Brain Flowers and the Fountain of Youths*

The universe smiled once again on St. Lawrence Market the Saturday of this weekend, providing lovely weather and enough foot traffic to not notice this was the first weekend of the Canadian National Exhibition, or the Ex as we call it. This means that summer is winding down, in case the shortening days wasn't clue enough. I remain firmly in denial. Summer is way too short up here to kiss it goodbye before absolutely necessary.

Little kids, like Isabella (with her dad, Adam, above) were playing in the fountain with the dogs, and I wasn't. This is so wrong. I think I need to borrow a child to have an excuse to wade. A jazz duo serenaded a baby. Lots of pretty summer dresses walked by, held up by equally pretty women and girls. I bought some flowers that look like brains because they went with my table.

It was a really good day. Everyone seemed to be in an up mood and sales were going well. More like this, please!

On with the show:
Patrica in one of the two hats she bought.














And in the other one.














Caridad posed for me in this pink slouch cloche she was trying on.









Dog days of summer.















Lovely Mariam models a band that goes smashingly with her dress.













Brain flowers. If anyone would care to elucidate me as to what their proper name is, I will update this post.












Marie was very pleasant company as she chose which poorboy cap to make her own. She decided on this one.




Paula Corbett and one of her amazing puppets. This one is a Scotty dog. She had a Scottish punk puppet in a kilt and green mohawk that found its forever home yesterday. How I shall miss it...







That jazz duo and that baby.








It's high time I showed off Salome's creations again. She is an artist and she creates in many media. For the Market she makes jewelry which she crochets in wire and semi-precious stones and beads, in gorgeous colour combinations. And monsters! Big ones, little ones, and itty-bitty ones. You should buy them. Many do, you know.































Just as I thought I was done for the day, Judy comes along and bought my grandest hat. She's an interior designer. I always get a special thrill when an artist invests in me. Thank you, Judy!

*I couldn't decide which title I liked best for this post, so I used both.

Heather and Fate

Remember Heather, who bought the coral loopy sinamay fascinator last Saturday? Of course you do. She sent me a lovely email and photos yesterday, saying:

"I saw you at the St. Lawrence Market Saturday morning and bought my 'hat' that I wore to a wedding the same day. I had so many compliments and comments on it and it matched/topped off my outfit perfectly. Thanks so much. I love it."

Fate! Don't you think? I do. Thanks, Fate! And big thanks to Heather, whose fabulous feedback made my day!

Clear the Track, Here Comes Shack!*

Eddie Shack came by my table! Okay, not of his own volition, but because I asked him to. Eddie (or Mr. Shack as I humbly addressed him) is a Saturday morning fixture at St. Lawrence Market. He is an alumnus of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, back in the 1960s when they used to win the Stanley Cup with boring regularity. The team won five times between 1960 and 1967, then never since. Good times, good times...

Anyhoo, we see him every week, supporting his favourite vendors and being extremely gracious to everyone.

This Saturday the always sartorially stylin' Mr. S. was wearing this amazing autographed cowboy chapeau, so I asked him if he would drop by my portable hat shop and have his picture taken. So he did! The indispensable Scott was thrilled, because he's a Canadian male and therefore a hockey fan. (Yes, it's almost that much of a given.)

Eddie's hat was covered by autographs of heroes of hockey and other sports, including "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe, and Gordie's wife, Colleen; legendary ex-Leaf Red Kelly; golfer Moe Norman; basketball legend "Dr. J" Julius Erving; extremely cute ex-Blue Jay Kelly Gruber, and oodles more. Really a sports fan's bonanza.

As if that wasn't enough, Eddie pointed out that he was wearing a Stanley Cup ring. I had to snap that, too. Oooh! So big! So blingy!

And you know what else I just found out while Googling Eddie? He started his hockey career playing for the Guelph Biltmores, named after that city's famous hatters! How perfectly perfect is that?

So that was a good start to the day! The winning streak continued with two purchases right off the bat (or hockey stick), which is always so encouraging, and ended with one just as I was packing up. It was a really good day. The weather stayed excellent, no corn smokily roasting nearby (which is why I played hooky last week), the customers kept coming, and the full moon didn't repercuss badly at all! (Yes, yes, Spell Check, I know, I know... )

* Title of a #1 hit pop song by Douglas Rankine with the Secrets.

And on with the show!
The Hat. All sports fans bow down.











The Ring. And a very nice manicure. Man- icure.








Maggie, the first customer of the day. She's taking her new hat to live in Florida where it may get wet. And that's okay.






Heather, hot on Maggie's heels, in her new fascinator. Great colour choice!








Sometimes a girl just needs to try on something like this, as Avital demonstrates.






Jana models a cap that complements her outfit and lovely smile.







Mildred rocks her cute new two-tone poorboy cap.








Cutest dog of the day! And it had some fierce competition of not-fierce pooches, too.

This band on the south side of Front Street enlivened our afternoon with tubacious renditions of pop hits. Sadly, "Clear the Track, Here Comes Shack" was not among them. But "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was.








Salome in a hairband I made just for her. Just because she's always so generous and kind, and an absolute scream.


Cedy, in her new natural linen bucket hat. Her nephew bought it for her as I was packing up. Yay nephew! Yay Cedy!

Mary Anne's Hat

Mary Anne cuts my hair, and she's very good at it. When she asked me to make her a hat for a recent family wedding, I was delighted. Her talent and skill has been making my head look good for some time now, I wanted to return the favour.

She chose an eggplant parasisal straw base which I trimmed in singed iridescent organza -- a hat band and a flower of many individual petals and shades. The centre of the flower was created from a pair of earrings Mary Anne provided. (This was the first time I'd done something like that, and I was happy that it worked.) Natural, shaved coq feathers provided the finishing touch, nicely echoing the iridescence of the organza and the jeweled centre.

I was really happy with the results, and Mary Anne seemed pleased, too. She graciously provided the photo of herself and her partner, Jimmy, on their way to the wedding.

Many thanks to David Dunkley, who kindly helped with the brim. (He'd bribed me to spare him some extra time if he helped me finish this piece, so it was a win-win situation. Yay!)

Absence Alert

Just to let you know I will be (most uncharacteristically) away from my post at St. Lawrence Market this Saturday, August 6. I will be back the following Saturday, though. In the meantime, feel free to email me.

July Bye-Bye

July went out with a bang at the Market. Gorgeous weather and a good day for sales, Caribbean Carnival (the festival formerly known as Caribana) and long weekend notwithstanding. I wasn't at the Market on this weekend last year, so it was interesting to see what it would be like.

It was good! We had some friends drop by our tent to say hi, which is always nice, and there were more vendors than usual, which gave us all new things to look at and covet. Like ballerina bunny toys and big tissue paper pom-poms which were all kinds of jolly. I was tempted to grab a pair and lead everyone in a cheer, until sober second thought kicked in. (I was also sorely tempted to jump in the fountain and cool off with the dogs and little kids, but once again, that pesky maturity interfered.) Graham, above, didn't have any such scruples about modeling one of Elise's new hair toys. Go Graham!

Here is the rest of this week's gallery:

Lindsey and Danica played dress-up in fascinators....









...but Sarah made the Queen of Hearts-ish strawberry fascinator hers!










Alice chose this wide-brimmed silver striped hat with the chain band.








Jean in her new blue patchwork hat.

Royal Souvenirs

A client's son was on Parliament Hill this past Canada Day, when some auspicious newlyweds were passing through. He snapped some fabulous photos of the occasion, and has most graciously allowed me to share them with you.

My millinery heart cockles were right warm that day. Thank you, Your Royal Highness!

Hot Children in the City*

* With apologies to Nick Gilder.

It was hot on Saturday at the Market. Not, mercifully, as hot as the previous two days had been, which was off the charts. We almost broke a record on Thursday. Chez moi we just stayed in with the bedroom air conditioner blasting away, which does help most of the house, and the windows all darkened, trying not to move too much. Eating salads. Drinking lots of water. Watching the lawn shrivel up. Sigh...

But Saturday was not so bad, with the nice lake breeze coming up Market Street. People seemed a bit relieved that the walloping heat had subsided, like Henry and his gang, above. And Sunday's rain was a big help. Monday, as I write this, is just lovely, with much of the humidity gone, at least in my neighbourhood.

I think I talk at least as much about weather on this blog as I do about hats. This is because a) I am Canadian, and that's what we do, if you believe the cliches, and b) I work outside in the summertime. So weather affects me and my vendor neighbours rather a lot.

Consider the poor soap makers. Lovely homemade soap doesn't like too much sun or rain. Neither do art or photographic prints. Etc.

A few visitors on Saturday, but rather quiet all in all.

Here is the gallery:

Dress-up time with Maike.
















Dress-up time with Sophie and Olivia.
Isn't this the cutest picture? Don't the cockles of your heart feel warmer now?









Dress-up time with Twyla.




Christine in her new periwinkle linen chapeau, in front of Salome's beautiful jewelry display. All other customers were feeling too camera shy to be photographed.





Salome in my new gingham equestrian cap with the fetching zipper trim and one of her many fabulous pairs of specs.

It was another gorgeous day at St. Lawrence Market last Saturday. The breeze was very nice for most of our time there, wafting up Market Street from the lake, to cool us in the warm sunshine. It's easy getting up early on such a summer's day.

How we wished we could have our own fountain to slosh through, as the doggies (and the occasional child) do in the one beside our tent.

So many pretty summer dresses going by. My friend Linda and I had to stop someone just to tell her how much we loved her dress. Very Marimekko. Made me feel cool just looking at it.

A good day with visits from friends, and the lovely Joanna Sipos of Belle Boutique jewelry beside us for the day. She's a fabulous artist and a very nice person. If you go to the One of A Kind Shows, be sure to look for her and her amazing belts.

On with the show...
Ellen in her pretty new hair band. It will be worn to a wedding in Colorado Springs soon. I wish I traveled as much as my creations do...








Leslie in her new wide-brimmed green hat, her second Hat by Anne. Merci beaucoup, Leslie!








Lisa and Myles, who approved his mum's choice.








Joanna's turn to strike a pose in "Eliza", and one of her own extraordinary necklaces. Beautiful, no?

Beaver Tales

Last week I misplaced my camera. Not much point in blogging about the Market without any pics to show you, so I didn't. The camera finally turned up, well hidden under a big tube of buckram in my workroom. I guess it really wanted the day off. I can relate. I used whatever excuses I could to get out of math in high school. I never did hide under a roll of buckram, though...

This week the camera graciously agreed to accompany us once more to document our Saturday. It was a lovely, sunny day. The weather was perfect -- breezy, warm and not sticky. Thank you, universe!

St. Lawrence Market often has special events and promotions happening. Some poor person brought her young son down especially because she thought it was Buskerfest weekend. That's not until the end of August. Instead, we had a giant, inflatable beaver promoting Canada's national parks. The beaver, who is unnamed (I checked), has the honour of having appeared at the closing of last year's winter Olympics in Vancouver. His staff were handing out helium balloons, so hopefully the busker-less child was somewhat mollified by one. I know I was. I had a jolly yellow one dressing up a corner of my tent for the day. Salome wanted to know if they were handing out beaver tails, but no. They should rectify this.

A local restaurant was handing out deviled eggs, though, and discount cards. No giant inflatable chickens, though. You really can't have everything.

As usual, people came, played dress-up, and some bought. So on with the show:
This charming young lady from Indiana (whose name I shamefully forgot to ask for) was in town with her family for the Honda Indy, across town. Maybe she was wearing her new black rosette hairband when Dario Franchitti crossed the finish line. And if she sees this and emails me her name, I promise I'll update this post and include it.






Dr. Heather Dawson, MD and southern belle. I believe she blessed my heart. It was very charming. Southern ladies know about hats.



Sally modeling my latest sinamay swirl fascinator, which I dyed coral. Dyeing is easy. Comedy's hard.


This is Georgia, a Cairn terrier. The in-
dispensable Scott and I had one once, and we're suckers for them. Georgia is especially sweet.

(Don't you kind of like this photo, with all its shadows? I do!)



Shivani and Alison. They came by to play with the fascinators, then came back to buy them. Alison chose a different one than the one she is modeling, but Shivani kept this one. And I couldn't be more flattered that they chose to grace their pretty heads with my work. Thank you, ladies!

(BTW, Spell Check hates the word "fascinator". It should really get over this.)


"Eliza" on Salome. Two fair ladies.









"Eliza" and Megan. See above.








This little read-headed girl's (LRG) name also escapes me. This is what happens when you multi-task and don't write things down right away. She had to model all the hats that fit her while posing with carefully chosen fake floral arrangements from my table display. Cute little ham.

(Please email me her name, o mother of LRG, and I will update this post!)


As another Market day draws to its close, two vendor neighbours play dress-up. That would be me on the right. I am wearing one of Salome's latest creations, a necklace of greenery-yallery crystals and stones amidst crocheted wire. Awesome. (Spell Check also hates "amidst", which just goes to show how ridiculous it is.)






Definitely time to call it quits!