Writer's Bloc Blog

All of you Johnny Depp fans out there must be thrilled at last week’s release of the film Alice in Wonderland! This new adventure film is an extension of the classic novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The movie is directed by Tim Burton and stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Stephen Fry.

The original novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pen-name Lewis Carroll. The first version of the story was told by Charles Dodgson to 10 year old Alice Liddell and her sisters during a boat trip up the River Thames. The girls loved the story so much that Alice begged Dodgson to write it down and give it to her which he did over 2 years later. This 1864 version of the story was called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground and was illustrated by Dodgson himself. In 1865, an expanded version of the story was published with illustrations by John Tenniel and the title Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (often abbreviated to Alice in Wonderland). The novel instantly gained popularity and has been popular ever since!

Alice follows a white rabbit wearing a coat and looking at his watch down a rabbit hole to encounter peculiar creatures such as Bill the Lizard, a caterpillar, a grinning Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, a Dormouse, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and more. It is believed that the characters and the places in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are based on real people and places in Charles Dodgson’s life.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be read online as part of the Gutenberg Project. As of March 2, 2010 this book took the number one spot in the top 100 EBooks on this website! If you are an Alice fan you can find some fun Art Deco 7321 Alice in Wonderland themed journals, planners, wallets and more at Writer’s Bloc. We also have a couple of notebooks with cover illustrations of tall Alice and Alice & the white rabbit. What is your favorite part of Alice’s adventure?

Posted by Cheryl at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's almost time to say goodbye to 2009! It has been a fun and exciting year here at Writer's Bloc, and we just wanted to say thank you for all your loyal support! We hope that you were able to find something to help organize your life or simply brighten up your day :) Here are some of the kind words that customers have shared this year:

"... the Writer's Bloc folks completed the orders with utmost efficiency--I received exactly what I had ordered, at a good price, with the items shipped within 24 hours of my order, well packed and with fast shipping. I couldn't have asked for more!... I highly recommend the Writer's Bloc." M.C., CA

"Fantastic across the board: from the website, selection, price, and shipping. Great blog, too. It's why I keep coming back to Writer's Bloc. Thanks!" K.C., CA

"Writer's Bloc went out of their way to accommodate a special request for a Clairefontaine watercolor pad that I have fallen in love with... I have recommended them on my blog and will continue to order from them in the future! Bravo Writer's Bloc!" M.J., WA

"WritersBloc is a fun website. It's like shopping in a boutique. I happened onto this site because they carry my favorite fountain pen inks (Noodlers), and I found a lot of other carefully selected, fun, high-quality, and reasonably priced items. I have also found the site to be very helpful..." G.C., CA

"Great seller. Great items." J.B., PA

We've added some great new items to our selection this year! We started with expanding our line of Quo Vadis planners to include the Habana, Soya and Equology covers in many shapes, sizes, and formats (all of which are now available for 2010!). Rhodia also added the Webnotebook and some great planners with the Rhodia Weekly Notebooks. Other new products from our favorite brands include the Basics and Mlle No collections from Clairefontaine, and new colors from Noodler's Ink like Bad Blue Heron, Periwinkle, Le Reine Mauve, and Polar Brown. Most of these items were flying off the shelves as fast as we could stock them, so we hope you are enjoying them!

Our family of fountain pens also grew this year. We were very excited to add Aurora and Platinum to our luxury fountain pen repretoire, as well as new pens from the Pelikan Sourveran and Tradition lines. A customer expressed interest in getting a fountain pen for her kids; we did some research and decided to carry the LAMY ABC and Pelikan Pelikano Junior fountain pens. Now any member from your family can find a fountain pen to suit their needs!

Finally, we have been working on increasing our selection of Eurogames from brands like Rio Grande Games, Mayfair Games, Queen Games, and Z-Man games. Our personal favorites are Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Bohnanza... and there are many more to come!

Actually, we have a lot of great things in store for 2010. We will be carrying organizational products from Bob's Your Uncle (all of which I have decided that I must own), notebooks from Picadilly and Whitelines, and leather pen cases from Libelle.

We would love to hear your feedback on your favorite products of the year, and what you would like to see on our site in 2010! Please leave us a comment and tell us your thoughts!

Thank you all again for a fantastic year! Happy writing in 2010!

Posted by Kelly at 01:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you new to the Action Method, this tool from Behance is a great way to get your business and personal life more organized and make ideas happen.

The online and iPhone versions of the Action Method were recently launched as a welcome addition to the line of Action Method paper products.

The Action Method Online allows you to take any project you may have in life and break it down into action steps, or tasks that need to be completed. You can record and organize any information related to your project, make note of "backburner" ideas that you would like to give attention to later and discuss the project with your coworkers or friends. It also records deadline or event dates, enables you to delegate, easily reprioritize and check things off as they are completed.

The Action Method introductory plan and the iPhone app are free, and there is a more sophisticated version of the online plan for $12.00 a month or $99.00 per year. The iPhone version can be used alone or in conjunction with Action Method Online. I'm definitely going to give this a try!

Posted by Cheryl at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2009 is here! We at Writer's Bloc are looking forward to all the exciting things the new year has in store, but we also wanted to acknowledge how awesome 2008 was!

We had amazing support throughout our first year as an “online-only” store. Thanks to the fans of our brick and mortar store who took the effort to find us online, and to people who found us online and spread the word. We've had the chance to talk to people from all over the country, actually all over the world, about writing and writing products. Through your questions we've done a lot of research and have learned so much-- in fact, your questions were what inspired this blog, so keep them coming! We also really appreciate your sincere comments that help us know what we're doing right and what we can do better in the future. If you would indulge us to brag a little here is a sample of the comments that we received throughout the year:

“A very personal site in terms of the selection and the quality. You can tell the owner/vendor is invested and influenced by their personal taste, which is nice. I got my items very quickly and in fine shape.” -V.P., Illinois

“Received my planner within days of ordering. Pictures on the website showed the product in true form! I am very happy with my purchase!” -K.D., Virginia

“...The order went smoothly and I received my shipment within a few days ... The items were delivered without any damage and I have been a satisfied customer. I would highly recommend this company again for fountain pen and ink purchases.” - R.D., Oregon

“Fabulous store - they answered all of my questions... shipping was prompt and the items well packed... I will definitely shop here again in the future.” W.G., Texas

“I really like this vendor. Their products, layout, ease of use, pricing--all make it a first choice for me when checking out writing accessories.”-A.L., California

Thank you for seeing the love and effort we put into our store! Please visit again soon and drop us a line. Happy writing in 2009!

Posted by Kelly at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Applying skins to your electronic gadgets can be tricky, so here are a few tips to successfully apply a skin to your 3G iPod Nano.

Posted by Cheryl at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are some tips on how to apply Nintendo DS Lite Skins.

Posted by Cheryl at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How can you tell a book is well-loved? The pages are worn in, the corners are a little bent, and the covers start to fade a little. I have many of such books, so my friends and I decided that to keep our precious books in "loved" form (and not totally tattered) we would give them a little makeover.

So one sunny afternoon we gathered our books and materials and went to a friend's home for a book wrapping party. We used gorgeous rice paper and contact paper to make our book covers, so they were attractive and durable. My sister got fancy and layered two different kinds of paper on one cover (top right and middle left), and another friend used her scraps to make pretty bookmarks. Honestly, I am not the craftiest of people so it was a bit of a challenge for me, but in the end I had four beautiful protected books (middle right).

From Book cover party

To celebrate each newly covered book we sat among our scraps and nibbled on beignets and sipped on coffee. We were all quite famished, so we feasted on a delicious fondue platter.

Just an idea for a productive, fun, and delicious party =)

Posted by Kelly at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This time, it's how to apply iPod Nano 2G skins.

Posted by Alan at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To me August means one last summer trip, new clothes, and of course new school supplies! As a student I know that having the right tools can help you be more successful in school, and as a future teacher I think that the right tools can help immensely in the classroom. In light of my love for school and school supplies I thought I would share some recommendations for the upcoming school year. (Pictures of my recommendations are in the mosaic above).

*Clairefontaine Wirebound Notebook- Large: Writing on this paper makes notetaking totally effortless. I would especially recommend this to college students who are planning to keep and use their notes even after the class is finished.

*Clairefontaine Staple-Bound Notebook- Medium: This notebook is great for any type of science or writing journal  that has to be turned in on a regular basis. The sturdy staple binding ensures that pages won't fall out (like in glue-bound composition notebooks). Teachers will love them because they stack neatly, and won't lean and topple over (which is what happens with 30 spiral-bound notebooks).

*Have a planner! Life is easier when you can remember what is going on. I like the Wish Making Diary because it's fun and I can write whatever/however I want. For something a little more structured I would recommend the Quo Vadis University Academic Agenda, I especially like the hour-by-hour planner for each day.

*Love Pet Pens- I love these little gel pens. They write better than regular black/blue/red ink pens, and they're square so they fit better between my fingers.

*I spend an incredible amount of time highlighting, and I hate having alternating thin and thick highlighting lines. I like the Staedtler Triplus Textsurfer because no matter how you pick up the highlighter the size of the line is the same. I also like that the colors highlight without being blindingly bright.

*I really like the idea of having a set of Red Rabbit pencils in a primary (K-2) classroom and using them as prizes or maybe as a "special tool" for when the kids need to practice their neatest handwriting.

*With the Staedtler Non-photo pencil teachers can mark up worksheets with notes and plans and use the same master sheet to make clean student copies!

*And finally... Yes, once again, I HIGHLY recommend the Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen. Taking notes with this pen requires a lot less effort (way fewer hand cramps!) and it forces you to write with better penmanship. The tiny extra bit of concentration might help you stay awake during the most torturous lectures, and you will be able to read your notes come finals week. Plus, being able to refill the pen with any color brings doodling to a whole different level. I suggest teachers try grading with a fountain pen; you will feel the difference after a dozen papers.

So that's the list. Hopefully you will find some of these suggestions useful as parents, students, and teachers. And if you know someone that could use a little motivation during this bittersweet season, the gift of a nice pen or notebook might be the ticket.

Please tell me what you like to keep in your desk, backpack, or classroom.

Have a great 2008-2009 school year!

Posted by Kelly at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Employee Favorites - The Credit Card Wallet

If you're like me, you hate to carry around a burdensome large handbag with a huge wallet that weighs a ton. Instead, I love the light-weight, streamlined convenience of the credit card wallet. This tiny 2 3/4" x 4" wallet has clear pocket pages that hold 12 of my credit cards, membership & club cards, driver's license and gift cards.  I've been using the Lamb-Lamb Jungle Credit Card Wallet for over a year and a half now, and as you can tell from the picture, it still looks as cute as ever. However, with daily use the elastic closure has become loose and the plastic card pockets are beginning to tear. This is not a problem because with such reasonable prices and several adorable designs I am happy to start using this new Dreamer Card Wallet by Jetoy.

Posted by Cheryl at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Writer's Bloc carries skins for iPod, RAZR, Nintendo DS Lite and laptops. Since the packages do not have detailed instructions - no pictures or illustrations - we would like to give some tips with pictures.  ;-)

Posted by Alan at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Greetings

Thanks for joining Writer's Bloc for the launch of our blog! Our obession with all things paper has spurred a lot of research, experimentation, and creative ideas; this blog will be the place to share what we learn and love with you!

Of course we will talk about quaility writing tools, like Clairefontaine paper and LAMY fountain pens, but we will also talk about random, but useful things, like how to make book-covers out of rice paper and how to correctly apply skins to your iPod or Nintendo DS Lite. In blog posts soon to come we will look at how to utilize French-ruled paper and how to mix and create your own fountain pen inks. In addition to many "how-to" postings, we'll blog about our favorite things, great new stuff we've discovered, and well, whatever else we feel like talking about that week.

So please take a look around, leave us a comment or two, and check back often for postings that will be useful and interesting to you. If you don't see what you're looking for, send us an e-mail with your ideas or questions and we'll work on it.

Enjoy!

Posted by Kelly at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)