After the Peacock Blue ink post, I was overwhelmed at the response from so many of you who love beautiful stationary and inks. Colored inks have opened up countless options for writing our personal expressions with flare.
Because I was a CPA, red ink was always a no-no. It meant losses or no profits. But when Ron at the Pen Chalet sent me a red pen with ink for my Valentine’s Day notes, I was so excited. Red ink: it means love, just like red roses. I am a girl who loves red, so writing with this exquisite instrument is a joy.
This Valentine’s Day, why not write your special messages in red? Or, if you are not a red girl, then how about using pink? Below I have provided the link to his delightful online shop. I cannot stop looking at all the wonderful colors and thinking about the seasonal colors that will be appropriate in the coming months.
I think that love letters are beautiful. It is always fun to find old letters and reread them, especially when they are ones from our parents’ generation that have been tucked away for years. It seems all were written in script with a fountain pen, and I love it. I recently had a delightful afternoon with a special friend, Carol, who took me through her collection of notes written to her by her husband, Jim. She saved everything, especially his notes. I could see her reliving each moment as she reread her favorite passages from the notes. Since they were from high school times, the notes were very amusing and entertaining, but at the end of each, you knew Jim loved Carol. They were married after college.
I hope in 100 years my notes will be found by my great grandchildren. Probably it will be like finding a dinosaur bone as writing has given way to e-mailing. While e-mailing has its place, I will always lead the campaign to teach our children and grandchildren how to write. Maybe colored ink is the secret.
Many of you inquired as to where you can buy inks and pens, and penchalet.com has a wonderful selection in all price ranges. The ink I used in this post is “Garnet” by Pelikan, and the pen is by Lamy. Consider giving a pen and ink as a lovely gift to encourage handwriting.
What are some Valentine’s Day remembrances that you would like to share?
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Comments 22
I couldn’t find this red fountain pen on the vendor link. How can I purchase one?
I enjoy writing notes and letters. I remember sharing Valentine’s cards in school in the lower grades. I also remember making red construction paper hearts and we would glue heart shaped paper doilies to them. We thought that they made beautiful decorations. I have addressed Christmas cards with red ink before and have also addressed them with green ink. I think I need to get a new red pen this week. Happy Valentine’s Day.
I love this post! The red ink is beautiful and your handwriting is beautiful. Maybe soon, you could share how you save your writings and the notes/cards you receive from others. I have a file that I save special letters and cards, but, it is overflowing and I need to come up with a plan.
Thanks for the recommendation of Pen Chalet. I had on my “To Do” list to order more fountain pen ink and this is a great resource!
How I so enjoyed reading this post and all the comments! Saddest true comment is the fact that students who aren’t taught how to write cursive writing, cannot read it! As a parochial school teacher, I had the true joy of teaching my second grade students to write cursive in the second half of our school year. After Christmas break, I would buy assorted pens with lovely colored ink and allow the students to choose the pen they wanted to use for that day’s lesson. By the end of the year, most had mastered the art of writing in cursive. My present to each student would be a pen that wrote in the color ink of their choice! The ballpoint ink colors were always quite lovely: lime green, orange, purple, pink and peacock blue! I have always enjoyed writing myself. Perhaps now, if I were still teaching, I would use the gel pens whose ink flow so smoothly. I was excited the day I bought my first white gel pen to write on black stationery! For marking my students’ papers, I used my favorite color- purple ink!
Thank you for responding to the requests from the Peacock Blue blog. And thanks for answering the question of “where” to find such nice papers and ink! As for your question of Saint Valentine’s Day memories, I loved the school Valentine parties when I was in elementary school. Moms bringing in cupcakes, cookies, koolaide, and then the exchange of Valentine Cards that we had carefully signed and addressed the night before. And probably, we had made our own Valentine’s Day mailbox to receive them in. But what I liked – was looking at each card, as most were larger and more delicate in those days, and likely held more red glitter than any made today. Ummmm- I can taste the cupcakes now!
My memories are identical!!!
Since our youngest son died a year ago we have been grateful to review cards and letters he sent us over his lifetime as he and his family lived in Australia.
There were letters, cards from his youth up to before he died.
Please to each of you soon it will be SAINT Valentine’s Day…do remember he was a wonderful SAINT! Address him as ST. Valentine sil vous plait.
I love beautiful handwriting. The sad thing is that our children and grandchildren are not being taught cursive writing anymore and they probably will not even be able to read our notes and letters one day.
Thank you for you posts. I love the art of handwriting and cursive. My children are learning cursive this year in our homeschool studies. Proud to say they will not be missing out. Can’t wait to teach them calligraphy!
like your ideas + love red ink!! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
Thank you!!
I, too, love colored inks and fountain pens. I’m always on the look out for “just the right pen”. Seems nothing has the beauty and glamour of a fountain pen. Only wish my handwriting was as lovely as yours!
Thank you.
Oh I love these posts! I would have wrote ‘love’ in red if I could change the font colour! I am a great fan of Victorian Trading Co. & they have the greatest Writing & Literary section, which is where I first purchased ink that smelled like roses. I always love using it. We are rather seasonal with our pens around our home & always switch the pen/pencil holder out with the colour of the month. When the grandchildren are correcting their practice papers for their weekly spelling test they always correct them with a coloured pen. They must have picked that up from one of their teachers. Even though they are only in Grade 1 & 3, they love doing their Valentine’s in red. Thanks again for giving us the inspiration to sit down & send some notes out. I think if I e-mail someone in the next 10 days, I’m changing the font colour to red!
I, too, love my pens, ink and calligraphy!!! Today, I will begin to use the red ink for my valentine notes!
I write a personal note on all my Christmas cards. And….thank you notes must be written (not just emailed) before the gift may be used.
I so treasure all the personal notes I have received from my husband, children, grandchildren and friends!!
Thank you for the “red ink” idea and for so many other wonderful blogs.
Grandma Yaya
What a wonderful idea–the thank you note must be written before the gift may be used. This is something we should teach our children/grandchildren.
Your memories and love for fountain pens, inspired me to go out, and buy a new cartridge pen. I showed it to my 20something daughter and she loved it. Red ink is not for teachers, correcting papers, anymore. I always look forward to addressing Christmas and Valentines, with a special red pen. It just makes it more fun! As a former teacher, perhaps that’s where the novelty of the red pen started, but as a former Kindergarten teacher, I used happy faces.
It is exciting when young people love fountain pens.
Your idea of giving a fountain pen as a gift is wonderful…I will do just that for my niece who is heading off to university next year…I’ll include a fun ink colour and some paper to inspire her to write a few notes…so that one day her grandchildren will delight in letters they find just as much as we do
Just thought I’d add another couple of ‘romantic’ inks into the mix – Goulet Pens sells De Atrametis scented ink in red roses and for an all year ink – black roses (black ink) that smells like red roses 🙂
I love beautiful stationery and the art of the handwritten note. Your pen is the perfect complement to Valentine notes – now if only I had your penmanship! Happy Thursday!