When I'm home/Everything seems to be right--"A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles



You can't see from this angle a tiny blue bird being
obscured by the giant purple flower on the right.





So, I was on my way to buy a food processor…and I accidentally crafted this wreath.  I have never been one of those people who hang things on their front door.  I only rented doors until a few years ago, and joked we always found out we were moving the week after I hung anything on the walls, let alone on the door.  It got to the point after about the fifth move that I didn’t put anything up at all.  I always knew we wouldn’t be there long anyway.  When we finally became the proud owners of our own front door, I still felt like I was renting.  It wasn’t until Christmas came, seven months later, that I put up a nice seasonal wreath.  And there it has been living since December 2009. 





Yep.  Those are cobwebs. 
*hangs her head in shame* 

 Then today I was on my way to buy a food processor when I remembered a Michael’s coupon in my purse.  My idea was to briefly stop in the store to purchase a pre-made wreath.  I had big plans to make salsa this afternoon—not craft!  I should have known myself better.  Forty minutes later and two missed calls from my husband on my cell phone, I came out with all of this:

I didn’t end up using all of the items.  Heck, I didn’t even mean to buy the third bird.  I only brought it to the register because the yellow bejeweled bird didn’t have a price tag on it.  However, I became too enthralled in a conversation with the cashier about my next stop to buy a food processor to tell him I didn’t actually want it.  As for the green glitter ribbon…don’t you hate it when your inner five year old makes you buy things?

I wrapped orange yarn around a basic wooden wreath. 

Later, I added a bit of blue yarn for some contrast.

These clip-on felt flowers made it super easy to attach them.



I clipped the birds to the yarn and secured them with a bit of wire.

I made a bow out of the rest of the yarn.



I’m happy with how it turned out.  As I hung it up I started thinking about the flowers I planted a few feet away, the grass in the front yard which my husband pays such careful attention to, the color of the front door that took us two months to pick out—and all I kept thinking was—we’re home.   

"Hey baby, do you like fine cooking? Cause you know what? I got Swanson's Dinner in the freezer with your name on it.”—Jimmy Fallon



Crafting Tip:  Pets should always preside over your work.



I love when someone I love finds their crafty bone!  My sweet friend Becca found hers this past weekend.  You see she is the cook of our friendship.  She takes cooking classes. She writes a cooking blog.  And, well, she cooks delectable edibles.  And being one of those people who take great pleasure in telling everyone the awesome things their friends do, Becca is also one of my most favorite people to brag about.  Personally, I’m not a cook.  It isn’t that I don’t like to cook.  It just seems like such a chore.  It’s fun when I have the time, but on nights when I don’t get home from work until 8:30 pm…cooking just seems like an obstacle between me and rest.      

Oh, and I’m not that good at it.  One of my main cooking problems is I get distracted and skip a step…or two.  Plus, I try completely ridiculous recipes.  I can never seem to find exactly what it calls for, so I make poor replacement choices or end up at three different grocery stores buying ingredients I’ve never heard of.  Lastly, I tend to over think which leads to over slicing, over mixing and general over cooking.

Becca, on the other hand, is quite the intuitive cook.  Yet at the same time, she really thinks about the food she is working with and the meal she is creating.  She carefully plans.  Heck, she organizes her shopping list by grocery store sections.  She likes the line by line instructions.  She likes the structured process.  Which is EXACTLY why she doesn’t like crafting—and I do.  Craft instructions are simply guidelines.  Skip a step?  No worries!  Just add more glue…or glitter!  Started making a birdhouse and ended up with a dozen pot holders?  Awesome!  Crafting is as all over the place just as I am while cooking is down the line like Becca.  And what is really cool is that at their cores crafting and cooking are the same:  Why buy what you can make?!

Anyway, so this is why I’m so proud Becca made this:



Adorable, right?!

As for me and cooking, I think it will come in due time.  It will be just like me and French!  I took four semesters of French in college and walked away barely able to speak a word of it.  Then, four years later, I went to France and somehow through the jetlag I could speak French!  It was like I was Angelina Jolie in some kind of spy movie.  I half expected to remember I also knew kung fu!  My husband was absolutely amazed.  He kept asking me to translate signs, menus and conversations.  I think if I had to cook—if all the takeout food in the world disappeared—I could cook.  But until then I’ll let my nifty friend Becca handle it.