As I mentioned in my previous post, Allan and I are heading to the horse races today (down at Hastings Racecourse) with a group of friends. We get all dressed up with big hats and fancy dresses (dress clothes for the men) and even rent box seats!

Allan and I decided to head down to Edie’s Hats on Granville Island after Googling for a hat shop in Vancouver to pick out some hats for the races. Please note that I wasn’t asked to write this blog post and it isn’t sponsored in any way.

It was our first time in the store… and we were blown away. How could so many hats be in one store? So many different kinds.

After trying out dozens of different hats, I finally saw the one I wanted… it was gorgeous. Except, it was $330. Ouch! Too expensive for me. So after talking to one of the salesgirls for a while, she helped me find a similar hat that was plain, and I was thinking that I would just add some of my own touches to it. I asked if they did any custom work on the spot, but Edie (the owner) was in the store and kindly told me that unfortunately because it is such a time-consuming process they are not able to do custom orders in such a short period of time. She then saw the stack of hats in my hand and offered to help me choose.

Let me tell you — Edie Orenstein knows hats. She has been designing haute couture hats for the past 20 years, and gives off the vibe of an incredibly motivated entrepreneur. Definitely an inspiration, as I want to own my own business one day too. Edie helped me pick out a hat, and then said she would help me by showing me where to pin the netting. Before I knew it, her hands were whizzing around my head and she was pinning netting and velvet bows everywhere. The salesgirls were standing around completely shocked… and Edie told me she never does this, but that she was inspired! I felt incredibly fortunate and grateful.

While Edie was designing my hat, she told me all sorts of stories about famous hat designers, and even hat etiquette!  She told me of a famous London hat designer back in the 30s  (unfortunately I can’t remember the name now), who was designing a hat for a London female aristocrat attending a ball. The designer created the hat out of all sorts of materials in about 30 minutes, and then when the aristocrat asked the price, she was sticker shocked. She said, “All that money for 30 minutes of your time and some basic materials?”… the designer said, “Well, you can have the materials for $5, or you can have it like this for $175.” (A lot of money at the time) When the aristocrat realized she would never be able to replicate the intricate pinning and design of the hat, she gladly paid the full amount.

I definitely realize where Edie was going with this story! I felt very lucky to have her help designing my hat. She offered to just do the pinning for a small fee if I was willing to do the sewing myself. I gladly accepted.

Here is Edie with the hat all pinned together. It took about 45 minutes in the store. I loved it! It was exactly what I was hoping for. She made sure to give me some tips on how to eat, kiss, and walk around with netting and a huge hat. So neat!

Allan didn’t walk away empty handed either… he purchased a beautiful Robert Hall genuine fur felt Porkpie hat with feathers…

… as well as a Peter Grimm plaid fedora.

Edie’s Hats is really a fun store to be in. I highly recommend it, whether you are buying a hat for the street or for a special occasion!

I looooved these feathers…

The whole store is a “shabby chic” or ecclectic-lovers dream! Loved the old lamps in there.

When I got home it took me about an hour and a half to sew it all together, but I am really happy with the finished product! I can’t wait to wear it today! Pictures from the horse races will be coming up soon, probably Monday!

Edie has a new project called Qortezan which is her new store in Yaletown. It is for both men and women and the tagline is “Live Royally”. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet… but I would imagine from the pics on their website it must be really cool. Has anyone gone inside this store? If so! Please let me know. I am hoping to visit soon.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last week, Allan and I finished eating the last of our Halibut fillets from last year’s fishing trip in Tofino. It reminded me I hadn’t put up any pictures of our fun fishing trip.

Warning: If you don’t like seeing where your food comes from, then this probably isn’t the most appealing post for you to read.

Last summer, a group of us got together for a fishing charter with Jay’s Clayoquot Ventures in Tofino.

Halibut is one of my all-time favourite foods, and Allan and I eat it just about every time we go camping in Tofino, so it seemed appropriate that we learned how to catch what we eat out there… and have a supply of our own, since Halibut is quite expensive to buy.

I put “fishing” in quotes because it really isn’t fishing when you go with a charter. Our guide was absolutely awesome, but I’ll be honest with you… he did pretty much all the work for us. All we had to do was reel in the fish. So it’s pretty much lazy man’s “fishing”. That being said, it was a super fun day to spend with friends out in the sun and the ocean, and try it out!

Allan’s sister Jessica came out to Tofino with us, all the way from Alberta! I think she had a blast. The boat was really nice, and fast! It still took us about an hour to get out of the marina in Tofino into the deep ocean. It was choppy and there were definitely one or two people feeling quite sick *cough* Allan *cough*.

Our guide was amazing. He would see a rod twitch and then got the rod started so the fish couldn’t get away. Here’s a picture of Trevor reeling in a fish.

A huge Halibut! I think Trev’s was the biggest (and first) catch of the day.

Allan reels one in…

Good catch!

Jess catches some too.

We caught our limit that day! 2 Halibut each for a total of 8 Halibut. Here I am looking very fish-like.

Our guide also cleaned and filleted all the fish in front of us on the dock. We had two whole coolers full of fish. Allan was a happy Birthday boy.

It was definitely a fish feast when we got back to camp that night!

I’d highly recommend it if you love to eat fish and are curious about fishing. Allan and I got our fish vacuum-packed at Trilogy Fish Store in Tofino, and we’ve basically been eating fish for the entire year! Delicious, Pacific Halibut… mmmmm!

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Plans for the weekend:

Time Traveler’s Wife tonight with Amy and Alissa… Golf Saturday morning with Allan, and then off to the Horse Races on Sunday with a big group of people with box seats, and getting ridiculously overdressed for the occasion with big hats and fancy dresses! Woohoo!

What are your plans for the weekend?