Happy Birthday Mom!

 Dear Mom,

I know that you're still mad because I was born breach and you didn't get to have any of the good drugs, but look!  Your grandson made you a really cool present.

We started out with a blank puzzle. No I don't know where I got these blank puzzles.   I was cleaning out my closet the other day and there they were in a box.  Jimmy Hoffa was in that box as well--maybe they were his?

We traced Zane's hands onto the puzzle pieces.  Zane cooperated with my attempts to trace his hands, mostly because I wouldn't let him move any fingers while I was tracing. 

Since Zane knows that he holds his Grandma's heart in his hands(also her wallet), we drew a very red heart.  And then we colored the entire picture using as many crayons as possible. 

 
And now we take all the pieces apart and put them in a bag and bring them to Grandma's house so she can play(Zane's word).  Hooray!

Stop Me Before I Craft Again!

It all started one day when I saw someone wearing some cute earrings. I don't usually pay attention to such things, but that day I did. I looked at those earrings and I said these very familiar words.

"I can do that."

It was all downhill from there.

I am not a very crafty sort of person. In the first place, I have fine motor coordination issues. Threading a needle is akin to performing brain surgery with a spoon for me. And when I try to concentrate on being coordinated, my hands start shaking. The next strike against me is my general lack of patience. It makes it very difficult to learn a craft when you keep throwing it down in disgust because you messed up. Third, I have a three year old who wants to do EVERYTHING his father and I do. (He did actually sit still for a good 15 minutes one day and strung beads, but now it's more fun to throw them on the floor for the cat to smack around.) Finally, I don't have that much 'me' time--I can either blog, or I can craft. Since writing comes much easier to me, that's usually what I choose.

All that said, I was determined to give it a try. I went out and bought a little kit to make earrings. And a little pair of crimping pliers.



They turned out okay, I thought, and did not result in any injury. I gave some earrings to one of my coworkers, Kimberly Kelly. I figured that she could wear them when she performs and if she lost one or it broke, it would be okay.

Next I decided to try a necklace using glass beads and plain wire.



So far so good! Like crochet(which I just can't do right now while it's 4000 degrees), if you don't like the way things turn out, you can start over. It's nice sometimes to have a do-over.



And this was pretty easy, too. So now I am hooked on this stuff. I'm even feeling comfortable enough to start working with the 'real' stuff like silver.

I don't think that they have a support group, like AA, for this sort of thing, do they?