When I was a kid, I spent hours by the sides of my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers and great-grandmothers garbed in a denim apron with a cross-stiched heart on the top. I learned to make pie crust by hand, how not to over knead dough, make jams and jellies, how NOT to slice my fingers with knives (ok, I’m still working on that), and a myriad of other kitchen tasks both mundane and exciting. At some point, I outgrew that beloved apron and never bothered to replace it.

Fast forward to motherhood. When my oldest daughter was little, I went rummaging through all the things my mother had saved for me and remarkably, couldn’t locate my childhood apron. Being ever practical, and swayed by the fact that I learned to sew starting at age 6 and thought the aprons in the store were of shoddy quality and pretty shabby, we went to the fabric store. We found a pattern for both her and myself, selected fabric and headed on home. Her apron, a frilly confection of pink flowers with embroidered pockets, still gets heavy use by my youngest daughter.

My apron…never got made.

As so often happens around here, I had time for my kids, but not myself.

Last year, a dear friend of ours named Greg graced me with the gift of a brand new Chic Pink apron from Flirty Aprons. Always the seamstress, as soon as I took it out of the box, I looked at the stitching looking for flaws. There wasn’t a single one. In fact, I could wear the apron BACKWARDS and no one would be the wiser! All the side seams are completely contained (no ugly serged edge on this beauty!), the pockets are large and conveniently placed, and best of all, the apron ties are incredibly long. I’m not the skinniest waif in the world and having such long ties, gives me the option to tie in the front or the back without any trouble at all and it has a very figure flattering cut. The fabric is a great quality too and has held up to quite a bit of washing and still looks like I just got it. Also, the apron has brought quite a bit of ‘ahem’…spice back to our kitchen, leading to a resounding chorus of “EW GROSSS!” by our children whenever my husband and I are in the kitchen together. Apparently, our kids think kissing should not be done in front of them!

Today, I got their email with their new styles…including the fabulously frilly black concoction to the right…and I’m pleased to announce that pretty soon, I’m going to have TWO aprons!

Maybe I’ll wear the the pink one while I wait for the package to arrive…