Kendall Valerio says that when she and her husband Steve visited Maxville after receiving a listing for a property for sale, they knew almost immediately that this was where they would start their first gift shop. The shop, Sadie and June, is now open for business and is filled with things that Kendall says fill her with joy. Tinkess Photo

MAXVILLE – You never know where you’re going to find a special little shop, a place a little bit off the beaten track that offers something you won’t find anywhere else, no matter how long or how hard you look.

Sadie and June is a new business located at 9 Main St. in downtown Maxville. For reference, it is almost directly across the street from the bakery. Kendall Valerio and her husband Steve are the business owners. They originally started their business in Ottawa in 2015.

“I made my husband a gift by embroidering through maps,” said Valerio. So, it was called the hand embroidered heart map. We take vintage map prints, and we hand stitch through them for wherever someone loves. My husband and I both do all the embroidery.

“About a few years ago, we decided we wanted to open a gift shop. We were looking for a building that we could buy, that we could live upstairs and have a gift shop downstairs. We were sent the listing for this building and fell absolutely in love with it.”

Kendall and Steve had never been to Maxville before, so they came out for a visit, and knew immediately that this was where they wanted to open their first gift shop.

“We just opened a few weeks ago,” adds Kendall. It’s filled with stuff that we’ve made and designed, but also from other local makers in Canada.  And then also the kind of things that just fill me with joy.”

As is often the case, it took a while for the dream to come to fruition. It took about three years to find a building that had what they were looking for.  “We got so lucky when we saw this place, and it still has the 1921 character in this room (the shop) and the price was good as well,” said Kendall. “We were ready to move to a small town anyway. And we just got lucky that this building happened to be in Maxville, because it’s a really, cute town, and we really leaned into the Scottish heritage with our gift shop too. We designed T shirts that represent the (Highland) games and the town, and we have a lot of tartan products and vintage tartan products as well.”

Maps are what sparked the idea for the shop, and it continues to be a large part of what Sadie and June do. “We’re a little map obsessed,” said Kendall. We have about 1,200 places from all over the world to pick from for your map. That’s how I learned all my Canadian geography”

So here is the big question: if the owners are Kendall and Steve, where do the names Sadie and June fit in? “It’s a really good question,” said Kendall. “Sadie and June are pets. Sadie was Steve’s family dog, and the sweetest golden retriever, poodle mix, in the world. More retriever, though. And June is our cat, and she lives upstairs.  She’s from New Jersey, like me. When I started the business, I just wanted to name it after something that we both loved so much. And now we have a little dog bowl outside honoring Sadie. It was one of her bowls with her name written on it.

To learn more about Sadie and June, you can visit their website (sadieandjune.ca), by email at hello@sadieandjune.ca, or by phone at 613-600-4777. They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

 

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