As what seems to usually be the case, I’m writing my blog with the baby-who-is-now-a-toddler snoring in his crib, and the dog snoring on the couch, and the big cheese snoring on the bed after a few glasses of wine.

How fortunate and delightful for me that I can see (and hear) all three of these handsome fellows from my seat at the kitchen table, since our apartment is one big room.

I’ve been inspired because, after a glass of vino myself and just before Jon decided to “rest his eyes” on the bed, I was fiddling around with my Pilot Custom 92.

Despite many past errors in many trials with various pen casualties, of course I couldn’t resist adjusting the tines – I mean, what could go wrong? – and I’m pleased to say that not only was no irreparable damage done, the pen is now writing a bit wetter! A miracle.

Today is officially the third year anniversary of our tiny and fledgling and unwieldy business that we semi-jokingly named Wonder Pens until we registered it as a business with the government, and then it wasn’t a joke anymore.

Our early days at our old shop at 906 Dundas West.

I remember Judy from our old neighbourhood business association on Dundas West asking if we were officially “Wonderpens” or “Wonder Pens” and Jon and I just kind of looked at each other, not really sure what the right answer was. (We answer to either, but according to our official papers, it’s two words.)

It’s nutty to think that we’ve already been around for three years, which sounds both like not a very long time at all but also a very, very long time, if you know what I mean. We didn’t really know how to celebrate, so we’re kind of just aimlessly patting each other on the back for having made it this far.*

Accomplishments this past crazy year include:

• The acquisition of our first new staff member last fall, and then a few others along the way
• The acquisition of health insurance
• Moving across the city to this new space
• Baking my first loaf of bread
• Getting our first exclusive pen, our Franklin-Christoph Model 20
• We’re all still alive, including the baby, and the dog, and most of the plants…

And sitting here at the kitchen table, pondering our life’s journey, especially these last three years as Wonder Pens, it’s impossible to deny that even with a few bumps every once in a while, this has been a labour of love that has surprised everyone, me most of all, I think. Most of our family has stopped telling us to keep one foot in the corporate or teaching world, but of course you never know what’s going to happen in the future.

Jon was actually the one who convinced me that we needed to open a pen shop, and while there have been times when that very fact has resulted in a very long 10 second pause and stare down in heated discussions, now I really couldn’t imagine us doing anything else.

It has been bananas. It has been late nights and expensive chats with accountants and strategizing over dinner and boxes stacked up against the windows, and also lots of laughs and incredible memories and great friends.

One day when we’re finally organized enough to get everything together, we’re going to sort through and print up photos from the very beginning of the business – renovations at 906 Dundas West all the way to where we are now.

For now, though, here’s this wild picture of the two of us young babes from when we first opened the shop back in 2013. (Spoiler: I actually look exactly the same, although I will look slightly different next week, when I get my new glasses.)

So I guess that’s it. We’re three years older and three years wiser, and we’re hoping for a few more years to keep at this thing.

I say this a lot, but it’s because it’s the truest thing I know about this business – it’s thanks to folks like you, reading the blog, coming into the shop, ordering from us online, passing on our cards or buttons to your friends, it’s thanks to you all that we’re here.

My noble prince (Jon) has aroused himself, and I now see him struggling to change the bed sheets. I’m pretty sure he needs my guidance as he’s a got a bed sheet in each hand, and they’re both for a crib. I cut Caleb’s hair while he was napping on the bed this afternoon, so there’s hair everywhere on the sheets.

Family business.

*We’re also running a giveaway on Instagram – a Lamy 2000! Check it out here. Sorry I didn’t do the giveaway on the blog, especially since you, my eight loyal readers, would have each had a truly excellent chance at winning.

The post Thoughts on Three Years in the Pen Business appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

If you know me, you know I love snail mail, and I love wax seals.

I have a growing collection of letters and mostly symbols of the seals, although I think I’m mostly a gold wax person. I did not used to be a gold person, and then I spent a long time denying that I was a gold person, but I think now there’s no going back for me.

Fun fact: I had to convince Jon that I needed this Parker Sonnet Cisele (on the far right) by ordering in a few extra to sell in the shop, and they sold out before we even got a chance to take photos and get it up online! A new favourite pen for me.

The big news is that we now have a few symbols listed online (and available in the shop). My favourites, and now in my collection, are the dove and the fleur de lys, along with the anchor which I’ve had for a while, but we also have a rose, edelweiss, pentacle (star) and the sun.

I love the whole ritual of snail mail after writing the letter – addressing the envelope, selecting and applying postage, sealing the letter, and then of course the wax seal.

A lot of wedding invitations or really formal affairs use wax seals, but it’s really something that shows some time and care in the everyday. Just imagine a G. Lalo envelope arriving at your doorstep, with a thick and beautiful wax seal on it.

All the sealing wax we have is supple sealing wax, which is designed to be safe going through most postal sorting machines. It’s a bit flexible, so it bends a bit, rather than cracking apart.

Personally, I find the dark blue and the burgundy to be the easiest waxes to melt smoothly. The gold maybe doesn’t look as smooth because its colour is not a perfect consistency, but the ivory does tend to get a bit clumpy, so you have to move fast with it so when you press on your brass seal, the lumps haven’t cooled down too much.

However, the ivory and gold look great with darker colour envelopes. We have a few colours of Clairefontaine envelopes, like the one in the photos, in the shop (black, gold, dark blue, grey, silver), and we’re going to be getting those online soon.

The real problem is that I have to choose between sealing my letters with wax seals and washi tape. My washi tape collection is growing at a seemingly exponential pace, but there is nothing as romantic on a letter in the mail as a wax seal.

***

In other news, I just got an update about our upcoming Midori 10th anniversary Camel Notebooks + Mini Notebooks with Tins – they’re on track to arrive mid May. My best guess would be around the second or third week of May, but there may be delays. We’ve got lots of the tins, which are special edition releases in very limited quantities. We got a pretty good shipment, but it will be our only one.

The Camel notebooks in Passport & Regular size will be added to the standard line-up, so we’ll have those ongoing.

Our next shipment from Superior Labor is also coming in soon, which means more pen rolls along with a few new things! Stay tuned!

We have a new Japanese brand coming in soon, too, which I’m just pathetically pining for over here.

The post New Wax Seals from J. Herbin appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

Earlier this week we welcomed the newest TWSBI ECO, this time in clear!

TWSBI released their ECO fountain pen last year in white and black caps, and it’s been flying off the shelves ever since.

This newest model now has a clear cap, in addition to the clear body, so the whole thing is looking pretty great.

It’s a great looking pen with a solid nib, but what really sets it apart is the fact that it’s a piston-filling mechanism at probably the lowest price range you’re going to see.

It’s been a real contender in the beginner fountain pen range. For a lot of people just starting out in fountain pens who want the flexibility of cartridges & bottled ink, the Lamy Safari or the Pilot Metropolitan are maybe the way to go. You can either use bottled ink with a converter, but still have back up cartridges just in case.

However, for the brave and bold at heart, sometimes when you’re going to try something new, you go all in. For the true stationery nuts, it means getting a brilliant pen with a bottle of ink to really commit yourself to a new way of putting your words onto the page.

The ECO is a piston-filler, which just takes bottled ink.

I should also say because of it’s price (just under $40 CAD), we’re even finding seasoned fountain pen users buying multiple ones to keep different ink colours at hand, especially because its barrel is clear, and you can see the ink colour inside. If I ever become an artist, I’m going to get ten of these pens and fill them up with my favourite colours – imagine the pen roll!

***

In other news, the weather this past week has been absolutely beautiful. It’s been just cool enough to need a sweater, but Caleb has been romping around the play structures at the park in just one layer.

I feel like I haven’t been quite as productive because I’ve been spending my mornings and afternoons and evenings with Caleb taking strolls and going to the park. It’s always a balance, and I sometimes feel like these days and weeks and months while he’s still tiny (and while he still wants to spend time with us) are passing so quickly, but there are always e-mails to answer and blog posts to write.

Caleb’s always been a bit reserved and shy with new people, but he is a very physical kid when he’s got the whole jungle gym to himself. He’s just learned to climb up the curved metal ladders, and it’s incredible to watch, though sometimes a bit freaky.

Today he tried to climb onto the ladder from inside the jungle gym at the top, but it had rained earlier in the day and the metal bars were slippery. He slipped, and almost fell, hanging on with those monkey arms, and I almost had a heart attack. We went to go play in the sandbox after that.

Even Super is getting in on the action, since when the summer really comes, it’s going to be too hot for him to be chasing tennis balls and squirrels with all his fur. Just today he got his ball stolen from him by a much larger dog, and Super scampered off to sniff around the bushes.

To be fair, this post is posting a bit later than expected because I’ve continued to be plagued with my laptop issues. Oh, Apple. Jon has tried to appease me by pulling out some evening snacks, so I guess I could take it or leave it.

The post TWSBI ECO in Clear! appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

I’m so excited to share with you a few new calligraphy classes! We are certainly keeping busy around here.

Maybe it’s the spring, but I’ve always enjoyed playing around with flex nibs and dip pens, and what better time than this new season to freshen up.

Of course we continue to have classes for our Introduction to Calligraphy and Introduction to Pointed Pen – you can visit both of these links to see all available dates.

We have this letterboard up so people will know when our classes are, but I’m having a hard time keeping it updated! We literally have too many classes to fit on the board, so we may have to get a second board soon!

We’re thrilled to be getting such good use out of our new Wonder Pens Toronto Calligraphy Studio, which is just down the hall from our class. The separate space means teachers and students have room to stretch and to concentrate (or chat!) without distractions. Also, I’ve been spending some time there with the dog to get some “real work” done, although I am prone to distractions even when I’m alone in an empty room with a sleeping dog.

All-Ages Calligraphy Class – Saturday, April 30th from 1:30-4:30

Coming up very soon (this Saturday!) is our first All-Ages calligraphy class. We’ve had a lot of questions about whether or not kids can attend the regular classes, and the short answer is no. There are a lot of reasons, and while it’s mostly due to the speed of teaching, it’s also the difference in development of fine motor skills between kids and adults, the comfort level of other adults in the class, and the need for teachers to work with individuals students in a balanced manner.

But now, we’re remedying this oversight by offering our first class where kids can attend with a parent or older sibling, or older kids can even attend on their own! It’s an introductory class, so you can attend with zero prior experience, and all materials are provided. You can see more details online here.

Intermediate Italics – Saturday, May 14th from 1:30-4:30

If you’ve taken one of our Introduction to Calligraphy Classes and are looking for the next step, this is it. Intermediate Italics covers this beautiful hand in more detail and depth, building on skills you’ve already learned or begun to practise.

There is no official prerequisite, as in you don’t have to have taken the Introduction to Calligraphy class with us, but the course will be taught assuming you’ve already had some introduction of the basics.

Mark Lurz, head of the Calligraphic Arts Guild of Toronto, is teaching the class, and I cannot speak more highly of him, both as a calligrapher but also as a teacher. See more details and register here.

Intermediate Copperplate Calligraphy – Saturday, June 11 from 10:30 to 5:00

Another big new class for us! Salman Khattak is now preparing for our upcoming Intermediate Copperplate Calligraphy Class.

This 6-hour intensive, class will be a small class size and a focused exploration of copperplate calligraphy (with a break for lunch halfway through).

You’ll be covering the foundations of learning copperplate calligraphy. This is an intermediate class, meaning you will have had some basic knowledge of using dip pens and applying varying pressure. Rest assured, though, that Salman will be teaching you this beautiful style of writing from the ground up.

For this class, you will likely already have your own oblique nib holder and tools to bring, but you have the option of purchasing an oblique nib holder from Salman if you don’t already have one – selection from the drop down menu to register for the class as well as purchase materials (oblique nib holder, nibs + ink). Paper will be provided for everyone. You can see more details and register for this class here.

Unfortunately these hand made wooden oblique nib holders will not be available for purchase outside of this class. Salman is offering these at a discounted price as part of registering for the class. If you would like a nib holder from Salman and are unable to attend this class, you can contact him directly here or see more of his work on his Instagram.

We are hoping to hold another class on carving an oblique nib holder some time this summer, so stay tuned to our website for details on that.

And!

Introduction to Modern Calligraphy with Melissa Chan from Olive Branch & Co – Friday, May 20th from 7pm – 9:30pm OR Friday, May 27th from 7pm – 9:30 pm

I am so crazy excited to share with you that we’re going to be hosting a class with Melissa from Olive Branch & Co. She is a modern calligrapher, and offers custom wedding invitations and other custom work, as well as cards and prints.

Melissa is currently based in Montreal, although en route for a big move to Vancouver, but will be spending a few weeks here in Toronto, and we’re thrilled that she’ll be teaching two classes here in our studio while she’s in town! You can see more of her work on Instagram.

These classes are already filling up fast, and be careful to see that they’re on Friday night, and not on Saturdays, when most of our other classes are held. All materials are provided and this is an introductory class, so no prior experience is needed.  You can register and see more details here.

 ***

That’s a lot of information! But it’s really because we have so much going on here these days. What a blessing, although it feels like everything is just a million never ending loose ends waiting to be tied up.

I’m in charge of doing most of the ordering and emailing with our vendors and manufacturers and distributors, and most days it seems like I can hardly keep up. Every once in a while Jon looks through the email and says, oh hey, did you see this email about this deadline that passed you know, like two weeks ago??

And I look away and try to pretend that Caleb is in need of attention. If it’s a really old email, I pretend like Caleb is doing something to get into trouble.

I just responded to a letter I found in a box by my desk from January. I think that might be a record low for me, but who’s keeping track.

The exciting news is that I only found the letter because I was sorting and re-sorting my stationery (you know, priorities) when I found this beautiful cabinet on Kijiji! The very next day it arrived through our doors, and it now houses some of my favourite things.

One day I’m going to really organize and sort through everything, and maybe even do a blog post on the treasures of my new stationery cabinet, but for now, here’s a photo I shared last week on Instagram.

These days are just flying by, I can hardly catch my breath.

The post New Calligraphy Classes Coming Up appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

It’s Friday! And to celebrate (so late at night especially), I thought I would share a few photos from our last trip to the supermarket.

Now that we’re on the east end of Toronto, we’ve been going to T&T more and more often for our weekly grocery trips. It’s just down by the water, and it has a lot of Asian foods that are sometimes harder to find or else maybe more expensive at other supermarkets.

This kid just cracks me up at how he goes through life.

Retracing our steps after a lost shoe.

“Two melons, papa??”

Obviously enjoying one of my hilarious jokes with his new watermelon friend, while papa looks around the snack aisle.

You can’t help but love this age when every where you go is an adventure. Walking through the halls to the calligraphy studio, a trip to IKEA, a trip to the supermarket. Even going to the coffee shop around the corner is making sure you stop and climb up on every doorstep, and peer out at every truck, and try sneak a squeeze on every bicycle tire you pass.

But of course the most exciting part of the supermarket are the flaps that T&T puts in over the winter months. They replace the automatic doors to keep the warm air from being pulled outside.

While Jon checks out, Caleb runs back and forth through the flaps. I can’t quite explain why he’s so into them. Every once in a while he bumps into some unsuspecting patron, and then he runs back to me because despite his glee, he’s actually a very shy kid.

I sometimes think if he could have a day of anything, it would be these flaps.

I wonder what Caleb’s going to do when spring comes and the flaps are gone. Who knows, maybe he’ll have even more fun with the automatic doors.

And then here’s what happened the T&T guy retrieving all the shopping carts gave Caleb a special T&T balloon.

We had to run away after that, so the T&T guy wouldn’t think we had just cavalierly destroyed his gift seconds after bestowing.

Adventures of wonder and amazement and joy all day long.

If you’ve been following along with us for a while, you may remember this post from a while back when Caleb was just this tiny little bear cub. How time flies.

***

This blog post has taken a good solid extra two hours as I’ve been having a lot of technical problems with the blog these days.

In a rare spat of independence, earlier this evening I googled how to solve these problems. It involved a lot of very complicated words and what seemed like a few too many steps for any reasonably educated person to do by themselves, so I called Jon, who called some technical support online.

I think all of these problems I have has to do with my terrible re-furbished mac laptop, which has been the bane of my existence literally since I got it, but Jon says it has to do with my not updating plug-ins for the last three months. (I would like to point out that even after updating my plug-ins, it wasn’t fixed.)

We also had a short discussion on the merits of cleaning up your desktop so you can find photos that you need to find more easily. As of this blog post, and under some fairly strong-handed guidance, I have moved 10 items to the trash bin. At this rate, my desktop will be clutter free in no time

In any case, the blog post is here and it’s up. Jon truly is the cornerstone of every operation of this business. Case in point: at this very moment, he’s  taking the dog out.

I assume like many entrepreneurs who are also in charge of little humans, we do our most productive work after Caleb’s gone to bed. Tonight, though, we’ve been sitting crowded around my laptop and on the phone, dragging files from here to there.

These days have been busy and Caleb’s also been keeping busy. This past week I took Caleb to this rock-climbing gym up the street from us, Oasis, which has this Kids’ Zone area where there are tunnels and walls and huge slides for kids.

I took a video of Caleb doing a bit of crazy monkey climbing, but I think my eyes may be bigger than my stomach trying to upload that bad boy onto here.

The post Caleb Adventures at T&T (Everyone’s Favourite Asian Supermarket) appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

We were in Kingston for the weekend!

We drove up to the city where Jon and I first met, and where I certainly had many formative experiences in university. Kingston is about a two hour drive from Toronto, so not a place we visit very often, but it’s a beautiful place to live in or to visit.

But the nicest part about visiting Kingston is that it’s a familiar place for us, even though we haven’t been for years – we know the downtown streets close to the campus, and we know a few places to eat or to visit. I guess the nature of being a university student and not having a car is that you walk everywhere you need to go, and so you get to know the streets in your immediate neighbourhood very well.

We had terrible weather at the beginning – chilly and rainy. In typical Liz fashion, I only wore my Birkenstock sandals, so my feet were cold for basically two days straight. Jon offered to buy me a new pair of rainboots, but that would be ridiculous, since I already own a pair of rainboots, and what would I do with two pairs?

But luckily for us, the sun came out soon enough.

Of course we had to visit the Queen’s University campus! We stayed right downtown – our place overlooked the square – so we were about a fifteen minute walk from campus.

We tried to ambush one of our longest-time customers who is a professor at Queen’s, but luckily for her, she wasn’t there when we stopped in. I guess looking back on it, we would’ve been quite the visit – tornado Caleb in his yellow jacket, me in my sandals and wet hair dripping all over essay papers and Jon trying to stop Caleb from grabbing all the books off the shelves. Next time, right?

Over the three days we were there, we went to a few cafes, wrote some postcards, got Cambodian take-out, did some browsing in some of our old favourite shops like Novel Idea, ate some noodle salad from Pan Chancho (go figure we go to a bakery and get noodles).

We also went on the ferry to Wolfe Island. The ferry is free and is right downtown, and you can either walk onto the boat or you can drive your car on. At Wolfe Island we had got some pecan tarts to bring home from the bakery, and also had a few slices of pizza while waiting for the ferry back.

However, the only thing you have to do when you’re in Kingston is try Bubba’s poutine.

I’m serious about this. Since moving to Toronto, I’ve tried many, many poutines, but not one has been quite the same, or even close.

On our final night in Kingston, Jon picked up some poutine after Caleb was tucked in. I was a bit worried that I had hyped it up too much and it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it to be, but it was possibly even better.

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about Bubba’s poutine. I’m pretty sure it’s the gravy – there’s kind of a smokey flavour to it – but what do I know. It doesn’t hurt that they put a lot of cheese. Jon wants to take the train to Montreal, and while I normally would love to do that, how are we going to stop in Kingston en route for Bubba’s?

While we were there, we stayed in an AirBnB so we could have the flexibility of cooking, or eating take-out, at our own pace and without worrying as much about the mess and noise disturbing other restaurant-goers.

This was the view from our apartment! It was beautiful. And the location meant we could walk everywhere. Caleb is almost 20 months now, but he’s a real trooper when it comes to walking or anything physical.

We brought the stroller just in case, and actually it might have been a good idea when we walked all the way to campus, and walked in and out and around the buildings, but he turned out to be just fine. In fact, I think I was more tired than him when we got back…

Staying at an AirBnB meant we could put Caleb to sleep in the bedroom and then relax a bit in the living room and kitchen.

Funnily enough, we put Caleb to sleep in the middle of the queen-sized bed, and when I went in to check on him – he was gone! I seriously almost had a heart attack because I was shining a small light to try and locate him and all of a sudden it seemed there was no baby to be found..

But it turns out he had rolled off the bed, and was sleeping on the futon mattress we had put on the floor. At home we all sleep together on a mattress on the floor, so there’s never been a concern about him rolling off.

Caleb was half on and half off the futon mattress, sound asleep. I guess even in his sleep, he knew which way to roll to continuing achieve a sound sleep, as the other side of the bed was just a few pillows on the floor.

While it may look like Caleb is getting ready for a big ol’ slice, he’s actually never had cake, so he’s just being his usual self (i.e. monkeying around non-stop).

***

This was actually our very first time leaving the shop in the hands of our very capable wonder team, even for just one day.

I cannot say there were not some moments of writhing in pain, particularly on Jon’s part, at the thought of some impending disaster and his own body not being on site to manage the whole thing, but this was a pretty big milestone for us!

And we had a great time. We’ve been blessed with a pretty easy-going toddler to travel with – we drove up during his nap time in the afternoon and drove back during the same time, so he slept both ways. Caleb loved exploring the new apartment and the hallways and walking around town.

Caleb seemed to have a lot of fun, and we got to see some places from our past that held a lot of good memories for us. Not only that, for the first time, after putting Caleb to the bed, we didn’t have any work to do! No packing, no re-stocking, no counting shipments. I will admit Jon answered a few emails, but we spent a few hours child-free and work-free!

That all being said, of course there really is no place like home, where the sofa is all soft and familiar, and all of your things are all around you, and your favourite snacks and teas are in the cupboard, and you have a washing machine and Caleb knows where all of his toys are.

And of course, you’re right behind the shop.

The post Adventures in Kingston appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

You may have heard all the excitement about Midori’s 10th Anniversary!

The Traveler’s Notebook Company is re-releasing their Camel Edition in Regular & Passport Size in celebration of their 10th Anniversary, and they’re also going to releasing a very limited edition Mini Notebook that each come in a beautiful tin case. These Mini Notebooks come in their standard brown and black, and also in their new camel colour.

I’ve been so excited for this, it’s a bit ridiculous. I simply cannot wait.

The tins are the same as regular sized inserts, so you’ll be able to store new or used inserts, along with other flat items, like ticket stubs or photographs or stickers. You could sort inserts into different tins, or bring tins along with you to store different ephemera, like stamps or cut-outs.

But the reason for this post is to announce that we’re going to be accepting pre-orders for these limited edition items!

You may know that we don’t usually do pre-orders, especially far in advance – we’re worried about not getting stock as expected or shipping delays and holding people’s money for too long.

However, for this Midori Traveler’s Notebook 10th Anniversary, we’re making an exception because of how much interest we’ve had, and because we know how tough it can be to be waiting anxiously for just the right moment when everything appears on the site. Rather than waiting and worrying you might miss out, now you can wait with eager anticipation!

With our Blue Midori, we found out a bit last minute that we would be receiving multiple smaller shipments, which meant a lot of waiting to pull the trigger only to find out it had been sold out because each shipment was so small.

However, this 10th Anniversary shipment is going to come all at once – we’ve received confirmation from our distributor, and we’re expecting it to ship out early next week. We’re going to be receiving all of our stock at once.

The 10th Anniversary Special Edition Mini Notebooks + Tins are going to be just this shipment. We’re expecting a good-sized shipment, but because it’s just going to be produced once, and what we’re receiving in this shipment is all we’re going to be receiving, if you’re interested in it, I would suggest not waiting too long.

We’re also going to be getting the Camel Traveler’s Notebook in both Passport and Regular sized. This Camel TN will be available on-going, and we’re getting a shipment now, and also another one in May with more Camel TNs.

I’m not sure how stock is going to be, especially over the next few months – if it’s going to be limited or out of stock here and there because of unexpected demand, but it’s something that’s going to be in regular production, unlike the Blue Midori, which was a special edition, so we will be carrying it regularly along with the brown and black.

Here’s what you need to know about this pre-order:

• You can pre-order online here – we’re going to have the tins as well as the Camel TNs.
• You can pre-order at any time between now and when we receive our shipment (once we receive our shipment, you would just be purchasing it regularly). Once we take the “pre-order” designation off the description, we have it in stock and will be shipping it out immediately.
• You can add other items to your cart, especially if you’d like to qualify for free shipping, and we’ll ship everything out at once when the Midori comes in. You can also select in-store pick-up to make sure we’ve reserved one for you to pick-up in store.
• We’re expecting our Midori shipment to arrive around May 16th, but it could come earlier or later. Of course we’ll try our absolute best to let you know what’s going on, especially if there are any delays.
• We will be shipping out pre-orders and then orders in the order that we receive them.
• If there are any problems with the shipment, which would be very unlikely, anyone involved would receive a full refund. This is fairly unlikely, especially with Midori shipping from within Canada and generally being very robust (unlike, for example, glass ink bottles breaking in transit).

We’re not planning on taking pre-orders regularly, even for future limited edition items. We’re only doing this pre-order now as we know exactly what will be coming in our shipment and when we can be expecting it. We would only ever offer this knowing with good certainty what’s coming and when.

We’ve had a lot of interest in this release in particular, especially the special edition tins. We’ve normally been hesitant to do something like this, but we’ve heard from a few of you that the anticipation of this release has meant that you’re a bit worried about missing out, or having to stay hyper alert for the notification which could come at any day, and then racing to your computer in time. This is a way to make sure you get what you want, especially if you know ahead of time that you’re interested.

If you have any other feedback on doing pre-orders, especially for this release, we’d love to hear it! You can leave a comment on this post, or of course send me an email wonderliz@wonderpens.ca.

***

It’s felt like a crazy week! We were back at work on Wednesday, and this week had flown by already. We’ve had a few shipments in, and are looking forward to a very exciting shipment coming in from a new line from Japan. It’s actually probably not going to come for another month and a bit, but I’m still pretty excited.

Caleb fell onto the pavement and has a huge scab on his forehead. From afar, he kind of looks like a Power Ranger, but up close, he kind of looks like he fell onto some pavement. At his weekly toddler gym class, all the other mamas were sharing their own toddler face-plant stories, which kind of made me feel better, but then again, Caleb’s the only one in the class with the disaster on his face.

I guess there’ll be no photo-ops for this kiddo anytime soon…

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Being a snail mail lover, of course whenever we go anywhere, I like to send postcards.

We just came back from Kingston, and despite only being there for a few days, and therefore likely beating our postcards back home to Toronto, I couldn’t resist sending out some postcards. We love getting postcards from friends and customers on their adventures – how exciting to see the world on these slips of paper traveling back to us!

I thought I would share a few tips to encourage you to try sending a few postcards on your travels!

1. Try to find some local postcards. I picked up a few beautiful (but not Kingston-related!) postcards at a gift-shop on our first day but, but I really regretted not waiting even a day or two until we visited Novel Idea, an independent bookstore on Princess Street, where I found some gorgeous illustrated postcards of Kingston landmarks. Not only will the recipients of your postcards get a taste of where you’re traveling to, supporting local shops that are supporting local artists is a great way to contribute to local economies.
2. Use water proof ink. For envelopes, I sometimes use semi-waterproof inks or even non-waterproof inks, and I haven’t found it to be too much of a problem. However, postcards are often made out of a coated or glossy stock, and even a drop of rain or sweaty sorting fingers can smudge a critical number or letter out of recognition, and with no return address, it will truly be a lost sheep with no shepherd. My favourites are Sailor Sei Boku or Noodler’s Plains of Abraham, both extremely waterproof inks, but you could also consider using a ballpoint or gel pen for at least the address.
3. Bring stamps (if you’re staying in-country). While of course there’s nothing more exciting than seeing stamps from another country, if you’re traveling within the same country, it can be easier to just bring a book or two of stamps and prevent yourself from needing to find a post office. Mailboxes will be everywhere, and are always “open.” If you travel frequently to a country and send postcards home regularly, you can always get a selection of stamps from a local post office, and carry them in your stationery set with you.
4. What to write about? Anything about your trip! The unusual weather, great sights, funny stories, delicious meals, surprising discoveries, interesting people…
5. Have a list and addresses already prepared. Sometimes you have addresses in your e-mail or hidden away in your laptop, but it’s nice to have it all on a piece of paper so you can head out to a cafe with your postcards and pens, and get it all done at once, dropping them off at a mailbox on your way home.
6. Send a postcard home. A great way to remember a moment or two from your trip – and something fun to find in your mailbox after you’ve come home and the excitement is over. I address ours to “Future Chan Family.” I’m hoping to build a collection of our travels over time for Caleb to look at.

I have a few boxes of postcards, and it’s been a while since I’ve sent one out! I have considered signing up for Postcrossing, but I’m pretty sure my penpals would throw up their hands in despair if they knew I was writing postcards to random folks, instead of answering their long, long overdue letters. Postcrossing is a website that allows you to send and receive postcards from folks around the world. I think I’m more one for building long-term letter writing relationships, but I can’t deny it’s pretty exciting to get something in your mailbox from Germany or Finland or Hong Kong.

And, while we’re on the subject of snail mail – our monthly Letter Writing Club is coming up this week! This will be our first meet up on Thursday from 7-9pm, rather than on Sunday. With the sun setting later and later, I think we’ll still have some daylight out for the beginning, but I’m looking forward to writing letters into the night.

***

In other news – we just received in our first shipment of Midori 10th Anniversary Camel Notebooks! I didn’t expect to receive this one so quickly, but there are no complaints here! I think the US already has them, but I thought it was going to be a few days at least before Canadian retailers actually got them in their shops.

We’ve already begun packing up and shipping off pre-orders, although we haven’t been able to complete all of them since we’re still waiting for the Anniversary tins to arrive – maybe later this week, maybe next week, depending on how the shipments have been split up.

I shared this photo on Instagram showing my five year old Passport against a brand new Camel Regular, and I can’t believe how gorgeous the leather gets just from everyday use, sliding it in and out of my bag, and holding it in my hands. I can’t resist these sorts of things that get more and more beautiful and wabi-sabi with time.

Sometimes I feel like in our culture, we are constantly seeking this unattainable perfection. I read this article a while back on how grocery stores can only sell these perfectly symmetrical fruits or vegetables, with no blemishes, which means edible and otherwise fine but misshapen food gets thrown out or wasted.

Sometimes it can also mean we seek out these absolutely perfect plastic items with no blemishes, we need a completely new and untouched item before we’ll bring it home, or we mourn when our screens get a scratch on them. I love that in wood and leather and paper pieces, or in cloth napkins or familiar t-shirts that you’ve worn thin and soft over years, you see so much of your journey and life in them and each blemish is a part of your adventure. Its beauty is in its use.

We have this wooden bench on which we took a lot of our earlier photos – it’s this one here – and it’s the very first piece of furniture Jon and I ever got together, years and years ago at an antique shop in Roncesvalles. It now has its share of scratches to blend in with the grain and knots and bumps in the surface, but I love that Caleb now climbs all over it, adding to its history, and I can’t wait to see how my new Camel Midori is going to become richer with time.

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It’s been a long time! Weeks and weeks ago I wrote about how we were hoping to get a cat for the shop, but I guess with the late winter and cold early spring, cats were late in delivering their litters.

But just this morning, we drove off to pick up our little kitten. The name is still to be decided (I took a long time to even name Caleb!), but boy is he a cutie.

Everyone is excited to have him around! The entire Wonder Pens team is cooing at him, Caleb is thrilled, I am in love, and Super can’t get enough sniffing. Jon claims a few early childhood incidents with cats have scarred him for life, but even he can’t resist those deep, sweet blue eyes. I’m swooning.

Caleb has always been pretty good with new animals, coming close and then waiting for them to make the first move, and he’s been great with the new kitty. I’m not too sure where he learned it from, it’s not something that we explicitly taught him, but he loves coming up to new dogs and squatting two or three feet away from them, waiting for them to give him a kiss.

With our newest family member, Caleb has turned into the pinnacle of helpfulness, bringing every new thing we’ve brought home for the cat, to the cat. It’s startling to see how Caleb just “knows” the new stuff is for the cat, even the littler scooper and bags of treats. He’s been holding out things for the kitten to sniff and to see if the cat will go ahead and take a bite.

“This is the stuff for you to poop onto. I’m still in early potty-training myself, so don’t worry if you have any accidents.”

“It’s not open yet, but I’ll bet it’s tasty!”

“This is your food, don’t let Super have any of it because he’ll eat it all.”

Unfortunately (for Caleb? the cat? the dog?) the new cat is not quite like Super – when Caleb leans in for a kiss, the cat just looks up at him, there’s no big tongue coming out. When Caleb offers a treat, it’s the same old snout coming in for a taste.

Caleb attempting to feed the cat some water.

It’s safe to say that Caleb is enjoying the kitten. While the kitten was wandering around the couch and the carpet, Caleb could barely eat lunch for having to keep checking on the little guy.

While trying to convince Caleb to go down for his nap today, the kitten crawled up onto us to snuggle, and it took about four times longer than usual to get Caleb asleep.

We are thinking of Chewbacca, or maybe Chicken for a name, but the weight of naming a creature for the rest of their life! Oh, the pressure.

I have to admit we were all a little worried about Super going crazy, but don’t furry little kittens have a way to bring out the best in us, even big smelly dogs? Maybe it was all the hamster training, but Super didn’t bark even once. He saves that for humans.

Knowing nothing about cats or how to raise them, we still have big hopes for this little one. Super has been a pretty resounding failure at becoming a shop dog (although one can still dream in the late afternoon), mainly due to his barking and jumping, but who doesn’t love a shop cat slinking around your ankles as you browse for stationery and inks?

And it wouldn’t hurt if he could catch a few mice, too.

First kiss.

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If you’ve stopped by the shop this week, you may have noticed we have a new chalkboard design up – done by Melissa Chan of Olive Branch & Co Calligraphy teaching a few Introduction to Modern Calligraphy classes here in our calligraphy studio!

I’ve actually known Melissa since we were in university together! But I’ve been following her story on Instagram over the last few years and have been in awe of everything she does.

I was so thrilled to hear she was going to be in Toronto for a few weeks, en route a big move from Montreal to Vancouver – and even more so to have her here to do our chalkboard and teach a few calligraphy classes here!

I have always been really interested by handwriting – I loved looking at different ways people wrote and different styles they had. I first picked up a calligraphy pen when I was in elementary school and my dad gave me a set. My favourite colour was purple at the time so I pretty much wrote exclusively in purple ink (until all the ink spilled in my bag…).

I didn’t come back to calligraphy again until two and a half years ago when I had just moved to Montreal. I wanted to pick up something stress-relieving and relaxing, so I started experimenting with calligraphy, and ended up becoming obsessed with it!

I totally lose track of time when I get to do calligraphy, so I have no idea how long I’ll usually go for! I do a bunch of warm ups when I start – a lot of loops and ovals to get my hands warmed up, and then a word or two I’m thinking of.

Sometimes when I’m wanting to experiment with different styles, I’ll write the same quote over and over again, but I’ll play with the spaces in between letters or how the letters loop or their width and length – it’s quite fun, and before I know it, an hour has gone by just with one quote!

Ooh – there’s so much I love about it! I love the movement of it, watching ink set and dry (especially if it’s gold ink!), the little scratch of the nibs against paper. I love that calligraphy is like this old art form – in an age where everyone brings laptops to take notes, I love that calligraphy is a meeting of the hands with the heart and mind, and how you can touch and feel the raised ink, the etch of the nib, the very words.

But I also love that it’s this sweet marriage of art and words – I’ve always loved words for their power and how they can create worlds and move hearts, how they can give life and death. So what I especially cherish about calligraphy and hand lettering is the way it can reflect the beauty of the content of words through their very form.

The post Olive Branch & Co Calligraphy in the Studio appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

I’ve always loved discovering different neighbourhoods in Toronto, especially because I didn’t grow up here – everything’s always seemed so new and exciting to me. They say Toronto is a mosaic because we have all of these different neighbourhoods that still maintain a bit of their unique flavour while rubbing against one another, which is something I love even more so having lived in so many different neighbourhoods here.

One thing that I’m really discovering about Toronto only now that we have Caleb is all of the hidden parks around the city. Even with walking Super around, I never really noticed all of the parks tucked and hidden away on side streets, some of which are surprisingly large. Within close walking distance we must have ten or fifteen parks with play structures around, even more if we’re willing to trek it a bit.

It was a friend that showed us the very aptly named “Hideaway Park,” which is tucked away along not side streets, but two laneways accessed by side streets, and which is now one of Caleb’s favourite parks. It’s huge, and it has so many extra things to play with, like cars for the sand and cars that fit little humans and play kitchens and shovels. There’s a kiddie pool for warm weather, and even a tiny dog park.

As someone who currently gives their child empty boxes and a broom to play with, I can honestly say I’m extremely grateful to all the families who have donated their play kitchens to the public parks of Toronto. If we ever come into some boon of an inheritance and end up buying some sort of large play structure or pretend kitchen for Caleb, you can bet where it’s going to end up after Caleb grows out of it.

Every time we come to this park, I think to myself, I really need to get Caleb a plastic shovel to bring to the parkette right by our shop – down the laneway to the west (it’s the John Chang parkette, HAHA). Caleb really gets a kick out of filling buckets with sand or transporting sand from here to there.

I don’t know if someone did this to be ironic, but there’s also a wiffle ball scoop, basically a scooper with giant holes in it, so every time Caleb tries to shovel sand with it, it mysteriously empties itself. Learning lessons in the real world, my son.

One of Caleb’s absolute favourite things about this park, though, is the little kiddie slide. He typically really enjoys climbing up the ladders and stairs and going down the bigger slides at other parks, but whenever we come to this park, he just loves the sloooow-motion slide down two and a half feet, which he’ll do again and again.

I used to try and convince him to enjoy the thrill of the larger slides, but I figure if this is what floats his boat, I probably have larger fish to fry – like potty training, brushing his teeth, not eating things he finds on the ground…

Sometimes I’m walking with Caleb to or from somewhere, and it seems as though a park magically appears and I am drawn via Caleb’s hand which is drawn via some child-park magnet into a half hour detour. Every so often I check the time and groan and end up fruitlessly negotiating with a kid whose vocabulary communication currently consists of “milk,” “cheese” and “please.”

But then every once in a while, usually when I already have a coffee in hand, I remind myself about how fleeting these days are for us, and I can’t help but laugh as he thrills himself on the kiddie slide.

***

It’s been a bit quite on the blog lately, although that’s not to say I’m not thinking about all the things I’d like to write about. I’ve got a few ideas percolating and brewing and simmering, and I’m hoping to get them out over the next few weeks. Actually, last fall (!) Jon and I took a trip to Voreia, the Canadian Kaweco distributor, and every once in a while Jon ponders aloud about whether or not that blog post is ever going to get written and then I ponder aloud about whether or not someone else who was also present on that trip might be inspired to write that blog post.

It’s seemed to be a bit busier than usual – we had the Midori 10th Anniversary stuff come in, Caleb has started a weekly gymnastics class, and we’ve been out soaking up the sunshine and also running errands around the city. We made it all the way back to our old neighbourhood, or rather Little Italy, on the TTC this morning to drop off our passport applications at the Service Canada there.

We got our passport photos taken at the Shoppers Drug Mart just down the street, and they take your photos in the middle of the shop, with everyone bustling around. I couldn’t help laughing at Jon seated there, so he had to pull out his stern face, which is when our cameraman took his shot. I chose a ten year passport so we won’t have to go through all of this paperwork again for ten years, which means Jon is stuck with a photo of himself in his passport looking hostile and darkly bearded for another decade.

In other news, the cat is still unnamed. We’ve been referring to him as “the kitty” or “the cat” or “the meow meow.” Caleb is still loving having this fur ball around, and needs to be highly involved in every operation around the cat.

I, however, am not loving the fact that we’re still litter training this feline, who was supposedly already “completely” litter-trained. When Super or Caleb pee inside, it’s a dramatic scene and a huge mess, but at least you know either one of them peed; when the cat pees, it’s these tiny puddles you don’t even see unless you step in them.

We’ve now swapped to a new kitty litter, and while it’s going better, just today, he peed right in front of the box. We’re doing this thing now where we put him into the litter box after every time he eats or drink, and it’s usually Caleb and me standing there, watching to see if there’s going to be any action. The cat is so low to the ground you can’t even hear anything, so my praise is always timed a few seconds after he’s left the litter box and I can check to see if there’s been any precipitation.

While we were out getting the new kitty litter, we also picked up a few fake mice toys to get the cat pumped up for his future job. Super already ate two of the three, so I guess we’re saving the last one for when the training really begins.

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These Midori 10th Anniversary Mini Traveler’s Notebooks and their tin cases arrived in our shop last week, and you can just guess at how excited I was to receive them!

It’s been over a week now, and every once in a while a customer will ask in the shop – so, how are you using your mini Traveler’s Notebooks??

And …I haven’t had an answer. I guess maybe I’ve been so excited for so long I hesitated to really use them, or choose any sort of purpose for them because I want them to stay all little and perfect – it’s like that first line on the first page of a new notebook.

However, over the last few days I’ve been breaking in my new minis, and I’ve been having so much fun! These little guys are tiny, and I’m loving putting these together and finding just the right use for each of them.

There are three different tins, and in each one comes with a different coloured mini notebook. Each tin comes with enough materials to make several little inserts, though, so you can keep using your mini notebook for a while.

Of course even after these pages are used up, which I imagine would take quite a while (as I used just one tin’s pages to make all three of my mini notebooks’ inserts), you can cut pages from somewhere else to use inside your mini.

You get:

• some sturdier cardboard notebook covers (darker brown)
• the first cover page, as in the regular size TN inserts (these are really too cute)
• ruled
• grid
• plain
• kraft

It’s nice that you get so many sheets, and you can mix and match within a mini-insert as well. You can staple them together, and I even have a mini-stapler, but I’m holding off, because I think I might try stitching them together with a needle and thread.

For now, though, the elastic holds in the pages (loose, but creased together) fairly well.

One of my Mini Midoris I’m currently using to record little ink swabs. I use a q-tip to make a little circle and then I write the name underneath, and it’s just the perfect size to see those little drops of ink.

Maybe I’ll try to organize myself into creating a rainbow of my favourite inks, but then I’m always adding new ones in, so that might be a bit tricky.

My second one I’m using to record inspiration, quotes or things I want to remember. This above was just me messing around with my typewriter, to see how many words it will fit. I’m carrying this one around on my backpack, so I’ll always have it around. Little bits of encouragement.

And my last one I’m keeping for Caleb. I’m using my somewhat limited artistic capabilities to create a little notebook for him, and I’m hoping to draw animals and dinosaurs and other things for him to “read” and maybe use to entertain him when we’re out.

He’s a real copycat, he loves doing everything that he sees us doing, so we’ll see how he likes having this mini notebook of his own.

There are just what I’m using them for now! They’re very likely to change as I find new ideas for using them, or in different situations.

Some ideas I’ve heard from customers or from social media include:

• address book, particularly if you’re traveling and want to keep a few addresses for postcards/letters home – actually this might just be great if you find yourself with a few extra minutes to spare in a cafe and you want to write a note to someone
• recording milestones on a journey towards a goal (e.g. weight loss, achievements), one on a page,  so you can flip through and see when you’ve achieved something, maybe using an ink circle swab around each numbered goal
• recording milestones of a baby’s or child’s achievement (date of first tooth, first walking, etc.)
• gluing in precious artifacts, like vintage stamps, or dried flowers
• collecting souvenirs from places or countries you’ve traveled to, such as postage stamps, or cut outs of ticket stubs
• a little gratitude journal to carry around with you
• a list of books you’d like to read
• calligraphy letters, one on each page, and maybe multiple mini-inserts for each style of lettering you learn

I also strongly considered cutting up some pictures of Caleb I’ve taken on the Instax, and gluing them in, to have a little mini storybook of Caleb. However, I treasure those Instax pictures pretty highly, and I’m thinking of getting a new photo printer, one that prints photos out from my phone, so maybe I’ll still try it!

You might notice above that I’m using Jon’s Pilot Custom 74 Fine nib – I’m mostly a medium/broad nib kind of person, but of course with these mini-notebooks, it helps to have a finer nib. I do have a Lamy Safari EF nib kicking around somewhere, but the Custom 74 Fine will really be very fine.

I know there’s some advantages to keeping these special edition items in mint condition, as collector’s items, but I figure I might as well use and it and enjoy it while I’m alive.

Now that I’ve broken each of the mini notebooks out of their cases, the tins have all found a new home on my stationery cabinet, housing little treasures and things. They’re surprisingly deep, or at least deeper than I expected based on just the photos I’d seen of them. Later this week I’m hoping to do a blog post on what I’m doing with each of them, as well as a few other ideas.

***

In other news, we’ve gone from practically dancing our way to the park in celebration of the new warm weather to wondering if it’s just a bit too hot and do we need sunscreen for the little guy and man would ice cream hit the spot right now. I just spent the last hour looking online at shorts and t-shirts for Caleb – every new season it seems we need to buy more clothes for this growing monkey, and I can’t stop being astounded at this little human sprouting up before my eyes.

Just this afternoon we went out to pick up some popsicles, and we had a mango disaster on the sidewalk. It involved dropped a chunk of mango popsicle onto the pavement and being devastated as a car drove over it. And also sticky mango hands everywhere on my shirt and skirt and arms with no napkins.

And also calling Jon from the shop to come and rescue me (and Caleb) from some very bad decision making.

From now on, we’re only eating popsicles when Jon is around. Or in the bathtub.

The post Ideas for Using Your Midori 10th Anniversary Mini Traveler’s Notebooks appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

I may or may not have mentioned (I thought I did) that I’ve been doing some marathon letter writing over the last couple of weeks, and getting caught up on some crazy old letters from last…year. It’s been one of the most satisfying things I’ve been doing lately, to finally get those letters sealed up with postage and love and out the door.

This past Saturday night I tried to convince Jon that he should deliver my tiny but hard earned packet of snail mail to the red box down the street. I, of course, would stay home to ensure our sleeping prince remained safely ensconced in his dreams and blankie. He looked at me like I was crazy, I’m assuming because he was already in his pyjamas, or possibly because the post wouldn’t be coming until Tuesday anyways, with the Monday holiday.

The old adage you are what you continually do sort of holds true to letter writing. Could I really consider myself a “letter writer” if I only wrote a letter once or twice a month? With my correspondence response time stretching from one month to two to five or six?

This blog post has been percolating for a while, but it started with two thoughts from two pen pals.

One of my pen pals wrote and asked if I used my fountain pens and stationery and journals as much as I thought I would, considering we opened up shop because I loved stationery and pens and writing;  one would think after opening a stationery shop, my entire life would be ink on a page. She wrote that she is a knitter, and she knows a few folks that were knitters and opened up yarn shops and ended up being so busy that they stopped knitting, which is all sort of terrible and tragic, although as a small business owner, I can understand how that might happen.

The second is another pen pal who I got to know through the shop, a customer turned now longish time pen pal (the longish is mostly in reference to my response time). She wrote that some of the blog posts she enjoys the most are the ones I write about writing.

Which got me to thinking…

A million years ago, I started a series of blog posts on journal writing, which wasn’t just on the nuts and bolts of writing, but hopefully also some inspiration on why and how we write in our lives.

You may not know that this series on journal writing exists because it’s been that long since I’ve written on the topic. And that’s truly not to say that I haven’t been thinking about it – I still journal and write and every once in a while I scribble down a few things in Caleb’s notebook of memories or I try to pause and remember things to write in my gratitude journal.

But I can’t deny that sometimes it’s too easy to get caught up in life – in getting excited about new things flying through the doors or about new cats and vet appointments, in trudging around the city with paperwork for passports, or trying to find all the materials you need for a calligraphy class.* I have to catch myself to remember that there will always be emails to answer and, with some good luck, orders to pack, and floors to sweep, and catalogues to pour over.

It’s not the things themselves, but rather than what the things are supposed to be used for, it’s the writing and remember and the dreaming. Whether or not you own a stationery shop, there’s something to be said for the writing that you might do in a journal to remember the smallest moments or the deepest moments of your day.

It sometimes seems like we’re supposed to be all about hustling all the time, and there were certainly a lot of long hours early on, and in all honesty, not so far back in recent memory – making ink samples and packing orders and sending emails and reading blogs (research!) and counting boxes of paper.

But it also seems like in this beautiful and fresh and fleeting season of our lives, with our guard dog still in the very long and everlasting prime of his puppyhood and our young master Caleb and now his lion cub along for the ride, that our most precious moments aren’t the hustling and the achievements and successes (although those are pretty great), but it’s in the everyday and the ordinary.

Those moments when one big and smelly tongue sneaks out between those killer jaws and makes its way from chin to forehead, or when I look behind me and see Caleb pulling a wagon full of Duplex blocks and toy cars and dinosaurs and a reluctant kitten, or when it takes us 20 minutes to walk down the laneway because Caleb’s watching cars and dogs and the wind in the air. It’s sitting on the grass in front of some church sharing a tangerine and some cheese after a gymnastics class. It’s everything tiny and bright.

And in my everyday and ordinary, the writing and the remembering of these small and tiny and magical moments is important enough to make time for.

I think maybe we’ve reached a really incredible stage of the business, where Jon and I are currently both very involved, but now it’s maybe a bit too involved. While it was an “adjustment” to no longer be the ones to pack up every single order, and greet every single customer, there’s something a bit freeing about it, too.

It’s truly a blessing to be able to step back a bit and take a breath – or even a train trip! – and enjoy our shop and our team. To enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful things we sell and the beautiful things that we can make with them.

As much as we need to sell things to stay in business, it’s really not the writing instrument that makes the writer – those words have been there all along, and it’s something deeply satisfying to find the words coming out on the page.

And so being inspired, by the letter writers in my life, by the writing in my life, by my life itself – I’m reviving my series, and hoping for better luck this time.

I now have a few books on journal writing and soul writing in queue, and I’ve already started dipping into a few of them. I can’t wait to share on the blog, and of course you know I can’t resist adding my special brand of flavour to the story.

And you know, when I take the time to stop to think about it, things are sort of amazing.

I cooked ribs tonight with a secret last minute marinade combination of most of the sauces in my cupboard and my fridge, and it turned out delicious! (The recipe is 5% love and 95% low expectations.) I spent two hours last night ordering this amazing and hilarious surprise for the WP team and Jon and Caleb and Super, and I just cannot wait to get it. The cat is finally starting to use his litter box! But I’m keeping my 5/95 ratio, because you never know.

And I’m finding time, or taking time, to write letters and to write in my journal and to read. It doesn’t get much better than this.

*Of course, I have to admit that we’ve got a gorgeous new line coming in from Japan that I’m basically peeing myself over.

The post Thoughts on Writing (But Mostly on My Life) appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

Last week I shared a few ideas on how I’m using my new Midori Mini Notebooks that they released for their 10th Anniversary celebration, and now I’m sharing how I’m using the tin cases.

I love the idea of things that will last a lifetime – leather, and fountain pens that you can fill and refill – and so of course I love the tin cases that the mini notebooks come in, for storage and its patina of scuffs and dents over the years.

I’m using one to store vintage stamps. I keep them separate from my regular stamps, although sometimes I do mix if it’s an international or US letter.

The second I’m using as a bare-necessities sort of correspondence set- a few letters that need responding to, some letter writing paper, envelopes, stamps, and a few postcards, along with one or two rolls of washi tape.

To be honest, I’m sort of a need-everything-all-the-time kind of girl, so I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it like this. I will admit that it’s very convenient for short trips down the street to a cafe, as it fits into my bag along with a book and my journal and a few pens, so I’m trying it out for now – especially since I need all the convenience and ease I can get to keep up with my letter writing.

The last one I’m using to store all my wax seal stuff: my different seals + handles, the wax, matches, and candle. It’s super helpful to have it all in once place, so I can just pull out my case and get it done. Previously, I had it in a cardboard box, so you could say this is a step up.

You could basically store anything in these! They’re surprisingly deep, so you can hold quite a bit.

I think the idea is to use them to store additional refills, either used or new, but of course you could use them for anything.

• ink samples/converters/ink cartridges/ink syringes
• seed packets if you’re a gardener
• little army men, LEGO, marbles or other toys – especially as a travel kit
• pencil crayons, crayons or art supplies
• a sewing kit
• electronics/wires/chargers – it’ll fit a mac charger
• receipts
• old Instax or Polaroid photos
• a first aid kit
• correspondence + letters from a treasured pen pal

If I was brave enough I would plant little succulents into a little garden of my tin case! But I think if you do that, you might be committing to it for a while.

I’m probably going to be changing these around from time to time, just as new ideas inspire or as I need them for this or that, and I love that I’m going to have these for years and purposes to come!

Don’t forget! Each tin case comes with a postcard for you to send back to Traveler’s Company in Japan to enter a draw to possibly win a few special items, including one of 30 white Midori Traveler’s Notebooks!!

Just imagine.

***

In other news, we’re soaking up the sunshine and also the air conditioning, and making the most of the warm weather. For once, Caleb’s tiny dresser is now overflowing, as his summer clothes mix with his pyjamas and winter clothes that need to be weeded out – a task on a long list of things that doesn’t ever seem to get done around here.

That’s not to say we’re not still loving our daily trips to the park and around town.

This past long weekend, we went to Edwards Garden with some friends, and it was just gorgeous. The babies played in and around the fountain while we got to lounge on a blanket under the late afternoon sun.

We didn’t get a chance to actually explore the gardens themselves, but the little bit we did see was stunning, especially in this spring season with the flowers coming out.

And my own little miracle flower! I’ve had this lily plant for over a decade – it once was a lush and thriving and regularly blooming plant, under the meticulous care of many hands (students) and a long row of bright windows.

Most of my plants, from leaving a sunny classroom with possibly over attentive children to the home of two new entrepreneurs and then new parents and then just plain absent-minded adults, have either withered greatly or gave up completely and were left for dead.

I didn’t think this lily plant would ever flower again, having suffered through now years of neglect and under watering and dark corners of a house.

However, over this past year, with new sunny windows and somewhat more regular watering, many of the plants have begun perking up, and while I guess I was being a bit dramatic in calling it a miracle, really, each flower truly is a miracle.

We just got some new flowers and plants and herbs for the shop and to celebrate this season and the shop and ice cream and life and being alive, because it’s all pretty great.

The post Midori 10th Anniversary Traveler’s Notebook Tin Cases – Ideas + Tips appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

Since getting a cat, my animal knowledge has expanded rapidly, mostly of the inter-species variety.

I had had extremely high hopes for Super given his success with the hamster, another small, light brownish-orange, furry thing, but alas, once again, Super is nothing if not a I-desperately-need-your-guidance-and-love type of dog.

Here are three interesting facts of life to ponder:

1. Kittens are tiny creatures who sometimes make darting motions.
2. Dogs view tiny creatures who sometimes make darting motions as prey.
3. Kittens are really tiny, and Super is kind of a giant spaz.

Super initially had his sniffing and nosing around of the new creature, and then left the cat to his own devices, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief and pride at our beautiful and noble dog. What ease this is! All you have to do is bring the cat home!

However, as the kitten became more comfortable, he also became more bold, and he also began leaping off of things.

To add to the confusion, I very wisely selected stainless steel feeding bowls, which coincidentally are also what Super has (oh, those excellent anti-bacterial properties!).

So here is Super, snacking away at the cat’s food and water, and then slightly baffled that this new tiny creature has the audacity to sniff at the scraps (of course there would be no scraps after Super is eaten).

All of a sudden, a whole new world of the internet opened up to us, as we discovered forums through the google results of “will my dog eat my cat” and “my dog is a spaz but I have a new kitten.”

It turns out that there are a lot of different ideas out there to try – let the dog and cat sniff each other from under a door, let the cat and dog sniff each other in crates, put them on leashes and have them calmly walk around each other (really??). We tried a few of the controlled introductions, mostly me holding the cat and Super sniffing it, and then all of us getting distracted by Caleb peeing on the floor or dinner burning or the phone ringing.

I read about stories of dogs and cats needing to be separated for months! Years! I couldn’t imagine it.

And then one day when we weren’t looking, the cat casually sauntered out, right up to Super’s nose, and Super’s nose sniffed right back, and then they casually continued their individual hunts for table scraps and food bits fallen off the kitchen table.

In the end, I don’t think it was anything we did: Super just took his sweet time figuring out that the cat was just a cat.

***

In other news, Caleb has learned to walk with his hands in his pockets and it’s completely freaking me out. He also has this new thing where he takes off his baseball cap and puts it back on sideways or backwards. I’ve investigated everyone in regular contact with Caleb, and no one is confessing to having taught him that, so I have no idea where he picked it up.

When did he become a little boy?? The Caleb I know still needs helping picking out the sticker he wants after his play gym class and falls asleep in his high chair in the middle of his noodles.

With his hands in his pockets, he literally saunters around, walking heels down first, leaning back a bit. In his little tank top with those muscles, he’s like this little mini beach boy. I don’t even know who this kid is.

And – did you hear??

Our latest new line from Japan has finally arrived – it’s Classiky! It’s already in the shop, and should be heading online over the next few days.

Normally we like to get all the pictures together and then get them up online, announce them fully and properly – but I couldn’t resist a sneak peek! It’s mainly because I’ve already torn into all of the boxes to find my loot, and settle it all up nicely on my desk.

I’m basically going to be sitting here in my new little studio and desk space for the next week – which is of course the perfect inspiration, as I’ll be writing about all the dreamy ways to use these beautiful Japanese tools + supplies.

(And, most exciting of all: there’s washi tape. I’ve basically reached all of my stationery goals in life. Maybe.)

The post Things I’ve Learned About Cats + Dogs Since Chicken appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

This is one of the most exciting lines to come into our shop, and I have been writhing in pain waiting for the boxes to arrive for months.

Classiky is a line of stationery + household goods made in Japan. All of their items are functional but beautiful, and stay true to a clean and simple aesthetic. They make everyday items like linen napkins and cups, but also a lot of stationery and craft items.

A few months back, we received these gorgeous magazine catalogues full of Classiky’s stationery and everyday items beautifully photographed being used and in different settings – they were like art magazines. I must have spent hours with Jon’s iPad and google translate to read all the Japanese descriptions and stories to go along with the items.

And the fact that they have no English catalogue also speaks to one of the reasons why we’re so excited to bring this line in: Classiky is not very widely available outside of Japan, especially in brick + mortar shops in Canada.

These hard to find, beautiful, hand-crafted and quality goods are exactly why we opened up shop – to source and offer tools and products that will be used for life and hopefully provide some inspiration on your desktop.

We’ve brought in a few of their wooden boxes, including their more well-known desk stationery tools box, along with a few storage boxes of other sizes.

Their desk tools box is longer and flatter, designed to hold items you might use on your desktop, like writing instruments, office supplies, art supplies, small papers or tickets.

The lid closes with a secure metal snap mechanism, and also has a top metal handle, so you can carry the whole box from here to there.

Inside the lid is a clip so you can attach papers or photos.

I’m not sure if the back compartment was actually designed to hold washi tape, since Classiky also makes washi tape, but it’s the perfect size for it.

We also received their tabletop drawer set – however, I only ordered a few of these, including one for myself, and they’re already sold out! We will be ordering more.

I’ve done some reorganizing, and I may have to do another blog post on how my desk space is set up, especially with the new desk and cabinet and drawers and everything else. I love having this extra storage on my desk so I can just reach over and pull out what I need. My desk only has large drawers, and sometimes you need some smaller ones to house the little stuff and keep it all organized.

Of course you can use the drawers however you’d like, but I thought I’d mention that the middle drawer is the perfect depth for washi tape.

The largest box we received is the Medium First-Aid Box, which is a larger chest type of box. There’s still a removable, sliding tray, and also a wooden bar which I think is to hold mini forceps, scissors, tweezers, since this is a first-aid box.

Originally I thought this would be perfect to house correspondence + snail mail, journals + notebooks, even inks! It fits even larger notebooks and notepads, and is tall enough to fit Iroshizuku bottles on the side without the tray, and shorter bottles under the side with the tray.

However, I read about an interesting idea for everyone to have a “emergency self-care box,” and I think this medium sized box would be perfect for that, too.

The idea is to have a few items that are luxuries for you to spend an afternoon or an evening just relaxing when you need it – like a favourite book of poetry, your favourite DVDs, bubble bath or a scented candle, a video game or some favourite photos to go through. You can fill it right up with treats and little things that feel like a splurge for yourself.

When you think about it, a lot of people regularly say to themselves, “eating all of these Nanaimo bars is unhealthy, maybe I should stop doing this,” or “I need to start taking better of myself, I’m going to start going to the gym,” but not a lot of people think to themselves, “this is what I could to take better care of my mental health, for example, maybe scrolling through so much social media is becoming a bit intense, or maybe I need to take a break from stressing out about work and e-mails.”

And having a box filled with things that help you unplug and recharge (is that an oxymoron??) is good for your mental health and your physical health. It might be nice to have a box with your favourite stationery and your favourite chocolate bar to just take an afternoon to unwind. Just imagine unpacking a box that you’ve taken the time to put together with some of your favourite things.

(And of course that’d definitely not to say you need this box to do it! I think it might be nice to have some sort of special box, but in a pinch, even a cardboard box would do.)

And we also got this mini box! How adorable!

For a few washi tapes (I’m sure there are people out there who only have 3-4 washi tapes, right??), or nibs and converters and fountain pen accessories like silicone grease.

The Mini is in front of the Medium First Aid Box

You can see the metal handle, and also the metal clasp to close the lid. It’s super secure, so you can lift the box without any worry that the latch will break. You can also see the craftsmanship in the dovetail joining and the smooth corners. On top of the lid you can see the detailing that goes into finishing these boxes. These are really pieces that will serve you for a lifetime and those after you as well.

And, last but not least, we’re also carrying a few Classiky washi tapes!

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say receiving these boxes of washi tapes was the happiest day of my life, I can’t deny that there was some joy.

You know I don’t like to play favourites with my stationery, but if I was held at gunpoint and had to pick, it would be this one here. I didn’t think I was a gold person, but I think I am.

Pen pals, get ready.

I hope you like this new line as much as we do! Every customer who’s come in and commented on them to me has gotten an earful on all of the details and how excited I am to have them in the shop. More and more to come!

***

In other news, the new cat is making himself at home, and not by peeing everywhere (at least most of the time). It might be a combination of getting older, but he’s definitely getting bolder, while still being pretty affection for a cat, or least how I always thought cats were.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes of how things really are every time I try to take photos for the blog. One day I’m going to do a time-lapse video of me taking photos for a blog post, and it’s going to 85% pulling Caleb away or nudging the cat off. This is the one area where Super excels above all others – lying on the floor, half-snoozing.

That, and being alarmed at strange noises. And staying warm in the winter.

I’ve always been an animal lover, although I’ve considered myself more of a dog person than a cat person. We really primarily got the cat because we think there might be mice, and Super’s no good at actually catching anything that isn’t already on a plate ready to be eaten. I think getting this little chicken has brought my inner-cat-person out.

It could be because this cat is so small and cute, but I think it might also be the constant rescuing the cat needs from Caleb’s advances.

Caleb has never been a tail puller, either with Super or the cat, but since Caleb has noticed me lifting the cat’s tail to do some extra cleaning (trust me when I say this cat needs a bit of help in this department), Caleb has also developed a curiosity for what’s going on under the tail. He hasn’t yet made the connection to look under Super’s tail, so I guess we can all be thankful for that.

There’s something about a furry animal crawling on top of your desk, and making himself comfortable perched on top of literally two boxes of ink that lets you know you’ve picked the right one to bring home to a pen shop.

The post Classiky Wooden Boxes + Washi Tape appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

Our monthly Letter Writing Club is coming up!

It’s this Thursday evening. It sort of snuck up on me, but in a nice way, like a forgotten coffee date with a friend.

Our last Thursday evening meet in May was a bit smaller, but I think I liked it a bit more intimate – there was more time to chat and take it easy. That’s not to say I don’t love a bustling club with letter writers everywhere, but there is something a bit more relaxing, especially for an introvert like me, about a smaller evening letter writing session.

So to celebrate another meeting of snail mailers and people who like papery things, I thought I would share an easy way to add a personal enclosure to your letters – making bookmarks out of your Instagram photos.

I got a few photos from my Instagram feed printed out, just because I thought they would be cute and fun and simple to share. They’re about the size of business cards, although maybe a bit shorter.

Of course people are always looking up other people on Instagram and other social media, but sharing a physical print of a photo of your shop or Caleb or stationery tools that inspire you is a (literally!) tangibly different thing.

I got mine from Social Print Studio in the US on the recommendation of a friend, but I would love to find a Canadian printer, if you know of any! Social Print Studio specializes in printing out photos directly from your Instagram account, and you can select different quantities of each print, along with different sizes and formats.

I really love the quality from Social Print Studio: the cards are nice and thick and smooth, and the photo quality is very good, but it means a lot to shop closer to home when you can.

But if you have a hold punch and some raffia or yarn or jute, you can make a beautiful and personal bookmark to send to your pen pals!

Even Jon said this was a great idea, although I’m not sure if it’s because it’s an idea that won’t cost him any more money, or if it’s because he legitimately thinks it’s a great idea, but I will take what I can get!

I like this because the quality of the photo is so good 0 I don’t think you can print on stock this thick in a regular printer.

But the real reason I love it is because it’s such a great way to share a piece of yourself!

I am a bit reluctant to tell my pen pals to look me up online to see more about me, because that defeats the whole purpose of writing letters – there is something so romantic about getting to know someone completely through what they write you in their letters. Everything you know about someone is because they make the effort to write and tell you that story or that piece of themselves.

I love receiving photos from my pen pals, seeing what they look like and their families, but it’s also nice to see photos from their lives, even without themselves in the photo. Someone’s Instagram feed really says a lot about their style and what inspires them and what sort of colours and light they gravitate towards – who they are, really.

A picture is a thousand words, and this is a great way to show your pen pal your interests, or your family, or a photo that you took of something that you found beautiful and inspirational – a sunset on your way home, or new flowers, or the scene at your local farmer’s market.

And in bookmark format, it’s something they might use and and they might also find a bit of inspiration from it!

Written with Noodler’s Raven Black – still shiny!

The only thing that’s a bit of a bummer is that the paper isn’t super fountain pen friendly. Even though it’s a matte finish, it’s coated, so some fountain pen inks may bubble off a bit, or certainly take a long time to dry. Any drop of liquid will cause fountain pen ink to wash clean away, which is good in that your photo will be protected from liquid, but bad in that you can’t write on it with a fountain pen.

Your best bet is to use a permanent felt-tip type of marker, or even a ballpoint.

You can also write a bit about the backstory of the photo in your letter! Each of my Instagram photos feels a bit like a mini story, and it’s a different way to share about yourself with your pen pal.

For example, the photo above is from one of our first days at our new shop location, now almost a year ago! Caleb broke our slate chalkboard, so we no longer have it, but I remember all of the excitement of moving in and opening our doors for those first few weeks.

I could’ve sworn I’d written a blog post somewhere listing out some ideas for enclosures to include with your snail mail, but I can’t find it now. In any case, here are some other ideas for things to include:

• bags of tea, or you favourite loose-leaf in a glassine envelope
• stickers
• Magic Fortune Teller Fish
• dried flowers or leaves
• vintage postage stamps
• Instax or Polaroid type photos
• washi tape samples

***

We’ve started interviewing for our positions open at the shop! Summers are generally slower for retail, but as we gear up for our trip out west, and we also gear up for the fall and ordering for Christmas, we’re really looking forward to our team growing.

It’s hard to believe that even at this time last year it was just me and Jon and Caleb and Super moving into this space. I think part of the reason we waited so long was because we were super conservative, probably too conservative, but also because our space at 906 Dundas West was too small to accommodate more people. What a different a year makes.

And speaking of Instagram and our account, we’ve made a tough decision to create a new account that will be for mostly personal stuff. Our shop account will still be @wonderpens and Jon will still be sharing his shop perspective @jonatwonderpens, but now I’ll be sharing most of the photos of Caleb and my own personal desk messes and behind the scenes and stationery and writing and coffee shop trips @makingwildrice .

As the shop grows, I know people who are searching up Wonder Pens may really be looking for mostly news and updates and what products are coming in – shop stuff. So much of our shop has been when it was just me and Jon, but these days we have other people helping out in the shop or packing up orders, and it just makes more sense to separate it out a bit.

Sometimes we wonder if people who are following the shop are really interested in the more personal stuff, and this is a good way to let people “opt in” or opt out of what they’d like to see.

As I write this, I’ve got my cup of tea and some Nutella on toast, a sleeping cat on my desk and a sleeping dog on the floor. Jon got us all t-shirts and tank tops that say Wonder Pens on them, so I’m in my pyjama pants and my flashy new Wonder Pens tank top, feeling the cool evening breeze through the window.

The post Snail Mail Inspiration: Bookmark Enclosures + Letter Writing Club on Thursday appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

A few weekends ago we did some planting and re-potting and freshening up of everything. I meant to post about this earlier, along with a few other things, but I’ve been soaking up every park visit and evening dinner picnic we can get, and making mental notes and random notes on all the things I’m supposed to write about.

With the spring weather, we pulled out all the plants and pots and put in some new soil. It’s one of my favourite times of the year, and I feel a bit bashful showing pens to customers in the shop with the dirt under my nails, but it’s a glorious feeling to have plants fresh and alive.

At first I wasn’t going to do any herbs since the courtyard with the apartment doesn’t get too much light, but I figured with the front of the shop south-facing, we could try a few herbs and shrubs and flowers right in front of the windows to the shop.

One Sunday afternoon, we visited our local nursery + plant shop, on Gerrard in old Chinatown, a few doors down from where we pick up our egg tarts. You can walk there from our shop, probably ten minutes – just go north on Carlaw then head west on Gerrard until you see it. You can’t miss it.

That was a hot and sunny afternoon for everyone.

The next day, we dragged everything out into the courtyard and made a huge mess of soil and water and mud and broken pots. There may also have been some cheese and squashed fruit on the pavement. I think we were quite a sight for folks walking through the courtyard.

You might recognize Bogdan, on the right, from the shop. I managed to convince him to come out and do most of the hard work while Caleb moved plants from here to there and I took pictures. I think Jon was maybe ordering lunch.

So the plan was I would have all of these beautiful pots and leaves and earthiness outside in front of the shop!

I drew these lovely pictures with arrows and  numbers and had Jon build me these makeshift benches of different lengths and heights based on the lengths of our windows. We went to Home Depot, and picked up some wood, and I also picked up some more soil and some more plants, since I was in the zone (lasting a period of several days).

Then at the last minute (really, after the last minute, as in after Jon had purchased the wood, dragged his table saw out, and cut everything outside in the dark of night, and then built the shelves), I had a change of heart, paranoid that thieves would come and steal all my potted plants. Is this what approaching middle age is supposed to feel like??

So we went back to Home Depot and picked up some planters. It was like the good ol’ days last year when we first moved into this place and we went back and forth to Home Depot, and also had bubble tea while we were there.

While I realize that someone could in fact just steal the planter, and while I have actually spent the time googling ways to prevent this (chains, cement, locks, signs, cameras!), I think I’ve resigned myself to the fact that someday, someone else in this great city of ours may be using my herbs to cook themselves dinner, and I hope their dinner tastes of all the wonder love we’ve put into it. And who knows what kind of extra fertilizer.

In any case, the benches are now in the shop! We had to reorganize the furniture a bit to fit the benches and plants in.

It’s filled out a bit more since then as we’ve finished up with the re-potting and organizing, but I love having more plants in the shop! I think plants really do make a place feel cosier and fresher and just a bit friendlier.

And even the cat is spending most of its shop time darting in and around the plants and attacking leaves. Every time Caleb comes into the shop, he peers under the plants to see if the cat is there.

If you remember around this time last year (or really a million years ago), I did a post on some of the re-potting and planting we did. A bit of it was this new place that we had just moved into, and now that we had the space to spread out all of our plants. A bit of it was also the time – we had just moved in, but we were still waiting on renovations to finish up before we could open the shop, so why not take an afternoon and get our hands earthy.

This has to be one of my favourite pictures of Caleb, both because of that expression of complete glee, but also because it was such a special season of our lives – a new chapter. Just having moved in to a new shop and a new apartment, spring weather now coming, Caleb sprouting up before our eyes, fresh and green everywhere (the two of us most of all).

It’s crazy how quickly they grow.

The post Spring Planting appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

Here we are!

In case you missed it, a while ago I had a recent spurt of inspiration, having to do with having more hands in the shop, spring and cool breezes and green leaves, and re-discovering writing. And I guess a bit of fairy dust in the air.

In this flurry of inspiration, I was both shocked and re-invigorated by my enormous backlog of snail mail, and also by the fact that I used to think journaling was important and interesting enough to write about regularly on the blog.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been attempting to remedied both of these by reading and writing more and more and things that were just for me – reading letters and books and writing secret things in my notebooks and my Hobonichi and finally writing long overdue letters back to pen pals who have probably forgotten I existed. I’ve been trying to write back from oldest to newest, but the gift of having a disorganized abyss of a desk and storage area is that I’m always finding new treasures. And I also just found one letter under the couch.

I also picked up a bunch of books on writing and journaling! They started trickling in slowly, and I was beyond excited to receive my first books, but as they’re accumulating on my desk, I have to admit I’m a biter of more than I can chew (I got a used copy of Ira Progoff’s “At a Journal Workshop” which is bringing me back to my college days of reading textbooks, and I’m thinking maybe I should just attend his workshop instead).

While I’ve been reading several of them at once, but this first one I finished is called “Writing Down Your Soul” by Janet Conner.

The very first caveat I need to put out here about this book is that the author differentiates between what one might normally refer to as journal writing (and what I normally refer to as journal writing), and what she is describing in her book as deep soul writing.

However, I think my own journal writing experience has deepened as a result of incorporating some of these ideas into my own journaling practice, and I think it’s a worthwhile read.

The second caveat I might add is that, like maybe all books on writing and creativity, is that you have to approach it with an open mind. The book talks a lot about spirituality, and the idea of a Voice or a Divine, and whether or not you’re religious, as the author herself is, the idea is about accessing some greater wisdom that beyond yourself.

The basic idea of the book is that is that while some people may journal to record or log and remember what happened in their day, out of habit, to process events, or to dream, or to have ideas, you can also write more deeply to connect with your inner soul and inner wisdom and something greater – the goal is to live life more richly and deeply and peacefully because you are connected to yourself and maybe the world around you.

Janet Conner, the author of the book, experienced some traumatic and difficult events in her life, and almost accidentally discovered the power of writing deeply and honestly and regularly. She shares some of her life experiences, and has since authored this book to share her process.

While you sort of have to read the book to go through her process and understand what exactly she means to listen to your inner wisdom, here are a few things that really stuck with me.

You have to do it regularly and consistently, maybe picking a time and place that are un-interruptible.

This is of course something that we “know” but sometimes it’s not something we know know, if that makes sense. Janet Connor suggests that you need to do it for at least 30 days in a row, and explains that it has to do with how writing changes your brain (I think there are lots of studies out there that you may have seen already that discuss how writing by hand stimulates different neural pathways in your brain), and how you need to do it consistently in order for those neural pathways to form.

If you have to do a lot of work to get yourself to settle down and finally decide to write, it becomes easier and easier to skip days and weeks and end up distracting yourself surfing the net. But if you really create that habit, there’s no longer the distraction and decisions that need to be made – everything (your desk or your space, your time set aside, your brain and your soul) is ready for writing. The longer you do it, the easier it becomes.

And hopefully, the longer you do it, and the easier it becomes, the deeper you go.

I also really liked how the book discusses the importance of having a ritual before or as you write. The book suggests reading for a few minutes before you start writing, and while this sounds a bit counter-intuitive, that you’re taking in more information and possibly getting distracted, I can personally attest to the fact that it really does work to calm you down and focus you a bit.

But your ritual could be anything – like lighting a candle, drinking a glass of water, or clearing off your desk. I now journal right after I put Caleb to bed, and I try to do most of the clearing off while Caleb’s running around after his bath, but clearing off the last of my day’s work right before I get down to it is part of settling in for me. I think rituals like these are important in so many aspects of our life, and help us to create places for traditions and deeper meaning.

I had read one of the criticisms of the book that it sometimes seems like unless you yourself have experienced a deeply traumatic or life-changing event, you won’t find as much use out of it. However, I think that this is not the case, or at least it wasn’t for me.

Even over these last few weeks, of writing based on some of her ideas and suggestions, I found a lot of old memories and things from my past, even from my childhood, coming up that I hadn’t thought about in years. Janet Connor wrote at one point about how our memories and life experiences are in the cells of our bodies, in the water of our bodies, and that some there are somet things in everyone that need to be cleansed out. While this may sound a bit hokey, I think the idea of that really resonates with me.

This book also offers a lot of questions and ideas along this line. While the beginning of the book does share some very practical pointers on why and how to set up your writing space and Janet Conner’s own story, the idea of reaching deeper is probably the most important idea of the book.

Throughout the book, there are writing prompts related to the ideas of the chapter at hand, but there’s also a section of really crazy and intense questions that I think could be really powerful if you gave yourself the opportunity to really think about them and write about them.

What will I see if I open my eyes and really look completely and honestly at my situation?
At what point did I take a turn in the road? What was that turn? Why did I take it?
What do I tell myself about myself?
In what ways are the things that happen to me related?

It’s a bit scary, to contemplate answering a few of these (and the book has pages and pages of them that she recommends you tackle slowly, possibly one at a time, or maybe even one over a period of days or weeks), but I guess that’s sort of the point of journaling, and maybe of life.

To tackle the big ones.

The post On Journal Writing: “Writing Down Your Soul” by Janet Conner appeared first on Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop.

One of my favourite new desktop accessories is the new Classiky drawer box that we got in a few weeks ago. I’ve been playing around with exactly where I want it – on my desk, on one side or the other, on my cabinet’s open shelving – but it has definitely become a fixture around my writing space, and I love it.

We’ve had a few questions about the new Classiky drawer box, in part probably because I ordered only a few units, and now they’ve all sold out!

It’s a bit hard to picture the size relative to other things without being able to see it in person, so I thought I would share a few more photos, and also share how I’m using it.  In the photo above, the notebooks on top are a passport Midori, and on the desk beside it are B5 size, which is larger than A5. I realize now that B5 is not exactly a very well-known size, although it’s my personal preference.

The measurements are officially:

Dimensions: 22cm x 22cm x 25cm
Drawer heights from bottom to top: 12cm, 7cm, 4cm

My top shelf is for stamps, which I admittedly don’t use very often, but I’m trying to use more. I see a lot of super creative folks using stamps on their snail mail or in their journaling, but I don’t quite have that magic touch yet. I think I just need to convince Jon to set me loose in a stamp shop one day.

The second drawer is the perfect height for washi tapes, and I can only assume Classiky did this intentionally because everyone needs some washi in their life. I can name a few turning points in my life (meeting Jon, having Caleb, opening the shop), and discovering washi tape is right up there. This fraction of my complete collection is here for posterity – I was forced to pick favourites to fit into this drawer, but know that I love them all.

And my third, deepest drawer is for my camera stuff. I’ve had and loved my Instax for a long time, but also recently got a Polaroid Zink printer, which prints sticker photos from your phone. It’s great! I love it! I am planning on sharing more about that soon, but of course the main idea is that I can print out photos I’ve taken with my phone – I still prefer how the Instax pictures print and look and feel, but it’s great to be able to easily print out pictures from my phone (and for a lot less money).

Sorry to share this picture again! But here the drawer box is on my desk with everything else. Even when I have to clear everything else off (and my box for desk top tools is tucked away on top of my desk drawers underneath the table top!), I leave my drawer box for all my tiny treasures.

I was also considering putting a little pen tray on the top drawer so I could put my pens in it, but I like to carry around all of my inked pens with me in my pen roll, so not yet. I also considered using it for storing cleaned and empty pens, however, I like the idea of using the drawers for accessible and often-used items, rather than storing something that could go in a box on a shelf away.

I’m sorry to have planned this post for now, since we are out of stock! I hope this gives you something to think about while we wait for it to come back into stock, in the next three to four weeks, especially as this is a piece that is a bit of an investment for your desktop. You can sign up for in-stock e-mail notifications here, but you can always send me an email (wonderliz@wonderpens.ca) if you want me to put one aside for you when they come in.

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In other news, summer is here and it’s toasty warm! I love walking outside in the heat and finding shade and walking in the grass barefoot and eating ice cream.

Caleb’s classes are mostly wrapping up for their spring sessions, and I’m not sure if I’m going to take a break for the summer and enjoy not having to wake up early to lug him from here to there, or if I’m going to sign him up for a summer class.

Caleb takes a weekly gymnastics class which is his favourite and my least favourite, mainly because he is a loose and slightly embarrassing cannon. He just beelines around from trampoline to the bars to the water break table, completely oblivious to the instructions at hand and where literally every other kid in the class is. It’s incredible to see all the other kids managing to follow along with what they’re supposed to be doing, and my kid off on the other side of the room, trying to convince his mama to come to his aid in swinging off the bars.

Everyone’s on the trampoline! Where’s Caleb?

I showed this picture to Jon as evidence of my future as the parent who has to give the teacher completely ridiculous and amazing Christmas presents likely involving alcohol, and he laughed, as only a parent who doesn’t actually have to attend the class with the child could.

Jon and I are supposed to be taking some time off over these next few weeks so the team can practise for when we’re gone on our train trip, but I think it’s really so Jon and I can practise not being attached to the shop 24/7. Jon is trying to plan our trip around the time zone differences so he conference call in for meetings while we’re gone, but maybe we’ll try it from a cafe down the street first. You know how exciting these days off can get…

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