My Red Pens (or some of them anyway)

I won a red pen in a giveaway this week and I was thinking about some of the red pens I own. I don't necessarily go out and gather red pens, but taking a quick inventory, I have a few. I loved the image that was floating around a while back of that woman in a circle of her pens and it inspired me a little.

I don't think this is all of my reds, but its what I gathered for the shoot. There might be a few oranges and a maroon or two in here (nitpickers) and a few Parker 51's that might be my favorite red(ish) pens, along with the Sheaffer in the picture below. Wiki tells me that several studies have indicated that red carries the strongest reaction of all the colors, with the level of reaction decreasing gradually with orange, yellow, and white, respectively. Sort of why stop signs are red and not a safe shade of tan.

Again, if there were a fire in the house and I only could grab a handful of my red pens these would definitely make the cut. Oh, hey, cool, the fire truck would be red! Well I am off to paint the town red but first I have to cut through the red tape and I hope everyone has a red letter day.

Parker Vector and site updates

The Parker Vector might actually be my least favorite Parker Fountain pen that I own. That being said, it still is an OK writer and fairly reliable because it is a cartridge filler. I find that I just need to clean it a bit more than my similar pens to keep it smooth.

Parker started making the Vector in 1981 and there is a pretty cool Vector calligraphy set, but overall, I am just "meh" with these. I own a few and and they all put ink on paper, but I have never been inspired or jumped up from my chair and said "wow, this pen rocks and it won't leave my hand till you pry it from my cold dead fingers."

Funky long cartridges that (of course) I refill myself.

Dedicated readers (actually mostly just my mother in law) have been asking why I have missed a few days of blogging and there are several reasons. Life sort of got in the way last week. I had some red-eye flights and was a little backed up from travel. I also realized after 171 straight days (week days) of posting I needed a few days to chill and catch my breath. Lots of good stuff coming including a giveaway and a new W.D.S.B.M. I am also working on getting this on a real site up and running so I appreciate your dedication.

Osmiroid 75 Piston Filler

Yes, I love my cartridge fillers, but compared to a good piston filler ...cartridges just seem so archaic. The combination of interchangeable nibs and a piston filler makes this a fun little pen to have. Then add in the Fine Oblique nib and you have things that dreams are made of.

Dreamy right? Indeed. Happy belated Mothers Day everyone! There are an estimated 82.8 million mothers in the United States (in 2004.) So let's not make them angry. The could revolt and we all could be grounded for the next two weeks.

This is of my few pens with bite marks, again, if you missed it...I do NOT bite my pens. I picture some angry calligrapher in the late 70's struggling to get invitations done and biting away here. (ew, I am going to go wash my hands.) I had a few travel days last week but I am back in the game.