Our New Edition Addition

Our Muses at ... http://www.lamuseinn.com/

& Our New Edition Addition!

We had the good fortune of getting the opportunity to talk with John and Kerry Fanning, the proprietors of La Muse Inn, a Retreat House for writers and other creative folks, located in the South of France. Kerry called www.SaintsforSinners.com because she was interested in getting a medal for her husband, John. They're spending the Christmas Holiday in the Northeast U.S. and will be sharing our hand-painted saint medal designs and serenity stories with friends and family for Christmas. Though we are technically "strangers" to each other, it seemed we "clicked" while talking and a phone call asking for some saint medal packages turned into something more, a truly serendipitious treat for us and our web site.

Kerry let me know she found our site by Googling and also that it did not come up onthe first pages and was rather "buried" in her search listings. While SaintsforSinners.com does very well on the serach result listings when a person searches for "Saints Medals," or "Hand-Painted Saint Medals" there are many areas where are web site winds up lost in the mix of hundreds or thousands of search result terms Googled. Kerry suggested that I speak to her husband about search terms and ways to improve rankings and get noticed. It was an offer not be declined and I had this fantastic chat with John, a Frenchmen speaking fluent English with a marvelous French accent (yet another added bonus!). John and I talked about the web sites, search term issues, key words, codes and file transfer protocols, among othe things. And then the conversation became more cordial in spirit and just as broad as broad can be.

John asked about the Blog, which I have been pretty "hit and miss" with about in the past. Sometimes I'm writing; othe times, it just doesn't get done. John presented great ideas and views and there was one that struck a chord. Why not try a "Proustian Questionnaire" type component and incorporate it into the Blog as a regular series? I fell in love with the idea immedaietly and today's Bolg serves as the announcement that we will be presenting our new edition additon, a "Getting to Know You" Marcel Proust Interview series, where I do an introduction and write about folks SaintsforSinners.com loves and admires, tell a bit about their life and relationship to SaintsforSinners.com, and then their answers to some basic questions about saints, saints medals, faith, hope, trust, religion, the Sacraments, just to name a few. We have such a wonderful cross section of folks in our SaintsforSinners.com family, that I think the interviews will alwasy be fresh and interesting. I've already asked two very different folks if they will be our first two interview subjects and I am so excited about the prospect of presenting life views from the people who wear and share our hand-painted saint medal designs, their reasons for doing do, their views on the topics mentioned earlier, and who know what else! This is a true work in progress.

I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to John and Kerry Fanning at www.Lamuseinn.com for offering this gem of an idea to us. For those of you who read the blog, please me know which people you'd liketo hear from and what questions you'd like asked. I'll be posting the first New Edition Addition very soon. Thnaks to all of you for helping me to create a vehicle that has certainly taken some wrong turns over the years, yet alwasy offered a scenic view that keeps me busy and learning every day. I am, indeed, blessed. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Fondly,

Rob Clemenz, Founder

www.SaintsforSinners.com

Let's Hear It For The Shelter Dogs!

Over 700 newspapers from all over the world are premeiring comic strip creator Patrick McDonnel's "Mutts" adoption series today. McDonnel wrote six related comic strips that encourage folks to consider adopting shelter dogs from shelters rather than puppy mills or pet stores. McDonnel said he was inspired by president elect Barack Obama's statement that he wanted to find a dog for his daughters at a shelter. Obama said "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me." Look for the "mutts" comic strip in your local paper or online at http://www.muttscomics.com/.

McDonnel's strip features two pets, "Mooch" the cat, and "Earl" the dog. It is often funny and poignant; this week it will surely be extraordinary and will heaighten awareness about the plight of shelter animals throughout the world. Visit your local shelter and bring home a four legged friend. You will be gald you did.

Two New Local Stores

We added two new local stores and will hopegully adding a store in Savannah, Georgia later in the week.

When in the French Quarter, you can visit Pamela's Living Room, Shine, Feet First, and our newest store, "Yesteryears" in the 600 block of Bourbon Street. Visit Theresa and say hello to her boss, a beautiful four legged feline who runs the place!

Saint Martin of Porres & President-elect Barack Obama: Our Racial Harmonizers

Saint Martin of Porres & President-elect Barack Obama

Our Racial Harmonizers

Saint Martin of Porres was born to parents of different races. His complexion favored his dark skinned mother, leading his father to abandon him. Martin found work as a hair stylist, but it was soon discovered he possessed great healing qualities. The rich and poor, and all those in-between flocked to him, and he quickly became a Dominican Lay Brother. He was a universal caregiver, ministering to all people, including African slaves who were brought into his homeland of Peru. Martin’s love was all-embracing; he had a great love for animals, even the rats who scurried around his home. Martin lamented that the vermin had too little to eat! Like Saint Francis of Assisi, he seemed to be able to converse with animals and he founded one of the first animal shelters. Martin is also said to have been “bi-coastal,” which meant he could be in two places at one time, quite an extraordinary feat. Equally extraordinary was his reported ability to fly. Martin was very humble; he referred to himself as “mulatto dog,” long before President-elect Barak Obama recently humbly referred to dogs as “mutts like me.” Like Barack Obama, he was respected by his peers and followers who affectionately referred to him as “Father of Charity.” He was canonized on May 6, 1962, when Barack Obabma was nearly 10 months old. Both med are revered as racial harmonizers. Pray to Saint Martin of Porres for the elimination of all forms of prejudice and ask him to gently guide our new president-elect, as he faces the momentous tasks ahead.

New Folks on Our Hall of Fame-Ous

Tres Nuevo Amigos!

We added three folks to our "Hall of Fame-Ous" yesterday:

1. One of New Orleans' "favorite sons," the horse racing afficianado, Ronnie Virgets;

2. One of our New New Orleans Saints, Tight End Jeremy Shockey (and our friend Mark Faar); and,

3. One of the greatest violinists of our time, Soozie Tyrell. We even snagged an autograph from Soozie and put that up also.

In the coming weeks, we will add another series of photographs with a well-known actor and 2 beautiful girls from New Orleans, Renee & Gabby at the "Tales of the Cocktail," in the historic Hotel Montleon and also make a fun announcement of a new partnership we entered into recently. But first we need to "let the ink dry" on the deal we were so fortunate to have had offered. It's an exciting time, even thogh the faltering economy has us a bit nervous.... But Faith & Hope trump nervousness every time so we'll be fine.

That's all for now - stay tuned ...

:o) rob

Celebrating the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi

Hello all - sorry the blog has been quiet for so long - we are making lots of progress so hopefully you will start to see more posts. The Gretna Heritage Festival was fantastic and we were happily surprised our idea ended up raising money for the Louisiana SPCA! www.SaintsforSinners.com Imported Italian Saints Medallions Hand-Painted in New Orleans, Louisiana 5866 General Diaz Street, New Orleans, LA 70124 504.482.2467 (Office) 504.239.3143 (Mobil) Rock504@aol.com Rob Clemenz, Founder Ms. Ana Zorrilla , Executive Director October 6, 2008 Louisiana SPCA 1700 Mardi Gras Boulevard New Orleans, LA 70114 Reference: Donation to the Louisiana SPCA via SaintsforSinners.com Dear Ana, Please find enclosed a check for $ 211.47, which is a donation from many of the animal lovers who attended the Gretna Heritage Festival this past weekend. We sold our hand-painted Saints medallions at the Festival and tried a fund raising idea to gather donations for the SPCA. Since Saint Francis of Assisi’s Feast Day was this past Saturday, we wanted to honor him by helping the SPCA. We put a plate on our table and filled it with the old, rusty Saints medals we lost in the flood of August, 2005. When we returned to New Orleans in September, ’05, we decided we simply could not let our Saints medals just be bulldozed away, along with the rest of our house. So, we dug through the muck of our flood ravaged home until we uncovered all of our bins of thousands of Saints medals. They were very messy and dirty and seemed completely useless. But you could still tell they were Saints medals. So we let them dry in the sun and then put them all in a big bucket. And then, this past weekend, we treated our Saints medals as the tiny pieces of history that they have become. We put up a sign by our plate of ruined “flood medals,” left out an empty jar, and put the Saints medals up for sale, asking for a donation. The response was fantastic! Many Gretna Festival goers dug through the medals until they found the Saint they wanted. Others just put money in the jar and handed us a medal. We placed each “flood medal” in a clear zip locked bag and made a notation with our Sharpie markers. We hope the money we collected helps the Louisiana SPCA and the animals. Respectfully yours, Rob Clemenz, SfS Jess LiRocchi, SfS Christina E. McCarson, SfS & all the Generous Gretna Festival Goers!

A Visit to the Saint Hedwig & Nicolas Basilica in Berlin

An Outline

New Stores Carrying Hand-Painted SaintsforSinners.com Medals

Hello Everyone!

We have added some new stores and they are listed below....

Happy Mardi Gras!

rob

SaintsforSinners.com’s Retail Stores January, 2008 : RECENTLY EXPANDED! We have been expanding our retail store outlets and our hand-painted Saint medal designs are now available throughout New Orleans and Louisiana and are also available in the select boutiques in the cities and states listed below. We are always interested in hearing about cool, unique shops that our customers think should offer our line. Ask your favorite retail shop to carry SaintsforSinners.com’s hand-painted saint medal designs. Our new display cases attract traffic, keep folks in their store, and have them coming back, asking for more! Retailers, contact SaintsforSinners.com founder Rob Clemenz @ 504.239.3143. In Louisiana: NEW ORLEANS: Our First Store: Pamela’s Living Room Boutique 927 Royal Street The French Quarter New Orleans LA 70116 Tel. 504.595.8860 Say “Hi” to Pamela & Frank for us!

Shine Spa 304 Chartres Street The French Quarter New Orleans, LA 70130 Tel. 504.581.4199 Let Cindy know we said “Hello”

Plum 5430 Magazine Street Uptown New Orleans, LA 70115 504.897.3388 Ask Dannal about the latest live local music in New Orleans!

FeetFirst, Inc. 4119 Magazine Street Uptown New Orleans, LA 70115 Tel. 504.899.6800 Say “Hi” to Evie!

Little Miss Muffin Stores: Little Miss Muffin # 1 766 Harrison Avenue Lakeview New Orleans, LA 70124 504.482.8200 Ask Becky if she’s wearing her Guardian Angel.

Little Miss Muffin # 2 244 Metairie Road Old Metairie, LA 504.833.6321 Say “Hello” to Eva & Gay for us! ALEXANDRIA: Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Books & Gifts 2018 C Gus Kaplan Drive Alexandria, LA 71301 Tel. 318.443.2135 Ask for Tinsley and say “Hello”

MANDEVILLE: Blue Roof Denim 1600 West Causeway The Northshore Mandeville, LA 985.624.4680 Say “Hi” to Britney & Eden for us!

LAFAYETTE: “INBETWEENZ” 115 Arnould Blvd. Lafayette, LA 70506 Tel. 337 984 5101 Tell “J’Annine” “Hello!”

OTHER CITIES & STATES: NEW YORK ~ THE HAMPTONS: Frank Calvos Pharmacy & Boutique 106 North Main Street East Hampton, NY 631.324.3887 Ask Frank how my cousin Sue Hassleburger is doing!

NEW YORK ~ WESTCHESTER: Sherwood Forest Design 6 Oak Lane Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567 914.737.3480

LOS ANGELAS, CALIFORNIA: Holy Family Book Store 1527 Freemont Avenue Pasadena, California 91030 Tel. 626.403.6133 Let “Ann” know you’re looking for SaintsforSinners medals!

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Duque Salon & Spa Boutique 5348 Ballard Avenue, NW Seattle, WA 98107 Tel. 206.706.7177 Say “Hey” to Lauren & Giovanna!

CHESTERFIELD, MOUSSOURI: Catholic Gifts & Books Nancy & Steve Eaton 13397 Olive Blvd. Chesterfield, MO 63005 314.469.6700 Say Hello to Nancy & Steve!

COMING SOON: Destin, Florida: Blue Roof Denim