Today I was going to write another 5 things that inspired me this week post but instead I re-read a piece that I had written in my journal the other day and felt I wanted to share it.

 

One thing that I have been really struggling with recently is  Fear , not in a things that go bump in the night kind of way but the type of fear that builds up from self-doubt and niggles away and can potentially stop you doing the things you really love in the world.

The last 6 months have been pretty fab and I have taken a real leap forward in my path towards a creative life and building a future where my sole income is gained by creative means and becoming a professional milliner. However I keep doubting myself and my abilities, and on days where things aren't going quite as well as I would like I find myself thinking that I am wasting my time, that I have spent way too long in my office day job, that the only way that I could ever  be successful is if I quit my day job right now and dedicate  all my time millinery even though financially this really isn't an option.  I know everyone has times of self-doubt but sometimes I can't help feeling like I have already somehow failed and that I can't finish any project I start. Never mind the fact that I have had plenty of successful projects, worked on  some really great theatre productions lately and  have even got some more exciting opportunities lined up. 

The trouble is these feelings alternately can hold us back,  stop us pursing  the opportunities that come are way because we don't feel that we could possibly be good enough and mean that we do ourselves and our talents a disserve is. To combat this I have dei8ded to focus on something my Grampa, Papa, told me in an email he sent me recently, that what is shown through my work and my blog is my passion about millinery.  When I read that in his email I was really touched  but then it made me realise that my passion  for what I do is something that my negative thinking cannot argue about. I am persistently passionate about Millinery and building a creative life. Otherwise I would have not pursued it for as long as I have, or spent my time travelling to  London from Cardiff so many times to attend all the great courses that have built my skills.

When I thought about it further is that I realised that all the people who I admire achieved their ambitions, goals and did great things because they were passionate about what they did. It wasn’t just because they were naturally gifted or lucky or savvy.

 So this is what I own to myself and what I need to do every day is spend time feeding and expressing my passion. This is how I will champion over my negative thoughts and succeed in my goals. I am passionate about creating beautiful millinery that makes people smile, about building a creative life for myself and inspiring others to do the same.

 

 

Hope your all having a great week. xxx

 

Inspriational Millinery from the metrapolitan Museum of Art

Happy Friday everyone, today's post is my next instalment of inspiring millinery, and today I haven't focused on a particular designer or era or  style but on a particular source of inspiration: The online catalogue from the Metropolitan museum of art.

Now I had never really considered a museum website to be a realm of millinery wonder, and I really don't know why because when I searched the Met website for the word hat,  over 3800 results came up.

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The first piece I want to share is this lovely Egyptian cap. The information on the met website states this dates from between 3rd- 5th century I can't quite get my head around how old this is and yet the patters  and simplicity make it feel that it could still be worn today.

 

 

We now jump a few years to the rest that I picked out  from the met website archive all date from between the 40s and 50s  this was not a conscious decision but was just a coincident of the pieces that drew my attention this week. I have to admit at this point , I only browsed through the first few pages  but I know that  I can go back again and again to find new treasures. This red piece above was  created by Madame Suzy, I love its simplicity  and structural nature  and the combination of the snake skin centre and red felt around it.

This lovey piece is from Schiaparelli's 1940 summer collection. Having featured some hats from the relaunched  labels current summer collection last year it was lovely to  see a piece created by the Elsa Schiapparelli that would not have been out of place being worn today. I love it's Jaunty nautical feel and percher shape.

 

 

 

The final piece is this wonderous felt hat, this was the image that first drew my attention to the Met collection ( I found it on pinterest of course!) I just love the appliqué formed and it's sweeping shape, I have never thought to use millinery felt in this way building blocks of colour together to create motifs but it's definitely something I would like to try in the future.

 

Well I hope you enjoyed this glimps into some more inspiring millinery. Have a great weekend xxx

Weekly Inspiration round up- week 1

Hello Lovelies, hope everyone’s week is going well.

 
I thought I would a start little weekly feature sharing some of the things that have inspired my week.

This post was meant to go out before the weekend but I had a minor technical hiccup that delayed things a bit

So here is my round up of my 5 inspiring things for last week.

No.1 Sunflowers- my neighbours sunflowers are in full bloom at the mo and they never fail to brighten my day every time I walk past them, they are just so bright and Jolly

Image source  readersdigest.au, hdwallsource.com & sketch my own

 

 No.2 This lovely headpiece by Stephen Jones- I came across this whilst I was researching my last post, I love it’s light wispy structure and the way it seams to float around the head, (although I wish the model wasn’t smoking in the image- don’t think it adds anything to it really)

 

image courtesy of Stephen Jones athttps://www.facebook.com/stephenjonesmillinery

 No.3 My photos of Cardiff bay- I’m still really inspired by the  bike ride I posted about the other week and am really inspired by some of the images I took, now I just have to work out  how to use them in my millinery.

 

No.4 Geometric patterns- yep I know I’m a bit behind here but  I love geometric prints at the moment and they have even inspired me to create this triangular lino print!

 No.5 The Molly makes blogging Special edition- I bought this a couple of weeks ago and have literally read it cover to cover and then some! It has given me loads of great ideas for this wee blog and even inspired me to do this post!

 

And here is a tiny general round up

The last week has mainly involved:

Sipping cups of - good old English breakfast tea

Working to the sounds of  – Laura Mvala: Sing to the moon

Snacking on – Sweet potato Falafels