I passed! Hooray!
By the time you read this I will be in London, Ontario, presenting my 5 years of PhD work to a conference room of examiners. I’m emotional. I’m nervous, excited, happy, sad, proud, confident, and scared. I’m mostly thrilled. If I am successful then I will change my name to Dr. Jordana. If I am unsuccessful, I will cry. Please send positive vibes my way. A lot of them s’il vous plait!
It seems quite fitting that on this very important day (keep calm, carry on) I write a post about office supplies. I have used SO many different types of office supplies in my 12 years of post-secondary education. Today I’m sharing some news about pencils. Beautifully functioning white pencils. The best. They are the Palomino Blackwing Pearl pencils. Palomino just introduced this line of pencils and anyone who loves design and the smooth writing style will be sure to pick up packages of these!
Palomino Blackwing Pearl pencils, $19.95 for 12, Palomino
For those of you who love history…”The Blackwing pencil was first manufactured in the 1930s by Eberhard Faber, but was discontinued in 1998 when the machine that created the distinctive square ferrule (the crimped metal that holds the eraser) broke and could not be repaired.” What happened next? Well, Palomino bought the brand, sorted out the ferrule manufacturing, and brought the pencil back! There’s more to learn about the Blackwing legend and about who uses this pencil.
The Palomino Blackwing Pearl can be bought online at Pencils. If you’re in the Toronto area, you can buy Palomino at the following supply stores:
1. Phidon Pens Limited (Cambridge)
2. Laywine’s (Toronto)
3. Midoco Art & Office Supplies (Toronto)
4. The Paper Place (Toronto)
5. Wonder Pens (Toronto)
Did I jump at the chance to test these out? Of course I did! And I’m a fan. They function beautifully and the square ferrule stands out in my collection of classic HB2 pencils!
And now – here’s a chance for you to test them out too…
GIVEAWAY:
Palomino is offering to send one lucky winner a package of the new Palomino Blackwing Pearl pencils. To enter this giveaway, simply finish the following statement: The last thing I wrote by hand was…. Add your sentence to the comment section below. Contest ends on Monday August 26, 2013. This contest is open to readers in North America. Good luck and happy writing!
Thank you to Palomino & Kim S. for offering this giveaway.
I think I may have settled on quartz as my new kitchen countertop option. I definitely don’t want acrylic/plastic or granite. I would love carrara marble but a) I’m not sure it’s the right choice for this home and b) I don’t know any carrara marble dealers in KW. I think I will be happy with quartz. It will hold up well and it will look sleek with my existing cabinets and backsplash tiles. That said, I have yet to make a decision about what pattern to get. I have already narrowed down my options to only white varieties. And I have eliminated the fake marble and the very snowy patterns from the list. These are possible contenders:
Any advice? What is your countertop made of? Do you have quartz?
I have been drinking more coffee than usual over the last few weeks. I go through phases of preferred coffee types. I normally rotate between Café du Monde drip coffee, espresso, and lattés. While I love French pressed coffee too, I don’t have a French press so I never make it. My local café has pour over coffee which is kind of – sort of – like French press. I love the taste of pretty much every kind of coffee (and I’ve written about my interest in coffee here).
Cuisinart Compact Single Serve Coffee Maker
What about you? What’s you coffee of choice? Do you frequent the cafés or do you prefer your own make-at-home coffee?
by Corie
I’m popping in to share a couple of photos from our European vacation last month.
racks of white clothes in Provence
Prince Albert, Princess Charlene, and my husband in Monaco
And just for fun – here’s my little monkey. He is so sweet but why why why does he have to climb absolutely everything? Jordana says we should put him into rockclimbing. How young is too young?