Canadian Hand - Made Gifts & Souvenirs
From Coast to Coast
Greetings!:

Hello friends & family of Cornerstone! What a great show Mother Nature put on this year! The colours of the leaves were spectacular! Mother nature also co-operated with a somewhat cool but clear Hallowe'en sky so that we could behold the second full moon (aka a blue moon) in the month of October. Then on cue, a brisk wind on November 1st and poof...just like that the leaves have fallen, snow has been falling and temperatures have cooled... alot! But she is giving us one more last hurrah with warmer temperatures (almost spring-like) for this coming weekend. Not going to lie, getting one more weekend at the cottage is a pleasant but welcome surprise.

November is an important time for reflection, and for honouring the bravery our men & women who serve and protect our country. We are reminded daily of how valuable their services are in maintaining the freedoms for which our grandfathers and grandmothers so valiantly fought for. It was a difficult year for the men and women who serve. In addition to the loss of lives fighting, we lost people in two separate aircraft accidents. It perhaps always rings a little closer to home as Kingston is the home of the Royal Military College where young people are preparing for careers in the military. We are forever grateful for all that you do to keep Canada safe. Thank you.

Our featured local artist this month is Cindy Carstesen. Cindy is a Kingston resident and works primarily in watercolours. Her lovely work can be seen on the feature wall for the month of November so we invite you to drop in to see it!

Speaking of featured artists...a few months ago we announced that we "wood be" working with a new wooden board company! Well Muskoka Woodworking have sent their boards and they are gorgeous! We have an excellent selection of serving boards that will make excellent gifts for the coming holiday season!

Cornerstone and 12 other participating retailers hid the "Great Pumpkin" in their shops for customers to find on Saturday October 24th. We had a great turn out with 36 people searching for the pumpkin. A big thank you to everyone who participated. The basket was valued at $500.00. Check below to see who the lucky winner was!

The Kingston DBIA has a couple of new programs added to their "Shop Local" campaign. One is the "Holiday Shopping Passport - Destination Downtown". There are prizes to be had for saavy shoppers. More details below!

Also making a return this year is the Winter Wonderland storefront window competition. This program is back after being on hiatus for a couple of years. I remember as a small child going downtown where I grew up and then later into Toronto, to see the big holiday window displays. It was very exciting and was a kick off to the holiday season. We all know that Covid-19 is going to be changing up the holiday season but it doesn't effect this! Yeahhh!!! Finally something "normal" for everyone to do.... And there is nothing like a friendly competition between all of the downtown shops to get the creative juices flowing!

CFIB, in conjunction with Scotiabank, Mastercard and Ebay have announced a contest that we are participating in where you can vote weekly until November 29, 2020 for your favourite business. Not only do you as a voter have the chance to win some great prizes, the store that wins does too! (Now that's what I call a win - win!) Please take some time out of your busy schedules to vote for us. We are grateful to the support of all of our friends and family of Cornerstone!

Although I know it's a little early (is it really though?) to be starting to talk about holiday shopping, it may be prudent this year to start your shopping early. While we hope that no further restrictions will be required, we are encouraging the "shop early" strategy in case of another lockdown. Always remember that gift cards are available on our on-line store on our website and additional items will be up and offered soon! Shopping early is a better strategy than having to stand in a line-up outside when it's cold! (And the selection is better too as the store is chock-full of good things!)

Speaking of good things... holiday ornaments have been ordered and will soon be winging their way here. Decorate a tree or hang in a window, holiday ornaments from Basic Spirit and Amos Pewter are great gifts and beautiful keepsakes for generations to come! I know my sister started collecting ornaments when she was quite young and then each year bought an ornament for each of her 2 children. When they became adults and moved into their own homes she gave them each a box with all their ornaments to begin their own holiday traditions!

We are continuing with enforcing the mandatory mask /facial covering requests. If you cannot wear either of those items we will accept the wearing of a face shield too. Without any of these, we can offer a "by appointment" shopping experience. We will also ask you to sanitize your hands upon entry. If you are allergic to hand sanitizer then we ask that you bring the kind you are not allergic to with you. We have staffers who have very compromised family members and we need to keep everyone safe. If anyone swears at a staff member that person will be asked to leave the premises immediately. We thank you in advance for your compliance. Only a couple of people have been inappropriate and it's very distressing to everyone when it occurs. Because we have been so diligent in the enforcement of the mandatory government policies at the store we have been awarded by TIAO (The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario), the "Safe Travels Stamp". You know when you see this logo when you are traveling & shopping in Ontario, that we have created an environment that encourages the safety of everyone in the store (including staff) in the protection from Covid-19. We are very proud to have been granted this logo, as Lisa and I worked very hard to put the protocols in place when we were told we could re-open back at the end of May and the staff have been fabulous at encouraging shoppers to co-operate and to let everyone know that there is a path around the store that allows you to see everything and keep physically distanced too!

Please continue to follow us on Instagram, FB & Pinterest to keep up on the latest news from us. Share our newsletters so others can sign up, and share our social media posts too. Hang in there with us and let's be there for each other and most of all, let's BE KIND.

From our heart to yours,
Penny & the staff at Cornerstone




Cornerstone Canadian Art & Craft...
The Great Pumpkin Hunt
The Hunt for The Great Pumpkin was a success again this year! Thanks to all the retailers (see below) and the customers who came out to have some family fun and to see what we all "have in store". It's a great opportunity for people to check out the businesses downtown. We get many people who come in to say that they have never been into the store before! We hope you like what you see here and come back and shop local in downtown Kingston.

  1. Amanda's House of Elegance
  2. Baggot Leather Luggage Plus
  3. Cornerstone Canadian Art & Craft
  4. General Brock's commissary
  5. Happy Thoughts
  6. Kingston Olive Oil Company
  7. Martello Alley
  8. Martell On Brock
  9. Midori Gifts
  10. Runner's Choice
  11. Tara Natural Fine Foods
  12. Verde Alternatives

Congratulations to Ashley, the winner of this year's Great Pumkin Hunt! Thanks again to everyone who participated and looking forward to more downtown hunts in the spring!


Your Mission should you choose to accept the Great Pumpkin Hunt.... Find the Great Pumpkin!
Featured Local Artist - Cindy Carstesen
Cindy's lovely watercolour pieces will be on display on the local featured artist wall here at Cornerstone for the month of November. We invite you to come in and see her beautiful work!
Muskoka Woodworking
Muskoka Woodworking is an Ontario, Canada based woodworking shop. They create and sell premium cutting boards, serving trays, beer caddies, and wooden trays. All of their products are handmade. They are a team of highly skilled woodworkers and their products are sold throughout North America and are gaining recognition now in Europe! We are so pleased to now be carrying their boards at Cornerstone.
Holiday Shopping Passport
Destination Downtown!
Click on the link below for more information!
#Smallbusinesseveryday
 #SmallBusinessEveryDay ‘Big Thank You’ contest! It’s simple: CFIB is inviting Canadian consumers to show their appreciation for local businesses by sending a thank-you note at 
Every week until November 29th, we’ll pick one lucky consumer to win a ‘Big Thank You’ gift basket full of local products from across Canada and $500 to shop local. Plus, their favourite business will win $2500 and a gift basket of their own, thanks to Scotiabank, Mastercard and eBay Canada!
Winter Wonderland
WINDOW WONDERLAND
Holiday Window Decorating Competition

It’s time to put on our festive creativity hats here at Cornerstone and get thinking about how we are going to decorate & WIN (with your help of course), the:

Holiday Decorating Competition!

How it works:

Beginning November 21st, shoppers (friends & family of Cornerstone), will vote for their favourite downtown window display! (Us of course!). We will send a picture of our window to the DBIA and they will post it on their website for online voting (no in-store ballots this year due to COVID-19) 

Voting begins November 21st at 9pm and ends December 11th at 11:59pm. 

The winning business will receive a ¼ page advertisement in The Kingston Whig-Standard (valued at $490) and a pizza party for staff members.

Participating voters will be entered into a draw to win $50 to the winning business!! (Us again!). A panel of judges will be added to online votes to determine the winner. 

Winners will be announced Monday, December 14th. 

We will post the voting link when we receive it on FB, Instagram & Pinterest as well as on our events Calendar on our website.

Sooooo Exciting!!!
Zentangle Classes
Zentangle is a meditative art form that uses a series of repetitive patterns to create unique pieces of art that may be completed within 20 -30 minutes. Zentangle can be taught to children (7 & up), adults and the elderly to help create focus, relaxation and the sheer joy of creating even if you "can't draw!"

I am a certified Zentangle teacher and I will be happy to teach you this art form. While we won't be scheduling classes at the moment, we will most certainly be doing that again in the future!

(BTW... Those coloring books that you see? A lot of those are based on Zentangle! Wouldn't it be great to create your own pages to colour?)

If you want to join our FB group please click the link below. We welcome beginners too!
Every Tuesday is Tangle Tuesday where I post a new tangle I have done or new ideas for tangling. Group members are encouraged to post their tangles too but this is not required. This month we are doing a tangle a day challenge. The list is posted in the group so join up and try it out!!!


We have just started the group so that we can get together. People who like Zentangle here in Kingston please Join, Post & Share. We are posting weekly patterns to try and posting our Tangling results. We are open to ideas and just looking for a fun, relaxing way to hang out and do some Zentangle. It's a great stress reliever for times like this and time passes by quickly! Zentangle can be whimsical too and you can leave it in B&W or get your markers or pencil crayons out and colour it too!
A Moment of Inspiration & Positivity.....
Thankfulness & Gratitude

Everyone has seen their fair share of stress and & anxiety these last 9 months. Things that maybe we would never have given a second thought to are now pushing us to the brink. Little things have begun to feel overwhelming. It's a times like this we need to stop and take stock of all the great things that we actually do have in our lives. I urge everyone to take some time daily in their lives for a few minutes of thankfulness & gratitude. It's ok to just be & breathe and to not beat up on ourselves for not being able "To do it all". We were never meant to.
Holiday Ornaments & Nativity Sets
Every year Amos Pewter introduces an ornament to commemorate the year. This year is "Wild Rose 2020" and we have it in stock! Supplies are limited so if you are a collector of these yearly ornaments it's best to come in soon before they have flown out the door! Additionally, we will soon be receiving our pewter ornaments from Basic Spirit. These ornaments are great for gift giving and some of the ornaments are "gift -giving" in themselves as Basic Spirit either donates some of the proceeds to animal welfare, to the arts ornaments or plants trees for others in the Global ornaments campaign. What an awesome idea! We also carry the ever popular small Nativity sets. The Nativity scene is small enough to fit into a small velveteen pouch that you can carry with you all year round!
On-line shopping & The New Website
Click on the Gift Card to buy!
Calendars Are Here!!!
Want to get a jump on your plans for 2021? We have, hot off the press, the 2021 Cape Dorset Calendars and the First Nations Calendars from CAP for you to plan your life with! Beautiful imagery that you can keep forever while supporting our Indigenous peoples.
Colouring Books
Note Pads
& Planners
The Latest Issue of Grapevine Magazine
We've advertised in Grapevine Magazine for many years now and had copies in the store for people to take home. Covid-19 meant we had to take away the magazine rack and figure out a different way of distributing it. If you want a paper copy we keep it at the cash desk but you can also view the magazine on-line! Just click on the image below and you will be whisked away for a few minutes of enjoyment in the comfort of your own home. The magazine has great coverage of areas close to Kingston and they always include excellent recipes and articles. Enjoy the fall 2020 issue!
A Taste of What's In Store.....
To stay up to date check out our website for more details about Cornerstone Canadian Art & Craft and follow us on FB, Twitter Instagram and Pinterest!

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