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I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Now back to real
life! Here at The Purple Pomegranate we are looking
forward to another good year and we'll be bringing you
lots of new, fun work from artists all over the US. If you
are looking for something special, do give me a call
and I can look for it at the upcoming Buyers Market of
American Craft in February.
| Artist Spotlight - Pete Berube |
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In 1987, after having been fascinated with
kaleidoscopes, Pete Berube saw a market for a lower
priced starter scope. The teleidoscope is a simple
design and so a more affordable price. These scopes
definitely bring more awareness into the more
elaborate mirror systems of kaleidoscopes.
Pete recently moved his home and shop from Idaho to
western Montana. He does 100% of the work in his
shop, from glue up to finish work and all oil and mirror
packages. He makes several sizes of teleidoscopes
and also laminated wood hair barrettes in a variety of
colors.
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| Carin's Corner - A Green Year |
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It is time once again to think about New Year's
resolutions. I decided to make changes in my life that
use less energy. It may be difficult to justify large costly
changes, but there are a number of changes that cost
a bit more but make a significant difference in energy
consumption.
One easy change you can make is to change out your
light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, often
called CFL's, use 66% less energy than comparable
incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer.
The bulbs are a little different and you need to take a
few minutes to familiarize yourself with the system.
CFLs come in a number of different wattages. There
are conversions on the boxes so you can make sure
you get the wattages you need for various fixtures. The
bulbs come in different sizes as well and you need to
determine which sizes will fit your table and floor
lamps. There are also dimmable CFLs now to replace
recessed bulbs. They are available in both flood and
spotlights. It is important to make sure and use
dimmable bulbs with dimmer switches.
After several trips to the hardware store I've changed
out most bulbs and have bought extra to replace the
rest when they burn out. It is well worth the effort.
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| Joke of the Month |
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Cousin Ellie is the world's worst at getting instructions
mixed up. When she got married her husband bought
her one of those fancy, electric coffee makers. It had
all the latest gadgets on it. Salesman Riley carefully
explained how everything worked; how to plug it in, set
the timer, go back to bed, and upon rising, the coffee
is ready."
A few weeks later Ellie was back in the store and Riley
asked her how she liked the coffee maker.
"Wonderful!" she replied, "However, there's one thing I
don't understand. Why do I have to go to bed every
time I want to make a pot of coffee?"
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Ruth's Ramblings |
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It's a new year and many people think of making
resolutions now. I've about given up on that practice
although I do try to set a few goals instead. One of our
goals here at the store is to continue to bring you
fresh, new work from emerging artists as well as
continuing to carry our most popular artists' works.
Rebekah and I will be going to Philadelphia in
February to the Buyers Market of American Craft. It's
such a wonderful show with over 1,500 artists from
throughout the US and Canada. We are always able to
find quality, handcrafted work to bring back to
Montana. If you need anything unusual, please let me
know as I'll search for it for you.
We will also be attending a show in April put on by
Wholesalecrafts.com called ACRE. This is the second
year for this show, last year we found lots of new
artists with wonderful work. So do stop by and see us
when you get a chance, we'll be getting lots of
new "stuff" for you to check out.
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