Atlas Stationers’ Sidewalk Sale

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I wasn’t able to attend the DC Pen Show or Stationery Fest, so I asked Brendan Schmidt, VP of Atlas Stationers, if there was still room for me to teach a class at their Sidewalk Sale and he said yes, so I was off to Chicago!!

The Atlas Stationers’ Sidewalk Sale is a two day event (that’s been going on for 37 years!) that brings in their major distributors/suppliers, like their own mini-pen show! They had in-store and online sales too.

It was rainy on Thursday, the first day of the Sidewalk Sale, but the team was prepared for it with all the tents. About half of the vendors were outside, while the others were inside the store.

My view from the Luxury Brands of America tables while Bryce Gillett was teaching a Fountain Pens 101 class.

Check out the new Back to the Land Esterbrook Esties in Incredible Rock, Funky Lake, and Quirky Leaf.

It’s not downtown Chicago and it’s not a Sidewalk Sale if you don’t hear The L overhead!

The lovely ladies from Ferris Wheel Press (left) and Robert Oster! I didn’t catch the name of the lady from FWP but on the right is Claudia Astorquiza … yes, as in Robert Oster Astorquiza Rot and Astorquiza Olive!

Look at all these fun swatches (and open bottles, eek!) of Robert Oster ink!

I was super happy to see my friends from Galen Leather! I was excited to show my B6 and A5 journals to Zeynep, Meltem, and Yunus!

Jim Hinze of Hinze Pens brought lots of colorful pens with him!

I enjoyed watching the embossing process on Leuchtturm notebooks!

I couldn’t resist buying another Leuchtturm so I could watch it get embossed!

Kirk Speer of Pen Realm and Matthew Chen of Matt’s Nib Works were pretty swamped on Thursday and had a little break time on Friday.

A much nicer (and muggier) Friday allowed more vendors to be set up outside.

I love the variety of products that Galen Leather brought with them, but one table is not enough!

More room under the tents for Galen Leather.

Meltem (Yunus’ fiancée and Galen Leather’s nib grinder) was so happy to hear that I loved the cursive italic grind that she did for my pen. Here she is with my pen and one of the pages from my notebook!

Alex from Atlas (left) says that he loves seeing all of David Oscarson’s gorgeous pens - who wouldn’t love to stare at these beauties!

They also hosted several gatherings at the back of the store where people could swap ink, talk about their journals or just get to know each other. They even made space for seminars and classes!

The ink swap meetup was a great way for people to share, trade or give away inks.

Ryan Sirignano from Kenro Industries gives a talk about the different materials used in the making of fountain pens.

A selfie with the folks who took my handwriting improvement class! It was such a great experience and I had a lot of fun, even though I was super nervous.

Post-dinner hang out with Yunus, Meltem, Zeynep, Nina and Matthew Chen, and we had a lovely time relaxing, talking and laughing until way past our bedtimes. What a great way to end the night!

There was a lot to see and lots to buy but I exercised a lot of self-control with the SF Show happening the following week (or now, if you’re reading this right away).

Atlas Stationers shirt, Parker Jotter - Rome Special Edition, Sheaffer 100 Coffee Edition, Retro 51 x Atlas - Chicago Theatre, Wearingeul The Sign of Four, and Robert Oster x Atlas Sidewalk Gum. (Not pictured here is the previously mentioned, personalized Leuchtturm notebook.)

If you missed the Sidewalk Sale, don’t fret because they will be having their annual Holiday Expos event in a few months on December 6-7 and also 13-14! I highly recommend making the trip for these special events - definitely worth it!

(Disclaimer: All products were purchased by me with the Sidewalk Sale discount.)

Anderson Pens Grand Re-Opening!

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

The Andersons are, as usual, moving and shaking, but more literally this time. They've closed their Chicago store and, after nearly a decade in downtown Appleton Wisconsin, moved their main store across a vast mile to a different location. The new shop is bigger, brighter, has spacious and FREE parking--and last weekend, they decided to party about it.

Lisa Anderson welcomes you!

Brian Anderson behind the counter.

Eric Orozco and Cary Yeager.

Linda and Mike Kennedy.

The grand re-opening event took place July 21-23 and it was hopping! It was essentially a mini pen show, with visiting reps from Pilot, ST Dupont, LAMY, Visconti, Kenro, and Mike and Linda of Indy-Pen-Dance there to do repair and nib work. And just like a pen show, there were times when the space was standing room only, and when you'd have to wait a while for your turn to browse a table. People came from all over for the event, and one visitor even drove over four hours to be the first person through the door at 10am on Friday. The Anderson fans turned out and it was a wonderful reunion.

Those who made the trek were treated to some amazing sales and deals, and there were some great treasures to be found (yes, I found some). And every hour there were two giveaways for those visitors who'd put their name in for the drawing. One memorable moment occurred when a husband and wife both won during the same hour. And the giveaways were shockingly good, with items like rare Retro 51s and a Visconti pen worth $1500. There were obviously some ecstatic winners, sadly not yours truly.

But I didn't leave empty handed. That would have been silly. Friday I picked up a pack of the Monster Encounter (unofficial D&D) Field Notes books (for my teen, who will provide feedback for a future review), some Exacompta grid notecards (an essential), and a LAMY leather pen case. No pens? Are you surprised? Don't be, because I went back Saturday, too--for the vibes, the camaraderie, a few more photos, and a LAMY 2000 4-color multipen, and an irresistible Paperblanks notebook I hadn't noticed there before. And another shot at the giveaways, of course (no dice).

The event was just the dose of pen family I needed. I found a few of my old Appleton Pen Club friends (watch for news regarding a rebirth of the club now that there's so much more room for activities), made some new pen friends, and I got to sit back and watch the pen community celebrate a special moment for some special people.

Brian, Lisa, Dave, and Lindsay, along with all the visiting reps, stayed busy all weekend. Between customers, I got to chat with them, and Lisa said that this amazing event is going to become an annual party. Everyone who came wants to come back, and we all hope you'll join us next year. Mark mid-July off your calendars and stay tuned for updates!

Congratulations to Anderson Pens and their hard-working staff. I'll be haunting the new location just like I did the old one. Probably more, because parking!

(PS: That new girl Lindsay deserves a raise.)

(PPS: I was not paid, bribed, or threatened to say that. Although I was under the influence of cookies.)

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Meininger Art Material (Denver, Colorado) - A Quick Walkthrough

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I was recently on vacation in Colorado at my in-laws up in the mountains (you really should visit Summit County if you get the chance) and whenever I’m in Colorado, I try to finagle a pen meetup while I’m there. Huge thanks to the Colorado Pen Posse for organizing a great meetup! It was so much fun that I barely had time to check out the Meininger Art Material store in Denver on my way to the airport! I’m not positive if the shop is “Meininger Art Material” or “Meininger Art Supply” as their website makes reference to both, so I’m just going to call it “Meininger”.

Meininger has been a family-owned business since 1881 (wow!) and have two locations in Colorado: Denver and Colorado Springs. I visited the Denver location at 499 Broadway; their store hours are Monday-Saturday from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM and closed on Sunday. I believe they recently moved their other location to 814 S Tejon Street in Colorado Springs and may be opening up soon if they haven’t already - please call or check their website for more information if you plan to visit their other location.

First and foremost, Meininger is an art supply store. And a huge one at that! As soon as I walked in, I could see that this would be a fun place to spend lots of time (and money). There are two floors of art supply goodness here - which I didn’t have time to explore - from paper, to canvas, to paints, brushes and more, they have pretty much anything you need to unleash your inner artist.

Two floors of art supplies!

I love seeing art supplies geared towards kids so they can have stuff to check out while you’re shopping too!

There were lots of pens/pencils/markers in another section but these are the special, fancy ones like Copic and Tombow ABT Pro.

I didn’t have much time to explore, but let’s be real, I came here for the fountain pens and inks and things! So as soon as I snapped up some pictures, I headed straight for the stationery section.

Go around the cash registers to the right side of the store and voila, the stationery section!

Meininger has really started developing their stationery section in the last few years with the help and input from the Colorado Pen Posse. They are open to adding new brands or products and it’s pretty common for folks to make their way to the shop after a pen meetup (we ran into several others while we were there even though the meetup was 20 minutes away). They have a variety of pen brands including Esterbook, Kaweco, Pilot, Retro 51, Sailor and TWSBI . They have a lot of different paper and accessories brands too, including Endless Recorder, Rhodia, Fabriano, Midori, Nebula, Lochby and Rickshaw Bagworks.

Most of the pens are in these display cases.

Ooooh, the new Sailor North American exclusive LINE FRIENDS pens! Are you a SALLY or BROWN fan?

They also have a nice selection of inks and have the new Sailor Manyo multishading inks as well as the latest Colorverse 50 States colors.

Am I the only one who loves to spin notebook displays?

More notebooks, bookmarks, cards, and these adorable pads/sets from Midori.

Turn around and there’s stuff from Traveler’s Company and Maruman.

I love seeing all the fountain pen friendly paper from around the world like Endless Recorder (India), Nebula (South Korea), Midori (Japan) and Clairefontaine (France.)

You need pen and notebook cases to carry around your goodies, right?

Due to my limited time as well as the impending spending at upcoming shows, I showed some restraint and left empty-handed, but not before experiencing the friendly customer service from one of the folks behind the counter (for the locals reading this, it wasn’t Patty because she had already left for the day). They checked in with you, answered any questions and let you look around without stalking you for a sale. Their online section is somewhat limited (at least for fountain pen-related items), so don’t judge the store based on what you see (or don’t see) online. For example, they only list the Colorverse 50 States ink on their website and only 10 colors, but they actually had 15 in the store along with some from the Project series, Joy in the Ordinary series, etc.

So, if you’re in the Denver area and want to shop for pens, inks, paper and more, definitely go check out the Meininger store in Denver or check out their Colorado Springs location and let us know what you think!

(Neither this article nor my brief visit was paid for nor sponsored by Meininger. I’m just a shopaholic with a stationery affliction and LOVE pen stores!)