The Pen Addict 720/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	720
Title:	Feeding Your Creativity
Release Date:	June 11th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy
Guests:	Toni Palumbo
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 720
Audio File:	Audio Episode 720
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 720
Length:	5656 min <br />0.933 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From Relay, this is The Pen Addict podcast, episode number 720. I'm your host, Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict, and joining me today is my good friend, Toni Palumbo from Feed Your Creativity. How are you doing, Toni?

Toni Palumbo: I'm great. How are you, Brad? Thank you for having me.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I'm super excited to have you. We get to talk a lot, you know, in person. We see each other at pen shows and on the road. But as I've been following you over the last, I don't know, couple years now? Yeah, two or three. I forget when we first met. Two or three. Things have escalated. And I enjoy watching and I enjoy seeing that. So we're going to get into all of that stuff today. How's that sound? That sounds great. Yeah. Just for quick notes, you're right in off the road here. Yes. Literally. We got in at 10 a.m.

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to, believe me, we're going to talk about this as we go. I just wanted to prep listeners. You have your coffee. I won't lie, I just finished a coffee right before we started.

Toni Palumbo: No, I have tea. I have.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, you have tea. So even better.

Toni Palumbo: I have the hard stuff.

Background in Stationery

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, even better. All right. So before we get into all of this stuff that we got to get into, I want to talk about your background in stationery. Because like I said, we just met a couple years ago, three years ago. And just met at pen shows, probably in Orlando, I think. Yeah. Orlando pen show for the first time.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah, but it was so funny because I think that was like only my second or third time at Orlando. And I didn't know who you were. And I don't know if you noticed, but everyone at our table was freaking out. How did you get a table with Brad? And I was like, Brad, what do you mean? Because I mean, I've started listening to your podcast since then. And I have a couple more that I listen to. But back then, I really wasn't listening to them. They're like, do you know him personally? I was like, no. No.

Brad Dowdy: Too funny. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a nobody. Nobody knows me. No. Not at pen shows. Everyone knows me. No. But I want to know how you got to that pen show in the first place, right? Like when did stationery start to become part of your life? Were you like an early in life kid who loved all the school supply stuff? Yes. Tell me about when you first like realized you like this stuff.

Toni Palumbo: So I was like the three-year-old obsessed with school supplies. So my mom told me it like started that young. Wow. So I went to private Catholic school and we didn't have like, oh, the clothes that you would wear to school. So I was always the one with the binder and sheet protectors. And in it would be like Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Target, Walmart, and every single supply I would want. And I'd make all my notes and then hand the binder over to my mom and be like, this is what we're going to do for the next two days. And she'd be like, ugh. But I mean, she was always very supportive, but it was like, okay, well, we're going to get a pen case from Target. We're going to get the backpack from Office Max. And that I always, even in school, people knew like, oh, if you need a pen, a pencil, an eraser, anything, go to Tony.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I remember like being that person. Did you have like the, the, your least favorite product set aside so you didn't have to hand over the good products? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You have to have, I call it when, you know, when I'm older and in the office, I always called it a bait cup. Like, you know, I just leave a cup out of my desk of the stuff that I didn't want.

Toni Palumbo: So, you know, when I worked at theater, I worked at theater for like five years and I had a Toyo steel box with all my very expensive pens and pencils and erasers. And you mainly used pencils in theater so you could erase. Mm-hmm. And then I had like a children's school box. I would throw all the actors if they forgot their pencil, their eraser, their highlighter, and they never knew the difference. Like they didn't even notice.

Brad Dowdy: No. They probably thought it was the greatest thing ever. Yes. And you're like, eh, eh, it's all right. It's good for you. Right. It's good for you. Yeah. So when you were, when you were a kid back in school, did you have any favorites? Like, did you, was there any particular items that, that stood out? Like I remember like back when I was in school, which is a long time ago, the original paper made eraser made came out and it was just a tragedy of a, of a product. It was a horrible product, but it was super popular. Did you have anything that you remember using or, or loving at the time?

Toni Palumbo: You know, I recently found it and I hope I didn't lose it. It could be in our storage unit, but I believe it was Bic made a pen with, it was a half circle and it was a click. It went from side to side.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Toni Palumbo: And I had like a bunch of those in every color. And it's so funny because I loved the shape so much. I recently kept it. And also I just saw it like a couple of years ago and I knew that day I should have just bought it and I didn't, but it was those pencil cases that were two sided and had the built in sharpener.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah.

Toni Palumbo: And had all the little compartments. I love those. They just like popped back up at target a couple of years ago and it was really, really kiddish. And I thought, no, I won't get it, but I should have just taken it for the design alone.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for sure. You, you got like, I, as we know, I, I very much like a childish and kiddish thing. So you just got to go for it. You just got to send it, send it and get the, get the silly stuff.

Toni Palumbo: Hopefully target will bring it back.

Transition to Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, so how did that escalate a little bit? Did you ever use fountain pens when you were younger? Did you start using fountain pens later? How did kind of like, not a transition, but just like learning about a new type of stationery come about?

Toni Palumbo: Well, my grandmother was always buying me the Schaefer calligraphy sets when I was young. So like middle school on middle school, she bought me more in high school. So I always use those. And then around 2018, I think it was, I started bringing all of my Schaefer's back out because I was binding my own books and doing like journaling and they look so nice on the paper. And they just had a certain swirl to them that I really liked with my handwriting. So I started using those, but it was so random. I was on a black wing Facebook group and it said, Hey, anyone in your Orlando area, there's an Orlando pen show. It's their inaugural year. And I was like, Oh, that is so cool. A pen show. I've never been to a pen show. That's right up my alley. That'd be amazing. And then I went, it was just, we just Ruben and I did one day and we were so underprepared. We bought $200 and we didn't get anything. I think some poor vendor had pity on me. One of the older guys and like handed us each a preppy. Like he didn't even have us pay for it. Yeah. So, so unprepared. But from then I was like, Oh, I was hooked from, from that day to a year. I went nuts and bought several like actual fountain pens, like the Kaveco Lilliput. And I was buying more Kavecos and more Twisbys. And I was like, okay, so the next year in the Orlando pen show kind of falls on my birthday. I was like, okay, that's going to be my birthday weekend. We're going the entire weekend. And Ruben was like all groans.

Toni Palumbo: As you know, Ruben.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Not anymore.

Toni Palumbo: He's a good sport. No, not anymore. I can't say that anymore. The transition is real. So we went the entire weekend and then it just so happened that we met, uh, Tianta and Steve who are now the co-founders of the Orlando pen club and met Joe. I won a pen. I got to sit at a table with you. Yeah. And it's, it's been like rocket speed lighting ever since it's been crazy. And the very first meeting, the pen club meeting, I had approached Joe and been like, Hey, so you have Florida fountain pen. I do photography. I said, I'd love to add more product photography into my portfolio. And he's like, yeah, sure. So come on down. And I went to his place and we started doing a bunch of photos for some pens and some ads and reels. And, um, I had already known then that I wanted to start a YouTube video and channel. Um, but to begin with, I thought it was going to be more photography, but then the pens and stationary kind of took off. But then later on, Joe was like, Hey, did you ever think of doing pen shows? And I was like, yeah, but I don't know how to get to them. Like, I don't know what that entails and all. And then, uh, I believe it was, I was supposed to go with them in Atlanta and I had already committed to helping my mom with the convention. And I was like, no, no, I got to do that. But he's like, how about triangle? And I was like, Oh, I could do that. That'd be fine. And we drove up with him and his wife, Angela, Ruben and I, and took all the pens and went and set up. And I became a vendor from then on. And this past show that we were just at triangle marks like two or three years. I was going to say, yeah, yeah. Three years. That's our third anniversary.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. That's super cool. That's super cool. So you got hit with, um, what a lot of first time pen show attendees get hit with what, well, you got hit with two things. One, the overwhelm, right? Like it's despite the size of the show, which Orlando the first year being on the smaller side, it's irrelevant to someone who's just walking into the show.

Toni Palumbo: That room for the first time. It's seriously overwhelming. Number two, you got the first taste is free preppy. Yeah. From one of the vendors. Yeah. And I had done like the pilot varsities before that, but then the preppy, I don't know. That whole show just set, set a whole chain of event. And I got the brass lily put and I carry that thing everywhere and it just spiraled out of control.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a really fun one. The brass lily put, it's such a unique pen. Um, it's not for everybody, but like if it clicks for you, it's super fun. And I think I still see you carrying it. Like later we'll talk about like your notebooks and your traveler stuff. I think I've seen that when I've like looked at some of your notebooks and stuff. I've since gotten like three more of them. Yeah. As it happens. Was that the first fountain pen you bought? Do you recall like out of your own money? Like, did you, do you recall what the first one is that you bought?

Toni Palumbo: Probably. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: I believe, I mean, besides the pilot varsity, I think that was the first real one, um, where I was like, oh my God, I spent this amount of money on my pen. But before that, I actually have video of it because Ruben and I around the same time we started my YouTube channel, we were doing a theme park YouTube channel and he was doing a vlog. And I have footage, I believe Ruben still has it, of me buying a space Fisher pen and me walking out of the store going, oh my God, I spent like $65 on this pen. So, I mean, that's technically the first, but the first fountain pen, definitely the brass caverco.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's super interesting. Yeah. I love that. It's, God, it gets you quickly. It does. Like you start making excuses like really early on. It's like, I can't just, I can't believe I just spent $65 on this pen. And then it's like, give it a month and like you, you've just like opened up this wound and it's just, you know, now being filled with stationery for the rest of your life, which is good. Yeah. We love it. So you had already been doing YouTube. You transitioned me perfectly. Um, what made you want to start doing some of the fountain pen content?

Toni Palumbo: So I thought I could merge. I thought I did feed your creativity because I thought that's perfect. It could encompass everything. My photography, my filmmaking. And I love stationery and pens. And I thought, why not? Why not try it? And I have a video from the antiquarian book fair because I thought, oh, I could, I could just group all these together under one channel and it'd be feeding your creativity. So that's kind of what I was thinking, but I had already, I knew my theater program was going to be done and that they were closing the doors on us. And I thought, you know, that would just be so cool to inspire people. Yeah. And then I've always loved stationery and I don't know, Ruben and I were talking about that the other day. I don't know what made me go, let's film this Orlando pen show this time, but it just took off.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: And I mean, I have like, if you look back at the earliest videos, I have like some of the zine and I went to a zine fest that I had my own photography and made my own zines and the book content. But for some reason, the pens just took off. And I think it helped going to so many shows and recording them. Yeah. Because I didn't see it too much. And I was following a bunch of YouTubers that were doing stationery content. I was like, this is a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: So just further inspired me.

Brad Dowdy: But the show, the show content is, is kind of evergreen in that people are always just curious about what that type of events like.

Toni Palumbo: True.

Brad Dowdy: Whether you're a first time attendee, like you might've been the first time you went to Orlando, or even if now I've been to save someone like myself, who I've been to Orlando several times, I've been to these other shows several times. I still want to see what's going on because it changes every year. Like once I'm into it, it's like, I'll always go and watch that type of content. And then like pen specific content is, you know, people are always looking for information on that. So yeah, I think, I think it's great. And you were obviously like naturally predisposed to, to doing like the video content just from your background. Right. Right. Just creating that came pretty easy for you. Yeah. Generally speaking.

Toni Palumbo: Right. Yeah. We thought we have the skills, why not use them? And I mean, people don't, we know how much work goes into it, but it's crazy that like we could film for three days and then Ruben takes 20 to 50 hours editing. We were at a little craft fest and I had subscribers come up to me Friday and they're like, oh my God, I'm so excited for the video. And then Saturday morning, they were all screaming at Ruben, where's the video? Where's the video? And he's like, no, no, no. It's like a combination of all three days. And I got to go home and I got to edit. Yeah. It's so funny, but yeah, it's a lot of work and effort, but thank God we had the skill for it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly.

Toni Palumbo: And the talent and the love and the passion. I think one passion feeds the other, which is really fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I always try to explain that to people. It's like, yeah, not everything's a VOD. Right. You don't just throw it up there and go live. Right. So you, you mentioned little craft fest and some of the videos you're shooting from on locations. And you mentioned, uh, Florida found the pen and Joe, um, who also runs the Orlando pen show. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. Um, what did you think when he did ask you to hit the road and help with, with pen shows? Like what? That's a lot of like time and effort driving the, driving the van around. Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: The pen surprise. Oh, at the time he didn't even have the van. He had a truck. Okay. So it was even, even more of a traveling journey, but I was all for it because I've always been freelance for video and photo. So I was like, Oh great. Another freelance job. I could jump. Even at the theater, I was still freelance.

Brad Dowdy: That makes sense.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. If I had a photo or video job and we were in the middle of a production, they'd be like, hand me your binder, go off. We'll see in a week. So they were always super, super helpful. The director there, Frank Blocker, he was just always so supportive of that. And he knew I had a passion and love for photography and filmmaking, just always fed into it, which was fantastic. Always would help me.

Brad Dowdy: Did you think, or did you plan on going into it when you're going out to these shows is like, Oh, I can just double up and make some content as well.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. I mean, that's kind of what I told Joe, like how it's great to work with you, but also I would love to film the video. I was there. I said, if it was kind of like, can I do both? And he's like, yeah, I don't, I don't see why not. And we've made it work since then. And it's been great because I've, it's like, we're advertising for him. I'm advertising for the show. We're advertising for multiple vendors. We're helping out mom and pop. We're helping out big companies by showing off their products. So it's been wonderful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I love seeing the purple van at pen shows in the parking lot.

Toni Palumbo: Very recognizable.

Brad Dowdy: What is the longest amount of time you've spent on a van road trip?

Toni Palumbo: So Baltimore took us, not this year, the previous year, 16 and a half hours. And I literally could not function the next day. I have, I'm going to, I'm going to embarrass myself. I'm going to tell a funny story because we were, it was our table at Baltimore. We had Rich of Riversity behind us and next to him, they kept saying Lauren, but I didn't know her as Lauren. I knew her as Lucky Star Pens. So I'm telling Ruben, I was like, I got to find Lucky Star Pens. They have that ink. It's going to sell out. And then Rich is like, are you okay? I was like so tired. So this year we did better, but yeah, it was like 16 and a half hours. We were all pretty, pretty cooked from that.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I'm sure a lot of people just call her Fly Girl Elliot too. Just, you know, from the old Instagram handle. That's all I always have to remember, but that's, that's great. It, um, the carny, the carnival, the, the, the traveling carnival will do that to you. It will.

Toni Palumbo: So, um, their longest trip is coming up St. Louis. We break that into two days, but it's like 22 hours.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, and yeah, y'all are dropped just for people who don't know y'all are, we talking a lot about Florida and Orlando. So from the Orlando area to St. Louis, about 22. Ooh, that's rough. So leave a, leave ahead of time, but it's great. I didn't realize that you're able to like break it up. Like the freelance work that, that you took it as like this opportunity is like, well, this is kind of like how I operate to begin with. So let's just go for it. And how do you think that's been working out so far?

Toni Palumbo: Oh, I've absolutely loved it. It's, it's been so incredible because now I have Penn family all over the country and then we gather all over the country. It's so incredible to think that way. And I love DC Penn show because it still amazes me. This will be year three and it still amazes me how a group of like-minded people can take over an entire hotel. And not only that, we completely sell it out and go to different hotels. Like you can't turn.

Brad Dowdy: Like every square inch of that hotel.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. You can't turn any which way and not see a Penn person or someone, you know, which I think is so wonderful and so lovely. And the community has been so helpful that it's been fantastic. It's been a fun, fun time. I'm so grateful. I get to do so many shows. I mean, this year we're going to close out probably at nine. I mean, nine's on the books, but I'm hoping to add maybe one or two more towards the end of the year.

Sponsorship Introduction

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I love it. That's crazy. All right. I want to keep talking about Penn shows and another event you were at just recently. But first I want to talk about our good friends over at Enigma Stationery. So this episode of the Penn Addict is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. They offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. So I've been a long time customer of Enigma before they started sponsoring the show. And recently they have started to work with us and they'll have a Penn Addict specific landing page that we will send you to enigmastationery.com slash Penn Addict. You can go there and see some of the Penn Addict favorites. And oh my, I appreciate the team at Enigma putting up with me because if you go over to the Penn Addict listeners page, I have a business frog problem. And they have filled the Penn Addict listeners page with all of my favorite business frog items from stickers, stamps, pins, PIN pins and PEN pins as well. So go check out Enigma Stationery. And I was looking at some of their new items. So there's two things. And Tony, you might be into some of this. I was, I bought some little stamps from them where that you use ink pads with, and I'd been looking for different color ink pads and I didn't really notice them, but now they have a bunch in from a company called Sukineko Memento. Those are my favorite. Do drop dye ink. Are they? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I will have to get into this. There's like nine colors right now. Teal Zeal, Grape Jelly, Sweet Plum, Tangelo. I'll have to get some Tangelo going. So yeah, next order I'll place, I'll get, I bought the stamps. I didn't buy any more ink pads because I had a couple, but now that I see these colors, these look fantastic. And they got some really cool sticky notes over there. Daigo, Isshoni, Yarimono sticky notes. But what's interesting about these, they're in graph and they come in a lot of colors. So Enigma Stationery is always bringing in cool, fun, fun stuff from business frog to stamp and journaling accessories to really everything you need. So if you want $10 off on your orders of $50 or more, head over to enigmastationery.com slash pinaddict. Use the code TPA26 at checkout. That's enigmastationery.com slash pinaddict to get $10 off on orders of $50 or more with the code TPA26. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and all of Relay. All right. Recently, and I'm sad I couldn't make it this year, but Florida Stationery Fest happened.

Toni Palumbo: So are we.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know. I know. It was, you know, it's a busy, busy life. I had to go to the beach, you know. Beach, Stationery Fest. Vacation is important, but we have a beach next time. I know, I know, I know. But I got to make it down there because we've spoken before and people on the show know that Orlando is like maybe five hours from me, five, five and a half hours from me. So it's easy for me to get to the Orlando Pen Show and now Stationery Fest. What did you think about Stationery Fest this year? A quick preface. This is different from the Orlando Pen Show and it's more stationary focused. And we've seen over the past few years how Stationery Fests are mixing in with what we would consider a traditional pen show. And I personally love to see it based on all the things that I like and all the things I use in my daily stationary life. How did you think the Florida Stationery Fest went? Because just from an outsider, it looked kind of epic.

Toni Palumbo: It went extremely well. We were really, really excited with how many people came out and supported it. And we're like, oh, thank goodness it's finally here. Like something in our area is finally here. So we were really excited and people immediately were already like, OK, when's the next one? And the vendors were like, when's the next one? So we knew that was a good sign that everything went really well.

Orlando Pen Show Comparison

Brad Dowdy: So compared to like the Orlando Pen Show, could you tell like a vendor difference like from like the area? It was pretty noticeable. When I was looking at pictures, it was noticeable to me. But you can only see so much from pictures. But like you felt it was a different enough crowd to be like standalone individual events.

Toni Palumbo: Definitely. We had only two or three pen makers and then only two or three pen tables really that were dedicated pens. But I was really interested in seeing what crowd would come out because we do have the Orlando Pen Show built in like that audience. So I was like, I'm wondering what the crowd will be like. But now the stationary people came out in full force. But then so did the pen people. Yeah. So it was such an interesting mix. But yeah, we had some amazing stationary people that were one or two people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly.

Toni Palumbo: And it was fantastic. And they were around our area. St. Augustine, St. Pete, Tampa, Sarasota. They came from everywhere. Jacksonville. It was so much fun to see all the stationary people kind of converge. And then also we had two or three people from California, one person from Canada that did cards. And it was wonderful to see. And it was definitely a different feel and crowd. I mean, I hosted my very first event on Friday with a make and take. And I was like, oh, my God, no one's going to come. No one's going to want to do that. And we maxed out at 43. Oh, it was supposed to be like 40, but we were able to fit the three people that came in. So it was amazing to see that. And I had gone to a stamp and scrapbook fest in the beginning of March and got one of those vendors to come to our stationary fest.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Toni Palumbo: And she was just it was it was fun because I haven't seen that melting pot of stationary pens and scrapbooking and stamps. So it was kind of fun to have a little tasting of all of it for people. So but she was like, wow, it's like people don't understand the scrapbooking. I was like, I know that's why I wanted you here because there's so much crossover people don't realize.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When I went to my first stationary fest event, I it opened my eyes so much to things that I didn't really know about, but that I just had like an innate love for and like desire to learn more about this stuff. And just realizing all the creativity in our space, like we're super lucky to have all of these type of creative makers in our space and see them come together. And then to have a differentiation for, you know, you're talking about maybe going to like, you know, nine events, but like maybe seven of them are your traditional pen shows. Right. Which I love, too. Right. But to have something you can mix up and do something different and check out different classes, right? Different styles of classes are going to be at a stationary fest type event versus a traditional pen show event. There'll be some crossover, of course.

Toni Palumbo: But yeah, definitely different items at a stationary fest.

Little Craft Fest Discussion

Brad Dowdy: And I like to hear that there was enough difference between like just Orlando and the Florida stationary fest. It sounds like it's just kind of a great standalone event. Yeah. You also went to Little Craft Fest earlier this year. I have not made it. I have not made it to either of those shows, but I got to get to at least one next year scheduled, depending. Why not both? I know you're saying already. Of course.

Toni Palumbo: But definitely pick us.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Definitely pick you. How was Little Craft Fest? Because that's one I find so interesting because they came out of basically like a retail operation in Houston. Yeah. And in what, three years have just blown the roof? Or two years maybe. This is only the second year. Yeah. Just kind of blown the roof off of it.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. And I'm sad that they announced an October show and I don't think I'll be able to go to it this year. Gotcha. But yeah, now they're going to go twice a year. Little Craft Fest, I think, is like the DC of stationary shows. There was 139 vendors this year. Wow. In a 14,000 square foot marketplace. Plus they have classes going nonstop. It's just like a mega con for stationary. It's a blast. I spent way too much money. I think my haul video took something like four or five hours to film. So Ruben will probably end up making an hour or two long video just to get through the haul. Oh my gosh. And I'm sorry to everyone that it's not out yet. I keep getting DMs and text messages and emails going, when is it out? When is it out? But soon, soon, very soon.

Brad Dowdy: Soon.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. Little Craft Fest is just a blast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I have to, I'm not going to say it, you know, with you sitting here on the podcast to make it a priority. But, you know, I'll have to, I have to get, I mean, Orlando is so easy. I can just go to stationary fest.

Toni Palumbo: No, you've got to go at least to both.

Brad Dowdy: I will.

Toni Palumbo: They're different. They're definitely different. But there, it's amazing to see stationary fest. It is a difference. There's crossover, but it is a difference. And it was a blast this year. And I love how people do swaps and have a free table and everyone's up to the wee hours journaling. And it was a blast. And people were, I was actually in line for a vendor at Little Craft Fest. And this nice woman in front of me was buying a roll of PET tape. And I somehow convinced her. I was like, like eight or ten dollars for a loop. So I didn't have to buy the roll myself. And she's like, ah, we've been in the line long enough, five bucks. And she gave me a loop. Like, this is fun stuff like that that wouldn't happen unless you're at a stationary fest. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So that's the kind of thing. And I can see why a haul video would take that long. Because it's a little bit different, right? Yeah. It's smaller price points, maybe higher volume of stuff. So you actually, you know, you have a lot more to talk about. Just like a broader set of topics to talk about showing all the things.

Toni Palumbo: And I picked a lot of small items this time, too. Like two die cut stickers from one booth. And a keychain from another booth. And one art print from another artist.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. Just for context, and not to put you on the spot if you don't know, that's fine. The Florida Stationery Fest, like how many vendor tables was that? Do you recall? I can look it up.

Toni Palumbo: The vendor tables were probably 80. But we had something about 55 vendors.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's a lot. It was.

Toni Palumbo: It was. And we did a free table that people were awesome. I had met a lovely woman also named Tony. And she was like, oh, I saw you guys putting stuff out. I went home and went and got you stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, nice.

Toni Palumbo: And then we had a journaling table sponsored by Lighthouse. And Lauren Phelps donated stuff. Sam Flax donated stuff. Danielle with Happiness Handmade donated stuff so we could keep it going all weekend. And it was just so much fun to see people putting stuff together and stamping. And here, I'll take half a sheet. You take half a sheet. And let's make this spread. So it was a blast to see all that creativity happening.

Brad Dowdy: Did you find anything that you're like, I can't believe I found this at like Stationery Fest or Florida Stationery Fest or Little Craft Fest or something that was surprised or something that was just like, you know, awesomeness overload. Just like, I have to have this.

Toni Palumbo: Oh, yeah. At our festival with the Florida Stationery Fest, actually that scrapbooking lovely woman, Joyce, she has a store called Boku Creations. And she brought washi tape that is really only known, the brand is only known by scrapbookers. It has a different name. I'll have to give it to you. But it's a roll of washi tape. But there's points that you cut. So you can do like a layered, it makes a whole photo.

Brad Dowdy: So I see. Okay. So it's like paint by numbers washi tape.

Toni Palumbo: In a way, it just has sections that you could cut and then make a whole image from it. That's cool. And it even tells you like the front end, you cut that so you're not continuing the image. And it's a whole block. It was so unique. I was like, how did I not know this? She also had like a six by six inch square of washi tape. That was one sheet that you could cut from it or just cover a book with it. And I was like, that is incredible. I've never seen that before. And then for a little craft fest, I was shocked that Ruben and I were buying like sweaters and shirts with the whichever artist's artwork on it. It was just gorgeous. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I like that kind of stuff.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. It was so unique. And it was awesome because Ruben wore his sweatshirt the next day and the artist was like, oh my God, you're wearing the sweatshirt. That's awesome. And then I bought like so many key chains this year. I bought like 12 key chains and they really got me because I love ducks and they had like four boots just of ducks.

Brad Dowdy: I'll have to look. I'll make a racket around here. I have a duck from you. I think it's sitting right over here, but I'll reach it while I'm on here. I don't want to make too much of a noise while I'm on the show. But yes, you do like ducks.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's super cool. Just thinking about like something like the scrapbook lady with like the sheet of washi tape is like, huh, I'm sitting here thinking about that. I've never heard of that. And all I can think about is why haven't I heard that before? Because that's kind of how I use it anyway. It's just kind of like randomly ad hoc.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah.

Road Trips and Shows Transition

Brad Dowdy: You know, why not in a sheet that I can just cut out? Okay. You'll have to send me the links. So we'll have these links on the show notes, show notes for y'all. All right. I want to talk a little bit more about the road trips and doing the pen shows and a few of those things and what the rest of the year looks like. I want to talk more about your YouTube channel. I have a lot of things I want to talk about, Tony. But first, let me talk about our second sponsor, our good friends over at Squarespace. So this episode of the Pen Act is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand, and get paid all in one place. So I've been using Squarespace. It's got to be coming up on a dozen or more years. At this point, the blog's always been hosted this year. Then later on, I added in the shop feature, which just this week, I added in a new product, a Midori MD product notebook with a Pen Act foil stamping on in the Squarespace shop. It makes it easy for me to just create that item in the store and put it for sale. I can create a SKU. I can add the inventory. I can add in the shipping weights and do all the things that I need to sell any products that I collaborate on. And I get notified when I have low stock levels on other products that I haven't been keeping up with. And I can go in and update those super quickly because Squarespace makes it easy. They also allow you to upload your video content, which is something I keep saying I'm going to do. I got to test it out over on Squarespace because you can organize your entire video library and showcase your content on their own dedicated video pages. You can even set access to like membership videos or class videos, tutorials, anything like that, which is great for online courses and premium workshops. So head over to squarespace.com slash Pen Addict for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the code Pen Addict and save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash Pen Addict. Offer code Pen Addict to get 10% off your first purchase and to show your support for the Pen Addict. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of Relay. What's been the most fun Pen Show, stationary show you've been to in your travels so far?

Toni Palumbo: I think it would have to be DC Pen Show last year, 2025.

Toni Palumbo: I've never had so much fun filming the video. And also it was just chaos. It was. Thursday we waited until like midnight when everyone left the main ballroom and flew a drone and did my intro.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wow. Yeah, super cool. How did I miss that?

Toni Palumbo: That was amazing. And I loved the shot just looks crazy. And I think because someone had mentioned they're like, oh, I didn't like I watched your video, but I didn't really get the sense of scale. So then last year I was like, OK, we're going to we closed all the ballroom doors and we're like, we're going to find the drone inside. So it's like a stealth mission. It was pretty amazing. It was pretty amazing. So and then we had Asterovrook launched a pen. They launched Funky Town there.

Brad Dowdy: So that's right.

Toni Palumbo: I got to see how they launched a pen. It was all crazy. They had lights and music on and they gave freebies. And then they let me have the pens overnight. And we kind of reviewed them a little bit out of that to the video. Then we had a Black Pen Society meetup. And we had that in there with Paul Arano, the Grand Puba and everyone that came out. So I think that video was definitely my favorite.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: That was definitely my favorite show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that shows a great one. And I always recommend DC just because the I mean, the size can be overwhelming, especially if it's your first time. I still say kind of go for it, but go for a few hours in the afternoon.

Toni Palumbo: Or go on Sunday.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, go on Sunday.

Brad Dowdy: But it's got a great variety of vendors.

Brad Dowdy: It's super fun to get to see kind of everyone in one place. You know, a couple of the bigger shows in the U.S. like DC and San Fran. You get like really good representation from lots of brands, lots of places around the world. Yeah. Lots of people travel in.

Toni Palumbo: San Fran is at like the top of my list. We have not gone there yet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You'd love it. It's as crowded as DC, but a little bit more packed in, which makes it tough. So hopefully they can. I keep I'm not, you know, speaking out of pocket here. Everyone knows they need a little bit bigger space. But the vendor list is like tier one. Like it's crazy, crazy good. But DC is just as good, just different, you know. And I love DC. I was at that show. I missed the Funky Town launch. I was supposed to be there. I ran up there about when they were wrapping it up. And it was great, though. It was fun to see all that going on. And I like that you are able to mix in that type of live content, right? You can give us the show experience, too. Yeah. But you can jump in and do some pen specific stuff. Is that something that you're looking forward to doing more of? Do you like doing like the broader show stuff? Do you like to mix in the more specific product stuff? Like what do you what are your thoughts on that?

Toni Palumbo: I'm hoping to do like more pen reviews and journaling reviews and different like journal. Here's my journal setup and tips and tricks. So I'm hoping to add more of those videos to the lineup as well. We've just been traveling so much. It's been get whatever show content we can and then haul video and then go to the next one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, really. Like you said, you just got back a few hours ago, literally, as we're recording this. So do you know what shows are on the calendar for the rest of the year?

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. So next is up is St. Louis at the end of June. And then I'm doing a two day crop down near me in Estero. So you literally just stay and journal for two days and scrapbook and make cards and do make and takes. And you get your own like six and a half foot table and set up. I think I'm going to add a little chaos to it because I don't have my 12 by 12 scrapbook anymore. I'm going to bring my travelers and my junk journal. So I'm really excited to do that and hopefully I'll get to film some of that. And then we have DC Penn Show. We're doing Paper World Orlando, which is a one day event new to the area, which I'm really excited for. I got to meet one of the show organizers at Little Craft Fest this year.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Toni Palumbo: And then Orlando International Penn Show in September.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. I like it. I mean, it is near the Orlando International Airport. So I feel like that's correctly named just like the Baltimore Washington International Penn Show. Yes. You're going to have to send me the link on the two day scrapbooking class because I am going to get questions about that.

Toni Palumbo: And this is the small one. They do four or five days where they actually build a store in the hotel.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. My ears perked up. I think probably a lot of listeners perked up. So you'll have to send me a link to put it. I'll make sure to get that from you so we can put it in the show notes because I will get questions. We'll do.

Toni Palumbo: I'm super excited.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of which, what else has you excited about like content? Like what do you like really want to do like in the stationary space? Like if you had like carte blanche and could, you know, film something and share that story with the world, like what do you want to do?

Toni Palumbo: Oh, I would do like full on documentaries. Actually, I was in the talks with Sam Flax of Orlando. Their story is so incredible and they help so many young artists get their start just out of the kindness of their heart and just a hope and a prayer that they were going to be someone and be able to pay it back or pay it forward or both. So I would love to do documentaries. But also I want to do like international travel where we cover like the Tokyo Pen Show, the Singapore, the Dutch, the Manila and even more store tours. I just did a store tour at Papier Plume and it's gotten such a great response because the owner, Patrick, was super kind and sweet and let us just kind of crash the place on the way back from Little Craft Fest. And it was so fun just getting to interview him and hear a little bit of the story of Papier Plume and his store is just located in the most historic part of the French corner. It's just incredible. And I just that filming that video was so amazing because it made me go back to like my guerrilla filmmaking days because we literally got to New Orleans from Texas, had two hours of parking because that was the minimum. And just booked it down three blocks, filmed in the two hours and came back to the car. Wow. So and then we went to a Cafe du Monde and filmed the hall and had that whole atmosphere in the park. It was just so much fun. So I would love to do more store tours. It's crazy that the Chamberlain book mine, I get so many comments on my videos. Hey, can you go do the book mine? Yeah. And my antiquarian book fair video that still is going to come out, I actually found the only fountain pen in the entire building. And my friend was with me, one of my best friends, Chanel, was with me. And she's like, how did you do that? You found the one pen in the entire building. And the book guy is someone we go to every single year. And he's like, yeah, it just came with a lot of books. I don't really know what to do with it. And it was a Schaefer. It was a Schaefer balance. And I had Jerry Berg rebuild it for me. And now I think I got him down to like $40 for this pen. Now it's probably $400 or $500 with the repair and everything. So they're like, wow, fountain pens just follow you everywhere. I was like, I know, isn't it magical?

Brad Dowdy: It is. Once you're in, like you see things, right? Yeah. Like you can't help like everywhere. Like in kind of unrelated, even though like books are kind of adjacent still. Like at that, you just don't expect to see it. But like someone like you, you're going to notice that. And then what's cool is someone like you or someone like me is going to ask a question about that. Yeah. Because now we have like this talking point that is like, oh, we're here for this other thing. But now we can have this conversation because I see this pen over here. And, you know, they may not know nothing, know anything about it or whatever, but it's fun.

Toni Palumbo: Thank God he just wanted to get rid of it because it was good for me. But he was like, yeah, it was just thrown in a box of books he had gotten. Just this gorgeous Schaefer. Jeez. That's awesome. It had definitely been through the wringer, like the clip. I mean, Jerry Burke had to restore everything. Yeah. But it came out gorgeous. But Jerry's like, please promise that this is a desk pen. It's been through enough. And I was like, I promise. I promise. But it's gorgeous. And it sits on my desk proudly. And I have a great story with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's amazing. That's what we love the most about it is getting to tell stories. All right. Tell me what else sits on your desk because I know you're an avid journaler. I've seen some of your Traveler's Notebooks. I have some of your Traveler's Notebooks charms. What are the kind of things that you're using right now that get you excited or that gets you through your day?

Toni Palumbo: So at Triangle, I was across the way from Adopt-A-Pals. They're like 3D printed little critters and animals. And it's incredible because I believe she's 13 now running her own business with the help of her parents. And her sister has an incredible ceramicist business going. But I got this adorable little duck at Triangle. So that sits there. I got a spider. I got some lovebirds. They had this amazing yet ridiculous dinosaur that kind of was our companions in the hotel room. I got me one. Ruben got one. So that has definitely been sitting there. And then finally, I got a Pengineer 3D vial holder.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Toni Palumbo: So nice. Have that sitting there.

Brad Dowdy: I picked up my first Pengineer 3D at Atlanta this year. Awesome. I got the pen stands one. But I have the base with two in it so I could swap one out to a vial stand if I wanted to. Which is super smart. Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. I have his holder for the ink. But I mainly keep that in my kitchen where I fill all my pens. But I have cats. So I was really excited to have that. Yeah. So they're not knocking bottles over. And then I have something new that I was given at Triangle that will absolutely be sitting on my desk and or a display case. Are you ready for this, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: I'm ready. I'm ready.

Desk Items and Collectibles

Toni Palumbo: It is Little Hollow Custom and The Abyss Looks Back. Monster Finger pen.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Come on. That's unfair. Yeah. Okay. So I've seen these since Logan started making them. Yes. And I'll put a link in the show notes if y'all aren't familiar. That's the coolest one I've seen yet. But we'll put a link in so y'all can see these. I've talked about them before. Especially we've done a Caroline Foti did an interview with Logan and Em and we shared some pictures. But this is crazy.

Toni Palumbo: And we were honored. We got to do some photo and video work for them for these fingers. So Ruben and I have been having a blast doing that. And on Little Hollow Custom, they have a reel that Ruben had done. But it was awesome because they let us customize it. And I wanted glitter and purple. And he's like, I don't think I could do glitter. But what he did, I think, was even better. It's hard to see. I'll have to send you a photo. But he somehow did a clear gloss and then brushed that so the brass could shine through. And it's just incredible. And added some gold to it. It's just really beautiful. It's quite an art piece. But it's going to also be Ruben and I's daily carry.

Brad Dowdy: I love it. You've got to use it, right? Oh, yeah. That's the best. A hundred percent. And I did see the video or the short of the finger coming. It was like the cemetery scene. Yes. Yep. That was it. That was good. That was good. That was so good. That was it. I love it. I love it. How many traveler's journal notebooks do you have?

Toni Palumbo: Covers? Yeah, covers. So I have the regular olive. I have the diners. I have the black wing, which I just keep looking at it. It's just so beautiful with the foilings. And the charm and the matching black wing pencils. I just can't bring myself to use it yet. And that's very bad. I want to use it. Then I have the passport blue and the passport love and trip. And then we were able to stay up till midnight in Houston and grab the new wallet size travelers. Oh, yeah. I got the brown. Ruben got the black. And we literally waited up till midnight to be able to go buy it online and then pick it up at a little craft place while we were in Texas.

Brad Dowdy: I should have done that. So Sarah that writes for the Pen Act, she's like, Brad, if you get me anything to review anytime soon, you know, like this might be the one. And it's like, that's one of those, like you have to chase it down and be ready. And so it's like, sorry, I missed that one. But I'll make it up to you somehow. Wow. Which size and style do you like to use the most? Because I've only seen you carry like the smaller, like the passport size, which was pretty loaded. Yeah. Like you stuff them. Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: I always have the passport on me. Now I've been carrying the blue one and my love and trip, the red one. But then I do have my regular one with me. I just don't keep it on me anymore just because it's so gigantic. And with so much. It'll usually be in my journal bag in the hotel room. But I have a massive journaling bag I bring with me. And it was so fun because that triangle, even though it's mainly, not mainly, but there's a lot of vintage there. But it was fun to find some of the vendors and some of the attendees where I bring like a gallon size Ziploc bag and just throw it on the table. And we all had at it. Grab some pet tape, washi tape, whatever you want. And it's fun because that's how you learn too. The one vendor had showed me these washi cards I didn't even know existed. And they're much easier to travel with. But then at our festival of Florida Stationery Fest, Kaleidocraft had the washi wallet that now is like blowing my mind. And so it's so fun to see like what you could find and what people are using. And people have different techniques. Like I had actually it's those stamp pads that you mentioned, the teardrop ones. They have a glitter series.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Toni Palumbo: And they're super easy to travel with. And I just take them and brush the page. Okay, I see. And they add like so much just to fill in that white space.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, see? That's smart. I hadn't even considered that. When you say it, and I think this goes for a lot of like the more general stationary stuff. When you say it, it's obvious. Like you just got to be willing to experiment on some of this stuff and have fun, make a mess, right? Like one of the, I had to, yeah, I had to allow myself years ago to just be more free with the stuff and how it looks and the mess and just the freedom of it. Yeah. Instead of being like very rigid. I was very rigid with my stationary in the early days. And I had to like give myself permission to just, you know, be silly with it and stick tape everywhere and color everywhere. And it doesn't matter, right? It's just for me. And it's just my way to express myself and way to feel something about this stuff, which I think at the end of the day is what we all want to do. Absolutely. Is just, you know, have fun with it. You know, it makes you feel good.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. One of the saddest things I hear is like, I'm not a creative person. You are. You just might not. Maybe you are creative with numbers. I can't be creative with numbers, but maybe you are. That's your creativity. Yeah. So it's always good to play. You have to include play in everything because that's how you kind of grow and evolve and see what works, what doesn't.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's how you feed your creativity. That's right. I could say.

Toni Palumbo: And that's what we're here for.

Toni Palumbo: What I've been carrying with me also too is that Tombow Mono Sand Eraser. Tombow Mono Sand Eraser. If you stamp something, you can quickly like erase that outer edge. Like if you don't clean your stamp.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Toni Palumbo: And you misstamped, you could quickly clean it with that. I've been carrying that to all these shows as well.

Pen Show Responsibilities

Brad Dowdy: Oh, get out. Yeah. That would be a problem. Like when I see this kind of stuff, this is how you get in trouble at a stationary show as opposed to a pen show. Pen show, you could see just some wild, crazy pen. You might go check it out or whatever. But you now showed me. We've sat there at night playing around with journaling stuff of what you've thrown on the table. And then tomorrow I'm going to buy like the eraser and the washi tape and all this stuff. It's going to get you. It will. We're going to get you. What else you got going on? Anything else we need to mention? I know I'm going to see you in St. Louis in a couple weeks. You know, maybe we'll have something cooking there.

Toni Palumbo: That'd be great. Well, we don't have a officially will be announced this week, but I am now going to be the show director for the Orlando International Pen Show 2026.

Brad Dowdy: Get out of town. You didn't even tell me this before show. Like I wouldn't even lean you into that. That was a surprise to me. Yay. I love it.

Toni Palumbo: I'm excited. I can't wait to start working with vendors and.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Toni Palumbo: Divide in and out tables. It's going to be a great show. And I'm so excited. I get to come in on year five like that and celebrate hopefully in a big way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Now you can yell at me directly if I can't make it. I'll just hear directly from you instead of literally the entire Orlando Pen Club yelling at me. Yes.

Toni Palumbo: I mean, we'll still do that on Twitch. Okay. We promise, but.

Brad Dowdy: Fair enough. Fair enough.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's amazing. Okay. I'm excited to hear that. That's a big job. It is. That's going to be fun, though. That's going to be fun, though.

Toni Palumbo: I can't wait. It's going to be a blast. And I'm so excited to bring your five to people. Yeah. I think it's going to be different. We'll be upstairs. Usually we're downstairs in the ballroom. Okay. But I think we have some ideas that will really surprise people. And our show, Inc. is usually by Robert Oster. And I just want to give a shout out to him because he is so caring and giving. He's giving us like an extra hundred bottles this year for the coral reef relief that the money goes to. So I'm really excited for that, too. Bring them a nice check in the slowest part of the months in Florida. It's just amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm always a big proponent of the charity and tying in and having a show tie in to help raise money, especially for a local or regional charity. It's super important. I think a lot of shows can and should do that. I think it's a great thing.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. I can't wait. And a couple of the stationary people have jumped in on the pen show. Nice. So that'll be fun.

Brad Dowdy: I'll get yelled at if I don't ask you. And you're not going to answer me what colors they ain't going to be.

Toni Palumbo: I don't think I could tell.

Brad Dowdy: See? I know. I can't tell.

Toni Palumbo: I don't want to get in trouble.

Brad Dowdy: You can tell me after the show. I'll tell you after. I'm really good at keeping secrets. So no, that's unfair. I wouldn't do that to y'all. I wouldn't do that to y'all. No, hopefully. Because now I don't want your secrets because then I have to hold them. I don't want them. That's right.

Toni Palumbo: But I will tell you, it is going through Australian customs and should be to us very shortly. So we'll be doing a release of what it is. And it is stunning. Okay. We did a gorgeous job. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So the show is in September? September.

Toni Palumbo: Yes. 10th through the 13th at the Florida Hotel. The same hotel it's been in for the five years, which is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: It's a great hotel. It really is.

Toni Palumbo: And the staff is incredible. And I just got to learn about the owner a little bit while we were there for the Florida Stationery Fest. And he is an incredible businessman and like actual human. Like he cares about his workers, which you could definitely tell in that hotel. Yeah. That people care.

Brad Dowdy: It's one of the more multi-day, if you're staying for a multi-day event hotel for a pen show, it's one of the more convenient and enjoyable stays. Like I think I would pull in on like Friday morning and not leave till Sunday. Oh, yeah. Like you'd never need to. It's very good for that. So, yeah. Highly, highly recommend.

Toni Palumbo: Yeah. There's a – so the Florida Hotel is attached to them all. And they just added a Pop Mart. And then Lush has been there. A crazy cosmetic line that's amazing. And they're like, what are you guys doing next door? We've had like a huge uptick in people. And I was like, yeah, it's a stationery show. The same amount of people that went to the stationery show seem to have found the Pop Mart and the Lush. Oh, and the chocolate. Swiss chocolate place.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. It's a good place. It's a good place. All right. I think with that, we'll get you out of here. Any last things to plug? And we'll wrap it up. And we'll reconvene here in a few weeks.

Toni Palumbo: Yes, we'll be in St. Louis. And in St. Louis, I'll be selling charms that I got to collaborate with Faber-Castell. Oh, nice. They're charm keychains. And it's in promotion for their 265th anniversary.

Brad Dowdy: That's crazy.

Toni Palumbo: So, I was so honored to be a part of that. Yeah. And be a little part of their history and be able to celebrate with them. So, what I didn't sell at the Florida Stationery Fest, I'm going to bring to St. Louis. And if anything's left over from St. Louis, I'll be selling online. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. So, we'll keep an eye out for that. I will definitely be checking them out.

Brad Dowdy: Tony, thank you. Oh, go ahead.

Toni Palumbo: Wait. Are you bringing those notebooks to St. Louis? Come on, Brad. Tell us.

Brad Dowdy: I will. I will. I can. Yeah. Just yell at me. Awesome. Anyone who wants me to bring notebooks to St. Louis, tell me. Because, yeah, we'll decide how much room I need to pack.

Toni Palumbo: Well, you already got two of me and Ruben, so.

Brad Dowdy: All right. All right. Well, you're the best. Tell Ruben he's all right, too.

Toni Palumbo: We'll do.

Brad Dowdy: But I appreciate your time. I'll have all the links we talked about. I'll have links to all of Tony's stuff that y'all can go check out everything online. And I really appreciate you joining me. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Enigma Stationery and Squarespace. I'm your host, Brad, from The Pen Addict. You can find everything I do over at penaddict.com. And until next time, say goodbye, Tony.

Toni Palumbo: Bye, everyone. Thank you so much, Brad. This was awesome. Have fun. crafts crafts Have a good one.