For me, this is my second week of social distancing/quarantine/lockdown. Tuesday was the start of a 30-day Stay-at-Home Order from the city of Kansas City. Previously, we were just recommended to practice social distancing, but this week things have gotten more serious.
I would love to make Link Love entirely a place for escape from the Covid-19 concerns in our world but I’m sure, like me, it’s good to have resources and inspiration for how to get through these tough times and also to hear how others are doing. Thankfully, the internet has made it possible for us all to not feel so alone.
However, using pens and pencils allow us to escape from the digital boxes. Like Laura posted yesterday, there has never been a better time to redouble journaling efforts to document this historic time. Journals provide a safe place to put down all our worries too. We can also take time to tackle some correspondence and reconnect in a more analog way (check out the Thank You, Internet post from Typewriter Revolution).
My hope is that you and your loved ones are healthy and well and that we must just concern ourselves with how to get through a trying time. If you have other suggestions or stories about your time in isolation, please post them in the comments.
Pens:
- Pilot Myu (via Flex & Other Follies)
- Kaweco AL Sport Fountain Pen in a Stonewashed Blue finish (via FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART)
- Curidas. 1. Context (via Crónicas Estilográficas)
- Fountain Pens for Beginners with Tiny Handwriting (via Rediscover Analog)
- Fountain Brush Pens: Brush Pens That Take Fountain Pen Ink (via JetPens Blog)
Ink:
- Tuesday Toolset, Top 5 Fountain Pen Ink Brands Edition (via The Pen Addict)
- Montblanc James Purdey & Sons Cigar Brown Scented Ink (via Gourmet Pens)
- Diamine Inkvent inks available as the Blue Range from Thursday 26th March 2020 (via FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART)
- Akkerman #12 Mauritshuis Magenta Fountain Pen Ink Review (via The Pen Addict)
- Diamine Burnt Sienna (via Mountain of Ink)
Pencils:
- Special Surface Writers: Stabilo All-Surface and Dermatograph Pencils (via CW Pencil Enterprise)
- Blackwing Volume 840. (via PENCIL REVOLUTION!)
- Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencil Review (via Notebook Joy)
Notebooks & Paper:
- 10 things I wish I had known as a Filofax newbie – by Anita (via Philofaxy)
- Shoebox Tour: Filofax and Other Looseleaf Notebooks (via Notebook Stories)
- Goulet Notebook with 68gsm Tomoe River Paper Review (via Notebook Joy)
- Book Review: Collecting Moments: A Guide To Retro Journaling (via Parka Blogs)
- Gage & Tollner Notebooks from the 1960s and 1970s (via Notebook Stories)
- Daily Journaling Prompts for April 2020 (via Quo Vadis Blog)
Art & Creativity:
- Review: Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache (via Parka Blogs)
- Marie’s Masters Watercolours (via Jane Blundell Artist)
- Reviving the Strathmore Class–Free! (via Cathy Johnson)
- Vintage Colored Pencils: Staedtler Mars Lumochrom (via Fueled by Clouds & Coffee)
- Notable Pencils: Apsara Dual Combo (via Fueled by Clouds & Coffee)
- All of TPK’s Free Calligraphy Worksheets: A Master List (via The Postman’s Knock)
- Six Free Sewing Projects (via Tilly and the Buttons)
Other Interesting Things: Covid-19 related:
- Check-Out Over 300,000 Titles Using the NYPL’s E-Reader, SimplyE (via My Modern Met)
- Things To Do With Your Fountain Pens During A Quarantine (via Fountain Pen Love)
- Too many pens: How to keep selling stationery as the world shuts down (via Scribble Monboddo)
- Stay home, make zines (via Austin Kleon)
- Watch the Aquatic Animals at Monterey Bay Aquarium via These Free Live Streams (via Colossal)
- Thank you, Internet (via The Typewriter Revolution blog)
- Teaching Art From a Distance Could Have Benefits (via Hyperallergic)
- Bake at Home (via | Blackmarket Bakery | California)
- Advice and updates for the creative community during this time of crisis (via It’s Nice That)
- “Make a digital collage using objects in your home” (via It’s Nice That Weekly Brief)
- Free or discounted tools to support the creative community during the Covid-19 crisis (via Creative Boom)
- #30DayHomeLove Instagram Home Styling Challenge (via decor8)
- Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands: Vintage Handwashing Propaganda Posters Between The 1920s And 1940s (via Design You Trust)
- Garland download: Let’s stay home (via Flow Magazine)
- SHORTAGE OF MASKS (via Fancy Tiger Crafts)
I’ve been writing a lot of postcards. Even if I’m not going to get them in the mailbox immediately, it comforts me just to write them. It’s also comforting to read that, from all indications, the virus cannot survive the tender mercies of the US Postal System. =)
Hope you and yours are healthy and safe, good lady. Thanks for all you’re doing to keep our spirits up; it’s appreciated.
Ana, I just want you to know that I look forward to your Link Love posts and end up clicking on (almost) every link when one arrives. Thanks so much for keeping us company and providing information and entertainment targeted to those who love pen and paper and all things related.
Thanks so much for the kind words. I appreciate that you took the time to comment and provide feedback. Stay safe and healthy and enjoy the links.