Hello dears, Henrietta here!
I feel a bit of a neglectful old girl for not posting before now, but it's that busy time of year again for us! Priscilla and I spent hours on Saturday going through all sorts of little shops looking for hat pins. It wasn't easy, I must tell you. We saw wonderful glass beads, beautiful feathers and dazzling rhinestones, but store after store had no hat pins. Who would have thought these little, metal delights would become such a precious commodity?
It's very windy riding a broom and being fans of a wide-brimmed look in the hat department, it's quite necessary to affix them on securely. The unfortunate things is even the most obedient and well-trained hat pins tend to wander off on their own, getting helplessly lost. All of the wonderful old silver pins Auntie Willemeana left us have one by one gone missing. This culminated last year at our annual Balls Falls outing when we found ourselves without a single pin to protect our points!Luckily the ever resourceful Priscilla came our rescue.
You see she had been enjoying a pumpkn spice tea while chatting as I organized the kitchen in anticipation of stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey. I had bought a brand new package of skewers with sparkling sharp tips and I had washed and laid them out to dry. I prefer the long, metal skewers to sewing up a turkey with kitchen twine and a needle. It's something my mother taught me and I've never been convinced the other way is any better. Priscilla asked about this and I shared my technique with her, demonstrating on an old tea towel.
Later that morning as we gathered out hats and brooms in preparation for th journey to Balls Falls, Tessie broke the news that all of our hat pins were missing in action. Luckily, Priscilla recalled the long, metal skewers and thought that if they worked in turkey skin and tea towels, they would work just as well in satin or felt. We swore each other to secrecy and thrust the things through our hats. To our great joy they worked quite well, thought perhaps not as pleasing to the eye as they could be. Priscilla remarked that it being Thanksgiving, they were quite appropriate and thought them a novel fashion choice. (Mind you, she's a witch that can make a potato sack look like a Paris original with a bit of work.)
Well my dears, I am proud to tell you all that after much searching we found some new and unadorned hat pins and are looking forward to adding jewels, beads, feathers and more over he next few days so that we will have them for Thanksgiving this year. Do look for them if you run into us at the festival, though if you look closely you may a few turkey skewers in with the mix just for fun!
Here's an interesting looking little book on hat pins. I must confess I haven't read it myself but I am intrigued. Perhaps it would do for a stocking stuffer this Christmas for Priscilla? Shhh! Don't mention it to her so we can keep the surprise.
