Dupes or Oops?

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Earlier this week, I read this great article by Jaclyn Myers about shopping one’s own stash and some tips/tricks to help her use what she already has. As someone who has lots of stuff, I completely resonate with this. In addition to rising prices of everything, and especially pens, putting what you own to good use isn’t just a Marie Kondo sparking joy thing, it also makes good financial sense. But, I’m not here to talk about shopping one’s stash - Jaclyn’s article does a great job - I also wrote a little bit about it in my article about 2026 intentions. Instead, I’ll talk a bit about what I discovered when I did a little bit of tidying this week.

To say that my office (not pictured and probably never will be, lol) is a bit of a hot mess is a bit of an understatement. Because I shop a lot (at shows, fests, store events, and online), it’s sometimes hard for me to keep things organized, especially after shows when I’m exhausted and it takes days to recover. I’m pretty good at putting away pens, inks, and paper, but stationery stuff - stickers, washi, cards, etc. - that gets out of control and fast. Earlier this week, I tried to make a dent in the mess by first breaking down the pile of boxes that I was tripping over. (I swear I need them for selling and shipping stuff!). Side note: this is an awesome reel about saving boxes, not that I can relate, wink. Anyway, I found a canvas tote that had other canvas totes inside. That wasn’t surprising, since I often put empty bags in bigger bags. What was surprising was what I found inside - several little paper/fabric/plastic bags filled with stickers and such that I bought at the SF Pen Show…almost TWO YEARS AGO!!! Gulp!!

Now before I beat myself up too badly, sometimes you buy duplicate items on purpose. Maybe it’s because it’s a limited item, maybe you think you can resell it later on for a premium (it’s rarely worth the effort, trust me), maybe you love it so much you want extra (OG Lamy Dark Lilac, I’m looking at you), or maybe you know you’ll use it a lot, or you want extra for gifts. Call it dupes, backups, or whatever, most of us have done it on occasion and it’s all good, no judgment here.

Some of the stuff I’ve bought multiples of, on purpose: Washi tape (top 2 and bottom 2 are because they’re cute, middle 2 cuz they’re short rolls), I love and use my TN refills, I also went nuts when eric small things came to the 2023 SF Pen Show cuz cute!

Having dupes means it’s a little easier to use your stuff - I took one of the extra Hello, San Francisco sticker sheets and decorated this passport TN that I got from eric small things’ stamping workshop.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. When I went through all the newly-found stickers and washi tape, all the while thinking “so that’s where that was!”, “I’m not insane, I really did buy that”, and “I can’t believe it’s been sitting in that bag for more than a year and a half!”, I quickly realized that I had seen some of these items recently. As in within the last few weeks. How’s that possible? Because yours truly had just bought them. Again. Oops. Insert facepalm.

Just some of the things I’ve accidentally bought on more than one occasion: Patches by Amarillo Stationery and Fog Cats (bought the patches in 2024 and again in 2025), sticker sheets and washi tape from KuboandLucy, 2026 Traveler’s Company sticker set - bought from Flax Pen to Paper and more recently again from bobo design studio. Don’t ask me how the 2026 stickers got mixed in with the 2024 stuff.

While I keep my washi tape in dedicated drawers and cases, my stickers/sheets and cards are another story. I clearly don’t have any semblance of organization for these items other than to keep them in the bag(s) that they came in when I bought them, and then they’re in geographic proximity to the other items I bought at the show/fest/shopping trip. Definitely not a great way to store them. And if this stuff isn’t remotely organized, it’s no surprise that I ended up buying duplicates! How on earth can I shop my stash and use my stuff when I don’t even know what I have?!

It’s going to take me a while to figure out the best way to organize all of this but in the meantime, here are a few things I’ve decided on:

• Sort by type - As I said above, my washi is in its place but the stickers…that was another story. I started by separating loose stickers from sticker sheets.

I have my Stickii sticker sheets in here, as well as others from Mind Wave, Midori, and others.

While not stickers, I often buy patches when I buy stickers, and they don’t go together, so I put all my patches in this inexpensive zip pouch from Daiso. A Ziplock bag works just as well, but this is cuter.

The pouch has a clear back so you can see what’s inside.

• Break it up - I’m a sticker fiend. always have been, always will be. But I don’t treat all stickers equally - I don’t feel as bad if I don’t use vendor stickers, which are still super cool, but usually free, but I do feel that pang of guilt if I don’t use stickers I’ve bought. The former feels like advertising (which, in a way, it is), while the latter is stuff that resonates with me, whether it’s hobbies, phrases, something cute, etc. There’s no right or wrong, good or bad, they’re just different in my head, so I put them in separate piles.

Also, loose stickers aren’t the same as sticker sheets. Vinyl stickers aren’t the same as flake stickers or washi stickers. But I haven’t decided if I’d rather keep products together by the vendor I bought them from (since they often have a similar look/aesthetic), or if I want to sort them by type. Currently, they’re a mix of both, depending on how much I have from a given brand/vendor.

Stickers on the left are ones I bought - I’m really feeling that sticker hoarder one, lol. The pile in the upper right are from vendors/brands, the bottom right are ones I’ve gotten from friends.

Reusing this plastic zip bag from Ikea for my slowly growing stash of stickers from TheCoffeeMonsterzCo. This is one of those times when I keep all the stuff from a single brand together, as opposed to organizing them by type. I may change this if I end up not using the non-sticker items.

Let’s be real, sometimes I can’t decide where things go, so they will go into a repurposed Crane stationery box until I can find a more permanent home for them.

• Sort by theme or function - There are some stickers and washi tape that I use primarily for my book journal, so those live in its own pouch. Similarly, anything date/day related are stored together.

Book-themed stickers, washi, and other decorative items for my book journal live in this pouch, making it easy for me to grab and go when I want to work on it.

I also keep a book-themed sticker release TN insert - this makes it easy for me to find the stickers I want. It also helps me get over their “preciousness” because they are “used” once I peel them off and it makes it easier to find and use them.

I like to keep these day/date stickers together, either in my bullet journal cover, or within arm’s reach on my desk.

There are so many stickers I still need to organize, but for now, the stash from the last couple years’ shows are either sorted as mentioned above, or in the bag below.

Believe it or not, this bag is mostly organized, loose stickers up front, everything else grouped by vendor with larger items in the back. It’s a work in progress, just like everything else in life. 🙂

It’s going to take a while to go through and sort everything, but discovering all these items was a little embarrassing but also a lot of fun - it’s like getting new stickers all over again and I can’t wait to use them! I plan on revisiting my stash more regularly, but especially before shows, like the SF Stationery Fest next weekend, so I don’t get any more accidental extras! Hope to see you there!

PS - Vendor friends, don’t let me re-buy the same stuff, haha!

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Talking Stationery on YouTube

As part of last year’s St. Jude fundraising, I challenged myself to make a few YouTube videos around various stationery products. It took a while, mainly because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it, and honestly, I was a little nervous about it.

Once I decided to just record me being me talking about things I love, I got more comfortable with the concept. If there is one thing I can do, it’s talk about stationery. So, here are a couple of what I’m calling One Take stationery videos. No bells, no whistles, no editing - just good, clean stationery fun. Exactly how I like it.

Here are the links to the two videos, and there are at least two more on the way. Will I do more? Should I do more? Who can say. Let’s see how it goes and I’ll decide from there.

Enjoy!

Talking Stationery: The Pilot Posting (PO) Fountain Pen Nib

Talking Stationery: The Pilot Silvern Fountain Pen

The Someday Society ‘Zine - Philly Pen Show Edition

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

One of the vendors that I got to check out at the Philly Pen Show last month was The Someday Society. They had a variety of products like dip pens, notebooks, but what caught my eye was all the ‘zines! I picked up a couple for myself (and a couple for the Bossman too), and in the spirit of “use the things” instead of “hoard the things”, I’m going to write in the Philly Pen Show ‘zine to reminisce about the show.

Philly Pen Show ‘Zine from The Someday Society.

Inside the ‘zine. I love the different prompts, which makes me think a little differently from writing on a blank journal page.

Back of the ‘zine.

I was very curious to see how the paper behaved with fountain pens. Not gonna lie, I was worried it would either bleed through, or worse, not be usable at all, like where the ink would sit atop the paper and be easily wiped off.

TWSBI Eco, Pink, Fine, with Akkerman x GourmetPens Pink - not a problem at all!

TWSBI Precision, Gemini Blue, Medium, with Robert Oster Kids on the Block - this portion felt more waxy to write on, so I was convinced that the ink would smear as soon as I swiped it with a finger. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t smudge at all, but your mileage may vary with a broader nib, sheening inks, etc.

Sailor Pro Gear Slim, Nuts, Medium Fine, with Sailor Rikyu-cha. I didn’t get any of the interesting brown-green shading of Rikyu-cha, but that’s not surprising. It felt nice writing in this section.

Leonardo Momento Zero, Nuvola Lila, Stylosuite X-Wing Harpoon flex nib, with Pineider Violet. It held up fairly well with the flex nib.

The wetness of the ink, coupled with potentially scratching the surface with the flex occasionally made it feather a little. Also, the bottom portion of “Violet” wasn’t dry when I took this picture - you can see the ink pooling for a while before it dried. No feathering or ghosting there though!

It handled most standard pens and the one pencil I used, but a few had some issues.

Pens (and pencil) used: Pilot G-2 07, Sarasa Clip 05, Legami Erasable Pen 07, uni-ball One P Gel 0.38, Pilot Frixion Clicker 07, Sakura Pigma Micron 05, Spoke Pen 2 with Muji 05 gel refill, Caran d’Ache 849 Ballpoint, Lamy Tipo Medium, Parker Jotter (Gel Refill), Ticonderoga 2HB Soft, Jetstream 1.0, Platinum 3776 Kasumi Medium, uni-ball One 0.5, Parker Jotter (Ballpoint).

If you look closely at the 3 purple dots to the left of the yellow star, those were the result of a purple Sharpie that I used on the other side, which bled straight through. This is why I did not write with the Sharpie on this page. I did the same test with the Sakura Pigma Micron, which did not bleed through, so I did use it.

You can see that the paper didn’t love the G-2 or the uni-ball one in 0.38. I could barely get the uni-ball to even write on the paper!

The uni-ball one 0.5 was better but still wasn’t consistent. It also had a little problem with the Jetstream (see the underline of “Participating”), but not too bad as you could easily go over it again.

I would normally not swatch inks on something like this so I was nervous to say the least, but since it said “Use this area for...swatches”, I had to do it. For science.

I used my Kakimori steel dip nib to make these swatches of the Franklin-Christoph Ink ‘26 in Purple and Green. I did try not to be too heavy-handed, but it handled the ink well from both the swatches and the Franklin-Christoph 31 with the Gold Fine Flex SIG and Pennonia x Scriptus Lights of Niagara.

Holding the page up to the light, of course, you can see the previous page’s underlines, swatches, and writing.

But put it back on the desk and you’ll see that there is no ghosting or bleedthrough.

The Schon Full-Size Fountain Pen with Mondrian-inspired anodizing and Cursive Monoc, paired with Montblanc UNICEF Blue, wrote well and the ink looked lovely, too. It’s really tough picking just 3 moments to remember about the show, but I’d rather forget the 49er’s horrific loss though!

Wrote down a few pen show favorites, like this ‘zine, with the Esterbrook x TheCoffeeMonsterzCo Estie, Fine Journaler and KWZ It Smells Like Coffee (yes, it really does).

What a wonderful memento of the show!

This ‘zine isn’t available on The Someday Society shop, but they have digital downloads you can purchase. Their ‘zines are a great way to jot down some thoughts on a particular topic without it feeling overwhelming. The prompts and pre-decorated layouts make it easy to keep it short and sweet, while still being thoughtful about what you’re writing. I’m looking forward to picking up some more next time I see them, hopefully at Philly next year!

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