Biltmore Hats

Guelph is home to a hat factory called Biltmore Hats. It is one of the oldest quality men’s hat companies in North America and is also a part of hockey lore.

Google the history of the term "hat trick" and you will find that, though the term stems from cricket, it likely made it's way into hockey via an old Guelph hockey team called the Mad Hatters... they were sponsored by Biltmore... Biltmore gave anyone who scored 3 goals in one game a fine new hat!

The term "hat trick", and possibly the hat-give-away-gesture, later made it's way into the NHL via the Maple Leafs... who like to take the credit.

I don't know if this is all true but that's what I've pieced together and the story I tell.

Anyway, I moved from a city that might have invented hockey to a city that might have invented the hat trick. Pretty cool for the hockey-historian in me.

I found a Biltmore hat at a thrift store awhile ago. It's not a cool fedora but it'll do the trick for summer gardening and lazy paddles down the local river.

I hadn't put the hat to use yet because it needed a little fixing-upping. I hadn't gotten to the fixing because I'm lazy. That was until I spotted a local celebrity at the bank a few days ago! I saw the man himself, the sharp-dressed president of Biltmore, right there, exchanging money with the common people! It got me all inspired to bring the hat back to life.

He wasn't wearing the lime coat when I saw him but he was still stunningly well-dressed compared to 90% of the local population. He was wearing a similar hat.

My own hat was a touch too small for my giant head so I had to take out some of the nice inner-lining. Sigh... but at least it fits now! And I added a black ribbon with a jaunty bow because the original had fallen off. (At least I hope it's "jaunty"... that's what I'm going for.)

Here is the end-result (you can click to see it bigger):

In the picture above you can also see a few other recent home-makery efforts I'm proud of:

the vintage, rose-adorned mirror in the hall-way,

one of the dumpster-dived lawn chairs that I made some bird-themed covers for,

and of course, THE hat.

new dot

I finished another dot on the polka-dotted-embroidery-sampler-of-stuff-i-like-project last night. Appropriately, I did this while watching play-off hockey... Flyers won the series, as I wished for.

The Stanley Cup will go to either The Hawks or the Flyers (an original-6 against a 67-expansion team - so both kind of ol'timey... at least there will be no teal sweaters in the mix!) .

I don't care that much about either team but they were both my "favourites" in their respective conferences since my Penguins went out soooo... I'm kind of neutral/happy about either of them winning.

I think the Hawks will take it but I'm leaning towards cheering for Philly just because they picked up their conference trophy and had such a cool come-back against Boston.

I don't really know exactly why I'm so into hockey these days... but here are some of the factors: part boredom/hobby, part Canadiana, part liking to watch men in competition-mode because, frankly, it's hot, part having something to talk about with "everyman", part interest in the psychological phenomena around sport, part liking the outfits, and so on...

This ol'timey player is from an old Starr Skates advertisement.

Late Edit: After mulling it over some more... i decided to go back to my initial pick from when the Penguins got put out. I'm cheering for the Hawks. I'm glad Philly beat Montreal but I just can't cheer for the Guins' cross-state rivals. It would be wrong - even if I do secretly like their outfits better...

making up the days

Tuesday's image: Hare Today...

I've sort of been unofficially trying to make some kind of art everyday but the last few days have been hectic and I was away on the weekend... so here or some images to fill the gap...

Going back in time...

Monday: I got myself a gig being the volunteer 'facilitator" for a weekly life-drawing class (meaning free life-drawing for me!! SCORE!!). It is great to be doing this again after a decade off (since university). I am pretty darn rusty but I liked my last image of the evening and I look forward to getting better. Also, I really enjoyed doing this without feeling any pressure to impress my peers or professors like I always did in school.

Sunday: "Beauty School Closed"

Saturday: Nice signage found in Kitchener, ON

Friday: Did a little gardening. This 2nd-hand pot was begging to be planted with some Sempervivum

thinking about getting one of these...

becoming

home maker

When I'm not doing illustrations, I'm often busy being a "home-maker"... here are a couple recent household projects:

Exhibit 1: Learning embroidery skills

I'm using this old, polka-dotted bed sheet as an "embroidery sampler" - a different technique or thread in every dot. The theme will be "stuff I like". The first dot is chain stitch and celebrates one of my favourite words, "fuck". I've been in a shitty, stressy mood lately so stitching this word was cathartic. When enough dots are finished, I'll sew on a backing and make a little quilt out of it.

Exhibit 2: Clocksmithing

I ripped the cool, flippy-dial innards out of a very old clock-radio whose radio bits didn't work anymore. After re-attaching the wires, the clock still works fine and looks flippin' cool. I put the glass cheese-dome over top to keep the dust off.

moon egg

If you can catch it at a certain angle in a certain light, an egg can look like the moon. (click to enlarge.)

The 100

Today my Grandmother turned 100. She has 101 descendants.

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