random act of kindness

If you live in Toronto and you don’t know about Pimlico Gallery, you’ll be thanking me for the introduction! This colourful little haven on Dupont at Christie was named after famed London design district Pimlico Road. You may be asking: What does a boutique that sells home design accessories have to do with living la vida GF? The answer is serendipity.

Last week I stopped in to buy a birthday gift for a good friend who loves to cook. Pimlico has some really unique pieces for the kitchen, objets that are both beautiful and functional. It’s a fantastic place to buy a special something for a special someone. Like these blown-glass tumblers by Finnish glass artist Mervi Haapakoski that we bought as a wedding gift for our friends last summer.

Add wine or juice and sip pretty out of these rippled hand-blown glasses that come in a rainbow hue of popsicle shades.

Or any of the handmade treasures by Tahir Mahmood, below.

Crush your herbs with Mahmood’s colourful mortar and pestles made from hand-turned Indian rosewood and organic resin. Or just admire these sculptural pieces on your shelf.

Roll out the gluten-free dough with Mahmood’s rolling pins made from Indian rosewood with hand-painted tips. Or take a spin with Mahmood’s playful tops.

The gallery-like space itself is so welcoming: vibrant, colourful and filled with light. And then there’s owner/curator Tanya Velasevic, an interior designer by trade who is incredibly passionate about what she does. She’s also incredibly generous.

Inside her eclectic boutique, Tanya introduces my daughters to Colette, her adorable and child-friendly Portuguese waterdog.

After Tanya helped me find the perfect present for my friend (a citrus-orange hand-blown glass salt cellar with a walnut lid by a company called a+j from Montreal), we got to talking and I told her about the Gluten Free Garage. And then she told me that her husband was recently diagnosed with celiac disease.

Well, that led into a whole discussion about – what else – food, and Tanya raved about the homemade gluten-free bread that she and her husband bake. For her husband, not enjoying fresh bread was the hardest part about being gluten free, and so he worked hard to perfect a gluten-free loaf. Tanya then kindly offered to bake some bread for us and told me to come back on
Monday to pick it up. As I have not even attempted to make my own gluten-free bread, I was not about to turn down this offer.

Fast-forward to the following week…

Who’s excited about their prettily wrapped present?

Fresh home-baked gluten-free bread…priceless!

The sweet smell of the bread as it was warming filled the kitchen. And it tasted DELICIOUS! Here’s a toast to Tanya and her husband for inspiring me to try baking my own bread!