Starving?

for those of you who are content starved.....

you can live a part of my life vicariously here:
http://mortiseandtenon.blogspot.com/2009/01/galootaclaus-2008.html

happy halloween....

one of the pumpkins i carved with my 4 year old son

spending money.....

took wednesday off since the weather was nice, and headed to a small town an hour or so away that has a decent collection of antique stores. i don't usually buy much - prices are, well... antique store prices. but once in a while you find something you either just have to have, or the price is reasonable (because the person doesn't really know what they have).

it's also interesting because you can tell where my current focus is when i head out there by what i've bought. in the past couple of years, it's been tools mostly. this round was something different.

behold:
the Art Deco Swivodex Zephyr Glass Inkwell, with unspillable swivelling base. (mine didn't include the pen, but i've included the image so you get a better sense of it.)

Zephyr American Corp "Swivodex"
Trade mark pats. Pending New York , N.Y.

The price wasn't a steal (it was pretty much the average
of the price I see online for these - $65 CDN)

i also ran across a fountain pen - i'd never heard of the brand, so i walked away, only to spend 3 hours of extra driving to go back the next day ;P

the Globetrotter, by Elysee - slim pen in bright steel with a map of the world applied in 24k gold plate, fine nib in 14k gold, 1992-c1997.


The company had a short history, but I have yet to read a bad review about these pens - so far i'm very impressed by how nice it is to write with, although perhaps a little slimmer than I'm used to (slightly larger diameter than a pencil or bic stick pen).

1925 Paul Dummert begins making jewelry in Pforzheim, Germany
1980 Élysée brand is created
1991 Staedtler acquires Élysée
2000 Élysée ceases production

please....

....do your part for the environment.

how's your german....

lately i've been doing more correspondence the old fashioned way. by hand. using a fountain pen.

there's something in the process of writing that seems to get lost when you sit in front of a computer. almost as if a part of your brain shuts down - or perhaps you use a different part.

but i digress. as part of this choice to "unplug" i've looked into envelope and letter folding (www.ghh.com/elf) as well as using sealing wax and seals.

in my travels of late, i ran into a fairly unique wax seal. from nazi germany, world war two era. very cool, but i'm having trouble translating.

so.... how's your german?


(Salzwedel was pretty easy to figure out - it's a town that's been around since about 800-1112 AD or so.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzwedel
• http://www.salzwedel.de/