If you’ve got a little Van Gogh on your holiday gift list, we know where you can go to prime his or her paint.

A loyal reader told us about Jerry’s Artist Outlet (www.jerrysartistoutlet.com) in West Orange—and it may be the best thing that ever happened to the artist in all of us.

This is one of three Jerry’s in existence, and the only one in the state.

This store is tucked into the Essex Green Shopping Plaza. It’s narrow in front, but so deep you’ll feel a little like Alice in a rabbit hole of sketch pads, paints, picture frames, and paint-by-numbers. You’ll wander and wonder at this amazing collection of  whatever you’d need to express yourself on paper, canvas, or the side of your house.

There are some serious paints, print making supplies, and ready-to-mold sculpture busts. There are easels for toddlers, teens, and adult recreational painters. You can get your  work framed,  or you can select from hundreds of ready-made frames.

Jerry’s is swimming in do-it-yourself projects for kid’s parties, and plenty of those last minute gifts. It also had the biggest paint boxes we’d ever seen (33 magic markers, 36 pastel oil crayons, dozens of colored pencils, three water color kits). The price was  reduced from $39.95 to  $14.99. The case is so large a little artist will need a wagon to tote it around.

“Do you have to have any artistic ability to use this?” We overheard this from one woman customer holding up one of the multitude of project kits.

“None,” replied a helpful employee. “You just have to have imagination.”

We are giving a big En Jay thumbs up to the efforts of Montclair business owner Kelly DelRosso this holiday season.

DelRosso, owner of semplice, (www.semplicehome.com) formed The Committee to Keep Montclair Small Business Alive,(www.shoplocalmontclair.com) a new website that promotes instant sales by local merchants.

Shopping close to home, she writes, is “energy efficient” and “heart-warming.” The stores, a few dozen of them, have pledged to keep consumers aware of the latest and greatest deals, to fill that holiday gift list. The ads will be updated frequently, to tout products, list the latest shopping hours, and new promotions.

Montclair will be especially hard hit by shrinking financial and media industry jobs – and as Kelly’s website points out, no government bailout is coming the way of these small businesses at the end of the economic food chain.  She calls it “the stormiest retail season in years.”

“If shops begin to go vacant after a potentially devastating holiday season, we all lose in the long run…and, more importantly, the community of Montclair loses.”

We couldn’t have said it better. Here’s a chance to save a few dollars, stay close to home, and fuel the local economy. Keeping it local – keeping small businesses in business and keeping your town out of trouble.

Here’s a house gift for the holidays that will last a lifetime.  And best of all, we’ll give you a special NJ My Way discount.

The gift is Peggy Karr glass (www.peggykarrglass.com).

Made by hand at a factory in Randolph, the plates, bowls, serving platters, even tables, are featured in hundreds of specialty gift stores across the nation. Karr has more than thirty employees, who cut glass, painstakingly pour colored powders  (made of ground glass and ceramic pigment) through stencils, and create the multi-layer design. The images are sealed between two pieces of glass and superheated, so the product is practically indestructible.

 Karr started the business twenty years ago, in her Morristown home, after she fell in love with the process of creating enameled glass. The business is now the largest of its kind in the world.

With all this success, Karr has not supplied her glassware to large department stores, or other mass goods retailers. Nor has she given in to pressure to move the manufacturing process overseas. “I feel strongly about the people who work here, the jobs we’ve created.”

The glassware is not unreasonably expensive, the average price around $75-$100. But in the Randolph factory, there is an outlet store where you can save big on samples and products with slight imperfections. Mention NJ My Way, and you’ll save an additional 20%-- it’s a great way to fill your holiday gift list without busting your budget.

Plus, you are supporting a home-grown business. In these economic times, every job created at home is special. Just like Karr’s creations.

“I feel like the glass has a soul and heart, “ she says, “There’s a lot of love that goes into it.“

Overheard in a Morris County coffee shop: two women raving about their MBT shoes. 

The first says the shoes cured her long-time back pain. The second says they helped to alleviate the symptoms of a relative’s neuromuscular disease. 

Now we’re listening. Here’s what we find out.

MBT shoes — it  stands for Masai Barefoot Technology. They are:

1. expensive ($250.00+)
2. weird looking
3. not easy to find.

The sole is engineered to deliberately shift your center of balance. Like your ancestors, you’ll feel like you are walking barefoot over uneven ground. The manufacturer says the “natural instability” in these “anti-shoes” helps tone your muscles, improve your posture, and burn extra calories. Just like a walk on the soft sand at the Shore.

The MBT website lists plenty of retailers that supposedly carry these shoes, but in reality, not all do. We found one Lady Foot Locker in the ritzy Mall at Short Hills with a prominent display of MBT sneakers. You can see them in our video at www.njmyway.com.

We suggest you not buy these shoes without trying them. Once you get used to rocking off the balls of your feet backwards at every step, they almost seem comfortable. Until you feel the pain in your calf muscle. Must mean they are working!

Matt, the store manager, says “there is a whole mindset” that goes behind the shoes. He says people who are injured, or need an extra workout push, find them appealing.

The latest version, a less clunky sandal, will be in the Short Hills mall store this week. Still expensive, but far less than a pair of Manolos. And you’ll always feel like you are barefoot at the beach!

Speaking of which…NJ My Way will be on the beach next week, and will return July 7.