Category RSS Archive for the ‘Where to Go?’ Category

Check us out at the International Gift Fair

Posted August 18, 2011 by
in Announcements, Where to Go? | 2 comments »

If you’re in New York and you’re free this morning, check us out at the NY International Gift Fair at the Javits Center! We’re sharing the booth with a company called l’Agenda Moderne; above, you’ll see a picture of it courtesy of Cecilia and her iPhone. The event ends today at noon, and we are offering free shipping to all retailers who place orders of $150 or more at the show.

Not a retailer? Though it might be hard to arrange on such short notice, bloggers have long been given press passes to trade shows, and I’ve had great luck on the last days of the National Stationery Show going around and asking exhibitors if their samples are for sale. Usually, the answer is yes, and you can score some great deals, too.

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What Tastes Like Summer?

Posted August 2, 2011 by
in Editorial, Where to Go? | 7 comments »

For me, and probably many other people, different foods have come to represent different seasons or times of the year. For example, fresh apple cider, and a good crisp Macoun apple will forever be fall.  Winter is maple sugar, from all the sugar-on-snow parties we had as a little girl in Vermont.  Spring, the yellow “peeps” in my Easter basket.

But summer is a tough one, because so many things taste like summer.  This past weekend I tried to decide if fresh corn on the cob, raspberries or watermelon was the “one.” I couldn’t do it–they are all summer to me.   But the fresh hand-picked corn from Wesnofske’s Farm on Rt. 48 has the edge!

What tastes like summer to you?

 

 

 

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What are your 4th of July rituals?

Posted July 4, 2011 by
in Editorial, Where to Go? | 2 comments »

Happy 4th of July! The American Flag in Fireworks

Whenever possible, my husband and I spend the 4th of July with his family in Westport, Massachusetts, a small fishing village on the south coast of the state. Beyond that, there are no rituals except to cram in as much activity as possible: swimming, sailing, clamming, kayaking, trying to take pictures of birds, and lounging on the beach or the backyard. Fireworks are illegal here — as they are in New York, for that matter — though plenty of people find ways to set them off, all the same.

Do you celebrate the 4th of July? What are your rituals?

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NSS Retrospective

Posted May 20, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 3 comments »

The National Stationery Show snuck up on me this year, and I didn’t make it out till Wednesday, the last day. Above is a picture I took of the Exaclair booth with my crappy point-and-shoot, and here’s a shot of some Quo Vadis products:

I’ll blog about specific items in the upcoming weeks, but for now let me share a lesson I learned this year: the last day of a trade show is a great time to attend. Exaclair doesn’t do this for logistical reasons, but plenty of other exhibitors offer great deals on all sorts of samples, since that’s preferable to boxing them up and shipping them back where they came from. I got two space pens for $20, along with some magnetic sticker thingies that I’ll give to my niece and nephew. I almost bought this super cool “perpetual calendar” from MoMA, but decided, reluctantly, that I didn’t really need it.

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Loose Ends

Posted May 18, 2011 by
in Where to Go? | Add your comment »

Thanks to artist and friend Susan MacLaughlin at Depingo Ergo Sum for today’s beautiful image.  Read her original post here.

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Chinese New Year

Posted February 3, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 31 comments »

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival.  Based on the moon, the Chinese lunar calendar was invented almost 5,000 years ago by the legendary Emperor Huangdi to help Chinese farmers mark weather changes.  The holiday is celebrated over a two-week period. It is a time of feasting, gift-giving and renewal.

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit or Year of the Hare.  Read more about the rabbit in Chinese folktales, and rabbit-people traits here.

Click here to see what animal you are and its characteristics.  (I found out I’m a Water Dragon.)

Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world.  In Paris, a parade featuring music and dancing in the 13th arrondiseement attracts more than 100,000 people a year.  Here in New York, the Empire State Building is illuminated in red (happiness) and gold (wealth) to mark the first two days of Chinese New Year.  A Lion and Dragon performance will be held on Mott Street in New York’s Chinatown today.  A big parade will be held on Sunday.

Eclectic dragon that I am I decided to honor the holiday by signing up for a course on “Discovering Dumplings” at the Institute of Culinary Education. Taught by Kian Lam Kho, a chef, food writer and teacher, we will learn how to make eight different kinds of dumplings from the various regions in China.

Visit The Steamy Kitchen, the food blog by Jaden Hair, to get your own Chinese New Year recipes.

Finally, in honor of the new year, we will gift ten lucky people with a red Habana notebook.  If you prefer blank pages vs. ruled let us know. 

To enter… you know the drill. Leave a comment on this post before Tuesday, February 8th at midnight EST. We’ll select the winners at random, and follow up via email to sort out mailing addresses.

Good luck!…and Happy New Year!

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Marie Roberts, Artist-in-Residence, Coney Island USA

Posted January 31, 2011 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 1 comment »

It was my pleasure to meet Marie Roberts at an Exaclair samples sale last December.  An accomplished painter, Marie is a professor of painting at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Coney Island USA’s artist-in-residence.  She is also a member of FPN. 

Marie sent me some cell phone pix of drawings she did in an Exacompta sketchbook that including the King and Queen of Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade.  You can see them here. (I love mermaids, so those drawings were a special treat!)

Marie explained: “I tried to include a range of media (pen & ink, wash, watercolor, gel pen) work drawn from life and work invented. The sketchbooks are excellent to carry around because you can work spontaneously or in a worked over protracted manner on paper.”

“The paper is really excellent.  My only wish would be that the books were a bit larger.  Maybe I need to draw smaller.”

Marie is best known for her banners for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Her canvas advertisements for Donny Vomit, human blockhead; Heather Holliday, the youngest female sword swallower; Serpentina, the snake charmer; and guest freaks like the Lizard Man adorn the CIUSA building. Marie’s banners are a year-round tourist attraction and a favorite subject of photographers.

Want to learn more?

Marie Roberts also teaches workshops on the art, technique and history of banner painting. Coney Island Sideshow School is one of the only places where students can learn the art from a professional working in the field.  Her spring 2011 session begins on Saturday, April 2 at her studio location on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY.  Please contact her at bitterwonder@hotmail.com for more information.

You can visit with Marie Roberts and her Coney Island banners via Slideshow Picasso, a documentary film by Marilyn Agrelo.

More here on “Portrait of an Artist: Marie Roberts.”

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Travel writing

Posted January 12, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 7 comments »

Do you keep a travel journal? I ask because we’ve noticed some travel stores carrying Clairefontaine for the purpose, and we’re curious about people’s habits.

Do you keep a separate notebook just for travel? If so, what do you look for in the notebooks that you use?

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How do you use your Quo Vadis?

Posted December 2, 2010 by
in Announcements, Planning Tips, Where to Go? | 6 comments »

Today, we’re launching a very cool, if I do say, new project: a dedicated area of the blog with stories about all the ways that people use their planners.

But first, we need your help. Whether you use your Quo Vadis for birding or bible study, we want to hear about it. Tell us what you do with your planner so we can share it with our readers, and we’ll send you a planner of your own, just in time for 2011! We’re looking for actual stories, not just a sentence or two — something that explains your ideas in a way that’s understandable (and even inspiring) to other readers.

In the meantime, we’ve posted a couple of sample stories, which you can check out at the project’s homepage.

Happy planning!

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Live near NYC? Check out our sample sale!

Posted November 30, 2010 by
in Announcements, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

Stephanie already blogged about this yesterday, but I figure it’s worth cross-posting: from December 1 – 3, we’ll be holding a tabletop sale in our New York office.

From 10am to 4pm, we’ll be offering samples from France along with slightly damaged and/or discontinued products. All Exaclair brands will be represented, including G. Lalo, J. Herbin, Rhodia, Exacompta, Clairefontaine, etc. We’ll also have high-end leather from Mignon.

All sales are final and all payments are cash only, and there’s no shipping.

If you live or work in the city, please stop by!

The details, again:

HOLIDAY SALE DECEMBER 1ST, 2ND & 3RD
(Wednesday – Friday) 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

At

Exaclair, Inc.
143 W. 29th Street
10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-473-1754

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