Dream Big Cape Breton

life lately

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Leah Noble

Learning design again every day and I love it! (Click here to read my post from this time last year about going back to school at age 28. Well, I’m 29 now and I’m going into my second year, and I am so glad I did!)

Doing yoga in the mornings and walking too.

Fighting a cold.

Sleeping for a couple of hours in the afternoon as a result.

Cooking dinner every night with my honey. It’s so normal and I love it so much.

Driving over to Sydney Mines to pick up my first business cards! (I’ll share the design process here on the blog soon.)

Expecting a tropical storm. (So warm and muggy!)

Laughing at lunchtimes with the girls. (You know who you are.)

Looking around at my office and shaking my head. Not sure where to begin. (Not only is there the mess from summertime, but then there is the stuff I had to take out of my car and which is piled around, as well as some stuff I forgot I had at my mother’s house, just random shit. Binders of stuff I collected years ago. Et cetera.)

Trying to eat more local food. Well, more like thinking about trying to. I’m pretty pathetic with it, really. (But am also intending to go to the local farmer’s market on Saturday!)

Dealing with insurance stuff for my poor car. Talking to an adjustor, an appraiser, and a rabbi. Just kidding. No rabbis.

Listening to Queen. Because I always liked their songs but never had any of the records, and I decided I wanted to know the songs better. (Really, I just want to be able to sing all the words to “Bohemian Rhapsody” because I have some delusion that that will make me cool. But really. Who am I kidding.)

Posted in Day to Day Life | Tagged lately | Leave a comment

design i saw / BC trip

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Leah Noble

As a graphic design student, I’m constantly thinking about the way things look, and the way they could look, in terms of layout, typefaces, colour, logos, etc. That means that I’m hyper aware of all the design around me in everyday things like sandwich boards, licence plates, posters, just to name a few of the places that design turns up. I honestly want to take pictures of pretty much everything I see! But I try not to annoy and/or embarrass my friends when I’m out and about, and just take photos of every second thing.

If this is the sort of thing you also find interesting, I’ve been intentionally taking a photo of type every day and sharing it on my Instagram under the hashtag “#dailytype”. And I will be sharing more photos here on the blog of design I see around me.

Posted in Day to Day Life, Design, Out West, Towns + communities | Tagged design, Invermere | Leave a comment

love and mountains and puppies, oh my!

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Leah Noble

Lessons learned this trip:

When one of your best friends is getting married on the other side of the country, it is definitely worth it to go, even if it’s only for three days, and even if it depletes your savings. The memories you’ll make will last the rest of your life.
When you hit a deer in New Glasgow on your way to Halifax to spend the night and fly out the next morning, say yes when the fireman offers to put you up for the night with his family. Also say yes to his twin brother who lives next door, who works near the airport and offers to pick you up at 5 am to drive you to your flight. Trust kind people who remind you of folks from home.
Don’t trust yourself to do your own hair considering you think it’s “special” just to use bobby pins on a weekday. Absolutely call some of the local hair salons one hour before the wedding, in order to find the one who will fit you in, and give you a 1950’s-style updo. $70 is completely worth it. Bulletproof, awesome hair for the rest of the night is a must.
The belly laughter of four good women travelling together is medicine for the soul.
90’s music is now retro, and that is really weird. I feel old! (The satellite radio in the car had a 90’s station and we listened to it while driving around.)
At the reception, dance to every single song if you can. If you don’t feel like it, that’s OK too, but give it a try even if your feet are sore. It’s nice to just to move to fun music. Even if you’re the only one out there. Who cares, half the people (at least!) are drunk.
I think maybe I have only ever heard “Way down yonder on the Chattahoochie” at wedding dances. And yet I still know most of the words.
The red-eye flight is aptly named. Leaving Calgary at 11 pm their time and landing in Halifax at 6 am local time isn’t very restful. No matter – when I land in Halifax my Mum is waiting for me and I get to sleep in her car on our way back to Cape Breton (stopping in New Glasgow to collect the rest of my shit from my car).
A car can look not-bad considering it ran right over a great big deer.
Insurance companies can actually be great to deal with. (Mine is Aviva.)
You never know what’s going to happen, and the best way to be content is to keep an open mind to it all.
Failing that, take a walk around the block.

(If you are wondering where these pictures are taken, they are mainly in and around Invermere, BC, with shots on the highway between Invermere and Banff, and then between Banff and Calgary. The cafe shot with the kids looking through the window is at the Dairy Lane diner in Calgary. The last few are in the Halifax airport, and in New Glasgow.)

Posted in Day to Day Life, Leah's thoughts, Out West | Tagged BC, Invermere, travel, wedding | 7 Comments

amazing trip for so many reasons

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Leah Noble

I’m back home after a whirlwind trip to British Columbia for a friend’s wedding.

It was so freaking amazing!!

(No, I did not do my hair myself. And those are not my feet in those roller skates.)

I’ll post more soon but for now must be off for my first day of school for the semester, and there were some car issues too, and I definitely didn’t unpack last night, but instead ate (not local) chicken wings, drank wine, and fell asleep on the couch. It’s the little things in life. I’m telling ya. Anyway, I’ll write a longer post about the whole trip hopefully quite soon!

Posted in Day to Day Life, Out West | Tagged Invermere, wedding | 1 Comment

orientated*

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Leah Noble

The clock at the marina. One of the last times I’ll look at it!

From the orientation today.

*For a long time I thought “orientate” was a made-up word, the kind of goofy bureaucratic language some folks use. But no, it is in the dictionary.

Yesterday was my last day at the marina. I worked til noon, then went and got a haircut ~~with~~ from the lovely Tanis. Then I headed to the Lobster Galley where I met my friend (and classmate) Katie, and we drove up to visit with Amy MacInnis. You may remember Amy from this post about a local lobsterfisherwoman. Well, she also does screenprinting, and she prints the “I Heart Cape Breton” shirts I designed, that you may have seen on Facebook and Instagram. (Her business is called “Sea Shirts” and you can “like” them on Facebook here.)

We visited with Amy and her daughter Aven, and tried printing. It was fun!

Then today I went to the orientation at NSCC, for the second year students. It was pretty useless, if I’m honest, but it was nice to be there. Nice to hear them say “Welcome back!” And I don’t mean ‘useless’ in a negative way, it’s just that I didn’t get a whole lot of use out of the ‘brainstorming session’ about job searching. But, I did get to see a few classmates who also came in for the orientation, which was really the reason I went. And I chatted with my teachers and met the first year students, and got some housekeeping out of the way, like getting assigned a locker, and getting my ID up to date.

Now I’m getting packed up and heading out tonight to Halifax, where I’ll stay the night and fly out from tomorrow morning. I’m headed for Calgary, and then driving through the Rockies to a little town in BC where a dear friend is getting married on Saturday! I’m really excited for this trip. I’m going with two other dear girlfriends and I just know we’re going to have lots of laughs and good talks. I love that face-to-face time so much.

I’ll be back to school and to blogging on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

Posted in Day to Day Life, Leah's thoughts | Tagged school, tee shirts, wedding, weekend | 1 Comment

turning

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Leah Noble

Shhh… don’t tell the tourism people this, but I actually really like this time of year, when things quiet down.

When I drive into town to go to work, and it’s raining, windy, grey. When leaves are starting to fall off the trees. When things feel quiet enough (in general, at work, or at home) that I can sit and stare off into space. When we say “another summer gone”, and look ahead to what the fall will bring.

(I know, it’s sacrilege on so many levels to say this. But, oh well. Just being honest.)

Posted in Day to Day Life, Leah's thoughts | Tagged Fall | 1 Comment

a celebration

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Leah Noble

Charles and Stuart, 1989.

Gregor Allison, Charles Weaver, Laverne MacRae (then Drinnan), Stuart Germani, June 1986.

Yesterday at the marina we had a little party. The occasion was that it was forty years since Charles Weaver began operating this business in Baddeck. He started it as “Baddeck Marine and Sports” and over the years it became “Baddeck Marine“.

It was really special for me and for all of us to celebrate such an achievement: staying in business for forty years, in such a fluctuating economy and industry, and remaining small yet strong. Baddeck Marine has helped out countless boaters over the years, hired dozens of local people, and been a mainstay along the waterfront for tourists and locals alike. I’m so proud to have been a part of its history just these past four years, and to have gotten to know such wonderful, down-to-earth people.

As everyone at the party yesterday said, “Here’s to another forty years!”

(In case you’re wondering how I, a non-boater, came to work at a marina, you can read that story here. And you can read about “a day in the life” of my job at the marina too.)

Sorry to catch you mid-bite, Tyler! From left: Gregor, Tyler Germani (Stuart’s son), Charles Weaver, September 2, 2013.

Customer Dr. Henry Muggah, customer Allan Henderson, Charles Weaver and Mardy Weaver.

Stuart Germani looks on as Charles prepares to cut the cake. Richard Herring taking a picture from the other side.

Cake by local Baddeck bakery Helen’s Bakery.

Posted in Jobs, Leah's thoughts, Towns + communities, Work | Tagged Baddeck, Baddeck Marine, business, community, marina, summer | 1 Comment