The Royal Treatment

I have plenty of craft projects I could talk to you about today. Knitting, sewing, embroidery... it's all going on at my house. But I watched the Royal Wedding this morning and now I feel inspired. I'm a sucker for all the fancy pomp and circumstance. Yes, I need to talk about the hats!

The parade of hat nuttiness that was filing into that church this morning was a feast for the eyes of this American. But, in my estimation, the hat of the day award goes to Princess Beatrice for her Lady Gaga-looking 3-D ribbon. It just makes me wonder what sort of creative direction these ladies give to the milliner? Hmmm....maybe...."I need something really tall, and nuts...that will show up those b*stards for not inviting my mother!" One can only speculate.

Beatrice is the one on the right...
Seeing all these hats this morning has compelled me to share my own unique "hat" obsession with you - my antique hat pin collection. I credit my mother for starting me off with a few beautiful ones she found at an estate sale about 15 years ago. Since then, I've been picking them up here-and-there at antique shops and estate sales. As collectibles go, hat pins are awesome on a couple levels. First off, they can be really gorgeous. Here are some images from my modest collection:

I thought the corgi was a good one to highlight on such a royal day.
Some of the collection in their holders.
One of my more curious, hand-carved pins.
The second great thing about this kind of collection is the size of the pins. They don't take up very much room and they are easy to display. With all my recent pontificating about living sensibly, you'd think that I'd be against collecting things. Nonsense! I am against hording and collections that sit in boxes. However, I'm totally for surrounding yourself with beauty or collections that can be displayed tastefully.

So these pins sit on my bedroom dresser where I can appreciate them and muse about with who and where they have been in their lives. Man, I love objects with a history of their own.

–Cassandra

5 comments:

  1. I have to admit, I got up early for the wedding! It was very sweet. I love little collections, I have one of crosses, even though I'm not very religious, I just love their ornate nature! And I can put them on the wall, so they don't take up any room!

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  2. That's the sort of collection that makes sense!

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  3. The positive aspects of collecting are "surrounding yourself with beauty or collections that can be displayed tastefully." Very well stated! I couldn't have said it better myself.

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  4. Never heard or thought about hat pins--but i love your collection!!! Very sweet and neat that it doesn't take up space.

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