Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · June 23, 2026
Ask ten notebook manufacturers what their ruling actually does to your handwriting, and you’ll get a blank stare — that information simply isn’t printed on the cover or the packaging. I found this out somewhere past journal number forty, once I finally stopped reaching for whatever was closest on the shelf and started genuinely interrogating … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 22, 2026
7S26 — that’s the caliber stamped into a Seiko 5 I picked up at an estate sale for $40, and hunting down that reference number is actually what got a notebook into my pocket in the first place. I needed somewhere to scribble the serial, the caseback markings, whatever the seller could remember about its … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 22, 2026
The assumption nearly everyone starts with is that a decent pen will simply behave itself on whatever paper happens to be lying around — that ink is ink, paper is paper, and the pairing hardly matters. It’s wrong, and I still own the ruined notebook to prove it. Three years back I sat down with … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 21, 2026
Nearly every beginner picking up a fountain pen assumes that if a notebook feels sturdy and looks nice, it’ll handle ink just fine — thickness equals quality, or so the logic goes. That assumption cost me $34 and three weeks of ruined journal entries. I’d loaded my TWSBI ECO with Pilot Iroshizuku ink and started … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 21, 2026
Don’t buy a Hobonichi Techo expecting an ordinary notebook — that’s not what you’re paying for, and misunderstanding it will cost you money and patience. For three straight Januarys I watched the planning world work itself into a frenzy over this slender Japanese import, and for three straight Januarys I scoffed and reached for something … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 20, 2026
Right here on my desk sits a battered Staedtler Mars Lumograph next to a Zebra F-301, and between the two of them I’ve settled an argument that used to send me back and forth in the stationery aisle like an indecisive fool. Ten-plus years into hoarding analog writing tools — watches, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical … Read more