The Shop. Downtown Kalona, Iowa. Where 4 Businesses Collide.

Simply Rooted has joined up with three other women to open The Shop in Downtown Kalona. It is located at 424 B Ave. Open 10-4 Wed thru Sat. 

It all started on a cool day at the What Cheer flea market, Karen and I ran into another young girl who was a junker. Her name was Emma from Stew's Vintage Goods. It was junk-love at first sight. Then, on a cold day at Junk Jubilee I ran into the best staged logo I have ever seen at a junk show: it was Kate from Fig & Farm. Together with Karen and I, we would prove to be an awesome foursome.... A business foursome ... That is magical.

So, a beautiful building opened up in downtown Kalona, and we took the leap. Got started on the work of opening a retail store.... And the rest is history.

Here are some highlights!

Before

The Count Down Begins!

22 days until the big show!  I hope you have your Calendars marked for Nov 16th and 17th.
It's Junk Jubilee! It's all that junkers in Iowa can talk about!

Karen and I have been working like maniacs to get our items ready for the show!
We're bringing our A-game! Come and check out our booth!

Farm Girl Finds

We're excited to be vendors at The Calico Press Market near Birmingham IA on Oct 13th from 8 til 5.
Directions will come soon!

Ball Jar Love

Mason Jars are the new thing. Who knew that young mainstream culture would embrace relics?
I'm totally into it. With our economy tanking, it is high time we all grouped together to savor the objects of old.

My embracing of the ball jar started in preparation for my wedding. The Ball jar is an old-fashioned decor that is easy to come by in rural Iowa. I started collecting the "blue-green-ish" colored ones -- because they're beautiful. And, after getting a hold of enough, I found that some of the jars had no lip at the top under the lid, and had thicker glass and air bubbles in the glass. Turns out, those are the older antique jars that dated before 1910! Who knew? Bob Clay knew. He wrote a paper on the history of the Ball company. Check it out here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~raclay/DatingBalljars.HTML

And here's his reference guide to date the jars according to the emblem style. How handy. Thank you Bob.
Enjoy.