WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? We could use your help with a couple of surveys. The Mt. Lebanon Recreation Department is taking a look at its programming, with an eye toward what’s most popular, and also what ideas you may have for something new. And ascendlebo.com, the title of Mt. Lebanon’s comprehensive plan project, wants to know how you feel about municipal services, what’s working and areas you can see room for improvement. You can find both surveys on the news flash section of www.mtlebanon.org [1].
SIGN RULES An election season reminder: Mt. Lebanon ordinances prohibit placing any signs on public property, such as parks, traffic islands and intersections. This goes for any signs, such as affinity signs, advertisements, public events, elections, etc. The only exception is for specific signs during real estate open houses. If you place a sign in a right-of-way it will be removed. Place signs on private property, with permission.
BUSINESS MOVES The Uptown business district has a new member. Stationery store Paper Reign relocated to Washington Road from Beverly Road in August. “We’re the little paper store that can’t find its home,”owner Gina Florez quipped. Florez has been designing stationery and invitations since 2007 and opened her first brick and mortar store in The Galleria in 2018. She is an avid participant in Mt. Lebanon’s community outreach and business development and hopes the move to Uptown will produce more retail traffic. Paper Reign sells stationery and invitations, journals, pens and pencils, wax seals, ribbons and other paper products and boutique items. “Hoping our Goldilocks stationery store has found its ‘just right’ home in Uptown,” Florez said.
Paper Reign, 696 Washington Road, is closed on Sunday and Monday and open 11 to 4 Tuesday through Friday, and 12 to 4 on Saturday.
Florez is planning a number of sales for the holidays. Customers can also shop online [2].
SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY Looking for a change from the Black Friday gladiator pits and the big Cyber Monday carbon footprint? Small Business Saturday is a palate cleanser that comes between those two mammoth events.
Since 2010, small local businesses have benefited from Small Business Saturday, always the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as shoppers avoid the big-box mayhem to find one-of-a-kind gift items from local shops.
Look for Small Business Saturday specials from local businesses on Saturday, November 26.
@ THE LIBRARY The 1944 holiday season, like the five previous holiday seasons, was dampened by the Second World War. Money was tight and pretty much everything was rationed, making traditional gifts hard to come by.
One thing that was not rationed, at least in Iceland, was paper. So some Icelandic visionaries thought: “Why not books? Lots and lots of books. Why, we could have a virtual ‘flood’ of books, because we love books so much!” (Editor’s note: some paraphrasing for dramatic license may have occurred).
The idea caught on, and the first Jolabokaflod (Christmas Book Flood) swept across the country, ushering in a tradition that Icelanders still honor, exchanging literary gifts on Christmas Eve so everyone has something to read on the short days and long nights of the holiday season. Every year in November, book publishers compile a catalog of books, which is sent to every household in the country.
Mt. Lebanon Public Library has embraced Jolabokaflod as possibly the greatest holiday ever.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 19, the library will be celebrating the books flood with a holiday book sale and several other events, including an arts and crafts fair; seasonal music from the Southminster Handbell Ensemble; cookies, hot chocolate, and wassail for sale; live music throughout the day and a winter poetry reading. Activities for kids include crafting, a special winter I SPY Tank, and a winter scavenger hunt.
Jolabokaflod. Pronounced Yo-la-bu-ka-floed. Just so you know.