Wyo Sal: There’s Crafting and Then…

Posted April 27, 2017 by Wyo Sal -

So I guess you either have the crafting gene or you don’t.

My daughter has it.

My mother doesn’t as much, although she enjoys sewing and makes her own pillow shams and curtain valances in her straight-from-a-magazine homes. So I guess she crafts.

Me, not so much.

Since college, I have tried.

I know one crochet stitch, which isn’t a stitch so much as it is a plastic stick that one holds between one’s legs. Try doing that on an airplane or at a lecture any time soon.

When my son was an infant and I worked from home, I had tons of free time, not much adult companionship, and loved crafting. I hooked rugs, cross stitched pictures and homey sayings, made Christmas decorations and an above-described afghan for nearly everyone in the family.

Then I went back to real work, had a second kid, became much older, and suddenly, there was no time for crafting.

My daughter does it all. She knits beautiful, heirloom type things. She made her brother a hat for Christmas that nearly brought him to tears.

She did her daughter’s first birthday party all from Pinterest, adapting and improving as she went along. With her husband’s help, they made a tepee, decorations that matched the tepee fabric, and a prairie skirt for the honoree to wear that matched the whole theme.

She used scrap wood and made me a flag that hangs in my living room that she says took her 10 minutes. I’ve seen identical ones online for $100.

She recovered my dining room chairs and promises to make a matching seat cushion for the window seat.

Now that she is faced with returning to work, she is wishing for a realistic “work from home” option. I think she should craft full-time, but she thinks she needs a more permanent income without a big outlay.

So it is that I am just beginning to think about a new craft, one that is old-fashioned, time consuming, expensive and nearly completely a thing of the past.

I spent one evening emptying a handmade jewelry box of prints. I sorted them into piles, and have piles ranging from a late 1980’s trip to Havasu before she was born to the party invitation to E’s second birthday extravaganza next month.

I spent a bit of time online looking at supplies I might need. It was similar to reading an Arabic arithmetic catalog.

I don’t even know what most of that stuff is. And if I need the ability to cut straight edges without a $200 machine, I guess I’m done in.

I am proud of me for starting this exactly two years later than I should have, rather than 33 or 26.

The other day, the Daughter said to her oldest, “maybe Nana will make you a scrapbook instead of handing you a folder like she did with me.”

Nothing like being shamed into a new venture.

Stay tuned. I don’t know what I’m doing, but at least I’m willing to try.

And that is significantly better than watching 150 Rockies games on TV while doing absolutely nothing.

Wyo Sal is a Catholic mom and grandma and works full-time at a job that still usually overwhelms her. She loves football and food and books. She hopes to win the lottery some day.

Categories: This and That, Wyo Sal

Tags: , crafting, family, photo albums, traditions, Wyo Sal