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.

Happy New Year!

The holiday decorations are put away, everything is counted and in its place, and the store has been scrubbed from tip to tail. Now we can let the new year begin!

Happiest of New Years

It's been a busy and productive year at Castle in the Air, with a lot of changes for the store and many, many new friends and acquaintances. I hope you can say the same about your year, and that 2010 is greater still. The shop will be closed this coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for our annual inventory, and when we open our doors again you'll be able to see us transformed yet again, this time for a brand new decade. Happy New Year!

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!

Fanciful and Fresh for 2009

We got a request from a faraway friend for some photos of Castle in the Air now that inventory's done. Happy to oblige!

















To me, inventory is a natural and necessary extension of the holiday season. Without resting from the buildup to Christmas and New Year's Eve, every January we dive right into the transformation of Castle in the Air from a Yuletide fairytale back into an everyday (albeit marvelous) shop. In fact, for the past three days the store has looked just like a living room on Christmas afternoon, with exploded paper and boxes everywhere and fantastic treasures scattered underfoot, just waiting for someone to find them a home. We welcome the new year by restoring our house--the shop--to order. It was after midnight last night when we put the final touches on the new displays, and this morning we opened our doors to the world once more.












The end of inventory always leaves me feeling a sense of spaciousness and refreshing calm. Castle in the Air is now something special and new not because of visions of razzle-dazzle, but because after weeks of the blinding glitz of Christmas we can finally regain sight of the quieter, simpler objects in the store. The shelves are cleaned and restocked with new wonders. Sometimes these are old favorites, but there are always a few fantastic products that somehow slipped between the cracks during the course of the year. Now is the time for them to all get a new lease on life. Our front window now features a delightfully whimsical seller of baskets and birds. Simple wickerworks and sweet warblers are just the right speed for the beginning of the year!

Happy New Year!

A big thank you goes out to our friend Richard Seibert for the gift of this lovely print. Castle in the Air has grown a lot this year, and to us this picture symbolizes that as well as our work to "stake up" ourselves as we prepare for an even greater 2009. Happy New Year!