Talk about a delicious day! Yum... (devilish grin)
My dear friend Katrina is apprenticing at a leather shop called Rad Juli. Isn't that just awesome? I think so. What a cool thing to be doing... learning a traditional craft and working with natural materials. That's just fantastic.
You can check out the leather shop owners` store here: http://www.radjuli.com/ - and if you happen to actually BE in Victoria, then go down and see her and it for yourself. Juli makes beautiful things.
My bucket of fresh, homemade ice cream, courtesy of Katy.
Apparently, she is on strict orders from my family to try to fatten me up.
Thanks a lot guys!
We started the day by going to the weekend market at Moss Park. Katrina got us some tantilizingly good homemade ice cream. She got cilantro and ginger which tasted a bit like fuit loops, I did the traditional thing and got chocolate peanut butter. Holy cow it was tasty! And coming from someone who does not normally like ice cream says a lot. Though I must say, I did not realize it would be so large a container... thus, I "had" to sacrifice myself and eat it all since there was no fridge at the leather shop. I know... poor me hey?
We also got freshly harvested rhubarb from the market to make into compot later this week.
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, people were happy to be outside enjoying the gorgeous spring weather, I was spending the day with my amazing friend, and the smell of leather was in the air... yeah... life just couldn't get any better.
Katrina hard at work measuring, cutting, measuring some more and punching holes.
Katrina got some gorgeous natural hide and showed me how to make a leather bag out of it at the shop. For someone who is a beginner, she is incredibly talented and explains the process well. As you can see from the photos, Katy is a natural. It was so nice of her to give me the opportunity to check out the process of working with leather.
Ok.... so I have to tell you... walking in to the shop.... I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. Oh... my....gawd..... it smelled DIVINE. I absolutely LOVE the smell of good quality natural leather. It instantly takes me to my "happy place." Yup, leather and vanilla... my two most favourite scents in the world. (My second favourite scents being freshly baked bread in the morning, Christmas trees, gasoline and "clean." [As in freshly laundered clothes or freshly stepping out of the shower "clean."]) Allow me to reiterate; oh... my... gawd.... the smell of leather was THAT good.
It required quite a bit of restraint on my part to not start chewing on something... anything.... in the leather shop. I could not, however, keep myself from smelling something every few minutes. Ha ha.
The amazing finished product.
I think this is just fantastic for a first ever bag.
Katy you are a natural!
I think this is just fantastic for a first ever bag.
Katy you are a natural!
I had the absolutely best day with Katrina. She really knows how to bring out the best in people. Thank you Katy for a delightful, nourishing and happy day, and for the absolutely STUNNING leather bag!
That's right people... this was her FIRST ever bag and she made it for me with love. I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
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