Lobster Shorts lifestyle, Pens and Ink

The Perfect Storage Box For Ink

I have a pact with myself, if I work out 7 days in a row (including stretching, nature walks, and yoga before you come for me of not giving myself a rest day), I get a reward. The reward can be anything that isn’t something to eat. I was struggling to figure out what I wanted and I had just made my 7 days. I find it easier to stick with it when I know ahead of time what the prize will be. I don’t want to miss out, so I make sure I get that workout in. I did my 7 days and it was time to cash in.

Mr. Lobster shorts was due for a haircut and we headed to the city. I had him drop me off at the antique mall while I was waiting for him. Browsing the stalls I found a lamp that made me so happy.

I get that this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s mine. I loved it. This was almost my reward. I loved it so much! It was $48 Canadian and my creepy mansion fantasy lamp. I noticed the metal base wasn’t all brass. There were two different types of metal (it’s hard to see in this photo) and they weren’t attached. The cherub and base spun around. That put me off. It was a shame. I would have loved this as a desk lamp in craftroom. I left it behind and I still think about it. I’m not going back for it, but I’ll think about it every now and then.

Then I found this jewelry box and it was perfect. It was $69.00 Canadian and it was missing one drawer pull (I unscrewed one more before I snapped this photo). It didn’t come with a key, but I’m quite sure I’ll be able to get a little skeleton key to lock it. It would be a nice thing to have and isn’t necessary because I don’t plan on locking it. I would like the completeness of it though and also, I love old keys.

A quick search on Amazon and I have a complete set of drawer pulls. They match the hardware perfectly. How wonderful! I knew exactly what I wanted this for and it wasn’t jewelry. It was for ink and all things pen-related. It’s perfect!

Almost perfect. Many of my ink bottles are too tall for the lid to close, and drawers to shut. I found if I put the tall ones in the middle everything can close properly and everything fits inside. Come, I’ll give you a tour.

The top has many compartments and I love that for organization. The storage part of the lid meant for necklaces is where I’m keeping my quill pens. I don’t plan on putting anything else in there. Regular pens would fall out and the tall ink bottles make it too bulky to close the lid. There are storage compartments on either side and although they both open, only one opens easily. So far I have nothing stored in them. The way they fold back in, anything in there would clunk around, so nothing fragile. I haven’t decided what I will use them for yet. The ring section is where I’m storing all my nibs and I like the way they display like that. All other spaces are filled with ink bottles. It was a game of Tetris and I managed to fit almost all the bottles in.

The second compartment is a drawer. This is where I put all my boxed pens and the last of the ink. There is a TWISBI Eco on the far left. The second box has two hand-turned pens that were gifted to me and my spouse as a wedding present. The velvet box is empty. It’s nice but dust and fur cling to it. The last box on the right is a to-go case for pens and ink to make it easier to travel with.

The last two drawers have my ink swatch journal, converters, and screw-in nibs. I’m not likely to keep the journal in here. I was meant to be out on display. The little sack contains all different sizes and styles of ink converters. A little glass container might help organize it a little better, but this works and gives the sack a purpose where it never had one before.

It’s perfect, I love it. I can’t believe what good condition it’s in. It’s twenty years old. I have so much more room in my desk drawers now. It was the best find.

Lobster Shorts antiques, vintage

Antiquing – One Winner

Antiquing is a fun adventure. I went to the St Jacob’s Market Road Antique mall. I can spend hours browsing through the stalls. I usually stay in the aisle and peak in. I’m terrified of breaking something. I’m clumsy afterall. I documented the things that caught my eye and that I loved the most. I’m going to post the photos of my favourites. There is one winner in the bunch. I hope you enjoy guessing which one I take home. I’ll post the winning item at the end.

These beautiful paperweights were mentioned in my last post. I love the blue one most of all, the colour is stunning. I’m sure the most sought after paperweights are the ones without air bubbles, but I loved this one. I could stare into that deep deep blue for hours. The purple one is pretty too.

This tomato tea pot set… would I buy it? Not in a million years, but it did make me smile. Adorable, fun to look at, but not my style. I hope someone else more whimsical than myself finds it and takes it home. I hope they laugh about it with their friends whenever they use it.

In this stall it was the two perfume bottles in the back that I liked. Both are very cool. The spikey one has been carved to look like a building inside the stopper and the other I love it for the big chunky stopper. How can I resist a showy stopper?

These pretty peacock feathers

This gorgeous inkwell stationery stand! I believe it’s brass. This would be so beautiful on a desk. As someone who loves writing letters, this would be a great addition. Something I look for in antiques besides being beautiful, is the need to be functional. I want to use it.

I have no idea what these are, but they look neat. The tag said something about wine, or wine glasses. Seriously, what are these?

This super creepy shelf of ceramic serving ware. I can’t really fathom why I find them so disturbing, likely the lumpy shapes. It looks like the stuff of nightmares and I like it.

These beautiful wine glasses. The colour! Whoever put this shelf together is an artist. I love the way they paired everything together, the green and blue, the brass. I want to sit in a room like this and take it all in (sipping wine in one of these beautiful glasses of course).

What wonderfully cool bottles! Also a little creepy. Am I sensing a trend here? Do I like slightly creepy things? Of course I do. I like the way they are grouped together, my favourite being on the far right. The lumpy bottle. I love it.

This clown pin – another creepy cool thing I like.

Glass mermaid candle holders. Do I love them? Yes! Yes I do! I love them. Creepy? Yep. I really want them. I would put them on either side of the silver candelabra I have and they would look wonderful all together. What a wonderful candle light dinner. I REALLY want these.

This pretty perfume bottle with the glass stopper and gorgeous colours.

A beautiful hawk shirt/dress thing. A stunning item of clothing that I would love to own. It’s in fantastic condition and I would love wearing it.

These beautiful bottles. I love the colour of the purple one. I love all the big bottles. I have so many more items I loved and photographed, but this is getting long and there was only one winner… and it is….

This stunner of a perfume bottle! Yes she does have cracks and I love her anyway. The cracks seem to be on the inside only, the outside is as smooth as… well… glass. It’s going to store ink like my other bottle and I’m not concerned about it leaking.

The colours make my heart happy and the stopper has a silicone gasket which should help prevent ink from evaporating. As for the mermaid candle holders, I REALLY wanted them, but alas, they are out of my price range. They were $375 Canadian and they were fantastic. I’m not into mermaids, but I really liked them. One day… if they’re still there.

Lobster Shorts antiques, crafting, Pens and Ink

Flashy Ink Bottles and Meeting My Soul Twin

I love browsing through antique malls and looking at all the pretty vintage items. The things that catch my eye the most are inkwell stands, tea cups and saucers, and perfume bottles (even though I don’t wear perfume). A place I love to browse is Market Road Antiques in St Jacobs. There are tons of stands to look through, which means there is a big variety of items to see. I have been a few times and spotted a purple glass bottle and bejewelled hair pins that I had been thinking about. I went back to the antique store and unfortunately, the hairpins were gone, but the purple bottle was still there. The bottle wasn’t quite right for what I wanted it for – ink storage. The part that holds the liquid was too big and it would be hard to get the ink out or make evaporation problems worse. Storing ink in a perfume bottle is not ideal. Especially if the stopper is glass and doesn’t create an air-tight seal. The ink will evaporate a lot faster than it should, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

This beautiful amber-coloured glass bottle was locked in a glass display case. I’m quite sure I said out loud “I want that” the first time I saw it. It came with a hefty price tag, $75 Canadian dollars. That seemed on the expensive side for a glass bottle. I found out that it was this price because it was part of a two-piece set. I walked around browsing all the booths and kept circling back to the display case wondering if I was really planning on buying a $75 bottle. There were so many beautiful bottles to look at, most of them clear glass. The clear glass bottles were priced way better (around $25), but the amber glass one, was just that much more beautiful to me. I spotted a spikey triangle glass bottle that I was trying to find again, but for the life of me, I could not find it. If you’re ever in a large antique mall and see something you like, take a photo of the booth number, because that spikey bottle went missing despite my searching.

The third and final time I passed the display case one of the agents saw me drooling over it and offered to open the case so I could see it better. I knew I knew if she opened that case, this bottle was coming home with me. Well, she did and I found out the bottle was part of a two-piece set. That did make the price a little more reasonable. I told her I was planning to store ink in the bottle and how I was obsessed with fountain pens. Turns out I’m not the only one. We have the same book and love some of the same stores.

She showed me photos of some of the ink she had made out of the book, I had always wanted to make the blue ink, but hadn’t yet. Hers turned out crystal clear and beautiful. I can imagine how pretty it would look on brilliant white paper. I can’t wait to make it. I feel like I’ve met my crafting hobby soul twin. So of course I bought the bottle. The ink will likely not store very well, so I was sure not to use a favourite ink. I put a really pretty purple ink in it that didn’t have any shimmer or other properties, it was a straight-up solid colour without any extra pizzazz. It looks pretty cool too. I love this bottle and have no regrets (I’m also hoping beyond hope that I don’t knock it over. There is nothing to prevent a spill).

The other bottle I’ve gotten recently was a birthday present from Mr Lobster Shorts. This is the Twisbi Diamond 50 Inkwell. I’m not sure if he got it from Amazon or Wonderpens, but I absolutely love it. This bottle should prevent inky fingers (the video at the top of this post is a demo on how to use it) one of the frustrating parts about fountain pens. Filling your pens can be messy if you don’t use cartridges, like me. I love it.

As for the second part of the glass items. My guess…. ashtray? It’s going to be used to store my fountain pen converters. I have a couple of them loose floating around in a drawer in my desk. This will bunch them together nicely and double as a paperweight. They had gorgeous paperweights at the antique mall, but they are not something I’d use, yet stunning all the same).

I’m going to use this pretty green pen and fill it up with the converter on the bottom of the photo, from the Twisbi bottle. The converter on the top part of the photo will work perfectly to get ink from the glass inkwell. You could also just stick your pen nib right in there and fill it up that way, the opening was large enough, but I prefer filling directly from the converter.

As for the two empty ink bottles, I’m saving them for when I make my own ink and the samples you can buy at the pen stores.

Lobster Shorts antiques

The Before and After of a Silver-Plated Candelabra

I polished the candelabra last night. If you want to see a video of the before and after, click the youtube link above. Sorry about my dogs running around in the background!

I picked this candelabra up at an antique shop. I was super hopeful it was silver plated. The way it looked here, I thought it was made out of some other metal and wouldn’t get shiny (the one shiny candle holder at the back of this photo was polished by myself. I was too impatient to find out what it looked like under the tarnish to wait until I had taken a photo before I polished it).

Here is a closer look at the tarnish. I spent less then an hour polishing, washing, and drying it. I took it apart completely and found out it can be put back together to make a single candlestick, three arm candelabra, or five arm, as shown in the photos. Pretty cool! I will likely never take it apart though.

It polished up to almost a mirror shine and I love it!!! There are still a couple dull spots, but it was only the first time I polished it and I’m sure they will buff out the next time around. I really didn’t expect it to come out so well. I really love it. I can’t wait to pick up some candles. Romantic dinner at home this weekend????

I’ve been on the prowl at the thrift stores for an electric pasta maker that makes fusili or trecce. It would be awesome to wait for a homemade pasta dinner to light up the candelabra, but I think it’s going to be a while before I find one. I’m sure I can think up something else for a romantic dinner at home. Mood lighting! I’m so happy with my find and so pleased at how well it was restored.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

Amazon and Antiques

This weekend my Amazon order came in and I went to an antique mall. One of the things I love is stationery. Amazon has some really pretty paper and for good prices.

I bought this set and I love the paper. I don’t feel like the envelope matched that well, but it’s still a really cool set. I really love the paper. I have trouble writing straight and the lines will help a lot.

This was my favourite one from the first set. I love the colours. Each set came with a matching envelope.

I’ve been looking for an antique pie lifter forever. It’s not silver, but I like it and I won’t have to polish it. I found it at the Freelton Antique Mall, outside of Hamilton. I have been looking for an antique letter opener for years. They had them there, but they weren’t quite the one. They were plain, and I want a more elaborate one. I’m also looking for an unusual and really old coin, for good luck :). If I find one or not, walking through an antique mall can be a wonderful adventure.