Our family had a paper company which sold fine paper goods to printers for years and years. Almost 100 to be exact. Sadly, it went the way of Puff the Magic Dragon when the digital age came sweeping in during the 90's, and printing companies started to disappear.

Our store also sold an amazing array of gift wrap and ribbons, as well as paper items from companies like Beistle and Dennison. My favorites were the stickers and the glitter. In the back of the store it was dark and noisy. Sounds from the panel card press creating wedding announcements, and the huge whoosh of the blade on the electric guillotine cutter kept me company as I dug through dusty boxes filled with treasures. Dad would let me pick out whatever I wanted, give me bits of paper and I would sit at home for hours deep in thought and gluey fingers licking and sticking tiny pictures and ribbon onto scraps of paper.

My grandmother once said to me, "Kathleen, you were always a fairy tale child." Fairy tales coupled with a love of cast off treasures, old books, crazy ideas and I'm off and running with Alice and the white rabbit. My ideas can come from new books at the library where I work, as well as a trip to the flea market. Add an odd sense of humor and I'm in the Tardis with the Doctor, a dragon, Dorothy and Toto!

It's been a wonderful trip through this Etsy fairy tale. I've made friends and sent tiny pieces of my heart out into the world for others to have and to hold. Our small family paper company is gone, but it's soul is with me to this day. And if I had a place to have put that old guillotine cutter, I'd still have the background music to go with it.