It's been a gorgous week off! As promised, here's a record of my pre-Christmas escapades for the latest commission :)

The Handmade Monday Massive are reliably more crafty than me and have been Christmassing it up to the max!

In the meantime, have a super New Year's Eve tomorrow and may your 2014 be happy, healthy and full of hats! :) See you next year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And as a result I have to confess that I've been doing more Christmas shopping / chutney making / glittery nail painting than I have hatting for the past week or so...which makes for a slightly shorter than usual blog post!

(Just to prove that I have been creative this fortnight, if not entirely headwear focussed...) ;)

Roughly based on 'Laced Up #2' (left - similar to Laced Up #1 but with pointed petals), Chris's head piece is in Superneutral sinamay, with more layers of rolled edge petals and some frankly spectacular burnt pheasant curls...

...Except when I ordered the curls, they were the wrong colour (my fault entirely - never assume that when different suppliers use the same name for a product, it means you're buying the same product! Eek!) and my usual supplier has run out of natural coloured curls.

Tricky.

As a result, I'm currently in the process of transforming these freshly sourced cock pheasant tail feathers into couture-y burned curls in the middle. First stop: the freezer to kill any beasties lurking in the fronds!

The wedding is in between Christmas and New Year, so I'll definitely have the results to show you next time! Wish me luck...!

One project which I did finally finish was this beaded wire pin to hold Vivienne's large sun hat brim off her face. The pin (and her other two hats) are currently in transit somewhere between here and Sydney! (Hat Guardians in Chief, Jess and David, are having a rather adventurous and unexpectedly detoured flight - safe travels my loves!) :o/

Before I get cracking on the latest decorations (I'm trying these - amazing!) and the dreaded Present Audit (when you think you've finished shopping but somehow all the presents seem to have shrunk since you last looked in the bags...) I'm swinging by Handmade Monday for an inspiration boost!

And with that, I bid you all a fabulously festive fortnight indeed and I'll see you on the last Monday of 2013!

Merry Christmas you lovely lot! x

Whoa! Deadline central this week! The latest commissions are all boxed up and ready to fly off on their Antipodean Adventures - I'm so excited to see them on and with their outfits (which are frankly amazing - this is a lady knows an awesome dress when she sees it!) Photos hopefully ready early in the New Year!

I also managed to get this 60's inspired / Queen of Hearts vs Diamonds percher into the window of Coco Rose in time for the Warwick Victorian Market last Thursday! It was a close call (a 1.30am-er... thank god for red wine!!) but totally worth it for the passing footfall (and mulled wine on the night ha!)

I'm so pleased with it! It was originally designed to go with a different dress (huge black, white and red square print) which sold before the window was dressed, but luckily I hadn't incoporated any white into the design, and so it happily sat alongside the understudy ;)

I spent another well-overdue Saturday in the company of Rose this weekend, and finally fnished off the Monster Brim, ready for Sue's shop for Christmas!

If you're a bride-to-be, pop in to her open day on Saturday to see her latest gowns and accessories - they're enough to make you want to get married! ;) I for one am in love with her lace shoes - a) no betrothal required and b) I think they'll look great with my new leather(ette) skinny jeans!!

Rose casually told me to find the turban block marked HMQM. It's a beautifully balanced asymmetric block...and HMQM denotes that it was one of Her Majesty the Queen Mother's blocks. Just another day in the life of a Rose Cory student ;)

It sounds antisocial, but I love pottering round a gallery in my own company: it's a real treat! For obvious reasons there was no photography allowed inside the exhibition, and in my usual disarray, I left my moleskin in my bag when I put my bag into the clockroom, but those failures aside - GO AND SEE THE ISABELLA BLOW EXHIBITON at Somerset House. Seriously. It's literally the best show I've ever been to, and when I caught sight of the first Philip Treacy hat (it took me by surprise) I gasped and burst into (rapidly suppressed!!) tears. They're something else. I can't decide whether I'm hugely inspired to aspire, or so overwhlemed that everything seems hopeless! I'm erring on the side to the former ;) The catalogue is my Christmas present - when I own a coffee table, it'll live on it.

And with that it's Handmade Monday o'clock! Have a super couple of weeks and I'll see you a week before Christmas! Argh and yay! :P