Pens, Paper, Office Supplies

[norrina]

I love all things office. I especially like Post-It products. I have notes in varying sizes, flags, tabs... I have two boxes of random Post-It's, notebooks, index cards, pens, highlighters, etc. that I have accumulated over the years. And in the past year I have opened my own law practice, and am having to remind myself that just because an office product is a business expense now, doesn't mean I need it, and if I don't buy it I might actually turn a profit.

[rose red]

I journal in spiral-bound, college-ruled notebooks (usually larger ones).  After years of government work I can't use anything but a standard issue medium point black ball-point pen.  My hand just doesn't respond to anything else.  I'm looking for a fountain pen that I like, but haven't found the right one yet.

Last year DH bought me a stunningly beautiful journal covered in hand-tooled leather with cotton fiber paper.  It's so beautiful that I haven't used it yet.  If I use it, I won't have it to use (does that make sense).

I stock up on pretty writing paper when I can find it.

Well, yeah.  You mean to tell me there are people out there who thinks it doesn't make sense?

Some things are just so perfect and beautiful you don't want to "taint" it by writing/drawing the wrong thing.  I have several journals with pages ripped out because I no longer liked the content, but it was never the same.

[ladyknight1]

I have an elephant bamboo journal, made from recycled dung. It is too beautiful to use.

[LazyDaisy]

I can't explain my obsession with paper, especially those expensive ($1 per sheet) fancy scrapbooking papers found at craft stores like Michael's. I don't even scrapbook and I have a cupboard full of colored, patterned and textured paper squirreled away for some eventual undetermined use. [Sigh] Once upon a time paper manufacturers would give out free paper sample books to graphic designers and printers, and I've kept ALL of them for 15 years. These papers are no longer in production and the sample sizes are never bigger than say 5"x7"-ish. My absolute favorite paper is called Touché (by Fibermark). It feels like...rose petals. Really. I admit I kinda...pet the paper. It's shockingly expensive and I actually got to use it on a project once.

Years ago, in Target I found a ruled index card notebook. The cards were screwed together in the upper left corner (so they could fan out), perforated so I could tear them out if necessary without the whole stack coming apart, had different colored bars on the edge -- like for color coded sections, and it had an attached rubber band closure and a bright green cover. I love that thing, and I don't even know why. I don't use it for recipes or anything. It's mostly empty. I can't find them anywhere -- even on Amazon all I see are spiral bound index card notebooks in white and I'm sad. I don't even know who manufactured it -- I think it may have been a Target brand.

[Mel the Redcap]

Last year DH bought me a stunningly beautiful journal covered in hand-tooled leather with cotton fiber paper.  It's so beautiful that I haven't used it yet.  If I use it, I won't have it to use (does that make sense).

Well, yeah.  You mean to tell me there are people out there who thinks it doesn't make sense?

Some things are just so perfect and beautiful you don't want to "taint" it by writing/drawing the wrong thing.  I have several journals with pages ripped out because I no longer liked the content, but it was never the same.

I got fed up with my own tendency to leave sketchbooks 'pristine' and started off my latest unlined notebook with a random drawing of a flower, just to make it feel used. 

[joraemi]

Just stop it.  you *knew* all of us office supply junkies would have to read this thread!

I came by my addiction honestly - I inherited it from my mother.

[Adios]

I know this is strange but I often think a notebook appeals because it's literally a tabula rasa.

  The cover, the style, the paper all suggest a certain personality but you never know exactly how it will turn out.  A Celtic style may wind up holding recipes.  A Chinese style may become a place to  think out messages before posting on E-Hell. The modest black and white marble version that you bought because it was so cheap may become the repository of you most profound thoughts. 

In a way, notebooks can be like children.  You intend they'll turn out one way but the reality is often something very different.

Thipu1, this is a brilliant insight!  I just read it about 3 times and spent time really thinking about what you said - thank-you.

Okay, I'm going to out myself as a http://www.smythson.com fan.  Their notebooks are really really expensive, but they come in a pale blue box with tissue paper - so you know how special they are.  I only own two, one I got from ebay but the other I saved up for and bought from the website.  I like to open the box, rustle the tissue paper and look at the notebooks - obviously they are too good to write in  .
I dream of coming up with the approx. $700 I'd need to get a monogrammed diary.

[amandaelizabeth]

I nearly always write with a fountain pen, so my work jotters need to be a high quality smooth paper.  The only ones i can find are a french school jotter which means that a visit to New Caledonia (our nearest French territory)  is necessary on a regular basis.  What an excellent reason for a holiday.

[Tea Drinker]

I'm another fan of the G2 pens. They come in several colors I like (I have blue, red, green, black, and purple in my pen cup, along with one mechanical pencil and one goose feather), and they're relatively inexpensive. Not ten for $3 cheap, but not $30/pen either.

I used to like the plain blue Papermate ballpoint pens, which were that cheap, but then I couldn't find them, and when I found some a couple of years ago they seemed to have changed the design or manufacture. I can accept that the barrel is a different color, but the point doesn't flow as smoothly as it used to.

I had a bunch of the black-and-color glitter pens at one point, in a variety of colors, but I barely used them, and they eventually dried out. I threw out four or five when I was packing to move last winter, and haven't replaced them.

[Lynn2000]

LazyDaisy, the scrapbooking paper and index card notebook sound awesome! I would probably have to buy the latter if I saw it, too, even though I don't really use index cards very often. Actually, right now I'm using index cards to write my weekly chore list on, then I mark things off as I accomplish them. So far I've been keeping the completed cards, sort of badges of honor I guess. You never know when something is going to be perfect for your need!

Something more decorative and even unique, like the scrapbooking paper, can be difficult to use, though. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge on something special. Homemade holiday cards, maybe with a photo framed by solid paper on a patterned background?

How about... crayons?? I love Crayolas. I was one of those kids who rearranged all the crayons into color groups and then insisted they all had to be put back in the right place. When I was a kid, the box of 64 colors came out and it was wonderful! And hard to find at first. Now the kiddies have boxes of 96 and 120 all over the place. They don't know what we had to suffer, with only 64 different colors! I actually have a 96-count box in my desk drawer right now... I have a couple of coloring books and sometimes I do that to de-stress while watching TV.

[PastryGoddess]

I'm having a hard time finding narrow ruled spiral journals.  I love them because you can open them up flat.  I have a few that are wide ruled and I use them, but I would love a narrow ruled journal.

[Thipu1]

I nearly always write with a fountain pen, so my work jotters need to be a high quality smooth paper.  The only ones i can find are a french school jotter which means that a visit to New Caledonia (our nearest French territory)  is necessary on a regular basis.  What an excellent reason for a holiday.

Have you tried Clairefontaine notebooks?  Given the quality of the paper they aren't terribly expensive.  They're also widely available online. 

[Carotte]

How about... crayons?? I love Crayolas.

Ahh, crayolas, the smell of my childhood. Which is weird because they don't sell them anymore here. Crayola as a brand is widely available, but no more wax crayons, only some jumbo ones for little kids. That's why I had a friend of my mother bring me a 64c box from the US .
I never use them, but that wasn't the point anyway

Last year I had to order a 10 count box of notebook because they are unavailable in stores, it was the only way to get them, so I first made sure I could sell back a few to friends, I still have 4 or 5 of them unused.
They're Rhodia Dot paper, they're not lined or with a grid but with dots in a faint color every O.5cm, the perfect fit for me who use it for technical sketches but also to write or draw, and at least half the price of Moleskine (who doesn't have dot paper anyway).

As a smaller notebook I use a small Moleskine, the kind with 32 pages and the last 16 are detachable. In goes everything I might need to keep track of for a short period of time, drawing ideas, list...

I came to understand that fountain pens are not as widely available and used everywhere else but in France?
Here we get our first fountain pen when we enter middle school (around 10/11 y/old), that's when you know you're a big kid! (some primary school teacher let you use one unless you have terrible handwriting or smudge it all over).
And maybe 75% of students will use one until the end of their studies.

Speaking of not available, the bane of my existence is that I was in Japan for a couple of months, found great pens ad mechanical pencils and wonderfull office supplies that you just cannot find elsewhere  .
At least in the US you can order from jetpens.com, but the shipping is a bit too much for me in Europe.
Japan seems to also be the only country where they know about 0.3mm 2B pencil leads, which is a shame, a shame I tell you!
 

[faithlessone]

Ugh, I am addicted to office supplies!!!

My secondary school (high school) was a boarding school, and it had a "stationery hut" - this little shed-like room tucked on the edge of campus, run by the terrifying wife of one of the teachers, Mrs M. It contained every stationery item a student could possibly need - pens, pencils, folders, paper, notebooks, erasers, crayons, rubber bands, paperclips, sellotape, even stuff like hole punches and staplers. You could buy anything you liked, and either pay cash or put it on a sort of tab that would get added to your fees at the end of the year. I may or may not have had a lecture from my parents at the end of Y11 about my addiction to pens!

Both my favourite pen and pencil are products that I used to buy at the school stationery hut! My favourite pens are Stabilo point 88 ones. They come in a ridiculous number of colours, and I think I have most of them!! I love fineliners with a crazy passion. They're just perfect for absolutely everything.

My favourite pencils are Zebra 0.5 Mechanical Pencils. They're refillable, which is important to me, and are lovely to use - not too thin, not too thick. I have a stash of about 30, because I found them for crazy cheap on sale, and couldn't resist buying loads.

Lastly, I love shorthand notebooks. So much. They're simple enough that I don't mind ripping pages out, but they can hold a lot of scribblings.

[Julian]

I should never, ever be allowed in an Officeworks without a minder...  and it's not just the stationery, but the boxes, organisers, filing stuff, cute shaped paperclips...  argh! 

We're lucky enough to have a fountain pen maker, who is a regular at the markets.  Hand-turned, wood or coloured resin.  They're superb.  He also makes matching ball-point and pencil versions. 

I own both a Chinese and western calligraphy sets.  I have no idea why I bought the Chinese set, but it's gorgeous, with a carve-your-own seal, brush, ink stone etc. 

There is now an old fashioned printing shop that's opened in the nearby small town.  I have drooled through the window but have yet to step inside - it may be expensive.