Introducing...Craft of the Week!

Growing up, my mom was always crafting.

She made many of our Halloween costumes.  One year I was picnic table complete with 6 place settings and assorted plastic food.  Another I was a robot made from from a spray painted box and dryer vents and had blinking lights.  I think two years in a row I was the Statue of Liberty.  (She also made my brother a very clever Uncle Sam outfit that I think still lives in out attic.)

She always made our holiday teacher gifts. Personalized christmas ornaments, cookie-in-a-jar.  You name it, she made it!

I also remember her small obsession with stamps and stamp pads (thank you, Zainy Brainy).  And her weakness for embossing all things possible.

At our mountain house, mom was the leader of the bunch at the cermaics studio on rainy days.  

For my high school graduation, she made me (and 3 of my siblings) a 100+ page scrapbook and sewed a beautiful t-shirt quilt.  Amazing.

Oh, and we decoupaged....everything!

With 5 kids, she was ever the "Room Mom".  Heck, she was the freaking PTO president for four years! 

And she taught us all well.  One year she requested handmade only Christmas gifts, and you should have seen the amazing creations we came up with: a beautiful wood stool (Ashley), a decoupage memory trunk (me), sponge painted plates (Emily), and a painted end table (Justin). 

I loved every minute of it, yet didn't do a single craft when I went away to college...or post-college.  I blame the computer and those easy peasy shutterfly photo books.  Creativity seemed to escape me!

When my mom passed away 2.5 months before my wedding, we pretty much had everything planned except for the little details.  But to be honest, I really couldn't bring myself to get back into wedding planning...it was too hard without her.  I was going with the motto that "it all will get done", I just didn't know when.

Then suddenly we had 30 days left in our countdown and no table numbers or place cards, no menus or programs.  No little touches or decorations.

I thought about outsourcing, but remebered the horrible experience I had with my invitations.  And then one day I found myself in the middle of Michael's, buying a new paper cutter and paper...and before I knew it I had successfully I cleaned out every Michael's in the Philadelphia area of Tiffany Blue cardstock.  I was cutting and gluing and printing till all hours of the night.  It was crazy, but I enjoyed it.

After the wedding was over, and our lives went back to "normal", something else besides my mom was missing in my life.

And it was crafting. 

I realized that what I probably had thought at the time was a good distraction or a good outlet for my emotions had really been way more than that.  My mom had been with me the entire time.  And I wanted it back.

So, I started doing one craft a week - I made photo coasters, reindeer beers, christmas ornaments, glittered shoes, decopaged picture frames, monogrammed wreaths...  I began recruiting my sister (Emily!  Still working on Ashley...!) to craft with me...and sent pictures and emails to friends with tutorials.  But there had to be a more creative way to share my creations...

And thats, my friends, where we will begin. Stay tuned!