Archive for the 'shopping' Category
House in Toronto for Sale - It’s $1
contact April 19th, 2008
From cbc:
“Toronto’s resale housing market may be cooling off, but at least one enterprising owner has found a way to get his home noticed.
He put it on the market for $1.
The Canadian Real Estate Association says existing homes sales across the country tumbled 13 per cent for the first three months of the year compared with last year.
The group says much of the slide was tied to lower activity in Toronto during February and March. The city accounts for about a quarter of the country’s sales in major markets.
Toronto saw its residential unit sales drop 13.4 per cent, though new listings were also down by seven per cent.
The $1 listing comes from Omar Ibrahim, who put his two-storey house on the market for less than the cost of a litre of gas.
He told CBC News the listing is “basically to see whether or not we can get an offer and something reasonable, letting the market determine … what the value of this house is.”
The house at 93 Badgerow Ave., a semi in the city’s Riverdale neighbourhood, shows well. It has three bedrooms, new flooring, appliances, fresh paint and a finished basement.
Ibrahim is not trying to give the house away and won’t let it go for the asking price. It’s a marketing strategy.
Tony Bassels, the real estate broker, remembers another house in Willowdale that was listed for $1 in 2004.
“It sold in 16 days for about $960,000 and that was listed for a dollar. And again multiple interest drove the price up to there,” he said.
Ibrahim buys homes, renovates and sells them. He bought 93 Badgerow Ave. in January 2008 for $342,000. He’ll find out Monday night when he opens the offers if his strategy will pay off.”
Featured City: Toronto
contact March 29th, 2008
Make sure to head over to concierge where they’ve featured our favorite Canadian city of Toronto. Here’s what they say about Toronto in a nutshell:
“* It’s a chowhound’s paradise, with everything from Nigerian to Laotian, Moroccan to Azerbaijani food
* An architectural renaissance is transforming the skyline with additions by Daniel Libeskind and native son Frank Gehry
* Toronto has become one of the most ethnically diverse cities on the continent, with lively neighborhoods, festivals, and restaurants to match
* The Eaton Centre. It’s a big suburban-style mall with all the wrong kinds of shopping
* When to go to Toronto: May, June, September, October”
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Dessert Trends Patisserie & Café Toronto
contact January 30th, 2008
Dessert Trends Patisserie & Café in Toronto was voted the best place for wedding cakes so if you’re looking, check them out. But for me, just this photo of a pastry makes me go here. You won’t be disappointed by their beautiful patisseries; you might just not want to eat something so gorgeous. JUST kidding.
Dessert Trends Patisserie & Café also serves breakfast and lunch.
Dessert Trends Patisserie & Café
154 Harbord Street
NE corner of Harbord and Brunswick
Toronto Canada
Tel: 416.916.8155
Get Your Sneakers and Shoes Painted!
contact January 23rd, 2008
Oh the treasures you will find at the fabulous Etsy site! Ndeur, a Parisian-born graphic artist based in Toronto offers you these wonderful painted shoes. The sneakers are so cute! I have some white vans that seriously need something with a bit more character and color and I think that something is chez Ndeur. The beauty of this is that all you need to do is look down at your shoes to see art; and traveling art at that!
You can choose from a myriad of designs so you’re bound to find something that suits your personality. His style seems inspired by street art and it’s mixed with fun and whimsy topped with a splash of modern art. It’s as though he was a street tagger that decided to channel his creative energy and work onto something smaller: shoes. That way, he doesn’t risk getting arrested by police whilst trying to escape their pursuit after getting caught tagging a train. You know. It’s safer but with less exercise and way less toxic fumes.
Back to his shoes. You can order the shoes and designs from Ndeur or you can send him your own shoes to have them painted. This is not only an ingenious business idea, but it’s just plain cool and fun.
Ndeur Shoes (at Etsy)
Ndeur MySpace - you can see his other art here
Green Earth Organics - Fresh Organic Food Delivered to Your Home or Office
contact January 22nd, 2008
Green Earth Organics offers up an excellent and amazing service. Once or twice a week, they deliver to your home or office boxes of organic fruits and vegetables and other organic foods. There are three box sizes to choose from Harvest $36, Family Harvest $46, and Super Harvest $60. The contents of the boxes change on a weekly basis (due to seasonal changes). But you can also call the weekend hotline at 416-285-5300 or visit their website, to hear what is in your box ahead of time and make any substitutions you’d like when available. A great and obvious option: when you sign up for their service you can let them know which items you never want to receive, and order items you prefer.
All deliveries are done on the same day every week. Deliveries take place in the evening, 2pm. - 9pm.
Green Earth Organics buys locally grown produce whenever possible and 10% of their profits go to various non-profit groups around Toronto.
Give them a call or sign up online so you can order organic food and have it delivered to your door.
Green Earth Organics
3 - 70 Wade Ave
Toronto,Ontario
Canada. M6H 1P6
Tel: 416.285.5300
24 Hour Hotline: 416.532.2713
Cupcakes in Toronto!
contact January 14th, 2008
Cupcakes are not the trend right now. They’ve ALWAYS been in fashion! But until recently, cupcake shops were hard to find. Thankfully, more and more are popping up here and there in great cities across North America. Toronto is no exception. The Cupcake Shoppe, situated in a bustling area of Toronto, offers cupcake lovers a total of 17 beautiful, nut-free flavors, with nine of their yummilicious flavors available in-store every single day. YAY. All cupcakes come with cute, unusual names, chosen by the staff, and your favorites will be easy to remember. All the cupcakes, including (my favorite) Yonge ’n’ Eligible featuring vanilla buttercream on a vanilla or chocolate cake, the chocolate buttercream on chocolate cake James Brown, and their marble Frost Me cupcake topped with vanilla frosting - changes color seasonally, and are baked daily from the freshest ingredients. Additionally, The Cupcake Shoppe offers custom cupcakes, mini cupcakes and cakes illustrated by hand to suit your special celebrations. Toronto’s first cupcake bakery, the Cupcake Shoppe knows how much fun a cupcake can be.
The Cupcake Shoppe
2417 Yonge Street
Tel. 416.322.6648
2 blocks north of Eglinton Avenue,
on the east side of Yonge.
Hours
Monday to Friday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sugar Mountain
contact January 11th, 2008
Sugarholics, rejoice! Especially those of you who like sweet retrolicious candy goodness.
Sugar Mountain is a chain of specialty candy and confectionery stores, which got its humble start in 1992 as an open-air booth in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original booth quickly outgrew demand and the first Sugar Mountain retail store opened its doors on Richmond Street West in late 1995.
From the first sight of the bright purple interior, to the multiplicity of confectionery and novelty items, Sugar Mountain stores capitalize on a youthful notion that is created via a carefully selected product offering, within a nostalgic environment that is reminiscent of one’s childhood. Specializing in retro and nostalgic confectionery, it is not uncommon that Sugar Mountain customers exclaim, “Wow, I haven’t seen this in years”. Sugar Mountain has become a nationally recognized institution and has established itself as the leading Canadian retailer of imported and nostalgic confectionery.
2 Locations in Toronto!
Sugar Mountain
2299 Yonge Street (at Eglinton)
M4P 2C3 Toronto Canada
Tel: 416.486.9321
320 Richmond Street West
M5V 1X2 Torotno Canada
Tel: 416.204.9544
Toronto Fire Chiefs Drive Hybrids!
contact January 2nd, 2008
From Treehugger:
Remembering the events of five years ago, none of us would begrudge our firefighters a nice ride; we are pleased to see that the Toronto Fire Services chief is tooling around in a Highlander hybrid. It won in a competitive bidding process that looked at performance, ground clearance and versatility. They are almost off-the-shelf- a custom Toronto colour (is not fire engine red the same all over?) and “a set of very subtly-integrated strobe lights built into the roof rack, grille, side pillars and rear lamps: at night, the thing lights up like a Christmas tree, and is visible from very far away, even though the LED units are actually tiny. ” TFS liked the fuel consumption stats and the fact that it was not a beefed up heavy duty sedan but an off-the-shelf car that was strong enough to take it. Sez Chief Stewart: “”All of the equipment we’ve chosen is here so we can respond faster and work safer.” Canadian Driver
Made in Tieland
contact December 31st, 2007
Bags from recycyled ties! Made in Tieland
Love Handles
contact December 26th, 2007
Love Handles is a hand-crafted handbag company based out of a Toronto bedroom. The handles are hand-made and wooden and the fabric is organic or vintage. Since it is all found in charity shops, there is a real variety of patterns and colors, from little girl to Scandinavian and a variety of choices in between.
You can order online or shop at these stores:
LEFT FEET @ 88 Nassau St
Located in Kensington Market, Toronto Ontario.
(a sweet Vegan Shoe store you should check out either way)
Heart on Your Sleeve @ 61a Bellevue Ave
a sustainable boutique… that includes organic cottons & reused/reworked clothes!
(corner of Nassau & Bellevue… attached to Left Feet!)
The Bag Boutique @ 1018 Queen St. West
Located just west of Ossington.
The Gift of Glenn Gould
contact December 20th, 2007
For the longest time, I couldn’t listen to The Goldberg Variations without thinking about Hannibal (The Cannibal) Lechter from Silence of the Lambs
It made me sad because I love this recording by Glenn Gould
My baggage aside, one of the best things you can do for your life, is to stop everything and JUST listen to beautiful music for a while. You don’t have to spend the entire day doing this; just spend some allotted time to step away from the chaos of life, and just…chill. And chilling with music rules. Some of you are so used to multi-tasking and always doing a million things at the same time. You know I’m talking about you. Your days are filled with a continuous string of tasks back to back to back sans cesse, if you know what I mean. Calm, serenity, quiet, peaceful - well, these words do not exist in your life’s vocabulary.
Cut it out!
Do yourself a favor and find great music, like Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection
So…..WHY am I writing about Glenn Gould on this Toronto blog? I thought you’d never ask. Glenn Gould was born in Toronto on September 25, 1932. Thought you’d like that bit of trivia.
About Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection
Each of the 60 single and 9 double CDs consists of the exact recordings as first issued on vinyl and looks like a miniaturised form of the original disc: the CDs are in cardboard slipcases in the original design, and the CD itself is designed to look like a LP.
Supplemented by two bonus CDs, the limited “Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection” comprises 80 CDs mounted in a high-quality display case with a booklet of more than 240 pages. This booklet contains a new, detailed essay by the German Gould specialist Michael Stegemann on Glenn Gould and the LP recording era along with texts and repertoire details to all recordings in the edition, plus a listing and depiction of the records with reissue dates for repertoire that has appeared before.
The bonus CDs include the last great interview that Glenn Gould gave the American journalist Tim Page in 1981 and an essay on Johann Sebastian Bach and the fugue that Gould recorded in 1972 for a bonus LP. They also feature a number of late recordings that never appeared on vinyl: fragments of the “Italian Album” and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll in its orchestral version — Gould’s recording debut as conductor and his last recording of all, made on 8 September 1982 with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Another rarity is Gould’s own film music to George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse Five from 1972.
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Soundscapes for Discerning Music Lovers
contact December 17th, 2007
From their site:
Soundscapes is an independent CD and music book retailer located in the Little Italy neighbourhood of downtown Toronto. The shop was founded with the simple intent of carrying the best music of all styles and persuasions. Our inventory includes (but is not limited to) folk, jazz, world, psych, garage, prog, blues, soul, reggae, classical, experimental, noise, americana/country, electronic, hip-hop, R&B, metal and pop/rock. We also devote our energies to finding the best in reissues of all genres and imports from across the pond. Finally, our store has one of the city’s best selections of local indie artists.
Soundscapes is a ticket outlet for many independent promoters and we regularly provide tickets for the town’s cornerstone venues, such as The Horseshoe Tavern, Lee’s Palace, The Mod Club, The Music Gallery and The Opera House, among others. A long-time supporter of Toronto’s independent music scene, we have a large consignment section and a seven-year relationship with local indie club night Wavelength (the breeding ground for Broken Social Scene, The Constantines, Royal City and Do Make Say Think to name a few).
Since its birth in August of 1999, the store has quickly grown into one of Toronto’s most-respected and loved music shops. Most importantly, our shelves are stocked not only by the tastes of our staff, but also through suggestions of many a regular customer. We pride ourselves on a relationship with our clientele that is based on respect and a mutual love of music.
In August 1999, Greg Davis first opened the doors on a modest shop in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood. The space used to be a children’s clothing store. Now it was a fledgling CD shop called Soundscapes. Greg had arrived at this place in a very un-rock n’ roll way. Although a native son of nearby Burlington, he had spent the previous two years as an accountant living in San Diego. Like a lot of number-crunchers he found his job profitable but boring. Unlike the majority of his cohorts, he decided to do something about it.
Greg’s record-store-owner-by-way-of-accountant history was unconventional and so was his approach to the indie record shop. Instead of the cluttered bins and surly attitudes depicted in High Fidelity, he favoured clean lines, broad genre stocking, and wide-eyed enthusiasm. The idea was that while he was a huge fan of music himself, he had as much to learn as the next person. Soundscapes was to be a meeting place of like open minds, where the customer had as much to say about the stocking of the shelves as the owner himself.
When the shop first started, it had no more than a couple thousand titles and Greg was the only employee: day in, day out. In the years since, the store has greatly expanded with an inventory of some 20,000 CDs, books and DVDs, as well as over a dozen employees. The shop’s well-chosen, always-improving stock ranges from folk, pop, rock and soul to jazz, classical and experimental, not to mention numerous reissues and import titles.
Soundscapes
572 College Street
Little Italy
Toronto, Ontario
M6G 1B3 Canada
ph: (416) 537-1620
Sunday-Thursday:
10AM-11PM
Friday-Saturday:
10AM-midnight
The Spice Trader, Toronto - Organic Spices
contact December 11th, 2007
You’ll never need to get your spices anywhere else in Toronto. The Spice Trader has about 150 different kinds of spices that adorn the shelves yummily. All spices are organic or wild-harvested, and you can even try them before you buy them. I love Spice Trader!
Sometimes you try unusual recipes that call for uncommon spices. You inevitably just forget about the recipe unless you can find the spices. If you’ve ever been stumped trying to find Ras Al Hanout or quality reverse osmosis cando twigs from antarctica (ok. I made that one up.), look no further. It’ll be a rare occasion that you don’t find what you’re looking for. To note: there’s an excellent selection of salt, from hand-gathered, flaky Welsh Halen Mon to Pacific Alderwood Smoked Salt. Also try the shop’s signature spice blends—including a dill-fennel salt for fish—and assorted dry rubs.
That’s not all. There’s a good variety of accessories, too, from quality spice grinders (Peugeot grinders, graters mortars and pestles, etc.) to frying pans. You might even turn your nose up at William’s Sonoma! Maybe.
The Spice Trader regularly creates new blends, coming up with different ways of using traditional flavours. There are also The Spice Traders own blended salts and herb spice infusions.
The gift boxes make wonderful presents for those who have everything. There are starter kits, salt samplers, and custom gift boxes.
The Spice Trader
805 Queen St. W. (at Niagara St.)
Main level
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1G1
647.430.7085
The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto
contact December 7th, 2007
Ok, so I’m classifying this post as a “must see” but some of you might not agree with that. I must clarify. Shoe people, and I know there are a lot of you out there, will absolutely love this museum because afterall, it’s all about shoes. Some fanatics I know will die for shoes. I know, that’s kind of scary but hey tolerance is key to living a pretty good life and judging is never a good thing - but I digress.
The museum features at least 10,000 pairs of shoes. I know that description alone is enough to make you want to go.
The Bata Shoe Museum
27 Bloor St. West, Toronto
(south–west corner of Bloor St. W. and St. George)
St. George Subway Station.
Telephone: (416) 979-7799
A Tip: Go on a Thursday between 5pm and 8pm to get in for free! Otherwise, you’ll be paying a whopping $12 entrance fee. That’s still a fraction of the cost of your latest Manolo purchase but hey, it’s good to take a discount when available.