Long awaited Valentine's Day gift

Well, my long awaited Valentine's Day gift has arrived. Yes, I said Valentine's gift. Yes, that would be a little over 2 months late. This was actually a Valentine's Gift I gave myself from Brent. Yes, I know it sounds funny. I told Brent at the beginning of the year that I wanted a custom plaque that says "Home is Where the Heart is". He never picked up on my clue that I had been giving him to order this specific plaque. He knew I wanted one, but used excuses that he didn't want to mess up the order by getting something that I didn't want. So, when Valentine's Day came around and there was no plaque, I knew that I had to take matters into my own hands and order it myself. So, here it is. Thanks to my friend Channa Pender from the Madera 1st Ward, she was able to make this custom plaque. I'm actually kind of thankful that Brent didn't order it because I got exactly what I wanted. It doesn't seem like it in this photo (which I took from Channa's website), but the colors are dark brown, light brown and beige. I LOVE THIS PLAQUE and I cannot wait to get it on my wall. It's pretty big too, approximately 11 x 30 inches.

Home Project

I have spent the past couple of weekends doing projects around the house before I start school this week knowing that the better part of my "free time" will be spent doing homework. My project has been making a homemade apron for my younger sister, Christina, who lives in Orem, Utah. A couple of Christmas' ago I made aprons for myself, my mom, my mother-in-law and my step mom. My sister thought I was becoming a "Molly Mormon" by making these homemade aprons. I enjoyed making these aprons and thought that those who I'd given the aprons to enjoyed them also. Just a couple of months ago she gave in and requested that I make one for her. This was after she thought she didn't need one. I told her that if I'm going to be in the kitchen cooking, I might as well be wearing something that I like and that is cute like an apron. She absolutely refused to have one until now. Because she's now living on her own, I believe she now realizes that an apron is an essential part of the kitchen (at least to me it is). Now with the apron that I've made her, she can now be fashionable while making dinner or cleaning around her apartment.

I got this idea from a Relief Society Super Saturday activity where I was shown how to make one of these by the Bishop's wife. I thought that I was way over my head when it took me nearly an hour to cut out my patterns. At that time I had only very basic sewing capabilities. I couldn't get my apron done on time at that activity, but the Bishop's wife showed me very quickly how to put the whole thing together. I believe she might have told me over the span of 5 minutes. I didn't take any notes and only went by the information she gave me. As soon as I left that activity I went home and started working on it right away. Fortunately I was able to get it done that same day, but it took me all the way through the night. From then on I was hooked on making these aprons. I just thought they were so "cool".

Here's the apron I made for my sister. She wanted a hot pink and black, leopard inspired apron. This style of apron is the first type that I've made. It's 3 different layers in the front and the back is a solid pattern. Usually I just make a 2 layer pattern for the front and back. (I hope this makes sense because it doesn't to me right now).

Here's the front.

Here's the back (solid hot pink leonard print).

Here's the top section.

Here's the middle section.

Here's the bottom section.

I made this apron for my Grandma Alicia. One side purple and one side is blue. It was floral spired.

I made this apron for my step mom. It was cat inspired.

Here's one of my favorites. This was made for my mother-in-law. It's Mary Englebreit inspired. I made one just like this for me.

I made this one for my mom. It was Victorian inspired.