A few days ago, one of the gallery owners that stocks our wares called me and said that someone walked into her store and bought every single one of our items. She was completely out and needed to restock immediately. My first reaction was pride and celebration that people were getting out and buying local. My second reaction was panic over having even more orders to complete this season. This is always the busiest year and time management is a must.

But wouldn’t it be great if all of our local artisans, craftspeople and businesses were filled with the same emotions?

After getting some work done and not cleaning up after my Christmas party, I decided to head into the French Quarter and keep some locals busy.

My first stop, of course, was to Santa’s Quarters in the French Quarter to add some more decorations to the donation bin. There were so many wonderful decorations to choose from, but I tended to sway toward the local-themed ornaments. I would have loved to purchase an upside down Christmas tree, but they were sold out and $499 (order early next year). As well as getting some great gifts for the donation drive, I managed to get a lot of my own shopping done. At one point, the owner came over and slipped some of their pralines into my coat pocket and I must say, although, I am not a huge fan of pralines, they were fantastic! I highly recommend them. I was pleased to see that there were already quite a few decorations in the bin, but we need more! Please stop by this week and help fill it to the rim.

Afterward, I decided to get some more shopping done (I won’t say what, don’t want to give away any surprises). The streets were festive and everyone was in a high-spirited mood. I ran into some people I knew, which is always fun on an afternoon instead of a blurry-eyed late night.



Andrew Jackson and Josie Arlington




Grandpa Elliot

I stopped off at Aunt Sally’s (great name). I loaded up on more gifts there and was surprised to find that they have more than pralines; art, books, photos, crafts. There are so many options to buy local.



The Little Toy Shop carries a lot of great children’s books from local writers and artists and I had to pick some up for myself.



I walked around some more, enjoying the day, oblivious to the fact that since it was difficult to carry my shopping bags around, it was probably going to be more difficult to get them home since I rode my trusted bike, Lillian down to the French Quarter…. It was a slow ride back, but well worth it.

A friend of mine just started a new venture, B-Native. It’s a great site and she just had her debut party last Friday.

Please get out and support your local businesses and artists!