The O’Leary Collection

Introducing our next colour combination for fall 2017.  This one inspired by Maggie here at glamjulz.

Take it away Maggie, you will love her story . . .

My mom was born and raised on the western part of the Prince Edward Island, the second youngest of six siblings. Every few years we would go back to visit the island with my mom’s family, all piled into one to two minivans to drive back to O’Leary.

The two trips down to the island that I remember, we rented a house to stay in for everyone. Both trips we spent long days down by the water, either at Ben Shore, which was across a dirt road and a field of wheat away from the farmhouse my mom and her siblings grew up in, or at West Point, with the iconic lighthouse staring down at us.

Wherever we went, we were by the water, that was part of the beauty that is PEI.

I trailed behind my mom and grandmother as the three of us beach combed down at Howard’s Cove, looking for shells, stones and beach glass, letting out an excited cry when I finally found a piece of that infamous dark blue beach glass of my own.

My brother, my cousins and I would play in the water, letting the waves roll over us, bury one another in sand, or run down the beach as fast as our legs could carry us. I spent one afternoon throwing a toy into the pond for my uncle’s black Labrador Shadow so much that the next day I could hardly lift my arm.

We would boil up enough lobster for everyone. Dancing in the warm summer rain on the porch, climbing West Point Lighthouse, eating popsicles with my cousins after dinner and ADL ice cream wherever we could find it. A case of Lime Ricky soda in the back of the van to tide us over until the next time we visited, and t-shirts and socks dyed in a rain puddle on a dirt road.

O’Leary was an adventure, but of a different kind.  O’Leary was listening to the calming sound of the waves hitting the red rock cliffs, the excitement of riding my uncle’s tractor to go blueberry picking, the serenity of listening to my grandfather read poetry to us before bed. O’Leary was rustic and real, down-to-earth and honest. It was learning about constellations on million star nights with my mom and my aunt. It was reading about shipwrecks at the lighthouse and desperately wanting to find one. It was wide-eyed childish wonder and a place where even if all you did was lay on the beach all day by yourself, it didn’t feel wasted.

Can you imagine what this collection is going to become?  The influence of beautiful childhood memories mixed in with the rustic lay of the land, I feel like Maggie just transported me to the perfect end of summer holiday.

Monica XO

 

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