November began with Fountain Pen Day and ended with Black Friday, so it’s been a good month for new pens! I bought a new pen and ink for each, so obviously they’ve been frequent in my rotation. But first let’s talk about the older pens I’ve been using most this month!

I’ve still been using my Platinum #3776 inked with black in my journal, but I’ve also reinked my pink vintage Pilot Elite with a black Pilot ink cartridge this month. I’ve been using it for some freewriting, and I love how smooth and fine the 18k nib writes!

I also reinked my clear Pilot Kakuno, because it’s one of very few medium nib pens I have, and I wanted to try out a lighter ink that I had a sample of: Sailor Ink Studios 173. It’s a light orange, but is still nice and legible in this pen, and I’m really loving this ink. 

And then there are the new additions to my fountain pen collection! 

The first pen I bought this month I got for a great deal from Stilo & Stile on Fountain Pen Day: a Leonardo Momento Zero Nuvola Lilac, with rose gold trim. This is my first ever Leonardo pen, and it’s absolutely stunning! I’ll do a full review soon, but spoiler alert: I love this pen! It’s quickly becoming a favourite in my collection, especially paired with the ink I bought with it, Wearingeul Jane Eyre. 

The second pen I bought this month was from Cult Pens Black Friday sale, and so I only received it this week. But I love it so much, it’s barely left my hand since, so I’m still counting it as one of my most used pens of November! 

It’s the Sailor Pro Gear Cantaloupe pen from the Smoothie series, and it’s my first ever full-sized Pro Gear, and also my first 21k nib. It’s a beautiful peach and orange colour, and has the subtle gold shimmer that a lot of Sailor Pro Gears have.

The fine nib writes beautiful, with plenty of that characteristic Sailor feedback. I have it inked with a new ink – Diamine Coral – which is a nice match, but I actually think Sailor 173 would be nice in this pen. I just worry that it would be hard to read with such a fine nib, but I might try it out sometime. 

I’ll be reviewing this pen too soon, and in the meantime my wallet really needs to take a break from pens! Especially as I still need to do a lot of my Christmas shopping!

The Empty Notebook Project

This month has gone better than last month as far as the Empty Notebook Project is concerned. I didn’t acquire any new notebooks, and gave one away, taking me down to 46 unused notebooks. 

I also assigned uses and started using two more notebooks, and I’m nearing the end of two others: my blog post drafting notebook, and my Field Notes gratitude notebook. So I’m heading in the right direction!

I’ve hit a slight snag with the project itself though, in that I’m not sure whether to subtract a notebook from the unused notebook tally once I start using it or not. As I’ve said, I started using two empty notebooks this month, but have only done a few pages in each so far. But if I have to wait until I’ve used the entire notebook it’ll not only take forever but also mean I’ll have to add all my half-filled notebooks to the overall tally…which wouldn’t be good! 

This project isn’t meant to be too serious, and is just meant to be a way to encourage myself to use some of my neglected notebooks. But I might still try and solidify some of the rules for next month!

So how has your November been? What pens and inks have you been using most this month?