W7 Collective spotlights designer paper goods

W7 Collective is a newish one-weekend-per-month shopping boutique on West 7th in St. Paul. Each month the shop features a fresh mix of artful goods, curated by Judy Shimota and Jennifer Paquette. This month’s spotlight category: paper goods. Lunalux notes and holiday cards are being featured, along with some other great lines. Our favorites: cards & calendars featuring delicious photographs by Kitty Rogers (also a Lunalux worker bee); and foul-mouthed letterpress-printed greeting cards by Mary Bruno of Bruno Press. In addition to the top-notch paper selection, there’s also bulky knit hats & scarves; hand-crafted jewelry; screen-printed leather goods; and more. There’s no reason not to head over there right now and get most of your holiday shopping done!

W7 Collective is located at 1032 West 7th Street in St. Paul; the shop is open Friday Dec. 11 (10a.m.-9p.m.) and Saturday Dec. 12 (10a.m.-3p.m.) Stop by Friday night if you want to get your party on whilst shopping – there will be wine, treats and live music. You’ll find more info on the W7 website www.w7collective.com.

Shopping Salon at the Commodore

Lunalux will be part of a Shopping Salon at the Commodore Hotel next Monday, June 2. This will be the second time we’ve participated in this event. Last time was a lot of fun, and this will be the last one for a few months – so don’t miss it! The lineup of vendors varies from month to month, but last time we were pleasantly surprised by the interesting variety. We saw antiquey collectibles; jewelry and crafts collected by wold travelers; hand-crafted clothing, jewelry and accessories; and high-end arty jewelry as well. Other stuff too.

The Commodore is an interesting old hotel in St. Paul that features a beautiful art deco bar (it’s worth a visit just to see this historic bit of architecture). The shopping vendors take up two large rooms on either side of the bar. With Willie Murphy playing on the grand piano, old-fashioned cocktails being concocted by the dapper bartenders, and some complimentary cheese and crackers, it ends up being more of a social event than a shopping expedition.

The gritty details: First Monday at the Commode happens Monday, June 2, 2008, 4:00-8:00 p.m. The Commodore is lated at 79 Western Avenue in St. Paul. You will find photos, some history, and directions at the Commodore website. Free off-street parking is available in the hotel’s lot. We hope to see you there!