Hello, my name is Nicole, and I’m addicted to office supplies.

[You say, “Hi, Nicole.”]

Okay, in all seriousness, I’ve always been a connoisseur of all things office-supplies: pens, notebooks, binders, folders, Sharpies (don’t get me started on Sharpies.)

I love the feel of paper under my fingers and the smooth feel of a perfect pen as I run it dry. My best ideas and best writing comes from long hand drafting and notes. Not that I can’t sit down and crank out a novel in a month (I’ve done it twice.) But even then I utilized a classic notebook and pen to get the bare bones on the page.

So what are my favorite tools of the trade?

Moleskine Journals - Okay maybe they're overpriced and cleverly marketed, but there's no substitute for me. I love the feel, the size, the ease of writing in this journal. I have at least six of these (which makes it hard to identify which I'm currently using, but I have my methods.)

Any pen at .25 to .3 width - it is small (mostly found in art supply stores) but it doesn't bleed through the page and it doesn't smear like thicker pens can. It still writes smoothly and I can write for a solid two weeks before it's bled dry. (Trust me, two weeks is a long life expectancy for pens in my hand.)

Note in my Moleskine, I also use colored tabs to separate sections – since my ramblings and scrawling can be indecipherable even to me. Post its suffice for this function as well.

What sort of equipment do you find essential for your hobby? (I could dive into my horse habit but that’s another post entirely.)