Two years ago, I worked on a blog post suggesting some of our favorite pencils for crossword puzzles, which still remains one of our top store requests! We recently broke out a copy of the Sunday Times, as well as a regular daily crossword to revisit the subject with our current (and much broader!) selection of pencils. 

For newspaper and glossy magazine print, you need a pencil that's dark, but not too crumbly or smudgy. A firm pencil pretty much destroys newspaper - they indent the sheet so the marks are too hard to erase and are generally too light to show up very well. Not ideal. If a pencil is too soft, it will make a mess - especially on magazine paper. If you're using pencils for crosswords, you also need a really good eraser (because otherwise, you could just use a pen, right?) - it's got to be nice quality and sort of soft because hard rubber ones will easily tear newspaper. 

Our original picks: 
Craft Design Technology HB
Palomino HB
Blackwing 602
Blackwing Pearl
Yellow School Pencil

At the time of the original post, we didn't have many of the lovely Japanese pencils that we have now, and we've since discovered some pencils that we prefer more than the original selection. Here's our updated picks -- which are available as a Crossword Puzzle Sampler Pack! 

Swapped: Blackwing 602 for 2558 B: While the graphite in the 602 is a great hardness for both newspaper and magazine paper, we much prefer the soft plastic erasers on the end of the 2558 B (which is almost as dark as the 602) instead. 

Swapped: Craft Design Technology for Camel HB: Okay, these are essentially the same pencil, and both are great general use pencils. We prefer the Camel HB here simply because they come in loose stock, so you can try just one before developing an addiction. 

Swapped: Blackwing Pearl for General's Test Scoring: Similar to the 602, the Pearl is lovely and dark and great for magazine print. After testing however, we determined the Test Scoring pencil just has better point retention, which is needed when filling out small spaces. 

Kept: Caran d'Ache Yellow School Pencil: I think this is one of the most underrated pencils in our collection! This is a great #2 pencil with a nice plastic eraser. It's got great point retention, too. 

Kept: Palomino HB: This is one of our very favorites just because it's such a well-rounded pencil. It's got nice, smooth HB graphite that's just a little bit dark, it has really nice point retention and sharpens well, and it has a great eraser. 

Introduced: Mitsubishi Office Use 9850: We like this one for similar reasons to the Palomino HB - it's just an all-around great pencil. It shows up nicely on newspaper and magazine print, erases well, and had a decent eraser. 

Other accessories: Most pencils could use an eraser upgrade, and these hi-polymer caps are perfect for that! For on the go purposes, these pencil caps are also a great accessory to keep your points sharp and your bag graphite-free. 

 What are your thoughts on using pencils for crossword puzzles? Are you a purist who only uses pen (if so, you are much better at crosswords than me!)? 

P.S. These pencils are also great for those newsprint puzzle books, too! 

When I first heard about Caitlin's prompt, I'm pretty sure I instantly turned a nice shade of red. My EDC situation is kind of embarrassing. And seems even more embarrassing after reading all my coworkers' beautifully refined EDCs.

I like to blame my career. As I'm sure I've mentioned an irritating amount of times, I'm a freelance illustrator in addition to being a Pencil Lady. One of the great things about being a freelance illustrator is that I have a lot of flexibility and can work from just about anywhere. The downside is that the supplies I use for illustrating can really accumulate.

Instead of a nice bag or small backpack, I honestly lug around an overstuffed, gray backpack that looks like it's been trampled by all of NYC most days. When I say overstuffed, I mean it's filled with everything from pencils to peanut M&Ms to maybe a pair of socks with avocados on them and it weighs about half as much as I do. My fellow Pencil Ladies (who have all made the mistake of picking up said backpack) can attest to how just how overstuffed/damn heavy it is.

Anyway, let's ignore the socks, the tupperware, the laptop, and the peanut M&Ms (which'll likely be eaten by the time I finish writing this), and just focus on the stationery, writing, and drawing supplies.  

Here we go:

First thing's first, my utensil case. For the past few years, I've been rocking a custom-made case by Allison Bamcat, a talented artist and my former coworker back in my Converse pattern and graphics department days. As a going-away gift (moving from Boston to NYC), she created a case tailored to fit my favorite pens (which I'll get to later) out of a french fry fabric she designed. There's even a perfect little pocket on the side for erasers!

Since we're on that eraser pocket, I usually have two erasers in there. Lately it's been two of my all-time favorite erasers--the Caran D'Ache Technik and then a nub of a Matomaru-Kun long rectangular eraser. I've recently added the Mono Zero to the mix as well, because you know what? Odd numbers are nice.

Okay, let's go inside the case. The pencils. In a perfect world, I'd just have an HB, a 4B or 6B, and maybe a 2H on me so I could have access to a range of grades while working in my sketchbook. In reality, as I drew out above, I have:

• 1 Viking Element 1
• 1 Mono100 HB
• 1 Editor (which is sort of my 2H substitute, since it runs a little hard)
• 1 Mono KM-KKS 6B (my pencil crush of the moment)
• 1 yellow HB Bruynzeel from Holland that I think Caitlin gave me?
• 1 Franky and Friends Ibis B that just sort of appeared in my case one day
• 1 CWPE x Caran D'Ache Black Wood, that I use on everything from concept sketches, to To Do lists, to murals.

Now, this always feels a little blasphemous here, but let's move on to the pens. Again, in a perfect world, I'd carry a black gel pen, a red gel pen, a blue gel pen, a brush pen, a white gel pen, and then maybe a regular ball point. Of course, given the brick-like state of my utensil case, that is not the case. Here's the truth:

• 1 black, 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 sky blue Muji gel pen, all with 0.5mm points
• 1 0.4mm Hi-Tec-C Pilot pen with navy ink
• 2 0.5mm Hi-Tec-C Pilot pens with black ink
• 1 0.3mm Hi-Tec-C Pilot pen with black ink
• 1 Pentel brush pen with black ink
• 1 Uni-Ball Signo pen in white ink
• 1 Prodin Seven Year ballpoint pen in black ink
• 1 empty yellow plastic Lamy Safari that I swear I'll refill soon really
• 1 Super Fine Zebra Disposable Brush Pen
• 1 Fine Zebra Disposable Brush Pen ( honestly, I was carrying two, but I just gave one to Caroline)
•  and 1 neon pink Gelly Roll pen. You know. For good measure. 

I mean, what girl doesn't need to carry around 700 black pens at once. 

Now, my notebooks and sketchbooks. Given the state of everything else in my bag, I show a moderate amount of self-control in this area. I usually have on notebooks for lists, ideation, and occasionally thumbnail sketches. Lately, I've been using my Mnemosyne 195 for that.

And then as far as sketchbooks go, I always always always have a 5.5" x 5.5" Handbook Journal on me. Right now I have one with a black canvas cover that's nearly filled--it's actually what I drew all these illustrations in for this post! It has beautifully thick, toothy paper that works well with pencil, ink, and some light paintwork. I've used these obsessively since college. 

Last two bits that seem relevant here (since I use them for art things), are my laptop (which 85% of the weight in my backpack) and Wacom Tablet. 

So there you have it! My EDC. Hopefully for the sake of my sanity and back I pare it down a bit. 

I am an extremely lucky pencil lady: my Russian boyfriend has an apartment on Brighton Beach, which means we get to spend the summer on the ocean. Besides the obvious advantage of being able to jump in the water whenever we want, Brighton Beach has a number of advantages: great food, two bookstores, and the feeling that you are partially in a different country. So when I have the day off, we usually stay in the neighborhood, for which I now have a great deal of fondness. On this particular Saturday, we started the morning with a cup of coffee on the balcony, enjoying the view seen above.

Next we headed out for a walk along Brighton Beach Avenue, the main drag, under the elevated subway tracks. I wish I could tell you what Gold Label International Food's full selection of provisions is like, but I've never actually set foot in the place. Instead, this little window is the provider of one of my favorite snacks: пирожок с капустой ("little pie with cabbage" -- it's a cabbage pastry). I think there are meat and potato options available as well, but the cabbage is the most special (possibly because Nora Ephron's "The Lost Strudel" has imprinted a perpetual desire for cabbage pastries in me).

A little further down the avenue we stop at the first bookstore of the day: RBC Video. The ground floor has a large selection of Russian film and TV on DVD, plus some music (CDs and vinyl). The upstairs is a bookstore. My own Russian is sadly lacking (I get excited when I can identify words on the awnings of shops in the neighborhood), so when we go here I take a leisurely lap around the shelves, trying to sound out authors' names.

My partner, on the other hand, being both Russian and a professor of literature, actually opens the books. On this occasion, he purchased a ten-volume edition of Chekhov, which we left with the very friendly shopkeepers to pick up later. If you can read Russian, I highly recommend visiting the upstairs. The Russian editions of the classics are really beautiful and tend to be satisfyingly completist. In fact, there's a whole section devoted to multi-volume complete works, each set wrapped carefully in cling wrap. There are other gems to be found too: Sherlock Holmes, a graphic novel version of The Master and Margarita, philosophical works with bodice-ripper covers.

A little further down the street, we popped into Saint-Petersburg, a bookstore and general Russian Things store (their website is fromrussia.com, after all). We just did a quick lap around the shop, browsing the books, this selection of banya hats:

and this giant stuffed pencil: 

After these morning errands, we went back home for a quick lunch that we picked up at Gourmanoff, my all-time favorite grocery store. Then we took a walk in the other direction, towards Manhattan Beach, which is smaller and less crowded than Brighton Beach (which is in itself smaller and less crowded than Coney Island, so the next time you're planning a trip to an urban beach, keep that in mind). I saw something moving in the surf, and yelped a bit when I discovered it was a teeny tiny sea turtle:

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the turtle was about the size of a silver dollar. We spent a long time researching whether or not he was supposed to be there, since it was the middle of the day and he had no siblings in sight. Our search did not reveal any conclusive answers, but I remain pretty convinced he wasn't supposed to be there. On the other hand, he seemed to be having a great time tossing around in the surf, so I hope that he is continuing to enjoy Brooklyn's waters and will grow up to be the king of Manhattan Beach.

After this wildlife adventure, we relaxed at home for a bit, reading, writing, and enjoying this sunset: 

For dinner, we went across the street to Kashkar, one of our favorite restaurants that serves Uygher food (Central Asian/Western Asian cuisine). It looks pretty unassuming from the outside, but the family-run restaurant makes DELICIOUS food, and usually has Uzbek music videos playing on the television in the background. I recommend any of the salads (one time we asked what a mysterious and tasty green item in a salad was, and received the answer, "Its name is so complicated I don't even know how to pronounce it"), the manti (dumplings, fried and steamed options), and fried lagman (noodles).

Summer at Brighton Beach is really a lovely experience, and I hope you'll check it out the next time you have a spare day in New York. If you've been, what was your favorite spot?

If you've made it this deep into our website you probably already know that this week I made the really scary/nauseating/painful decision to temporarily close the shop. As I write this, it's Wednesday evening and this is very new. Actually, it's 6:41pm and I'm still at work because it hasn't really hit me yet that I can leave at a normal time because there's no shop to close. I haven't even posted on social media about it yet because I'm afraid of what will happen. When I opened this shop just over two years ago we were getting TONS of press. We were new and people didn't 100% get it yet. The worst part is that a lot of these people were sure that we would fail. I had to learn not to ever read the comments. That's where the worst of the internet trolls live and it's a place that made be feel like everyone was just waiting for the wave of excitement to end so we would go out of business and prove them right. 

The thing is, that we're DEFINITELY not going out of business but it kind of feels that way. We'll all still come to work everyday and we'll still do the things that we do. We'll even have time for other improvements and projects that we haven't had time for before. But it still feels like an arrow has punctured my heart and I can't get it out. We're in New York City--which is an amazing, alive place that can make crazy businesses like mine happen, but also one that can kill them in a second. It's not easy to have a business in a place where people expect the world but the world is always throwing little hurdles in the way. I'd never want to be anywhere else, but all of this has taught me that to stay here I have to fight for my business. That it's not going to always be amazing press and endless praise. There will be evil landlords, environmental problems, plant thieves, horrible skeptics and a very real potential for failure. 

I don't feel like I've failed. I just feel like this city has let me down a little bit. Maybe there's a metaphor to be found somewhere in the mold that's festering, hidden in my beautiful shop. I've prepared the Instagram, all I have to do is press "SHARE" and it's out there. I'll probably then turn my phone off until tomorrow morning so I don't have to be reminded of it. 

I now know a lot of things that I didn't know two years and I know that I'll figure it out and that even if we re-locate it'll be easier to re-open than it was to open in the first place. I know that tons of people will show up on that day to show their support. I know that I'll have other business and that they'll probably be mostly successful, even if it's hard and even if I sometimes feels like I've failed. 

For now, I'll sit here until exactly 7pm and I'll hold my breath and press "SHARE". 

Illustration of the mural painting by Meredith Miotke

6:00 AM: Wake up and rapidly remember that getting out of bed early is doubly impossible after an 11-hour road trip the day before. I drag myself to my parent's coffeemaker to get the day's fuel going while my boyfriend Narciso, my stepdad, and I finish loading up the cars with paint and ladders.

7:00AM: Head out to Detroit! It's typically a short drive from my parent's home, but I, the Detroit-area native, cleverly made it nearly twice as long by giving Narciso, who is Jersey City-born-and-raised, the wrong directions.

8:00AM: Three freeways and a very unnecessarily lap around our destination later, we finally arrive at the Detroit Institute of Bagels and start setting up. D.I.B. is an awesome little bagel shop (the best bagels I've had outside of NYC) in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood. They asked me a few months back to illustrate a map of the area for them and paint it as a mural on the side of their building. Now that the weather was finally consistently nice, it was time to put on my big girl pants and tackle my first-ever mural. 

9:00AM-11:00AM: During this time we get the feel for painting over brick (bumpy) and lay down the primer/base coat. We sneak in a few pics and then slide into the shop for breakfast before the brunch crowd picks up. I split the "Leo" and the "La Colmena" with Narciso, and internally weep due to with how tasty they were. I mean, chorizo on a bagel. Chorizo. On. A. Bagel.

Wall ready to go! The sign in front of it says "Wet Paint. BRB." 

11:15 AM: Supply run madness! Narciso and I pop by Blick on Woodward to scoop up some more tape for blocking out areas of color and paint pens for the upcoming line work. We then run by the Russell Industrial Center (a former factory that's been turned artist studios in Detroit's north end) to borrow a projector from a friend who was going to beyond kindly let me borrow it last minute (thanks, Wes!).

12:30-1:00PM: Narciso and I get back to the wall and a few friends--Andrea and Grace--are waiting to help us bust out the next bits. We rapidly learn that it is way too gorgeous out (i.e. bright) to use the projector, so work is temporarily halted due to my lack of emergency planning.

1:30PM: Narciso figures out a grid system (yay bricks!) for us to use to lay out the roadwork of the map. From there, we decide to just eyeball it. Andrea, Grace, and Narciso block out colors where buildings are going to go according to print-offs of my illustration we scraped together. I start sketching the line work of the buildings out in my trusty as hell CWPE X Caran D'Ache Blackwood.

Sketching with the Blackwood, being far too cool to wear sunglasses

2:30PM-7:00PM: During this period, we wrap up laying out the blocks of color, and I start busting ass drawing all the final line work with the paint pens. It was beyond nice to finally hit a stride and see the mural really start to come together.

7:30PM: My parents come by to see what their crazy illustrator daughter has done so far, help us (it was just me, Narciso, and four ladders at this point) pack up for the day, and go grab dinner.

7:45PM: We get robbed. 

I know, right? In my 20+ years living in the Detroit-area, Detroit itself, and this dual city life I'm living now, I had never been robbed. Needless to say, I felt my heart leap into my throat when the 70-year-old man who owned the neighboring bar ran over yelling to us that two kids had taken mine and Narciso's backpacks from the car while we were packing up just a few feet away. The bar owner, the fantastic PJ of PJ's Lager House, and his employee had just gotten back from chasing the two kids down. Absolute heroes. They lost the thieves, but suspected our bags might have been ditched nearby.

8:00PM: My mom and I search the abandoned lots behind the Michigan Avenue businesses while my stepdad calls the police. No luck. I feel like an enormous idiot. While Narciso had nothing of value in his bag, but I had just about everything in mine (laptop, credit cards, money, etc.).

8:20PM: I switch with my stepdad and wait for the police while he and my mom do another search. A wonderful woman who was at the bar and P.J. keep me company and bring me some water. 

8:30PM: Defying all odds, our bags are FOUND. Completely intact. Nothing missing except a credit card that we would find the next day. Thankfully Narciso's bag is bright red and was spotted through the overgrown grass in the lots. We all breathed for the first time in an hour.

9:00PM: We securely pack up our things and put the cars in safe spots. The four of us then collapsed at a table outside PJ's. We all sipped on some much-needed beers (shout out to Bell's Two Hearted Ale), laughed/exhaled in relief, chatted with PJ and thanked him for the billionth time, and were surprised with some chicken fingers and burgers from the kind woman who kept me company earlier. We wait for the police, but they never show up.

11:00PM: We get back to my parent's place. I drag myself though the shower, round up all the cats in the house, and fell asleep in a big pile with them. 

Our NYC shop is in a pretty special/odd little corner of Lower Manhattan, something we talk about a lot and wrote about here. One thing we joke about a lot is just how many inexpensive treasures can be found here, from the Chinese dollar stores to the fruit markets on Grand Street. There's a lot going on in these parts! 

This week I challenged everyone to see what they could find around here with $5. Here were the rules: 

At least half of the things we sell are less than $5, so I also asked everyone to spend $5 (including tax) in the shop to see what they could do with a budget. 

Caroline 

CW Pencils: 

• Pastel Camel Pencil in Sky Blue - $1.50
• Uni Palette Sharpener in Light Blue - $3.00 (see a pattern?)

TOTAL: $4.90 including tax

$5.00 Challenge: 

• Three toothbrushes with matching toothbrush holders - $1.29
• Pack of 8 squishy pencil grips - $1.00
• Fancy flat peach - $1.50
• Hamburger gummy - $0.50 

TOTAL: $4.29

TIME LEFT: 1 second

Notes: Having already chosen my CWPE items, I was on a mission to find accompanying things. As per Caitlin's excellent suggestion, I was on the lookout for a toothbrush holder to use as a pencil case and found a great trio in my favorite colors, including a sky blue one to match my pencil. The other thing I was really set on finding was some lychees, because they're EVERYWHERE right now. Much to my dismay, the lychee prices went up this week and it was out of my budget, so I settled on a nice looking flat, white peach (which was delicious! I'd never had one like it before) and a hamburger gummy from my childhood. This challenge was much harder than I expected, mostly because I wasted a lot of time trying to find the right fruit. Overall, I am pleased with my purchases. The pencil grips are actually really comfortable and I will definitely put all of the toothbrush holders to use. 

Alyx:

CW Pencils:

• Seven Color Rainbow Pencil - $1.60
• Mitsubishi General Writing 9000 Pencil - $1.00
• Magnesium Long Point Sharpener - $2.00

Total: $5.00 including tax

$5.00 Challenge:

• Avocado - $1.75
• JJ's Sweets Sea Salt Cocomel - $0.79
• Jane Jenni Buttons - $1.00ea x2
• Haribo Gold-Bears - $0.25

Total: $4.97

Time left: 2 min, 56 seconds

I immediately messed up the $5 challenge by totally forgetting that we needed to get at least one stationery item! And as it turns out, most of my items were food, which is not a total misrepresentation of my understanding of our neighborhood. My first stop was AAA Avocados, which is right across the park from us and, if I may say so, one of Manhattan's unsung treasures. Caroline tipped me off to this place several months ago, and it truly is a wonder. Mostly they do wholesale avocado orders for shops and restaurants around New York. But you can also walk in, like I did, and ask for a single avocado (you can even specify the ripeness you want!). From there, I went over to Orchard Grocer, a vegan market/deli. I'm not vegan (or even vegetarian), but they have delicious sandwiches. I always get one of these sea salt Cocomels (vegan caramel) and swear I'm not going to eat it until after my sandwich, and invariably end up eating it while I wait for my order to be ready. The Tenement Museum is just a few blocks north of there and they have a pretty good gift shop. I originally went in thinking I'd get a postcard or a pencil, but then I got distracted (see this is where I forgot about the rules...) by a bin of PUN PINS. I spent most of thirty minutes reading them--there must have been 20 different ones, at least. I picked "cutie pie" and "handsome devil." I thought I'd be done after that, but I had a quarter and some copper left over, so I stopped at a dollar store and picked up some gummy bears as well.

Caitlin

CW Pencils: 

• Small L&C Hardtmuth eraser - $0.50
• General's Cedar Pointe #1 - $1.00
• Apsara Absolute - $0.50
• Nickel Plated Pencil Cap - $0.60
• Koh-i-Noor Dry Marker Highlighter (red is my favorite!) - $1.50
• Arrowhead Eraser cap x 2 - $0.15 each
• Lemonhead - $Free

Total (including tax): $4.79

$5.00 Challenge

• 3-pack liquid glue sticks - $1.25
• M&G Miffy 4B eraser - $0.75
• Double-sided pencil case - $1.25
• M&G 0.35mm gel pen - $1.00
• Mini Slim Jims X 2 - $0.75

Total= $5.00 

Time Left: 15 min, 40 seconds

I knew exactly where I wanted to go when Caroline handed me $5.00 for this challenge. Alyx and I often go on adventures in the neighborhood when we are tasked with picking up something for the office - this has lead to pit stops in the local aquarium shop, long pauses in the Duane Reade stationery aisle, and discovery of the best bargain stores in the LES. There's one on Eldridge, right across the street from Vanessa's Dumplings (where you can also get a delicious meal for less than $5.00!!) that has the BEST stationery section. The first time I went there, I picked up a plastic hand-crank sharpener with Miffy illustrations on it for $4.00 -- and it turned out to be one of the best sharpeners I have! I went to this 99cent store with the hopes I could get another Miffy sharpener, but they were unfortunately sold out. I didn't fret, the stationery section is prolific so I bought a couple fun things I needed: liquid glue sticks for letter embellishments, a nicely compartmentalized pencil case, a Miffy eraser (I love that Japanese erasers are graded just like pencils), and a 0.35mm gel pen. Up by the front register you HAVE to check out the pens - there are actually really good fine point pens, as well as excellent novelty pens and mechanical pencils. Having a plethora of time and $0.75 left over, I then took a leisurely stroll to our favorite deli/bodega Don Juan, where I picked up a couple mini Slim Jims. Fun note: I've never known either of these places to charge tax if you pay in cash. 

Meredith 

CW Pencils: 

• Mono KM-KKS 6B - $2.50
• Matomaru-Kun Gold Plastic Eraser - $1.50

Total (including tax): $4.63

$5.00 Challenge

• 5-pack of sticky notes - $1.25
• Crazy Plunger .5mm pen - $1.00
• R.I.P. Sanitary Tax button - $1.00
• Peanut M&Ms - $1.00

Total= $4.25 

Time Left: 2 minutes, give or take a few seconds

I had a couple vague destinations rolling around in my mind when I set off on this task, mostly food-related. I thought I'd kick off the hunt with a sweet red bean bun from Vanessa's (a fine dumpling shop which has provided me with many lunches and dinners), but before I could even get through their door, I was sidetracked by the word "DISCOUNT" glaring at me from across the street. Wondering if this was the mysterious bargain store I've heard so much about in the past year, I scurried across the street to check it out. Based off the excellent stationery section, I assumed it was, and I settled in for a solid 15 minutes. I ultimately grabbed some sticky notes (a favorite of mine for doing some low-pressure doodles) and the Crazy Plunger pen ( but only after much debate. There was a 3-pack of toy trucks that were calling my name for whatever reason). With $2.25 spent, I went over to Don Juan's (the bodega down the street from CWPE that constantly surprises me with their humane prices) and scooped one of my favorite candies, Peanut M&Ms, because it just felt right. I had $1.75 left at this point and about 10 minutes. So, I took a quick lap and then decided to take a gamble on TicTail, a favorite shop of mine that's filled with lots of fun, artist-made goods (pens, patches, apparel, etc). Running out of time, I made reasonable choice of entering the shop and immediately asking " DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING THAT IS AROUND $1.75," and they pointed me in the direction of a jar full of $1 buttons. After sorting through the lot and debating the propriety of a few for this blog post (including a brilliant riff on the TV show "Cheers"), I settled on the sanitary tax tombstone pin. With just over two minutes left, I paid for my pin and nearly high-fived the woman working behind the counter.

Max

CW Pencils: 

• Mono 100 - F - $2.50
• CWPE Special Edition Bugle #2 - $0.45
• Brass-plated Pencil Caps (2) - $0.60ea
• Hi-Polymer Eraser (2) - $0.20ea

Total (including tax): $4.95

$5.00 Challenge

• Hot Pink Nail Polish - $1.25
• 5 Pack of Toy Story Themed Gel Pens - $1.25
• 4 Piece Jonas Brothers Stationery Set by Disney - $1.00
• Strawberry Banana Tropical Drinkable Lowfat Yogurt - $1.00

Total= $4.50

Time Left: 7 minutes

Boy oh boy are you in for a treat! There I was, wandering the streets with a vague plan in mind: I'll get some food or something and grab a pack of paperclips from the discount store, I thought, but nay, this venture turned out to be much bigger than I had ever expected. First, I began with a romp, popping my head into many of the delis and bodegas within a three block radius—one of the challenge's requirements. After entering and leaving multiple stores empty handed, I decided it was high time to stop messing around. If I was to complete this challenge and label it a success, I had to buckle down and buckle tight, it was time to get serious. I found myself on Eldridge between Grand and Broome, walking into a Discount Store. It is here that I purchased the Hot Pink Nail Polish, the 5 pack of Toy Story Themed Gel Pens, and the 4 Piece Jonas Brothers Stationery Set by Disney, coming to a total of $3.50. With only $1.50 left, I set off to Don Juan, ready to purchase a snack. I had trouble deciding, Pop Tarts were a worthy competitor, but alas, I decided on a Strawberry Banana Tropical Drinkable Lowfat Yogurt because of course. Now I'm ready for a night of painting my nails and drinking lowfat yogurt while I write about my crush on Joe Jonas in a small notebook with his face on it. Neat. 

A lot of things go well with pencils, in our minds. A good journal and a cup of tea. Stacks of postcards and a mess of postage stamps. A weekday afternoon at a museum. A picnic followed by a nap. Apart from analog tools, writing instruments, cozy activities and mail-related crafts, the thing we love most is a thing that pencils often yield: books! Because we're always yearning for a good recommendation or for a book club we'll actually stick to, we thought we'd start our own and share our list of recent reads and recommendations.

Caroline's picks: 

Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose

A couple of months ago, Caitlin, Alyx and I went to an event hosted by Emma Straub and here new bookstore Books Are Magic. Durga was one of the panelists for the discussion, so when I kept seeing her book everywhere I eventually took it as a sign that it should be part of my short but motivating unread books stack. I finished it in two days, not because it was short or particularly easy to read but because reading it felt like I was listening to a friend tell me a story--a friend much sharper and much more observant than I. Her outlook on just about anything is curious and relevant. It's a book peppered with small fragments of her life, told in a way that makes the reader feel like Durga is taken all of those little parts of everyday life and given the words they haven't been able the find. It's refreshing to read a young female author who is so self-aware and alive. This book made me proud to be included in her generation.

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

This is not a book that I've read but one that I'm looking forward to reading. I'm not going to try to sum up what it's about because, after all, I haven't read it. But when you see it on your bookseller's New Fiction table next month, do pick it up! It doesn't come out until July 11th but I've had it on my list since I heard about it in the author's NYmag.com Grub Street Diet feature (which is a really great corner of the internet, by the way). When I read I'm looking to trigger all of my emotions, so Goodbye, Vitamin looks promising. A well-read person's vacation book, I'm considering it. When I'm reading a new author I usually judge the book not by its cover but by who's endorsing it. In this case, Miranda July and Lauren Groff--I'll take it. And the cover is pretty nice too. 

Alyx's Picks:

The Double/The Gambler by Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский

Earlier this year I read The Idiot (1869), which was the first Dostoevsky I'd read. I LOVED it and decided to read all of his longer works in order. I'm already cheating because I had a hard time finding Poor People (1846) in English in a bookstore, but this pretty edition of The Double (1846) translated by the inimitable Richard Peavear and Lariss Volokhonsky was easy to find (shout out to Peter Mendelsund too; he's one of my favorite book designers). The Double clearly takes inspiration from Gogol's The Nose, and builds on a tradition that will eventually result in modernist absurdists like Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett. A civil servant one day find his double (surprise!) has entered his life. They are alike in name, appearance, job--everything except personality. While our original man just wants to go about his life, the double wants to usurp the original. This book is probably a little different from what you think of Dostoevsky as writing, but it's a funny, dark, and entertaining read.

The Broken Estate by James Wood

I only recently started reading James Wood, and by "reading" I mean that I absolutely devoured How Fiction Works. I'll be the first to admit that I avoided reading that book for ten years because I thought I was too cool for it. Why do I need to hear this establishment man explain the New Yorker short fiction sausage factory to me? It turns out I was very wrong. How Fiction Works is not a recipe book for those staid stories of decades past. It's a thoughtful, partially academic, and highly compassionate survey of what makes characters feel real, and what makes readers care. So when I finished swallowing it whole, I hopped out and got his first book: The Broken Estate. It covers authors from Sir Thomas More to W.G. Sebald (Peter Mendelsund recently did some gorgeous covers of Sebald's work too), and traces the relationship between the common demand of religion and literature: belief. Wood is accessible without being condescending, and you'll come away with both a more human understanding of literature, and a much fatter reading list.

Caitlin's Picks:

You Don't Have to Like Me by Alida Nugent

Feminism can be an incredibly polarizing topic, as I've come to discover in my adult adventures in womanhood. It's often all too easily misconstrued as demeaning or derogatory to men, which when you break it down, is not really the point of women's rights movements at all. Alida Nugent broaches this subject gently and humorously, describing her path to embracing her identity as a feminist and her experience as a bi-racial women living in the 21st century. It's broken down into different essays covering topics like casual racism, body image, sex and being a single female walking home alone at night. It's approached in a way that doesn't feel too preachy, and instead offers a great experiential perspective on very common issues that women face. 

 Saga, Volume 7 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

I have long been an advocate of graphic novels. The medium that gets a lot of flack for being seen as nerdy or goofy or generally not serious, but I think deserves a chance because comic books are an incredible collaboration between art and literature and are just an interesting way to absorb a story. Saga is an on-going epic series, first launched in 2012, and is a beautiful blend of science fiction, fantasy and the ravages of war and racism. I think it's an excellent series to try out if you're not into the world of superhero comics, but want to give graphic novels a shot. Now on it's seventh trade paperback volume, which I am currently reading, the series revolves around a family of refugees, trying to find a safe haven for their mixed-species daughter, whose existence came from a forbidden relationship between two people of warring races. It's dramatic, emotional, and adventurous (fair warning, it is also graphic at times). 

Meredith's Pick:

Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright

When I think summer, I think deadly outbreaks of disease. Wait, no, that's not true. But I do tend to gravitate towards irreverent books on them and other bits of medical history this time of year. Last summer I kicked things off with Stiff by Mary Roach and this summer I thought I'd go for Jennifer Wright's latest book, Get Well Soon. Can't wait to dive in and learn fun new things to share at parties!

I was super excited when Caitlin announced she wanted to do an EDC series because I LOVE nosing through other people's bags and pencils cases (was anyone else an addict of Flickr's "What's In Your Bag?" group?). But when I started thinking about what I carry around every day, I realized that it changes a lot. When I'm heading to the library or coffee shop for a good writing session, it can be a lot. When I'm going out for a day of errands, it's usually just my wallet, phone, and earbuds. So I thought I'd break it down into three categories for you instead: Pencil Case, Paper, and Letter Writing. (PS The products that I could still find on the internet is linked at the bottom of the post)

But of course, on the average day I have my pencil case with me. I really wish I were one of those people who carried around a single pencil, and maybe a backup Bic Cristal just in case, and called it a day. But obviously I'm not, so here's the contents of my CWPE Viking case. I'm working through a MoMA pencil right now, with a Sivo as a backup, because I'm on a strict one-pencil-at-a-time diet until I burn through some of the million pencil's I've accumulated. I keep a couple of Pentel markers and a colorful Pilot Juice in there, in case I want to address an envelope or color code something in my planner. The Caran d'Dache ballpoint and Kaweco Sport (currently inked with Diamine Green) are reliable pen options. That ZIG glue is the coolest glue: it goes on blue and dries clear AND if you stick it while it's blue, the adhesive is permanent; if you stick it after it dries, it's removable! I need to keep a ruler on me because I underline when I read and can't draw a straight line to save my life. And the Castor is my current favorite hand-held sharpener, which is why I'm toting it along even though I already have a brass sharpener attached to my pencil case.

When it comes to notebooks, I rarely have all four of these on me at once. In reality, the pocket notebook is the only one that comes with me everywhere (right now it's a Write Notepads "In the Pines" special edition, but I go through pocket notebooks pretty quickly and am always trying different ones). I dump everything in it: grocery lists, a song title I want to remember, etc. The blue Traveler's Notebook contains my weekly calendar and comes to the pencil shop with me every day. Usually tucked into some pocket of the Traveler's Notebook is the little yellow guy from Maruai. I keep addresses in there, in no particular order. It's frightfully unorganized, but I never end up spending too much time looking for an address, and the slimness means I can take it everywhere with me. The Emilio Braga is where I work on my fiction writing.

I don't carry this stuff around with me every day, but these are my letter writing essentials, which get a good bit of exercise. The Penco three-pocket folder on the left is super handy for keeping up with correspondence. In the first pocket, I keep mail to which I need to reply; in the second, I keep the stationery I plan to use to reply (plus some backup postcards and writing paper); in the third I keep sheets of stamps. The Delfonics pouch on the right keeps all my stickers together, and a few loose vintage stamps. Between these two (and a fistful of fun markers, which would take up an entire blog post on their own), I'm all set to answer letters from you guys, send postcards while on vacation, or take over a table at a coffee shop.

Pencil Case: CWPE Viking Leather Case  |  M+R Brass Bullet Keyring Sharpener  |  Mono Black Plastic Eraser  |  M+R Long Point Castor Sharpener  |  MoMA Pencil  |  Kaweco Skyline Sport Mint  |  Helix Plastic Ruler  |  Pentel S360 Color Pens in 132 and 106  |  Caran d'Ache Ballpoint Pen  |  ZIG Two Way Glue Pen  |  Pilot Juice 0.5 in Leaf Green  |  e+m Pencil Extender  |  Sivo Absolute H

Paper: Emilio Braga  |  Traveler's Factory Blue Edition Notebook  |  Write Notepad "In the Pines" Edition  |  Maruai The Basic Notebook Pocket

Letting Writing: Penco three pocket folder  |  Delfonics Fournitures de Bureau pouch

My Saturday started out like many others, sleepy and sun-drenched. I sleep with the blinds up so I wake up to the sun and on this particular Saturday it was so bright and warm that it woke me up earlier than my brain wanted me to. 

I live in an old building in the East Village with my boyfriend Fed. We both have odd and demanding work schedules, so often Saturdays are the only day we have together. For this reason, they are usually planned out so we get the most out of our one day. This particular Saturday, by my request, we went to a diner that we'd never been to before. I LOVE diners. If it wasn't bad for my health to eat giant cheese filled omelettes for breakfast at a diner every morning I totally would. Today went to Joe Junior's, because it's nearby and I've always admired the kitschy, hand-made sign. I ordered a ham and cheese omelette Fed ordered pancakes. We sat in a vinyl upholstered booth, exactly as it should be in a good diner. 

After our breakfast, we returned home for a quick nap before venturing out again. We walked from our apartment through the beautiful Peter Stuyvesent Square and down some of the quieter streets in Gramercy, bypassing the many stinky, traffic-y ones. We walked past a Bath and Body Works, which is one of exactly two in Manhattan. For kicks we went inside and I tried out a bright blue Honolulu Sun hand sanitizer, the sickeningly artificial scent of which lingered and made me feel slightly nauseated all day. Really, it just made me miss the Freesia body spray from the 90s that my grandma used to wear. Eventually we arrived at Madison Square Park where the Big Apple Barbecue Festival was happening. It was so crowded, hot and smoky so we quickly assessed the situation, chose a line, ordered some really really delicious ribs and found a nice grassy patch under a tree. As we worked our way through the park, we couldn't help but stop at Shake Shack for an ice cream cone. 

The next shop was my choice: artist  Lucy Sparrow's The Convenience Store, which is a bodega that sells all of the things an NYC bodega would sell except that they're all hand-made out of felt. Years ago when I was visiting my old stomping grounds in London I happened upon this same thing in my old neighborhood. It was an astounding and hilarious thing to just find on the street and it's been a fond memory ever since, so when I heard that she was going to do a New York version I couldn't pass it up! Turns out the New York Times beat me to it and the line was really long. We waiting for about 45 minutes and finally got in. There were a lot of people Snapchatting and a lot of laughter. There was even a deli counter, a freezer section and a section for rental movies! And everything was actually for sale! We left with a box of Lemonheads for the shop (we ALWAYS have a bowl of Lemonheads on our desk) and a trio of beverages for our apartment--a bottle of blue Gatorade, a bottle of Mountain Dew and a can of Welch's Grape Soda. 

Because I'm in the market for my first ever grown-up watch and because it's one of Fed's favorite places, we made our way to the Shinola shop in TriBeCA. Architecturally, it's one of the loveliest and surprising shops in NYC, and there's a cute cafe by one of my favorite restaurants, the Smile in the front. TriBeCA is a quiet neighborhood on the weekend but in addition to the Shinola store it hosts a couple of my other favorite places, including the Mmuseumm (the internet does this place no justice, just visit! And don't be scared of the alley you have to walk down to get to it) and the Balloon Saloon...

...which is where we went next, mostly because it's currently the Official Favorite Shop of CWPE and because Fed had never been there. Basically, it's a really crazy balloon shop. It's easy to spot because the outside is covered in pool floats and inflatable things. Inside, you can get any type of balloon that exists (we got multiple shades of yellow and confetti-filled balloons here for the book launch party in March). BUT the real attraction is the rest of the shop, which is fully stocked with old-school board games, party supplies, children's books, super hero paraphernalia, a lot of nostalgic toys and candy, those weird miniatures of nostalgic toys, SO many prank toys and A LOT of scented stickers. Mostly we love it for the scented stickers. I left with a pack of fruit punch scented stickers of fruits doing karate (get it?) an Archie Comics puzzle and a book of Where's Waldo postcards. I'm pretty sure I had a huge grin on my face the whole subway ride home. 

But! The day wasn't over yet. Ariel, who is the first new friend I made when I first moved to NYC is moving to Paris at the end of the month so I planned us a nice, romantic sunset picnic at the park along the Hudson River. We ate a lot of cheese, grapes and salad and stayed until it was dark and there were rats in the bushes (oh hi, NYC!). Since it was nice out we walked East and stopped at a really cute bar called Analogue for a quick cocktail before parting ways. 

It was a perfect Saturday that satisfied just about all of my requirements for a fulfilling and fun day off. And I didn't get sunburnt! And I was even in bed before midnight! That's a win in my book. 

One of the most beautiful qualities of a pencil is its forgiveness. A mistake made in graphite can be neatly swept away with one of pencil's BFFs - the humble eraser. 

Let's dive into the soft, squishy world of erasers and talk types, purposes and favorites, and determine some guidelines for picking out an eraser to clean up you work. 

A Little Background (which you can read more about in The Pencil Perfect!)

The original, original eraser was actually crusty bread - early graphite users would scratch their mistakes off with stale chunks. In 1770, Joseph Priestly discovered that the elastic gum that came from the bark of the Hevea brasiliensis tree was more effective than yesterday's sandwich for rubbing out mistakes (thus why erasers are still called "rubbers" in many parts of the world). The trend caught on, and eventually Italian pumice was added make erasers more effective due to the abrasive qualities of the pumice combined with the stickiness of the rubber. Pumice is also where the iconic eraser pink color comes from - the substance was a pinkish red, which of course tinged the rubber it was mixed into. Hello, Pink Pearl. 

In 1858 Hyman Lipman patented the first pencil with an attached eraser (or rather, inserted eraser - the eraser was glued inside one end of the pencil, rather than attached with a ferrule), which is considered to be the birthday of the traditional pencil with eraser we have come to know and love - and why we celebrate March 30th as National Pencil Day! 

Eraser Types

Erasers have come a long way since the days of hard bread. Most are made out of synthetic or plasticized materials, but there are still a few natural rubber erasers to be had in the world. 

Natural rubber: These erasers are slightly abrasive, and leave quite a bit of dust behind. Abrasion plus the friction of rubbing act as sort of a broom to pick off particles ground into paper. They are nicely effective for graphite, but do have a tendency to dry out after a while and may not be the gentlest on some papers. But they do have that nostalgic rubber smell!

Synthetic rubber: These are made to mimic the feel of natural rubber, but are made with synthetic compounds and plasticizers, making them cheaper and more widely available than natural rubber. Synthetic erasers tend work similarly to natural rubber, but can be a little less effective. On the bright side, these won't dry out and they tend to make a teeny bit less dust. 

Art Gum: Gum erasers are either made with synthetic rubbers or vulcanized corn oil. These are made to be especially gentle on paper and are great for erasing large areas. They are, however, very very messy as they tend to crumble to pieces when you are erasing, but at least the larger crumbles can be reused.

Plastic: This is where it can get a little complicated and confusing, as there are so many different types of materials and processes to make plastic erasers. They are commonly made with vinyl, polymer or PVC, though there are also non-PVC types that act like plastic but are made with synthetic rubbers. Plastic erasers do not dry out and tend to be fairly gentle on paper and clear graphite and colored pencil away very cleanly. On certain papers (and if the erasers are of cheap quality), plastic erasers can smear graphite around, so you'd need thin edges if you wanted to be very precise. Plastic erasers leave the least amount of dust behind - they actually sort of act as a vacuum and roll the particles into a little ball.

Sand/Ink Erasers: Often made out of rubber mixed with sand or silica, these erasers are the toughest out there - they really are rough enough to scour ink off of paper. That being said, the grittiness of these erasers tears through paper with ease, so they are definitely not all-purpose. These are great, however, for stubborn colored pencil marks.

Kneaded: Commonly found in artists' toolkits, kneaded erasers are made out of very pliable materials and can be shaped to form precise points to erase very small marks. They sort of absorb graphite, making them a good tool for blending, rather than removing. 

A Couple Things to Consider: 

Pressure - Application of pressure is really important with erasers, which I think is a consideration that is often overlooked. Erasers work with friction; the rubbery materials in an eraser get super heated when you apply pressure, which makes them sticky enough to attract and remove graphite particles. My advice: test the eraser out on scratch paper to determine how much pressure is needed for the type of paper and eraser you're working with - you don't want to just smear the graphite around, but you also don't want to push so hard you tear a hole in your masterpiece. 

Application - I just want to get this out of the way: colored pencil can be extremely difficult to erase. Colored pencil pigment can stain the paper, while the wax in the core can sort of bind the color to the sheet. That being said, colored pencil can be a thing to consider when picking out an eraser. Gritty erasers or really high quality plastic erasers work best with colored pencil. If you're working with very soft graphite, I tend to recommend a firm eraser so it doesn't smear too much, but again, a high quality plastic eraser works great here too. For regular, plain old #2 graphite, honestly, just about anything works. 

Precision - Eraser edges can be important too if you're looking to only erase tiny areas. For letter writing and illustration, I prefer a mechanical eraser that contains a very very thin eraser meant for precise erasing, so nothing surrounding the area I'm erasing gets messed up. Big block erasers are really great if you're erasing large areas at once. 

Mess - Dust! So much dust. If you are really, truly looking to avoid sweeping away bits of eraser dust, then you definitely need a high-quality plastic eraser like the Technik that kneads the eraser bits into one large chunk. Sand erasers and gum erasers are the messiest culprits, but as we discussed above they can be incredibly useful! I recommend a little brush to sweep away the bits. 

Swatch-ing

Pictured below is a complete swatch test of all the handheld erasers in our store (next time, I'll do one dedicated to just tipped pencils!), sampled on a Mnemosyne notebook with a Semi-Hex #2, a KM-KKS 6B, and the red side of The Editor (AKA a red Supracolor). I was seriously surprised by the Laufer L-125 - the firmness of this eraser gives you excellent precision, and you're able to apply a lot of pressure with these without smearing graphite around. The latest eraser added to our collection, the Sakura Sumo, is also a new favorite - the plastic is just really, really high quality and removed graphite and colored pencil very well. 

Here are my favorites after testing out all these erasers: 

For colored pencil: Mono Sand (though it did lightly begin tearing my paper); runner up: Caran d'Ache Technik or Sumo

For soft graphite: Sakura Sumo; runner up: Laufer L-125

For #2 graphite: Milan Nata; runner up: L&C rubber erasers

For general purpose: Mono plastic erasers; runner up Laufer Plasti-combi

For precision: Mono Zero; runner up: Laufer-125