The Pen Addict 541/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	541
Title:	Holiday Gift Guide 2022
Release Date:	November 30th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 541
Audio File:	Audio Episode 541
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 541
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Trade. My name is Brad Dowdy and I am joined today by not Myke Hurley, but someone much more well-appointed. Anna Reinert, how are you doing?

Anna Reinert: Just fine, thank you. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm good. Long time no podcast.

Anna Reinert: I know. I was starting to get a little offended.

Brad Dowdy: I know. As the official third host of the podcast, it's been a while. I was actually hesitant to go look and see how long it's been because it's been quite some time.

Anna Reinert: It really has. Yeah, well, because we didn't do Gift Guide last year and that would have been the last time. So it's been well over a year, maybe a year and a half.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, probably, probably so. So how have you been? You've been busy. We're all busy. We've all been, you know, having, you know, weird pandemic-related times, weird travel times. So I haven't gotten to see you in person in a long time. How have you been doing?

Career transitions post-Hallmark and COVID

Anna Reinert: Good. Crazy. Just, you know, this is my life post-Hallmark and post-COVID. I am on my third job since leaving Hallmark.

Brad Dowdy: No.

Anna Reinert: So I, last year, for about 18 months, I worked for a company called Victorian Trading Company. And I left there about three weeks ago, four weeks ago. And I'm now working at a company here in Kansas City called Demdeko. It is another, like, home decor and gift product development company that just happens to be in Kansas City. So I've sort of lucked out along the way. The joke is that a lot of people who do, like, gift and product development go through a lot of these companies. So it's like I'm meeting people who either came from one and went to the other or vice versa.

Anna Reinert: So it's very interesting. I'm actually working with my former art director from Hallmark when I was working in gift development at Hallmark. She was the one who brought me in at Demdeko. So it's, you know, sort of old friends, new friends. It's been interesting. So new job, new craziness.

Brad Dowdy: I know. You've been keeping me in the loop as it's been going. It's like I'm out here, but I think I'm in here. And it is funny, you know, knowing, you know, even though, say, like, Hallmark is a big company in Kansas City. The family tree often in the other companies, I think it's hopefully been helpful to you in the long run.

Anna Reinert: Absolutely. Absolutely. And the most amusing thing, coincidental thing, is that Jessie actually got a new job and started on the same day that I did. And the company that she's working for while she's working remote from Colorado is headquartered here in Kansas City. So she was actually here last week to do sort of like some training and some meet and greets and stuff with her company for the first time in person. So we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but we are looking forward to the possibility that she will come to Kansas City every few months or whatever, and we'll get to at least have dinner or hang out. I mean, this time she only had time to have coffee. So I like we got up at the crack of dawn, met for coffee, and then I drove her to her company's office.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's awesome.

Anna Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a trip. That's a trip. So outside of your day job, we probably have some new listeners that may be just becoming familiar with you and the Well-Appointed Desk. So tell them a little bit about Well-Appointed Desk, what you do in the stationary blogging realm.

History and evolution of The Well-Appointed Desk blog

Anna Reinert: Okay. So the Well-Appointed Desk has been around for about 12 years now, I think. Woo. I know. I'm just a couple years behind you, but not by much. Um, we review, uh, a lot of the same types of things that, that, uh, Pen Addict does and other, um, pen and paper stationary related websites. Uh, but we do have a large focus on anything to do with people who are left-handed because of the people who write for the Well-Appointed Desk. Um, three out of five of us are left-handed.

Brad Dowdy: Mm. Mm. That's amazing.

Anna Reinert: Um, yeah, it is really. And, and coincidentally, um, the first people who came on to write for the blog were all left-handed. It started with Tina and then Laura came in. Um, and then, so when Jesse started to write for the blog, we were like, I don't know, she's right-handed. Should we let her in? And then Jacqueline Myers will also write for us occasionally. Um, and she's right-handed as well. But yeah, so lots of lefty related. And basically we've kind of stopped mentioning that we're left-handed because it's in our bios on our about page. Um, so when we do reviews, oftentimes people will be like, can I use this pen left-handed? And I'm like, don't see why not we did.

Gift guides and left-handed contributors

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And usually, traditionally we've done these gift guides and you've joined us several, several times. And Myke is also left-handed. So that's the one time where I'm very outnumbered, um, as far as lefties goes. So yeah.

Anna Reinert: Um, but yeah, so that's kind of what we're doing there. And then, um, out of the blog came, uh, uh, a series of products, uh, that were developed. Um, I am lucky to have a husband who is a letterpress printer. And so one of the first things that we did was to recreate, um, the, uh, small cards that people loved to use for ink sampling, um, that used to come out of Japan. And then they stopped making them. And there was a panic, um, equivalent to the panic over Tomoe ribbon paper. Um, and Bob and I were chatting and he's like, we could make those. And, uh, I was like, we can't. He's like, why not? Uh, so we did. Um, and that was the first product that we made called the coloring. And we still, it's still made just essentially by the two of us.

Brad Dowdy: Shout out Bob.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, it is small business. He's actually going to the shop today to, um, assemble more colorings. He often does it while watching movies. Um, but yeah, so we've made several products since then. The color decks, um, the oversize and the folio. Thanks, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Sorry about that. I'm sitting here. I can, I can turn around in my desk and stare at it right here. It's, it's, I always feel guilty when I bring it up, even though it's like technically exists. Right. No, no, it does. It does.

Anna Reinert: There's still one left in the shop. We made, um, we made about 30 of them, uh, just because we, we knew it was not going to be the epic seller that the coloring and the dippers and some of the other things that we've done. Um, but we had a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of people were really excited about it. Um, and we will probably continue to stock it. Of course, the problem is that, um, shipping for them is astronomical.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a good, if you can drive it to a pin show and people can buy it, their product. Right. Like it's never going to be, it's never going to be like a huge thing despite being a huge physical product. It's awesome.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the cost of the, um, the folio is, I think we have it at $30, but we have to charge $10 to ship it because it actually, in most cases costs us more than $10 to ship it. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah. Shipping, it's that time of year. Well, I mean, it's always shipping time of year, but that time of year where shipping is just woof.

Anna Reinert: Well, and the USPS, um, increases shipping costs at the holidays, um, to soak us for even more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It was multiple times this year, the, the rates increased and I finally just had to like raise some of my own rates. It's a, that, that's a whole podcast that we could, we could do, we should do it like a whole business behind the scenes podcast. We can certainly do that. We will do that. We will plan on that for, for next year. But this year, I think let's get into our gift guide. Um, so we do something, you know, every year we try to do this, either Myke and I, or Myke, Anna and I just, you know, talk about fun things to give as gifts. You know, sometimes we have, you know, different specific topics we focus on. Sometimes we focus on price brackets. Sometimes we focus on categories. Um, this time I thought, uh, since it'd been a while, I thought we would kind of focus this time, not, uh, not a hard, fast focus, but like on things we like, like what are some of our favorite stuff that we would be super happy to get or that we use and would love to give to someone else. So that was kind of my overarching idea this year. So we'll go through a bunch of categories, um, as we go down this, this gift guide list. Uh, but first off, I want to kick it off with a question from our friend, Andrew. Um, and I thought this was a good introductory question to kind of kick things off. So Andrew says, in previous years, I've shared the gift guide episode with my spouse so that she has a few ideas to get started as she thinks about Christmas. With that in mind, and in an attempt to make this as convenient as possible for her and other spouses or family members, could you please start the episode with some guidance for family members of Panatic listeners about how they might approach buying gifts for those of us who are deep down the rabbit hole. So first off, Andrew, you're very brave, uh, for sending a link to the Panatic podcast to someone who may not be interested in the Panatic podcast, but I also appreciate it. It's like, Hey, I'm a super stationary nerd. If you listen to this, you know, uh, that Andrew has put his faith in us on it, like, like good recommendations, like to the family members. Right. That's, that's a lot of pressure here, right?

Anna Reinert: So first I think we should say hi to Andrew's wife for actually sitting through this. We really appreciate it. I'm sure Andrew does too.

Brad Dowdy: We also apologize.

Anna Reinert: Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: So, um, so what did you think? You put in some notes here, uh, to kind of help, uh, anyone who may not be like, you know, a, a 540 episode listener of the Panatic to shop for other Panatics. So what do you think?

Anna Reinert: Well, so the first thing I did was I actually asked my poor husband what, what he would recommend as someone who has suffered not only with me, but with you and all of our friends. And, um, he said, um, probably the best gift that they could give them is to pretend for an entire hour that you were interested in getting a fountain pen and let your spouse, loved one, family member, uh, give you the full Ted talk about why fountain pens are so amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Man, that is huge. Like, could you imagine sitting there for an, like you get an hour to, to get your, your partners or your friends just undivided attention and go full nerdery on them? That would be amazing.

Anna Reinert: Pull out all your pens, let them try them. What about this one? Do you like this one? Try this one. What do you think? And, and actually just go along with it. We were joking about it too, because Bob's been listening to, um, a lot of Beatles podcasts. And so I keep getting these like serious downloads on like the history of the Beatles and, you know, recording and all this kind of stuff. And he talked for like 20 minutes one day and then was like, thanks for listening to my Ted talk about the Beatles. You're welcome. You're welcome. It's very interesting. Thanks. Um, so yeah, I thought that was a really good suggestion. I was like genuinely, you know, especially around the holidays. Sometimes the best thing that you can do is just listen to someone talk about the thing that they're passionate about. We do it with our, with our kids, you know, when they get super excited about a new video game that they have or, you know, stuff like that. So it's like, you know, sometimes with our spouses, with our, you know, adult family members, they go off on their tangent about how they're absolutely madly in love with macrame and we are like, whatever. I'm have no interest in it or football or whatever it is. But it's like, if you genuinely sit there for 20 minutes, drink a whole cup of coffee and listen to them tell their story. I think that's a cool thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Super cool. Super cool. So that's great. So.

Anna Reinert: On more practical notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Anna Reinert: You know, I mean, the first thing that always comes up is gift cards or gift certificates. And I'm sure you would agree with me that that's always a good option.

Anna Reinert: Right. But one of the things I thought of was the idea of, of maybe peripheral items, things like a pen case or like a pen stand or pen cup or, you know, Bob was like, go to Ikea and get that drawer thing that you love so much.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly.

Anna Reinert: That they can keep all their pens and their ink and everything. And I'm like, yeah, because legit, like those are things that walking around your house, you can tell, like if pens are everywhere, then maybe they need a pen case. And those are things that, like, again, if it's not exactly what they want, they can always return it, send it back and get a different one. But honestly, I've never turned away a pen case, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And like the biggest thing, like if you're buying for a pen person, you don't know what they want. Don't buy them a pen. Like that's the, that's like the key. Like people, the hardest thing to shop for me is to pick out a pen for me, right? But all the accessories, all the ephemera, like I'm all in on that. Like I can work with like anything. Absolutely. To send my way for that. But like picking out a pen for someone is very hard without knowing the specifics. Unless you're like picking it out for yourself and, you know, sending them a link or, you know, putting it on a list or something like that. Yeah.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. And I mean, from that perspective, like if you know a family member always uses a particular type of notebook, that's something that, again, we can never have enough notebooks. So, you know, you know, do a little sleuthing around the house while they're in the shower, you know, if you want to, you know, sneak and check what, what notebook it is or what, you know, that kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Anna Reinert: You know, it's like we never turn down a notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And you have a great idea. Like, and I was talking about like the ephemera, you wrote down like a t-shirt from Pen Act or Relay FM. Like, you know what is an awesome random gift for me, even though like it might be hard for someone to find. Like Ebbets Flannel has like done these remade Tombow logo t-shirts and hats, you know, for when Tombow was sponsoring baseball teams back in like the 60s or 70s in Japan. Oh, yeah. It's like, yeah, like that is awesome. Like, it's impossible to buy me a pen, but you could buy me something like that all day long.

Anna Reinert: I think Uniqlo for a while had some stuff as well. And so that, I mean, even if they're not carrying it anymore, it could be something that you could find on Depop or Poshmark or eBay or something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Tombow gets a bunch out there. Yep.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. There's old tote bags and things like that that have branding on them and places like JetPens, Yoseka, Bomb Cushion. They would all carry some of those like more unusual items.

Specific pen gift recommendations and categories

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So let's get into these specific items. And I kind of, you know, set up some general categories, but we can just kind of talk through them as we go. And the first category I wanted to, which is probably one of the more popular categories, just standard pens, right? The non-fountain pen category, right? Mm-hmm. The non-fountain pen. Do you know how to pronounce that? I know you reviewed one on the blog.

Anna Reinert: I'm going to go with Dre Giffel.

Brad Dowdy: Dre Giffel pen. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. So they came out with this pen a couple years ago, and they did a long version of this pen. And now they, Lloyd Sturman's had a long-time relationship with Bullet Journal. And now they've made a Bullet Journal specific pen in collaboration with the Bullet Journal team that is shorter. It's got some brass, you know, kind of the twist mechanism is brass. The nose cone is brass. The barrel is aluminum. And it's just this really sleek black matte pen. I'm actually using it for show notes today because I like it so much. It's just small and compact. It's about $30, I think. The interesting thing, which is something to explore, like, down the line, it uses a Parker-compatible refill. And if you're just listening for the gift ideas, you can turn out to this level of nerdery. It's using a Parker-style gel ink refill that's a 0.5 millimeter. And we don't normally get 0.5 millimeter gels. Moleskine used one a while back. So I'm wondering who they're using, if Schmidt's making these or whatever. But the 0.5 gel Parker-style refill is back if you're interested in this. So it's really good. I'm enjoying this pen. I've been enjoying it a lot. I love the style. So, yeah, I think that would be a fun gift option for anyone who does even just a little bit of writing. It's a really, really neat pen.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, and these are the kinds of gifts that I think you could, you as a pen addict, could also give to someone who's in your family who might be looking for something that's just, like, nice and not using the same plastic disposable pen. Like, I had some coworkers who I slowly lured into our world a little bit just through, like, a standard pen or an inexpensive fountain pen that we'll talk about later.

Anna Reinert: But, yeah, and they were like, this is great. Like, I feel like it's better for the environment. I'm not throwing away a whole empty pen. I'm keeping it with me so I don't have, like, 40 gel pens laying all over my desk. I just have one really nice pen that I keep with my notebook. So if you're trying to lure other people into your world.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it definitely – it's definitely eye-catching. Kind of like what you put on this list, which you know is one of my favorites.

Anna Reinert: Yes, I put the Caran d'Ache 849, the standard ballpoint version, which was actually one of the pens that I lured someone in with because they saw that it was available in those bright fluorescent colors. And they were like, yes, I'll never lose that. It is bright green or bright yellow or whatever. She had a hard time picking which color she ended up going with. I think she got the bright, like, fluoro yellow one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. Those are really great. And these are both, like, at price points where it's a pretty good gifting price point, you know, in that $20 to $30 range. You know, you feel, like, a little bit better than getting, like, you know, a pack of, like, the Sharpie S Pen or something like that. But you're not, like, going just, like, crazy, crazy on, you know, like an expensive fountain pen. And it's safer, to be honest, right? Like, you know – or, like, we know that people are going to really, really love these pens.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, they're good quality. They look really nice. You know, I mean, even if it's the pen that someone saves just to use when they're signing important paperwork or whatever, it's a good, solid pen to have.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Anna Reinert: It's just really nice. So, for Myke's, should we all say it together? What would Myke recommend?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, what would Myke recommend? And so, since he couldn't join us, I thought it would be fun for us to pick out Myke's really standard, obvious answers to all of the gift guides. And at least we can agitate him a little bit on this gift guide. So, what would you – if you could pick any standard pen that Myke would – what would you guess he would put down on the gift guide?

Anna Reinert: It's not even a guess. I'm pretty sure that on the ye olde bingo cards, it was the free –

Brad Dowdy: The free square on the bingo card.

Anna Reinert: It was the free square on the bingo card.

Brad Dowdy: Is the Retro 51. Absolutely. So, that's Myke's choice for standard pen gift. So, Myke had no input on these. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun as we go through this episode. Yeah, he's going to yell later. He has no idea that I'm doing this. So, I'm going to enjoy this thoroughly. So, thank you, Myke, for your input. Retro 51 is the favorite standard pen gift for Myke.

Anna Reinert: It's a good call. Lots of options.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, it's a good gift. It's a good gift pen. It has made many appearances on all these lists. All right. Let's jump straight into fountain pens, which is kind of a big jump from standard pens. Like, this is a different level of thinking about what you're having to buy someone. And I'm glad you put this on the list. So, what do you have?

Anna Reinert: Well, apparently, this is unofficially sponsored by Caran Dosh. But I put the 849 fountain pen. It doesn't get a lot of love, but it is one that I feel is a good – a little bit higher end. It's not like a $20 to $30 one. It's more in the range of like $50-ish. But it has a snap cap, which is great for people who are not used to twist caps. And it's standard international cartridges, which, again, if somebody's new to pens, is a great way. And it's such a classic design. So, that was my pick.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's great. And kind of like you were alluding to, I do forget about that. And I know it's just a really good pen. And you know I love pretty much everything that CDA makes. And they make really good gift items. So, what else did you have on there? Because I think we were kind of thinking along the same lines, which happens a lot on these gift guides. It does. We are very simpatico.

Anna Reinert: Well, because – why don't you tell yours first, and then I'll explain my second one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, I went with kind of a couple of different price point options. And just from a gifting perspective, from a fountain pen, I think the Kaweco Sport and then secondarily from a different price bracket, the Kaweco Steel Sport are not just like two of my favorite pens. But they're two really great gift pens because they're a little bit different than your standard traditional fountain pen. Even like taking the Caran d'Ache 849, right? Just, you know, standard, full-size, traditional, you know, looking, even though it's a cool style. These are fun and pocketable. The Kaweco Sport size is just kind of like the perfect gift pen because it's not standard in what you think about a fountain pen. But functionally, it's as good as any fountain pen out there. I love them.

Anna Reinert: I find that they are – maybe they're less intimidating because they're kind of small and a little funky shaped. So – and again, with the Sport, it's plastic. So, it doesn't feel like someone has something that's like precious. It's – you know, and the steel as well. It's pretty durable. So, you can throw it in your pocket. It can get dinged around with your car keys. It's not a big deal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just think they're awesome. In either model. So, like the plastic, you know, the classics, the – gosh, they have so many names for, like, the entry-level ones. They're, like, between $25 and $30. The steel one, I think it's over $100. Yeah. The standard.

Anna Reinert: The carbon fibers. The collection.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll just put in a link to a bunch of Kaweco stuff. And there's a huge range of them, and they're all really, really good. I did throw in one kind of higher-end fountain pen, just that I think is, like, a really neat gift. And it's a very traditional style pen. It's the Edison Newark, which is the shape that Edison makes exclusive to Gold Spot. I thought the Orion Nebula model from last year was, like, my pen of the year. And I don't normally do a pen of the year, but I was so impressed with this. I was like, this is my favorite pen last year. And they've continued on with this material and shape. They do some neat diamond cast type of stuff on here, and then just some traditional acrylic. So, I think it's a really good shape. This is, you know, the more advanced type of fountain pen user. You know, someone who's really into these things, that's maybe a pen that they would appreciate.

Brad Dowdy: I feel like Myke went off the rails a little bit here, and I'm going to need you to tell everyone what Myke picked for this, because I'm not sure I will be able to get this out without dying.

Anna Reinert: Myke is feeling very strongly about the Montegrava Tutankhamen.

Anna Reinert: Wow. Seems like a really good starting pen, very entry-level, you know, just easing people into the fountain pen world. You know, it's not audacious or showy. It's just very clean.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't come with a coffin or a sarcophagus or anything like that. It's just a very good entry-level pen, you know, very, you know, basic display case. You know, it doesn't look like a mummy or anything like that.

Anna Reinert: No, not at all. Not at all. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a really interesting pick, Myke. Thank you.

Anna Reinert: Myke, wow. You are just blazing a trail.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Thank you, Myke. Wow. That was a good call. Good call. So, speaking of good calls, Anna, we got to talk about our good friends at Pen Chalet, where you can find a lot of these products that we're going to talk about today. So, this episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco, and are, of course, an authorized dealer. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks, and they're always adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as the brands I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the pen accessories you ever need, like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They have free shipping on orders over $75 in the U.S., and they sell internationally, ship internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code, you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. So, if we jump over to the Pen Chalet site, oh, y'all are going to have to go check this out when you hear this episode. I know Ron has put a bunch of stuff behind this wonderful penaddict link in there. You use the code ADDIC10 in your card to see all the awesome offers and a lot of great gift ideas, including inks, pens, fountain pens, ballpoints, and storage accessories. So, thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the Pen Addict.

Anna Reinert: This is the point in the show where I start to lose money.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Pen Chalet is good at that. So, yeah, checking out that link always gets me in trouble. And I know our listeners really appreciate all the work that Ron puts in to give us all these awesome deals. All right.

Anna Reinert: What's next?

Brad Dowdy: Paper. Is paper the easiest gift to give or the toughest gift to give? I always have to think about this. What do you think just in general about giving paper as a gift?

Anna Reinert: Yeah, it depends. It depends. Like, if someone is super, super choosy, it can be a challenge. If someone is willing to try something that they haven't had before and then find a use for it if it doesn't work for what they normally use paper for, you have a little bit better luck. Like, I think you and I have both talked in the past about, like, when you have a notebook where the paper really isn't fountain pen friendly, but you realize, oh, this is great for sort of using as, like, a little scrapbook or for sketching. Or I just keep it by, you know, my desk to take notes with a gel pen. Like, just being able to be a little flexible about, like, they meant to, you know, they meant to get you a gift you'd really like. So hopefully you can find a use for it. It isn't always what maybe they had originally intended.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. I think it's generally pretty easy. Probably it's not worth overthinking, right? Like, paper gifts, I think they can be good. Just like we were talking about in the beginning, you know, figure out, go look at someone's, if you can sneak in and look at their notebook stash, if you get them more of the same thing, I promise you they will be happy, right? Like, or something along the same line. So I went with a few, I went with a wild range here. I went very expensive with the plotter because I am completely enamored with mine all of a sudden. So it took me a while to get there, I will admit, on the plotter. I used an A5 for a while until I found one of the smaller sizes called the Narrow. That one really fits my style. So that's kind of a big gift. You know, it can be very expensive. By the time you add in the cover and the inserts and the accessories, it's kind of like a Build-A-Bear type of notebook situation going on here. And you could spend, you know, $200 easily on these sizes, even the smaller sizes. But I find the smaller sizes of these to be just really, really functional, more so than some of the larger sizes on that. I think one of the best gifts of the year and something I'm going to try next year myself is to do a three or five year diary, right? That seems kind of like a perfect gift for a stationary fan. And, hey, here's a diary you can use for the next three years. So Midori, I put a link to them. They have three, five, and ten-year diaries. Crazy. That's a crazy one, the ten-year one. But, yeah, three or five. And these are great functional objects. And stationary lovers will love filling this out. It's just a small, it's just like a few lines every day for however many years you want to do it. It's not as intimidating as it sounds.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, and I've heard a lot of people will use them just to sort of keep track of certain things, whether it's, you know, something that you did with your kids. Or, you know, were you, you know, on this particular day, did you have dinner with friends or that kind of thing? So it's like you're just, it's almost logging events so that you can go back the next year and be like, oh, today, this day, last year, you know, my kid was just learning to walk. And now, you know. Exactly. Like, you know, so rather than trying to document or archive all your thoughts, these are great for sort of keeping track of those little things that over three and five years can seem a lot more poignant. You know, when you see it and track back like, oh, on this day, three years ago, we had a terrible snowstorm. You know, and today it's 60 degrees outside.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. And you get to see all that all on the same page. If you're not familiar with these, you should look at the layout of them because it is really a simple layout. And you get to see, like Ana saying, the year over year changes that you had. And I know a lot of separate from that, people will just use it as their gratitude journal because it's really like three to five lines a day. Right. And, you know, hey, I was thankful for this today. And, you know, just do that every day. And do you have something to go back and look on, you know, for inspiration down the line? Last thing, I love postcards. And I want you to make more of your postcards that you send in the Patreon members that you send out. I use your postcards to write lyrics on and send them out to friends. And I found some this year from my friend, the Dormouse Desk, when I was at the Orlando Pen Show. So I'm going to put a link into the show notes for some ink chromatography postcards that I've been using. Yeah. So they're done with, like, inks that we're all familiar with, right? Yeah. And their artwork is on the front side and use the back side on a fountain pen friendly card to send out to friends. So, yeah, it's just a cool little small gift, you know, paper gift that I think is just really, really fun to use, you know, throughout the year. You know, grab some postcards, send them off to a friend and, you know, have some cool artwork on there like that. So, yeah. So wide range of paper gifts.

Anna Reinert: Excellent. Excellent. So for my gifts this year, paper gifts, the first thing on my list is the Endless Regalia Daily Planner. So this is the Endless Paper Stationery Company has found this paper they call Regalia that they're sort of bringing in as a substitute for Timoway River. However, we've tested this paper and reviewed it a couple times. I think I did it and I think Jesse might have done it as well. Just to compare it. And it's really nice paper. They're doing their own planner this year. I'm pretty sure right as of today there may be a coupon, you know, with the whole – I don't know when this will go out with Black Friday and stuff. They were doing deals.

Anna Reinert: But, yeah. So I feel like this is a really good opportunity. It looks like a really good layout. I just thought it was a good option.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I hadn't caught the – I've been testing out the Regalia paper myself, but I hadn't seen the planner option. And that's really cool. Like, again, like the – I think planners are good gifts. Like, you know, it's something to get the year off right, you know. And I think that's very cool. So, yeah. That looks pretty cool. I'm going to check that out myself.

Anna Reinert: Cool. So the other thing that I really get a kick out of – and, again, this is the kind of thing where they've done several variations on this. I, of course, prefer the one with the cats on it. But it's the Himekuri sticky calendar. So each day is a little sticky, like a little sticky note that you can pull off and then actually put in your planner or in your journal or diary or whatever, which I found absolutely delightful. So this is one that I – you know, it's like really quickly I can put the date because I kind of just do bullet journal style. So I can just put the date at the top with a silly little kitty sticker.

Brad Dowdy: I am all the way in on this. This is super cool. Yeah. I really, really like this.

Anna Reinert: There are several other designs. I think they have one that's just like big, bold numbers, which is, you know, if you want a real minimal, modern look, you can go with that design. They have one, I think, that has flowers, the cat, and I think there's a couple others. And they have one that's undated as well where it's just – you can like color in the – like it looks like an old digital clock and you can color in what date it is. So if you wanted to start today, you could. You won't have to wait until January 1st.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm going through this now. There is a bunch of them. I – yeah. I'm – okay.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. I missed them last year.

Brad Dowdy: I'm making my list.

Anna Reinert: There you go. See, I told you this is the point at which this podcast starts to cost you and I money.

Anna Reinert: And then the last thing I put was if I were trying to entice someone into better paper, better, you know, just the better world of stationery, I would give them a Traveler's Notebook Starter set.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Anything that you can kind of like customize to make it yourself or make it more personal to you, which is Traveler's, even if it's just like the cover and the notebooks, it's still just like – it gives you this little bit of freedom that – I like that personal touch that the products like Traveler's and like I mentioned Plotter gives you. So yeah, I think that's an awesome idea.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, and I've just – I've never met anybody who didn't find them enticing even if they weren't paper nerds or whatever. They're like, oh, that looks really nice. Like you take that into a meeting, you look professional but kind of cool. Yeah, exactly. It's cooler than a Moleskine.

Brad Dowdy: How did – they're legit cool. They're legit cool. All right. So Myke went way, way off the table here and chose this theme system journal for his paper gift. I mean it is a legit awesome journal. It's really smartly designed. I know it's kind of Myke's baby over there at cortexmerch.com. I've used it in the past. I really enjoyed using it when I do. But that is a legit great product.

Anna Reinert: Shameless self-promotion and he isn't even here.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. Don't worry. You and I are going to get to do some shameless self-promotion here later. Wow.

Anna Reinert: That's like she sells.

Brad Dowdy: That was – I had to – you notice I had to pause like really hard for that.

Discussion on pencils as gifting options

Brad Dowdy: All right. Okay. Let's get into pencils. One of my favorite gifting categories.

Anna Reinert: All right. We'll go first.

Brad Dowdy: You go first. You go first. I went first last time.

Anna Reinert: Oh, okay. Okay. Again, this is unofficially sponsored by Caran d'Ache. So, I developed a reputation years ago of handing out red-blue pencils at various events just to get people excited about them. And to this day, the Caran d'Ache 999 bicolor pencil, which is – it doesn't say – doesn't give you any idea what it is. But it is a red and blue pencil, half and half, one on each end. And for whatever reason, this particular model that Caran d'Ache does is actually water-soluble. So, it's fun if you want to add a little water brush pen to it and all of a sudden it turns into sort of like watercolor. So, it is not cheap. Oftentimes, it can be $3 to $5 for one pencil. But, again, you get two colors. It's, you know, a watercolor pencil. That's the kind of thing that I would give to somebody as like a gift, like a stocking stuffer or a secret Santa. Because I think anybody would think it was cool, even if they never realized that it was water-soluble. And then for a non-water-soluble option, the Mitsubishi red-blue pencils. And they have a hex and a round version. JetPens stocks both of them. And you can buy a whole box for a reasonable price and just sort of hand them out like Santa Claus.

Brad Dowdy: I love those. They're definitely some of my favorite pencils. I like the two-color pencils here. They're fantastic.

Anna Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I like to use them for sketching.

Anna Reinert: Oh, yeah. Totally. Or even just underlining and highlighting notes. Like, you know, you've taken all your meeting notes and you go back and you want to underline the tasks you need to do versus everyone else or whatever. That's where I use the red-blue. A lot. But I also put in colored pencils because I knew you guys wouldn't go there. And I put in the Tombow Erotogen. I never say that right. Please don't skewer me for it.

Brad Dowdy: No. So, literally one of my favorite products in the world. And I would have put this in here. And I'll explain why I didn't in a minute. But, yeah. Tell me about the color dictionary.

Anna Reinert: It's just a beautiful set of pencils. The cores are a little bit harder than things like Prismacolor, which have very soft leads. So, they're a little bit easier for people who maybe haven't used colored pencils a lot or since they were a little kid or whatever. And the colors are classically Japanese. They're just very elegant. It's not just your pack of eight rainbow pencils from Crayola. Yeah. So, and the pack of, I think it's a pack of like 36 for the color dictionary is maybe $30. It's not crazy expensive. Like, if you know somebody who kind of likes art or sketching or, you know, doing coloring or whatever, these would be a good gift. A little pricier than maybe what they would find at, you know, Hobby Lobby. But, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Seriously, my favorite color pencils. I keep them on my desk. I just have one dictionary. There's like, they make them in all different sizes, right? So, there's, you can get like three different sets of 30 pencils or you can get like the 36 pack. There's all kinds of different setups. So, I just have one of the 30 packs. And they're just, they're so cool.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. They're gorgeous. And not to steal your thunder, but I had had several products from Musgrave on my list as well. But my favorite is the Heritage Collection because it comes in a tube that looks like a pencil. So, it is super giftable and goofy and has kind of one of each of their most popular pencils. So, that if you are trying to convince someone that pencils are awesome, Jesse, this is for you.

Anna Reinert: They get an opportunity to try a bunch of different ones. And I think they even include their carpenter's pencil and things like that.

Brad Dowdy: So, that's my list. Yeah. So, like it was a lot for me to put the Tombow Erojitin Color Dictionary on my list until I got Musgrave marketed in my email. So, they just came out with their 2022 holiday gift set. Similar to like Anna was talking about, you know, the Heritage set with all the pencils. This has a few more accessories. It's got like a little pouch, a little notebook, some stickers, some of the Tennessee Red, which is one of their, you know, most popular products. Maybe their single most popular product, at least for super pencil nerds. And it's just, you know, like a pre-made set. It's 40 bucks. It's got lots of cool stationary stuff in there. So, definitely check that out as a wonderful gift. If I was shopping for myself, I might have to go for the Pencil King. That was also in the same email that I got marketed to. It's a round purple pen with like a vintage font on there. It's just a really, you know, OG style classic pencil from like the 40s and 50s as far as style goes. Yeah, these are sweet.

Anna Reinert: I might be, yeah, this is going to cost me some money.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Shame on you. I know. Again, this is the products we like. And I saw this and like, I went like, oh, this is trouble. Yeah, that's beautiful. It's only 15 bucks for a 12 pack. And it comes in that similar tube packaging. It's not, I mean, it doesn't have the pencil artwork on there, but it's got the beautiful purple and gold.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, it's beautiful gold foiling. It's a lovely tube.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, sorry about that. These are great. They're fantastic.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, this is, I'm going to spend so many at Musgrave. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, so Myke would like to go with the Rotring 600 for a favorite pencil gift. I mean, it is the best mechanical drafting pencil. It's maybe the only pencil he's ever used in his entire life, which I, you can't go wrong with the Rotring 600. That's, you know, if you have a student or, you know, someone who's into like the technical aspects of drawing or art, like the Rotring 600, you really can't go wrong with that. So I don't think Myke has ever had anything different for pencil gifts. And you know what? He's not wrong in this case.

Anna Reinert: Nope. And he, he is representing the mechanical pencil zone because neither of us did.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly, exactly. Oh, I, I, I might, I might go down that path a little bit later. We'll see. We'll see. Sounds good. We'll see. Um, so let's, uh, let's talk about ink real quick, which I think along the lines of fountain pen, I think inks actually, it could be maybe like paper. It could be like really hard to buy or really simple. Like if you don't overthink it. So I thought a little bit for ink, since you're probably buying something for someone who knows what to do with a bottle of ink, right? So this is someone who's probably got some experience with fountain pens and things like that. I looked at a couple of brands that I really enjoy that have a wide color palette. So I'm not necessarily picking out like one specific color of a specific brand, but I think both Venta inks and wearing wool inks have been some of my favorite colors this year, right? They've done some interesting, um, um, colors, some interesting ideas, some interesting packaging, just kind of a all around good quality, good writing inks. You can even, you know, get some of the shimmer inks if you want, or some sheening inks, things like that. But I think it's just a unique inky gift. I like just picking something from Venta or wearing wool inks, um, to, to have someone test out. I think they're, um, beautiful, beautiful inks.

Anna Reinert: They are. They're really good. Um, I love it when ink companies do some sort of set or gift set. I find that these are great for gift giving. Um, and the color verse new horizon set is still available. Um, I don't know how many are left cause they're usually pretty limited, but they're the kind of thing that it's a nice opportunity to try a bunch of colors. And I feel like it's the kind of thing that, um, people are sometimes hesitant to buy for themselves cause it's a bit more expensive. So it would be kind of like a, you know, a treat to get something that is like, Ooh, it's all so fancy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, this is like a perfect kind of gift set up for ink. Um, yeah. What do you get for four different colors all in like the same packaging? And if you're a fan of color verse, you know, they do like really cool packaging and they always do a great job. And then the inks on top of that are just spectacular. So yeah, this, uh, this actually looks like a set of colors that I would enjoy. The four colors work, uh, really, really well together. So yeah, I like that a lot.

Anna Reinert: There is a review of that set on well-appointed desk. If you want to see them all in action.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Nice. So, um, Myke would like to choose, uh, for his ink gift, uh, pilot, Oro Shizuku Fuyugaki. Um, now he has long been an orange ink fan and he will tell you, he will correct me. He's yelling right now, listening, saying that no, Brad, I actually think the Robert Oster fire on fire that you make is the best orange ink, but I will never let him live down the fact that he chose Fuyugaki over Oro Shizuku Yuyaki way back in the day as the best orange ink. And, uh, even though his mind has changed, I still think that's probably his favorite ink gift because, you know, I mean, the Oro Shizuku ink bottles are cool. They're, they're well-priced. They're a good ink. And, uh, yeah, he, uh, he is a long time Fuyugaki lover and I will not let him live that down.

Anna Reinert: And he snubbed fire on fire. Shame.

Brad Dowdy: Man.

Anna Reinert: Poor shame.

Brad Dowdy: That was harsh.

Anna Reinert: Shameless self-promotion earlier and now dissing his bestie. This is bad. It's bad.

Brad Dowdy: He wouldn't even do it. He wouldn't even do it to me. So, yep. All right. We have a few more, a few more lists to get to, but no. Next up, let's talk about our good friends over at Trade Coffee.

Anna Reinert: So this episode makes, I was going to say Trade Coffee makes a lovely gift.

Brad Dowdy: Heck yeah. So this is perfect for this episode of the Pen Addict, which is brought to you by Trade Coffee. The holidays are approaching, Anna, so it's time to start thinking about what you're going to gift your loved ones. And if you're looking for something to get, even the hardest to shop for, look no further with a personalized coffee subscription from Trade Coffee. Trade Coffee is a subscription service. It makes it so simple for you to discover new coffees and make your best cup of coffee at home every day, which I do. Trade partners with the nation's top rated independent roasters to send you coffee that they know you'll love fresh to your home and on your preferred schedule. Whether you already know what you like or are new to specialty coffee and need some help, Trade makes it easy and convenient to discover new coffees. So I was thinking about this this morning as I was brewing my coffee. I forgot to write down which coffee was actually being ground this morning. So I told Myke last week that I needed to start tracking these things. Well, Trade sends me an email every week, and that's what I need to start writing down. So this week I'm getting from Greater Goods in Austin, Texas, Anna, I'm getting their Kickstart roast, which features dark chocolate and brown sugar sweetness are front and center in this easy drinking coffee with a surprising and delightful note of rose throughout. I mean, come on. Like that is my coffee.

Anna Reinert: Sounds fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: If that coffee's on the board, that's the one I'm choosing. And that's what Trade does for you. That's how perfect they are matching what I look for in a coffee every day and want to drink every day. So Trade coffee is a perfect gift for loved ones, which makes them perfect for this gift guide episode. They make it easy with their digital gifting options for last minute shoppers or their coffee and equipment bundles for something under the tree. Treat yourself or the coffee lover in your life with Trade coffee. Right now, Trade is offering our listeners a total of $30 off a subscription and access to limited time holiday specials. At drinktrade.com slash penaddict. That's D-R-I-N-K-T-R-A-D-E dot com slash penaddict for $30 off. Our thanks to Trade coffee for their support of this show and all of Relay FM. All right. So let's talk about a few type of accessory type things. In this category, I'm calling storage, which can mean pretty much anything. But I think we both took it as, hey, let's look at our carry storage, our smaller storage. So what do you have for favorite storage gift?

Anna Reinert: Well, two of my favorite storage devices are the Ray May Clam pen case. So it has like a hard edge. So it's almost like those, you know, your grandma had the like handbag with the like clutch thing across the top.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like that cross, like that cross clasp kind of thing.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, the cross clasp kind of thing. And it had that rigid edge. So the Ray May Clam cases have the same thing around the edge, but it's the whole case is sort of like a little rectangle kind of thing. So when you open it, it kind of, it stays open. It doesn't fall shut. And you have like a little reservoir in the bottom. And it's like my favorite thing to keep, you know, markers, pencils, you sort of non-fountain pen, like all my other accessories. And there's like little pouches in the top of the lid for things like extra converters, an eraser, sharpener, those types of things. And they fit into like a little mesh pouch. Um, and it doesn't look like maybe they'll be stocked forever. Um, I was looking at JetPens and they're listed as last chance. Um, so I feel like that's a really great, like go get it quick because you'll, you'll be glad you did. It's, I've tried just about every case. I think the JetPens sells and it has, it's the one that I always go back to.

Brad Dowdy: And it's only 14 bucks. Like this is like no brainer. Like this is, this could be part of like other giveaway. I mean, other giveaways, other gifts, other gifts. Um, you know, you put them, put them in the case and they're kind of all together. I have like a stationary kit. Yeah. These are fantastic.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. And then, uh, my clap, my favorite, I carry it all the time is my three, uh, my Galen leather three slot zippered pen case. It's the one that goes with me every day. Um, it has ink stains all over it. It's in their crazy horse leather. So it, it looks bashed and beaten. And oftentimes I'll show it to people at pen shows who are looking at Galen leather products. And I'm like, this is what it looks like when it's had some abuse. And they're like, oh, that looks really good. Like, have you treated it, condition the leather or anything? I'm like, nope. So eventually I should probably treat the leather. It's, I've had it for several years, but yeah, it's perfect for just holding the couple of pens you'll need throughout the day. Um, and it keeps, it keeps me honest. Like instead of carrying like a 40 pen case to work, like really seriously, how many pens are you going to use? Like maybe two.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, so I kind of did a little bit along, uh, your lines. I have a, a, a fancy pants leather product, um, in superior labor. They are one of my favorite brands just in general, just their, their design and their aesthetic and their style is completely right up my alley. I've used a couple of their cases. Well, I've used one case for a while. It's the wallet case, which doesn't look like it's still currently available. And then a different, uh, pouch bag, um, that I currently use as well. So I, there's all kinds of different choices from, from these small pouches to like individual, like three pin cases or some larger pin rolls and wraps. So they're pretty expensive. Like this is like a, like a big stationary gift for someone, but I just love the design. I love the look they've held up well. Over time. So I'm a, I'm a big fan of everything that superior labor does. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the smand, which is like your, um, like your Raymay clam pen case. This is like the one case that I think is like my favorite at jet pins who has like literally all the cases. This is such a really basic looking case. It's like a little triangular shape, hard sided case, but the front end flips out. So you can like stand things on the outside. Um, it's got like this.

Anna Reinert: Please tell me that you have the one with the bunnies.

Brad Dowdy: I have had the ones with the bunnies and give them, given them away right now. I have like the blue and green one on my desk. Like I have, I've think I've bought literally every one of these colors on the page because there's such good giveaway items. So I give a lot of these away and I've definitely given away the bunnies and the cherry and the puppy. Uh, right now I just have the standard blue and green. It's got some nice ink stains on it from using it so much. And like the, the interior pocket hole, it's probably like 20 pins. Like I have a bunch of highlighter markers in there right now. And then like, literally I'm staring at it. My phone's like resting up on the outside of the case right now. And then there's like three pins on the little tray outside of it. So yeah, love the smand. It's a great, it's a great case. And, uh, yeah, I will, I will stand by this man forever.

Brad Dowdy: Myke made up for his past egregiousness with the Fuyugaki and for storage. He went straight for the Notco Sinclair, except knowing Myke, um, he just wants the, the old school Sinclair to exist forever. But you know what? The new Rick, Rickshaw Sinclair model R he's going to, uh, he's going to learn to love that one just as much because it's really, really nice.

Anna Reinert: He's going to learn to embrace it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. He will. I haven't sent him one yet. So he doesn't have one yet to, to learn the ways of the model R, but, uh, it's been fantastic. It's been great working with, uh, Rickshaw for this. So Myke, I appreciate you, uh, making up for that, uh, that Fuyugaki take with, uh, just going straight for the Notco Sinclair, which is now the Rickshaw Sinclair model R. So he, he came correct a little bit there.

Anna Reinert: There you go. Um, I, I really like mine and if it hadn't already been on the list, I might've thrown you a bone there.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you have a, you have a sweet pink one, right?

Anna Reinert: Yes, I do. Um, there's such a, there's such a funny story about that.

Brad Dowdy: Mm.

Anna Reinert: So when all of the announcements were coming, uh, about the release of the Sinclair through Rickshaw, um, uh, Rickshaw had posted this glorious, like neon hot pink one with, uh, a chair, uh, um, like the Sakura cherry blossom, uh, insert for two pens. And I was like, I'm sorry, that's my case in the comments. And a week later it showed up in my mailbox.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Anna Reinert: I was like, he's always been so good to me. And, um, like the very first time that I met, um, uh, the owner of Rickshaw.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Mark.

Anna Reinert: Mark. Thank you. Mark Dwyer. I, um, he was walking around, uh, the San Francisco pen show with a big like duffel bag full of his like single pen sleeves. Like he hadn't set up a table. He wasn't sure yet if the pen community was going to embrace him or anything. And he walked up to me, took one look and then, uh, reached in his bag and pulled out a hot pink, um, pen sleeve for me. Yep. And, you know, after the, and, and then I pulled out my Caran d'Ache 849 fountain pen and hot pink and I slid it in there and I'm like, perfect.

Brad Dowdy: And I put it back in my pocket. So.

Accessories and holiday-related gift ideas

Brad Dowdy: All right. So keeping along, uh, the, the, the same lineup, let's go to accessories. So it could be, you know, storage or other things like that. And I, I have, um, I'm calling, I picked two things. I'm calling one fair and one unfair because, uh, fair is, is the good made better pinball traveler. And this is fair because it's available. My unfair product, which I'll get to in a minute is not available and I'm super mad about it, but let's talk about the, the pinwell. So good made better, obviously, um, a great, great maker in our community makes all kinds of great things. I love the little traveler style. It's a smaller one and they, uh, Dan makes like a two seater, uh, pinwell traveler, which I don't have yet, which when I was looking for this, I knew I was going to put the pinwell in here. And then I found the pinwell traveler double. It's really cool. So you can have, um, these kind of portable, uh, two spots and there's even a triple, like if you want to get, get wild, but I kind of like the double, uh, aspect of these. So they're really fun, really portable and just a kind of a neat, well-made, uh, product that I, it's one of those products I use every day without knowing it, right? Like I'll just walk by and grab my pin that's in my pinwell. I actually keep a different pinwell on a different desk that has my Apple pencil in it. And that's where I know what my Apple pencil is always in there. So in the little pinwell. So yeah, there you go. I love those products. Yeah. I love them.

Anna Reinert: They're really good.

Brad Dowdy: Um, my unfair gift. I haven't found a way to buy it, Anna. I know. And I need, I need this. So this is the Traveler's Factory, Victorinox, Swiss Army Knife collaboration. 100%. So there, they did. So the Traveler's makes all kinds of little small collaborations and they made the little Paul, the little small, um, Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, like little teeny pocket one. And they made them with some of their, um, you know, like logos and, you know, some of their little phrases that they use. And it's, it's just great. And like, I'm going to have to figure out one way to get these. So this is a reminder for me to buy something for me on this gift guide list for me.

Anna Reinert: If you figure it out, just order two and tell me what I owe you.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Yeah. I should probably just order like one of each and that way, you know, I can send them to other people or something like that. They're just really, really great looking. I love those. So yeah, there you go.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. Super cool. Um, so favorite accessory gift. I decided to throw one in that was actually holiday related. And this is the Enigma Blanks Ink Vent calendar that they made that is extraordinary and can be used all year long because it's just a giant, uh, like pen nib standee with 25 little holes in it to put sample vials. And they have them with each of the sample vials has the, you know, numbers one through 25 for an ink vent. But I was like, this is so cool. I would use it all year long.

Brad Dowdy: I have not seen this and this is rad.

Anna Reinert: Like, yeah, there's like so cool.

Brad Dowdy: It's fun. It's like, um, steel nibs and gold nibs. Like you can get like the different color nib, like is the background of the holder. It's really cool. That's really cool. I like that a lot.

Anna Reinert: I think I'm going to need one that's in pink, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right.

Anna Reinert: So, um, the other thing that I put on, I put two other things. These are both off of Etsy. Um, one of them is the Treme ceramics watercolor dishes. Um, these are the most adorable things you have ever seen.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, they look so fun.

Anna Reinert: They're so cool. They come from, I think Italy is where the artist lives. Um, but they're animal shapes. So I have one that looks like a panda bear. And when you take the sort of panda bear's head off, it becomes a water dish. And then the panda body bottom is a segmented tray to put your watercolor colors in. Um, so it, when it's all stacked together, it's just this darling little panda bear. Um, but then you have the pieces to, that are actually entirely functional. And when I ordered mine, it came with a little tiny panda bear head that I could use as a pen or brush rest. Um, and they have them that look like bunnies and all sorts of things. And she also makes a bunch of other ceramic critter things. There's like bats that, that are, can be used as like flower planters. They're freaking adorable.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm loving the little fox here.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. They're, they're really cute. Um, and then the other thing I found was from something called BZ ceramic and it is a monster pen cup. It looks like a, maybe like a dinosaur or a dragon and you get to stick all the pens in his mouth.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool.

Anna Reinert: And it is so cute. And I was like, this is the kind of thing that, um, people probably wouldn't have found on their own. It's just like a weird funky little thing. So like as a gift, if you're, if you're a pen lover is a bit of a goofball, they might like putting their desk pens in a, in a dragon's mouth.

Brad Dowdy: It's fantastic. It's fantastic. All right. For Myke, you know, sometimes, um, he is, uh, prone to like steal other people's ideas and, you know, sometimes, you know, feels guilty that he's not being very unique. And this is one of those times he's just gonna, he's just gonna trail me and go with the pin well traveler from good way, good made better as well. I know he's a big fan of good made betters, uh, pin wells. So he likes the traveler as well. And, you know, seeing that he's not here and he is traveling right now, he could probably use one of these for himself. So, um, yeah, Myke, yeah, he would like to also pick the, uh, the good made well, good made better pin well traveler, um, which is just an awesome accessory. It is. All right, Anna, this has been a fun gift guide, but before we go, we're gonna do another topic called favorite stuff we make. So let's shout out ourselves, which both of us always say we could do a better job at promoting the stuff that we make and the fun stuff that we're involved in. So why don't you go first? Tell us what awesome stuff, um, that you're making and that people can check out for, uh, gifts this season.

Anna Reinert: Well, I, it was, it was hard for me to pick, um, just because I realized now I have a lot of different things that we make. Um, but I went with the classic, the coloring, it fits in a Christmas stocking, um, uh, currently available on both our big cartel and our Etsy site. Um, we use Etsy specifically for people who are international. Um, but, uh, us residents are welcome to use Etsy as well, if you'd like. Um, but big cartel, uh, is where you'll find everything that I'm currently selling. Etsy has a slightly more limited selection because the balance of the things that we sell are available on Etsy through Skylab Letterpress, like our Santa stationary kit, um, which is, um, perfect. If you want to, uh, write letters to children from Santa, it comes with posted, not real postage, but fake postage that looks like it comes from, uh, the North pole. And, uh, you can write and tell your kids to behave because Santa's coming.

Brad Dowdy: Nice, nice. Yeah. And every, everyone needs a color ring too. So like, like you should just, if you're listening to the show, that's a product you should own. Like it's, it's the best. And, uh, if no, if you're not putting them on a, on a gift list for someone to buy you, you need to buy them for yourself. Just sneak, sneak them in your own stocking or just, you know, just buy them, throw them in your desk. No one needs to know you need them. All right. So, um, we just launched a bunch of new spoke pencil model fours, Brian and I at spoke pen with several new grip styles. So we have brass grips and these large, um, super group titanium grips and some titanium knurled grips. So we have a fresh inventory of the model for spoke pencil, which is one of my favorite, uh, products we make. I just love the size and the shape of the spoke pencil and all these grips and grip materials, um, are very, very cool. So you can check out all the different sizes and shapes over at spoke design.com.

Anna Reinert: Those are spiffy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. They came out really, really good. And then over at the pen addict shop, I have three pen collaborations out there right now. I have the Bennu 15th anniversary pen. So the, the pen addict will be 15 on November 29th. So I did a pen, uh, to celebrate with Bennu. It's a very fun and sparkly and bright. And then I have the Opus 88 halo, which is just a universally great pen. And then I have the big fancy Montegrappa Venetia Rio de la Toledo, which just came back in stock this week. So there's, uh, uh, another 20 or so of those available out there for those who love that Montegrappa style and the really, really cool material. So that's the things I have going on. I have going on. So yeah, fun stuff, fun stuff. And Myke, of course, you can find all of Myke's merchandise at Cortex brand. So we'll have a link into the show notes. You can get your theme system journals. You can get your, your t-shirts, your sweatshirts, your hoodies, and, uh, definitely pay attention. There's some new products I might have sitting behind my desk coming up next year that, uh, I've been testing out. So, uh, you want to check out all the Cortex merch. So lots of fun stuff there. Anna, this was a joy. It's been way, way, way too long. Why don't you give a shout out? Um, you know, anywhere people can find you, anything you want to shout out, uh, before we wrap it up and go, uh, spend some of our own money on this list of stuff we have for everyone today.

Anna Reinert: No kidding. Um, I can be found at wellappointeddesk.com and there are links down the side of the page for our shop, our Etsy, our Patreon, um, Instagram, which we are not very good at maintaining any longer.

Brad Dowdy: Facts on that.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. No kidding. Um, but yeah, so all of that can be found there. Um, yeah, easy peasy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And you can find all of my stuff at penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm on Twitter at dowdyism, at least for now. And I'm on Instagram at penaddict. And yeah, this has been great. It's been too long. Uh, you and I, I have a feeling next year will bring us together in person a lot more and we'll do a lot more podcasting as well. So until next time, say goodbye, Anna.

Anna Reinert: Goodbye, Anna.