back (for a while now) from charm city

i'm a terrible blogger these days.  my only excuse is that it's summer, and that summer is short and i try to spend as much of it as possible away from the computer, and if possible, away from internet access all together.  i think it's a pretty good excuse.

been back from baltimore for a couple of weeks, it was a good trip - my first wholesale show and i learned so so much about that particular world.  and have a bunch of new stores for the hats too.....

baltimore was an interesting city - i joked before i left that all i knew of it was john waters and the wire.  and it turns out that there are definitely parts of the city that actually reflect those two very different realities.  the downtown seems a bit struggling, seems like one of those cities where a lot of people have made a run for the suburbs, and the downtown is left a bit barren and not taken care of.

but the best thing about baltimore was learning why it's called 'charm city'.  and it's because the people are the friendliest, most outgoing of anywhere i've ever been.  we canadians have a reputation of being friendly, but i think what we are is polite, or nice even.  we're actually quite reserved.  the time i spent in france i thought the same thing of the french - everyone is all 'mademoiselle' this and 'je vous en prie' that.  polite to the point of formal even.

but baltimore?  in baltimore they're friendly.  it's different.  i have never had so many strangers speak to me on the street, in a store, in the elevator, everywhere.  everyone is talking to each other all the time.  the amount of times i got called 'hon' in one day?  quite something.  when i returned home i was definitely happy to be back in toronto, but it did make me a little sad to be back on a silent streetcar, everyone staring into their phones, ignoring each other.

a highlight of the trip was a visit to the american vistionary art museum.  an incredible place.  out front you're greeted by trees covered in mirrors

and an entire bus covered in mosaics and flowery creatures like this little bunny:

and all sorts of other weird and wonderful.  can you imagine having this bird's nest balcony for your apartment?:

the exhibit that was on was called "what makes us smile" and it was incredible.  at the risk of exposing my juvenile sense of humour, i'm going to go ahead and admit that my favorite thing there was this:

a bench covered in whoopee cushions!  it was in a room called the 'toot suite', which was, well, a room dedicated to.....fart humour.  which is hilarious.  and the bench was too much - someone would sit on it, it would make it's noise, and you couldn't help but to laugh.  i saw people trying not to laugh.  but they couldn't.  they all eventually broke down.  who can help it? farts are funny.

on that note, i'll leave you with this......