Pure Countdown

Hey yogi's

I am so ridiculously excited to tell you, after a very long 6 months, with so many ups and downs, we are ready for you. March 12th is opening day. We're finally here, a crazy week ahead of us, but can not wait... So I'll give you a little rundown of how the next week is going to go. There is still alot to do, but all going to happen very quickly.. Amber and I are focusing on the fun stuff- making it look pretty...:)-    (again thank-you Shannon) my Dad is focusing on the not so fun stuff - making sure we are ready to go.. After so many emotions, I am getting PURE pleasure watching him sweat .. ;) I can see why people say don't get into business with your family, but I will say, I couldn't not have done this without him. Ya I could have killed him- fired him- disowned him as a father- but he got us here....and is still here- and for that I am PUREly blessed.

Ok, so on to the exciting stuff, March 12th, March 12th, March freakin' 12th. We will be offering FREE yoga the entire first week. We will be opening with a full schedule, with exception to opening day, we have taken a few classes off, just to make sure we are good to go... You can check out our schedule online, just plug in March 12th, and you'll see all the amazing classes we have to offer.  I am not sure, but I don't think I even mentioned all the amazing teachers we have teaching for us. You will all be plesantly pleased. I can not thank them enough for being so patient, so understanding, and so supportive through this crazy journey.

During the first week, we will have some awesome deals that will only be available in that week. In saying that we will be offering  great competitive prices year round. We will be offering a discount to all fellow yoga teachers, and a 'karma yoga' program for those who have there money tied up elsewhere. We at Pure Yoga Ottawa want to create a space for EveryBODY...every shape, size, age, and status, employed, or in between jobs, student, or retiree, single or divorcee, mother, father, grandparent....you get the idea...We can't wait to create a community, where we can all grow together, and hey' maybe even benefit a little from the practice while your here. ;) Can't wait!!...so excited...so ridiculously excited...!!
Ok, I'll end there for now, and will be sure to give you all another update before the big day!!..Mark it in your calenders, check out the schedule, and plan your class, we'll take care of the rest.
See ya'll very soon.
Namaste for now.. :)

Pure Insomnia :)

Heya Yogi's.
Hope you all have been enjoying the absolutely fabulous weather we've been having... +7 yesterday!!.lovin it!!..if only winter could always be like that..
 So I won't make this to long, but just want to give all you a little update to all the craziness thats been happening.
As per my last post, all of our landlord B.S is over and we are full force ahead.. The last couple of weeks have been just as anticipated..Busy as... Now that we are so freakin' close we now start thinking of a whole new realm of things we need, paper, pens, light bulbs, clip boards, towels, toilet paper, hair dryers, and every other little odd and end you could think of... I keep starting lists, but usually get distracted thinking of something else we need that doesn't fit on that list, maybe I should start multiple lists...Our Millwork has been installed, floor is going in tomorrow, recepetion desk on Saturday, and then all the light and plumbing fixtures...after that making it look nice and pretty (thank-you Shannon Smithers) we will be good to open...
I so wish I could give an actual day, but I couldn't stand letting you all down if I was off by a day or three. What I will say is the week of March the 5th should be very very exciting. I will absolutely make sure to make a big deal when we do nail down the date. Make sure you all keep posted!  We are having some really amazing intro specials...and not to spoil anything, but FREE may keep you checking back..:)
So that's where the studio is at. As per the Insomnia heading, Amber and I have moved to Westboro, and the place we live in, though so cute and grown up, they are building a restaurant downstairs, so we've been pleasantly woken every morning extremely early every morning to saws, hammers, guns and roses...you know the usual on a Monday morning at 6am :). As much as a little sleep in till say 9am would be nice, I guess we have to get used to these long ass days.
Ok, that's about it for now, I'll be posting the schedule in the next day or two, so keep checking back on www.pureyogaottawa.com so you can start marking your calender of weekly classes. We have some really cool classes, and some really Amazing teachers (how did we get so lucky) I can not wait to share with all of you...
Peace out for now.. :)

Pure Monday

Happy Monday everyone. Mondays are a little like Sundays for me, actually everyday is like Sunday to me these days, I'm not working to much in anticipation of PYO opening... So first and formost did ya'll watch the grammy's? Not bad eh' some beautiful tributes to Whitney... which is incredibly sad by the way. Brought me back to when I heard about MJ. Funny how you almost feel as though you know these people, and feel a sense of real loss, and sadness.. RIP and love Whitney Houston....

Ok, back to PYO... not to much has happened on the landlord front, other than the bully lawyer they had involved is off the case, not sure if its a good or not so good thing, but I sure as heck am glad we don't have to deal with him anymore. We will hopefully find out some more by the end of the day, and then we can really start worrying, we will be opened within weeks, we are pretty much ready to go. There's just a few things that are left to do, the wood floors, a little more paint, some furniture placing, and the whole heating system thing... I get these waves of panic, thinking holy sh*%@ we have so much to do......inhaleeeeeeeeee, and exhaleeeee.... it'll be fun...

So I'll attach a few photos of the latest work thats been done, custom made lockers, and corian vanities...more paint, and beautifully tiled showers...

I think that might be about all for today, this week is going to be a big one, I'm hoping we will have an exact opening date for all ya'll in a day or two... so you can put it in you calenders..

Happy Monday to all you wonderful people, and I hope all you lovers out there have a super cheesy romantic day tomorrow...

Namaste for now yogis.. :)

Update

Hello again,
It's been a little longer than I wanted, however we just a couple days ago got our internet working. So here we are, one move, one nasty ass flu, and one yoga studio that is so close to opening day, and of course a few glasses of wine later....
I'll give ya'll a short rundown of what's new, exciting, and not so exciting...
We are still puting along, paint is being painted beautiful colors...Just wait to you see it..PYO is not just another yoga studio, we are BOLD, Beautiful, and GREEN.  GREEN being  eco-friendly with everything we do.. We're using this paint called Harmony paint, low V.O.C, all of our water will be filtered, we have beautiful soft on the feet (and knees) cork for the hot room,  our heating panals and lightbulbs are energy efficient ....  i could go on... All of our millwork has been delivered, and looks better than we could have possibly imagined....think walnut and beautiful white corian... We are working with our lovely old friend Shannon Smithers, who is an amazing designer, she's given us some fantastic ideas, from lightboxes, to cool colorful fabrics, bold colors on the wall, and of course peace of mind being able to trust such a talented young lady with such important desicions.
Ok, well thats the fun stuff, the not so fun stuff, is we are still in kahoots with our lovely landlords. We have given into a few of there new demands, but some that we just can't afford to do, so still trying to work it out, its much more complicated than just that, but moral of the story is that we can't open until we get it all sorted...so here we still are waiting...waiting for someone to give in, and man up, to allow two young girls to continue on with there dream... Positive thoughts...:) Let's hope things happen today or tomorrow, and we can move forward, and open Ottawa's hottest, BOLDest most beautiful amazing yoga studio there will be... Can't wait to see all you yogi's and not so yogi's there..
Namaste for now..
oh ya, and dont forget to follow us on twitter, facebook, instagram, and keep checking back                   @pureyogaottawa.com

Winter Storm Warning

Hello again,
So last post couldn't have been to shockingly horrid since your back, or maybe its the massive snow storm on its way...either way, here goes...

To give you a little update where we are construction wise. All the walls that need to be down are down, all the walls that need to be up, are up..The plumbing's in, the showers and change rooms are being tiled, and our mill work is underway and to be delivered on Friday. One would think we have a pretty good idea of what colours to paint the walls, but we're still undecided. Tomorrow I meet with a lovely old friend, who is a wonderful designer, I'm leaving the important stuff for her... blue..or green...or red, maybe orange.. she can decide.. Amber and I are still unsure of what merch were going to carry. We have a great big merch area which we will fill with lots of fun little treats. We have our painter starting to put colour on the walls on Thursday. All tiles should be done by then, I believe when the paints done the wood floors go in. The hot room heating panels should arrive any day so will be able to go up, and we can start warming up from this frigid weather..WOW..just writing that down, makes me realise how close we are....I just had a small panic....breattttthhhheeeeee...it's the only thing I must do....breathe..

In saying that, I'll end it there...Amber's gone snowboarding, and I'm left at home to pack with a sore throat.. :( Did I mention Amber and I are moving from the Glebe, to Westboro literally 3 doors down for the studio, very convenient and a cute little spot too. We're looking forward to really throwing ourselves into the community.

Namaste for now... :) :)

what snow storm?

Welcome to Pure.

Welcome Yogi's 

Being as this is the first blog I have ever even attempted to write, and I 'just' passed English it should be interesting. I apologize in advance for spelling errors, multiple periods, and unnescessary exclamation marks!!!.....

However, I feel it is very important for myself, and my fellow PYO yogis (Pure Yoga Ottawa) to follow us on this crazy rollercoaster ride in opening PYO. I have started a little late, but better late than never...so here goes..........

I'll start by giving you a very quick rundown about who WE at PYO are....myself Jen Dalgleish (owner), and my partner/best friend/roomate Amber Stratton(owner) have been bestest friends since Grade 6...so a very long time...20 some years, pretty much since the day I told the new girl at school(Amber)  she could sit with me on the bus if she wanted to ( yup just like Forrest Gump), we have been inseperable since.

Our very first business idea -I believe in Grade 6 - was to move to Australia and have a Zoo like farm  thingy together. Well, unfortunately that one never panned out. Our second business idea came shortly after, and went off without a hitch, we were going to be jewelry designers, jewelry made out of Fimo...........Brilliant!!! So we set off, made as many Fimo earrings, and pendants as we possibly could... They were beautiful, or so I thought they were at the time. Ambers purple and hot pink gum ball earrings were my favorite, I actually think I was a bit jealous of the PURE artistic talent she had... Nevertheless, I figured, shes got talent, I want to be in business with this girl. From that day- for the rest of the weekend-  we spent every extra minute making the most amazing Fimo jewelry we could imagine... Then came "A Different World", our very first business, we had a beautiful spot we cleaned out in the barn out the back of the Stratton house hold, we made ourselves a bristol board sign, drew up some very catchy signage, and made sure the pricetags were big, we wouldn't have wanted to underestimate the value of these beautiful pieces..??..... To our complete surprise nothing sold, and as good little entrepeneurs that we were, we quickly came up with another idea, lets pack this stuff in our backpacs and go and try to sell it at the store down the road "Not Just Denim". The lovely lady who owned the store, Mrs.Club, was very nice, and really, truly, loved our stuff, but unfortunately they had no room for anymore merchandise. We were devastated...BUT, she made us a deal and let us put our display up in her sidewalk sale during Dickonson Days. We put our stuff on clearance, our parents bought us out, and we never looked back.

20 years later, a couple trips to Australia, a few apartments in the glebe, many glasses of wine, and many....many memories later, here we are, opening Ottawa's Hottest, most amazing, yoga studio.  It took us about 6 months to find the location, deal with landlord after landlord, trying to sell ourselves and convince these people that a  HOT yoga studio is a positive to a 100 year old building, and not going to produce mold, mildue, and that we are perfectly happy with inconvienent bulk heads, electrical issues, and the potential of asbetous.. There it was 279A Richmond Road, I make sure theres a capital on the A, stressing that the "A" is lower level. If I knew then, what I know now about the meaning of an "A" I would have hired a lawyer, and a shrink...

That aside, we signed a deal, well what we thought was one, got the keys, and took possession as of Sept 1st. We gave ourselves 2 whole long months to open, thinking that was plenty of time, grand opening November 1st, nooooo problem. Well, I think we got our building permits by this date. Quickly opening day got moved to dec 1st...which led to Dec 15th, which led to right before Xmas......(AMAZING)..which led to Jan 1st...(EVEN BETTER)...to Jan 15th...to...you get the idea...we still are not sure... I won't go into great detail, but between unreliable contractors, people quitting on christmas day,  and unforseen electrical issues ...If we count our chickens right, and cross all fingers and toes, one day around the 14th of Feb ( i Knew this day would come to some importance) we will open, and we will open goooood...

We have a selection of Ottawa's most sought after and talented teachers, we offer 45+ classes a week, and have a great variety of merchandise. PYO is lucky to offer LuLuLemons "the mat" as our rental mat, and take on bored a few of there well trained staff to help us out in the process. 

Ok, so here we are, a few tears, a couple mental breakdowns, and many bottles of wine later, and we are still alive, and so so so close. The place to me looks fantastic, to you, it will look like a warzone.. Everyday there is something new, everyday we solve a problem, and everyday we find a new problem. But we have made it, we see the light. It is Big, Bright and Bold, and we cannot wait to share it. Stay tuned, and I will keep the update regular. I will blog about deals, schedule, opening day, and grand opening parties. 

If you have gotten this far, and not cringed to much about my writing skills, you win, leave us a comment, and we'll send you a free class...:) 

Namaste, we will see you soon...very soon...