The Apron

I haven’t been here in a while. The site is such a mess and the tasks to get back on track seem unending.  Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed.

When I do think of posting lately, I get lost in the details. Beyond the adventure of cooking, the challenge of capturing an image and the fun of sharing the story, there are so many peripheral considerations.

That Little Voice

As I begin to write I am already wondering:

– How do I best format my post for social media?  

– How often should I update my Pinterest boards? 

– What should I tweet? Why shoud I tweet? (I don’t like to Tweet!) 

– Should I change platforms, concentrate on SEO, invest in a new camera or make videos?

– And while I am at it, where can I take a class to satisfy that little voice in my head (Dr. Codger?  Is that you?)  that is always nagging me to make better photos, use better props, make prettier food? 

– Which is more important?

Then I often turn on myself and begin to question who I am writing for and why I think this is a good use of my time anyway? Maybe I should just forget it and leave blogging to the dedicated, the successful, the long-term survivors. Maybe I should….

and that’s generally where I retreat to the kitchen and leave the posting out of it. 

Enter: The Apron

Honestly, I think it was Anna who inspired a change of heart. Maybe you could say it was Anna and Scott because they gave me the apron together, but it was Anna who chose THIS apron.

A while back, Anna left the security of her home on the west coast to take a job in North Carolina. She graduated in Seattle, had family near Seattle, had a boyfriend in Seattle and could have easily settled in Seattle. Instead, she moved nearly 3000 miles across the country to try something new. She showed up, worked the job, got to know new people, and did what she needed to do to turn an opportunity into a valuable experience. In the midst of her move she and Scott spent a weekend with us. That’s when they gave me the apron. 

This particular apron was a perfect gift, both charming and unexpected. In its construction it pulls together the notion of several things that are dear to me. Its black and white check is crisp and contemporary but also the pattern of tablecloths from my childhood. It speaks of time spent around the family table. The flowers overlaid on the front are fresh and colorful and still they take me back decades to the time I learned appliqué from my grandmother and practiced my stitches on her tidy breezeway with the air stirring through her screened jalousie windows. Everything about it makes me feel warm inside and inspires a smile!  

That’s the thing about aprons. They are both modern and nostalgic, whimsical and pragmatic, hopeful and grounded. They can be an old take on something new or a new take on an old favorite. Sometimes practical, sometimes fanciful, sometimes silly and sometimes pretty, whatever the intention or material at hand, there is more than one way to create something crazy beautiful, to speak something fresh from the roots to the branches. 

A Labor of Love

So to heck with that little voice, the onslaught of impertinent questions, the resistance to figuring out how to do old things in a new way. I acknowledge that my website is a mess but it is also a testimony to a series of new beginnings. It documents a journey that, in hindsight, might have been improved on, might have been more consistent, can definitely use some freshening up, and, no matter my intentions, will likely continue to lag behind the cutting edge of web communications…but at this point it is still standing, warts and all, a labor of love.  

It is also good to remind myself that I don’t always have to do things the “right” way. In fact I’m not even sure there really is a “right” way.  I don’t always have the bandwidth to apply all the good things I have learned to obtain an optimal outcome. Sometimes just showing up is what it’s all about. And when I start cooking, I don’t always remember to grab an apron myself. I love having that option though. This new apron hangs on a hook in my kitchen. It’s there if I need it – to keep my clothes clean, to add a little quick color or pattern to a photo, to remind me I am surrounded by family and friends….

or just to make me smile!