Tag: cottage business

Local business of the week: Whimsy Beaverton

Post author By Cottage Life
Post date 25 March 2022

Here at Cottage Life, we realize how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has hit local businesses. To do our part, we’ll be highlighting the stories of different businesses in cottage country. This week, we spoke with Kelly Bell, the owner of Whimsy Beaverton in Beaverton, Ont.

What is Whimsy Beaverton?

Whimsy is a friendly, small-town shopping experience that offers tasteful home accents and a treasury of special gift pieces to suit every occasion. Located in beautiful downtown Beaverton through the historic double doors of the 1883 John McRae building, we’re the place to stop if you’re looking for carefully curated collections of fashion accessories for both you and your home.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Bell

How did the business get started?

I worked in the social service sector for 17 years before I reached a career turning point. Both my brother and my father passed away from cancer within seven months of one another. That’s when I decided I needed to make a change. I needed to heal myself. So, I bought Whimsy. It’s such a happy place. I love going to my store.

I purchased the business on March 6, 2020 after seeing it for sale online. It was love at first sight, for myself and my partner Jason. The business had already been operating as a home décor store, but we imagined a new look and a subtle change of focus for the store offerings. Our goal was to focus on a selection of exclusive brand lines featuring unique products with high quality and a range of price points.

But we opened just as the first impacts of COVID were being felt. Very quickly I learned the importance of social media and the impact of marketing through photos. Fortunately, the items we carry are extremely photogenic and business continued even though the doors were temporarily closed.

What inspired the name?

Whimsy means playfully quaint or fanciful. The name was already established with the previous owner, but the theme of whimsy suited the new lines of products we were introducing. Visitors are often attracted to the store by the original bay windows flanking the front door. From Valentine’s Day to Remembrance Day, we create seasonal and special occasion themed displays in those windows that showcase what’s inside the store. We try to make the displays unique and whimsical to match the name. Many of the main street shops also follow this approach, making the Beaverton main street fun to explore even after closing time.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Bell

What are your most popular products?

We’re situated on the shores of Lake Simcoe, so our lakeside-living-inspired home accent line is a best seller. We carry stunning tableware pieces from Mudpie that include whimsical messages, like a tea caddy that reads: “It’s a brew-tea-full day”. Another favourite is the Wrendale line where delightful animal characters grace the cards and tableware. And we offer IHR’s eco-conscious cocktail and table napkins.

Our home décor offerings include Michel Design Works soaps, sourced from the top soap makers and fragrance houses around the globe. Little Beausoleil Candle Company features handcrafted candles made from quality ingredients, including North American premium soy wax, essential oils, and fragrance. And our Badgley/McMillan Designs candles offer an environmentally-friendly touch with non-carcinogenic, soy wax candles hand-poured in small batches in Hamilton, Ont.

In terms of fashion accessories, K Carroll’s vegan leather handbags are amazing. They feature a built-in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) protective lining that helps prevent identity and credit card theft. And then we offer iconic jewelry from Kenneth Bell Designs. I only bring in one or two of his designs, so you really are getting an original piece for our area.

Finally, I started carrying Chef Laura’s Spices and Simple Syrups from Vancouver. She offers spice blends with unique flavour profiles and great cocktail mixes.

How do you choose the type of decor you sell?

I really look for unique and whimsical gifts for people. The product line has to fit with that. I love when people come into the store and have a lot of passion. When I choose to stock a product, my goal is to make people happy when they see it in the store. Whimsy is a magical place with unique items. That’s why I stock so many special, one-of-a-kind pieces. I want the customers to feel like they’re the only ones in the area that have it.

Photo Courtesy of Kelly Bell

How has the pandemic affected your business?

The lockdowns during the winter months post Christmas were challenging. We purchase stock one to two seasons ahead, before the current stock is sold, so it was hard to know how much to order and whether it would sell. I did receive some government assistance, about $5,000 in the first few months. But to be eligible for the major small business grants, you had to have a business licence or a business bank account by March 1, 2020. Since I opened Whimsy on March 6, I wasn’t eligible. I’ve had to do it all on my own.

The lockdowns did give me time to research additional, unique lines for the business and consider new layout arrangements, though. So, I am feeling a renewed energy this year.

Photo Courtesy of Kelly Bell

What does the future look like for Whimsy Beaverton?

I’m looking forward to the return of busy streets in Beaverton, especially in the spring to fall months. I really appreciate my faithful customers who shopped as often as they could through the past two years. Their friendly faces and messages kept me going. It is exciting to see how Beaverton is growing. The housing developments combined with cottage visitors and day-trippers will bring new faces through our doors. Otherwise, we’re always looking to expand our product lines. I already have plans to add an eighth line with Canadian Candles.

I’ve also found that retail in small, rural communities is increasingly about collaborative efforts. I try to support local organizations and community initiatives as often as I’m able, and am always happy to participate in joint marketing campaigns, promotional initiatives led by the Board of Trade, or by simply tagging another business when our products complement each other. When businesses work together the whole community benefits.

Do you have a local business in cottage country? Fill out this survey for your chance to be featured.

Tags Beaverton, cottage business, cottage decor, covid-19, home decor, local business of the week, pandemic, Whimsy Beaverton

Cottage Life

Local business of the week: Haliburton Highlands Brewing

Post author By Cottage Life
Post date 9 November 2021

Photo Courtesy of Michael and Jewelle Schiedel-Webb

Here at Cottage Life, we realize how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has hit local businesses. To do our part, we’ll be highlighting the stories of different businesses in cottage country. This week, we spoke with Jewelle Schiedel-Webb, who runs Haliburton Highlands Brewing, a cottage-country brewery, with her family in Haliburton, Ont.

What is Haliburton Highlands Brewing?

Haliburton Highlands Brewing is a family-owned production brewery that we started in 2014.

Photo Courtesy of Michael and Jewelle Schiedel-Webb

How did the business get started?

My husband, Michael, and I have cottaged in the Haliburton area for many years and have always wanted to live and work up here. We spent many Friday nights in the car talking about what we could do that would let us live and work in the area. We’re both big foodies and very interested in the slow food movement. So, in 2010, when craft brewing was exploding, we were thinking about how Haliburton didn’t have a craft brewery.

We decided to open one because we thought it could add to the area. My husband has a culinary background, and I worked in product marketing and operations, so I explored all the regulatory and business aspects of starting a production brewery. At the same time, Michael did a couple of internships and learned how to brew.

We partnered with Abbey Gardens, a 350-acre site in Haliburton that used to be a gravel pit. Now it’s focused on building the local food community through sustainable energy and wellness. It was a perfect partnership because they were looking for something to add to their tourism appeal. We were looking for a location for the brewery that would allow us to operate sustainably.

We started with a pilot project to validate. I mean, we were making a considerable investment and a huge transition, so we wanted to be sure this was what we wanted to do. Fortunately, we loved it, and Abbey Gardens felt like the perfect location. We planned with Abbey Gardens to build a building for the brewery that enables our sustainable mandate.

What they came up with is amazing. We lease the building from Abbey Gardens, and it’s been our home for the last seven years. Since brewing is very water-intensive, we have a quality source, but we also responsibly manage our wastewater. We divert a bunch of our waste so that it never hits our septic, and our greywater is managed separately. In our equipment selection, we recover the hot water that we generate in our brewing process so that it recovers the heat energy and the water itself. There’s a lot of closed-loop systems.

What inspired the name?

We felt it was important to have the name of the brewery connected to the region. People who live here and people who cottage here feel a strong affinity for the region, so that was essential. It was always our vision to build the brewery in this specific community rather than anywhere else. We want it to be an integrated part of the community.

To ensure that, we incorporate local suppliers and local ingredients and sources as much as we can. The honey used in our beers, we buy from the farmers’ market. On the retail side, our t-shirts are manufactured in Montreal, and we have them printed at Up River in Minden. We have bottle openers made by local artist Mike Townsend from Twisted Twig Designs. If we can find a local source in the county, we will use it.

Photo Courtesy of Michael and Jewelle Schiedel-Webb

What are some of your most popular products?

We have a regular line-up, which includes five or six year-round offerings. Our Blue Line Blonde is a straightforward, approachable, easy-drinking blonde ale. It’s called Blue Line because it’s the signature beer for McKecks, a restaurant in Haliburton that former NHL player Walt McKechnie started. We partnered with them from the very beginning, before the brewery was even open. In the spring, we partner with Colour of Wood, a local maple syrup producer in Carnarvon. We use the syrup from them to make a beer that we call Cool Runnings. That beer is made entirely from sap, which we get 100 per cent locally. There’s no water.

We also always have Coffee Porter. It uses locally roasted cold brew from County Coffee. We love our dark beers. There’s always a large selection of dark beers that we cycle through in the wintertime. Otherwise, we do mostly ales. Occasionally, we’ll do a lagered ale. Even though we’re a small brewery, we have a lot of flexibility on the types of beers we make. We have a big system that we use for our year-round beers and our mainstream products, and we use our small system to do all these fun seasonal varieties.

How do you choose which types of beer to brew?

Our son, Keanan, and his fiancée, Sandra, are both certified master brewers. They went to Germany to train. So, while Michael was our original head brewer, Keanan does all of our brewing now, and Sandra manages our front of house. When it comes to deciding what we want to brew, we have the advantage of being in Haliburton and not in the GTA, where there are 20 or 30 craft brewers. We don’t have to differentiate ourselves by doing crazy things, like putting out a pink unicorn sparkle beer. We’re not in that crowded market.

When people come here, they’re looking for classic things, sometimes with a bit of a twist. We want to do classic beers inspired by local ingredients. That’s very aligned with the philosophy of our German-trained brewmasters. They want to do things traditionally.

Photo Courtesy of Michael and Jewelle Schiedel-Webb

What kind of events does the brewery host?

While we think of ourselves as a production brewery, we are also a destination brewery enhanced by our partnership with Abbey Gardens. We do live music on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons all of July, August, and September. We have a drive-in screen on the side of the brewery where we show movies. Abbey Gardens runs a program called Little Pit Drive-in. This summer was Wednesdays and Saturdays in August until just after Labour Day.

On Tuesday nights, we host radio bingo. Canoe FM broadcasts radio bingo every Tuesday as a fundraiser for the community. It’s always more fun to play in company, so we broadcast the game and have a regular group that comes to play. Last winter, we did trivia but had to go online because of the pandemic. We also offer guided brewery tours and tasting tours.

How has the pandemic affected your business?

We are very fortunate that our bottle shop is considered essential. There was a quote in an early press release from the provincial government that said something like Ontarians have a complicated relationship with alcohol, which is why the LCBO, Beer Store, and bottle shops like ours were allowed to be open throughout the pandemic. We went to curbside and online like everyone else. We had to close our patio, and we couldn’t do any of our in-house stuff.

One other fortunate thing—and this is another reason we chose to operate the brewery in Haliburton—is that the businesses and people here are great about supporting each other. We had a lot of cottage customers who normally would have shut down their cottage and headed back to the city for the winter move up here. They stayed local, locked down, followed the rules, but they spent the pandemic at their cottage rather than in the city. We and a lot of other local businesses benefited from having a larger population over the winter during the worst parts of the lockdown.

Photo Courtesy of Michael and Jewelle Schiedel-Webb

What does the future look like for Haliburton Highlands Brewing?

We’re always looking at opportunities to change and grow. Abbey Gardens added a large tent to our patio this summer, which was tremendous. It enabled us to extend our programming and support private events. That’s given us the opportunity to really think about how to improve and expand our offering.

This summer, we changed the license on our patio so that we can offer wine and cider in addition to beer. Now we feature cider from Uxbridge, and our wine comes from a family-owned winery in Niagara. We’re also looking at expanding our food offerings. Right now, we offer locally sourced charcuterie boards with meats, cheeses, and breads. Those are the areas we want to continue to expand so that we can offer a better onsite experience throughout the summer and the winter.

Do you have a local business in cottage country? Fill out this survey for your chance to be featured.

Tags Abbey Gardens, ale, beer, cottage business, craft brewery, Haliburton, Haliburton Highlands Brewing, local business of the week

Cottage Life

Local business of the week: Canadian Candles

Post author By Cottage Life
Post date 4 November 2021

Photo by Matt Azzarello

Here at Cottage Life, we realize how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has hit local businesses. To do our part, we’ll be highlighting the stories of different businesses in cottage country. This week, we spoke with Joshua Goodwin, who runs Canadian Candles out of Cobourg, Ont.

What is Canadian Candles?

I make handcrafted timber torches. A lot of the business had to do with the pandemic. I wanted to help bring families together during such a hectic time. I wanted to create something where people could still sit around a campfire, still have marshmallows, still have that spring and summertime feel, even in the fall and wintertime, too. That was the main driving force.

Photo Courtesy of Joshua Goodwin

How did the business get started?

I learned about the concept when I was growing up. The idea has been around for a while. But what prompted me to start the business was that I needed to pay a phone bill. So, I reached out to a friend who had some logs, and he was kind enough to cut them up for me. That same night, I made a post on Facebook, just on my own personal page, advertising the first 12 candles that I made. They sold within two hours. That’s when I thought, Okay, I think there’s something here. And it just literally went from there. That was around April of 2020.

What inspired the name?

The name comes from the original product developed in the 1700s: a Swedish torch. I knew the history of the product, but there was nothing here in Canada. I only ever saw firewood. Everyone made bonfires. So, when I started the business, I figured, well, we’re Canadian, and another name for a torch style is a candle.

I went and checked the patent office, and I checked websites, and I bought the website. I checked Instagram, and the name checked out. So, I snapped it up and just kind of ran with it. It seems to fit.

Photo by Matt Azzarello

How do you make a Canadian Candle?

I use cedar or pine logs, so a softer wood. I don’t cut down green cedars or pines. I try to find stuff that’s already decomposing, but to the point where it’s still usable lumber, so it’s not just a waste. I try to help out the environment that way. And I try to reuse as much as I can.

I cut down 15- to 20-foot trees, or I go to farmers who have these trees already cut down. I purchase the logs and bring them back to my property. I measure out my 20 inches, and I cut all of the orders by hand. Then I put the log on my pedestal, and I eye where I want to cut it. I make eight individual cuts into the log.

Once I do that, I blow off all the excess sawdust and move it over to what I call my dressing table. My girlfriend makes fun of me all the time for it. She’s got her makeup table, but I’ve got my dressing table. I bring it over, and I clean all the outside of the log. I clean all the burrs and potential slivers as best as I can. Then I slide a hemp rope down the cuts I made with the chainsaw. Next, I flip the log over, and I tie the hemp rope together so that you have a handle when you flip the candle upside down to carry it.

To help start the candles, I also add a wax and sawdust firestarter in the top. All you have to do is light it with a lighter. It’s just like a regular fire, so the kids can have fun with it and add some branches and twigs and paper and stuff like that.

How does the candle work?

Because of the chainsaw cuts, you’ll end up with a directional fire. The oxygen flows from the bottom, causing the flame to travel down the centre of the candle, which helps create that directional upward burn.

It’s all an internal flame, but I still recommend people put it in a fireplace or a firepit because after about two hours, the candle will start burning from the inside, and it will start crumbling a little bit. But because it’s an internal flame, it’s great for the kids.

Photo by Matt Azzarello

How long does it take to make one candle?

From start to finish, you’re looking at probably about 15 to 20 minutes. And that includes cutting it, the rope, adding a disclaimer, my card, the wax on the front, everything. And then it sits on my porch or in the back of my truck for delivery. I have some work to do if I have an order of 10, 15, or 25 like I did two weeks ago.

How has the pandemic affected your business?

I’m grateful because it’s been pretty positive. In the beginning, I did porch drop-offs because I knew people didn’t want to get too close to one another. So, I tried to cater to that, and I still try to be respectful about it. In terms of supplies, some farmers don’t have an issue with me coming to their property and picking up the logs, but it’s a mixed bag. Overall, though, it’s been very positive.

What does the future look like for Canadian Candles?

This past year was my first season, and I sold about 400 candles. I didn’t expect that. And this year, the business has been picking up by word of mouth. But to take it to the next level, I’ve spoken to a couple of antique stores and local businesses. I want to start getting into more stores, and hopefully into Airbnbs or camping resorts, stuff like that. That’s where I’d like to go.

Photo by Matt Azzarello

Where can people buy your candles?

The best way is through social media. I’ve had one person show up at my house to buy a candle, but most people order through Instagram or my company’s Facebook page. People can also message me personally through my business card, which has my Instagram, cell phone number, and email. But close to 100 per cent of my orders come through social media.

Do you have a local business in cottage country? Fill out this survey for your chance to be featured.

Tags bonfires, campfires, Canadian Candles, coburg, cottage business, firewood, local business of the week

Cottage Life

Local business of the week: The Occurrence

Post author By Cottage Life
Post date 18 October 2021

Photo Courtesy of Brigitte Gall and Michael Bainbridge

Here at Cottage Life, we realize how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has hit local businesses. To do our part, we’ll be highlighting the stories of different businesses in cottage country. This week, we spoke with Michael Bainbridge and Brigitte Gall, who run The Occurrence, a puzzle manufacturing company in Haliburton, Ont.

What is The Occurrence?

The Occurrence is an artisanal jigsaw puzzle manufacturer and retailer. We have a puzzle machine press that cuts the puzzles, but essentially everything is done by hand and they’re all our own unique designs.

Photo courtesy of Brigitte Gall and Michael Bainbridge

How did the business get started?

My background is a gem and mineral photographer who specializes in gems and minerals for museums and private collectors. The discussion for the last several years between Brigitte and I has been what to do with the library of pictures I’ve built up over the years.

We got the idea for making them into puzzles on New Year’s Eve, 2018. We had a bunch of friends over that night, but the temperature was negative 46 degrees Celius. It was colder in Haliburton than the daytime high of Mars. None of our friends’ cars would start. And even if they could leave, it wouldn’t have been wise. So, we ended up hosting eight people for three days, and we started running out of things to do. We pulled out some jigsaw puzzles, and at one point, we had eight people circling the kitchen island working on this Starry Night jigsaw puzzle.

That’s when the light bulb went off. We started making puzzles out of my pictures. Originally, we were outsourcing, but the intent was always to start a small manufacturing business in Haliburton. In October 2019, we took possession of the space we’re in now and we’re gearing up for a launch just after Christmas. But then we stopped hearing from our suppliers in China—right as the pandemic was getting started. It wasn’t until June 2020 that we were finally able to open our doors at full capacity. Now we have our manufacturing in the back and a little retail shop in the front.

What inspired the name?

The occurrence is a geological term. It’s a concentrated mineral deposit. With my background in minerals and gemstones, I’ve always used that name for my website. Then when we started talking about the puzzle factory and what to call it. We liked the different meanings of the word “occurrence.” It’s a happening, an event, something that’s exciting and interesting. But it also has a sort of cult feel to it, like a ye old book shop. Our branding is all based on the idea of an occult book store.

Photo courtesy of Brigitte Gall and Michael Bainbridge

How do you make the puzzles?

We start by printing out the design we want on photo printers, the same thing you’d use in a high-end photo lab. We use pigment inks and museum-grade paper. The photographic print is glued onto cardboard. Then we have a roller die press for cutting the puzzle. It’s like two giant rolling pins turning in sync with each other, and we’ve got a steel rule die that’s like a cookie-cutter. You run the puzzle through the two rollers and it pushes the cardboard into the blades and cuts it.

We have different dies for different sizes or shapes of puzzles. Every one of our 500 piece puzzles has exactly the same cut, but we have different dies for the 77-piece, 192, 504, and 1,008. So, each one of those dies is different based on size. After the puzzle’s cut, we have the highly technical process of scrambling, which involves taking the puzzle apart so that you can put it back together again.

We’ve done our best to source all of the materials from Canada, and always recycled materials. It’s a fine balance between getting the very best materials and the most local. We do import our cardboard from the Netherlands. It’s 100 per cent recycled. But our boxes are made in Markham, from recycled Canadian cardboard.

How do you choose the designs?

It started with designs based on my photographs. Originally, I had a ready market with the gem and mineral shows I’d go to, like the Gemboree in Bancroft. We started selling the puzzles there.
Then the next design we added was the Haliburton County road trip. We drove around the county for two days taking pictures of actual road signs and then designing them into a fun collage that represents a tour of the county.

We wanted to do it for other places as well, like Muskoka and Lanark. We thought it would be a simple matter of swapping out some names for different places, but when we went, we discovered that there was a really unique culture of place that was evident in the road signs. It wasn’t transferable. So, we did the whole thing over again for Lanark and Muskoka.

We also have artists’ puzzles. We wanted to feature Canadian artists and not ones that were typical or expected. Artists like Kurt Swinghammer, Wendy Wood, and our most recent one, Mary Anne Barkhouse, an Indigenous artist who lives in Haliburton—also a friend of ours. She’s really well known as a sculptor, so we wanted to get one of her works done. We actually launched it for orange shirt day.

Brigitte’s really keen on the nostalgia pieces. The old Canadian ephemera, so we’ve started a series of old covers from the Eaton company’s catalogues and we have the cover of Canada’s first sci-fi pulp fiction magazine.

We also do custom puzzles. It’s one of the side benefits of having brought production in-house. If you want a puzzle of your sister’s wedding or a picture of your dog, you just have to email us the picture and within a week or so, you’ve got a puzzle. All of the other designs come from Brigitte and I. We choose based on what kind of puzzles we’d want to do.

Photo courtesy of Brigitte Gall and Michael Bainbridge

How often do you make a new puzzle?

In two years, we’ve gone from five designs to 27. There hasn’t really been any regularity to that, but by bringing production in-house, we can do whatever we want. There are no minimum orders or turnaround times. What we’re learning, though, is that there are seasons to the puzzle industry, similar to the way tourism in the area is. We always try to get new designs out for the spring, when cottagers start coming up again.

There’s also the Christmas puzzle peak. For that, we try and get new stuff out in September, October. Then there’s the February blahs. Nobody’s going outside and there’s nothing to do but puzzle. We have a long list of design ideas that we’re keen to do. It’s just a matter of how much time and resources we’re able to dedicate to the process.

How has the pandemic affected your business?

Anybody who’s picked up a newspaper or a magazine in the last year has heard of the puzzle trend as a result of COVID. Canada is actually a puzzle capital of the world. We have two of the world’s top five puzzle manufacturers with Eurographics and Cobble Hill, but they both manufacture in the States. As far as we know, we’re the only Canadian puzzle manufacturer that actually makes everything in-house in Canada—aside from some very small, custom businesses. But this has been a real boon for us during the pandemic. People like that we’re Canadian. We’ve no doubt gotten a sales bump as a result of the pandemic, but it’s hard to compare since we opened in 2020.

We did encounter problems around the beginning of January 2020 when, all of a sudden, our manufacturer in China stopped returning our phone calls. We planned to order our roller die press from China, but this forced us to do some more searching. We found a machine company in Montreal that was able to build a custom machine based on what we knew we needed from the Chinese machine. So, even the machine we use was made in Canada.

COVID did delay our opening by about six months, but in the end, I think it worked out well because the machine that we have is undoubtedly better made, and it’s easier to get service. There have been other supply chain issues that continue to haunt us. For example, there’s a worldwide cardboard shortage. It’s been going for almost two years now. It’s caused our box supplier’s turnaround times to go from 10 days to 30 days. And we had a shipment go missing because the driver got COVID and had to park the truck for a month.

What we didn’t anticipate is that because COVID has slowed down the supply chain, we’ve become the manufacturing source for a number of small, craft puzzle brands. We manufacture puzzles for lifestyle brands in Montreal, Muskoka and Toronto. So, there’s been ups and downs.

Photo courtesy of Brigitte Gall and Michael Bainbridge

What does the future look like for The Occurrence?

We’re in an 800 square foot manufacturing space, which includes the retail storefront. It’s getting pretty crowded. I mean, we’re small, but we’re outgrowing the space quickly. There are certain limitations to the manufacturing process. Over the next year, we’re going to be charting out our growth, how much space we need, and what kind of automation we can introduce. Ultimately, in a year, we’d like to be in a facility that is at least twice as big with a second production line that’s more automated.

Do you have a local business in cottage country? Fill out this survey for your chance to be featured.

Featured Video

Tags cottage business, Haliburton, local business of the week, puzzle factory, puzzles, The Occurrence