Hold onto your hats, i'm starting a blog, it could get bumpy!

Hey gorgeous, thanks for stopping over to our brand spanking new blog and Website! I am super excited to welcome you here, so make sure you say hello! This is going to be a place to come for a laugh, a bit of a real life catch up and also to browse till your heart is content at some sweet millinery candy.

We hope to keep you up to date on what's going on in the millinery world, from days at the races to brands we love and of course what you, the customers are wearing! But, before all of that, I'm going to have to lay some groundwork and introduce you to the head, hands and heart behind Allport Millinery and how we got here today. I also want to warn you in advance, there will be spelling mistakes, bad grammar and incorrect word choices - I make millinery not literary masterpieces people!!

First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you a story. Let's start a the very beginning with a little lady I like to call Goldy locks (Aka Me, Sophie).

Once upon a time, there was a curly haired little blonde called Goldy Locks. She lived in the country with her mum, dad, beautiful older sister and three boisterous brothers.

Goldy locks was: feisty, passionate, bold and creative, she loved to dress up and she loved to make a mess. She loved to create, paint, mould and sculpt virtually anything she could get her hands on, from talcum powder and rose petal perfume to draped fabric ballgowns.

Once Goldy Locks left school, she tried her hand at many things. First, she was a governess on a cattle station in the northern Territory, teaching kids via School of the Air and spending weekends in the hot sun mustering cattle. In spare stolen moments she indulged in her love of painting, using it to feed her creative desire. She loved every part of this northern adventure, the kids, the people, the work but just like the weather, the porridge was just a little too hot for her liking.

The next bowl of metaphorical career porridge goldilocks tried out involved following her love of painting. She headed down to NSW to study Visual Arts, Education at University. Her painting flourished, her mind was opened by artists she studied from all over the world but she struggled to stay inspired by the confusing and restricting demands of her tutors, forcing her to paint and create in a certain way that was not truly hers. The rules were too confined and the creativity was too stifled...The porridge was stone cold and uninspiring.

On a whim, one school holidays, Goldilocks enquired about an intensive millinery school in the hope to reignite some of her squandered creativity. Unfortunately, the school was completely filled, until miraculously, at the last moment someone had to pull out, opening up a place for goldilocks. She bought the supplies, not knowing silk abaca from sinamay and after the first day, she was well and truly hooked. This bowl of warm, toasty, soul filling porridge was just right and as the storybook goes... The rest is history.

For those of you just tuning in now and those of you have been following for a little while, I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for coming on this journey with me. For being such fabulous collaborators, cheerleaders and friends. You are amazing and you keep me doing what I do every day! I am so lucky to be able to create beautiful things every day and I hope they bring some sort of joy to your life!

I look forward to keeping in touch with you, sharing fabulous new products, updates on days at the races and whatever interesting things we find to bring to you! Please if you have burning questions, things you want us to share and just want to say hi, please do! But first, let us know what you think in the comment below.

XOX Goldy