52nd City

Holiday Fluff

All of my holiday shopping is complete. Yes, every last gift has been wrapped and shipped or stuffed in the appropriate stocking. All my cards are in the mail. While I’d like to sit back and coast through the remainder of the year…I can’t. We’re launching a major new application at work and I’m the project manager. My mind is like marshmallow fluff and peanut butter, clogged with all kinds of unrelated thing, good and bad. Here are some.

j.marie purses, crafted by J. Marie Bannerot-McInerney, are precious little beauties—I’m telling you. They were at the Independent Art Market last weekend. There were so many I wanted that I couldn’t decide, which was a good thing since this is not the time of year I like to spend money on myself—but I hope you did. If not, I think you can find her items at The Time on the corner of Manchester and Marshall in Maplewood.

Tiny Showcase offers high quality limited edition teeny tiny prints at teeny tiny prices. A new artist is showcased each week, but they always sell out before I can get one. So I really shouldn’t be letting you all in on my secret, but the idea is too great not to share. I think they are out of Rhode Island.

Rob Stewart, a Rod Stewart tribute act, will be performing at the Casino Queen on New Year’s Eve. I can’t decide if this is hilarious or depressing, but I’m leaning towards depressing. I almost want to go for the people watching. I mean, who rings in the New Year this way? Who?

And finally, rejection letters. I have to write them for Mad Art Gallery. We get submissions from university professors who have shown all over the world along with untrained watercolorists specializing in unicorns high jumping over planets—no lie. I take the time to write something personal to everyone and it is very difficult. I once received a very nasty letter from an acquaintance after spending an inordinate amount of time on a letter that I thought was encouraging, even though we couldn’t show his work in the near term. After that, I found this great article about rejection letters on Picklebird.

Like I said…all sort of unrelated, but things that I’ve been wanting to spill.