Vintage Cashmere in Atlanta

A shout out to our dear friend and fellow Willows, Jen Sertl of Angelina Accoutrements, who has a trunk show at Mark Shale in Atlanta this weekend. Jen designs the most beautiful, sensual women's clothing and accessories, all repurposed from vintage cashmere.

To make her goods even more enticing, 10-20% of each purchase
from the current offerings page of her web site is donated to Amani ya Juu, a ministry that teaches sewing skills to refugee women in Nairobi, Kenya so that they can provide for themselves and their families.

Good luck in Atlanta Jen!

For more information, contact Jen here.

Sharon

Winslow's Home & Farm

I have been meaning to do a post on Winslow's Home & Farm, a wonderful new St. Louis store, for a long time. Now that our products are being sold there, all the more reason!

Winslow's is a true general store. You can walk in and purchase items as diverse as a ticking striped market bag, all-natural suntan lotion or a Swedish salad spinner (all of which I purchased on my first visit). In addition to carrying merchandise of the magnificent as well as the mundane type, Winslow's is a restaurant, with a rotating dinner menu, yummy breakfast and lunch entrees (and great coffee, of course) and the most mouth-watering, gorgeous and delectable baked goods I have had in St. Louis.

If you are in the area, drop by if you can. It really is a wonderful experience and unique in St. Louis.

Thanks to Tyler of Periwinklebloom for the use of her wonderful photos.

Sharon

Secret Leaves is big in Bulgaria!

We are featured in two magazines right now--one of them, interestingly, is a Bulgarian publication called Intro. As nearly as I can tell, it is a cross between Vanity Fair, People and InStyle. So there we are, four full pages of color photos, wedged right between Snoop Dogg, Metallica and a bunch of pretty Bulgarian boys wearing the latest edgy fashions.

Sadly, as it is in Cyrillic (or some other language that we can't read), we have no idea what it says. No matter...the spread looks great and we are very grateful to Tanya at Intro for featuring us and for sending us a copy of the mag all the way from Bulgaria.

We are also featured in the September/October issue of St. Louis At Home magazine. It is a gorgeous issue and we are thrilled to be included.

A big thanks to editor Christy Marshall, writer Stefene Russell and photographer Whitney Curtis of At Home for the wonderful job they did on the feature.

Love to all,
Sharon and Ann

Country by Mail - gorgeous Swedish style

We would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our customers. We recently filled an order for Maria at countrybymail.se. Maria is the proprietor of a gorgeous Swedish web store by the same name. We were so thrilled when our products showed up on her site, because they were so beautifully styled and photographed. See for yourself:

These Take Cover Journals were selected for Maria's store with her soft color palette and French-influenced style in mind. We think they fit perfectly with her look!

Here are a couple of other Secret Leaves items on Maria's site:

And finally, some of her other beautiful items:

If you have not visited her site, do yourself a favor and take a look. And if you are reading this from Sweden...buy something for gosh' sake!

Sharon

Around our studio

Here are some shots from around our studio.

Stack of recycled paper for Scrap Journals.

Really old books

Made by hand.

Stamps Good

Spiced Grapes

Old books...are you beginning to detect a theme?

(Very) old German paper

Stack of Take Cover covers waiting to be bound.

Scrap Journal stack with props

We heart old stuff.

Sharon