Meet Diana...
Meet Diana – Pictou Harbourview Market is Coming!
When you drive across the causeway coming to Pictou and glance towards the downtown waterfront, you can see a big yellow building. This is the Pictou Curling Centre which will be home to a New Market opening weekends July and August. I wanted to learn more, so I recently had a lovely chat with Diana, the Market owner.
She shared, “I've had a love of working with my hands and creating unique crafts for 40+ years. My mom had a ceramic shop in our house when I was young. I always said that when I retired, I wanted to open a craft shop in my home which I did,” she smiled, “I also travel across Nova Scotia participating in vendor shows, and host classes and workshops at my home craft shop, and the Pictou Library on how to create pebble art and more.” It was very easy to see that Diana had found her passion.
Diana went on to tell me how much she loves sharing what she knows about crafting with others, that she branched out to creating porcelain dolls at one point, learned to knit from her mom, and that she even used to make a lot of her own clothes in high school and for her younger siblings. Her eyes lit up, “I even made my own wedding dress, and all the wedding party dresses when I got married.” I couldn’t believe it, “Wow, that is simply incredible!” is all I could muster up. “How long have you been married?” I asked. Her lips gently curved upward into a beautiful smile, “It will be 55 years this year.” I quickly offered my congratulations on such an amazing milestone.
Diana’s gentle and giving spirit shone through when she mentioned how much she enjoys giving back to others in her community. “I had so many scraps of fabric from all the projects I’ve done that I wanted to find a way to put them to good use,” intrigued I asked her to tell me more, “Just before the pandemic hit, I offered free workshops where I provided all the materials to make fidget quilts. That was a lot of fun, and anyone could just drop in and help with a variety of things to make the quilts,” she continued, “We donated the quilts to the Maritime Odd Fellows Home in Pictou.” What a wonderful thing!
Lastly, we circled back to the new Pictou Harbourview Market, “In 2019, I had a Market in the Pictou Curling Centre during the Lobster Carnival weekend in July and loved it! Now that the Covid-19 restrictions have lifted, I decided now is the perfect time to offer a summer weekend market. A community of vendors, locals, and tourists all enjoying the space is something I envision. A place to gather.” This sounds like a great vision to me too. 🙂