I spent a month in the States over Christmas and New Year, visiting family in California and the Pacific Northwest. While staying with my sister and her family in Portland, I read an article about Amy Smith and Goosey Press, in their local newspaper The Oregonian. Just one of the things I love about traveling is coming across new-to-me stationers and presses, and the story of Goosey Press is a good one.
It started at an outdoor antique fair one soggy May afternoon during a vacation in New England. Founder Amy Smith was sifting through a basket of vintage children's books when she discovered something special — a turn-of-the-century, torn, tattered and extremely well-loved copy of the Original Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Amy Smith leafed through the 1880s collection of familiar rhymes and prints. Frolicking children. The cow jumping over the moon. Old King Cole. The old lady in the shoe with far too many children and not enough food. Over the next 10 days, as Amy and her husband drove through New England and Canada before returning to their home in Oregon, she couldn't stop perusing the pages of bygone images. "These silhouettes are so cool; they would make great greeting cards and wrapping paper," she thought. With reams of ribbon to match. And gift tags. And invitations. And so it was that Goosey Press came to be…