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Do you dream about brush pens? Do you find yourself doing faux calligraphy on any writeable surface? Have you faked sick on a ‘night out’ so you could stay home and do some lettering?

If you relate to 5 or more of the categories below, you may want to consider seeking the help of a professional. And by ‘professional’ I mean me. And by ‘seeking help’ I mean tell me about your life and be my new best friend.

1. Your purse always has brush pens in it.

But you get anxiety if someone asks to ‘borrow a pen’.

2. You no longer have any money for clothes/food/movies/friends.

Because you spent it all on calligraphy & lettering supplies at the art store.

3. Blank notepads ANYWHERE are not safe.

You just have to write a quick faux-calligraphy, ballpoint pen “hello” on that hotel room notepad- the cleaning lady will love it.

4. You can no longer write “normally”.

Everything is broken down into “strokes”.

5. You will never give anyone another store-bought greeting card.

Instead, you have 5000000 blank cards ready to assemble at all times. And your friends look forward to their handmade, hand-lettered birthday cards from you every year. (So much pressure!)

6. When you hear someone you know is getting married, your first question is about their plans for invites and/or signage.

Even if you know you’ll end up having to do it for free.

7. If you’re ever in a different city, you carve out time to track down their art stores.

Because maybe they’ll carry that one pen you’ve been looking for forever. Except no, because apparently its only available in Australia (true story- I had to get Emma (@blackchalkco) to mail me some Artline Stix brush pens after she made them famous- and now you can get yours on her site, too!).

8. You can no longer just “watch tv”- you must be lettering at the same time.

So you can really only ever watch Friends- because it’s the only thing you don’t need to actually look at to know what’s going on.

9. You have a list of notes in your phone called “things to letter”.

And you add to it daily. Maybe even hourly.

10. You sometimes forget to eat/drink/shower/sleep because you get so caught up in projects.

Or you prioritize getting some lettering done in the morning over having nicely styled hair.

11. You’ve helped someone in the art store find the exact supplies they’re looking for, because you know better than the person working there.

Or maybe you’ve even interrupted the clerk helping someone, because you know their answer is wrong and they’re about to take them to the ‘calligraphy section’ and show them all of the old style nibs and parchment paper. Cringe.

12. When you meet someone else who does what you do, two things happen.

a) you become best friends
b) you get insanely jealous of a skill they have mastered and you haven’t (the bouncing baseline, the perfect ink bleeds, etc).

13. You get irrationally excited when you take the cap off a brand new brush pen.

Or even better- an entire set of brush pens. So that you can arrange them by colour.

14. Your phone is constantly at capacity because you have so many videos and photos of lettering projects.

But you don’t want to delete any because what if you need an idea someday?!

15. You dream about calligraphy and lettering.

This can’t just be me.

Now tell me- how did you first know you were addicted? Or, if I just made you realize it, it’s OK to admit it below. The first step is admitting you have a problem. You’ll be safe here, I promise.