Learning new things

So I guess I'm crafty.  I mean, that's what people tell me.  Really, though?  I need to make things for my sanity.  It doesn't matter what I'm making, and I don't need to be the best at what I'm attempting, but I really do NEED to make things.  I discovered this after Toast was born.  I was so busy trying to manage two kids (one almost two year old and an infant, both having the mobility and verbal skills of an infant), I barely had time to shower.  Even if I had wanted to make something...if I had one iota of time to myself?  The craft room was packed up in tubs to make room for Toast...so there was nothing to make.   I almost lost my mind.  Sure, I was an olympic-sized pool of hormones at the time, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with it, right? 

If we ever have another child, and that child moves into my craft room (like Toast did), I think I will just take over the dining room.  I'll install shelves on one wall, drawers underneath, and  big gate to keep the rest of the family out.  Especially Toast....if not watched closely he will plunder all the craft supplies and run rampant with them.  I'll find him playing pirate with a bone folder and a metal ruler.  The gate idea will probably not work too well considering the staircase from the upstairs leads into the dining room, and the staircase downstairs to the family room leads off from the dining room.  I'll have to keep working on this one.

I don't really think I'm a knitter, or a scrapbooker (although those are the two crafts I do the most of), or an embroiderer (which I also enjoy).  I'm a crafter.  I like to look at something and say "I can do that!"  My husband, I think, has learned to fear those words.  "I can do that" usually means hours of planning, talking about things he might not be interested in but should be supportive of (because he loves me, and I cook for him); sometimes this explanation is followed by some tense moments when I find out that I cannot, in fact, DO THAT...swearing usually ensues.  The project gets buried in a box until I'm ready to look at it again or throw it away.

Taking all of this into consideration, I'm sure it was no small feat for him to agree to my Christmas gift: a sewing machine.  Between the staggering supply of craft materials already in my possession, and the sheer number of projects I have on my to-do list, chaos can only ensue from adding another interest to the mix.  But, brave man that he is, he soldiered on.

It is with some self-deprecating humor that I present to you my first sewing projects.















This marvelous piece of work is supposed to be a potholder.  See the fabric strips?  Those were a lovely and well-constructed log cabin quilt block that I made.  It really turned out nicely.  Then I had to go and try to quilt it.  I left the feeder feet for the machine on and everything went downhill from there.  Then I didn't have any seam binding and tried to make my own.  Let's overlook the flaws and gaze upon the color selection, remember the way the initial block turned out.  Yes, let's dwell on the positive.  I think I'm going to give this to my mom, because it's a piece only a mother could love.

This is better.  This tote bag is loosely based on a tutorial I found on Sew, Mama, Sew, which is a lovely sewing blog.  The bag is a little more well constructed than the pot holder....the pocket is a little off center, but we'll ignore that and instead bask in the lovelyness.  I'll find out how it works when I take it on a trip in a week and a half....if it's not as sturdy as I think it is, I'll surely find out when the bottom rips and dumps my things all over the terminal floor at Metro Airport.

Because that's the only way it will happen.  You and I both know it.

What I'm doing today

IMG_4791
Originally uploaded by randallfam

Making these tiny mitten ornaments for Toast's friends. They are based on a pattern I found on the website "Oliver + S". I modified the pattern slightly, as the original had fabric cuffs...I used felt. I'm smitten with them.

Let's be clear here...

...the following post in no way reflects things I feel MUST be done in order for Christmas to occur.  It reflects things I WANT to do.  I like making things for the holidays, and Toast's birthday (next week), and I have some wonderful plans...but it doesn't change the fact that things are starting to pile up on me.  Witness my to-do list:
1.  I have two knitting projects left for gifts.  One is half done, the other not started.  Both will only take a few hours to finish. 
2.  I'm making favors for Toast's birthday celebrations/gifts for his buddies...and they are cute.  But I"m making TEN of them.  I'll be posting a picture soon of what I"m making.  I think it's safe to say his friends dont' read the blog.
3.  Banner for Toast's birthday celebrations.  It's half done.  I'm cutting parts out on the Cricut, which means I can't do it during naptime, unless I move the whole operation out of the craftroom and downstairs.  That makes it a little interesting...crafting with an awake two year old.
4.  Cupcakes for Sunday/Tuesday (birthday)
5.  Small homemade gifties for our friends (mine and Hubby's).  Hubby will help with this.  Chocolate is a component, which makes the shopping tricky.  Can't buy the chocolate until I'm ready to bake, or it will be eaten.  I'm just being honest here.
6.  Christmas cards.  They're made, printed, just need to be addressed and sent.  I'm sure that I CAN print labels for the envelopes, but figuring it out will be harder than just writing them, right?  Maybe Hubby can do this.  And then there's all the addresses that arent' in the computer and must be added....the address thing is the reason I hate Christmas cards.  HATE. 
7.  And when all this is done...when next week is over...we can put up the decorations and relax. 

I love how some people think handmade holidays are so much simpler....away from the hustle and bustle, the malls.  Lies, I tell you, all lies. 

Handy?

In case you haven't heard, there are a lot of people out there that are taking the Handmade Holidays pledge...that is, they are vowing to make gifts, or support others by purchasing handmade gifts from local crafters, Etsy, and other small businesses that rely on making and selling. I'm not going to be making ALL my holiday gifts this year, but I'm doing quite a few...and I have a few side projects as well. The difference between this year and last year is that I"m actually doing pretty well on checking things off my to-do list....instead of furiously working until the last minute and crossing things off because there is NO WAY I'll ever get to them.

Cases in point: hat, mittens for adorable niece: done. Hat, mittens for adorable nephew: done. Hat, mittens for another adorable family member: DONE! (I'm on a roll, I can feel it). December Daily scrapbook: completed and waiting for December (more on this in an upcoming post). Home made lemon vodka: brewing. I still have to make some felt food for Toast (he's getting a kitchen for Christmas and a bunch of felt food to cook in it).

There is still Christmas cooking to be done, which will be a baking and assembling project for our friends....Hubby and I will work on this together in early to mid December. There are holiday cards to make (I'm making them on the computer and sending them to be developed as 4x6 pictures....) that has to be done soon. I hear naptime tomorrow calling that project's number. There are treat bags for Toast's birthday festivities. There is the possibility of another knitting project; a hat/mitten/scarf set for another family member...it all depends on time and right now time is good!

I'm not halfway done, but some large and time-consuming projects have taken shape in a way that makes me happy. That counts for a lot!

Maybe that crafty mojo isn't gone after all. :)

What I did today

This weekend was devoted to figuring out what we'll do to celebrate Toast's second birthday. With the size of our house (small-ish) the number of people we want to help us celebrate (large-ish), and the areas they live in (spread-out-ish), it's a little tricky to figure out this birthday thing. Reason number 43 to have a child in the spring or summer: outdoor birthday parties! Plan accordingly!

So we're having a variety of celebrations, ranging from Toast's favorite dinner at home with Hubby and I on his actual birthday, to a big family celebration at my Mom's house, which is ostensibly for Toast, but also for the other December birthdays. There are a few cousins who LOVE to get mail, LOVE Toast, and still love a good party....so I decided to send them each invitations (even though we had already done the family phone tree invite to all the parents). In addition to them, we are inviting a few of Toast's friends from the neighborhood over for cake. Some invitations were in order!

Here's what I came up with:



I downloaded a digital scrapbook kit from Designer Digitals (www.designerdigitals.com) called "Men at Work" and all the artwork is from that. The cards and envelopes are all purpose single sided cards with matching envelopes that I buy in bulk at Target. I use these for EVERYTHING, and they are great.
I'm feeling a bit smug about my skills today.

Lucky number 100

This is my 100th post on this blog. I feel like I should do something special. Ahh well. The thought was there.
So I'm feeling a teensy bit angry at myself right now. I spent about a half hour of naptime photographing my scrapbook pages, because I wanted to post some of them to my flickr site. From there, I wanted to submit several of them to group photo pools on said site. I didn't have this desire because I think my pages are spectacular, but they are fairly decent, and I get so many ideas from looking at other's pages. I wanted to start submitting some of my own.
So what's the problem? That nasty little fairy, self-doubt. That's the problem. I'm pulling pages from my albums...so, strike that...I'm looking through my albums and thinking "nope, nope, nope, not good enough, nope, nope nope, boring, nope, not creative enough". Huh? Not creative enough? What?!
It's hard to remind myself that scrapbooking, knitting, embroidery...all these crafty hobbies I have...they are OUTLETS for me. I'm not going to proclaim a background in Art, Art history, design etc etc etc because I don't have one. But I'm an artist simply because I create, because I like it, because it is soothing to me. I don't have to make the next great installation.
What is it that makes us believe we aren't good enough at something? I certainly have enough confidence about myself. I am good parent. I am a good cook. I'm a good person and a fair, compassionate human being. For some reason, though, I always judge my creative endeavors against those of other people. Maybe there's some deep seated psycological reason for this, but I think I just need to get over it and accept my stuff for what it is...MINE. I am a little ashamed of myself that I am so afraid to put things out there for others to see. I mean, I started scrapbooking so that we would actually LOOK at the pictures we take.
I need a good swift kick in the Tuchus.

Why 2009 is important.

I've already said I don't make resolutions. Because I break them. But I have made a commitment to myself for this year: get happy. This entails a lot of things, but mostly it's about balance. Balance between being a good mom and being a happy person. So there are some things I'm doing to try and make sure I take care of myself.

First, I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm going to try and craft every day. I love a lot of crafts, knitting is like breathing for me, I have to do it every day. I'm also passionate about scrapbooking, I like embroidery, I like to make things from old objects, to reuse things in new ways. Before Toast was born, we had his room set up as a library/craft area....all of our books and my craft stuff were there. When we were getting ready for his arrival, I boxed everything up, we moved the books to the living room, and I didn't make anything for a long time. When he was born I also stopped knitting, because I had no time. Then I began to slowly come unglued. I was very unhappy. It is difficult to adjust to two children, and I had no outlet for myself.

When Tiny Man died, we didn't do anything with his room for a long time. Slowly we began to change that, and after a few months I set my craft things up in there again. It felt okay, and I like being in there with the "Little Prince" murals on the wall to remind me of him. But It didn't feel like my space...and slowly it began to feel less like his, too. But I thought, I don't want to get to comfy...we don't know what we are going to do in terms of having another child, and if we do we will need that room. (No, I refuse to make my kids share a room because I have too much stuff or need my space. it's not an option). But then I thought of something. We do have a basement. It's not pretty and it's not finished, but we could carve out a little space down there for me, should another Coffeemamma offspring come along. So in the meantime, I could work on creating a space for myself, knowing I can move it should the need arise.

So that's what I did this weekend. I had some storage, but it wasn't working the way I wanted so I moved things around. I purchased a desktop drawer unit from Ikea for pens and things, and painted some tins with chalkboard paint for more storage. I used what I had and this is what happened:

Everything is old, with the exception of the black and tan drawer unit you see in the corner (the black is chalkboard paint). I also bought a new holder for scrapbooking embilishments that you can't see well. It's on top of the middle drawer unit. The table next to my drafting table is Hubby's kitchen table from when he was single. The drafting table is something I bought when I was single, and the nightstand in the back has been mine forever. I like the way the drawers and that small nightstand work for storage.
Next to the desk is a crate with some storage for stamps. On top of that is a sticker/embelishment binder and some baskets of things that don't fit anywhere else...chipboard letters and the like. These are pretty, but they will have to be moved because I'm sure Toast will get into them lickety-split!
The dresser was Tiny man's, and we aren't sure we won't need it, so it stays. It's holding sewing supplies, my yarn stash (one drawer, I'm not a yarn stasher...but my scrapbook supplies make up for that). On top are some jars with supplies, as well as the tins I painted. These are NOT very visible, but trust me they are cute. The table will hold my sewing machine, when I get it out of storage in the closet.

So there it is. I'm not a creative genius, but I like having my space here. I like that there is a box of toys tucked in there for Toast (even if he prefers raiding my craft drawers instead). I LOVE that I can be in there with the memory of my Tiny man and work on his scrapbooks. It's a peaceful little place for me.

Oh. Lord.

Today I saw this on a scrapbooking blog and I almost spewed coffee out my nose. And not at all in that "hey, that's really funny in a good way" way.

Paris Hilton unveils a line of arts and crafts products? Seriously? This is what we're doing now?

At least it really does indicate that arts - n - crafts is "hot" right now.

I just wish it weren't so skeezy all of a sudden.

Breathing, again

I looked at the date of my last post and thought "wow"...but in a good way. I can't believe so much time has gone by without posting...but I haven't been a bad blog-mama, I've been a good Coffeemomma by taking care of myself, hubby and Toast. :) You see, we have been going along just fine...taking the days as they come. And the days are getting easier. Then (as some of my pre-christmas posts may indicate), we put up the Christmas tree and it was so hard. I didn't know it was coming...at least not that bad. I didn't realize that our first Christmas without the Tiny man would be full of little landmines and triggers of good memories that would make me sad and purge me of all christmas spirit.

So we went on vacation.

Okay, we didn't go because things were difficult, but as it turned out, the change in scenery was EXACTLY what we needed for this first Christmas without our Tiny man. Hubby's family has been doing the holidays in Florida for years and years, and when our dating became serious, we started alternating...one year in Fla. and one here in Michigan. We missed 2006 because we didn't want to travel that far with Tiny Man, so it has been awhile since we worked on our Christmas tans. It was nice to be away from home, but still be with family. The sunshine did wonders for all of us, especially me. Let it never be said that the winter blues have nothing do to with lack of light...for me, at least, they really do. It was a noticeable difference.

So in a nutshell: We flew there and back, and Toast was great on the plane. I was so happy about that! We did two Disney parks: Epcot (which included the fine tradition of eating our way around the world) and Animal Kingdom (if you haven't gone here because you think it will be lame, really: check it out, it's very cool). We looked for Hidden Mickeys. We did lots of shopping (I LOVE after christmas deals) and swimming, and reading, and playing and walking and relaxing.

So for the new year? Well, I don't make resolutions. They are too easy to break. There's all this pressure to tell people about them, then you feel guilty when you don't keep them up. I never keep them up. Maybe that says something about me. Anyway. I do have a few goals for the new year. One is to do something crafty every day. Crafting makes me happy. I love the knitting, of course, but I really want to do more scrapbooking in the new year. I didn't do a whole lot last year, and I miss it. To that end, I'm trying to take a picture every day and create a weekly spread. I got the idea from the Creating Keepsakes kit "365", which encourages you to scrap every day. I just want to take a picture every day, mostly to document what life is like...not the big events, but everyday life. Someday I will look back on this time and love that I was so fortunate to be able to spend time at home with Toast. I will want to see how he changed over a year. I will want to remember what we did every day. I don't think I will be able to scrapbook every single day. But I want to have a record of what life was really like, not what big events happened in our year. Because you always remember the big stuff!

So I also have a new crafty obsession: embroidery. I know, it's not 1863, get with the program. But have you seen this website? I got one of her kits for christmas, and I'm obsessed with the designs! I'll have pictures later of my first few creations.

So that's it! I'm recovered from the holidays...I've returned home, cleaned up the house a little, dug through all the mail, returned the phone calls, written the thank-yous. I've caught up on the web stuff, the email, loaded up the pictures and posted some to flickr. With this blog post I'm officially not on vacation any more. Now to finish the laundry.

Boom

And suddenly the weight of my crafty christmas ideas hits me full force.

I love to make things. I like to knit, journal, scrapbook, cut, glue, doodle, draw. I'm not an artist...in fact I"m a pretty crappy artist. But I love the creative process. Give me a technique, I'll try it. Show me something, chances are I'll come up with a way to make it. I blame my mother, she's always saying "you could make that"...problem is, I also blame her for my downfall: taking on too much...and then not being able to do much.

So this Christmas I have decided to do a lot of crafty things. I have the supplies, I have the "roadmap", if you will, of what I want to do. Two problems: one, I have an-almost-one-year-old son who does not want me to do anything not directly related to him during the day. Problem two is that I"m kind of afraid I'll start all these projects, hate them, and wind up buying presents anyway. I'm a perfectionist that way, and I am horrified by the idea of giving away a hand-made present and seeing the recipient less than thrilled by it. Let's face it, we've all seen crafts gone wrong. Do I want to be that crafter? It's all too much pressure.

But I plow on. The past two christmases I have made knit gifts for people, and I think that what is often said is true: lots of people don't appreciate the handknits. I mean, they LIKED the socks and all...but I wanted to say..."Hey! I knit those!!! On Teeny Tiny needles...out of yarn that looks like thread!" Maybe I'm expecting too much, thinking people will love what I make as much as I love to make it?

See, this is really the thing. I just like to make things. Cover me in glue and paper and I'm a happy girl. It doesn't even have to turn out to be anything, it just makes me content to focus on a task I can do with my hands. It's kind of stressful to not have time to do something creative. I'm a terrible sketch artist, but sometimes I'll just sit down and do it anyway because it makes me feel good to try. Knitting is wonderful meditation. I guess some people like to work with their hands.

Crafting on a deadline is a little stressful. I'm a bit worried I won't finish anything by christmas, or that I will rush and it will look awful. I just need about four extra hours a day I can spend in my craft room. That will solve the problem.