It has taken us a few weeks to get it ready, but it's been a really fun and interesting process. We're starting small, and we haven't got all the kinks worked out, but we've learned a few things along the way that we thought were worth sharing. And, within 12 hours of opening we had our first sale - whoopie!
We had a good reason for opening the shop - we decided that we had amassed too much crafty goodness! We love our stash, but we just have too much. We kept thinking - wouldn't a craft swap store, a place were you could sell craft supplies that are great but just aren't getting used - be a fab idea? If only there were such a store...ok, we'll open one then! And we thought it would be wonderful to have a place to share our creative efforts - patterns and kits and the like that we created.
So, What's in a Name
Milleseme et Mercerie. What does this mean? Why did we choose it?
This picture was taken last summer - towards the end of a fabulous trip we took to England and Paris. This picture, in fact, was taken in Paris, on the Pont Alexandre III:
So, Mom likes Paris - and French! We liked the notion of a Mercantile, or a Dry Goods Store, and we liked the notion of Notions. We love things that have a vintage feel - and are actually vintage. We spent a few days tossing around words and ideas, and then came up with the idea of putting these words into Google Translate (total aside - as a teacher with a HIGH population of ELL students I found this invaluable!) and our store name was born - a vintage haberdashery!
Detour to Paris
Speaking of fabulous haberdasheries, if you are ever in Paris, we STRONGLY recommend you go here:
Why didn't I take any pictures in this store?!? Oh, I know...because I was too astounded by the store to do anything but SHOP!!! Here are some of the goodies:
There is so much more...they also sell their yarn by weight - I love that! The interior of the store is lined mountains of yarn, bolts of beautiful fabric, baskets, glass bottles, and wooden cabinets full of buttons, feathers, felt and findings. GO!!!
Back to our shop!
We are slowly building up our inventory - by combing through our stash and saying - oh, someone else will love this! Each entry takes a bit of time - the pictures have to be just so, and the wording as well. We are practicing our Search Engine Optimization - choosing the best search terms so that people can find our shop. As it turns out, when Google sends it's little search bots out into the ether, they only look at the first 40 characters of a listing. Who knew? As it turns out, Tim Adam knew! We've read his book on opening an Etsy shop and we found it very useful. If Etsy selling is in your future, I would recommend reading it. Did I mention that we made a sale in less than 12 hours?
Here is a sampling of some of our current inventory. Please check back from time to time, and see if we've added something new that just HAS to come live at your house - until you turn it into something beautiful!
No comments:
Post a Comment