Seriously, I never knew how much fun hats could be before we moved to Louisville and encountered the millinery explosion that occurs around the Kentucky Derby each year. Beginning around March 1, nearly every store in the city has some hats for sale. I think the only places that don't have a hat display are McDonald's, AutoZone, and (maybe) Verizon.
A couple of years ago, the run up to Derby and the royal wedding coincided, so I decided to declare a new holiday, Hat Week. There was a week of posts, here, here, here, and here, for example. Last year it expanded to include a challenge, called Hats Off (do yourself a favor and check out the work of the participants, linked at the end of that post), with the reveal day on the same day as the Derby. This year, however, the Kentucky Derby is the same day as the BSBP8 reveal day, so no Hats Off challenge this year.
BUT, it's just too much fun to use Derby hats as inspiration (even though I get the stink eye from store clerks as I whip out my camera), so as we all gear up for the worldwide BSBP reveal next Saturday, I'm going to have my own celebration of Hat Week. By all means, if you want to join the fun, let me know, and I'll link your hat/jewelry pairings. And just to lure you all into the obsession with me, I'll include some pictures of other fabulous hats that I've found along the way.
To open the week, a beautiful yellow and black hat.
I love the contrast of colors, and the flowers somehow remind me of butterflies or some other flying things. My jewelry interpretation of this sunny beauty is these earrings:
Fun little lampwork rounds with sunny yellow crystals dangling beneath. Happy, happy, happy!
And here's a little something extra -- a photo I took of hats "spotted in the wild", worn at the Kentucky Oaks last year.
