Millinery: Singing in the Rain

While the western United States sizzles, we here in Texas are getting lots of rain. I love rain, and I love the song "Singing in the Rain".

Now how many of you remember the scene where Gene Kelly dances in a deluge, splashing and tapping down a street, singing and swinging an umbrella.

Ever noticed what shops he goes by?

Take a look...and I wonder who's creations are on display in the window of the LaMallie Millinery Shop.

No wonder he's dancing. I'd be dancing too, in the rain even, if there was a cute little millinery shop like that on the main street of my town!

Millinery: Veils

Historically, veils were just another design element associated with hats, as common as today's trimmings of flowers, feathers, and ribbons.

In the 1940's veils were so ordinary that Norman Rockwell included a veiled woman in his painting
"Waiting for the Veterinarian"

I've photo-copied the picture in full, and below is a close up of the lady in the upper left hand corner.

She is apparently visiting the vet with her black standard poodle, which is seated obediently by her side. A trip to the vet, just another mundane errand to run. "Let's see," I imagine her saying, "Where did I put my veiled torque?"

Personally, I am both fascinated and puzzled by veils. Fascinated because veils were worn with such aplomb by the likes of Katherine Hepburn, and other fashion icon as contemporary as Madonna. Puzzled, because I am never sure when to wear one.

Currently wearing a veil at any time other than down the aisle on one's wedding day causes children to stare, and men to rush over to strike up conversation.

Explanations are demanded, and I really can't come up with a good one, except I like how veils look on a hat, and am slightly less sure of how I feel about how they look on me.

My dad recalls his 1890's born aunt, (who later held a degree from Columbia and a Masters from USC) as frequently wearing day hats with veils. She appeared, as he put it, mysterious.

Here are two veiled hats I've created, that I actually do wear frequently. They are just the thing to make me feel elegant, and casual at the same time on a hot humid day. And if someone thinks I look mysterious in them, well then, so much the better.

Lake Houston-Summer

This is the part of Lake Houston that is about a football field from my house. Lake Houston is a man-made lake, and goes for many miles down towards the gulf. It is really neat to walk to, as there are paths all around the lake, winding through woods and meadows.

I have seen fireflies in the loblolly pines at night, and deer, and several kinds of snakes (eeekkkk!)

The water is a muddy blue, as the soil is clay around this area. That real southern "muddy water" motif, along with cicada sounds in the trees, warmth, humidity, and cypress knees poking up around the water edge makes it all seem "another world" to this southern California native. Sometime I just can't believe I am so lucky to have all this just a short walk from my front door.

I've swam in the water, just to say I did. You can almost walk all the way across up to shoulder level. People do catch fish, and B. and I bought flies to go fly fishing, someday.

I thought I would post this as a beginning of a four season study.

 

Reaction: Pew research on bloggers

A few highlights from the newly published Pew Research on bloggers entitled:

Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet's New Storytellers

According to Alexander Halavais, an assistant professor of interactive communications at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut:

"The average blogger is a 14 year old girl writing about her cat."

The report also says there are about 12 MILLION people writing blogs. That is a lot of 14 year old girls with cats, if you ask me.

Tidbit and Tiggie approve of this trend.

They think that I am a 14 year old girl.
(What do they know...)

The study commented that the under 30 blogger writes as a means of self expression, and the over 50 to 64 year olds writes to convey practical knowledge or skills.

Hmmm...does millinery come under the heading of conveying "practical knowledge or skills"?

Duh. Of course! Everyone should know how to whip up a really cool hat using a bowl from Ikea or Marshalls.

Another interesting (to me at least...) quote:

"Of all the bloggers out there, there are only about 10,000 that have an audience beyond their friends and family," said B. L. Ochman, a business blogger who tracks online trends.

Math has always been my weak point, but....

If there are 12 million bloggers, and only 10,000 are read by non-friend and family, then the fact that I am apparently read by a few people who are not family (based on comments that are posted to my blog), would put in in the top what percent?

I really should run next door and ask my neighbor who is working on her Phd in Discrete Mathmatics to crunch those numbers for me.

But roughly I would say ***I am floored****

Now, back to the report.

Who are bloggers?

14% of bloggers are in my age bracket (50-65)
Sadly, only 2% of bloggers are over 65.
54% are under 30.

Like under 30 year old have so much important insight, and why are the over 65 (who are RETIRED for heaven sake, they should have time for this) not putting their acquired wisdom out for electronic eternity?

Interesting also that 60% are white. The other races make up the rest. The voice of the minority is being heard. I wonder what percentage of bloggers are white over 65 year olds?

95% of bloggers get their news from the internet. Read: They really care about what is happening, and seek out information several times a day. They may read a news event from several sources, staying well ahead of the curve of the local newspaper edition.

47% of blogger also read what other bloggers are saying about the news.
A public forum, at last!
Pictures rise up in my mind of colonial gents crowding the town square to hear the latest "Hear ye, hear ye!" pronounced, and then discussing the news with each other, eventually birthing a nation.

How fabulous to read reactions not filtered by news media, and television and radio personalities.

77% of all bloggers have shared something that they have created, such as artwork, song, poem, story or video.
One blogger in Texas shares her hat making.
(I'm making that last part up, it wasn't really in the report. This time.)

35% of bloggers take the time to verify facts before publishing.

13% post daily.

Bloggers are evenly split between men and women. So it isn't just a guy thing or a girl thing.

The most popular blog tool for those with a college degree is Blogspot (my personal choice)

27% of American's have college degrees
37% of bloggers have college degrees.

13% of Americans are knowledge based professional workers
38% of bloggers are knowledge based professional workers.

The Pew study was partly titled "New Storytellers". I had the rare opportunity to study story telling in graduate school. Most people think story telling is just a "Once upon a time..." narrative.

They are wrong.

Story telling is the communication of an event, a vision, or a signifier from one person to at least one other person. I personally believe it is story telling that keeps society and families whole. Once a society or family stops telling stories about themselves, then it is as if that society or family has no past.

The Hawaiian people use the phrase "talk story" to signify that they want to get together and talk.
Like "We need to talk story, wanna come over tonight?"

I think blogging is just another way to "talk story". And I am truly grateful that blogging is such an easy forum from which to share.

Millinery: In the Pink

Pink parasisol straw hood (did you know it takes a weaver five days to make one hood-the blank straw hat shape?)
Ribbon flowers created by me.
Finally decided to do a bias drape after fighting a wide satin pink ribbon that did nothing for the hat.
How many times did I block it?
Four.
One low crown, one high crown, (see prior post!) one inverted crown with flat brim,
and finally....

Tally ho!

A riding hat shape galloped into my creative mind's eye, as I walked between the kitchen and the hat room.

This hat and the purple "It's the Berries" hat are for sale!
I plan to propose doing a trunk show at a local shop, but that is still in the dream stage. Get 'em before the merchant jacks up the price!


 

Millinery: The Houston Hat Net

A few years back I bought my first ****seriously**** priced hat. My husband said this would be a one time event, a statement that brought out the burning desire for more hats!
I discovered a Hat Chat electronic posting board. On the board was an announcement that hat lovers in New York would be welcome to meet for lunch at such and such restaurant on such and such date and time.

I was crushed. It sounded like sooooo much fun. But soooo far away.

So I posted asking if there were any hat wearers in Houston (the 4th largest city in America, by the way....) which is just an hour from my town of Kingwood.

Lo and behold, Kate Pernia replied that indeed there were hat lovers in Houston, and that they had formed a group called The Houston Hat Net. Kate actually was the founder. She claims that she went to a society wedding and was the only person wearing a hat. What a let down!
She rounded up a few hat wearing friends and they later went out, hatted, for lunch.

The rest is history.

The Houston Hat Net has a website:

http://www.orgsites.com/tx/houstonhatnet/

and currently the site is flattering me by having my "It's the Berries" and "Traveling Hat" on the home page. Silly me, it just makes me feel ooie-gooie happy to see my hats on that website.
Thanks Marie! (she's the webmistress over there)

If you have a chance to visit Houston during one of the HHN events, put on your hat and come along.

A fine group of ladies in the finest of hats makes for a mighty fine time!

>HTML< and =....

Bless me somebody, I've added a LINKS side bar! Now you can bounce over to my favorite blogs (after reading mine first of course...) with just a click.

I'm amazed that I was successful using html enough to get them there, even if the title isn't the right font (help me, somebody, please!) and the links squish ARCHIVES.

ARCHIVES for June 1 is under MAY 2006. Go figure.

If you know how to fix this, let me know. I even used a BOOK to try to figure it out!
Otherwise, just squint, and turn up the radio, so maybe it won't be so noticeable.

Hint: Turning up the car radio works when the car is making a funny noise and you don't have the time and/or money to fix it after you learn that the noise is not car life threatening.
(This hint from daughter Laura, the Road Warrior Princess RN.)

Introducing my Grandbaby Sebastian

("Good Lord!", I hear you say. What is THAT?)

THAT.... is Sebastian.

Yup, I do have a grandbaby. Sebastian lives with his daddy, our son Jeff, in Salt Lake City.

My first grandbaby was a bearded dragon lizard. And pathetically, I was over the moon when the darn thing laid an egg.

The egg didn't hatch.

Sigh.

But then Jeff got me a grandkitty. Sebastian. An adorable kitten, he is now full grown and has lived in a variety of settings including a fraternity house, beach house, and apartments. He is a remarkably calm cat considering some of his former housing situations.








Lots of my friends have grandchildren, and they show me charming pictures of their adorable "grands" fresh from their baths, looking angelic and oh so huggable.

I am so jealous.

So here's my "grand" fresh from his bath.

Once he dried, he looked a lot better.

I think I have the cutest grandcat in the whole wide world.

(FYI: Sebastian, AKA "Meowsie" really does have to be washed in water regularly, either by a pet groomer or Jeff, as the long fur in his..., er, um, private quarters, gets unhygenic otherwise. Ewww.)

Millinery: How the purple block came out: It's The Berries!

This may look simple, but it was not.
It took a couple of tries to get it right, as I struggled with brim issues, and silk too fine to hold a swirl, but here is the finished product.

It is made from an eggplant colored parasisol straw hood, first blocked on a profile block, then low rise crown block, and finally the tip was re-blocked for more rise. Brim is hand shaped.

Hat band is hand dyed (not by me!) china silk.
The ribbon store owner requested they not be identified.
Wonder what THAT is all about.
The rest from Leko.

Millinery: A trip to buy ribbons

Yes...I did go nuts.
And yes, it does add up.
Wonder if it might be cheaper to just become a drunk?
Then I could to AA meeting, and they are free.
There aren't any RA (Ribbon Anonymous) groups.

Yet.

Don't you just love Myrtle?

Myrtle is everywhere! Crepe Myrtle that is...she is blooming at every intersection, around every parking lot, and is frolicking down the parkway on the road out of Kingwood.

I keep trying to stop on the streets to take Myrtle pictures where there is no parking available. Not everyone appreciates a flower freak hanging out of a car window, blocking traffic. I wonder how people could NOT want to stop and stare at all this beauty along with me!

Crepe Myrtle comes in white, pink, lavender, deep rose, grape, and fuchsia. The south's version of lilac, but sadly, without the scent.


Myrtle does have more than one "party piece" though: After she does her tulle prom dress turn in summer, she steals the show again in autumn, clad in her blazing golds and apricot colored leaves.

And she is not afraid to appear in the nude either...in winter her bare limbs are a smooth pinkish gray with lovely subtle colors splashed about as accent tones.

She also adds brown jingle bell shaped pods to her finger tips, just in time for the holidays.

She sheds her bark as she grows in lovely curls of rusty brown, and is frequently spangled with anoles, bright green colored lizards that pose on Myrtle's limbs, secure that they have found a perfect setting for their tropical reptilian selves.

Passionate!

There is a new park in Kingwood, that is, new as in developed last year. I kept meaning to visit it, but was always too busy.

Yesterday I decided that "busy" was going to mean going to the park and taking pictures.

The park has a semi-circular path, and along the path are benches with trellis on the sides and over the top, designed to provide shade.

These passion flowers were twining up and over the benches, scenting the air with the most seductive perfume imaginable. I could imagine sitting down and never being able to leave the magical mesmerizing colors and fragrance.

The flowers have a secret: The under side of each flower has its own magic: The stamen is orange yellow when seen from behind, and the sepal and petals are arranged in an alternating purple/green/purple/green design.

I love flowers with a secret surprise. And if it wasn't for the fact that it is in the low 90's in that park, I think I would find a lovely lavender and green gown and a purple hat to wear, and I would go sit on one of those benches and write poetry.

It is so beautiful there, I'd bet the poems would just write themselves!

Millinery: General Andrew Jackson weighs in.

This felt roll brimmed hat was purchased without trim in New Orleans in December 2000. It was perfect to wear in the foggy wintery coolness of that lovely town.

As it was nearly Christmas during our visit, the town had actors strolling around dressed as historical characters that had lived in New Orleans in the past.

As luck would have it, General Andrew Jackson was taking a morning walk when Bernie and I were out early, sight seeing. I was wearing this hat, as it was purchased, without a single bit of decoration yet added.

General Jackson paused upon seeing us, tipped his hat to me, and said in a decided tone:

"Madam, my compliments on your chapeaux".

And continued on his way.

I didn't even get a chance to inform him of the fact that we lived on "Old Hickory Street", (we resided in Dallas area at the time.)

Nor did I have the opportunity to tell him that my husband's great- great-great grandfather served as a dragoon under his command in the War of 1812.

The General looked in fine fiddle clad in his uniform, and I hope he fared well during the last bout of unpleasantness that troubled that fine city.



Now there are two feathers in my cap...plus peacock hurls, (the grassy looking stuff), a jade and gold pin, vintage velvet bow, velvet leaves, and vintage netting with dots as a hat band.



And Tiggie wants to know when do we invade Japan?

YOU ARE INDIGO

"Of all the shades of blue, you are the most funky, unique, and independent.
Expressing yourself and taking a leap of faith has always been easy for you".

This bit of psychobabble insight about myself was gleaned by taking the quiz:

"What color blue are you?

Feel free to take the quiz yourself!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorblueareyouquiz/

Millinary: Not right the first time.

Remember the other day when I was gleefully blocking four hats in one day?
The blue one turned out great!





The pink one...well, it has turned into one of those "if first you don't succeed..." projects.

The first blocking I thought the little raised bumps in the straw weave were cute. A nice textural detail. So I put them on the outside when I blocked the hat.

Then I was just stumped with what to do with the excess brim. I wanted a wider brim but the shape would only allow so much distance. So I just pleated the excess under. That looked great, on the block, but when I tried it on....em, well, I'm not so sure this is such a great idea. But dang it, maybe if I just fold the brim up into the hat and stitch it to the crown. Using a chain stitch so it will come out easy if it is not quite right.

The thread caught on each bump. Worse, when the folded inside the VERY raw prickly spikes of straw ends were against the head and forehead skin. OUCH!
I considered a heavy sweat band. Then thought probably everyone will wonder why I made the hat inside out. Not everyone appreciates texture.

So I ripped out the chain stitch, stitch by stitch, as it didn't pull out at all!

And have re-blocked. Made the crown taller, and rolled the edge of the brim.

Today I will head out to the fabric store to figure out a band fabric, as the tacks left dark gray marks around the hat. You can see the marks if you look closely above the pins in the last photo.

PS: I just finished Fanny Flagg's new book "Can't Wait to Get To Heaven". Put on a straw hat, pour yourself some pink lemonade, pull up a lawn chair under a tree, grab that book and give yourself a summertime treat.