The start of 2013 has been a little rough for me. My days have consisted of nothing but work sleep work sleep. And my weekends have been nothing short of a little bit dull. Leaving me a bit down in the dumps, if you will. After long heart to hearts with my husband, sister, and mom they all came to the same conclusion. I needed to get something besides work going on in my life. A hobby. Whoa, whoa. What a novel concept right? Well, sometimes I don't see the obvious very well until I trip right over it. One of the hobbies I came up with to get my mind off of work and on to something fun was I decided I was going to start doing some crafting!
The thing that gave me the idea to start some craft projects was this little Wish Monster I made for my sister's birthday last month. I worked on him after work while I was watching TV and I found that sewing on his little features and such really had this calming effect on me. So that's why I decided I needed to do more of that.
Here is the little guy I made. He's already in Japan, world traveler!
So it was off to the craft store! The first thing I picked up was a skein of yarn and some knitting needles. This to me was the perfect thing to do during the week to keep my mind and fingers busy. Something to do while I unwind at the end of the day watching TV. I got this really pretty soft silvery grey yarn and I'm going to start out super easy and knit myself a scarf! Its been several years since my grandma taught me how to knit so I figured starting out nice and easy would be the best thing. And this project is more about therapy then making spectacular knitted works of art! I needed a little help to remind myself how to cast on and really even which way to put the needle through and to wrap the yarn. So off to the YouTubes! What did we ever do without the internet? I can't remember.... So, after re-learning the basics here I go on this scarf!
This yarn is a little difficult to use because its so fluffy and thick.
But its going to make a super comfy scarf!
Right next to the knitting section of Jo-Ann Fabric is the embroidery section. So I picked up a small embroidery hoop and some white thread. I have never embroidered anything in my life, but I think I can figure out some simple stitches (again with the help of the internet!) and make something cute and simple. After all I managed to figure out that button stitch on the little monster above.
I'm thinking of doing a triangle banner over some kind of cute little animal.
I thought this would be enough to keep me going but yesterday I had the best idea. Have you ever seen or heard of Smash Books? They are the coolest things ever. Basically they are an "anything goes" type of scrapbook. Where other scrapbooks come with blank pages that you have to decorate and make beautiful and perfect, Smash Books have pre-designed pages so all you have to do is stick in your life's treasures and admire! They encourage you to not worry about placing that picture just right or color coordinating each page by theme. They just want you to smash it in! Make ordinary life extraordinary. Make it messy and beautiful. They also have lots of cute accessories you can buy too like stickies with sayings and topic prompts, washi tape, cute paper clips, stamps, and loads more! I have been eying these little books and all their cute little accessories at Michaels for a while and not buying one because I could never think up a way to use it. Until now! What better way to document my year then one of these unrestricted, quick on the go, smash-it-in scrapbooks? This is the perfect tool for me to look back over all the things I have done this year and to look forward to all the things I can do to put inside. Motivation to keep on living life!
Here is my Smash Book and the accessories that came with it.
And the first two pages I've done so far!
So, here's to a year of fun crafts to keep on keepin' on! What sort of hobbies and crafts do you do to keep busy and moving forward?
