Mrs. Essie Edwards, You Look Beautiful in That Hat! Contest Winner, Please Step Forward?

For those of you that attended the Rose Garden millinery classes with Mrs. Essie Edwards, well there is great news!  Mrs. Edwards is back teaching there--millinery and sewing.  This is your opportunity to take classes from a master in both crafts again.  Our retired and loved teacher is lending her time to all of us that have been morning her retirement.  So please come out in numbers to support her.  Mrs. Edwards has been a milliner for over 60 years; no fluff here.  This is the real deal.

In case you recognized the hat Mrs. Edwards is waring, it is the hat from my last post, Blocking on My First European-Style Hat Block.  This time Mrs. Edwards won over my granddaughter, because I knew she would cherish and really rock that hat; so, enjoy your gift Mrs. Edwards.

Contest Winner, Please Step Forward!
 
I am so guilty of not visiting my favorite blog sites, and when I visit I usually don't leave comments.  For the second time (or more), I will improve.   So I understand why some may do the same when visiting this site--Oh no! I have to log in?  Let me stop this moment and at least thank you for the number of daily page views I receive; I really appreciate them.  The response to this site has been fantastic.  I have truly realized my goal of giving back through millinery.

 I was thinking, What if I made leaving comments a little more fun?   So, at the end of the last post I asked several questions, for which no one responded to any of them.  The purpose of those questions was to select a winner of my little secrete contest.  Well, what I did was to choose a site visitor that had commented on this site very recently, satisfying at least one of the qualifying answers.  I don't think she is a member of the site (a first and may be the last), and I think she lives outside of the States.  Her name is Georgia Lordorche(?), and she is a student or was a student [from your profile]....  Georgia, since you are a student (you gave me some information about yourself in an earlier post before your last post--new to millinery), I will be sending you some millinery supplies (fur felt and straw, a hat stretcher, some millinery needles, and whatever else I can think of.  Or you may want to make  suggestions as to what you would like to have in your box of goodies--within reason :)   No, all questions contained in future posts will not be contest related....





Log-In for Site Members

Although I set up pages and a test log-in (extreme bottom of page) for site members months and months ago, I thought, This is not why I created this site--exclusivity to some.  A lot also had to do with the people that may be excluded and those that would actually take advantage of this site.  So, the log-in is at the bottom of the page, there for when I need it.  I will use it one day for something; maybe I will create a class for a site contest winner(s) or something.  Also when I presented the private log-in idea, I did not associate it with any contest, etc.; that's because I wanted to be able to change my mind if I became uncomfortable with the idea.  Another thing is that the volume of respondents is usually a little more than I want to manually handle (check membership, assign numbers, etc.).  Also the reason for the secrete contest was to capture the comments of those that took the extra effort to leave them without the coaxing from a contest.

Next Post?

I don't know what my next post will be, but I'm leaning toward an American-style hat block, blocking video.  What I need to do is get back to couture millinery (foundation covered hats), my first love technique.  So stay tuned.  What do you think?  No, this is not a contest question.  Anyway, I'll try to keep the site as exciting for the both of us as I can.  If you have any ideas, just let me know.

Hatstruck Attending HATITUDE! CAAM'S ANNUAL HAT SHOWCASE AND HAT COMPETITION

Myesha Collins, Grand Prize Winner

On Sunday, April 7, I attended Target Sundays at the California African American Museum (CAAM).  This Sunday featured Hattitude! CAAM's annual hat showcase and hat competition. Every year I would hear my millinery classmates talking about the event in class, and every year I had promised that I would attend it.  Well, this year I made it.  Although I missed some of the events, I arrived in time to enjoy the wonderful singing performances and a fabulous fashion show.  Mrs. Essie Edwards and her daughter Catiana accompanied me to the event.  I love, love being in the company of good people.  Thanks you guys.  Last came the hat competition! 

Before we arrived to the event, some of the attendees had created their own whimsical hats on site, and some of those creations were entered into the fashion show.  Competition categories included children, men, and women hats.  Some of the contestants modeled their purchased hats, some modeled hats that they had made at the event, and some modeled their own custom made designs.  Each category had a first place winner; there were no second place winners.  Of those winners, there was a grand prize winner, Myesha Collins.  CONGRATULATIONS MYESHA!  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of all of the contestants and their hats because I was standing in line waiting to model my hat; plus my little toes were cursing me for wearing heels.  There was so much excitement in line until I think most of us probably didn't think about taking pictures.  I took Myesha's picture only after the competition had ended.

The first place winner was none other than yours truly!  Yes, I was the first place winner in the women's category.  I didn't even think I would place because of the large number of church hats that were in the competition.  One of the judges told me that it was the uniqueness of my hat--the spider, etc.  It was unbelievable the number of inquiries that Mrs. Edwards and I received concerning our hats.  Apparently many people still want custom made couture hats and millinery classes.  Sorry, I don't do custom hats for others, and I've been a bit slow with the classes, but they're coming.          As always, click on the images to enlarge them.