Studio & Shop Update

I blinked, and it’s December! Cue the bells, candy canes, and carols! I love Christmas. And on Friday, TOMORROW, I’ll be celebrating our 20th annual Christmas Party & Sale here in the studio. 20th! We didn’t do a party last year due to- you know- but there was one year when we had two parties, so I’m sticking to 20!

You’re invited to our 20th Annual
Christmas Party & Sale!
Friday, December 3rd, starting at 7pm

We’ll have festive music, snacks, drinks, prizes, and at least 25% off your purchase (excepting event tickets, gift cards, and workshop fees). It’s a great time for you to show your love for Newfoundland made gifts, and in plenty of time to ship them to your friends and family all over Canada.

And as a real treat for all of us, Chrys Hogan’s Sweet & Savoury Baked Goods
will be a special guest vendor here at Norton’s Cove Studio!

For those of you who want to shop online, there’s a 25% off discount code or a Free Shipping discount code that has been mailed out to my eNewsletter subscribers. If you didn’t get it, let me know, and I’ll get you hooked up. You can use those discount codes for the full month of December, as many times as you like.

I’d love for you to visit the studio, and I’m offering free coffee while you shop handmade. Hate the hustle and bustle of shopping in the big stores? Then stop in for a calm, relaxing shopping experience with a candy cane latté to warm your hands and the knowledge that you are supporting local, handmade, and independent! Every little purchase makes a big difference to small shops like mine.

Looking for a gift for a friend? How about a lovely bag of bath-time treasures from Rocks & Roots Co.? They smell wonderful, make you feel great, and are 25% off this month!

Other cool gifts we have in stock here at Norton’s Cove Studio are:

• Kate Fudge Art cards and earrings
• Foggy Island Candles
• Christmas Cards! Choose from Christmas Caplin, Poinsettia, Snowflakes, Christmas Ornament, or the latest, Christmas Cruiser.
• Oil paintings
• Editioned Linocut prints
• Bookmarks
• Jams, partridgeberry relish, chocolates, sauces, and soap from the Dark Tickle Company
• Books
• Saltwater Spirit clay topped bottle corks
• CDs
• Jacobean Chocolate
• Norton’s Cove apparel: toques, t-shirts, and hoodies
• Velvet Snow Accessories: beautiful forget-me-not jewellery
• Norton’s Cove Knots: Duke’s rope mats and ornamental pieces
• Gift cards: redeemable at both Norton’s Cove Studio and Café

This week at Norton’s Cove Café

Watch for our Norton’s Cove float in the New-Wes-Valley Christmas Parade on December 5th! It’ll be our 1st float!

Our Annual Tibb’s Eve Dinner & Dance tickets are still available! If you already have your tickets, don’t forget to send me your menu choices! You can call, email, or text that info to me. And include your favourite drinks too so that I’m sure to have the right stuff in stock!

Here are your menu choices for the December 23rd event:

Appetizers
Crispy moose in a spicy, sweet, and savoury orange sauce served on rice noodles (GF)
Frutti di Mare – Italian styled shrimp and squid salad (GF)
Creamy pumpkin soup with grilled cheese croutons (V)

Mains
Moose Bourguignon- a rich moose stew served with a side of polenta and stewed vegetables
Trout Boudin- trout sausage served with a rich red wine sauce, seasoned mushrooms, potato, and veggies (GF)
Vegetarian Paella- a mixture of roasted vegetables served on saffron and paprika infused rice (GF) (V)

Dessert
Chocolate Mousse- rich, creamy, and fluffy- just gorgeous! (GF)
Crème Caramel- baked custard in a light caramel sauce (GF)
Spiced ginger Christmas cake with sweet lemon glaze

The Duke & I have been doing a bit more work on the Lower Deck, getting it ready for Tibb’s Eve! I’ll have some pictures to share with you next week… stay tuned!

Holiday Dinner Parties at Norton’s Cove Café

Day 5 #justacard

Today is the day! Instead of Black Friday, shop Indie Friday! I’m going online to do some independent small business Christmas shopping today- are you?

The studio/shop is open 10am-9pm today, and I’ve got a special automatic in-store 25% off discount ready for you!

Day 4 #justacard

image credit @angela.chick.illustration

Share others you love:

Here are some of my favourite shops, makers, and independent retailers who are working hard to bring you beautiful quality products:

• The Dark Tickle Company
• The Newfoundland Salt Company
• King’s Point Pottery
• Alexis Templeton Studio
• Johnny Ruth
• Star Creations
• Paterson Woodworking
• Twillingate & Beyond

How about you? Which are your favourite small businesses that deserve to be shared?

Day 3 #justacard

Events, shows, platform, where to find Norton’s Cove Studio & Café:

Norton’s Cove Studio is located at 113 Main Street W in New-Wes-Valley on the north side of Bonavista Bay, on the island portion of the province of Newfoundland & Labrador. Norton’s Cove Café is right across the street at 114 Main Street! The studio is open year-round, and the café is open during the summer and for special occasions for the rest of the year.

Norton’s Cove Studio is the red c.1890 shop, and the café is the green waterfront property.

If you can’t get to Norton’s Cove Studio in-person, you can shop with us virtually via our online shop. We ship everywhere, or you can choose to pick up your purchase if you’re going to be nearby (handy if you are nervous about COVID or are worried that a product might sell out before you can get here!)

You can pick up a selection of Norton’s Cove Studio’s note cards, bookmarks, and mini-prints in a number of lovely small businesses around the island and beyond. See the full list HERE!

And of course, you can follow us here on the blog, on twitter, instagram, and facebook!

Day 2 #justacard

“If everyone who’d complimented our beautiful gallery had bought ‘just a card’, we’d still be open.” A shop door with that sign in England started the #justacard campaign.

Here’s my shop door, and I fully support the #justacard message. If we want to be able to visit nice shops in the future, we need to support them now. And what can we do? We can make a purchase every year, no matter how small. Just a card, or just a book, or just a coffee will do the trick. We can recommend our favourite shops to our friends. We can buy the things we can locally, instead of looking elsewhere. I can’t expect the small grocery store up the street to keep carrying the products I like if I buy them somewhere else.

Last year, when Newfoundlanders were told to staycation at home, Norton’s Cove Café was discovered by many locals who had never been in our region before. They enjoyed their visit, and they told their friends. And their friends came this year. I heard from customers over and over again, “my next door neighbour was here last summer and they told me I just had to come!” Recommending to friends really is a huge help to small businesses!

I really appreciate every dollar I earn in my business so that I can keep growing and adding new products, new services, and offerings in my hometown.

Day 1 #justacard

10 facts about me…

1. My name is Janet Davis. Not Janice, Janis, nor Janette. It is the name that I was born with, and I quite like it. Thanks mom & dad! I really don’t like it when people get my name wrong. I’m a bit of a big baby about it, actually.
2. I was born at Brookfield Hospital, which is about a 10 minute walk from my house, studio, and café. Although I have lived elsewhere for schooling and such, I really have not strayed far from my ancestral home of Pinchard’s Island, just a wee boat ride away.
3. I don’t have a favourite colour. I love them all.
4. I can play a few chords on the guitar and ukulele, but I do not have the guts to try performing. I keep those skills for alone time!
5. My highest level of education is from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in the form of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (interdisciplinary), but I feel that I learned far more in the Textile Studies program which now runs out of the Anna Templeton Centre in St. John’s. Perhaps that was because I was a newbie to the world of art, but many of the skills I use on a day to day basis are ones that I learned there.
6. I am very happily married to the best man. Duke Kelloway has been my biggest critic, guide, and supporter in my artistic career. He’s my best friend, and I love our life together here in our hometown.
7. I am a mother. I have a grown-up son. He’s not an artist like me, but I think his ability to think creatively along with his interest in science and mechanics will be a winning combination that will make great things happen.
8. I am a textile artist, painter, and printmaker. My first love was textiles, my second and main squeeze is printmaking, but painting is what I have in my head the most right now. I’ve been painting oodles of images of smudge herring, and I can’t wait to get back to painting the next one when I pick up some extra art supplies next week!
9. My ancestors came from Britain. William Henry Frederick Davis apparently came over from Portsea in the 1700s and settled on Pinchard’s Island. There were a ton of people looking to change their way of life at a time when the class system held people down and being poor could mean starvation. I often think about what a challenge it had to be to live here without good heating and protection from the driving winds, but they were obviously a determined group of people who wanted better for their children. And look at what an amazing safe and beautiful place I live now because of their foresight!
10. I own Norton’s Cove Studio Inc. I am the only shareholder. It was incorporated in 2002. This corporation owns Norton’s Cove Studio as well as Norton’s Cove Café which opened in 2017. I am hoping to grow my business some more with the addition of an accommodations feature here in New-Wes-Valley. I love being able to offer jobs to the people who choose to live here, and I am incredibly proud of the work my staff are doing at Norton’s Cove Café. They rock.

Did I mention how much I am inspired by the ocean? I love spending time on the water and seeing glimpses of what’s hiding beneath the waves!

Just A Card Indie Week Starts Tomorrow

This campaign has been taking place for a few years now, and I am very happy to participate. The founders of the Just a Card campaign are in England, and were interested in promoting shopping in small independently owned stores after seeing a favourite shop close. There was a sign on the door of a gallery that told folks that if they had bought just a card, perhaps the store would still be open. As a small business owner, this notion strikes hard and true. There are thousands of people in my hometown who have never made a purchase in my shop, or go years without purchases, and I have gone years without a salary. It is only because I am too stubborn to quit that I am still operating my studio after almost 20 years. I do realize that I am offering products that many local people do not need nor want. But I’m sure most people buy at least one greeting card a year, and it would make a huge difference to my business if I could sell an average of one card a year to everyone in town.

So don’t think that your small purchase at any of your local shops isn’t making a difference- it really does! #justacard or just a mug or just a coffee or just a pair of socks- whatever it is, it’s important to support small businesses if we want them to be there year after year.

I’ll be taking part in the Just A Card INDIE WEEK challenge this year, so you’ll see my posts each day this week according to the following plan on twitter, instagram, and facebook, as well as this blog:

I’d love to hear from you- please share your favourite small independent businesses this week more than ever!

Studio & Shop Update

Since my return from my most successful Christmas Craft Fair ever, I have been getting my beautiful shop tidied up, getting new framed pieces up on the wall, and gathering information for a new business project that I’m working on (more on that later). I’m getting the shop dressed up for Christmas (my favourite time of the year), and then it’ll be time to get at more printing (Christmas cards are running low) and back to making paintings.

My mom-in-law gave me a nutcracker from a downsizing move, and he has found a job at Norton’s Cove Studio this Christmas shopping season as a toque model.

I’d love for you to visit the studio, and I’m offering free coffee while you shop handmade. Hate the hustle and bustle of shopping in the big stores? Then stop in for a calm, relaxing shopping experience with a latté macchiato to warm your hands and the knowledge that you are supporting local, handmade, and independent! Every little purchase makes a big difference to small shops like mine. And of course, if you can’t get here in person, the online shop is open 24-7. If you have any questions, please just send me a note or give me a call.

Lots of products in the shop from the Dark Tickle, also Rocks & Roots Co., Kate Fudge Art, cook-books, Velvet Snow jewellery, Foggy Island Candles, make for great stocking stuffers and gifts.

Norton’s Cove Studio Estimated Hours of Operation: This is just a guideline of our usual hours- if you’re planning to visit from afar, please call ahead so that we don’t miss your visit! Sometimes I need to be elsewhere! And more often than not, I’m in the studio longer hours than listed! If the open sign is out, come on in, no matter what time it is 😉

Sunday

10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Monday

Closed

Tuesday

Closed

Wednesday

10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Thursday

10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Friday

10:00 am – 9:00 pm

Saturday

10:00 am – 6:00 pm

This week at Norton’s Cove Café

Our Annual Tibb’s Eve Dinner & Dance tickets are selling faster than usual- make sure you don’t miss your opportunity- get your tickets before they sell out! No seats are reserved unless tickets are paid for. Here are your menu choices for the December 23rd event:

Appetizers

Crispy moose in a spicy, sweet, and savoury orange sauce served on rice noodles (GF)

Frutti di Mare – Italian styled shrimp and squid salad (GF)

Creamy pumpkin soup with grilled cheese croutons (V)

Mains

Moose Bourguignon- a rich moose stew served with a side of polenta and stewed vegetables

Trout Boudin- trout sausage served with a rich red wine sauce, seasoned mushrooms, potato, and veggies (GF)

Vegetarian Paella- a mixture of roasted vegetables served on saffron and paprika infused rice (GF) (V)

Dessert

Chocolate Mousse- rich, creamy, and fluffy- just gorgeous! (GF)

Crème Caramel- baked custard in a light caramel sauce (GF)

Spiced ginger Christmas cake with sweet lemon glaze

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email Janet to reserve your holiday dinner party at Norton’s Cove Café in December!

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We’re happy to offer these snuggly Norton’s Cove toques available now in the online shop (open 24-7) as well as the studio shop (open by-chance-or-appointment this month)!