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Quo Vadis – Writer's Bloc Blog

8 Tips For Using the Leuchtturm1917 Adhesive Pen Loop

Leuchtturm1917 Adhesive Pen Loop
Leuchtturm1917 Adhesive Pen Loop

The Leuchtturm1917 Adhesive Pen Loop is a easy way to add a handy pen holder to a paper notebook or journal that doesn’t have one. Just peel the backing off the small 1.5″ x 1.5″ square piece of vinyl, stick it on to where you want it and voila, your notebook has a new elastic pencil or pen loop! Here are 8 tips for using your Leuchtturm1917 pen loop:

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop stuck on a Quo Vadis Habana Journal
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop stuck on a large Quo Vadis Habana Journal
  1. The Leuchtturm1917 pen loop works best with slender writing tools such as regular size wooden pencils, Staedtler triplus pens, cheap Bic or Paper Mate ballpoints, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, you get the idea. I didn’t like using pens with rubberized or highly textured grips with this pen loop because they are too difficult to slide in and out. Maybe you are more patient than I am.
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holding a Staedtler Triplus Textsurfer
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holding a Staedtler Triplus Textsurfer

2. I was able to use the pen loop to hold pens with a medium size barrel only if they were cigar-shaped (tapered on the ends) and had a smooth barrel. A couple of examples of this are the Platinum Plaisir fountain pen and Pentel Tradio pens.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holding a Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holding a Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen

3. For pens with a wide barrel and squared ends, the best you can do is attach your pen clip to the elastic pen loop. Check out the photo below to see how you can use it with the clip on your LAMY Safari fountain pen.

4. When I use a fountain pen, most often I prefer to write with it “unposted”, or without the cap placed on the top (non-nib) end of the pen. While I’m writing, I’m always looking for a place to put the cap so I won’t lose it. The pen holder is a handy place to attach the clip of my fountain pen cap until I need the cap again.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holds a LAMY Safari by the clip only
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop holds a LAMY Safari by the clip only

5. Think before you stick. The Leuchtturm1917 pen loop is only meant to be stuck in one place and not removed and stuck somewhere else. I put mine in the center of the back cover of my large Quo Vadis Habana Journal because I am planning on using the pen loop to grasp the center portion of my pen. If you want to use it to grasp the top part of a pen near the clip, you’re better off sticking the pen holder near the top of your notebook. It’s a good idea to figure out what pen you want to use with the holder, put the pen in the loop, and then put it next to your notebook to figure out where you want to place it before you stick it on the cover.

6. Once my notebook is used up, I will get another pen loop to stick on a fresh new notebook. This makes sense, because even if the Leuchtturm1917 pen loop used the best quality materials in the world, over time they eventually wear out.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop

7. The pen loop is not a fool-proof way to avoid losing your pens and pencils. You still need to exercise care so as to not lose your valuable writing tools. Also, if you want to remove the pen loop, don’t expect it to remove cleanly.

Leuchtturm Pen Loop holding an Apple Pencil
Leuchtturm Pen Loop holding an Apple Pencil

8. Even though the Leuchtturm1917 pen loop is designed to be used with paper notebooks, some people have successfully used it on a tablet or smart phone cover to hold a stylus for their device. It does a great job at holding the Apple Pencil! This is a hack, so try this at your own risk.

How do you use your Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop? Do you have any tips or tricks to share?

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop
Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop

 

 

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Greenery: 2017 Pantone Color of the Year Gift Guide

Greenery - Pantone Color of the Year 2017
Greenery – Pantone Color of the Year 2017

Pantone recently announced that the color of the year for 2017 is a shade called Greenery. Their website calls the Greenery “nature’s neutral” and provides this description of the color:

A refreshing and revitalizing shade, Greenery is symbolic of new beginnings.

Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.

I’m crazy about anything in the color yellow-green! We’ve put together a gift guide to help you shop for pens, ink and journals that are similar to this shade of green.

Greenery Themed Stationery
Greenery Themed Stationery
Green LAMY Safari with a Calligraphy Nib
Green LAMY Safari with a Calligraphy Nib

LAMY Safari Fountain Pen

The first fountain pen that came to my mind when I saw Greenery was this LAMY Safari fountain pen in green. If you haven’t already collected a Safari in this color this is a good year to do it! We replaced the regular nib on the pen in this photo with a calligraphy nib.

Pilot Prera Demonstrator Fountain Pen with Light Green Accents
Pilot Prera Demonstrator Fountain Pen with Light Green Accents

Pilot Prera Demonstrator Fountain Pen

The Pilot Prera Demonstrator Fountain Pen in Light Green has a clear body with a pop of green on the end of the barrel and cap. The nibs on Prera fountain pens are great if you have small handwriting or like to write with a very fine pen.

Pelikan M205 Duo Highlighter Fountain Pen - Shiny Green
Pelikan M205 Duo Highlighter Fountain Pen – Shiny Green

Pelikan M205 Duo Highlighter Fountain Pen

This Pelikan M205 Duo Highlighter Fountain Pen in Shiny Green is a special edition, so if this pen strikes your fancy don’t wait too long to add this to your desk. It comes equipped with a Broad BB nib and since it’s a fountain pen it can be refilled over and over again with highlighter ink. Our choice of ink? Why, of course matching Pelikan M205 Duo Highlighter Ink, also in Shiny Green.

ilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink Chiku-Rin - Bamboo Forest
Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink Chiku-Rin – Bamboo Forest

Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink in Bamboo Forest Green (Chiku-Rin)

Chiku-Rin or Bamboo Forest fountain pen ink is a yellow green shade similar to the color of new growth on plants in the spring, which also happens to be the same color in nature that inspired the shade Greenery. Truly a beautiful and refreshing color!

J. Herbin Vert Pre Fountain Pen Ink
J. Herbin Vert Pre Fountain Pen Ink

J. Herbin Vert Pre Fountain Pen Ink

J. Herbin’s Vert Pre is another one of our favorite yellow-green fountain pen inks. The top of the glass bottle has a handy built-in place to rest your pen.  J. Herbin uses all natural dyes in their inks, which makes them non-toxic and pH neutral.

Rhodiarama Pad Holder - Anise Green
Rhodiarama Pad Holder – Anise Green

Rhodiarama Pad Holder No. 12 with Notepad – Anise Green

Carry your favorite Rhodia paper in this pocket-size refillable Rhodia notepad holder. It has a pen holder and pocket to stash receipts and business cards.

Rhodiarama Soft Cover Notebook - Anise Green Cover
Rhodiarama Soft Cover Notebook – Anise Green Cover

Rhodiarama Soft Cover Notebook with an Anise Green Cover

Your fountain pen will write like a dream on the high quality paper inside Rhodiarama soft cover notebooks. Your choice of lined or dot grid paper – just what those of you who are crazy about bullet journals have been waiting for!

Pentel Tradio Mechanical Pencil - Apple Green
Pentel Tradio Mechanical Pencil – Apple Green

Pentel Tradio Mechanical Pencil – Apple Green

The cap of the Apple Green Pentel Tradio mechanical pencil protects the tip from damage and breakage. It’s got a button on the side near the grip that you can click to advance the lead for uninterrupted writing.

Other ideas for a Greenery themed desk top include: the Quo Vadis Habana Journal in Anise Green, Quo Vadis Planner with a Bamboo Green Texas Cover, a Platinum Preppy Green Highlighter with Green Highlighting Ink, and the Staedtler Textsurfer Classic Green Highlighter. Several Clairefontaine notepads are available with yellow-green covers: you can request a yellow-green cover during order check out and if we’ve got that color in stock we will send it to you.

What yellow-green stationery items do you have on your desk?

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New! Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner Review

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner and Platinum Cool Fountain Pen
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner and Platinum Cool Fountain Pen

Brand new from Quo Vadis this year is the Plan & Note Weekly Planner. It has an open format, which means it doesn’t have an hour by hour schedule or a lot of extra details. It simply and effectively gives you the space and freedom to organize your days according to your own personal needs.

It has one week on two pages, with Monday through Thursday on the left page and Friday through Sunday on the right page. Each day has 7 blank lines for recording your appointments, thoughts, memos, plans and adventures plus an extra eight lines for notes on the bottom right. It does make a note of major holidays as well as phases of the moon. The week of the year is mentioned on the bottom of the right page.

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Open Format
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Open Format

The very beginning of the planner has a page for your personal information and a page with a calendar of the current year. There are also 12 monthly planning pages – one for each month of the year. Each month has a six-week Monday through Sunday calendar grid to keep your plans on track. Major holidays and phases of the moon are listed here.

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Monthly Planning
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Monthly Planning

The back of the Plan & Note Planner has a one page calendar for the next year and 2 pages of anno-planning for keeping track of future events.

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Anno-Planning
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Anno-Planning

There’s also a bound-in 9 page address book for recording snail-mail addresses, email addresses, phone numbers etc. The very back of the planner has an extra 2 lined pages for notes.

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Address Book
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Address Book

The Plan & Note’s paper, cover and binding are all noteworthy. First, the brilliantly smooth paper is made by Clairefontaine. The large Plan & Note Desk Planner has glorious 90 g paper that works wonderfully with fountain pens. The pocket size planner has 64 g paper to keep it nice and compact. The pages are bright white with 2 color printing and have tear-off corners to help you find your place.

The cover is flexible with a pleasing velvety soft touch. It is streamlined and simple with only the year and Quo Vadis logo blind embossed on the front and only a logo on the bottom center of the back. The cover is mostly black, with a colorful re-inforced spine and matching elastic closure. This year’s colors include Turquoise, Rose and Violet.

It has a stitched binding so that pages won’t fall out and it can open flat. The spine is flexible enough that the planner can be completely opened backwards without breaking.

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Flexible Spine
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Flexible Spine

The Quo Vadis Plan and Note comes in two different sizes: a 6″ x 8.25″ Desk Planner and a 4″ x 6″ Pocket Size Planner. These planners are not on our shelves just yet, so send us an email if you’d like us to order one for you!

Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner - Turquoise
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner – Turquoise
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner: Turquoise, Rose and Violet
Quo Vadis Plan & Note Planner: Turquoise, Rose and Violet
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How Do I Know What Refill I Need For My Quo Vadis or Exacompta Planner?

How to find the name of the Quo Vadis planner refill that you need.
How to find the name of the Quo Vadis planner refill that you need.

It’s Autumn again and time to start thinking about buying a brand new paper planner for the upcoming year. If you’ve got a Quo Vadis or Exacompta agenda planning diary with a refillable cover, all you need to get is a paper refill. The trouble is, it’s been a whole year and you can’t remember the name of the planner that you bought last year.

There’s an easy solution to this problem. Open the front cover of your current planner and look at the first printed page on the right. The name of the planner refill you need is located to the left of the year. In the example above, the name of the refill is the “Minister.” Problem solved!

Writers Bloc routinely carries refills for the following Exacompta and Quo Vadis yearly planners:

We also have refills for these academic year planners for students:

Have a great year everyone!

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The New & Improved Quo Vadis Minister Planner

Quo Vadis Minister Planner - Black Soho Cover
Quo Vadis Minister Planner – Black Soho Cover

This year Quo Vadis is offering us a new and improved version of their Minister planner, available both in academic and calendar year formats. The Minister weekly appointment book was already an enduring favorite, so how was it improved?

Quo Vadis Minister - Monthly Planning Pages
Quo Vadis Minister Monthly Planning Pages and a Platinum Cool Fountain Pen

The most significant improvement to this planner is the addition of monthly planning pages, one page for each month of the year. Each of the 12 monthly planning pages includes 6 Monday-to-Sunday weeks, so there is plenty of room to jot down notes on days just before or following the end of each month. Each day has a record of what day number of the year it is as well as how many days in the year are left remaining. The phases of the moon as well as some common holidays are also mentioned on their corresponding days. The monthly calendar grid gives you about 7/8″ x 1-1/8″ of space per day.

Quo Vadis Minister Planner
Quo Vadis Minister Planner

The next thing I noticed is that the planner now has crisp grey and teal print instead of just grey print as is in my Minister from a previous year. The teal adds some subtle highlights without being too bright.

The Quo Vadis Minister maintains its high quality with smooth, extra-white 90g Clairefontaine paper. The outstanding paper is definitely a major highlight of this weekly planner. This paper makes it easy to write on both sides of the page since it minimizes any ink showing through or bleeding through to the opposite side of the page. Fountain pens write like a dream on this paper!

Quo Vadis Minister - Anno-Planning Pages
Quo Vadis Minister – Anno-Planning Pages

The contents of this planner have changed a little bit, especially in the beginning section, so if you’ve been using the Quo Vadis Minister to schedule past years you may notice a few differences. Immediately following the title page is a 2-page annual plan for the current year – the organization of your year at a single glance. On these anno-planning pages each month has one column for jotting down outstanding events throughout the year. Here’s an example of a couple of pages where you’ll notice the teal highlights – each Sunday and major holiday has been highlighted with a pale teal color. Phases of the moon also show up on these pages. Following the anno-planning pages are the 12 monthly planning pages (mentioned above) and then the weekly planning pages begin.

Quo Vadis Minister - Weekly Planning Pages
Quo Vadis Minister – Weekly Planning Pages

The weekly planning pages make up the bulk of the content in the Minister. One week is displayed on two pages, starting with Monday on the left through Friday and Saturday on the right page and Sunday at the bottom. Here’s a list of the details:

  • 8 am to 9pm schedule in 1/2 hour increments
  • Each day has a small box at the top for listing priorities
  • Day number of the year and days remaining is mentioned
  • Week number of the year in top right
  • Quarter number of the year in top right
  • 3-month calendar view also in top right
  • Current week is highlighted in the 3-month calendar
  • 3″ wide column on right page for phone numbers, email addresses, websites, expenses, notes and whatever else you want to record
  • Teal week number of the year tabs along the right side
  • Phases of the moon
  • Major holidays
  • Tear-off page corners
  • 12 months + 3 weeks of weekly appointment pages (December to December in the yearly planner, July to July in the Academic version)
Quo Vadis Minister - Weekly Planning Pages
Quo Vadis Minister – Weekly Planning Pages

The final section following the weekly planning pages in the calendar year version of the Minister begins with a new 2-page monthly plan for January of the following year (different in the Academic version). The features of this monthly plan are the same as the earlier monthly planner pages with the addition of a notes column on the right side of the right page. Then you’ve got another 2-page annual plan for the following year, world time zones and several maps, one lined notes page and a 3-year calendar on the very last page.

Quo Vadis Minister Planner
Quo Vadis Minister Planner

The Quo Vadis Minister Planner currently comes with an extra booklet that serves several functions. Page 1 is ruled for notes, pages 2 and 3 are for listing important anniversaries, etc throughout the year. After this there are 6 pages for recording names, addresses, websites and email addresses. There are 2 pages for writing down your passwords, 9 ruled pages for notes, 8 blank pages and 4 dot grid pages. A little bit of everything is in here! Additional address/memo booklets can be purchased separately from the planner.

Quo Vadis Minister - Password Pages in Notes Booklet
Quo Vadis Minister – Password Pages in Notes Booklet

The Minister has a sewn binding that enables you to open the book flat without the risk of pages falling out. It’s 6-1/4″ x 9-3/8″ in size (16 x 24 cm).

Texas, Club and Soho leatherette covers are available as well as Duo Leather covers. These covers can be refilled year after year without having to buy an extra cover every year.

To check out a writing test to see how well fountain pens and other writing instruments perform on this paper take a look at our review of the Monthly 4 Planner that contains the same type of 90g Clairefontaine paper. Scroll to the end of the post and you’ll find our tests.

Have you used Quo Vadis Planners? Which one is your favorite?

Quo Vadis Minister Planner with a Lilac Club Cover
Quo Vadis Minister Planner with a Lilac Club Cover & extra bookmark
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