My Favourite Pens (and Pencils)

Do you have a favourite pen? I do!

The black Uniball Eye is officially my favourite - I adore writing with them, they're just soooo wonderfully smoooooth.

The only downsides to these pens is the price (not super expensive but much pricier than a standard biro, and I write a lot so I get through quite a lot of pens) and they're actually so smooth that if I'm not careful sometimes my already slightly wild and loop-filled handwriting gets a bit out of control! Overall though they're an absolute pleasure to write with and I love how my handwriting looks with the lovely solid ink line these create.

I used to use the "fine" Uniball Eye pens for drawing the templates and patterns for all my tutorials, but I recently switched to the thinner "micro" version and don't know why I didn't switch sooner, because the thinner line is perfect. The clear ink lines scan beautifully and I find these pens help me draw really nice smooth curves when I'm inking over my pencil lines. 

I'm also a big fan of the classic Cristal Bic biro! Usually a blue one, but sometimes only a black one will do - especially when writing on coloured paper.

I use these for everyday notetaking, writing all my To Do lists, updating my planner,* writing postcards, and so on. (*People are always raving to me about their digital calendars and planning apps but I cannot function without a proper paper diary to scribble in).

As for pencils? Well, I used to never have to buy pencils. There were always loads in my stationery stash after years of buying cute pencils as a kid or picking up free ones at conferences and other events in my teens and twenties. I just kept on aquiring random pencils but hardly used them until I started designing stuff for a living. These days I do a lot of sketching, and I've been slooooowly using up all the random pencils in my house... and now there are no more random pencils left and I have to buy pencils on a regular basis.

My favourite pencils are definitely the classic yellow Staedtler Noris (HB/2, without an eraser on the end). They're really nice to both write and draw with, they sharpen easily, and I'm a sucker for a bright colour.

I use them for sketching, of course, but also pencilling things into my planner and sometimes drafting bits of writing because (weirdly) I find that writing in pencil can help ease any pressure I'm putting on myself to write something "perfect". Even though it's just a messy handwritten draft and I'm going to cross bits out and scribble all over it anyway as I edit, knowing I can erase every word if I want to somehow helps free up my brain when it's feeling a bit creatively blocked.

Honestly, though, I will sketch with anything I can lay my hands on when inspiration strikes. Oh, and I also have a pack of plain "stage pencils" in my craft supplies stash which are super cheap and nasty to actually use (they sharpen terribly) but look great as props in photos.

When I shared these pics on my social media they prompted lots of strong pen-related feelings. So, do you love these, too, or loathe them? Tell me your faves!

Interesting Signs, Cute Kitties & Gorgeous Yarn

Blogging is a funny thing. Sometimes you write a blog post that you think will be really popular and it passes largely unnoticed and doesn't attract a single comment. Then other times you write about something you think "hmm, this is a bit of a weird thing to be writing a whole blog post about" and it turns out lots of other people love that weird thing too!

I am delighted that thanks to the magic of the internet we can all be door-loving weirdos together :)

Here are a couple of non-door-related snaps I took on the same London walk:

A lovely old street sign with a backdrop of gorgeous blue sky (I am so looking forward to the arrival of spring so we can see more of those!)...

 

... and a rather battered sign of a different kind:

I also took a trip this week to Unravel, the festival of knitting held annually at Farnham Maltings. I'll be blogging about it properly once I've had a chance to edit my photos but to sum up: wow, there was so much beautiful yarn! This loveliness was from The Little Grey Sheep:

Back at home, my tidying, sorting, organising and decluttering continues. While tidying I found this adorable hot water bottle cover from my childhood. How cute are those kittens?? Oh my goodness.

There's no way I'm going to throw this away but it's not really useable as a hot water bottle cover anymore... so I'm thinking about turning it into a cushion cover. I'll have to make a custom cushion insert for it, of course, but that can't be too complicated, right??

I probably shouldn't be adding another crafty project to my To Do list as I have so many of them already, but never mind!

This weekend I am finally getting "sew missing button back on coat" ticked off the list, and next up is "patch holes in duvet cover" which has been on the list for aaaaaages. I've decided to use a scrap of Liberty fabric to make the patches, because if you're going to do mending it might as well look pretty.

P.S. This is the pencil I'm currently using to write my To Do lists, etc. I have a whole bunch of fun pencils like this left over from my childhood, it really makes me smile using them and they brighten up even the most boring admin!

Colour, Colour and More Colour

I've treated myself to a few colouring books, yay! I can't wait for them to arrive so I can get colouring.

Of course, you can't do colouring in without something to colour with. I had a few random pens and pencils left over from my school and uni days (many moons ago) but not a lot and most of the pens are on their last legs. So I bought some pens:

I also bought a pack of coloured pencils. Each pencil has "the spectrum sings" written on the side, which is rather nice.

Oh, and I got a pack of crayons too just because they were cheap and I haven't used crayons in sooooo long I thought they'd be fun to try.

So much yummy colour to play with!