A Sneak Peek

 Good morning!

The countdown is on. We are one week away from starting our fifteenth season!

The store is just about ready. Let me tell you, it was a bigger job than we expected... or we're just getting older and slowing down. 

We hope that what we have done conveys how much we love this little shop. We are so excited for you to visit and see what we've done. In the meantime we thought you might like a sneak peek!

Ready for it...

I hope you're sitting down...

Ta-da!!!

'kayso, image #1 is our brand new outlets and outlet plates. That's right, we changed all of them!

Image #2 is our brand new switches and switch plates. You guessed it! We changed all of those too.

Image #3? It's not nearly as exciting and you probably don't even care but that's one of a couple of new tarts for this summer. We can talk about that later.

And there you have it! Exciting stuff huh? Was it everything you'd hoped and dreamed about?

Well, we're putting on all the finishing touches today because prep begins tomorrow.

We hope you're having the best weekend ever. I'll post hours early next week. Spoiler alert: 10-4 Saturday and Sunday 

Have a fabulous Saturday! ❤️

 

Spring Opening 2023!

Ahhh... spring. Ain't she sweet?

Well, it may not look like spring but it sure feels like it here. We are in The Little Tart mode once again and gearing up for our 15th year!

We're giving the store a little love; freshening things up. Let's face it she's been ridden hard and... well... it's time. That's happening right now!

On that note I'm here to announce our opening this year will begin on May 6th at 10am!

We have a lot of work ahead of us but we'll be ready and hope you'll be stopping by this year because we sure have missed you! 

No New Year's Opening

 We hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday celebrations in spite of the weather woes.

Bill and I were supposed to spend the day with family in Toronto yesterday. Unfortunately, like many, the weather and uncertainy about the road conditions put the kibosh on our holiday plans. 

We stayed put.

We checked the weather this morning and, yet again, (or should I say still) there is a winter weather travel advisory in effect. Our boxing day plans include a shovel and snow blower.

Looking ahead... we wish we hadn't because there's rain coming. Rain on top of all this snow with temperatures rising above zero - not much above zero - but enough to create a whole new kind of mess.

And so... this has been my long winded way of getting to the point of this post. We have made another tough decision and we apologize to anyone who is disappointed by this but we will not be opening New Year's eve this year.

We should be prepping today. Instead we'll be moving  snow away from the house before the snow melts, the rain comes and both find their way into this old house. The weather is just too uncertain this year. We're so sorry to dissapoint.

Thank you so much to you folks who made your way here Christmas eve. It was so nice to see you before the long winter break.

If you're travelling over the holidays please be safe so we can see you again in the spring. ❤️

(About the picture... our very supportive neighbour June Krisco is a talented photographer. June came by Christmas eve and gifted us one of her beautiful 2023 calendars. The black and white images are beautiful - December is my favourite - and we want to give her a shout-out and wish her all the best in her art career.) 

Christmas Eve Opening

We are open today!

If you are venturing out, please be safe.

 

Special Weather Satement for This Weekend

 'kayso... it seems Winter is about to have a major temper tantrum - possibly a complete meltdown before giving us the cold shoulder. This could put a kink in our weekend plans. We are keeping an eye on the weather as we continue to prep.

If this storm hits and it's as bad as they're saying it could jeopardize our Christmas eve opening. We don't want anyone risking their safety by venturing out and we can't bake all these treats and have no one come. 

We're hoping it's either much much much milder than predicted or it blows past us.

If we haven't made a firm decision by Friday evening please please please check Saturday morning before making the trek out here. We will post it early early.

Here's hoping we'll be seeing you soon! Stay safe. ❤️

Winter Holiday Opening!

It's beginning to look a lot like... April???

It has been less than uneventful here this past while. Unless you care to hear about the garage clean-up, autumn closet purge and the trailor renovation happening out back? 

Didn't think so.

Maybe you'd like to hear about what happens when an out of shape baker takes on a "low impact" (low impact my sore fanny) high cardio workout? If I'm standing I don't want to try to sit down and if I'm sitting down I don't want to try to stand up. For the past three days anything I have dropped on the floor is still on the floor. Seriously, it feels like I tried to crack a bowling ball between my thighs. Ya, it's hilarious. Laugh it up chuckles.

But let's get to the good stuff! It's the first Saturday of December and we're counting down the days to our winter holiday opening! Last year we tried something a little different by opening Christmas eve and New Year's eve and it was wonderfully successful so we're going to do that again this year.

It's a fun tradition we've created because it gives us a chance to reconnect with you fine folks before the long winter break. 

So don't let the weather get you down. The way we see it, we don't have to shovel rain which I'm fine and dandy with right now and for at least the next few days. But of course we'd like to see a little snow for the holiday season and more than that we we hope we'll be seeing you. So... if you happen to be in, around or nearby the Haliburton Highlands over the holidays we hope you'll pop by even if it's just to say hello. 

We'd love to see you. 

Until then, be well and be happy and avoid anything that says "low impact". Seriously... it's a big fat lie! 

 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

It's hard to believe it's already three weeks into our off season.

We've been getting winter ready; wood splitting, lugging, stacking, yard cleaning (after splitting, lugging, stacking), etc., etc., etc..

We've been fortunate to have good weather. Summer finally arrived! It's raining today. Not so good for the kiddies tonight. I do recall, all those many, many, many (wait a minute - take away one many) years ago groaning about having to wear a coat or rain jacket over my costume. But, to quote Rush who quoted somebody else (I'm not Googling that)  "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." (Okay, I Googled it - 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr). But let's face it, Rush said it best!

At the end of every year we have some leftover perishables that need to be used up so just when I think I'm out of the kitchen, I get pulled back in. (Hey, that's a great line! Someone should use that in a movie.) This year we had some apples left from our tree and some cream cheese. Now, we could have just eaten the apples and put the cream cheese on bagels but where's the fun in that?

The buns are home made as well from my own recipe. People often ask if we make bread. There's nothing like fresh baked bread and buns but they are so time consuming, unfortunately, it's not possible for the store.

So apple pie made sense and those are carrot cakes. Yep! That's where the cream cheese is going. Nothing but good old fashioned healthy baking here! Anyone know of a good cardiologist? (Just kidding - not really.)

Anyhoo, I just wanted to pop in, say hi, see how y'all are doing. We hope you're well and that you have a fabulous Halloween!

Until next time, be careful out there (Wow! Another great line! Someoene should use that in a television show! I am on a roll.) ❤️