Cartoon Horse with Hat-titude
Good morning, and happy Monday.
It is a bit chilly and gray where we are. Regardless if it is rain or shine, here is a classic hat to brighten every day. Vivian named the hat Lacey.
Color Matters writes:
“Yellow is the most luminous of all the colors of the spectrum. It’s the color that captures our attention more than any other color.
It’s the color of happiness, and optimism, of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring.”
See you again soon.
Hattingdon looks especially lovely in blue. Vivian adores her in it. For this post we got Vivian (not Hattingdon) to pick out some hats made in blue that she especially loves.
As you can see, we have started BIG. This is such a darling, fun hat, inspired by a summer breeze. We are loving the golden jewelry too. Sweet!
The next hat may very well be Hattingdon’s most elegant classic hat of all. It is made in a wonderfully rich blue, featuring a crisp, white paisley inspired pattern. “I am jealous. I would love something in that pattern made for myself,” says Vivian. We know what she means.
Hattingdon’s line of lampshade hats are truly wonderful and a huge fan favourite. The Cara hat in blue that Vivian picked out is especially lovely. Yummmmmm!
Coming up next is Vivian’s favourite classic hat design of 2022. She named the hat Quill.
We were doing an A to Z series of posts of popular hats. Toward the end we realized we did not have a classic hat with a name beginning with the letter “Q”. So Vivian created one. She really loves it too. That dark blue . . . . awesome!
The weather has been so off-the-wall crazy and unpredictable, you could wear the Breeze hat one day, and the hat coming up (Coco), the next next day.
Coco features a baby blue winter cap, trimmed with blue and white faux fur. Ain’t she sweet?
Hattingdon fans are still going Splash crazy. We hope you have been joining in on the fun. Here it is, made in the loveliest of blues.
Next up, here is our Hattingdon wearing a fabulous two-tone blue fedora. Now that is class. We named the hat Kelly.
We wrap up this post with a very classic classic hat — one of the very first Hattingdon designs Vivian created. Named Aspen it is made in two icy tones of blue, adorned throughout in a diamond pattern made of lacy white snowflakes.
Wow. What a nice collection. Hope you enjoyed it with us. See you again here soon.
Love, Hattingdon.
Greetings. We are almost in the homestretch. Only five more posts left in the series after this one. Even though it has been a lot of fun . . . . HOORAY!
As we mentioned, Vivian had only one hat design whose name began with the letter Q — out of all the 100s of designs she has created over the past 13, 14 or more years. Can you guess who it is? You “long timers” might know. (Hint: It is a fashion hat with a nautical theme).
Since the one “Q” hat we had is a fashion hat, Vivian had to get busy creating a brand new classic hat. Wow, did she do a lovely job. She named the hat Quill. How fab is this hat?
Vivian found the name Quill on one of those online baby name sites. You know the ones expectant mothers use to help find a cool and meaningful name for their baby? She certainly would never have thought of Quill as a possible name on her own.
Ahoy! Here is our solitary hat with a name that starts with the letter Q — a sweetheart hat (as Vivian calls this silhouette). As you can see, it is nautically inspired. Vivian named the hat Quinn.
Description: Quinn Hattingdon wears a nautically inspired sweetheart hat in a bold, dark navy blue. The hat’s wide, large, upturned brim is trimmed in red and white, and held in place by a large white anchor.
We have five days remaining, and ten hats. It will go like this:
Monday 23: Letter R
Tuesday 24: Letter S
Wednesday 25: Letter T
Thursday 26: Letters U, V, W
Friday 27: Letters X, Y, Z
Thank you everyone for following along with us. And a BIG thank you to everyone who has been helping Vivian with this project. You are all stars and have done a fabulous job.
Hello there. How are you? Are you hanging in with us okay? We are beginning to get close to finish line. Hooray! Until then . . . .
First up we have a very classy Classic hat. Love the colour combination. It is amazing how yellow and gray are always stunning together. Design name Natalie.
This hat was created in the very early days of Hattingdon Horses. Vivian has created several hats in this particular silhouette which she named the “mod cap”. This was her first one. Meet “Nina”. Love, love, love!
For those of you who have been writing about our providing a post or a page with links to the whole series, we will be providing something along those lines once we finish up. Our final day is Friday, 27th January. We will likely post the links to the entire series on Monday the 30th.
Thank you!
Updated 1/18/23.
We wanted to post Liberty Hattingdon today . . . . which we did. About 10 minutes ago. We also wanted to post a classic hat being it is Monday. So, we are double posting today!
Without further ado, here is Gloria —with a coordinating firecracker . . . . naturally.
Many historians believe that fireworks originally were developed in the second century B.C. in ancient Liuyang, China. It is believed that the first natural “firecrackers” were bamboo stalks that when thrown in a fire, would explode with a bang because of the overheating of the hollow air pockets in the bamboo. The Chinese believed these natural “firecrackers” would ward off evil spirits. Source: American Pyro.
The very first fireworks were used as early as 200 BC. However, the tradition of setting off fireworks on the 4th of July began in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, during the first organized celebration of Independence Day.
The Farmer’s Almanac tells us, “It is also said, that fireworks displays were used as morale boosters for soldiers in the Revolutionary War. At the time however, fireworks were the same type of explosives used in war and were called rockets, not fireworks. And so colonists celebrated the fourth even before they knew if they would win the war.”
The Declaration of Independence was announced on July 4th, though the formal signing didn’t occur until August 2nd, and the colonies actually voted to accept it on July 2nd.
There’s all kinds of cool stuff at the Farmer’s Almanac. Have a safe and happy 4th!
©Vivian J Grant. All Rights Reserved.
Well, here we are . . . . late again. What is it about Mondays? Sigh!
Just the same, here is a treat for you this Classic Hat Monday. It is one of the very earliest classic hats that Vivian created (2008?), and the design is so imaginative. She named it “Donna” — after Donna Karan of course, who uses rickrack in her creations.
We love how the black and gray stripes are set off by the multi colored “rickrack”. Speaking of rickrack, check this out.
Invented in the mid-19th century, [rickrack] took its modern form and current name around 1880.
During the 1890s, American home sewers used imported European rickrack as decorative edgings for dresses, aprons, and lingerie. Rickrack was also stitched into lace elements, which were then used to decorate bedding and other home linens. Between the 1890s and 1910s, rickrack experienced a decrease in popularity. Then, during the 1910s, rickrack experienced a resurgence in popularity, and American manufacturers began producing rickrack to supply to the domestic market.
In rural America in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, rickrack was used to decorate flour sack dresses. These dresses were worn as everyday attire, and were constructed from the large cotton bags that flour, chicken feed, and other goods were shipped in.
Since the food had to be shipped in fabric bags anyway, the flour mills competed with each other by using attractive, colorful fabrics that the buyer could either resell or upcycle into dresses, aprons, nightgowns, dishtowels, and other clothing and household items. Adding trim like rickrack was a way to reduce the stigma around needing to use whatever fabric was available, rather than buying it from a store.
Thank you for spending time here with us today. We hope you enjoyed it, and Hattingdon gave you a hatful of smiles.
©Vivian J Grant. All Rights Reserved.
Updated 2:29 pm
Hattingdon 