My Re-refinished Table

Now I know you've all seen my lovely refinished drop-leaf table at Relish, but look at it now!!!

Now I have to admit that, while I certainly liked it, I didn't really love the whitewash finish I did on the top of this. So, this morning I came in early and sanded it completely off. Pretty productive Sunday morning, right?!

And now, it's freaking beautiful!

If I had any room at all in my house I would take it home immediately and not sell this at all. Now I love, love, love this piece. And the good news for you is that it's still at Relish and for sale. This will not be in stock for long, I promise!

Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to you all!

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping

With the holiday countdown in its last week, we're all busy wrapping and cooking and, of course, shopping. Whether it's a final gift or two, or some holiday decor for yourself, Relish has lots of great options.

We have gorgeous new cushions from two Canadian designers, sales on our great vintage furniture and decor, and lots of incredible original artwork by T Waxman - and the artwork is 40% off for all of December!

So come on down and visit us this week, and have a very merry holiday season with your family and friends.

Happy Holidays!

And the Winner Is...

A great big congratulations to Charlene, Relish's lucky Painting Draw winner! Charlene popped in last week to pick up her painting.

Here she is with T Waxman (rocking the platinum hair), the lovely and very talented artist!

Congrats again, Charlene!

Holiday Wish List

I think it's official; the holidays are here. And to celebrate this, let me introduce the James St. North Wish List!

Here's how it works:

• pick up this Wish List at any of the participating retailers
• fill out the items you just must have this holiday season and the store where you found them
• give your completed list to whoever is shopping for your gift (or you can use it to shop for yourself!)
• when it's time to shop, just bring the Wish List in to the participating store and you'll get 15% off! Just for using this list! Pretty amazing, right?

You can find and use the Wish List at any of the following retailers...

• Relish
• White Elephant
• Hawk & Sparrow
• i fiori
• Art Gallery of Hamilton Design Annex
• Hansen & Lubbers
• Humblepie
• Mixed Media
• O's Clothes
• Needlework
• Mulberry Street Cafe

And finally, here are Relish's hours for the month of December

Mon-Tues:   closed
Wed-Thurs: 12pm - 6pm
Fri:              12pm - 8pm
Sat:             11am - 5pm
Sun:            12pm - 4pm

See you soon!

A Holiday Gift for You

That's right - Relish has a holiday gift just for you!

With every purchase made at Relish from now through Saturday December 1st, you will receive an adorable vintage ornament, tied to a classic candy cane, no less!

So be sure you get down to Relish this week and see what else is happening on James Street!

And for the month of December, our Holiday hours will be:
Mon-Tues: closed
Wed-Thurs: 12pm-6pm
Fri: 12pm-8pm
Sat: 11am-5pm
Sun: 12pm-4pm
*we will be closed on Mon Dec 24th

New Cushions!

Just in time for weather that makes you want to hibernate on your sofa with a cushion and a good book, Relish has some brand new made-in-Canada cushions in stock!

Here are some of the great new items from The ElleBee Tree...

And here are some of the lovely new items I've re-stocked from Sarah Smile....

 

Hope to see you soon!

Holiday Cards Are Here!

I know it's early, but organized people have already started thinking about getting their holiday cards in the mail. (Not me - I'm nowhere near that organzied!)

Relish has a great selection of beautiful cards printed right here in Canada!

Now I have to admit, these are my absolute favourites - all by Flakes Paperie in Cambridge. We have "Cheers to Getting into the Holiday Spirits", "Happy Hanukkah", "A Merriest Christmas Mix" and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow".

These printing press cards are by Papillon Press in Sudbury. A great selection including a couple of new designs for this year.

And these cuties are created by Crafted by Lindy in Calgary. So cute - I love the "Jolly Holly" one!

 

 

Hope to see you all in here soon! And don't forget our huge 30% off sale is still on!! Everything with a sticker on it is on sale!

Preloved Mitts Are Back!!!

Remember those beautiful mittens from Preloved that we sold out of last year? Well, they're back, and just in time for this cool weather.

AND we also have lovely slippers at Relish, also by Preloved. Just look how great these are!

These make great one-of-a-kind (not to mention handmade in Canada) gifts or stocking stuffers. They also make a great gift for yourself!

Make sure you get down here while we have a big selection of colours and patterns!

Sale!!! Sale!!! Sale!!!

That's right there is a HUGE sale on at Relish right now!

All of our furniture and most of our housewares are 30% - 40% off! Get down here quick while there's still a great selection.

And stay tuned because there are lots of new goodies coming soon, like beautiful stationary, mitts, slippers, and cushions!

New Vintage at Relish!

Well, we've not only got some great new vintage goodies at Relish, but we've also been busy re-arranging the place. In case you haven't made it down here in the last week or so, here's a little peek...

 

 

 

 

And doesn't Tricia's art look great in our newly arranged space?

Come on down to see us in person and say hello!

More Pumpkin!

You'd think after Thanksgiving weekend that we'd all be totally maxed out on our pumpkin consumption, but for some reason this time of year makes me want to eat endless pumpkin desserts, cook endless roasts, and have lots of bonfires.

I have to say my mom made possibly the best pumpkin dessert of all time with her pumpkin brownies (so good I even ate them for breakfast!), but this cake comes in at a very close second!

I had a craving all of a sudden for pumpkin layer cake, so I made a special trip to the store for those specific ingredients (pumpkin puree, butter, cream cheese) and went to work!

I'm telling you this cake is so good that it doesn't even need icing! However, when there's an excuse to smother something in cream-cheese icing, who can resist?

Icing made from cream cheese, butter, pumpkin puree, vanilla and icing sugar. Yum!!

Why didn't I start with a bigger bowl, and why aren't I using a food processor to mix this?? There was icing sugar EVERYWHERE.

Of course, once the cake was done, it looked gorgeous - icing between the two cake layers, and spread all over the top and sides. But I forgot to take a photo when I was finished, and Ilya and dug right in. It didn't last too long at our house! Oops!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone, and Happy Autumn. It's my favourite time of year, so I hope you're all enjoying the beautiful leaves, the smell of woodstoves, and your favourite sweater.

Phew, We Made It!

Another amazing Supercrawl! Honestly, what a great event. Such a great time for everyone, and great vibes all weekend.

Now that it's all done and I have a chance to relax, I thought I'd share some behind-the-scenes photos of what we were up to here at Relish all last week while we prepared....

Tricia's just started re-painting the upstairs in grey.

 

This is the total upheaval Jackie was left with on Friday - and yep, that's a playpen in there. Oscar was supervising while we worked!



Work-in-progress, using Relish's very own paint!

 

Finished product, which some great new fabric.

 

New life for an old coffee table - super stylish!

 

Remember this old dresser?

 

Goodbye flower stencils - yay!

 

Infinately cooler. Isn't yellow and grey the BEST combo?!

 





I have to say a great big huge thank you to Tricia, Relish's resident artist, who did SO much work all week while we cleaned, painted, refurbished, and re-arranged. We even spent a few days working on our very own paint product (very exciting - more on this to come, so stay tuned!). Tricia was even kind enough to do some live painting during Supercrawl yesterday, and the finished piece was auctioned off in a silent auction. Lots of fun!

And another great big thank you to Jackie, who gave us TONS of help on Friday afternoon with all our last-minute set-up. And by last-minute, I mean she basically arranged the whole store. Amazing!

We hope you had a great Supercrawl weekend, and we'll see you soon!

Supercrawl is Here!

Supercrawl weekend is here!

We've been working our little butts off here at Relish, and have lots of new goodies for you to check out. Here's a little sneak peak...

 

 

And don't forget we have artwork on display right now by Nancy Benoy and always by Tricia Waxman, Relish's resident artist.

We hope to see you down here at Relish over the weekend - it's going to be a crazy, huge, awesome day tomorrow!

Relish will be open from 11am onwards.

See you then!

New Refinished Desk!

Well my latest refinishing project at Relish has been on the go for a while, since it was interrupted by the arrival of little Oscar. But now that I'm mostly back to functioning, here it is!!

I found a cute little desk in my travels, although it was pretty beat up and sad looking. But a couple of coats of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue and voila! (And thank you to my intern Jackie for helping me out with this one!)

The desk just came out on the floor this past week, and you can see it in the window right now. I hope to see you soon so you an check out this desk, and my other recent goodies!

Patio Weather

In these sweltering days of summer, what could be more appealing than food & drinks on a lovely shaded patio?

Well, we had the perfect patio table, but it was dying a slow and painful death left outside in the elements without the proper protection.

So I finally took the time to sand down the top and put on a waterproof sealant on the tabletop so we could enjoy our patio for the rest of the season.

Don't you just love how wonderfully imperfect this table is?

I have to say thank you to my neighbours (thanks, Brian and Lindsay!) for deciding to get rid of this table - it was a great find for me!