Shop Thoughts

When I moved to Wolfe Island I grew a small vegetable garden. I couldn’t have known how quickly this would spark conversations, waves, tips, and questions. Having moved here from downtown Toronto this was an unexpected balm. My neighbour John expressed his surprise that I was growing “boerenkool”. He communicated his distaste for the Dutch dish of kale and mashed potatoes with a scrunched up facial expression, a head shake and a laugh. I believe he was 91 at the time. Soon he started hanging bags of homegrown green and yellow beans on our front door and feeding my dog Ritz crackers.

This begins to paint a picture that food is the language of love here, which I believe is at least partly true. Farm fresh eggs, local honey, pies, pickles, hot sauces, cookies & more have generously honoured our doorstep. Food has acted as currency, as gifts and as apologies. It has been a way to say thank you and I love you since the very beginning. 

I come from a family that appreciates good food. From holiday gatherings to backyard barbecues, there was always something new to share. My aunt’s gifts of seasoned labneh in olive oil, my cousin’s brief foray into pasta making, or my dad’s famous cocktails, the list really does go on. Annelise and I have both cultivated friendships and relationships that put good food pretty close to top priority. It’s easy to imagine our business growing to include more snacks.

So, what is Lured?

Fishtale has always been a love letter to the island. Since we opened in 2017 we’ve carried local makers and ordered from local suppliers. We feature local artists and organize local events. The hope is to continue with this ethos. Lured is no different. Annelise has always been an excellent baker and has been called upon by friends and family to provide treats for all manner of occasions. After a few summers of slinging her scones and cookies at the farmer’s market, giving Lured Bake Shop a home within Fishtale is the logical next step. We plan to expand upon our existing offerings both within Fishtale and Lured to offer more variety and more locally produced goods. For a list of would-be menu items, check out the Gofundme updates!

Annelise and I have been talking recently about acknowledging our accomplishments. As childfree, unmarried women in our late 30s, we have opted out of certain milestones. Even being self-employed has a habit of being thankless. It can be difficult to prioritize the celebration of small wins. It can be even more difficult to have those wins acknowledged by others. This isn’t to say we are ungrateful. In fact, we are overwhelmed by gratitude regularly. How lucky are we to live in a place we love and run a business we put our whole hearts into? We have dragged our business through the pandemic, through construction and ferry issues and into a new season and a new year, yet again. 

But we’re asking the gang for help. 

It can be really uncomfortable to ask for help. It’s complicated to grapple with what is considered worthy or deserved in the eyes of your community. One thing we know is that everyone will always have an opinion. But here we are! Being brave and putting it out there. And boy are we happy we did. We have been so touched by the messages of encouragement and the generosity so far. Kitchen equipment is expensive and we have big dreams!

We ask that you please consider making a donation to our Gofundme or if you can make it here in person, come to our Fundraising Extravaganza! on March 23rd. 

Now imagine it’s a warm Saturday morning and you have the whole day ahead of you. You stop by our shop for a coconut cold brew coffee and a date cardamom scone. The sound of banjo hovers across the street from the farmer’s market as you sit on our shaded porch. Do you pick up a quiche to serve with dinner? Maybe pack a picnic? Or perhaps you grab a soda and a beach towel and bike to Big Sandy Bay with a book. The day is yours, we'd just like to be a part of the dance.

As a person who is always trying to reduce waste and be more eco conscious, I struggle every year with my deep and unwavering LOVE of all things Halloween. I consider this time of the year to be optimal for my day-to-day home goods shopping. Let's just say my everyday face cloths have little dancing skeletons on them. Still, I feel very icky about the disposable nature of festive decorations and themed decor people only use maybe once a year. So what is a diehard Halloween fan and artist/crafter to do?

Thrift! The answer is almost always thrifting. If you start early (or late) you can often find some fun decor to use as-is. Check yard sales and Facebook marketplace too! But if you're like me and you love a project, you could do something whacky and paint all the thrifted halloween decor a pastel rainbow. What can I say, I like to keep it weird. And on brand. 

We painted the hallway in the shop pastel stripes some time ago and have been adding more hints of the colour scheme around the shop since then. One thing I always consider when thrifting for decorations is whether or not something can be used again or repurposed when the season of spookiness ends. Or better still, can something you already own become something spooky temporarily? A very easy example of this is a bowl. Got a nice big bowl? Cauldron it is! For this window display I went... well let's call it Hansel & Gretel's Candy House Witch: A Day in the Life. Everything pastel and looking like a marshmallow but ever so slightly... questionable. This includes a big white vintage bowl I filled with clear Christmas bulbs to look like a bubbling over concoction. Like she just stepped away from her spells to answer the door and the darn cauldron boiled over. Your typical relatable forest witch who eats children sort of thing.

Most of the the items in the window display are thrifted or reused. Thrifted furniture pieces we use year round. The crystal ball is a repurposed light fixture glued to a cardboard box covered with thrifted wallpaper & a string of lights inside for a little mysterious glow. The mushrooms I made with leftover cardboard, miscellaneous packing paper and masking tape covered in a thin layer of air dry clay. 

So is it a perfect zero waste display? Nope! Not by a long shot. Reusing some items that would end up trashed, flipping some thrifts and making people smile with silly crafts is a worthwhile pursuit nevertheless. 

Pastel Pumpkin Arrangment DIY

As I said above, I strongly urge you to thrift your holiday decor items! It only takes a little bit of imagination to make them into something different or to give a slightly broken item new life.

What you'll need:

-A pumpkin trick-or-treating basket/bucket
-Miscellaneous florals, sticks, leaves, etc. Real or fake! 
-Something to stick your florals into. I used dusty old styrofoam cups because I was using what I had and didn't want to buy anything new. You could use a piece of packing styrofoam, florist foam or even a paper cup. Also if using real florals, get a floral frog!
-A primer that works on plastic. I used Zinsser B-I-N primer because that's what I already had. It's a truly horrible smelling product but it works very well for just about everything that needs to be primed.
-Paint in your preferred colours. I used Behr eggshell house paint because we already had it from the shop's striped wall. I've seen fake pumpkins painted more natural colours or even grey like concrete though!
-Paint brushes, drop cloths, and whatever clean-up items you prefer.

How to:

1. To start: wash the plastic pumpkin well! Remove any tags and let it dry. Don't skip this! Otherwise the paint might have a hard time sticking and that is extremely frustrating. Learn from my mistakes.
2. Prime! Let this dry according to the directions of your specific primer before painting over it.
3. Paint! Choose your own adventure. Make the whole thing hot pink if you want to. Barbie IS having a moment, after all. Let dry!
4. Assemble your floral arrangement: 

If using real florals: I recommend picking a pumpkin vessel that doesn't have any holes in it and/or putting a little bowl or dish inside to hold water if you're using fresh flowers. Plus everyone should own a flower frog. They make things like this super easy! Some ideas for locally available seasonal greenery: cedar, hydrangea, a couple small branches from a tree in your yard, calendula, chrysanthemums. Broken twigs, changing leaves and acorns give it a good spooky look! *

If using fake florals: Do what feels right! I painted a bunch of things we already had. Some old Christmas things, an arrangement from ages and ages ago. This is a great use for the dusty fake floral arrangement you hate that lives in the basement. That, or look at the thrift shops. Don't limit yourself in terms of colours because you can change that! Silk florals take paint pretty well. For plastic you might need a spray paint. Black or grey flowers look great if you're going spooky! **

Now step back and admire your masterpiece!

Notes:

* If you're looking for a completely plastic-free alternative you can do the same DIY with a real pumpkin and real flowers (dry or fresh). I've seen a few of these and they are quite lovely but they will only last a few days in the house before the pumpkin starts to get squishy. You could definitely use a few little pumpkins for this (and not paint them) and cook them after though!

** I tucked in some old packing materials (paper, cardboard, etc) to keep things from falling over and fill up my buckets. Then I covered that with an old piece of cheesecloth that I dyed yellow with turmeric & onion skins. 

A woman came into our shop the other day and after looking around for a few minutes she picked up an item, loudly scoffed and proclaimed that she could “get this way cheaper on Amazon”. 

Were it a different day, perhaps with less people in the store or with a little more emboldened bravery on my part, I might have said something in response. Like many an imagined comeback, I stewed on this interaction for days. I rolled her statement around in my brain. The tone. The assumptions.

I think what I would like to have said is something along the lines of this:

“Wow. What an amazingly insensitive thing to say in a small business!”

On “prime day” I was reflecting on the artificial urgency of purchasing a blender at a discount and the mountains of returns that Amazon ships off to be scrapped (did you know online orders are twice as likely to be returned as in person ones?). If you’re an eco-conscious person, massive big box retailers probably already make you bristle. I could talk all day about the evils of big business but ultimately, shopping on Amazon simply doesn’t reflect my values.

All of this being said, it is not my intention to make people feel guilty for buying things on Amazon. I understand that we all balance different priorities, cost being a major deciding factor. I refuse to vilify people for making choices within their means. Our culture of immediacy places unseen stresses on our day to day lives and the ease of getting things delivered quickly can alleviate many pressures. We live in a society that wants us to be everything all at once. It is a struggle to balance it all.

But still, where does this leave me? Where does this leave Fishtale?

I couldn't possibly compete with Amazon. Shipping is wildly expensive! I can't be in two places at once! But also, I am not the same as Amazon. Not even remotely.  

My goal as a business owner is not to become a billionaire and shoot myself into space in a rocket. Jeff Bezos is an icon of capitalism that frankly makes my skin crawl. I believe it is impossible to be an ethical billionaire. It isn’t possible to accumulate vast immeasurable wealth without making extremely awful choices along the way. 

My goal as a business owner is to live simply. To pay my staff a living wage. To showcase Canadian goods and participate in the local economy. Buy local & shop local. My goal as a business owner is to facilitate connection. To build bridges between creatives and showcase the talents of so many local makers. My goal as a business owner is to enjoy coming to work every day. 

I cannot offer you same day free shipping. I cannot offer you a limitless collection of discounted items at the click of a button. I am simply not catering to that experience. 

What I can offer you is what we have committed to since day one. A curated collection of goods we love and believe in. Fishtale is entirely Canadian business sourced. That goes for everything from our recycled paper shopping bags to the locally made goods and the sodas, seltzers & kombuchas. It is important to us to be exactly what we set out to be.

It has been a strange and unnerving time for small businesses. We just made it through a global pandemic only to be met with rising prices in just about every possible category. Sometimes it feels unmanageable. Sometimes, it is unmanageable. I've heard from countless small business owners that the last year has been the hardest yet. We can only put one foot in front of the other and hope for the best.

I suppose my takeaway from this experience is nothing new. Words can wound. Sometimes in ways we might not immediately be aware of. We can be left with a desire to plead with strangers. Can't you see that we are trying? Can't you see that this is different?

The retail world is an odd place to exist when you aren't actively encouraging overconsumption. We're not pushy salespeople. Our shopmate Jesse (in our Kingston pop-up at 94 Brock Street, folks!) has a note pinned in the fitting room that says "Buy what you need. Love what you have." We can only hope that when you buy what you need, you try to shop at a local shop. We love what we have and we'd love to tell you about it.

So, yeah. Maybe you can get something like it on Amazon. Maybe it'll be cheaper.

But at what cost?

We’re kicking off March break with a fervent nod to our childhoods. We’re hosting a book fair!

For those of you who are interested in a little more details about these folks, I’ve put together a few words about our guests so you can plan your visit and check out their goods beforehand! 

Little Ghosts: A Good Story Will Haunt You

Our pal and fellow small business owner Chris Krawczyk opened Canada’s first horror genre book shop in April of last year on Dundas St. West in Toronto. It’s an adorably spooky little spot with big black bookcases, a rolling library ladder and a 12 foot tall skeleton on the back patio. Little details pepper the shop with frightful intentionality; a wall of disembodied hands here, a coffin shaped mirror there. With a focus on small and independent works, Little Ghosts has created a wonderful and inclusive space for anyone seeking a literary thrill. 

Happily Ever After Books: A Bookstore For Romantics

In the beautiful realm of unlikely friendships, Happily Ever After Books was introduced to us through Little Ghosts! Not having a brick-and-mortar shop themselves, Happily Ever After has done pop-ups at the horror book shop forming a perfectly adorable meeting of niche literary interests. A new business as well, owner Jenny believes in the life changing ability of books and hopes to deliver everyone their own style of happily ever after.

The Sidekick: Comic Shop & Cafe

A Leslieville, Toronto staple for the coffee and comic book curious! The Sidekick offers up a variety of in-house roasted coffees, drinks & snacks alongside their ever growing comic & graphic novel selections. Go for a coffee and a comic, stay for a beer and a sandwich!

Aaron Millard: Illustration & Cards

Illustrator and pun enthusiast, Aaron creates whimsical greeting cards to surprise and delight any recipient. With their familiar characters and plays on words his work is adorable and fun.

Looking to round out your Wolfe Island plans this weekend? Check out The Hotel Friday night for collaborative music with Joyful Joyful, Michael C. Duguay & New Hermitage. After you come to Fishtale on Saturday and buy a book & a cookie, consider sneaking in to see the Heather Haynes Art Exhibit when the Hotel opens at 4pm!

We're right in that holiday crunch time. If you have anyone left to shop for things are starting to get a bit hectic. Don't worry! We've got lots of great last minute gifts at the shop. As always, we urge everyone to keep supporting local makers and shopping at all their favourite local boutiques. This year it counts more than ever!

The time between Christmas Eve and New Years is simultaneously the longest and shortest week imaginable. Many shops are closed and running out of milk (or Baileys) can rightfully be considered a family emergency. Time slows down with big meals and warm gatherings but somehow we'll be stepping into the new year in the blink of a proverbial eye.

Personally, I think the best way to coast through the holiday season is with rotating charcuterie boards and mulled cider. Grab yourself a beautifully made board by Stone Road Woodworks (we have lots) and keep it topped with all your favourite snacks. Wilton cheddar, anyone?

With the year winding down Annelise and I wanted to thank everyone who has shopped with us this year and from the very beginning. It really means the world to us. Every compliment or encouraging word really kept us going through this stressful year. We couldn't have done it without your support. We love you to the moon, you crazy kids!

We wish you all a very happy holidays, whatever you celebrate. Let's face it, we all have high hopes for 2021.

Cheers!