I’ve always loved aprons.

I suppose it’s because they remind me of my Grandmother, who passed away in 2000 at the age of 87.   She raised 9 children during the 1940s-1960s, and never wore pants in her life!  As with many women from that period, she also wore aprons quite frequently as well - even up through the end of her life.  There is just something so nostalgic and homey about aprons that give me a sense of peace.

I’m not really an apron-holic like some, but I do adore looking at them and have always longed to have a retro one (or 5) of my own!   I have 2 modern chef type aprons that were given to me over the past 5 years, but none that I had bought of my own liking.

So, after much debate, I decided to blow a small bit of spending money on 2 homemade aprons from Etsy that I had been drooling over.  And boy were they ever worth it!   The craftsmanship on both are wonderful - especially my full aprons.  Those ladies sure did take their time, and put a lot of love into crafting these garments.

The first one is a little half pink & brown ruffly apron, with cute cats and a small pocket on it.  I like to wear this one for cleaning as it doesn’t offer shirt protection when cooking.

And the second one is (in my retro opinion!), to die for!  It’s a blue full apron, with a slip over neck and thick tie.  It has a pale blue background with contrasting yellow flowers, yellow sash, and a yellow pocket.   Although “handmade”, it’s crafted by a sheer professional.  All of the seems are perfectly sewn and the edges are even beautifully serged for a nice finished look.

I wear this one for cooking and anything else that comes up.  My husband even loves it!  It’s just simply an all around fun apron to wear.

Sometimes I get lazy and go for a couple weeks without home cooking something, but I then get back into the swing of things and go on cooking binges - and for the past month, I’ve been in a cooking & cleaning mode and have been wearing this little apron to pieces.  It just takes much of the monotany out of housework!  It’s like a morning perk-me-up without the Starbucks label.

One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve started wearing these new aprons, Jack-Evan absolutely loves to look at them, marvel at the patterns, and hang on to them.  He follows me around sometimes and stands up, holding on to my knees, and hids under the hem of the apron and giggles his head off.  Sometimes I get so caught up in standing there playing peekaboo with him, I let the banana pancakes burn.  It’s the cutest thing eva, I tell you.  Just the experience of my little man enjoying the apron in such a way makes me glad to be wearing it.

Who knows, one day when he’s 80, he might find himself looking back in the far recessed corners of his memories, and begin to feel nostostalgic for a little old apron clad woman standing in the kitchen that he once called Mum Mum.

Mine does.

And it does it extremely well.

Just yesterday, after our recent 2 day long game,  I found him hiding in the refridgerator.  (The little devil!)

Just as long as it doesn’t teach Jack-Evan about that hiding spot, we’ll be fine.

Overalls are my favorite kidswear to put Jack-Evan in.  
Too bad they’re much to hot for our South Carolina summers!

That’s Sew-er.  Not sewer…sue-er?  Strangely, as I was typing out the title to this, I got the giggleswhen I pictured people not understanding what it meant.

Sew-er.  As in with a machine.

In my head I can whip up a beautiful outfit, gorgeous bags, and my unborn daughter’s wedding dress.  In real life, however, I just learned the difference between a zig zag stitch and a basic running stitch last night.

A couple of weeks ago, after my dad dropped yet another load of my teenage stuff from his house to my house, I unearthed a forgotten Brother sewing machine I had purchased at Walmart about 12 years ago when I was around 14 years old.

Oh yes, 14 years old.  I had never sewed in my life at that time, but the bug hit me bad and I wanted desparately to learn.  I ended up making oneill-fitting sleeveless blouse (which I threw away 3 years later) and a wierdly shaped pillow (out of the same ugly paisly purple material the blouse was made from).  After that, the sewing machine sat under my old childhood bed, sleeping with the dust bunnies for the past decade.

Since then, I’ve handstiched a couple of odd things, but never got around to learning much more about sewing.

That is, until yesterday.

After re-discovering my sewing machine, I came online determined to learn how to thread the bobbin (something my mom had previously done for me years back) so I could get my Tshirt quilt finished that I started 7 months ago (and didn’t want to sew it by hand - something that I didn’t think of until I finished cutting the squares!).  Upon the thrill of finally learning how to thread the bobbin and set the tension so the upper thread didn’t break, I slowly dipped my toes into the waters of the addicting sewing machine whirl.

Today, my tshirt quilt sits almost finished (I have to attach an old sheet to the finished square front for batting, then another old sheet for the back).   I’ll be posting photos when I finish.

After the soaring victory of being able to piece my tshirt squares together in record time, and inspired by the recent recycled pillowcase fanatic Betz White, I fiendishly dug through our linen closet in search for the perfect pillowcase to practice on and set to work.

I ended up with a nice little pink 2 pocket apron (which I gave to my mom) as well as a cute little reversable tote bag purse.  It has a total of 7 pockets (inside and out), 2 top snaps, and plenty of room.  After Jack and I leave the library Monday morning, I may just head over to the Goodwill and see if they have any cute vintage pillow cases for me to practice more on (because, you know, we kind of need the rest of our pillow cases to sleep on).

Kevin and I are standing in the kitchen, chit chatting about the day, and just goofing off.  He proceeds to take off his work over shirt and flexes his muscles (his shoulders & biceps are quite large).

Goofing off with him, I raise my own arm and flex too.

This is proceeded by hearty laughter and the innocent statement “Hey, yours wiggles at the bottom!”

You know the point where

“I must get the rest of the cleaning done” meets

“I must stare at my sweet baby for just a little longer before he grows up”?

I’m there.

…is being sandwiched between two sleeping males, because you’re bound to get double-pooted on sooner or later.