How the banner came to be

Ethel at her perch

'Terez?!' you exclaim. 'Where did you get that fantastic blog banner?'

Well, settle down. I'll get to that. But first I want to introduce you to someone: Ethel, the proprietress of the blast-from-the-past-time-warp-spectacular: Irvings's Toy & Card Shop.

Irving's on Harvard in Brookline

Ethel Weiss, 95 (!), is a Brookline treasure. She has been running her toy and gift shop for over 70 years. Yes, 7-0. Seven decades. Not much has changed here. The penny candy is now 10, 15 and 25 cents, but that's about it.

Ethel employs just one: herself, and she doesn't take credit cards. Her cash register has punch buttons and makes a satisfying whirl-click-ring as she tallies your purchases.

Staff of one at the register

You can barely make out the numbers but my last spree at Irving's (named for her late first husband who opened the store with her in 1939) set me back a whopping $15.62. Ethel remembered me from last week when I came in to purchase two packs of gold foiled, gummed 1/2 inch letters.

If you've seen the packaging for my shop, you know I adore gold.

I found the letters in a dusty cardboard box/treasure trove. The letters were $1.99 a set, plus tax.

You know when you pick up something and realize you may never get a chance to restock it? I kept thinking about the letters. And the card shop. And the cute little red foil hearts I left behind. I realized: another trip was in order:

Gummed foil hearts, letters, stars

Two more packs of letters, two packs of hearts, three packs of 2" gummed foil silver stars and one pack of six-vintage die-cut red arrows, one conversation, five photos and $15.62 later, I was in business.


I dug around in the box of letters until I spelled out C-H-E-Z--T-E-R-E-Z. A few photos later, sprinkled with some magic performed by TheKimKitch's KRR via Photoshop and we had it:

Ta da!

I love it. Don't you love it? I love opening up the blog and seeing the letters gleaming back at me. Big! Bold! Brassy! Classy!

Back to Ethel. I purchased all of her letters. "Do you want me to get you some more?" she asked. "I would," I said, "but where on earth can you still find those?"

"Oh I know someone who deals in vintage office supplies," she said. "He sells his late father's store's inventory. We go back 70 years."

XO Terez