The past couple of weeks have been a constant headache caused by the snails pace of the french postal system.  I have been awaiting many supplies to complete some fantastic bespoke fascinators, for some wonderful occasions.  Nothing has come.

As the work in the Head Full of Feathers fascinator design studio has almost ground to a halt, we found small pockets of time to get outside and get some work done on our beloved Blooie Scampette, our 1995 VW Transporter van.

We managed to borrow a jigsaw and cut out all the plywood panels for the walls.  Then we covered them all in the same sand coloured carpet, and screwed them in.  A pretty big job, but one that really changed the interior of the van.  Mmmmm, very very cosy!

Next to go down was a big thick layer of insulation for the floor.  We put in extra wood supports for where the rock n roll bed will go  and covered the whole lot with plywood board.

Then for a bit of personality; the black and white checked flooring!  A classic!

We got very very excited in the hardware store looking for the perfect colour to paint our cabinets that will be going in next.  Nothing came close to what we had envisioned - so we had this FANTASTIC green mixed for us.

And so this is where we are up to.  Ben has been painting and repainting the cabinets to get the perfect cover and sheen.   I'm about to get to work on the cushions for the seat/bed.  The apartment has turned into a Blooie Scampette workshop, but we are VERY happy with the progress so far!

Oooh, I think I just heard the post-lady.  I hope she has packages for me.
Back to feather fascinators for a while!

A few days ago I received a letter from an old friend.

From being great friends at school we went our separate ways for college, but stayed in touch by writing letters, pretty much every week. 

Having a handwritten letter plop through the letterbox of my student house was a great feeling., especially as most other mail would be uninteresting bills, which would largely remain unopened, and TV license reminders.

In the years since then, our lives took over and as we each moved from place to place the letters stopped coming.  Naturally we had been in touch by means of Facebook, but it’s just wasn’t the same.

Knowing that a friend has taken time out to put pen to paper and to tell me her thoughts of the day is a very special thing.  Learning she has suffered an aching arm, a cramping wrist and a hand that has almost seized up, just because the stories she wanted to tell me kept on flowing, really made me laugh out loud.

 

Now we have a pact.  We will keep on writing, not every week I’m sure, but we will keep the tradition going, we’ll keep in touch by the handwritten word, because it makes us both feel good.  (Hopefully our poor, weak writing hands will get stronger)

Oh yes, the gingerbread…

Inside the package, along with the letter I had been sent a gift.  It was an ENORMOUS jar of gingerbread mix!  Of course, gingerbread mix can’t sit about in the house for too long, so I got baking right away.   (erm…I think it goes bad, or something.)

So, my pictures tell the tale of the gingerbread, and my message to everyone today is; if you have a spare moment, grab a scrap of paper and write a little letter to tell your friend some thoughts and musings of the day (the sillier the better!) Stuff it in an envelope, stick a stamp on and send it on its way.  I guarantee warm fuzzy feelings!

THERESA!
AKA Faerie Moon Goddess, of Faerie Moon Creations.

THERESA!
AKA Faerie Moon Goddess, of Faerie Moon Creations. 
Check out her beautiful Blog - it's pretty!!
http://faeriemooncreations.blogspot.com/
 CONGRATULATIONS and email me your address Theresa!

Had a terrible week of Gremlins affecting the internet at home!  Things would load up, cut out, disapear.  Very frustrating, and not so great for Blogging!
Hopefully now they have had their fun and moved on.

All the time spent offline has allowed me to get on with quite a lot of work however, and have been having plenty of new ideas, so the Gremlins have been helpful after all.

A peacock feather fascinator. The bride will be wearing a stunning silver wedding gown, with silver filigree jewelry and deep plum as her accent colour.

The vintage inspired piece  made me admire the peacock feather more than I already did.  Just setting it with the deep plum colours makes the feather shimmer purple light.  Beautiful

A deep ivory, champagne and gold bridal fascinator with detachable champagne birdcage veil.  Made, similar to our prize draw competition piece, with lots of inturned bleached peacock feathers.  Volume has been added with extra feathers flowing from the back.

One here that I am currently working on, almost reachingHAT status!

I love the size of this.  The order was for large, flambouyant, green, blue and zebra.  I had so much fun making this that I'm planning on something similar for myself - just need to get myself to the Melbourne Cup!

And this one...
EEK!
How'd this get in here?!
Stealing my ideas, cheeky Gremlin?!!

Will be announcing last weeks Blog post prize here later today, so stay in touch!
As always - would love to hear your comments!

A little competition for all our Blog readers...  The prize?   This beautiful, one of a kind, ivory and gold peacock feather fascinator, made by Head Full of Feathers.

The fascinator is made up of 12 bleached peacock feathers, which have been carefully shaped into a flower shape.  The bleaching process takes away the deep colours of the peacock feather, but retains the shimmering iridescent qualities in beautiful creams and golds.

In the centre of the flower are 3 freshwater pearls, surrounded by a cluster of gold Swarovski crystals, which catch the light to beautiful effect.
The fascinator measures approximately 10cm/4 inches across and is set on a comb for ease of wearing in your hair while up or down.

This little fascinator is so versatile.  With it's subtle shades of gold it could be dressed up with a fantastic outfit and a pair of stunning earrings for evening, or could just as easily be worn to hold your hair back in the daytime.

To enter the draw to win this 'one of a kind' piece you can do one (or all four!) of the following things:

1) Leave a comment here on the Blog
2) 'Like' our Facebook page and leave a comment there (www.facebook.com/headfullofeathers)
3)Follow us on Twitter (@HeadofFeathers)
4) Tweet about our competition!

I will collect the entries on 16th July, and the winner will be announced by the 17th on this Blog (and by direct contact with the winner!)

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Our baby is a blue 1995 VW Transporter panel van, named Blooie Scampette.  

We recently started doing a home make-over transformation on her, from van to Camper .  (Think 'Pimp My Ride' but done tastefully without 7  flat screen TV's, and a result that we can explore Europe and sleep in.)

We shopped for all the parts back in England, and brought it all to Chamonix, France where we live, to put together.  Our little 'side-of-the-road' project, as we have no garage or driveway, has gained a lot of interest for locals and holidaymakers. 

A side window has already been put into the sliding door and we have a rock n roll bed ready to go in.

So far, there have not been any arguments over working in such a confined space, or artistic differences.  Although i'm sure Ben is sick of hearing 'measure twice - cut once' (and certainly enjoys it when I forget my rule!)

Getting the insulation to the sides and roof finished was a great.  Suddenly we are working inside a dark blue van, in the French midday sun, and we are kept COOL.  We have started carpeting the insides and celing (mmmm, cosy) and will soon start working on all the interior comforts we have planned and visualised.  The carpeting so far is going up quickly, just the interior panels  to do now...

Will keep you all posted on our progress.  We'd love to hear your comments and Ideas (we are always looking for new ideas!)

I have had a few questions recently about the birdcage necklace in the photo's in my last Blog post.  What a great opportunity for me to introduce a very talented craftsperson…

Her name is Noelle, her Etsy shop is called BabyJewlz.   I had been looking for a long time, for a birdcage necklace with the cage door open and two little birds escaping from it.  Of course, however hard I looked I could not find what I wanted.  My search was finally over when I sent a conversation message through Etsy to BabyJewlz, and explained what I was after.  Within a few short days Noelle had designed and made exactly what I had been searching for.   Only better.

 

Her seashell watch makes me dream of long lazy walks on the beach, and who could resist this cute little tortoise pendant.



For more fantastic items  from BabyJewlz's shop - click here

A very fun colour to work with, and I just love how orange and turquoise look together.  For the photos, it started to rain - but I quite like how the umbrella pictures came out!

The turquoise, orange and white Monsoon dress she will be wearing...

The inspiration board...

And the finished turquoise feather fascinator.
I'd love to hear your comments.

Here is a little piece that I am working on.  A good friend of mine asked for a fascinator to go with her beautiful dress from monsoon, in orange, turquoise and white. 

The dress is long and flowing, her personality is bold and beautiful.  I'll let you know what I come up with.