Red Hat Society World Wide Hoot

Princess Lele, Red Hat Lady, (Sassy Sam of Les Angels Purpel')
and Queen of Gaudy Gabigail,
all of Wild West Women of Weatherford

Princess LeLe of Eagle Mountain on a safe mount!

Queen Rowdy Red of the Les Angels Purpel' of Azle, Texas

June 25, 2011

Several members of Wild West Women of Weatherford Red Hat Chapter drove to The Fort Worth Stockyards to take part in the Red Hat Society World Wide Hoot with over 100 other Red Hatters from across the state of Texas.

These ladies are from the Houston, Texas area
and they are all about show biz!

They were just too cute not to get a close up shot!

Queen Rowdy Red, Queen Madame MaryCay of Diamond
Divas 10, Princess Lele of Wild West Women and others

Isn't this a beautiful specimen of a Looong Horn?

We met and greeted many Red Hatters, shopped and watched the cattle drive consisting of Looong Horn Steers and handsome cowboys on horses as well as one female (hurrah!) drover. It really frightened me after I got home and looked at my photos realizing how close I was to those horns.

These lawmen were a fun group!

Carla Kerr, National Ambassador getting into the spirit of the Hoot

How to you think Queen Rowdy Red looks with a blond mustache?

She's sporting purple balloon long horns!

We even interacted with some good looking gun slingers and a balloon making clown who made fabulous long horns out of balloons. The glitz and bling was readily apparent to all who approached us as we mixed and mingled.

They just don't get any glitzier or blingier than this lovely lady!

We hope all the Red Hatters around the world had as much fun as we did on Red Hat Society World Wide Hoot Day. We're looking forward to next year already.

This is all I have to say for now.

Red Hat Luncheon

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Our beautiful Queen of Gaudy Gabigail

Joyce Bruton, our talented, crafty member with the winning smile

The one and only Alta Fisher, game for anything

Nine members of Wild West Women of Weatherford Chapter of the Red Hat Society gathered at Nizza Pizza in Weatherford, Texas for a fine Italian luncheon. Members enjoyed everything from pizza to spaghetti to chicken piccata.

Birthday Girl Kay Roberts surrounded by Alta, Shirley, Pat C. & Pat R.

Back Row: Ann, Queen Gail, Shirley, Pat C., Carla & Alta
Seated at table: Kay, Pat R. & Joyce

A handsome young man happened to be trying to eat his lunch in the midst of all our noise and he volunteered to take this photo so we could all be in it.

Since this is Kay Roberts' birthday month, we sang happy birthday to her and shared a large slice of cheese cake. There was much good hearted banter and laughter as we visited back and forth. Lots of discussion about our upcoming Red Hat International Convention in New Orleans in August and the World Wide Hoot coming right up on June 25 where we will be gathering at the Ft. Worth Stock Yards with other North Texas Red Hatters.

This is all I have to say for now.

Twelve Years and Counting-TOTS, Recent Books

Sunday, June 12, 2011
After enjoying our usual late Sunday breakfast, on this our 12th wedding anniversary, Doug and I got ready and went to Theater Off The Square (TOTS) to see The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood.

Carla with Crystal Rincon "Lady in Waiting" (Screamer)

Carla with Alex Enslow "Robin Hood"
and Brittany Morgan "Lady Marian"

This play is so much fun and the actors had so much fun doing it. It is extremely campy, but who cares? They carried it off in fine style. Doug had his trusty smaller camera with him and took a couple of shots afterward to commemorate the event.

We left there and drove to the Tokyo Seafood and Steak House in the Lowe's shopping center on I-20 for dinner. It is Habachi style and we always enjoy the food cooked by hilarious chefs doing tricks with their spatulas and forks. I highly recommend this restaurant.

We came home, got comfortable and wore ourselves out cheering for the Dallas Mavericks. How about those World Champions of Basketball? It was a thrilling end to a perfect anniversary and we're looking forward to many more (anniversaries, that is).

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I feel I've been remiss in not sharing with you books I've recently read. I found "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain interesting reading, but not that exciting.

"Follow the River" by James Alexander Thom, a novel based on the true ordeal of Mary Ingles, was chock full of interesting facts about the Comanche Indians, her being taken by them, living among them and subsequent escape. The story of her survival in trying to return to her husband is most difficult to read. This book like an earlier one I read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, is definitely a story of incredible human survival against all odds. I wanted Follow the River to be over long before it was. The suffering is almost more than a human can bear even just reading it.

I am currently reading "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny Scott. It is well written, but with a lot of repetition concerning her work in Indonesia and many other Eastern countries in anthropology, banking, farming, etc. I am about three/fourths of the way through it and will finish it because she really was a remarkable woman.

I also read "Sons in the Clouds" by Randy Mitchell. Randy is a new author and this is a well written novel. It reads rapidly and the setting is in Dallas, Texas around White Rock Lake which struck a chord with me. You really need to pick this one up and give it a go.

If I haven't mentioned it, I have now published my second book, one of a series of three written for young people. The overall title is "Cherokee Adventures" with Book 1: Linnie and Aaron being loosely based on my great-great grandparents. You can order it at lulu.com. Book 2: Fort Gibson at Last, is slated for publication in August, 2011. Reminder, I write under my maiden name, C. C. Crittenden.

This is all I have to say for now.

PCWNC Book Club, PCWNC Board Meeting

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
As you can see, I'm way behind in communicating with you. By way of excuse, I really have been concentrating on my next book, "Cherokee Adventures" Book 2: Fort Gibson At Last. This is the second in a series of 3 books written for young people about Cherokee Indians, loosely based on the lives of my great-great grandparents. My goal is to publish this second in the series in August so I'm under the hammer to complete it. Historical fiction takes a lot of time to accomplish because of all the research that must be done to make the novel credible. I spend my time at my computer with a dictionary, a thesaurus and Google on call as I write. On Monday and Wednesday evenings I am taking one hour online classes learning the Cherokee language through the Cherokee Nation educational web site. This is helping me because I use a number of Cherokee expressions in this series of books and I want them to be correct.

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Thursday, May 12, 2011, the PCWNC Book Club met in the home of Mary Ellen Astidillo. It was a fantastic experience because the only way to describe her home is "doll house". She has combined antiques, various other furniture eras and items she found in her travels to make an absolutely beautifully decorated home. We reviewed the book, "Gay as a Grig" by Ellen Bowie Holland, who was an early settler in the Weatherford area. She had an interesting outlook on life and terrifically interesting descriptions of many things, people and situations. Mary Ellen suggested, when we chose the book, that we pay particular attention to Ms. Holland's descriptive phrases and this led to an even more interesting reading experience.

Mary Ellen Astudillo greeting Becky Tripp

Opal Dale and Carla Kerr

Polly McLean with Mary Ellen (Polly says we always catch her with her mouth open)

This closet is actually a life size doll house

When we arrived, she took us on a tour. She inherited many antiques from relatives, has traveled extensively, lived in other countries and has managed to mingle all the items she found along the way with the antiques to create a beautiful home. It was a grand experience for all of us.


She served ice cream sodas, cookies and various other goodies in her formal dining area. We had our choice of flavors and she created the ice cream sodas on the spot. Yum! Yum! What a treat! Afterward, we gathered in the living room to discuss the book. She took photos of relatives out of antique frames and placed photos of the characters in the book in them for us to view. This all added to the ambiance of the occasion.

Doug Kerr came by for a short time just to photograph all of us with Mary Ellen as well as her beautiful home. It was one of the best book club meetings we can remember having!

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May 19, 2011 the PCWNC Board Meeting was held in the home of Patti Lankford. Here are a couple of random shots in her beautifully landscaped backyard. Patti is a Master Gardener and it shows.

This is all I have to say for now.

PCWNC Fund Raising Style Show Luncheon

Friday, May 13,2011
We all gathered at the First United Methodist Church in Weatherford, Texas for our Scholarship Fundraiser/Style Show. The style show was produced by Becky, owner of Stuff 'n Nonsense in Granbury, Texas. All of the models are new PCWNC members having joined just this year.

I keep working/challenging women to wear hats and was so pleased to see the wonderful antique hat on Sue Coleman's head. As you will see in the photos, several hats were in evidence on the models.
Our outgoing scholarship recipient, Wendy Rohman, was in attendance with her daughter and Wendy spoke briefly thanking us for our help. Her graduation ceremony at Weatherford College was the very next day and she was quite excited. She has a double major and is now going on to a four-year college to complete her education.

2nd Vice President Jackie Dixon whose job it is to procure programs all year long introduces Becky to begin the style show. As you view the photos of the models, forgive me for not identifying them individually, but I, like many of our members, am getting to the point of taking a while to remember names and faces. At any rate, they all looked lovely and did a marvelous job.

A huge thank you to the local businesses who sponsored the event because this left more money for the scholarship fund. Sponsors were Plains Capital Bank, Jerry's Auto Group, Joan Shaw-Prudential Texas Properties and Stewart Brooks and Bates Certified Public Accountants all of Weatherford, Texas.

This is all I have to say for now.

2011 Ms. Senior Parker County Pageant

Saturday, May 14, 2011
The big day finally arrived. I rose very early in the a.m. and drove to my hairdresser to have my hair coiffed. As I was returning home, I stopped at the light at Santa Fe and Jack Borden Drive mainly because all of the cars turning right seemed to be slowing down a lot. Out of the corner of my eye I notice a Sheriff's station wagon, all lights flashing turning right from Santa Fe onto Jack Borden. He is traveling very slowly and all I can see are four animal feet walking beside the wagon which suddenly stops and around the back comes a darling little dark red pony. He trots on down Santa Fe across Jack Borden. The wagon cuts across the median to follow and by this time three police cruisers have joined in the effort to corral this little pony. I drove on, but I sure wished I'd had a video camera to catch all this on film.

I got home and made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Rushed right out to the nail salon to get a pink fill and a pedicure. Stopped at Belk's and made an appointment with a young lady to have my make up done at 4:30 p.m. Came home and tried to catch a catnap but was really too excited to do much napping. I drove back to Belk's and the young lady did an excellent make-up job for me. By the time I returned home, Doug was completely dressed in his formal kilt looking like the handsome Scot he truly is. I was almost ready when the door bell rang and it was my son, Larry, from Fort Sill, Oklahoma (He's in the 77th U.S. Army Band) arriving to go with us to the pageant.

It truly was the experience of a lifetime and I had so much fun being involved in it. The winner is Carmen Ashby, 97 years young, who also won the talent competition for her rumba. I won First Runner Up and also won the evening gown competition. Carmen is of Cherokee heritage; grew up with the Cherokee language being spoken at home and she converses fluently in Cherokee. As her bio reads, she ballroom danced her way across America and Europe in her hey day. It was such a privilege getting to know her.

I was Ms. IntegraCare and Carla Virginia, Account Executive and Shelly Kinkel, RN/Branch Director (sponsors) were such fun to work with. Carla especially is a sister Cherokee born in Oklahoma so we have a lot in common.
We first had the evening gown competition followed by the talent competition. I was in costume and danced the Hopi Butterfly Dance. Following intermission, 2010 Ms. Senior Parker County, Sydney Howell, came on stage and talked about her year representing Parker County. She is a truly accomplished harpist and taught harp as well as entertained at such esteemed places as Carnegie Hall. Emcee Judge Mark Riley then asked each contestant an interview question and the tallying began for picking the winners.

I am truly thankful for my family, my Red Hat ladies, my Parker County Women's and Newcomers' Club friends and Friends of the Library ladies who came to support me in this latest endeavor of mine. They were all cheering and clapping and it makes me feel wonderful to know I have this kind of support.

The pageant was held in the beautiful Alkek Theater at Weatherford College and the pageant directors presented a professional production and Emcee Judge Mark Riley was his usual charming self. The band "Fun Time Gang" played music we could all relate to and added something extra to the festivities. There was a reception afterwards in Texas Hall outside the theater.

I'm already thinking about my talent for next year. I have the bug now and I want to make it to the top position in this competition.

Doug took some of the photos, but he was on stage as my escort so there are some missing such as the group of winners and such. I will add these in later.

This is all I have to say for now.