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Feel The Love Baby

Well, thanks to all of you who joined us at the Community Cocktail Party last night. Melanie of  Melanie’s Bistro was a wonderfully gracious hostess, as always and it was a treat to meet some new people in the neighbourhood.

Sugar Moon

We were extremely pleased to announce a very generous donation from one of our local businesses. Sugar Moon Body Sugaring and Esthetics Boutique has donated $1000 to DECA this year. Owner, Paola Girotti, is incredibly community-minded and an ardent supporter of the work our community association is doing to make our neighbourhood more vibrant, walkable and safe.  Paola was a bit of a pioneer in this neighbourhood by opening her gorgeous little salon first just east of Coxwell and now just west of Coxwell. She’s a big believer in shopping local and supporting local businesses and just as a big a believer in community. Thank you Sugar Moon.

Woodgreen Child Care Centres 

Woodgreen Community Services is one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto -operating almost exclusively out of the east end. It provides service to 37,000 people every year. It runs 10 child care programs in east Toronto serving 820 children and their families. Why am I telling you all this? Because Woodgreen provides a lot of services in our neighbourhood and as the Christmas season starts sneaking up on us, there is a toy drive to support the Woodgreen child care centres.

The fabulous new toy store – Silly Goose Kids – is helping out this year by:

  • selling donation gift cards in $10 denominations
  • giving customers the opportunity to donate their ‘golden egg’ points to the toy drive
  • charging $1 for gift wrapping with all profits going to the toy drive

The event is being sponsored by realtors Duncan Fremlin and Karen Laing.  Local residents supporting local toy store and local real estate agents and all helping local social services agency.  Love it.

Art & Craft Show At LucSculpture

T’is the season to really show your support for your local businesses by shop shop shopping local. It’s getting easier and easier to do it every year. First stop? the LucSculpture sale featuring sculpture, paintings, drawings, photography, post cards, pottery, jewellery and crafts from local artisans. The sale is on now, but the official opening reception day is Saturday, December 3rd from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more info visit www.lucsculpture.com.

And – hey – I want to know what how you are shopping local.  What are you buying and where?  Post it on the blog or e-mail me and I’ll post it! natasha.granatstein(at)gmail.com

Local Arts Services Organization

There is a move afoot to look at the feasibility of starting a local arts service organization in East York. There is a public meeting to discuss it on Tuesday, December 6th from 3 – 5 p.m. at 3079 Danforth (near Victoria Park subway). To find out more, contact Liz Swan at eswan(at)toronto.ca.

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DECA Community Cocktail Party – Monday Night!

Can’t wait to see you on Monday  night at Melanie’s Bistro for our third annual Community Cocktail Party (and AGM, but I promise that part is very short and very sweet and then we get right back on with the food, wine and fun).  6-9 p.m.  1870 Danforth Ave. CASH BAR

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Red Rocket Moving To Danforth & Coxwell

Thanks to Renata for pointing us to this story from the Toronto Life website…

Leslieville’s Red Rocket Coffee has been forced to close up shop after its landlord doubled the rent to $49 per square foot. Co-owner Liako Dertilas says the response from his regulars has been immediate. “The TTC guys across the street are livid,” he told us, referring to the workers at the nearby streetcar yard. The news, however, isn’t all bad. Along with his business partners, Dertilis signed a lease late this afternoon for a new location at 1364 Danforth Avenue, near Coxwell. Although Red Rocket’s new home will be a similar size, Dertilas says it won’t be the same. “We have to leave our extended family—that is, our customers,” he said. “These are the people who come into the store, and we hug them… We feel like we’ve been robbed of that.” The Wellesley Street location is unaffected.

 

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DECA Memberships & AGM

Hi DECA-ites!

Remember that the DECA Community Cocktail Party (and, shhhhh, AGM) is this Monday from 6 – 9 p.m. at Melanie’s Bistro.  The food will be fantastic. The people will be witty, charming and entertaining and the bar will be cash only.  That is a terrific place to buy or renew your membership. It’s only $10/year/family.

If you have recently received a message from ‘serve@Intl.paypal.com’ – that’s not spam, that’s us!!  It’s DECA. Don’t delete us.  You can buy your membership there as easy as 1, 2, credit card.

Why should you fork over $10 to be an official member of DECA? Well, just for starters, here are the top five ways that DECA has improved your neighborhood this year:

1 – We bring you the weekly farmers’ market in East Lynn Park.

2 – We are transforming stores on the Danforth, from drab to dynamite.

3 – We hosted the third annual Danforth East Arts Fair in September.

4 – We repainted the East Lynn pool this spring. We are improving your parks.

5 – We kept you up-to-date with our blog: decadiaries.wordpress.com

We are your neighbors. Join us! If you can’t come to the party, sign up on our website: www.danfortheastcommunityassociation.com

If that’s not worth 10 bucks, then should join the board and tell us what you can do.  Want to know more about that?  I’m at natasha.granatstein(at)gmail.com, let me know.

 

 

 

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THIS weekend

East End Children’s Centre Fundraiser

The 20th annual fundraising gala is on Saturday, November 19th at 7 p.m. The event, hosted by Anne Marie Scheffler of Suddenly Mommy fame, is expected to attract 150 guests and raise over $10,000 to be spent entirely on operating costs for East End Children’s Centre programs for families a Kimbourne, Terry Fox and Presteign sites. 200 Wolverleigh Blvd (Kimbourne location).

POP UP Sale!

TykeThreads.com, online boyswear boutique, and SoYoung, designer of modern lunch boxes and unisex diaper bags, have teamed up for a pop-up sale November 18 to 20.  The three-day sale at Cool East Market (1390 Danforth Avenue – west of Coxwell) will feature specials on current and previous season’s stock. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Cash only.

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Pumpkin People

Thank you Pumpkin People for helping make the 2nd annual Pumpkin Parade particularly pretty and perfectly peculiar. And thanks to Ron Grimes for these pics.

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Hats off to Heather Bean who couldn’t organize it this year because she was busy having a baby.  She did, however, get us started with a very thorough how-to guide.  Then Anita Schretlen and Sarah Kiriliuk took that guide and created a community event that was both kick-ass and magical.

Then, of course, there was the fabulous poster, designed once again by Tak Bui.  Thank you Tak!  And finally, the heroes who showed up after it was all over and hauled all those pumpkins into the pool so the good folks from the City of Toronto could come and pick them up the next morning.  Thanks to Melissa Peretti, Jason Pytel, Leo Gonzalez, Paul Haines, Joel Redmond, Beth Binnington and Sean Webb.

Farmers’ Market

Did you know that NOW Magazine voted the East Lynn Farmers’ Market the best farmers’ market for the Danforth area?  Well, now you do.  Did you also know that Ron Wilford wrote a paper for his course on Local and Global Food Systems about the East Lynn Farmers’ Market? Well he did. I present it here for you reading pleasure.  East Lynn Farmers’ Market

Opening and Closing

This neighbouhood has come a long way in terms of getting a decent cup of coffee.  We have a ways to go in terms of local pubs, especially now that Ten Feet Tall has closed . If you were a fan of Taps and Tales, you will be interested to know that it is being re-invented by a new owner (Hot House Cafe) as ‘Morgan’s.

The House That Went To The OMB

If you live near Coxwell you, no doubt, remember that this BIG house was the subject of an OMB hearing after the developer continued building even when the City refused his permit applications. Well, he’s apparently (I say apparently because I really don’t know) taken down what needed to be taken down and now has it on the market. How much?  Would you believe, almost a cool million?

Earl Beatty and Toronto Star

Word went out this week that ‘hard’ balls such as footballs and soccer balls are now banned from the Earl Beatty school yard. How do I spell kerfuffle anyway?