Some messages in letters and postcards are just too precious. Look at this one from 1946! Dear Aunt Ruby, Can't be able to come Sun. Someone informed me I would have to cook a dinner. Love Alice I guess Alice really did not like to cook!

Old paper is great stuff. It's ephemera ... ephemeral ... it was not meant to last ... but when it does it is wonderful stuff! It has history ... texture ... warm colors from gentle aging. We are always finding photo collections, old documents and letters, postal covers, labels and wallpaper. Some of it goes into our mixed media projects, most ends up in our shop for our customers. Now and then we find items that we repatriate with long lost relatives. Old Ledgers ... sold as complete books and as individual pages. Great for everything from wrapping gifts to collages to mixed media art. We just got these in ... customs' documents for seeds sent from Argentina to a researcher at University of California's botany department. The stamps are on both sides. ($15 each, while they last, as we only have five available.) Love bird prints. These here are from a 1950s Audubon portfolio. We have others available. (Most are $18 each.) Old letters make for interes...

One reason I love old ephemera, is that now and then I find true treasures. A while back, we found this marvelous little book … Plants Quadrupeds Birds . It is fully done by hand … all the text is hand printed in watercolor ink and it contains six ink and watercolor illustrations as well. This little book is written and illustrated by Robert Clement Sconce (1787-1846). It is signed simply “Sconce” on the inside of the front cover and was written to Sally from her Papa. Sally is Sarah Susanna “Sally” Sconce Bunbury (1816-1897), who later compiled, annotated and edited the work Life and Letters of Robert Clement Sconce (1861). Numerous passages in that book have Robert Clement Sconce discussing, in letters to his daughter Sally, his drawing and sketching using watercolors. The book begins: Does dear Sally know that while she has been amusing herself gathering Plants, and learning their names, she has been learning Bot...