Marblehead

Last Tuesday we arrived home from a one week trip to Marblehead, MA, where we visited friends and family. I adore Nova Scotia and I wouldn't live anywhere else, but, man, you can't there from here. Unless money is no object and you can just hop on a plane, there is really no easy way to get anywhere. We divided our trip by stopping in Winterport, Maine (near Bangor), where Tony's sister lives. That takes about 10 hours and then the next day we drove 5 hours to Marblehead. Our brother in law, Chuck, is an amazing motorcycle and antique car restoration mechanic. Really, it doesn't get better than that in the uncle department. Dusty was pretty impressed by the shop, CYCLES IMMORTAL, which is right next to the house. After pretending to zoom down the road on the BMW for a while, Chuck took us for a real ride in the side car of his motorcycle. I really want one of these. The next morning we stopped at Dysart's truck stop which is an institution. If you are in the Bangor area, you've got to check this out. The food is great, you get served a thermos of coffee and there are truck bodies coming through the walls. Dusty did check out the other side to look for the rest of the truck. In Marblehead we endured 4 days of rain, which was the end to a record rainfall in the month of June. Then on the weekend the sun came out and everything got happy again. I sold hats at the Marblehead farmer's market which is another great institution. I'm proud to say that I was one of the pioneer crafts people when they first began the market several years ago. I also sold hats at Bus Stop , one of my favourite stores, owned by my friend Kathy. If you live anywhere near Marblehead this is the place to find my hats. . The two little girls, donning my fascinators are Maya and Autumn. They each belong to a different friend. They had a great time dressing the mannequins and helping to sell hats. We headed for home on Monday where we got stuck on the highway for a couple of hours because of an overturned oil tanker. The only word for this is nightmare. The next morning we headed accross the border into St. Steven's New Brunswick. There is the coolest playground there. In typical canadian consevationist style, they have a fountain that can be turned on by pressing a button. Then we headed for St. John's New Brunswick and hopped on the ferry to Digby. The ride accross the Bay of Fundy is beautiful. I really reccommend it. There are many different kinds of whale species that live in the bay and some people get lucky and spot them on the crossing. It doesn't save on travel time, but it does save on driving time. If getting back to work was not an issue I would spend the night in Annapolis Royal. It's a beautiful little town that I will go back to when I'm not feeling so fried. From there it's a little under 3 hours to home. HOME, HOME, HOME!!!! So great to be home.

My Next Hat

Last Friday Dusty had his first class field trip. I took the day off of hatting and went for the ride. We went to the farm of Dusty's best friend, Beaux. Well, really it's his mom Faye that does all the work. The farm is called Silver Lane Farm . Faye, pretty much single handedly, raises heritage birds. She also has a five year old human, a baby human, a few pigs, sheep and goats. When we arrived we were greeted by Wyatt the Turkey. Although he did his best to impress us by circling us, spreading and rattling his feathers at us and displaying that oddness hanging from his beak and neck (which apparently drives the lady turkeys wild) I remained most unimpressed. The only thought that kept circulating in my head was, nice hat. Wyatt's life will be spared for some time because, lucky guy, he has been designated as The Breeder. But, Faye has promised me that when his time comes to be Thanksgiving dinner I will get some of his spectacular feathers. Wyatt was quite the host always managing to be extremely present at all the fun activities that Faye organized. The egg races were quite a hit. Dusty is third from the left in the line up. Note the hand on the egg. Such a cheater. Don't know where he gets it from. Must be from Tony's side. We also got to pet a one week old goat. So adorable. It was really a fun day.

By Myself In the Big City

Last Friday marked a momentous occasion in my life. For the first time in five years I spent a weekend alone without husband or child. I LOVED IT!!! I adore my child, he is my sun and moon, but I had three precious mornings where I was not woken by way of being pounced on. I went to Toronto for a family function, which was lovely. On Saturday afternoon I met my friend, Andrea who did all the graphic design on my web site and all those great logos. She treated me to a pedicure. I had never had one before and I have to admit I didn't really understand what the big deal was until I actually sat down in one of those incredible automatic massage chairs and gave myself over to the joy of being pampered. Andrea describes it as pressing your reset button. I'm so hooked. I wonder if there's any place in Lunenburg that does pedicures. (I need the massage chair or it won't work) I popped into one of my favourite stores of all times. Lilliput. This is one of the most beautiful hat stores I've ever seen. Karyn Gingras is the milliner/mastermind behind this unbelievable establishment. It is mostly all of Karyn's work, but she does carry a few other designers. My hats are available there in the fall and winter. Lilliput is located on College st. at Bathurst. If you are in the neighbourhood be sure to pop in. It's so worth it. My homecoming was great. Tony came to get me at the airport in Halifax and then we went to pick up Dusty from school. My little Taurus came charging at me and smothered me with hugs and kisses and then ofcourse all the other four and five year olds in his class followed suit. For the rest of the day he told me how he just loved me too much, and today is the day you came home, Mommy! It's really not so bad.

Dusty and the Sheep

We went to Ross Farm a couple of weekends ago. This is a little clip of Dusty sharing (sort of) with the sheep. He clearly had his own sense of justice, with babies given priority.

A Tourist Town

Boy, Lunenburg is like a whole new town come May. Suddenly the streets are filled with tourists from all over. I love it. In the winter there is a really great small community centred around the daily trip to pick up the mail from the post office and then WHAM! Suddenly, it's a bustling little hub. All the shops that closed for the winter are now open as are the restaurants. Today the tall ship, The Picton Castle arrived in the harbour. It was quite the event. There are several ships that call Lunenburg home. The Picton has been gone for one year, touring the Atlantic ocean with stops in the Netherlands and in Africa. With all this festivity around us we find ourselves making too frequent trips to our local ice cream shop. We bumped into our little buddy Ethan there. He was being transported on the back of his Dad's bike carrying some very important goods. Ethan is one of my favourite Lunenburg babies. He speaks in the most passionate grunts accented with points of his index finger. With the warm weather we have been having and all these festivities I have been a little challenged to do any work. I did get a new hat designed, though. This was a request for a fun pretty turban that came from The Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. My initial reaction was, "Not a Turban." But then I decided to take it on as a challenge. Turbans have always made me thing of Carol Burnett doing her Nora Desmond, Nora Desmond act, which was actually very forming to my personality, but this is not the way I would want a woman to look who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment. So, I think I met the challenge and came up with a turban that is fun, whimsical and flattering. There are so many ways to wear this hat. And her name of course is Matta Hari.

Life Outside Lunenburg

On Tuesday we returned from a week long trip to visit family and friends. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia is an amazing place to live, but getting anywhere from here is ridiculous. We are sort of at the end of the earth. We started our trip with a 10 hour drive to spend a couple of nights with Tony's sister, Amy, near Bangor, Maine. I swore I would never stoop so low as to let my child watch T.V. in the car, but if nothing else parenting teaches you humility and I have come to eat those words along with many others. For Dusty it was a DVD extravaganza and there is nothing better to that boy than having Mom and Dad buckled up in the front seat, unlimited T.V. and plenty of snacks. We basically did not hear a word from the child. From Maine we headed across to Vermont by way of the white mountains in New Hampshire. This is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever done in my life. Our mission in Vermont was to visit my ex-husband, his saintly wife and their 3 month old baby girl. I see the question marks in the air, but for those that don't know me well, I have the unique situation of being very close with my ex-husband. Karine, his wife is the best there is and I just needed to see the little mini Evzen. Yes, Tony is a saint as well, but he has said many times over that I am too high maintenance for just one husband. So, baby
Emma- Rose a.k.a Evzina is beautiful and the 2000 miles of driving was worth it just to get to walk around with her in the baby bjorn. We took a trip to a great little town next to Burlington. I think it was Richmond, but I'm not sure. We hung out for a few hours at a beautiful spot by the river. Dusty was in his glory (as you can see in the photo) He immediately stipped down and got into the water. The temperature was appropriate for polar bears, but my child likes to take cold baths, so it was just right for him. Karine fell asleep with her face in the stroller and I so remembered that feeling of complete and utter exhaustion. I did get to go into this wonderful gallery in Burlington called Pine Street Art Works . That's where we took the photo of Dusty in the little car. The owner, Liza, was wonderfully patient and talented and I think she will be carrying some of my hats in the fall. We also had a great visit with my friend Ursina and her family who came to meet us there from Massachussetts. From Vermont we headed to Montreal for about 24 hours to see my aunt, eat bagels and get a small glimpse of culture. That part of the trip was definitely too short, but it's hard to do it all. While I was gone I got an etsy order from Romania. Pretty wild. Each flower on these little fascinators is made from a vintage, one of a kind handkerchief. This is the little beauty that is headed across the sea. Our drive home was nothing short of arduous. It took us two days and the DVD player broke down from over use. We got feel what it's really like to be in a car with a 5 year old for 2 days. We made it, though. It's a great feeling when you get home and it really feels like home.

A Breath

Ahhhh.. Just finished my winter samples and shipped them off to my sales rep, Doreen. (Hi Doreen) I know this sense of completion is always fleeting, but I am going to enjoy it for atleast a few hours. Life has been a real whirl wind. Dusty and I went to Toronto for a couple of days to visit my family. We had a great visit. I am posting some photos of our trip to the R.O.M with my Dad, where Dusty successfully got to see a Mummy, his latest obsession since discovering Scooby Doo. We also went to Trinity Park with my friend Andrea which is so fun for us because a city playground seems so exotic , with kids everywhere. The flight over was one of the highlights of the trip because Dusty was just thrilled at everything from The Luggage on the conveyor belt to the taxi ride to my parents. He asked the taxi driver, "Excuse me, Sir, do you have any tunnels in this town?" It really is fun to see things through the eyes of a child. Last week was Dusty's 5th Birthday. His birthday was on the 22nd, which I celebrated by putting work on hold and spending the morning making Penguin cupcakes for his class. I got this idea from my friend Ursina. You ice the cupcakes with white frosting, cut up some chocolate cookies for the head and wings, use apricots for the beak and feet and M&M's for the eyes. It was a lot more work than I guessed, but worth it to see a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds waddling around because they had just eaten penguins. Then last Saturday came the mega birthday party which I had not meant to be mega, but somehow turned out that way. It was a lot of fun, though, with plenty of sugar for the kids and alcohol for the parents. I'm so glad it's over. So, now I am going to clean my disgrace of a studio, finish a couple of orders and try to do nothing for a few days before getting back into the race. I'm posting a photo of the view from our house. Yes that is the Atlantic ocean you see in the distance. And not that anyone wants to think of next winter, but here's a little sneak preview of one of my new creations, Esther. She is named after Esther Williams the synchronized swimmer. Originally the hat was meant to be a fleece spin on an old fashioned bathing cap, but it was too funny to put out into the world in any way, but an April fool's joke. It evolved into a much more wearable hat. Until Next Time... Happy Hatting!