IN HONOR OF SAINT NICHOLAS: STORES SELLING HAND-PAINTED ITALIAN SAINTSFORSINNERS SAINT MEDALLIONS

Saint Nicholas of Myra, Patron Saint of Merchants is our Guest Blogger today.... Today, December 6th, is Saint Nicholas' Feast Day. His story can be found at www.SaintsforSinners.com.

Hello, my name is saint Nicholas of Myra, not to be confused with the fat guy, "Jolly Saint Nick."

I asked the folks at www.SaintsforSinners.com to let me offer a big thank you to all of our retailers, past and present.

As the patron of Merchants, I am the saint who cajoles you into ordering the hand-painted medals from SaintsforSinners.

Our very first store that carried the Original SaintsforSinners cards and medals was located in the French Quarter on Royal Street and was called:

1. The Living Room

It later became known as Pamela's Living Room and we are sorry to report that the store went out of business a few months ago, due to the slow economy. Our medals sold briskly and they were the store's best seller, but the revenue gained from the sale of our medals was not enough to sustain their boutique. We were sorry to see the store close, and we were also very disappointed to learn that:

2. Shine Spa, another French Quarter shop on Conti Street that was carrying our medals, also closed down.

Fortunately other French Quarter shops are currently and actively selling our medals. They are:

3. Feet First, located on Royal Street;

4. Yesteryears, in the heart of Bourbon Street;

5. Ragin' Daisy's, located in the lower Quarter on a corner near the lively French Market;

6. Feet First has another location, located in Uptown New Orleans on Magazine Street, and it also offers our medals.

Another great store in the French Quarter, 7. "Plum," carried our medals for many years. Plum's owner, Dannal Perry, has a good eye for unique items and her store is fun to visit.

Other Uptown Boutiques actively selling our medals are:

8. Jean Therapy on Magazine Street, near the Jefferson Street intersection.

Jean Therapy also offers our medals at their store (9.) in One Canal Place and also 0n Canal Street, 10. Jean Therapy for Kids

Jean Therapy is also located in (11.) Lakeside Mall and (12.) Baton Rouge

Another Baton Rouge Boutique offering our medals is 13. Ted & Daisy's, located in the LSU area.

The 14. Cyprus Medetarian Prayer Center in Baton Rouge also sells our saint medals. In the University area near Tulane and Loyola, 15. Sweet Pea sells SaintsforSinners medals, as does

16. SaveNola, on the first floor of JAX Brewery on Decatur Street.

Crowley's 17. Louisiana Church Interiors also sells our designs, as does the

18. Immaculate Heart Book Store in Alexandria and

19. T Fig in Lake Charles.

20. Blink in the Riverwalk in New Orleans, sells our medals too.

In New York City, the trendy 21. 22. 23. Selima Optique Boutique sells our medals in all 3 of their locations.

In Croton on the Hudson, visit 24. Sherwood Forest Designs to find our medals and if you're out in the Hamptons on Long Island, try

25. The Pharmacy in East Hampton, to see some of our medals.

Over on another continent, if you are in Tokyo, Japan,

26. The Espresso Bar briskly sells our medallions.

Back in America, and on the other side of the country,

27. The Holy Family Book Store in Pasadena, California, is selling SaintsforSinners designs,

as does 28. Zimmer's in in the Valley near Tolouca Lake.

Back on the Bayou, 29. The Jefferson House

and 30. Blue Roof Denim are selling our medals on the Northshore near Covington and Mandeville.

If you go to the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey, check out our medals on 31. Pavillion One

Another beachy locale selling our medals is

32. Bella Beach in Destin Florida.

Up in Oklahoma, try 33. The Clover Leaf, and when in Little Rock, try

34. Liza's Skin Care and

35. Box Turtle

36. Duque & Duque Spa & Boutique offered our medals in their store in Seattle, Washington.

37. Light Years Jewelry in Memphis

38. Maggie's Pharm

39. Pursue Good STUFF, like our medals, in Kansas City sells our medals.

40. InBetweenz in Lafayette, Louisiana sold our medals but we are sorry to report that they have closed down their shop.

41. Art and Soul

42. Small Town Music

43. Little Miss Muffin in Lakeview and

44. Little Miss Muffin in Old Metairie sell lots of our medals!

We also sell on 45. The Internet at www.saintsforsinners.com

Once a month we sell our medallions at

46. The Harrison Avenue Market in Lakeview

47. The Gretna Festival invites us to sell our medals during their annual music extravaganza.

Athens Ohio's 48. Artifacts sells the medallions 49. Happy Hands in Baton Rouge 50. Eaton's Church Supply in Moussouri sells the medals and the

51. Paradise Cafe, in Metairie, near Barnes & Noble, sells our medals. The owner, Linda is a great cook and she feeds us when we visit!

Healing Saints on the SaintsforSinners Sterling Silver Bracelets

We are excited to begin offering sterling silver toggle clasp bracelets with our hand-painted Italian Saint medallions.

One of the first bracelets we designed is featured, at left, and it included a collection of the "healing saints," Padre Pio, Gabriel the Arch Angel, Raphael the Arch Angel, Agatha, Peregrine and the Virgin Mary on the Miraculous Medal. Click on the medals to see a larger image.

The basic bracelet designs were conceived by SaintsforSinners but the final and overall creation is made by the person ordering the bracelet.

We enjoyed matching all the saints featured above and the lady who envisioned the color scheme had a great vision.

We were happy to help her learn more about the saints that would fit well on the healing bracelet and we added the Arch Angel Raphael, the saint known for creating "happy meetings" as a surprise gift.

For information about pricing and turnaround times, please call SaintsforSinners at 504.482.2467.

Writing for Mike Fratello

A long, long, time ago, I can still remember how the tale began ....

It was after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when I was living in a tiny apartment on Bayou Saint John in New Orleans.

A lady named Paige and her Mom, Rosemary, had been ordering medals and we got to "know" each other through e mailing and our work at www.SaintsforSinners.com

Paige was involved in an Akron, Ohio Hospital fund raiser for kids with cancer called Denim and Diamonds.

She asked if we (SaintsforSinners) would be willing to contribute some items for the Silent Auction. Of course, we said yes, and somehow, through luck or just because my cousin Sue is a gem, we also got my dear cousin Sue to help us design beautiful one-of-a-kind SaintsforSinners necklaces.

Sue, being from eastern Long Island, is a lover of the water and the ocean and she collects beach glass. She offered to weave (Saint Anastasia, patron of weavers must have been lurking nearby) some of her beach glass into a SaintsforSinners medals and create a unique necklace.

So, that's what she did and the result was that we were able to raise a lot of money for the fund raiser, which was great!

Somewhere along the line, some people involved with the fund raiser also asked if we could do something special for the sports broadcaster and then Memphis Grizzlies coach, Mike Fratello, because Mike was helping with the fund raiser too.

Of course, being the celebrity hound he tends to be, the founder of SaintsforSinners said yes!

We decided to write a new story about Saint Sebastian, the patron of athletes, for Coach Fratello.

The Grizzlies were losing games and not doing very well in the official NBA standings.

So, we got to thinking and questioning whether winning or losing really mattered, and we concluded it did not.

What really, truly matters in athletics, and life, is how the "game" is played.

The Grizzlies were struggling but Coach Fratello was still working hard and also dedicating his free time to help raise money for a hospital dedicated to helping kids with cancer.

So, we wrote a new story about saint Sebastian, the patron of athletes, and we hid a story within the story that was a message to Mike Fratello, the man.

We reminded him that the things that were most important were playing the game with a sense of fair play and integrity, and working as team.

We managed to convey that what an athlete does off the field, like say, working to raise needed funds for hospitals, is also part of the "big equation."

And we sent our saint Sebastian medal package for Mike off to Akron, Ohio.

We did harbor a hope that we might hear from Mike Fratello and somehow get him on the SaintsforSinners "Hall of Fame-ous," and although we did hear back from Mike's friends, the Hall of Fame inclusion was not meant to be.

That was OK, though, because Sue and SaintsforSinners made a nice contribution to the Denim and Diamonds Fund Raiser and that was the most important thing.

Time passed (that's what it does, like it or not).

We moved out of our little apartment and back into a brand new home in the exact same spot where our old home had been bulldozed away after the flood.

2009 arrived and a phone call came in to SaintsforSinners. It was from a lady named Jessica and she wanted medals for a boys football team at Our Lady Mount Carmel in Indiana.

We offered a nice discount and went about preparing the medal packages for the boys.

Thanks to our work for Denim and Diamonds and Mike Fratello, our story was already written and with a few quick edits, and with some time spent carefully painting Saint Sebastian medals, we had the Saint Sebastian medal packages prepared and ready and off they went to Indiana.

Weeks went by and we did not hear from the folks in Indiana. We wrongly concluded that perhaps the medals were not up-to-par and were disappointed.

Time kept marching and December 3, 2009 arrived.

Late in the day, SaintsforSinners received an e mail from the coach of the boys football team in Indiana.

In it, he thanked us and also Jessica, for "finding" us. He said that the medals and the story were "perfect" and reinforced the integral themes about "good sportsmanship," which is the most important thing to learn when beginning to play sports of any kind.

The coach also included a nice picture of all the boys proudly wearing their saint Sebastian medals. It's included up above (click on it to see a larger image) and that photo of those boys wearing our medal designs will go up on our Hall of Fame-ous soon, right between Paula Deen and Bruce Springsteen. Bruce and Paula should be proud to be in their company.

SaintSational Bracelets from www.SaintsforSinners.com

Saints for da Saints! WHODAT!?

We have sterling silver toggle clasp bracelets with familiar old age Saints ready to cheer on the New Orleans Saints on their journey to Super Bowl XLIV!

We will be posting pictures of the bracelets soon, but for now, we are trying to send out the medals and bracelet on the same day they are ordered, and we have been successful, thus far. We also deliver locally!

Some of the SaintSationals we are offering:

1. Saint Anthony, Finding the way the Super Bowl;

2. Saint Jude, Guiding Coach Payton with Difficult Plays in Impossible Siruations....

3. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, proving Quick Help when needed;

4. Saint Dismas, the "Good Thief," helping the Saints Recover Fumbles and Make Interceptions;

5. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Constantly Helping the New Orleans Saints;

6. Saint Joan of Arc, Crusading with the Saints on their Super Bowl run!

We have many other Imported Italian Saints Hand-Painted in New Orleans to help our team, and also welcome your Saintly instructions for clever ways to guide the New Orleans Saints to Super Bowl XLIV.

Call 504.239.3143 for Inspiration, yours, ours, or both!

WHODAT?!

The Saints are the Sinners who keep on trying. - Robert Louis Stevenson