Tomorrow – October 16 – the lady dandelion blog turns one year. As most things I do the lady dandelion blog was created rather spontaneously. I had just began to take photos and began to think that I needed somewhere to put my big stash of photos (I thought then – how little I knew) and write a few lines once in a while. More than 250 posts later I still enjoy blogging and am amazed that so many people seems to be interested in visiting my blog – THANK YOU!!!
I’m actually a bit surprised that I both have continued blogging regularly and that I still bring the camera almost everywhere I go. Blogging led to Twitter and both has also brought new friends into my life – thank you very much cyberspace to make it possible to meet people from far away and become friends with them – as a part of everyday life. It has been an eventful year and lady dandelion has become a part of my life – a pleasant part – and I am very happy that I began blogging.
Since you must mention a post that you liked extra much to be able to participate in the drawing I’ll mention a few that I feel a little extra for:
Photos: Nature/Flowers/Architecture/Iron Works Flight control tower take five, November at the iron works, Spring sun and winter snow at the iron works, At the iron works, founded 1570. Forget-me-nots – the blue poetry of May, Bouquet of gladiolus for remembrance, Woodlands in September, Ice Blue, Icing on the cake or why we need mini utopias, Icicles and a sign, Iron oxide – pen, ink, paint.
Pens/Paper/Ink pretty in pink II: roses, lamy safari, pilot pluminix, iroshizuku, diamine, Iron in writing: rohrer & klingner salix iron gall ink, Hexed by vintage flex, Nib choices now and then, Montblanc Meisterstück 146 – a non neglectable icon, My one of a kind sheaffer spring snork, Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki – a winter persimmon perfect for summer.
Since it is an anniversary it has to be celebrated and my way of celebrating with you is a giveaway. I’ll give away three happy inks to one winner. The inks is three of my faves and are supposed to brighten up the Autumn: Diamine Sunshine Yellow (my all time favourite ink for highlighting), Diamine Mediterranean Blue (lubes like a dream and reminds of summer and salty baths) and Diamine Orange (a crazy orange orange that is perfect for halloween and as a pick-me-up ink). They come in the handy 30 ml plastic bottles. You see the colours above and below.
To participate in the contest you have to:
Leave a comment on this post where you tell which your favourite post/s on the lady dandelion blog is/ar. You must also guess what the ******* I have photographed in the header above. What kind of object is it? The guess is just for fun – you don’t have to be right or close to have a chance to win. :)
The comment must be made before 12.00 (Midnight) GMT Sunday October 24th. Even if you comment more than once you just get one ticket in the drawing.
A winner is now announced in a separate post – congratulations Sam!
A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who reads the lady dandelion blog and for all kind and encouraging feedback!!!
lady dandelion 
Hi Lady D,
My favorite posts are your picks of your daily arsenal of pens. You’ve always got a delightful combination. I’m sorry, but I’ve no idea what you’ve pictured at the top of your blog. I’m guessing graffiti.
Thanks,
sc
Congrats!
Favorite post: the Lamy 1.1/white. I was looking for an excuse to go buy one and your post+ handwriting convinced me.
The header pic: looks like a stencil of the hearts placed over a piece of notebook paper filled with your writing.
Congrats!
I’m not entering the drawing since this is the first time I’ve seen your blog, but I’m glad to have found it. I’m subscribed to the RSS, and look forward to future posts. :)
Its hard to choose a favorite because all of your pictures are so spectacular. If I had to choose I think you Sheaffer frankensnork is my favorite. That pen has so much character and I love a pen that may not be a fancy collectors item but has meaning and is unique to its owner.
It looks like cobblestones through the hearts in the header. Is that perhaps a wall on a footbridge with decorative openings?
Happy Blogoversary!
Not wanting to be part of the contest, but wanting to say “Happy Blogoversery!”
My favorite post, of course, shall remain the review and photos of your Conway Stewart Dandy in Bronze. Then again, love your photos of Sweden too!
I stumbled across your blog because I was looking for fountain pen reviews, but it is your post on the poet Karin Boye (poetry brought to mind at the library) that is my favorite. As a wayward Scandinavian Studies major, I hope you will do more like it! (But do keep up the pen and ink reviews, too!)
Your header is a mystery. Could there be a fall leaf lurking under all the black?
Don’t enter me in the drawing – I just wanted to say happy blogiversary!! I love the windvane photos.
I really like your Your blog was one of the first I consulted before buying my first pen (a Safari, not coincidentally) and I’ve enjoyed reading it ever since :)
As for the header, it looked like a Halloween decoration crossed with Valentine’s Day – perhaps a Frankenholiday?
I just found your blog so I don’t have a favorite yet. I’m also a newbie to fountain pens and am scouring the web for interesting blogs.
I first stumbled across your blog when you where the first person I could find reviewing the M205 Duo, one of the few modern pens I’ve been interested in this year. That would have to be my favorite post, although I have enjoyed several of your ink reviews since then as well.
I have no idea what the header is. My first thought was that you had something quite luminous showing through a screen with heart shaped holes, like the pumpkin idea someone mentioned above. Your Iron works posts linked above (which I admit I hadn’t seen before, I usually follow FPN links to your blog) made me think it might be iron, but then I read them and you mentioned that they were closed.
If I had to choose one favorite article, I’d have to go with the ink reviews, specifically the Diamine Registrar’s ink. However, you seem to have a lot more passion for the J. Herbin 1670 ink. Congratulations!
Congratulations! CONGRATULATIONS!!
250 posts in 365 days is about 2 posts every two days… That is a lot of work.
I always think that the success of a blog lies in finding the right balance between the obsession and the indolence. Your balance is amazingly creative and productive.
I hate having to choose a post over others. At the end, all of them show some interesting information and, more often than not, great pics. One I like a lot is the revisited review of the Pilot M90: reviews revisited I – Pilot M90 . I just love those pictures of such a minimalistic pen.
Now, about the heading pic… I keep thinking of a zoetrope… You will surely tell us after all the fun of reading these answers.
My sincere congratulations on your anniversary.
BT
Dandelion Lady
Your Blog is sublime
Your photos supurb
And a new paradigm
For reviews, information, for colour and more
Dear Dandelion Lady
May your blogs always soar!
Favourite? – the Lamy 27 review – made me get one.
Header? – No real idea. I’m guessing a message of I love something, so I’ll go for pens and ink! :) and perhaps you’ve used your favourite highlighting ink in the image too.
Thank you so much for kind comments and guesses on the header. :) Wish I could give ink to each and everyone of you.
Congratulations on your 1 year Anniversary. My favorite blog was ” At the Iron Works-Founded 1570″. I especially like the photo of the Linden trees. As for the header – I don’t have a clue. Thanks for the opportunity to win some great inks.
Happy Anniversary!!! I love your pen, ink and paper reviews – so helpful in deciding whether or not I will like an ink, etc. Thanks to your reviews, I now have Shin-ryoku and Fuyu-gaki. A favorite review was the one with Shin-ryoku and other greens.
As for your header, my first thought was that you used a UV ink to write something – do I see a little bird peeking out of the right-most heart? – and then laid a paper with heart cut outs over the writing and took a black light photo of this with pen across it all. Can’t wait to find out what it REALLY is!
I can’t pick a favorite post so I’ll just tell you I like the pens and ink ones as much as the photography ones. I particularly love your photos of places I only see in my dreams – you live in paradise :)
Happy Anniversary hun. You are an amazing person who shares magnificent things here :) Thank You!
My guess for the header – I think its a carved pumpkin. Its nearly Halloween and I can imagine a large heart carved out of pumpkin glowing in the night. ^^
I have many favorites! I think the Flight Control Tower Take Five may be at the top of my list, though. Those were beautiful pictures, as are all of your pictures.
I have no clue what the banner at the top of the blog is.
I love your blog and read it regularily. Thanks for all the great stuff you post.
Let’s see if this goes through. I tried earlier today but my message hasn’t showed up. Dandelion, BIG congratulations on your blog going strong for a full year!! It’s a favorite of mine, and you know I’m a fan of your photography. It’s difficult to choose a favorite post, but I’ll pick the wind vanes. That one triggered some long ago memories for me, as I recalled the wind vane atop the roof of my best friend’s house from childhood. Your photos were magical.
And I go along with Bridgett’s idea for the header. I think it’s one of your beautiful pens lying across the open pages of your journal.
I love so many of your posts, but a few I’ve returned to over & over:
The Swedish Red & Iron Oxide, pen, ink, paint: These convinced me to try the Herbin 1670, & I’m so glad I did.
Amethyst, Blackcurrant, Moondust – inks for poetry: This introduced me to to Larmes de Cassis, and it’s one of my favorites now. I was already in love with Amazing Amethyst & Moondust.
Herbin Vert Empire – green for an empress: I would never have picked this up if not for your review. Gorgeous, rich color.
Conway Duro in Dartmoor: I now have one :)
And any of your posts on The Woodlands and Old Uppsala & the mounds there.
Now, as for the header pic — I know it can’t possibly be, but it immediately reminded me of a wooden fence, with heart-shaped cutouts at the top of the boards, and maybe a clothesline seen through on the other side. On the other hand, maybe it’s a bucket or a flowerpot :-P
Anyway, congrats on a year’s worth of beautiful, inspiring, & informative posts. I look forward to the coming year!
Congratulations!
I love your blog, it is both inspiring and entertaining.
My favourite post has to be “A winter persimmon perect for summer” – because of the lovely pictures, the written notebook pages, the actual ink colour and the overall mood of a beautiful garden in the summer. It made me feel I was on holidays.
I also love your “daily arsenal” pictures. I check them very often.
About the photo – it is something very graphic so I would go with something like an album cover, a poster or the actual birthday card you wrote to “lady dandelion, the blog”.
Please keep doing this.
:-)
Congrats on your first blogging year anniversary!
I think my favourite post of yours is the one about Iron Gall ink as I’ve used the same ink in a post of mine over at Future; Nostalgic and I love the colour.
I suspect your header image may be some sort of bracelet-type thing; I am, of course, probably hopelessly wide of the mark.
Congratulations and happy first birthday for your blog, Dandelion!!! I love your blog entries, and I’m a big fan of your photography. It’s tough to pick a favorite, but I’ll say your post on wind vanes. That one jogged my memory so that I recalled the rooster wind vane that sat atop the roof of my best friend’s house from childhood, and I was flooded with sweet memories from long ago.
But WHAT have you photographed for the heading above???? I’ll go along with what Bridgett has guessed, that you’ve photographed a journal entry. Perhaps one of your beautiful fountain pens is lying across the open page.
Congrats! And what pretty inks (and drawings!) I think my favorite post would be the one on Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki- I like how you incorporated so many pictures, it really gave me a good idea of what the ink is like (and now I want it…!)
And, I think your header looks like an album cover.
To be honest, I almost never read blogs, and am a little puzzled about the motivation behind them …..except the ‘commercial ones … it seems a bit like leaving your private journal, open, at a public library!
But I do enjoy Dandelion’s contributions to the Fountain pen Network, and greatly admire her photography.
Many Happy Returns, Lady Dandelion …whatever the reason :-)
Congratulations, I really enjoy your blog! Keep up the good work!
My favorite may be the “Picky Darlings” ink post, I’m sentimental about certain colors :).
Are they dandelions?
~Jade
I love the Iron Oxide post! Your photography is fantastic.
I think that’s a stencil of some sort up there…
Congrats! While I haven’t read everything, I stumbled upon this blog while trying to decide on which pen to buy. I ended up getting a blue Carbonesque VP, just like the one you reviewed. Love the pen!
Guy
I have nary a clue as to what the header is all about and I’m afraid to fathom a guess, I’m afraid.
Great blog by the way. Congrats on one year!
As for favs, I too enjoyed the Pelikan Highligher post as one of the ones I enjoyed the most… Thanks so much for all of your posts though, I try not to miss any…
Stephen
My favourite post is the ‘Pelikan m205 duo – a sweet citrus candy’ which I found enchanting and it inspired me to order one of these pens immediately. I have not regretted this decision and the pen is even more gorgeous in the hand than the photos!
I also like the DailyArsenal pictures and those of the church the other day and the library a while back (sorry, I forget their names).
Many thanks for this opportunity. Fingers crossed :)
Looking forward to the second year.
Tony
Oops forgot to comment on the header. I would hazard that is a colour enhanced encoding device for creating coded messages from a book?
Or an art project?
Maybe the red section hanging down is the widscreen wiper ona car windscreen?
My favorite post is definitely the M205 Duo, I went out and started researching where to buy one immediately after reading that post. I ended up with a plain M205 (blue transparent) so I could test the nib. Alas, I fiddle with the pen too much to use it since it is a piston filler. Still, the pictures you put up for yours were pure citrusy goodness!
I think you’ve photographed a page from a journal. Seems like there are ruling lines to me.
Thanks for this great opportunity! I see you are a fellow FPN member!
Thanks again, and I’ll be sure to check out your blog in depth soon enough!
:D
Congrats on the year ‘o blogs! I enjoy your posts and the variety that you provide, sometimes photos, sometimes reviews… keeps it fresh.
I can’t think of a single favorite but I think I most enjoy the pen reviews.
As for the header, well, it looks to me like an art project done with the Diamine Sunshine Yellow and Orange that are the subject of the giveaway!
To be honest, I can’t believe it’s only a year. Seems as if your blog has been around for much longer. What fantastic colours you’ve chosen to give away, Mediterranean Blue is one of my favourites. I like the yellow too, but one of my snail mail pals wasn’t too impressed with a letter written in it, said it was too difficult to read. Talking of letters, need to reply to yours at some point.
As for fave post. I think it still has to be the Yard-o-Led Viceroy Review. I’m very envious of you with that pen.
Thanks for the chance to win and congrats on the year. I did enjoy your recent post on the jottrr journal. I am watching to find where I can get my hands on one. I think the header above is from a photograph of a video game cover. :-)
Congrats! I never miss a post. This has become one of my fav. blogs. ;-)
Hard to pick a favorite, I love the ink reviews, maybe the pen review even more. The m205 Duo review might be my favorite.