A few weeks ago I checked out The Apron Book from the library, and that's when my mom and I went a little crazy. Okay, my mom went a little crazy. I just made this one apron as a Christmas present for my mother-in-law (and gave her a copy of the book as well). My mom whipped up like 7 aprons from various patterns as Christmas gifts, two of which she sent off to Ireland for a couple of our distant cousins. My mom! Seriously, she rocks. Anyway, what a find the book was. It is a collection of stories, vintage aprons (and their stories), and even a couple apron patterns, all of which celebrate the art of homemaking and mothering. I read through this book in between child-rearing one evening, and at the end I felt high on life and proud of my choices. I also felt inspired to be better. I urge any fellow mom to check it out.
In the spirit of blue Christmas presents, I also managed to squeeze in this custom dress for my niece, Lily. Thank you so much to Shari, who created the AWESOME sew-in tags and hanging tag for me. I just ironed the sew-in image onto twill tape, and I'm pretty happy with the result. You can't really see it that well in these pics, sorry--my camera is so much classier than I am. :p~ Also, the dress is not bumpy, that's just the leggings underneath.
