Ramble About Town, March 22nd 2014

Just a tiny fragment of the delights on hand at The Tea Lady in Olympia, WA.
 
It had been awhile since I spent a Saturday just wandering, and with a bit of spring weather setting in (if only temporarily), I may have had a bit of cabin fever as well. So...this Saturday I did a ramble about.

Went to the Tea Lady first. I've professed my love for this place so many times before, it seems a little redundant to state it again, but...I love this place! I'm currently off coffee (if only temporarily), which made a shop full of nothing but tea all the more exciting. I'd sort of planned to buy a teapot, but they mostly had large ones, too big for me unless I start throwing daily tea parties. So I'm back to obsessing on-line on that front. Still came away with some new green tea, some fillable tea bags for times when it's less than convenient to fiddle with a filter basket, and an interesting herbal blend with citrus, turmeric, and ginger. The instant I left I got requests from Dad and my sister for teas of their own, so I have an excuse to go back soon.

Next up was downtown, and the antique mall: Finders Keepers. It's always a fun place to browse: different vendors rent cubicles within the building, so each has a different assortment and you never know what you'll find around the next corner. First thing I noted was this boxy Hermes 3000. It's $145, or I might be giving you a review rather than just a photo. Looks pretty clean.

Lots of other little assorted writing related things about:

Pencil sharpeners

 

Inks...and Shinola.

 

Ink erasers and assorted pencil leads.

 

Typewriter cleaner.

 

Some sorta old cash register? And a steno machine.
 

SCM Coronet, just to be equal opportunity to the electrified among us.

 

One of those heavy old staplers that could double as a blunt force weapon.

 

Slide rules! The big one here is about standard size for these. The little one is little bitty. Shirt pocket sized, or smaller. Cute.

 

Close-up of the little guy...

 

If Hop-along Cassidy says it's his favorite ice cream, who am I to argue?

 
Had lunch afterward with a friend at The Bread Peddler: peanut curry chicken soup. Good, as is only to be expected from The Bread Peddler. Yum!

Around Town: Finders Keepers

Vacation week continues! After several seaside adventures, yesterday I stayed closer to home. I went to one of my favorite coffee places (Mud Bay Coffee Roasters) to do some catching up on my journal, met a friend for a chocolate malt at Grandpa's Soda Fountain, and also wandered through one of my favorite Olympia businesses: Finders Keepers, a really interesting antique and collectibles store, with all sorts of nooks and crannies. It's made up of a whole bunch of different vendors, all with different focuses. Makes for a fascinating stroll, even if I don't end up buying much.

Quite a few typewriters this time, though pricey ones and nothing that totally grabbed me.

Remington Monarch

Classic 12

Corona in a dark back room--hard to photograph

This poor beauty was practically buried!

This one appeals to me. Yes, it's just a Classic 12 (?) in a different suit, but a pretty snazzy suit. It's like an old car...

One vendor apparently has a thing for Siamese cats (as do I...)

There are always some quirky novelty items.I should have put something with this eraser for scale. It's HUGE--maybe eight inches long? Just plain goofy, but it made me smile.

This, I don't even...

Old Speed Ball sets, plus Eagle pencil leads...

They also had stacks of variations on the old Chief tablets (and copycats).

This made me think of a certain Tacoma area typecaster...

Fun trip, overall! And I didn't come away empty handed. I bought this plain little Lane cedar box. My Mom had one just like it (they must have made many thousands of them, I'd guess), and it's nothing fancy...but I love the smell of a cedar box!

Also, as it turns out, it's a perfect fit for pencils!

Another Saturday Ramble

It had been a few months since I last checked out the downtown antique store and generally rambled around town, and today was a lovely sunny day, and so...why not?  This time around, I was on the prowl for old pen points/nibs or pen holders as well as typewriters.  Did I find any?  Well...yes and no.

First up was the antique "mall" in downtown Olympia: Finders Keepers.  As I keep saying, I really like Finders Keepers.  I don't always buy anything, but I always enjoy looking around.  There are lots of little divided cubicles with a whole variety of different goods.  As soon as I walked in, I spotted this:

Ooh, shiny!

It looks to be in pretty nice shape, but at $125, well out of my range.

The only other typewriter-like object at Finders Keepers was this odd little adding machine.


There were also a few inkwell type things, not in great shape, and this bottle of Red Quink, which I was mildly tempted by, but passed on.

I realized *after* I got home that I'd photographed the Spanish side. Ah well.

I didn't find any dip nibs though. Or any other writing related items, with the exception of this little portable desk, which I'm still thinking about going back for at some point.

Twenty-five dollars. It's fairly roughly made and nothing fancy, but I couldn't help daydreaming about finding an inkwell that would fit that hole, and keeping all my notebooks and supplies inside. We'll see.

After Finders Keepers, I finally made it to the antique store where notagain found his Royal. It's called The Rusty Roostery, and they're open rather odd hours...not until one on Saturdays. There were no Royals in evidence today, but they did have an Olympia SG-1 for $30...

It's verrrrry filthy and fairly rough, and I didn't do much testing of it...but might be worth a look to someone.

I did break down and buy some Quink at Rusty Roostery. They had turquoise Quink. I cannot resist turquoise.

It isn't a full bottle and the label and box are pretty stained with old ink, but it was cheap and I figure I can use it with the dip pens, just for play. I think I'd be scared to put it in my fountain pens. It's a neat old bottle, though!  They also had a single dip pen--a Speedball C nib of some sort (very battered) in a Bradley of Vermont holder (more battered still).  Neither looked usable, so I left them where they were.

I also found something only my family would be likely to get excited about: a copy of the same desk encyclopedia set we used for word games and such for years growing up, tossing the books back and forth during rounds until at this point they've become battered almost out of existence.

I had to buy 'em.

And then I came home to find a sampler of dip nibs from Speculator waiting in my mail box, and have been happily making inky messes for the past hour or so. What a day!

In Which I Utterly Fail To Find Typewriters, But Still Have Fun

Nice day yesterday.  It was cold and windy, but beautiful clear weather.  I can deal.  So I set off on a bit of a ramble around Olympia, partly in search of typewriters.

The antique store wasn't open yet, so I stopped into our biggest local bookstore next door for awhile instead: Orca Books.  I picked up a new copy of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters, as my last copy appears to have gone walkabout.  I probably gave it away to a friend or sibling and then promptly forgot, as I tend to do with favorite book titles.  I also picked up our most recent book club book (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon), looked at the blank books (oh, the pretty red Moleskines!) but refrained from buying any, and then came across these items, which I couldn't resist, even if the typewriter keys are erroneously lowercase and even if they missed an opportunity to display an Olympia.

By that point, the antique mall next door was open.  It's called Finders Keepers, and it's one of my favorite places in town.

In my experience, there tend to be two different types of antique stores: one type sells primarily very high-end furniture and glassware and paintings--you walk in and the place is nearly bare, and beautifully arranged.  Fun to look, but since I know I'm not likely to make a purchase in a place like that in my lifetime, I feel nervous being in those stores.

The other type of antique store is wonderfully cluttered and jumbled, and they sell all sorts of interesting old everyday things and things in fully-lived condition rather than just the valuable stuff.  There are old tins and kitchenware, vintage clothing, all sorts of bits and pieces and souvenirs, toys, books...you name it.  Finders Keepers is most definitely this last type of antique store.  They sell items on commission for all sorts of different vendors, sectioned off in booths/cubicles throughout the store, and you just never know what you'll come across.

I usually see at least a few typewriters, though I've yet to purchase one here.  Often they've been out of my price range, sometimes I've come across them during a buying moratorium.  I only saw two on Saturday, neither of them quite worthy of taking home.

There was this electric Smith Corona--such a beautiful color!  Too bad it isn't a manual...

And this Underwood, tucked away on a bottom shelf.  It was $40, which I suppose isn't bad for an antique store find, but not exactly in superb condition.  I don't think it was functional.  They do look cool, though, don't they?

I also came across this old pencil sharpener!  In retrospect, I should have moved that tag so the crank was visible.  I'm not sure it actually works.  If I had a place to display such a thing, I would have been very tempted to take it home...but I don't,  so I didn't.

The best thing about this store, though, is the Book Nook.

Lots and lots of mostly old books: classics, poetry, old boys' adventure books, old mysteries, old cookbooks.  Even the oldest and most ornate are generally very reasonably priced.  I bought a copy of Brideshead Revisited, as my last copy, like Screwtape Letters, seems to have gone walkabout.

I did a little wandering around downtown Olympia looking for any other likely spots for typewriters, but the only other antique stores were 1) an antique store of the first sort and 2) a very tiny place that didn't open until one in the afternoon.  What's up with that?

No typewriter content in the next stage: I went to The Tea Lady, which I highly recommend to any visitors to Olympia.  If you like tea, or think you might like some tea, or if you're at all curious about tea varieties...it is THE tea store to visit.

It's hard to even convey just how much tea they have here.  This is just one corner.

All of those bags and boxes are tea!  They also have a tea bar at the back where you can buy freshly brewed hot or iced tea, or try samples of a few varieties.  And they sell tea pots and mugs and electric kettles and various other kitchen gadgets.  I browsed awhile and then bought the Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice I'd gone in for (it's like atomic fireball candy in tea form, though they'd probably be appalled by my saying so...) and some coconut chocolate black tea (it's good!).

Aaand that's about it.  I went to two Goodwill stores, but didn't see so much as an electric typewriter, and then stopped by a Value Village since it's near the library where I was dropping off books, but they only had a 90s (?) Smith Corona electric, very banged up and dirty.  Still, a good day overall!