tokengifts

Farewell...For Now

As of December 31st, 2008, we shuttered the doors to our shop at 888 Queen Street West.  I would like to thank you so much for your support and patronage these past five years.  I've met so many incredible and inspiring people, both customers and vendors alike, all wonderfully talented, creative people, during my stay.

I also wanted to thank everyone for all the lovely emails I received. My customers were as much of a source of inspiration for me, as hopefully, Token was for you.  

I will be on a short hiatus to spend some time with my family, my wonderful husband, Kevin, who worked tirelessly these past years to help me bring Token to fruition, and my clever and adorable baby girl, Alice, who, in a few days will celebrate her 5th Birthday.  

For those of you who did not get a chance to add your name to our mailing list, please email me at info@tokengifts.ca for updates regarding the next phase of Token. 

And for those of you who visit our blog, thank you.  I have had requests to continue, so I will for the time being, continue to post under tokengifts.typepad.com, but I will let you know in advance if this will change.

I want to wish everyone a truly Happy New Year and a great 2009.  I look forward to seeing everyone soon.  

With Warm Regards,

Karen Sykes.

Holiday Decorating

It's a good thing I love decorating for the holidays, I've decorated 5 trees this season, and re-arranged them all at once or twice already.

I stripped down our main tree at the shop from top to bottom to re-arrange the bare patches, as customers can pick and choose their ornaments right from the tree.

I sort of liked the bareness of the tree with the white felt snowflakes.

These snowflakes are $1.95.  Such an affordable way to make an impact on your tree.

But I opted for a more festive look and re-filled the tree.  

Voila...

Holiday Merriment...

Thank You to everyone who joined us at our Holiday Sale this past weekend.  And Thank You to Xenia Taler for joining us on Saturday.  Our shelves are filled to the brim once again (but not for long) with her beautiful ceramics, including some new pieces from her collection.

And to continue with the deals, Xenia will be having her first Studio Sale in 5 years on Dec.13 & 14 from 11am to 6pm.  Xenia and Steven will be selling their "seconds" and of course, they will have a vast array of ceramics from their current collection.  Please visit Xenia's site for further details.

We've been busy unpacking lots, and lots, and lots of boxes here at the shop...

It's my Christmas morning for me, unpacking all these packages filled with orders I placed back in August.  But my skin suffers for it.  All the paper and cardboard suck all the moisture from me, but I make sure I have these things on hand at all times...

But all the hard work paid off.  Christmas has definitely arrived here at the shop.

Some snippets...

The folks at Sheridan nursery were so happy when we picked up our tree, we were the first ones for the season!  So, yes, for all those folks wondering, this is a real tree.  I didn't even have to prune it this year. We will definitely be going back to get our tree for our home there this season.

We always do a wonderful selection of felt ornaments every Christmas season.  It's been great for customers who have been collecting them every season.

If you remember from Easter, we had these adorable felt pencil covers.  These Christmas versions make great stocking stuffers.  And come check out our selection of Holiday Greeting cards, such as these Egg Press ones peaking out from the background.

And our porcelain cranes and reindeer ornaments are back...

...along with these gorgeous porcelain flower ornaments...

...my wish for everyone this Holiday Season!

SALE

Join Token & Xenia Taler this 

Saturday, November 22 

from 11am to 6pm for our HOLIDAY SALE.  

Early-bird Holiday shoppers will enjoy 10%- 40% off Sukie and Orla Kiely products, Designers Guild leather accessories, Perch ceramics and much more!

Help us ring in the Holiday Season with great deals and holiday refreshments.  We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

(Sale excludes holiday items & new arrivals.  Sale while quantities last)

A Big Thank You to PoppyTalk!

I wanted to send big THANK YOU to PoppyTalk for featuring us in their Toronto City Guide today and Jen at Toronto Craft Alert who was so kind to come in last Friday to take some pics of the shop!  

Check out the guide for some great shopping destinations in TO.  I promise one day to venture to the East End of Queen Street when the shops are open, it has such a great indie vibe that I love!

Handmade Hellos For You DIYers

I've been anticipating this book for awhile.  It's called Handmade Hellos - Fresh Greeting Card Projects from First-Rate Crafters, by Eunice Moyle and Sabrina Moyle of Hello! Lucky.

I took a quick peek and here are a few of my favourite projects so far...

You will recognize a lot of the contributors' names...Egg Press, Pancake & Franks, Foxy & Winston, to name a few, if you regularly purchase your greeting cards here at token.

A great gift idea for the DIYers on your gift-giving list, or for yourself, in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.

Happy crafting!

Prelude to Christmas...

Don't get scared at the mention of Christmas...I like to test some products before the holidays. I was so happy to receive my shipment of these lovely gift items from Agnes & Hoss...

These lovely compact mirrors covered in Agnes & Hoss' beautiful silk fabrics.

And these lovely lavendar satchets

If I've over-used the word "lovely" it's because there is simply no other word to describe them, except "lovely".

Get them while they're still in stock, I've had customers stockpile the mirrors for stocking stuffers and the satchets make great hostess gifts.

Our Christmas stock should be arriving just after Halloween in a few weeks time...did anyone get a flurry of snowflakes last night?  Yikes, get your woolly mittens and hats out!

Orla Kiely

I've seen a lot of women around this neighbourhood with Orla Kiely handbags lately.  She is known for her great prints on her bag and clothing line.  She recently expanded her repertoire to include home products.  Kiely is very well known in the UK and has a huge fan base in Japan.

We recently introduced her stationery line to Token.

She is best known for this leaf pattern below. (background is more Snow & Graham paper)

All the journals come in an assortment of papers, lined, graph, plain. 

Great for Back to School, or all those autographs you'll be snagging during the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Token Arrivals

I was so awful this summer and fell so behind on my posts. 

These arrived this summer:  new ceramic vessels from Perch Design.  These planters can elevate any household plant into a design object.

The shapes of these vessels with the dotty decals are so fun and unexpected.

And these simple vases come in an array of colours.

 

Trickle Becomes a Stream...

I have no patience when I am expecting new shipments.  I am like a kid in a candy store and my senses go into overdrive.  That's why I hastily took some photos, too impatient to wait for good lighting (rain and sun all week long).  These are just a teaser for what to expect if you pop by the next little while...

I am so happy to announce the arrival of Screech Owl Design, a spanking new line making its debut in Toronto, by husband and wife team of George & Jacqueline Schmidt from Brooklyn, New York.  Beautifully illustrated cards and postcards, and just as equally beautiful packaging, great to give as gifts. Although, if I were you, I don't know if I could give these away, because I plan on framing these and hanging them around my house.