I can’t remember a time I didn’t enjoy doing crafts. My granny is responsible for this desire to be creative. She was always making something, and a lot of the time, it was something for me. And unselfishly, she not only shared her creation with me, but the knowledge of “how to” create it. There were Barbie clothes, crocheted tablecloths and bedspreads, quilts, potholders, costumes, knitted sweaters & mittens, dolls and much, much more! She was a Paula Deen kind of cook, but instead of starting everything with a stick of butter, it was more often a spoonful of bacon grease!
Her name was Mary, but everyone called her Betty or “Granny Patty.” She also ran an in-home daycare, back in the day, and nap-time was during her favorite soap, “As the World Turns.” Although I can remember when she kept me as a child that she was a big fan of Jack LaLane (circa late 1960s), not so much a watch and participate kind of fan, but she definitely watched. She’s been gone just a few years now, but she continued to share her creativity with my daughter and she enjoyed it as much as I did.
Crafting has always been something I enjoyed, whether in the early, early days, making potholders from a small metal loom, making “sand-art”, making all of the “break-thru’s” for my high school football team’s Friday night game – or later on… painting t-shirts and clothes for my kids and my friends kids, cross-stitching, stringing beads for different types of jewelry, painting canvas and an occasional pillow or apron. So lately, I’ve been trying to find a “craft” to use with my personal chef business, www.ChefRobyn.com. After some encouragement from my fellow chefs that are members of our association’s chapter, www.MiddleTennesseePersonalChefs.com, I’ve been focusing more on the apron making. They set my goal of making 200 aprons by the end of July (our National Conference in New Orleans, www.PersonalChefConference.com ). Ideally, I’m going to do a test market on Etsy before so I know what are the most popular styles and color combinations.
My focus is on creating retro and hip looking aprons by using a combination of some vintage fabric and some vintage-inspired fabrics. However, I’m also taking the “green” route and recycling some clothing into some pretty cool aprons. So far I’ve bought a truly vintage pattern off of ebay and used to make a couple of ”full” aprons (photos of a pink and a green up to the left), 3 styles of “half” aprons that I found on the internet… a ”clothespin” style apron (which I am showing here in the brown/turquoise and the blue/green), a “bistro” style apron and a flirty apron with a ruffle on the 
bottom (more photos coming). I have about 10 of these different half aprons made that I’m getting ready to put on Etsy, although I have to admit, I’m having a little separation anxiety with some of them… Check back soon for my Etsy Shop Opening post.
Comments and suggestions welcome!
The next C – “C”areers…
