Butterfly Beauty

This beautiful piece was a treasure my Auntie Ann found at a little antique shop in Ontario.  She told me that she found a wooden chest and opened it to explore.  It was filled with treasures.  That is if you are an apronologist I guess.  I certainly consider opening a chest of vintage aprons a successful treasure hunt.  

The piece is hand embroidered with the backside as neat and tidy looking as the front.  

For right now this piece is sitting on the sidelines waiting to be recreated.  The complete inspiration has not come out yet.  I will let the piece sit out in view for a while and one day the inspiration will come.  

This is the process I go through with nearly all my designs.  I find an antique linen I love and let it sit out where I can see it everyday.  It may sit there for months on its own or I may pair it with a piece of fabric that seems to match.  Then I will be in an antique market one day see a jar of vintage  buttons and the full vision of the finished apron will hit me.  It is then that I race home and can not wait for the boy’s bedtime so I can create the vision in my head.  These are late nights but the result in the morning is breathtaking, to me anyways.  

How do you get your inspirations?

Danine  

A Farmer’s Wife Apron

I would truly love to know the stories behind some of the pieces I collect.  This beautiful apron was found at an antique market and fell in love.  It is so simple and yet would have so many stories to share.  I can tell that it has been homemade and I envision a farmer’s wife to have worn it.  I see her out in the yard pinning up laundry to the line with pins coming from her pockets.  I see kids playing on the grass and pulling on the hemline.  I can also smell the fresh apple pie that she made this morning and just took out of the oven.  

The pink details are bias tape while all the other edges are finished with a double folded hem. 

This is the apron I have been choosing to wearing in my kitchen over the past 6 months.    

Thanks for visiting, 

Danine

My First Apron

I was digging through a packed up box from a move 6 years ago and this is what I found.  The very first apron I sewed.  

It is nothing fancy but it did complete a requirement while I was in university.

For one of my surface design classes, where we were using dyes and paints each day, I was required to wear an apron.  Until I found this apron I had not remembered making it.  I do remember buying a couple remnants at a hugely discounted price.  There apparently was not enough fabric to make 2 ties so I created a buttonhole and looped the 1 strap through and knotted.  A functional way of making it work I guess.

The finer details I notice today is that it is very boxy.  There was no pattern used.  I laid the fabric folded in half out on the table and cut.  The pockets are just one chunk length of fabric with a line stitched down the center creating 2 pockets.  It surprised me to see that I had lined it!       

It was fun to find this.  At the time this was made there was not even a hint that I may one day be creating one of a kind designs in vintage aprons.  Kind of fun to look back and see where it all started.  

Thanks for visitng,

Danine

Simply Supper

Well after being told about this fabulous way of preparing suppers I finally put it higher on my priority list and made it happen.  

A few weeks back on a Friday night I took my oldest son with me on a special date.  

We attended Simply Supper in Edmonton, AB.  We made 12 suppers in 1 hour and 15 minutes! 

I chose from a long list of possibilities for the month that were being offered through their website.  They had a great list of meals with an explanation of ingredients listed beside each.  I narrowed my choices down to 6 and decided to double each one.  

I came home with 6 different meals to prepare 2 times.  

They were all transferred to the freezer and on those rushed evenings of activities I am not preparing food all day I simply need to spend 30-45  minutes of cook time without the preparation.  With 4 little boys at my feet, any time not needed in the kitchen is wonderful.  

I am very happy to have made the time to go and discover for myself what I had been told about.  

The meals have been wonderful and there is only one yet to sample.  


The price did scare me a little bit.  My budget is to stay inside of $15.00 for a supper which will feed 3 adults and 4 children.  I even try to go as low as $10.00 per meal.  The price per meal when broke out in the same manner is $25.00.  After, thought and tasting the great meals, the price is not expensive.  I am not spending time to plan what I am going to make, creating the grocery list, shopping, or prep time for the meal each day at home and I can turn the attention to the boys instead. 

The other wonderful thing is that my son had an awesome time being one on one with Mommy.  He even made a little video at a restaurant afterwards to tell me how much he enjoyed being on a date with me and not having to share me. 

More than the time I have saved in the kitchen my children are made the priority and that brings a very large smile to my face.  

Thanks for visiting,

Danine

I've Been Published

I was very excited to get my advance copy of Apronology in the mail last week.  If you click on the image to the left it will take you directly to the site where you can order your very own copy.

Today is the official day it has hit the newsstands.  

As of today I can say that I have been published for the very first time.  Check mark that on my Bucket List!

Back, in the summer of 2010, I submitted 3 of my custom designed vintage aprons to the magazine.  I found out in October that I had one of those chosen to be published.

My Simple yet Sophisticated apron can be found on page 50 and 51 of the current issue.

Thanks for visiting,

Danine

The Love Tree

My friend, Angie, always has these wonderful ideas.  She is continually posting amazing decorating projects and ways to organize over at her blog, Echoes of Laughter.  

So...last week she shows off her super cute "Tree of Love" craft project.  I decided that is was so great that I needed to tackle it too.  

I made it a project my boys could all be involved in.  One helped me adhere vellum sticky letters to the flower pot, 2 of them trooped outside with me, in snow to their hips, to find the perfect branches to snap off trees in the yard, and they all had their chance to pick out 3 baby pictures of themselves.  We matted all the photos and added a little valentine bling.  Now I was short on a couple of items and so it was time to make a real fast trip into the dollar store. 

Here is how the Love Tree turned out.  

And here is what my van looks like after that quick trip to the dollar store.  

It was a very icy day and I managed to slide through a stop sign in the parking lot just as another car was coming around the corner.  And to top it off, the store did not have the clothespins that I was going there to get in the beginning!  I carried on to another store and decided I was not going home until I had what I needed and that cute little project would be finished before I went to bed.  

Hope this brought a little laugh out.

Thanks for visiting, 

Danine  

Embossed Valentine's Card

Today I am sharing the card I made with my stamping technique group last week.  The technique showcased this month was embossing.  The elegant lines embossing folder by Stampin' Up! was used on very vanilla and then the edges were distressed with scissors and inked with soft suede.

I stamped the flower in riding hood red and and "i love you" in chocolate chip.  It was fast and easy to  use the square punch and create the perfect square.  I then added a chocolate chip mat behind my square and distressed those edges as I had with the vanilla mat.

Cherry cobbler seam binding was tied around the bottom of the card front before being adhered to the crumb cake base.  The stamp set used was Three little words which can be earned FREE when you spend $60.00 on Stampin' Up! product until March 31, 2011.   There is a Sale A Bration promotion going on right now and I can teach you how to take advantage of that.

Thanks for visiting,

Danine