Friday 20 July 2012

Allons, Enfants

Bastille Day came and went at St. Lawrence Market last Saturday without incident.  No storming by people or weather, no Madame Defarge sock monkeys knitting beside little guillotines, no Marseillaise being sung... except by me.  I always sing it to myself on July 14.  The first verse only.  It's all I know.  It's very bloodthirsty.  And I'm really not, being a vegetarian.

We did have a visiting piano for a brief time, one of the forty-one painted by various artists as part of the "Play Me, I'm Yours" project to promote the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.  It was right beside the fountain.  It was blue.  It had writing.  I was too busy to go and get a close look, and missed my photo op.  They are supposed to be open and playable, but the indispensable Scott tells me ours wasn't.  How frustrating.  Next time I looked, it was gone.  I hope it comes back, in a more welcoming mood.

What else....

Slogans.  On T-shirts mostly.  For some reason I registered them quite often.  Some examples:

"I don't think much, therefore I can't be much."  Awwww....
"I invalidate warranties."  Um, what?
"I'm here for the opening bands."  Yay!
"I'm paid to look this good."  On a little kid.

Now back to our regular scheduled program.
My first visitor of the day, looking like he's climbing out of my bag.

The wonderful Linda Chamberlain in her latest investment, a pink button fascinator.  Apparently the sculpted parasisal one she bought went over a treat at a fundraising event .  Yay!  I love that kind of feedback!
Darwin, a very sweet Rottweiler.  He enjoys long walks on the beach.  As do I.  No wonder we got along.
Sonia.  I am unfamiliar with her likes and dislikes, but I liked her just fine anyway.
Azi modeling my vintage-y taupe straw.  What a pretty couple they make.
This kid is a good guitar player.  He regaled us with selections from the Jimi Hendrix song book.
Dogs and kids.  Gotta love 'em.
Margaret, a customer from last year, back again for a new hat.  She glows in it!
How I love a big, shaggy sheepdog with a goofy sheepdog smile.
A tiny dog and Salome's disembodied hand.

And, finally, Carrie.  She knew me as an assistant to another milliner and very kindly looked me up at the Market, wanting to see my own creations.  She did me the compliment of investing in this sinamay creased beret in the ever-so-popular shade I call Fred (because it's fuchsia and red).  Thank you very much, Carrie!   














Friday 13 July 2012

Crafters 1, Rain 0

We faced down the rain on Saturday and won.

It was raining when we were packing to leave for St. Lawrence Market.  "What should we do?" I asked the indispensable Scott.  "We go!"  he declared, and so we did.  And he was quite right;  the rain had no commitment whatsoever.  It sprinkled listlessly and was on its way before we had finished setting up.  Rain these days, no work ethic at all, I'm telling you...

No far-flung family members showed up unexpectedly this week.  Ours were taking in the Molson Honda Indy at the Exhibition grounds, or trying to.  The event calls for road closures in the west end that we like to blame for low Market foot traffic.  But it really was not very busy on Saturday.  Even some of the farmers in the farmers' market left early.

Herewith the weekly show:

Here is Jessica, in her new raffia braid circle band that's going to live in Hawaii.  My products live much more interesting lives than I do.

Lulu!  She's so small that Salome called her a chiweewee.

Lulu and her peeps.

Aren't these awesome?  Bubbles and ducky and kewpie doll.

I'd never seen a baby hod before.

Roberto's cool new sign, almost as cool as his photography.

Another Saturday, another pair of wet kids.
Sarah in the new braided raffia band that looks so great with her colouring.

 More art.












An intrepid one-legged pigeon we loved.

And, finally, Salome with Henry, a cockapoo pup of great charm.  Henry, if you're reading this, don't be a stranger!

Monday 2 July 2012

Brothers and Others

June ended in a sweat at the Market.  It was a hot one on Saturday.  In the morning there was a nice breeze, but it died down just when the sun was at its brightest angle over our tent.  Thankfully it wasn't humid.

It was pretty quiet for the long weekend.  For one thing, Salome wasn't there.  She's kind of a party unto herself, and her absence always makes for a more somber day.  What crowds there were died down as the heat rose.  I can't blame them.  Every time I ventured into the coolness of the farmers' market, usually to refill my water bottle, it was an increasing challenge to emerge again.  How I wished I was small or canine and therefore eligible for fountain-frolicking.  (Regular readers may detect a theme here.)

A few nice people came by, though, and some very nice things happened.  The biggest surprise was the unannounced visit by Scott's brother Chris and Chris's wife, Wendy.  It made quite an impact because they live in California, and hadn't let anyone know they were coming.  They just strolled up and there they were.  What a hoot!  Too bad Scott had left for his midday retreat.  But I had the fun of showing them my table and giving them advice on what to check out while they were at the Market.  Of course, we'll have a proper visit with them over Indian food sometime this week.  (Did you know Indian food is very hard to come by in San Clemente?  Well, now you do.)

Mary (she of the coral trilby a couple of weeks back) walked by in her hat, walking her cute dog, Marlowe.  Soon afterwards, her sister came to choose one of my hats.  I'm making one for her.  So that's the second person close to Mary who had to have a Hat by Anne!  Yay, Mary!  Yay, Susan and Sina!  Referrals are so wonderfully flattering and make me feel very blessed.

Another lovely moment came when Suzanne, a makeup artist, came by to tell me a client for whom she had bought one of my embellished hair bands just loved it.  Music to my ears!  So thoughtful of Suzanne to take the time to do that.

So on with this week's show:

Donna, first customer of the day, rocking her new trilby.  I call it "Frank Sinatra Visits Sesame Street."  Cool, but playful.  And quite a mouthful.
Chris and Wendy!  If you squinch your eyes very tightly, you might just make out me taking the photo, reflected in Chris's glasses.  Or you could just take my word for it.  Your eyes will thank you.
Sam in her new organza bow band.  A good thing to have to keep the hair out of one's eyes on a hot day.
Brave, hot, woolly, pretend soldiers.  These people are stoicism itself, I'm telling you.  And so gracious.
Aunt Lizzie's little orange and pink sock monkey felt an affinity to this cap, for some reason, so he hung with us for a while.
The lovely and talented Maria, who makes beautiful silver jewelry and her own enamel, flattered me by choosing this raffia disc band.  Her market cart is beside Salome to the west.  I'm beside Salome on the east.  Got that?  There may be a quiz later.
 The daily dog is a double dose of Westie, for which I am a complete sucker.  This terrible twosome gave what for to any other dog with the temerity to frolic in the fountain.  Maybe because they weren't allowed to, themselves.  I love a bad boy, if mostly canine.
Living on the edge.