Callaloo Soup

A Few New Vintage Treasures in the Shop!

Now that we are learning more about our new area, and the weather is getting better, the vintage hunt is on with bi-weekly trips of late. I am acquiring things faster than I can list them! Here are a few of the recent additions to the shop.

Antique French Dictionary from 1932. I love that is is called the "new" dictionary. Oh and it's the petit edition too!

This one truly is petit - a New Testament from 1895

If you love rustic style kitchens

check out this pair of country kitchen wooden tools

I was delighted to find 4 of these vintage leather coin purses. Two of them have already been snapped up! I think they would make lovely Mother's Day gifts, or a gift for any woman who loves vintage items.

I am updating the shop every Thursday with at least two items. I plan to pick up the pace in a couple weeks, and will aim to list an item a day until the shop is fully stocked! So keep checking, as you never know what little treasure I will find on my hunts.

Some New Items in the Shop!

Hi all! It's been a while since I have shared about my shop on Etsy. I've been adding new items recently, as well as new variations of old favourites.

By far the shop bestseller is my pack of 20 vintage book pages, and I have now added a new listing of a pack of 10 large pages from vintage encyclopedia and music books

The pages measure around 10" x 13". so they are great for larger projects.

I now also have a paper crafter's vintage pack available.

This pack is great for card makers, scrapbookers, mixed media artists and also for DIY weddings! It comes chock full :-

The kit contains:
15 vintage book pages (10 small, 5 large), 
3 yards of vintage trim, 
a handful of vintage buttons, 
1 vintage doily, 
1 vintage seed packet, 
6 vintage game pieces 
and one spool of embroidery thread.

If you love the look of the seed packet above, you can get yourself an entire set! Perfect for Spring projects

Not a fan of paper? How about these darling bowls? They are by Arcopal, which is basically the French Pyrex.

Or maybe a vintage apron is more your style?

I add new items to the shop every Thursday (that's today!), so go on over to check out what other treasures are to be found.

To keep up with all the shop news you can Like the Callaloo Soup page on Facebook, or follow Callaloo Soup Shops on Twitter.

A Sneak Peek, a Free Spring Poster & Some Important Information

I'm a couple days late with this (it's been that kind of week), but here is a sneak peek at my layout for the April write.click.scrapbook gallery.

Get even more sneaks from other team members.

Christine | Valerie | Jennifer | Lisa | Katie | Aliza | Diane

The gallery goes live on April 1st! (and that's not a prank).

So I have a question for you: have you "Liked" the Callaloo Soup page on Facebook? You really should, you know. Especially since right now you will get access to this free printable Spring poster.

I designed it to complement my printable posters in my Designs shop on Etsy, and even though it is meant for toddlers and pre-schoolers, it totally works for adults too! I'm pretty sure I will be doing this very soon with Kieran. If you already Like the page you can get the poster by clicking on the Freebies section. New fans will get the link to download once you click the Like button. So: Go. Like. Now.

Also, have you heard that Google Reader will be shutting down come July? Don't panic, you can still get all the Callaloo Soup goodness. I have a few options for you: You can follow me on BlogLovin', or use Feedly. Both these sites will import all your blogs from Google Reader! If you prefer to get things in your e-mail, you can subscribe using this link.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and good gardening weather. Knock on wood. What are you looking forward to?

 

Pretty Packaging | When Appearances Do Matter

I love wrapping gifts so much that sometimes I think I look forward to that part of gift giving the most! I've shared some of my gift wrapping ideas before, and will definitely be doing another post about that as the holidays approach.

What's great about running my shops on Etsy is that I get to gift wrap my customers' purchases too! it's definitely one of my favourite parts of having an online boutique. For my vintage shop I love to use my stash of vintage supplies for packaging. Not only does it convey the feel of Callaloo Soup Vintage, but it's also a way of showing my customers ideas for using some of their purchases. Here are some packages that have been sent off this year.

Baker's twine, paper doily and butterfly confetti

Vintage book page and baker's twine

Glassine envelope, flower confetti and washi tape

Paper Doily and baker's twine

Punched book page hearts

Every package includes butterfly confetti and a thank you card

Paper doily and washi tape too!

I love confetti

And there are also little extras too!

 

Clown toothpicks :)

There's just nothing like receiving a pretty package in the mail, is there?

Franny Freebie | Crafters' Delight Printable Posters

Because I have a weird sense of humour, a couple years ago I came up with this poster

The idea to sell them was an epic fail, and I decided to just take them out of the shop. Then it hit me: some people actually liked the poster so why not offer it up to those with the same quirky sense of humour?

 Just click the image below to go to the download of a PDF file. I originally also made the poster available in two coloured backgrounds (pink and aqua) with white text. Having just seen the new Spring 2013 Pantone Colors I have added even more background options! To get additional colours you will need to Like the Callaloo Soup Facebook page.

Woohoo! You can print them in any colour to match your craft room decor. These are for personal use only, but you can print them as many times as you like, as long as you're not selling them (or the file).You could have a crafting party and give these out as favours!

You can feel free to tell your friends about the download, but please don’t distribute the zip file. Instead you can direct them to the original download link on my blog.

I hope this gives you as much as a giggle as it does me.

 

How my Love of Story & Research Combine with my Vintage Passion

It's no secret that I love French vintage items, and that I especially love heading off to the Sunday markets in search for more treasures to share. But I also love the process involved in getting the lovelies photographed and listed in the shop.

Vintage Craft Magazines

I won't list anything until I have done my research and learned all I can about an item. As I was doing just that recently, and sighing to myself in pleasure, I tweeted that I just couldn't explain what it was exactly about French vintage that makes me so happy. As I continued to research and list a few items I realised that a big part of it for me is the story. This shouldn't be surprising, as the story is also my main motivation for my other passion, scrapbooking.

I just love learning things about all the items I find, and imagining the ways that they may once have been used. Plus during my research I come across so many interesting triva tidbits. For instance, did you know that the Etch-a-Sketch is actually a French invention? Neither did I! It was first called the Télécran, then renamed for the US market in the early 1960s.

Vintage Télécran at Callaloo Soup Vintage

Also there is an interesting history behind all those colourful medication boxes, having to do with the law changing and allowing the pharmacies to advertise (look for a more detailed blog post on this soon).

Vintage Blue Metal Pharmacy Box

While researching this box, I also learned that there is a French word for the hobby of collecting metal boxes: boxoferrophilie!

History and movie trivia too!

Vintage Rocking Desk Blotter

Desk blotters apparently have played an important part of the plot of Sherlock Holmes books and films like The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter!

So tell me, what is it that you love about vintage?

Going Offline for a While & Popular Posts

Hello friends, over the next 10 days or so I will be scarce in the online world as I spend some time with the family. I will post when/if I can but it will be mostly crickets around here! In the mean time why not check out the 10 most visited posts on Callaloo Soup last month?

Spiral Bound Journal Tutorial

Spiral Bound Smash Style Book

Map Monogram

Easy Tassel Garland

Journals and Notebooks and Jotters, Oh My!

A Primer for Pinning

Kieran's Super Simple Birthday Party

Denim Capri Restyle

Easy Book Page Garland

10 Photos from the Flea Market

 

Don't worry, during this time both the Callaloo Soup Vintage and Callaloo Soup Designs shops will remain open. However items will only be shipped out starting July 20th. As a special thank you please use the code TAKE17 in either shop for 17% off your purchases.

Thank you for being a regular reader of Callaloo Soup!

Overcoming my Fear of Putting Myself Out There

It may not be obvious from my "online persona", but I am a fairly shy and introverted person. In fact I am thankful for the Internet, because it allows me to do many things that I probably would never do in person. Like open two shops, and talk to strangers - which is essentially what I am doing through this blog, Facebook and Twitter.

But even though I am "protected" by my computer, it is still difficult for me to put myself out there and go for things I want. Classic fear of rejection I guess. But my word for the year is Action, and that is propelling me to do things that I wouldn't normally feel comfortable doing (like self-promotion which always makes me feel somewhat icky).

One of the things I've been wanting to do for some time is to submit at least one of my shops to a curated exhibition. These exhibitions are great for exposure, but of course I just kept telling myself that my stuff wasn't up to scratch, no one would be interested in my silly little vintage shop, not to mention my photography is so basic and not half as cool as all the other items I see displayed. Eventually I got tired of listening to my own crap and tremulously submitted my shop to papernstitch. And I made it!

 

The papernstitch exhibition is a monthly one that is curated by Brittni Mehlhoff. Brittni selects a lovely variety of handmade and vintage shops to showcase every month. Some of the ones that caught my eye this month are That's the Cutest Thing, theLOVEstitch, Parsimonia and Gardenmis

I am exceedingly stoked that my little shop is featured in such great company and will be until July 8th. I am also offering a special discount code that is valid until July 15th. So head on over to check out my shop as well as the other exhibitors.

Let's call this one tiny step for me in the right direction. It definitely encourages me to be a little bit braver! And I hope that maybe it will help you do something you have been afraid of trying.

Paper, Paper Everywhere! Both Modern & Vintage

Happy Friday friends! This week I have been busy creating and adding even more items to my Vintage and Design shops on Etsy.

Do you remember my ode to journals and notebooks from last year? Well I now have a set of three kraft jotters up in the Designs shop!

I've also been busy working on designs of my spiral peek folded journal and have two that will be listed by the end of the day.

I made some adjustments to the original design by making the spine bigger, as well as reinforcing it on the inside.

As far as vintage paper goes, I started listing vintage French magazines from the 60s and 70s.

I have so much fun coming up with ways to photograph the items. It leaves my house in a bit of a disarray, as I grab furniture and chochkies to use, but the final result is always worth it!

These magazines, which are still published today have been around since 1919, and just might be the original French crafting magazine, with crochet, knitting and sewing projects, as well as recipes. Here's a peek

They remind me a bit of Ladies' Home Journal in the US. Plus the advertisements make for some good reading!

So as far as paper is concerned, are you vintage or modern?

My May in Numbers

French Vintage Game Pieces at Callaloo Soup Vintage

This year is barreling along so quickly! I was doing some reflecting on the past little while, and decided to try to document the last month in numbers.

In May I:

wrote 14 blog posts

took 475+ photos

celebrated 1 birthday (and turned 44)

planted 12 flowering plants

scrapbooked a measly 2 layouts (I have GOT to do better than that)

got 5 sales on Etsy

went to 2 flea markets

read 4 books (on the Kindle!)

 

What does your May in Numbers look like?