Happy Friday

Did you all have a good Thanksgiving? I had a crispy flaked catfish Thai salad, it was very good!

Some tidbits:

Very cool-looking illustration show in Williamsburg next Friday, I will be there after work

More on defining art and craft, i like this statement by Lisa Solomon

Just got a copy of Craftivity (thanks Jeffrey!) - looks good

Got more Vynil wall stickers in! I will put the new styles up ASAP. Besides a restock of the Potato Queen, we have a cool Vynil + clockface, a circlet of animals that you can put around your ceiling light fixture like a medallion, some "stitched" letters that you can combine to make text, a curtain of dangling green peashoots to put along your ceiling, and more.

Deliveries

We were visited by every delivery service except for DHL today. Lots of boxes to unload and unpack before the holiday. The Year of White Pages are in and will be sent out to the patient folks who pre-ordered them this month - we pre-sold the whole batch, who knew? - but more are on the way, I promise, and you'll have them before the holidays. We also got more of the Coffee for One sets in stock, more Nikki McClure calendars, more of pretty much everything you love this year.

We also have a few new items. First up, there are cute and very giftable votives from Beccalights, plus more fun travel tins in scents like Kissing Ball and Sparkling Cranberry. Second, we brought in Archipelago Botanicals as they have lovely, intriguing scents in a sturdy gift box at just the right price. The first three scents are "manly" being Burlwood, Bergamot Tobacco and Mocha Cardamom, and the fruitier ones are due in next week. The store smells pretty heavenly right now.

Next are a few gorgeous flameworked glass necklaces from Daa Glass - they are bold and lovely and come on silk cord, leather, and chain in many different sizes and colors. We are lucky to have these on short notice from Daneen, we are short on the glass jewelry (though we have Laurel Denise's great illustrations on glass for you too).

Finally we received a new product, a baby journal from Nikki McClure. If you love her artwork and collect her calendars, you have got to see the journal, truly. We'll be getting these on the website soon.

Next up (besides Thanksgiving) is a newly retooled Pinder laptop bag - they have re-engineered this one to make it even better, we will have them in stock probably next week.

Holiday Sales

Laura from Wren Handmade has gathered over 30 designers for a holiday sale in just a couple weeks, wow! You will be able to find clothing, kids stuff, jewelry, handbags, pretty much everything there. It is on my list!



The Ladies Independent Design League is also having a sale on Smith St in Brooklyn the following weekend, there is a vendor list here.


So many sales to hit next month, it's going to be a good time!

The Rare Guide

Folks, I am dead tired. We prepped dozens of boxes for shipping tonight and it will only be crazier as we get closer to the holidays. I wanted to do a big lovely photo-spread gift guide...and I just don't have the energy. So I will just point out a few things we have in stock, or are readily available, that shouldn't be overlooked.

Elegant Gifts

My top pick is Tonfisk from Finland. Their Warm tea lantern is gorgeous and not to be missed, I think 80% of the in-store shoppers pick this one up to examine it. Tonfisk also has these incredible tealight holders with soft, "melted" ceramic shades and lovely walnut bases.

We also have a couple sets of the Sugahara black glass sake sets back in stock. All three items are very elegant gifts.

Custom Gifts

We do an all silver tag necklace with your word or phrase stamped into it...this is good for the person who has everything, it can be a funny gift or a very sentimental one. Or both! There is also a monogram pillow which is a fun present, in your choice of pillow and ink color (and letter, of course.) Please get your orders in for these by the 10th of December at the latest to give us time to make them for you.

Rena's Faves

Some of my current faves at the shop (and it changes often) are the florentine earring in gold vermeil or sterling silver, and the green leather satchel which is super-soft and just the right size.
green satchel. I am also very fond of the Deadly Squire fabric-covered journal because it has a gilt edge and I'm a sucker for details like that.

That's it for today - we are working hard to get more of the products in the shop up onto the website, expect some updates over the holiday. We are open on Wednesday and closed Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving!

PS: A little preview of items in transit to the store - a Serious Gnome cupcake wall hanging ($85), as it still seems to be the year of the cupcake, and a couple new necklace designs ($42) from ever-popular Fernworks of Seattle.

Sunday Omnibus

My apologies if this store blog is straying rather far from the store, but everything really is connected, you know, and today I have some interesting tidbits for you.

Karin links to this interesting essay that feeds the discussion about craft, design, mass-market, consumerism, and the kitchen sink too. The site has a lot of great links about these discussions and includes a very thoughtful and interesting manifesto as well. Now I learn that Ulla-Maaria is a PhD student studying emerging forms of collaborative design activity. How awesome is that? She is my dream come true!

As Thanksgiving and Black Friday (or Buy Nothing Day) approaches, the NY Times talks to Kate Bingaman, who we have mentioned before, and her Obsessive Consumption project.

We know that Friday you will be out at your favorite mall or shopping strip but alternately we like to think of it as Buy Local Day...what do you think? In SoHo, a very yummy perfumerie that I just wandered into states in their window that Friday will be a day of learning and not shopping. If you are interested in how perfumes are made, you should stop by! I like this idea also...I wish my store was just a smidgen bigger (I say this like a broken record these days) so I could have a big table for learning, it would be so nice to host classes for the neighborhood at Rare Device.