Thursday, June 14, 2012

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!


9 comments:

  1. PS, our kids should grow up and get married...that would be a heck of a wedding invitation, considering their names!

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  2. Super cute! I wish I was crafty! What a great fathers day gift!

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  3. Love those! I think I might actually steal that. :)

    I am terrible at decorating as well. I met a high end decorator through a mutual friend, and she told me just to copy stuff that I like. She said looking through magazines and pulling out idea's for rooms is the best way to do it, then copy it to a T. And it worked! It still doesn't look as good as the magazine, but I at least feel less boring.

    P.S. THank you for your SUPER sweet comment on my last post!

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  4. I love the idea of the footprints. It is so cute! Who cares if they don't look like they were done by someone who does nothing else in their life but make baby footprint hearts? They were made by you and little Alex, and that makes them worth more than all the gold in the world.

    When starting a new hobby, just remind yourself everyone has to start somewhere, and most people's first attempts look like crap. It takes practice to turn out good stuff. :)

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  5. I love this! We did something very similar for Valentine's Day. May I suggest taking a red marker and making a heart shape around the feet so there's no doubt what it is? I did that with ours just because I wasn't sure if you could tell otherwise. Either way though, I think homemade gifts are the best!!

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  6. Those are pretty darn adorable.

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  7. I love this craft and gift! Way to go for getting out of your comfort zone :)

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