- miko || 巫女 -

Happy Spooky Month! I’ve got a lot of Halloween-themed stickers leftover from last year’s Stickii countdown, and I’m slowly trying to make a dent in my ink samples this month.

Journal Stuff

My Clairefontaine Triomphe journal is a few pages from done so it’s getting retired this month. (In theory I’ll use the last pages for ink swatching.) I started it in April 2025 so it lasted 6 months. I liked the blank paper ok but didn’t do as much drawing in it as I hoped. Most of the reason was that I got really into writing stories instead so visual art fell by the wayside, and I’m okay with that.

October I’ll be starting a Leuchtturm1917 softcover book from my collection of paper brands I haven’t tried yet. This one reminds me a lot of my beloved Pentalic notebooks that I used to carry everywhere — slightly more rigid cover, big pocket in the back. I’ve heard mixed reviews on the fountain pen experience but I’ve tested my current set of pens in it (including my two broad nibs both of which are currently inked) and while there’s *definitely* ghosting I don’t think it’s going to be a dealbreaker for me. At my current rate of writing this should last around 9 months which is good because I’m moving and there’s a non-zero chance that my other stationary supplies will wind up hard to find for a while, so I didn’t want to use one of the smaller 3-month sized notebooks this time and be scrambling for a new notebook at a time when my office might be still packed or even on a moving truck.

In September, I picked up a Lochby A5 Field Folio. I’d been eyeing it for a while but couldn’t tell if it would work for me, and finally decided the only way I would know was to try it out. So far it’s going great! This replaces both my green notebook cover and the ghost whale zipper pouch: it keeps my calendar and journal notebooks together and stops them from getting too beaten up when I carry them around in my knitting bag all day. It’s got a more rigid structure so I can write more easily when I don’t have a flat surface (honestly, I rarely write at a desk). And it’s got significantly better pockets for the size of sticker sheets I have (I think the stickii ones are A6). I like that they thought to make the pen pocket be usable even with the notebooks open, although since I keep a pen case and have multiple writing tools going, I only sometimes use it. I’ve had the Field Folio a couple of weeks and things are going great; we’ll see if it starts to feel too heavy once I’ve got the thicker Leuchtturm notebook in there.

Stickers & Stamps

All of these are from last year’s stickii halloween countdown. I was tempted to get the new one this year but clearly I have enough halloween stickers for the moment and didn’t need more!

• trick or treat kitties from Tiny Yume





• More costumed kitties from Moon Attic





• Halloween tickets from Asakodraws





• Icon squares from Laurelmaeart

Got some black/gold washi tape to go with it, and I also picked up a couple Pilot FriXion stamps to track when I floss my teeth and when I practice singing. It’s taken a bit to get used to how lightly they should be pressed to look their best, but I like them! I have a few others in different colours that I’m not using for specific tracking at the moment, too.

Fountain Pens & Inks

• KWZ All That Glitters Firecracker (red-orange with gold shimmer) paired with a Kaweco Sport <b>





• Wearingeul Mary Shelly Frankenstein (purple) paired with a glow in the dark green TWSBI Eco <1.1 stub>





• Noodler’s Southwest Sunset (orange) paired with a Hongdian maple leaf pen <long blade>





• Diamine Pine Needle (green with shimmer) paired with a Pelikan Pura <b>

Trying to make a dent in my ink samples. That Noodler’s sample comes from before I learned more about the company so I won’t be picking up a full sized bottle once it’s done even though the colour is nice. The Wearingeul sample honestly didn’t wow me that much when I used it last year so it’s unlikely to get re-bought either but maybe I’ll like it more this year in a different pen? I think it’s just too dark for my tastes. Unlikely that I finish either this month unless I start using them for painting. (That isn’t actually too far fetched; I’ve been practising watercolour painting techniques from library books!) The Firecracker / Kaweco sport was already inked as kid entertainment for last weekend’s trip.

You might note that this is a rare time when my Pilot E95S isn’t in the line-up: it’s because it’s got a few drops of Aurora Borealis left in it and I’m going to use them up before cleaning and re-inking it.