Renovations continue! We had originally hoped to launch around mid-February, but our optimism, unfortunately, unfounded. In case you missed the first installment in our renovation saga, you can find it here. Things have continued slowly plodding on their wayward journey towards freedom from municipal red tape, so please everyone continue your nightly rain dances to the powers that be at city hall planning. Any voo-doo hocus-pocus abacadbra anyone has up their sleeve would also be terrific. Basically it's all looking very hairy, and I'm just trying to bury my head in the sand about the whole thing, and Jon is trying to get me to unbury my head so we can jointly make very important, very expensive decisions. At the rate we're going with the studio shop, it looks like our west end shop may be open first. (Recap: Carlaw location closing down due to high rents, new east end studio shop, new west end main shop. Studio shop will be smaller, with more curated selection, new goods; main shop will have much broader selection and shipping operations. Timeline: unknown. Sometime in the next while-ish.) But in any case, here are a few photos from the studio shop so far.
At the very least, the deerheads are still alive. They have turned out to be the least of our concerns. Oh how the wheel of fortune spins in a mere four months of Toronto real estate renovations.  

***

In other news, Chinese New Year is nearly upon us! Friday, February 16th. It will be everyone's favourite: Year of the Dog. Super has been waiting his whole life for this - hot dogs and bacon once a week.* We have Chinese New Year candy in the shop, which we get from the T&T Asian supermarket down on Cherry. They have dozens of different candies around this time of year just for the new year celebrations. Some of them are tasty and some of them are a bit crazy, so it's always a bit of a gamble if you're trying a new one. Some of these candies also have peanuts or other nuts in them, so please be careful if you need to be. There are a lot of milk, coffee or toffee ones, along with the usual mango or fruit flavoured ones, but my favourite is probably the cola hard candy ones (the red one at 5:00 to the clear bowl, with the glass of soda on it).
  *Just kidding. This year is going to be 100% exactly the same as every other year of his life.

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February 06, 2018 — wonderpens

Comments

Graciela

Graciela said:

Aah, I hope Super gets at least a hot-dog on New Year’s Day. :)

wonderpens

wonderpens said:

Haha, perhaps! He is glad to have you cheering in his corner :)

Ruth E. Martin

Ruth E. Martin said:

Long live the deer heads! ;) It looks like one of them had a narrow escape.

Stefanie Moy-Shuster

Stefanie Moy-Shuster said:

Thank you for your continued updates on the renovations. I can’t wait to see the deer heads up close and in person! I know that the finished studio space will have the same warm, welcoming aesthetic that I so look forward to experiencing every time I make the trip to Toronto to visit Wonder Pens. All my digits are firmly crossed that red tape stays unsnarled and things proceed in a positive direction. Just remember: deep breaths!

wonderpens

wonderpens said:

They’re both still alive! At this point, it looks pretty perilous that they’re going to stay that way, but who knows which way the wind will blow :)

thyna

thyna said:

best of luck with navigating all the red tape! i’ll miss the current shop since i come from the east side, but i’m also really looking forward to seeing your new studio store. and i will also definitely make the trek over to the west side store too (at least once the weather turns a bit warmer!).

do you know yet if it’ll be possible for online order pick-ups to be done at the studio shop, or will that all have to be done over at the main shop?

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