Indulge Your Shelf

We're having a wonderful handmade button giveaway on Button Floozies right now; go see !

I found this package of pins at an antique store a couple of weeks ago; it's the kind of thing I have a very hard time passing up.  It's just pretty !  And it makes me happy. The pretty image above is something I designed as part of my very first email "campaign" for Indulge Your Shelf , which I worked on yesterday.  I took some of the great advice in Etsy 101 and offered all of the shop's past customers (through 2011) the opportunity to subscribe to an email list.  Some shop owners send newsletters, but I am starting more simply with a twice yearly (only) email which will include a coupon code.  I used Mail Chimp , which is a great service for a couple of reasons.  First, it's free.  Second, it requires me to know about and follow 'the rules' -- the most important of which is that you ask permission before adding customers to your email list.  I ended up with 30 people on my email list, which I understand is a really good response!  Among ...

I just finished a St. Patrick's Day ATC swap (12 ATCs) and while I was at it I decided to make a few tags for my handmade shop, Leaves and Lace . Wow, what a sense of accomplishment!  I don't think I've added anything new to the shop in several months . (Shame on me.) It was fun and refreshing.  Note to self: do this more often.  I hope you're having a lovely weekend!

I just restocked my Etsy shop with fresh vintage Vera Neumann scarves . Vintage Vera long purple scarf I usually can't resist buying her stuff; it's so beautiful and so iconic.  What I don't keep myself, I love to offer to her collectors. Vintage Vera sheer scarf, paisley her iconic signature There are many people selling Vintage Vera on Etsy, so I try to stand out by offering free shipping on all my Vera scarves. beautiful sunburst scarf I received a copy of this book about Vera for my birthday last year -- I highly recommend it!  Gorgeous photos and everything you ever wanted to know about her! Another great designer is my friend LuLu Kellogg, who makes all kinds of amazing things to drool over, but especially jewelry .  Her packaging is so beautiful, too! For the last several days she's been offering a HUGE, generous sale on Etsy -- 50% off of her gorgeous jewels, the coupon code is right there on top of her shop!  What are you waiting for? ...

If you're not already a follower, check out the Button Floozies blog ; it was recently mentioned in a new book about buttons !

I'm glad you're enjoying seeing all the junk I bought.  The house that held the sale was TINY. detail from a card in a box of vintage greetings I remember the ad for it said, 'very narrow hallways, be patient' or something to that effect, and boy they were not kidding!  It was almost comical how tiny the house was, and then there were so many people in there trying to shop and trying to wait in a line that stretched from the tiny living room all the way back down the hall, through the kitchen area. some of the cards had unusual motifs! There literally wasn't room for two people to pass in the hall, not even by standing sideways!  This was one of those sales where you just had to be patient and figure you weren't going anywhere quickly. fun pages in an unused vintage address book At one point I was quite literally stuck in the kitchen (the size of a walk in closet) because I couldn't get out/get by the people standing in line to pay!...

Okay, as promised, here are some more fun things I picked up for cheap at that estate sale; just for the record, the reason I bought so much at it is that they are a non-profit organization.  They go in and help liquidate estates for older people who have to move to assisted living for health reasons and have no family to help arrange the sale on their own.  I think it's awesome! This is a very common Whitman's candy tin; I have always liked the motif and this one had such charming patina! On the left, a not-so-old-but-still-vintage button-y button tin! No, it didn't have 500 buttons in it, but it was only $1 for all the ones that were in it!  And there were some fun ones!  The string of gold ones at the top of the photo were sold separately, for $2. This set of picks in an olive shape turned out not to even be vintage -- they're from 2002.  But I thought they were very cute, and my husband is a big olive-lover. This fun box, a blast from the past and label...