Q1 – For the holidays, we like to dress up our homes, so for least expensive way possible, what would the smart shopper suggest?

Relax in your easy chair, and flip through the publi-sac flyers: Canadian Tire, Zellers, Sears, for big sales on specialty lights, trees, novelty items, etc. And don’t forget the dollar stores.

Q2 – Who would have the most selection of decorations for walls or your table?

Party stores like Giggles, would have table ware like Santa or poinsettia plates, snowflake napkins or for doors. There’s Chanukah plates and napkins and Star of David lanterns, or banners that say Happy Chanukah or Christmas. And if you need one, a Santa suit or elf suit.

Location: 7143 boul. Newman, Lasalle
Tel: 514-363-9472
www.giggles.ca
Other party supply stores: Party Mania, Party World, Vezina Party Center

Q3 – Where are some of the less obvious places to shop for decorations?

1 – Bouclair, an inexpensive stylish home decor chain is one. People are getting away from the traditional red and green and going for glam, here they’re showing white, purple or silver themes this year with feather trees in those colors. For your table – conical sparkly table trees, reindeer made out of  glass or glitter and Nutcrackers too.

2 – Art supply houses like So-Facile. They sell decorative metallic mesh (21″ x 10 yds per roll) in 16 beautiful colours – comes in 4″and 6″ as well. This mesh can be used on garlands, as a trim for Christmas trees, decorating around doors and banisters.  It is waterproof, so it can be used both indoors and outdoors.  They also carry lots of ribbons for Christmas and all occasions. They have standing “picks” which long sticks with shapes on top (Christmas, star, heart) which and be placed in flowers, vases, or tucked into ribbons, etc. And more…

Location: 9320 St-Laurent Blvd. Suite 701
Tel: 514-382-3090
Hours: Mon- Fri  8:30 – 4:30
www.so-facile.com

Q4 – If we want to buy collectible Christmas keepsakes to pass down to our children, is there any place where we can invest in these?

At Noel Eternel in Old Montreal, it’s Christmas all year round here, with ornaments galore (Bradford and Krinkles humorous ones, personalized ones) plus more. Collectors look for the North Pole series, Dept. 56 villages, Charming Tales mice, Snow babies and Fontanini characters. The nutcracker soldiers are marching past the wooden Russian Santas, snow globes and nativity creches.
The hottest thing this year are glass ball ornaments which have been painted from the inside. It’s an ancient Chinese art tradition which was used on perfume bottles for emperors. The glass ball becomes a piece of art as it is painted painstakingly layered in reverse – facial features go on and the background goes last.

Location: 461 rue St. Sulpice, Old Montreal
Tel: 514-285-4944
www.noeleternel.com

Q5 – For those who celebrate Chanukah or would like to decorate their store or business, where should they shop?

Rodal’s Hebrew Bookstore & Gift Shop is the go-to place for everything Jewish. For Chanukah you can decorate with foil dreidels, put gels on your windows, or use hologram lights and LED lights inside or on your windows. There’s Chanukah banners and stickers, plastic dreidels filled with gumballs and if you want to have fun: dreidel and menorah latke shapers – and tons of menorahs of course.

Location: 4689 Van Horne at Victoria
Tel: 514- 733-1876
www.rodals.com

Sending a personalized special message with the help of Plaque Impact  on all sorts of cool things is a permanent way to show your Valentine the meaning of your love. From now until Feb 14th, if you spend only $20 at the shop, you will receive for FREE freshwater pearl earrings, a heart charm bracelet triple- dipped in silver dipped charm bracelet or cufflinks.

You can buy any of these gifts for whatever occasions you have coming up and then score your freebie. All of them come with 20 characters of engraving included:

• Keychains: $15 – $22
• Pocket mirrors: $24 – $36
• Pens: $15 – $96
• Clocks: $22 – $150
• Bookmarks: $15 – $18
• Photo Albums: $29 – $60
• Business card holders: $20
• Mugs: $25
• Trophies: $16 and up
• Medals: $12
• Lighters $22
• Fans $24
• Nameplates $8-$10 and up
• Portfolios $26
• Onyx bookends or jewelry box $45
  Other products available: lamination $12 and up, rubber stamps, self inked $22.95 and up, crystal heart, Lucite heart, heart keychain, plaques and awardsor a Spy pen flashdrive.

Lettering can be done in Russian, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Hebrew and Yiddish, and ask about the hatch style of inscriptions, which is very elegant. You can bring in objects bought elsewhere (like a bat or hockey stick or sculpture) and they can personalize them too.

Location: 5795 Victoria Ave.
corner: Bourret
Phone: 514- 344-9959
www.plaqueimpact.com

Customize Your Drive down the East Coast

Even in our Internet age, it would take hours of Googling and GPSing to research and compile information to make a trip down the East Coast’s I-95 both easy and fun. My husband Stan Posner and I  have done all this work for you – and more.

We drive from New Hampshire to Miami getting off at each of the 607 exits to compile our award-winning guide, Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia (www.drivei95.com). Now in its 5th edition, it features easy-to-use maps and highlights places to sleep and eat and cool places to see, turning the drive into a fun journey. There’s advice about radar traps, radio stations, 24-hour mechanics, ATM’s, golf courses, campgrounds and even places to sleep with a pet.

– Did you know you can watch rats playing basketball right just off I-95? Head to  the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond.

– In Alexandria, VA, at the new (and free) Freedom House Museum, learn that in 1808, a U.S. law outlawed the importation of slaves. Clever entrepreneurs did not let this stop the sale of slaves (who were still so necessary for plantation life) — they simply bred them!

– We found the “pound cake lady” (Jan Matthews-Hodges) and her blue-ribbon awards baking in a former school in Benson, NC. We drool every time we think of them: moist and buttery with a slight crunchy sugar crust

– If the traffic isn’t rolling fast enough for you, head to Xtreme Indoor Karting in Fort Lauderdale, FL. You will feel like a real race car driver as you don a jump suit, professional helmet and neck brace, and then lower yourself into one of the 40 European Bowman race karts.

– New Hampshire has been added to this edition, and at the outdoor Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, you can explore centuries of life through 43 original buildings, from the Pitt Tavern that served John Hancock, George Washington and Paul Revere to Abbott’s grocery store that dealt with rationing during WWII, to the Shapiro Home, where Jewish Russian immigrants lived in the 1920s.

– In Brunswick, GA, you can climb aboard the shrimp crawler Lady Jane where you help this crew empty the net, learn about the species that have been caught and get to partake in the freshest possible “shrimp boil”.

– Kids of all ages will have loads of fun at Milburn Orchards in Elkton, MD. It’s a 4th generation farm, which also has a mini-amusement park ( we loved the goat walk).  Don’t forget to check out their the pies: awesome apple or Sandra’s favorite coconut custard.

– You can still walk the area in Lexington and Concord, MA, where “the shot heard round the world” was fired on April 17, 1775 beginning America’s 8-year war for independence.

– Since the 1930s chicken pie lovers from all over New England have been driving to Harrows in Reading, MA, for Harrows Chicken Pies made daily from fresh chickens, cooked slowly overnight and then smothered in flavorful scratch gravy, firm carrots and potatoes and poured into lovely pastry.

– The Daytona Beach Drive-In Church welcomes everyone looking for a unique way to worship. Just stay in the car, tune in on your radio or listen to the speakers and ten hop across the street to the beach.

Much more than just another roadway, I-95 is a pipeline to history and amusement. This Whether you are going South for the first time or the hundredth, with this book, it will all seem brand new, and better than ever..

Q1: For Mother’s Day, (or grads, or weddings coming up), how can you pick a special gift that they know was chosen just for them?

Well usually that is the intention of a gift, however with the availability of gift shoppers, impulse internet buying and even re-gifting, nothing says special more than having the item personalized or monogrammed. You no longer have to just use  initials or names as you can now choose any words (I love you Mom) and even images (a bird, flower).

Personalizing indicates too that you had to do your homework just to find a place that monograms and choose something that you were fairly certain was just for them. Also, These days everyone seems to be of wearing just about every designer name on their clothes, why not their own?

Q2: People might think of bathrobes or towels, but what else is out there that can be personalized?

You’d be surprised at all the hard & soft things you can get monogrammed or engraved: teddy bears,  wine glasses, shopping bags, candle snuffers, blankets, frames and more. The shops I’m mentioning today are gift shops so you can get many ideas, even if you don’t want to write on them.

Q3:  Okay these sound like possible options, so where can we go?

Monogrammes Plus has a showroom is full of lots of things you can personalize by embroidered monogramming:  bathrobes, cosmetic bags, aprons, teddy bears, T-shirts, windbreakers, caps, towels, cushions, or something you bring that you’ve bought elsewhere.

Phone: 514-695-8647

At Plaque Impact, their engravings show a great sense of humor on all sorts of cool things:, desk fans (You’re fantastic or I’m your fan ), vases, crumb sweepers (Thanks being there to help pick up the pieces), salt and pepper shakers (You’re a mover and a shaker), clocks, banks, guest books, etc. Lettering can be done in Russian, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Hebrew and Yiddish, and ask about the hatch style of inscriptions which is very elegant. There are also plaques, awards, trophies, pens, name plates, lamination, framing, and family trees. Bring in objects bought elsewhere, as they can personalize different materials like a golf club, bat or hockey stick or sculpture.

Location: 5795 Victoria Ave. at Bourret St.
Phone: 514-344-9959.Hours: Mon -Wed 10:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursday 10:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday 10:15 a.m. to 2 p.m.
www.plaqueimpact.com

Creations Personelles is a national chain with more than 120 locations which specialize in engraving, glass etching, embroidery and key cutting. However, in Montreal they have shrunk to only two locations, both in the Fairview Pointe Claire mall. The personalized gifts ($.70 per letter) include frames, hip flasks, mugs, ID bracelets, wine glasses, pewter ware, golf towels, blankets, albums and knives.

Location: 6801 Transcanadienne at St-Jean Blvd., in Fairview Pointe Claire.
Phone:  514-695-3636.
Hours: Monday to Friday (holiday season hours) 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
www.thingsengraved.ca

Q4: Are there any negative implications of giving monogrammed gifts?
You’d have to be somewhat confident that the person wants the gift as there’s no returning this sort of item. If it is to be worn or used outside the house, the recipient would have to be comfortable having initials or their name exposed.

It not a good idea for children as it is unsafe to announce a child’s name to the strangers they might come across. A stranger might use the child’s name making him think that person knows him.

Q1: Montreal is a multi-ethnic city, and we have many places to buy authentic groceries from different parts of the world. Today you wanted to tell us a bit about East European food.
When you think of Russian or Baltic food, you think of hearty stick to your ribs dishes and that’s just about what we need at this time of year. Since these are local family businesses, much of the food is homemade so free from preservatives or additives. Their meat products are smoked naturally with wood, not injected with flavoring.

Q2: What countries are we talking about?
Russia, Roumania, Hungary, Slovenia

Q3: What kinds of foods might we find there?
Well borscht of course, chicken Kiev, different kinds cured meats: gypsy sausage or Moscow salami, goose pastrami. There’s healthy foods like kefir, yogurt drink and their smoked fishes are full of omega 3 (mackerel, herring and sturgeon). You’ll always find dumplings – my favorites are called pelmeny, little meat dumplings that I put in soup. Cabbage is good for you and they make homemade sauerkraut and stuffed cabbage. Don’t forget these stores also make wonderful desserts.

Q4: In what part of town would you find these stores?
West of the city in the Snowdon area: Sherbrooke St., Decarie Blvd., Victoria Ave.

At Bucarest Charcuterie and Patisserie you’ll find that Rumanian food and everything to make an authentic meal – meatball soup, stuffed grape leaves, naturally smoked sausages, chopped eggplant salads, stuffed cabbage, marinated mushrooms or carrots, goose, lamb or pork pastrami, fresh roe, homemade sauerkraut, pickled cabbage heads, etc. can be purchased here.

Russian foods to try would be sprats, sturgeon, whole herrings, smoked eel and mackerel, kefir and pilmeny (meat dumplings and others), chocolates and homemade cakes. Their canned groceries cover more of Eastern Europe, and include: sour tomatoes, white cherry or walnut preserves, chestnut puree, Hungarian paprika paste, pumpkin seed oil, black currants in syrup and yummy juices (pomegranate, red currant, blackberry).

Location: 4670 boul. Decarie at Cote St-Luc Rd. Phone: 514-481-4732

Patisserie et Charcuterie Bourret – The Roumanian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Swiss, German take-out foods in this 40-year-old business include zakuska, smoked eggplant, fish egg salad, goose pastrami, salamis, stuffed cabbage, pickled whole cabbage, fresh and smoked sausages, head cheese and Bulgarian sheep feta.

Bakery specialties to try are kifli (almond and apricot), poppy seed bagli, the 7-layer dobosh, cozonac, and torte wafers ($3.99). There is a wall of grocery products like gooseberry jam, chestnut puree, letcho, Hungarian noodles.

Location: 5771 Victoria, Snowdon  Phone: 514-733-8462   www.bourretinc.com

St. Petersburg Russian Delicatessen – If you’ve ever wanted to try gypsy sausage or dried Moscow salami, you’ve found your spot. Russian yummies include smoked trout and mackerel, salmon caviar, borscht and chicken Kiev of course, but also spicy carrots, pickled mushrooms, herring with beets and potato, pelmeny, 10 kinds of pierogies and varenikas in the freezer, lots of jarred and canned veggies, and after you’ve had your pickled tomatoes, grab a piece of halvah or a  few cookies from the 75 bins and wash it all down with strawberry soda, sour cherry tea – or kefir.

Location: 5584A Sherbrooke ouest  Phone: 514-369-1377

Near the Berri-UQAM metro and just beside the Grande Bibliotheque there’s a little strip of pavement where you can buy used books. If you remember our salute to Paris with bookstalls at the Old Port, this is on the same idea.
The Allee des bouquinistes  is a collective venture by the shops:  Bouqique Nouvelle-France, Librairie Mona Lisait and Librairie Bonheur d’occasion and some individuals too. They offer up not just any used books  but more rare books and maps, old postcards, engravings and ones in Japanese, Russian, Spanish or German. Maybe you will run into one of their Saturday afternoon workshops.

Location:  Savoie Ave. the western side of the library
Dates and times: Fri 5-10, Sat 10-10, maybe Sunday noon-10
Dates: until Sept 26

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