Lora Ann Bracken Langfahl came to Colorado from Billings, Montana when she was 11-years-old and has been here ever since. She lives in Longmont with her husband, Craig, and her six-year-old son, James.
Langfahl wears many "hats" in her life. Besides her role as a mom, she is CEO of her business, Admin to the Rescue. But, her passion is the creativity and joy of making hats for her business, Hatsafrass.
"I love working with people to create what their heart desires," Langfahl said.
Her hat-making journey began when she was dating Craig.
“The first time he introduced me to all of his friends was at a derby party. One of his friends was a derby princess at one point in time, many moons ago when she was in college or something. But, she always had a derby party. So, Craig said, 'hey, my friends are having a derby party. It's the first time you're going to get to meet them. Do you want to come,'" she said. Langfahl happily accepted his invitation.
Craig informed her that there was a hat contest, not having a hat to wear, Langfahl ran into Boulder, into the Ritz and grabbed the hat, she said. Little did she know she would later take home the prize.
That would be the beginning of many contest winners, some she won and some her customers won. "So the next year, I got a different hat and won the contest again. And they were annoyed at me," she said, "Then I thought, why don't I try to do one of my own?'" Things took off from there.
Langfahl enjoys helping people choose their perfect hat.
This year, a woman from Firestone found Langfahl and called in a panic. The woman had ordered a hat for a derby contest but learned at the last minute the hat would not arrive in time. The woman’s challenge was trying to match a fuchsia pink dress. Luckily, Langfahl had made a hat the previous year that was a perfect match.
“It was a match made in heaven," Langfahl said.
That woman wore the fuschia hat to a Kentucky Derby party and won that contest.
"I enjoy seeing people smile when they're wearing something that I've created or something that they've helped create themselves," Langfahl said.
Langfahl describes her hat-making process as happy messiness.
"I don't have to think about what my house looks like, what chores I have to do today, or how much homework we have to do for James," she said, "it's just my own little Zen area and moment. And no matter how messy it gets down there, it's a happy messiness."
Langfahl sells her custom hats locally with several options for customers. "There's a reason for every hat and a hat for every season," she said.
Corrections: A typo was made in the final quote and the timeline for the woman in the fuchsia hat has been revised.
