Crafty

For this year's friend gift exchange the theme was: Homemade.

Barf.

I mean, I'm a big fan of gifts from the heart, but knowing what I was up against (girls who sew, paint art, draw pictures and sculpt), I knew that I couldn't just whip up one of my fun magazine cut-out cards and call it good. I liked the idea, but I knew it would be tough. Plus, homemade gifts take time and above all, talent! Who has either these days?!

On top of that, school was such a beast that fitting in "craft time" was the last thing on my mind. I know everyone is busy, but add the fact that the extent of my crafty talent went about as far as hand-print turkeys and 3-dimensional cubes, I knew this would be quite a challenge. I would have to put in some real time and effort, but having neither, I had two choices: pay Dana to make something for me or employ the power of the one true ingredient of all great things made by hand: love.

At first, I wanted to make an apron. Like a really pretty one, with layers and ruffles and cool patterns and colors like pink and brown. But after too much thought, the whole process became overly complicated to me and sewing it all by hand just seemed really annoying.

So then I thought I would make a blanket. In my mind, I envisioned a very easy blanket to make. Totally doable. So I went to the fabric store thinking I could just stick two pieces of fuzzy fabric together then sew satin ribbing around the edges, but as I walked the wall of felt, fleece and fur, I became so overwhelmed with all of the patterns, textures and colors that I started to hate all blankets in general. Fabric stores are very intimidating if not totally confusing. Plus, exact measurements are dumb.

So then I reverted back to an idea my sister gave me. In her mind, she thought as simply as possible, "What could Miriam possibly make?" She gave me the initial idea that lead to what you see below. Originally, it was supposed to be white dishtowels made cute with ribbon sewn on them, but after 20-minutes in the ribbon section, I was once again overwhelmed with the array of choices. Before I knew it, all of the hundreds of spools of ribbon were morphing into my worst personal project nightmare that I soon found myself in the iron-on section of the store. Then from the iron-on section I discovered my choice tool of trade: puff paint.

I must say, my little crafty skills really came to life! I think the dish towels turned out pretty nicely and I was actually proud to show them off. Best of all, Natalie liked them and that's all that mattered!






I made something pretty! Who knew love could be so powerful?