Party season is here!

Christmas is one week away! Time to gather loved ones and relish food, fire, and festivities. A couple of my holiday favorites are playing board games by the fire and dragging in greenery and berries from the woods. The best instant decoration around here is a long vine of smilax.  It grows vine-like in the trees with great green leaves that add spunk in a jiffy...just like a Glory B Hat! Speaking of party hats, I am making quite a few for various New Year's parties. I really enjoy putting together entire parties where all different personalities are represented through different styles of hats. Why is it that the right person always finds the right hat? I've had plenty of opportunities to observe this particular party phenomena! More on this later!
Meanwhile, enjoy all the ways you and your loved ones celebrate the season!

Here's a bit more about life and work on the bumpy dirt road named Malatchie.
One of the barns that I work in has all sorts of junk in it....lumber and bathtubs, windows and tractor parts, things that might come in handy one day. I've rigged up a spiffy little painting area inside this old barn. Ventilation is provided by swinging open an old window and using sticks to prop open two old doors that are mounted long-ways. A costume always helps me get in the mood to create....I wear an old jumpsuit, goggles, and "playtex living gloves". I turn on the music and my red Titan airless paint sprayer. I love that machine!! All the large colorful hats that I make are painted here in this barn using low v.o.c. Laytex paint.
Once the hats are dry, I haul them back down the dirt road to my house. The Glory B Hat studio is in the upstairs loft of my house. So far, this has been a very convenient arrangement for me, but the day is coming when we will outgrow this sunny small studio. Feathers, flower petals, glitter and pom poms find their way all over the house. My boys are very good sports about this. It IS a wonderful spot to create....lots of natural light, trees outside the windows, and inside, all my favorite materials used for creating and experimenting!

My very first blog post

Hello out there!
Thanks for being a little bit curious about Glory B Hats....I do have quite a few stories to tell and pictures to share. I think you will find them mildly entertaining. Some stories involve a donkey named Delilah, some are scavenger stories about how I gather and find my precious materials to make Glory B hats. Oh my, and I can't wait to tell about some of the great parties that Glory B Hats have gone to! First, I think I must set the scene of where I live.....and create!
I live on a very bumpy dirt road in Macon County, Georgia....this is really right smack-dab in the middle of the state. Our farm is part of my grandmother's farm and her daddy's farm and on back a couple generations. Thank goodness many things have changed (airconditioning and zero turn grass mowers!) and thank goodness many things have not (beautiful trees, lakes, quiet country noises). My family and I stay quite busy keeping up with the 97 acres that we are responsible for maintaining. I rent out a wonderfully quirky old house affectionately known as "The Shack" to gatherings of friends and families. There also is an old cattle barn that makes for a great party venue....it has hosted weddings, parties, reunions and, just last weekend, a magical musical happening called Big Bass and Bluegrass!! (www.bassandgrass.com) I think people enjoy visiting our farm because it still holds many treasures from days when life moved a little bit slower...there is a tangible feeling of all the good times that have taken place in the shack. "Back in the day", the farm was known as Malatchie Farms, our little slice we care for is called The Green Bell. You can check out some photos on the website: www.greenbellbedandbarn.com
I will tell you more about the barn where I paint the hats and the studio where I create the hats very soon!