We're so thrilled for our friends Lisa Congdon, Grace Hawthorne, and the boys over at Woodshop (Jeff, Danny, Josh, Luke), who have all created amazing pieces for the new exhibit "Do Not Destory: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought" that just opened at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. (Oh, there are also pieces by a couple of other artists: Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys...) The show is up through May 28th, and we recommend you go see it over and over and over again. Not just because the work is great and the museum is a fantastic place to see fantastic art, but because the wonderful people at CJM have invited us to invite you to get in with a special 2-fo-1 ticket offer. Just mention The Curiosity Shoppe and the Friends and Family Offer when purchasing your tickets to get in on the sweet deal.

And we're very excited to tell you that we will be hosting an interactive workshop at the museum's RitLab on March 22nd. We'll be guiding folks along as they create their own portable placemats (perfect for picnics, dinner parties, or sophisticated snackin' on the couch). If you've been to a RitLab event before, you know how fun they are, if you've never been, pliease join us on the 22nd. The event is free with museum admission and there will be food and music and good people and good times!

If you've happened by the Shoppe recently you no doubt noticed the amazing installation we've got in our gallery and windows. The multi-talented artists behind this multi-faceted interactive installation of art, furniture, lighting, and sculpture are none other than Joseph Ferriso and Jonathan Anzalone of Anzfer Farms fame! We've been obsessed with the work these guys have been making ever since we visited their live/work/exhibition space in the outer Richmond a couple years ago. Everything they create—from their light fixtures and bud vases to their furniture and decorative pieces—is so magnificently modern, and organic, and wonderfully thoughtful and brilliantly crafted...it's a huge pleasure to be living with this stuff in the Shoppe for a couple weeks! And it's also for sale! So swing by the Shoppe and pick up your own piece of Anzfer Awesomeness.

To celebrate the great work Joe and Jon have created, we'll be hosting a little get-together at the Shoppe on Friday, February 20th from 6-9pm. There will be snacks and drinks and Joe and Jon and all their great wares...we hope you'll come join us!

WHAT: ANZFER FARMS CELEBRATION
WHEN: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10TH, 6-9PM
WHERE: THE CURIOSITY SHOPPE, 855 VALENCIA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO

Before Lea Redmond of Leafcutter Designs began getting more commissions and requests for mini-letters than she could imagine, she used to come to the shoppe once a month and set up her World's Smallest Post Service on a little wooden ironing board, don a postal worker's hat, and transcribe teeny tiny letters, much to our customers' delight.

Well much to our delight, she will be back in the shoppe this Friday, December 16th from 4-8pm. Have an extra special card or letter to send out this holiday season? Bring your note and recipient's address down to the shoppe and watch her turn it into the most precious little work of art for you to pop in the mail. (Magnifying glass included!)

Please join us this Thursday, December 15th from 5-8pm to celebrate Paper Punk—a new artful plaything (or is it playful art-thing?)—that encourages creativity and good ol' tactile entertainment! Each Paper Punk kit comes with a variety of super colorful and graphic pieces that you can use to make all manner of sculptures (from puppies to robots to whatever you can think up). We'll be creating beautiful holiday ornaments led by the Founder of Paper Punks (and co-founder of ReadyMade magazine) Grace Hawthorne.These will make the perfect gifts for friends (or yourself!). There will be snacks!

WHAT: Paper Punk Ornament Fest

WHEN: Thursday, December 15th, 5-8pm 

WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia Street, San Francisco

This holiday season we are happy to bring you two week-long pop-up shops from two of our very favorite local artists and friends. First up is Fluffyco- opening this Saturday at noon and going through Friday the 16th. Now's your chance to get your hands on homewares, apparel, artwork, limited-editions, accessories, samples, past season favorites, and more!! Don't miss it!

If you're in San Francisco this Friday, make sure to head to the Mission for an evening of holiday fun, as neighborhood shops stay open late for the 4th Annual Mission Holiday Block Party! From 5-9pm, we will be offering 10% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE SHOPPE, plus we'll be celebrating the release of a new book called Stencil 201, by Ed Roth of Stencil1 fame. The book comes with 25 beautiful and reusable stencils, along with project ideas for decorating your home. We contributed a stencilled grasscloth placemat project, which was super easy to make and so much fun!

Ed will be in the shoppe with craft supplies in tow, on hand to show you how to stencil your own postcards and canvas patches. Bring in t-shirts, canvas bags... whatever you'd like to customize, and you could walk out with all your personalized holiday gifts ready to go! Heck, while you're at it, stencil up some giftwrap and you'll be set! And of course we'll supply drinks, snacks and holiday music galore. Hope to see you there!

We are super excited to be part of "Small Business Saturday" this year, and will be offering 10% off your entire purchase in the shoppe all day long!*

We think the day after Thanksgiving should be spent relaxing and eating leftovers, not in line at a big box store at 5 am. Instead, begin your holiday shopping this Saturday and support your favorite local small businesses. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

* Gallery items not included.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again, but the BEST THING about owning a shop is getting to know all the exciting people you meet along the way. Jordan and Jason from Enormous Champion are a remarkably wonderful and talented couple who create beautiful, beautiful, beautiful paper goods and objects from their homebase in Brooklyn. Our pals over at Chronicle books were smart enough to collaborate with them on a new set of unique and delightful note cards, and now we get to give 2 sets of them away...FOR FREE!!!

All you have to do is be the first or second person to correctly email us the answers the following questions:

1. This famous novel—which you may have read in college, but now totally can't remember anything about other than it seemed really weird and funny at the time—features the characters Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout.

2. Earlier this year, a "team of scientific researchers" declared this totally awesome power ballad (probably blaring from the PA system of some sports arena, somewhere in the world this very second), "the catchiest song in the history of pop music."

3. These nonsensical phrases are anagrams of what fantastic design duo?: A Cone Mushroom Nip, A Rich Spumone Moon, A Much Merino Spoon, A Poncho Miner Sumo...

Email you answers now! info@curiosityshoppeonline.com

GOOD LUCK!

I know we've said this over and over again, but one of the joys of owning a store (and one of the main reasons we do what we do) is being able to work with and promote all of our favorite artists, designers and makers. We are huge fans of Mark Giglio's work, and were lucky enough to include some of his amazing wooden dolls and textiles in our pop-up shop last month. And as we speak, he is downstairs in our shoppe gallery working his magic and installing what is going to be a kick-ass show! There will be painted kokeshi dolls, wooden masks, custom textiles... we can hardly wait.

Please join us on Friday evening from 6-8 at the shoppe to celebrate Mark and check out his amazing art!

Just to give you a little taste of what his work looks like, here is an image of the "sun shrine" he created for Loose Leaf. How amazing is that?