Petite fille dans un chapeau

For a lifetime of baby soft skin, begin wearing hats as a baby.

Age five months is a fine age to begin to discover your personal hat style.

Be bold...

Be romantic...

Be elegant...

Be eye catching.

Have you started to think of about what hat you will be wearing this fall?

(My friend's 5 month old daughter is the youngest HFP that I have ever seen!)

You Know Your Friend Knows You When....

BGF Gail scores again!

Gail is a Master card sender.

She has a knack of finding just the right card

to send to

just the right person

at just the time.

(Like she did to me with the Easter Hat card pictured above.)

Let me tell you just how good she is at this:
One day she found a birthday card that was just perfect to send to her younger sister.

So she immediately bought eight of them.

Then, a few days before her sister's birthday, she dug out one of the cards, sign it, and dropped it in the mail.

A year later, she mailed off the next one.

The year after that...another one was sent.

And so it went, year after year the same perfect card was lovingly sent.

Year #7 Gail's sister finally figured out that Gail had been sending her the same birthday card every year.

Gail was called; the joke was out.

They laughed together, and all was well.

The next year Gail sent her the same card all over again.

That happened years ago...and I am still laughing about it right now.

(And now maybe you are too!)

Decades

Hart and Missy admire each other's coats amidst the fallen golden leaves...secure in the knowledge that their coat "style" has been "in-style" since the beginning of time.

Sigh.

It must be lovely to be a cat.

On the other hand, the fact that human garment styles keep changing over time has its perks too.

For example: Human clothing can be enjoyed at interesting place such as "Decades".

Vintage (before 1950), Retro (1950-1990s) and Contemporary (the last ten years...) clothing is just plain fun to see. I had been rubbernecking this store front on my way to work (late as always....never time to stop) the past three months. Before that I kept hearing "You ought to go to Decades, you would love it!"

So...on my way home on my short work day last Thursday I made a point of finally going in to the store for a look-see.

I could have spent a couple hours just ogling the vintage costume jewelry...

Deciding which classic diamond broach I liked best....

(FYI: My Dallas based friend Bonita informed me of this little tidbit of good etiquette: if you are wearing a clear colorless jewel, you are wearing a diamond. If the jewel is a genuine diamond, then you say it is a "real" diamond. Thanks to Bonita, I can now say that my diamond jewelry collection is quite extensive!)

And then...swoon...there were the hats!

Hats formed a border all around the shop's ceiling, and there were several large hat displays and hat stands as well.

I had to laugh (and take a picture of course!) at the sign in the mirror over a trunk full of hats!

Obviously this is not a LDS member owned business.

Decades had dresses on display from 1890, 1900, 1920....every decade in fact. I especially was charmed by this dress. Can't you just imagine wearing this dress with your hair in a short gamine hair style, dancing to the music of a band whose members were dressed in tuxedos?

This heavily beaded silk dress is from the 1920's.

Twenty three skiddoo...bring on the spit curls!

Another beautiful silky twenties dress...this one a day dress. Can't you just see this dress breezing long on a shopping jaunt, a little grey tight fitting cloche hat on the head, and cute kid gray shoes, with a french heel and a mary jane strap across the instep?

(The dress was for sale at the unbelievable price of $80. Or at least that was what I was told...)

How about this matching hat and handbag? Can't you see them being worn with a smart fitted leaf green suit and shoes? Think 1950's again. That fabric! I'd love that fabric for drapery too!

(I'm very, very tempted to go back and get this set!)

Hand tooled leather bags galore! Isn't the bag with a leaping deer adorable?

Somebody tell me what one should wear with that tooled deer bag!

Yes...cats certainly do have fantastic timeless wear. No wonder we humans want to borrow their look from time to time. I confess...it was this very coat made me pull over and finally visit the shop. I think the coat is too small for me...I'm not sure...and I'm afraid I would buy it if it would fit!

I took quite a few pictures inside the shop...and only at the end of my visit was I informed that taking pictures was not permitted.

Ooops...my bad...

Pretend you didn't see any of these pictures, OK??? OK!