Trying to be Crafty

I am not creative.  In school, I would write excellent term papers, full of footnotes and research.  But ask me to do creative writing, and I fail miserably.  I’m terrible at decorating – my house is full of beige and brown and empty walls, simply because I don’t know what to do.  I’ve tried to convince the hubs that we need to hire a decorator to come help us with ideas – not to buy stuff – but we’ve never done this.  Therefore, our house is boring.  I’ve always wanted to be more creative, but have never been successful!  What I am good at is following a pattern.  I can cross-stitch like a rockstar.  See this post for my latest creation that is proudly hanging in Alex’s room.  When I was about 10, I got a sewing machine and my mom taught me how to sew using patterns, but I haven’t done this since about 15 years old.  But lately I have this huge drive to CREATE!!!  I don’t know what it is – I don’t really have the time to do this.  Between work, trying to keep up the home, and most importantly spending time with Alex, I really don't have much time for a hobby.  But I want to make things, clothes, crafts, decorations, etc.  So far I haven’t really done much except research online.  And start buying small supplies for future projects.  I ordered some samples of fabrics, and have decided on fabric for pillows for my couch (never made pillows before – I assume they’re simple, but what if I want to put embellishments on it!).  I also ordered some cool fabric for some shirts for myself (I hate shopping for clothes, but I have an idea of shirts that would look good on me, I have hope that I can make these for myself – we’ll see).  And I ordered a book of patterns for really cute kid clothes for Alex.  I don’t know when exactly I will be creating these things, but I’m going to teach myself how to sew again, and CREATE!!!

In the meantime, I wanted Alex to give her father and grandfathers something homemade for Father’s Day.  I remember always making gifts for my parents, and they at least said they loved it!  My mom kept my super ugly, terrible looking clay elephant that I made in elementary school on her desk for years, and I loved seeing it there.  So I scoured the internet, looking for something that my 7 month old could do…  Inspired by this on etsy, I bought some finger paint, painted it on Alex’s feet, pressed card stock to it, and made some TERRIBLE looking hearts.  I’m hoping her grandfathers like abstract art…  I then wrote “Love” on the back of the frames, along with her name and date.  Then put them in little frames.  I figure you can put awful looking stuff in frames, and then it looks good – right?  So here they are – some are better than others.  You can click on the pic and enlarge it – really see the awfulness of them…   I used the four best ones, which were hard to find!  Oh well – I hope that her daddy and grandfathers appreciate something of hers, even if it doesn’t look that great!