Another Hobby To Add To My List

Well, I've posted my first picture on my blog! I know, I've had it for quite a while, but I guess I never had anything to post a picture of. Until now!

The necklace you see to the left is one I made on Sunday, August 16th after buying some charms and two necklaces at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Two of my most beloved craft stores that I can't get enough of. This is the first necklace I've made myself and was surprised at how little time it took. Once I got the right tools that is.

Although later on, at the time, I was surprised at how much it takes just to make a single necklace. There are many intricate details and small tools you have to use in order to make everything come together. But being a craft fanatic myself - see my last post entitled Self Professed Craft Fanatic, I learned the so-called tricks of the trade fairly quickly. Running into a lady at Michael's who makes custom necklaces and such for people was a bonus as well. She was the one who introduced my Mom and I into things such as jump rings and all of the tools one needs to complete a necklace. She was a huge help in explaining things, as crafts, no matter what you're making, can become very complicated.

I've noticed that a lot of intricate details are involved, whether it be coordinating colors on a necklace, counting a certain number of chain links on a necklace to space charms apart just right, or holding a jump ring in order to slide another one through to hold said charm. All of this goes with my detail-oriented personality, which is probably a huge reason why I so easily became a fan of making my own jewelry. I'd like to move on to earrings next. Which is even more intricate due to their small size. I've bought several homemade earrings already and love the look of them. Now I can try it for myself!

As for the necklace I posted on this blog post, you can probably tell by its look that I'm a fan of antiques. Which was the look I was going for with this necklace, especially with the skeleton key, which is real. While up in Michigan visiting my Grandpa I mentioned to him that I've been looking to skeleton keys, and although I've been to numerous antique stores in Sheboygan, I have yet to come across a single one. Apparently, but not surprisingly, they are all the rage now. So my Grandpa called up a friend of his who brought me a metal skeleton key that I'm looking to put on another necklace. The one shown in the picture is one my Aunt gave to me, which is an original as well. It actually opens a door to her house.

My craft making has extended far beyond card making, and I'm glad that I'm branching out into other categories, so to speak. I've always admired homemade jewelry, as well as anything else crafty that's homemade. As I've said before, each piece is unique and there's something satisfying about replying with "I made that" when someone asks you where you got it.

So perhaps a few blog posts later I'll be posting a picture of some earrings I made. Or a card perhaps? I'm looking to making Thanksgiving cards this year, instead of just Birthday and Christmas ones.

Self Professed Craft Fanatic

Yes, I'll admit. Get me within fifty feet of either a Michael's, Hobby Lobby or any other store with any vestiges of crafts and I'll be there perusing the shelves and emptying my wallet.

Is it an addiction you ask? Probably. Is it an unhealthy one? Well...I could take the whole 'parent' approach and say that there are endless other addictions I could be involved in, far worse ones, than crafts. But I won' t take that approach and therefore will only say, no, my fanatical obsession with crafts is not an unhealthy one. It just causes me to spend hours standing in one spot, on one aisle, looking over the same crafts and arguing with myself that I need it when in reality I really don't. Then I think to myself that I could use it for something, but I wonder what that something is. Then I end up buying it and feeling guilty because I could've spent that money on something else more viable. Now you know what my thought process is when I enter a craft's store. Perhaps it just proved that I really am crazy, or perhaps you can relate to my haphazard thoughts and obsession. If you are part of the latter, kudos to you I say!

I have an Aunt on my Dad's side who also shares my love for crafts. Unfortunately she lives in Pennsylvania, so I can't go shopping with her. I can however send her cards that I make for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She sends her own crafts as well. It's always nice to know there's people out there that love things as much as you do.

I usually go to crafts stores with my Mom. Albeit she doesn't do crafts herself, she loves looking at all of the merchandise the store's have to offer. Take yesterday for example. I am looking to put some antique skeleton keys I found on a necklace with several other charms, so My Mom and I went to Michael's to look at what they had. While searching for the right pieces we ran into another craft fanatic on one aisle who proceeded to tell us the things we needed. Half and hour later she had invited us to her show down at Fountain Park this Saturday, and my Mom and I were running off to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few more things.

What is it about crafts that intrigues me so much? I think it stems from my creative side as a free handed writer. While I like to 'let loose' in my stories and transfer ideas holed up in my head onto the paper, so do I like to transfer ideas for crafts onto paper that I've thought of. Whether it be cards for the holidays, or just a random thought I had like the skeleton key necklace. I believe that each of us has the potential for creativity, in our own unique way. We each have our own outlet, per se, where we can unleash what's inside of us and make it take physical form.

Handmade crafts have always held a special place in my heart. For me, they are unique testament to our unique personalities. Each piece is different than anything else out there, and therefore makes it all the more appealing than if you had store bought it. Also, in my opinion, there's also something so pleasing and rewarding about giving family and friends something you handmade yourself. It makes all the more personal. Whenever I make Christmas cards for my family and friends I make that card personally for them, so they can know how much they mean to me, and how much time I spent on that card just for them. Store bought cards are nice, but every time I buy one I always feel like something is missing. It may look nice, and fit the bill, but i always feel like a few more lines could be scribbled in there, or little odds and ends could be changed here.

Which brings me to the imperfection in handmade crafts. Unless your Martha Stewart, yes, there are bound to be mistakes when you make crafts. For a self professed perfectionist, and a person who is their own worst critic, this blatant fact crushes me. Whenever I make something, or even write a few chapters in my stories for that matter, I want it to be perfect the first time. I hate going back and fixing things. Not that I don't want to spend tons of time on them, because I do, but it's just that when I have to go back and fix something I feel like I could've done better. Like it shouldn't have happened. Crazy thinking I know. There's no way something is going to come out perfect the first time. But it's just another one of those inner battles my inner critic fights with the dominant creativity in me.

All in all, anything handmade, whether it's a card, an ornament, a finger paint drawing, a model car, an oil painting, clothes, a doll house...you know that someone took the time to meticulously and lovingly put it together with their own hands and made it especially for someone. Also, the pride that comes along with saying I made that when someone asks you where it came from, or where you bought it...is indispensable.

How Many Hours Do You Need In A Day?

It's no secret, and to some degree or another, all of us are guilty of it. Sometimes it's of our own accord, other times it's out of our control. Sometimes we crave it, sometimes we loath it, sometimes in it's absence...we're at a loss of what to do. But the fact of the matter is....is that 'it' is a major factor in the lives of Americans, and in the lives of people in other countries as well. What am I talking about you ask? Business.

Now I'm just not talking about the regular day to day business, i.e like your regular work schedule and morning routine. I'm talking about the so-busy-you-can't-sit-down-for-one-second-and-you're-always-running-from-one-place-to-another kind of busy. I've never understood those kinds of people. How they can stretch themselves so thin being involved in so many haphazard activities strung throughout their day like incessant potholes in the road. From my somewhat perhaps biased point of view, when people - children and adults - get involved in so many activities like that it seems like they can't even enjoy the summer God gave us. They're always preoccupied with their schedules, doing this, running there, coming back from something, picking someone up...before you know it summer's gone and you're left standing there wondering where the heck it went.

The reason this particular blog post came up in the first place was because my parents have recently started a business with Melaleuca, an online wellness company, and are trying to call people they know to sign up with them and buy the products. Almost every single person hedged when they tried to set up a presentation as their called, asking instead if they could simply view the website or catalog, saying they were simply too busy to even carve an hour out of their day to learn about an amazing company with healthy products.

You may think that's biased too, because after all, I want my parents to succeed in their business, and you'd be right, it is endlessly frustrating. But what's even more frustrating is when people are so busy they can't find the time, or patience to learn about things that are good for them. Or things that could make their life easier for that matter. The image that always comes to my mind are the parents who enroll their children in every summer league sport there is. Now again I am biased because, quite frankly, I am in no way a sports person, but I don't see the point of parents carting their kids from one game to another, watching them play, running off to another one, or running home. Granted if the kids like sports, I say kudos to them, but in the same breath I can't see how someone can enjoy their summer when it's packed full of activities, sports, groups, leagues and everything in between. My summer has always been invariably uncluttered, filled with work four hours Monday through Friday, and a slew of leisure activities like writing, biking, listening to music, going down to the beach, friends...the kinds of things that summer was intentioned for in the first place. From my point of view, warm weather months are fleeting enough in Wisconsin, never mind in Sheboygan, I simply can't wrap my mind around packing those precious months full with so many schedules and such you'd think you were in school already.

The same goes for adults too, referring back to the paragraph about my parents calling people they knew...as well as people my age as well. Since graduating high school the only way I've been able to get in touch with my best friend is by texting. She never seems to be home, always running off to somewhere and such. Now granted she has her own life, but again I can't see how someone can have so many things packed into a day like trying to fit too many books on a bookshelf, until that day strains at the edges and threads begin to snap.

My life has always been uncluttered. That's not to say that I don't have a lot to do. Last semester during my English class I had to write a brobdingnagian amount of papers and was constantly researching, typing, editing, proofing...you know the routine. But through it all, and while studying for my Math class nonetheless, I still found ways to seek out a moment of respite amidst the tumult, as well as finding solstice amongst my business. I found the latter because that business, so to speak, was stuff I didn't mind doing. Albeit each was challenging, I enjoyed writing the papers for my English class. I see so many people these days bogged down by their own business, burdened by it almost as if they curmudgeonly put it on like a leaden rain coat every day, thinking they have no choice. In my beliefs, it's no problem if people have busy lives, and for some that's their nature and they thrive in such environments, but when you start feeling all those packed-tight schedules way down on you like a black storm cloud, then you're no longer running your life...it's running you.

Too many Americans have let their schedules take the helm in their lives, steering them towards uncharted waters where the water is black and choppy, and every day greets them like a gray, soddenly overcast sky. Business is only acceptable and healthy if you enjoy yourself amongst it and still have time to stop and take in the fleeting summer that is already half over. Ironic how summer is meant to be a kick back and relax time of the year, but so many people crank up the volume on their lives, piling in this and that, signing up for this, running off to that. Why? Sure summer sports are a chance to meet new friends, hang out with old ones and play the sports you love. But who says you have to sign up for more than one? And who says you have to watch the entire summer slip through your fingers, and good opportunities as well, just because you couldn't stop and catch your breath, too caught up in the incessantly spinning wheel of life to realize you were no longer in control of your life.

In closing, while writing this, as what usually happens, two songs relating to the topic of this blog post came to mind. One was Days Go By by Keith Urban, and another was I'm In A Hurry (And Don't Know Why) by Alabama. To excerpt a few lyrics from each song.
Keith Urban:
I'm changing lanes. Talking on the phone, and driving way too fast. The interstates jammed with gunner's like me afraid of coming in last. Somewhere in the race we run, we're coming undone...and days go by, and the cars go by. It's all we've been given, you better start living right now, 'cause day go by. We think about tomorrow then it slips away. We talk about forever but we've only got today.
Alabama:
I'm a hurry to get things done. I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I've really got to do is live and die. But I'm a hurry and don't know why. I hear a voice that says I'm running behind. Better pick up my pace. It's a race and there isn't no room for someone in second place.

I think these songs speak for themselves. For some people, maybe the fast pace of American life is just a rip tide current they get sucked into and can't find the lifeguard rope thrown to them. For others they've intentionally buried themselves within their schedules, whether finding comfort in them, or simply having the mindset that they somehow have to have their children, or themselves, involved in every little thing because it's what everyone else is doing...or some other inexplicable reason.

Whatever the reason, I am bound and determined to never become that type of person. Perhaps it's my fierce writing personality and ways of thinking, always looking at the world around me, observing, studying, thinking...etc. Sure I like to have things to do to span at least a part of my day, but I couldn't see having a monotonously grinding schedule day in and day out. I know as I get older and obtain a career it will invariably dominate my life, but even then, I undoubtedly know, I won't become one of those people that Keith Urban and Alabama describe in their songs. If you find yourself in that position, take a moment to sit down and listen to the lyrics and reflect on how they mirror your own life, and what that means. Also, while you're at it, enjoy the rest of your summer. Whether you live in Wisconsin or not, it won't last much longer!