The Pen Addict 206/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	206
Title:	Put Myself On That Google Map
Release Date:	May 25th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Tessa Sowry
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 206
Audio File:	Audio Episode 206
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 206
Length:	5353 min <br />0.883 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 206. Today's show is brought to you by The Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: What's up, Mr. Hurley? How are you? I'm feeling very good. How are you? I'm feeling very, very good as well. And I think you're as excited about our special guest as I am today because she is a fellow countrywoman of yours. Let's say hello to Tessa Sowery from All Things Stationery. Hey, Tessa.

Myke Hurley: Hello. Oh, what a great, it's that sound, right? That beautiful British accent. We don't have enough of those around these pods.

Brad Dowdy: It makes you feel right at home, doesn't it?

Myke Hurley: It does, it does.

Brad Dowdy: So now I'm going to be the one you always talk about over the years, how you end up talking to so many Americans, your accent has changed. I think mine is going to go the other way after this show, right?

Myke Hurley: I hope so.

All Things Stationery Blog

Brad Dowdy: Well, welcome, Tessa. We're going to talk about All Things Stationery with you, which is the wonderful name of your wonderful blog, and that's why we wanted to have you on. We're going to take care of a quick bit of business up front, Myke, if you want to announce the winners of our Retro 51 giveaway that we did last week.

Myke Hurley: Yes, so we had three Retro 51s to give away last week, and I'll be confirming with these winners separately and getting kind of address information and stuff like that. But I want to congratulate Isaiah, Elina, and Jake. They were the three winners. I will be contacting the three of you separately. So if you have one of those three names, you can furiously check your email in the hopes that it's you that has been picked. So congratulations to our three winners. I'll be emailing them today. So you probably have already had the email before the episode is released to the world.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, and we will be getting those Retro 51 pins directly from them. They're going to send them to me, and then Myke will copy me on the emails, and I will get your addresses and ship them out. But this was awesome. Thanks for Retro 51 to do it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, they're great. And I'm very excited to get some of my stuff in. I've seen that some of the new ones, like the Dr. Gray, for example, is glowing in the dark.

Brad Dowdy: No, no way. I didn't notice that. Well, that's perfect with the skeleton. So that's sitting on my desk. I haven't even opened the box yet.

Myke Hurley: Oh, man, you're killing me.

Brad Dowdy: I have a desk full of boxes yet that I have yet to go through.

Myke Hurley: I assume that's just your life.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. I put a picture up this morning of just like four fountain pen boxes that I had sitting there that I was about to go through. But that doesn't even count all the other stuff. I know that's what, Tessa, your desk looks like that too, right? I mean, you get a lot of the kits, like a lot of the subscription kits. I noticed you review a lot of those. What is the height of goods on your desk right now? Is it overflowing?

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, I have real guilt when it comes to like being sent stuff and then not being able to feature it quickly enough. But yeah, I've got a couple of piles going on at the moment.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and one of the things, you know, I did want to mention before we really get into it, you know, we're talking about the Retro 51 and I looked on your blog, there's no Retro 51 review.

Tessa Sowry: I know. I've never used a Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: Myke is going to pass out.

Myke Hurley: How? How has this happened?

Tessa Sowry: I don't know. Yeah, I was listening to last week's and I was thinking, oh, maybe I should try and try one quickly. But alas, no.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's great. Well, let's get into it. And I want to learn about your blog and how you got started. And I was looking, you know, as I was getting ready for this episode, you just started the blog in 2014. The way, you know, I've talked to you and the way I read your blog, it's like, I feel like you've been around for like five, six, seven years. And it's been like two and a half. So tell us how all things stationary got started.

Stationery

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, okay. So I actually get asked this quite a lot and I find it quite hard to answer. Like people always say, why stationary? And I'm, I don't know. I always struggle to answer. But I did have a blog before, which was very generic, just sort of lifestyle blog. It didn't have much focus. It was kind of, was I working on a craft project or been to see a play or something?

Tessa Sowry: And I just never, I just didn't keep it up because I think I just didn't, didn't have that focus. And then in, I think it was late December 2013, I heard about Hobonichi journals and I thought I would order one for the following year. And I genuinely don't remember the decision, but judging from my first post, I just decided new year, new blog. Let's write about stationary. And obviously this one did keep my focus because two and a half years later, I'm still going.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it stuck this time. Did you have a kind of like a long seated love of stationary? Like, is this something you've been into your whole life? I mean, when you talk to people that like read our blogs and listen to this podcast, they're like, oh yeah, I really like cared about pens when I was eight years old or 15 years old or something like that. Like I knew that I didn't like the normal stuff you could get. Have you always been into stationary?

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I am. Yeah. I'm sure Myke, you'll know this. I used to spend a lot of time in WH Smith at the start of every school year, picking out my pencil case and putting a lot of pride into that. Even at uni, I remember having a conversation with someone when I was, someone was like, who buys pens? Like, I've never bought a pen in my life and I've got loads of pens. And I was like, I'm the person that buys all the pens that everybody else steals. So yeah, totally. I wouldn't say I've been like super obsessed my whole life, but I think I've always loved stationary in a way that was just always really natural to me and in a way that I think is probably more than most people. So yeah, it just seemed like a good subject to focus on, to write about, I thought.

Myke Hurley: So Tessa, I noticed on your Instagram the other day, a picture of some funfaxes.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Were you a funfax kid? I was totally a funfax kid.

Tessa Sowry: I was, yeah. It was, that was so exciting when I was a kid.

Brad Dowdy: You gotta explain, alright, explain that.

Myke Hurley: It is the Filofax range for children.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so it's part of their brand.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and it was, it was Filofax, it's called Funfax, and they would create like themed filofaxes. So they weren't like diaries, they would be like activities of some description. Like I had a spy filofax, that was my favourite one that I had, where it had all these tips about how to be a spy. The Funfax spy organiser, oh my god, it's on Amazon.

Brad Dowdy: You always end up doing this, looking at it during the show, then going, oh, I gotta have that.

Myke Hurley: I think I want it. I'm gonna have to take a look at that. I think it's like secondhand or something on Amazon for like £10. But yeah, these were, these were like activity books, basically. But they were, I guess from Funfax's look at things, they were trying to like build the kids into using filofaxes, right? Like later in life, like it was like a gateway drug, I guess. And they had like a, it totally worked. They had like an original one, which, and the idea would be like with filofaxes, you would buy little additional small books to put inside of your filofax.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, I had like a treasure map or something that went in the back. I don't know what it led to, but.

Myke Hurley: It's not important. No. But yeah, I, yeah, I, I loved these. Lots of kids did it. And I think this, this stuff, like the filofax type stuff, the Funfax stuff, was one of the things that really drew me in to the pen world when I was a kid. Like interstationary.

Brad Dowdy: That and your, your yikes pencils and fountain pens, right? Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. That yikes pen. I feel like nobody else in the world remembers that. And then I saw that picture on Instagram, Myke, and I was like, oh my God.

Myke Hurley: I love that thing. I love that thing. I brought it to Atlanta and people were like, oh, it's that one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I had never heard about it before you talked about it on the podcast. And it's pretty cool. I like that. Someone sent me a, I actually have a yikes pencil sitting in my desk.

Myke Hurley: Bill quality is not so good. The eraser basically crumbled away on the wall.

Brad Dowdy: I love Tessa when on your very first post reading through that, you were talking about the Hobonichi and I was like, oh, this, this is pretty cool. And you, you mentioned a professed love for crisscross line pages. And I just got, I just giggled. I thought I have never heard. I knew exactly what you meant, like, cause I'm a grid and graph paper person, but just reading that, I just got the biggest kick out of that. That was, that was amazing.

Tessa Sowry: That's how much, how clueless I was when I started the blog.

Brad Dowdy: No, no. I think that's just a, it's a feature, if you will. It's just, it's awesome. And heck, even your background is, is a crisscross line.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, it wasn't then, but it is now.

Brad Dowdy: Cool, cool. So one of the things that I always talk about, um, on this podcast, on the blog, when people ask me questions is you do this really cool thing called the stationary shops map. So I think I want to talk a lot about this because it's not just a map of, I mean, it is just a map of everywhere in the world that people have sent you or you've, you've been to, um, and marked on the, uh, on the map for people to, to see, but you have been to a lot of cool places and a lot of cool stationary stores. I want to dig into that, but tell me how just the idea of putting this map together came about.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, I think, um, just sort of when I've been traveling, um, I was kind of hoping for a resource that someone else had already created that could tell me what there was in the city that I was going to. And a lot of, um, other blogs do sort of roundups of when they've, um, sort of like the best stationary shops in New York or wherever. Um, but I just thought it would be, um, a good thing to set up, uh, uh, sort of Google maps, a kind of in, in progress thing that people could add to. Um, so yeah, I started off just putting the places I've been to myself and then I thought actually I should, um, ask some other people, including you Brad, um, where their favorite places are. And then it's kind of over time it's evolved quite a lot and lots of people have contributed, um, places which I'm really grateful for. So yeah, I, I hope, I hope it will be a useful resource for anyone else that's traveling to a new city and wants to find stationary shops in that area. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I like that style. Like the, it doesn't exist. So I'll make it for other people. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's the way to do it.

Tessa Sowry: And I mean, maybe it's selfish. Don't get me wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Cause we're going to talk about that. Um, so you've been to a few places and visited their, their stationers, um, and, and give some feedback on that. So I want to talk about some of these specifically like New York city, for example, when, when was that trip and what were your, uh, what were your stationary highlights?

Tessa Sowry: Um, so I've been twice, I think in the last couple of years. Nice. Um, so the first time was, I think May, 2015, no 14, maybe. Oh gosh. I can't remember. Um, yeah. I, what was my highlight? Oh, cause I, I can only think about the more recent time when I went, when I went to see W pencils, which was obviously extremely exciting.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's a pretty huge highlight. If you ask me.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. I loved that shop. Um, oh, oh gosh, I can't think of anywhere else. That's really terrible.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's pretty, that, uh, I think that says a lot about CW pencils and I'm, I'm, I'm trying to effort that trip later this year, Myke, I'm, I'm working on that.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you are.

New York City Shops

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not official, but you know, I need, you know, maybe a little family vacation to, to New York city and, uh, you know, check out, uh, CW pencils, things like that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm actually going to be going back to New York in August for a weekend and I'm thinking about swinging by CW just for the, just for the hell of it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think you got to. Yep.

Tessa Sowry: I think one thing about New York is that there's a lot of sort of really, really well laid out shops. Like just looking at my map now, I'm remembering the McNally Jackson goods for the study store. That is a beautiful shop. And I think that's something that New York's really good at kind of laying everything out in a way that just makes you want to buy it all.

Brad Dowdy: You've been in Paris in the last year, year or two. And Myke, did you, did you go to Paris? Am I misremembering? And you visited one of the same stores or why do I have this in my head?

Myke Hurley: No, I went to Paris and I found a little store. Um, I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it ended up being a store that people knew about. Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. There's an amazing like vintage stationery shop in Paris. Um, oh my gosh, I can't remember the name. I'm trying to find it, but it is just crammed to the rafters, um, with incredible old stationery. And I tried to bargain with the woman running it and she absolutely knew everything's worth in there. She was having none of it.

Brad Dowdy: So what do you do when you, when you go to these other cities and you're looking through these, these stationery shops? Um, are you looking for like the older vintage stuff or you're looking for like the regional things that you can't find back at home? What, what, uh, what kind of brings you to it other than just, you know, flat out addiction to stationery?

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. I don't know that I'm looking for anything specific. I mean, I, I personally love, um, vintage stuff and I think that's the sort of thing when it's, you feel like it's a bit more one of the, one of a kind that makes sense to spend money on when you're somewhere you wouldn't normally be. Cause I think most of the time now there aren't many things that are hard to get that you can't just buy online just because it's from another country. So yeah, I think a, I'm just very curious and I just like shopping. So an excuse to kind of trawl around stationery shops is a good thing, but yeah, I think particularly vintage stuff is what I'm into.

London Stationery

Brad Dowdy: What about at home in London? Is, are there any, uh, secrets there that Myke's missing out on that, that he needs to find out about?

Tessa Sowry: Well, I recently found out that Myke hadn't been to many stationery shops in London at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, he's kind of a slacker. I am.

Tessa Sowry: Have you been to Present Incorrect yet?

Brad Dowdy: Nope.

Tessa Sowry: You really need to.

Tessa Sowry: It's yeah, it's a really beautiful shop. It's a, a mix of kind of interesting stuff from around the world and vintage. Um, and it's, yeah, it's just like stepping into a dream.

Myke Hurley: Where is it? I like that.

Tessa Sowry: Uh, it's in, um, Islington.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Yeah. I'll put that high on the list of things today.

Brad Dowdy: I think I want to expand on this a little bit about the, uh, the UK, the pen scene and the, the U S pen scene, but let's, uh, before we get into that, let's talk about our good friends over at pen, shall I Myke?

Myke Hurley: You know, pen, shall I, they have all the stuff that you're looking for and they do it at great prices. If you're looking for roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, uh, carrying cases, pen holders, refills, converters, ink, so much more. You want to go to pen, shall I, they have all of your favorite brands like Pelican pilot, Namiki, sailor, cafeco, Lamy, and so many more. They're adding new styles of pens and new brands all the time. And they have great deals, great sales that they're always putting up on the sites. You always got to make sure that you're checking pen, shall I, they do free shipping on orders of $50 in the United States. And they also ship internationally. They have great shipping rates. Um, and I have bought from pen, shall I, they've shipped to me and everything's come for a great pen, shall I has low prices on a high. High quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. As always, what you want to do is go to pen, shall I.com that's P E N C H A L E T.com. And there's a link at the top of the site that says podcast. You want to click that link, enter our special password, pen addict or one word, and you will get, uh, access to the code that you'll need to save 10% on anything at pen, shall I. And also you'll be taken to some special deals. And this week we have the platinum three seven seven six gathered fountain pen. So it's a little special edition here. And this is a very pretty, uh, platinum 3776. And it is at a fantastic price. You can pick one of these up after the discount and the coupon for $123 and 75 cents.

Brad Dowdy: So this is crazy. Um, you, you told me the name before the show and it, the name did not ring a bell. So I said, well, let me hold until you read the ad. Then I'll go look at it and see which one it is. And I went, oh yeah, because this is a newer release. It's like a, um, it's like a ridged barrel. Um, they're really cool. I saw these at the Chicago pen show. Um, more than one person bought one and brought it over to me has said, Hey, have you seen this new platinum? This is awesome. This is a great pen. It feels great. Um, it's just like, it's the same shape as the, uh, the regular 3776s, but it has the ridges around the barrel. It's really cool looking. Um, this is a steal of a price. And yeah, I'm excited that, uh, Ron put this one up for the listeners of the pen addict this week. This is really, really cool.

Myke Hurley: There's also, if you're interested in the 3776, uh, there are some, uh, deals as well on the demonstrator version, uh, which you can go and check out too. But this, this gathered one is real good looking. It's a gold nib. The retail price is 275, but you can pick it up for one 23 75. As always go to pensolay.com, check out what they've got, use our code and get your discounts as well as the special offers. Thank you so much to penge LA for their continued support of this show and relay FM.

UK Pen Scene

Brad Dowdy: So let's talk about the pen scene, Myke and Tessa. So I feel when I read your blog, Tessa, that it's really, really UK focused. And I love getting that perspective where Myke, on the other hand, when I talk to Myke, it's like Myke kind of sees it through my eyes a little bit through the podcast. Cause I'm talking about this, this us focus. Do you feel, is that like a conscious thing that, um, the, the way you write and the things you present, present Tessa, do you think?

Tessa Sowry: No.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: I think I just write about what I know and yeah. Inevitably that's what's going on sort of, yeah. In the UK and London, especially, I guess.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, I do feel way more, uh, on the US scene of stuff really, because the majority of input that I have comes from Brad, hence why I don't know the good stores in my own city because I never really look for them. I am very focused on what's happening in the US. I'm buying pens from the US, you know, wherever the brands that are getting popular over there and that kind of stuff. And it's completely because I do this show every week. So I'm, I'm, I'm completely tainted. And this was something that I realized when we met for the first time of a couple of months ago or a few weeks ago, whenever it was that you were telling me about all of these places and I just had no idea about any of them.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I, it's, um, it's a really good perspective for me to read. I learned like so many different companies, different brands, um, that you, that you write about Tessa. And a lot of it seems to come from this national stationary week. That's kind of a big deal in, in London, right? I mean, tell me, tell me about being involved and going to that and what that's all about. Because while we have like a national stationary show here in the US, it's really doesn't seem to be that open or that, you know, that much in like the, uh, in the fabric of the community. Um, but in London and in the UK, it seems like national stationary week, they do a really good job of getting like bloggers involved on social media. So tell us, tell us a little bit about that.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. Um, I mean, the, the, so there is the London stationary show, which happens every year in, um, in what is also national stationary week. Um, it is essentially a trade show, but I think, I think the, I guess the PR company that work with, um, well sort of create and work with national stationary week, understand the impact of bloggers, which is really refreshing. Um, and I think that sort of brought a lot of other companies in. Um, so they're kind of coming to bloggers and asking us to feature their products and, um, encouraging bloggers to go to the show, even though it is trade. Um, I mean, the first year I went, I think I still had to explain to a few old school people what a blog is.

Tessa Sowry: Um, but yeah, I, I can, even over the last couple of years, I can kind of, I can see the, the change, um, in attitude. Um, so I, yeah, I mean, I, it is, it is a big thing I think in the UK, but I, I do think it's kind of, it's brands pushing it rather than sort of everyday people. But yeah, I, I think it's a good thing that, that once a year, everyone kind of has their moment, whether they're in the community or not to kind of shout about why they love stationary. So, yeah. And I, I tried to make a big thing of it on my blog and sort of post every day that week.

Brad Dowdy: And I've noticed that and you and, uh, Adam from the desk of Adam that we're going to have on in a couple of weeks, uh, on the podcast as well, you know, y'all get together, other bloggers get together. They do a really good job of bringing everyone together and promoting it. And I just think it's a really, really good thing.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, it was really great. I, I missed Adam this year actually, cause he kind of got there after I left, but it was, yeah, it was really great to meet him last year and, um, kind of have someone in the same boat going, well, what are we doing here? This is weird.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for sure. You always like to have that, that support system close by. What, um, what kind of brands are you seeing in the UK that are really kind of UK based? Do you find like to have some very, very specific things that you don't see being talked about, um, in from, you know, from other blogs, uh, around the world that, um, you feel are really, really good, um, makers in the, in the UK?

Tessa Sowry: In a weird way. I think I'm never even like that super aware of, of where brands come from. That's terrible, isn't it? But I think.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, I think that's good.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I know that, um, there are, um, pen brands like Ajoto. You've tried one of theirs, haven't you, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Tessa Sowry: Um, I saw those guys at a design show a couple of years ago.

Brad Dowdy: They're, they're really, really nice guys. Really good to work with. Um, make really, really good products. So that, like if I, if I came over there, uh, one of these days to visit you guys, like I, I would definitely want to meet up with the Ajoto guys.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, cool.

Brad Dowdy: They're super cool.

Notebook Brands

Tessa Sowry: Um, there's another brand called Mark and Fold who do, um, really beautiful, um, notebooks. I do think there's quite a resurgence of these sort of small studios, um, making small batches of stuff. And I think these guys are doing that really well, sort of like to the point where your notebook is numbered, you know, you've got like a number out of 500 of them. And I think that's quite a cool thing.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I see this. I see this review now on Mark and Fold. This looks, um, this is really, really good looking stuff. Yeah. So do they do, um, so one of the things you, you tend to do, um, or I've seen a bunch on, on your blog is, uh, various subscription services sending you, uh, products to review. What do you think about, um, like the, the station areas of subscription service? Uh, I, I would, I think I would say you're a, you're a fan, right?

Tessa Sowry: I am a fan. Um, I'm starting to think the market's getting a little oversaturated. Um, cause I, I'm sort of getting to the point where I'm like turning down boxes to review just because I, I don't, I don't know if it's a bad thing, but I, I feel like there's probably only so much space in the market for that sort of thing. And when does it just become duplication?

Brad Dowdy: Right. I do feel like it, it is hard to differentiate yourself. Like, how are you going to make your, your stationary box different from, um, you know, from, from the next person. And when you find a good one, like you kind of lock into that one and then everything else kind of gets compared to that. And it's like, well, I already have all this stuff or how is this going to be different? And, um, um, I, I, I do find that interesting myself. And, um, I, I don't know what to think about that. Myke, do you, what do you think about the, besides like field notes, you don't have any other stationary subscription, right? Like I subscribe to art snacks. I love that because it's art supplies and it's more different than just, you know, notebooks or traditional stationary that you would think of. So that's the only other one I subscribe to. Do you subscribe to anything?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Art snacks is interesting because it's different stuff than I would buy, but the stationary subscription boxes ultimately what I end up with is a bunch of stuff I didn't choose that I don't really want. Like there's always going to be good items in those boxes, but like, I know the stuff that I want to buy or want to try and they might send me some new things every now and then that's really interesting, but it's not going to be everything in that box every single time that is useful to me. And then I just end up with more stuff that I have to try and store.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. Yeah. I think that is an issue. I, there are kind of different extremes really, because there's one, one brand that sent me theirs, which is mustache stationary. Theirs is like, I think it's like $40 a month, which is, I think a lot.

Myke Hurley: That's a lot of money. Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: Um, but then I've been, I've tried a new one from the guys at Oh Dear. Do you know them, Myke? They're a UK, um, brand, but theirs is only a tenner and it's kind of a lot more light hearted. It's got greetings cards and cute notebooks and stuff. And that's just totally the other end of the scale. So I guess, yeah, it's more, more along the sort of, um, the beauty, um, subscription box lines where you're kind of trying out products, but you're not having to invest too much each month to do so. Right. I think I sort of prefer that cheaper end of the scale.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I would think that too, because when you're paying, I could see paying a high price for a quarterly subscription service and that being like super curated every month, they have to really nail it. Right.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because it's coming fast, right? By the time you get it and you start to use some of these things and you probably haven't even gone through, you know, even testing out a lot of it and then it comes right again. Um, and it's, the cost is high on top of it. It's got to be really, really good. So it's a tough, it's a tough thing. I, you know, I think about it from time to time. Um, and I think I, like Myke said, I'm so particular, um, even though I like a lot of different things, if I don't get to pick it out, I have a little bit of a, I don't know, a little bit of a hard time with that, but I, I still think it's, it's very interesting, um, to watch this, um, this market kind of explode. And I think we'll probably start to see some refinement here in the next year or so and, and see what really stands out, uh, stands out at that point.

Tessa Sowry: It is like a sort of surprise gift to yourself every month though. And that's cool.

Brad Dowdy: I do like that. I do like my heart snacks. I, uh, I, I do enjoy seeing that one, that one show up in the box every, every month. That's very cool.

Myke Hurley: One of the only things that I subscribe to like this, well, I say like this liking so much as I get something every month that is a little surprise, uh, is a sticker subscription service. Cool. That's kind of cool. Yeah. It's called slap stickers. And every month they send like six original design stickers and they're usually like pop culture type things. Like the previous one had a Jurassic park sticker and a back to the future sticker. And yeah, I really love it. Uh, I, so many of their stickers are finding their way onto my devices. So that is one that I recommend in that it's, it doesn't really take up any space because it's just some pieces of paper. It's not very expensive. Um, and I think, I think it's, I think it's really great. It's like $8 a month and they send you, I don't know, like six or seven stickers or something like that. Uh, and I think it's really cool. Um, if you like stickers, this is one because they send stuff that I wouldn't necessarily buy, but when it comes, I love it. And they work with really great designers to create original stuff. So.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's very cool. I like, I like the thought of that.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So Tessa, one thing you do, which I swear I'm going to do every year and I never do it is you, you do a recap post. Um, you've done, you know, you've done it twice now. Um, you've had two, two full years working on your third and I think it's cool to just kind of reflect on the past year. Um, tell me what you, you thought about when you, you decided to put these posts up that kind of recap what happened in the year, um, talk about planning ahead. And then, uh, I'm going to talk about something that you said in your, uh, your most, most recent one from, uh, December, 2015. So tell me, tell me about, um, putting together this year in review post.

Tessa Sowry: Uh, yeah. I mean, I think it's just a chance to kind of blow your own trumpet a bit, I guess.

Myke Hurley: I like it.

Tessa Sowry: But I think if I got through a whole year of blogging consistently, like I'm going to stop and sort of think about that. Yeah.

Ink Properties

Myke Hurley: It's like Bravo to me. Yeah. Like pat on the back time.

Tessa Sowry: And kind of a chance to say, these are sort of my favorite things I did over the last year. Um, this is what I'd like to do better. Um, yeah, I just, I think it's an important thing to do to kind of just take stock and, um, and think, and it's just good for mine that it, um, that I started at the beginning of the year. So it kind of falls in good timing with a lot of kind of, um, not news resolutions, but, you know, that sort of.

Myke Hurley: You start type stuff.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So one of the things like you can tell, like, you can see like the growth from, you know, year one to year two, and you started implementing more videos and you do all these, um, like your station or stationary organized neatly project is really cool. Um, and then you mentioned something, um, in this year two one that, you know, I don't know if you want to talk about, but I'm going to ask you anyway. You talk about opening your own store. Tell me, uh, tell me about those thoughts.

Tessa Sowry: Uh, it was one of those, like, if you don't put it out there, it's not going to happen kind of a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's why I wanted to, to make you go public and put the pressure on you.

Tessa Sowry: Oh no.

Brad Dowdy: Um, yeah.

Tessa Sowry: So my ultimate dream would be to open a brick and mortar store to put myself on that Google map. Um, but I'm not someone that can just quit my job, get a loan, open a shop. Um, I have to start very slow and kind of learn how things work. So I thought the sort of first step of doing that would be to open an online store, kind of learn the ropes, see how it goes. Um, yeah, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but I think I'll just start small. Um, in that post, I think I said the summer because it seems so far away. But, um, obviously now that's almost here and I need to get my act together. Um, but yeah, the plan is to kind of start by just sort of selling, um, other people's stuff that I like. And I'm hoping that the people that like what I do on my blog and like my aesthetic would be the sort of people that would buy the products that I would sell. And then sort of down the line, I've sort of got vague ideas of things that I would like to make myself. I've got one prototype on the go.

Myke Hurley: Um, this is, you are going through the natural evolution of a stationary blogger, right? Look at Brad, right? Like you're, you're so like deep within it that eventually you just make your own. There's only one person I know that's kind of gone in the reverse, which is Myke Dudek, who started making products and then started a blog. Like he kind of went the other way around, but it feels like, and I get it. It's like, it's like a natural type of thing. You, you know what you like. And it's kind of like the same reason that you started the blog in the first place. You know what you like and there was nothing around that was fulfilling your need. It's the same reason that you started like the map, right? Like there was something that you wanted and there was nothing there to fulfill the need that you had. So it makes perfect sense that you would make your own stuff eventually, or at least have your ideas too.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. I think, yeah, I, I know station. Well, I feel like I know stationery quite well now. So why not put that knowledge to good use? Hopefully. I don't know. It might not work.

Brad Dowdy: No, I think it's exciting and I think you should go for it. And I know you would have the full support of the community behind you. And I love hearing, hearing talk like this. I think it's, it's, it's really, really cool. So if that wasn't enough pressure on you, you had a very high pressure event this year and you got married.

Tessa Sowry: I did. End of last year. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: End of last year. Okay. So this is my single favorite post you've ever done. Yay. And I read them all and I've shown this post off. I've talked about it. So, so not just any wedding you had, I won't call it a stationary wedding, but the title of your post was stationary at my wedding. So your, your husband, your now husband, then fiance, he's, he's behind this stationary obsession a little bit because you got, you got pretty far in all the things you did for your wedding. So why don't you talk about him, talk about that and how you got stationary so involved in your wedding, because this is so cool.

Tessa Sowry: Okay. So yeah, my husband, Harry is a designer. So I think with that comes a love of stationary anyway. So yeah, he's totally with me on the whole thing. Um, and he actually proposed on a pencil.

Brad Dowdy: Um, so you taking, you taking notes, Myke? Nope.

Tessa Sowry: Um, yeah. So he, he handed me a pencil that said, Tessa, will you marry me? Um, and he had also, um, used a notebook as a sort of ring box in a way, like he'd cut out the shape of the ring. So he opened the notebook with the ring inside, um, it's making the rest of us look bad. Well, he made me wait like 10 years, so he had to do a good job.

Myke Hurley: That's right.

Tessa Sowry: Um, so yeah, when it came to planning the wedding, um, it was him actually that suggested that we kind of bring the pencil thing into it somehow. And, and I was kind of like, oh, it's so obvious. Like people will expect it, but he was pretty forceful that we should, um, go down that route. So yeah, there were a few different ways that we brought it in. Um, we had pencils made on the day, made for the day, um, that said like Tessa and Harry and the date of our wedding. Um, so we put one of those on each person's, um, place setting. Um, and we got, um, pay sort of, yeah, paper, um, tablecloths with the idea being that people could, uh, write on the tables, which as they got drunker, they did, uh, which had some fun results.

Brad Dowdy: Did you post all those pictures? I see some of them.

Tessa Sowry: I put one up on the blog post, which I think is probably enough.

Brad Dowdy: I think that was telling enough.

Tessa Sowry: Um, what else do we have? We, um, so my husband designed a big vinyl, um, sticker thing and got it made to, um, a big pencil vinyl to go on the wall. Um, which was just kind of, it was just a big white space. So it kind of just something to go on the wall. Um, a friend of ours made her boyfriend a, um, a bow tie, um, which was made of, um, material that had, um, pencils all over it. And he wore, um, a pack of colored pencils instead of a pocket square, which was genius. So it was good that kind of other people bought into that as well.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, the, um, the, the brass Kaweco.

Tessa Sowry: Oh yeah. My, my wedding gift on the day. Um, yeah, he, in the morning, he'd got my bridesmaids to give, um, me, uh, a gift, which was, um, a brass, um, Kaweco sport, which I've wanted for ages and it seemed to kind of make sense. And it's got a little engraving on it on the back, which I'll keep to myself. Um, yeah. And I also, um, I really enjoyed doing the, um, the place name setting things myself, which I, um, got some advice from Elaine from, um, our link calligraphy on, cause I saw she'd done similar, um, for a friend's wedding. So I kind of copied her, um, on those as well. So yeah, that was my wedding.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean, you couldn't have pulled it off any better. I, it's just fascinating. I look at this, I, I'm not joking. I look at this post all the time and I just smile cause it's really, really cool. Y'all that, that was awesome. And, and belated congratulations to both of you.

Tessa Sowry: Thanks very much.

Brad Dowdy: What did, what did you get them for their wedding present, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I didn't know.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't get an invite, so.

Myke Hurley: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: I turned it around. You did, you did. You dirty rotten scoundrel. All right. So I want to talk about, um, I want to talk about what you're using these days, Tessa. I think everyone wants to know, you know, what are the current things that are, have taken hold with you? Have you found any, you know, new products that you're really enjoying more than anything? Do you have a favorite that you've had for years that is always there and useful? So let's, let's talk about pens and pencils first. Like what kind of things are you using these days that are some of your favorites? Yeah. Yeah.

Fountain Pens

Tessa Sowry: Yeah. So I am totally a creature of habit. I must say the amount of new stuff I try, I generally don't end up changing what's in my kind of everyday use, um, piles very much at all. Um, I, I've got the pen that I use basically all the time is, um, my Kaweco Skyline Sport. Um, it's, it's small. I like small things. I am quite small. Um, which color? Mint, obviously.

Brad Dowdy: That would, that would have been my guess, uh, obviously, as you say.

Tessa Sowry: Um, yeah. And I, yeah, I never used to really like, um, using fountain pens, but that one I just love. And then I think there's just something about writing with ink, like proper ink that I find quite satisfying.

Brad Dowdy: What color do you have it inked up with?

Tessa Sowry: Um, well, at the moment it's got turquoise in it, but only because I've run out of, um, blue black, which would be my choice for every day. Cause at the moment I feel like I, everything I kind of am using, especially at work, it's turquoise. And then I'm kind of aware that if I'm using turquoise ink as well, it's just a bit embarrassing.

Tessa Sowry: Like there's one point where my notebook, my pen, my ink, my mug, everything was turquoise and I thought I need to really change things up a bit here.

Tessa Sowry: Um, yeah. So I've always got a pocket notebook on the go. Um, I do try to change those up cause I've got quite a few different ones and I like to sort of try different ones out. So I'm using a, I never know how to pronounce it. Doan, Doan paper. Yeah. I'm using one of those at the moment.

Brad Dowdy: Very cool.

Tessa Sowry: Um, pencils. I always use black wing just because, just because they're the coolest.

Brad Dowdy: They are the coolest. I have a handful of pencils that I kind of rotate through. I always end up grabbing that one though. I always end up grabbing like the, the 602, the, the graphite barrel one. Do you have a particular out of the, out of the black wing or just really any of them? Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: Kind of any of them. Yeah. I don't, I don't have like specific uses for, I'm only ever jotting stuff down. So it doesn't, the hardness doesn't really matter to me. I'm, I'm quite shallow. I'm all about aesthetics.

Brad Dowdy: That's good. There's something to be said for that. And I mean, those black wings are, are beautiful. You can't really argue with the aesthetic of that pencil.

Tessa Sowry: They are.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: Um.

Brad Dowdy: Any others, any other favorites you're using?

Tessa Sowry: Uh, well, I always like sort of playing, well, attempting to make my calligraphy better. So I've often, I use a dip pen quite a lot. Um, and I'm sort of trying out different inks. I've been trying, um, diamine inks out for the first time. Um, I got sent some samples of those. So that's a new, a new one for me.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm keep threatening dip pens. I have one sitting on my desk. I take that back. I have three sitting on my desk. I have nibs and I just won't sit there and start doing it. I, I need to kick my own, my own behind, uh, to get in gear on that. Just a, it just looks so cool. Um, you know, get to try out a few different nibs, get to try out a bunch of inks and, uh, I need to do that.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah, no clearing out pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: I'm too impatient for that.

Brad Dowdy: I need to do that.

Tessa Sowry: But saying that, the thing I really want to buy next is a, a, a flexible nib, like fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Tessa Sowry: Cause I don't have one and that's a kind of way of, I guess, practicing calligraphy skills, but without having to kind of get messy with ink. So yeah, that's my plan.

Brad Dowdy: Very, very good. All right. So we took, um, we took some questions from our Twitter followers.

Tessa Sowry: Mm.

Brad Dowdy: So we want to, um, give you a couple of these and give, give you a chance to, to reply to all your fans out there. Okay.

Tessa Sowry: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So the first, the first one from P P quirk, I guess that's what we're going with. And I don't even know if you keep a journal or keep a diary, but if you do, do you have any type of system for your note-taking journaling, journaling diary, any type of system that, that you use?

Tessa Sowry: Um, no.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm a no, I'm a no as well.

Tessa Sowry: Um, yeah. I mean, I, I, the first time I bought a Hobonichi, I thought this is going to be my time when I start journaling. Then the second year when I bought a Hobonichi, I thought this is going to be the year when I get better at journaling. And then I gave up and I bought a different kind of, um, Hobonichi without so much room because I know that I'm just not that person as much as I would like to be.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's like, um, it's like this romantic thought I have in my head that I'm going to use all these systems and have all this like perfect notebook, but I just write stuff down. I mean, I just write it down, I scratch it out. And that's just kind of what works for me. You, you've never stuck with anything either, Myke, right? You just, just take notes, scratch the room, whatever you need. Right.

Journaling

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I gave up on the idea that I would do those, that journaling or routine writing things a long time ago. Cause it's just not the way that I've ever been. Like even with like digital journals and stuff, like with day one, which we've spoken about in the past, like even just like something that will remind me every day to do it with a notification still doesn't make me do it. I, I, I tend to add to those types of things when I want to, as opposed to on a routine, it just doesn't fit in my brain.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So now this one, this one came in, I think it was, it was more directed, um, at me, but I really just because of what Tesla said just a second ago about the pocket notebooks, do you have any favorite pocket notebooks? I know you say you go through a lot of them. Has there been one that's like really stood out or that you, you know, when you're not rotate, if you don't have one to rotate into, do you just grab one that you, you know, it's going to be good.

Tessa Sowry: I mean, field notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Tessa Sowry: I know it's obvious, but that is what I would always go to.

Myke Hurley: They got a great new design on the website. I didn't feel like it was worth putting in a followup, but I, they put that out there a couple of days ago. It looks fantastic and it's really, really great on mobile as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's very cool. Have you seen it, Brad? I did. I just saw that the other day, someone linked it and, uh, I didn't realize that was coming. So, uh, they did a good job. We'll, we'll talk about that. Um, when I, when I get them on, I guess I should email them about having them on for their summer release. Shouldn't I?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So I'll add that to the list, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's kind of hard to go wrong with the field notes, you know, obviously, um, you know, they're not fountain pen friendly, but you're not, um, always using fountain pens, uh, as neither am I. So I love breaking out the field notes. All right. And Robbie Ross, I think is a countryman as well. She, he wants to know.

Tessa Sowry: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: He wants to know who produces the best stationary blogs, USA or UK.

Tessa Sowry: Oh my goodness.

Brad Dowdy: Watch yourself.

Tessa Sowry: I, I, that's impossible to answer. We've all got our merits.

Brad Dowdy: You can, you can say UK. I will let you, I will let you do that because between you, Ian, Adam, who else is in the UK stationary blogging? Y'all do awesome, awesome job. So, I mean, related to that, Robbie wants to know what's the hardest thing about running your blog? Like, do you, how much, you know, time do you spend on it and, you know, how far ahead are you planning things? You know, what, uh, cause you have a day job and, um, you know, it's a lot of commitment to run this blog. You've been doing it for a while now. So what's, uh, what are your challenges?

Tessa Sowry: Um, I think consistency is, is a challenge. Um, I think especially with my photography and like talking about my first ever post, I can't believe how terrible that photo is. Um, sort of, and the standard I've kind of set for myself now, I think that makes it quite difficult. I can't just like take a quick snap and then put a post up. I've got to wait until the light is good and I've had a good idea for something and the composition's gone right and I've had time to edit. And I think that's kind of slowed me down a bit. Um, but I want to stay at that standard. So I want to carry it on. And I think that is something I think, especially working full time. And I actually recently, I used to have half a day off a week to do it. And I've recently, um, gone back to working full time just because I found that I was working full time and just not getting paid for it. Um, so I, um, now don't have that kind of time in the week. That's definitely for blogging. So it's kind of carving out time for myself, um, is a bit of a struggle, but yeah, but I

Brad Dowdy: make it work. Yeah. The quality shows, I mean, it's, it's, it's very obvious that, uh, you, you put a lot of time and effort into it and, uh, do a great job. All right. So I'm going to get you out on this one last question again from Mr. Robbie Ross. Do you have a, do you have a grail pen that you're one pen that you're looking for that, you know, is either just something really awesome, something, you know, you just really want to own something you can't wait to use, or maybe not. Is there, is there something like that out there for you?

Flex Nib Pens

Tessa Sowry: Uh, I think just like I was saying before, I think, uh, a flex nib fountain pen, um, is the kind of the thing that I'm really searching for. And I'm, I'm not, I don't really like the idea, and I'm really sorry to say this guys, but of spending a lot of money on a pen. Yeah, that's understandable. Um, that just kind of doesn't sit well with me. I would just be too petrified. I'm someone that if it's too fancy, I just never use it. And so I like to buy things that I know I will use. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I used to say that, Tessa.

Tessa Sowry: I've resisted this.

Myke Hurley: So did I. It will get you, eventually.

Tessa Sowry: Oh, wow. Well, I'm resisting for now.

Myke Hurley: That's good, Dave. That's, I can appreciate that. What happens is, like, well, they said, where the eye is with me, the level at which I say I won't go above just keeps increasing. Right? So, like, the baseline and the high are just, they're just moving up. So, it's like, originally, it was like, when I bought my vanishing point, it was like $100. Like, that is the maximum that I will go to. And then over time, that maximum is just ratcheted up a little bit over time.

Tessa Sowry: Okay. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: No, stick to your guns. I mean, there's something to be said for it, you know. I think that's good.

Tessa Sowry: I can be very stubborn.

Brad Dowdy: That's good.

Tessa Sowry: But, yeah, I know that I, a lot of, I think, the really good flex nib pens, I don't know a huge amount about it yet, but I feel like a lot of them are vintage and therefore probably quite expensive.

Brad Dowdy: You can get one for a reasonable price. I mean, say, like, I have a Waterman 52, which is one of the popular, common, you know, vintage flex nib pens, and I think I paid about $100 for it. So, you can get something that's reasonable. See, that's the problem.

Tessa Sowry: If, to you, $100 isn't that much.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, it is plenty of money, but, like, for the vintage flex, I mean, they can be very, very expensive, several hundred dollars. So, like, starting at, like, in the, like, $80 to $100, you can actually get something that would be, like, the only pen you'd need because it can do all kinds of crazy things with flex.

Tessa Sowry: Okay. Well, I've written that down, so we'll see what happens.

Brad Dowdy: We'll have to hit that London pen show. When is that? In October, November, something like that?

Tessa Sowry: I don't, I don't, in terms of London pen show, I don't ever hear anything about one. I don't.

Myke Hurley: There is one. There is one, and if you would like to have to be toured around the London pen show this year, I would be willing to be your guide.

Tessa Sowry: Okay.

Myke Hurley: It's not a great show, in all honesty. Yeah. Like, it's nothing like the ones that are in America, but there is one, and I have been, and I have bought some cool stuff. There are some decent dealers that go to these things. And if you're looking for something vintage, you will definitely find something there. It's, this year is on the 2nd of October. Okay. In Bloomsbury. So, if you're willing, and maybe we can make this for the other people in London, we will make an excursion to the London pen show this year.

Tessa Sowry: Sounds good. You can enable me.

Myke Hurley: I will be happy to.

Brad Dowdy: Well, wonderful. Well, Tessa, thank you so much for taking the time out to do this. I really, really wanted to have you on and couldn't wait to get you on and talk about all this stuff. So, thank you so much for coming.

Tessa Sowry: Thanks so much for having me.

Myke Hurley: Tessa, where can people find your work? Where can they follow you online? And what's the best places?

Tessa Sowry: Okay. So, my blog is allthingstationary.co.uk. On Instagram, I'm at allthingstationary. And just to be annoying on Twitter, I'm different. I'm at TessaSowry. So, T-E-S-S-S-A-S-O-W-R-Y.

Myke Hurley: Well, Brad does the same thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm over here giggling because I'm like, yep, that's me.

Tessa Sowry: I did consider changing it just for this, but I thought, no, that's silly.

Myke Hurley: No, don't do that. We're not that important. If you do want to find Brad, he is at Dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. He is penaddict on Instagram, and he writes at thepenaddict.com and sells lovely pen cases at knock.co. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on all the social networks. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict Podcast. If you'd like to find our show notes for this episode, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 206. There's lots of links to all the posts that we spoke about from Tessa's blog and some reviews and the products that we mentioned. There's loads in there you'll be able to find. And you can also go and visit pencholet.com, our lovely sponsor for this week's episode. Take advantage of the deals and discounts that they have for you. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad and Tessa. Goodbye, Brad and Tessa. Goodbye, Brad and Tessa. Nailed it. Just a follow-up. Just a follow-up.