Challenge Group

If you have subscribed to the Self-Care Challenge and are on Facebook, there is a group just for Challenge Participants to share. The group is closed and secret so this link is the only way you can navigate to the group. You can share epiphanies, pictures, questions, thoughts, and talk about challenges. I look forward to seeing you there!

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Tomoe River Inserts from Taroko Shop

People are always asking what is the best paper for fountain pen usage in their Notebook. Hands down my choice is Tomoe River Paper. If you have never written or drawn on it, you are missing out.  I've only ever been able to experience it in my Hobonichi but now Taroko Shop is selling standard size inserts with Tomoe. The price is very reasonable as is shipping. The inserts were shipped in a protective sleeve between two sheets of hard plastic which protected them from bending. I also received a coupon, a personal note from the Shop (Steve) and two cool wire clips. The shop is currently sold out of these amazing inserts, but you can get them at Red Pen Travelers now (which is exciting for US customers especially). 

I typically use a A6 size TN so when I got these inserts I immediately chopped one down to size. The other one is going to my daughter. I've included some pictures below, including samples of pens I own on the paper - pictured from and back so you can see the excellent quality of the paper with zero bleed through.

One insert standard size, the other cut down to A6 size by me

One insert standard size, the other cut down to A6 size by me

Writing Samples

Writing Samples

Reverse side of samples in same order

Reverse side of samples in same order

If you want to try a great paper, very deceptively light weight, that holds ink superbly, I strongly urge you to try Taroko Shop Tomoe River Inserts.

These inserts were purchased by me for my own use and evaluation.

The Challenge...a little info for those not on Facebook

I've had quite a few people email me and ask, 'what's the catch' to the Self-Care Challenge.  Understandably they are suspicious that somehow this will cost money, or be overly complicated or take a lot of time.  I want to allay these concerns.

I've worked with victims of crime for over 20 years and have seen the impact working with people in crisis has on the professionals.  About 16 years ago the state of Washington's Office of Crime Victim Advocacy asked me to 'throw' together a class for the yearly conference (which they no longer have due to budget constraints.) I decided to do a class on self-care for helping professionals called "Joy is a Choice" and it took off.  Since then, self-care has been a passion of mine.  I've taught the workshop to hundreds of professionals - successfully.  In my experience I've come to believe that many women are burned out and deep in self-dislike, operating every day on a wing and a prayer so to speak.  Working with non-professionals has become an even bigger passion of mine.  Thus, I decided to try to reach folks who would not normally have access to my workshop. So...

1. There is zero - as in NO - money of any kind involved in the Challenge at any time in the Challenge.  This is FREE 100%.

2. The Challenges will be something you can work on in your own time.  If you can't keep up, you will still receive them every day in your email and can do them as you can - please just do them in the order they are sent.  I'm not the Challenge police.  You do what works for you.  I can tell you if you commit to doing them faithfully every day you will have the start of an amazing self-care routine that you design for yourself by the end of the Challenge.

3. There is no research, study, 'art' or purchasing of outside products in order to complete each Challenge.  The questions will draw off YOUR life experience.  As long as you are totally honest with yourself in answering the questions, you will be just fine.

4. As I have reiterated before, and feel compelled to remind everyone, this is NOT therapy nor is it designed to replace therapeutic interventions.  It will not solve complex psychological, emotional, or relationship issues in anyone's life.  Do not use it as such.  This should be a fun, soul searching, heart-felt, and productive use of your time and something you look forward to each day.

5. If at anytime you find yourself dreading doing it, then don't.  Please don't write me an email and tell me how much you hate it, just simply unsubscribe and you won't receive any further emails.

I look forward to this journey we are taking together toward more self-love, self-care and finding joy in each day. Until Friday...

Julie

Who Owns Your Feelings?

Believe what you will, we are all in charge of our own lives.  We sometimes give ownership over to someone else by saying "He/She made me feel.........." No one can make you feel anything.  You are completely in control of your own feelings and your right to not feel something.  Think about it.

Some Women...

"Some women are broken 

not ready to be healed,

some women are broken

not ready for love

and that’s all right.

Let her find herself.

Let her crawl if she must.

Let her tear herself apart.

Let her question all she knows.

Let her become her own sun.

Let her."

-Ijeoma Umebinyuo 

End of Work Day Ritual Ideas

End of work day rituals can be very important to switch from professional to personal life. When you get in the habit of doing these you are less likely to take your work home with you.

  • Write a To do list in your planner for next day – things bothering you, uncompleted tasks, issues to address
  • Don’t make big decisions at the end of the day
  • If someone was expecting to hear from you and didn’t – find them and close the conversation out
  • Tidy up your office and your desk
  • Ring a bell (symbolic end of day) – gives you auditory cue to change frame of mind
  • Write down something nagging at you from the day and put it in a basket in your office, symbolically leaving it there – at the end of the week review them (nice end of week ritual)
  • Close the door to your office
  • Have a phrase you say at end of the workday – e.g. “I did the best I could today”
  • Start your wind down 15 minutes before you leave – do not look at email in that time unless you are expecting something urgent
  • Write down things you need to do for your home/personal life when you leave work in your TN
  • Change your clothes/shower when you get home to switch in to personal life mode

 

 

Comparing my Cache' of Blue, Green, Teal and Turquoise Pens

I am a self-confessed pen-a-holic.  I have been for many years and I collect them.  I don't really collect expensive pens - my most expensive pen is my Lamy which was about $30 almost 8 years ago and still runs like a champ.  I love the color turquoise as well and when I moved in to my new office at work it was an opportunity with all the space to pull out all my pens I realized I had a LOT of green, blue, teal, and turquoise pens.  I thought it would be fun to just compare the ones I like the most.  All these pens were purchased by me and my comparisons are not scientific but based on personal preference.

Pilot is one of my favorite pen manufacturers because their pens always seem to write so smooth.  I really like the Juice and the G-2.  

Papermate came out with an Inkjoy line and while I like the standard black Inkjoy pen I have the colored inks don't seem as 'joyful' as the black one.  The other thing I notice about the Inkjoy pens is if they stand in your pen jar for any length of time you may get a mess when you first write with them-a large discharge of ink....see the sample picture for an example of that.

The Zebra Sarasa Clip .5mm wrote a little scratchy which surprised me as normally .5mm pens aren't so noticeably scratchy.  

A favorite of my is and always has been the Le Pen (yes I know I just wrote the the pen)...I want this line in every color. They write great, the colors are vivid and they feel nice in the hand...and they are very inexpensive.

I had a couple fat (.8mm to 1mm size) gel pens in the bunch - the AtYou Spica Glitter and the Gelly Roll "Gold".  They both write well with no skipping (remember when gel pens first came out and you were lucky to write a sentence without major skipping?)  I must have bought them because of the color.  The Gelly Roll "Gold" is gold because of the gold flecks in the ink.  The gold and the glitter both show up well on paper.

I also had a few highlighters, a Sharpie, a drawing pen,  and a brush pen in the bunch.  My favorites of those are the Staedtler Classic and the Pilot Frixion - the Frixion is erasable as you probably know and I like that option, especially in a planner.

So there you have it.  The picture of the pens has them in order of the sample page. Only a few of the pens bled through standard, cheap, tablet paper.  Most of the highlighters bled through.

My recommendations based on this sample test are the Pilot G-2, the Le Pen, the Staedtler Classic, and the Pilot Frixion Light Erasable Highlighter.

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