Pineapple Hospitality!

Today my subject is pineapple!  I grew up eating only canned pineapple that was okay, but not my favorite. Sometime in the last 20 years, I got brave enough to buy a fresh pineapple and cut it up. Wow, what a difference! I've never been to Hawaii or the Caribbean, but I've been told that the pineapple is not to be missed!  So what is it about the pineapple?  Have you noticed how often it is used as a symbol, i.e. on signs, carved in furniture, embroidered on needlework, used in wallpaper and other design elements?  Again, so what's with the pineapple?  I've known for years that it was associated with hospitality.   I googled this and here's a snippet of what I found:

"Any guest who was invited to a party where a whole pineapple was displayed, knew that no expense was spared in guaranteeing the guests’ enjoyment. It was this that made the crowned fruit the high symbol of social events and became the meaning of welcome, friendship, and hospitality. Back in Americans, the Native Americans would place a pineapple outside their hut if they were receiving visitors. Even today, in many hotels and inns, you will see a pineapple carved on a sign outside the establishments. A carved pineapple or a facsimile of one can be found carved in head-boards, on bed posters, or armoires. In dining rooms, pineapples can be found on the backs of chairs, on wallpaper, cupboard doors, and woven dining linen. Casts in the shape of pineapples were used as hot plates or on the end of silverware, all to impress upon their guests that they were welcomed."  from Chef's Blade website, story of the pineapple and hospitality.

It was fun to learn "what's with the pineapple" and helped explain why it showed up as a rubber stamp in the annual catalog!  I was immediately drawn to it, but wasn't sure why.  Hospitality is a big part of my husband's and my life, especially living in a place where people love to visit!  We have frequent overnight guests, averaging 1-2 a week since we moved to our new house in April.  Come to think of it, I haven't served any of them pineapple... I better get with it !  

Here's my card featuring the pineapple!

It's a little faint, but I used the Hardwood background stamp on the base of the card, rounded all my card edges with the Project Life corner rounder and then used a super easy way to ink up my pineapple stamp. I placed in on my table, wood side down, rubber side up. I then inked the top half with the green ink and the bottom half with the gold. I flipped it over and stamped on my paper and couldn't believe how great it looked!  I added a smidgen of ribbon to hide where the two colors meet because there was a tiny bit of overlap.  I added some washi tape and cut the "thanks" out of gold foil paper. I love this card! So easy but very classy. The details are below in case you want to make one of your own.

Now I need to put pineapple on the menu some more!  I would love to hear your comments about the card or your thoughts on pineapples!

Have a great weekend!
Sarah