Giveaway: Sakura Sumo Grip II

I have reviewed the Sakura Grosso Gel twice now, and on the second go-round, Sakura of America emailed me with the answer to my question of whether or not these pens are available in the U.S.  The answer is yes, under the name Sakura Sumo Grip II.  Sakura was kind enough to provide me with some samples of this pen - some complete with promotional lanyards - to giveaway on the blog, so here we go!

There are a total of four individual pens and one two pencil pack to giveaway, so I will pick a total of five winners randomly from the comments section.  The first number picked will get the pencil two-pack, and the rest get individual pens with lanyards (one standard black lanyard/three promotional red lanyards).  Here are the rest of the rules:

1. Leave one comment on this post anytime between now, and Thursday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.  You are limited to one entry.  Feel free to link this giveaway on your blog, or share it with anyone you feel is a true pen addict.  If you have a blog, I would love a link back, but it is certainly not required for entry into the contest.

2. For this contest, I will pick five winners at random from the comments section of this post.  The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on.  The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the numbers of the winners.

3. The contest winner will be posted on Friday, June 5th.  The winner will have one week to email me at the address posted in the right sidebar.

4. I will ship internationally.  I know there are many international readers and fans of The Pen Addict, and I will gladly ship to you at my expense.

Thanks, and good luck!  And thanks to Sakura of America for providing these pens!

Review: Leuchtturm Pocket Lined Journal

I had never heard of the Leuchtturm product line prior to receiving this sample from Cynthia at JournalingArts.com, but I am very glad to be aware of it now.  On the exterior, it looks like your standard Moleskine pocket journal, and the Moleskine similarities are there througout the notebook.  This is a good thing in my opinion, and a few minor differences make this a viable Moleskine alternative for those looking for something different.

I don't have a huge stock of notebooks or journals laying around, but this is the first one to come with numbered pages.  I thought "Big deal, why would I ever care about numbered pages in a journal?", but as I am finding out as I am filling up my large lined Piccadilly journal, I have to keep flipping back to previous pages to track down some of the notes I made.  With the Leuchtturm, the combination of numbered pages and the blank Table of Contents in the front of the book are a welcome addition.  I know many DIYers take care of this themselves in their Moleskines, but I haven't been that adventurous yet.  (My wife refers to this as "lazy")

The Leuchtturm also has a date field on the top line of the page, a well constructed pocket on the inside back cover, and some very cool labels for the front, back, and spine of the journal.  The paper is a bit thin, meaning I am able to see the ink from the backside of the page, but there is no bleed or feathering to speak of, so that is fine by me.  The Platinum Preppy was the only fountain pen I had handy at the time of review, and it performed like a champ.

The Leuchtturm Pocket Lined Journal runs $8.99/each at JournalingArts.com, or order three or more and knock the price down to $8.23/ea.  This is a very viable Moleskine alternative, and I am very happy with its performance in my limited time with it.  Big thanks to Cynthia for sending this to me, and be sure to follow her on Twitter also @journalingarts.

Full Specs:
• 187 numbered pages of acid-free paper
• Last 32 sheets detachable
• Folder pocket in the back cover
• Table of contents in the front of the journal
• Bookmark ribbon
• Thread-bound binding opens flat
• Hard protective cover with elastic closure
• Title and spine archiving labels
• Size: 3½" x 6" or 9 x 15 cm

Pens for Kids Update

I mailed out a check for $62.00 to Pens For Kids on Friday and wanted to say thank you to everyone who visits this site and helps to make these donations possible.  If you want to learn more about Pens For Kids, please visit their website and their donation page.  If you want to know why Pens For Kids is The Pen Addicts charity of choice, you can check my original post right here.  Thanks again!