One of the conundrums about being human is, we strive for happiness, but when something makes us happy we grow accustomed to it and, usually sooner than later, we’re looking for something else to make us happy.

Whether it’s your income, your appearance, your career, or anything else in your life that can be improved, we’re trapped on what social scientists call The Hedonic Treadmill.  It’s why we buy new clothes, try new diets, take up new hobbies, why we travel, drink, take drugs… and you can list a bunch of other things that make you happy. Until they don’t.

Well, what if you could get off the hedonic treadmill? What if you could find something you liked so much – say, a piece of jewelry – that makes you feel so good that you can commit to wearing it forever.

That’s the concept behind a jewelry business on Magazine Street called Love Weld.  They sell what they describe as “permanent jewelry.”

In the store, a customer designs a bracelet, necklace, anklet, ring, or charms, and the people at Love Weld fit it and weld it, so it’s on forever.

The Sudio Lead at Love Weld is Sarah Sylve.

Sarah Sylve, at Love Weld your jewelry choice stays with you forever

If permanent happiness sounds ambitious, a little further down from Love Weld on Magazine Street you can make yourself feel better for an hour – and for days after – at NOLA Massage.

NOLA Massage specializes in therapeutic massage, and you can also get a bunch of other treatments including detoxifying body wraps, a salt scrub, cryo treatments, and cupping.

The owner – and one of 4 massage therapists at NOLA Massage – is Amy Nicole Stewart.

Amy Nicole Stewart, not only is she a massge therapist and owner of NOLA Massage, she’s also the author of the children’s book about a bunch of New Orleans cats, Bill Bailey Please Come Home

Like a lot of things in New Orleans, it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what’s so special about Magazine Street. Basically, it’s nothing more than a relatively narrow street, not especially well landscaped, lined with stores. But, somehow, the street has a unique energy and a charismatic charm. It’s a street where locals shop, and tourists get a genuine taste of New Orleans and New Orleanians.

Anyone can open a store on Magazine Street. But not just anyone does. The street seems to attract store owners who manage to combine individual flair with general functionality. Amy’s and Sarah’s businesses, NOLA Massage and Love Weld, are two of the most recent to have opened on Magazine Street. They both make a unique contribution to the street’s rich retail mosaic.

Amy Nicole Stewart, Sarah Sylve, Peter Ricchiuti, Out to Lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur .

Check out Amy’s children’s book about Shotgun Kitties, a bunch of musical New Orleans cats, in their debut outing, Bill Bailey Please Come Home.

Amy Nicole Stewart’s debut children’s book, Bill Bailey Please Come Home, the first in the Shotgun Kitties series