Creative surrounding

When you are use to a way of life, you figure that everyone has the same experiences... right? Like if you always pick apples in the fall... and then you meet someone from another location who is experiencing the Valley for the first time, you are amazed that they didn't spend their fall picking apples or buying tomatoes, potatoes or pumpkins on the side of the road... you know, like we do here.

Well, something I realized over the past year, is that I am surrounded by creative people... in my family, and my friends. Absolutely everyone I know is a knitter, a sewer, a painter.... my mom was the queen of "crafts" that my kids will always remember her by. Before my mom got into "quirky" crafts, she was an amazing sewer, an amazing crocheter, making beautiful lace doilies. She dabbled in painting, and she just started to do tatting before she her life came to a quick end from cancer, more than 16 years ago. My sister and I follow in her foot steps, trying many different craft experiences before settling on things we enjoy. My mother in law, two sister in laws.... they are a collection of knitters, painters, sewers, rug hookers.... my daughters are amazing knitters and both sew. Sean's family all make livings as artisans of their creative abilities.. in pottery, glass and silver. My friends all sew, paint, draw....

The second thing I realized is that this way of life is not as common as one would imagine. Recent experiences made me realize that although I may be surrounded by creative family and friends who think nothing of "making" something... there are large scores of people out there who don't feel they can "craft" and this therefore breeds whole families of people who don't sew, knit, paint, draw, scrapbook, or hook rugs.

I am so lucky to have been raised with the attitude that the sky is the limit as far as what you can do and make...

My mother in law, Joan, loves to sew and she has a particular love for fleece. She sews all the time. All her granddaughters have grown up now, and she has no one to sew for. If Joan had 25 granddaughters, she still wouldn't have enough people to sew for. Therefore, she makes little jacket, hat & mitt sets for fun and tries to sell them. I have sold a good number in my day, but I am done with that. Last weekend, Michelle and I labeled and boxed about 25 sets of kids jackets, hats, mitts, scarves and pants... with labels and prices and we took the m to a new consignment job for artisans. Its called Beautiful Creations, located in New Minas. They contacted my MIL last July to say they were opening a store and would love to have her sewing.

When Michelle and I brought all her sewing to the store, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of crafts. There was stain glass, quilts, wood carvings, beautiful handmade jewelry, hand made cards, trinket boxes, knitting, rug hooking and paintings. The owners are very enthusiastic about their store and she talked about all her plans to market Nova Scotia handwork in other parts of the country. Its all very exciting and I hope that the store sees lots of visitors and I hope that Joans' crafts do well. She so needs an avenue to market her talent.
I didn't think to take pictures of Joan's little jacket sets, nor did I feel I could take pictures of the great wares inside the store. Please drop by and have a look.. there are at least 4 things I am going back to buy!!!