The Tiny Toadstool

Do you ever get a fancy for a creative project and just go for it? Awhile back I got the idea of making a cute mushroom costume for fun...well mushroom hat anyway! I thought a long white dress would be suitable for the costume, so all I needed was a good giant mushroom hat. The hat proved impossible to find, so after texting my sister the idea and getting some suggestions from her I decided to make my own. I started with an umbrella hat (so cheesy!) as the base and then used paper to turn it into a mushroom and painted a few white dots on top to imitate a fly agaric. It was fun following this creative whim even though I don't have a need or many excuses to wear a giant toadstool around. Perhaps I will be invited to a fancy dress party this year--Halloween is just around the corner. I think the hat turned out pretty well considering it was my first attempt and the dress was already hanging in my closet. Once it was complete I knew I needed to take a few pictures in the final look and so headed to my favorite forest park. These woods are actually right beside the property where Thomas and I got married; if the weather had been nicer on our wedding day our guests would have been able to wander over to these clover-filled woods and admire the flock of white deer that haunt the property as well. Long before our wedding day Thomas brought me here for a walk and it's still a favorite place for us to visit; even Solomon has explored this forest now! The light was too bright when we first arrived so after picking the location for our shoot we had a bit of wander and stumbled across so many mushrooms! We found about ten different varieties, although I think most were inedible and none were the distinct fly agaric I was imitating. It was really fun discovering all the different varieties; perhaps we'll buy a mushroom foraging book and learn a bit more about which ones we can eat...