Home for the Holidays

It took a little bit longer yesterday than we liked but we're now in the process of moving from the temporary location back into the regular location. Our network has been relocated so we are able to offer debit and credit card service and our displays are currently transitioning back to the regular location.

We apologize in advance for the confusion at the store while we transfer everything back over.

Let the move commence...

Today is the day. Danny from Winmar promised us that he'd have us back in the shop the first week of December and here we are on December 3rd working to that goal.

Moving into the temporary location had it's issues but moving back has proved more challenging. With the Downtown Association event Moonlight Magic, we needed to have our store decorated for Christmas by mid-November. Where the challenge comes in is this - we have three large fully decorated Christmas Trees. How exactly *do* you move three decorated trees? The answer - palette wrap which is basically cello wraps bigger badder brother. A special thank you goes out to Duane van Staalduinen from Staalduinen Wholesale who came up with the idea and means for palette wrap!

Over this weekend, we will be moving back to our regular location at 324 Queen St. E. There will be a temporary disruption in phone and debit/credit services this afternoon but we don't anticipate that they will be long.

We will post updates throughout the day.

NEW - Bonzai!

Shirley scored a triumph today, our long quest to find Bonzai trees for a client are over.

Currently in stock, we have four gorgeous bonzai in store: a podacarpus, nerifolia, a sweet plum and a mini jade. They come in attractive ceramic containers and retail for $85.

Midnight Magic

As a member of the Downtown Association, we're proud to say that we will once again participate in the Midnight Magic event. Like many merchants on Queen Street, we will be open late this evening - we're generally open until 10:30 p.m. We're participating in the Downtown Association's Scrounging event, come into the store to get your card and stamp.

Every year we offer our customers discounts and special offers and this year is no different. We're having a 'Fire Sale'. Our holiday giftware wasn't affected by water and smoke that damaged our artificial botanicals. With the restoration of the building in full swing and our return to that location slated for early December, we've decided we really don't want to move all that stock back to the store. We have all our older holiday stock on sale for %50 off, the sale is continuing through to Saturday.

Moving ahead

One of the hardest things this week has been saying 'I'm sorry'. For a business that prides itself on customer service, not being able to offer our customers some of the services they're use to is hard to take. Some merchandise is in the process of being cleaned, some was destroyed, plants died, most is in the process of being replaced. Then there's the trick of finding things as 1/3 is in our new location, 1/3 is in storage and the rest is in transit. It's a delicate balancing act.

Fires have a funny way of making you appreciate the little things - one of the things we took for granted was our computer network which made helping customers find that perfect gift so easy. For the last week part of our old computer network has hobbled along while we worked along, today the replacement pcs arrived. Starting Tuesday, we'll be in the process of re-installing and updating our information so that we're better able to process your floral needs more efficiently. There may be temporary disruption of our debit services but we're hoping that will only be for a day or two at the most.

Temp location

While the recovery and renovation of the shop are underway, we have a temporary location at 322 Queen St. E. This location was the one time location of House of Comics and some people may remember it as the old Soo Piano.

The temp location is a work in progress - we're still bringing in new merchandise and products. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello!

Thank you

Random acts of kindness can be a balm in trying times and we have been blessed with several since the fire five days ago. Thank you so much to our customers, friends and family who have been pillars of strength - we appreciate the kindness more than you could know.

Not ones to let a minor little thing like a major fire slow us down, we have relocated temporarily to 332 Queen St. E. as our shop undergoes extensive renovations. We are open for business, though some selection is limited while our merchandise is being replaced or in some cases relocated.