“They were like craftsmen, they knew their materials and trained a long time to create wonderful things,” she remembers. Also without consciously knowing it, she saw just how much self-employed people need to work day and night. 

Matsumoto went to Osaka College of Design to study production design. “There, I took a glass course and learned the basics of glass making. They taught me about stained glass, fusing glass, torch working, kiln working, but glassblowing was so expensive that they couldn’t offer it.” One glass studio in Nagano offered students a summer internship, and Matsumoto was chosen. “Everything was new and I was only useful for making little jewelry from scrap and sweeping the floor. But surrounded by adult glassblowers who were sketching their new work or working on pieces with sweat was just amazing! They showed me how to hold glassblowing tools and I went back to my room and practiced all night with brooms or chopsticks,” she remembers. That internship was a turning point in her artistic career.

She met her husband and mentor David McDermott, in a glassblowing class in Corning, New York in 1999. “We worked well together and I came to visit him on the Cape and worked with him a bit more. We worked together again for couple of summers, fell in love and married in 2001,” the artist remembers.

In 2002, they built their own studio in their back yard. Beginning was hard, they knew about glass blowing—McDermott was very well trained in traditional Scottish glassblowing, and Matsumoto was a good assistant—but they didn’t know anything about business. They constructed the building and the equipment by themselves and just jumped into making whatever caught their fancy. Remembering her parents and grandparents work ethic, it wasn’t unusual for Matsumoto to work day and night to get things done.

As an assistant, she experimented with mixed colors in every piece. In glass, the color is made by metal oxide. When she mixed colors like blue and yellow, it usually did not come out green, but came out a really bad brown. She started experimenting, creating many different color combinations to figure out the process.

“The chemical reaction in glass is what makes colors change and I started to understand which color combination works to create unique and beautiful things and so on. I made a vase we call Midnight Wave. That was the first piece I loved and was proud of,” she explains.

Trained by McDermott, Matsumoto blows glass with the Scottish method. Many glassblowers in the United States use the Italian method, so her use of coloring and traditional Scottish methods give her pieces a unique look.

Nature is her biggest inspiration, but so is fabric. “My grandmother loved wearing a Kimono, wearing it at her sushi restaurant and whenever she went out. I used to love seeing how she put down the layers and belt (obi) before she put them on. As a girl growing up in Western clothing, I thought some of the colors or designs can’t, or shouldn’t go together. But as I watched, those colors I thought shouldn’t go well together went together magically and beautifully! I just wanted to try to put those feelings in my work and I started to make a Kimono series,” she says. The beauty and traditions of her heritage come forth from her memories to her hands in all her creations, resulting in mesmerizing colors and patterns. 

Yukimi Matsumoto’s work can be seen in Sandwich at The Sandwich Glass Museum and The McDermott Glass Studio and Gallery located at 272 Cotuit Road in Sandwich and mcdermottglass.com. Glassblowing is open for public viewing Wednesday-Friday 10am-5pm.

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Oil painter Neil McAuliffe was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and moved to Hyannis in ‘68 when he was four years old. Growing up surrounded by the natural beauty of the Cape influenced McAuliffe’s desire to capture the bucolic scenes on paper.

A graduate of Barnstable High School, McAuliffe moved to Boston to study illustration at Massachusetts College of Art. Between classes, he would often walk over to the Boston Museum of Fine Art to sketch the paintings. Ironically, “I failed my only painting class I took there… that is really cool because I am not failing now!” McAuliffe laughs. “I found that art school is not really about what you learn, it is about the experience.”

McAuliffe returned to Cape Cod after art school and found work as a freelance illustrator, commissioned by private clients to create pen and ink and watercolor renderings of their homes and boats. During those early years, he was also commissioned to paint a series of aerial views of Augusta National Golf Course, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Harvard University and the villages of Hyannisport and Osterville.

McAuliffe’s mother was living in Jamaica at the time, so when he met and married his wife, the couple decided to move to warmer climes and “started bopping around, doing the island thing.” He spent a few years living and painting in the Caribbean, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Key West where he received commissions to create artwork for companies including Sandals Resorts and Jablum Blue Mountain Coffee Co. The Cape though, still had his heart, so the couple decided to move back to settle down and raise their two children. 

In Centerville, McAuliffe built a studio space where he could work surrounded by nature. Large windows and sliding doors flow out to a beautiful hidden garden with three fish ponds. Paintings are everywhere and the studio is decorated with plants and exotic mementos from the couple’s travels. His two identical indoor white cats lounge in the sun. In between painting sessions, he loves to feed the bunnies, chipmunks, and watch the birds just outside his doors.

“Bouncing from one painting to another with the music,” is how McAuliffe likes to work. He usually has many paintings around the studio in various states of finish and he jumps from one to another adding a line here and a splash of color there. Rather than en plein air painting, McAuliffe’s artistic process is to take photographs of his chosen scene and then use the photos as the basis for his paintings back in his studio. 

McAuliffe works exclusively in oils now and his style leans towards realistic with great attention to details in each scene. Often called a Cape Cod realist painter, he explains that, “My style is realistic, but my intent is not photo realism.” McAuliffe’s paintings are carried in Chatham Fine Art and Sarah Jessica Fine Arts in Provincetown, and at Chapman Art Gallery in Cotuit. Online, J. Todd Galleries carries a collection of his paintings, and his work is also shown at the Sheldon Fine Art Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island. “My mom and her whole family grew up in Newport so as a very small child, we would travel to Newport for all the holidays. I didn’t realize I was going to be painting there, but I kept aware of where things were. I really enjoy going to Newport and painting there too,” he muses.

With the arrival of the picture-perfect summer season comes McAuliffe’s busy time, photographing new scenes to paint and working on commissions from his loyal clientele.  

McAuliffe’s work can be found at Sarah Jessica Fine Arts in Provincetown, Chapman Art Gallery on Main Street in Cotuit, and online at neilmcauliffefineart.com.

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Chatham-based painter Odin Smith comes from a Cape Cod family of distinguished artists. Her grandparents, who met at the Chicago Institute of Art, were part of the famed Provincetown Art Colony, the oldest of the 19th-century summer art colonies on the East Coast. Her grandfather, Charles Anton Kaeselau, was a well known watercolor and oil painter whose work featuring ships and early Cape scenes appears in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and her grandmother Marguerite Benjamin Kaeselau was an accomplished artist and illustrator for children’s books and large store advertisements. 

It is no surprise that Smith became a painter. What is a surprise is that she is completely self-taught. You could say that talent for art ran in her blood. 

The artist grew up in Provincetown and Brewster, graduating from Nauset High School. She remembers her Portuguese grandmother on her mother’s side telling her specifically not to go into art because there was no money in it. So she didn’t. It wasn’t until she was pregnant with her third child and her sister gave her a set of watercolors to relieve her stress, that Smith tried painting. She was drawn to it right away. To learn more about art, Smith put an ad in the paper for old magazines and books on art and was given a stack of them from a kindly reader. She read them cover to cover and when she was done, she went to the public library and took out every book on art she could find. However, she did take an adult education class in watercolors, but quickly left when she found that it didn’t offer enough technical instruction. 

First, Smith worked in watercolors and then switched to pastels. She got a job teaching a pastel art class, but had to stop working in that medium because the dust of the pastels irritated her lungs. It was then that Smith switched to acrylics and finally found her true medium. 

As with most self-taught artists, Smith honed her stills with lots of exploration and hard work. And deep study of those library art books. She did a lot of en plein air painting until she got very sick with Lyme disease, likely from being in the grasses while painting. Now, Smith works in her studio often using photos as a jumping off point. But instead of realism, Smith uses the photo as a jumping off point, focusing more on her memory of the location or scene. She paints the colors, shadows, and shimmers of light she remembers from being there. Her work is really a response to the movement of light, painting more of a feeling than of reality. Her work could be called emotion-driven painting. 

In her studio, visitors are quick to see that her style is very eclectic, almost as if four different people are painting the pieces in her collection. Some pieces like Early Morning Walk are moody, dark and dreamy with a glimmer of sunlight crossing the dark trunks of the trees while others like Pretty Maids are crisp, upbeat and cheerful with primary colors. 

Today, Smith has a wonderful new gallery in Chatham in a repurposed bank building. Her large space is filled with light and she uses a portion of the space as her working studio and can often be seen working on several paintings at once. She offers very popular Friday Night Wine Down classes in her studio, where she helps students bring out their inner artist in a step-by-step lighthearted environment, as well as several other classes for students looking for more instruction.  

Smith sells all her work at Odin K Smith Artist Studio & Gallery located at 895 Main Street in Chatham and through her website, odinksmith.com. See more of her work on her Instagram @odinsmith and her Facebook page @odinksmithartist.

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This home has been loved.

That was the first impression interior designer Stephanie King and her father, Craig Bovaird had when they first stepped into the small seasonal cottage on Oliver Street in Mattapoisett. 

“Built in the 1930s, the cottage has a rich history and has seen its fair share of hurricanes, once being destroyed and rebuilt while other times withstanding damages, but surviving. Given its structural changes and challenges, the cottage languished on the market waiting for the perfect buyer who would look beyond that and see its pure charm,” remembers Craig. 

Craig is an engineer and entrepreneur who loves design, antiques, and buying old properties to renovate. Stephanie often teams up with him to create the interior designs for the projects he purchases. They found that they love working together, and this project presented as their next opportunity for another team collaboration. 

“When we first walked into the main living area and looked out the south facing windows, it was like sitting on a boat,” Craig recalls. “Nothing but water for 180 degrees and a magnificent view of Buzzards Bay, Ned’s Point Lighthouse, The Elizabeth Islands and the Upper Cape. It’s only 538 square feet; there were two tiny bedrooms with bunk beds, a small kitchen and a bathroom. The interior was rustic and frozen in time. It had been a well-loved seasonal summer cottage rental for generations of vacationers. The previous owners shared a guest register that dated from the 1970s to present day. They had grown up spending summers in the cottage and had kept the place intact for close to 50 years. By all accounts, people and families had enjoyed the special feeling of this iconic property for many years,” says Craig.

Now, the task to bring the nostalgic structure into the 21st century found Craig with only one name on his list: Tim Costello. Costello, principal of Costello Fine Homes has worked with Craig on multiple projects and luckily had a small window in his schedule to take on the renovation in time for the family to enjoy the cottage for the upcoming summer season. Costello gutted the structure, updated the mechanicals and winterized the cottage, allowing another 50 years of memories to take hold. He consolidated the two small bedrooms—to make a more spacious bedroom which now features a bunkbed nook and a larger double bed—and installed a new kitchen and bathroom. Throughout, Costello and his crew employed careful effort to provide the modern amenities the client wanted, all the while deliberately maintaining the rustic appeal of the original structure. “The cottage was in rough shape,” Costello confesses. “We wanted the final outcome to look great, and function well, but we definitely didn’t want it to look like a shiny new penny.” One of the ways Costello and his team achieved the time-honored ambiance in the cottage was to custom-make and install all the millwork and cabinetry found throughout the home, that now complements the original elements that were retained.

Stephanie took one look at the cracks in the walls, weathered grain in the beams, and the old-fashioned styled kitchen and knew that it would be perfect as a canvas for an Americana interior design renovation. She loved the nostalgic feel of the tiny cottage and wanted to create a space that was cozy, warm and breezy like “a moment of lying in the grass in a field with your eyes shut, feeling the sun.” Her experience sourcing mid-century furnishings came in handy as she began her search for vintage pieces for the cottage. 1stDibs, Chairish and InCollect became her online go-to for furniture and she also scoured the large antique malls of New Bedford, where she found many of the nautical touches such as the antique oars above the twin bunk beds. One of Stephanie’s often-used vendors, The Urban Electric Company from North Charleston, South Carolina created the handmade globe pendant above the dining table and other lighting fixtures in the cottage.

The color palette is very American—red, white and blue against white shiplap walls. Touches of natural wood ground the color scheme, from the period rattan dining set Stephanie sourced from Florida to the bamboo woven blinds found on almost all the windows. A red mid-century modern rocker and a blue striped chair counterbalance a grey-blue couch with bright red piping which folds out for extra guests. Red and blue patterned pillows frame the expansive view of the ocean from a long, cushioned window seat. An American flag is positioned by the dining table. Rattan mirrors hang on the wall. Perfect Americana.

The galley kitchen, designed by Will Saltonstall of Saltonstall Architects in Marion, was outfitted with a period-appropriate SMEG refrigerator in teal with more touches of teal found in the living room rug and the small stool, crowned by a plant which graces an open spot behind the couch. Giving an authentic sense of place to the oceanfront cottage, whimsical nautical items were added such as the collection of old boat paintings and a framed collection of sailors’ knots on the white walls—all found at local antique stores. An octopus carved into the light blue wooden screen door, custom-crafted by Costello’s millwork shop, welcomes guests into the little hideaway with open arms.

One of the original items found in the house was returned to its honored spot; a tangle of vines now wrap around the wooden ceiling beams in the living room, creating a floating orb suspended above the living room as it gives a nod to the breezy, casual summer beach cottage it was for over 50 years.

“With mindful design we wanted to recapture the original character and charm of this special place by paying attention to incorporating a nod to Americana-style and carefully sourcing antique pieces that complement the cottage’s long history. The contrast of textures like oak, teak and rattan are paired with vibrant colors and patterns, all set in cozy harmony with the large windows that nestle you into the natural surroundings,” Stephanie explains.

The small bedroom with a double bed and bunkbeds is just as charmingly decked out as the rest of the cottage in red, white and blue, with a few touches of teal. The bathroom has a period-perfect sink with a blue painted bottom, open wooden shelving for more seaworthy accents, and a random array of blue porcelain tile that mimics shards found along the nearby shorelines.

Outside, the side deck faces the beach with a red and white striped umbrella over a dining set and lounge chairs for taking in the sun and ocean breeze. As many in these parts know, sometimes that ocean breeze comes with more than a little bit of wind, so Yard Boss of Mattapoisett created a protected bluestone patio with a sunken, granite firepit surrounded by red Adirondack chairs as a retreat. Added bonus—the granite was unearthed by Costello’s crew while digging the foundation for the newly constructed foundation for the boat house designed by Saltonstall and built by Costello. An outdoor shower, a beach cottage necessity, is placed by the patio for more privacy. Protecting the patio on one side is an old shed that was washed away by Hurricane Bob in 1990, that was recovered, reset on the property, and aptly named The Boat House. The charming structure with a cupola, weathervane and two garage doors is used to store the kayaks, sailboat and beach toys. Upstairs is a loft with a pull-down ladder that will serve as a get-away place as the grandkids get older.

Stephanie’s love of interior design began early. She grew up in a post-and-beam home designed by her parents and therefore had design influences all around her from a young age. After graduating from Syracuse University, she cold-called top design firms across the country and was hired by Slifer Designs in Vail, Colorado. That large, world class firm designed mountain homes for the well-heeled, and shaped Stephanie’s first interior design sensibilities. As her career continued, she refined her skills and experiences by working all over the world for Slifer and later Amy Lau Design, a New York City firm that specialized in mid-century modern interior design. However, Stephanie longed for home after being away for so many years. She moved to Boston to work with Heather Wells Inc. and benefited from the architect’s eye, and acute sense of spatial awareness. It was there that Stephanie learned to work with the form and function aspect of architecture. Nine years later, Stephanie decided to go out on her own and launched Stephanie King Design, specializing in high-end residential interiors. Despite the in-demand career she has worked so hard to build, she says, there is always time to schedule her favorite clients’ projects—those of her father’s.

As versed as she is in the Americana and the mid-century modern look, Stephanie loves to design in all aesthetics for her clients, “a bit of everything to keep it interesting.” Many of her clients ask for pieces that have a patina and are imperfect rather than everlasting perfection—pieces that have “living finishes” that get better with time, like brass for example. “Ten years ago, no one was asking for brass accent pieces and now they are so popular they are hard to find. Clients are looking for items made in real materials such as teak, rattan and brass, vintage pieces that have been loved,” she shares.

This beach cottage has certainly been loved, and by bringing in equally-loved vintage items with a personality while updating the layout, a comfortably familiar new space has been created to be loved for many years to come.

Costello Fine Homes can be found at costellofinehomes.com and Stephanie’s interior design work can be found at stephaniekingdesign.com. 

Valerie Gates is a frequent contributor for Cape Cod Life Publications.

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Amie Smith, Amie Bakery 

AMIE Bakery in Osterville is what you getwhen you mix a passion for food, add a dollop of nonstop work ethic, stir in a creative, determined mind, and a healthy sprinkling of daily manifesting.

Amie Smith grew up in a time that embraced creating a cake from quick and easy recipes made from a box. That box did the job of making a decent birthday cake, but was also full of ingredients that were not quite the healthiest. It wasn’t until she went to the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City and tried something made completely from scratch that she found her calling.

Over the past eight years, her desire to introduce customers to food made entirely from scratch became a personal mission for Smith as she created AMIE Bakery. With only simple, but natural ingredients she creates sumptuous treats that keep customers coming back for more.

Take the lowly blueberry muffin. Yes, you could zip into a chain grocery store and quickly pick some up; six to a plastic box, jumbo sized, very sugary and at a price less than a mocha chai latte and call it a day.

But in Smith’s hands, made from only the best ingredients, the lowly blueberry muffin becomes a work of art. Yes, it will cost more, and will be “right-sized” smaller, but it also won’t come with a label of strange ingredients a paragraph long.

Smith is a true mix of a visionary and a perfectionist, and that combination keeps her eating, sleeping and breathing pastry seven days a week.

Being a visionary has Smith going in many directions at the same time; always thinking of new ways to grow her brand, networking with other chefs, contributing to a pastry forum, being on the board of Retail Bakers of America, and oh, also writing a book.

Being a perfectionist means Smith is constantly working on improving her recipes, mixing and remixing creations until they can be made consistently perfect for her customers. She is expanding her offerings, researching new recipes, and advancing her education by traveling to cooking classes. “You’re always thinking ahead to distinguish yourself from what everybody else is doing. And you have to do it better,” she explains.

“There are two camps of pastry chefs,” Smith says, “the ones that are proprietary with their creations and won’t share at all, and those that don’t mind sharing and teaching their work.” 

Smith is squarely in the second camp. She loves teaching and passing down her artistry so much that she has built a space in the back of the Main Street bakery for baking and cooking classes that already have 200 students signed up and are booking up quickly.

Smith is also in tune with the needs of the community, now offering to-go dinners and a full bar in addition to the classes at AMIE Academie. With her vision and creativity, we can’t wait to see what Smith cooks up next. 

Amy Chesnut, Sonoma Wool Company

Wool has been around for thousands of years and has historically been used as clothing, blankets and shelter. Felted wool came about when people would line their shoes with wool and the process of walking on it would “felt” it. 

In the 60s, synthetics, polyesters and nylons arrived on the scene, making textiles easier to clean, cheaper to make and very versatile. Unfortunately, this helped to create the throw-away, fast-fashion mentality consumers have today. This mindset contributes to massive amounts of discarded textiles that are shipped all over the world. Because the use of synthetics has been so prolific, we now also have a problem with microplastics polluting the land and seas. Thirty-five percent of them come from synthetic textiles. 

This crisis compelled Amy Chesnut, founder of Sonoma Wool Company in Brewster, to create her “Re-Discover the Wonders of Wool” campaign to re-educate the public about the many uses and magical properties of wool.

“Wool is a superior fiber to any kind of synthetics or plastics,” Chesnut explains in her website video. “It keeps you warm in the winter, cool in the summer, wicks away moisture, mold and mildew resistant, flame retardant, 100% natural, 100% renewable, sustainable and at the end of it’s life, biodegradable!” 

Since 2013, Sonoma Wool Company has sourced 100% of its wool from family sheep ranches in the United States. Initially they hand-made their products on a Valley Ford, California ranch, and now work with mills in New England to help keep up with demand. “One of the primary reasons we started Sonoma Wool Company was to support family ranches in the United States,” says Chesnut. “We believe it is supremely important to support domestic agriculturalists and are proud to do our part.”

“Why Wool?” was Sonoma Wool Company’s theme of the Brewster Chamber of Commerce’s Eco Expo event at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History this February. Sonoma Wool Company’s “Check the label” display offered garments of both wool and synthetics so people could feel the difference.

Purchasing wool products can help the environment without sacrificing quality. Investing in something that will last decades and become an heirloom for the next generation disrupts the throw away cycle.

Chesnut believes so much in her wool products that she uses the wool toppers, comforters and pillows in all the guest rooms in her Brewster by The Sea Inn. Her mom lives in Chatham, and so in 2016 Chesnut purchased the inn to be closer to family. It was when her son Sawyer moved to the Cape three years ago that they decided to grow Sonoma Wool Company together on the Cape. Their new retail store at 84 Underpass Road in Brewster, is run by her son and offers customers a way to feel the texture and quality of the wool products and learn that wool is naturally a part of the circular sustainable, renewable economy. 

Claudia Del Castillo, Chipie Design  

Branding consultant and designer Claudia del Castillo, a lover of vintage style and formerly a concept and trend forecaster for Reebok, brings her respect of tradition, history and her unique ability to envision future trends to her branding work at Chipie Design. 

The name Chipie, a childhood nickname given to del Castillo by her father became her signature and lends a quirky, but fresh sense to her company that is mirrored in her work.

Del Castillo is also a food enthusiast. “Food speaks to my heart and is my jam,” so it comes as no surprise that most of her clients own restaurants. She explains, “Most restaurateurs are serial entrepreneurs. When they do one restaurant, they might do another. They are recurring customers for sure,” giving her a steady stable of loyal clients.

She continues, “Cape Cod has many well-established and beloved restaurants/institutions that really end up making up the fabric of its identity. The restaurants end up shaping who they are, but they also need to keep with the times and stay current so they are not replaced by new ones. That is why I specialize in rebranding. Rebranding is sometimes even harder to do than starting a new brand. My approach is to not turn your back on the past but to lean in instead and to really dig into the history of some of these places, into what makes each one of them unique.”

Her personal style gravitates towards the retro touristy ephemera of Olde Cape Cod. From her vintage treasure hunts, she has decorated her home with souvenir items like bar plates, shot glasses, coasters and postcards. These design influences often infuse her work.

Color theory often guides her approach with a new client. She asks, “are you a navy brand or a black brand?” followed by “are you an off-white brand or white brand?” These answers offer her a bit of a road map to follow; “navy and off-white” being a nod to the more traditional nautical Cape Cod style, while “black and white” suggests the clients see themselves as more modern and contemporary.

Today’s restaurants are very much about brand experience, from a complete immersion atmosphere of their space to their merchandise which has become a large part of their revenue stream. Offering varied merchandise is important to stay fresh and reach markets off Cape. At the same time, restaurants must keep up with the ever-changing social media landscape that encourages daily engagement with their fan base. 

This is where del Castillo shines. Her branding relationship is long term with most of her clients, and she is constantly evolving the brand to adapt to their needs and the world around, providing a wide set of branding assets that give them room to “merch out” and evolve.

Del Castillo’s focused, personalized approach is well-stated in her website tagline; “The Chipie design process is an intimate and collaborative experience. So get ready. We’re going to be tight ;).” 

Cookie Hebert Glatzel, Cook’s Organics

Cookie Hebert Glatzel (they/them) grew up in Wiscasset, Maine, where they started their restaurant career at the tender age of 13. Starting as a dishwasher, Cookie was taken under the chef’s wing, taught to cook, and quickly discovered a love of the family-like community often found in
the restaurant business.

As an adult, they moved to Northampton to work as a chef, but it was on a cold, foggy April weekend trip to Provincetown with friends that Cookie discovered their true home. So in 1998, Cookie made the permanent move to the Cape. 

Since the move to Provincetown was early in the season, Cookie quickly found a restaurant job, and also a welcoming, supportive community.

During the off season, Cookie traveled with friends to warm locations, “living beyond our means and having fun in the off-season then working to back it up in Provincetown during the on-season,” remembers Cookie fondly.

Creating Cook’s Organics was not planned. Working 70 hour weeks in busy restaurant kitchens, Cookie would often have leg cramps from standing all the time. Already a troubled sleeper, the lack of a good night’s restorative sleep took its toll on their body and mind. 

“Over the course of my life, I suffered from restless sleep and insomnia due to these leg cramps and late night anxiety. One afternoon during an intense googling session, I stumbled upon magnesium by accident when I was looking for a remedy for my intense leg cramps. Through this research, I figured out that transdermal magnesium (magnesium oil) might soothe these symptoms. The excitement at the possibility of sleeping deeply led me to do more research,” they explain on their website, cooksorganics.com.

After some recipe tweaking, Sweet Dreams Magnesium Cream was born.  

The hand-crafted blend of magnesium, coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax, and aloe worked wonders for Cookie, so they started sharing the cream with friends and co-workers. The cream was a hit, with people sleeping better each night and with many of their knots, leg cramps and body aches disappearing.

The business organically grew from there. Cookie approached a Provincetown store about carrying the cream—the store agreed and quickly sold out. Realizing that they had a viable business, Cookie created professional labels and started Cook’s Organics.

The long pandemic, as terrible as it was for everyone, brought a silver lining to the growing business. Stuck at home, suffering from extreme stress and anxiety, unfortunate insomniacs would desperately google for sleep aids during the midnight hours and stumble across Cookie’s product. “12-3AM is when my website still receives most of the orders,” Cookie explains.

Now, Cookie and their partner Mara live with their two young daughters in North Truro, which also serves as the homebase for Cook’s Organics.

Good chefs have a passion to feed the appetites of their customers. With Cook’s Organics, Cookie found a great way to also feed the body, mind and soul. 

Annick Legault & Melissa Cox, Scout Vintage

Walking into the bright, airy space at Scout Vintage is a feast for the senses. The first thing you notice is the wonderfully clean smell of bespoke French soap. Indeed, this soap—Blanc Musc from an old French recipe producer in Marseille—is their best-selling item. Customers come to the counter with a dozen of them in their arms to purchase every year. Your eyes are then drawn to the elegant mix of colors: black iron antiques stand on white-washed pine bureaus covered with soft blue, white and green table linens. Nature items nestle between the custom French tableware and glassware; bird’s nests, planted moss, and natural history pictures complete the tableau. The stiff feel of fine starched linens is counter-balanced by the soft cashmere offerings, like butter in your hands. This has all been carefully curated by Scout Vintage’s owner Melissa Cox. “This is a happy place. There has never been a day that I haven’t loved coming to work,” Cox explains with a smile.  

Francophiles have been coming to Scout Vintage to get their Parisian and Provencal fix for some time now. The store’s success has been partially based on the fact that it is not at all your typical Cape Cod shop. No painted signs pointing to the beach or shark t-shirts will be found here. It is a unique oasis of its own style and customers visit often to see what beautiful European luxuries have been added to their ever-changing stock.

Cox loves her yearly buying trips in France, and after years of managing the store, she decided to shift gears and share her knowledge by leading small group tours of antique markets in France. She is launching Scouts de France (scoutsdefrancetours.com) with three trips in April and three in June. Limiting each one-week tour to only four guests allows her to keep these trips intimate and, unsurprisingly, she quickly sold out. With Cox’s newest dreams coming true, she nevertheless fretted closing the doors on the popular Scout Vintage for good. Luckily the save came with Annick Legault, a long time customer who casually asked Cox to let her know if she ever wanted to sell.

French Canadian Legault speaks French and Cox jumped at the chance; “She knew the store, loved the style and was a perfect fit to take over.”

Cox and Legault are currently collaborating on buying trips during the winter downtime in anticipation for the Spring Reveal opening day on Friday, April 7th at 11AM. This popular event has eager customers lined around the block waiting for the doors to open. This summer might also include more of the popular outdoor French food and wine soirees, and the pair plan on having a 10th anniversary celebration in October to formally announce the handover. There is no doubt that the essence of Scout Vintage will continue in Legault’s very capable hands. 

Raina Stefani Head Chef, Balena at Crown & Anchor

Raina Stefani, a fireball of energy and ideas, is eager to create a legacy, not only for her forward thinking artistry in the kitchen, but to honor her five-generation family of Portuguese fishermen who worked the sea around her hometown of Provincetown. Her melting pot family story began when her Portuguese and Lithuanian grandmother, Sunny, went for a weekend visit to Provincetown and met her future husband, Herman at a party. Sunny never left and they started a family in the close-knit community. There used to be a town fire bell that when rung, drew everyone in town out because it meant that a fire was risking the home of a family member, a neighbor or a friend, so everyone pitched in. 

The annual Blessing of the Fleet has always been a serious affair for Provincetown because fishing for a living is inherently dangerous. She remembers dipping her fingers in the holy water as a child on those days to bless herself as well, just in case. If a fishing boat went missing, the community would rally around the wives and children in support until the boat came home. The loss of a fishing boat affected everyone, and there was a widow’s fund created for fishermen’s wives and the children left behind. The unspoken rule around town was that anytime a woman went to the wharf, the fishermen always gave her some of their fish to feed her family. 

Back then, fish and especially lobster were not fancy foods but sustenance for those living off the sea. Unable to join her father and brothers on the dangerous “men’s job” fishing boats, she would join her mother on the wharf to collect the bounty of the sea from which to make their meals. A self-taught chef, Stefani began with a tiny cafe, and then moved on to head chef at Spindler’s working under the tutelage of Barbara Lynch. Barbara’s own self reliance and courage in the kitchen resonated with Stefani’s upbringing, and she found herself a member of a small cohort of professional female chefs at a time before The Food Network created a new generation of foodies. 

These days she is just as focused on community and the earth. With the ever rapidly accelerating climate crisis, it has become more important than ever to her to create more of a plant-based menu, and she helped to develop a town-sponsored composting site that takes all her leftover scraps to become fertilizer for the next growing season. 

She acknowledges that restaurants are in a unique position to be a driver of change for the earth by introducing more plant-based and small plate entrees that not only appeal to the customer’s palate, but also gives them a sense that they are actively participating in the drive for positive change with their dining choices. With Stefani in charge of the menu, the push for sustainable food is continuing to pick up momentum. 

Dr. Paula Monte DVM, CVA, Litchfield Animal Wellness  

Dr. Paula Monte DVM, CVA, certified in chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and in-home euthanasia, treats her patients/your family members—with a full spectrum of integrated care—and by family members, we mean pets. 

From 2013 to 2020 the money spent on family pets in the United States increased over 50%, with families’ disposable and not-so-disposable income going toward pet food, pet beds, pet toys, pet care, pet health and yes, all those cute little sweaters. 

A new Forbes Advisor survey found that an overwhelming majority of pet owners (78%) acquired pets during the pandemic.

Dr. Monte, based in Mashpee, is one of the few doctors still making house calls. In fact, house calls are all she does, because she believes in the importance of seeing her patients in their home surroundings. It makes a visit with the doctor much less stressful for patients and their parents alike and she can often make better diagnoses by seeing the animals in their own environment. 

“In veterinarian hospitals, most of the focus was on helping animals get better, so euthanasia was sort of an afterthought,” says Dr. Monte. It bothered her that end-of-life for these animals was so stressed and fearful in the hospital setting. She felt that it was important to make the ending more comfortable for the animal, so she began her at-home practice. 

During the pandemic, people no longer felt comfortable coming into the hospital to euthanize their pets, so clients started asking her for in-home, end-of-life care. Referrals quickly spread by word of mouth. Other vets often refer their patients to her, and she is as busy as ever.

In-home euthanasia allows the families and their pets to say their goodbyes in a familiar and loving environment. Some families choose to say prayers, play music or sing to their pets as they “cross the rainbow bridge” from the comfort of their own home. After the passing, Dr. Monte steps outside to give the family a moment before collecting their loved one.

Dr. Monte’s office checks in with the family the next day, passes along helpful grief-related resources if needed, and then hand-delivers the ashes, checking in on the family once again. 

Many of the owners are grateful for all of Dr. Monte’s thoughtful services and the follow-up check-ins as the testimonials on her website show. 

“Dr. Monte is proof that angels are among us. My contact with David Monte, the business manager, revealed supportive and compassionate services were at hand. Dr. Monte was punctual, supportive, and provided everything I could have asked for with regards to the passing of my four-legged companion. In a time when compassion is so limited, you will find a reservoir of it here. I am so grateful,” says one pet parent.

In her spare time, Dr. Monte enjoys spending time with her husband David, two children, and their dog, Sawyer, who is so lucky to have such a compassionate Mom. 

Courtney Wittenstein & Shayna Ferullo, Tidal Marketing  

Boston may run on Dunkin’ but Cape Cod’s Tidal Marketing runs on Snowy Owl Coffee.

Partners Courtney Wittenstein and Shayna Ferullo founded Tidal Marketing in Orleans on April 18th five years ago. The name refers to the natural ebb and flow of the seasonality that many of their business clients navigate each year on the Cape.  

Courtney, who was raised in Chatham and has over 15 years of marketing and advertising experience, went to college, traveled for a bit and came home—where she met an oyster farmer and is raising a family here. Shayna’s parents built a home in Brewster when she was eight, allowing her to spend her summers on the Cape. With a background in economics, business development and nonprofit management, Shayna founded Snowy Owl Coffee in Brewster. She earned her marketing expertise through on-the-job experience and being an entrepreneur herself with Snowy Owl Coffee.

Tidal Marketing was launched when Courtney and Shayna realized just how many of their friends were running businesses of their own on the Cape, and needed help with website design, social media management and content creation.

“A lot of our clients are people we know, or are no more than one degree of separation away, so there is already an innate comfort level there. Word of mouth marketing is the biggest way we get new clients,” says Shayna. “It’s really grassroots as far as marketing goes—that’s the benefit of both of us having local networks,” adds Courtney.

Tidal Marketing helps clients find their “voice” in social media with what they call “authentic storytelling.” Businesses these days need to know who they are talking to with their social media, and to develop a “tone” in their communications and messaging. “Cape Cod is Facebook-heavy due to the demographics,” says Courtney, so they use a mix of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and for some clients, LinkedIn.

This means being flexible with different communication styles for different clients. “Anything can change at the drop of a dime with restaurants, so we are in constant communication with them,” explains Courtney. “Organizations are more planned out, they know what is coming up, and there are more events, so we typically talk to those clients once a month.”

Shayna and Courtney appreciate the trust and the creative freedom their clients give them, as well as the community of local creatives with whom they often collaborate on projects. “There is not a lot of competition for the work that we do, but the competition that we do have, we have a very collegial relationship with everyone,” explains Shayna.

Shayna and Courtney want to make sure they give a shout out to marketing manager Meagen Colon and marketing assistant Maddy Kavanagh, who are so passionate and positive about their work—they couldn’t do anything without them. A never-ending supply of coffee, creativity and local contacts seems to be the secret recipe for Tidal Marketing’s success. 

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Provincetown artist Jo Hay captures the essence of strong, unforgettable women in her portrait series, Persisters.

Artists and the art they create are often polarizing, uncomfortable, and evocative. Think Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, or Edvard Munch’s The Scream, or even Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with her enigmatic smile, and slightly amused direct gaze.

Consideration of the collection of portraits Jo Hay has created for Persisters, renders equal parts awe and frustration. Awe because the subjects of these portraits are brave women who have stood up during these tumultuous times and not backed down. Frustration because with all the advances women have made, it is still one step forward, two steps back. 

Hay paints the Persisters straight on. Their eyes look directly into the viewers’ eyes, their souls. Unflinching and serious. Some with no smile, some with a bemused smile. They have reason to be serious. It is a contemplative time for women now, as always. It is the direct gaze that affects most. Each of these women refuse to be ignored. 

The colors Hay uses are bright and feminine—pinks and baby blues, whites and yellows—yet the collective result portrays strength. The colors reflect “the high vibrancy of those women,” Hay explains. Though contemplative, they all have a sense of calm, with their faces exuding a beautiful inner glow. Hay’s penchant for faces traces back to early childhood. She remembers being with her mother in a toy store looking intently at a collection of “Jelly Monsters.” Her mother, ready to leave, didn’t understand why her daughter was so transfixed with the collection. The young girl replied to her mother’s exasperated question that she “was looking for the one with the nice face.”

Born in northeast England, Hay’s desire to start painting began with a monthly magazine that featured a different artist in each issue. She would pore over the glossy pages and feel an affinity for the images. “When I tried to do it myself, I was enormously frustrated because it didn’t just flow out of me as it appeared to in these beautiful magazines. So, I spent many years being infuriated, not knowing as a child that I had to practice, I thought it just came out naturally.” So, she threw herself into practicing her art.

Her college in London did not offer art as a major, prompting Hay to study the next best thing—graphic design, and upon graduating moved to New York City to work as an art director. The new city resident spent all her free time in museums and at The Art Students League drawing and getting a good grounding in painting figuratively. Acrylics and house paint were all the fledging artist could afford. Eventually, she was able to transition to oil paint as she developed her unique style. 

After a short period, Hay quit her art director job to become a full-time artist. “I remember the first day standing in my living room in my apartment with two blank canvases on the floor thinking ‘Where is everyone to watch me do this?’ because I was so used to having an art department and people around. It felt very odd to be completely alone with no structure, but I got right into it.”

In her early work, Hay found she was mostly interested in the head, the face and the expressions. “I was always drawn to heads and faces, I didn’t consider it portraiture, I always thought I was painting heads. I knew it was something to do with expression and the minute shifts that can occur in faces and expression that changes everything. I knew there was something really magnetic about faces all of my life. In the beginning, I painted these funny little figures that were basically a head with a tiny body in it. You could see I was really just interested in the head and not the body,” she recalls with a laugh.

After 15 years in New York City, Hay discovered Provincetown. “I loved New York and never wanted to leave. I was asked to come to Provincetown for two weeks, and I remember being miserable all the way up, and feeling under duress, but once we pulled off Route 6 and onto Snail Road and I saw that sweep of Provincetown, I was absolutely smitten.” Hay relocated. Only briefly returning to New York City to complete the master’s program at the New York Academy of Art.

Eighteen years later, Hay is happily settled with her wife Carolyn, owner of Carolyn Kramer Gallery. The gallery served an invaluable purpose in fostering Hay’s artistic journey. She could walk into the gallery on any given day and hear people talk about her work. “It was an incredible honor to have that feedback constantly and that was very helpful to me. It was a real gift to always be able to interact with viewers,” she explains.

Hay says her portrait project, Persisters, was created out of fear and anxiety. “It came after the 2016 election. I felt for the first time as a privileged white woman, fear that I didn’t understand where it was coming from, because there was nothing tangible. What I did fear was somebody I didn’t think should have them, had the nuclear codes. I would wake in the morning with anxiety and had to find a way to both express it and relieve it. The immediate solution appeared to be to understand more of what was happening. 

Rachel Maddow was already on the case of explaining the bigger picture. I felt if I painted her, I absorbed some of her strength, understanding, and knowledge of what was happening and that would give me solace in this great period of anxiety.” Once she painted Maddow, she moved on to Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her painting began to parallel what was happening in the news. Different women were painted for different reasons and in response to the never-ending news cycles. 

“There were moments that were occurring that I needed to record. As the series grew, I realized women were feeling supported in seeing these paintings together. We had six or seven in the gallery in the beginning and women would come to the gallery and cry in front of these women, and I knew that they were not crying over gorgeous paint work. They know these women, and recognize them, and there is a strength in seeing the women together, and with other women being in the room. They have a whole different power when they are together.”

Having all these women together could never happen in real life, but Hay was able to create a special environment by putting the women all together in one space. “I painted them specifically face-on, so you’ve got that full blast of attention from the painting, and the viewer and the painting are giving each other an equal amount of attention.

“There is nothing like looking in somebody’s eyes, that’s where you see everything. We read each other’s eyes all the time. Being forced to look in the eyes of the painting was part of the strength.” Over time, the collection grew as events were unfolding around the world. “I managed to capture a good reminder of that time period with the different women I painted,” Hay adds.

Many viewers came back to see the same painting over again and again. One painting stood out though. Notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) was painted when she was still alive, and her portrait was often prominently hung in the gallery window.

“Sometimes she was in the window, and when she wasn’t there they would say ‘Where has she gone, she is not in the window?!’ They had this relationship with the painting, and it meant something to them when she was gone. If you can move people to that degree with your work, what an honor to feel that my work has been seen in this way. The most important thing to me is that the work is seen by the people on the street. Regular people see the paintings and talk about them with each other, and what these women mean, and what they have done for the country,” Hay expresses.

Seeing the paintings with the actual women portrayed was an unexpected bonus. Rachel Maddow visited the gallery one day giving Hay a chance to personally meet her. They stood side-by-side looking at the portrait together and Hay was intrigued when Rachel remarked that it was like looking into a mirror reflecting within itself and seeing herself in many different ways. Multifaceted. Currently, six Persisters paintings are on view year round at Womencrafts in Provincetown located at 376 Commercial Street.

As far as what is next goes, Hay would love her work to be shown in more places or as a traveling show, but she feels strongly that the portraits should be kept together. Together, they are a statement of the power of persistence. In 2022, Jo Hay was chosen as the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s Inaugural Artist of the Year, clearly a trailblazer herself. She also persists and we are all better for it. 

Valerie Gates is a freelance writer for Cape Cod Life Publications.

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Interior design team Paul White and David Nault of Boston’s Weena and Spook use white as a backdrop for their Cape-Nantucket Sound project. 

Remember back to your youth, say age 21, when you had just finished school and the world seemed to be your oyster? You were young, fearless and felt anything could happen! 

That was David Nault and Paul White; newly-minted Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) grads standing in the street at 660 Madison Avenue in New York’s Upper East Side looking up at Barneys’ flagship store. 

With a rolling rack full of their newly-designed fashion collection samples funded by a couple of investors, and David’s sister as their fit model standing by their side, the team walked through the door. 

Their meeting went well, and although their fashion was a perfect fit for Barneys’ high-end fashion fourth floor, they were new to the game and as unproven designers, were asked to return with a more modest sportswear line that Barneys could showcase on the second floor. 

David and Paul did just that, hoping that someday it would lead to a ride up the escalator with their rolling racks all the way to the glittering fourth floor high fashion realm. 

Then came the stock market crash of 1987 and all the duo’s investors left.  

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise when David and Paul realized that it was much more fun and less stressful to sell directly to the customers through trunk shows. They quickly sold out their collection.

Their next gig was creating a private label for a store on Martha’s Vineyard and the pair moved to the island. 

The store didn’t last long but their stay on the Vineyard did. At a loss for their next chapter, they decided to put a small ad in The Vineyard Gazette for their fashion design services. At $25 for 25 words, they had two words left so they added the words “also slipcovers” on a lark.

Armed with some serious fashion sewing skills on an island without a fashion scene, they decided that if you can fit a woman you can certainly fit a chair so how hard could it be to make custom slipcovers? 

The phone rang off the hook and soon the pair were arm-deep into chaises and couches for the well-heeled island set. Their company, with the light-hearted name of Weena and Spook, was born.

Twenty-five years later, David and Paul are wildly successful with a cadre of very loyal clients on the Cape and Islands. 

They cultivate unusually long and close relationships with many of their clients. Often they get to know the young homeowners first when they have one child with one on the way and stay with them as the families grow to five children and a bursting household. 

As life would grow more hectic and colorful for the families they work with, they would ask David and Paul to design them a calm home atmosphere to balance their crazy lives. “Designing someone’s home is a very intimate business,” says David. “You are asking them how many handbags they own or how many shoes to get an idea of how to design their closet systems.” Their clients also appreciate that the pair are a couple in real life as well, so as David and Paul joke, “all the fighting gets out of the way and they have agreed on all the major design decisions before even pulling up to the house.” 

Working with the same families for so many years, David and Paul are often asked to pick out and order the everyday items in the home as well—stocking the cabinets with servingware, choosing bedding and even picking out kitchen appliances. Weena and Spook love to take on these extra services because they help to complete the atmosphere they have created for their clients’ homes. 

“Our design approach is to make homes look like the homeowner had the know-how and the time to do it themselves,” David explains. 

Paul has a very structural mind which allows Weena and Spook to not only design all interiors, doors, cabinets and built-ins, but also to custom design 80% of the furniture for the homes as well. They contract talented woodworkers they adore, and upholsterers they adore, so their team can do it all. 

Cape-Nantucket Sound was a project in which the homeowner wanted a quiet, serene palette. 

Paul imagined how beach grass looks in winter and created a matching palette for the home.

The homeowners had small kids so Paul designed the dining room with curved doors that could shut out the noise of a loud, happy dinner party from the kids asleep upstairs. “It looks kind of like a jewel box when it is closed and sets the dining room apart from the rest of the home,” he remarks. 

Much of the house has a baseline canvas of white. “Think of a room like a blank canvas, like an art gallery first, then you add pops of colors and textures,” says Paul. “Colors are added inside that reflect what you would see outside in the summer. This palette also keeps the home feeling warm in the winter when the leaves are off the trees.” The mostly white rooms have accents of the blues of the ocean, the greens of the grasses, and the browns of the trees.

Most of the rooms host all white furniture, which might make guests pause when asking for the red wine at a cocktail party. 

But Weena and Spook have a secret weapon because all of that pristine white is made from indoor-outdoor materials. 

This gives the furniture both beauty and practicality. There is no fading from the sun through the large windows and spills are easily wiped up. “Everyone has messy lives and this material is all we use now because we want everyone to be comfortable and relaxed in their homes, no matter what happens,” David says. 

This magical material is called solution-dyed acrylics. The company Perennials has an outstanding collection of fabrics and carpets that are all resistant to spills and fading.  

The pair also source from MariaFlora Fabrics, an Italian firm that creates fabrics that can look and feel like linen, chenille and velvet. 

“This is the new wave. Clients say ‘Don’t show me anything that can’t get messy,’” says David. 

“Ten years ago, only 20% of the fabrics used were messy-friendly, now the marketplace is full of this type of fabric,” David says. 

The one room to which they added a myriad of color was the family room. Because this space was going to have games and toys in them anyway, the team wanted to anchor the room with bright colors so the clutter wouldn’t stand out. 

On the shelves, the pair added a large collection of yellow-covered National Geographic magazines hoping to encourage the kids to pick up something to read that was not a tablet or phone. David fondly remembers reading the iconic National Geographic magazines as a child during visits to his grandmother and expanding his world through their stories.

The collection of red books on the bookshelves are all real books, purchased from a set design company touting “books by the foot.” “We checked out each book before putting it on the shelves to make sure they were diverse and family-friendly material,” reassured David. 

Even the coffee table books were chosen specifically for their color and size to fit the room’s design. At the end of a project, the team often gifts the homeowners with coffee table books, and the clients are repeatedly surprised that David and Paul have chosen just the book that they would like.

David and Paul are not surprised at all. During the design and installation process, they develop a trusting and close relationship with the families and they put much thought into exactly the type of book to suit their client’s tastes. They don’t gift novels because the homeowners may not have the time to sit down and read a book, but anyone can pick up a coffee table book and flip through it while having their morning coffee, David reasons. 

In the end, homeowners get exactly the home they love. Many of their clients think their home is so beautiful that they don’t want to change a thing, and even take detailed photos of each room so things can be put back exactly where they were after a party. 

When asked if they still do any fashion design, Paul remembers being asked by a client to design a mother-of-the-bride dress for her. “Because I knew her so well from working with her for many years, I was able to design a bespoke outfit that perfectly fit her style and personality and she loved it.” 

So the pair have come full circle in their design journey. They can do it all and their clients love them for it. Sometimes dreams really do come true, and from their abode in Yarmouth Port, the world really does seem to be their oyster.  

Valerie Gates is a freelance writer for Cape Cod Life Publications.

To read the story behind this company’s unique name, Weena and Spook, visit stg-capecodlifecom-staging.kinsta.cloud.

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