Still The Reigning Queen of Crafts!

Oh wait!  Did you think I was talking about myself?  Hardly!  Of course I was tipping my hat to Her Crafting Majesty, the Crafty Pumpkin.  Her crafting knows no bounds and she seems to have anything crafty that you may or may not need.  Ribbon?  Pfffft...do you want it with or without wire?  Adhesive?  Tape (single or double sided), glue (hot or cold), acid filled or free.  Paper?  How much time do you have?  Seriously!  The girl can create scrapbooks, gifts, games all during nap time.

Recently, she posted 2 craft ideas and I thought I'd throw my glue gun into the ring (or hand woven basket) and try.  Both were appropriate for teacher gifts and since the end of the school year was upon us, it seemed like the right thing to do.  I, myself, am not typically a craft self starter.  Buying something made to look like I spent hours toiling over it is much more my style.  It's not that I can't create crafty things...I'm actually very good at following directions.  I've conquered many the Ikea furniture pieces!  The more cam screws the better!  But that's almost the problem here.  Crafty P can take a pile of stuff and make something terrific out of it and explain it in 4 steps...I require 472 directions to complete any project.  I think by the 6th phone call and 24th text from Michael's and Jo-Ann's, Crafty was ready to finish the projects for me.

Without further ado...here's a photo tour of the craftiness.  If you would like more in depth directions, I'll be happy to email you a 7 page, bullet point Word document.

Here's Bella and Joe painting little ceramic pots with watered down white paint which were then wiped with a paper towel to give them a weathered look.

Then we have Bella counting out Kisses for each bag and Joe signing his name for his teachers' tags.

Here's one of Bella's finished tags...

Viola!

For this next project, children were not permitted to help...in any way.

This crayon letter project was for Joe's classroom teacher and it surely tested every one of my needs for perfection, symmetry and neatness.  

But, all the teachers loved their gifts and I would happily do these crafts again in the future.  In some small recess of my mind, though, I kinda hope Crafty P doesn't come up with any more fabulous ideas.  She can rest assured knowing that she can hang onto her (handmade, of course) crown of craftiness.

....and DONE!!!

The Clothing Chronicles, Is It Just Me?

I'm hoping that by the end of this post I won't be left standing alone (to be more accurate; sitting while typing) by my ill fitting, mismatched clothed self.  I need to know that other people do the same thing....compromise fit for time or savings.  Who's with me?

I wear one pair of jeans.  Read that again.  One pair.  And I love them.  Now, don't get me wrong...I OWN probably 20 pair in a variety of sizes ranging from "Are you serious?" to "Remember when?"  But that one pair is the only denim in the rotation right now.  If I'm in a pinch and the beloved are in the wash, I'll wear a pair of ill fitting jeans.  Always the next size up, never down.  I learned a long time ago that squeezing, shoving and stuffing into a smaller size doesn't make you look slimmer....in fact, an image of bulldogs wrestling in a pillow case comes to mind.  Why don't I just get another pair of jeans that actually fit?  That makes perfect sense!  Eh...that would take time and money...plus, I have other jeans.  Yeah, but they don't fit!!!  But look at the stack of jeans you have...there are people with NO jeans in this world!  But they don't fit!!!  See why it's hard to be in my head?

This same principle applies to shorts, too.  One pair...plus the cast offs.  Which reminds me that I need to wash those, unless the peach chunks and accompanying juice magically disappeared from the entire crotch area....

Here's what else I'm stuck on...I was trying on fun summer dresses at Target that were out of my usual comfort zone.  I was really proud of myself.  I picked out a floor length (?) ankle length (?) long, sleeveless dress with a v-neck.  Surprisingly, the length did not make look like a gnome, and the waist did not make me look like a Popsicle.  So far so good, right?  But, the top was a little too big and the V was a little too deep.  I was thinking of wearing the dress to church, but not with that much cleavage!  So, I thought "Well, if I put a cammi under it...and a cardigan over it, it could work."  What?  Now I just went from an easy to throw on dress to an elaborate get up to keep people from stumbling in Sin at church?  I didn't get the dress.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have a lot of clothes that require a plan.  Pants that have no button, but if I pin them then cover it with a top...A shirt with a stain, but if I wear a scarf....Pants that can only be worn with heels....Pants that can only be worn with flats....Pants that are too big, but if I use a belt then cover the gappy part....A shirt that's too short, but if I wear a tank under it....No one will see the maternity tag, right?...So what if I've had this shirt since before having kids?  It's still cool, right?  Uhhhhh. no.

When did I become this person?  It's not like I was ever a fashion icon, unless Hyper Color T-shirts or Skidz counts towards being a fashionista.  I try to follow trends or at the very least avoid fashion faux pas like shoulder pads, pleats and bolo ties.  But where did the compromise begin?  Am I lazy?  Frugal to the point of spending more on safety pins than the clothes themselves?   Since in the recent past, my size has gone up and down depending on which side of pregnancy we're talking about, I simply found it pointless to put time and money into a wardrobe that will potentially not fit in the near future.  But that doesn't make it okay to wear broken down, stained, ill fitting junk either.

I guess I never realized how much clothing compromising I was doing.  Guess I need to go shopping...SOON!  Anybody need to go with me?

For the next Clothing Chronicles..."Can we talk about ugly underwear?".

Sweet Progress