"Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they add up to the story of life." --Rob Sheffield

I think the definition of crafting is boundless.  It doesn’t have to mean gluing things together or slapping paint on a piece of wood.  Personally, crafting is anything you make—anything at all you get creative about—for yourself and especially for someone else.  It’s kind of the core of my crafting belief system.  So, this post is about how I’ve asked some lovely people to craft something for me.  And even though they would never call what they are doing crafting…I do!         

I have recently fallen into a funk—musically speaking.  I’m not enjoying listening to anything.  I find this particularly distressing since I find it impossible to craft in silence.  Even my all-time favorite crafting music seems blah.  The Beatles’ The White Album has been my crafting constant since high school.  Though in the past few years, I’ve begun putting all The Weepies’ albums on shuffle when The Fab Four just won’t do.  And, lately, I’ve found the Stevie Wonder station on Pandora to be quite the inspiration.  But I realized last week that I need new music in my repertoire for the purpose of crafting and, well, just living my every day life.

 

So, I’ve recruited—okay, maybe coerced—four very different people into taking a blank CD and crafting it into a bit of auditory delight for yours truly.  I’m banking on their song selections having the power to pull me out of my musical funk and to take me out of my usual musical boundaries.  My only guideline is that when they give me the CD filled with their idea of amazing music they will provide me with some information as to why they chose the particular tunes on it.  I mean no mix CD with any integrity is haphazardly put together, right?

I’ve given them no deadline which means the anticipation is killing me…in a good way!  One friend has not only called me about the project but sent me two emails asking for clarification and mentioned it on Twitter…all of which I find quite darling!  And, I have given a final guideline.  The CD crafter must write the date of the day they burned the CD on it.  Not only do I have a crafting belief system, but I also have a CD filing system.          

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."--Marauder's Map, J.K. Rowling*

*The title of this post has nothing to do with my craft project.  I'm just celebrating and grieving the last Harry Potter movie this weekend.

Dates are sort of important to me.  And I don’t mean just birthdays or anniversaries.  I love the dates that can and can’t be found in a public record.  But mostly the ones when I was going about my day and something in my life shifted ever so slightly.  I love the date of a moment with a movement so small I didn’t even notice its importance until later.

August 23, 1999:  I sit down next to a girl I’ve never seen before and start to ramble.  Fast forward almost twelve years through many more rambling conversations to last week, the same girl visits me at work.  I’m greeted by the endearing title of “Auntie Laura” from said girl’s five year old and given an awesome kid hug that mostly takes place around my knees.  My life shifted that day, August 23, 1999.  More people were added to it even though one of them didn’t even exist yet.

January 11, 2000:  I begin sharing a dorm room with a girl with whom I went to high school but had little interaction with prior to standing in a half empty, university owned room.  Fast forward eleven and a half years later, I now call her my family.  We certainly aren’t related by blood or marriage, just a choice made because on January 11, 2000, I found a kindred soul.  

Dated Design Wall Art

Because of my fondness for dates like the ones above, I instantly loved the concept of the linked craft.  And I commend this blogger for being above-and-beyond crafty.  However, I’m not her level of crafty.  When I made my own I had to modify her process a bit.     

I bought a set of black number stickers and a piece of deep purple cardstock from Michael’s.  I carefully measured out each row of numbers and even taped a ruler to my dining room table to ensure perfect sticker placement.  I mean how hard could it be to stick a few stickers?  I had a couple Lisa Frank sticker books in the third grade.  Surely, that was training enough!  Yet, I have no idea what went wrong.  Everything ended up crooked.  I was pretty disappointed considering I had planned to give my little project to my husband as a gift.  It was one of those crafting failures you can’t even bring yourself to cleanup.  I left it in a pile on the kitchen counter.

However, a few days later my husband noticed it.  He told me he thought it was super neat.  It reminded him of computer programming code.  He asked if he could hang it in his office—which was my original intention.  Crafting triumph!

The picture on the left of the finished craft is terrible.  But it was a terrible craft so you aren't missing much.   

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."--Aesop

My kitchen is probably the most difficult room for me to decorate.  There is a sharp contrast between the soft shabby chic colors of the walls and cabinets, the stainless steel appliances and the bright bold colors of my dishware.  It’s the room I was most regretful about once we were done building our house.  And that was even after we had the first set of cabinets replaced, had three special meetings with the builder about the arched doorway and I sent back the first refrigerator.  I really don’t know what I was thinking on any of it.  So, now, I’m spending way too much time thinking about how to fix it.

I really want to create something crafty to pull the room together.  I want to center it on a word or phrase.  And to get all Eat, Pray, Love on my craft blog, my kitchen’s word is—thankful.  Whenever I’m in my kitchen it’s the word that absolutely surrounds me. 

I’m thankful for the food in my kitchen whether made from scratch on straight out of the takeout box.  I’m thankful for my Fiestaware—it’s the persimmon color that has been discontinued which makes me love it more.  I’m thankful for the red tea kettle given to me by my husband’s Mamaw which has sat on every stovetop I’ve had since college.  I’m thankful for standing barefoot in the kitchen early in the morning and listening to NPR while I wait for the coffee to finish.  I’m thankful for the important conversations I’ve had with my husband while I cooked and he leaned on the counter or while I sat on the counter and he cooked. 

So, what says all of that!?  I’m thinking of using “Be Thankful” or “Be Grateful”—like a reminder.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Links?            

"Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted chemistry? Do they?”--Matt Groening

I'm hoping to get more crafts out this paper.

When I started my blog I promised to report my crafting mistakes.  Ohhhh, but let’s just call them mishaps.  Shall we?  Are there really any mistakes in crafting?  I don’t think so.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty crafty.  I had four thrift store picture frames and some craft paper I bought a few weeks ago on my mind.  I thought I would put a little crackle medium and paint on the frames…cut the craft paper to fit…and, BAM, adorable accents for my amazingly bare kitchen walls.  Easy, right?!  Yeah, I thought so, too. 

When I posted a few months ago about the wonder of crackle medium I gave the instructions off the bottle which explain one should paint a basecoat, apply the crackle medium and then a final topcoat for successful crackling.  However, I must confess, I thought the basecoat was only needed to achieve the color contrast that makes the crackle effect really pop.  My frames already being a dark brown, I decided to skip the basecoat.  I went straight from crackle medium to a cream colored topcoat.  Yeeeaaahhh, that didn’t work.  Clearly, I should have been thinking less about pretty and more about basic chemistry.  The basecoat is needed for the reaction to occur that causes the paint to crack.  Whoopsy!

Bleck!

I then for reasons I don’t understand decided to paint a layer of crackle medium over the cream color that didn’t react followed by a layer of red paint.  The cream would show through the red and be super cute, right?!  Uh, no.  It didn’t even look a little cute.  So, I applied another layer of crackle medium and another layer of cream.

I wish I could end this post by saying my mistake…I mean mishap…turned into something wonderful.  But I can’t.  It’s okay but not good enough for me to show a picture of the finished product.  I did manage to salvage the other frames which look quite perfect.  Yay!

I end by saying slow down.  Read the directions.  Think about it.  

And don't get too big for your crafty britches.