Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · July 21, 2026
I ruined a full month of journal entries because I trusted the wrong notebook. My then-favorite wet-noodle flex nib was loaded with Diamine Registrar’s ink — a particularly saturated, slow-drying formula — and every single page bled straight through to the back. The fountain pen notebook bleed ghost test I should have run before committing … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 23, 2026
I’ve filled more notebooks than I can count. Somewhere around my fortieth journal, I stopped grabbing whatever was on the shelf and started thinking seriously about dot grid vs lined vs blank notebook formats — and how each one actually changes the way I write, sketch, and think. That shift made a bigger difference than … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 22, 2026
I’ve carried a pocket notebook every single day for the better part of a decade. It started, oddly enough, with watches — specifically a vintage Seiko 5 with a 7S26 movement I picked up at an estate sale for $40. I needed somewhere to jot the serial number, the caseback engravings, the seller’s notes. That … Read more