#40: Vintage Supplies

After all the years of collecting/hoarding these beautiful pieces of vintage paper, office accessories and books, it's time to put them on the Fairview Place shop. For a while you were able to find these goodies at Kitsch, but for now they'll only be available online. My most beloved pieces are the Paper Parcels (above). Each pack comes with 30 carefully selected papers, which include flash cards, labels, envelopes, sheet music, maps, stickers, button cards, doilies, graphing paper, tickets, book pages, memo cards, postcards and more. They are great for making cards, Smash Books, scrapbooking, adorning gifts or just for collecting.

Other items include paper doilies, air mail envelopes, bridge tally cards, invitations, library cards, clothespins, books (with goodies inside that tell quite a story) and more to come soon. Most of the fun for me is finding the ephemera at estate sales and thrift stores and then making the perfect packaging for it.

Please take a look at what's at the shop and pass along! I'm always happy to do custom, or bulk orders (like if you want 100 pages of sheet music, I can make that happen) or keep my eyes out for something very specific!

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. Click here to read all about it and here to a see a gallery of pictures of everyone participating. 

Halloween Goodies

It's that time of year again, when we welcome the freaky characters and everything black and orange. Fairview Place has brought back the scary movie greeting cards and added Halloween themed Paper Parcels. For a limited time you can get the 30+ vintage paper packs at Kitsch for $7.50 each...make your own greeting cards, collage some scary artwork or just admire the old ephemera!

Thrifty Thursday

Invites, flash cards and bridge score pads from the Princess Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach.

I have always had a love of paper, especially old, slightly yellowed, unique pieces that just can't be duplicated. Since Kitsch has started selling my paper parcels, my ephemera collection has grown quite quickly. After a quick search to see what others are doing with all these vintage papers, I discovered there is a rather large "ephemera" community...meaning single-sheet or page documents which are meant to be thrown away after one use.

Scruples actually seems like a pretty fun game of 'how terrible of a person are you,' haha.

Christmas sheet music, perfect for greeting cards!

A recent stop at the thrift shop gave me a heap of gems for the parcel packs and some other very exciting products coming to Fairview Place. The top two favorites finds: the Clue game (50 cents) and the Cocktail Party invites ($1). Stay tuned for some new additions to the shop coming very soon!

Already used some of the darling 1950s baby photographs for a friend's shower card.

Monday Musebles: Cleaning and Organizing

Some people (ahem...Mike...) might say I'm rather messy. I personally wouldn't consider it messy, maybe just a little cluttered. Or maybe an organized mess (does that fit into the same category as a functional alcoholic?). Anyway, I've been waiting a while to get all my craft stuff organized. I had to find the right furniture, then sell my desk and buffet table - both of which sold on Craigslist in less than three weeks!

I found these new storage pieces at Garden Ridge in Chesapeake. Unfortunately they were too short for my existing bins so I had to buy all new ones. Wasn't too upset though, it gave me a chance to go through all my supplies and purge a little. I have space for all my felt food packaging in one place, along with organizing all my packaging and shipping labels. Guess that means Fairview Place (via Etsy) is open for business again!

This plant stand I bought when I first moved here at an antique store out on Granby Street. I had actually left the store and drove halfway home, only to turn around and go back and get this! It was $14! I used it for all my shoes (with canvas bins), but now use it for my buttons and packaging station.

Mike's dresser is still in need of its makeover. I had this in mind, but since almost everything in our house has some sort of distressed look to it, I'm thinking about going NORMAL. Maybe this or this. I'm using this piece for all my paper/sticker/stationery/paper parcels materials and for the finished products.

I also got the pillows (#86) made for the guest bed, I have to say I'm pretty obsessed
with the patterns (even if Mike thinks the blue pillow is actually Batman material)

I typically don't use a lot of ribbon, but this year I plan on making a whole slew of the holly-day brooches. This ribbon (plus what I have in storage) will come in handy then and so will this dispenser made from a wine rack and dial rods. I'm feeling pretty satisfied that I can finally cross off #64: Clean and #43: Organize.

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. To learn more about it, click here.

Monday Musebles

Newest addition for the craft shop section at Better Block...Paper Parcels.
Packs of new, vintage papers including scrapbooking, doilies, envelopes, sheet music, flash
cards, stickers, button cards, graph paper and more.

Lately I feel like I've been running a race and I just can't keep up (i.e. this post coming to you today - instead of Monday)! My daily to-do list has been more like a novel and at the end of the day I'm struggling to cross anything off - and you know how bad that irritates me!

Left, display case/china cabinet for $70. Top right, hanging white shelf was only $14! Needed some work, but what a steal!
Bottom right, baby crib that hangs from the ceiling. I am dying to buy this for my mini bolts of fabric!

This past weekend I felt like I did a lot of nothing. A few projects got worked on, but none completely finished. I cleaned messes to make more, of a different variety. I went and saw some really lovely display pieces for the Better Block project, but didn't actually purchase anything. 

We're only naughty when it comes to running marathons ;)

But, by the time Sunday rolled around, I wasn't actually feeling too overwhelmed. A few of us girls went to cheer on a friend running the Shamrock Marathon.We didn't end up lasting too long...the weather was definitely not on our side. I'm still in awe about how someone could run for FIVE hours in those conditions. Or any conditions for that matter! Kudos to you Susie!

Fawn Street Studios. Loved this space...that spiral staircase with the skylights and disco ball?
Sounds like my kind of place to have a wedding!

Mike and I checked out the new Art Design Craft Norfolk show at the Fawn Street Studios. Then we headed over to Belmont for a beer and some BBQ (seriously delicious food here).

Passed on the green Bud Light for a new Third Shift. Pretty tasty.

No lies, I would drink this stuff if it were socially acceptable!

I spent the rest of the night with some Dexter (yeah, back on this train again) and measuring fabric for my mini bolts for the Better Block. As you can see, a lot of nonstop randomness going on around our house. I guess it's not a terrible thing...for now.

Left, mini bolts of fabric. Right, "spools" of lace for sale.

Thrifty Thursdays

A big thanks to my friend Krista who went to a great estate sale with me last weekend in West Ghent. She was the one who first spotted the cabinet full of buttons, which I immediately snagged. The whole cabinet was suppose to sell with all the contents, but I worked a deal for all these buttons for only $9. The condo has not been updated since probably, 1963, but I find comfort and a little excitment in 'old house smell.'

This isn't even all of them! I've already set aside a bunch (and snaps and pinking sheers) for Kitsch's next swap meet. Aren't those big green ones amazing? I can't wait to attach those to some hair clips! In a quick estimate I got more than 100 buttons...there were also many more in a separate jar we found in random box.

The thing I admire most about the older accessories, is the packaging. The typography and colors are fantastic. Now everything is just boring white...no design excitement!

I also found these super retro book name plates in a pile of paper goods. A bag of four different designs for $1. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them...well, I know a few will be going to Thomas for his book collection. There was a huge box of various-sized envelopes, loads of illustrated postcards with greetings for every occasion and party invitations. It's a good thing we were on our bikes, or that box would be wiggling itself into my closet somehow. All in all, it was a nice morning ride with lots of vintage goods in tow. Not to mention, lots of new earring accessories coming soon!

Thrifty Thursday

I scored this sweet 1960s encyclopedia from the CHKD for 98 cents!
It's the letter A volume (for Ashley, of course ;) so new greeting cards featuring Africa, animals, airlines and so much more are in the works. 

In other greeting card news, I just finished these baby-themed four packs. I got Mike to chuckle from quite a few of the saying and photo combos, so I'm thinking they're gonna be a hit. Find them at Kitsch this weekend!

30 Days of Lists

Remember the 30 Days of Lists project I did last September? I've signed up to do it again. And this year is going to be even bigger and better, more than 100 participants have signed up. I've decided to change up my routine this year and make the whole book ahead of time, that way I just have to read the prompts every morning, write in my response and blog it. It'd be too much work everyday with the new job, blog, and two freelance jobs I'm in the middle of currently.

 

If you're interested in joining the fun, you have until the end of the month. It's $8, but you get chances to win fun prizes and meet all sorts of great, creatives in the blogosphere. Just go here and follow the instructions.

I'm tackling the second annual 92 Days of Summer list.
See the full post and list here and comment
if you want to help me cross a off a few!