Snail Mail Love: Vintage Stamp Postcards

As well as getting back into the rhythm of stitching and designing stuff, I've also been adding lots of lovely vintage bits and bobs to my shop!

I've been selling vintage things for a couple of years now and I absolutely love it. It's such a joy finding gorgeous and interesting items and then sending them off to their new homes - particularly when customers tell me their purchases are going to be a special gift, or are something they've been looking for for years. 

As the months go by, I'm working out what sells and what doesn't and also what I'm most enjoying selling. I blogged a while back about my new-found obsession with vintage tea towels (I love them so much I've set up an Instagram account devoted to them!), and obviously I'm drawn to all kinds of vintage crafty goodness... but one of the other things I'm really into is vintage stamp postcards.

These cards are known by collectors as "PHQ Cards" - PHQ standing for "Postal Headquarters" because they were originally issued by the Post Office here in the UK (more recently they've been issued by the Royal Mail). 

The Post Office (and later Royal Mail) have been publishing them since the early 1970s: a new set of postcards for each new set of stamps. 

 

I've loved postage stamps since I was a kid and I absolutely adore these postcards. 

They're great for anyone interested in stamps, of course, but they also make fab gifts for people born in the year they were issued, or anyone interested in the theme of the featured set. Pretty much whatever you're interested in Royal Mail have produced stamps connected to that theme!

 

I'm selling sets of totally unused postcards, so you can send a lovely bit of snail mail to your friends. The Christmas and winter-themed sets would make great Christmas cards. 

The cards would also look great framed, either individually if there's a particular stamp design you adore, or as a set. Super affordable vintage art!

Visit my shop to see the postcard sets I currently have available, and do give me a shout if there are any designs in particular that you're interested in as I have plenty more to photograph and list!

Summer Postcard Club

When Marceline from Asking for Trouble announced she was organising a Summer Postcard Club, I signed up straight away.

I have become a terribly lazy letter writer these days, but cards and postcards are so easy to send and such cheerful things to receive. There's nothing quite like a nice bit of proper post, is there? And surprise post = even better!

Here are the postcards I sent for the swap...

 

... featuring The Jolly Postman ("Everybody loves a letter"), William Holman Hunt's Strayed Sheep, a mixtape from The Emma Press, a quilt by Alicia Merrett and a room at the National Gallery.

I've received two postcards so far. One from Southampton:

And one with a felt bunny stitched on it! (So cute!)

It's also been fun seeing my postcards pop up on Twitter and Instagram as people share the cards they're sending and receiving.

I got some #summerpostcardclub mail today! thanks @bugsandfishes and @feltfolk :) pic.twitter.com/yBNcMFMmep

— Marceline Smith (@marceline) July 21, 2015

You can see the postcards being swapped by checking out #summerpostcardclub on Twitter and on Instagram.  

Many thanks to Marceline for organising the swap! Signups for Summer Postcard Club are now closed for 2015, but maybe you could arrange a swap with your friends?

Happy Post

My To Do list this week includes writing lots of postcards!

I've been taking part in a postcard swap over the past few months and it's been so much fun receiving lots of bits of happy post among the usual bills and catalogues...

... that I've decided to spread the postal love and send some cards to my friends, just to say "hello".

I used to send soooo many cards and letters but - like most people, I guess - nowadays I keep in touch with people through things like email, Twitter and Facebook.

Even though I've fallen out of the letter-writing habit I'm still a total sucker for a nice bit of stationery, so I've got plenty of pretty postcards to send. Now I just need to stop faffing about on the internet in the evenings and get writing :)

Pretty Postcards: Decorating My Studio

I've been sent a whole load of lovely postcards recently but had nowhere to display them so I hung up a picture line in my studio/office that I can peg postcards and other happy things to.

 

 

It's great to have a space for displaying the cards and lovely to have a bit of colour and decoration on the bare wall. I do have lots of "proper" pictures waiting to be hung up, but still haven't decided where to hang them (I know, I know). It's nice to have something up on the wall in the meantime.

(I've been watching a lot of cheesy Christmas movies while sewing lately!).

I've also got lots of postcards from my Nice Days Out stuck up on my bookshelves and my pinboard is full of pretty things that never fail to cheer me up when I look up from my desk.

 

 

The opposite wall is totally blank (for the moment) but since I sit with my back to it during my entire working day, it's much less of a priority!

My New Pinboard

After wanting one for ages I finally got a pinboard for my studio last month. I took some photos of it a few weeks ago to show you guys and when I was editing them I realised there were a whole load of projects in shot that I'm not allowed to share yet! Oops. So, finally, here's a photo:

It's so good to get all that paper off my desk! My lovely red desk is next to the window (you can just see the corner of it on the left in that photo) so no room for a pinboard there, but this is the next best thing as I face this wall as I work.

I've also found new homes for the bits and pieces I was keeping on the top of that small shelf unit, so I can use the space as a sort of extension of my desk, with "in progress" piles of paperwork. It's great to have a dedicated space for this stuff instead of just having it cluttering up my desk or the coffee table or (being honest with you here, folks) in a messy heap on the floor.

It's also nice to have a space to pin up a few pretty postcards - though the board itself is currently mostly taken up with boring work stuff like to do lists and bills I need to pay, I've used some polkadot washi tape to stick up some postcards along the side of the tall shelf unit.

I bought these on days out last summer, choosing a postcard or two from each place I visited as a memento, it's nice to have some of them on display instead of stuck in a drawer somewhere...

... and they're a great reminder that I need to plan some more days out this summer!

Treats from Renegade

This weekend I took a trip to London to visit the Renegade craft fair - I was very disappointed to miss it last year, so I was extra excited about going to see all the lovely people selling their crafty wares!

(I can never manage to read on the Tube, so my trusty Walkman is an essential bit of kit for a long journey across the city!)

Everyone was super friendly, and I got to meet and catch up with lots of my crafty chums whom I've "met" online through Etsy and Folksy and blogging. It's always so good to finally meet people in person, and have a good natter :)

I scoped out a few new-to-me shops for some potential Christmas shopping later this year, and treated myself to some cards and notebooks (always useful) from a whole bunch of sellers...

... A cute foxy "drink tea & eat cake" card from Kayleigh O'Mara, and happy star and sunshine cards from Debbie Greenaway...

(I also bought one of Debbie's adorable hedgehog brooches, which my mum has already stolen! I was showing her the lovely things I'd bought and when she saw the hedgehog she just fell in love, so I had to gift it to her!)

 

... A couple of postcards (You've Got to Be Kind to Yourself & One Step at a Time) from Art Equals Happy, and a very cute cat notebook from Zosienka & Rosie.

... A peacock postcard & a little notebook for writing lists from Lovely Pigeon, and a tea & biscuit themed card for a friend from Mellybee.

... A printed Moleskine notebook from Finest Imaginary and a sweet mini notebook made from a vintage postcard from Ladybird Likes. I don't think I'm going to run out of notebooks for a while!

 

Here are a few more of the business cards, etc, that I came home with... from Zeena, John of The Bungaloo, and Sarah of Magasin...

...  Rebecca of Charming Little Picture... plus some mini London-themed cross stitch patterns from CrossStitcher Magazine.

I was also very pleased to finally meet the lovely fellas from Folksy, after having a shop on the site for so many years (I was Folksy user number 12 when I signed up way back in 2008!). I thought the cardboard postbox on their stall was especially ace & I couldn't resist pinching one of their "Golly!" cards, which were actually for people to fill in their email address to sign up for the Folksy newsletter (shhh, don't tell! no-one will find out now I've posted it on my blog, er...). Folksy is so often described by sellers as "the British Etsy", and I find the quirky Britishness of their branding / marketing style very appealing (and I would totally buy a pack of postcards like this).

And as if all that wasn't enough fun for the day, I also got to have a cuppa with the lovely Genevieve of Floss & Mischief who sells very cool cross stitch kits & patterns.

Hurrah! :)

July Bits & Bobs

Hello there! Things continue to be a bit quiet around here as I'm still suffering from creative block (ugh), but I've got a few snaps to share of things I've been up to lately...

My shops are all still open, so I've been keeping up my usual routine of parcel-packing and posting a few times a week. I like listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks while I'm packing up my orders and I'm currently 3/4s of the way through Dumb Witness. I'm so familiar with the plots of these books, and they're so light and gentle-paced that I can half-listen to them easily while I'm focused on writing customer addresess, etc. 

I have been doing a little bit of sewing here and there despite my creative block - I finished a batch of small poppy brooches earlier this week. The poppies have always been one of my favourite designs to sew.

Unfortunately I hurt my hand a couple of weeks ago and had to stop knitting for a bit, so I've fallen a bit behind with my sky blanket. I'm still taking careful note of the sky colours each day though... there continues to be an awful lot of grey!

I've been trying to switch off the laptop as much as possible when I'm not working, as part of a wider effort to develop more regular & less workaholic-y working habits. Being self-employed it is all too easy to get into the habit of just working all the time and not properly "switching off" from work, but I'm trying to make a determined effort to stop work at a set time in the evening & take proper days off (just a small bit of emailing in the morning and evening on my days off, which honestly can't really be helped when you're running an online business which is "open" 24/7).

So instead of reading blogs I've been reading stacks of library books, and instead of writing emails to friends I'm doing my best to send them cards & write them proper letters. I'm currently reading Philip Pullman's Northern Lights (a.k.a. The Golden Compass) which is just ace. I am a huge fan of novels like this and read soooo many of them as a teenager, that I am completely amazed / slightly baffled that it's taken me so long to get around to reading the His Dark Materials trilogy! Mmm... lovely books...

On my days off I've been enjoying the slightly unseasonal pleasure of curling up with lots of blankets, reading books or watching DVDs. The "day bed" in my studio is covered in comfy cushions and cosy blankets, including the giant granny square blanket which I crocheted last year. The double-bed sized blanket was my very first crochet project, and a huge amount of fun to make. I finished sewing in the ends just before I suddenly moved house last autumn & it's been packed up in a box ever since... it's very nice to finally be using it, and I think it looks rather snazzy with those vintage florals! I must remember to try to get a photo of the full finished blanket in all its stripey glory sometime :)

I've also been going on some day trips - yay! I'm currently living a mere hour and a half from central London so I'm trying to get up to town as often as possible for trips to galleries and museums and to meet up with friends and some of the lovely folks I've got to know through Etsy over the years. I've been buying a postcard or two from each place I've been to, as a little memento of my travels...

... with so many great galleries & museums (almost) on my doorstep I'm determined to visit as many of them as I can while I'm living here! The Natural History Museum is next on my list, and then after that I'll be giving London a miss for a few weeks while the Olympics are on and going to places like Oxford & Windsor instead. You can see Windsor Castle from my parents house on a clear day, and as local residents we get free entry (yay!) but I haven't been for at least 15 years. I am quite looking forward to it.

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Paperchase Pretties

We went to Bath for the day last week, for a bit of shopping and a lot of pressing our noses against the windows of shops so expensive we didn't dare go in them for the sake of our bank balances!

The boyfriend picked up a few bargain charity shop books and I bought a new dress and treated myself to some lovely paper goods from Paperchase. I can never resist a branch of Paperchase.

Letterpress notecards covered in teacups (I'm so predictable!) ...


... and a Sukie postcard covered in birds:


I've got a trio of large Sukie handkerchiefs which we use for wrapping our sandwiches for packed lunches and picnics, decorated with patterns of moths, leaves and birds. The birdie one is definitely my favourite, and the more times I look at that postcard the more I think it would be a good idea to keep it and frame it...

Postcard packs for sale!

I've had such a great response to my cards that I've decided to list a pack of three rainbow postcards (& three white envelopes) over in my Etsy shop:
If they prove popular I'll be adding them to my other shops, and I might offer some more postcard packs too... Please do let me know what you think, and if there are any of my photos (or designs from my shops) that you'd like to see as postcards!

Moo Cards

I treated myself to some lovely cards from Moo this week. I bought some business cards with my blog, website, email, etc info on the back...
... and some really glossy postcards which I'm going to use as notecards.
I'm really pleased with how they turned out (the colours look fantastic) and I can't wait to start sending them to people.