As a long time member of the Flickr community (since 2005) and Pro, I haven't participated in the Flickr community much in the last few years. I've seen the community become a ghost town with most people moving on to 500px or Instagram.

Flickr was neglected by Yahoo for many years and (even with Pro subscriptions to keep the lights on) there has been little change to the site or the app.

The acquisition of Flickr by Smugmug should have been a fresh start for Flickr with Smugmug bringing new innovations and ideas to the table on how to move things forward. Smugmug should be talking to existing customers (especially Pros) about why they stayed, what they enjoyed and what they missed from the heyday of the service. Smugmug should be communicating more about Flickr's financial position and asking customers about fund-raising "add-ons" they would want to purchase - prints, books, business/art cards, Pro + features like slideshows (Animoto style) and storefronts for prints/digital assets. There are plenty of photography related competitors making money.

Now I'm more worried for Flickr than ever. Instead of working with the Flickr community, they took the easy route (which I believe is also the wrong route) to increase the fees before offering anything new, effectively punishing long time supporters and driving them away. Flickr membership isn't really worth anything , not even the $25 I've been paying. Google or Apple will back up all your photos for free. And if you backup your computer you're covered anyway.

So what are we paying for? Comments on each others photos? A pat on the back? Discussions and info in community groups that could just as easily be found in the many camera fan forums? Smugmug needs to think about the value the site offers to the customer before increasing rates.

Let me know your thoughts below.

I first discovered the travellers notebook concept through Jane Davenport, her “butterfly” book is designed to be a travellers notebook for artists and I thought it was genius that you could have different sections with different types of paper - making it the perfect “sketchbook” for notes, sketching and watercolour. But I also stumbled onto a whole world of travellers notebook journalers. And through that a world of bullet journaling. Bullet journaling is based on the concept of designing your own journal. Many people use it for a calendar which doesn’t appeal to me as I am a heavy user of shared Gmail calendars - one for each member of the family. However mastering a To Do list and all those little snippets of information floating around in your head appeals to me. So I spent some time thinking about these tools and how they could work for me and eventually came up with a solution in part influenced by @HoneyRozes (Instagram, Youtube), a bullet journaler.


Rather than using my Butterfly book - which is set up for art - I decided to purchase a leather travellers journal from the Travellers Notebook (‘TN) company (formerly known as Midori). This is really just a cover for the notebook inserts to be stored within it but works the same as the Butterfly book where you can add your own notebook inserts. I used the default insert that came with the TN. I love the smell of the leather and the way the cover gets more and more worn with time. 


On the cover I wrote the date the notebook was started (June 2017) so I can easily identify the date range for each notebook. Inside the notebook I created a calendar so I could reference dates when planning To Do’s. I also wrote out 12 Questions for Change taken from the “Change Your Life, Change Your Questions” book. 


I made a mistake with the calendar as I didn’t have enough space to have a full year of planning - instead I only had room for 10 months instead of the full 12. Yes, I should have measured everything out in advance. Got to remember that for the next one!


The next layout in my journal was to create a monthly planning list view. This time I had space for all 12 months! This enables me to add items in advance for each month - if they are due on specific dates I add the date in the square - if not, the square remains blank. If the item is a project that spans months then I draw a horizontal arrow leading into the next month. As I add weeks into the journal I reference this page to make sure there aren’t any items to be transferred in for the week.  Here’s how it works... at the beginning of the week (usually on Sunday afternoon or evening) I plan the upcoming week.


First I set up the page layout....


Then I add the section titles.... the titles I came up with are work, not (i.e. not work stuff), home (for home maintenance items), and kids (for things I need to do for my kids). These sections are for my To Do’s for the week. 


Next I add the date range for the week, along with the week number. The week number isn’t really important but it’s kind of nice to know how far we are through the year already. These go at the top of the page.


Next I add additional section titles. I am still playing around with these but I think I’ve settled on Lessons Learned, Successes, Notes and Next Week. I use the lessons learned to record things I want to do better in the future, successes to record and celebrate my successes, Notes for anything I need to write down for the week - phone numbers, messages and so on, then lastly Next week to write down anything for next week. This section isn’t really required as I could use the monthly planning list view. I highlight these headings to make them stand out and easier to read.


Then I transfer in all the To Do’s from the previous week....


Each item transferred has a box next to it. Let me explain how I am using these.

• An empty box means it isn’t done,
• A box with a date means it needs to be done on a specific date,
• A box with a cross in it means its cancelled,
• A box with a > in it means it’s incomplete and transferred to the next week,
• A filled box means it’s complete (yay!).

I have been using this system successfully since the beginning of June. Initially I used the system to collect a “brain dump” of everything floating around in my head that I was worried would be forgotten. Each week I have many to do more items that I collected and gradually everything that was “non-urgent” has been accomplished and my To Do list has gotten shorter.  Is the system perfect? I doubt it... but it has the advantage of being portable, doesn’t conflict with my gmail calendar(s), isn’t overwhelming (weekly seems the perfect length of time for planning) and is always there for me to write quick To Do’s and notes. I haven’t filled out all the remaining “speads” in the notebook in case I want to tweak the weekly layout in the future. I hope you have enjoyed this quick tour of my personal organization system and you are inspired to create a system of your own.   

As you've probably realized, I still use fountain pens over ballpoints (although I confess to drafting outlines of longer documents with my beloved Pentel mechanical pencil).

One of the things that has always posed a problem is that  moment when someone asks to borrow a pen, and I have to quickly evaluate whether or not I want that person to use whatever pen is currently being rotated. Gold nib vintage pen, erm, no I don't think so. Lamy Al-Star, sure.

But surely as a fountain pen lover I should be trying to "convert" everyone and evangelize the joys of fountain pen usage. How do I do that? So I've been looking for a cheap fountain pen option that provides a good quality experience but won't break the bank. And I think I may have found it. This option is perfect for giving as a gift or keeping a spare in a desk drawer at work should someone express an interest. It is also a great option if you are intrigued and want to learn more about fountain pens without investing into something if you are unsure.

The Jinhao X450.



This pen is made in China. You can currently pick them up on EBay for as little as $4 CDN including shipping. The pen is quite heavy - one of the heaviest I own - so not a great option for a carry around, but it feels solid and sturdy in the hand. The finish is beautiful. There are several colours (mine is green marble) to choose from. Trimmings are gold coloured.



The nib is a large size 6 and has some flex providing some line width variation). My pen also included a cartridge converter so I can use either an international sized cartridge or can install the converter and use bottled ink.

Here is a writing sample using the Jinhao X450 Medium nib with Diamine Raw Sienna.

I am obsessed with my new toy! If you've been following this blog for a long time, you'll know that I migrated to an Epson Stylus 1400 wide format printer (13 inches wide) for my digital scrapbooking and photography needs back in 2008 (yes, really). I have been diligently using this printer for years (it works great) but the cost of ink cartridges vs sending print jobs to Costco made me stop using it a couple of years ago. Basically if you aren't using it a lot then the ink cartridges dry up and you don't get your money's worth.

However, Costco printing isn't always convenient when kids come to you the morning of a school presentation and ask for a baby photo (for getting to know me day), photo of an ancestor (for an immigration project) or a wolf (for research project) - yes these are *real* scenarios.

In addition my Project Life has stumbled as I want to send a year's photos at a time, but really who wants to write a year's worth of "about this photo" and who can even remember why the photo was taken, where it was etc.

So enter the Canon Selphy. Ok, so I kind of hate the name of this printer. I mean, I'm Gen X, I don't do selfies. However, the name is the only bad thing about this printer.


First of all, it's cute, did I say adorable!! It almost fits into the palm of your hand. While it's not the smallest printer on the market - it might be the smallest that prints a full 4x6 photo.

But what else?
Well it has wifi. So I might be late to the game on this, but printing from your cell phone, iPad or direct from your camera is huge. But you'll also be able to print from USB connection to your computer or laptop, and use an SD card to review photos and select them to print using the built in screen.

What about cost?
This printer was $119 CDN from Amazon. I also picked up a package of paper and ink cartridges (to print 108 images) for $40. There's a real advantage to this printer because they guarantee you can print exactly 108 images - no more no less. The package contains 3 packages of 36 sheets paper, and 3 ink cartridges. That works out to CDN $0.37 per print. Sure it's more than Costco (which charges CDN $0.10), but much more convenient when you only want a couple of images at a time.

Watch my Canon Selphy unboxing:


If you want a Canon Selphy, please consider using my Amazon links below. It doesn't cost you anything extra, but helps fund the cost of hosting this website and producing these videos.

As a collector of fountain pens, I have amassed many vintage fountain pens. For many of these there is little information available to explain the features and benefits of specific models.



I recently pulled out a Pelikan Celebry fountain pen circa 1998 and inked it up to be a daily writer for the next few weeks. I have created a quick video review of this pen along with a writing sample.


Please leave a comment on this post or on my YouTube channel if you find this video helpful and want to see more fountain pen reviews :)