Dec7

Dinosaur Spikes and Dino-Boots

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Dinosaur Spikes and Dino-Boots

I have a confession to make: I’m addicted to Pinterest. In fact, I made myself a pot of coffee and sat down to write this blog about 90 minutes ago, but I am relentlessly drawn to that tab with a little white P in the red circle that is forever open in my browser. Soooo, here I am, again trying to write this blog.

I tell you that, to tell you this: I have found SO MANY cute ideas on Pinterest lately that involve dinosaur motifs. Seeing as my dear, sweet, little MJ is growing into a five-year-old monster himself, I have been drawn back, time and again, to those dinosaur ideas. So I started searching the inter-web trying to find a pattern for crocheting dinosaur spikes. Here’s the problem: I’m my mother’s daughter and I refuse to pay for a pattern to make something that, essentially, looks simple. I found a couple of free patterns online, but they were difficult to follow and all of the single crochets into tight, circular patterns were guaranteeing me early-onset carpal tunnel syndrome.

So I stopped, took a deep breath, and thought, “How hard can this be? Think, Jennifer, THINK.” Now, as a new mother, thinking does not come so easily to me. That’s why I was pleased with myself when I conceptualized out how I was going to make these spikes. I was down-right celebratory when I made one the way I thought it should work. By the time I repeated the pattern successfully several times, I considered myself worthy of a Nobel prize. And now, as my final gift to the world, I will share this pattern online for free, so all of you can benefit from my genius.

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Dec6

Tabula Rasa

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Tabula Rasa

When I was a teenager, I found my mother’s diaries from when she was young. I remember sitting, cross-legged, on her bathroom floor, searching for insights into what it was like to be my mother when she was young and free of the complications adulthood and children can bring. One of her entries has stayed with me all these years, a poem titled Tabula Rasa. A blank slate. For what?
This poem came into my mind again recently as I thought about a project MJ was sent home with. Each young person was sent home with a blank outline of a child and asked to dress and decorate the paper to reflect the culture of the individual. This led to a lot more reflection on my part than on MJ’s (he wanted to wear a striped suit because he wants to be a secret spy), culminating in me lying awake after D’s 4 am feeding over thinking the word culture in relation to my children.
When I first thought about our family’s culture, I thought of the usual: Matt’s Swedish and Portuguese heritage, my Irish and English background. Later, lying awake after feeding the baby, I started thinking about how parenting affects a child’s culture, creating new traditions, developing him or her into an adult who will, in turn, contribute to the culture of others. Our children are born blank slates, vessels into which we pour all we are and have been taught, good, bad, and ugly, intentional and unintentional. Every drop we pour into their development alters them ever so slightly into a new person who grows to add their own experiences to the vessel until we eventually set them loose to create their own culture. It’s an enormous responsibility, but also a joy beyond any explanation. For MJ’s project, I dressed the form in his secret spy suit and created a passport to show where MJ’s family is from. I put a menorah in the other hand and discussed the significance of these items with MJ. As I sent him off to school that day, however, I looked at D, in all of her newness and I thought about how I short-changed him. His culture is so much more than the Cricut images I cut out and pasted to his little cardboard form. Who he is can’t be encapsulated so easily. As we approach this holiday season, I hope I can slow down and take the time to appreciate the traditions, personalities, and idiosyncrasies that make up my family’s culture and, in turn, help to etch the blank slates that are my children. With any luck, the next time I sit down with MJ and ask him what he thinks makes up who he is, he will be able to answer confidently.

Dec5

Custom Wine Labels

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Custom Wine Labels
Custom Wine Labels

It’s December and that means there are two parties to hit every Saturday and Sunday and probably a few mid-week, hosted by those who knew the weekends were booked and simply did not want to compete. I know our calendar for the month looks like it belongs to someone much more popular than me (which confuses Matt because I don’t write down which ones I plan to attend, I simply put them all in so I know what’s going on- even after I have RSVP’ed). With all of these to-do’s, I find it overwhelming, at times to be a grown-up and find a cute, original hostess or birthday gift to bring to each event.

For a friend’s 40th birthday this past weekend, the invitation requested we not bring gifts, but said a bottle of wine would not collect dust. I decided to try to make novelty labels for the bottle as a treat.

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Dec3

Mini-Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

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Mini-Muffin Tin Advent Calendar
Mini-Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

I have been wanting to try this idea for a while. I originally bought about five mini-muffin muffin tins to make them for friends, but it turns out it’s a LOT of work, so I returned all but one of them. The idea is to cover each of the muffin cups with a magnetic sheet and decorate to suit.

For this project, I used:

Magnetic sheets (purchased at a local craft store)
Craft punches (I like the Stampin’ Up ones for this because they are pretty heavy duty and punched through the magnetic sheets easily. I can’t really imagine my Fiskars ones lasting)
Paper
Adhesive (photo squares, glue pens, and dimensional foam dots)
Whatever you’d like to use to decorate (I cut most of mine out with the Cricut)
Crop-o-dile
Ribbon

First, cut 24 shapes from your magnet sheets and coordinating paper. Make sure the punch you use is larger than your muffin cup but not so large as to overlap when you lay them side by side. The magnetic sheets have a peel-off backing so you can secure the paper to it, else you can use photo squares or another adhesive of choice. From here, the sky’s the limit as to how you decorate your covers. One key element of advent calendars is having the count up to Christmas. I used the storybook cartridge from Cricut to cut out my numbers because of the romantic feel. I put  Inksentials glossy accents onto the letters to make them look like puffy stickers.

In a rare stroke of genius, I actually planned this out. I knew I wanted to alternate numbers and pictures, but the Cricut layers can be a total pain. So I drew out which pictures I wanted where and I made notes as to which colors I needed for each image.

 

This cut down on the number of times I had to change papers and cut. Once I cut out a layer, I would put it onto my grid until I finished the whole item and then glued it together with a fine-point glue pen. My favorite was the snowman. He was a lot of work, but I think he turned out well.

Once all of the covers are completed, punch two holes in the top to run a ribbon through. I also attached a bag to the bottom to hold the covers as MJ takes them off (he has been negotiating his way into a chocolate a day so far…)

Dec2

Manifesto

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Manifesto

A little over two months ago, I tarted writing this blog. It began as a chronicle of home improvement projects around our house and evolved into a journal about those endeavors with the addition of craft ideas I wanted to try, things I learned along the way, and the little stories I tell when I want to lighten the mood with a little laughter at my own expense. At some point, I let all of the “you could sell these!” go to my head and I started making items to list on ETSY. The work it takes to make product, advertise it, develop a following and even START selling is intense. Once you have put that investment in, it is incredibly disheartening to have to deal with those buyers who contact you with criticism and skepticism about your prices, your shipping cost, your workmanship. In an attempt to expand my circle of buyers, I started participating in craft fairs. These are local, so I have the opportunity to meet some amazing, interesting, creative types, and also to put my projects up for the world to see. Again, this leaves you vulnerable to the grumpy masses who are spoiled by Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and the rest of the bargain basement retail deals that can be made on items mass produced by workers who have to beg for a livable wage. I’ll admit, I am one of those at times, but I am trying to adjust my perspective.
Through all of this, I never stopped having fun. Matt and I have talked, many times, about the concern that at some point it might stop being fun and that would ruin crafting in general for me. I don’t imagine that could ever happen (though it would be fantastic for us, financially, if it could. Goodbye JoAnn’s credit card bills). I have, however, done a lot of thinking while sitting creating different lovely items I would much rather give away to a friend or family member who would love and appreciate them than sell them for a fraction of what I think my time is worth to someone who may or may not complain about it in the end, anyway. Not to mention that people who are really successful in the ETSY and craft fair worlds make one thing and make it well. I enjoy making lots of different things and experimenting, I am far too ADD to settle down with one product (besides, I would have to break up with Pinterest and that’s just one website, I can’t bear to part with).
So as I was winding a ball of yarn around a wreath form thinking about how long it has taken me to cover that bleepity-bleeping thing I made a decision: I will make the things I want to make for fun. I will still photograph them and list them on ETSY for the price I think they’re worth and if someone agrees with me and decides to pay that amount, I will know the item I’m making is going to an appreciative home. In the mean time, I will focus on what I love: crafting, building, writing, teaching. I will appreciate the time I get to spend with my family (two-thirds of my maternity leave are gone- WHAT?!?!), and I will continue to have fun.
Now, you might be asking yourself why I would put this on my blog. A little something about me: I am a rampant committment-phobe. It stems from a fear of failure. I understand this is not a flaw exclusive to me, but it is (as far as I can recall) the first time I have ever acknowledged it aloud, let alone in writing, online, for the world to read. Once I put something out there, like an idea of something I would like to try (say, writing a blog) I run the risk of being held to that and having to answer people when they say, “How’s the blog going?” Over the past two plus months, people would ask “What are you trying to do with Thoroughly Modern Mommy?” to which I would answer a non-committal something to the effect of, “I don’t know. I’m just playing around, throwing things against the wall to see if anything sticks.” Unfortunately, all I am doing when I answer this way is undercutting myself and my endeavors. I am, however, protecting myself from failure. If things don’t work out, I can pretend I was not really invested in the project and brush it off. When I give this any serious thought, my reaction is: lame
Lame
LAME
LAMMMMMEEEEEEEEE
Life takes risk. Growing as an individual, making major strides, requires one to stick their neck out. Failure, though disappointing, embarrassing, and frustrating, is a way to learn (if one is open to the lessons available). So here I am, two months into this experiment with a manifesto, a mission statement, if you will.
I plan to continue exploring the blogosphere and finding creative projects and ideas. I plan to share my adventures with anyone who cares to read this blog. I will share my love for crafts, building (ok, that’s a love-hate, but you get the idea), and gardening in an honest, straight-forward way and hope to build a readership that appreciates what I do and enjoys sharing these ideas and activities with me. I will do all of this with glee, without regret, and if I ever cease to enjoy my activities, I will stop. Building anything, even a blog, is work, but it should be fun. Especially if I am doing it in my spare time.
Thus spake Zarathustra. I appreciate you all bearing witness to my musings and hope you will all hold me accountable to my mission. I can not say I no longer fear failure, but I can honestly hope to be open to any lessons that come my way in either success or the alternative. Wish me luck.