How difficult would it be, for a complete and total beginner, to make a couple small changes to an "existing item" in Skyrim?

You see, I have this http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4198 that replaces the mesh and texture for the Jester Hat in-game, but I want to add my own little flair for personal use. This is what I was thinking ---> http://puu.sh/1lrbU

It's a bit blurry, I know, but you can get the general idea. All I want to do is add a little strap around the base of the point, a couple feathers, and a ring (from one of the existing meshes/textures) at the tip of the point. With my literal inexperience, how hard would I be to add that stuff on? What programs would I have to use? (creation kit and nifskope are a given) and how would I go about doing it? If you know of any YouTube videos that can help as well please send them my way. I know I could just search it, but I already have and spend 30 minutes sifting through irrelevant modding videos. (I'm not asking you to go out of your way to find the videos, just, if you know any )

Thank you so much to anyone who can really help me out! And if any armour/weapon modders are interested, I have some concept art sketches you could pull ideas from if you'd want to see. Just a thought.

How easy for a complete noob? Damn near impossible.

You will need to learn 3D modeling(Every aspect of it almost), texturing, and how NifSkope works.

Well I didn't mean completely creating new meshes, I meant just slapping existing ones on. Like, the feathers for instance, I'd just use the in-game quill model such and such.

If it's still impossible, I accept my defeat and will carry on

I said near impossible.

And even still, you would need to learn 3d modeling.

Difficult yes, but don't be discouraged.
There exists a veritable wealth of tutorials and resources you may avail yourself of.

We've all had to start somewhere. Go for it!

Get Blender for 3D modeling. Once you get the mesh ready, the rest is a piece of cake.
Now, indeed, 3D modeling is difficult. To the point that it's a profession actually.

In the days of oblivion (yes this is skyrim, but i havnt touched models in skyrim yet), you could import the models you needed, attach them together, save as collision if needed, and save as a new nif. Do some small edits in nifskope and import into the ck.

Hard for a beginner, but you dont really need to know how to model anything, just how to work around blender (i use 3ds) a bit and how to use nifskope. As long as all the software is working well, and you are not getting errors when exporting or importing, its not too hard.

Well, I'll mess around with Blender for a bit until I can easily get the hang of it. I've already fooled around in it and I've got a friend who's basically on the same page of knowledge of the program as I am but he's made a simple little game. So with some teamwork I'm sure I'll figure it out. From there I guess I'll be on YouTube a lot.

Thanks fo the help guys