Great vintage finds for a writer

Hello friends,

First of all, thank you for continuing to visit me here. It was quite a busy and tumultuous summer for my family and I. Ever since my surgery, I've been awash in birthday celebrations, helping prepare my son for kindergarten and revving up my professional writing.

Not to worry, however, because I have so many delicious posts to share with you: a couple of delightful store tours, a new project for me designing a girl's room and, of course, my thrifty finds.

On my latest thrifting expedition, I was so thrilled to find a manual typewriter. I have had serious envy for Thrifted Treasure's typewriter collection, all found for a steal. I drooled even more reading about SouleMama's newsroom-like home filled with almost enough typewriters for each of her four kids. I spotted electric typewriters many times while browsing thrift stores, but never a manual one.

Well, it finally happened. Tucked in between an old humidifier and a lava lamp, was a small, portable blue typewriter. Other than needing a new ribbon, it's in great shape and types perfectly. Unfortunately, its owner decided to write her name all over it in black permanent marker and added an engraving in Braille, which I assume is also her name. What to do? Accept these markings as charming reminders of its previous life? Or try like heck to remove them, hoping not to damage the typewriter?

Thankfully, there wasn't too much time to obsess over the irregularities of my new typewriter because just a few steps away in the same thrift store was a 30-year-old cardboard box filled with the most delightful little cards featuring words in English and their definition. Well, delightful for a writer who loves words. There are 1,000 of these tiny gems. The possibilities for display and learning are endless!

Satisfied with my two finds, I drove away towards home, but then happened upon a tiny thrift store that I had never seen. It was a brand new thrift store (is that an oxymoron?) and, truthfully, didn't have much so I was about to leave when I suddenly spied a very old-looking pocket dictionary in a display case.

It is the 1918 edition of Laird & Lee's Standard Webster Pocket Dictionary. I imagine its owner carried it around as a matter of necessity, even using it as a notebook for notations.

Perhaps I've just revealed a little too much of my nerdy side with my excitement over these finds, but I am nostalgic about the days when a dictionary was an absolute necessity. I do confess to using Google to look up some words now and then, but it simply doesn't compare to the joy of discovering more new words while looking something up as we used to do just a few years ago.

Do you have any thrift finds that are particularly exciting for you? Do tell.

P.S. I've made a few updates on my sidebar, including adding a followers gadget, which I've never done before but I finally decided to take the plunge, hoping to meet more of my readers.