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...