Blessings and Good Fortune!

My family celebrated the Chinese New Year a few weeks ago by taking part in the festivities on Fourth Street. By far the most exciting event all day was the lion dance, performed by Kei Lun Martial Arts. Located in San Francisco, the Kei Lun dancers visited Berkeley to bestow good fortune and blessings on the shops and merchants of Fourth Street.

As part of the performance, the lion and the monk characters came into Castle in the Air. Roann, one of the newest members of the Castle crew, was downstairs that day. Recalling the excitement later, she said "They blessed the registers!"

According to the website for the Kei Lun Martial Arts group, "the kei lun is a benevolent mythical creature from Asian folklore. As an adjective, kei lun can be loosely translated as 'talented.'" Their lion dance on Fourth Street was featured that night in a segment on our local television news, and we certainly agree that they are talented.

Chinese New Year's on Fourth Street

Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! I've got a good feeling about this year, as we've got five Tigers among the Castle crew. Come out to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Fourth Street this Saturday, with storytelling, a martial arts performance, treats, banners, and of course the lion dance. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

CHINESE NEW YEAR 2010
February 20, 2010 from 12:30-5:00pm
Fourth Street at Delaware, Berkeley

12:30-1:30 Story Telling by the Tea Professor @ Teance
(age 12 yrs old and younger)

1:30-2:00 Martial Arts Demonstration on Delaware

2:30-3:00 Lion Dance Begins on Delaware

3:00-4:30 Merchant Store Blessings by Lion Procession

4:30-5:00 Lion Dance Finale on Delaware

All afternoon, merchants with a window sign reading "Gung Hay Fat Choy" will be handing out treats for kids.

Do you see what I see?

As you might have guessed, this week is the shop's busiest time of year. We get so many visitors coming through the door, each person looking for something special. Some people who only come around this time of year think we're only a holiday shop! The air is full of glitter, gleeful shouts of children, oohs and ahs from victorious treasure seekers, and the grumbles of those who have run out of holiday spirit.

A big part of keeping one's sanity at this time of year is knowing where to look, and what you're looking for. This is true when looking for holiday gifts, but it's also a good rule to follow in life in general. So when the clouds over Berkeley gave Fourth Street a little sprinkle this afternoon, we stood with our backs to the sun and took this picture to best remember the day.

More Holiday Haps on Fourth

Santa Claus Comes to Fourth Street
Santa Claus is coming to...Fourth Street! Meet Santa and his elves at "The Berkeley Pole" in the courtyard across the street from Peet's Coffee on Fourth. And as artistic representatives of all things magical, Castle in the Air is providing the decorations!
Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 - 4:00 pm

Extended Hours
Castle in the Air is one of many shops open late during the holiday shopping season. Through Christmas Eve, our hours will be:
10:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday through Wednesday
10:00 am - 7:00 pm Thursday through Saturday
10:00 am - 6:00 pm Sunday
We will also be open late December 21, 22, and 23 for all the last minute shoppers.
On Christmas Eve, the store will close at 4:30 pm.

Live Music and Entertainment
Local artists will keep your spirits bright with live music and entertainment all along Fourth Street each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and December 21 through 24.

Free Hot Cocoa and Cider
Warm up with a free cup of hot cocoa or cider at one of our newest neighbors, Chocolatier Blue Patisserie at 1809A Fourth Street.
Hot drinks every day from 4:30 - 7:00 pm (weather permitting)

Holiday Lights
Santa's reindeer won't have any trouble finding Fourth Street. Thousands and thousands of bright and colorful lights adorn the trees and lampposts, bringing holiday sparkle to the shopfronts and restaurants.

Holiday Haps on Fourth

Castle in the Air isn't the only place on Fourth Street to undergo a Grand Transformation for the holidays. In fact, the street itself turns into a winter wonderland with activities, treats, and visits from Santa. We'll be posting notices for the different happenings as they draw near. Here are a few starting this weekend.










Extended Shopping Hours
Beginning Monday the 21st, many shops will begin staying open until 7:00 pm to give you a chance to enjoy Fourth Street into the evening.

Holiday Street Lights
Beginning this Friday at dusk, Fourth Street will be aglow with thousands and thousands of colored lights. It seems the display gets bigger every year, and it turns the street into an even grander place for an evening stroll.

Free Cocoa and Hot Cider at Chocolatier Blue Patisserie
Just a few doors south of Castle in the Air (at 1809A Fourth Street), Chocolatier Blue Patisserie is one of the newest additions to the neighborhood. We're often stopping by for their scrumptious chocolates and tarts. Also starting this Friday, you can visit them between 4:30 and 7:00 each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening to enjoy live music and a complimentary hot cider or cocoa.

Outlander

Years ago one of the crew here at Castle in the Air gave me the book Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, as a gift. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It had young love, sword-fighting, botany, witchcraft, Scotland, and a wacked out cast of characters...there were so many similarities between the story and my own life. It's even got a John McRae! So when I heard there was a sequel I ran to the bookstore to buy it. I was surprised not to see it on the fiction or fantasy shelves, and when I found it in the romance section I was a little embarrassed!

Of course while I don't honestly think Diana Gabaldon had me in mind when writing the book, today it really does seem like I'm living a story out of a romance novel, as my husband is taking me to Gabaldon's signing at Books Inc. in Mountain View! I'll pick up the seventh book in the Outlander series and say hello to a writer whose work has given me so much satisfaction over the years.

Speaking of Books Inc., not only are they the oldest West Coast independent bookseller, but they've also just opened a new store across the street from Castle in the Air!

Come buy! Come buy!

Morning and evening,
maids heard the goblins cry,
"Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy!"

-- Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market"

Today we sent out our announcement for this weekend's sale via the Castle Crier list. Here's a link to the email in case you aren't yet on the list: Summer Sidewalk Sale. If you haven't yet signed up for the Castle Crier list, please do!

We're looking forward to the bustle down on Fourth Street and all the familiar and new faces we'll see over the weekend, but our real bundle of joy came today in the mail: a copy of Martha Stewart Living with another mention of Castle in the Air! The team at MSL put together some incredibly cool animal masks with our crepe paper, including an owl and pussycat duo. It doesn't get much better than that!

Goodbye Summer

The seasons are shifting, even though it can sometimes be a little difficult to tell what time of year it is in Berkeley. Today we had a cool breeze that really put a hint of fall in the air for me.

Depending on your temperament, the end of summer is either poignant, a time for reflection on the late-night porch dinners with friends, perhaps, or is bracing, a time to gear up and get organized for school days or the eventual holiday season.

But one thing summer's memoirists and winter's warriors can agree on is a sale at Castle in the Air. Whether you want a hand-bound journal or album to record your memories of summertime's parties or a day-planner to get your schedule sorted, we've got it at the shop and it's on sale this weekend. The store will be joining many of our neighbors along Fourth Street this Saturday in the annual Summer Sidewalk Sale, with discounts of 40-60%. What's more, our shop will have its own sale on Friday and Sunday, with 25% off nearly everything in the store (excluding classes and selected items).

With all the shops bringing their wares to the sidewalk to mingle with shoppers and the live music along Fourth Street, it's like our own little summer sendoff. Hope to see you there!

Little Shops Make a Big Difference

One of the nicest surprises I had in Italy was to find so many similarities between the shops in the ancient towns we visited and the shops along Fourth Street in Berkeley, where Castle in the Air is. Of course, we don't have the luxury of being right down the street from the Pantheon like Natalizia's shop in Rome, pictured here. But philosophically and socially there is a lot to compare.

The Italian shops tended to be clustered together in warrens, shopping districts that were destinations in and of themselves. These parts of town had played host to merchants and buyers for centuries -- if the streets could talk, what stories they'd tell!

In a post like this about visiting shops in foreign countries, on a weblog that I use to promote my online store, it might sound odd for me to tout the virtues of shopping locally. But it's something that I sincerely believe in, and the afternoons spent in the little shops in Italy really drove it home for me. What struck me more than anything else was how vital the shops were to creating a sense of community in their neighborhoods, in their towns. Fourth Street is like that for those of us who work down here in Berkeley, and for our regular customers. After spending my childhood watching Fourth Street grow, and following years of running my store, getting lunch at the take-out place next door, buying treats for my dog across the street, and seeing all the other workers and customers day in and day out, Fourth Street is as much my home as anywhere else. I know it's that way for so many people in so many little districts around the world, and I believe it's something we all should cherish and support when we do our shopping.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Aside from the wonderful shops and restaurants we have for neighbors on Fourth Street, we're blessed to have regular celebrations of local culture right here on our doorstep. One such party is coming up this Saturday, as Fourth Street rings in the Chinese New Year. The full day of excitement and fun is sponsored by Teance, the elegant Chinese tea room located across the street from us, and welcomes prosperity, health, and good luck all around. The highlight will be a colorful lion dance, which is meant to scare away ill fortune, by Kei Lun Martial Arts. Even the Pasta Shop is getting in on the festivities by serving up a full menu of Chinese New Year foods for lunch, and selling freshly made Jiao Zi (Dumplings) all day.

Chinese New Year Schedule of Events

1:15 pm: Children's Story Telling & Lucky Candy Giveaway
2 pm: Traditional Lion Dance featuring Kei Lun Martial Arts
3 pm: Martial Arts demonstration by Golden Lion Kung Fu
4 pm: Classical Chinese Music from the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery
4:30 - 6 pm: Fortune-telling for the Year of the Ox upstairs in Teance's tea room

For more information on the day's events, visit the Fourth Street Shops website. We hope to see you there!

All worship at the Temple of Flora!

Leave it to Taschen. It's not every day that a book floors me not only with its over-the-top production quality and subject matter, but also with its connection to my artistic past.

Taschen Books is, of course, the premier publisher of "art, anthropology, and aphrodisia," printing new works of provocative painters and photographers as well as reissuing long out-of-print, highly sought volumes from the history of the book trade. One of this season's offerings is The Temple of Flora, one of the masterpieces of botanical illustration.

In 1799, English physician and botanical writer Robert John Thornton commissioned the world's most renowned painters to create 33 plates showing exotic plants in unusual, romantic settings. The resulting folio, The Temple of Flora, took nine years and all of Thornton's wealth before it could be published in a print run of only 300 copies. He died penniless but will forever be a hero to those who appreciate the life and sense of wonder he brought to this early scientific work.

When I was in college studying botany and the history of art, I had the good fortune to glimpse a miniature reproduction of this rare work. Ever since then, I've scoured rare book libraries and collections looking for a full-sized copy. And so today, when I visited Builders Booksource here on Fourth Street, my jaw dropped when I saw the new Taschen edition of this holy grail of botanical illustration. Fantastic undertakings such as this renew my faith in publishing and in the ability of beautiful art to bridge the gap between art and science. Thank you, Taschen!

All Lit Up

Holiday magic is surely all around us, for as the gnomes were putting the finishing touches on the decorations at the shop, Louis and Mickey were also completing the installation of the holiday light show up and down Fourth Street. Castle in the Air is its own sort of wonderland this time of year, but as I stepped out onto the sidewalk after dark, I was transported to a sparkling world like no other. I truly hope as many readers as possible are able to visit Fourth Street between now and the end of the year to see the fabulous lights.

Lights on Fourth

All of Fourth Street gets into the holiday spirit when Louis and Mickey hang the lights. It's quite a production -- the entire lighting process takes two weeks. A roof full of solar panels helps supply the electricity. We could hardly hear the sleigh bells over the cherry picker's safety beeping. Ho ho ho!

The Gnomes Know

As any gnome will tell you, the busiest person in the world this time of year is Santa Claus, so he needs all the help he can get as he embarks on his pair of world tours -- one for promotion and one to deliver all the gifts! And of course, as the most gnomerific shop on all of Fourth Street, Castle in the Air is helping prepare the neighborhood for Santa's visit later this month. We've accepted the task of transforming an empty building a few doors down from Castle in the Air into a winter fantasy world. When Santa visits Fourth Street just after Thanksgiving this year, you and your family and friends will be transported to the North Pole as soon as you step through the door. Santa will be on hand, sitting in his majestic sleigh and taking note of the wishes of all the good little boys and girls who come to visit. We hope to see you there!