I recommend this: Items edition.

I apologize for this post being a day late. The last few days have been busy and complicated with all the fun things that go into being a parent. Anyone who has done the last minute costume shuffle for a small child will know exactly what I am talking about.

For many Samhain/Tamala/Halloween marks the beginning of the new liturgical year. It is good to start things out with fresh supplies and materials. I do most of my record keeping longhand in bound books. I started out with the inexpensive notebooks and discovered that they didn't last very long. A notebook is not designed for years of use, sadly. Over the years, I have tried different systems for keeping track of my volumes of materials.

I keep coming back to a hand written journal format. I like to use books from Paperblanks and from Markings. Both brands have sturdy cloth bindings and archival quality paper. I have gotten years of use from my books with very little apparent wear. I have used both the lined and unlined versions of these books. I prefer the lined because then I write larger than I do with the unlined.

My pens are also archival quality. I prefer calligraphy pens. It is something that appeals to me on an artistic sense. The times where I am not using a calligraphy pen, I am using a fountain pen. The calligraphy pen is from Sheaffer. It is their classic model. The fountain pen I use is from Parker and it is the Premier pen. On occasion, I will use a Speedball dip pen and India ink. This usually is for a written spell on parchment because I don't have the patience to wait for my pages to dry if I'm writing in my book of shadows. If I am looking to use a pen that is just for quick work and I don't need high quality from it, I will get the Elegant Writer calligraphy pens and use them. At the very bottom end of the spectrum, I will use a Pilot G2 pen for fast work on the go.