We like to make this venture a family affair.  Our dad, Jim Murphy, a renowned artist, calligraphies our tags, signs and sayings in beautiful script.  The sayings change as the seasons pass.  One day a customer might be greeted by Edna St. Vincent Millay’s gentle words about the coming of spring lettered onto antique primer pages:  “Spring rides no horses down the hill, but comes on foot a goose girl still, and all the loveliest things there be, come simply so it seems to me.”  Another day, a customer is encouraged to join Laura Ingalls Wilder and her sister Mary in a search for purple flag in the creek bottoms.

Jim also creates many of our tags.  A calico slat bonnet is adorned with a tag that offers a snippet from Laura Ingalls Wilder on how she bemoaned that wearing the bonnet only allowed her to see what was directly in front of her.

Our sister Donna also helps with design and treasure hunting.  Once, she found a signed copy of Celia Thaxter’s poetry discarded in the bottom of an old trunk.  She lovingly rescued it and it found its way to a corner of our shop. Our mother, Louise, also lends a helping hand.  You might find her starching an Edwardian petticoat or helping to get the tilt of a straw boater on a costumed dress form just right.