Aretha's Inaugural Hat Commemorated in Glass

I don't know about you, but when I saw Aretha Franklin's hat at President Obama's inauguration,  I fell in love with it.  I looked at it and knew that someday it needed to belong on one of my beads.

That day has come.

I was thinking about who would be the lucky character to get to sport this incredible hat.  When I do something like this,  I love to have a tie in with an amusing story, if possible for my Etsy shop.

Well meet Erica Franklin the mermaid.  (Wait until you hear the convoluted tie in- think tv trivia from days of old)

Erica's mom is named Bonnie, who is red headed, laid back and takes "One Day at a Time".  (if you're old enough, you could groan now)

And although Erica bought this knock off hat on Ebay, she believes it brings her closer to her missing relative, the one she would love to be related to, Aretha.

And of course after I started to write this, I noticed that Aretha's hat is everywhere.  

Well the cool thing about this is that Erica may not ever get to meet Aretha, but at least her mom has ties to Valerie Bertinelli.

Pop culture is alive...and percolating in my brain.