Alison Sommer '05: Crafting Through the Ages OR Why am I obsessed with decorative yarn balls?

This will never be one of those hip blogs with instagram photos of decorative yarn balls or a Tardis made from reclaimed barn wood. I mean, there might be the ocasional craft-based post, but I just can't be consistently crafty. My craftiness comes in fits and spurts. Like the very occasional costuming I do. Or that time I made a Star Wars collage table. But it never really sticks. I'll do one cool project, then sit on my ass congratulating myself about it for a few months. And for every project I do complete, I have  6 more "in the works" (read: only in my head) that I will probably never complete.

When did crafting become so cool anyway?

Some people may blame Pintrest or Etsy. I would love to. But actually I'm pretty sure crafting has been cool for a while. Maybe forever. It's totally possible that some cave woman used a bit of charcoal to decorate the reclaimed cave rock shelf that held her decorative balls of sinew. Actually, that probably never happened. But crafting isn't just some new fad. I'd bet that once people were able to buy their clothes or decorative yarn balls at the store, making things for necessity was replaced by making things for fun (and for bragging rights), aka "crafting".

Growing up my mom did lots of cool crafty things, and she still does. She made all our halloween costumes. Sewed baby quilts. Painted and stenciled walls and other things. The costumes were the coolest. As a kid I'd say my favorite was the princess dresses she made for my sister and I. She finished them at night and hung them in our room, so the next morning we went nuts over them as soon as we woke up. I wore that dress for two halloweens and a school play.

Or you can just buy your decorative yarn balls

I wish I were as cool as my mom. My kids have store-bought costumes. I tried to make a skirt once for Kaylee but it turned out really crooked, you would have thought it was made by somebody with one arm and an inner-ear infection. I like to blame it on not having enough time at home without the kids around poking at the sewing machine or grabbing for the modge podge, but I know so many crafty moms who really do manage to make amazing things while juggling the demands of parenting, that I can't really use that excuse.

So maybe I should give up, or maybe one day I'll blossom into the crafty lady I wish I were. It could happen, right? Until then I like to balance my time on Pintrest and Etsy with time on Catalog Living or Regretsy. That way I can feel better about not being able to make decorative yarn balls by laughing at decorative yarn balls! It's a perfect match.