Crossing Over to the Crafty Side

Well it's happened, I have officially become crafty. I know my title says it all, and before you let the excitement overwhelm you, don't imagine Martha Stewart-esque type work. The things I've made are baby steps compared to what others might do, but for me this is a huge deal. About a year ago, an inkling of this newfound, creative energy began to slowly creep in as I watched a friend paint a stool for her daughter to use as an aid for hand washing at the sink. I saw her work and suddenly remembered I'm qualified and fully able to do that; as any fellow sorority girl knows you gain the skill of craft painting during your college career what with all the letters, paddles, frames and stools you must paint. It's too bad that I could never list that as as skill on my resume, because I spent so much time doing it during college I think I should have gotten some sort of credit out of it.

So as I mentioned this made me feel fully qualified. to paint a little stool for Braedan, and I went with a sports theme only because all I needed to do was paint a few sports balls. And not to sound too full of myself, but it actually came out ok. Then again, how hard is it to paint a few circles, hence why I went with sports. Around that same time was Braedan's 2nd birthday, and I went ahead and made his birthday invites. It was very simple just because I don't have any graphic programs loaded on my computer AND I don't own a cricut. If you have no idea what that is don't worry, I didn't either. I just learned what it is a year ago, and I have to admit not having one made me feel a wee bit inadequate as a mom. Forget the perpetual "concerns list" that may run through your mind throughout the day regarding your child: 1.) Did he eat enough at breakfast? 2.) What did he touch at the library? 3.) Was anyone coughing or with a runny nose? 4.) What am I going to feed him at dinner tonight? No, when I learned about the cricut I thought, "Eek, I never made him cute onesies using a cricut to celebrate his monthly milestones. I didn't make any cute decorations for his 1st birthday."  But alas, I am making up for lost craft time, and I have Pintrest and the impending arrival of my baby girl to thank for crossing over to the crafty side of motherhood.

It took me a while to get into the whole board and pinning action of Pintrest, but now that I've gotten the hang of it I cannot stop. From what I hear from others, that part of it is perfectly normal along with actually keeping up and doing all of the projects/ideas you have pinned. (Another area I was feeling inadequate.) Needless to say my dabbling in the stool project turned into a full-fledged painting marathon of the decorative pieces for our baby girl's room. And when I say marathon, I'm not exaggerating because it seems like it's taking me forever to finish. I learned other wild side effects of Pintrest are the number of simultaneous projects you have going on and your frequent visits to Michael's or Hobby Lobby to gather supplies for these numerous projects. I make a stop at one of these places at least every other week, or I try to limit it to every other week. It's funny how times have changed, because before kids while living in Chicago I developed a shopping addiction, specifically to clothes and boots, due to the fact that I worked downtown and was within walking distance of it's shopping mecca. I couldn't help dropping into a store during my lunch hour and if I purchased something here or there, I would unsuccessfully try to hide it from the hubby to keep him from knowing that I had yet again gone shopping. But there was no fooling him. I swear it was like he had a mental library of my clothes because every time I wore something new, he knew it and asked the inevitable question, "Is that new?"

This time around though I don't feel too guilty about my craft purchases because of all the coupons I literally have on hand due to my IPhone apps. That thing is a godsend, I don't know what we ever did before. But as I mentioned earlier, this crossover is a huge deal for me and if I can do it, you can too. All you need is a little PINspiration.

My first craft project, as I mentioned very simple.

As many of you know, we're keeping the name a surprise so had to cover up the first canvas.

And don't ask me where this idea came from because Pintrest didn't help here. It just came to me one day. All we need now is for her to get here to fill in the other picture frame.