Happy New Year!!

Thank you all for your support during our first year!!

Another Christmas come and gone

We always enjoy out time together on Christmas, relaxing with the boys and feeling thankful for all we have.  But…

I am seriously annoyed with the quality of toys these days, and I am on a mission to let the makers know about it.  The last few years we have had so many toys that were so poorly constructed that two days after Christmas they end up in the garbage.  This year is no exception. 

Santa brought one of my sons a set of drums, which he bought at Target, they are by a company called Little Lyon.  On the box it shows what looks to be a quality drum set.  When you take it out of the box it is completely different, some of the pieces wouldn’t even fit together as they were supposed to, it was as if no one had ever tested this thing out.  I contacted the company that makes it and have so far gotten no response.  I contacted Target and they said they’d tell their quality team and thanks for shopping. 

Next came the Spiderman Water Drawer that some kind aunt sent to the boys.  The first time they used it it fell apart.  I tried to take it back to ToysRUs but they won’t take opened products even with a reciept and even though it is obviously defective.

The list could go on — walkie talkie watches that don’t work, Hot Wheels sets that are nearly impossible to put together, overpriced science labs that don’t function right (I’m way better off with vinegar and baking soda), but I’ll stop before I just sound nasty.

Except one other thing.  I bought each of the boys a new Crayola product that turns black paper into a rainbow of color to entertain them during Christmas Eve services.  After two pages the marker stopped working.  Crayola however, is a very good company and when I called (after 20 minutes on hold) they apologized, said they would look into it, and they are sending out some coupons for another product.  That impressed me, love Crayola.

Maybe next year, here at Planet Art, I’ll try to get some quality hand made sturdy toys.

And the winner is…

The Yuletide Spectacular party was great (thanks for all the birthday wishes too).  Most of the artists involved were here meeting everyone and talking about their work, including: Scott Hunter, John Hinderliter, Aileen Lampman, Susan Haas, Robin Schoss, and Vi Laux.  I brought over 6 dozen cookies and baked by the ladies of Park Entrance Drive and they were gone by the end of the night.

Alex Kaufman played guitar, I had never actually heard him before Saturday night, but he was really great.  He says he might play here again next month if you missed him.  He also teaches at Empire Guitar up the street.

Aileen drew the winning ticket for the raffle of her pendent and the winner is Fritz Schardt.  Fritz came in and picked up the piece and really seemed excited about winning it, it going to be a birthday gift for his lovely wife, nice.  (Hmm, hope she doesn’t read this!!  I’ve never been good at keeping secrets.)

Blogging

After talking to Rich from Aldo Coffee I realize that I’ve let this blog become to commericial. I’m new to this whole blogging business and it’s tough sometimes to find that happy medium between letting everyone know about events and new art and discussing the daily happenings of the gallery.

I think I may talk to some of the artist about helping to contribute to the blog. Let us know how a painting is coming along each day, the ups and downs of it, the joy when it walks out the door with someone who loves it. Stuff like that.

I was talking to Rich because he is an expert blogger and I am interested in starting a blog that is all about events in Mt. Lebanon, but now I realize that there is a blogging etiquite. I sent off an event to I Heart Pittsburgh and they said I need to be more conversational, that’s kind of tough when really what you are doing is telling people about an event. Apparently, you aren’t really suppose to use a blog for listing events, it’s is a discussion forum. But, I think it works so well for event listings, because it is so easily updated. Anyway, if anyone out there is an expert on these things, please feel free to fill me in. In the meantime I will try hard to keep things informal.

About “Yuletide Spectacular”, yes the artist did bring in some really cool new stuff, but really I planned it because the 16th is my birthday and I had to work. Now at least all my friends will be with me and I can drink some wine at work without too much guilt.  How’s that for conversational.

Yuletide Spectacular

Here’s a collage by Scott Hunter made especially for “Yuletide Spectacular” called Santa Comes Home to Mrs. Claus.  We are having the “Yuletide Spectacular” artist reception on December 16th from 6-9pm.  If you’re interested in meeting some of out artists it’s the perfect time to visit, not to mention you get to have free dessert and wine.

Vi’s Pendent

Vi Laux’s pendent was featured in this months Mt. Lebanon Magazine. It was in the gift guide, chosen by one of the editors. People think it’s a paid ad, but I didn’t pay for that one baby.

I have a lot of people come in looking for that exact pendent. They are one-of-a-kind, so we don’t have the exact one, but we have lots of other cool pendent’s by Vi.

As soon as the magazine has the article online I’ll add a link.

Greg’s messing with the computer

So Greg loaded some new fancy version of internet service on the computer and now I can’t get any graphics to work, so no pictures when I write from home.

We have started our holiday hours: m-w 10-7, th-sat 10-9, and sun 12-6.

Our #1 employee and friend, Molly, will be working a bit during this month, she’s the pretty one with short brown hair and a big smile (not to be confused with Greg, who is pretty with curly brown hair and a big smile). When I get to the gallery I’ll post a picture of her.

I also have a picture of an amazing Christmas tree in my neighborhood. I’d really like to post that! Sometimes I wonder what people did back in the old days before blogs had pictures.

I haven’t had a chance to post much lately because we have been busy.  People in and out all day, shopping, shopping, fun, fun.