Springtime Hoopla

From time immemorial, spring has been the harbinger of change. Whether speaking of seasons, or the weather, or of something more personal, springtime is the most popular time to make a change. You'd think that New Years would have that designation, but no, it's spring that people change, or transition.

Changing up some accessories in your home is one way to make change for spring. Adding new pillows, window treatments, even picture frames, can liven up your environment and help make it feel fresh. Same thing in your garden! Adding new decorative elements in your garden can also make it look more festive, particularly in water-wise gardens. Hoopla Emporium has brought in some very fun outdoor décor that we think you'll love! Spring gnomes, solar powered fairy houses, wind chimes, plant stakes, and fairy garden components are fun and colorful, and will help accentuate focal points, or even become a focal point, in your garden spaces!

We also have some beautiful spring jewelry for you here at Hoopla - vibrantly colored sea glass bracelets from former Altadena native Shayla Diamond and her company, Lotus Moon Arts, are perfect for brightening up an outfit; as are her lovely turquoise and red coral bracelets and earrings! Long, vintage look watch necklaces are a huge trend now, and we've got some that would make fabulous Mother's Day gifts; and Lotus Moon's adorably chic key chains are always in fashion.

Spring is wonderful time for art, as well. There's new art on the walls here at Hoopla, coordinating with our gnomes and fairies. Here's a picture of Janell Mithani's beautiful painting of a fairy on tree bark:

Speaking of art, the Alta-Pasa Open Studios Tour is scheduled for June 6 and 7 this year, and Hoopla! Emporium will once again be a stop on the map. We will be hosting young artists involved in Room 13 studios in public schools in the area, and we're looking forward to it! Here's a poster that gives greater detail about the upcoming tour:

We know this will be the best Open Studios Tour yet - stay tuned for more information!

Altadena Valentine

Scott and I are lucky in that we hardly ever get sick.  We do try to eat good, healthy food and get enough sleep, but owning your own retail store isn't exactly a relaxing experience.  After five and a half years of working just about every day except for national holidays, it's a wonder that we haven't had to take sick time off.

As I sit here writing this, I'm also blowing my nose into a tissue, my eyes are watering and I'm dead tired.  Yes, I got the crud that's going around, but Scott and I are lucky in another respect, as well.  We know Marcia Copess of HomeBody Botanicals, and sell her botanical remedies and body care products at WFS.  How wonderful to know that when you wake to that dreaded tickle in the back of your throat, a natural remedy is right within reach!  HomeBody's Elderberry Elixir, Fire Cider, and Winter Chills Tea are seeing me through, enabling me to remain vertical and pretty much coherent.  I've talked to many people who are suffering with whatever is going around, be it a cold virus or the flu.  So many don't want to take a flu shot, and the flu shot doesn't guarantee that you'll escape, nor does it protect you from the common (or uncommon) cold.  Upper respiratory congestion leading into bronchitis seems to be the prevailing complaint from this particular virus making its way through Altadena.  Luckily, I seem to have been able to contain this cold to just my nose and eyes with the use of Marcia's products.

I love our creative Altadena artists, and that includes those who formulate organic and wildcrafted botanical remedies and body products!  Thanks, Marcia!

In other news, be sure to look for our email and Facebook page for information on next Saturday's book signing with the authors and illustrator of The Chocolate Princess In The Land Of Plenty.

We had a lovely Valentine-themed poetry event last night, with jazz by local musician (and poet) Amin El, who plays a mean standing bass, and his friend, Taka, who accompanied him on guitar. The poetry recited by Aldonia Bailey, Brian Miles, Debra Johnson aka The Smile Lady, Amin El, among others, was touching, sweet, sometimes bawdy, and as always, relevant to life today.  Here's a couple pictures of the festivities - if you're in the area, come on by, we hold these poetry events just about every month.

Poet And Muscian Amin El Enthralls The Audience

Amin El and Taka playing smooth jazz

The Lovely Aldonia Bailey Recites Love Poetry

Today we held a fundraiser for Altadena Community Church's bad-weather shelter for the homeless.  I'm proud to say that we're going to give them $150.00 - here's a big thank you to our community for helping out!

Have a great week, friends, we'll talk again next week!

It's What's Inside That Counts

"Truckin' like the doodah man
Once told me "Gotta play your hand
Sometimes the cards ain't worth a dime
If you don't lay them down"

Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been"

----The Grateful Dead


With the lyrics from this song reverberating around my head, I can't help but relate it to our life these past two years. Creating Webster's Fine Stationers from an erstwhile pass-through department has been a long, strange trip, indeed. Fraught with obstacles and setbacks, it's not a stretch of the truth to say that we've been tempted to call it quits several times. But just when things seem bleakest, Scott and I remember why we're doing this - why the challenge of creating a thriving shop against all odds is important to us. It's because we believe in Webster's, we believe in Webster's Fine Stationers and we believe in Altadena.

As we come up on our two year anniversary, we can look back and see all the tangible things we've done to improve WFS. The layout, the decor, the merchandise have all changed for the better but one thing has remained a constant that's not tangible - our dedication to providing Altadena with a shopping venue that's hip and on the cutting edge of cool! There is no other place in the area that offers as much sustainable merchandise as we do. No one offers the amount of products made right here in the U.S. as we do, and no one offers the ambiance and the customer care that we do. We prefer to deal with local vendors and artists and when we can't find what we want inside the U.S., we are trending toward companies who offer fair trade practices in those countries where they have their merchandise made.


We love to deal with those companies who donate to charities. Open Hand is one such company and we're expecting their first shipment any day now. Open Hand is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but their products are made all over the world using fair trade practices. Their employees are paid well and they make sure that they and their families are covered by adequate medical insurance. If that weren't enough, they donate 10% of their proceeds before taxes to charities here and abroad that fight human trafficking. Praols, another new company for us, makes their beautiful jewelry right here in the U.S. and employs financially distressed, stay at home moms and women who are heads of their households. Two new card lines for us, Wiley Valentine and Uncooked, Inc., are U.S. made - Wiley Valentine is made right here in Orange County, CA. As always, we feature handmade jewelry by local Altadena artisans, Jewels of the Earth by Diana, Ruthie Castro and Julie Lyn Pircher. We carry handmade cards by local artists Donna Barnes-Roberts and Athena Meltzer, and are searching for more local artists.

Companies that use recycled materials is important, too, and many of our vendors do. Most importantly, however, is their use of post-consumer waste materials and two of our major vendors do just that. Amber Lotus, maker of fine cards and calendars (in store now) and The Green Paper Company are both producers of products that contain from 30% to 100% post-consumer waste. We believe that this is important and we hope that you, do, too.


It's been said by several of our Very Important Customers that it would be wonderful if we had windows like the adjoining stores do. I wish we did, too, because what a statement we could make with them! However, price precludes that option at this time. We'd rather spend what little money we do have on products like I've mentioned above, and we do have to pay rent. Until we can address the situation, Scott came up with our new tag line, which is the title of this blogpost. My husband is a genius, because that little tag line says it all and more! It's IS what inside that counts....not only the merchandise but inside the hearts of everyone who works at Webster's Fine Stationers. Come in today and experience it for yourself! Follow us on Twitter (@lorinscott), become a fan of our store on Facebook and see our pictures on FlickR!