The Lunalux store will be closing early Saturday April 28, so the shop girl can get ready to compete in the Minnesota RollerGirls’ season championship bout. Sorry for the inconvenience! Please visit us another day.

Kathy & Steve are planning an intimate wedding celebration in their back yard. “Basically, it’s a barbecue and a judge is going to show up” they told me. If the invitations are any indication, this is going to be the best barbecue ever!

The betrothed came to Lunalux with strong ideas about what they wanted for their wedding stationery. They were wanted a great design, but didn’t want an fancy-pants package – just a unique, modern invitation (with the RSVP info included) and matching personal stationery. After oogling some ideas they brought in from other sources, browsing through the Luanlux sample albums, and flipping through a few clip-art books, we came up with a plan for a layered floral graphic printed in two colors, paired with clean, modern, all-lower-case typography.

This is one of my favorite wedding invitations that we’ve printed in a long time! The cool gray and burgandy color combo is unusual, It’s printed on 130# bright white wove-finish cover stock

Lunalux is getting a new neighbor! Two vacant store fronts (formerly the Loring Grill and men’s clothing boutique Exile on Harmon) are being revamped to house one big new restaurant, called Nick and Eddie. High-profile names are associated with the project: Doug Anderson, who owns A Rebours in downtown St. Paul; and chef Steven Vranian, whose resume includes Murray’s and California Cafe. So I have high hopes.

I’ve met Doug once, he bought a Moleskine from us months ago. He seems real nice, AND he drives an orange Volvo station wagon, so I’m pretty sure he’s a good guy!

Because the front windows are all papered over, I cannot say much about the transformation underway inside. All I know is, they’ve knocked out the wall that used to separate the two spaces, and also eliminated upper level of seating in the old restaurant space. Last time I was able to sneak a peek, the space was still very much under contruction. I think we’re looking at months of waiting.

The mail man delivered an envelope from an unfamiliar law office this week; I almost recycled it unopened, suspecting it to be just junk. Good thing I took the trouble to tear it open, because it contained a two-page letter informing me that a prominent stationery store chain in New York City is working on a plan to compensate its unsecured creditors (click on the image at the left to read the first page of the letter). I take this to mean that the company has fallen on hard times. The distress this stirs in me is two-fold. First, I’m worried because they owe us a large amount of money! At least it’s a large amount by our scale, probably to them it’s just a tiny drop in a vast, depressing bucket. But hello, we need that check! It’s already months past due!
Beyond my literal concern for our bottom line, I’m troubled to hear that a popular and well-established chain of stores in a city that is known for its dynamic retail shopping experience is struggling to pay their bills. They’ve been a big account for us, on and off, over the years. Will they continue to order from us? Will they stay in business? With their big name, smart buyers and great marketing, how can they NOT be doing well? What does this mean for us smaller, Midwestern fishes, and for the stationery industry as a whole? The letter promises more news in a month, so I will just have to wait and see.

The shoppers at Lunalux have been enjoying Kaweco pens for a couple of years now. This well-established German company makes affordable fountain pens that somehow look both classic and modern. I love the clever, compact design: unscrew the oversized cap, slip it onto the bottom of the slim barrel, and the the pen is expanded so it’s very comfortable in your hand.

We’re recently restocked on the affordable Classic Sport and Ice Sport fountain pens, and also brought in a few of the Art Sport pens – limited edition multi-colored instruments, with steel nib (ignore the part where the box says the nib is gold), packed in a unique gift box that also includes a metal pen clip and a few extra ink cartridges. We’ve restocked our selection of J. Herbin ink cartridges, which work great with Kaweco pens - los of colors to choose from now!

You’ll find more candy-colored pens from Xonex in the shop new too. In addition to the Retro 1951 and Groove pens that we’ve been selling for a long time, we added the Softtwist pen (a blue ballpoint that twists in and out of a grippy, rubbery barrel) in four yummy colors.