Scribe

What our stationary world needs is a little nail polish and maybe some lipstick, maybe a piece of jewelry, something that's pretty. Hello, and welcome to the Erasable Podcast. I'm Ana Reinert, and I'm on hosting duty today. It's been five years and 115 episodes, and I'm glad to be back with my favorite co hosts, Caroline Weaver and Andy Tallarico. Hi, girls. How are you this evening?

Hi. This is Caroline. Yeah, this is fun. I love doing this, and I love you guys. Yeah, we got a good crew here tonight.

Well, why don't we start off with the tools of the trade? So, Caroline, what are you watching, reading, listening to, or consuming this evening or all of the above?

Oh, well, I've been spending my winter as a hermit, so I've been mostly doing a lot of watching TV and reading and crafts and writing letters, which I. This is a little embarrassing because I own a stationery shop, and I have access to pretty much, like, every cool thing that exists, but I was just really craving a legal pad the other day, and I looked at Target, and there weren't any ones that I liked. So I was at the. We have a really good dollar store on Allen street by the shop. It's just like, a really good, like, basement Chinatown dollar store. And I found a really, really good yellow legal pad, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. I've already used half of it, like, in the week that I've had it. I've been writing all my letters on yellow legal pad. So apologies in advance to any of my pen pals who usually expect really nice stationery from me. You're all getting legal pad letters this week, but I've been using that at home with actually a Baron fig Snakes and Ladders archer from a really long time ago, which I love because it's my favorite color combination. I love reds with other shades of red. I think that's, like, my all time favorite color combination.

My favorite color is, like, an orangey red, but that, like, paired with, like, a burgundy or a darker red is by far my favorite color combo. And I was so excited when I was doing some cleaning a couple months ago that I found a dozen of those that I didn't know I had. So I've been using those on my yellow legal pad. And, yeah, it's a lot of fun. My cats like to get them, though, because they don't have erasers or anything on the end. So I just, like, put a cap on there so the cats can't get too far with the pencils because they'll just, like, roll them around my whole apartment until they get stuck, like, in a floorboard crack and they can't get them out. It's really annoying. But I. Yeah, today was a really exciting day because I, before I started recording, got my first watermelon slush of the season, which comes from this really unassuming, like, Chinese fruit stand down the street. And it's basically just frozen watermelon in a blender. It's so good.

I want one. Right now?

When we first moved over here, I take my lunch break in the park that's a couple blocks away every day when it's warm out. And I, for, like, weeks kept seeing people with these watermelon. And I knew just looking at it, it was like a watermelon slush. And I just kept seeing people with them, and I had no idea where they were coming from. And I asked around a little bit, and I did some sleuthing and just couldn't figure it out. And then one day I was in the shop just buying something else, and I saw this handwritten dry erase board menu that's not really even a menu behind the counter. And I asked them about it and that was it. And now I'm hooked. And they haven't had any watermelons for the past couple weeks, so it was a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's what I will be consuming for every day until it's winter again. Watermelon slices every single day. But I've been reading a lot, too. I think I've read about 20 books this year already, which is a lot for me. But I'm reading Alice Munro for the first time right now, which has been really awesome. I'm reading Runaway, which is a book of stories. Well, I guess all of her books are books of stories, but I often keep a list of writers who I've never read. Often, like, really classic writers or really highly regarded writers who I've always meant to read but never did. And she was one of them. So I'm really excited to check this one off the list. It's a really awesome book. I'll definitely be reading more. But I. I think we all have a lot to talk about regarding this, but I spent a whole day last week binging Queer Eye.

Oh, yeah.

Which is the best show on Netflix, in my opinion. And I did order a bottle of barbecue sauce after watching that episode, which is not arrived yet because they're having a lot of shipping delays because everybody's buying them, which is great. Um, yeah, I was an impulse. I watched that episode and then immediately went on. On the Jones barbecue website and bought it. If anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, you need to watch this episode. If you watch just one, I feel like that's the one.

It's the best one. But, yeah, that's kind of all I've got going on, I think.

So this must be season two when they're in Kansas City. Oh, see, I have. See, I had never watched Queer Eye, so I started at the beginning maybe last week and started watching the season in Atlanta, and I'm just now watching the season in Kansas City, which is super entertaining for me because I live here. So it's like everywhere they go, I'm like, oh, yeah, I know where they are. I know where they are. I know where they are. And like, everybody here was like. Like last year, would spot them all over town. They're like, oh, I just saw them. They were over at such and such a place. Or said. But I had never seen the show. So even if I had run into them, I wouldn't have known it because I hadn't watched the show, so I didn't know who they were. So I probably did run into them and just didn't even know it. So it was probably a relief to them that somebody just walked past them on the street and just totally ignored them. Thank God, finally, nobody's fanning all over me, but I am. Yeah, I'm just totally obsessed with it. And it's. Yeah, I don't really like reality TV in general because I don't like shows where people are, like, purposefully mean, you know? So Queer Eye is such a refreshing show because they are so incredibly nice to people, you know, and they. They. They treat everyone so nicely. Like, even when they're like, oh, don't wear those pants. Don't put those pants on. Oh, oh, not with that shirt. They're never, like, mean about it. They're just like, oh, I told them not to do that shirt with those pants.

And like, every episode, I, I've, I've. It's almost a joke now that I, I'm like, I'm not going to cry this time. I'm not gonna cry. And like, by the end of it, I'm like, I'm all weepy because it's like somebody says something that's like, you've changed my life, you know? You know, I can't believe. Or like, somebody's mom will say something like, I can't believe how much he's come out of his shell, you know, And I'm just a complete puddle.

But yes, so we. I've been watching it as well, but I also just finished watching the Netflix show Umbrella Academy, which is based on a comic book, and it was really, really good. I don't know how closely it followed the comic book because it's not a series that I had read, but a friend of mine did and she was, she was like, I can't believe you haven't watched it yet. I can't talk to you until you do.

Oh, absolutely. But the show was really good and I really liked it and they left it, like, very cliffhanger. So now I definitely have to read the graphic novel because I want to know what else is going to happen.

Yes, children who were all born on the same day with supernatural gifts and they are all then adopted by a man who raises them to sort of be like a superhero team.

Yeah, it was really well done. And the actors who were involved in it are people you've seen in other things. So it was kind of cool to see them all in these roles. And Netflix has done so many very interesting projects. It was just kind of cool to see this one. Anyway, so that's what I've been watching. I just finished listening to the podcast the Dropout, which was about the woman who was like a six part series about the woman who like started the company that was supposed to be able to test people's blood with just like one drop. Do you guys remember this?

Yes, Elizabeth Holmes. That's her name. And so it was like a, it was like a news like in depth news reporting story about like how she got started and like how the company like developed and what a complete fraud the whole thing was. But it was super interesting. So I just. It was like a six part series, so.

Yeah, this one was done by ABC News and was largely based on the. The book that was published that came from, I think, the Wall Street Journal expose that was originally written that kind of exposed the whole fraud piece originally. So. But yep. So on a lighter note, I'm sitting here drinking decaf English breakfast tea. Nothing else in it, just tea. And I've been writing in a Claire Fontaine graph book. It's just sort of a plain paper notebook, A6 sized and I'm using the new Blackwing 811.

Very nice.

The glowy, the glowy green one.

It looks so pretty. Ours haven't come yet. I know. And yeah, they haven't come yet. I don't even think they've shipped yet, to be honest. And I'm really excited for them more than I have been for a lot of the other ones. And people email me all day, every day about it. So I cannot wait for them to get here because they're beautiful.

I was so surprised because I literally turned into an 8 year old kid and put it under a light and then ran into the bathroom so that I could see it glow.

So how about you, Andy?

You are the only Andy on the show.

I just heard about it this week.

So dark. And so it gets so crazy too. I thought, like, oh, is this gonna just keep happening over and over again? I thought after the first two episodes, like, this is gonna get old really fast. It takes a weird turn.

So how long have you been doing an astrology podcast?

Cool. What's it called?

Come on, I want to listen to it.

Yeah, me too.

Like, That sounds so good. Okay.

Okay, no, you didn't tell us what you're writing in.

I'm actually kind of amused all of us have cats.

And Caroline. Caroline, you have two as well, right?

Yeah, I have two brothers.

So between the three of us, we have. We have eight.

Wow, that's a lot of cats.

make it all the way through with no noise.

Yeah, I didn't even bother going home. If I was at home, they would have stepped on the keyboard and stopped the recording like, eight times by now. I can't with them at home. I have a fit work.

Okay, so we're on to fresh points. Andy, would you like to start?

Very exciting.

Well, every year I do a lot of traveling around, going to various pen shows. And so I've already gone to the La Pen show and I just got back from the Arkansas show. And I know it sounds like totally insane that I go to Arkansas. Like for you guys out on the east coast, you're like, arkansas? Who the heck is that? But for me, it's sort of directly south of me by about six hours. It's like south and a little bit to the east. So it's not like a super far trip. You know, I am in like absolute flyover country here in Kansas City. I'm directly in the middle of the map. But the one thing about the Arkansas show is it's in Little Rock, which is the capital of Arkansas, but it's also where Van Ness Pen Shop is. And it has been in business since 1938. And it's one of the biggest pen shops in the country. So it's one of those places that if you have an excuse to go to Little Rock, you go, because there's no. I've never been to a pen shop that is as big. Like, you know, even Fountain Pen Hospital in New York is like, not as big. Like the Anderson shop in Appleton is not as big. So it's like being able to go there and actually like, see, see everything. And all the, like, they have big tables in their store and like all the, the notebooks and the paper and then they even have like some like vintage displays and like old signage and stuff. So it's just like, it's so cool to just have an excuse to be like, heck, there's a show, so I have a reason to be there for two or three days. And then they have, like, an open house on Friday night. And then they do like, a. Like, a potluck kind of thing where they have food and free drinks and everything. So people, like, wander through. And I. I help Vanna at various pen shows. Anyway, so I know the Lisa and Mike really well, so they're completely like. They basically are like, sure, you can come. You're gonna work on Friday night at the open house. And I'm like, okay. So it's, like, the one day all year that I actually work at the pen shop. So it's kind of fun. So, like, customers will come in, and they're like, oh, yeah, I'd like to see this pen. And I'm like, okay, I'll look in the back and see if I can find it. I have no idea where anything is. I know lots about them. I just have no idea where anything is stocked. But it's really fun, and it's. I had a great time. And now, like, a week from. Well, yeah, it's like a next Wednesday I leave, or Thursday I leave for Atlanta for the Atlanta pen show. So I just. I travel a lot this time of year. But, yeah, so my fresh points are basically not really fresh. It's just more of the same. But I did. While I was in Arkansas, I did get this really cool notebook called Nuna N U U N A. It was called the Inspiration Book. And, like, every single page has, like. It looks like, like, almost like, sunset, sunrise printed on each page. They are so beautiful. And I was like, I could not believe. Like, again, like, there I was in Arkansas, and I found this thing that, like, is absolutely stunning. It came from Europe. Just amazing. And, like, everybody who saw it, and I, like, actually put a video up on Instagram of, like, flipping through the pages and people, like, somebody came up to me at my table at the pen show, and they're like, are you selling these? And I'm like, no, I got it from Lisa Van Ness, and I bought the last one.

I don't think that they're, like, really new, but I don't think that it's been around for, like, 50 years or anything. I think they're probably, like, 3 or 4 years old.

Yeah, they've been around for just a couple years. I remember when they first came out and I tried to bring them in. But they weren't really distributing to the US and it was just too expensive. And since then, I've seen them at lots of shows. I think that they've been doing really well and getting their stuff into a lot of cool shops. They're a beautiful notebooks.

Yeah. Really, really cool. So, like, everybody that I've shown the notebooks to is like, where can I get one? And they. When I looked on their website, they also have one that has, like cloudscapes on it. So yeah, they're just like, no, I have to get ahold of more of these. They're so cool.

We'll definitely put a link up for people so in the show notes so they can see them. But yeah, so that's my fresh point. How about you, Caroline?

Well, it's quiet season at the pencil shop, which is kind of nice before summer hits and things get a little crazy because, believe it or not, we're already kind of planning for back to school season because for some people that starts in July. But tomorrow's baseball opening day, which we're really excited about. We are. I guess by the time this comes out, you will have already seen it. We are working with. We bought from this guy who emailed me a few months ago these beautiful scorecards that he makes. And we're selling them, like, in a bundle with our pencils and a baseball cap that we had made. That's so cute. It's like pencil yellow. It's just like a regular baseball cap. It's pencil yellow. And then red embroidery on the front. It says CW pencils in the same typeface we use on our. On our baseball scoring pencil. And then on the back above the, like the ponytail loop, it says it just has a number two on it. They're adorable.

Wow. Sounds awesome.

Absolutely.

Go sports balls. I love an excuse to like make a product like that because that's not something that we can sell regularly. Like, I would love to sell something like that, but it just is. We turn in. We turn into like a souvenir shop if we're selling too much stuff like that. So I just can't. I love an excuse to make a hat. So we're really excited about that. But I've been doing a lot of letter writing lately and recently cleaned out my whole desk, which is not that big. My desk at home, and organized all my stationery because I haven't been allowed to buy stationery for about two years now because I told myself I had to work through what I had before I could buy more. And that doesn't really work, especially because I get so many samples at work. I'm just bringing home samples of things all the time. And I was surprised to find that I didn't have as much as I thought I did. I have like probably like 10 years worth of envelopes but no paper, which is what led me to a dollar store legal pad. And I have been kind of, I guess, working through all of this with Alex, who you guys know, she works here with me at the pencil shop. And Courtney Cochran, who works for Hester and Cook, and Rhea, who is our letter writing friend who hosts the New York City Letter Writer Society meetings here with us in the shop. And we've all been just like writing each other letters just to complain about how hard it is to not buy stationery because we're all trying to do the same thing. It's really hard. And I really think we've just been writing to each other so much because it's also a reason to use up the stationery. It's a kind of vicious cycle, but it's felt really, I felt really good, just kind of like working through all of it. And it's made me want to write more now that it's all organized and my desk is nice and I know how much I have and I am committed to just using it and being creative with the random size envelopes that I've acquired. But my other thing that I have an issue hoarding is postage stamps because I love collecting them and I keep them all in like a binder. And I have a separate scrapbook where I put like one of each that I really like so that they're there forever and I don't have to worry about using them all. I got like super crazy about it. But I don't know if you guys have seen that there are some really awesome stamp releases this year coming up. Do you guys pay attention to postage stamps at all?

Absolutely.

I am obsessed with it. In January, I always check. There's this website called stampnewsnow.com and it's just this like super nerdy stamp website. And they do a good job of updating and like keeping lists of all the upcoming ones with information about them and when they come out and where the ceremony is going to be. And yeah, there's some really good ones. It's a great year for stamps. In a couple weeks, there's going to be a sheet of post office murals that were all painted during the Great Depression, and they're really beautiful. And there's an amazing Ellsworth Kelly sheet coming out in May, which I think is the one that a lot of people have seen because there were a lot of things on the Internet about it. There's a military working. Or a working military dogs. She. There's a great Halloween one. There's so many good ones. There's a Woodstock one. I'm really excited. So I'm. Yeah, more the. I guess. Yeah, more the reason to write more letters so I can use more stamps. Yeah, I got really excited about this stuff.

If you purchase your stamps through the USPS.com website, like, you buy them online, then you get on the mailing list for the Philatelic catalog, and then. Yeah, then they just send you the catalog. So you basically get your stamp porn in the mail.

Absolutely. Then they. Yeah, they just send you the catalog, and then you're like, oh, these are the new stamps that are coming out.

Yeah, the Ellsworth Kelly are amazing. My husband and I went through the. We went through the catalog like little kids going through the. That, you know, used to go through the Sears Christmas catalog. Yeah, it was bad. Anyways, so shall we move on to our main topic, which is more like a bunch of little mini topics?

So we decided that we were going to take a bunch of mini topics and play around with them. So the first thing on our list was I was going to start off by asking a bit about Caroline's book club and find out how that was going.

Oh, yeah, we. So for anyone who doesn't know, we have a book club here at the shop. And we also have an email list for people who don't live in New York. It's called the Orchard Street Reading Society, and it happens only every other month. We do it that way just so people have plenty of time to read the book. Because, yeah, some people have strict reading agendas, and other people take A little longer. So we only do it every other month. And to be honest, we really just do it purely for ourselves, because Alex and I were talking when we opened the shop and had space to actually do stuff like this and decided that we had always wanted a book club of our own. So we just kind of did it and used the shop as a platform for it. But we try really hard to not just read new releases, to pick older books, and to pick different genres so that we're not just reading the same thing all the time. And she and I pick all the books or anybody else who worked here at the shop. We just kind of talk about it and just pick them ourselves, and we buy them and make little packs. We do, like, a pencil pairing, and we have lots of fun swag. We have, like, postcards and books, bookmarks and membership pins and membership cards. And so we make these little, like, book club packs that people can buy with whatever we're currently reading. And it's been a lot of fun. We've been doing it long enough now that we kind of have, like, a core group of people who always come. And then, like, maybe, like, 25% of the people who come are new. It's a really nice balance. And we just sit around the big table in the middle of the shop and just talk. And we always have really, really specific snacks, depending on what we've just read. We got really crazy about, like, planning the drinks and snacks. And if we can, we try to plan an activity or a craft or something related so that we're, like, not just sitting there and talking about the books, and we're, like, doing something also, because some people just don't feel comfortable talking about it, or they don't. They just don't want to. It's. I personally feel a little bit anxious talking about something that I've read and expressing an opinion about it or analyzing it. I just don't feel comfortable. So it's. Yeah, we try to make it just, like, a really nice community environment where we can just. I like to say that we're celebrating a book, not necessarily discussing it.

I really wanted to. We're in the middle of reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which we will be meeting for on May 1st.

And.

Yeah, that's one that kind of came from my personal reading list of writers I'd never read. I realized in January I had never read Virginia Woolf, which was surprising to me. I kind of. I don't know why I never read her in school and I just have never had. So I read the Waves and I posted it on my personal Instagram and my stories and so many people who I don't know DM'd me and told me to read Mrs. Dalloway next. And so I found a really good used copy from the 70s somewhere nearby. And Alex and I were talking about it and decided to pick that because either we figured that either everybody else is like me and they just kind of never got around to it or they hadn't read it for a long time. Yeah. So we're doing a classic this time.

I was gonna say how many people normally attend?

There's. It's usually about. There's usually about 12 of us. It's a really manageable number.

like Andy being Andy.

Yeah, that's what we were. We're due to send kind of like a check in email next week and that's what we are going to suggest everybody do for extra credit points.

Do you think you'll attend, Andy?

Very cool.

Yeah. We try to keep it comfortable and it's a nice group of people. It's funny. It's been a good outlet to like, just meet new people too. I've made some friends through our book club and the woman who came for the first time. Their last book, we read all you can ever know by Nicole Chung, which is a memoir that came out fairly recently. And it was great. And we had a woman come and she emailed Alex and I the next day and invited us over for pie. So we went to her apartment yesterday morning and had like a lovely pie breakfast with her. It's. Yeah, it's nice. I met a lot of awesome people, like, for selfish reasons. I like doing it because I feel like it's a good excuse to kind of get to like, I guess foster my own community. And I love it.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

So our next mini topic is are there other products that you really love? Things other than stationary or pencils or paper products that you guys want to talk about?

Okay. Well, there's a couple things that people probably may suspect, but I will. I'll come clean. I have a. I have a secret love of cosmetics. I don't have, like an excessive amount, but it's one of those things that I like, I sort of love.

They kind of. Yeah.

Wow. Never thought of it that way.

Go ahead.

No, it is, it's. I mean, in the same way that like, you know, like, just like the, like adding the little bit of color, the little bit of. Of pizzazz, like stickers, you know, like just a little something. And it is, it's. It's, you know, it's adding something that's a little bit special, making you feel special, making other people feel special.

And honestly, I think it's. It's one of those things that it took me a really Long time. Because like when I was like younger I was a, like when I was a little like little kid I was very much a tomboy. You know, didn't like, I was not a girly girl as a kid and even through high school and stuff I wasn't. But I think as I've gotten older it's one of those things where it's also making me feel like finished. Like I don't like going out. I won't, I will. You will never see me go out in public in like sweatpants or yoga pants or anything. I'm one of those people who like, I am not that kind of person. Like my hair is usually done, I have lipstick on. Like I just like, it's just a thing.

Yeah. Well, partly it was like, you know, people were posting like a lot. Like a lot of the other like pen and pencil related blogs would have like the like everyday carry things where they would put like the knives and the like, like large leather cases and things like that. And it was like very masculine and very dude. And I was like, you know what? I was like, you know those. What our stationary world needs is a little nail polish and maybe some lipstick, maybe a piece of jewelry, something that's pretty and so that like, so occasionally like when I like I did link love like every Friday for like three years when I finally kind of hit link love burnout. Like it was just. I did a lot. So now I do it about once a month just because it's like it was just a bit too much I have to say.

It's content, not link love. I'm My Fashionable Friday. I'm sorry, that's what I mean. My Fashionable Fridays. But like on fashionable Fridays like I would, I did them every week for like I think three or four years. So there's like hun. There's still, there are hundreds of them that still exist on my site where it was like it would have like pictures of like stationary products but then it would also have like other things. It would have shoes, it would have handbags, it would have nail polish or something like that. But yeah, link love. No, I still do that every week and this week it's going to be late because I did two podcasts.

But yeah, and then my. Probably the other thing that I really love Is I knit. Caroline knows that.

Yeah. Still waiting for our. Our knitting trip. Alex and I are going to find us a house. We're going to do it.

Oh, that would be so much fun. So what is this you're discussing knitting? I have been knitting for probably 10 years. Maybe longer. Much, probably longer than 10 years. How long have you been knitting, Caroline?

Since high school. I had a knitting club. I started a knitting club in my high school. So I guess that's been a little over 10 years. I'm not as good of a knitter as you are, though. You are very, very, very expert knitter.

And I'm not as good as Laura, who writes for my blog, who, like, she actually edits knitting patterns for other people.

Yes. So she's like, beyond.

That's totally legit. I just follow other people's patterns and then ask Laura. When I don't understand something,

I think you do other things.

Yeah.

I think that's an awesome kind of crafty.

Yeah.

I can conjure up a sweater. What can you conjure up?

I think that's awesome.

So how did you come into all of that?

That's awesome. But strangely coincidental, right?

No.

No more so than a Magic 8 ball.

Very playful.

One of the products that we include as part of, like, the Skylab letterpress canon, I guess, that we sell, like, when we have a table is a letterpress print that says, not today, Satan. And we do have people who get very, very offended by it. And I had a table at the Arkansas Pen show, and this is getting into territory where people can get offended by things like this. And last year, we had that up, and one of the organizers of the show came by, and he took all my prints, and he turned them around so they were facing backwards so you couldn't see it. And one of the other guys from the Arkansas Pen Club was like, why are all these turned around backwards? And I didn't realize it because I was standing behind the table. I didn't realize they had been turned around backwards. And I'm like, oh, that was so and so and he's like, oh, really? And I said, yeah, I guess he was offended by them. And he's like, I'll take three of them.

He's like, I'll be sure to hang those up when he comes over.

Yes. I don't know. But the funny thing about it is that the designer and the office manager who works at Skylab, Michelle, they sold the. Not to say Satan prints have sold so well that she made a new one that says yes today, Satan. And she was like, do you want me to pack some of those for you to take? And I'm like, not to Arkansas. Those will not go over well.

So those are available on our Etsy site, though, in case anyone's interested.

And those. Those are a little off color. We get. We know that.

Caroline?

Other than, like, I have a lot of obsessions. I spend my collecting obsessions, I think most of which turn into actual collections. It's really bad. Yeah, it's really bad. I'm really grateful that I found Alex because not only are we coworkers, but we also like, all the same stuff and do basically all the same hobbies and I guess have the same values when it comes to basically anything that we buy and consume. So much so that my. She invited my boyfriend over for, I think probably something college basketball related because they're both really into that. And he. Without me, I wasn't there. And she went over to her apartment, and the first thing he said was, wow, you and Caroline have a lot of the same stu stuff. And it's true. It's bad, though. We both spend a lot of time trying to justify purchases for the other person. And we're both very into skincare products, which is dangerous. Yeah. We're both into finding the most. Yeah. The most natural, sustainable, effective, minimal skincare products we can find. So we're always talking about it. What face masks we're using, what hand creams we're using, which lip balms we're using. Neither of us wear makeup, so it's. This is it for us as far as, like, cosmetic products go. Yeah.

Those eyelashes are natural. Ugh, I hate you.

My eyelashes. No, my eyelashes are extensions. They are fake. They're. I mean, that's my One like true addiction when it comes to consumerism and vanity are these fake eyelashes. I have been. Have. I've. I don't think I've seen my regular natural lashes for about. About seven years. It's been a long time. But that's, like, the one thing that I do. I. The reason why I don't wear a lot of makeup is because I'm allergic to a lot of it or I have intolerances to ingredients that are in it. And mascara is, like, a big one that I really can't touch it. So I started doing the eyelash extensions because of that, and I just got hooked. So if anyone's curious about it, only try it if you are ready to fall in love with it and maintain it. Because once you do it, you can't really stop.

I go every three weeks. For most people, it's between three to five weeks, depending on. Depending on how fast your natural eyelash growth cycle is and how well you maintain them. I'm a little obsessive, and I really like Holly, who does them for me. So I go and do short sessions every three weeks. But it's very relaxing. You, like, lie down on a massage table and we chat for a while, and she's just working, working on my eyes. And I usually just fall asleep and take a nap. It's nice. I really enjoy that hour every three weeks. But that's my one big vanity thing, and I'm never giving it up. I'm just not. I love it.

Yeah. My one thing. But beyond that, I spend a lot of time at work talking about tea and skin care products. Yeah. I have a lot of. I mean, I could probably write, like, I could probably write a book on products that I recommend and products that I love.

That actually leads us into your other subscription service.

Oh, yes, my other subscription service, which is a quarterly lip balm subscription service born out of. Actually, I feel like I'm just talking about Alex. People probably think I'm, like, obsessed with her. We're just really close. But

let me just preface this. So the people who are not familiar with this was maybe. Was it last week you posted that on your Twitter that you should start a subscription service for all the other things that you're interested in, which is kind of how all of this got started.

Yes.

That people were started, like, saying. Yes, yes, yes, Carolyn, you should do a subscription service for, like, all the other things that you recommend to people and that people would totally subscribe to It. This is where this all got started.

So we were a lot of things to recommend, and I got so many replies to that tweet that was, like, almost two weeks ago, and I'm still getting tons of replies from people telling me that I should do favorite things box or a subscription, which is crazy. I'm so blown away by that. But, yeah. So there. This. Yeah. Lip balm. Lip balm, I think, is a really important thing because it's a thing that people don't pay attention to, and they collect a lot of them. And Alex and I talked about this a lot for a very long time, and both did a thing where we tracked down all the lip balms in our houses, in our pockets, in our bags, like, all of them, and ordered them, oldest to newest, and worked our way through them one by one, oldest to newest, and we were only allowed to use one at a time until they were all done. And so now we both made it through all of our old lip balms, and we're both only allowed to buy one at a time until we use it up, and then we're allowed to select another one. So it's nice because it means that when I come home from work, I actually empty out my bag and make sure I know where all my stuff is, because I can't lose my one lip balm. I only have one.

And so it's been fun because she and I just spend so much time debating which ones we're going to try next. And it's also not that important of a product that I feel like we'll ever find one that we love enough to only use the same one for the rest of our lives. It's. Yeah, it's really fun. We buy each other lip balms when we're traveling. We have, like, our own little, like, lip balm club, the two of us. Yes. So a subscription service that is quarterly, because for me at least, that's about how often I need a new one maybe. Maybe a little sooner than that. A quarterly subscription service. One lip balm for all the other lip balm minimalists like myself and Alex.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I do. But I think, like, I've read a lot of things about this. I think that first of all, lip balm addiction is a real thing that you can, like, get, like, addicted to. Applying lip balm. I don't think I'm there yet, but it's a thing that, like, the more you do it, the more your skin needs it. So if you do really only do it once a day, like, your skin adjusts to that, and it knows that. Whereas me, like, I guess my lips are just dry all the time because I'm. They're so used to being, like, constantly slathered with things. Yeah.

Yeah, the EOS ones.

Wow. It's amazing that you haven't lost it throughout the day. You wouldn't lose it.

So, Caroline, what else would be in your subscription services? Many, many subscription services?

Well, there would be a T.1, of course. I would probably. I would also like to have maybe. I don't know, trying to think of my other. My other interest, a bike accessories. One I think would be cool because there are a lot of really useful accessories for bikes. Like, things like you can get these cool, like, leather, like wine. Like wine bottle holsters, and like, stuff like that that I could never justify just, like, buying for myself, but I would use if I had it. Bike accessories would be really good. Or there's so many, like, I. The other thing, too, that I have a hard time finding because I tried to gift this to somebody. Like a face mask. Like a face mask of the month subscription. It's just one mask. Like, I don't want 10 of them. I want to be able to use my own products. I just want, like, one every month that's new, that I've never heard of. Like, just a tiny, tiny. Just, like, envelope. But if it's a sheet mask, I'm assuming, or like a tiny, tiny little like container and a tiny bubble mailer or a box that's just like a single use face mask. I would think that would bring me a lot of joy just to have like a surprise face mask. And it probably wouldn't be very expensive either. Yeah, I would do one like that for really just lip balms, hand creams and face masks. Those, I feel like those are the products that like bring me the most joy on a daily basis that I would use the most. If we're talking like skincare and cosmetic products. Yeah. Or like a. Well, I don't know, a stick. Like a sticker one too. That's like one sheet of stickers. I love subscriptions, but I think that like the problem with subscriptions is that it just encourages people to be hoarders. And I don't want to be that person. I don't want to make anyone else be that person. So I wish there were more subscriptions for like really pleasurable and I hate to use this term, kind of like self care related items that where it was like only one of the something. Yeah. So it's not expensive. It's just like a nice thing. It's easy for fulfillment because of course I think of that because that's what I do for a living. You just pop it in an envelope and put a stamp on it. Yeah, but just like tiny things that bring joy.

Those are great ideas.

Crazy. But yeah. Tea. I would love a tea one that's not like. Because all the tea ones, like they give you like boxes of tea and it's. I know, I don't want like that much of one tea. What if I don't like it?

And then if I like it, I'll buy more of it. But I don't need, I don't need a ton of it, but yeah, that would be really good. Or the other product that. I don't know if I've talked about this on a podcast before, maybe not, but the other product that I really love that I would buy frequently because I feel like I need a lot of them are these Imabari face towels that are like tiny towels that are square, they're really little and they have like a seam in the middle so they fold in half to be like. It's a Rectangle that folds into a perfect square. And they have on them, and they're. They're imabari towels. So they're from a particular region in Japan where I think there's something about the water, like, makes the cotton extra soft when they're, like, milling the cotton to make these towels. It's a thing, these imabari towels. And they make these tiny ones that are meant specifically for face sweat. And they're a lifesaver in the summer in New York City, having this, like, adorable tiny towel just in my bag. I would really appreciate, like, an imabari towel subscription in the summer, just for the summer. Like, a new one every month so that eventually I have one to get me through, like, two weeks of laundry without having to wash them.

They're amazing. And as a bike rider, like, I. If I ride my bike everywhere in the summer, and if I'm going to, like, a nice restaurant or something, I feel. I feel gross just, like, getting off my bike, like, so sweaty and got, like, walking into a restaurant. So I keep my tiny towels. They sell them at Top Hat, which is a shop on Broome street just off of Orchard, right by us. And they're like, they're. They're like $10. I think last summer, every time I went there, I bought one just because it was a nice little, like, cheap throw that made me really happy. But, yeah, exotic towels, that would be a good subscription. Exotic, specific towels. I've got a lot of those in my life. Anyway, I need to stop talking. I really have too many things that I like.

They're all good. But while we're on the topic of good things, what about possible products that might be released from CW or Baron Fig or heck, even the well appointed desk or Skylab at some point? Maybe dream products or things that you've made up in your head that you might make or could be baking. Hey, maybe you are already making them. I know that, Andy, like Baron Fig has been like the Grow Journal, the dream journal, your habit trackers. But, you know, where's the box wine diary? Where's your road trip bathroom rating book? What's next? Come on. Is there a pencil sharpening guidebook? Come on.

Wait, can I for a second. Andy, what's your favorite box wine?

Oh, yeah. Those are good.

So maybe there's a, another like Baron Fig CW collaborative project for the public pencil sharpener Guidebook.

I don't, honestly, I don't know. Where are their public pencil sharpeners? Maybe I need to install them. Maybe I need to like get a bunch of the vintage wall mount ones and just like go around with my like drill, get a good masonry drill bit and just drill them into people's walls.

Where will she install gorilla sharpener? Installing.

Yeah, I can't tell you the number of times I've like emergency needed a pencil sharpener and haven't had one. This happened when I was at the national stationery show this year. I forgot to pack a sharpener and

you'd think of all places they would just have installed a couple old Boston sharpeners somewhere that you could use.

I didn't. I just had to take a lot of samples of new pencils so I could just keep using a new pencil that was pre opened. I left with like 10 new pencils.

And they were probably, they were probably bad paper wrap pencils anyway.

Not all of them are bad, actually. I stuck them. I had one in my ponytail. I like to keep. When I'm like in real business lady mode, I like to keep a pencil in my ponytail. And every time I went to someone's booth who had their pencils, they were like offended that I didn't have their pencil in my ponytail, so they'd like swap them for me. So I got a lot of good ponytail pencils.

I should have left them all in there at the same time. That would have been a really good look.

Yeah. Next time I'll just stick them all together.

There's a picture of me on Instagram like that with like 14 pencils in my hair. It was like a crown. It was lovely. So, all right, Caroline, you were mentioning that the start of baseball season and you've got baseball scoring pencils, but where's like the knitter's project pencil?

Well, that's a really good question. I think that's a thing that should exist. We're just. This is what's going to happen. I'm just going to start making specific pencils that are purely tailored to my personal hobbies. It's going to end up being a confusing collection. But knitter's project pencil would be next. Totally. What, what kind of core would you want in that, do you think? I don't know.

I'm trying to think. What would be the best core for a knitter's project pencil?

I don't know that it needs to be anything super specific. Honestly, I don't know. I would love it if they could come in. So here's the deal. They come in pairs in different diameters and they're made out of something, a type of wood or another material. Maybe they're co extruded with another material so they're not splintery, so that they can double as knitting needles. Oh. Or better yet, instead of a feral and an eraser, it has a crochet hook.

That's a great idea.

Do whatever you need to do with your crochet hook.

Yeah. The end. So you can pick up stitches if you need to. I think that's A good idea.

Yes. Okay. So that's the knitting pencil. It has a crochet instead of an eraser.

Perfect.

Great. We did it. Okay, I'll get working on that. I wonder who I have to bribe to find a manufacturer who will make that for me.

Yeah. Because it could still be made out of wood. It just has to be polished on the end.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. And it has to be.

Yeah.

How do we get it? Well, I guess we could fabricate just a crochet hook cap that just fits on the top.

Yeah. Wow.

They could be interchangeable, so you can have different sizes of crochet hook. Wow. Okay. This. This is a good idea.

Easy peasy.

The next hobby pencil will be a knitter's pencil.

I love it. Dedicated.

You can design what, like, the. The body of it looks like. Oh, okay. You can do your colors. We can do your handwriting. Can be the text on it. That would be cute. Anyway, I'm getting carried away.

Yep. It'll be fun. It'll be awesome. Yeah, I love it. Cool. Well, I feel like we've sort of covered everything.

That we had planned to talk about. Does anybody have anything else they wanted to talk about?

I'm really interested in that. I don't really drink anymore, but I would gift that to everyone I know.

Absolutely. So actually, a tea journal would be cool too.

Yeah, a tea journal would be good because I. I file. I love buying tea when I'm traveling. Not anything fancy, just, like, at a supermarket in another country. I'm really interested in, like, the different flavors they have. Or I wish. One thing I wish existed is a box of, like, Lipton tea, because Lipton does a lot of weird flavors for other countries. I wish to even have a box of Lipton tea. That's, like, one tea bag from every country that Lipton develops flavors for. I have a little, like, world tour of Lipton tea. That would be so fun. But, yeah, all these, like. Yeah, you can always get, like, weird flavored teas in other places, and I love them and always give them away. When I come home, I only save a couple for myself, and I just give them away to everyone I know. Or it's a fun thing to, like, mail in a letter. I'm, like, writing about my trip, and I'm like, oh, here's the passion fruit tea I drank, but totally same.

That's the best part of traveling is going to the supermarket and seeing what, like, their normal is. I love it. Really my favorite part of learning about another culture.

Yep. Yeah.

This was awesome. Thank you so much. I will go through where to find everybody. Well, I'll start. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter as well. AppTDesk or on the Internet at WellingtonDesk.

Caroline, you can find me on Twitter at cwpencils and on Instagram at cwpencilenterprise. Or my personal Instagram, which is Lady Graphite.

And of course, your cwpencils.com.

oh, yeah, that's our website.

Okay.

Awesome. You can find the podcast at Erasable Us and you can find the show notes and the audio for this episode at erasable US115. Thank you both so much for being on this episode episode, and thanks to the guys for letting us pull this April Fool's joke.

Happy April Fools.

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