The Apronista Project

Thank you for your sweet comments about my apron as well as my new haircut yesterday. I’ve given up being blonde and was letting the color grow out. I got impatient and had it cut off the other day. I’m going to just be myself in my ripe old years.

Moving on to sewing fun, this is apron month for me. Yesterday was Finny and Donk’s Sewing Adventure apron project. Today it’s The Apronista Vintage Apron mission for April.



There aren’t any vintage fabrics in my stash. So a trip to Jo-Ann’s yet again netted me materials I felt had a bit of an old-fashioned look to them.



The McCall’s pattern I used is a replica of a vintage pattern.



And here is the result of my endeavors. I really think it’s a cute apron and all the binding was good practice for me as I’m trying to improve in that area. The apron has been added to my Special Olympics donation stockpile for their fund-raising event.



Speaking of sewing aprons, Lyn on The Apronista forum mentioned Jay Gilbertson’s book Moon Over Madeline Island last week so I ordered it. It is the story of two best friends who begin a new life as entrepreneurs sewing aprons on an island in northern Wisconsin (Lake Superior). Naturally there’s more to the tale, but I’ve not read it yet. Here’s the author’s web site.

Finny and Donk's Sewing Adventure Apron

April’s project for the Finny and Donk Sewing Adventure is the diagonal-striped apron from Simple Gifts to Stitch.



The project calls for 58-inch-wide striped seersucker. All I could find was 43-inch at Jo-Ann’s and it had metallic threads running through it which I didn’t want.



Instead, I chose striped cotton fabric for this sewing adventure.


Photo by Dub Scroggin

I was tempted to embroider something across the bodice but opted to add a fabric flower pin.

An Exchange of Favors

Last Wednesday my next-door neighbor called and asked me to make a baby quilt for her. She loves Winnie the Pooh, so that’s the quilt theme I used. I finished it on Sunday.



We bartered our skills. She will return the favor this coming Friday morning by re-tiling a small section of my back porch where some of my Italian slate tiles have popped up. I must not have installed them correctly in the first place.


Source: Pooh's Page

“A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference,” Pooh's Little Instruction Book (Action Packs).

Travel the World

When the middle of the night is a soft, protective blanket and the stars shine the way, I tour the world via the Internet when I can’t travel it in person. There’s so much to learn and so little time. I’m grateful for the blessings of this amazing technology. It’s almost (but not quite) as magical as traveling via Peter Pan’s pixie dust.

Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella (Pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella)

February’s Smithsonian Magazine has a delightful article about Florentine monks who make perfumes and medieval elixirs from ancient herbal recipes. A 600-year-old pharmacy, they use herbs and flowers grown in the hills of Florence.



Have a yearning for a bottle of "Acqua della Regina" (Water of the Queen) made for Catherine de Medici so long ago? The monks have gone international with their herbal creams, soap, and fragrances. You can find these products in their official New York and Los Angeles stores if you can’t make it to Italy.

Ancient Textiles



Scholars define myths as sacred narratives developed to explain the world and its origins. Whether those stories are true or not, I love the creative ways mythology is depicted in paintings, music, textiles, and so on. For example, The British Museum has an ancient Greek tapestry on exhibit depicting Artemis and Actaeon.

You can read the story of Artemis and Actaeon at Mythography.

Peter Pan Statue



There’s a statue in Kensington Gardens in the U.K. commissioned by Sir James (JM) Barrie, author of the Peter Pan books. The story about its installment goes thus: “After it was finished, Barrie arranged for it to be put in Kensington Gardens in the middle of the night because he wanted people to believe it was magic. And on the morning of 1 May, 1912, there it was - and still is.” Isn’t that lovely?

May you be touched by pixie dust and fly to the “Second star to the right, then straight on till morning" for an adventurous weekend!

Fabric Vase

This morning I decided to try making a fabric vase. I used a McCall’s pattern for this project and home decorator fabric as suggested in the instructions.



Because it’s made from fabric, I won’t use it for real flowers. Instead, I decided to use it for my knitting needles.



Last night I tried a new recipe from the February/March 2008 issue of Cook’s Country magazine. It took me what seemed like forever, but I made General Tso’s Chicken and it actually came out as well as that made in Chinese restaurants. My assessment is that the recipe is great, but it would be cheaper and less time-consuming to just go to a restaurant.



The same magazine had a recipe for Chinese-style Rice so I made that as well. Some pea pods on the side and our menu was complete. Yummy!

Ready for Guests

Sewing is still in progress for the Special Olympics, so I thought I’d share how I’ve organized our guest bathroom. Who knows when you might want to visit me?



There’s not a window in the guest bathroom upstairs, but I still think it has lots of lovely soft light. There’s nothing extraordinarily fancy about this bath; however, it feels quiet and calm to me.



I stenciled very simple fern leaves on each cabinet door.



On one end of the countertop by the tub and shower are bottles of bubble bath, hand soap, and lotion that I’ve made using herbal recipes.



Underneath one of the sinks, the cabinet holds everything imaginable a guest might need in the form of toiletries and other amenities—from new toothbrushes and toothpaste to cotton balls and even a rolling massager.



On one side of the cabinet under the other sink are towels and washcloths, including some I’ve knitted.



I printed one of my husband’s photographs on canvas of golden Aspen leaves and framed it for the wall over the towel rack.

Want to come visit me? Your bathroom is ready for you.

Organizing Tax Papers

Can you believe it’s already April? And for Americans, this is the month of the dreaded income tax return. Each year when I make our calendar, I add a skull-and-crossbones to April 15. My dad always got a kick out of this.


Calendar graphic purchased from The Vintage Workshop; text added by me.

Many years ago, the HP Activity Center offered free checklists, file and envelope labels for you to organize your taxes. I downloaded the materials and used them to help us with our own tax papers. Now they don’t offer the labels, but you can make them yourself with plain or pretty labels. HP does still offer a tax preparation checklist.



These are our tax working files. When tax preparation time rolls around, like now, I pull the papers I’ve filed. The file folders are used again for the next year’s information.



When the taxes are done, I place a copy of the forms we’ve mailed in white catalog-sized envelopes and place that year’s label on the envelope. I mailed our state and federal filings off last week.



The envelopes are then filed in chronological order in our tax file drawer. Should there be an audit or some reason to return to a particular year’s tax filling, I have everything in the envelope (including all substantiating documents).