Participants will make a batch of hot press goat milk soap using a variety of molds and having many scents and extra add-ins to choose from. Each person will come out of the class with 4-8 soaps, depending on the choice of mold and the recipe and know-how of how to make future batches at home. Each student will need to bring a dedicated crock pot and submersion blender/hand mixer to the class that night. All molds, scents, and soap materials will be provided by the instructor. Soaps will be ready for pickup the following week, due to curing time. The fee includes all materials.

Learn how to design and carve your own fishing handline. Each student will get materials to make up to two handlines, though only one may be completed during the class. Supplies include wood, line, hooks, and weights. We will go over everything from how to use your handline and cast it properly. 

We’re spending more time outside and that is good. Learn how to integrate weather forecasts and your own reading of the weather signs to plan ahead and to best manage your outdoor activities - walking, biking, hiking, camping, paddling, boating, playing and exercising. Learn from a Master Maine Guide & Total Weather Spotter. Course is presented on Zoom.  Students must have an audio- and video-enabled laptop, desktop, or tablet with reliable internet to participate in class. We do not recommend using a smartphone.

Your instructor, Chris Toy is the author of 6 popular cookbooks, a private chef, and has taught Asian-fusion cooking for several Maine community education programs. Cooking students will learn how to prepare a variety of recipes from Asia, Europe, and the Americas incorporating traditional and local ingredients. Each meal will actively engage cooks with the tools, techniques, and stories behind the dishes being created.

Escape to a Grand Victorian Inn, the Harbor View House in Prospect Harbor on the coast of Maine, with an intimate group of artists, cooks, and creatives! All meals are included in the workshop fee plus special activities to extend your learning from the day’s workshops, including a private house concert by Grammy balloted singer-songwriter, storyteller, and author Gordon Ward. 

Day students are welcome. For more information about the workshop, call Mary at 207-632-2251. To book your stay at the inn call 207-963-9122 or visit https://harborviewhousellc.com/  

Feedback from recent participants:  “I learned so much from Chris that I can use immediately at home in my own kitchen.”  “Great kitchen hints!”

Your instructor, Mary Laury is an accomplished watercolorist and highly esteemed teacher. She encourages all her students to believe they can be successful. Painting is an exciting medium; it flows and moves and does beautiful things. If you have never painted in watercolors, we will start at the beginning. If you have painted before, you will pick up some new tips and tricks as well. We all learn together!

Painting Flower Portraits in Watercolor is the focus of this retreat.  

Paint flower portraits realistically. You will paint pictures of flowers in detail, but more painterly than a scientific illustration. We won’t count veins, but we will count petals! Painting flowers is a wonderful exercise in observation.

Learn brush stroke and value

White on white flowers

Leaves, long and short

Iris, narcissus, orchids, tulips, and other spring flowers.

Materials list:

We will paint on smooth paper; Strathmore Series 500, one hundred percent cotton paper, either plate or vellum. This paper can be bought at Artist and Craftsman in Portland in large sheets, which we will cut up.

Bring a #2 round brush and a #6 round brush, pencil, palette, tube watercolors in the 3 primary colors and perhaps a green. Paper towels and water container. And bring a plant or flower specimen with no more than 9 petals. This is a slow and careful process and 9 petals and some leaves is enough happiness for us all.

Escape to a Grand Victorian Inn, the Harbor View House in Prospect Harbor on the coast of Maine, with an intimate group of artist, cooks and creatives! All meals are included in the workshop fee plus special activities to extend your learning from the day’s workshops, including a private house concert by Grammy balloted sing-songwriter, storyteller, and author Gordon Ward. Day students are welcome.

For more information about the workshop, call Mary at 207-632-2251. To book your stay at the inn call 207-963-9122 or visit https://harborviewhousellc.com/.  

Feedback from recent participants: 

“Great instructor!-Mary acts as a guide to develop our own style.“ “Easy no stress instruction.”

In the Thirsty Gourd Workshop, we will create a water bottle and a cup from a bottle gourd. In the class, we will learn a little about the cultivating of these gourds, harvesting, processing, and then creating wonderful works of usable art. Students will have time to personalize their creations with paint designs or experiment with wood burning. A variety of stencils will be readily available, allowing students to add an extra touch of artistry to their cups and bottles.

This three-hour course is for firearm owners and nonowners. You’ll learn what to do when you see an attack or if you are attacked and respond with force. You’ll learn how to contact the first responders, how prosecutors might view what you did, rules about concealed carry in the U.S. and Maine, and various ways to protect yourself without using a firearm. Students must have an audio- and video-enabled laptop, desktop, or tablet with reliable internet to participate in class. We do not recommend using a smartphone.

Make your own cards with love. These classes will teach you how to make beautiful cards, providing instructions and techniques. You will make four unique cards, and each class will teach a different design. The instructor fee is $5 per class (payable the night of each class) and there is always a door prize. All supplies are provided.