hello 2015

helllooo! it’s been a long, long …pause. hmm…where do i start?

out of sight but still am an avid typewriter fan/collector /hoarder.  the last time i checked, i still have about 30 typewriters, not considered many compared to the peak of my obsession phase. I’ve sold a couple and given a few as gifts. there are still a few pending tlc to clean and in need of a mini makeover.

i’ve been more selective in buying typewriters in 2014.

here is my pride and joy – a golden princess for my princess (when she is old enough to appreciate it). meanwhile, this mommy will safe keep for her.

i have not type any letters the whole of 2014 😦 .
I’ve used my favorite typers mostly for arts and crafts.

please share how you used your typewriter/s.

ok i confess, there is a reason why the sudden blog post today. stay tuned. 🙂

Cheers,
Karen

bye bye 2013. hello 2014!

It’s been another long hiatus … heart and mind willing to blog but fingers not.

This time last year I found a techno yellow tippa. This year, a lost vogue blue royal p found me, a perfect wrap for 2013!

Eye therapy… after the retail therapy. Haha.

2013 ‘me’ time – chiffon cakes, owls, hello kitty, typewriter and more typewriters!

Here’s wishing all a very, very, very…happy and blessed 2014 and more? Gorgeous typewriters of course.

Peace and love,
Cheers!
Karen 🙂

triumph is fraktur number TWO

I should be so lucky…

my apologies, I should have used a plain paper instead of this with dots!  yes, this is my second fraktur typewriter! 🙂

triumph gabrielle 35 – plain standard plastic body and keys but what do we have here?  a set of fraktur type slugs??!!!

to be honest, it was difficult for me to type on torpedo 15a. it has the ornate fraktur letters printed on its glass keys. i cant be sure of what I was typing. this one, no such problem! however, it is still a challenge to type the standard letter ‘s’ which is on the bottom right (1st row) of the keys. the long ‘s’  is at the ‘asdf’ keys.

not sure if this is the typewriter, or type slugs serial number. do you know? I tried looking for other serial number on the typewriter’s body but found none.

I have acquired a few more typewriters after my self proclaimed going cold turkey, no more typewriters, sigh…

I am starting to think that  I  focused too much on getting THAT ONE, and more typewriters that I forgotten the reasons why I wanted them in the first place.  most of the times the typewriters are just sitting prettily in the display cabinets. I have typed less than 10 letters, procrastinated cleaning the dirty ones, few art and crafts projects and that’s about it. surely I can do better!

first thing first, I have decided to place one typewriter at my sister’s tuition center for the kids to play with (thank you Richard for the suggestion). kids should know what is a typewriter and how one looks like.

what is this?

I have rehomed or sold typewriters to mostly young working adults except this once, I sold one to 3 young teens –  2 girls and a young man probably 13-14 years old.

they came to me and queried about a typewriter I was selling via local classifieds.  it’s heartwarming to hear that they chipped in money and buying it as a birthday gift to  a vintage loving friend. oh so sweet of them.

prior to this meeting, they had not seen and touch a real typewriter, and asked if I could do a short show and tell, ie.  how to operate the typewriter. of course I promptly, happily did. they were almost too scared to touch it with wows and ahs! i felt guilty taking their money. hmm… maybe it is time to think about how to spread some typewriter love to the young ones. any suggestions?

they bought this lovely woody brother typewriter that comes with special repeat spacer key.

one of them exclaimed  “oh! it has a case too?!” and didn’t mind at all when i told her the zipper is broken.

on another story, a family friend came to visit with  her 3 children, aged  6, 10 and 12 -year old. the 10-year old asked pointing at the display cabinet –

boy: what is that?

me: oh these are typewriters.

boy: huh??

me: your grandpa would have used this to type letters. they don’t have computers last time. wait, let me take out one and let you type…

hearing this, his sisters came and look at the typewriters too.

ah… what a wonderful feeling to be able to share and let the young ones feel and touch some old typewriters. I am certainly no expert but that didn’t stop me from giving them their first typewriter lesson albeit a very basic one.  :))

more happy stories coming. have a great weekend!

cheers,

Karen

a princess for my princess

this princess 300 typewriter is one of the first few typewriters  I acquired when I started this craze. I fell in love with the gorgeous decal first and thought of my daughter, K  immediately.  this is perfect my then 9-year old princess I thought.  yay, another excuse to get just one more typewriter.  🙂

she was initially writing, typing her daily journal with it for a while. later, it was just collecting dust in her room so I moved it into the  display cabinet.  out of touch, out of mind. the princess typewriter has been sitting there prettily, quietly, unused until today.

K is attending a birthday party and needed a birthday card.

this typewriter came to the rescue and we made a  personalized birthday card!

k typed this.

I have gotten a few more typewriters since my last post (which was not too long ago!). I will reveal them in the coming posts.

meanwhile, I am going cold turkey and will not be getting anymore typewriters, unless….well, there is always an exception.

warmest regards,

karen

What is the hype about this ‘f’ word?

no. the ‘f’ here is not that 4-letter word.

it refers to one of the rare typeface which is probably non existent in the ‘wild’ in this part of the world. it is the blackletter or more famously known as the fraktur font. in my quiet quest hunting for one, i even learnt a few german words by heart. i can now spell – alte schreibmaschine (old typewriter) in a heartbeat.  🙂

my other ‘techie’ half gave me that usual ‘look’ again when he saw the parcel. he doesnt understand why typewriters when one can type on tablets, smart phones, laptops, pc…. but he gave this a second look and a ‘hmmm..’ …. when he saw the type sample. yes, this is special. the typeface reminds me of calligraphy.

beautiful keys. it is always a bonus when they are clean and not stained.

i love the small letters but have a hard time reading the ott – over the top, ornate cap ones.

did you notice that the small letter ‘s’ looks like ‘f’? it is called the ‘long s’ and evolved from the old roman form.  this Wiki link explains.    interesting, but i have seen other fraktur typewriters with the normal ‘s’.

it didnt come with original ribbon spools and i dont want the look of normal plastic ones on this old beauty. i thought white or red painted spools would be an awesome accessories, and even toyed with the idea of putting hello kitty stickers. (hey, pls dont judge me! lol).

meanwhile, mosaic like spools will do the job. good things come to those who waited. oh yes. i have waited a long time to get one. this is destined to be mine and another, oops… sshhh…. 😉

vogue – checked
fraktur – checked

one more typeface to check… i will wait.

happy midweek!

cheers,

karen

madonna sings – strike a pose!

Strike a pose
Vogue, vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue, vogue

the art deco typeface so coveted by some typospherians, me included.

i finally found one after 1.5 years of tirelessly looking and asking royal p sellers after sellers to provide typecast. i anticipated for its safe arrival and reminded the seller again and again, and again to pack it well and even sent her a link on how to pack a typewriter.

yet i still have to mutter the 2 dreaded words – OH NO!!!!…..when i opened the box.

this was how the seller packed. double boxed but no padding. (unless she meant those bits of newspaper as padding. duh!)
oh man!

Inside it’s stuffed with some bubble wraps. here she is.

the type slugs are dirty and clogged with ink. everything else operated and looked fine. she survived the treacherous trip. hurray!.. phew!

i typed this and made my son signed it. haha.. (he loves the internet games too much, forgot he has to study and that there is another world outside the computer). One more reason parents should have a typewriter at home? this contract cannot be edited or deleted. It is permanent and can be filed and retrieved anytime.  the ‘i’ key was very sticky at first. now, less sticky with every depress.

i thought this typeface is found only in royal p second model until recently. life in a typewriter blogged about one vogue typeface royal p first model here.

now i want another with a maroon or red or blue or yellow body!

thank you so much for dropping by and sharing my happiness (my family didnt understand why i was grinning from ear to ear).
if this vogue is the coveted ‘v’ typeface, there is another rarer one.  the ‘f’ typeface. do you know what is that word?

i hope i can share with you ‘that’ happy story soon.

cheers!

8 months in 1 post!

it has been that long… my last post was in jan2013!

forty typewriters (tw) have found their way to my home (or i found them?) to-date. i am still downsizing the lot, keeping only those ‘die-die’ (singapore english – even if one has to die in the process; certainly, definitely; haha) must keep and those for visual feast, ‘eye therapeutic’ ones.

although i have re-homed quite a few tws, the looking and buying never stopped. is the buying ever going to stop? i dont know, perhaps not now because i still have a few ‘die-die’ must have in my list. :+)

this post is going to be a brief recap of my favourite tw related events and buys, kind of a quick show and tell post-

I joined a small group type-in at the park some moons ago. i think the typewriters ‘fever’ in singapore has cooled down a bit or is it just me?

I had so much fun meeting nat from natslaptaps and yes, i typed on that gorgeous maroon torpedo. i’ve seen other colours up for sale but never a maroon one.

this is the super flat rooy i mentioned in the previous post. what surprised me was how this tw ‘unfold’ from its case, like a transformer. macbook air of those days, super- no, it’s an ultra thin typewriter. only 4cm tall, 4kg heavy, not as light as i thought because of its metal case and body. oz.typewriter has written a detail post about rooy here and here.

open the case and slide up the tw and it’s transformed!

i wanted a burgundy olympia but bought a brown one. who cares about its colour when one has an italic typeface, right? anyway, it will look burgundy in dim yellow lighting. ;P

as you can see from the above typecast, this typer is in need of some tlc and servicing. its space bar is sticky too. 😦

another maroon joined my tw family – a corona 4. have i told you i absolutely heart tw with shades of red? hmm… high chance i did and probably many times. 😉

check out my cute BB – blue barlett. a collector said it looks like a mini robot. a red one would add so much more  into the awesomeness! … but blue is nice too.

do you see a cute face on the key?

Flat rooy and cute barlett.

This tw has the popular hermes tag and it’s RED hot! I have to have her.

I have a similar 3 bank corona but I fell in love with this one because of its gorgeous decal.

more about these babies and typecasts later.

i am excitedly waiting for my latest tw and cant wait to tell you and the world i finally found it after 1.5 years – it’s green and has a special typeface. would you like to guess? more details coming soon! *wink

update: it’s here!! 😀

surprise!!

i am just so happy and cant wait to tell you…

this typewriter has a £ and $ keys, not found in my black tippa s (cursive typeface). why?

here’s a sneak peek.

still grimy and dirty. just gotten it today and in need of a good wipe asap.

i’ve been disciplined in the last 2 months…bought only 3 typers including one that’s in my wish list. a roxy ROOY!! 🙂

there’s so much to blog –  a type-in in the park, a private type-in, mouldy typewriter cases, vintage typist tables, newly acquired typewriters, typecasts comparison….

cheers to a new 2013 and more chances for us to get typewriters at a steal!!

karen.  😉

a royal’s script typeface

oops ! just realised last sentence missing ‘m’  – … wish list is growing faster than the rate i am striking it!

here she is  – big and beautiful.

love the case,  can double up as a luggage bag for a one night trip! 🙂

here is the  comparison with a compact tippa, safari – size L and tippa – size S.

she is quite bulky, more than double the height of tippa. certainly not for lugging around. 😦

it’s wednesday!! have a happy mid-week! 🙂