Arts & Crafts

To craft or not to craft, that is the question.
Well I guess not really, because my answer is always to craft.

I love arts and crafts. I have for a very long time, since I got my start tracing Super Mario Bros characters, including a risqué Rosalina that even my young mind knew to hide from my parents (sorry mom and dad). Though I will say, tracing did help with the initial process of understanding how basic shapes equal a masterpiece. My next goal in art was to get really good at drawing Pokémon, and I will say it, to this day I can draw an excellent Empoleon (no he is not my favorite). Now after this my motivation for learning arts and crafts really takes a depressing and dramatic turn.

My first grandmother to pass away was a wizard with yarn, I mean it, she was amazing. But, her favorite was crocheting. She would always tell me about how she was going to teach me all her crafty ways when I got a bit older. Moral of the story; she died before I got to that “older” point. So, when we were cleaning out her hoarder hell of a house (crafts and clowns, the latter is terrifying I know), I found so much unused yarn, books upon books full of patterns and information, and it gave me an idea. I decided I was going to take everything I could and teach myself how to crochet in her memory, that way I could feel close to her. Now when I first taught myself I had to use books for instructions as YouTube and the “How To” guides of the internet weren’t all that developed, plus I also barely understood how to get to Google at this point. After so much wasted yarn and the impulsive thought to throw myself out my bedroom window for the millionth time, I started to get the hang of it. Though I will say that my form is weird and it still is to this day because now it is a habit. And at the ripe age of nine, I became a grandma at heart.

Speaking of grandmas, guess who died only two years after my soul shifting into a seventy year old? Surprise surprise, grandma number two! Now while she could knit, yarn wasn’t her forte like more traditional art was. She could draw so well, and wow could she paint. Her favorite was to paint on wood decor pieces. Every time I would go to her house I would be surrounded by her art. Even now it is still a tug-of-war game of trying to steal some of her pieces from my mom (Mom if you are reading this I want that damn reindeer wreath so bad).
I still remember the first painting piece she had me do, it was wooden birdhouse. It still sits on the very top of a bookshelf in my apartment. God what an ugly way that thing is painted. But hey, I was like seven so I can cut myself some slack I guess. I still am nowhere near as good of a painter as she was, but I like to think my drawing ability would make her proud.

So you may be wondering, why would any of this matter? And maybe to you it doesn’t, and that’s okay. But, the “why” to our actions is so revealing of the amount of practice and effort we are willing to put in. I love arts and crafts so much and I have been doing them for over half my life. I have tried the cheapest materials possible to the “best quality” materials with a hefty price tag. I would never try to promote or recommend something if it is a piece of crap and that includes my own patterns and works. I am a perfectionist and only like to produce things at the highest quality possible. So, what I am saying in a roundabout way is, you can trust that I am not going to recommend or post garbage. It just isn’t who I am.

And with that, please feel free to check out my site, I post all kinds of arts and crafts. Not limited to but including; basic beginner information, materials, patterns, projects, etc.