Cartoon Horses with Hat-titude
Hello, and welcome to our blog. We chose a sweetheart hat for you today — Amie.
The Amie design features a large, upswept brim in lavender patterned with rows of x’s and o’s in white, plus a tall crown with Hattingdon’s ears peeking through. So sweet.
We hope you enjoyed seeing the Amie design, and she gave you a “hatful of smiles”. Love, Hattingdon.
Updated 04/20/25.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Hattingdon & Co. As you can see, Hattingdon is wearing her Aimee hat in pure red with white x’s and o’s representing hugs and kisses.
Brides’ Magazine writes:
“It’s pretty common knowledge that XOXO means ‘hugs and kisses.’ As Dictionary.com defines it, the phrase is generally thought of as a “lighthearted way of expressing affection, sincerity, or deep friendship.”
The X represents a kiss, while the O represents a hug. This is most likely because the X is a stylized way of showing two mouths kissing, and the O looks like two pairs of arms connecting for a hug.
While XOXO is a symbol of love, it’s not always meant to be taken as a symbol of undying passion. XOXO is just as appropriate to use as an email sign-off to a friend as it is to use to sign an anniversary card to a significant other.
How about a bit of verse? Most of us are familiar with the following. Short and sweet and you know from whence it came, right?
Roses are red
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.
A rhyme similar to the modern standard version can be found in Gammer Gurton’s Garland, a 1784 collection of English nursery rhymes published in London by Joseph Johnson:
The rose is red, the violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet, and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my Valentine:
The lot was cast and then I knew,
That Fortune said it shou’d be you.
Have a loving day.
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Post updated: 2:20 pm.
©Vivian J Grant. All Rights Reserved.
Let’s celebrate Valentine’s Day 2022 with a sweet hat, quotes on love and romantic poetry.
And now . . . words of love to go with it.
“Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I’ll not look for wine.” – Ben Jonson, Song: To Celia
“And the sunlight clasps the earth, And the moonbeams kiss the sea – What are all these kissings worth if thou wilt kiss not me?” Percy Bysshe Shelley, Love’s Philosophy
“If certain, when this life was out, That yours and mine should be, I’d toss it yonder like a rind, And taste eternity.” – Emily Dickinson, If You Were Coming in the Fall
“O, my luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June.” – Robert Burns, My Luve Is Like A Red Red Rose
The poet Robert Browning evokes the thrill of the chase in the beginning lines of “Life in a Love”. Robert Browning was successful in the pursuit of his beloved Elizabeth Barrett with whom he began a secret courtship, exchanged hundreds of love letters and eventually eloped. Their love story is one of the most romantic ones in literary history. He writes:
Escape me?
Never—
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
Life in a Love, Robert Browning
There’s no joy as fulfilling as reciprocated love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning returned Robert Browning’s affection wholly and truly. In one of the most famous sonnets ever written. In it she expresses the depth and intensity of her love for her soon to be husband. The poem depicts an ideal love that’s powerful, all-encompassing, pure, passionate and enduring and that even transcends death.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnets from the Portuguese 43, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Hugs and kisses and millinery blisses,
Love, Hattingdon
By © Vivian Grant
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