craftastic

i used to get offended when people called me "crafty." not "crafty" like, cunning and witty (though i have had those labels too) but "crafty" like creative. but they said crafty. not creative. one day someone called me crafty and my friend said "you're not crafty. you're creative." and i loved her. i don't know why, but "crafty" makes me itchy. it makes me think of ceramic duck wall plaques that say "Debbie's Kitchen." or it makes me think of bad 70's kitch. orange and brown macrame. glue guns. cinnamon sticks. dried flowers. scratch. see?! it's itchy! so i got all high and mighty because i paint. though i would never say i am a painter. but i paint on canvas with paints, not of the paint-by-number variety. and so i just wanted to be creative. not crafty. i'm burying the lead. here it is. i have always loved a good project. and now i've gone crafty. there's no way around it. i guess creative and crafty can coexist. but right now i am 100% crafty. it's inspired by my toddlers. toddler crafts. i can't get enough. pom poms. glue sticks. pipe cleaners. crayons in colors that never existed in my day, like robin egg's blue. (we would call it tiffany blue but no one asked me when they were naming crayon colors and, ok, it's better for kids to identify with bird eggs than a luxury jewelry store. i guess.), almond, and scarlet. all breath-taking. um, i find crayola crayons breath-taking. i know. what's going on? i went absolutely nutso over making pre-pre-school valentines. we were all sick. we were all cooped up. we needed a project. i was like "whatever! there's only 8 kids in the class! it'll be a breeze!" then i stopped dead in my tracks at the craft store. um. i have 2 kids. did anyone know that? they cannot under any circumstance give valentines from both of them! they're individuals! those other pre-pre-schoolers are expecting to bring home 7 valentines! and by God they will. so we had to make 16 valentines. lots of cutting paper hearts. various colors, various sizes. then googly eyes. then pipe cleaners for added flair. C and R mostly just slapped hearts on the glue. and picked where to put the eyes. even though they all fell off 3 days later. 32 googly eyes. staring at me. i think they're pretty damn cute. creative AND crafty. apparently the valentines amped up my adrenaline and when a friend was talking about this cutest dress she saw that she thought she could make. i heard a little hallelujah. so off i went to get a pattern for what the pattern people were telling me was the easiest dress ever. evah. like R could make it herself. here's where my lack of craftasticness comes in. i can't follow directions. like, it's impossible. i usually read directions after my plan that i made up in my head takes a wrong turn. it's a backup plan. not directions. the thing with sewing a pattern...you kind of have to do what they tell you. they're not the boss of me! needless to say. it was more craptastic than craftastic. so i just jumped ship and made my own damn dresses. creative. not crafty. i don't know what's next. creative or crafty? we'll see. i'm pretty sure i've got glitter in my near future. crafty. but maybe we'll call sidewalk chalk "pastels" instead. creative. and as far as the whole "it's cheaper to make it yourself rather than purchase it already made." that's crap. and not craptastic. it's just crap. we would have been fine with $3 dora valentines from target. and we would have been fine with $40 dresses from ebay. but then we wouldn't have had crafty and creative projects. so without further ado (or adieu, if you like)...

all patternless. creative. and a little crafty.