Leonies Place and Craft Store

Yesterday I was invited to go to Leonie's Place for coffee with none other than Leonie herself.  This was my first invitation from an Inuit person and I was very excited to go.  Leonie's Place is Coral Harbour's Hotel.  It's more like a Bed and Breakfast but I guess when there is no competition you can call yourself whatever you want.  When you walk it's very warm and inviting.  Nothing fancy but feels like home.  You take your boots off and walk down the hallways where the small rooms with single beds pass you by (I didn't think to count how many but there are more than 4 for sure).  The end of the hallway opens up to a dinning room with 4 tables each having 4 chairs and around the corner is a nice size kitchen.  On the walls Leonie has a wall of fame of sorts filled with pictures of her family, certificates and diplomas etc.  Going up 4-5 stairs from the dinning room takes you to the big furnished living room where guests can kick back relax and watch TV (because really, what else is there to do?).  We sat down in the dinning room, had coffee and chatted.  There is so much to talk about.  Our cultures so different, our ages so different (I figure she's about 60), our life experiences, again, so different.  So we started on the path which people start really getting to know one another.  When certain pieces of the big puzzle start falling into place as we share milestones and smaller memories...  I was late picking up the boys at daycare and Benjamin at school.  Can you blame me?  I could have stayed all day.

Today, I met Epiksout at Leonie's craft store.  This store, for such a small place, is very well stocked.  Lots of material and all the accessories (as well as other random items such as pots, tea pots, boxed fish batter etc).  Today, Epiksout was helping me buy material for parkas that she is going to make for myself, Benjamin and Nathan (at dinnertime Brian pipped up asking if he was going to get one too - almost as though he was feeling a little left out!).  I'm not sure about Isaac yet since he will grow out of it so soon and really, if it's too cold outside, I can arrange for the poor thing to be sheltered.  I may ask Epiksout to put some fur around his hood to cut down on the wind. We'll see.  Benjamin's will be blue, Nathan's will be red and mine will be brown.  I will be ordering fur for the hoods from Bill Word Furs (billworbfurs.com) a store in Winnipeg (seems to be the place to buy fur!  I never knew it existed).  An extra large racoon for the boys and a fox for me.  I am meeting Epiksout tomorrow morning at 10am to start the process.  She is very excited and so am I!