the geriatric moving crew

More peeks of last Saturday's activities.
I cannot thank the friends who helped me move enough. Affectionately dubbed 'the geriatric moving crew', this team of super humans ranged in age from 55 to 69 years old. Experience is everything - with countless moves and renovation projects in our back pockets, every task was checked off without a hitch.
We started at 9:30 and stopped when everything was more or less finished at 4:30, capping off the day with French 75s and a porchetta dinner in the new shop.

installing the lights

setting up  the cabinets and work surfaces

moving the fridges

moving... everything

let the sorting and arranging begin...

Its time to move!

OK, this is what I like to call a 'liquid' time.
Over the next few days we will move shop from our cosy 128 james street north to the spacious and rather custom shop at 140 james street north. The back and forth rhythm will be fine right up until the sinks and fridges will have to move... and that means that we will be closed next week while everything gets re-connected and sorted.
The new space is magical. The best part is having enough room for flowers without having crowded and bruised petals, and being able to offer the largest selection of Ontario succulents, cactus, ferns (and soon) houseplants.
The hope is to have the space to conduct all workshops in the shop (!), and not to rely on some tricky pilates and yoga contortions simply to get from the front of the shop to the back when carrying a bucket of flowers.
Here is a bit of a peek at the work in progress:

scary floors, scary walls, scariest ceiling... and through everything Gary Buttrum was unflappable

the framing stage

building the walk-in cooler for the flowers (aka Bev's playhouse)

i fiori will be closed Monday May 25 to Friday May 29 while we get everything connected and sorted in the new shop.

Sorry for any inconvenience - please come to visit on Saturday!

Matchbox Heirloom Seeds are now at i fiori!

We have just received out first order from Matchbox Garden & Seed Company!

Matchbox Seeds are now available at i fiori

Matchbox is a small farm and seed company located south of Hamilton in Haldimand County. They produce over 120 varieties of organically produced, open pollinated, heirloom and rare vegetables, herb, flowers, seed and seedlings.

Starting your Seeds - Q&A

Friday April 10 from 7 - 8:30  Hanna Jacobs, owner of Matchbox Garden, will be at i fiori for an informal Q&A on why we need to plant and harvest seeds, when to start your seeds and the secrets of success.

Drop in during Art Crawl - Hanna will be able to answer just about any question you may have regarding starting your garden.



psst... this means that spring is finally here. Its time to get dirty...

Easter weekend

i fiori is ready for spring, ready for Easter!

art crawl + helleborus + Juno week

Downtown Hamilton is buzzing!
Oh, sure, we are hosting the Juno Awards and everywhere you look there will be concerts and sessions with musicians and singers who would normally play much bigger venues (like the opportunity to see Elizabeth Shepherd at Mills Hardware on Friday night...)
This Friday the March Art Crawl will be transformed into a 'music crawl' - many shops, restaurants and bars will be featuring musical guests. It will be a perfect way to kick off spring!
But the biggest buzzworthy news is that this week we have no wind chill factor and a new batch of hellebores in the shop.
Oh, can you beat that?

stunning pink helleborus are ready at i fiori