Therapy

I first became smitten with arts and crafts when I learned how to make pot holders on a metal loom as a kid. My grandmother, bless her, was always delighted to get MORE pot holders for gifts and probably could have cloaked a small country with the numbers she had when she died.

When I got older, and my horizons expanded, few had any faith I would ever be able to do something like sew. My mom taught me the basics in middle school and I did make some worthwhile shirt dresses at the time. In Junior High, my best friend's mother was our Home Ec teacher. Our class project was a dress. God, I can still see that hideous green flowered fabric. I really had no business intending to wear said garment, since I was short and overweight for my size. I know how to sew, I thought at the time, so I paid little attention in class and did what I thought I already knew. The front of a dress is always placed on the fold of the fabric, so there is no seam. I promptly cut the dress up the front. Oh it got worse. I ended up putting in the zipper upside down, in the hem at the back of the dress.

So when John decided to buy me a sewing machine for Christmas the year I was pregnant with Megan, my mother recoiled in horror and tried to change his mind. Mostly self-taught from that point, I went on to make Halloween costumes for the kids (my favorites being Donald Duck and Snow White), summer jackets, holiday outfits and down vests from Daisy Kingdom for everybody I knew.

Then came scrapbooking. Quilting. Tole painting. Card manufacturing. I now have a room devoted to nothing but what I call my "therapy." I love creating something handmade. I wish I could say this passion is cheaper than somebody's couch in an office, but I fear it's not.

So I thought I would share what I've been doing with some of my "spare time" lately.

This is a recent birthday present for a friend. Your basic unpainted wooden cigar box, which I covered with vintage paper. The fan ornament on the outside of the box is an earring I picked up at the Goodwill for $2.00 for the pair. The stationary inside the box was also handmade, using just double-sided scrapbook paper cut to standard notecard size.

I'm working on one of these presently, which will also be a birthday present. This one was actually a bridal shower gift a couple years ago and contained a fussy, umm, "sweet nothing" for the bride.

I'd love to see what anybody else does!