J & S Picture Frame Warehouse Saskatoon Celebrates 40 Years in Business!

It’s been 40 long, exciting, and change-filled years since J&S opened their doors in 1978. For four decades, J&S Picture Frame Warehouse has been offering premium picture framing services to the people of Saskatoon out of their Jessop Avenue Store, in the Sutherland neighbourhood. As part of celebrating this extraordinary milestone, we decided to sit down with the current Owner and Operator of J&S , Sherry Morris and learn more about her story.

There and Back Again

Sherry was born and raised in the Yorkton, SK area. She is the daughter of a farmer and rancher, and one of six siblings. Growing up, Sherry was always into art, and when an opportunity to apprentice with a picture framer in Toronto presented itself, she jumped at it. Sherry apprenticed under a man named Tino Tamburi – a Turkish-Italian immigrant who owned 8 stores in Toronto. Under Tino’s instruction, Sherry learned the art of selecting, preparing, and assembling materials into beautiful, high-quality frames.

Sherry ended up liking the profession. She brought her skills back home and started J&S Picture framing with her Husband Jack, and her brother Sam. While the “J&S” initialism referred to the owner’s names, in the early days they affectionately ascribed the meaning “Juggle & Struggle” to their business name. Despite the early challenges, the team persevered and established themselves as a trusted business.

When sitting down with Sherry she described herself as a “big-big family person”. You get a sense of the aptness of this description the moment you walk into the shop. The warm and welcoming staff combined with the beautifully framed local artwork makes it a very pleasant place to walk through and enjoy. Among the local artwork are pictures of Sherry on her various adventures through the world – Kenya, Egypt, China – and a healthy share of space devoted to pictures of Kane, Sherry’s beloved pooch. For good measure, the artwork of the extremely talented J&S staff members hangs among the other displays. This scene reflects-back perfectly on the kind of shop J&S is – a local business that treats their talented staff like family and strives to make everyone who walks in the door feel like part of that same family.

Check out this slideshow walking us through the 40 years of J&S history!

Congrats on 40 Years of Great Service – Here’s To Many More!

On behalf of the entire Trusted Saskatoon Community, we want to say an enormous CONGRATULATIONS on 40 years in business - what an accomplishment! We’re proud to promote you as Trusted Saskatoon Picture Framing Experts, and thank you for being an amazing Trusted Saskatoon Partner since the very beginning!

Trusted Saskatoon owner and founder Sara Wheelwright recently accepted a fitness challenge from the excellent team at Trusted Saskatoon gym Fitness Focus. Over the next few months, you can follow along on her fitness journey as she blogs and video journals her motivations, successes, failures, frustration and her pain as she struggles to get fit and fabulous in her forties!

Sara's Fitness Focus Motivations.

The first warm day of Spring in Saskatoon brings out hordes of people. They swarm the sidewalks, parks and river trails on bikes, roller blades, or just on foot. It is the Saskatoon way of saying good riddance to a long cold winter. We all celebrate the arrival of warm weather and look forward to a glorious Saskatchewan summer of decks, lakes, fireside sing songs and other outside activities. We live in a weird place, this April I saw people sunbathing on the downtown beaches as chunks of ice floated by on the Saskatchewan River. When the warm weather arrives, Saskachewanians dust off Summer wardrobe and pack away our big bulky coats and winter boots. In fact, we try to completely forget that Winter and the minus 40's are inevitably coming back again in 7 months or so. The shorts, summer dresses and bikinis are pulled out, and the weight we put on over winter starts dropping off as we move around more. Although for me, I've been gradually losing Summer clothing options, the stuff I have that I like got tighter each year and then most just didn't fit, so for the last two years or so I have been resigned to buying larger roomier items that feel comfortable in public.

I was always pretty trim, and before I started Trusted in 2011 I was at the gym three times a week and felt great( the pic below is - just over seven years ago... I had abs!). If I put on 5lb or so on in the Winter, I lost it pretty quickly, and I was never concerned about my weight or my health. So what changed??

In April 2011 I left my fulltime job and took the risk of following my dream to start Trustedsaskatoon.com. Not long after this, I cancelled my gym membership.

I did this for two reasons:

1. To save money. My income was much lower as a new business owner, my life savings and every spare $ went back into the company.

2. I couldn't justify the time. As a single Mom with three young children and new business to grow I felt I had to put 100% focus on those 2 areas- so my needs came last.

Now I realize that was a huge mistake. My sedentary entrepreneurial lifestyle combined with getting older ( I turned 40 in 2014) and my love of wine and good food has caught up with me. I have put on 30lb, have aches I never had, sleep is more fitful, and my ability to handle stress has most definitely been affected. In 2015 I had an attack of shingles, and it has happened a few times since (that's a huge indicator that my body's immune system is weak). On top of that, I feel I have aged in the last six months, and this is not what I want for myself or my future, so I have decided to take on the challenge and make the change.

There is nothing more motivational than making a goal public, it doesn't get more accountable than that! The team at Fitness Focus had brought up the idea of a fitness journal blog last year, I wasn't ready then, but I am now.

I met with the fantastic Denise Kominetsky from Team Warwyk- who are the personal trainers based out of Fitness Focus, she asked me to fill out a questionnaire and send pictures, and today ( May 6th, 2018 ) I had my first personal training session. I know this is NOT going to be easy, so we have several goals for the next 12 months. I am going on vacation to the UK to visit family at the end of July, so my first goal is to fit in the clothes I want to take with me!

Check out my first video below and follow my journey as I pursue a new lifestyle of health and fitness. Thanks must go to Fitness Focus and their dedicated team of personal trainers!