ereader has been an important accessibility device for me since it now means I can read something while I’m waiting for my painkillers to kick in. I currently use a Kobo Clara BW and aside … Continue reading
September 2025 Ink & Pen palette
Yup, I bought the Pelikan Pura to replace my Pelikan Twist and I have zero regrets. Continue reading
Campus vs Traveler’s blank monthly calendars (size comparison)
It’s time to bid farewell to last year’s calendar, and set up a fresh one! I’m moving from the Traveler’s Notebook free monthly calendar to the KOKUYO Campus one, mostly because the latter is a bit bigger. (Spoiler: the squares are about 18% bigger.) Continue reading
Pelikan Twist: my new favourite fountain pen for shimmer ink
I tried a Pelikan Twist for shimmer ink and it was noticeably better than any other pen I own. Continue reading