Home Sweet Home – an Apron, using Graphic 45

One of my lovely neighbours is moving to a new home.  She put her property up for sale just a few weeks ago and it sold really quickly, too quickly for me, because I’m not ready to lose her yet.  (She has a lovely home so I’m really not surprised it sold so quickly). 

Obviously I wanted to make her a ‘New Home’ card, but I didn’t want the usual sort of ‘new home’ card that can normally be found on the mantel shelves of new homes.

So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the idea of making her a shaped card using my Graphic 45 ‘Home Sweet Home’ papers.  And here’s what my fingers came up with…

An Apron card, made using Graphic 45 Papers

Fortunately for me, I already had in my stash some Apron shaped cards, so I didn’t have to measure and cut that, it was already done.   I chose my patterned papers ensuring that the patterns were of the right size for the card and the plan I had in my head.  I used 4 different patterned papers from Graphic 45, and one paper from another brand of papers, which I had in my stash.

The pocket on the front of the apron was easy to make.  I simply drew half around a big pot of paint in my craft room and cut it out.   I added a toning paper to the top of the pocket, and then added some lovely green seam binding which I’d had in my ribbons for ages but never had the chance to use that particular colour of green.  It was a total delight to use it, as it’s such a fabulous vintage colour.

The Oven Glove (mitt) I drew out onto some card, then traced around the card in order to get a glove which matched the patterns on the card itself.  The additions of some buttons helped to hang things off the apron, and also anchor the ribbon neck to the top of the apron.

Inside the Home Sweet Home card.

Again, the inside of the card was decorated with Graphic 45 papers and I added a Recipe Card for ‘Grandma’s Apple Pie’.  Yum!

On the facing (inside) page is where I wanted to write the dedication (To/from) and the best wishes etc.  But I also wanted to add some little wooden embellishments which I had in my crafty stash, and thought they might look kind of cute, and tie the front of the card to the inside of the card ….

If you look on the ‘scoop’ you can just see a scoop of …. something ….

. . .   is it sugar?  Salt?  . . . .  Maybe Grandma seasons her apple pies with something more ‘exotic’!  Who knows.  It’s her secret and it will remain her secret.

And that’s all there was to it!

I haven’t taken it to my neighbour yet.  I’ll do that on Thursday as she’ll be busy moving on Friday.  I shall be so sorry to see her leave.  She’s an incredibly lovely lady and so kind.  I’ll miss her very much.

Anyhoo …. Here in the UK and Ireland, we have received a bit of a bashing from Hurricane Ophelia.  Although it was no longer a Hurricane by the time it reached the land of my heart and home, it still brought with it devastation and took 3 lives in Ireland.

On Monday afternoon here in the south of England, it went very quiet outside.  No bird song was heard.  Nothing.  Inside Cobweb Towers it became black as midnight and we had to put lamps on around the cottage because we just couldn’t see.  Outside – now that’s where things got a little freaky.  Everything turned, first, a warm orange colour.  But then it got darker ….  and darker …. and darker as the minutes passed until it became almost blood orange colour.   It was very strange and rather unsettling.

This didn’t look at all like a regular ‘natural’ phenomenon.   And from what I’ve read in the news this happened over quite a large area of the UK.  Apparently, in London, they experienced a double sun. 

The weird thing is … that those  ‘in the know’  are telling us that it’s dust picked up perhaps in the Sahara,  by the Hurricane, and it was being carried in the winds.  But, and here’s the thing … it really wasn’t that windy here where I live.  I had washing on the line (which was brought in when it began to get ‘orange’ outside) and it was barely wafting in the gentle breeze we had going on here.  The breeze did pick up a little – but it really was only a little.  But the orange … well I’ll be truthful and say that it felt almost apocalyptic.

The rain came later in the day, and it was a good old downpour, but not for long.   Then … just to add a bit of interest to the day (as if we hadn’t had enough) …. we lost all power to our cottage.  Mr.C popped to the neighbours and they’d lost power too, and our other neighbour had obviously lost power as her burglar alarm was announcing it’s shock and horror at what had happened!  We got the candles out, and for a time we were living back in a strange Victorian age.

Of course … the power would go just when I was three quarters the way through on a ink painting!  tsk tsk.

It’s been raining again here today (typing this on Tuesday 17th Oct.) –  a downpour again this afternoon, but turning into just regular raining after that.

Here in the South, we’ve been really lucky, and I’ve given thanks over and over, because I was seriously worried that it could have been very much worse.  But, that orange  …  that is still puzzling me.  I checked my car over today to see how much of this  “dust”  had landed on my car, and considering how orange it got outside … there was very little dust on my car.  Certainly not enough to tell the tale of what happened here on Monday.

The more I think … the more difficult it gets to understand it.  So I’m stopping thinking.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and staying to read.  I truly love your company and love to see you here.  So thank you.  Without you, blogging would be a very lonely, silent affair, and I’d probably give up.  I continue to blog because I love the wonderful people I’ve met through blogging and have made friends with a lot of them.  Of course … there are one or two who I love to pieces … but they know who they are.

Wishing you a truly wonderful Wednesday.  May you be in receipt of joy, supplied to you from someone who likes you.  May you also be free of Orange Air and Red Suns.  Avoid those.  They’re freaky and I’m really very unsure about what they are caused by.

Have a truly blessed day.  ❤