“Lynn Steven” Boutique Opens At Carrall Street And Blood Alley

by Nicole Dennis Durnin | Like an early Christmas present, we took the paper off the windows and officially opened Lynn Steven Boutique on December 23rd. The last few days have been equal parts exciting and relieving.  It seemed like it took an eternity to get to this point, but everyone that has dropped in to say hi has mentioned that the store sure seemed to go up fast.  We’ve been warmly welcomed by the neighbourhood, both by local business owners and residents alike.  And especially for that we are very grateful.  The feeling of community is what led us to Gastown, and it’s been great to see that vibe personified in visits from Mark, Erin, Curtis, Arthur and Victor. Read more

The Shopaholiblog: Something Special At “Vancouver Special”

Even for those who love hitting stores, December can feel daunting. Since we’re down with making things run as smoothly as possible for our readers, we thought it would be a good idea to seek out a few key and kickass Vancouver retailers who are in the know and ask for some directions, because even the most hardened getters-of-things done could use a compass in the yule maelstrom. We’re calling their contributions The Shopaholiblog (because it’s a fun word to say).

For the final installment of the Christmas season, we go to Anne Pearson (interview) of the design concept store Vancouver Special at 20th & Main, in the heart of Vancouver’s super swell Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood.

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“Lynn Steven”: Getting Set For City Inspection And Opening Day

by Nicole Dennis Durnin | We are in the final days of building Lynn Steven. It is funny how everything seems to come together towards the end of the project. For the last two weeks the team at Kingdom Builders have been working double shifts to try to get the boutique open for this weekend. Drywallers have been working until 1am (sorry neighbours!) to finish the ceiling and feature wall. We had a crew of family come in over this last weekend to clean up all the dry wall dust to prep the space for painting. We then spent nine hours on Sunday painting the space to have it ready for the shelving that went up on Monday.  Part of the art installation went in on Tuesday, electrical work is starting to wrap up over the next couple of days, phase two of levelling the floor is happened Wednesday and finally plumbing fixtures, the hanging system and carpet were installed on Thursday.  Over the weekend we’re bringing back the family for a fresh coat of paint, we’ll iron out some inevitable wrinkles and take care of the final touch ups.  Hoping for a City Inspection on Monday and at last we’ll be open for business! Photos and more after the jump… Read more

The Shopaholiblog: Four Smart Gifts From Around “The Block”

The Shopaholiblog: Decking The Halls With “Parliament” Fa-La-La

OK – time is starting to run out. If you want it under the tree – you are going to have to get up and start doing something about it.  We are always looking to make things run as smoothly as possible for all of our readers, so we thought it would be a good idea to pull together some ideas – tempations to get you moving (you can thank us later). 

Rather than try to pull it off all by ourselves, we sought out a few key Vancouverites in the know and asked for some suggestions.  Today, Colette Soros of Gastown’s shiny new Parliament supplies us with a few fine hook ups for your Christmas list…

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The Shopaholiblog: Killer Gift Ideas From Nouvelle Nouvelle

“Lynn Steven”: Zeroing In On The Big Day After Gastown Shop Hop

The countdown is on! Although the space doesn’t look like much now we seem to be on track for a soft opening on December 18th (fingers are still crossed, maybe legs and toes as well!). To say my stress levels are high is an understatement. As any retailer knows Christmas is key and at the rate we are going I will be missing a huge portion of the Holiday shopping season.  Not wanting to miss out entirely, as I mentioned in my previous post we created a pop-up shop for the Gastown Shop Hop on December 3rd. Although it was a ridiculous amount of work to set up a store for just for one day it was a great success and it was nice to meet many people that live and work in the area. It was reassuring to hear that people were aware of Lynn Steven already; I even overheard someone mention that they’d been reading about the boutique on Scout. Read more

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