Saturday, October 18, 2014

SUNDAYS WITH SHARON: YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAT ON

IMG_9130I've walked past this little store for what I thought was a year. Turns out it's been open for three. Who would have thought this little hat store would thrive in the heart of Wine Country where we have foodies and wine enthusiasts from all over the world descend. But apparently it does. What makes it special is that they custom make their hats. Except or the special ones for the Kentucky Derby, they specialize in making men's hats. I didn't even know there was an industry for this, but I'm not a guy.

Every Easter, my mother would wear the widest brimmed hat she could find. She'd wear it straight on her face, bisecting her large square forehead and covering up her widow's peak someone from one of her father's churches said was the sign of the devil. I always thought she looked like Saturn with its rings. I wasn't into hats or gloves, another thing we wore on Easter and when we went to New York City, where every other person would yell "tourist" as we walked down the street. Made absolutely no difference to my mother, no matter how mortified my little brother and I were. It was a Miss Jean Brody kind of moment, "Come along," and of course we would. I mean, how would we get back to California?

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Later I would love the big floppy hats wit huge flowers all over it in my hippie youth, wearing them with granny dresses, platform shoes with real hardwood heels that really hurt when you turned your ankle, peace symbols and the biggest hoop earrings we could manage that wouldn't drag on our shoulders. Wearing a hat was a statement, just like the statement my mother made in church. With that straight brim and her strong brown eyes that could see right through a person, she might as well have worn a holster and a Colt .45. She was aiming for souls. I was so glad to be invisible and only in grammar school, where acting up was still a little on the cute side. I didn't have the taste for conquest. That wouldn't happen until later and then, well, that's another story.

This hat store was enchanting. Hats are very personal things. I became a different character with each little hit I tried on. A small green pointy hat screamed for a clown face and big red nose. The black clutch hats with a veil made me feel like the merry black widow plotting murder and mayhem. And then I came upon the mushroom hats.

IMG_9119Made in the mountains of Transylvania! How perfect for a pre-Halloween post. These hats are actually made from a special mushroom only grown there, and being harvested right now. I'm not sure if this was the birth of the phrase, "I'll eat my hat," but in California you never eat mushrooms without a spirit guide, not to mention an Emergency Room close at hand. They are odd little buttons, but very velvety and look more like imitation mushroom instead of the real thing. But they are the real thing. They even smell like real mushrooms.

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IMG_9127I rather liked this one in the end. It wasn't hippie, but had an ancient ancestor there. It was already folded and scrunched, which is more my style than the straight brimmed hat that had to live in a hat box three feet in diameter on a top shelf forever. I can't do the little feather and things the Queen Mum used to wear, but this one seemed to suit me.

So, hat's off to a great little store. As I wear two hats and launch into my 8th SEAL Brotherhood Series book, SEAL's Promise, I'm also promoting my paranormal series The Golden Vampires of Tuscany and The Guardians. Who says you can't wear two hats? I'm rather proud to say I can.

NYT and USA/Today and Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Author Sharon Hamilton’s SEAL Brotherhood series have earned her Amazon author rankings of #1 in Romantic Suspense, Military Romance and Contemporary Romance. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love. Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany earned her a #1 Amazon author ranking in Gothic Romance. A lifelong organic vegetable and flower gardener, Sharon and her husband live in the Wine Country of Northern California, where most of her stories take place.

 

sharonhamiltonauthor.com
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11 comments:

  1. I love hats of any kind, and I am lucky that most styles fit my face shape, I can get away with large brimmed hats or the baseball caps, or the more chique French berets. Not wearing them too often because of my big mass of curly hair.
    I've seen those mushroom hats back home, they were worn mostly by hunters and the wood wardens. They are warm and water proof, they are soft to the touch.
    I can totally see you in your hippy get up, fits you ;)

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  2. I love hats & wear them for fun (mostly baseball & visors). I love trying all of them on & I even look good in a hat. Sometimes I wish we still wore them.

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  3. Thought perhaps you'd know about the mushroom hats. It was quite a surprise for me. I never knew mushrooms could be harvested and made into clothing, water proof as well! Such an interesting world we live in! Thanks for stopping by. And yes, I can see you in lots of great hats!

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  4. I would totally have to buy a mushroom hat. I love hats but rarely get to wear them since we can't at work and they just don't work at home unless they are a ball cap.
    I am totally in love with your description of your hippy outfit. You need to find us some pictures for one of these Sunday blogs.
    Being born in 1970 I saw the tale end of the hippies as my Dad loved to bring them home. I still remember the last ones he brought home as she gave me a gold owl necklace that I had for years till it was lost in a move.
    Again thank your for doing these Sunday blogs you just don't know who much they brighten my day :)

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  5. Me too Lourie I think we lost something when we got away from wearing them

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  6. When i was younger i use to wear hats a lot. Our family love dressing up and we often wore gloves as well. Thanks for another marvellous post

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  7. Me too, Lourie!! We should have National Author Hat day. I could wear my tiara!!

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  8. Love doing them, Karen, especially knowing great supporters, such as yourself, are reading them!

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  9. I could never keep my white gloves clean. At the end of the day, they'd be grey and I just couldn't figure it out. Guess I just like to touch things, lol!

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  10. I remember wearing white gloves for Easter one year with my dress when I was little. They were ruined at the end of the day cause when we got to my Aunt's for dinner my Mom forgot to have me change and I went outside to play with the boys in my dress and gloves. The dress and the gloves were both trash :) But I had a ball

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