i'll take an old-fashioned old fashioned please

i've been on the hunt for a typewriter for thehobbit for a few months now. he began pestering me for what he considered the perfect typewriter, & gets more desperate sounding each time he asks about it. as if he suspects that the more time passes, the less likely it is i'll find one. or; & this is quite possible; he's finally in the next phase of his plan to take over the world, & needs to get it all on paper quickly.

what makes me smile is that he described the typewriter i had owned (& loved) when i was his age. i haven't any idea what year mine was, as it was fairly old when it was given to me. i do know it was a manual, portable model found at a garage sale.

when i set about searching for one, i imagined it would be easy, but i was wrong. sure there are loads of typewriters, even vintage ones, at thrift shops & online swap sites; but they are either electric, or good only for parts. those that i've found through google searches have been priced beyond what i can afford. still, i refuse to give up. there has to be the perfect typewriter just waiting for thehobbit.

photo :: property of ??

thehobbit's love of things in their more simple forms thrills me to no end. this part of who he is comes directly from me - manlyman is bewildered by it to be honest. he loves us, & willingly lives in our old house, surrounded by old-fashioned, paint-chipped, archaic things; though he drew the line at the manual lawnmower i bought when we moved here; but he doesn't understand any of it. he is the type (a pun!) of person who looks always forward. he is quite content in a world of sleek, new, & shiny; preferably with bells & whistles.

to manlyman, getting a manual typewriter makes no sense - why, when he can use the computer? i couldn't get him to understand the lure of the keys' clickety clack, or the ding!, or the zzzzzip the paper makes when being pulled out. he didn't see the fun in pushing the carriage back at the end of each line of type, or in getting ink on your fingers when you changed the ribbon. think of the adventures we'll have once we find the perfect typewriter!

there's more to it than that: the sense of accomplishment, appreciation for how easy we have it, & so on. unfortunately i am too tired to write anything else. i have a head filled with snot from cleaning a summer's worth of dust from the floor heater, coupled with ash in the air from a local fire. i'm off to get some sleep. i hope you have pleasant dreams :-)

~peace.

the word of the day: dinky

i've written many times about thehobbit's love of all things dinky. he loves dinky food, dinky toys, & dinky creatures. he spends a great deal of time making dinky items, & rearranging his collection of dinkies in his dinky houses. it is all wonderful to be sure, but i'm beginning to feel like a giant in my own home.


this is his borrowers' main house, & guest house. the photo was taken a few months ago, so there are vastly more dinkies within each building. soon they shall be emptied though & hopefully purged of crap as we're going to add a floor in that huge open space above the great room, paint the walls & exterior, & faux bois the floors. by we i mean i - which i am sure you guessed.

here we have a close-up of the dining room. i love the silver candlestick & tea service, combined with the wooden spool chairs. he made the table out of a painted candle holder, & the metal disk that came with a package of magnets. of course he's long since rearranged the room, & turned the spools into something else.

this photo was taken when we were reading this. the dinky penguin was quite the explorer, & thehobbit was forever finding him hanging out in the house, pirate ship, castle, & even the hogwarts playset. i have no idea how he got all those places ;-)

even manlyman's gotten into the spirit, & occasionally burns down candle stubs, & moves things about. thehobbit is always thrilled to discover proof that the borrowers exist. it truly has been such fun, & brought us all a lot of happiness. i just wish it were all dust repellent.

***

his latest dinky obsession is not making daddyo & i as happy. sweet tinker has inspired him to become a steampunk artist. it's not the genre we are unhappy with; steampunk things are very cool; it's that he took apart his watch & his pocket watch before we knew what he was about. we learned he had done so when he very proudly showed me how he'd organized all the dinky bits into containers just as tinker had. yeah.

there was a royal proclamation sent out, banning all disassembling of anything, no matter what, until further notice. we told him if he uses the bits & bobs to create some steampunk coolness of his own, then we'll discuss lifting the ban. if he does actually stick with this we'll buy him a bunch of thrift shop watches, & some dinky tools for christmas. he did create a pretty box (asking if it looked like tinker's boxes,) but he'd glued dinky shells to a small box, & not used one watch bit. cute, but no watch bits doesn't count.

***

my own journey with dinkies currently is gnomie-based. i have to create a zillion of them for the winter show, as well as to have on hand for prezzies & random orders. i'm thrilled that my dinky gnomies are so popular, & i'm in love with my new wooden gnomies, but i imagine come december i'll be sick of the site of them all.

which brings me to the end of my babble for today. i need to finish here, & get to cutting gnomie cloaks. i hope you have a good night.
~peace.

castles, ships, scares, & adventures

photo :: property of ann wood

i am in love with this cardboard castle. i found it on my daily walk through craftzine, & cannot stop going back to look at it. thehobbit's already asked if we could build our own, unfortunately i haven't the patience to create something this elaborate, even for him.

curiosity led me to visit ann's blog, & oh!!!! she is extremely talented, & i must have this ship.

photo :: property of ann wood

***

on a decidedly less light note: we had a scare last night. thehobbit; in usual hobbity fashion; was goofing off on the bathroom counter, fell backwards, & managed to get the tip of the tweezers he was holding into the electric outlet. there was a pop!, the tweezers scorched, the power went out, thehobbit scared & the parents more so. we have no idea how or why he was unharmed, but we are relieved beyond words.

i tiptoed in to stare at him a few times as he slept, & today have had to force myself to not follow him everywhere. i think he's more freaked still than he admits, as he's been behaving strangely all day - um strange even for him that is. i don't really care, i'm too busy feeling grateful i still have a child.

***

wow! we just had an adventure!! as i was writing this post, i heard the pitter patter of little creature feet. rubelin's cats are always sneaking in our backdoor to visit, so i assumed it was they. i looked over my shoulder to find it was not her cats, it was in fact our other neighbor's 2 dogs, zoe & apple box!!!! i can only assume the small dog squeezed through the fence, & the large dog jumped to follow. however they managed, it was unexpected, & quite fun.

we ushered them out, & i went to let the neighbors know we had stow-aways. much to thehobbit's delight, they weren't home. the dogs played happily in our yard for a time; thehobbit romping along side them; & when they finally lay in the grass to relax, i got the cell number off zoe's collar.

both dogs are home now, & thehobbit is sad. i hope one day he outgrows his allergy to dogs; it's just so cruel for a child who loves them as he does. still... what an adventure!

& now i must go comfort a sad hobbity boy. talk to you later :-)

~peace.

** edited to update: since this post, the dogs have gotten into our yard a few times each day. at first thehobbit was thrilled beyond belief. however... they popped every ball the could find, killed one pumpkin vine, & bit into our largest pumpkin. thehobbit now enjoys helping us send them home! **

is it time yet for bed?

there was a power outage that lasted from 6ish pm, until 10 pm last night. normally i'd be thrilled at the prospect of a quiet adventure, light a few candles, & snuggle next to manlyman with a book, or a craft project. we did light candles, (because being able to see is a good thing) but it was so abnormally, freakishly hot that neither wanted to sit anywhere near the other. books didn't hold my attention for more than a few minutes, & the thought of crafting whilst sweating in places a girl ought not held no appeal. i was hot, crabby, antsy, & probably annoying. it was quiet to be sure, but it wasn't an adventure.

after a time reading, manlyman gave in to the heat & the quiet, & fell asleep. i became bored without someone to pester, so puttered about in the dark, playing with flashlights, & talking to myself. later i made him go to bed so i could have the couch all to myself. when the power came back on, i lay in the dark, mindlessly watching television, glad for the distraction.

i should have done yoga, or meditated before going off to bed. anything to switch my head & body out of the strange mood of the eve. because i did nothing, i slept poorly. today i have a zillion errands to do, & no energy. this should be fun. bright side? it's wednesday, which means craft night! & did i tell you...

photo :: property of blueeyedcrow.wordpress.com

***

tinker has finally joined the world of blogging! please visit her, & leave a comment if you like what you see or read. she's simply lovely, & her art is mind bogglingly beautiful. & on that note, it's time for me to go! i hope your day is a happy one.

~peace.