The Gift of Christopher Radko

Picking out a new Christopher Radko ornament every holiday season is a tradition for some.  Each ornament is a mouth-blown, hand painted, European glass, work of art.  But, we wouldn’t have the ornaments if it wasn’t for a family tragedy.

One week before Christmas in 1984, the stand gave way to the Radko family Christmas tree, and it crashed to the floor, shattering almost every single one of the family’s collection of over 2,000 mouth-blown, European glass ornaments.

Christopher decided he wanted to replace the ornaments, but in the United States most ornaments were made of plastic and styrofoam at the time.  The following Spring, while visiting cousins in Poland, Christopher began looking for glass ornaments.  While he didn’t find exactly what he was looking or, Christopher did find an artisan eager to revive the art of his great-grandfather; a tradition once thought to be lost forever.

Christopher encouraged the artisan to find antique ornament molds.  Christopher also supplied him with sketches of his own childhood favorites and new designs.  Several dozen ornaments were created at first for his family, but were quickly purchased by friends.  On his next trip abroad, Christopher brought back more ornaments: many for his family and some extras, which quickly sold out, as well.

Christopher realized he had discovered something wonderful.  He went door-to-door to stores in New York City, showing his designs.  Georg Jensen, a top of the line jewelry store, was his first retail account.

Today, after a quarter century and a transfer in ownership, the Christopher Radko Company has produced more than fifteen million fine European glass ornaments and grown to encompass several additional lines of holiday decor.

Christopher Radko Fine European Glass Ornaments are produced in Europe by a seasoned team of artists and craftsmen, many of whom have been with the company since its very inception. Each piece is meticulously crafted by hand, using Renaissance-era carving, molding, glass blowing, silver lining, hand painting and finishing processes that require both unparalleled skill and several weeks to complete.

The finished ornament is worthy to be any family’s heirloom.

North American Drones – X-Factor Review

Review by Drew

We’ve recently gotten some small quadcopter drones from North American Drones in at Necessities and Temptations.  The X-Factor is their small entry to drone flying.  According to their website, the drone is made of hard cast plastic to ensure durability, and operated through a specialized smartphone app for ease of use.  The drone is able to take both still and video photography from a fixed camera that comes stock on the product.

I had a lot of fun trying to fly the X-Factor.  The setup was very simple.  The drone is about 8″ by 8″.  I quickly found the app on the Google Play store.  The drone actually emits a WiFi signal your phone connects to to control the drone.  The written instruction in the box were written in poorly translated English, but were very understandable.  The battery life was around 10 minutes or so.  The controls were very thorough.  My biggest issue is that I don’t know how to fly a quadcopter and the setup assumes you do.  I will need to take lessons or watch some videos to figure out how to drive.

Overall, I think the X-Factor is a nice entry point quadcopter for $220.  It didn’t break with my inept driving abilities.  I like the mounted camera that works well enough to drive using the view from it.  I would recommend this for the grownup kids.

Jean Patou Perfume Collection Now Offered

Saks Fifth Avenue
Bloomingdale’s
Nordstrom
Lord and Taylor
and now Necessities and Temptations

It is an honor to announce that Necessities and Temptations now offers perfumes from the House of Patou.  The Patou line of perfumes began over 85 years ago at the height of the Great Depression when Jean Patou offered a new scent for his wealthy American clientele: Joy.   Every ounce of this subtle floral bouquet, a perfect symbiosis of rose and jasmine, requires 10,600 jasmine flowers and twenty-eight dozen roses.  Joy was voted “Scent of the Century” by the public at the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards in 2000, beating its rival Chanel No. 5.

Joy is not the only scent the House of Patou are known for.  Over the years, the House of Patou crafted other fragrances that remain as popular today as they ever were:
1000 (1972)
Sublime (1992)
Enjoy (2003)

Again, it is a great honor to offer this collection of fine perfumes from the House of Patou.