Lighting up the Derby Party!

I never knew that I loved horse racing. That’s probably because I don’t…what I do love is getting all crafty to make a ridiculous hat for a chance to win some serious swag from one of my favorite spots in Somerville. This is the second year of the Kentucky Derby party at Five Horses in Davis Square, so I am going to show you the hat that I created to participate in the contest this year…

Shine brightly, as only neon can!

I started with a really cool fascinator that I found on Amazon for short money ($14?) I wanted something really frilly that could support my bright idea of glow sticks. I tested out different methods of attaching the sticks, but using tiny bits of string and coloring them black when they showed against the fascinator seemed to be the easiest to do. This hat was risky in general because obviously, I had to snap the sticks to activate the glow before I put them on the hat, so again… frantic construction the morning of the Derby. I have no idea how long glow sticks generally last (in hindsight, something I probably should have tested out) but I was hoping to at least get through the length of the party, including the construction time, transportation and of course the races. I had extra glow sticks in my bag just in case, but who the hell wants to start crafting at a bar when there’s mint juleps to enjoy? The one major flaw in my design was that I did NOT account for the extra weight that the glow sticks added to the fascinator. When worn by itself, its fairly weightless and therefore very comfortable. Once it was complete in its glowing glory, it was pretty heavy and definitely off balance. I had to tilt my head at a weird angle to keep the hat on while enjoying the juleps. I should have seen that one coming.

That year, the contest was based on audience applause and as returning champion, I went first. I guess my group of friends didn’t know how loud they had to scream as this other girl won first prize. Which was fine until she loudly announced that she couldn’t believe that she just pinned a flower onto a bar swag hat 10 minutes ago while the rest of us had “actually tried” and that her friends are just really loud. I felt bad for the everyone else that competed because all of our hats definitely took a lot of thought and planning to execute and this girl is the one that got rewarded.

But I wasn’t going to let this girl ruin my day. Since somehow it was still glowing, I wore my neon sculpture around the rest of the night. I looked like I belonged in the Disney Illuminations parade, but I didn’t care. It was so much fun to pass the hat around and take pictures of my friends (mostly the guys) as well as random strangers wearing the hat and striking some crazy poses. I wish I could post a few of those, but I need to ask permission first!