There are many things I am skilled at. I run races at a quick pace (not record-breaking but still fairly decent), can read a novel in several days and throw a softball harder than many men. One area ,however, that is not my forte...crafts. At all. I mean I am probably the least "crafty" person you will ever encounter. To truly understand this, we need to go back. Way back to middle school...
During electives rotation, I was enrolled in "Home and Family Living" and we were working on a sewing unit. Each of us to select a pattern for a stuffed animal to sew and work on it during class. I still do not understand why we not given a simpler task to begin the unit-such as sewing on a button. Or even a useful skill... such as hemming pants, but I digress.
Anyways, I struggled constantly with my stuffed dog. In the process, I broke two needles and one sewing machine and the poor guy ended up looking nothing like the picture (poor guy). To make matters worse, the teacher graded these IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE CLASS-embarrassing. Needless to say, she was not too pleased with my product, especially when it fell apart in her hands.
Years later, in college I was seriously lacking funds and decided to make "no-sew" blankets as gifts for Christmas. Since this did not involve any actual sewing how difficult could it be? After purchasing the required fleece fabric from Michael's, I went to town. The first side of the blanket went pretty well. However as I progressed to the other three sides, the blanket became smaller and smaller. Soon, it did not really resemble a blanket at all. It sort of looked like a distorted pillow.
Luckily, I landed a holiday job at Starbucks...meaning my family received real gifts and not the fleece messes intended for them.
Don't worry...there were many other "failed" crafting attempts in college that did end up as presents for others: Picture collages, poem books (sorry Emily) and of course Moge Poge(sp?) picture frames and boxes.
After college my crafting attempts came to a halt. It is a good thing I teach middle school because I do not think the kids or their parents would have been pleased with my bulletin boards or art projects in the classroom.
Recently, I joined the site "Pinterest" where posters "pin" ideas for fashion, decorating, cooking and...CRAFTS! Perhaps I could tap into my inner artist after all- everything looked so easy to create. The clever fall and winter decor made with random objects found around the the house would be a breeze to duplicate! I would just need to get some basics to get me going...
But it was not to be. I nearly had a panic attack from the massiveness of JoAnn fabrics. There was way too much to take in, and after adding up the prices of what was in my basket, I decided it was not worth it. So, I headed to Pier 1 to purchase items for my tablescape. I reasoned it would be cheaper in the long run (as I would most likely mess up the homeade decorations and have to start over).
Although I have struggled with crafting throughout the years, one artistic feat I did have was baking and decorating "Cake Pops" for my co-workers. Even though they did not not look as nice as the ones on the box, they tasted delicious and that is what really matter, right?
Oh, and I can make a KILLER "Sock Bun!"
http://thatwifeblog.com/2011/08/the-sock-bun/
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