BlueTuque: Creative Minds Don't Think Alike

Last weekend I had the lovely opportunity to attend Purple Workbench's Winter Retreat in Orangeville and it was most definitely a treat. This was Kelly's second time organizing such an event and I've already told her I'll be signing up for more. After a challenging transition back into the workforce I welcomed with open arms the chance to spend a weekend with other creative young women who are also struggling to balance the demands of motherhood, a career, and a burning desire to express the beautiful, artistic, and whimsical ideas dancing in our heads.

I took last Friday off to head up with Kelly and visit various markets to pick up food for the weekend. We started by visiting Reid's Potato Farm which is an adorable little self-serve market with no one in sight. Kelly writes all about it here so I won't go further into describing it.

After two more stops for groceries we headed to the house and it was such a wonderful place to spend a weekend.

Walking down to the Nottawasaga River behind the property

We unpacked the car and then after a few minutes of oohing and ahhing about the house I went almost straight to work planning out an ambitious project that had been near the top of my sewing list for the last six months. It wasn't long before we were joined by the other fabulous women, Meghan and Magda, each with their own boxes and bags of creative tools in tow.

Everyone had something different in mind. Over the course of the weekend Kelly would make a cute stretchy top for herself and a smart tie for her husband; Meghan would carve out a beautiful nature scene and roll out prints for us admirers; Magda would sew a gorgeous baby quilt with a vintage quality to it; and I would design an impressive wool cape (I'll leave the details for my next post). It was refreshing to be surrounded by such creativity, not to mention encouragement and just plain excitement to see each other finish our projects.

Meghan takes out her carving tools

Here I am basting on a collar

The beginnings of Magda's new baby quilt

This paint will come off the glass table easily, right?

And somehow Kelly also managed to find the time to feed us like queens, starting with delicious chicken pot pies for dinner the first night. It was a weekend of excellent food, charming company, joyful creation, and oh yes...(did I forget?)...loud singing to showtunes and finally a celebration of the men's hockey Olympic gold medal victory.

I would have taken more photos of the progress everyone was making but I was too busy enjoying all of it to remember! Here are a few snapshots I did manage to take though.