Blogroll Housekeeping and Looking for New Links
Here on Rhodia Drive, we maintain a blogroll consisting of sites dedicated to paper, pens, pencils, ink, art, art journaling, and writing. It’s about that time of year when I check to make sure all of the current links are still functional and also when I start looking for cool new links.
If you have or know of an awesome blog you think we should consider adding to our blogroll, leave the link down in the comment section and I will be happy to take a look. I can’t guarantee we will be able to use each and every submission, but please know that we are always looking for relevant sites with quality content. Reciprocal linkage is always appreciated.
Oh, and please let me know if you regularly peruse our existing blogroll links.
Thank You For Sharing
Exaclair is the U.S. distributor of Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Quo Vadis, Exacompta, and J. Herbin. While these brands are household names in their native France, here in America we work each day to get the word out about our fine stationery products and we really couldn’t do it without you.
Sharing your Rhodia love on blogs, Facebook pages, FPN, Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram etc., is so incredibly helpful in spreading the word about what we have to offer, we can’t thank you enough!
I often search through these various sites for references to Rhodia and it always makes me so happy to see a carefully edited photograph or a lengthy review discussing the benefits of utilizing a dotWebbie or testing an Herbin ink in your favorite pen.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where I will be giving away 20 Rhodia Academic Weekly planners!
What are Your Favorite Blogs?
We’ve received a lot of feedback from our readers about how much you enjoy our Friday Link Shares and I appreciate knowing that you like reading these as much as I do discovering it. I typically search for content for these posts amongst my 150+ blog subscriptions but will also scour Twitter and Facebook for interesting articles to further enhance the list.
As I am always looking for new content, I would love for you to tell me your favorite blogs so I can check them out. My personal favorites include a plethora of stationery/pen/ink reviewers, tip sites such as Mashable and Lifehacker, and funny sites such as The Oatmeal.
If you have a personal site you’d like me to review for possible addition to our Rhodia Drive Blogroll, please feel free to list that as well.
Reminders – via La Vie Graphite
“Reminders may come to us as inherited discoveries. Through time, we become recipients of the gifts of those around us. Their recollections can become ours, too. We all receive keepsakes in varying forms, and that surely includes stories. In this way, we are also discovering gems that land in our paths. Although significance may have been ascribed by predecessors, we can add our own appreciation. In sharing reminders, we can assure one another of the great purpose to our steps.”
I, much like the author of this post on “La Vie Graphite” will occasionally pick up a pretty stone or pebble to remind me of a moment in time – these of which in actuality turn into giant stepping stones as I look back down the mountain of my life.
Want a great start to your week? Take a look back to see how far you’ve come, take a deep breath, then smile and keep going.
PS – Read the inspirational post “reminders” at La Vie Graphite. Photo also courtesy of La Vie Graphite.
Today is my 2 Year Anniversary on Rhodia Drive!
Wow, has it really been two whole years? Indeed! Much thanks to YOU dear readers for riding shotgun! I really enjoy what I do here, and judging by the continued increase of your comments, contest participation, and photo submissions, I can only guess that you enjoy it here as well.
My anniversary giveaway will be coming up later in the month and I’m still keeping the prizes a secret… a little hint? I’m giving you one item (of 3) that many of you asked for. :o)
Here’s to another year!
Stephanie Smith – Your Rhodia Driver
PS: Thanks to Oni for the image of the big dotPad!
Friday Link Share
My r-Pad at Consider the Lilies
Beyond the Pen: Fountain Pen Ink as Watercolor Wash at Ink Nouveau
Sketchbooks at Drawing with a Squirrel
Simple Woman’s Daybook at Harvest Moon by Hand
A Magic Dinosaur at Feed Your Soul Art
Rhodia Dot Grid Webnotebook at Blinkidoo
Rock Paper Scissors at La Vie Graphite
Writing is…Escapism at Icy’s Blunt Pencil
Rhodia Pad Holder No 16 with Pen Hook at Pocket Blonde
Jardin Flambeau on Flickr Blog
All Azure: The Monochromatic City of Chefchaoen, Morocco on Web Urbanist
Chive Blossom Vinegar at Cooking with Anne
Bloc No 11 Graph Paper Pad at Pens ‘n’ Paper
The Chagalls, Joined in a sketchbook at The Jewish Daily Forward
Sketchnotes Channel at Core 77 at Notebook Stories
Product review: Rhodia Dot Webbie at Planet Webbie
Art above by Gentian Osman
It’s not just the paper or the ink… it’s both.
Yesterday while perusing my favorite blogs, I came across a post by Leigh Reyes at My Life As a Verb entitled, “Change the paper, change the ink.” It discussed two different kinds of Noodler’s fountain pen inks and how they interacted with 3 different kinds of paper. Fans of my Bean blog are probably pretty familiar with how I tried a kazillion different kinds of paper looking to see which responded best to water based fountain pen inks. I like how Leigh’s post shows in a big way the good and not so good ways in which these inks can react with paper. Most fountain pen inks need a paper that actually resists the ink long enough to prevent feathering and bleedthrough- but not so long that it takes an eon to dry.
Rhodia, Clairefontaine and G Lalo papers (G Lalo is in the Exacompta Journal/Sketchbook) work very well in this department and pretty much put an end to my quest- but I STILL want a journal with a purple cover. (Karen, hint hint!)
A Few New Rhodia Reviews
I have been discovering new bloggers who have been reviewing/discussing Rhodia products. Take a look!
…take note of this on Candia Style
Rhodia dotPad Reverse Book on Pocket Blonde
Rhodia Pads on Office-lib.com
Rhodia dotPads and pencils on Surfbits
Bloc Pad No 11 review at Pens ‘n’ Paper
dotPad review on Office Supply Geek
Notepad Review: dotPad on Rants of the Archer
Bloggers looking to review Rhodia (or other Exaclair products) read this!
Take 2: Attn all Bloggers looking to Review Exaclair Products – Please resubmit requests
01/19/13 Update- This offer is currently closed – please watch for future offers for bloggers to review our products.
The 1st time I ran this post I didn’t fully realize the logistics of soliciting requests via the comment section. Results? Information compilation overload. Because I know how much you would like to try our products and how much we’d love for you to review them, we are going to try this again with a few guidelines and a form for submitting requests.
Continue Readering »
Playing Shekere
From about the time I was in 3rd grade and watching my older cousin play snare drum in her school marching band, I wanted to be a drummer. This wouldn’t come to fruition until I was 22 and owned a home with my now husband. I started on drum kit, but eventually grew bored with it. In 2002, my husband bought me a hand drum – an African djembe as a wedding present and it really helped me to fill that life-long desire to drum as I still play it to this day. But the instrument that really allowed me to break out was the shekere. A traditional shekere is made from a large hollow gourd- it has a woven net over top which loosely holds beads or shells that can be shaken against its surface. The one I play is a synthetic version made from fiberglass.
The shekere is an extremely loud instrument and even on a stage packed with musicians it can easily heard without being amplified. The network of beads can be shaken or manipulated in ways that add another layer of percussive sound to the mix. In the image above, I am playing in the middle of a group of women performing African dance at the Great Rhythm Revival in Sherman NY. On stage behind us, are various members from Jim Donovan’s band, Drum the Ecstatic. I especially love to play this instrument as you can dance with it as you play.
Do you play any musical instruments?
Photo taken by Jessica MacIntyre
Guest Blogger: Casey Criswell on The Addition of Color
Today I welcome Casey Criswell as guest blogger on Rhodia Drive. An author of short stories and noted movie blogger, Casey is also co-host of the “Bloody Good Horror” podcast.
I’ve been a writer for a few years now. I’ve spent the majority of those years with a notebook and fountain pen faithfully by my side. My brain just works better that way! The notebooks and pens have often changed throughout the years, but one thing stayed constant; I was always a staunch black ink user. Continue Readering »
Niagara Falls
I have always wanted to visit Niagara Falls, and I might be there right now! The falls are about 2 hours north of where I have been camping in upstate New York and if I have played my cards right, I am standing and feeling the mist in my face as we speak. See you soon!
Me & Anne
Anne Foster-Coleman and I went to the same high school but we weren’t friends back then – in fact, I think you could probably say that we didn’t really like each other very much at all. Why? Who knows. We were teenagers. Probably had something to do with liking the same boy or just not having anything in common.
Looking for More Blogs for our Blogroll
Here on Rhodia Drive, we maintain a blogroll consisting of sites dedicated to paper, pens & pencils, ink, art, and writing. If you have a blog you think we should consider adding to our blogroll, leave your link down in the comment section and I will be happy to take a look. I can’t guarantee we will be able to use each and every submission, but please know that we are always looking for relevant sites with quality content. Reciprocal linkage always appreciated.
User Review: Inkophile tests Webbie vs. Mole
Margana from the Inkophile blog recently did a head to head to review between a Moleskine journal and a Rhodia Webnotebook. Knowing that Margana prefers to write using a fountain pen, I was eager to read her thoughts on the Webbie’s paper – because not all paper is created equal when it comes to writing with water based fountain pen inks. Continue Readering »
