The Year of the Rat

It was refreshing start this January. An open heart and positive thinking. We wanted to revitalize our approach in our atelier and we have done so with a full force creating together some new and wonderful accessories below the head.

Back in December a customer of mine made a request. He wanted to surprise his wife with a gift she so desired. Five years earlier I had created a small shoulder purse sample and eventually gave it to a friend. There was still work for me to do on the design, so onto back burner it went.
Sinter Claus (the Dutch equivalent to our Christmas) is a magical time as my design house began 1991 because of it's tradition of the making of a gift for one person. His wife's desire and the timing, pushed me on to complete the purse design and bring it to life. I named the design "The Zoe" which translates from the Greek to "life" in English.

Continuing the topic of life, the Lunar New Year calender begins tomorrow. William and I took advantage of last week's snow abundance that fell onto our city of Toronto and made this Snow Rat to celebrate the "Year of the Rat". Made in less than 2 hours we dressed our icy friend with a Gwendolyne Hat (The Enoch and The Boucle Scarf). Dashing don't you think? We are fortunate to have two new years to celebrate. One to get us on track, and the second to confirm our new direction. I would conclude that yes, we are definitely enjoying the fruits of our labor and thrilled to see our results.

Happy Homobonus Day!

Yes that says Happy Homobonus Day. I do not belong to any organized religion. In fact I am a strong believer that a person should listen to their inner spirit. It is my guide and it helps me to bring good things into the world.

"Do unto others as you would do unto yourself". I know that I must be accountable for my actions towards others, every day I strive to improve myself in all directions in life. I recognize I can always do more for others and improve myself to be a kinder and more tolerant individual. If we all worked on that, more JOY would be around the world!

Every year my artist friend Anthony gives me a card to celebrate the patron saint of the cloth worker / small business owner. This man was canonized in in 1198, a year following his unexplained death . It was a first in Catholic history; that an ordinary man living a extraordinary life, of goodness and sharing with those around him, was sainted.

He is one of my patron saints. I am a Hat designer / maker, and a small business. You can see my Gwendolyne Hats winter designs and creations of 2006 here

If you are devoted to textile creations best wishes for you on this November 13th lets all say to each other Happy Homobonus day. It will be fun to see the facial looks you get when you greet someone. I also think it is great to celebrate people whenever we can. In this case, learning about a person who lived a little over 800 years ago. A person in his life-time made the world a better place. Today we have new inspirations all around us. We just have to begin one of them ourselves as more just follow. I believe sharing positive energy is like ripples in a pond, they spread out.