The Salvation Army Pirates

Poor Dusty. My little 5 year old warrior is trapped with pacifist parents. Over the years Dusty has taught me that resistance is useless and that there is no way to stop him from expressing his desire to shoot. Although I have given in to various evil toys like Bionicles and Transformers only because they are not human, I have never mentioned the word Army and there are no little toy soldiers lying about. We do have Pirates that rape and plunder, but they have nice clothes so that makes it O.K. as well. So, the other day Dusty and I went to the Salvation Army to drop off some old toys and Dusty immediately felt connected to the place because of the word Army. He demanded to know exactly what kind of an army they were. I muttered some incomplete, inept answer about it not being a real army, but that they were fighting for good things so they called themselves an army . What my child heard was Blah blah blah...army, blah, blah, blah....fight. Yesterday he was playing with his pirate ship and pirates and I overheard him explaining to his friend that these were the Salvation Army Pirates. Like I said, resistance is useless. I didn't manage to capture a picture of the army, but I did finally get some shots of his dragon costume that I made him for Halloween. So glad to see that it is at least being worn one other time. The house is looking great, but I am waiting for a dramatic change before I post some new photos. I also wanted to post this wonderful photo that a customer sent me of her friend wearing her new Priscilla fascinator at her 40th birthday party. A perfect opportunity to wear a floral tiara.

Happy 100 to me

In January it will be 2 years since I posted my first item on etsy. I never thought it was possible to sell a hat over the internet. Well, today I sold my 100th hat on etsy. I guess I was wrong. At the risk of sounding like a walking advertisement. I LOVE ETSY. It's amazing to me that all these artists from around the world can potentially reach anyone. It's a level playing field where I have sold to people in Romania, Australia, Denmark, Wales, The U.S, and Canada. So, thanks etsy for being an amazing phenomena.

The Outside

The house is coming along great (other than the shock of the price of faucets). Thought you might like to see some photos of the outside. The condition of the paint is a little scary and because we have decided that the inside comes first it might look like this for a while. We have a wonderful double lot which is great because I love gardening. (one more thing to neglect) I'll post more soon.

A Little Fun

With a sick child (who is much better by the way) and after finishing what felt like a gazillion wholesale orders (no complaints here) a girl needs to do something just plain fun. That's what felting is for me. Yesterday I made a new fascinator/cocktail hat. I'm off to post it on etsy. The next one is going to be orange. I can't wait.

Bad Mommy

Yesterday I was called to pick up Dusty early from school. He had told the teacher that he had a headache and he apparently had his head on his desk a lot. With several children in the class out sick his teacher erred on the side of caution. I would have done the same. The only thing is that Dusty often has headaches when he is not in the mood to do something. They disappear when he is reunited with his lego and his T.V. When I got him home he spent the rest of the day jumping on my bolts of fabric and zooming up and down the hall. We played tag outside and he ate voraciously. This morning he announced that he didn't feel well, but would probably feel well when school was over. In the midst of a lecture about faking being sick and me trying to figure out how to get him on the school bus in 10 minutes Dusty threw up all over me. I felt terrible. Last night I had written a letter to his teacher explaining Dusty's great acting skills. After I cleaned us up I told him how I was sorry and I felt so bad. He asked why and I told him because I didn't believe him. That's O.K., Mommy, he said and gave me a hug. Poor little bugger has been throwing up all day. 2 minutes after this photo was taken he was jolted out of his peaceful rest to throw up all over the living room. Well at least he gets to stay home with his lego and T.V.

Down Come the Walls

Tony has been very busy with his sledge hammer.B oy, take down a couple of walls and it makes all the difference in the world. Now we get to look at our beautiful staircase from the living room and the living room just got a whole lot bigger. Don't I look ready to work hard in these photos? I'll be the supervisor. Here are a couple of views out the windows. The back of the house faces the back harbour of Lunenburg which is very pastoral. I had to take this photo from a side angle. Amazingly there are no windows in the back of the house, but this will change soon. The other view is out the window of my future studio. Tony says that's the master bedroom, but he's mistaken.

Before

When we first came to Lunenburg a bit over a year ago we moved to the bottom floor of a house site unseen. Turned out to be the most perfect little neighbourhood. Dusty would sit on the stoop and chat with all the neighbours, greet every passerby and enjoyed the thrill of crossing the street by himself, stopping halfway to look both ways a few more times. The house next door was vacant. The old man who had lived there with his mother had died before we moved to town. That fall, the heirs to the property came to clean out the house and we got a sneak preview. It was filthy, dilapidated, moldy, and smelly. There was no bathtub or shower in the house and had never been one. The house was built in 1890 and it's safe to say it was never painted. We knew this was the house for us. We spent a year trying to talk ourselves out of it, but the darn house refused to leave our thoughts. In August we resolved to try everything in our power to buy the house. For the record, Tony is an amazing carpenter, so we are only mildly insane. I will spare you the gory details of the actual house purchase other than to say that we are eternally grateful to my parents for their help. The whole experience was beyond stressful, but as of one week ago the house has been ours. At the moment it only needs heat, electricity, plumbing, a kitchen, a bathroom and a few walls knocked down, but love is blind. Tony is working there everyday and we hope to be in there early in the new year. I wish I could do before and after pictures, but right now the after pictures are only in our brains. I guess we'll start with before. Some of the walls in the photos are already gone. I'll have some better photos soon, but it's a beginning. Wish us luck. Anna