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......

west coasting

sorry for the silence over here, but i ended up going on a last minute adventure to bc to celebrate my birthday with my friend cam, who shares the same birthday.  every few years we get together to celebrate the day, last time it was in amsterdam (our birthday also happens to be a dutch national holiday, and huge party there), and this time it was on a boat in hot springs cove.

the innchanter is actually a bed and breakfast on a boat, owned by cam's lovely husband shaun.  it's in clayoquot sound, an incredibly beautiful part of the country and only accessible by boat or float plane.  a short kayak ride from the boat takes you to shore, where you can hike a 2km trail through the rainforest and end up at the hot springs.  natural hot springs.  overlooking the ocean.  beyond incredible.

 























so, um.....we had a nice time.  a really nice time.  this was the sunset on our birthday:

incidentally, if you're looking for a lifestyle change, the innchanter is actually for sale.  you can find out more here.

beautiful montréal

spent the past weekend in montreal with my family, celebrating my dad's 60th birthday.  it's such a great city, and we had such wonderful weather, so we spent most of the time just wandering around, soaking it all in.  montreal has so much great architecture, in a style that is very different from toronto. 

on saturday we rented bikes and rode over to the quays and islands across from the main city port.  it was great to see the habitat 67 buildings up close.

 only in montreal do you find a store, right downtown, only one block from the big chain store shopping street, called simply "luthier".









speaking of chain stores, on a guilty pleasure note, i was pretty excited to see that a kusmi tea boutique just opened in montreal.  this time last year i was living in paris, and became slightly obsessed with kusmi tea, both because it's excellent tea, and also because i adore the tins the tea comes in.  i have quite a stash by now, and i use them to store all my buttons. just one more reason to love montreal.

medina dreaming

so i know i've been quiet about my indigo vat, and that's because i've been having major trouble with it......still haven't been able to get it to a "living", dyeing state.  but i'm working on it.  meanwhile, everywhere i go i see deep blue things that inspire me - and especially colour combinations.  i love the dark blue/light yellow combo here:

this photo is from this home post and i've been kind of obsessed with it as it's the home of an american couple who own a handmade tile company in marrakesh.  my husband grew up in morocco, and last year we went there so that i could meet his extended family.  we took a little trip to marrakesh, as he had never been there either (he's from a city further north). while we were there we couldn't help fantasizing about buying a little place in marrakesh to go to (and bring our friends and family to) in winter.

the tile work in morocco is incredible, and everywhere. when we went to visit his grandma i instantly recognized the walls in her apartment from pictures i had seen of him as a child, since they're covered with beautiful mosaic tile.  


moroccan dreaming.....

earth from above

once i had that pesky first blog post out of the way, it occurred to me that the next most difficult thing to figure out was how to add an image and hyperlinks.  so.....here goes:

i first saw this image when my dear friend else gave me a postcard of it.  she had seen it somewhere and it had made her think of me.  i held onto it, and years later, when i first began dating my husband he saw it on the tackboard in my studio and recognized it right away.

it's an aerial shot of the dyer's district of fez, morocco, where they dye using natural pigments and recipes which have been handed down for generations.  it comes from the 'earth from above' series by yann arthus-bertrand. the caption says that the "colouring is derived from natural pigments: poppy, indigo, saffron, date nuts and antimony, used to obtain red, blue, yellow, beige, and black, respectively."

mohssine recognized the photo because he was born and raised in morocco, in a city not far from fez.  i've only been to morocco once with him, but he still has a lot of family there so we plan to go back often.  i hope on our next trip we're able to go to fez and see this incredible place in person.