Last night I wrote this very long winded post explaining why I deleted my social media accounts. When I reached the end I looked at it and thought, this might be the most boring thing I have ever written. There are so many interesting things happening in Canadian news right now and somehow, The Hat Junkie Deletes Her Social Media Accounts just doesn’t compare. So, I deleted it and with the rising of this morning’s sun I am writing a new post.

As I explained in the previous paragraph, focusing this blog post on what lead me to make this decision would just put you all to sleep, but I will lead you (at this end of this post) to the interview on CBC that started it all. The interview lead me to the book and after that there was no turning back.

What I will talk about though, is my new Facebook/ Instagram free marketing strategy. It’s really quite revolutionary. I got the idea from walking into The Mariner’s Daughter, our local yarn shop here in Lunenburg. My excuse for going there was that I needed a skein of yarn to complete my latest sweater, but really it’s because I sometimes just need to stare at all the colours on the shelves and I really like the owners.

After inhaling all the yarn I noticed this strange looking device on their counter. It’s called a clip board.

There was a piece of paper attached to it that said, Mailing List. Hannah explained to me how this innovation works. Apparently, customers pick up a pen (no batteries required) and if they would like to be notified of shop updates they simply write their email addresses on the piece of paper.

Slack jawed, I considered this new technology for a few minutes. So, let me get this straight, I said. Are you telling me that I can actually communicate directly with my customers? You mean that Facebook does not have to be a go between? Holy Macaroli! Wait, wait….and if I communicate directly with my customers do I have to collect copious amounts of data and use their data to manipulate them and then go sell their data to other companies to make an even larger profit? No???? But, how many people who sign up for my mailing list will actually receive my emails? All of them? This is staggering, I thought to myself. Will wonders never cease.

So, that’s what I did. I made a mailing list. And you guys signed up for it. (well, I admit, I took the liberty of adding some of you myself.) And if you ever you get tired of hearing from me, all you have to do is scroll to the bottom of that email and click “unsubscribe” and I promise I will still like you.

Now that I have you here, let me show you some of the pretty hats I have been working on.

This is my latest straw braid hat. There is actually a video of how I make it in the previous post. I don’t so much recommend watching it. I geared the video for other milliners because I had a request for help. Plus, I look horrible in the video. It’s so hard to find any information on how to sew these kinds of hats on antique straw braid sewing machines.

I have also been working on making a whole bunch of my hand dyed organic cotton and hemp jersey hats for Beauchapeau hat shop in Niagara on the Lake. This is Charlotte and one Eloise. You can scroll to see all the photos. Amazing how different she looks in different colours. Now that I’m not on Facebook, I might even have time to put these pretties into my online shop.

And lastly, I leave you with another photo of my town that I love so much. It’s one of the rare places left on earth where people know their neighbours. It’s not that we are are one big happy family where everyone gets along. It’s a true community filled with all kinds of personalities. Just like Facebook, except with nuance, context, tone and facial expressions. These little things help us navigate our differences. On the streets of Lunenburg we are more than the latest opinion we just posted to social media.

Thanks so much for joining me here. If you know anyone else that would like to join my mailing list, just let them know the box to fill in their email is on my home page and I certainly won’t hold it against you if you’d like to share my blog. See you all soon,

Anna

Click here for the interview that started it all.