DBIA Featured Post: Burrow

If you’re looking for unique gift ideas this holiday season, one of downtown Peterborough’s newest shops is a must visit. Burrow, located at 188 Hunter St W (Unit 7— just off of the Municipal Parking Lot), is a refreshingly unique home décor shop locally owned and operated by Megan Currie.

Set up in the extremely hip Café District of our downtown, the shop is at first a bit hard to find, but once discovered will not fade from your memory. Opened just over three months ago, it has been making waves as a go-to destination for amazing gift ideas for various occasions.

What seems like a small shop upon its initial discovery is in fact a surprisingly large well laid out setting that's absolutely filled with an incredible selection of home décor items. The main focus of the store is on accent pieces to enhance a look you already have going. Burrow carries a wide array of throw pillows, artwork, frames, vases, area rugs, wall decals, and blankets to name a few. That list literally does not do the store justice!

Megan has a keen eye for truly beautiful and exclusive pieces, and stocks her store accordingly. From floor to ceiling, you’ll find many one of a kind items that just aren’t available at your average run of the mill home décor big box chain. Her vision for these pieces allows for people to create their own sense of style that when combined can really blow people away!

Burrow is one of the most aesthetically pleasing stores you’ll ever discover. Along with the many smaller items in the shop, it offers quite a few larger one of a kind items as well, including benches, coffee tables, chairs and even dining room tables. Many of these items and the smaller ones have local connections to them which are a focus that Megan has in promoting her community. On top of all of this, she has created a really great baby/kids section with sheets, bedding, toys, and quilts available.

Gearing up for the holiday season, Megan has a focus on Christmas items that include ornaments, table settings, candles, and various decorations right down to really cool wine stoppers and jewelry. Megan absolutely adores downtown and the area she feels she was fortunate enough to open up in. She had the idea to open a shop years before and finally made the leap into the business world ending up finding great neighbours and landlords to deal with. She loves the uniqueness that those around her have that creates an inspiring atmosphere to come and work in every day.

Being born and raised in Peterborough, Megan has an appreciation for her community and likes to stay involved. She has donated to quite a few local charities and organizations including the Art School of Ptbo and Movember.

If you’re looking for some great gift ideas for the holiday season or any occasion for that matter, we suggest you discover Burrow if you haven’t already. We know you’ll be happy you did!

For more on Burrow (188 Hunter St W), go to:
Website: BurrowHome.ca
Facebook: BurrowHome
Twitter: @BurrowHome
Phone: 705.749.6778

For more on Downtown Peterborough and the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), click here.

—By Aaron Elliott

DBIA Featured Post: Joie De Vie

With a shop name translating to mean “Joy of Life”, you can probably guess the type of person you’re going to get when you meet owner Cherlyn Greig. The contagiously happy owner has been bringing downtown Peterborough unique and indie driven female style for 9 years now to her store located at 386 George St N.

The great thing about Joie De Vie is that you never know what you’re going to find when you walk into the store. To keep things fresh, and because the shop is smaller, Cherlyn only buys in small quantities. This means that it is an always evolving shop with new products and vendors being featured consistently.

While the shop focuses on accessories, clothing, jewellery, and bath and body products for women, it is constantly changing. Cherlyn is always looking for new product lines and distinct items that she hand selects to bring her customers something they won’t find anywhere else in town.

Joie De Vie is as far from a cookie cutterwomen’s store because Cherlyn doesn’t bring in products from massive companies. When she visits trade shows, she says she is always drawn to smaller, funky and unique indie companies. These unique items allow for her customers to create or accessorize a distinct style rather than wearing something bland and boring.

Cherlyn is always aiming to carry as many Canadian made products as possible, with a focus on locally made lines. You’ll find beaded accessories, cloth bags, folk dolls, and even Christmas socks in the shop now that come from our area.

Aside from what is offered inside, Cherlyn believes that what she can offer is a personalized service that you might not find at larger retailers. She is always at the shop and stands behind the products she has personally brought in to sell.

She absolutely loves the downtown and the strong sense of community that she feels, especially with so many females owners. She says that the connection they share is unlike any other. If she doesn’t have what someone is looking for or knows of another store that could help compliment what a customer is buying, she’ll refer them to another store.

Along with the strong sense of community Cherlyn feels, she is also happy to get involved where she lives. She happily supports and sells Red Pashmina’s, supports the Peterborough Singers, worked with last year’s YWCA Chair for Charity event, and had a Black Friday Food Drive this year.

If you’re in the market for something fresh and entirely unique to our area, or are looking to get that special lady in your life an unmatched and impossible to duplicate gift for this holiday season, we suggest you visit Joie De Vie!

For more on Joie De Vie (386 George St N.), go to:

Website: Joiedevie.net
Twitter: @joiedevie_shop
Facebook: Joie De Vie

For more on Downtown Peterborough and the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), click here.

—By Aaron Elliott

8 Local People, Animals & Ideas To Dress Up As For Halloween

1. Petes player. This should be easy in our sports mad city! If you don’t own one already, borrow someone’s jersey and throw it over some sweaty old equipment. Skip the skates! That might be awkward. (Alternatively, dress up as a Peterborough Laker!)

2. Porsche and Ferrari, the Peterborough sloths. This is a tandem gig, and will make for a really slow night if you go trick or treating in true character.

3. Mike Judson. Try on one of dad’s big suits to make yourself look taller. Extra points if you add the famous Judson facial hair, and bring a green screen background. Better for taller kids!

4. Bobby Roode. If you have spandex and a wrestling championship belt, then you’ve got yourself a costume. It might be a cold night though! Borrow your mom's bathrobe and be-dazzle it for the full effect.

5. David Koski. Four words. Spanky's co-owner. Zach Galifianakis.

Koski

Koski, er, Zach

6. Lift Lock. If you can pull this one off with functioning hydraulics, you win! But if it malfunctions, it might go viral!

7. Catherine Hanrahan & Pete Dalliday. For Pete, you’ll want some glasses, spiked hair, an “I’d Rather be in Peterborough” tee and a microphone. For Catherine, you have to be shorter! And have bangs!

8. The Douro Elk. A brown shirt, brown pair of pants, and a couple of fallen sticks from your tree makes this a pretty easy and currently trending costume! Extra points if you bring along a couple people dressed as cows.

 —by PTBOCanada's Aaron Elliott

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PTBOPics: Burrow For The Modern Home Opens Downtown

Megan Currie has opened up a modern home store downtown just off Hunter Street West at 188 Hunter Street West.

Burrow offers unique home decor and gift items that really stand out. Megan said she was drawn to handmade items and things made of natural materials. 

Profiles are being added to some of the items such as dipped kitchen wear that offered an anti-skid coating. These backgrounds give you a bit of a brief story about the person who created it and where they are from. Megan says she tries to source her items from within North America but also offers a few unique items from around the World.

Consider stopping in for housewarming or wedding gifts. Burrow will be hosting an official Grand Opening later in September.

Follow Burrow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Get in touch with Burrow at (705) 749-6778 or via email.

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]

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Crowdsourcing A Haircut In Peterborough On Social Media

When it comes to deciding on where to get my haircut, I rarely stray. With a great local barber located less than a block away in my neighbourhood, all it takes is a quick walk and I’m in and out. No harm, no foul.

Recently, I was faced with an unexpected dilemma: my barber had taken holidays! And I needed a haircut bad.

Naturally, I turned to Twitter. Social media in Peterborough is always buzzing, and I thought if I sent out a quick tweet asking for suggestions, I might get a few replies. I wasn’t expecting much, but boy was I ever surprised when my mentions feed started to blow up! Within minutes, I had so many responses with people sending me names and salons that I just had to check out in the city.

This told me a few things. 1) We have an awesome city filled with a ridiculous amount of selection, and 2) I need to get out a little more. These shops were all locally owned and operated.

Just a few of the responses I received: Bloodline Parlor, Tonic, Henry’s Barber Shop, Kouture Hair Studio, and Salon 5thirty1. The best part about these shops are that they’re located within walking distance of each other!

With so much choice, it came down to personal preference because from what I can tell, each shop offers a unique atmosphere and style. No two places are alike, and they are all obviously doing quite well, because let’s face it: a haircut is something everyone needs at some point or another. You can only avoid the scissors for so long!

In the end, I ended up taking @jacksoncreek's advice and took my hair to the great chaps at Henry’s Barbershop to deal with. It had such a welcoming down to earth feel and I would recommend them to anyone.

This was a great first step in experiencing the world of haircutting outside of my safety net. I know I can’t be the only guy in this boat and suggest you all get out and try someone new!

Peterborough is filled with a lot of talented hair dressers, so what are you waiting for?

—By PtboCanada's Aaron Elliott

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Let's Get Crafty: 30 Craft Market Takes Place May 4th

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Talize Is Coming to Portage Place

Talize Mississauga

[UPDATE February 27th 2014: Talize will officially open March 8th at 9 a.m.]

[UPDATE November 8th 2013: They are slated to open the beginning of 2014]

Talize (see pics above and below from Mississauga store) is coming to the Portage Place mall in Peterborough, which means new jobs (you can email Talize your resume). So what exactly is a Talize anyways?

Talize store under construction at Portage Place

Well, there are already five Talize stores in Western Ontario, with a new stores under construction in Portage Place. The stores offers vintage, new and nearly-new fashionable merchandise—with part of the proceeds going to support the Children's Wish Foundation. The selection ranges from housewares, books, toys and electronics to men's and women's clothing.

You can follow Talize on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as sign up for their quarterly newsletter.

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]

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Here's Rosie The Dog Wearing A "I'd Rather Be In Peterborough Tee"

This is Mike Melnik's famous dog, Rosie, below. When Rosie's not reading Maclean's magazine—scroll down here to see the evidence—she is wearing this tee. Order one of these tees from Pete Dalliday. They're going viral, even pets are wearing them.

[via]

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61 Awesome Things About Peterborough In 2012

There was so much awesome about this city this year. In no particular order really, here's 61 of them (we had to cut if off somewhere)...

1. Peterborough Lakers winning the Mann Cup. Best in Canada baby!

2. Red Pashminas, which empower women locally and globally.

3. Trent's LipDub video, a great showcase for the university.

4. Doug Tilley's comedy, whether it's his "singing" or tweeting or... what's next Tilley?

5. Bandwagon episodes. Now in its 2nd season, which launched with Sloan.

6. Wild Rock celebrating 20 years in the downtown. And making the decision to stay in the downtown when they could have moved.

7. PMZ, Peterborough's TMZ celebrating local "celebrities".

8. I'd Rather Be In Peterborough tees. Community spirit.

9. Spanky's annual ping pong tourney for Movember. Spanky's offering a place to play ping pong in town.

"Call Me Maybe" 10. The city rallying behind a teenager's right to play basketball on his own driveway.

11. Philanthropy month in Peterborough showcasing all the people doing good in the community. #bethechangeptbo

12. The new downtown nightclub ARIA, which rivals Toronto's finest.

13. St. Peter's high school students dressing as superheroes during Head of the Trent regatta.

14. Peterborough Cycling Summit. Bike this city. Let's make it as bike friendly as possible.

15. Elton John concert, the one where he actually played Peterborough—not his cancelled one.

GPA EDC's Dan Taylor at Creative Cocktail16. The Peterborough Calendar Girls naked truth campaign raising awareness about the affordable housing shortage here.

17. Breakfast Television broadcasting live from Peterborough. Great coup for our city.

18. Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher at Gerti's. (We don't believe they had the polo sandwich, but it's excellent.)

19. Carly Rae Jepsen at Musicfest. Peterborough singing "Call Me Maybe".

20. Final photo of PCVS students and staff together. This city will never forget the impact this school had, and its legacy.

21. A canoe portage in downtown Peterborough.

22. The Taste of Downtown. So much great food down there. And great folk.

23. The Dragon Boat festival.

24. The Hootenanny on Hunter. It's a hoot.Mike Watt

25. The Gilmour Street Garage Sale. Epic as always.

26. Hunter Street, one of the best streets anywhere for food, drink, shops, live music, theatre, festivals, hot dogs, great vibe.

Rick Mercer at PCVS27. Maryam's Monsef's story about how a city and school saved her life.

28. Peterborough dog pictures.

29. Rick Mercer's Rant on PCVS.

30. Rick Mercer's visit to PCVS, in video and pictures.

31. Noah Leslie—aka @pennyboynoah, who raises money for the Salvation Army Toy Drive each year.

32. Pete Dalliday's unbelievable shot. Believe it.

33. Someone canoeing on a Peterborough street. Canoe Peterborough.

34. Koski.

35. The PeterTweeter awards. Twitter's where it's at. Amazing Twitter community in town. (Follow us here.)

36. Mike Watt's how-to plaid video. Hilarious.

37. Creative Cocktails—here's the one from Market Hall.

St. Peter's superheroes38. Jonny Trash DJing at Spanky's. Best DJ around.

39. The Peterborough web series Grimwell.

40. Petes Insider, giving us the inside goods on the Petes organization.

41. The excellent Canadian Canoe Museum. We're lucky to have it. And let's move it downtown by the waterfront.

42. Electric City Live, which covers the local music scene in Peterborough. Great name, great site.

43. The Art School of Peterborough. Creativity. Imagination.

44. Mike Judson, who went homeless on the streets of Peterborough for 48 hours to raise awareness about the problem here.

Silver Bean45. Peterborough Police for serving and protecting this community, and embracing social media by joining Twitter this year.

46. Rachel Seaman and Ashley Brzozowicz, who competed in the Olympics this summer (Ashley won a silver in her sport, rowing). The tees

47. Downtown Peterborough. Embrace it. Vital. Make it sustainable. Build a city from its core.

48. Silver Bean Café, beauty spot on the river.

49. Our friends at The Wolf and Kruz FM, huge supporters of Peterborough and us. And the always smiling Carol Edwards there, who lets us in through the out door.

50. Three Loonies, for Kawartha Food Share.

51. The return of the Wire Awards. Special night at Market Hall putting spotlight on amazing music scene in Peterborough—one of the best anywhere in Canada.

52. Gallery in the truck. A moving gallery. Great concept. Love it.

53. PtboFinds and PtboProps.

54. Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre.

55. The DBIA's new website by BrandHealth. Excellent.

56. Lois Tuffin, the news diva of Peterborough and the Kawarthas. Never shy about expressing her opinion.

57. Fleming's Student Volunteering Club, students with a sense of community pride.

58. Funny hashtags. E.g. 6,000 people went without power for a couple hours, and #ptboblackout began trending on Twitter in Peterborough. Sample tweet: "I wonder how many babies will be conceived during this blackout #ptboblackout" 

59. John Leacy's mural art around town. Gabby's wall, Spanky's wall and more.

60. Natas Cafe, the epicentre for Peterborough's amazing people.

61. All our readers and followers on Twitter and Facebook. You rock.

Here's to a great 2013!

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Get Your "I'd Rather Be In Peterborough" T-Shirt This Month & Donation Goes To Movember

Buy one of these tees this month to show your community spirit, and $2 from every sale goes to Movember. These tees have been spotted in NY, Peru, San Diego, Apsley—and of course Peterborough! Tweet Pete Dalliday or email him to find out how to purchase one.

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