Plover Flagship Store!

Our shelves are made of wood we "reclaimed" from our backyard

Big, big news from the land of Plover Organic: we've opened our very first retail store, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle!

Exact address: 5306 Ballard Ave. NW, Seattle WA 98107. (We share a space with the fabulous Cugini Cafe, so don't be confused!)

If you're in Seattle, come by and see us. We've got loads of sample sale goodies, misprints and other deals that aren't available on the website. Fun!

Our "soft opening" was last week, but we'll have an official grand opening party later this summer when we bring in a slew of brand-new merchandise. (Can't say just yet what it will be, but suffice it to say there will be something for everyone.)

It was truly a family affair in getting the story ready and open, and it's hard to believe we did it. Special thanks to Alison, the new addition to our team, for her merchandising expertise and these awesome pics she snapped of the store.

Thank you, Martha Stewart!

There's Plover, top right side!

Very many thanks to Martha Stewart Living magazine and Crafts Editor Blake Ramsey for featuring Plover's new Charm Packs in their April 2011 issue. They sewed the 5" squares together and made scented sachets from them! I'd never have thought to do that, but now I'll have to make them and fill with lavender buds. Lovely. Our Charm Packs are for sale here if you want to follow suite.

April 2011

America, 1939-1943

The cuteness—kids sleeping at a square dance in OK. Photo by Russell Lee

School children in New Mexico singing, 1940. Photo by Russell Lee

This was not at all what I'd planned to blog about, but I was browsing the Hermitage site (you must check out Hermitage if you're ever in the market for amazing, artful wallpaper) and saw a link to gorgeously restored photos taken during the American Depression. I know, I know—they're from last summer, not new—but people are still commenting on them, and I swear, the comments are just as great as the photos. Read them! And I must agree with the folks at Hermitage that the colorful prints and patterns the folks in the photos are wearing are alone worth a look. It was the Depression, and yet there's something about those prints that feels more joyful than what we all wear today.

Chopping cotton in Georgia. Photo by Jack Delano