New J. Herbin Inks + Cornaline d'Egypte

The new J. Herbin 1798 Cornaline d'Egypte has arrived! We had heard about this ink a while ago, so it was a thrill to finally have it in the shop - finally an orange to join the sparkly J. Herbin family. It's about time for an orange with an extra sparkle. As always, with any ink that has that extra sparkle or shimmer or particles, you should take some precautions in not leaving the ink for too long (maybe more than 2-3 weeks if you're not using it at all, longer if you are using it regularly), flushing it out well. I often find I still have some residual shine in my pens after I use a Shimmertastic or a J. Herbin 1798 ink, which I'm okay with, but you should be prepared to do some really thorough cleaning - possibly breaking out a toothbrush against the feed - if this bothers you. I haven't found any flow issues myself, but if you have a dry pen, or an extra fine nib, you might not find it quite as vibrant.   Also exciting are five new J. Herbin inks joining the standard line. I'm a big fan of J. Herbin inks (Lie de the, Poussiere de lune), inks that tend to be gentle on pens, great shaders, classic sort of fountain pen inks. There are a lot of super saturated inks out there, with huge sheen or sparkle, but I really like that J. Herbin inks are sort of an old-timey style, with shading and a renaissance feel. Bleu des profondeurs - a dark blue black. Truly a deep blue black, with a sort of velvet feel on the page. A classic. Vert de gris: a surprise hit for me. Or perhaps not really a surprise. In any case, I had seen photos of this ink and hadn't really been taken, but as soon as I'd swabbed it, I loved it. It's a dusty, shading green grey - and not too green. It's a perfect ink for something a little nostalgic. Bleu Calanque: a turquoise, peacock blue - nice and bright. Corail de tropiques: a dusty coral. Rouge Grenat: a deep red. I'm normally not a fan a fan of red, and my tried and true red has long been Sailor Grenade, however I love the smooth and rich red of this. While I'm not a teacher anymore, I might have to find more excuses to bring it back into my daily rotation.  

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  In other news, I've been expanding my horizons dressing baby Naomi. I've never really been a fan of pink and frilly, and a shocking proportion of girls clothes seem to be pink these days. Recently, I've been a little worried about her growing up with a complex - she's bald, but then she's also dressed most of the time in her big brother's old clothes, and everything thinks she's a boy. It didn't matter when was an infant, but now that she's getting a little more aware of people around her, and people interacting with her, I've been trying to at least find more gender neutral clothes. I'm finally embracing one of my favourite outfits for her, her safari outfit. When I first got it, I really liked it, and actually didn't refer to it as a safari outfit but as "that cute beigy button up onesie." She's a baby that gets a lot of comments when we go out, but literally every time I put her in it, basically all of the comments are something along the lines of either "are you ready for your safari?" or "you look ready for a safari!" It probably also doesn't help that she's gotten really tanned over the last few months so she looks like she's been spending time out in the jungle. For some reason that's really completely beyond me, it sort of bothered me, this constant reference to this imaginary safari, and then every comment I continued to get just added to my irrational agitation. She's a baby! She's not going on a safari! We're here to get her vaccinations! Or a coffee! Or wandering down the aisles of No Frills trying to decide on a box of crackers! It finally dawned on me one day that there are bigger fish to fry in the world, and now I just smile, and say yes, she is in fact prepared to go on a safari. If only she was so lucky.